children haunt the vice of the flesh whilest they be yong there is small hope of goodnes to be looked for in them when they be old for the older they waxe the riper be their vices Masters would correct the childe but fathers and mothers forbid them Little auaileth one to pricke the horse with the spurre when he that sitteth vpon him holdeth backe with the bridle Of Death O If we would consider the corruption wherof we are made the filth wherof we are engendred the infinite trauell whereunto we are borne the long tediousnes wherwith we are nourished the great necessities and suspicions wherein we liue and aboue all the great peril wherein we die we find a thousand occasions to wish death not one to desire life The excellencie of the soule laid aside and the hope which we haue of eternall life if man do compare the captiuitie of men to the libertie of beasts with reason we may see that the beasts do liue a peaceable life and that which man doth lead is but a long death I had rather chuse an vnfortunate life and an honorable death than an infamous death and an honorable life That man which will be accounted for a good man not noted for a brute beast ought greatly to trauell to liue well and much more to die better for that euill death maketh men doubt that the life hath not been good and the good death is an excuse of an euill life The dead do rest in a sure hauen and we saile as yet in raging seas If the death of men were as beasts that is to wit that there were no furies nor diuels to torment them that God should not reward the good yet we ought to be comforted to see our friends die if it were for none other cause but to see them deliuered from the thraldome of this miserable world The pleasure that the Pilote hath to be in a sure hauen the glory that the captaine hath to see the day of victory the rest that the traueller hath to see his iorney ended the contentation that the workman hath to see his worke come to perfection all the same haue the dead seeing themselues out of this miserable life If men were born alwaies to liue it were reason to lament them when we see them die but since it is truth that they are borne to die we ought not to lament those which die quickly but those which liue long since thou knowest he is in place where there is no sorrow but mirth where there is no paine but ease where he weepeth not but laugheth where he sigheth not but singeth where he hath no sorowes but pleasures where he feareth not cruel death but enioyeth perpetuall life The true widow ought to haue hir conuersation among the liuing and hir desire to be with the dead Death is the true refuge the perfite health the sure hauen the whole victory finally after death we haue nothing to bewaile and much lesse to desire Death is a dissolution of the body a terror to the rich a desire of the poore a thing inheritable a pilgrimage vncertain a theefe of men a kind of sleeping a shadow of life a separatiō of the liuing a company of the dead a resolution of all a rest of trauels and the end of all idle desires If any dammage or feare be in him who dieth it is rather for the vice he hath committed than feare of death There is no prince nor knight rich nor poore whole nor sicke luckie nor vnluckie with their vocations contented saue onely the dead which are in their graues at rest and peace If in youth a man liue well and in age studie to die well and his life hath been honest his hope is that death will be ioyfull and although he hath had sorow to liue he is sure he shall haue no paine to die This equal iustice is distributed to all that in the same place where we haue deserued life in the same we shal be assured of death Cato being praised of the Romanes for his courage at his death laughed they demaunded the cause why he laughed he answered Ye maruell at that I laugh and I laugh at that you maruel for the perils and trauels considered wherein we liue and the safetie wherein we die it is no more needfull to haue vertue and strength to liue than courage to die We see shamefast and vertuous persons suffer hunger cold thirst trauel pouertie inconuenience sorow enmities and mishaps of the which things we were better to see the end in one day than to suffer them euery hower for it is lesse euill to suffer an honest death than to endure a miserable life The day when we are born is the beginning of death and the day wherein we die is the beginning of life If death be no other but an ending of life and that whiles we liue we carrie death than reason perswadeth vs to thinke that our infancie dieth our childhood dieth our manhood dieth and our age shall die whereof we may conclude that we are dying euery yeere euery day euery houre and euery moment Diuers vaine men are come into so great follies that for feare of death they procure to hasten death Hauing thereof due consideration me seemeth that we ought not greatly to loue life nor with desperation to seeke death for the strong and valiant man ought not to haue life so long as it lasteth nor to be displeased with death when it commeth In such sort therefore ought men to liue as if within an houre after they should die If we trauell by long wayes and want any thing we borow of our company if they haue forgotten ought they returne to seek it at their lodging or els they write vnto their friends a letter but if we once die they will not let vs returne againe we cannot and they will not agree that we shall write but such as they shall find vs so shall we be iudged and that which is most fearful of all the execution and sentence is giuen in one day Let not men leaue that vndone till after their death which they may do during their life nor trust in that they command but in that they do whilest they liue nor in the good works of an other but in their owne good deeds for in the ende one sigh shall be more woorth than all the friends of the world I exhort therefore all wise and vertuous men and also my selfe with them that in such sort we liue that in the end we liue for euer Those that visite the sicke ought to perswade them that they make their testaments confesse their sinnes discharge their conscience receiue the sacraments and reconcile themselues to their enimies Many in our life time do gape after our goods few at our death are sory for our offences The wise and sage before nature compelleth them to die of their own wils ought to die that is
the houses made the bed washed the buck couered thetable dressed the dinner and went for water On the contrary part his wife gouerned the goodes answered the affaires kept the money and if she were angry she gaue him not onely foule words but also oftentimes laid hir hands on him to reuenge hir anger whereof came this prouerbe vita Achaiae Where men haue so little discretion that they suffer themselues to be gouerned be it well or euill of their wiues and that euery womā commandeth hir husband there can be nothing more vaine or light than by mans law to giue that authoritie to a woman which by nature is denied hir The lawes are as yokes vnder the which the euill do labor and they are wings vnder the which the good do flie The great multitude of lawes are commonly euill kept and are on the other part cause of sundry troubles The Romanes did auoid the great number of lawes and institutions for that it is better for a man to liue as reason commaundeth him than as the law constraineth him Lawes are easily ordained but with difficultie executed and there be thousands that can make them but not one that will see the execution of them The law of Athens was that nothing should be bought before a Philosopher had set the price I would the same law at these daies were obserued for there is nothing that destroieth a common wealth more than to permit some to sell as tyrants and others to buy as fooles Of Loue. BEleeue not that loue is true loue but rather sorow not ioy but perplexitie not delite but torment not contentment but griefe not honest recreation but confusion seeing that in him that is a louer must be looked for youth libertie and liberalitie Strawe that is rotten is fitter for the land than the house so in a broken body and aged sorow and infirmities are fitter passions than loue for to Cupid and Venus no sort of people is acceptable but yong men to serue them The liberall which spares for no cost the patient to endure discreet to speake secret to conceale faithfull to deserue and constant to continue to the end It is a miserie to be poore and proud to be reuengefull and dare not strike to be sicke and farre from succor to be subiect to our enimies and lastly to suffer perill of life without reuenge but for an old man to be in loue is the greatest wretchednes that can occupy the life of man for the poore sometimes findeth pitie but the old man standeth always reiected The coward findeth friends to beare out his quarell but the amorous old man liueth always persecuted with passions The sicke liues vnder the climate of Gods prouidēce and is relieued by hope but the old amorous man is abandoned all succor He that is subiect to his enimies is not somtimes without his seasons of consolation and quiet where to the old louer is no time of truce or hope of reconcilement There is nothing more requireth gouernment thā the practise of loue seeing that in cases of hūger thirst cold heat and all other natural influences they may be referred to passions sensible only to the body but the follies imperfections and faults in loue the hart is subiect to suffer feele and bewaile them since loue more than all other things natural retaineth always this propertie to exercise tyrannie always against the hart of his subiects There is no doubt but vnperfit loue will resolue into iarres contention and continuall disquietnes for that where is not conformitie of condition there can be no contented loue no more than where is no true faith can be no true operation of good life and maners Say what you will and surmise the best to please fancie but according to experience the best remedie in loue is to auoid occasion and to eschew conuersation for that of the multitude that follow him there are few free from his bondage where such as abandon him liueth alwaies in libertie Behold how deerly I loued thee in thy presence I alwaies behold thee and absent I alwaies thought of thee sleeping I dreamed of thee I haue wept at thy sorowes and laught at thy pleasures finally all my wealth I wished thee and all thy misfortunes I wished to me I feel not so much the persecutiō thou hast done to me as I do the wailing forgetfulnes thou hast shewed to me It is a great griefe to the couetous man to lose his goods but without comparison it is a greater torment for the louer to see his loue euill bestowed for it is a hurt alwaies seene a paine alwaies felt a sorow alwaies gnawing and a death that neuer endeth As the loue of a couetous woman endeth when goods faileth so doth the loue of the man when beautie decaieth That woman which neuer loued for goods but was beloued for beautie did then loue with all hir hart and now abhor with all hir hart The gallowes is not so cruell to the euill doer as thou art to me which neuer thought otherwise than well they which suffer there do endure but one death but thou makest me to suffer a thousand they in one day and one hower do end their liues and I euery minute do feele the pangs of death they die guiltie but I innocently they die openly and I secretly What wilt thou more I say they for that they died and I shed hartie teares of blood for that I liue their torments spreadeth abrode through all the bodie but I keepe mine altogither in my hart O vnhappie hart of mine that being whole thou art diuided being in health thou art hurt being aliue thou art killed being mine owne thou art stolen and the woorst of all thou being the onely helpe of my life dost onely consent vnto my death Loue bewitcheth the wisest and blindfoldeth reason as appeereth in many wise philosophers as for example Gratian was in loue with Tamira Solon Selaminus was in loue with a Grecian Pitacus Mitelenus left his owne wife and was in loue with a bond woman that he brought from the war Periander prince of Achaia and chiefe philosopher of all Greece at the instance of his louers slew his owne wife Anacharsis the philosopher a Scithian by his father and a Greeke by his mother loued so deerly a friend of his called Thebana that he taught hir all that he knew in so much that he being sicke on his bed she read for him in the schooles Tarentinus the maister of Plato and scholler of Pithagoras occupied his mind more to inuent new kinds of loue than to imploy his mind to vertue and learning Borgias Cleontino borne in Cicill had more concubines in his house than bookes in his studie All these were wise and knowen for no lesse Yet in the end were ouercome with the flesh O how many times did Hercules desire to be deliuered from his loue Mithrida Menelaus from Dortha Pyrrhus from Helena
and in steede of gawling striketh What euill happened to Hercules that after so manie dangers came to die in the armes of an harlot Alexander after his great conquest ended his life with poison Agamemnon that woorthie Greeke after ten yeeres wars against the Troians was killed entring into his owne house Iulius Caesar after two and fiftie battels was killed in the Senate house with xxiij wounds Hanniball slew himselfe in one moment bicause he would not become a pray to his enimies What mishap is this after so many fortunes what reproch after such glorie what perill after such suretie what euill lucke after such good successe what darke night after so cleare day what euil entertainment after so great labor what cruell sentence after so long proces what inconuenience of death after so good beginning of life The miserable life of man is of such condition that dailie our yeeres do diminish and our troubles encrease life is so troublesome that it wearieth vs and death is so doubtefull that it feareth vs. The philosopher Appollonius being demanded what he woondered most at in al the world answered but at two things the one was that in all parts wherein he had trauelled he saw quiet men troubled by seditious persons the humble subiect to the proud the iust obedient to the tyrant the cruell commanding the mercifull the coward ruling the hardie the ignorant teaching the wise and aboue al I saw the most theeues hang vp the innocent The other was that in all the places and circuite that he had bin in I know not neither could finde anie man euerlasting but that all are mortall and that both high low haue an end for many enter the same night into the graue which the day ensuing thought to be aliue Aristotle saith that man is but a tree planted with the rootes vpward whose roote is the head and the stock is the bodie the branches are the armes the barke is the flesh the knots are the bones the sap is the hart the rottennes is malice the gum is loue the flowers are words and the fruits are good woorks We see the vapors to ascend high the plants growe high the trees budde out on high the sourges of the sea mount high the nature of the fire is alwaies to ascende vpwarde onelie the miserable man groweth downewarde and is brought lowe by reason of the feeble and fraile flesh which is but earth and commeth of earth and liueth on earth and in the end returneth to the earth from whence it came Generallie there is no man so good but a man may find in him somwhat reprooueable nor any man so euill but he hath in him something commendable What man and his life is O Blindnes of the world ô life which neuer liueth nor shall liue ô death which neuer hath end I know not why man through the accident of his beautie should take vpon him any vaine glory or presumption sith he knoweth that all the perfitest and most faire must be sacrificed to the worms in the graue It is to be maruelled at that all men are desirous that all things about them should be cleane their gownes brushed their coats neat the table handsome and the bed fine and onely they suffer their soules to be spotted and filthie The faire and well proportioned man is therfore nothing the more vertuous he that is deformed and euill shapen is nothing therfore the more vicious Corporall beautie early or late perisheth in the graue but vertue and knowledge maketh men of immortall memorie Although a man be great it followeth not that he is strong so that it is no generall rule that the bigge body hath always a valiant and couragious hart nor the little man a faint and false hart Iulius Caesar was big of body yet euill proportioned for he had his head bald his nose sharp one hand more shorter than the other and being yoong had a riueled face yealow of colour went crooked and his girdle half vndone Hannibal was called monstrous both for his deeds and euil proportion for of his two eies he lacked the right and of the two feet he had the left foote crooked fierce of countenance and little of body Truly he feeleth the death of another which always is sorowfull and lamenting his own life To esteeme thy selfe to be handsome and proper of person is no other thing but to esteeme thy selfe that dreaming thou shalt be rich and mightie and waking thou findest thy self poore and miserable What shall we say to this little flower that yesterday florished on the tree whole without suspicion to be lost and yet one little frost wasteth and consumeth it the vehement wind ouerthroweth it the knife of enuy cutteth it the water of aduersitie vndoeth it the heate of persecutions pineth it the putrifaction of death decayeth it and bringeth it down to the ground O mans life that art alwayes cursed I count fortune cruel thee vnhappy since she wil not that thou stay on hir which dreaming giueth thy pleasures and waking giueth thy displeasures which giueth into thy handes trauell to taste and suffereth thee to listen after quiet which will that thou approoue aduersitie and agree not that thou haue proseritie but after hir will she giueth thee life by ounces and death without measure The yoong man is but a new knife the which in processe of time cankereth in the edge one day he breaketh the point of vnderstanding another he looseth the edge of cutting and next the rust of diseases taketh him and afterwards by aduersities he is writhen and by infirmities diseased by riches he is wheted by pouerty he is dulled againe and oftentimes it chanceth that the more sharpe he is whetted so much the more the life is put in hazard It is a true thing that the feet and hands are necessary to clime to the vanities of youth and afterwards stumbling a little immediatly rowling the head downwards we descend into the miseries of age What thing is more fearfull or more incredible than to see a man become miserable in short space the fashion of his visage changeth the beautie of the face lost the beard waxe white the head bald the cheeks forehead full of wrinkles the teeth as white as Iuorie becommeth blacke as a cole the light feete by the goute are crepeled the strong arme with palsey weakened the fine and smooth throte with wrinkles plaited and the body that was straite and vpright waxeth crooked The beautie of man is none other but a veile to couer the eyes a paire of fetters for the feete manacles for the hands a lime rod for the wings a theese of time an occasion of danger a prouoker of trouble a place of lecherie a sinke of all euill and finally it is an inuenter of debates and a scourge of the affectioned man O simple simple and ignorant persons how our life consumeth
and we perceiue not how we liue therein Of mercie pitie helpe and compassion towards the poore HAppy not once but an hundred times is he that will remember the poore afflicted and open his hart to comfort them and doth not shut his cofers from helping them to him at the straight day of iudgement the processe of his life shall be iudged with mercie and pitie The pitifull hart which is not fleshed in crueltie hath as much pitie to see another man suffer as of the sorow and torment which he himselfe feeleth If a man behold himselfe from top to toe he shal find not one thing in him to mooue him to crueltie but he shall see in himself many instruments to exercise mercie For he hath eyes to behold the needie feete to goe to the church eares to heare Gods word hands to be stretched to the poore a toong to vtter good things an hart to loue God and to conclude he hath vnderstanding to know the euil and discretion to follow the good God hath not giuen him scratching nails as to the cat nor poison as to the serpent nor perilous feete as to the horse to strike withall nor bloodie teeth as to the Lion but hath created vs to be pitifull and commanded vs to be mercifull Obedience AS the element of the fire the element of the aire and the element of water do obey and the element doth commaund of the earth or that against their nature he bringeth them to the earth and al the noble and most chiefest elements obedient to the most vile onely to forme a body mixt it is great reason that all obey one vertuous person that the common wealth therby might be the better gouerned The second reason is of the body and soule The soule is the mistres that commaundeth and the body the seruant which obeyeth for the body neither seeth heareth nor vnderstandeth without the soule but the soule doth these without the body In that common wealth where one hath care for all and all obey the commandement of that one there God shall be serued the people shall profit the good shall be esteemed the euill despised and besides that tyrants shall be suppressed How many people and realms bicause they would not obey their prince by iustice hath sithence by cruell tyrants been gouerned with tyrannie for it is a iust plague that those which despise the scepter of righteous princes should feele and prooue the scourge of cruel tyrants O happy common wealth wherein the prince findeth obedience in the people and the people in like maner loue of the prince for of the loue of the prince springeth obedience in the subiects and of the obedience in the subiects springeth the loue of the prince Patience LOoke howe much wee offend through the offence so much doe we appease through patience The patience which God vseth in not punishing our faultes is greater than that which men haue in suffering the chastisement bicause we iustly offend and iustly are punished I account all in me at the disposition of fortune as wel riches as other prosperities and I keep them in such a place that at any hower in the night when she listeth she may cary them away and neuer awake me so that though she cary those out of my cofers she should neuer rob me of my patience Patience in aduersitie pleaseth God where as wrath prouoketh his indignation We see in a mans bodie by experience that there are sundry diseases which are not cured with words spoken but with the herbes thereunto applied and in other diseases the contrary is seen which are not cured with costly medicines but with comfortable words When the diseases are not very olde rooted nor dangerous it profiteth more oftentimes to abide a gentle feauer than to take a sharpe purgation The impatient hart especially of a woman hath no rest till she see her enimie dead No patience can endure to see a man obtaine that without trauel which he could neuer compasse by much labor He is most vnhappy which is not patient in aduersity for men are not killed with the aduersities they haue but with the impatience which they suffer Though wise men leese much they ought not therfore to dispaire but that they shall come to it againe in time for in the end time doth not cease to do his accustomed alterations nor perfect friends cease not to do that which they ought That man onely in this life may be called vnhappy to whom God in his troubles hath not giuen patience Peace HE alone doth knowe howe precious a thing peace is which by experience hath felt the extreeme miserie of war The life of a peaceable man is none other then a sweete peregrination and the life of seditious persons is no other than a long death Euerie prince which loueth forraine wars must needs hate the peace of his common wealth Aristotle doth not determine which of these two is the most excellēt either stoutnes to fight in the wars or policie to rule in peace That peace is more woorth that is honest than is the victorie which is bloodie In the good war a man seeth of whom he should take heed but in the euill peace no man knoweth whom to trust Where peace is not no man enioieth his owne no man can eate without feare no man sleepeth in good rest no man safe by the way no man trusteth his neighbor and where there is no peace we are threatned daily with death and euery houre in feare of our life Seeing Christ left to vs his peace and commanded vs to keepe the same we should not condiscend for reuenging iniuries to shed mans blood for the good christians are commanded to bewaile their own sins but they haue no licence to shed the blood of their enimies and therefore I wish all princes for his sake that is prince of peace they loue peace procure peace keepe peace liue in peace for in peace they shall be rich and their people happie Pleasure WHat commeth of vaine pleasure nothing but the time euill spent famine in way of perdition goods consumed credit lost God offended and vertue slandered Of pleasure we get the names of brute beasts and the surnames of shame I would the eies were opened to see how we liue deceiued for all pleasures that delight the bodie make vs beleeue that they come to abide with vs continuallie but they vanish away with sorrow immediately on the contrary the infirmities that blinde the soule say that they come to lodge as guests and remaine with vs continually as housholders Death is a miserable lake wherein all worldly men are drowned for those men that thinke most safely to passe it ouer remaine therin most subtilly deceiued During the time that we liue in the house of this fraile flesh sensualitie beareth so great a rule that she wil not suffer reason to enter in at the gate Reason leadeth
gaue vnto man was to know and be able to speake for otherwise the soule reserued the brute beasts are of more valew than dombe men Pythagoras commanded that all men which are dombe and without speech should immediatly and without cōtradiction be banished and expulsed from the people and the cause why he commāded this was that he said that the toong is mooued by the motions of the soule and that he which had no toong had no soule The toong which is noble ought to publish the goodnes of the good to the end that all know it the frailnes of the wicked ought to be dissembled and kept secret that it be not followed If the body of a man without the soule is little regarded I sweare vnto thee that the toong of a man without truth is much lesse esteemed As the sword pierceth the body so the toong destroieth the renowme There are many which are of a goodly toong and wicked life Wise men ought to feare more the infamie of the litle pen than the slander of the babling toong All corporall members in a man waxeth olde sauing the inward hart and outward toong for the hart is always greene to beare the fruit of euil and the toong always fruitfull to tell lies Time THere is nothing needeth more circumspection than the measuring of Time for that Time should be measured so iustly that by reason no Time should want to do well nor any time abound to doe euill That time may be accounted lost which is spent without the seruice of God or profite of our neighbor Time in all things bringeth such change and alteration that those we haue once seen to be great lords within a while after we haue seene slaues Deceiue not your selfe to say there is time for all amendement for time is in the hand of God to dispose Warres IN time of war princes cannot reforme vices nor correct the vicious They which mooue war or intreat it ought to consider that if it come not well to passe all the blame shall be imputed to their counsell and if his substance be not able presently to recompence the losse let him assure himselfe that his soule hereafter shall endure the paine In examining of histories we shall finde more defamed for beginning of wars than renowmed for vanquishing of their enimies In wars they do naught else but kill men spoile the people destroy innocents giue libertie to theeues seperate friendes raise strife all which cannot be done without hinderaunce of iustice and scrupulositie of conscience Before wars be begun it would be considered what losse and what profite may ensue None are fit for the wars but such as little esteeme their liues and much lesse their consciences If war were onely the euil against the euill there were no thought nor care to be taken but where honor fame glory and riches are taken prisoners it is a lamentable matter that so many wise good and vertuous be lost Iust war is more woorth than fained peace for looke how much his enimie offendeth for taking it so much he offendeth his common wealth for not defending it Women in times past were led to the wars to dresse meate for the whole and to cure the wounded but now to the end that cowards should haue occasions to be effeminate and the valiant to be vicious Men which in peace seeme most fierce in time of war shew themselues most cowards and likewise men full of words are for the most part cowards in deeds Women ANd sith God hath commanded and our face doth permit that the life of men can not passe without women I aduise the youth and beseech the aged I awake the wise and instruct the simple to shunne women of euill name more than the common pestilence Shee that will be accounted honest let hir not trust to the wisedome of the wise nor commit hir fame to the wanton youth let her take heede what he is that promiseth ought for after that the flames of Venus is set on fire and Cupid shot his arrowes the rich offereth all that he hath and the poore all that he may the wise man will be for euer hir friend and the simple man for euer hir seruant the wise man will loose his life for hir and the simple man will accept his death for hir It is great perill to wise women to be neighbored with fooles great perill to the shamefast to be with the shamlesse great peril to the chaste to be with the adulterers for the honorable to be with the defamed there is no slandered woman but thinketh euery one like hirselfe or at least desireth so procureth so and saieth so in the ende to hide their infamie they slander the good Diuers things ought to be borne in the weakenes of women which in the wisedome of men are not permitted I know not what iustice this is that they kill men for robbing and stealing of money and suffer women to liue that steale mens harts Women haue more neede of remedie than of good counsell The beautie of women setteth strangers on desire and putteth neighbours on suspection to great men it giueth feare to meane men ennie to the parents infamy to themselues perill with great paine it is kept that is desired of manie The most laudable and holy company in this life is of the man and woman especially if the woman be vertuous the wife withdraweth all the sorrowes from the hart of hir husbande and accomplisheth his desires whereby he liueth at rest A man of vnderstanding ought not to keepe his wife so short that she should seeme to be his seruant nor yet to giue hir so much libertie that she becommeth therby his mistres The good wife may be compared to the phesant whose feathers we little esteeme and regarde much the bodie but the euill woman to the Marterne whose skinne we greatly account of and vtterly despise the bodie The complexion of women with childe is very delicate and the soule of the creature is very precious and therefore it ought with great diligence to be preserued for all the treasure of the Indies is not so pretious or in value equal to that which the woman beareth in hir bowels when a man planteth a vineyarde foorthwith he maketh a ditch or some fence about it to the end beasts should not crop it while it is yoong nor that trauellers should gather the grapes when they are ripe if the laborer to get a little wine onely which for the bodie and soule is not alwaies profitable doth this how much more circumspection ought the woman to haue to preserue hir childe since she shall render account vnto the creator of a creature vnto the church of a christian vnto hir husband of a childe The birds when they haue hatched hauing but six little ones haue neither milke to nourish them nor corne to giue them neither haue they