King of Spain unto our English Merchants 4º 21. History of Life and Death or the Promulgation of Life written by Francis Lord Verulam Viscount St Alban in 12o. 22. The Antipathy between the French and the Spaniard Translated out of Spanish in 120 23. Mr. Birds Grounds of Grammar in 8o. 24. Mr Bulwers Philocophus or the Deaf and Dumb mans friend in 12o. 25. Mr Bulwers Pathomyotomia or a Dissection of the significative Muscels of the Affections of the Mind in 12o. 26. An Itinerary containing a Voyage made through Italy in the yeares 1646. 1647. Illustrated with diverse Figures of Antiquities never before published by Io. Reymond Gen. in 12o. 27. The use of Passions written by I. F. Senault and put into English by Henry Earl of Monmouth in 8o. 28. Choice Musicke for three Voyces with a Thorough Base composed by Mr Henry and Mr William Lawes Brothers Servants to His Majesty with diverse Elegies set in Musicke by severall friends upon the Death of Mr William Lawes in 4o. 29. Judicious and select Essayes and observations written by the Renowned learned Knight Sir Walter Raleigh with his Apologie for his Voyage to Guiana in 80. 1650. Choyce POEMS with excellent Translations and Incomparable Comedies and Tragedies written by severall Ingenious Authors 1. COmedies and Tragedies written by Francis Beaumont and John Flesher Gent. never printed before and now Published by the Authors original Copies containing 34. Playes and a Masque in Folio 2. Epigrammata Thomae Mori Angli in 16o. 3. Fragmenta Aurea a collection of the Incomparable Pieces written by Sir Iohn Suckling Knight in 8o. 4. All Iuvenalls 16. Satyrs Translated by Sir Robert Stapylton Knight wherein is contained a Survey of the manners and Actions of Mankind with Annotations in 8o. 5. Museus on the loves of Hero and Leander with Leanders Letter to Hero and her Answer taken out of Ovid with Annotations by Sir Robert Stapylton Knight in 12o. 6. Poems c. written by Mr. Edward Waller of Beckonsfield Esquier in 8o. 7. Pastor fido the faithfull Shepheard a Pastor ill newly Translated out of the Originall by Richard Fanshaw Esq in 4o. 8. Poems with a Discovery of the Civill Warres of Rome by Richard Fanshaw Esq in 4o. 9. Aurora Ismenia and the Prince with Oronta the Cyprian Virgin translated by Thomas Stanley Esq the second Edition corrected and amended in 8. 1650. 10. Europa Cupid crucified Venus Vigills with Annotations by Thomas Stanley Esq in 8o. 1650. 11. Medea a Tragedie written in Latine by Lucius Annaeus Seneca Englished by Mr Edward Sherburne Esq with Annotations in 8o. 12. Senecas Answer to Lucilius his Quaere why Good men suffer misfortunes seeing there is a Divine Providence translated into English Verse by Edward Sherburne Esquier 8º 13. Poems of Mr Iohn Milton with a Masque presented at Ludlow Castle before the Earle of Bridgwater then President of Wales in 8o. 14. Poems c. with a Masque called the Triumph of Beauty by Iames Shirley in 8o. 15. Steps to the Temple Sacred Poems with the Delight of the Muses upon several occasions by Richard Crashaw of Cambridge in 12. 16. The Mistris or severall Copies of Love verses written by Mr Abra. Cowley in 8o. 17. Divine Poems written by Francis Quarles Senior in 8o. 18. The Odes of Casimire translated by George Hills in 12o. 19. Arnalte and Lucenda or the Melancholy Knight a Poem translated by L. Lawrence in 4o. 20. The Sophister a Comedy in 4o. 21. The Woman Hater or the Hungry Courtier a Comedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher Gent. in 4o. 22. The Tragedy of Thierry King of France and his Brother Theodoret written by Francis Beaumont John Fletcher Gen. 4º 23. The Vnfortunate Lovers a Tragedy written by William Davenant Knight in 4o. 24. Love and Honour a Comedy written by William Davenant Knight in 4o. 25. Madagascar with other Poems written by William Davenant Knight in 12o. 26. The Country Captaine and the Varietie Two Comedies written by a Person of Honor in 12o. 27. The Cid a Tragecomedy in 120. 1650. 28. Coopers Hill a Poem by Iohn Denham Esq the 2. Edition in 40. with Adit 1650. 29. Clarastella with other occasionall Poems Elegies Epigrams and Satyrs written by Robert Heath Esq 1650. 30. The Accademy of Complements wherin Ladies Gentlewomen Schollers and Strangers may accommodate their Courtly Practice with Gentile Ceremonies complemental Amarous high expressions Formes of speaking or writing of letters most in fashion with Additions of many witty Poems and pleasant new Songs newly Printed 1650. Severall Sermons with other Excellent Tracts in Divinity written by some most eminent and learned Bishops and Orthodox Divines 1. A Manual of Private Devotions and Meditations for every day in the week by the right reverend Father in God Lancelot Andrews late Lord Bishop of Winchester in 24o. 2. A Manuall of Directions for the Sick with many sweet Meditations and Devotions by the Right Reverend Father in God Lancelot Andrews Lord Bishop of Winchester in 24o. 3. Ten Sermons upon Severall Occasions preached at St Pauls Crosse and elsewhere by the Right Reverend Father in God Arthur Lake late Bishop of Bath and Wells in 4o. 4. Six Sermons upon severall occasions preached at the Court before the Kings Majestie and elsewhere by that late learned and Reverend Divine Iohn Donne Dr in Divinity and Deane of St Pauls London in 4o. 5. Pretious Promises and Priveleges of the faithfull written by Richard Sibbes Doctor in Divinity late Master of Katherin Hall in Cambridge and Preacher of Grayes-Inne London in 12o. 6. Sarah and Hagar or the sixteenth chapter of Genesis opened in nineteene Sermons being the first legitimate Essay of the Pious labours of that learned Orthodox and Indefatigable Preacher of the Gospell Mr Iosias Shute B. D. and above 33. yeares Rector of St Mary Wâ—â—lnâ—th in Lombard-streete in Folio 7. Christs teares with his love and affection towards Jerusalem delivered in sundry Sermons upon Luke 19. v. 41 42. by Ric. Maideâ— B. D. Preacher of the word of God and lat Fellow of Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge 4º 8. Ten Sermons preached upon severall Sundayes Saints dayes by Peter Hausted Mâ— in Arts Curate at Vppingham in Rutland in 4º 9. 18. Sermons preached upon the Incarnation Nativity of our blessed Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ wherein the greatest mysteries of godlinesse are unfolded to the capacity of the weakest Christian by Iohn Dawson in 4o. 10. Christian Divinity written by Edmund Reeve Bachelour in Divinity in 4o. 11. A description of the New-borne Christian or a Lively Patterne of the Saint militant child of God written by Nicholas Hunt 4º 12. The Tyranny of Sathan in a Recantation Sermon at St Pauls Crosse by T. Gage in 4º 13. The True and absolute Bishop wherein is shewed how Christ is our only shepheard and Bishop of our souls by Nicholas Darton in 4o. 14. Divine Meditations upon the 91. Psalm and on the History of Agag King of Amaleck with an Essay of Friendship written by an Honourable Person in 12o. 15. Lazarus his rest a Sermon preached at the Funerall of that pious learned and Orthodox Divine Mr Ephraim Vdall by Thomas Reeve Bachelor in Divinity in 4o. 16. An Historicall Anatomy of Christia Melancholy by Edmund Gregory in 80.
credit or endanger the losing of their lives is a matter full of hazard and adventure Wise men will come off in their affaires well enough howsoever the businesses prosper and valiant men for the most part overcome dangers be they never so great building their greatnesse where others had prepared a precipice for them It so happened to Saul with David and to Seleucus with Iugurth To deny them those boons and favours which they crave and oppresse their friends moves them to indignation and doth not abate their power The Prince of Orange and the Duke of Ariscot have testified that sufficiently Tiberius increased the peoples love to Germanicus more by persecuting him than if he had cherished him If it fell out well with Agesilaus touching Lysander it was because the goodnesse of the Subject helped him To punish and not utterly extinguâ—sh great ones is a great error in policie small errors in them ought to be connived at and great faults punished with death There is no medium to be used towards such between cherishing and killing If Astiages in stead of killing Arpagus sonne had put the father to death hee had not lost his Kingdome And if if Craesus had taken away Demetrius his life when he put out his eyes he had not lost himself Let it be as it will certainly it is barbarous inhuman in Comon-wealths Princes to make laws to hinder such as undertake actions worthy of everlasting fame and a glorious memory that are valorous and vertuous both in being and acting when they should rather enact such as might encourage men thereunto He that invented this most wicked Law of Ostracisme was an enemy to God Man and Nature and a ruiner of all good Lawes It aâ—mes not so much at destroying of tyranny as at the exercising of it with security whether it be in Prince Nobles or People taking away honorable and regardfull subjects whose valour and worth are the Sanctuary to which wronged subjects flye and whose presence is the onely curb to make Princes and Senators ashamed of committing wickednesse There never was any Common-wealth more abounding in worthy men than that of Rome while iâ— slourished nor that made better use of them than it did while it stood uncorrupted The people did with extraordinary applause honour a Citizens great vertue and punished with most severe justice the defects of the same man if he chanced to alter his nature When they perceived Melius to aspire to tyranny Manlius to attempt it Appius Claudius to have already attained it it did not help Melius hat he had freed them from famine Manlius that he had vindicated them from ssavery nor Appius that hee had been popular But they threw two of them downe headlong from the Tarpeian Rock and conspired the death of the other In the good time of the Common-wealth eminent vertue was much esteemed and not feared because that as soone as it aimed at sinister ends it lost together with its name both favour and applause And whereas it was reverenced whilest it was sincere when once it came to be counterfeit it was condemned The greatest dangers it ran it selfe into was not for having kept their best Citizens amongst them but exiled them As when Coriolanus came to conquer Rome and Furius Camillus was not there to defend it Let Common-wealths be so framed that all the parts thereof may be contented and let Princes rule their Subjects with a Fatherly affectioÌ„ that no desire of change may grow up and in so doing they both may cherish and prefer subjects of great worth They shall enjoy their vertue while it is upright without feare because it will be easie to chastise and punish it if once it grow corrupted Alcibiades to make use of his Talent and satisfie his unlimited ambition and desire of glory hinders the Athenians peace and goes to Warre with the Laacedemonians puts his native Countrey in hazard and brings it to a precioice Some subjects are born in Cities with most excellent inclinations and endowments Amongst those that want them as well as amongst those that are full of them some know it and some are ignorant of it One that is good for nothing and knowes he is so doth no hurt because he will not adventure himselfe neither could he do any great hurt if he did not know himself so he were known for then he would not be put to any tryall Indeed if he be not known there may bee some danger in him yet if hee doth not overthrow the Common-wealth or the Prince upon his first tryal before a second they will be undeceived and know what he is He that hath excellent parts and knows not of it is the better and he that hath them and knowes it oftentimes proves the worst And the later is like a medicine which finding no excremeÌ„ts to expell and break its force joyns with the humors finding noithng to heal corrupts the former The former is like Nature which shewes not her greatest force but upon greatest occasions One like flame set to wood having taken power by the matter bold and confident shewes out his form The other unseen like fire hidden in a stone wants the collision of occasion to manifest and disclose it The one ambitious and proud to passe on a potentia ad actum hunts after occasions many times he takes them great and sometimes they present themselves so sometimes they become so although they were once but mean whereby he loses himselfe and often times brings the ruine of the State alâ—ng with his own The other being humble seeks not after them and if they joyn with him they draw forth his good parts by the power of the matter He is the securer by so much as there is difference between the taking and seeking after occasions The one raises himselfe with the greatnesse of affaires the other is depressed one endangers the State the other drawes it out of dangers He that doth not know his owne worth dies unfortunate if occasions do not seek and finde him out sois he that knows it if he doth not finde them In States that have no occasions it were good there were no such men or if there be that they would not grow ambitious The soile which brings forth such trees if it have not roome wherein they may spread abroad their branches must seek and get some so must leave a way open for violence and â—ury to vent it selfe at For if they finde no way they will make one and there is a great deale of difference between a way rent open by ambition and one framed with prudency If a hammer worketh out a doore way or passage in a wall it doth it with designe and intent A piece of Ordnance shakes and oftentimes throwes the Wall downe but will never make a regular overture Nature spake to Scipio Nasica obscurelv It shewed him that it was not good to destroy Carthage hee understood the thing but not the sense and meaning
perswade him that is possessed of a good and healthfull body replenished with the best humors that can be in man not endammaged by any action that he hath need to take Physick if experience had not taught it Hyppocrates and his authority us None would go about to perswade it and questionlesse no man would suffer himselfe to be perswaded thereunto No more then we should be able to perswade a Monarch or a Common-wealth which had obtained some great conquest that it were very usefull for him or it to yeeld up againe what it had conquered There would be requisite for such a purpose a Politick Hippocrates full of knowledge experience and authority and peradventure he would hardly be able to perswade it Scipio Nasica was of great esteeme in the Common-wealth of Rome yet was he not able to disswade the ruining of Carthage Such is the power of likely hood it is hard to meet with an understanding that can find out truth a heart that will advise it and a Prince that will follow it Such an advise is for the most part unfortunate when it is not accepted of it wants its effect when it is accepted it is not seen and because it goes against a thing which is seen it is not beleeved The Author comes to be blamed for ignorance and malice Anniball was advised and peradventure it was done with wisdome to not go to Rome after the defeate of Cannas and because he did not goe he was taxed with ignorance Hunno would have perswaded the Carthaginians peradventure through malice in the midst of victories when Rome seemed even ready to fall to seeke after peace and because he could not perswade it he was esteemed wise It is ordinary for human malice to judge that advice to be best which hath not bin accepted And for its ignorance to refuse to be cleered in matters which have likelyhood in them any way but by the evill successe To give counsell against likely-hood requires a great understanding or a great passion The one cannot perswade unlesse it it be knowen the other if it be not concealed It is sufficient for the understanding to be reputed Passion must be feared and may make it but not perswade it to be executed being known it loses its credit and yet it is alwayes known being little it is not effectuall and being great it cannot be concealed The happy man will not think upon the future for feare of grieving himselfe the envious will for his comfort That which is keepes him in torment Onely the hope that it will not last revives him The understanding subtilizeth itselfe to make it be beleeved and if there be any reason it findes it out if there be none it feignes one whence comes that others do not beleeve it through the difficulty there is in discerning the true birth of the understanding from the feigned and fantasticall one of the desire Alcibiades having intelligence in the City of Selibria made a match to be brought into it by a signall given by fire suspition that one of the conspirators would discover the treaty caused an anticipation He not being prepared and seeing the signall given ran thither with a few giving order for the rest to follow But being come into the City he found so much opposition that he was not able to resist the too advantagious power He causeth a trumpet to be sounded Commands the Cittizens to lay down their armes if they value their lives When a man is in danger and hath his sword in his hand all the spirits retired to the heart and having in a manner forsaken the braine it is an easie matter to be deceived whence proceeds the danger which is in speaking whilest one is skirmishing so that many times enterprizes have bin lost after they have bin in a manner attained and wonne onely by a word miss-understood The Selibrians hear the enemies within the walls they imagine they are all there they heare a trumpet which doth courteously and friendly invite them to yeeld their braine is not apt to search out the matter and find out the deceit and having their weapons in their hands to defendtheir City and their lives judging it impossible to defend the one and seeing the way opened to secure the other they accept of the proffer The commanding and resolute speech and voice did cooperate greatly in this sanatick terror the command causes obedience the resolvednesse terrifies especially where disobedience is death To not beleeve it they must of necessity have had time to discourse upon it and therefore the imminent punishment giving no time to discourse they were forced to beleeve Seeing then it was hard to avoid the danger and canvasse the matter and harder to goe against the senses without canvassing of it that was beleeved to secure life which without discourse could not chuse but be beleeved and could not be discoursed without hazard of life When the Roman Army commanded by Germanicus at the River of Rhine mutined Mennius reduced that part which was most violent insolent with resolute cōmanding words which separated the universall from the particular a thing which terrifies the more forcing a man in his thoughts to forsake that union which makes him insolent and bold He takes hold of the eagle or ensigne and boldly cries he that doth not follow me is an enemy to Caesar Saul being slighted by a part of the Israelites takes two Oxen and hewes them in pieces sends the pieces into all the quarters of Israel and sends them word that so shall his Oxe be served that doth not follow him The commanding and resolute message which made the publick cause particular wrought in such manner that all Israel followed him Alcibiades assaulted by a sodaine chance instead of hazarding himselfe with those few Souldiers which followed him and casting himselfe into the midst of the danger hath recourse to deceit And that makes me to esteem him rather subtile then valiant Seeing that nature being sodainly brought into a streight flyes presently for reliefe to that part from which it hopes for most assistance If it bee from the braine we lay by strength if from strength we make no use of wit And if wit had bin laid aside and not made use of in this case how could he have found out such a subtle device as could hardly have bin contrived being out of danger and settled in mind In a great passion we leave art and flye to nature The one needs attention when it operates the other needs none And because in great passions man oftentimes abandons himself that passion then prevailes which operates though it be abandoned Nature and art taken in a streight especially by feare cannot help but hinder one another The one is not followed by discourse and the other being abandoned cannot make use of it Nature hath left but few void of defence but she seldome suffers sagacity and valour to be in one subject To whom she hath given a heart
himselfe from danger And when the Lord intending to punish him propounded three things unto him whether hee would endure seven yeares famine flye three moneths before his enemies or have three days pestilence in the land he chose the last quite against the vertue of fortitude but yet in favour of the publick good judging as St. Ambrose saith his absence would be more hurtfull to the people than the pestilence True it is that when he saw the Angel turn his sword upon the people he cried out that he should turn it against him that was guilty and spare the innocent But this was not fortitude digested by reason it was a violence incited by a tender and valorous nature Saint Ambrose saith That in his choyce hee followed wisdome in his griefe piety I will unfold this question by saying That the Proposition which God made to David was to keep him farre off that which David made to the Angel was to kill him He will not accept of going farre off and desires death because that by his absence the peoples light was put out and they would bee left without a guide in the dark whereas his death had been but a putting out of one light to give way to another The former seemes alwayes to be evill the latter is not alwayes so but many times is turned to a greater good It may also bee said that when David made his first choyce hee grounded it upon a hope hee had that hee he might appease God by Prayer which foundation when he found it prove vain he altered his desire Nothing makes a man better than prudency and nothing keeps him more secure than sagacity This sagacity would be dangerous if it were naturally rooted in the breast of a Generall born there and not acquired For those who are endowed therewith in this manner never goe about to try either force or fortune untill the case be quite desperate and for the most part the time past either to make use of force or adventure ones self upon chance A Generals sagacity is different from a Polititians The one is not good in the Citie wherefore Military men are little available in a Senate The other is pernicious in the field wherefore they send Gown-men Councellors to lose and ruine enterprises In one of these sagacities valour should prevaile in the other sagacity itself must have the upper hand The Polititian ought not betake himselfe to force till sagacity quite fails and the Military man will hardly make use of sagacity whilest he can work with violence Alcibiades hath recourse to Pharnabazus favourite to Artaxerxes King of Persia presently becomes bound to him in a most strict bond of amity He had I know not what of attractive in him which alluring mens mindes bewitched them A lively Spirit from which proceeds activity and abundance of meanes to work by If we seek the celâ—stial causes thereof it proceeds from the constitution of the Planets from the swiftnesse of the motions from Mercury set in his dignities If we seek the elementary causes we will say it proceeds from thesire which producing its nature in the Spirits participateeh his motion unto them from the center to the superficies Therefore in such kinde of people the spirits are perceived at the circumference by the motions of the head and hands and most of all by the splendor of the eyes out of which they send forth sparkles And by reason that no cause if we speak of celestiall ones concurres more in this fabrick than Mercury swift in his dignities therefore it proves most like him They draw him with wings at his feet at his head or his haire The Poets doe not make him loves Courcellor but his Messenger and sometimes his Minister to deceive His Minerall is Mercury which alwayes moves and is like silver but is not silver which deceives the eyes of those that look upon it with iâ—s splendor and ruines them that handle it with its poyson The Alchimists seeing it false because it is moveable seek to take away its motion and fix it Astrologians believe not it hath any happy influence in the understanding though it bee never so forunate They desire not to finde him in his own house and exaltation but rather in Saturns or at least favoured with his presence and beames to cut off his wings with the slowest Planets Sythe When they give him the company of any stars to make him have a happy influence it is of the lesser ones The over-much motion which it gives the spirits in beginning of an action doth not admit of a prosecution of it and the over-much light doth puzzle and resolve them If Philosophers desire a temperament for a great understanding they doe not commend that which is of fire nor that of earth not melancholy noâ— Bilis alone if any Bilis that which is black which is the Astrologers Mercury in the house of Saturn and the Quicksilver fixed by the Alchimists fire The Mercurials with their swiftnesse run over all things with their splendor they see them and because they run they cannot discourse and because their motion is from the center to the circumference they spread and dilate themselves abroad they doe not grow deeper nor take root And having many objects before their eyes they have always some new thing to propose whereby they seem fruitfull yet are but barren bringing forth abortive embrioes if they come to be children they are monstrous ones I beare with Princes sometimes they put themselves into such mens hands in compain comparison of which all others seeeme dull and obtuse Whilst a Melaâ—cholly man gives one reason they will give a thousand If one answer serves not they will give two or three they confound and delight with variety with their engines and inventions they gaine admiration with their words great spirit and effectuall operation as it were a fury they astonish Rethorick Poetrie Musick and other Arts doe consist of I know not what set on the outside the judgment whereof seemes to belong to the senses Energie Number Sweetnesse of voyce and variety of colouring Although they consist of somewhat else which is more internall to apprehend which is required great skill in those Arts and an eminent understanding to judge of it The ignorant man presently runnes to the sense and judges with the eye and eare commending according to his sight and hearing many times that which deserves no commendation and never blaming that which is blame-worthy Apparance deceives him because he fixes himselfe upon the accidents and commands them and not penetrating to the knowledge of the substance he discommends it not because he does not know it Seneca speaks of some Orators whose orations pronounced by themselves seemed excellent and at the very first gained applause but being read and examined were of no worth He confesses they forced his understanding and he commends them not because they deserved it but because they bound him to it The same
turne this into a Golden age and without producing an Acorne age they shall see the Oaken Crownes spring up in abundance It is so consonant to reason that all crimes should be punished and all vertues rewarded that it serves for an argument to know there is a heaven and a hell because that good and evill things being not rewarded and punished by God in this world seeing it is necessary they should be rewarded it argues that of necessity there must be places in the other world to doe it He is notwithstanding a pernicious and irreligious Prince that will imitate God in this particular He takes away as much as in him lies the efficacy of the argument because he takes away the necessity of doing it seeing he hath not another world to reward or punish them in whom he hath not rewarded nor punished in this world The happinesse of worldly government consists in not suffering any vertue to go unrewarded nor any offence unpunished One of the greatest disorders that the corruption of rewards hath produced making treasuries unable to undergoe that burthen hath bin the in some sort obliging Princes and Common-wealths to reward vertues with an impunity of offences Unfortunate is that vertuous act abominable that reward if the recompence must be the bearing with offences if rewarding must be forbearance of punishing either vertue must goe without reward or turne to vice to attaine it No body makes any question but that rewards and punishments are they which beare up States upon these two pillars did God lay the foundations of the world promising glory to those who did well and threatning evill doers with everlasting torments and if this were not sufficient if he met with people that beleeved neither heaven nor hell he set a reward and a punishment within man himselfe imprinting in his very entrailes the law of Nature which should perswade him to good and disswade him from evill And because all naturall operations are pleasing and contrary ones painefull man doth in his owne very acting receive his reward and his punishment from whence proceeds that inward joy which comforts good men and afflicts bad ones But since man through sinne was divided and withdrew from this law the senses imbued with another contrary one more sharpe and vehement he was forced to goe and assist the naturall law which borne in the soule was oppressed by that law which came from without in the members to counterpoise and overcome it assisting it with outward punishments and rewards which though they be needfull in all nations and all sorts of people yet are they not required for all men of the same kind The rewards of inferiour people is money of Nobles honour the punishment for the one death for the other infamy In former times great spirits were satisfied with the reward of an Olive or Oaken garland a ring a chaine a feather a scarfe and for greater matters with a triumph and the deniall of a triumph after it was deserved was a punishment sufficient and this was done at such times as it was the vulgar sort of peoples reward to divide the spoile amongst the Souldiours and the conquered land among the people Such were the proceedings in Common-wealths composed of Optimacy and especially in that of Rome where it may be easily knowne by those that read the histories of it that the rewards were such and the like of punishments by such as examiâ—e the said histories VVhere they shall find that whole Armies have bin tithed putting each tenth man to death for faults which have bin committed in them and never any Nobles put to death for losing of battells or ill guiding of their Armies or any other offence untill wee come to Spurius Melus whose crime was against the State Whereby we must needs conclude that either in Rome they neglected one fundamentall Pillar of Government which is punishment in the Nobility or that for them infamy and disgrace was a sufficient one The Rewards were altered when desire of wealth came in not because Noble minds altered their object and giving over the desire of glory did wholly cast themselves upon their own interests but because the object it selfe was altered and yet not changed quite but onely communicated to another The Ring the Chain the Laurell the Olive Garland were not the objects of generous mindes no more are riches now at this time but they had the first for honour and these last for that which they had gained For the honour consisting not in him that is honoured but in the honourer it is not in a mans choyce what to bee honoured with or to be rewarded more by one thing than by another he must onely look what thing is most honoured by common applause Thence growes the ordinary errour of subjects who in applying themselves doe not follow their own genius but ambition which cals men to that where glory is reputed greatest But the same thing is not in repute in every place nor in the same place at all times nor the samething in the same manner Roman vertues were vices amongst the Parthians In Rome Eloquence was first contemned then afterwards honoured sometimes Asiaticall sometimes Laconicall sometimes plaine sometimes garnished Eloquence was applauded sometimes that which pleased the eare sometimes that which best perswaded the minde and all this comes to passe because the true object of the principall powers of the soule being wanting in the world even like a sicke man that cannot finde rest in any place we alwayes change our place because we will not despaire of finding it It was the people that placed honour in riches because the object of want hindering the object of ambition they turned to honouring of that which might relieve them A right effect of Nature which not to bee defective makes that to be most desired which is most necessary Wherefore it was judged by wise and understanding men That the desire and appetite of food was more vehement in man than any other passion and therefore if hee had many objects to turn to and many passions to satisfie he would first look upon and satisfie the passion of hunger But because honour is expected from the vulgar more than from the Nobilitie who being emulators and envious will rather seeke to disgrace than applaud and they being corrupt or necessitated honour him most that is wealthiest it was needfull to procure to be one of the greatest among these to bee the most honoured After applause came Traines of followers from them sprang factions and dissentions and these caused the ruines of Common-wealths and kingdomes Mâ—ny Philosophers knew riches to bee the root of all evils Wherefore when Licurgus went about to secure his Common-wealth the first thing he did was banishing Gold and Silver out of it and causing Leather to be made use of instead of it Deceiving himselfe in this because hee did not know that hee did not change the error but onely did abase it by reducing it
of reputation There is a great difference betweene an offence being great at first and its becoming such One findes man cold and free the other heated and engaged neither can hee seem to grow carelesse of it when it is grown up that did not contemne it when it was but small And having already lost the name of prudent by prosecuting of it to that time he wiâ—l gaine the name of Pusillanimous if hee then gives it over A disease which becomes malignant by degrees is more mortall than that which begun so The Prince which wil not bear with his subjects endangers the changing his name of Prince into Tyrant and he that will not beare with strangers endangers his kingdom to become a private man A prince his own patience is not sufficient for the quiet of his kingdome if his officers also be not endued with it in whom it being equally requisite it is farre more difficult A man may easily suffer in his own interests who is impatient in his Lords For the one he hopes to reap glory and profit through his patience and so beares In the other to gaine it from revenge and so he puts forward Hee that offends the Prince before his Officer offends both the Prince and his Officer whereby obliging him to two patiences hee makes the sufferance almost intollerable These imagine that the zeale of their masters reputation moves them to a resentment and oftentimes it is their own arrogancy wherewith they embroyle Princes obliging them to warres into which they are engaged more by others than their own impatiences and this happens oftenest where the States and Dominions are most remote That remotenesse which is most favourable to the Prince for his suffering is contrary to the Officers One doth not see the injuries the other the Prince When Aristotle blames the Lacedemonians for attributing every thing to the vertue of fortitude said that one vertue was not sufficient and if one alone were to be chosen Fortitude was not it He named not that to which he attributed the chiefe honour if he had named it in mine opinion it had bin patience because virtually it containes all other vertues in it as the seed doth both roote fruit and stemme If morall vertues are ordained to good in as much as they keep within the bounds of reason against the violence of passions and when these doe joyne with any vice patience is the onely guide of them who can deny it to hold the first and supreame place amongst them As the Physician cures the diseases of the body so patience corrects the defects of the soule They both worke by removing the obstacles I confesse more like instrumentall then efficient causes But if the Physician bee said to occasion health though it be not he but nature Patience shall likewise be called the productrix of all vertues So that Coriolanus his impatience for we must call him impatient if we will not attribute the name of base to the Senate put him in danger of his life and though his great vertue reverenced by the People was sufficient to free him from death yet by reason that was feared also it was not able to keepe him from banishment One of the greatest and ordinariest errors that crosses the good direction of Politick affaires is that Princes and common-wealths either know not how or through malignity will not in time make use of that valour which fortune hath abundantly bestowed upon some subject of theirs Dominions are increased by the hand and meanes of a subject which is advantagiously valorous and fortunate Whose valour by bringing to passe the most difficultest enterprises findes no obstacle able to resist it all that he sees he conquers Whose fortune meets with no chance but it proves favourable to him all what he does not see is likewise assisting to him Such a man is now and then borne in an estate of so low a degree and himselfe so poore that without ever doing any thing or at least equall or partly worthy his fortune and valour he dies inglorious but seldome without leaving at least some little modell whereby others may as with prospective glasse see what a Colossus they have neglected to build through want of matter That character which in a great statue attracts even the dimmest eyes to behold it in a little one is not seene many times by the most perspicuous sight Sometimes also this man is borne in some conspicuous place and of such a fortune that at the very first flashing of his actions he makes that beame shines out which lies inclosed in his breast But those which rule Kingdomes or governe Common-wealths though they have good intentions yet looking more upon the age then the fortune of the man advancing him by degrees seldome admit him to great affaires where he might have performed some high and specially services till it is too late and hee growen old after he hath tired his fortune in actions of no moment and his declining age hath made him good for little To linger out fortune of a great subject is a great error yet not worthy of any severe punishment Ignorance herein may be excused Carelessenesse endured but hee that hinders it through envy hatred and malice calls Gods wrath upon him and sometimes sees it visibly come Losing himselfe for want of him whom he hath lost Or to prevent his owne ruine bowing to him whom he hath despised Such a man is happy and by him his dominions if he be borne a Prince Most happy if in such a time as enterprises are already set on foot and he able to follow them Or that obstacles be removed in such sort that they may not oblige him to tire his fortune upon them before he goes about them If Henry the Fourth had found the Kingdome of France entire slourishing peaceable within and at wars abroad as he found it divided destroyed unquiet plunged in civill wars what could he not have done with so much fortune and valour he did much indeed yet did he not a whit increase his dominions He wasted himselfe in gayning his owne and when he begun to cast his mind upon other mens both fortune and time failed him If Gustavus King of Sweed could at the very first have employed all his fortune and power in Germany and had not bin intangled in the Muscoviters Polish wars I know not who could have hindred or crossed him from attaining to his vast and unlimited desires If Alexander had bin to begin the wars of Greece not found them almost finished by his father he had never come to be the Great because he would not have had time to settle so great a Monarchy By this meanes those King domes do much increase which successively meet with many warlike valorous fortunate subjects and by this meanes grew up the Turkish Monarchy Assisting of confederates is a great aide to the gaining of conquests the violence of the enemies fortune broken upon them and tired
than see himselfe abandoned by prosperous ones Mans life is a Warfare take combating from him and you take away life neither is that taken away but changed an inâ—ernal enemy using to step in when an outward one failes and a civill war commonly succeeding a forraigne one But grant there be a great subject of so calm a minde as will be content with the estate wherein he finds himselfe how wll the content last if the state doth not and how shall not the one change if the other changes continually Fortune hath no nail to fix it if it doth not go forward it must go backward Renown hath a worm in its intrails which never leaves gnawing it is scarce born but it begins to diminish when flying it is once come to our notice the mouth doth not speed it away as the eare received it we naturally add somwhat of our own to it to the end that it may gain as much going as it loses standing stil yet inwardly it diminishes even as a man who be he never so well fed in his youth and seeming outwardly to grow yet inwardly he every moment dies infallibly and remediless The glory of man remains amongstus when his carkass remains soul-lesse it extends further 't is true because envy ceases but it diminishes in it selfe because compassion growes up and afterwards contempt A torrent which in time of raine runs most violently stately bearing down trees by the rootes and tearing up stones and rocks the sky being cleared up is foordable by every passenger his greatness is no more admired his pride is being so extream in him who within a few houres was to be reduced to so wretched a condition So the mighty man after hee hath by valour won many battels taken Cities overcome Nations and filled the universe with the report of his glory when Atropos cuts off the thred of his life instead of obtaining praise he stirs up admiration men wondring how so much vanity and pride should reigne in a body which would shortly become the putrified food of stinking wormes As if the whole world could not have contained that body which within a small time was to be inclosed within a few palms of the basest element Envy followes humane glory it shews where it is it doth not leave iâ— til it is not it devours him that feedes it and feedes him whom it would destroy It increases and diminishes not at that sweetnesse which should produce sâ—tiety adding acrimony to it which revives the appeâ—ite The glory of the dead runnes but coldly It remaines in the world but withered and wanting novelty is not looked upon by reason of its oldnesse Death gives a great blow but the civill death gives the greater it doth not utterly extinguish envy as the naturall doeth nor doth not like it counterpoise that which it takes away with the sense which it hath taken away No marvaile then if others avoid retiring because they will not strive with it Death cannot stay and naile fast fortunes wheele from descending yet it stayes it that it may not precipitate And seeing it very seldome lasts a mans age happy is that man that lasts but fortunes time And because the time of the one is not measured and the others life is onely looked after we sometimes complaine of death for pulling up of that green when we should thanke it for gathering it when it is ripe It is favourable to him whom it cuts off when hee is growen up into a high degree and but newly arrived to it It makes him to bee imagined of infinite vertue because it hath not bin measured nor the end of it seene It attributes unto him the glory of that which he hath nor yet done when peradventure he would have lost that which hee had already gotten Death which is one to all men is not equally favourable to all she cuts off one before he is ripe she lets the other hang till he falls off rotten and gathers but few in the flower of their ripenesse It is a great fortune to dye when fortune is at highest One cannot long stand at a stay it is impossible to advance and to decrease is of necessity He that cannot receive this favour from the originall let him seeke it from the copy and he that cannot die let him retire for any thing is better then to precipitate If the Summum bonum of the body Politick were as manifest as that of the humane and that we did know as well what fortune requires as we know what nature desires wee might when wee come to such a state leave for a time and returne to take it againe but knowing neither of both few yeild when what and so much as they should yeild It seemed to a fortunate man to be come to the height of happinesse and to such a pitch that he was to fear a downfal To avoid it he throwes a most precious gemme into the Sea Ere long it was brought to his Table againe in a Fishes belly fortune returned him that which hee had given her because it was not that which she would have had he joyfully receives it againe and takes that for a favour which should have served him for an instruction Coriolanus that could not leave his fortune left his life this happens for the most part to strangers that have bin called or of themselves have crept up to the highest eminencies of a Common-wealth The most valiant have lost their lives the weakest have bin banished If there is in a Common-wealth an eminent Citizen as Tullus was amongst the Volsci when Coriolanus came in amongst them as Agis was in Sparta when Alcibiades came thither as the Prince of Orange was in Holland when the Archduke Matthias the Duke of Alencon and the Duke of Lancaster were called in there Either they come in of themselves by promising of some great matâ—ers and if they come off of their engagement well they are sent away with admiration if ill with disgrace Where they are brought in they send them away too If it were in case of necessity when that is past if it were to deceive any one after that was performed if to be deceived when they were undeceived When there is not in the Common-wealth any one Citizen more eminent then the rest and in respect of domestick discords they call in some noble man of great bloud to governe them or in regard of forraigne warres they send for some eminent Souldiour to command them let this man either prepare himselfe to be nothing at all our Lord and Master or an exile and because there are none that will be nothing it being repugnant to an ambitious nature and it being a hard matter to become Lord being men greater in repute then power hee must expect either from jealousie banishment or from feare death But if strangers be easilie driven away they are also as easily called in for the opinion which fortune frames in absence and farre off is greater