then become more worthy beeing made fit to serue their Prince and Countrey they root themselues out from the breast thereof rashly cruelly detestably Men dare marry no more and they which haue children will not vouchsafe to bring them vp carefully as they were wont to make them capable to serue you They dare send them no more to your Court that is the Scylla and Charybdis where they perish miserably the Altar where they be sacrificed continually the mournefull Schoole where they find death instead of learning ability to defend the life of the Prince for the maintenance of the Estate France soyled with the blood of her owne children a furious parricide all horrible with wounds crieth out casteth her selfe at your feet tearing her haire and craues mercy of you will you deny it to your Subiects to your seruants hauing been so franke of it to your enemies Then are you well grounded Sir The Pardons which your Maiestie doth so often giue or to speake more properly which are snatched from you by such importunitie bee against the Lawes of GOD and Men against the vniuersall order of Kingdomes and Common-weales Wee say so often and not without cause that is too well knowne Wee will adde in so great a quantitie For in one day onely in the voyage of Savoy your Maiestie dispatched sixscore which is monstrous It is not simply to tollerate the euill but to approoue nourish and command it All Diuines with a generall accord and consent doe say that they which die in these miserable combates are damned a fearefull sentence and yet true Your selfe doe say Sir and promise that you will make lawes you doe make them and renew the old ones but to what end serue they if they be not obserued There be many springs which play vpon this worke many that haue the honour to approach your Maiesty doe detest quarrells in word and afterwards oftentimes are the cause of them taxing them that they doe thinke are not valiant we say are valiant for these follies for these friensies extreame friensies Is there any thing so ridiculous as the subiect of quarrells But alas there is nothing so deplorable as their euents Here is a strange mistery This iniustice is acknowledged and condemned of the most part and yet if a Gentleman doe not go to Duel he is despised he is reproached If he goes and escapes the iron he falls vpon the penne he must passe through iustice What a perplexitie is this What shall become of this miserable man He hath cut off one head and out of that arised seauen others Such a man is much troubled There is yet more and that is that although they know your Maiestie will take order for it and doe make edicts yet the report runnes that your Maiestie doe blame them which doe not fight This is it that prickes most The Iudgements of Kings be Oracles they excite the furics of Orestes no patience but it is lost no consideration retained What is all this light and darkenesse hot and cold The mischeife is that vpon the rocks of these contrarieties many doe rush and are miserably lost There is not any in the world that knowes what Honour and Valour is like you Sir none that makes them better vnderstood better tasted by discourse not any that for his owne particular hath so well practised them nor so exactly obserued and so diligently and gloriously acquired the first ranke and none that makes them lesse obserued and practised by others in these times You must of necessitie know the efficient cause of so many disasters And this it is the two rare peices so exquisite and so precious whereof we come to speake Honour and Valour By the one your Nobility will get the other which beeing euill vnderstood doth bring so much desolation by the meanes of Valour so ill knowne and so brutishly practised All the world knowes that the number of your trophies doe exceed the number of your years They are excellent tokens of the greatnes of your courage which hath made you put downe the statues of Caesar by so many great exploites There is nothing that your Maiesty can better vnderstand then these two points whereof it hath rendred so famous testimonies such extraordinary proofes It belongs then to your Maiesty to reforme the disorder caused by them since it knowes them so perfectly You haue both will and power the one from your clemencie and iustice the other from your Authoritie Your Maiestie is mooued thereunto by the knowledge of these iniust acts inuited pressed and as it were reproached by these fit subiects Your inimitable clemencie hath produced inimitable effects but who doubts of that which hath made you the most famous Prince of the world and of that which hath saued this Estate hauing made you expose your life so often and so freely for the conseruation thereof In the meane time here is a bloody disorder which continueth and encreaseth daily By dispersing these clouds which will obscure the brightnesse of your glory bought with so many hazardes you shall conserue and augment that which you haue worthily gained The continuance and perseuerance in doing well be the sinewes and reflexions of reputation It is that which mooues it it is that which encreaseth it And the Tombe onely ought to bee the last line of vertuous actions what can be imagined more exquisite more triumphant Let vs see the errour of men of this time rashnes put on by all the most brutish passions concupiscence vanity pride reuenge enuic and other furies naturall to men they call courage these are the lime and sand but the workeman and subtill Architect is the euill spirit That this is true doe but consider that euen they who hardly doe beleeue a Paradise who are so well pleased in the world not knowing any other and haue such occasion to abide in it doe cast away themselues without cause against their owne knowledge against their iudgement depriuing themselues of the world with the blindnesses whereof they are strooke as with the falling sicknes And how by a loose vanity by friuolous considerations without reason without foundation It is a high secret we must returne to that which we haue said that it is the euill spirit which forgeth all these miseries Doe we not also see these killers early or late end their dayes with a violent death Blood is in the ende expiated by blood sinne punished by the same sinne It is strange that making the delights of the earth their heauen respiring nothing but all sorts of pleasures not testifying in their fashions in their speach in their effects any apprehension of the estate of soules after this fraile life we say the most part are notwithstanding so forward so resolute to hazard that which they hold so deare But if they doe beleeue a more happy life after this mortall iudge what their end is what their iudgement to quit their part thereof so without purpose Some say there is great
by the quality of the blood so rare a treasure know thou art an Heretique This sparkling Planet of Mars doth not influe vigour enough The fowre elementary qualities doe not know what it is to go to blowes they hate them the bloud cannot vnderstand so high a lesson quite contrary to his beeing This apprentiship doth come from elsewhere It is true as I haue said that there bee some soules better disposed to Vertue then others and likewise some bodies more fit to receiue the faire influences of the soule Yet for all that all men generally and naturally doe feare death It is a grieuous thing to forsake this pleasing light of the day and to goe with wormes whatsoeuer is imagined This default comes from sin this weakenesse hath drawne from thence her beginning It brought death which is irkesome to man because it was not so at the first creation Without going any higher in Theologie I will follow my point The feare of death mans perpetuall Hostesse whose efficient cause matter and forme be within the bones the blood and the arteries is a miserable worker of all the irresotions which doe ariue for this subiect Feare to die the hereditary maladie the domesticall weakenes the naturall falling-sickenesse to man is the beginner of all infirmities to them that doe not thinke to liue well Now to liue well a man must cast his eyes vpon his carriage he must thinke of the end he must meditate vpon this common and last passage of men It was all the Philosophy of the Auncients which in truth is a good part of perfection though not the principall To meditate vpon death to imagine that after this short and painefull life there is an eternall and blessed life is to enter into the way of Vertue though not to goe to the ende This answereth to that diuine sentence Know thy selfe represent thy selfe that thou art a cleare beame of God that thy house is heauen that the diuine essences doe pertaine to thee of proximitie that thou art a passenger in this miserable life that Vertue is the onely image whereof thou must bee an Idolater and which must wholly gouerne thee These considerations doe open the barre to faire actions but the gate is yet shut This Vertue is excellent without doubt which prepareth the soules to good lifteth vp thy vnderstanding to all high worthy things It is not enough for all that To command a mans selfe is more then all that The other hath the tongue this the hand one the word the other the effect the one prepareth the soule to the diet the other is the diet it selfe the one mooues humours the other purges them the one guides the other executes To conclude the one beginneth the other endeth the work To know a mans selfe answereth to the meditation of death to command a mans selfe answereth to the contempt of death The auncients made their Philosophy and loue of wisdome meditation of death only whereas they should haue said that it was the meditation and contempt both together For these two be sister-germanes and inseparable to conduct to the sacred Temple of Sapience But what is this attracting brightnes what is this charmious figure what is this diuine ladder which when in hath inlightened by the discourse of reason and by the knowledge of our selues and burned by the pleasing flames of the loue of it doth make vs enter into heauen It is Magnanimitie which is the contempt of death What is the end of it to doe alwaies well If they aske what Temples what Sacrifices shee desireth She will answer that shee is all that that she hath all in her selfe If they doe presse her to tell what mooueth her she will say That it is onely her affection to cary her selfe in all things vertuously Why she doth not feare death Because she feareth her selfe more Why she doth not desire the conuersation of life so sweete Because to liue without Vertue is to be dead without any hope to liue againe Let them question her euery manner of way she shall be as ready and wise to answer as firme and couragious to resist Now as you see to know a mans selfe goeth not so forward as to command a mans selfe so it must be said that to meditate vpon death is not so much as to despise it Many doe know their own infirmities they haue euen drawne the very picture of them with all the liuely colours there wants nothing They know that they are subiect to a thousand loose passions they resolue to combate these domesticall enemies they prepare themselues thereunto and euen in the very instant that they are ready to come to handy-blowes they do as Dolon did in Homer who cast away his Buckler in the cheife time of the skirmish or like to him who after hee had made proud marches cries out against his follies I see the best and like it and doe follow the worst It is cowardize they haue not force enough to resist hauing but one feeble obscure sparke of Vertue which hath not the power to heate though it giue light They which commaund themselues doe shewe that they haue beene longer exercised in this faire Academy that they haue beene vpon the iusting or fencing place that they haue wrestled against the prodiges of vice and throwne them to the ground which makes them worthy of praise and to haue their names graued in letters of gold in the holy Temple of Honour This then answereth to the contempt of death which cannot bee familiar with a man but by Valour which doth not consist onely in marshall actions neither is enclosed with those walles alone because there bee a thousand other instruments of this cruell enemy of nature besides those of warre Socrates who swallowed hemlocke did as much contemne death as Alexander in the middest of his combates The one was as it were transported with marshall fury and the other was no more mooued seeing his death prepared then if they had come to inuite to runne at the playes of Olympus The one was almost out of himselfe with choller the other was altogether in himselfe and quite out of the frailty of man through a firme and constant resolution to this last step Both of them did it through greatnesse of courage Valour was in them both all the worke was hers Notwithstanding the one of them was inflamed with the ardour of young blood with ambition and with the desire to make himselfe venerable to posterity the other was not stupide nor insensible but he had a constant coldnes a firme resolution with discourse iudgement and meditation hauing no other end but manfully to resist fortune and death without beeing thrust on by consideration of worldly vanities Wherein is to be noted that these latter parts be euen as necessary as the others and that the great and vnheard of effects of Vertue doe proceede cheifely from the vnderstanding and intelligence Truely they which haue not learned this
magnificent Science but amongst Pistolls and Pikes haue a Valour more brutish lesse considering and lesse wise They which haue exercised their forces onely in Plato his walke in the study haue a more soft spirit and which doth not seeme so vigorous against euill because experience assureth weaknes and is ordinarily seene among the blood and the sword it maketh the courages more cowardly and supporteth the most imbecill for as much as custome is another nature The contempt of death for them is by imagination in the aire not meeting as others doe among them that are hurt slaine and daily at blowes True it is that Socrates had married his spirit with his hand the greatnesse of his courage with his sword and his high imaginations with execution and proofe After he had meditated and layed the foundations of this faire Pyramides by the diuine Idea's of his vnderstanding and by that proud proiect which carried him away in his thought he put his hand to the worke Wee must not meruaile if by this band which is not common he brought forth no common thing Now I haue said that it is not at the Warre only that magnanimity is exercised a long imprisonment pouerty maladies the losse of friends and other accidents be proofes of a courage manly and oftentimes more assured then of death it selfe In the meane time a man must well consider what contempt of death is A man doth not feare death onely for the griefes that it brings vs which are soone passed but for the pleasure whereof it depriueth vs and for the delights of life which comes of follie ignorance and want of meditation That which ones leaues giues more paine then that which one feeles and whosoeuer would take away the apprehension of this bitternesse should but onely tast it The euill comes from the fantasie which hath most force where there is least reason Death is made so redoubtable because it takes from vs the ioyes of life and for that we are tied to that which doth least appertaine vnto vs. For feeble pleasures the long vse whereof should be odious vnto vs For lewd desires which haue found our tast sicke to the end to gaine yet some dayes and to haue a miserable delay and a shamefull respite a man would lengthen the parchment and deferre the matter so loath is a man to ariue All that proceeds from want of iudgement for as much as we haue lodged our Soueraigne good where it is not and that we seeke it for the most part by his contrary To haue then the contempt of death we must rather haue knowledge of the life that is truely worthy of man Neither could the lot of Africa nor Circes nor the Syrens nor all the attracting delights of the nymph Calypso retaine the wise Greeke His designes were more lofty he was tyed with more strong bonds the knowledge which he had of a greater blesse made him enter into an extraordinary disdaine of these vnworthy pleasures Contraries one neare the other doe shine most So the discourses of reason be cleare Lampes which shew the way in the darknes of our blindnes it is by them that we vnderstand what to follow and to take our resolution to doe that which doth most carry a man beyond man There is no Vertue that can lead through these thornes through these rugged rockes and through these fearefull solitarinesses to perfection but magnanimity Shee is without ignorance knowing all things hauing digested all doubts chased all clouds taken away all scruples by the faire and agreeable Theorique meditation which would haue beene vnfruitefull if it had not beene put in vse by this Queene of Vertues This heauenly Queene then hauing carried her intelligence vpon all that concerneth man and hauing sported her selfe through all this great Theatre of the world after shee had waighed â—ounded and calculated all Shee knew that well-doing was the highest point at which humane nature could ariue Glad of this knowledge and wholly transported with admiration of her owne diuine essence shee hath made choice of this golden sleece and there erected her conquests She is so resolued This is not all shee is gone into action Shee is in the conflict she remaines glittering with victorious glory ouer her enemies To this beginning a thousand difficulties are opposed to her designes Feeble nature in a traunce with feare so sensible open to all sorts of euills perfumed soft lasciuious pleasures couered with amber and muske with bodies without armes and legges with maymed shapes with sad goings in some ioyes and griefes pell-mell will violently pull the armes out of her hands Shee hath ouerthrowne all shee hath vanquished all shee remaines Mistresse of the field Let them cut slash burne let all the world come together to fall a man accompanied with this incomparable Vertue remaines without loosening stiffe and firme as marble Admirable rampier against misfortunes and most strange euents how diuine thou art faire Vertue seeing thou doest draw men from the gouernement of humanity how high and eleuated thou art seeing thou doest roote from the center of the earth the earth it selfe how strong thou art seeing thou doest giue the forces of Sampson to the imbecillity of humane nature which is weaknes it selfe how aboue humane thou art seeing thou doest make our senses leape ouer the barres of sense and how rare thou art seeing thou art so difficill If I did thinke to be exempt from the blame of presumption for enterprizing to speake of so high a subiect I would produce for an example a spirit wholly royall that is to say fully perfect Let a man behold it on all sides he will iudge it such as I desire it in this Discourse Sir You that are a man and aboue men as such an one giue me leaue to be so bold to speake of this Vertue which is admired and reuerenced in you with many others which haue adiudged you the prize aboue all Princes of the World As a man suffer me to speake of your Vertue As aboue men for that you are glittering with so many perfections aboue humane Pardon my presumption in consideration of the zeale which I haue to honour that which deserues it As a King permit me to speake the truth Let a man looke on all sides with the eyes of enuy and euill speaking that spares nothing and with the eyes of iudgement which doe waigh all things as is meet taking away those domestique sorceresses of Kings Courts flatterie and passion he shall see that the magnanimitie of our great Henry is incomparable and such as a man would desire in perfection The desire to make himselfe immortall by the renowne which preacheth the faire deedes after the Tombe hath not made him produce so many famous military acts For he that hath his vnderstanding as cleare as his courage heroicall knowes right well that Princes may make themselues so by a thousand other effects of Vertue Adrian Traiane Seuerus and many other the most famous Emperours
shall haue taken to make good lawes seeing this holy resolution will be ashamed to sue vnto you to destroy that which you shall haue built by their owne iudgement If they do importune you they shall be worthy to be denied and that deniall shall deserue the glory due to your vertue But how would they dare to presse you to doe that within your Realme which they would not suffer in their owne houses Knowing and detesting the malediction of this custome if we could returne how happy should we be to offer our selues in sacrifice for all France and that your Maiestie would put vs to death vpon condition that that which we propound might be exactly obserued How glorious would this curse be to giue two liues to saue so great a body It would surpasse all renowned deeds both auncient and moderne But if the death of some few seem cruell we say it is reasonable that a small number should bee sacrificed for an infinite some must necessarily suffer for the publique It is to preuent a thousand inconueniences Your Nobilitie is wholly diuided by means of quarrells If your Maiestie had occasion to raise armies as it may ariue let men iudge what mischiefes would come thereby At the meeting of the friends kinsfolkes and allies of them which be daily killed with the homicides What coyles what outrages what furies would there be By this counterpoise a man might know that it would bee a very Christian pitty to cause so great a gaine by a little losse If your Maiesty do not redresse these disorders we must neuer hope for it This worke with many others is reserued for your goodnesse and good fortune Alas for so many Gentlemen as die in France there are made so many bone-fires in Spain and amongst the other enemies of the French name They set vp their Trophies with your blood they build with your ruines and make themselues great with your losses We know with all the world that you are not a Nero you haue pardoned euen those that haue attempted your owne person It is certaine that you neuer loose any one of yours but you haue great sence of it aboue all you are sensible of the losse of them that haue hazarded their liues to defend yours and to maintain your Lawes That is not enough you must not stay in so faire a way What is to be done more to make it appeare by the effects which doe speake of themselues There be certaine laughers that fight not who lets escape this saying that there is no hurt to draw blood from a body full of euill humours It is the most caniball and bleeding maxime of the world Which sauours with a full throate the Democrasie of the Switzers an impious maxime and full of ignorance Impious for it is against all Lawes diuine and humane Full of ignorance for as much as it is not onely the choler and sleame that goes out it is the good blood let vs say the best oftentimes They answer that quarrells arise commonly from the rash and insolent and that modest men who vsually are most valiant doe not begin them It is a worthy obiection Is not the world fuller of fooles then of wise men The French Nobility who accompts Valour her summum bonum is she not as ready as a flash of lightning It comes to passe then that the peaceable by beeing in company either for that they are friends kinsfolkes allies or neighbours be wrapped in these disorders not of their owne motion but by the instigation of others So the â—ood blood is mingled with the euill It were a high secret to know how to separate them No Alchimist is capable of it See how France is wounded and torne with her owne hands behold how she fills her selfe with desolations in such sort that there is not a house in this kingdome exempt from one of these two miserable scourges or from both together from suite or bloodshed A lamentable thing worthy of commiseration But who craues the remedy which is denied him by an euill destiny what meanes is there to abate these fumes to temper these dog daies We haue said it so often good Lawes and well obserued to busie and content great mindes and to imploy them There be many iust occasions and faire meanes enough Let vs now consider the euent of our misery and let vs waigh the good that comes of it Ah! how remarkeable it is the faire schoole the fearefull example God hath shewed in this prodigious effect two things worthy to be noted The one that he is iust and true in that which he hath said Who killeth shall be killed Alas we had rooted out the soules of others from their bodies with an vnmercifull iron against the Law of God and we haue beene punished by our selues by the same wayes Iudges and parties executioners and criminalls infringers of mens repose and in danger to be depriued of the heauenly rest The other point remarkeable is that it must be a vowed by force that nothing is so detestable before the Maiesty of God as the Duell as it is practised in this Realm Oh iust oh admirable oh redoubtable iudgements Doe not you enter into this consideration Yes you doe Sir it penetrates all your soule Though you did not yet should you cast your eyes vpon this lamentable vessell your Nobility peirced from ribbe to rib which takes water at all sides which perisheth by little and little in all mens sight ready to make a pitifull strip wracke The heart cannot faile but the other members must be without force and all the world knowes the inuincible heart of this great Body cannot be subdued but by it selfe You are the Head you are the eies succour this noble part which beeing weakned by so many conclusions by so much losse of blood you can haue neither moouing nor light nor conduct nor vigor against the mischeifes which grow so often within the entralls of this Realme nor against them which may ariue from without Whosoeuer will narrowly marke to what a brutishnes the furies of the French are mounted he will tremble in the soule he will finde himselfe turned topsie turuy quite out of himselfe When they speake of causes which doe engage to Duell they confesse that according to God it is damnable wickednes and yet for all that they goe to it So as to practise Honour as they doe in these dayes it is iust not to be a Christian to make a glory of homicide is to loue Vertue to heape vp whole families with misery with desolation it is to be a light of men to conclude it is to be the image of all gentlenes to know well how to efface without cause from the world the image of God They that haue the dropsie of pride that are puffed vp with vanity and ignorance will say this is spoken like Diuines In the estimation of this age it is an ill argument to alleadge God or to be a Christian That is too
stale Supporting our selues then with the reasons of the world we say to them which had rather be beasts then men that such combates are not only against the Lawes of God but against all Humane lawes not onely of Christians but of Infidells which are now or euer haue been Assyrians Egyptians Persians Medes Greeks Romanes and French We goe further and maintaine that this confession that that which they doe is euill according to God is not only impious and execrable for Christianitie but is also agreeable to the auncient Romane heathen who had mystically made two Temples the one of Honour the other of Vertue with such industry that they could not enter into the Temple of Honour but by this last Now among them the principall the highest and most triumphant Vertue was the reuerence of their gods Is not this then a blasphemy worthy of all sorts of punishments For the consideration of God beeing taken away may there be had any Vertue among men It is as if a man should boast of his soundnesse and confesse himselfe a leper From all this doth arise a necessary consequent That true Honour cannot subsist without Vertue which is his sprout his root his body as the other his branches his flowers and his fruit Our pitifull accident deserues to be culled out by particularities Enuy reuenge and other loose passions whereof we haue spoken in the beginning naturall to man and borne in his owne Territorie were not the principall organes of our mischiefe There was no enuy we were neither companions nor neighbours neither were wee acquainted desire of reuenge there could not be choler must be first exhaled there were blowes giuen on both sides What is it then I his effect is worthy to bee digested We were both of vs peaceable shunning quarrels detesting them bearing both of vs a perpetuall remorse a worme of conscience for those we had formerly had knowing the euill we had done and repenting of it Yet for all that a choller not of set purpose but by chance-medley hath caused our death How By the consideration of Lawes of a false Honour against our knowledge against our conscience It is then this weake imagination that hath depriued vs of the light Here is the great secret which vpholdeth so many calamities The circumstance following is to bee considered The play at Tennis makes a man impatient and rash an ordinary choller should be excused almost in all persons in such exercises We should also pardon a choller which is vsuall with all them that be wronged or that doe perswade themselues they are so The one thought he had iudged well the other beleeued the contrary the one in passion with the play the other though without passion yet deceiued it may be by his eare This was accordable The foundation thereof was so feeble It was for a thing of nothing Let vs examine this A third which should haue brought a plaister brought a sword This is the second piece of our misfortune Which concludes That the office of Challengers is a most wicked and damnable introduction Our choller met with this fatall commoditie without which we had presently bin at peace For this first motiō it is most common they doe vse it euery where They be miserable characters and imperfect seales of humane weaknes But this being appeased and the first brunt qualified to haue a third which should haue brought water to cast brimstone into the fire to haue a third which should haue serued as a barre to be a furtherer of the mischiefe to haue a third which should haue bin the rampier to be the key to open the gates of death being not wronged neither hauing any part in the accident it surpasseth all the impieties of the heathen This blindnes is followed with an other A man dares not hinder his friend for feare to doe him wrong to what end will a man reserue the testimonies of a good will to what faire occasion But all these edifices built vpon foundations of error and vanity what can they be but pure folly They say We must not iudge of right or wrong by the euents They are most commonly as letters sealed vp for the spirit of man notwithstanding in this the iudgement of God is very manifest There is a man charitable discreete sincere in all his actions in a word the very modell of all Christian vertues The generall blindnesse as a throng in a faire of insolent people thrusts him forward and carries him to the combate against his intent and desire he himselfe blames and condemnes his owne action Heauen sees his heart a man would thinke that such an one would carry away the victory There is he destroyed there rooted out from amongst men as the most depraued Ye curious folkes that goe diuing into the Centre of most profound secrets seeke not the cause any where els but in the Iustice of God who hateth and detesteth these wicked ambitions Our example should make the haires of all them that are possessed with diuells to stand vpright who cast themselues vpon death so desperately This lightning should dazle astonish and ouerthrow the eies the hearts and the designes of the most enraged For seeing that the best doe die there what should they expect whole life is wholly infected with malice and impurity God said to Dauid Thou shalt not build my Temple thou art a man of blood Strangers oh great King some yeares since do accuse the Kings of France to be such because they doe suffer these accursed combates They speake it aloud in publique they aggrauate this tolleration some pittying it some laughing at it These iudgements these motiues cannot be preuented but by taking the cause from the effect Be pleased then to efface and root out this opprobry this scandall disperse these fearefull Comets hanging and flaming with horrour ouer the heads of your subiects and threatning your Estate with totall ruine There is not any that hath so much hurt by these mortall exhalations as your Maiesty So shall she surpasse her Predecessors in good and holy policy as she hath done in greatnes of courage and in happy successe There had need be a speedy remedy and order giuen to haue the Gouernours of Prouinces the Kings Lieftenants the Seneshalls and others to strangle these infernall Hydra's This pestilentiall feauer doth runne through all the Prouinces of the Realme It is a contagious malady but it is ordinarily most violent in Guyenne They fight there tenne against tenne twenty against twenty as if they were in the strength of the warre They force them which be at peace in their houses to be of the match as if they were iniured and wronged in their Honour The Arabians are more like Christians then these people Who did euer see in the life of a conquering Monarch victorious absolute in an age full of vigour and in a time of peace men to make such combates The consequence is great for this prouince This Bulwarke so neare a
rich with that which groweth in her owne territory her rents doe suffice her to operate according to her flight although in certaine things she may haue need of Fortune Yet I doe not say that she is in perfection or that she may be for then a man should put off his humanity and that were to seeke a Valour in the aire as the Commonwealth of Plato or the perfect Oratour of Cicero But I say that the first and principall end of him that doth vertuously ought to be an action simple and purely vertuous That should be the end of it Let not the first intention of him that goeth to an exploit of danger knowing it well be the hope of immortality but let him goe thereto although he should know that that effect would remaine in the graue that his birth and death should be both at a time that he should haue his reward with the wormes and sad silence let him not forbeare to doe well because it is his duty Among the heathen they were perswaded that they ought to die for the Commonwealth and that that voluntary sacrifice of their liues for the publique which they did in a moment brought vnto them a perpetuall sacrifice among men who put such men in the ranke of the gods It was not onely a prouocation it was a furious transportation a desperate madnes which rapt them to all sorts of dangers by the hope of immortality It was a sweete vsury So Curtius cast himselfe into the fearefull gulph of Rome to make the inundation cease which following the answer of the Oracle could not be stayed but by that meanes So Sceuola went into the Campe of Porsena to kill him thinking by the death of this King to make the Romanes victorious So Horace who was called one eyed since that remarkeable effect stayed alone vpon the bridge of the town of Rome and sustained the violent assault of enemies with astonishment of all So the three twin-brothers did fight against three puissant Frenchmen to decide the difference betweene them and the people of Rome by the mutuall consent of both armies It was the hope to make themselues immortall by a famous renowne It was the statues and temples of Honour which were promised them that caused in them the contempt of death If a man should haue come and said to the first poore Romane Knight When thou shalt be cast into this horrible gulph which threateneth all thy towne with shipwracke there shall be no more remembrance of thee thou shalt haue no other oblation but those of thy selfe and thy horse And thou Sceuola thou deceiuest thy selfe to thinke that the Romanes doe erect statues and altars to thy Vertue Horace if thou diest to defend thy Country the earth the common Sepulture or Tiber shall be thy proud monuments and the only trumpets of thy glory You twin-brothers who runne to death for the Commonwealth of Rome all the Laurells that shall remaine vnto you shall be the complaints of your kinred and the teares of your wiues It is to be presumed that Curtius vpon the brimme of that fearefull gulph would haue giuen a musroll to his horse The second beeing ready to roote out this barbarous Kings soule from his body would haue told him the secret in his care so farre would he haue been from puting his hand in the fire with so incredible a constancy The third would not haue lost his eye as he did he would haue bin troubled with a phillip as a man would say not caring otherwise for the iournall of Land which he should haue had in recompence of so admirable a prowesse He would haue cast himselfe at the beginning into the water all whole as he did at the end all peirced with blowes The three brothers would haue all eadged their wiues their children and the vnmeasurable greatnesse of those French-bodies to be exempt from fightings or rather would haue faigned themselues sicke But the desire to make themselues as gods to posterity made them hazard their liues by a foolish hope and a vaine opinion of immortality It was then a false Valour In that case the Honourable desire to serue the Commonwealth should onely haue put them forward the desire to doe well and not to get a famous name after death or recompence after victory Yet notwithstanding that is the least imperfect Valour which is built vpon the beleife of a perpetuall renowne a worke of faire laudable hope and worthy of reward because of the example and of the profit that may come thereby to Commonwealths The Turkes who are so couragious and make no account of their liues doe not deserue by this meanes in any fashion whatsoeuer the name of Valiant because they hazard themselues vpon the hope that they haue to tast the agreeable delights which are promised them in that pleasant Paradise of Mahomet They be workes of faith the strong wings of a false perswasion that hath so charmed them and hauing plucked out the eyes of their soule doe couer also the eyes of their body to make a bloody sacrifice of all Should they haue the apples and the faire maides of the Alcoron taken from them they would haue much more affection to life then now they haue of brutish resolution to death If the desire to gaine glory and to perpetuate a mans name doe not deserue a perfect praise comming alone in consideration much lesse is the effect which proceedeth from a desperate necessity worthy of Honour The banished men at Antwerp beeing but sixe thousand did wonders because they knew well that by the military Lawes of Spaine they should neuer finde mercy with their Prince no more then the English with the Spaniards at Sea who for that cause haue recourse to the cruell element of fire But if pardon might be for the one and courtesie for the other it is to be supposed they would not make so good reckoning of their skins There be a thousand considerations in this deed which would be too long to deduce of which we must waigh some onely Ambition Loue and Couetousnes doe produce great effects cheifely Ambition at the Courts of great ones It is furie that carrieth away the soule that troubleth the braine that bewitcheth a strange Magitian which ouerthroweth all and sometimes giues the lyons courage to Harts To enter into credit to be honoured and esteemed of great Ones and likewise of the Prince to attaine to gouernements There be some that doe despise death and oftentimes these three causes that I haue named doe concurre to end the tragedy the sooner All these effects be false Valours because they be forced and if not altogether at the least somewhat like those of pyoners It ariueth also vnto them as to those that play vpon Theaters who haue the headbands royall and the clubbe of Hercules but this is neither so heauie nor so massy as that of this great mans was neither doe these Purple-robes and these Scepters make them Kings that doe weare
meete with hazards beeing therein engaged either for their ranke or by reason of their places or by some other occasions they encounter-with who goe to blowes gallantly in shew yet would be glad to be out of it what aduantage soeuer might come vnto them thereby Be it that they be borne great enough of themselues and happy without aspiring further or that their inclination doth not agree with this troublesome trade They watch perpetually that their play may not be discouered What a miserable life is this It is to giue a great aduantage to fortune ouer them making themselues subect to a thousand troublesome accidents in which men truely vertuous and desirous to doe wel haue no share For marke you how they worke They beleeue they are borne to doe well not to be of the common sort of men to serue their Prince and their Countrie to assist the weake to punish the wicked to maintaine iustice They know that they are obliged thereunto by diuine and humane Lawes as also by the Lawes of nature What they doe is voluntary hauing no other end but to doe well expecting no recompence carrying this incorruptible modell of true Honour in their vnderstanding which lifts them vp inflames them and transports them with all the gracious inchauntments with all the amarous bates of Vertue which is the most rauishing figure that can be imagined They goe to death without feare and without apprehension so much as humane nature can permit not onely because duty doth oblige them that is too common but because they will produce a faire action Others doe keepe themselues from failing and doing euill by carrying themselues vertuously because duty doth constraine and straightly binde them therunto and these doe not expose so precious a gage as life onely for the consideration of that effect but for the desire they haue to profit others and to approach the nearer by such actions to the diuinity Not to faile in things of great importance not to fall into shame and to keepe themselues from reproach is a common thing with the most part But to make himselfe remarkeable by doing well to goe about to make himselfe famous by faire actions is not proper but to them onely that are wholy Vertuous Those soules girt about with the diuine beame can bring forth nothing that is common base or vnworthie Great things doe appertaine vnto them and it is for them that the Cedars be planted The third pillar that sustaineth the holy worke of the most worthy Vertue that is amongst men is Habitude that is to say An action repeated and done many times which ought to be considered as the true touch of armes and the Soueraigne Iudge which iudgeth in the last resort of all faire actions It is not all to know the danger and to goe thereto willingly as I haue said with all the circumstances but a man must goe many times one masters tricke onely how bould soeuer he be makes not a good artizan neither doth one onely act of Vertue make a man vertuous It is this Soueraigne sounding plummet of hearts that makes a man sweat blood and water It is it that culleth out most curiously it is the expert workman which endeth this triumphant portall with all the dimensions There be an infinite number who for that they haue not ballanced this high consideration or to speake better not hauing conceiued or imagined it after one vertuous action only haue sounded the retreate and so contented themselues There be others after two or three faire actions besides their owne particular contentment haue come to a presumption measuring themselues by their shadow full of pride for the opinion they haue that they are of a good stampe not knowing that the end iudgeth of all our life and that there is no time limited to vertuous effects but that which commeth with the coffin and the burning torches Not that I wil say that they which are heaped vp with Honour by a thousand sufficient testimonies of their Valour haue been made famous shall seeke all occasions and hazard themselues like young men or such as haue done no great extraordinary matter But whē occasion shall be offred that the losse which they may make of themselues shall not be so preiudiciall as the profit of the Common-wealth shall be thereby great they must doe like other men This Carreere of Glory is infinite a man must find no end of it but by the last end nor euer be weary or filled therewith so long as his hand can furnish his courage We must not for all that come to such vnmeasurable passions and vnruly motions of such a blind and madde ambition as Marius had who ouerloaden with many yeares as well as with victories and buried as a man would say with the multitude of his Triumphes did notwithstanding beare enuy to young men Too much is alwaies to be blamed Habitude then is the last peice in order and in perfection it is one of the principall There bee some that once in their liues before their Prince haue done wonderfully They were prepared for that blow They would die or goe out of the mire of their auncestors enrich and put themselues to ease The artifice was not euil if they saued themselues and reaped the fruit of hope vnlesse death had fastened a nayle to their designes from which beeing escaped they had yet at the least this pleasure to haue once in their liues done wel and to hold that in common with the most honest men Those people flie at nothing but the Larke They should haue been in danger many times furnished with all things requisite with all the armes of vnderstanding and courage heauenly armes of the proofe of shots of death despising the graue and not esteeming any thing equall to the desire of doing well if they would haue been honoured with the triumphant Crowne which is giuen to the vertuous Among the muske of Canon-powder all couered with the Aromatique perfumes which the smoake of Harquebuzes doth cast vpon the points of swords and pikes the generous spirit doth exercise it selfe there she takes her measure at this rigorous schoole shee learnes a diuine Mistrisship there she gets her durable orders not once nor thrice nor fowre times but a thousand times euen as often as need is for the Common good They which doe not measure themselues by this ell are friuolous shadowes and if I may say so fantasies of true Vertue whereof they haue but a vaine appearance That likewise doth not endure All these things being exactly waighed I am of opinion that the cleare-sighted wil pronounce a sentence which cannot be retracted that is That there be very few men adorned with this incomparable vertue in perfection Notwithstanding some do approach thereunto more then others and an infinite number may haue some seeds and sprigs thereof like weake beames from so supernaturall a light Thou that goest seeking by the constellation of starres by the composition of humours