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	life_n	think_v	9,849	5	4.3485	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52344	Prudential reflections, moral considerations, and stoical maximes In three centuries: written originally in the Spanish tongue, and thence put into French, by a R.F. of the Society. English'd by J. D. of Kidwelly.	Nieremberg, Juan Eusebio, 1595-1658.; J. D.	1674 (1674)	Wing N1150B; ESTC R217842	50,700	197

not be subject to so many diseases if they treated their bodies with less tenderness than they do XCIV DEath is an excellent Picture which faithfully represents virtue Let him who would learn to live well consult the dead True Philosophy is nothing but a serious reflection upon death let us make use of its precepts that we may discover the deformity of Vice and the vanity of all things in the world let us also follow the Rules it gives us to make a great progress in a short time in the study and exercises of virtue XCV YOu will never better remember your self than when you shall think that some day you must dye The consideration of death is admirably fruitful for it teaches us what we are now it shews us what we shall be one day and it instructs us what we ought to do during the course of this life In fine death is the most exact rule of mens lives and it does them more good than they imagine to themselves XCVI IMagine not that at your death you simply cease to live I say that it is then you cease to dye True it is you began to live the first day you came into the world but from that day also you began to dye you made but one entrance into both life and death the light which enlightens your life is like that of a Candle what keeps it in consumes it XCVII PRay tell me what was man before he was born You will grant he was not Now I hold that to be the greatest and most insupportable of all necessities And what is he who a little before was not and who after he hath received being is n a manner nothing and who within in a short time will be but a little heap of dust and ashes It must be acknowledged That all these things considered in themselves are extremely despicable only virtue comprehends so much greatness and excellence that it is able to exalt and ennoble whatever approaches it Let us therefore esteem that above all things which only can render us so considerable XCVIII THere is no difference between living long and suffering long Afflictions troubles tears and griefs are born with us The life of man is but a long and tedious series of dangers evils and torments but man has some reason to comfort himself since that when he begins to live he immediately begins to approach his end and to make some advancement towards death XCIX VIrtue receives no less lustre from the misfortunes which befal the followers of Vice and the punishment which the wicked commonly suffer than from the solid enjoyments and satisfactions which good men many times feel in the exercise of the most difficult virtues He must needs be the most miserable person in the world who has a Soul that serves only to keep his body alive and does not regulate its motions It may well be said this being acknowledged That the Soul is to the body but as salt to meat which it exempts from corruption only for a time C. VIrtue is but an accident to man to speak as the Philosophers do yet does that accident preserve his substance All things were created by God for the service of man and he created man that he might receive honour and service from him as well as from all the rest of the Creatures 'T is virtue that renders us capable of serving and honouring him who hath vouchsafed to bring us out of nothing and without it we cannot please our Creator STOICAL MAXIMES I. IT is not what 's possessed that gives satisfaction but what one loves In like manner the discontent of most men proceeds not from what is wanting to them but from what they desire He who desires nothing may be as happy as he who has all the accommodations in the world To be free from all desires is a treasure to be preferred before an Empire How many things are there which may be wanting to the greatest Kings upon earth whereas a man who desires not any thing can never be said to be indigent II. JOy is not within the jurisdiction of Fortune she cannot when she pleases make us a present of it 't is a moveable belonging to the heart not only because it cannot be met withal elsewhere but also because there only it has its birth They are not the things which please us that create our pleasure and satisfaction nor are those which disturb us the cause of our disquiet we must only call our own will to an account that being the right source from which joy pleasure vexation and sadness proceed Thence it comes that what is pleasing to one is extremely unpleasant to another 'T is not to be attributed to the variety of things but to the diversity of our wills that our hearts entertain so many affections opposite one to the other III. T Is an errour common to all men that they would attain felicity by following wayes which cannot lead them thereto How can they arrive at the point of not desiring any thing while they take the way of desires Would you spare your self abundance of trouble and pains-taking Regulate your concupiscence have no violent inclination for any thing whatsoever When a man desires nothing beforehand he is in no fear of being unhappy and he comes to the end of his Journey without being at any pains by the way The true felicity of a man upon earth consists rather in the not-possession of any thing than in being numbred among the living Let us once in good earnest renounce all our desires since it is a thing within our power IV. THe way for a man to free himself from many troubles cares and vexations is not to fear or desire any thing All your unhappiness if you reflect on it proceeds only from your not having what you wish or haply from the hapning of something to you which is not consonant to your inclination You will have no disgraces to overcome while your heart preserves its freedom and all things are indifferent to it V. THe more the affection is smother'd in us the more the discontent abates A man is never further from falling into affliction than when he feels his will at liberty and not bent by any strong inclination To make an exchange of inclination is the most easie and most certain way to get out of misery Adjust your desires to all sorts of emergencies and you will surmount the greatest difficulties without any trouble Vexation is rather taken than given VI. T Is a great art to know how to desire unless a man be very well vers'd in it he cannot live contentedly He who can moderate his desires is above all and the whole world has not any thing worthy of him It is an easie matter for one to find perfect repose here below and to keep at a distance from him the unfortunate accidents which render life burthensom and insupportable all that's to be done is to have an absolute independency to all

good and evil XXII LEt us be alwayes guided by truth never by opinion Apprehension and deceit commonly make evils appear greater than they really are and were it not for those two men would not think any thing over-burthensom in the world XXIII WE many times rejoyce at what we should bewail and sometimes bewail what we should laugh at One while we seem to be sad another while glad though we have no occasion to express either grief or joy We should rather blush at our weakness considering that such trivial things make so much impression on our Souls XXIV APparent evils do commonly torment us more cruelly than the real and it may be said That what causes sadness affliction and discontent is not so much the evil that happens as that which we imagine must happen Opinion deceives and poysons us XXV WE account Wealth a good and in that we do not judge rightly of it that name is to be appropriated only to the good use which is made thereof when we make a prudent dispensation of what is in it self the occasion of much evil XXVI IF there be any good in Riches 't is very inconsiderable for they give us a great bent to veil involving those that are possessed thereof in a thousand dreadful dangers and condemning them to many cares troubles and disturbances they are the fuel of Concupiscence and of all the Vices they cause disquiet to those that desire them they also who are possessed of them are in perpetual fear of their getting away from them in fine they who have lost them are hardly recoverable out of their affliction XXVII POverty is the greatest of all goods because it does not hurt any but him that avoids it and has an aversion for it whereas Riches most dangerously hurt those who over-passionately love them If any one say That Poverty is extreamly incommodious we must answer him that the incommodiousness is not annex'd to Poverty but to the person of him who is poor XXVIII T Is a very gross errour to imagine that a man is very happy because possessed of great treasures and that men should make a greater account of him than of such as are poor I affirm on the contrary that he is more miserable than such as are not possessed of any thing at all for the greater his Riches are the greater are his Exigencies What is wanting to a poor man Nothing in a manner her is content when he has food and rayment whereas there are a thousand things wanting to a rich man to feed his Luxury Pride and Vanity XXIX RIch men are reduced to great necessity since whatever they desire is wanting to them whereas the poor man wants only what is necessary A rich man has so many exigencies as he hath passions and vices to feed A poor man minds only his sustenance I call a man poor be he as rich as may be otherwise when he has need of all he is possessed of I call a man rich how miserable soever he may appear when he stands not in need of all those things that are out of his power Many are poor with all their treasures because they know not how to be content with little XXX THey who desire riches only in order to voluptuousness are meanly-spirited and infamous they who hope to acquire honour thereby are extreamly deceived In fine they who seek them only in order to the satisfaction of their passions are guilty of a great fault but they who propose to themselves no other design in the acquest thereof than to exempt themselves from necessity ought to remember that the easiest way to attain them is to be content with few things I affirm further That for a man to be clearly exempted from necessity all he has to do is to forbear desiring any thing XXXI I Cannot deny but that health is a great good yet would I have all acknowledge that sickness is not a very great evil This teaches men to know themselves whereas health deceives them by making them imagine they shall never dye Is it any evil for one to know by experience that he is a man How many think you are now very well who yet are nearer death than some that are given over by the Physicians Do we not daily see That some weak tender and infirm persons live longer than others who seem to be of a most healthful constitution XXXII LIfe is a good when it is well employ'd Death never ought to be called a great evil save only when a man has not lived well Death is not a miscarriage but a very natural thing It has been a great misfortune to many that they have lived long He never dyes too soon who has lived as a person of repute and persisted in the exercise of Virtue XXXIII A Man does not lose his life though death come sooner than he expected it for he who affirms that he loses what he owes seems willing absolutely to deny his debt at the very time that he payes it We come into the world by the portal of life but upon condition that we should go out of it by that of death XXXIV WE should not stand so much in fear of death since we dye daily When a man dyes he only ceases to live and when he comes into the world he begins to dye To say that we shall dye one day is not a thing more certain than to affirm that we shall dye every moment of our life Would that man pass for a rational person who should deny to do that once only which he is continually doing Fear not therefore to dye If death surprize you in the flower of your age it will bury a thousand Vices with you if it delayes its coming till old age it will then deliver you out of many infirmities XXXV THe good there may be in honour is great or mean answerably to what it is imagined Make little account of opinion esteem truth above all things Never be disquieted at mens not-speaking advantagiously of you especially if they be ill-livers and such as indifferently revile all sorts of persons If they speak the truth I think you have no reason to grumble or complain If they do not they suffer by it more than you do do not you therefore imitate them and if you are sometimes forc'd to speak of them do it in civil honourable and obliging terms When they speak ill of you you may easily slight their discourses and not so much as reflect on them but how much soever you may endeavour to content and pacifie them you will never compass it XXXVI A Person who truly deserves to be commended should never concern himself at mens not doing him that justice but a man should ever beware desiring applause when he conceives himself unworthy of it It signifies little to commend a man he is not the more virtuous for that but it argues his effectually being such when he deserves the approbation of good people To commend