that Observation made to Craesus which one of the Potes hath illustrated thus â‚ Scilicet ultima sempet Expectanda dies homini dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet Man must censured be by his Last Hour Whom truly we can never Happy call Before his Death and closing Funeral Sandys 'T is without all dispute a most Excellent Attainment to have learnt how to dye It is the Study of true Wisdom and that in which all its Rules Of knowing how to dye and all its Labours determine He that hath laid out his whole Life upon it hath put it to no ill use and He who among all the rest of his Qualifications is not Master of This hath thrown away all his Time and Pains to no manner of purpose That Man can never Live well who knows not how to Dye well and he hath lived to very good purpose who makes a happy End says Seneca A Man can no more govern and direct his Actions as he ought who does not keep Death in his Eye than an Archer can shoot well who never looks at the Mark. In one word The Art of Dying as becomes us is the Art of Liberty and an Easy Mind the way to get above all Fear and to live in perfect Happiness and Tranquility Without this there is no Pleasure in Life it is impossible indeed there should for who can enjoy That with Peace and Satisfaction which he esteems most valuable and dear and is tormented with perpetual anxious Fear of losing every Moment Now the First and Principal Step toward this is to make it our Care and constant Endeavour that our Vices may dye before us and then our next Care must be to live in constant Readiness and Expectation of dying our selves Who can express the happy Condition of that Man who hath husbanded his Talent and finished the Business of Life before Death approach to interrupt him So that when he comes to dye he hath nothing else to do but to dye no occasion to ask longer time no farther Business for this Body no need of any thing but can walk out of the World pleased and satisfied like a Guest after a full Meal All this I take to be comprehended in the Notion of our being always in a Readiness for Death There remains yet One Qualification more to be attained which is the being Willing as well as Ready for no Man dies well who goes out of the World with such Loathness and Reluctancy that it is mere matter of Constraint and plain he would fain but cannot stay here any longer The several Sentiments and Sorts of Behaviour which Men are capable of with regard to Death Five Sorts of Behaviour with regard to Death may in my Opinion be reduced to these Five that follow 1. They may Fear and Avoid it as the Last and greatest Evil. 2. They may expect and wait for it with great Easiness and Patience and Resignation of Mind as for a Thing which they look upon as Natural Unavoidable and not only Necessary but also Reasonable to be undergone 3. They may despise it as a Matter Indifferent and of no great Concern to them 4. They may wish for it pray for it make toward it as the only Safe Harbour which can give them Rest and Protection from the Troubles of This Life nay as that which will not only be a Deliverance but a Happiness a mighty Advantage as well as a perfect Security 5. They may bring it upon Themselves Now if we examine these Particulars the Second Third and Fourth will appear Commendable and Good the Thoughts and Resentments of a Virtuous and a Judicious Mind though it must be allowed that as they differ from each other so they are expected to move and affect the Man differently according to his present Circumstances For All of them are not commendable equally and at all times But for the First and Last they never are or can be so at all as being the Vicious Extremes of Weakness and Want of Virtue for how different soever the Effects may appear This is the same common Cause of them both I shall enlarge a little and try to illustrate each of these Particulars in this Chapter The First is what no understanding Person hath ever pretended to approve Fear of Death though indeed it be the Practice the Failing I ought to say of almost all the World And what can be a greater Reproach what a more undeniable Evidence of the Weakness of Mankind than that Every body in a manner should be guilty of That which No body dares undertake to defend But on the contrary against Those who labour under this painful Folly in Tenderness for Themselves or are thus concerned upon the account of Others we can never want Plenty of Arguments Among others These following Considerations may perhaps do something toward softning the Approach of our own Death or that of our Friends to us The effect of vain Opinion There is not in the World any Calamity which Mortals have such amazing Notions and live in such constant Terror of as Death and yet it is very evident there is nothing they call a Misfortune dreaded upon such Poor such Insignificant Grounds nay I must revoke those words Dreading and Misfortune too and dare venture to affirm there is not any thing which ought to be received with greater Satisfaction and a more resolved Mind So that we must be forced to confess in despight of all the Sophistry of Flesh and Blood to the contrary that This is a mere Vulgar Error Opinion hath charm'd and captivated all the World for Reason hath no hand at all in it We take it upon trust from the Ignorant and Unthinking Multitude and believe it a very great Evil because They tell us so but when Wisdom assures us that it is a Deliverance and sure Repose from all the Evils that can possibly befall us the only Haven where we can lye safely after the Waves and Storms of a Troublesome Tossing World we turn the deaf Ear and believe not one word she can say Thus much is certain Death when actually present never did any body hurt and none of those many Millions who have made the Experiment and now know what it is have made any Complaints of this nature concerning it If then Death must be called an Evil it hath this to say in its own Vindication That of all the Evils which are or ever were in the World This is the only one that does no body harm and in truth the mighty Dread of it proceeds merely from ghastly and monstrous Ideas which Men's vain Imaginations form of it at a distance There is nothing of Foundation or Reality at the bottom 't is all Opinion and Fancy nay 't is the very Instance in which Opinion pretends most to set up against Reason and attempts to fright us out of our Wits by shewing the hideous Vizor of Death For Reason to
whereof the Rational Soul is composed To excel in it is not very necessary except for Three Sorts of People 1. Men of Trade and much Business 2. Those that are extremely Talkative for this is the Store-house from whence they must be furnished with Matter for Discourse and it is naturally more full and fruitful than Invention but he that cannot be supplied from hence must make it up by Stuff of his own forging and 3. Great Lyars for * Mendacem oportet esse Memorem These indeed ought to have good Memories The Want of Memory hath its Conveniences too For this will dispose Men to speak Truth to be Modest and talk no more than their Share and to forget the Faults and Injuries of other People A moderate Proportion of this Faculty will serve ones Turn and answer all the Ends of it very well CHAP. XVI Of Imagination and Opinion THE Power of Imagination is exceeding great This is in Effect the very Thing The Effects of imagination that makes all the Noise in the World Almost all the Clutter and Disturbances we feel or make are owing to it Accordingly it was observ'd before that This is if not the Only yet at least the most active and bustling Faculty of the Soul And in good Truth the Effects of it are Wonderful Unaccountable and almost Incredible For the Influences of Imagination are not confined to the Body or the Mind of that Person alone where it is born and cherished but extend and transfuse themselves far and wide and act very Strongly upon other People It is fitted for all manner of Operations and the most distant and contrary Passions are raised by it It puts the Man into all manner of Forms and the Face into all Colours and Complections Makes Men blush with Shame look Pale with Fear tremble and quake casts them into Fits of Raving and Confusion These tho' strange are yet some of its least Effects and gentle in Comparison of others It checks and enfeebles Men in their hottest Career balks their Pleasures and chills all their Spirits It Marks and deforms nay sometimes kills Embryo's in the Womb hastens Births or causes Abortions Takes away the Speech and ties the Tongue and sometimes enables the Dumb to speak as the Story of Croesus his Son assures us Makes Men Stiff and Motionless benumbs and binds up the Senses stops the Breath These are its Effects upon the Body Then for the Mind It robs Men of their Knowledge and Judgment turns them into Fools and stupid Sots as Gallus Vibius for Instance who having strain'd his Imagination too far in the study and practice of Polly and its Motions is said to have disturb'd his Understanding to that Degree that he turn'd a mere Natural and cou'd never return to sound Judgment and good Sense again It inspires Men with strange Presages of things hidden and future fills them with Enthusiasms and Fancies out of the common Road of Thinking throws them into Extasies and Raptures nay possesses them with the Thoughts and Expectations of Death till at last they die indeed as it did that Malefactor who when his Cap had been pull'd over his Eyes in order to Execution was found stark dead upon the Scassold when they came to uncover him again and read his Pardon In a word A great part of those unusual Operations which create such Amazement in the Vulgar Apparitions and Visions and Witchcrafts are to be attributed to the force of Imagination and what They think done by the power of the Devil or some familiar Spirits for I meddle not here with the Supernatural Operations of God's own Spirit is commonly no more than a strong Fancy either in the Person that does these strange things or of the Spectators that are deluded with them and think they see those Objects which really they do not And the great Care in these Cases is to distinguish wisely between Truth and Falshood and not suffer our Judgments to be captivated with vulgar Errours In this part of the Soul it is that Opinion keeps its Residence which is nothing else but a vain and easie a crude and imperfect Judgment of things taken up upon slight and insufficient grounds too credulous an Assent to the Representations of our outward Senses or common Report which rests in the first Appearances of Things and fixes in the Imaginative Faculty without ever going farther or referring the Matter to the Understanding to be throughly examin'd and digested there and so wrought up and finish'd into solid Reason Till This be done no true Judgment can be made and such as a Man may venture to abide by And accordingly we see the other is mutable and inconstant fleeting and deceitful A very dangerous Guide that makes Head against Reason of which it is only the Image and Shadow and that but an empty and false one neither This is the Source of all our Evils our Confusions and Disorders our Passions and Troubles the most and the worst of them rise out of a prepossest Fancy and heated Imagination So that in truth Madmen and Fools the Ignorant and the Mobb are blindly led by the Nose by it and follow this Leader and betray their Folly in doing so as Wise and Judicious Men distinguish themselves and approve their Prudence in suffering nothing but Reason to guide and govern them That thus it is The World is govern'd by Opinion we see plainly for as hath been observ'd long ago by one of the Ancients It is not the Reality nor the true Nature of Things but the Notion and Opinion Men entertain of them that disquiets and so violently Torments their Souls * Opinione saepius quam Re laboramus plura sunt quae nos terrent quà m quae nos premunt Thus we turn our own Executioners form Evils to our selves which are not and strangely aggravate those that are by frightful Idea's which belong not to them The Truth and Essence of Things never enters our Minds in its true Proportions nor works upon us by its natural Force and Authority for were it thus with us all things that are alike in Themselves wou'd be alike to Us and the same Object wou'd produce the same Affections and Resentments in all Men allowing only some small matter of difference in the Degree of them At this rate all Mankind would be of the same Opinion What is false wou'd be universally rejected and what is true as universally embrac'd for Truth can be but One and the Same and is always equal and consistent with it self But quite contrary We find that the Difference of Opinions is infinite Men do not only vary from but directly contradict one another And there are but very few Instances in which even Men of the best Natural Abilities and most eminent for their Improvements and acquir'd Learning are all of a Mind This shews sufficiently that the Idea's of things are compounded and mixt before we entertain them that we have them at our
fear it there can be none because we are so perfectly ignorant what it is How Unaccountable is our Concern how almost Impossible indeed for a Thing of which we have little or no Notion Upon which account He who had Apollo's Testimony for the Wisest Man living said that To fear Death was to pretend to be more knowing than one really was and a vain Affectation of Wisdom for it was to make the World believe a Man understands a thing which neither He nor any body else understands And we find that this was his real Sense by the Testimony his Practice gave to it For when his Friends importuned him to plead for his Life and justify himself against the Calumnies of his Accusers the Address he made upon that Occasion we are told was to this Effect Gentlemen If I should make it my request That you would not put me to Death I am under some apprehensions of asking a Punishment instead of a Favour and suing to my own Disadvantage For I must ingenuously confess I do not at all know what it is to Die nor what Good or Ill is consequent upon it They who fear Death must in reason presuppose some Notices of it for my own part I declare I have none nor can I tell at all either what sort of Passage that is which leads into the other World or how Matters stand there so that for ought I know to the contrary both the One and the Other the Condition and the Way to it may be exceeding Desirable and full of Felicity As for those things which I know to be Evil such as Injustice and Wrong I have the greatest abhorrence of them and avoid them with all possible Circumspection and Care But for such as I know nothing of I know as little how to Hate or to Fear them Now Death I own is one of These and therefore Gentlemen I leave the Matter wholly to You. For really I cannot be satisfied whether is best for me to Die or not to Die and therefore I hope you will Order what is really best and I am perfectly content you should determine and dispose of me as you think fit And why this mighty Trouble and Concern upon the account of Death Of Weakness This in the First Place is most despicable Weakness and scandalous Cowardice The merest Woman the most tender-hearted Wretch alive can Compose her self in a few Days and put an End to the justest Passion for the Loss of a Husband or a Child and what a Disparagement is it to Reason and Wisdom that They should not effect that presently which in a little while will do itself The most Ignorant and poor Spirited Man alive can do it with the help of Time And why should not a Wise and Brave Man do it without that Advantage For what is Wisdom and Resolution and Gallantry of Soul good for or how shall we distinguish it if it do not quicken a Man's pace and render him more expert and dextrous so that he shall be able to do Greater things and to dispatch them with greater ease and speed than Others who are destitute of these Accomplishments From the same Weakness and Irresolution it is that the Generality of Dying Men are never sensible of their last Hours but still flatter themselves with Expectations of perfect Recovery or longer Delay at least and perhaps there is no one passage of our Lives comparable to this part for Cheat and Delusion none that equally sooths and amuses us with vain hopes Not that I ascribe this wholly to Weakness neither for possibly Vanity may contribute a great deal toward it We look upon our Death as a matter of mighty Consequence a strange and most important Revolution in which the whole World is concerned and can scarce be brought to imagine that Providence will permit a Calamity in which all Nature must suffer and this orderly and Beautiful System of the Universe End and Perish So extravagant are the Notions we entertain of our Selves and of the importance we are of to God and the World Besides all this Of Injustice such a Man is evidently guilty of Injustice For if Death be really a Good and a Desirable thing Wherefore are we afraid of it And if it be otherwise Why do we make it worse This is to aggravate and multiply upon our selves the very Thing we pretend most to be afraid of and to create new Pains and Torments which Death knows nothing of nor would ever bring upon us This is a â—ool-hardy Madness like his who when an Enemy had Robbed him of one part of his Goods threw the rest into the Sea to shew how little he valued the Injury his Plunderer had done him Lastly 'T is prejudicial to Life To Live in fear of Death is the greatest Injury a Man can be guilty of to Himself the spightfullest way of destroying his own Life For no Man who hath this Dread perpetually upon him can ever have any tolerable Enjoyment of himself or the World He only lives truly free and at ease who is got above the Fears of Death And on the other hand Life were no better than perpetual Slavery if the Liberty of Dying were taken away Death is in effect the only Foundation and Support of all the Freedom we can make any Pretensions to The sure and common Retreat from all our Sufferings and Hardships A Man therefore must needs be very wretched and uneasy and yet thus wretched are almost all Mankind who takes off the Quiet and Enjoyment of Life by an anxious Concern and Fear to dye and loses all the Benefit of Death too by an immoderate Fondness and afflicting Solicitude for Life And yet as full of Discontent as People generally are with the present Order and Constitution of Things what loud Complaints what Eternal Murmurings may we very reasonably suppose would have filled their Mouths if it had been otherwise How would Nature and Providence have been cursed condemned and blasphemed if Men had been under a fatal Necessity of dwelling always here whether they would or no and no such kind Relief as Death is had been provided for them Think with your self how much more Insupportable how much more Grievous and Burdensome a Life must needs be without any Period assigned for it than that Life we now lead which is attended with a Necessity of leaving it but of laying down the Load that oppresses us along with it too To this purpose it is that the Poets tell us Chiron refused to be Immortal when it was proffered him upon receiving Information from the God of Time his Father Saturn what hard Conditions the Gift was clogged with On the other hand What would become of the World if there were not something of Pain and Bitterness which should discourage us and create in us some Aversion to Dying There is no doubt to be made but were it not for this Check upon our Nature Men would run out of the World
make the best of Life and all its Advantages slipt through your Fingers what Loss do you sustain in parting with it What would you do with it any longer If you could be trusted on still the Talent would lye unimproved Observe to this purpose the Reasoning of the Poet. * Denique si vocem Rerum Natura repente Mittat hoc aliquoi nostrûm sic increpet ipsa Quid tibi tantopere est Mortalis quòd nimis aegris Luctibus indulges quid mortem congemis ac sles Nam si grata fuit tibi Vita anteacta priorque Et non omnia pertusum congesta quasi in vas Commoda persluxere atque ingrata interiere Cur non ut plenus Vitae conviva recedis Aequo animoque capis securam Stulte quietem Sin ea quae fructus cunque es periêre profusa Vitaque in offensu ' est cur amplius addere quaeris Rursum quod pereat male ingratum accidat omne Nec potius Vitae finem facis atque laboris Lucretius Lib. III. If Nature should begin to speak And thus with loud Complaints our Folly check Fond Mortal what 's the matter thou dost sigh Why all these Fears because thou once must dye And once submit to strong Mortality For if the Race thou hast already run Was pleasant if with Joy thou saw'st the Sun If all thy Pleasures did not pass thy Mind As through a Sieve but left some Sweets behind Why dost thou not then like a Thankful Guest Rise chearfully from Life's abundant Feast And with a Quiet Mind go take thy Rest But if all those Delights are lost and gone Spilt idly all and Life a Burthen grown Then why fond Mortal dost thou ask for more Why still desire t' increase thy wretched Store And wish for what must waste like those before Nor rather free thy self from Pains and Fear And end thy Life and necessary Care Creech Lucret. But besides that we are accountable for the Use of Life while we have it and our Profuseness does but inflame the Reckoning the longer time we have allowed us to Mispend it in we must remember that according to what was urged a little before Life it self is a debt This is as the Principal Sum put into our Hands to Traffick with but such as we should always be ready to pay down upon the Nail whenever it shall be called in again and He who is the Owner and Giver may Demand it the very next Hour How then can you Argue against the Condition of Your own Obligation How can You falsify Your Trust and Act against Your Engagement and Your Duty It is most unreasonable to Shuffle and Flinch and Kick against these Pricks because by Death you ease your self of a mighty Charge and Trouble You make up your great Account and pay in that vast Sum for which you stood responsible and which while in your Custody was liable to great Loss and Hazard Dying is a general thing Every Body does it And can You take it Ill not to be Exempted Do You expect to be the Single Instance the Sole Reserve from Universal Nature to Enjoy a Privilege by your self a Privilege never yet seen nor heard of in the World What unparallel'd Folly and Presumptuous Madness is This Or why should You be afraid to go where all the World goes where you will find innumerable Millions of Men who have taken up their Residence before you come and whither you will be followed by as great a Number afterwards How singular an Affectation is this Death is equally certain to All and therefore it cannot be Unreasonable nor Unjust with respect to You for Equality is the first constituent part of Equity and no Man will be forgotten or overlook'd in this Distribution * Omnes eodem cogimur Omnium Versatur Urna Seriùs ocyus Sors exitura c. Horat. Od. 3. Lib. 11. In the same Road All travel on By All alike the same dark Journey must be gone Our Blended Lots together lye Mingled in one common Urn Sooner or Later out they fly c. IIId Miscell The Third Resentment I mentioned upon this occasion is the Contempt of Death Contempt of Death Good if upon a Good Account and This is a Mark of a Brave and Generous Mind This frequently proceeds from exalted Judgment and strength of Reason and is more peculiarly the Virtue of a Publick Character Elevated Fortune and a Life full of Difficult and Weighty Affairs For to Persons in such Circumstances many Accidents may happen for which no Man ought to scruple Dying and several Prospects present themselves of Things so valuable that they deserve to be preferred even before Life it self Let Other matters succeed how they will This at least is a constant Rule That a Man ought always to be fonder and have a greater Regard for Himself than for a Life led in hurry and publick Business which shews him as it were always in a full Theatre and exposes him to the View and Censure of all the World He must consisider himself not only as a Spectacle but as a Pattern to Mankind and remember That One of the Incumbrances of Honour and Dignity is a necessary Obligation to shine brighter than Common Men to render his Virtue more conspicuous to those below him and to do Things exemplarily Good and Great though it happen to be at the Expence of All that the World calls Dear To such Persons many times the same Methods of safety are denied which private Men might make use of without any reflection upon their Prudence or their Duty They must by no means suffer any diminution of their Honour but when driven to a pinch must Risque and Sacrifice their Lives and trust the Event to Fate The Great Man who cannot command himself so far as to Despise Death is not only made thereby incapable of doing any Gallant and eminently Good Action but he lays himself open to more than ordinary Dangers by this Timorous Spirit and Behaviour and Those too such Dangers as threaten most what requires his best care to preserve For while his great Concern is to preserve his Person and see that Life be under Covert his Duty his Honour Virtue and Probity lie naked and exposed and run a mighty hazard for want of Courage to Protect and Stand by them The Contempt of Death is in effect the very Principle to which the Boldest and most Renowned Exploits are owing the most daring Attempts whether in Good or Ill Designs He that hath Conquered the Fear of Death hath nothing more left to terrify him He hath it in his Power to do what he pleases and may at any time make himself Master of Another Man's Life because he is already Master of his Own And as this Contempt is the true Source of Generosity and undaunted Firmness in Action so is it likewise the very Spirit and Life that quickens and supports that Resolution from whence they proceed Hence Calmness and Constancy
People than One's Self and a Symptom of a Vainglorious Humour which is greedy of Fame even at the Moment we Expire and reproaches Us with Vanity rather than brings any real Advantage to Mankind in common Now Dying is not an Act of Society but of One single Person and therefore the Rules for Regulating our Behaviour in it are Personal At such a time a Man hath enough to do to mind his own Business and the Thing he is chiefly obliged to attend is to Comfort and Support himself in this last great Conflict without troubling himself with the Affairs or the Censures of other People for he is that very Moment putting himself out of the Dominion of Common Fame and going to a Place where what the surviving World says will neither reach nor concern him That in a word is the Best Death which is most Private where a Man hath greatest opportunities of Recollecting himself and going out of the World Quietly without any troublesome Attendance or Observation The usual Ceremonies of our Friends and Relations being by and giving Their Assistance in the last Struggles of Life is exceeding Troublesome and Inconvenient One Disturbs your Sight with an Object that had better be away Another your Ear with some Impertinent Discourse a Third your Mouth by forcing upon you some fruitless Medicine or Sustenance and All together Croud and Confound and perfectly Stifle the Dying Man Then their Tears and Groans and Lamentations are more Tormenting than all the rest if they be Real and proceed from Affection and Concern they melt one down break one's Courage and Resolution and cut one to the very Heart If they be Formal only and put on for Decency or Design they raise one's Indignation and provoke a very unseasonable Passion in the very midst of Agonies and Convulsions Several very Considerable Persons have been so sensible of this Inconvenience that they have contrived industriously to Dye at a distance from their Relations on purpose to be out of the way of it And sure That which moves many People to desire the contrary is very ridiculous For what can be more Childish and Senfless than to please one's self with moving the Compassion of Friends and Acquaintance and be proud that a great many People express a tender Concern for what we Endure We cannot but commend Firmness of Mind and a Hardy Virtue in encountring Misfortunes We exhort our Friends to it when it is their Own Case and upbraid them with Weakness if they take it too tenderly and yet this very Virtue we hate and accuse as inhuman and wanting in Affection when the Calamity is Ours Then They who were formerly chidden for resenting their Own are reproached if they are too afflicted and do not perfectly sink under Our Sufferings We condemn their Complaints for what they feel and yet we cannot allow them so much as to be patient under what they only see This is unjust unreasonable and foolish to the last degree And certainly a Wise Man when sick should be very well content at least if not much better pleased with the Composed Countenances and resigned Behaviour of all the Friends that assist in his Extremities CHAP. XII The maintaining a True and Uninterrupted Tranquillity of Spirit which is the very Crown and Glory of Wisdom And the Last Head of this Book A Quiet and Contented Mind is the Supreme Good the utmost Felicity Man is capable of in This World This is that Rich and Noble indeed that inestimable Treasure which the Wise Men of Old with so much Labour and Application sought after the Fruit of all their Travels the End of all their Studies the Sum and Complement of all their Philosophy and This is the very Reward of all the Pains and the Crown of all the Wisdom to which I am now Instituting my Scholar in this Treatise But This like other Excellencies is frequently misunderstood and therefore to prevent any such Errors at present I must first acquaint you That the Quiet I now speak of does by no means consist in a Retreat from the Noise and Clutter of the World Leisure from Business Time at Command no Cares to disturb one a Delightful Nice and uninterrupted Solitude full of Ease and Plenty or in a profound Neglect and Oblivion of what is done Abroad Were this the Case what an infinite Number of happy Persons should we have Careless and Idle Women Slothful and Insignificant Fellows Cowards and Coxcombs the Sensual and Luxurious would have this Blessing at Command For if want of Thought and Business give a Title to it Theirs is indisputable and what the Wise aspire after and think a Prize sufficient for a whole Life's Study These attain to by a much easier way This then is the first Principle we are to go upon That Multiplicity of Business or Having nothing to do neither of them constitute or destroy take from or contribute to the Tranquillity we are now speaking of But This is a Decent and Beautiful a Gentle and Mild an Equal and United a Firm and Pleasant Composure of Temper Such a Steadiness of Mind as neither Business nor Leisure neither Prosperous nor Adverse Fortune no Turn of Time or Chance can disturb or change exalt or depress For This is the Property and * Vera Tranquillitas non concuti Character of true Tranquillity Never to be shaken but to continue immoveable and unconcerned always in humour and always the same The next Consideration upon this Occasion is By what Methods a Man may rise up to this Sedateness and Elevation of Soul how we shall attain and when attained how we shall preserve and maintain our selves in it And for This we need only refresh our Memories with what hath been already delivered in this Second Book For They are the Rules by the Observation and careful Practice whereof we may hope to gain our Point And therefore for the Reader 's Ease and better Convenience I will here very briefly repeat the Substance of them They consisted you remember of Two sorts First such as either carry off or prevent all those Qualities that are Obstructions to our Improvement in this Happiness And 2dly Such as furnish and adorn the Mind with such Virtues as tend to the Increase and Conservation of it Those Things that are aptest to hinder or to disturb the Ease and Quiet of the Mind are Popular Opinions and Common Prejudices which notwithstanding they have made themselves almost Universal are yet for the most part False and Groundless and a Man would wonder which way Notions could get so much Credit which have so very small a Stock of Argument to set up upon The next Impediment to be removed arises from our Passions and Desires for These indulged quite spoil and break our Temper they make us Nice and Squeamish Humoursome and Difficult and These are Qualities utterly inconsistent with Contentedness Now These Passions and Appetites are kindled and put into motion by the Two contrary
the same time to the Exercise of its Vegetative and Sensitive Powers as we see plainly by Instances of Persons who have been raised from the Dead to live here below But this would not infer a Necessity of the same things for living in another State For those Faculties whose Exercise supports this Life we now lead are not thereby proved of such Consequence that no other kind of Life could be supported or enjoyed without them It is in this Case with the Soul as with the Sun for the same Instance will be of Use to illustrate our Argument in this Branch also which continues the same in himself every whit as entire and unblemished not in any Degree enfeebled though his Lustre and Vital Influences be sometimes intercepted and obstructed When his Face is cover'd with a Total Eclipse we lose the cheerful Light and cherishing Heat but though no sensible Effects of him appear yet he is in his own Nature the same Powerful Principle and Glorious Creature still Having thus as I hope sufficiently evidenced the Unity of the Soul It s Origine in each Individual animated by it let us in the next Place proceed to observe from whence it is deriv'd and how it makes its Entry into the Body Concerning the Former of these Particulars great Disputes have been maintained by Philosophers and Divines of all Ages Concerning the Origine of the Humane and Intellectual Soul I mean for as to the Vegetative and Sensitive attributed to Plants and Beasts those by general Consent have been esteemed to consist intirely of Matter to be transferred with the Seminal Principles and accordingly subject to Corruption and Death So that the whole Controversy turns upon the single Point of the Humane Soul and concerning this the Four most Celebrated Opinions have been these which follow I omit the Mention of any more which are almost lost in the Crowd because These have obtained so much more generally and gained greater Credit than the Rest The First of these is that Notion of the Stoicks embraced by Philo the Jew and after Him by the Manichees Priscillianists and others This maintains Reasonable Souls to be so many Extracts and genuine Productions of the Divine Spirit Partakers of the very same Nature and Substance with Almighty God himself who being said expresly to have breathed it into the Body these Persons have taken the Advantage of Moses's Words and fixed the sublimest Sense imaginable upon them He Breathed into him the Breath of Life by which they are not content to understand that the Soul of Man is a distinct Thing and of a different and more exalted Original than the Body a Spirit of greater Excellence than that which quickens any other Animal but they stretch it to a Communication of God's own Essence The Second was deriv'd from Aristotle receiv'd by Tertullian Apollinaris the Sect of the Luciferians and some other Christians and This asserts the Soul to be derived from our Parents as the Body is and in the same Manner and from the same Principles with that whence the Soul of Brutes and all that are confin'd to Sense and Vegetation only are generally believ'd to spring The Third is that of the Pythagoreans and Platonists entertained by most of the Rabbinical Philosophers and Jewish Doctors and after them by Origen and some other Christian Doctors too Which pretends that all Souls were created by God at the beginning of the World that they were then by Him commanded and made out of Nothing that they are reserv'd and deposited in some of the Heavenly Regions and afterwards as his Infinite Wisdom sees Occasion sent down hither into Bodies ready fitted for and disposed to entertain them Upon this Opinion was built another of Souls being well or ill dealt with here below and lodged in sound and healthful or else in feeble and sickly Bodies according to their Good or Ill Behaviour in a State and Region above antecedent to their being thus Incorporated with these Mortal and Fleshly Tabernacles How generally this Notion prevail'd we have a notable Hint from that great Master of Wisdom who gives this Account of his large improvements Wisd VIII 19 20. above the common Rate of Men I was a Witty Child and had a good Spirit yea rather being Good I came into a Body undefiled Thus intimating a Priority of Time as well as of Order and Dignity in the Soul and that its good Dispositions qualified it for a Body so disposed too The Fourth which hath met with the most general Approbation among Christians Especially holds that the Soul is created by God infus'd into a Body prepared duly for its Reception That it hath no Pre-existence in any separate State or former Vehicle but that its Creation and Infusion are both of the same Date These Four Opinions are all of them Affirmative There is yet a Fifth more modest and reserv'd than any of the former This undertakes not to determine Positively one way or other but is content Ingenuously to confess its own Ignorance and Uncertainty declares this a Matter of very abstruse Speculation a dark and deep Mystery which God hath not thought fit particularly to reveal and which Man by the Strength and Penetration of his own Reason can know but very little or nothing of Of this Opinion we find St. Augustine St. Gregory of Nice and some others But though they presume not so far as to give any definitive Sentence on any Side yet they plainly incline to think that of the Four Opinions here mention'd the Two latter carry a greater Appearance of Truth than the Two former But how The Entrance into the Body and when this Humane Soul for of the Brutal there is little or no Dispute nor is the present Enquiry concerned in it Whether This I say make its Entrance all at once or whether the Approaches are gradual and slow Whether it attain its just Essential Perfections in an Instant or whether it grow up to them by Time and Succession is another very great Question The More general Opinion which seems to have come from Aristotle is That the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul whose Essence is no other than Matter and Body is in the Principles of Generation that it descends lineally and is derived to us from the Substance of our Parents that This is finished and Perfected in Time and by Degrees and Nature acts in this Case a little like Art when That undertakes to form the Image of a Man where first the Out-Lines and rude Sketches are drawn then the Features specified yet These not of his whole Body at once but first the Painter finishes the Head then the Neck after that the Breast the Legs and so on till he have drawn the whole Length Thus the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul they tell you forms the Body in the Womb and when That is finished and made fit for the Reception of its new Inhabitant the Intellectual Soul comes from abroad and takes Possession
cry to laugh and other Expressions of Want and Grief and Pleasure The Reasonable and Intellectual Soul does the very same thing in Its Capacity And Thus it acts not by virtue of any Reminiscence or Recollection of any Knowledge it had before with this Union with the Body as Plato fondly imagin'd a Notion which proceeds upon the supposal of another State in which the Soul pre-existed before its Entrance into or the Formation of this Body Nor does it owe this Power to Knowledge receiv'd in at the Senses and acquir'd by Their means upon Use and Observation as Aristotle conceives who represents the Soul at the Birth to be a Perfect Blank utterly void of all Characters or Images but ready to receive Impressions of any kind But it seems rather to discharge this Office by the Original Strength of its own Native Powers It Imagines Understands Retains Argues Reasons Concludes of it self without any Instruction or additional Helps at all This Assertion I must own seems more difficult to comprehend than the Former and we can more readily assent to such a Native Aptitude in the Vegetative and Sensitive than we do in the Intellectual Soul It is manifest too that Aristotle's Authority lies in some Degree against the Thing And therefore to satisfie all these Difficulties I will allow this Matter a more particular Consideration when we come to discourse of the Intellectual Soul distinctly There remains yet one Point more concerning the Soul to be enquir'd into It s Separation Twofold Natural which relates to its Separation from the Body Now This may happen different ways and be of sundry kinds The only Usual and Natural Separation is by Death Only herein is a mighty difference between Other Animals and Mankind that when the Rest die their Soul dies too agreeably to that Rule in Philosophy That when the Subject-Matter is corrupted the Form is perfectly lost though the Matter still remain Whereas the Soul of Man is indeed separated from his Body by Death but by no means lost or annihilated So far from Perishing that it remains entire and unhurt as having the Privilege of an Immortal and Incorruptible Nature There is not in the World any One Opinion which hath been more universally entertain'd more eagerly embrac'd more plausibly defended more religiously stuck to I may well say Religiously since this Doctrine is in truth the very Foundation of all Religion than That which asserts the Immortality of the Soul All this now is meant of an External and Publick Profession for alas it is but too manifest and too melancholy a Truth and the prodigious numbers of dissolute Epicures abandon'd Libertines and prophane Scoffers at God and a Future State bear Testimony to it That what Pretence soever the Generality of the World may make of receiving this Doctrine in Words and Speculation there are but very few who express an inward Sense and serious Belief of it by living like Men that believe it indeed Of that practical Assent I shall take occasion to speak more largely hereafter In the mean while give me leave to lament that so little and so poor Effects appear of an Opinion capable of producing so many and so noble For certainly there is not any one Point whatsoever the Persuasion whereof can bring greater Benefit or have a stronger Influence upon Mankind It may be objected I confess that all the Arguments which Humane Discourse and meer Natural Reason endeavour to establish it by cannot amount to a Demonstration But it must be confess'd that there are several other things which Men are content to yield their Credit to upon far more weak and insufficient Suggestions And whereinsover Reason falls short it is abundantly supply'd by Revelation which as it is the Best so is it the Proper Evidence in Matters of this kind But yet to shew the Importance of this Doctrine even Nature herself hath implanted in all Mankind a strong Inclination to think it true For it is natural for us to desire the legthening out nay the perpetuating our own Existence And no Reflection is more uneasie than That which attempts to persuade us that we must once cease to be This Disposition is interwoven with our very Frame and hath given Birth to another no less general than it self which is That anxious Care and impatient Regard for Posterity that takes such fast hold on every Man of us Nor wou'd I be so far misunderstood as to have it thought that this Disposition of Mind is the only Humane Foundation upon which our Belief of the Soul's Immortality stands For there are Two other Moral Arguments in particular which give it great Credit and to say the very least of the Case render it exceeding probable The First is that Hope of Glory and Reputation and the tender Care of preserving a Good Name when we are gone nay the Thought and Endeavour that our Fame shou'd be Immortal Now though I cannot but condemn this sollicitude of Vanity when Men pretend to place their Happiness in the Opinions of other People after themselves are dead yet the marvellous Regard and universal Concern Mankind express for it seems to say that Nature inspires those Desires and Expectations And Nature we know is a Wise Agent and does not use to cheat Men with Hopes which are altogether impossible and vain Another Reason not easie to be got over by Them who oppose this Doctrine is That common Impression that Those Crimes which are committed in secret or which otherwise escape the Observation and Punishment of Civil Justice and the Vengeance of Man are still reserv'd to a farther Reckoning that Almighty God supplies the Defects of Temporal Judicatures and hath a severe Judgment in store for such Offenders as Those cannot extend to And since we find by frequent Instances that many Enormities of this kind are not made the Marks of the Divine Vengeance in The Present World it is a good Consequence of all the Idea's we can reasonably entertain of God that He shou'd pursue the Guilty Wretches into another World and chastise them as they deserve even after Death And now I wou'd be glad to know what greater Moral Assurance can be expected for a Subject of this kind than that Humane Nature disposes every Man to look forward to it to desire and to think it probable and that the Consideration of the Divine Justice represents it as a thing not only greatly probable but absolutely necessary This last Reflexion will lead us to the Discovery of Three different Kinds and Degrees of Souls all which become proper Objects of the Divine Justice Nor need we credit it upon that Account only but even Natural Reason the Order and Harmony of the Universe will persuade us that such a sort of Being and so Immortal as we have been describing the Humane Soul is requisite to make the Series of the Creation Beautiful and Complete Of these Three sorts we may observe that Two are in Extremes The One consisting
of those Faculties he hath given us to distinguish things by Again If we observe the manner how these Operations are perform'd that it is by External Impressions by which the Object strikes upon the proper Organ and that Impression is continu'd till it be carry'd on to that which is called the Common Sensory or the inward Seat of Sense All this must depend upon the same necessary Laws of Matter and Motion by which Bodies in general act upon one another And therefore supposing the same Object the same force of Impression the same Situation the same Disposition of the Organ the same Medium and the like the Report of the Sense cannot but be the same But where there is a Variation in any of these the Perception is under a necessity of Varying too Thus to use the Instance mention'd by Charron When part of the Eye-Lid is press'd down by the Finger the Rays are differently admitted into the Pupil and fall upon two several places of the Tunica Retina which consequently creates a twofold Impression of the Object And This Duplicity is as natural and necessary in such a Disposition of the Eye as truly agreeable to all the Rules of Matter and Motion as a single Representation wou'd be in the usual Posture so far from a Reflexion upon the Truth of Sense that our Senses could not be true if the thing were otherwise represented A proportionable Difference must needs follow in the different Modifications of Light and Shades which is the Reason of that Appearance taken notice of here of Pieces in Relief the dextrous Management whereof makes the great Secret of the Art of Painting So it is again if there be any thing uncommon in the Medium through which the Rays pass from the Object to the Organ of Sense which is the Case of Prismes or of Eyes either distorted in their Situation or discolour'd in any of the Humours And as These make a Change in the represented Colour of the Object so does the Contraction or Dilatation of the Pupil in the Magnitude or Figure of it And the Eye and other Organs of Sense varying by Age Sickness Nature or Accidents unavoidably require different Sensations in Persons of different Years and Conditions The Matter coming much to one whether the Object be variously represented through Distance or its own Posture and Form or through some Change and Defect of the Organ which receives the Impression All Which sufficiently accounts for the differing Sensations of Children Grown-Men and Aged Persons the different Tastes of the Sick and the Healthful and indeed the vast Diversity of Palats among Mankind in general For here is a mighty Diversity in the Organ of Sense and the making one and the same Report is therefore impossible For our Senses are like Messengers and all their Business is To be Faithful and True in delivering their Errand as they have receiv'd it If it were not given as it ought to be at first that is if there be any accidental Defects to change the Appearance This they are not responsible for but they are to tell what they feel and hear and see and in This they are faithful and may be depended upon For That they may be trusted even in Matters of the greatest Consequence is beyond all reasonable Contradiction not only from the most necessary and important Matters of Humane Life being carry'd on upon the Confidence of this Testimony but which to a Christian is much more considerable from all the External Evidences of Religion being put upon this Issue The Life and Death the Resurrection and Ascension of our Blessed Saviour the Doctrines he taught and the Miracles he did in Confirmation of them being so many Appeals to the Senses of those with whom he convers'd and the great Motive to Persuasion which the Apostle urges is that he deliver'd That to his Proselytes concerning the Word of Life of which they had had all possible Demonstrations since it was what He and his Fellow-Preachers had heard what they had seen with their Eyes what they had looked upon 1 John I. 1. and their Hands had handled All which was certainly a very weak and impertinent Allegation if the Senses are so liable to Mistakes and so uncertain a Foundation of Knowledge that we cannot with safety fix any Conclusions from the Reports they make to us And yet it cannot be deny'd but Men do very frequently err by too easie a Credulity in this respect which ministers sufficient ground for our Second Enquiry II. Whence those Errours do really proceed which we find sometimes charged upon the Deceiveableness of our Senses In This as well as some Other Particulars Epicurus seems to have been very unfairly dealt withal by the Stoicks and some other Philosophers of a contrary Party who because he asserted the Truth of the Senses and vindicated their Fidelity in Reporting have charg'd him with affirming that a Man cou'd not possibly mistake in forming Judgments according to those Appearances Whereas in Truth Epicurus only places the Senses in the Quality of Evidence whose business it is to relate bare Matter of Fact but does by no means deny the Jurisdiction of the Court to which those Accounts are given to pass Sentence as shall seem just and equal To this purpose is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Diogenes Laertius in his Tenth Book mentions and Gassendus in his Comment upon it so rationally enlarges upon By which is meant that Men ought to avoid Precipitation and not rashly pronounce that things are in reality as they are represented but calmly and slowly examine Circumstances and observe the Causes of such Representations Thus likewise Lucretius in his Fourth Book after having instanc'd in several Appearances which when strictly enquir'd into are found to differ from the Nature of the things themselves closes his Account with these very significant Verses Caetera de genere hoc mirando multa videmus Quae violare fidem quasi sensibus omnia quaerunt Nequicquam Quoniam pars horum maxima fallit Propter Opinatus animi quos addimus ipsi c. Which the English Reader may take from Mr. Creech thus Ten Thousand such appear Ten Thousand Fees To Certainty of Sense and All oppose In vain 'T is Judgment not the Sense mistakes Which fancy'd Things for real Objects takes If then One Light appear to be Two when the Eye-Lid is press'd if a Square Building at a Distance seem Round if a Piece in Perspective seem a Cloyster or a Portico a Man is not presently to conclude that these are really such nor can he be excus'd if he do so For Reason and Considederation wou'd convince him that these Idea's must be so and cou'd not be otherwise That the unnatural Disposition of the Eye must needs double the Image in the first Instance That the Distance of the Object will naturally cut off the Angles and render the Perception less distinct in the second and that Shades artificially cast and
its own nor was ever able to make any one Man Good since the beginning of the World A thing that Providence distributes Promiscuously and with a negligent Hand scattered in common to all the World and the greatest Share very often permitted to the worst and most scandalous Part of Mankind Nor is this all For though the Thing be indifferent in its own Nature and that single Consideration is sufficient to wean or at least to moderate our Affections yet the Effects and Consequences of it are by no means indifferent but in the Issue and Event incline strongly to the Worse The debasement of Mens Minds and the depravation of their Manners being the manifest and frequent Effect of it And though it cannot be proved that Riches ever reform'd one ill Disposition and made it Virtuous yet there are innumerable Instances of Persons otherwise well-disposed who have been corrupted and made Vicious by their Means And when we have computed all the Conveniences that attend them and represented these in their best Light and to all possible Advantage it must be acknowledged after all that a great many wise Men have lived very Easy and Happy without them and a great many more foolish and naughty Men have died Scandalously for them So then They are no necessary Ingredient of Life and they expose us to Danger and Disgrace and Death In a Word This is to act upon our selves the Barbarity and Tyranny for which the cruel Mezentius was Infamous to tie the living Body to the dead Carkass that so it may languish and expire with greater Torment to mix a Noble and Refined Spirit with the Dross and Excrement of the Earth to perplex and involve the Soul with innumerable Difficulties and Tortures which this Passion will be sure to bring upon it to entangle one's self in the Snares of the Wicked one and voluntarily to be taken Captive by the Adversary of Souls as the Scripture admirably expresses it And indeed there is scarce any Vice more pathetically and more frequently decried in those Holy Books Where we find these very significant Characters given of It Luk. xvi 9. Matt. xiii 22. 1 Tim. vi 9. Coloss iii. 5. 1 Tim. vi 10. The Unrighteous Mammon The Thorns which choak the Good Seed of Piety and Virtue The Robber that steals away Mens Hearts and Affections The Nets and Snares of the Devil The Idolatry that draws Men off from the Regard and Worship of the True God and The Love of Money which is the Root of all Evil. And sure if Men would but turn their Eyes inward and observe that Rust and fretting Canker of Sins and Discontents and desperate Anxieties which Riches breed in their Hearts with the same Attention and Diligence that they gaze upon their glittering Metals with the Consequence of This must be that They wou'd then be as much and as generally hated and despis'd as now we see they are belov'd and admir'd * Defunt Inopiae multa Avaritiae omnia Necessity wants many things Covetousness wants every thing †Avarus in nullum bonus est in se pessimus The Covetous Man is good to no body but worst of all to himself Not but that there is another Passion in the contrary Extreme The contrary Passion which is by no means free from Vice neither and that is a downright Detestation and obstinate Refusal of Riches For this is Refusing the Means and the Opportunities of doing good and putting it out of a Man 's own power to practise many excellent and very beneficial Virtues There needs but little Consideration to convince us that the using Riches as one ought and getting an absolute Dominion over them is a Task much more laborious and difficult than the being content under the Want of them and a Prudent and Virtuous Behaviour in Poverty is more attainable than a steady Goodness in the midst of Plenty In the former of these Circumstances a Man hath but One Attack to guard and may bend all his Forces against That without Distraction If he can but keep his Courage up from sinking under the Affliction and maintain his Ground with Constancy and Resolution he hath done his Business effectually But the Temptations of Wealth and Prosperity are Various I had almost said Insinite and the Duties which are expected from Persons in that Condition are proportionably so too There must be Temperance in the Use of them Mederation in our Desires Liberality to those that want the Comforts we enjoy Prudence in the Choice of sit Objects to exercise that Liberality upon Humility and Meekness and Condescension and several others too numerous to be specify'd particularly The Indigent Man hath only his own Virtue to take care of the Rich must preserve That and hath another Task of Action and Distribution to take Care of afterwards He that devests himself of large Possessions is at leisure for greater and better things which mov'd some Philosophers and Christians to do so He does at the same time disburden himself of a world of Cares and Sorrows of Duties and Dissiculties unavoidable which attend the Management of himself first in the Pursuit and Acquisition then in the Keeping then in the Using and Dispensing of Wealth So that upon the whole Matter except when done upon a Principle of Charity and Religion This is only the declining of Sollicitude and Business and Trouble and when such Men pretend to Resignation and Magnanimity and Contempt of the World I should make no scruple to tell them very freely Gentlemen You renounce these things not because They are Advantageous and You are get above them but because You know not how to make a right use of them and are afraid of the Trouble and Hazard which those who make it their Business to possess and manage them as they ought are of necessity exposed to For when all is done though Riches do not deserve our Hearts and are an Object too low for our Affections yet they are as much too high for our Disdain And tho' no Wise Man will suffer himself to be brought into Bondage to them nor desire them Immoderately nor get them Indirectly nor place his Happiness in them yet when the Bounty of Providence hath dealt them to us fairly and made them our Lot in such a Case what Seneca hath observed is undoubtedly true That for a Man not to be able to bear a plentiful Fortune is not an Argument of his Wisdom but a Symptom of his Weakness and Littleness of Soul CHAP. XXII Of Sensuality and Carnal Love in particular THis is a burning Fever and furious Passion 'T is stren naturally and common and the Consequences of it are insinitely dangerous when a Man suffers himself to be vanquished and overborn by it Such a one is no longer at his own Disposal His Body shall endure a Thousand Tortures in pursuit of Pleasure His Mind a Thousand Reproachings and Self-Condemnations In short he feels a perpetual Hell
liable to very just Exception for it is much to be fear'd when the Issue is his own Concern the Verdict will not be honest And accordingly we see how partial and unfair he is in all he says of Himself for he knows no Mean he proceeds with no Moderation but is eternally in Extremes Sometimes he is big and pleas'd with Himself looks down upon the lower World with Disdain and calls himself the Lord of all the Creatures divides their Morsels among them and cuts out for each Species such a Proportion of Faculties and natural Power as His Lordship vouchsafes to allow them At Other times instead of all this Gayety and Pride you find him full of black Discontent and then he debases himself as much murmurs and frets grumbles and complains gives Providence hard Words and calls Nature a cruel Step-mother that hath made him the Refuse of the World the most wretched of all her Productions and dealt to Him the least and lowest Portion of all her Children Now in truth both the One and the Other of these Opinions are equally false unreasonable and extravagant But what can we expect better from him or how is it to be thought he shou'd carry himself evenly and fairly and act justly with other Creatures when he is as we shall shortly see so infinitely out of all measure in his Notions towards God his Superiour and Man who is his Equal But besides this Byass upon his Judgment there is another Difficulty upon his Understanding For which way shall he get a competent Knowledge of the inward Powers and unseen Motions of other Animals So that if he were inclin'd to be Just and to hear the Evidence impartially yet he must needs be an improper Judge to whom the most material part upon which the Sentence ought to be grounded cannot be given in Evidence And such are those inward Operations of Brutes which we can have no certain or competent perception of However we will try at present to state this Comparison as evenly and calmly as we can possibly Now first we are to consider that the Order and Constitution of the Universe is not vastly unequal There are no great Irregularities nor large void Spaces in it nor such Unlikeness and wide Disproportion between the several Parts that go into this Composition as some People may imagine The Excellencies of the several Species rise and fall gradually And those whom Nature hath placed near or close to one another have all of them a mutual Resemblance tho' some have more and some have less of it And thus we may observe a near Neighbourhood and close Affinity between Mankind and other Animals They are a-kin in many things and several Properties are alike and common to both Several things indeed there are wherein they differ but these are not so vastly disproportionate and distant but that they still are next adjoyning Links twisted within one another in the great Chain of the Universe So that Man is neither in all respects superiour nor inferiour in all For that which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them both says the Wisdom of God himself Eccles iii. 19. We will begin with those things which are common to both and very near the Matter of being alike in both such as Generation Nutrition Motion Action Life and Death For says the same Divine Wisdom As the one dieth so doth the other so that a Man in this respect hath no Pre-eminence above a Beast And This is a Confutation of those foolish repining People and all their melancholy Complaints that represent Man as the only Creature whom Nature hath discountenanc'd and disgrac'd abandon'd and forsaken turn'd naked into the wide World and cast upon the bare Ground without any Covering without any Natural Weapons to shelter or defend him bound up and swaddelâ—d and utterly ignorant and unfurnish'd of what is fit for him Whereas to all Others she hath been much more bountiful Clothed them with Shells or Hair or Wool or Shag or Feathers or Scales Armed them with Tusks or Horns with Bills or Claws or Talons to act offensively or defensively as occasion requires qualify'd them without any help of Art or Industry for Swimming Running Flying Singing Looking out for Food and Sustaining themselves But Man poor neglected Man they tell you is Taught to Go Taught to Speak nay requires Help and Teaching for the very Feeding and Supporting himself and attains to nothing without Time and Trouble and serving an Apprenticeship In short He is perfect in no other Instance of Nature's teaching except that of Crying This is all we bring into the World along with us and a very fit Emblem it is of our Fortune and Condition Now all these melancholy Complaints which make disadvantageous Reflections upon the Original Composition of Mankind and that which is truly the State of Nature are altogether unjust and false For first Our Skin is sufficiently fortify'd against all the Injuries of Weather 1. Nakedness Chap. XIV and so Nakedness is no Argument of our being less Nature's Care than any other Creature Several Nations as I have observ'd heretofore never yet so much as knew what Clothes are and even We that do can go bare in any Parts even the tenderest and most sensible when Inclination or Custom or some particular Fashion dispose us to it For where of all our Body is the Sense quicker than in the Face the Hands the Stomach And yet what Lady even the nicest and tenderest of her Sex scruples to expose her Neck and Breasts when the Mode requires that Dress even in the Extremity of Winter 2. Swalling Clothes Swathes and Rollers may be convenient but t is plain they are not necessary in Children for the Lucedaemonians heretofore made no use of them nor do the Swisses and Germans that dwell in cold Countries nor Biscans nor those Vagabonds and Common Cheats that go by the Name of Gypsies use them at this Day 3. Weeping Weeping is by no means peculiar to Mankind Beasts have likewise their Share in it Some of them shed Tears and much the greatest part of them Cry and Complain and Bemoan themselves continually for some time after their coming into the World 4. Weapons As for Weapons Nature hath not been wanting in her Provision for Us too and she hath given us besides greater Opportunities of using them For the Muscles and Motions of our Limbs are more in Number and of a more useful Variety and These too we are capable of receiving greater Service from without any Instruction at all than any other Animal whatsoever Or if some few are better provided in this respect we have the Advantage of many others Nor do we need any Teaching in point of Eating 5. Eating We and They are equally fitted equally dextrous and ready at it by Nature Who makes any Question but a Child wou'd look out sharp for Meat assoon as he is strong enough to feed himself
oftentimes is mere Vanity no one Stroke of a Judicious Man no one eminently Good Quality discernible in it and accordingly the Authors themselves under whose Names good Things are published are often known to be Persons of weak Parts and very indifferent Judgment loose in their Principles and debauch'd in their Morals And how much better than all this is it to hear a good honest Farmer or a common Shopkeeper talking in their own Gibberish plain downright Truths in a dry rough way without Trick or Dress to adorn and set them off and giving good useful Advice which is the Natural Product of sound Sense and an unsophisticated Judgment Thus much for our Understanding The Will The Will is in no degree inferiour in Misery but hath at least as many Sources and the Instances of it are more deplorable than any under the former Head These are indeed innumerable some few of them are such as follow 1. The being more desirous to be thought Virtuous and Good than really to be so and when one does good Actions doing them more for the sake of Others than our Own making Reputation a more powerful Motive and Principle of Virtue than Conscience coveting and taking greater Satisfaction in the Commendation and Applause of the World than in the secret Consciousness and Comfort of having done our Duty 2. The being much more forward and eager to revenge an Injury or Affront than to acknowledge a Favour and return a Kindness Insomuch that to own an Obligation is a perfect Trouble and Mortification a lessening one's self but the taking Satisfaction reputed a Pleasure a Pride an Advantage And what can be a greater Reproach to our Nature what more betray the Baseness and Malignity of it than the verifying that Observation * Gratia oneri est Ultio in quaestu habetur Thanks are a Toil and a Burden but a Retaliation of Injuries is esteemed an Addition and a Gain 3. The being more violent and fierce in the Passion of Hatred than in That of â—â—ve more disposed to more vehement in Detraction and Calumnies than in our Commendations and good Characters of Men and Actions to seed upon Evil rather than Good and entertain ill Reports and an odious Representation of our Neighbour with more sensible Relish than his Praises To enlarge more willingly upon These allow them a greater Share in our Conversation to employ one's Wit and Arts of Expression upon this Subject rather than the Contrary As the generality of Historians Orators and Poets do who are cold and flat in relating Men's Virtues but sharp and poignant eloquent and moving in the Description of their Vices And thus we find that the Expressions and Figures of Rhetorick which serve to expose and blacken Men and Things are mighty different much more full and copious more emphatical and significative than Those which are employed in Recommendation and Praise 4. The declining Evil Book II. Chap. 3. and addicting one's Self to Good upon false and improper Ends when This is not the result of Virtuous Motions and Inclinations from within nor the Dictate of Natural Reason nor the Love of Virtue nor the Sense of Duty but some Consideration altogether foreign and wide of the Matter Some mean and sordid Prospect of Gain and Interest the Itch of Vain-glory the Hope of Advancement the Fear of Reproach Complyance with Custom Obsequiousness to the Company and in a Word the not doing Good for the sake of doing it and because it becomes us and binds our Conscience but upon some occasional Motive and external Circumstance that happen'd to fall in with us at that time And at this rate the greatest part of Mankind are only good by Chance Which gives the true Reason of their being so extremely various and unequal and sickle and inconsistent with Themselves for so must all things needs be that are govern'd by Impulse and Accident and nothing but true and well-weigh'd Principles grounded upon Duty and Reason can produce a steddy constand and uniform Virtue 5. The lessening our Affection for the Persons we have wronged and that for no other Reason but merely because we have done them an Injury Is not this very odd What account can be given of it We cannot pretend that this Coldness always proceeds from Apprehensions of Revenge for perhaps the injur'd Party hath no such Thought and is as kindly disposed to Us as ever But the Reason seems to be that the very Sight and Remembrance of him accuses Us to our Selves and our Conscience takes these Occasions to fly in our Faces and reproach our Baseness and Indiscretion So that if the Person offending does not abate of his Kindness this is a good Argument that he did not offend wilfully and is not conscious to himself of any thing that can give him a just Dissatisfaction at his own Proceedings For commonly speakking Every one that offends knowingly and with a malicious Design changes in his Affection afterwards and either turns an Enemy or at least very cold and indifferent according to that usual Proverb * Chi offende mai non pardonna He that does the Wrong never forgives 6. And Observation not much unlike the former may be made concerning Persons who have highly oblig'd us The Sight of such is often an Uneasiness it upbraids us with a Debt and awakens ungrateful Remembrances of our Want either of Disposition or of Power to require Then Nay sometimes Men are so abominably wicked as even to rejoyce at the Death of a Benefactor because it eases them of this sort of Pain according to the Remark of an Old Author Some the more they have been obliged the worse they hate A small Debt makes a Man your Friend but a great one will be sure to make him your Enemy 7. The taking Delight in Mischief being glad at the Pains and Dangers and Difficulties of other People and conceiving a secret Indignation and Displeasure at their Prosperity and Promotion Nor do I mean here any such Envy or Uneasiness as proceeds from Passion and particular Resentment for this is chargeable upon the Vices of single Persons only But the Thing I aim at is the common Temper and natural Condition of Mankind in general which without any Pique or Spleen or Provocation disposes even Good Men †Suave Mari magno c. Lib. 2. to receive a sort of Satisfaction from the Risques of Men in Seas and Storms to be angry at any Preference of our Friends before Us either in point of Merit or Fortune to laugh at any little Misfortune that happens to them * All this argues the Seeds of Ill-Nature to be thick sown and to have taken deep Root in us The First of these Instances which of all the rest seems most hard-hearted Lucretius gives a much more innocent account of and acquits it of the severe Imputation laid upon it here in the beginning of this Second Book And indeed what is said There upon that one
Pain and Anxiety upon our Account That They only watch for our Safety and Preservation and This makes us look upon Calamitous Accidents with Surprise but especially to be perfectly astonish'd at Death as if it were a most strange Thing how That should break in upon us notwithstanding so many Guards that keep Centry about our Persons and are all as we imagine concern'd to secure us from it For this among other Reasons few People ever persuade themselves that any Hour is their last but almost every Body suffers himself to be cheated with false Hopes at the very Instant of expiring And what is all This but Presumption We think our selves too significant and fondly fancy that this whole Universe must bear a part in our Death that some great and general Revolution will happen upon it that all things decay in proportion with our own Bodies and fail one another in the same Degrees They fail Us That there is no avoiding it but They must all undergo the same fatal Shock the same Dissolution that We do And in this Universal Delusion Mankind live like People upon the Water who when their own Vessel moves seem to draw Houses and Towns and Heaven and Earth along with them No Body considers that he is single and but One a very small and inconsiderable Part of the Creation One out of many Millions whom few have any Interest in and perhaps fewer yet are the worse for losing and the Matter is so far from every Body's going along with him that scarce any Body will so much as miss him when he is gone no more than a Grain of Sand diminishes the Sea-shore or the falling of a Star changes the Face of the Sky Then again Man pleases himself that the Heaven the Stars and all that Glorious Movement over our Heads and indeed the whole Frame and Order of this Material World was thus created and constituted merely for his Sake As if that Description of the Heathen were his due That * Tot circa unum caput tumultuantes Deos. so many Gods were perpetually Ambitious and contending about his single Person And this is a very extravagant Imagination indeed He is lodged here in the last and lowest Story of the World at a great distance from the Aetherial Roof a place that in comparison of the purer Regions above us may be call'd the Sink of the World where all the Lees and Dregs settle with Creatures of the meanest Condition and liable to receive all those Evacuations of Rain and Vapours which fall down upon his Head nay from These he receives his very Subsistence he lies open to Accidents that beset and oppress him on every Side and yet this poor Wretch looks upon himself as the Master and Commander in Chief of the Universe 'T is true indeed Almighty God hath given him a Dominion over some of his Fellow Creatures and it is likewise true that the rest over which he hath not the same Dominion are contriv'd for his Mighty Benefit and Covenience but it will not follow from hence that the whole Creation had no other End than his Service nor that those vast Globes of Light and so many Pure Incorruptible Bodies whose least Virtue is not distinctly known and which he must be content to gaze at with Wonder and Astonishment were fram'd and are continued in this Regularity and Perpetuity of Motion for Man only From hence it is confest this Indigent Wretch derives his Food his Maintenance and unspeakable Conveniences The Rays the Beauty the Heat of the Sun The Rain and Dew and other Distillations from Heaven cherish and sustain him and This no doubt was one Intent of the bountiful God that made them But shall we presume to determine from hence that this was the Sole Intent and Use of them Shall we call the Heavens and the Elements our Own and pretend that Their Motions are only so many Tasks for Our Profit This were as if the Begger should call himself Proprietor of the Wealth out of which he is reliev'd and the Benefits in this Case are so general so far from being confin'd to Man alone that the meanest Fowl of the Air may as well make the same Pretensions Nay in some Sense these Creatures may make them better For Man who receives Conveniences hath some Inconveniences too from the Bodies above him he hath none of them at his own Disposal he cannot understand how far their Efficacy will extend nor make any certain Conclusions what will be hereafter and this puts him into perpetual Uneasinesses and Fears and Amazements lest these Bodies should not keep their Course nor shed propitous Influences but occasion Barren and sickly Seasons and so every thing should prove Unkindly and in Confusion and under the Weight of these Apprehensions he lies and trembles for what shall fall upon him from Those very Bodies of which he vainly thinks himself Lord and Master Whereas Beasts as they receive the same Advantages of Life and Substance with our Selves so they receive it without any Disturbance of Mind or disquieting Presages of the Future yea and without any of those discontented Murmurs and Complaints at what is Past too which restless and ungrateful Man is ever bewailing himself in I conclude this Observation with that Passage of Seneca * Non nos causa mundo sumus hypemem aestatemque referendi suas ista leges habent quibus divina exercentur nimis nos suspicimus si digni nobis videmur propter quos tanta moveantur Non tanta coelo nobiscum societas est ut nostro fato sit ille quoque siderum fulgor We are not the Proper Cause of the World 's enjoying the several Seasons and their Vici ssitudes Those Things are order'd by Laws peculiar to themselves in the observance whereof the Will and Purposes of God are executed We think too highly of our selves if we suppose we are of such Worth and Consequence that such and so many Glorious Motions should be contrived merely for our sakes nor is our Correspondence with Heaven so intimate that all the use of the Stars should be to direct or to declare our Fortunes Note Some Persons since the Improvement of Astronomy have given us juster Notions of the Magnitude of these Heavenly Bodies That several of them equal and some very much exceed the Proportion of this Earthly Globe have entertain'd Notions of a Plurality of Worlds furnish'd with Inhabitants as different from Those we know as the Regions they inhabit are A Notion which I only mention upon this Occasion to hint that there may be many Uses unknown to us served by the Heavenly Bodies And because the Opinion seems to carry no Impiety at all in it but pretends to consult the Glory of God by exciting Men to a greater Admiration of his Infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness exerted in so much a greater Variety of Creatures than what we are or can be acquainted with I thought it not amiss
Pleasure Call its Fruitions slat and insipid if you please but yet they are solid and substantial agreeable and universal They must needs be so indeed because they are Lawful and Innocent free from the Censure of Others and the Reproaches of one's Own Mind What the World calls Love aims at nothing but Delight it hath perhaps somewhat of Sprightliness and is of a quicker and more poignant Relish but this cannot hold long and we plainly see it cannot by so few Matches succeeding well where Beauty and Amorous Desires were at the bottom of them There must be something more solid to make us happy A Building that is to stand for our whole Lives ought to be set upon sirmer Foundations and these Engagements are serious Matters such as deserve and it is Pity but they should have our utmost Discretion employed upon them That Hot Love bubbles and boils in our Breasts for a While but it is worth Nothing and cannot continue and therefore it very often happens that these Affairs are very fortunately manag'd by a Third Hand This Description is only Summary and in general Terms Another more particular one But that the Case may be more perfectly and particularly understood it is sit we take Notice that there are Two Things Essential and absolutely Necessary to this State of Life which however contrary and inconsistent they may at First Sight appear are yet in reality no such Matter These are Equality and Inequality the Former concerns them as Friends and Companions and upon the Level the Other as a Superiour and an Inferiour The Equality consists in that Entire Freedom and unreserved Communication whereby they ought to have all Things in Common their Souls Inclinations Wills Bodies Goods are mutually from thenceforward made over and neither of them hath any longer a peculiar and distinct Propriety exclusive of the other This in some Places is carried a great deal farther and extends to Life and Death too insomuch that assoon as the Husband is dead the Wife is obliged to follow him without delay There are some Countries where the Publick and National Laws require them to do so and they are oftentimes so Zealous in their Obedience that where Polygamy is indulged if a Man leave several Wives behind him they Try for it Publickly and enter up their Claims which of them shall obtain the Honour and Privilege of sleeping with their Spouse that is the Expression they soften it by and upon this Occasion each urges in her own behalf that she was the best belov'd Wife or had the last Kiss of him or brought him Children or the like so to gain the Preference to themselves Th' Ambitious Rivals eagerly pursue Death as their Crown to Love and Virtue due Prefer their Claims and glory in Success Their Lords first Nuptials are courted less Approach his Pile with Pomp in Triumph burn And mingle Ashes in one Common Urn. In other Places where no Laws enjoyned any such Thing it hath been resolved and practised by mutual Stipulation and voluntary Agreement made privately between the Parties Themselves which was the Case of Mark Antony and Cleopatra But omitting This which in truth is a Wicked Barbarous and Unreasonable Custom The Equality which is and ought to be between Man and Wife extends it self to the Administration of Affairs and Inspection over the Family in common from whence the Wife hath very justly the Title of Lady or Mistress of the House and Servants as well as the Husband that of Master and Lord over them And this joint Authority of Theirs over their own private Family is a Picture in Little of that Form of Publick Government which is termed an Aristocracy That Distinction of Superiour and Inferiour which makes the Inequality consists in This. Inequality That the Husband hath a Power and Authority over his Wife and the Wife is plac'd in Subjection to her Husband The Laws and Governments of all Nations throughout the World agree in this Preeminence Et certamen habent lethi quae viva sequatur Conjugium pudor est non licuisse mori Ardent Victrices flammae pectora praebent Imponuntque suis Ora perusta viris but the Nature and the Degrees of it are not every where the same For These differ in Proportion as the Laws and Customs of the Place differ Thus far the Consent is Universal That the Woman how Noble soever her Birth and Family how great soever her Fortunes or any other personal Advantages is not upon any Consideration exempted from Subjection to her Husband This Superiority and Inferiority may well be general and be the Opinion of All when it is so plainly the Condition of All. For in truth it is the Work of Nature and founded upon that Strength and Sufficiency and Majesty of the One Sex and the Weakness and Softness and Incapacities of the Other which prove it not equally qualified nor ever designed for Government But there are many other Arguments besides which Divines fetch from Scripture upon this Occasion and prove the Point indeed substantially by Them For Revelation here hath backed and enforced the Dictates of Reason by telling us expresly that Man was made first that he was made by God alone and entirely by Him without any Creature of a like Form contributing any thing towards his Being That he was Created on purpose for the Pleasure and Glory of God his Head That he was made after the Divine Image and Likeness a Copy of the Great Original above and Perfect in his Kind For Nature always begins with something in its just Perfection Whereas Woman was created in the Second Place and not so properly Created as Formed made after Man taken out of his Substance * See 1 Corinth xi 7.8 The Man is the Image and Similitude of God but the Woman is the Similitude of the Man So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be rendred in the Sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similis sum not Glory as we read it which is foreign to the rest of the Words and the whole Scope of that Argument Fashioned according to that Pattern and so His Image and only the Copy of a Copy made Occasionally and for particular Uses to be a Help and a Second to the Man who is himself the Principal and Head and therefore She is upon all these Accounts Imperfect Thus we may argue from the Order of Nature But the thing is confirmed yet more by the Relation given us of the Corruption and Fall of Man For the Woman was first in the Transgression and sinned of her own Head Man came in afterwards and by her Instigation The Woman therefore who was last in Good in order of Nature and Occasional only but foremost in Evil and the occasion of That to Man is most justly put in Subjection to Him who was before Her in the Good and after Her in the Evil. This Conjugal Superiority and Power hath been very differently restrained or enlarged
made Answer That he indeed should have some Temptation to grow proud upon their Praises but that he consider'd whom they came from and they who gave him good Words then durst not take upon them to Chide him when he happen'd to deserve it The Seventh Particular Being kept in Ignorance in which they exceed the Miseries of common Men and That which perhaps is of all others the worst in it self and most destructive to the publick Safety is That they are not at liberty to use their own Discretion in the choice of Servants and Officers of Honour and Trust nor have Opportunities of attaining to a true and perfect Knowledge of Things They are never suffer'd to know All nor are they ever throughly acquainted what condition their Affairs are really in some better Face put upon the good part and some part conceal'd or colour'd over which is unfortunate or ill-manag'd and would be unacceptable if rightly represented As little are they let in to the true Characters of Men and consequently who are fit to be employ'd and trusted And what can be more miserable than such a State of Ignorance as This when They whose concern it is to know best are far from understanding truly either what is to be done or who are most proper to do it Alas they are encompassed and blockaded up as it were by People of the first Quality whom there is no getting loose from Either such as are their own Relations or who upon the Account of their Families and Honours and Places or by long Custom and Prescription are so fix'd in Authority and have so great a Concern in the Management of Affairs that it is not advisable or safe to give them Disgust They must be caress'd and preferr'd and have no ground of Jealousie or Discontent given them If Offices of the highest Consequence are to be dispos'd of These Persons must not be overlook'd if when they are thus employ'd they prove incapable or unfit the Retreat is difficult All the Nobility of their Alliance resent their Slight or their Disgrace and the mending an Improper Choice or the making a Proper One is sometimes in hazard of bringing All into Confusion Now these Persons who make it their Business to keep their Prince constantly muffled up and never let him see the World take good care that nothing shall appear to him as it really is and that all such as are truly better and more useful Men than Themselves shall never gain free Access to him nor have their Abilities known O! 't is a wretched thing to see nothing but with other Peoples Eyes and to hear nothing but with other Mens Ears as Princes whose Eminence will not admit of Freedom and Plain-dealing and promiscuous Conversation are under a necessity of doing But that which makes the Misery complete and the very worst that can be is that commonly speaking Princes and Great Persons are by a strange sort of Fatality destin'd to and in the possession of Three sorts of Men who are the very Bane and Pest of Mankind viz. Flatterers Projectors for raising Money and Informers And these under a specious but counterfeit Pretence either of Zeal and Affection for their Prince as the Two former do or of Integrity and Virtue and Reformation as the last instead of improving or amending either utterly deprave and ruine both Prince and People The Eighth Misery is That they are less Masters of their own Wills than any other Persons For in all their Proceedings there are infinite Considerations and Respects which they are bound to observe and these captivate and constrain their Designs and Inclinations and Desires * In maximâ fortunà minima licentia The greater any Man's Station and Capacity is the less he is at his own Disposal This one would think should prevail for fair Quarter at least and favourable Allowances for what they do but instead of being pitied or lamented for this Hardship they are the most barbarously treated the most severely censured and traduced of any Men living For every bold Fellow sets up for a Politician and undertakes to guess at their Meanings to penetrate into their very Hearts and Thoughts * Abditos Principis sensus si quid occultius parat exquirere illicitum anceps nec ideo assequare To pry too curiously into the secret Intentions of a Prince is unlawful or if it were not yet it is but doubtful and a Guess at best what we cannot compass and therefore ought not to attempt The Cabinets of Princes are Sacred and their Breasts ought to be much more so These busie Men cannot discern them and yet they are eternalâ—y arraigning and sentencing They have a quite different Prospect of Things and see them under another Face from what they appear to Those at the Helm or if they saw them both alike yet both are not equally capable of understanding the Intricacies of them Intrigues of State are Things above a Vulgar Capacity but notwithstanding every Man expects his Prince should do what He thinks most convenient and blames his Conduct if he do otherwise there is no Favour no Patience to be obtained for any thing contrary to each Man 's Private Sentiments tho' it be in it self never so fit never so necessary never so impossible to have been managed otherwise In a Word every Shop every Coffee-house sits in Judgment upon their Governours and without hearing or knowing the Merits of the Cause proceed to severe and sawcy Condemnations of Them Lastly It happens very often Their miserable End that Princes come to a very untimely and unfortunate End not only such of Them as by Usurpation and Tyranny provoke Men to bring it upon them for this is not much to be wonder'd at and such have no more than their Due but which is a miserable Case indeed Those who are most Rightful in their Title and most regular and just and gentle in the Administration of their Government How frequent Instances of this kind does the Roman History present us with in those Emperours that follow'd after the Civil Wars of Pompey and Caesar And not to go so far back we know that Henry III. of France was Assassinated by a little insignificant Frier in the midst of an Army of Forty Thousand Men and infinite other Examples of Poysonings Murders and villanous Conspiracies are to be found in all Ages * Ad generum Cereris sine caede sanguâ—ne pauci Descendunt Reges siccâ morte Tyranni Kings post down to the Shades in Blood few stay For Common Deaths and Nature's slow decay A Man would be almost tempted to imagine that as Storms and Tempests seem to wreek their Spight most upon the towering Pride of the loftyest Buildings so there are some malicious Spirits that envy and make it their Business to humble and ruine and trample down the Majesty and Greatness of Those who stand most exalted here below †Usque adeo res humanas
Extremities and when these pinch hard and are no longer supportable they are provok'd to play a desperate Game in their own Defence Now several Lawgivers and eminent Politicians have apply'd their Minds to contrive proper Methods for the keeping off and securing the States they formed or presided over from the Inconveniences attending each of these Extremes and such as so vast a Disproportion of Estates and Fortunes will naturally expose the Publick to They have been therefore desirous to bring all nearer to a Level to reduce the one and raise the other so that there should be a kind of universal Mediocrity and pretty near an equal Scantling When Things stood upon this Foot they promised Themselves a sure Foundation of Peace and Amity and good Correspondence by removing all the Grounds of Contempt on the one hand and of Envy and Jealousie on the other quite out of the way Others have stretched this Project yet further they are for introducing a common Stock and leaving no peculiar Rights or Properties at all But this is impracticable and fantastical and never can exist long any where but in Men's own Brains and Imaginations Nor is that other Design of Equality any more practicable or indeed at all possible For tho' Men's Income be alike yet their Expences and Occasions will be far from being so These may vary upon a Thousand Accidents but it is enough that every body is able to see and instance in one which is perfectly unanswerable and that is the Number of Children which we all know neither do nor ever can increase in every Family alike And therefore it must needs be insufficient and the Design lost where the Necessities are not nor ever can be equal All the Attempts that have been at any time made toward the putting in practice this Levelling Principle have scarce ever been able to set it on Foot It costs more than the Thing is worth to come to it and if Men could arrive at it yet it is highly inexpedient and not at all to their Purpose The End they aim at is never thus to be compassed for after all this is at last but to open another Door and let the very Mischief in the back way which we take so much Pains to keep out For if Hatred and Contention be the Evils we are afraid of where do we find These more frequent and fierce than between Equals How can we indeed reasonably expect it otherwise where Men think Themselves a Match for one another where there is no Distance or Respect to Temper no Fear to curb and bind them to the Peace and their good Behaviour If Envy and Jealousies arise against Superiours so do they likewise among Equals and this latter sort is the Seed of Disturbances and Confusions Seditions and Civil Wars Some Disproportion therefore is absolutely necessary but such as is moderate and may keep the Balance even and steady Order is like Harmony if all Sounds wee the same there could be no Musick but yet it is necessary these different Notes should agree in general Cords and retain some Proportion to make the Composition regular and sweet But a perfect Level is like a continu'd Unison and nothing is more flat * Nihil est aequalitate inaequalius nothing more unequal than an exact Equality This so very great Disparity of Estates and Possessions prceeds from several very different Causes but more especially from Two The One is unjust Borrowings and hard Loans when Men are forced and content to take up Money at any rate and submit to all the unconscionable Interests that Griping Usurers put upon them by which means those Unjust Creditors eat into their Estates gnaw out their very Heart and Bowels and by degrees swallow all and so grow fat upon the Substance of other People To such as These may that Complaint of the Psalmist not improperly be apply'd Psal liii 5 They eat up my People as they would eat Bread The Other is by Disposals of Estates and that either by Men during their own Life-time in Alienations Dowries and Portioning of Children when they Marry or set up in the World or else by last Will and Bequest at the time of their Death By all which Means and by the Frugality and good Management of some and the extravagant Profuseness of Others it comes to pass that some Men's Fortunes are prodigiously increased and others sunk and crumbled into nothing A Prodigal Heir makes all fly and his Posterity continue poor after him A great Fortune marries with a vast Estate and here one Heap is pil'd upon another A rich Heiress carries off the Estate and Paternal Seat incorporates it into another House and so the Wealth and Name of her own Family is either dreadfully maim'd and enfeebl'd or cut off and quite extinct at once These are plain and obvious Reasons why some Men gain such mighty Advantages over Others and shew us how some Families are reduced to nothing and others again flourish as much and are wonderfully strengthen'd and exalted Now all these things should be taken into Consideration and other Measures taken to regulate and reform the Mischiefs that grow from them For tho' a perfect Equality be impracticable yet a convenient Moderation is not And if all be not Even yet there is no necessity that all should be in Extremes we may and it is reasonable we should bring Matters nearer together and make some tolerable Approaches towards such a Mediocrity as is reasonable Such an one as is reasonable I say for an entire and thorough one is neither reasonable nor expedient nor honest This may be effected in some good Degree by private Persons in the management and disposal of their Own Affairs And it may be advanc'd higher by the wholsom Constitutions and Counsels of Those in a publick Capacity And both are concerned to have Regard to it But of this we shall have some occasion to speak more at large when the Virtue of Justice comes to be treated of The End of the First Book OF WISDOM THE Second and Third BOOKS Written Originally in French BY THE Sieur de CHARRON Made English By GEORGE STANHOPE D. D. late Fellow of King's-College in Cambridge from the Best Edition Corrected and enlarg'd by the Author a little before his Death LONDON Printed for M. Gillyflower M. Bently H. Bonwick J. Tonson W. Freeman T. Goodwin M. Wotten J. Walthoe S. Manship and R. Parker 1697. To the HONOURABLE Sir WILLIAM ELLYS BARONET SIR WERE it merely for the Pomp or the Protection of an Honourable Name that I take the Liberty of prefixing Yours before this Work those purposes of doing it had been abundantly answered But I confess an Ambition higher than either of These and design this Address as a means to know a Person more intimately whose Character creates Honour and Respect in all that are acquainted with it An Ambition excuseable at least in One whose Happiness it is to have some sort of Pretension to
himself with the Event of this Engagement and be a thousand times more perplexed and mortified with any ill Success than those very Soldiers who spend their Blood and stake down their Lives in the Service In a word We must learn to understand our selves and our Condition and distinguish aright between our private and personal and our publick Capacities For every one of us is under a double Character and hath two parts to play The one external and visible but somewhat foreign and distant the other domestick and proper and essential to us Now though our Shirt be next to our Skin yet according to the Proverb we should always remember that how near soever our Shirt may be our Skin is still nearer to us A Judicious person will discharge his Duty to the Publick and fill an Office well and yet at the same time will discern the Folly and Wickedness and Cheat which a Publick Station exposes him to the practice of He will not decline the thing because it is agreeable to the Custom and Constitution of his Countrey it is necessary and useful to the Publick and perhaps advantagious to himself He will submit in many things to do as the World does because the Rest of Mankind live at the same rate and since he cannot mend the World it is to no purpose to disturb it by being singular But still he will look upon this as a matter somewhat foreign and consider this Character as adventitious and accidental not natural to him it is what he is obliged to put on and appear in but he was not born with it nor is it a part of him And therefore he will always exercise it with all due Limitations and Reservations and not so embark in Business as to be quite swallowed up in it but manage Matters so that he may still enjoy himself and be free and easy with a particular Friend or at least within his own Breast not so serve the World as to neglect and be out of a Condition to serve himself nor endeavour the Benefit of others at the Expence or Loss of a Good that is truly and properly his own CHAP. III. True and Substantial Integrity of Mind the first and fundamental part of Wisdom THE Directions laid down in the two foregoing Chapters being such Preparations as were thought necessary for disposing aright the person who aspires after Wisdom and qualifying him to make successful progress in it That is By removing the Obstructions and cleaning his Mind of Prejudices and setting it at large from the Slavery and Confinement of Popular Opinions and private Passions and also by advancing to that noble and happy Freedom of Thought and Will already described that from hence as from some advantagious rising ground he may take a full prospect and arrive at a clear and distinct Knowledge and attain to an absolute Mastery over all the Objects and Things that occur to him here below which is the peculiar Character and Privilege of an exalted and resined Soul It may now be seasonable to advance in the Method proposed at our Entrance into this Book by giving some fit Instructions and general Rules of Wisdom The Two First whereof are still in the nature of Prefaces to the Main Work necessary to be laid in the Quality of Foundations upon which to raise this Glorious Superstructure And the Former and Principal of these two designed for the Subject of This Chapter is Probity and Sincerity That true Honesty and Integrity of Heart and Life is the First the Chief the Fundamental Point of True Wisdom is an Assertion which it may perhaps be thought needless for me to give my self any great trouble in proving For in truth all Mankind agree in highly extolling and zealously pretending to it though it is but too manifest that what some do in this kind seriously and out of Conscientious regard to their Duty and the real Worth of this Virtue others put on only to set the best face upon the matter and are compelled to dissemble from Shame and Fear and the Ill-consequences of avowing the contrary Thus far then the whole World is agreed that Honesty is recommended and respected and at least complimented every Man professes to be passionately in love with it and subscribes himself its most Faithful most Affectionate and most Devoted Servant So that I may spare my self the pains of arguing in behalf of the Thing in general but I am afraid notwithstanding it will prove no such easy matter to make Men agree with the Notions of that which in my esteem is the True and Essential Honesty and to persuade the as universal Love but especially the universal practice of That which I think necessary upon this occasion For as to That which is in common vogue and usually reputed such though the World I know are generally satisfied and trouble themselves so little about understanding or attaining to any thing better that except a very few Wise Men they have no Ideas no Wishes beyond this yet I make no difficulty to affirm that it is all but a spurious and counterfeit Virtue Sham and Trick and the product of Art and Study Falshood and Disguise Now first of all We cannot but be sensible False Appcarances of it that Men are very often drawn on and pusht forward to good Actions by several sorts of Motives Sometimes such as are by no means commendable As Natural Defects and Infirmities Passion and Fancy nay sometimes by Vice and Things in their own Nature Sinful Thus Chastity and Sobriety and Temperance of all sorts may be and often are owing to a weak Body and tender Constitution which cannot support Excess Contempt of Death to Peevishness and Discontent Patience under Misfortunes Resolution and Presence of Thought in Dangers to Want of Apprehension and Judgment and a due sense how great or imminent the Danger is Valour and Liberality and Justice are often inspired and practised by Ambition and Vain-glory the Effects of good Conduct discreet Management of Fear and Shame and Avarice And what a World of renowned and noble Exploits have been owing to Presumption and Foolhardiness Rashness and Inconsideration Thus what we commonly call Actions and Instances of Virtue are in reality no better than Masks and counterfeit Appearances of it They have the Air and the Complexion but by no means the Substance of it So much resemblance there is that the Vulgar who are no Criticks in Faces may easily mistake the one for the other and so much of good there is in the Effects and Consequences of such Actions that other people may be allowed to call them Virtuous but it is impossible the person himself who does them should esteem them such or that any considering Man can either allow them this Character when nicely examined or think one jot the better of the Man that does them For Interest or Honour or Reputation or Custom and Compliance or some other Causes altogether foreign to Virtue will be found
Occasion practised upon foreign and distant Considerations acting by sudden starts and short spurts with Clamour and Noise with Hurry and Clutter with Ostentation and Vainglory And from hence we are led to the true meaning of all those Glorious things which Philosophers and Wise Men in all Ages have said of Nature For what Doctrines are more common in the mouths of every one of them than these * Naturam si sequaris Ducem nusquam aberrabis Bonum est quod secundùm Naturam Omnia Vitia contra Naturam sunt That the way for a Man to live well is to live agreeably to Nature That a perfect Conformity with Nature is the Supreme Good the most exquisite Happiness Mankind are capable of That if we make Nature our Mistress and Guide and constantly follow the Directions she gives we shall never go amiss By all which it is plain that Nature is set to signify that Universal Reason and Equity which is given for a Light to our Minds and is both of that vast comprehension as to contain under it the Seeds of all kind of Virtue Probity and Justice The Common Parent that gives Birth to all wholsome and good Laws all just and Equitable Judgments that ever were or will be given and also of that Clearness and Perspicuity too that Men of the meanest Capacity and Attainments might determine themselves and be conducted by it Whatever scandalous or disparaging Reflections some may asperse Nature with or how great a part of them soever this Corrupted State of it may deserve yet there is no doubt to be made if we look back to their Original and primitive Constitution but all things were created and disposed in the best Order and Condition they were capable of and had their first Motions toward Good infused and interwoven with their Being and strong Tendencies to the End they ought to aspire after This was the Work and Wisdom of Nature and from hence it is that no Man who follows and obeys her Dictates can ever fail of obtaining and enjoying the End and true Happiness proper to his Species For after all Men are naturally and originally Good and when they follow Evil they forsake Nature and are seduced by the false Allurements of Profit or of Pleasure And because These are the two governing Motives and such as will be sure to bear a powerful Sway in the World therefore the Makers of Laws have always found it necessary to propose two contrary Objects that is Reward and Punishment to the Persons whose Obedience they would engage And the Design of These is by no means to put a Violence upon their Wills and so constrain them to act against natural Inclination as some weakly imagine but it is in truth to * Sapientia est in Naturam converti ea restitui unde publicus Error expulerit Ab illâ non deerrare ad illius Legem Exemplumque formari sapientia est reduce them to better sense and bring them back to that which is not only the best but was the first and most natural Inclination of their Minds till perverted by wicked and deceitful Appearances of Counterfeit Good Nature without all Controversy is a sufficient Guide a gentle Mistress capable of instructing every one of us in all the Branches of our Duty provided we would but be as careful to hearken to its Admonitions to exert and keep it awake and active There is no need for Us to beg or to borrow from Art and Learning those Means and Remedies and Rules which are necessary for the good Government of our selves for each of us can subsist and live by himself his own proper Stock is sufficient to maintain him A Happy and a Contented Life is indeed what every one does and should aim at but these are Blessings by no means entailed upon Learning or Parts or Greatness or Honour a Man may attain them and never see the face of a Court or a City There is a Proportion common and natural to all which is enough for this purpose and All beyond that however valuable as additional Advantages are yet by no means necessary we can do very well without them and which is worse we are so far from doing very well upon their account that they do but increase our Troubles and our Difficulties and do us more Hurt than Good How many plain and ignorant and mean Men do we see that live with more sensible Pleasure and Satisfaction more sedate and undisturbed both in their Minds and Fortunes and upon occasion can meet and encounter Poverty or Pain Danger or Death with a better Grace and greater Composure than the most Learned and celebrated Philosophers And if one take the pains to observe it nicely you will find more frequent Instances more eminent Patterns of Patience and Constancy and Evenness of Temper among plain Countrey People and those of mean Condition than all the Schools can boast of These are simple and unaffected they go on where Nature leads are influenced by the Reasons she suggests and the Impressions she makes without creating new and imaginary Troubles They feel no more than is to be felt and use no Art and Industry to torment themselves Their Passions are low and quiet and smooth in comparison of Theirs who take pains to rufflle them and esteem it a piece of Bravery to indulge and blow them up and so they go on in all their Affairs more calmly and considerately without Heat or Disorder whereas others look big and bluster do every thing with Pomp and Hurry are in perpetual Agitation and Alarm and keep themselves and all Mankind awake One of the greatest Masters and most exquisite Improvers of Nature was Socrates as Aristotle was proportionably Eminent for Art and Learning Each of these in their respective Province was wonderful but it is observable that Socrates took a plain and natural way insinuated himself by vulgar Arguments familiar Similitudes an easy Style and by talking as a downright Countrey Fellow or a good discreet Woman would have done did not only suit himself better to the Capacities of Men but laid down such useful Precepts and Rules of a Virtuous Life such powerful Antidotes against all manner of Sufferings and Accidents that the Strength and Vigor of them was never yet improved nor the Success exceeded shall I say No not so much as matched or any thing like it invented by all the Study and Acquired Learning in the World But alas we are so far from trusting to the Guidance of Nature that we never so much as give it the Hearing The Violence put upon it and the intractable Temper of Vice and Extravagance of unruly Appetites perverse Dispositions and depraved Wills which are eternally striving to choak and suppress nay quite to deface and utterly to extinguish as much as in them lies the Light within that mortify and kill the very seeds of Virtue these are too gross to come within the present Account My Complaint is
Title indisputable to shew for it for nothing can be more palpably false than that either of these Two does All and the other Nothing Perhaps indeed Matters would go better if it were not thus and Men have reason to wish That the whole Authority were vested in one of them singly For then we should know what to trust to Then our Task would be easy because all our Thought and Diligence would be fixed and determined to one Object whereas now we float between both the Distraction of the Mind renders our Attempts infinitely laborious and full of hazard and we can very hardly attend to both and bring them friendly to conspire together Daily Experience proves this Truth to us for usually those who are very much taken up with the One disregard and perfectly despise the Other Thus the Young and Sanguine the Forward and Daring Men keep Fortune in their Eye and lay the main stress there as you see plainly by their large Hopes and the mighty Successes they promise themselves in every Undertaking And Fortune often rewards this Respect they pay her and declares them her Favourites by the many Prodigious and most Surprizing things wrought by them On the Other hand Men in Years whose Blood is cold and heavy and They consequently calm and slow place all their Expectations in Industry And it cannot be denied but These act the more reasonably of the Two If a Man were disposed to compare them both together and observe what can be alledg'd to determine his Choice on either side we may state the Matter very fairly Thus. He that depends upon Industry takes the Safest Side the more Virtuous and the more Reputable For admit that Fortune run counter and spightfully defeat all his Diligence yet is there still this Satisfaction left that he hath made no false Steps that he suffered in his proper Post doing his Duty and that he hath acquitted himself as became a Wife and an Honest Man Those that take the other course are in great danger of waiting and hoping in vain But if all should succeed to their hearts desire yet still this is none of Their doing nor is there really any Credit or Commendation due to them for it But indeed Wisdom takes a middle Course she advises no Man entirely to devote himself to either of these and though One may be preferred yet not to that degree as to bring the Other into absolute Neglect and Contempt For since Neither can be excluded from our Affairs it is fit we should allow Both a place in our Regard and indeed they are often beholding to one another and an observing Man will easily discern a great deal of Mutual Assistance and a very good Understanding between them We must take care then to discharge our part to Both but Both do not challenge our Respects alike For the Preference is abundantly on the side of Industry for according to that old Motto * Virtute duce comite Fortunà Virtue should lead and Fortune go along with us There is yet one necessary Caution behind which is In all our Behaviour to act with Discretion For This seasons every Action and gives it an agreeable Relish Now Discretion is not any One Particular Quality but a Large and Comprehensive Virtue that mingles with every part of our Duty Indiscretion spoils all and the very best Actions if tainted with it lose all their Beauty and Commendation If a Man design an Act of Beneficence or Charity This is necessary to direct it for neither all Kindnesses are fit to be done nor all sorts of Persons fit to receive them If a Man would vindicate or excuse himself he must do it discreetly for there are some ways of Apologizing which in effect are Bills of Indictment against one's Self and increase the Suspicion instead of clearing our Innocence If a Man would pay Civilities and appear courteous and well-bred he must distinguish and moderate himself here too otherwise he will run into the Excess of Foppery and Affectation or degenerate into Clownish Rudeness and the same may be said of Offering or Accepting or any other Instance of Courtesy and Conversation or indeed of Virtue in general for without this Prudence and discreet Managery even Virtue and the best Intentions can never recommend nay can scarce justify themselves to the Spectators CHAP. XI The Fruits or Good Effects of Wisdom The First Living in a constant Readiness for Death THE Day of our Death is the Principal and most Important of any that belongs to us The Day of Death That which gives the finishing Stroke and fixes the Character upon all the rest for indeed all the Actions of our whole Life must be submitted to this Test This is most truly what we commonly call it The Great Trial The Essay that distinguishes our Alloy and True Standard and it is in the good Success of this Trial that we are to expect the greatest Fruit of all our Studies In order to make a true Judgment of Life we must of necessity inform our selves what sort of Conclusion it hath For the End compleats and crowns the Work and as a Good Death is an Honour to our whole Life so an Ill one casts back Infamy and sullies all that went before You can never give a Just Character of the Player till his Part be at End and the Case of Common Life is so far the same that the Management of the Last Act is incomparably the most difficult of any that belongs to either of them Epaminondas one of the Bravest Men that ever Greece bred when his Opinion was asked To which of the Three he thought the Preference due Chabrias Iphicrates or Himself made answer That this was a Question incapable of being resolved For says he the Man that would determine justly of such a Competition for Honour must stay till he hath seen how we all Three dye The Reason is evident because every other Action of a Man's Life is capable of Hypocrisy and Dissimulation but in this Last Scene alone All is Natural and no room left for Counterfeit or Disguise * Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo Ejiciuntur eripitur Persona manet Res. Lucret. Lib. 3. For then Mens Words will with their Thoughts agree And all the Mask pull'd off shew what they be Creech Fortune in truth seems to way-lay us here to drive us upon this as her last Reserve to make the utmost Effort upon our Virtue and in one moment overturn all that Character and Credit which we have for many Years with infinite Toil and Anxiety been setting up Oh what a Triumph it would be then to make a Man expire with Laberius his Exclamation †Nimirum hâc die unâ plus vixi mihi quà m vivendum fuit I have lived this one day more than it was for my Honour and Advantage to have lived So truly as well as wisely so every way worthy of Solon was
eagerly greedily embrace Death and upon every little Pett take Sanctuary here without any manner of Judgment or Distinction how far the Provocation ought to carry them We must therefore upon second Thoughts confess that this Mixture is made with Discretion sit to preserve us in a due Moderation so as neither to be fond of Life nor peevishly weary of it and so again as neither to be afraid of Death nor to court and hasten to it both the One and the Other are tempered with Sweet and allayed with Bitter enough of the One to recommend and make it Tolerable and so much of the Other too as will keep it from being the Object of any Passion in Extremes So necessary are the Ingredients so just the Proportions so skilful and withal so tender of our Good the Hand that mingled them Now the Remedy which the Vulgar prescribe against the Fears I have been condemning is much too dull and stupid For They advise a Man to banish all Uneasinesses of this kind by striving to forget the Occasion of them and drawing off the Mind to something else 'T is upon this Account that you find them always bid their Friends never Think of Death and can by no means bear to hear it Named But sure This is for many Reasons a very improper Prescription For in the first place such an odd careless Temper as This is somewhat so contrary to a Man of Parts and Judgment somewhat so like a State of Thoughtlessness and Insensibility that none but the Ignorant and the Heavy seem capable of the Medicine Application and Good Sense cannot Doze away a Life at this rate But if every Body could bear the Physick yet what Operation what good Effect is to be expected from it where would all this End at last and what a miserable Account should we find when we come to the upshot and feel how dear this Course hath cost us For do but imagine the Condition of a Man surprized by Death the Tears the Agonies the Groans and Lamentations the Rage the Despair in a word the inexpressible Confusion of being seized all on the sudden by a Merciless Invincible and Unseen Enemy These are such dreadful Circumstances that Wisdom sure gives much safer and better Advice in directing Men to stand their Ground to face their Enemy to observe his Approaches and provide for the Combat Nay rather indeed to encounter him perpetually by following a Method the direct contrary to That of the Vulgar which is by fixing their Eyes and Thoughts steadily upon Death to converse and grow intimately acquainted with it to render it gentle and tame by Familiarity and long Use To carry the Idea and the strongest Representations of it that we can possibly form constantly about with us To harden our selves in the Expectation of it and that not only in Times of Sickness and Danger where we have reason to suspect our Selves but in our most confirmed Health in the midst of what we call Safety Death should not be the Companion of our black and sullen and melancholy Hours only but of our greatest Gaieties best Humour and most solemn Entertainments and Delights The Sawce to every Dish the Burden to every Song should be this Reflection That we are always in danger set as fair Marks and that Death is aiming at us That several others have been snatched away who thought themselves as far out of the reach of his Dart as we can suppose our selves to be now in the heighth of all our Jollity That an Accident which happen'd at One Time or to One Person may as well happen to Another And thus we are advised by the Wisest Men to check our Pleasures and abate our blind Security by imitating as well as supplying by These never unseasonable Meditations that Ancient Custom of the Egyptians who at their Feasts served up a Death's-head and that of Christians and other Persuasions too who contrive that their Burying-places shall join to their Temples or be in some other Parts the most conspicuous and frequented of any The Original whereof seems to have been That these Publick Monuments might awaken Men's Minds and preserve the Reflections and Remembrances of Death always fresh and vigorous Where Death awaits us is very uncertain and therefore we should expect to meet it every where and every moment and make such constant and sure Provision against its coming that let it steal upon us never so Cunningly never so Suddenly it may sind us always in readiness This is no such mortifying Exercise as some fondly imagine quite otherwise it rather sweetens Life and recommends its Enjoyments by setting us above the Fears and Disappointments and amazing Terrors which Worldly and Sensual Men feel and labour under It abates our Losses by foreseeing and preparing for them and it doubles our Advantages by looking upon them as Clear Gains and adding a pleasing sort of Surprize to the Fruition Thus the Poet very justly hath observed to his Friend * Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur Hora. Hor. Lib. 1. Ep. 4. While ' midst strong Hopes and Fears thy Time doth waste Think every Rising Sun will be thy last And so the grateful unexpected Hour Of Life prolong'd when come will please thee more Creech But that we may not be thought guilty of Injustice in condemning People unheard let us examine a little into the Grievances they complain of and the Excuses they make for themselves upon this occasion and then it will appear how frivolous and foolish all the Apologies are by which they would palliate their Fears and put some specious Colour upon their Melancholy Apprehensions And here you may observe throughout that Men are generally ashamed to own their being afraid to dye simply considered and therefore they bethink themselves of some sad aggravating Circumstance or other by which they hope to justify their uneasy Dread for themselves or their inordinate Grief for their Friends who have been taken from them The First of these is Dying Young and This they think a very lamentable Case for what Reflection can be more disturbing than that Death should snatch them rudely before their Time that he should crop this lovely Fruit while green and in the Bud and now down the Glory of the Field before it was ripe for the Sickle This indeed is a Complaint most usual and most becoming Mean and Vulgar Souls who measure every thing by the Length and count nothing valuable but that which lasts a great while Whereas on the Contrary we find that Things rare and excellent and exquisite in their kind are generally the most fine and subtle and subject to Dissolution and Decay 'T is esteemed a Master-piece in Art to contract a great deal into a narrow room and God and Nature have so far taken the same Method in their choicest Pieces that a Man would almost think it a Fate upon Extraordinary Persons to be short-liv'd Eminent
never fear it All Your Care without His Blessing is Vain and of no Significance while you Live but though His Assistance be necessary to You Yours is not in any degree so to Him He will feel no Difficulty at all in Sustaining These Orphans when You are taken from Them Every Condition and all Times are equal to Omnipotence And if You cannot question His Power Have You any pretence to doubt His Disposition You have daily Experience of This They Subsist by His Bounty even now His Bowels are not less Tender than Yours and as He is more truly and properly so is he a more Infinitely more Affectionate Father to Them than Your self are It is most absurd to think that You can either Do or Wish better for Them than He. Nay if upon any other Consideration such an Imagination could be endured yet even common Experience contradicts it Do but observe the Circumstances of such as seem to be left entirely upon Providence destitute of all Human Advantages and you shall sind more thriving Men in the World more that have been raised to great Honours and eminent Posts and plentiful Fortunes who have had nothing but His Favour and their Own Industry to depend upon than Others who begun upon good Funds and thought They might reasonably promise Themselves much greater Success So particularly so visibly is He the Father of the Fatherless But it may be you are afraid to venture into this dark Place all alone Never trouble your self you need not fear a Solitary Journey That Road is always very full of Company There are abundance of Men that Dye when you do nay more than you can imagine set out the very same Hour with You. To be short You are going to a place where you shall be sure never to grudge at the Loss of this Life For what room what pretence can there be for any such Discontent If a Man who hath felt all the Troubles of Life had it in his Choice whether he would live the same over again without all Controversy he would refuse it And if before one is first called into Being he could See and Know what he is going about he would rather chuse to sleep still in Non-entity * Vitam nemo acciperet si daretur Scientibus Were People throughly acquainted with the Conditions and Incumbrances of Living no body says a Wise-man would accept Life upon those Terms What ground of Dissatisfaction then can occur to Them who have felt and suffered under These What Temptation can They have to wish a Second Torment or to repine that Their First was not of a longer Continuance The Old Philosophers fixed upon this Argument for Comfort and thought it an irrefragable one Either we are Nothing at all after Death or we are in a much better State than at Present and Either way we have Reason to be well Content to Dye because Either way Death puts an End to all our Suffering and Pain There is I confess a great Alteration in the Case when we come to consider the matter as Christians because thus we are assured that there is a State infinitely Worse than the most exquisite and most durable Miseries of this Life But then This is what we have fair warning of and may avoid if we please A Christian who Lives as he ought is better fortified with Arguments against the Fear of Death than any Other Person can be And They who will not Live so have no reason to repine for even thus the shorter the Life the less Measure of Their Iniquities and the Damn'd Themselves would not wish to Live again but upon a supposition that they should Live better than before But be that State to which Death turns such Men over never so dreadful yet since this is a Misery of their own making it comes not within the compass of our present Argument which only undertakes to shew That Death hath nothing formidable so far as Nature and Providence are concerned in it And That comes to thus much and no more You came out of Death that is out of a State of Insensibility into Life a Scene of Business and Action and this you did without any Horror or Passion or the least Disorder You are now going back again into the Former Condition of Sleep and Inactivity Travel then the way you came with the same unconcernedness you did before For after all * Reverti unde veneris quid grave est What mighty Calamity can it be to return from whence you came and where you lay hid for many Ages It may be the Gastliness of Death affrights you because Dying Persons make but a very ill Figure 'T is true You see their Countenance discomposed their Features distorted with Convulsions and all their Body struggling and labouring under Agonies and Pains But all This is only that ugly Vizor which as I said before Death puts on to scare us it is not Death it self in its own Natural Visage for That hath nothing of Horror or Deformity but is all Quietness and Composure We send our Senses and Passions out to discover this unknown Land and They like cowardly Spies bring us an ill Report of the Countrey They never penetrated far enough to get true Intelligence they speak nothing of their own Knowledge but make a Report only from the common Rumour of Ignorant People and their own Fears But it snatches so many things away from Us or rather it takes us away from Them nay takes us away from our Selves removes us from all that we have been so long acquainted with and accustomed to and puts us in a State of Darkness and Horror such as we have no knowledge of and from this Condition of Light shuts us up in Eternal Night In a word It is our End the Ruin the Dissolution of our Persons These are the cutting Considerations which Men aggravate to Themselves and magnify the terrible Ideas To all which we may return a sufficient Answer in one word by saying That Death being the necessary Law and Condition of Human Nature from which there is no possibility of an Escape as will be shewn hereafter it is to no purpose to dispute or create these Uneasinesses to our own Minds and wretchedly foolish to torment our selves with Fears of a Thing which there is no getting quit of Things that are doubtful and contingent may be a proper Object of Fear but for those that are fixed and irreversible we have nothing to do but to sit down and expect and prepare to meet them But waving That I rather chuse to observe at present how extremely mistaken these Men are in their Account For the Matter is in very Truth the direct Reverse of all the terrible Representations these Persons form to themselves For Death instead of taking away from us all that is valuable and dear puts into our Possession all we are capable of receiving Instead of taking us from our Selves it enlarges us from our Confinement
and restores our Souls to perfect Liberty and true Enjoyment Instead of locking us up in the dark it sets us in the clearest and brightest Light and serves us as we use to deal by the best Fruits when we take off the Skin or Shell or other Covering that so we may see and use them and taste their Natural Excellence It removes us out of a streight inconvenient Dwelling from a Dark and Rheumatick and Diseased Place where we can see but a very little Spot of Heaven and only receive Light by Reflection and at a vast distance through Two little Holes of our Eyes into a Region of absolute Liberty confirmed and uninterrupted Health perpetual and incessant Light a Sun that never sets and Endless Day without any gloomy Intervals * Aequaliter tibi splendebit omne Coeli latus Totam lucem suo loco prope totus aspicies quam nunc per angustissimas ocuâ—orum Vias procul intueris miraris A Place where our Faculties shall be enlarged and all Heaven will display it self to us where we shall not only see Light but dwell with it in its own proper Sphere In a word It delivers us from the very Thing we dread most by making us Immortal and putting a sinal and full Conclusion to that Death which took place from the Instant we came into the World and was finished at our Passage into Eternity †Dies iste quem tanquam extremum reformidas aeterni natalis est For the Day we have such dreadful Apprehensions of as if it were to be our Last is really our First the joyful Birthday into a Life which can never have an End We come now to consider the Second Sort of Resentment which Men are affected with upon the account of Death which is Waiting for and entertaining it with contented and chearful Minds when it comes This is indeed the Quality of a Good a Gentle and well-governed Spirit and the Practice of it is peculiar to a plain easy way of living and to Persons who as they make the best of Life and enjoy the Quiet of it so know very well how to esteem it as it deserves but still they make Reason the Standard of all their Affections and Actions and as they are well satisfied to stay here so they readily obey when Providence thinks fit to call them out of the World This is a Medium very justly tempered a Masterly Greatness of Soul and such an Indifference to all here below as a Life of Retirement and Peace seems best qualified for and the Two Extremes between which it lies are Desiring and Dreading Courting and Running away from Death accoring to that of the Poet * Summum nec metuas diem nec optes With Courage firm and Soul sedate Attend the Motions of thy Fate And whether Death be far or near Live free from eager Wish and anxious Fear Now these Extremes except there be some very particular and uncommon Reason to give them countenance are both of them Vicious and exceeding blameable and when I come hereafter to speak of this Matter in its proper place you will see that nothing less than a very extraordinary Cause can render them so much as excusable To desire and pursue Death is very criminal for it is very unjust to throw away one's Life without a sufficient Reason it is spightful to the World and injurious to our Friends to grudge them the longer Use and Continuance of a thing which may be serviceable to them It is the blackest Ingratitude to God and Nature thus to slight and throw back again the best and most valuable Present they can make us as if it were a Trifle or a Burden not worth our keeping It savours too much of Peevishness and Pride and shews us humoursome and difficult when we cannot be easy and bear the Lot that falls to our share but will needs quit our hands of the Station God hath called us to when there is nothing extraordinary to render it cumbersome And on the other hand to fear and flee Death when summoned to it is an Offence against Nature Justice Reason and every Branch of our Duty since Dying is Natural Necessary and Unavoidable Reasonable and Just First It is Natural Dying is Natural it is a part of that Great Scheme by which the Order of the Universe is established and maintained and the whole World lives and subsists And who are We that all this Regularity should be broken and a new System contrived in Our Favour Death is really one of the Principal and most Material Articles in the Constitution and Administration of this vast Republick and of infinite Use and Advantage it is for determining the Continuance and promoting a Constant Succession of the Works of Nature The Failure of Life in One Instance propagates it afresh in a Thousand others * Sic Rerum Summa novatur Thus Life and Death successive keep their round Things dye to live and by decays abound But which comes nearer home Death is not only a part of this Great Complex and Universal Nature but of thy Own Nature in particular and That every whit as essential a part as that Birth which gave Thee Life So that in cherishing an Aversion and running away from This thou attemptest to flee from thy own self Thy Being is divided equally between Death and Life These are the Two Proprietors and each claims a share and hath an indefeasible Right in every one of us These are the Terms upon which Thou wer't created and Life was given with a Purpose and upon Condition of being taken away rather indeed it was only lent and like all other Trusts or Debts must be demanded back and may be called in at pleasure If then the Thoughts of Dying discontent Thee consider that the Hardship does not lye here but carry thy Reflections higher and be concerned that ever thou wast born For either there is no cause of Repining in either case or else the Ground of all the Complaint lies in having lived at all You had Neighbours Fare and purchased Life at the Market Price which is The laying it down again no body hath it cheaper and therefore they who do not like the Bargain and are loth to go out again should have refused at first and never come into the World at all But this is what Men were they capable of such a Choice would never do if their Fondness of Life be so excessively great The First Breath you drew bound you fast and all the Advances you made toward a more perfect Life were so many Steps toward Death at the same time †Nascentes morimur finisque ab origine pendet Asson as born we dye and our Live's End Upon its first Beginning does depend Manil. Ast 4. To be concerned then that we must Dye is to be concerned that we are Men for every one that is so is Mortal And upon the strength of this Impression it
and Perseverance All the Free and Bold Determinations by which Virtue hath expressed her self the Noble and Admired Sentences uttered by Celebrated Persons when reduced to extremity of Danger and Distress Such as shine in Story give lasting Characters to their Authors and transport the Reader with Wonder and Delight a very few of which because they now occur to my Mind I take the Liberty to insert here Helvidius Priscus having received a Message from the Emperor Vespasian not to appear in the Senate or if he came strictly prohibiting him to interpose his Opinion in a Debate which was to be moved there sent back word That his Character of a Senator required his Attendance and he should not refuse his Summons neither should he when There balk any thing that became him but if called upon to give his Judgment would discharge his Conscience and deliver his Sense of the Case freely and without Fear or Reserve The Emperor provoked with what he thought Insolence in this Reply sent a Second Message threatning to put him to Death if he opened his Mouth To which he returned thus Sir said he Did I ever tell the Emperor that I was Immortal His Majesty I suppose will do his Pleasure and I will take care to do my Duty It is in His Power to put me to Death Unjustly but it is in my Own to Dye Virtuously and Gallantly The Lacedemonians when Philip of Macedon Father of Alexander the Great had entred their Country with his Army received a terrible Message from him Threatning what Severity he would use them with if they did not court his Friendship and send to make Terms with him To which one Brisk Fellow Answered in behalf of the whole Republick What Harm can those Men suffer who are not afraid of Death And upon another Dispatch from Philip telling them That he would break all their Measures and prevent the Designs they had formed in their own Defence The Answer was How Sir what break all our Measures No Sure you will not pretend to hinder us from Dying This is a Project which you cannot Defeat Another when his Opinion was asked What course a Man could take to live Free and Easy resolved the Doubt thus That all other Methods were ineffectual except that One of Despising Death We read of a Young Boy who was taken Captive and Sold for a Slave and in Discourse with his Patron who had Bought him Sir says he You shall now see what a purchase you have I should certainly be much to blame and guilty of great Folly should I submit to Live in Slavery when my Liberty is in my own Disposal and I can retrieve it when I please And with that he threw Himself down from the House top and was dashed to pieces While a Person was deliberating with himself in deep perplexity of Thought whether he should quit this Life or not accept that Deliverance but be content to tug on still under the weight of a very heavy Calamity which then oppressed him A Wise Man told him That in His Judgment the Matter under Debate was very small and inconsiderable For What is it says he to Live Thy Slaves nay thy Beasts and Cattel Live but to Dye like a Man of Honour and Integrity and Wisdom to leave the World with remarkable Constancy and Courage This indeed is a thing of moment and worth Studying for To conclude this Argument and to crown it with the most complete and substantial Consideration that can possibly belong to it Our most Holy Religion owes more of its Success in the World and more of its Effect upon Men's Hearts and Lives to this single Principle of getting above the Fear of Death than to any other Human Foundation whatsoever No Man can be an excellently Good Christian who is not Resolute and Brave and upon this Account we find that our Great Master who best understood the Temper of his own Gospel does insist upon taking up the Cross Hating and Despising Life for his sake not Fearing Men who can only destroy the Body and the like which are but other Expressions for the Contempt of Death These he insists upon I say as frequently as earnestly as upon any other Duty or Article of Religion whatsoever Now we must understand That there are many Counterfeits and False Pretences to Bravery upon this Occasion a great many People who look big upon the matter and would fain persuade the World nay perhaps are persuaded Themselves That they Despise Death and yet are in truth afraid of it Thus several People will tell you They do not value Life They would be content nay glad to leave the World but the Ceremony and Process of Dying is what They cannot away with Others again while in perfect soundness of Health and Judgment can think of Death without any Impressions of Horror nay have as They imagine settled their Minds so as to bear the Shock of it Firm and Unmoved and Some have gone farther yet and resolved to make it their Choice their own Act and Deed. This is a Farce very often played insomuch that the Soft the Luxurious Heliogabalus himself had a Part in it and made Sumptuous Preparations that his Death might be as Pompous and Expensive as his Life had been But when These Mighty Men of Valour have come to the Push their Hearts have failed and either Courage was wanting to give the Blow or they have repented of such Hardiness for Rash Heat and Folly as Lucius Domitius particularly who after he had Poysoned himself was sorry for what he had done and would fain have Lived when it was too late Others turn away their Heads draw their Cap over their Eyes and dare not look Death in the Face They think of it as little as they can steal upon it and plunge in all on the sudden They swallow it down like unpalatable Physick and hasten to get to the End of that bitter Potion which goes against their Stomach To this purpose is that saying of Caesar That the Shortest Death is the Best and that of Pliny That a Sudden and Speedy Dispatch is the greatest good Fortune that can happen to Man in this Stateof Mortality Now no Man can truly be said to have Resolution and Courage such as is above the Fear of Death who is afraid of facing and coming up to it who dares not meet and undergo it with his Eyes open and his Thoughts and Senses about him Thus we know several have done and therefore this is no Romantick Excellence above the Power or Capacity of Human Nature Thus did Socrates particularly who had Thirty days time to chew the Cud and digest the Sentence pronounced against him and yet after all this Foresight and Consideration Dyed without the least Disorder or Passion without any Change in Countenance or Temper without any struggle or sign of Reluctancy in the most Calm Composed Chearful manner that you at any other time can suppose a Man in Thus
did Pomponius Atticus and Tullius Marcellinus those Two Gallant Romans and Cleanthes the Philosopher who Dyed all Three almost alike For resolving to Fast Themselves to Death that so they might get rid of a very painful Distemper that had made Life a Burthen and finding their Abstinence to prove the Best Physick and instead of Killing them to Cure their Disease They would not desist even upon this Recovery but Finished their Design and took great Satisfaction in Observing the gradual Decays of Nature and by what Steps and Methods Death gained ground upon them Among These Fearless Men we may reckon Otho and Cato too who after resolving to Kill Themselves and all necessary Preparations made in order to it just as they were going to put their Design in Execution took a sound sleep Thus preserving their Spirits from any Disorder or Confusion which the Prospect of Approaching Death was no more able to cast them into than any trifling little Accident in Human Life would Discompose a Man of Temper and Judgment The Fourth Quality is the Affection of a Great and Generous a Firm and Resolute Mind Desire of Death which hath been often and with general Approbation practised by Persons of unquestionable Magnanimity and eminent Piety But then they have restrained this commendable Desire of Death to Two particular Cases The First of These which seems most agreeable to Nature and upon that account may justify such a Desire is a Life of extreme Calamity and Distress of perpetual Uneasiness and exquisite Pain Or an Apprehension of some Death more Scandalous more Torturing more Insupportable than That which at present they should undergo In a word a Condition so Deplorable that there is no place left for Hope no possibility of Remedy or Redress Then Death is desired as a sure Retreat and quiet Harbour from the Waves and Storms of a troublesome Life the Best and most effectual Relief for weary and wasted Nature the only Refuge and Support of Slaves harassed and ill Treated and as the Case then stands the supreme Happiness a Man is capable of It is I own an Argument of Weakness and Littleness of Soul to sink under Misfortunes but it is as sure an Instance of Folly to cherish and be fond of them And in my poor Judgment it is high time to Dye when all Circumstances fairly computed there is a great deal more Evil than Good in Living For as throwing away one's Life rashly and inconsiderately is against Nature so likewise is the taking pains to Preserve it to our own Loss and chusing to Live in Misery and Torment When therefore Providence hath reduced us to such a lamentable Condition as This God will not sure be Angry that we wish a Release Some Persons have run the Point so high as to tell you That Men ought to Dye to avoid the Pleasures and Temptations which are highly agreeable to Nature And if so how much stronger and more cogent are the Reasons for avoiding Pain and Grief this way which are of all things in the World the most contrary to Nature There are in all Appearance several Incidents in Life worse and much more formidable than Death Such as a Man had better Dye than continue under many Circumstances in which if it were left to any Wise Man's Choice he would infinitely rather quit the World than stay longer in it So far is Life it self from being a sufficient Compensation for all the Evils possible to be endured in it Hence it was that when Antipater threaten'd a great many terrible things and severe Revenge upon the Lacedemonians Refusal if they did not submit presently and comply with the Terms he sent them They replied That he did not yet drive them to absolute Necessity for if the Sufferings he threatned were worse than Death they would chuse That as the more desirable of the Two And it is a Saying usual with the Philosophers That a Wise and a Good Man lives as long as it is fit he should and not as long as possibly he can Which is the Care of those only who sacrifice their Virtue their Reputation their every Thing that is most valuable and dear to lengthen out their Term and gain though it be but a little Respit from Death Again Death is much more at Command and in our Disposal than Life is or can be There is but One Passage into the World and our Entrance into it must be assisted by the Will of Others Our Ways out again are Infinite and our Departure hence needs no Consent but our Own And the more chearful and contented we are at our leaving it the more becoming and reputable is our Exit We may want Lands and Revenues sufficient to maintain us while Living but no Man can want enough to receive him when Dead This is a Freehold which neither Poverty nor Prodigality can alienate No Man is so despicable but he may have the Life of any other Man at his Mercy no Place so secure none so strong as to be inaccessible to Death for as the Tragedian observes most truly * Ubique Mors est optimè hoe cavit Deus Eripere Vitam nemo non homini potest At Nemo Mortem Mille ad hanc Aditus patent Senee Thebais Acts. 1. Through all the spacious Tracts of Air Seas Land Death Omnipresent Death is still at hand The numerous Ills that wretched Mortals wait Kind Heaven with Pity saw and did create This always near this ever sure Retreat Courage and Strength Wisdom and Virtue All To Vice and Cowardice a Prey may fall The Base and Weak may take our Life away The Strongest can't detain or force its Stay The Privilege of Escape none can refuse Death hath Ten thousand plain and easy Avenues The most valuable Present that Nature hath made us and That which really renders all the Complaints we utter in our melancholy Moods without Excuse is the Trusting us with the Outlets of Life and leaving the Keys in our own hands Why then Vain Man dost thou find fault with the World It detains Thee not If thou livest in Uneasiness thank thy self thy own Cowardice is to blame for it For he that hath but the Resolution to Dye needs no more to set him free and perfect his Deliverance The Second Case wherein the Desire of Death is most practicable and most commendable is purely Religious when Men have entertained such strong and lively Apprehensions and those Apprehensions have kindled such eager Wishes of a Future State that Death is longed for with great Impatience because This is look'd upon as a Gain and mighty Advantage the Seed from whence a Rich Crop shall spring up to a better Life the Passage to the Seats of Bliss and Inlet to Full and Perfect Happiness the Storehouse where We and all our Earthly Treasures are safely deposited to be produced with vast Improvement at the Resurrection These are Things of that Moment and Infinite Value to us that a firm
Belief and stedfast Hope of them is very hardly consistent with the Fear and Loathness to dye For sure if this Principle were pursued through all its Consequences the Effect must needs be to make us dissatisfied with Life and weary of being confined here so long and at so great a distance from our Happiness Life upon these Terms should be barely supportable but Death our Choice and the Object of our Love and Desire To such Men Living must needs be a Toil and a Burden and Death an Ease and Refreshment after much Suffering and hard Labour St. Paul's Declarations and Wishes would then be in the Hearts and Mouths of all Good Men. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. i. Rom. vii which is far better To me to dye is Gain And Oh wretched Man who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Of such Efficacy I say in all Reason must these Expectatons be when duly cherished and enforc'd And I cannot but acknowledge those Reproaches upon some Philosophers and Christians both Ancient and Modern to have a great deal of Justice in them whom Men called Hypocrites and Publick Impostors For what better Notions can be entertained of Persons profuse in the Proofs of an Immortal State and in the Glorious Commendations of a Bliss inexpressible in the Life to come and yet at the same time Pale and Shivering for Fear declining Death by all possible Means and trembling at the very Mention of its Approach though this very Thing to which they are so exceeding averse is confess'd to be the Passage into their so much admired Eternity the only Method of putting them into actual Possession of those Joys the very Hope and Reversion whereof they pretend to value above this whole World The Fifth and last particular mention'd upon This Occasion Killing ones self is only a Putting in execution that which was mention'd before For what is Dying by one's Own hand but the Gratification and Accomplishment of a Man's Desire of Death This indeed hath at first blush a good fair Appearance and seems to proceed from Virtue and Greatness of Spirit And certain it is that the Allowance and the Practice of it hath been both Frequent and Antient Many Instances of this kind live in Story Persons eminently Great and Good of almost every Countrey and every Religion Greeks and Romans Egyptians Persians Medes Gauls Indians Philosophers of all Sects nay Jews too as is evident from the Fact of old Razias who hath the Honourable Character of The Father of his Countrey given him 2 Mac. xiv and is constantly mentioned with Commendation of his Virtue Another Instance the same History gives us likewise in those Women under the Tyranny of Antiochus 2 Mac. vi who after they had Circumcised their Children cast Themselves down headlong from the Wall with them Nay not only Jews but Christians too witness those Two Holy Women Pelagia and Sophronia Canonized for their Piety and Courage the former of which with her Mother and Sisters cast her self into a River that by drowning they might escape the Rudeness and Violence of the Soldiers and the latter stabb'd her self to prevent the outragious Lust of the Emperor Maxentius And as if single Persons were not sufficient to justify this Practice we have whole Cities and Nations giving Authority to it by their Example Thus did the Citizens of Capua to avoid being taken by the Romans thus did Astapa and Numantia in Spain upon the same account Thus the Abidaeans when hard pressed by Philip and a City of the Indians when Alexander had encamped against it This hath likewise had the yet more Authentick Approbations of Laws and Publick Sanctions and several Commonwealths have not only permitted but recommended and in some Cases brought it into a Custom as Marseilles heretofore the Isle of Cea in the Negropont and some Northern Nations in particular where the Publick Justice regulated the Times and the Methods of doing this Nor is it only upon Precedents that the Favourers of this Opinion do rely but they think it abundantly supported by Reason and particularly that several Arguments of Weight may be deduced from the former Article to justify it For say They if a Desire and Willingness to dye be not Allowable only but Commendable too if we may Wish and Pray for a Release if we may put our selves in the way of it and be glad when it is offered why may we not Give this Relief to our Selves Is the Desire it self a Virtue and the Execution of that Desire a Sin What is permitted in the Will why do you call forbidden in the Act That which I may be pleased with from Another hand why should I be condemned for from my Own Indeed why should I wait the tedious Approach of that from other means which I can at any time give to my self For is it not better to Act in this Case than to be purely Passive Is it not more Manly and Generous to Meet Death than lazily to sit still and attend its Motions The more Voluntary our Death is the more like a Man of Honour Again What Law does this offend against There are Penalties indeed ordained for Robbers and Pick-pockets but is any Man liable to them for taking his Own Goods By the same Reason the Laws against Murder do not concern Me. They provide for every man's Security against the Insults of Others See the Animadversions at the End of this Chapter they tye my Neighbour's hands from taking My Life and Mine up from taking His because this is supposed to be an Act of Violence and want of Consent in the Sufferer makes it an Injury but what is all This to the purpose or how does it render a Man guilty who voluntarily and deliberately takes away his own Life These are the Principal I think indeed the Whole of those Arguments commonly alledg'd in Defence of this Practice but then there are Others a great deal more Substantial and more Obligatory that use to be produced for the Contrary Side of the Question First then As to Authorities This Practice however countenanced by some but very few States in comparison hath yet been absolutely disallow'd and condemned by the Generality of Mankind and not only by Christians but Jews too See Joseph de Bell. Judaie L 3. C 14. as Josephus shews at large in the Oration he made to his Officers in the Cave at the Taking of Jotapata By the Generality of Philosophers and Great Men as Plato and Scipio and Others who all impute this manner of proceeding to a Defect rather than any Sufficiency of Courage and reproach it not only as an Act of Cowardice misbecoming a Brave Man but of Heat and Impatience unworthy of a Good Man For what can we say better of it than that This is skulking and running out of the way to hide one's self from the Insults of Fortune Now a Virtue that is vigorous and stanch
will be sure to stand its ground Distress and Pain are so far from making it flinch that they feed and cherish and exalt it it lives it grows it triumphs by them There is certainly greater Firmness of Mind express'd in bearing and making an Advantage of one's Chain than in breaking it to pieces because it keeps us confined and ties us fast to some Uneasinesses And all considerate Men must allow that Regulus shew'd infinitely more Gallantry than Cato * Rebus in Adversis facile est contemnere Vitam Fortiter Ille facit qui Miser esse potest Martial Lib. xi Ep. 57. The Base when wretched dare to Dye but He Is Brave indeed who dares to Live in Misery †Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae Horat. Od. 3. L. 3. If the Crack'd Orbs should split and fall Crush him they might but not Appall Sir R. Fanshaw Nay these Men ought to be accounted Infamous and treated as Deserters For no Man can answer quitting the Post he is order'd to without the express Leave and fresh Orders of the Superior Officer who placed hi there We are by no means put into the World upon our own account alone and therefore Personal Calamities must not put us upon an Act of so great Injustice as the squandring away That in which Others have a Right as well as We nor yet are we Masters of our selves but under the Disposal and Direction of a Lord who hath a Right Paramount Thus you see what Arguments are generally brought on either side but if we set the Considerations of Duty and Religion aside and take the Liberty to speak the Sense of mere Nature in the Case the Resolution she would come to seems to be This That Men ought not to enter upon this Last and Boldest Exploit without some very extraordinary and most pressing Reason to induce them that so it may be what They call making a Decent and Honourable Exit Every slight Occasion every little Pett or cross Accident will not justify Men's falling out with the World and therefore They are certainly in a great Error who pretend that a small Excuse will serve to quit Life since there are no very Weighty Arguments to persuade our keeping it This is highly ungrateful to God and Nature when so Rich a Present is so much slighted and undervalued It is an Argument of great Levity and betrays a great deal of Moroseness and Ill Humour when we quarrel and break Company upon every slender Provocation But indeed there is something to be said though that something is not enough for a very Urgent and Weighty Occasion such as renders Life a perpetual Torment and the Thoughts of continuing in it insupportable such for Instance as I mentioned formerly Long Acute Excessive Pain or the certain Prospect of a very Cruel and Ignominious Death And upon this account the several Persons that I am going to name how favourably soever Story hath represented their Behaviour do by no means seem to have a Plea sufficient to Justify no not so much as to Excuse a Voluntary Death Such are Pomponius Attiâ—us Marcellinus and Cleanthes who after they had begun the Process resolved to finish it merely because they would avoid the trouble of having the whole Course to begin and go through again For what Apology soever might be made for the delivering themselves from a Painful Distemper yet when that Pain and the Cause of it were removed they lay under no farther Temptation to be out of love with Life and a bare Possibility of the Disease returning was a Consideration much too remote The Wives of Paetus and Scaurus and Labeo and Fulvius the intimate Friend of Augustus of Seneca and a great many more were as fantastically fool-hardy when they killed Themselves either to bear their Husbands Company out of the World or to invite Them to go with them So likewise Cato and others who were discontented with the Event of their Undertakings and the Chance of War and chose rather to dye by their own hands than to fall into their Enemy's notwithstanding these Enemies were such as gave them no just ground to fear any barbarous or dishonourable Treatment from them neither The same Censure will fall upon Them who murder'd themselves rather than they would be beholding to one they hated for their Lives or lye at the Mercy of an Ill Man as Gravius Silvanus and Statius Proximus did after Nero had given them his Pardon Nor are They less to blame who run into the Shades of Death to hide themselves from Shame and cover the Reproach of some past Dishonour or Misfortune such as Lucretia after the Injury she had suffered from Tarquin and Spargopises Son to Tomyris the Seythian Queen and Boges Commander under Xerxes the former because he could not bear being Prisoner of War to Cyrus the other for the Loss of a Town taken by Cimon the Athenian General Nor They who could not endure to survive a Publick Calamity though nothing extraordinary had befallen Them in particular such as Nerva the Great Lawyer Vibius Virius at the Taking of Capua and Jubelliâ—s at the Death of the greatest part of their Senators inflicted by a Roman Officer And least of all can those Nice and Delicate People excuse themselves who chuse to dye because they are cloyed with Life and weary of repeating the Same Things over again Nay I must go farther yet For it is by no means sufficient that the Occasion be very Important and full of Difficulty unless it be Desperate and past all Remedy too for nothing less than Necessity ought to be pleaded here and This should be the last Reserve the Only Escape from Extremity of Misfortune Upon this Account Rashness and Despondency and anticipating one's Fate and Giving all for Lost is always exceeding blameable an Instance whereof we have in Brutus and Cassius who before there was any occasion for it put an End to their own Lives and with Them to all the languishing Remains of the Liberty of Rome which was committed to and depended entirely upon Their Protection For as Cleomenes truly said Men are under an Obligation to use Life frugally and to make it go as far as possibly they can nay not only to contrive that it may last as long as is possible but that it may be useful to the very last For a Man may discharge himself of this Trust at any time and when Things are at the very worst tht they can be This Remedy is what no Man can be at a loss for But we should wait for better Days and try whether the hand of our Fortune will not mend upon us * Aliquis Carnisici suo superstes fuit Many a Man as Seneca observes hath outliv'd his Executioner Josephus and a great many besides have followed this Advice to excellent good purpose and Matters when in all human probability desperate and lost have wheel'd about and taken a quite different Course
after all those wonderful Exploits this was not the least wonderful that he should have the Use of his Understanding so perfect as to call upon God to restore him those Bowels again and so dye This I thought not amiss to hint and let them look both to the Truth of the Story and the Justice of the Commendition who have entitled these Books to an equal Authority with the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament That Instance of the Women under the Tyranny of Antiochus I do not understand for if it refer to those mentioned 2 Macc. VI. 10. they seem to have been thrown headlong from the Wall by the hands of Executioners But if they had done it themselves their Case had been somewhat more Pitiable but not more Imitable than that of Razias Those of Pelagia and Sophronia are indeed extolied but yet St. Jerom who in one place makes the preserving of Chastity an Exception and the only reserved Case from what I quoted out of him just now against Dying by one's own hand in Persecutions says in another place without exception Epist ad Marc. That God receives no Souls who come without his orders Deus non recipit Animas quae se nolente exterunt è corpore And whether this Case of Theirs was a Call notwithstanding the Advocates and Applauses they have found is greatly to be questioned For what is the Chastity God requires Is it not that of the Mind Could not God have restrained even those lascivious Intentions Does not Eusebius in the very same Chapter wherein he relates this Act of Sophronia delivering her self from Maxentius Euseb Eccles Hist. L VIII Ch. XIV particularly tell of a Christian Lady at Alexandria who not being any way to be conquered by Maximin he would not so much as Kill her for her obstinacy nor indeed Force her Person but in the Conflict of Rage and Lust at last only Confiscated her Goods and sent her into Banishment But supposing God had permitted the soul Act yet so long as the Mind was unblemished here had been no Guilt but rather a double Martyrdom If you say they might possibly suspect that they should in the Commission of the Fact have been polluted with sinful Inclinations 'T is easy to Answer That this is but a Fear but a bare Possibility and if an Act be Otherwise and in the general Unlawful the bare avoiding a possible Sin cannot make it lawful to break a Command and by going against God and Nature 1 Cor. X. 13. 2 Cor. XII commit and chuse a certain Sin He has promised That he will not suffer his Servants to be tempted above that they are able and declared that our Weakness can never be so great but that his grace is sufficient for us with many other gracious Promises which it is a great fault in us to distrust even in our greatest Straits and Necessities And to deliver our selves by Methods contrary to his Laws is to distrust them for we are to expect the Assistance of his Grace and the Protection of his Providence in the use of those Means and observance of those Rules he hath given us And therefore I cannot conceive how the fear of falling into Sin only can possibly render that Action Lawful which otherwise and generally speaking is it self a Sin and Unlawful Methinks therefore we should do well in this Case to distinguish with our Saviour in the Parable of the Unjust Steward and as he commended the Wisdom of that Man without approving his Injustice so we may allow all possible Praise to the Gallantry and Constancy of these Female Martyrs without allowing that the Course they took to preserve their Virtue Tom. 1. Front Ducae 628. compared with Comment on Gal. I. 4. was strictly regular and good And thus St. Chrysostom seems to have done who notwithstanding the great Encomium given of Pelagia in one place yet speaks of this Act of dying by one's own hand in very severe Terms in another and declares without exception that the Christians had all such Persons in abhorrence and that they were more guilty before God than any other murderers And some of those Instances which were thought hard to condemn the Vindicators have not well known how to acquit otherwise than by a presumption of a particular Impulse of God which was for that Time and Action a Dispensation to the General Law So St. Augustin of Sampson Spiritus latenter hoc jusserat qui per illum miracula faciebat The same Spirit which wrought Miracles by him gave him a Secret Command to do this thing And Lipsius speaking of these very Women says Monitum aut Jussio Dei hîc quoque praesumenda Lip Manuduc ad Philos Stoic Cap. XXIII That a Command or at least some Instinct and Direction from God is to be presumed in their Case as well as Sampson's and he had St. Augustin's own Authority he says for this presumption All which when duly considered as it will not warrant us to censure these Persons as to their Eternal State so neither will it warrant our Imitating such Actions or arguing from thence in defence of such Behaviour or for the Extenuating the Sin of Self-murther For whatever they might be in Themselves 't is sure they are no Pattern to Us and if God see sit to Allow or the Church to Commend their Zeal it will still become us to observe and beware of the Irregularities of it The Examples which follow of Cities destroying themselves rather than they would lie at the Mercy of the Conquerors whatever appearance they may have of Fortitude and Gallantry yet as to the point of Conscience and Lawfulness they are certainly blameable and fall under the same Censure which is afterwards given of Cato and others Page 294. N. 3 4. The Custom of Marseilles and the Isle of Ceô Valer. Maxim Lib II. Cap. VI. F. 7 8. where Persons willing to Dye made no scruple of doing it having first obtained the Judgment and Approbation of the Senate and by Poison kept on purpose and prepared at the Publick Charge is only a Permission and Allowance and does by no means take off the Guilt and Injustice of making our selves a way except only in that single Point that here the Publick is not injured having expresly consented to the loss of that Member But in all other respects the Fact was Wicked and Abominable and is reported to have had no other foundation than Affliction or Extreme old Age or in general a Weariness of Life Nor will the next Argument hold concerning the Desire of Death for supposing that whatsoever a Man is allowed to desire he is likewise allowed to procure to himself which yet is not universally true yet this Desire it self is faulty when it grows into Impatience and is not content to wait God's methods and God's leisure And there is great difference between meeting Death gladly and running into it between receiving our Release with
his own Mind who makes it his business to provide against the very worst that can come that a Man shall by the help of Industry and Prudence be able to deal with the greatest part of them well enough In this Case too it is sit to consider in which of those Accidents that threaten us we may promise our selves Assistance and accordingly to provide our Succours And as generally in All so in these Junctures more especially to take Courage to six our Resolutions and be steady in our Undertakings For when once a Man hath consider'd what he goes about and sinds it agreeable to his Duty and what every way becomes him to do he is obliged by all means to persevere and not suffer any Prospect of Danger to discourage him in a commendable Attempt A Wise Man indeed will never want Courage because he proceeds with Deliberation and Thought prevents the Mischief of Surprize and provides against every thing likely to cross his Design But then it is no less expedient That the Man of Courage have a Mixture of Wisdom too for without This all his Boldness is but rath Hear and a blind fool-hardy Giddiness SECT V. Conspiracies WE are now advancing to such Accidents as of all others are of the greatest most general and most dangerous Consequence and therefore it will be fit to enlarge a little the more upon them Which shall be done first by giving a particular Description of the Thing it self Then by laying down such Directions as may be serviceable to a Prince under them And then in the Conclusion of this Subject casting together into one Chapter that Advice proper for private Persons to follow upon these Occasions By Conspiracies I mean the Attempts made either by some one Man singly or by several in Combination against the Person of the Prince or the State and Government in general And this must be acknowledged a Circumstance of infinite Danger extremely hard either to escape or to remedy by reason of the Secresie and industrious Concealment of the Thing For which way shall a Man be able to secure himself from the treacherous Assaults of an unknown unsuspected Enemy And what shall give any just Jealousie of that Man's being so who wears the Face and acts the part of our faithfullest tenderest and most zealous Friend The Thoughts and Inclinations of the Heart lie too dark and deep for Human Eyes to penetrate and yet here is all the Danger for they who design a Prince's Ruine will take all the care they can that no Overt Act no failure of Respect no Coldness or Negligence in Behaviour may minister cause of Suspicion but will rather exceed in the Expressions of Duty and Respect and mask their Villany by an officious and double Diligence Besides do but consider the Advantages of a desperate and bloody-minded Man for he that does not value his own Life may make himself Master of any other Man's whenever he pleases * Contemnit omnes Ille qui Mortem priùs He knows not how to fear who dares to die So that a Prince is continually exposed to Danger and Death and lies at the Mercy of every private Man who hath hardiness enough to sacrifice himself in the Attacking him Machiavel takes great Pains to shew how Plots against the State ought to be contriv'd and so laid as to prove Successful We leave that wicked Policy to Him and shall employ all our Care to shew how they may best be discover'd and defeated Now the best Remedies and Directions that I can think of for so critical and hazardous a Juncture are these that follow First Private Intelligence and cunning underhand Methods to discover and counterwork all Attempts of this Nature in which Faithful Vigilant and Discreet Persons should be made use of as Instruments These are the Eyes and Ears of the Prince and therefore they should be every where to discover and bring Information of all that may concern him to know but particularly they should have a special regard to all that his Principal Officers and Ministers say and do because These are capable of doing most Mischief and he cannot be tolerably safe if they be false to him Now it is as observable in this Case as in any whatsoever That Out of the Abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh For People who have a Design upon the Government naturally love to asperse and blacken the Prince censure his Administration severely and load him with Calumnies or if they have Temper enough to be silent themselves yet they love the Conversation of those that do so hearken with a sensible Relish and Delight to all kind of Factious Discourse and frequent the Company of Men who by railing and blaming all that is done infuse Jealousies and foment Discontents among the People It is very necessary therefore that a Prince should be well informed what his Subjects but especially what those about his Person say of him what Company they keep and how they entertain themselves and it is fit that he should engage to reward the Persons who make such useful Discoveries not only with Impunity but large Summs of Money for their good Service But then he must be no less careful too of another Inconvenience which may arise from too easie a Credulity For tho' he will do wisely to hear all yet he is by no means bound to believe all The Rewards I mentioned as they are Recompences well bestow'd upon faithful and good Men so are they likewise great Temptations to ill Men and therefore every Report of this kind should be very diligently examin'd before a Prince gives credit to it or otherwise this Expedient for his own Preservation will be converted into a means of crushing and murdering the Innocent and of making himself the common Detestation and Reproach the Terrour and the Curse of his People The Second Preservative in this Case is Winning and Engaging the Hearts and Affections of all his Subjects nay even of his very Enemies by Methods of Justice and Goodness of Courtesie and Clemency For when all is done * Fidissima Custodia Principis Innocentia A Prince's best and strongest Guard is his Innocency the being an Universal Blessing good to all injurious and grievous to none The Apostle had reason when he asked that Question Who is He that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good For usually speaking The Man that gives no Offence takes an effectual Course that none shall be given him But he who does Injuries must expect to have them paid back again with Interest And therefore the worst use that can possibly be made of Power is to exert it to unjust and base Purposes and make it an Instrument of Oppression and Violence So says a wise Author * Male vim suam Potestas aliorum contumeliis experitur Power never puts out it s own Strength so ill as when it breaks forth into Insolence and contumelious usage of those
shall have reason to think themselves secure in his Pardon and Favour SECT X. Tyranny and Rebellion BY Tyranny we are to understand an Arbitrary Lawless Government a Domineering over the Subjects with Violence and Rigour without regard had to the Rules or Measures of Power or the Customs and Privileges of the Country This is frequently the Cause of publick Disturbances and general Discontents which by degrees grow up into Rebellion And Rebellion is a Rising of the People against their Prince provok'd by his Tyrannical and unjust Oppressions with a design to dethrone and drive him from his Royal Post So that Rebellion differs from Sedition in This that it no longer acknowledges or submits to the Prince as a Master and Governour whereas Sedition does not go so far but is dissatisfy'd with the Administration and aims not at changing the Person but his Measures and the Reformation of what it conceives amiss Now the Persons who thus degenerate into Tyranny are Men of base Dispositions cruel in their Temper Lovers and Encouragers of wicked and turbulent People and Mischievous Pick-Thank Slaves Parasites and Sycophants and doers of ill Offices But for Persons of Honour and Virtue they have an inward Dread and Aversion * Quibus semper aliena Virtus sormidolosa Nobilitas Opes gestique Honores pro crimine habentur ob Virtutes certissimum exitium non minus ex magnâ famâ quam malâ The Virtue and good Qualities of deserving Persons says one is formidable to them Noble Blood and Power and Interest Honours and Offices of Trust well discharg'd are lookt upon as Criminal Worth and Honesty is their certain Ruine and a great and good Name as dangerous under such Governours as a scandalous and vile Character But these Tyrants are generally punish'd to purpose and as they deserve for they are hated and detested lookt upon as common Enemies they live in perpetual Terrors and Apprehensions of the Revenge they have provok'd every thing is suspected and dreaded and they never think themselves safe their own Consciences turn their Executioners and all within is Scourges and Racks and Tortures and at last they come to infamous and untimely Deaths for the World hath seldom seen a Tyrant live to the fulness of Age or die after the manner of common Men. The Directions and Remedies proper for this Case are largely insisted upon in another place And the Summ of them may be reduc'd to these Two Points First To hinder a Tyrant from getting the Power absolutely into his own Hands and oppose his Government at the first but if this be not done and he be actually possest of it then to bear and submit as well as we can For generally speaking there is nothing got by Opposition †Pejus deteriusque Tyrannide sive injusto imperio Bellum civile a Civil War being commonly a Remedy worse than the Disease and the Miseries and Disorders of it are more intolerable than the Tyranny and Oppression it undertakes to redress For the being restiff in such Cases does but exasperate the Cruelty of a Prince and make that Disposition in him which was bad before ten times worse * Nihil tam exasperat fervorem vulneris quà m ferendi impatientia Nothing says Plutarch inflames a Sore so much as Impatience under the Pain of it Modesty and Submission and Compliance with hard and rigorous Commands have something of a softening Quality in them which usually rebates the fiercest and most furious Dispositions For as Alexander the Great observ'd very truly The Gentleness and good Temper of a Prince depends not altogether upon his own Humour but in some measure upon that of his Subjects too for They sometimes by their Sawciness and ill Language by Stubbornness and perverse Behaviour corrupt and sour their Governours and make them quite other Men than Nature had made them †Obsequio mitigantur imperia contrà Contumacia inferiorum lenitatem imperantis diminuit Contumaciam cum pernicie quam obsequium cum securitate malunt Men make Government easie and secure themselves good Treatment by Obedience and on the other hand Insolence and Refractoriness in Subjects takes off from the Mildness and good Nature of a Prince And this is the Misfortune that the People had rather be peremptory and Disobedient at the hazard of their own ruine than obey quietly and live securely SECT XI Civil Wars THE several publick Disorders hitherto treated of are but crude and imperfect the Beginnings of Evils and as it were Matter void of Form But when Riot or Faction or Sedition or Rebellion is come to its full Maturity and Strength when it hath all the Perfection it is capable of and continues any time then it Commences and is call'd Civil War For this is nothing else but the taking up of Arms by Subjects either against one another which is the Case of the two Former or else against the Prince or Magistrate and then it is one of the two latter Now there is not in the World a more Calamitous more scandalous Circumstance It is not indeed a single but a complicated Evil an Ocean of Evils And a wise Author says very truly that it cannot with any propriety of Speech be styl'd a War but is rather the Sickness the Fever and Phrenzy of the State The wretched Authors of it whoever they be ought to be swept away from the Land of the Living and driven immediately and without Mercy from among Men. All manner of Wickedness is born and cherish'd under it Impiety and Cruelty reign without controul all Obligations of Humanity and Friendship are dissolv'd and the nearest Ties of Blood and Natural Affection broken and utterly lost Murder and Confusion and Rapine cease to be Vices * Occidere palam Ignoscere non nisi fallendo licet Non Aetas non Dignitas quenquam protegit Nobilitas cum plebe perit latèque vagatur Ensis Men have then licence to be barbarous and kill with Authority in the Face of the Sun but Pity and Mercy are practis'd only by stealth No Age no Quality can give any Man protection but all Distinctions of Person and Condition are laid aside The reeking Sword pours out a Crimson Flood And mingles Noble with Plebeian Blood Laws and Order are quite out of Doors and all Discipline utterly abolish'd †In omne fas nefasque avidos aut venales non sacro non profano abstinentes Men fly greedily at all and are mercenary in Villany they make no difference between Things Sacred and Common but all are made a Prey alike The mean and vulgar are upon the Level with the best and greatest and the Peasant Hail Fellow with the Prince ₠Rheni mihi Caesar in undis Dux erat hic socius Facinus quos inquinat aequat Lucan l. 5. He was our General I' th' German Wars Here we are Fellows All. Whom Treason soils it makes of equal State May. Persons in Authority dare not
and Noise in the World and yet oftentimes there is nothing of substance or solidity at the bottom of it Now allowing Military Valour all that can possibly belong to it yet at best it is but one part and that a small one neither a single Ray of that Glory which the true and entire the perfect and universal Valour sheds round about it For by this a Man is the same thing alone that he is in Company the same brave Man upon a Bed of Languishing and Pain as in the Field and heat of Action and marches up against Death with all his Friends and Relations looking on and lamenting his Fate as he would at the Head of an Army when animated by the Shouts of those that assist in the Engagement This Military and Fighting Courage is more peculiar and natural to Brute Beasts and among them we sind accordingly that the Female Sex have it in common with the Males But in Men it is frequently the effect of Art rather than any Tendency in Nature kindled by the dread of Captivity and ill usage by the evident Necessity of doing bravely in their own Desence and the certain prospect of Death or Wounds Poverty or Pain or Punishment if they do otherwise All which have not any influence upon Beasts nor do they lie under the least apprehension of them The Courage of Men is a sort of wise Cowardice and we commonly say That every Man would be a Coward if he durst It is Fear attended with skill to shun one Evil by another and Anger is the Liquor that tempers the File that sharpens it But in Brutes it is genuine and pure undesigning and unconstrained Men arrive at some sort of Mastery and Perfection in it by Custom and long Acquaintance by Instruction Education and Example upon which account it is that we find it sometimes among the meanest most ignorant and most degenerate sort of People A Footman that hath run away from his Master an Apprentice from behind a Counter a Villain out of a common Gaol shall very often make a good Souldier stand a Charge and do Duty very well and yet have no such thing as real Fortitude there is not the least tincture or spark of Virtue or Philosophical Bravery in all this Fire The second necessary Ingredient in this noble Composition is a full and distinct Knowledge of the Difficulty the Toil the Danger that assaults us in our Undertaking and also of the Beauty the Decency the Justice and the Obligation of attempting vigorously or constantly and patiently enduring what we are called to at that time And this discovers the Folly and Mistake of confounding this Courage as some do with giddy unthinking Rashness or else with Fool-hardiness and a brutal insensibility * Non est inconsulta temeritas nec periculorum amor nec formidabilium appetitio diligentissima in tutelâ sui fortitudo est Et eadem patientissima eorum quibus falsa species malorum est It is by no means says Seneca an inconsiderate forwardness not a fondness of Danger nor a desire of those Accidents which strike a Terrour into common Men Fortitude is provident and careful and diligent in her own Defence and yet she is extreamly patient and resigned under those things which are commonly but falsely reputed Evils There cannot possibly be any such thing as Virtue where there is no Knowledge no Apprehension and a Man cannot with any good Sense be said to despise that Danger which he knows not and does not rightly understand For at this rate we cannot refuse the honour of this Virtue to Brutes who in every part which concerns the Action or the Suffering do equal if not exceed the Stoutest Men and yield to us in no point but that of foreseeing and making a true Estimate of our Danger For Valour distinguishes it self particularly by going on with our Eyes open and not running blindfold and accordingly we find by Experience that those who undertake boldly without regarding or duly weighing what is like to come on 't commonly flinch and sneak and prove errand Dastards when they are driven to a push A third Ingredient necessary to be taken notice of in the Character of Fortitude is That it is a Resolution and firmness of Mind founded upon solid and good Principles the sense of Duty the Honesty and Justice of the undertaking and such other Motives and this too such a Resolution as never wavers or abates whatever the Event be But persists with unmoveable Generosity till either the Design be brought to Perfection or the Life lost in the Attempt The mention of this Qualification may at first sight seem somewhat superfluous in the former part of the Description but it is in reality seasonable and of good use and that as upon its own account so more especially because it gives us an occasion to obviate two or three very gross and common Mistakes with relation to this Matter As first some have so odd so stupid a notion of Fortitude as to place it in bodily Strength the Structure of the Man and the largeness of his Limbs But alas This is no Excellence belonging to the Body not the stiffness of the Muscles the knitting of the Joynts or the size of an Arm or a Leg but a quality peculiar to the Soul and entirely residing there The worth of a Man is to be computed from his Heart and his Will there it is that his true Honour is to be found and the only Advantage the true and compleat Victory to be gained over an Enemy is the shaking his Constancy driving away his Resolution subjecting him to Terrour and Disorder and putting his Virtue to flight All other Advantages are either fictitious and imaginary or else borrowed and not properly ours The lustiness and strength of a Leg and an Arm is an Excellence fit for a Porter only to boast of To force our Enemy to give ground or engage him in a disadvantageous ground is not a Commendation belonging to Us but to Fortune He that continues his Courage to the last and slackens not one whit of his Gallantry and Constancy at the approach of Danger or Death you may call him beaten if you please but then it is not his Adversary but the Chance of War that beats him and if he happen to fall in the Engagement he is killed I confess but he is not Conquered If Fate be to blame he is not for though he die unfortunately yet he does not die cowardly and basely For the Gallantest Men cannot command Events answerable to their Merits and very frequently are less successful than others Another Errour yet more senseless than the former is the looking upon those to be stout and brave who swagger and strut and talk big and by a contemptuous Air a stern Countenance and vain boasts would fain get the Reputation of Valour But these do not often meet with People silly enough to be frightned into such an Opinion and when the
Themistocles Phocion and Sucrates among the Greeks Camillus and Scipio and Cicero and Papinian among the Romans Jeremiah and other Prophets among the Jews Insomuch that a Man may say Calamity and Disgrace is the very Livery and Mark of distinction of the best and bravest Men the usual Reward which the People bestow upon those that have done them the best Service If this word be interpreted of common Fame and Opinion every Wise Man should have Spirit enough to despise That and never trouble himself at all about it He does but disparage and degrade himself and betray his want of improvement in the study of Wisdom who is got no higher in this noble Science than to be concerned at those false rash Judgments and scandalous Reports which are made and scattered at random and which neither make a Man the better for their Commendations nor one whit the worse for their Censure and Reproaches CHAP. XXVII Loss of Friends BY Friends I understand Children Relations and all whom Nature or Acquaintance have rendred near and dear to us And here first of all we shall do well to examine pretty strictly into the true soundation of this Concern whether the Complaints we utter the Tears we shed and all the sorrow and tender Resentments we pretend be grounded upon their Interest or our own I make no question but every Man will answer that he grieves for their sakes but then most People must give us leave to doubt the Truth of this and not take it ill if we be Infidels in the case till satisfied by some more substantial Argument than the meer authority of having their bare word for it It is but an officious Dissimulation of tenderness and natural Affection to put on an inconsolable Melancholy and be eternally lamenting the Misfortunes of our Friends or the Dangers and Calamities of the Publick for would we but draw aside the Curtain and probe our Souls to the quick Self would be found at the bottom and the true cause of our Griefs will appear to be that private Interest of our own which is involved and interwoven with theirs this is the very thing that affects us so sensibly And what is this but a spice of Envy rather than true and generous Affection For that very Death or absence of our Friends which we bewail under the specious Title of their Loss and Misfortune is in reality their mighty Gain and greatest Advantage * Moerere hoc eventum invidi magis quam amici est The true use and consequence of Death is the putting a final and absolute Period to Men's Miseries the placing them in a condition incapable of suffering Had God in his Wisdom intended us a happier and more easie Being upon Earth no doubt he would have contrived that it should have lasted longer But as Matters now stand and considering the Evils our Lives are beset with it is a mercy he hath made them so short If then we would speak out and confess the truth impartially this Affliction looks at home and we lament the loss because our own Affairs suffer in it Now this at the first blush is evidently dishonourable and selfish and we shall have much ado to justifie our being sorry that those we profess so dearly to love are in ease and happiness If we loved them as our Saviour says in the like case we should much rather rejoyce and if they loved us it is but a decent gratitude to be content with some inconveniences when the suffering of these is softned by the consideration of their unspeakable Advantage For †Suis incommodis angi non amicum sed seipsum amantis est to be troubled at our own Loss may argue that we love our selves but it can never prove that we love our Friends But after all there is an excellent and never failing Remedy in store for our Affliction which all the malice and power of Fate can never wrest out of our hands And that is a Reflection that these Losses are not irreparable For so long as we survive our Friends so long we have opportunities of making new ones Friendship is one of the greatest Blessings humane Life can boast of and there is this mighty advantage in it which other happinesses cannot pretend to that it is one of the easiest to be attained God makes Men but Men make Friends And they that do not want Virtue need never want Friends for this is the instrument of acquiring them and that which will always be serviceable in supplying the number of those that are taken from us If then Fortune hath robbed us of this Treasure let us take care to reimburse our selves and by this means we shall be so far from living destitute that the parting with those we had will only give us an opportunity of enlarging our Affections wider and adding to the number Of Death THis Subject hath been already treated of so largely and fully in the Eleventh Chapter of the Second Book that I have nothing new to offer upon it here And therefore to avoid being tedious to my Reader by cloying him with Repetitions I shall only beg his leave to refer him back to that Passage The second Division of Evils consisting of such as are Internal to wit the Disquieting Passions of our own Minds PREFACE FRom these several Evils already insisted on several tormenting Passions are begot and bred in our Minds For when any of those Afflictions are considered absolutely and in themselves there springs up Fear in us if we apprehend them as future and approaching or Grief if we reflect upon them as present and at that instant actually oppressing us And if these Calamities do not immediately affect us but others suffer in them then the Passion we are moved to is Pity and Compassion When to the Consideration of their own Nature we join that additional one of their Causes or Occasions and reflect upon them as done or procured by some other Person than the Passions provoked by them are Anger Hatred Indignation Spight Envy Jealousie Revenge and all those other Resentments which dispose us to bear a grudge and look with an evil Eye upon the Person 〈◊〉 a create us uneasiness and trouble Now this Virtue of Fortitude consists in the entertaining these misfortunes regularly and a â—eeably to right Reason and Equity in behaving our selves gallantly under them and so preserving our Souls free and undisturbed by any of the Passions apt to be excited and so grow outrageous upon these occasions But in regard they owe their very Being to these Afflictions if a Man can manage the Rules and Remedies here already prescribed so as to gain an absolute Conquest over the Evils themselves These Passions will be crushed in the Egg and all farther directions concerning them are wholly superseded And this indeed is the best and most effectual way to stifle and cut off the first Tendencies towards them Efficacy and Success must unavoidably wait upon this method as