Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	good_a	life_n	16,696	5	4.8534	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00303	Epictetus his manuall. And Cebes his table. Out of the Greeke originall, by Io: Healey; Manual. English	Epictetus.; Cebes, of Thebes, attributed name.; Healey, John, d. 1610.	1610 (1610)	STC 10425; ESTC S101646	30,535	178

of knowledge they doe onely deliuer the men ouer vnto Instruction whom shee receiuing they goe their waies to fetch more as shippes do that hauing vnladed their fraught make presently forth for a new voiage taking in other commodities In truth sir your comparison is passing good quoth I but you told vs not yet what it is that Liues Genius sayth vnto those that are to enter the course of life Hee biddeth them bee of good cheere quoth hee and bee you of good cheere also for I will not keepe a letter of the exposition frō you we thanke you most humbly sir sayd we all Then hee reaching forth his staffe againe pointed vp saying see you that blind woman vpon the round stone there whom euen now I told you hight Fortune Yes The Genius bids them neuer to giue credence vnto her neuer to imagine any solidity in her bounties neuer to hold her gifts as your proper goods for that when shee list shee will take them from one bestow them on another magure all contradiction it is her ordinarye practise And therefore hee warneth them not to delight in her beneuolence nor to greeue at her frowardnesse Neuer to bee conquered either by her curstnesse or her curesies to giue her neither praises nor curses seeing shee doth nothing with discretion but hurleth all about at six and seauen as I told you already Therefore doth this Genius bid vs neuer wonder at her exploits nor play the badde borrowers to count another mans mony our owne and to bee offended and hold our selfe iniured if it be demanded againe forgetting that our credite lent vs it vpon condition to haue it restored without contention Thus saith this Genius must we stand affected to the benefits of fortune and to remember well that it is one of her old trickes to giue and take againe and then to giue one farre more and presently to take away all euery iot both what shee gaue last and what she left before He bids vs therfore take hir gifts hauing them make hast with them to that firme and constant kinde of bounty VVhich is that That which Instruction giueth to those that come safe to her Tower to aske it And what giueth shee See giueth the True knowledge of profitable thinges a guift of vnchangeable goodnesse and security To her therfore hee wils them all to make hast and when they come to Luxury and Incontinence the two women afore-named to passe by them speedily and stoppe the eares vnto their inueyg●ed perswasions and so to hasten on vntill they come vnto False Instruction There hee aduiseth them to make a little stay and take what they like of her for their Viaticum the rest of their iourney And then to scowre away with all speede vnto the Pallace of True Instruction This is the charge that the Genius of life layeth vppon all that are vppon enterance into the first enclosure Hee that eyther refuseth it or misaplyeth it comes home by vnhappinesse and ruine This mine honest friendes is the exposition of this Table If you would bee further satisfied in any thing else propound it and I will resolue you Gramercy curteous sir. I pray you then what is it that their Genius wisheth them to take at the station of False Inctruction Such things as they shall neede And what bee those Letters Languages and Disciplines which Plato called the bridles of youth keeping them out of worse imployments Must hee that will passe to True Instruction needes take these heere or may hee lette them alone if hee please Hee need not vnlesse hee list They are conuenient but wholy impertinent to vertue No are they not necessary for the bettering of our vnderstandings Yes but our goodnesse may haue increase without them yet are they not altogether vn-vsefull For we may heare a doctrine reade by another and yet it were not amisse if wee could reade it in the language our selues then wee benefit by his reading neuerthelesse so that one may bee without these disciplines well enough I but are not these that vnderstand the artes of a better hability to haue goodnesse infused into them then others that want those disciplines No how should that bee quoth hee when they are as badly conceited of the true nature of good and euill and as black with the pitchy touch of vitiousnesse as others that vnderstand nothing It is an easiy thing for one to bee a deepe scholler and a maister of all the disciplines and yet bee as prone to drunkenesse intemperance avarice iniury treachery yea and madnesse as he that neuer sawe the in-side of a schoole-house There are plenty of those examples wee neede not goe farre to fetch them And therfore what prerogatiue hath learning in the reformation of a mans exorbitances Truely none quoth I if things goe thus But why then are those schollers in the second enclosure as nearer neighbours to true Instruction then the rest Ablasse saith hee what good gette they by that When wee see often that diuers passe out of the first enclosure from Incontinence and the other vices vnto true Instruction without once resting amongst those Disciplinarians What man then can avouch their estate better because of their place They are either more dull or more idle then others Why sayd I how is that Because saith hee though those of the second enclosure were cleare from all faults else yet this alone stickes by them for euer To professe to know that Whereof they are vtterly ignorant which conceite of themselues maketh them farre more slacke in the quest of true Instruction Againe doe you not see how the Opinions come flocking out of the first enclosure vnto them These are the causes why their estate is not an haire better then the others vnless● Repentance and they fall once acquainted and that they bee veryly perswaded that they dwell not with True Instruction but with her counterfeit which draweth them into errors and so stoppeth all the meanes of their reformation and passage to security Wherefore strangers quoth hee vnlesse you take this course and beate this discourse of mine ouer and ouer vntill you haue gotten the habite thereof to which ende you must continue an often reuolution thereof in your meditation and make it your thoughts principall practise you shall neuer make vse of any word that you haue heard Sir wee will doe our best endeuours But I pray resolue vs this Why are not those things worthy the name of goods which Fortune giueth vnto mans vse as life health ritches honours children conquests and such other her bounties and why are not their contraries euills this assertiō seemeth strange and incredible vnto vs. Wel quoth hee be sure then that you answer directly vnto that I shall demand I will quoth I whether is it good for him that is an euill liuer to liue at all or no. It is not good I thinke quoth I for him to liue but rather euil How then can life saith he bee good at all if it bee euill for him Because quoth I as to the badde liuer life is badde so to the good liuer life is good So then you hold life both good and badde That I doe sayd I. O beware of an absurdity quoth hee It is impossible for one thing to bee good and euill For so it should bee both profitable and hurtfull and likewise alwaies both to bee affected and auoyded and that both at one time This is an absurdity indeed quoth I. But if hee that liueth badly haue a badnesse by liuing so how can life but bee badde vnto that man I but quoth hee it is one thing to liue and another to liue badly That is true quoth I. So then life in it selfe is not bad For if it were so it would bee so to the best liues as well as the worst For all should haue a life that should be a badnes in itself You say true VVell then life beeing communicated both to the good liues the euil to liue of it selfe is neither good nor euill no more then cutting or burning is both which are good in some diseases but hurtfull vnto all sound bodies So is this life and therefore propose this to yourselfe whether had you rather liue badly or die honourably The latter should be my choyce quoth I. So then quoth he death in it selfe is no badde thing belike for it is often times to bee preferred before life Most true Well then sicknes health haue one and the same respect For occasion may so fal out that it befitteth not the sicke man to recouer It may be so Good waigh ritches then in the same ballance Suppose that which is often seene A man hath great wealth and applyeth it to no good vse Many such there are Do not his ritches then helpe his beatitude any way I think not because of his own badnes VVhy then very well it is not wealth but wise Instruction that maketh a man happy Surely so it seemes How then can ritches be good when they haue no power to better their possessors They cannot indeed VVel it is befitting then that some should not bee rich at all because they are ignorant of the true vse of ritches Nay I am of your mind in that How then can that be any way pertaining to goodnesse which must bee often times withheld from the vse of diuers persons so that he that can vse wealth as wealth should be vsed may liue well and hee that cannot must needes breake downe his owne quiet you strike on truth in all things sir. Lastly quoth he it is the esteeme of those for goods or the contempt of them as euils that molesteth and offendeth the cogitations of men prizing them as thinges of such excellent worth and the onely conducts vnto the Court of happinesse and this maketh thē vndergo all actions euen of how wicked a front soeuer onely for the attaynment of these glosses These accidents attend on all such admirers of externall shewes because theirdull vnderstandings can no way penetrate into the natures of thinges truly good they are so graueled in the quick-sands of erroneous Ignorance The end of Cebes his Table