Subsidies and seek means whereby they may fill the Treasury of their Kings and enrich themselves with the spoils of the poor people and the Princes sometimes deal with them as we do with our Hogs letting them fat themselves that we may eat and devour them and then preferring new ones in their places Behold how these poor miserable Courtiers sell their liberty to enrich themselves They must obey all commands whether just or unjust forcing themselves to laugh when their Prince laugheth and cry when he cries to approve what he approves to condemn what he condemns must subject his humor to every ones alter and wholly change his nature be severe with those that are severe sad with the sorrowful and transform himself almost into the nature of them whom he would please If the Prince be incontinent he must be so too if he be cruel he must take delight in effusion of blood In short he must sympathize with the humor of the Prince whom he serveth though oftentimes a small offence wipes out all the services which he has done in all his life before Which they who served the Emperour Adrian experienced who after having been by him raised up to the highest Estates and Dignities by the means and reports of some flatterers were not only divested of that honour which was given them but were also declared his Capital Enemies Which Plato having considered and foresaw in the Court of the Athenians left them their delicacies yet howsoever could not so well rule himself but that he returned to Denis Tyrant of Sicily who in the end sold him to Pirates and worse fared it with Zeno the Sage Ancient Philosopher whom Phalaris for satisfaction of his Services put cruelly to Death In the like manner did the King of Cyprus to Anacreon and the Noble Philosopher Anaxagoras and Nero to his Master Seneca and Alexander to Calistenus because he would not adore him cutting off his feet ears and hands and plucked out his eyes leaving him to the mercy of an austere Prison where he miserably ended his days and this hath been oftentimes the reward of many Learned men who not willing to obey the unreasonable desires of their Princes lost their lives for the recompence of their Services and wholesom Counsels Not to take notice of many other evils which do ordinarily follow them which haunt the Court where the most part of things are carried on corruptly many at the Court seeing thee take off their Hats to thee who would willingly take off thy Head he bows his knee to thee that would willingly break his Leg that he might carry thee to thy Grave Such a one is there called Worshipful who better deserves the name of Hangman If you would be an Adulterer at the Court you shall not want associates if you have Quarrels with any one you shall there find assistants for carrying them on if you would Lye you shall find them that will swear to it if you would Steal they will learn you a thousand subtilties and Inventions if you would Game you shall there find more cheats than at Gaming-Ordinaries if you would Forswear and bear false witness you shall be hired and paid for it In short if you would give your self over to all sorts of wickedness and villany you shall find there true Examples and Formularies and this is the Life of a great number of Courtiers and this is that wherein they employ their youth which is not youth but a transitory death as for old men know you what they get Gray-heads their Feet full of Gouty humors their Mouth Tooth-less their Reins full of Gravel their Hearts full of Pensiveness and their Souls full of Sin In short Of the Court there is little to write but much to murmur and complain of but to him that desires more of that Subject let him read the Book of De Guevara Bishop of Mondovent and Chronicler to the Emperour And Aeneas Silvius who have composed Two most Excellent Treatises on that Matter where they have so perfectly set forth the Courtier that they have cut off all hope from them who will write after them of adding any thing CHAP. XI Of the Miseries attending the Life of Kings and Emperours BUT leave we the Courtiers with their restless and miserable Life And let us now consider the Life of Monarchs and Emperours for whom it seemeth as it were that Felicity was created for if you would set before you every thing which may make the Life of Man happy joyful and content you shall find that Fortune amongst all other mortals hath been abundantly Munificent to them What maketh man more admirable than plenty of Riches Dignities Kingdoms and Empires Licence and Power to do either good or evil without Contradiction or Correction means to exercise Liberality all forts of Voluptuosness and Pleasures as well of the mind as the body all that may be wish't for or any ways conducible to the delight of man whether it be in respect of eating or drinking as also in their Magnificent Services Utensils and Vestments which may tickle the Senses and cajole Humane Concupiscence all which are prepared from the Cradle that they might lead their lives with greater Content and Felicity Which Discourse if we will only consider externally there 's none but would confess that they Triumph alone in that which all others languish after but if we would consider things a little more near and weigh them in a just balance we shall find that those very things which we think degrees whereby to reach Felicity are the true instruments of Vice and Misery What signifies their costly Robes their Honourable Attendance and delicate Meats when that they are in continual fear of being poison'd and betray'd by those that Serve them Have we not had experience of this in our time Does not Platinus write of a certain Pope who was poyson'd by his Servants that presented him with paper coming off from his stool Others with the smoke of Flambo's and Torches ' I is a thing horribly strange that humane malice is so much increased there having been found them that have mingled poyson with the Sacred Host as did a certain Sienois who caus'd the death of many persons and effected in this manner the death of the Emperour Hen. 7th as may be seen in Fuschius in the 1st Book of his Composition of Medicaments Histories make mention of certain Emperours who durst not repose themselves at night on their Beds till there had been search made in all the parts of their Chambers for fear of being Murdered whilst they slept others would never permit that Barbers should ever touch their Faces lest that taking off their Hair they should take away their lives and are moreover so fearful that they dare not put the meat which they have before them in their mouths till essay be made whether it be poyson Were it not better saith Julius Caesar to dye once than to live always in such a
Philosopher which can be invented for to punish him is To let let him live For you shall see saith he That by little and little the vehement Fire of Love will gain so much on him as it hath already begun that the pain which he will endure will be so great that it cannot be conceiv'd and imagin'd for he shall find such Emotions within his Soul that he shall burn and consume in this Flame as doth the Fly in a Candle so that his life shall be no more life but a real Death and that more cruel than if passed through the hands of all the Tyrants and Hangmen in the World I have been somewhat tedious in treating on this Subject but indeed the thing requires it being the entire Corruption and ruin of the most part of the Youth of our Age for when they have never so little wetted their feet in the delights of this World it is the hardest thing in nature for them to retrieve themselves Youth Liberty and Riches being the greatest Pimps and Bawds in the World CHAP. XII Of the Misery of Old Age. AND then when we should sing a Requiem from all our Troubles cometh upon us Old Age with its infirmities and then our sorrows are renewed and grown young again and we must then pay a rigorous Interest for all the faults and excesses of our Youth the Heart that is miserable sad and heavy by the gloomy reflections of a mis-spent Life the Spirit that is languishing the Breath that is stinking and loathsom the Face so furrowed and wrinkled and generally the Body so curbed that it seemeth to be some lump of Lead or Iron rather than a Man the Nose hath lost its faculty of smelling the Eyes of seeing the Hair falls off the Teeth falls out of the Head by stink and rottenness in short he resembleth some dry Anatomy or the picture of death rather than the Man he was and this is only of the Body but alas the mind of aged people is as much out of order or rather more for they are then continually disposed to anger hard to be appeased light of belief and long a forgetting injuries praise the Ancients and former Ages and despise and contemn the Modern are sad languishing malancholy covetous hard and suspicious In brief 't is the retreat and rendezvouz of all the Vices and incommodiousness of our nature which being considered by the Emperour Augustus he was wont to say That when men had lived fifty years they ought to dye and desire to be killed for asmuch as to that time they felt none of the grievances of old Age which is unavoidably past over in sorrow and misery and in insupportable pains and sickness death of Children loss of Goods Law Suits paying Debts and an infinite of other troubles which it were better with eyes shut wait for at the Sepulchre than to experiment them with open eyes in this frail and sorrowful life Which the Prophet apprehending cried out unto the Lord saying Withdraw not thy self from me when I am in years nor for sake me when assailed with old age CHAP. XIII Of DEATH AFTER Man hath groaned and sighed under the insupportable burden and heavy weight of his miserable Life he is forced to live always in the fearful expectation of the division of the Soul and Body which is for the most part accompanied with inconceivable and inexpresible torments Which St. Austin considering and bewailing breaks out into this querulous Lamentation O Lord God saith he how miserable a creature is man who after having sustained so many vexatious evils yet must endure the terrible assaults of Death which oftentimes cometh so violently that it burns and tares all in pieces and hath more ways to destroy us than can be related or thought of Sometimes oppressing by Feavers sometimes by Hunger sometimes by Thirst sometimes by Fire another by Water one with the Sword another with Poyson some are torn in pieces with the teeth of Wild-Beasts some are made meat for Fishes some of Worms and yet nevertheless man knoweth not the end and when he thinketh himself permanent and lasting he falleth and perisheth What an affrightful Spectacle is it to behold a man on his bed of Sickness pressed with the agonies of Death what trembling what horror what alteration and change in all the bands of Nature the Feet become cold and benum'd the Face waxeth pale the Eyes hollow the Lips and Mouth draw themselves inward the Pulse diminisheth the Tongue grows black the Teeth shut and press one against another the Breath fails and a cold sweat appeareth over the whole Body which is a certain sign and demonstration that Nature is overcome and vanished And when it comes to the sorrowful departure of the Soul from its ancient Habitation all the vessels and ligaments of Nature are broken then the Hellish Host as so many Vultures surround the Sick-mans Bed for there is no invention or subtilty which they practise not to induce us to settle our thoughts and hopes on our good Living on false Opinions and destructive Presumptions or else setting before us such an infinite number of our sins and offences with such horrid aggravations that the consideration of them might drive us into rage and despair and blasphemous defiances of Heavenly Justice then 's the hour then 's the moment then 's the point in the which the Devil with all the powers of darkness attacks us and that so much the more fiercely because he well knows then we shall escape out of his claws or for ever remain in them And so now when our bodies lye inanimate and sensless and an eternal night of darkness sits brooding on our Forheads Where are all our officious friends and attendants who in our life-time did so honour and reverence us and were so passionately disirous of our company Do they not all forsake us and abhor and detest the sight of us do they not all leave us to the cold earth to be made a prey to Worms and Serpents and thus it is with all men thus fares it with his Holiness his Majesty his Grace his Excellency his Honour and his Worship too they all receive the same usage with the poorest mortal that grovels on the earth And what will it then signifie to them that they have been esteemed for their Birth for their Riches for their Beauty or for their Wit or for any thing else save Virtue and true Goodness For as for all other things they are passed away as a Shadow and as an Arrow drawn from a Bow and as the smoak scattered with the wind or as a Ship that passeth ever the waves of the water which when it is gone the trace thereof cannot be found or as a Bird which flyeth through the air there being no sign left of her way which she hath made but the light air being beaten with the stroke of her wings and parted with the violent noise and motion of them she flyeth through and
destroy them and for that purpose he caused several Gallows and Gibbets to be made and set up that all possessed with despair and weariness of Living might hang themselves thereon till having at last occasion to accomodate himself and to enlarge and alter his dwelling he was constrained to pull them down for the conveniences of his building but before he does so he hastneth with all possible expedition to Athens where with piteous and lamentable complaints Herald-wise he gathers the people who hearing the hoarse and barbarous Voice of this prodigious Monster and knowing of a great while his accustomed humour ran to him with the greatest eagerness imaginable to hear what now was the matter with him who harangued to them after this or the like manner O ye Citizens of Athens If any of you have a desire to hang himself let him hast quickly and use no delays for I am necessitated to cut down sore against my will and inclination my Gallows and Gibbets And having in such like terms as these expressed his Charity to them he returned to his Desart where he spent all his days to the last without changing his humor and ceased not to Philosophize and ruminate upon Human Miseries all the rest of his life time even to the time of his expiration and then detesting our Humanity ordained expresly that he should be Buried as much as could be out of the sight of any one and to that end no place would serve him but the edg of the Sea that by the fury and repercussion of its Waves and Billows all Persons might be hindred from coming near him And caused this Epitaph recited by Plutarch to be Ingraven on his Tomb-stone Having my life in misery consum'd I here in boistrous waves do lye intomb'd And he that would dire Timons Corps remove Ten thousand Plagues confound him from above Here you may behold this poor Philosopher through too much consideration of Human Misery vehemently desiring not to have been at all rather than to have been what he was and rather to have been a brute or Irrational Creature than a Man But let us leave the Philosopher Timon making his complaints and enjoying his Humour And let us hearken to the just Sentiments of that great and no less Philosopher than Emperour Marc. Aurelius who profoundly weighing and considering the frailties and miseries with which we are encompassed and besieged cry'd out that the battel of this Life is so perilous the issue so terrible and affrightful that I do assure my self saith he that should some Ancient man come from the dead and should relate all the passages of his life since the hour he came from his Mothers Womb until the day of his Dissolution and should recount in a continued Series of Discourse all Pains and Sorrows which he hath suffered there can certainly be none but would stand astonished with horror and amazement at the hearing of so deplorable a relation That which I have experienced and made tryal of in my self saith this great and most worthy Emperour I will freely and ingenuously confess though it may be that so doing may turn to my disgrace and infamy but perhaps to the profit and advantage of future Ages I have lived fifty years and have tryed what delight and satisfaction is to be had in vice and wickedness and truly saith he upon a full experience I have found That the more I eat the more I hunger the more I drink the more I thirst the more I sleep the more I am desirous of sleeping the more I repose the more I am wearied the more I have the more I covet the more I seek the less I find and finally I never had any thing in my possession with which I was fully contented and satisfied and desired not presently to have another as passionately as the former which the great Docter St. Chrysostom observing hath much admired after he had bewailed the Calamities of this Life and the hideous obscurities wherein we are involved wished that he had such a voice that might be heard of every one that he might inculcate that of the Royal Prophet David O ye Sons of men How long will ye love vanity how long will you harden your hearts to go on in pursuit of false and killing pleasures For whosoever shall consider the state and manner of the World the Frauds Fallacies Rapes Incests and Adulteries Violences and Oppressions Ambition and Covetousness Hatred and Animosity which are contained therein he may well say that we draw nigh to the time of which speaketh the Prophet Isaiah with so great earnestness and lamentation when he saith Your iniquities hath made a separation betwixt you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he may not hear you for your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity your lips have uttered lyes and your tongues deceit no one loveth Justice there 's none that doth according to Equity St. Bernard in a complaint and lamentation that he made concerning the Misery of this Life teacheth man to know his infirmity and weakness without drawing him from himself so that by the consideration of himself he might be moved to detest his vileness and infelicity O man saith he Who art blind and naked compos'd of human flesh and a reasonable soul have in mind thy miserable state and condition wherefore forgettest thou and remembrest not thy self and that which so nearly concerns thee wherefore dost thou fondling-like dote on external short and deceitful pleasures and dost not consider that the more near thou approachest to the delights of this world the farther thou estrangest thy self from the Joys of the next the more thou thinkest to gain from without the more thou losest from within the more thou art desirous of temporal things the more indigent thou art of spiritual things thou orderest and disposest of other matters so well and dost thou contemn and neglect thy self There 's no Creature whatsoeve but thou canst tame and master and canst thou not rule and govern thy self thou art vigilant and watchful in other mens affairs and art drowzy in those which are properly thine own thy heart boileth within thee with desire of those low things and divine and Heavenly concerns lye altogether neglected `and despised by thee the nearer thou approachest to death the farther thou removest thy self from thy Salvation thou takest so much pains and art at so much cost to nourish and adorn this body which is but a vessel of filth and a Sepulcher of worms and rottenness and leavest thy poor soul which is the Image of God and Idea of Eternal Wisdom altogether neglected These are the complaints which this holy man made in his retirements against the Ingratitude and wickedness of this World all which things deduced by him and others tend to no other end than to stir up Man to the consideration and knowledg of himself and to shew him how vile a Creature he is that
the prize from all Countries and Regions whatever and that in Pliny's time who writeth of Drunkenness That it was so much in vogue and fashion in his days that they usually drank and pour'd it down till they threw it up again Paul Diacre in his History of the Lumbards relateth a Story which seems little less than prodigious Of Four Ancient Men who made a Banquet or Assignation at which they defied and callenged one another to Drink one against one reckoning the time of each one's years and he that drank against his opposite Companion must be inforced to drink as oft and as many times as he had lived years and the youngest was more than Fifty five the Second Sixty three the Third Eighty seven and the Fourth Ninety two after which manner 't is unknown what they drank at this meeting But 't is certain that he that drank least drank Fifty five Cups of Wine the others following and consequently as many as they had years so that one of them drank Ninety two Cups It is not without cause therefore that the great Philosopher Plato knowing the prejudice that Men receive by Wine said that the gods had given it to them for their torment and punishment that they might take vengeance of their sins and offences making them after they are therewith infatuated murder one another Which Cyneas Ambassador of King Pyrrhus considering the excessive height of their Vines in Egypt said that with great reason such a Mother was hang'd so high feeing that she bore such a dangerous off-spring as Wine Wherefore Androcides advertis'd this great Monarch Alexander That wine was the blood of the earth and that he ought to have an especial care in the use of it which having not observ'd through his intemperance kill'd Clitus burn'd the City of Persepolis put to death his Physitian and and committed many other infamous enormities And 't is not only of our time that these guzlers have begun to lay the foundation of their Drunkenness and Luxury but they began to do so as soon as they began to be at all The Luxury of our first Parents was the cause why the Gates of Paradise were shut up and barred against us Esau sold his birthright The great Prophet St. John Baptist after the Banqueting of wicked Herod was cruelly slain Dives was damn'd For it is said expresly in the Text That he fed himself deliciously for which he was cast into hell Noah being overcome with Wine shew'd the subject of his shame and was mocked by his own Children Lot deflowred his own Daughters It plainly appears then how much nature hath favoured other Creatures more than us in that they can so well bound and regulate their appetites that they take in but just what is necessary and expedient for the conservation of their health So that they are not vexed with an infinite of Maladies and distempers as we are and when at any time they are so Nature hath taught them their proper Remedies without need or recourse to Physitians who under pretence of a Recipe change R into D and make it Decipe and we must pay very dear for the assistance of him that takes away our lives For the most part of their Lapative Medicines are nothing else but so many Hammers wherewith they knock men on the head and destroy them CHAP. IV. The advantages of Beasts and other Animals over us in respect of natural instinct whereby they have recourse to proper Remedies for their particular infirmities and distempers WHen it comes to pass that other Creatures are sick Nature hath made and taught them Remedies as Stock-doves Jays Partridges c. who purge their superfluities with the Leaves of the Lawrel The Pigeons Turtles and Pullets with the herb Helixine The Dogs and Cats by eating of Grass When the Hart is wounded he has recourse to his Dictamum When the Weasel would combat with the Rat she prepareth and fortifieth her self with Rue that she may more vigorously set upon her enemy The Boors Physick themselves with Ivy The Bears with Mandragoras The Eagles knowing the impediments which they have in their Productions by reason of their streightness seek every where for the Stone called Aetites otherwise Eagle-stone which they bring into their Nests for that purpose which is at this time made use of by several of the Italian Women for the easing their Travel When the Swallows perceive that by the Smoke of the Chimnies their young ones are offended they help them with the herb Gelidon The Snakes and other Serpents in the Spring of the year that they may cast off their skin more easily and feeling that their sight fails them eat Fennel in order to their restauration The Pellican letteth himself Blood to heal the wounds received of the Serpent The Stork as Naturalists report hath taught Apothecaries the use of Clysters putting Moss in their seats when they find themselves oppressed with stoppages And Plutarch as though ravished with admiration at the favours which Nature hath bestowed on other Animals hath assured us That they are not ignorant of the Three kinds of Medicines for after he hath proved that they know the vertue of several Herbs and Simples as we have afore noted addeth That they know also the second part which we call diet For when they feel themselves over-filed they moderate their feeding and use abstinence as Wolves and Lions who perceiving the incommodiousness arising to them by their fatness abstain from flesh and couch themselves till they have all digested And as to the Third part which is Chirurgery it is held for certain That the Elephants have skill in 't for they draw out the Darts and Arrows out of the Bodies of them which are hurt with them and that with no small dexterity CHAP. V. That Man hath been instructed in several useful Arts and Inventions as also in sundery points of Morality and Philosophy by Birds Beasts and Fishes AN Ancient Greek Philosopher named Herophilus he with many Lamentations bewailed the miserable condition of Man who though elevated above all other Creatures yet in many things was he to learn of them witness the Swallow who hath taught him building for when they are near the time of their breeding they take strong twigs and lay them for the foundation of their Nests and soft ones on the top and when by reason of the heat they can't get durt which they use instead of Lime or Morter in their Edifices they fly to some River and therein bathe themselves tell they are well wetted and then take dust which they mingle with water and so plaister their Nests stop and fill up the holes and crannies and build their little habitations in form of a Spire round and exact not foursquare knowing that to be more proper and convenient for to preserve their young from the attempts of those that would hurt them But who wonders not when he sees and considers the admirable work of the Spider the Scholars of
Sin of whom was punished by his Children who were so irregular that one of them violated his own natural Sister Tamar and conspired the death of his own Father and drove him out of his Kingdom For the Rule of the ancient Philosophers has always proved true that man committeth many faults in this world the punishment of which God reserveth in the other but this sin of not well Educating our Children he usually punisheth in this for the Father in begetting his Sons gives them nothing but mortality and weakness but by good Education Fame and everlasting Renown We will conclude then that if the Children have been in great peril and misery oftentimes by the corrupt milk of their Nurses yet nevertheless the danger is double in respect of them who ought to instruct them for as much as that the nutriment of the body is of far less consequence than that of the mind But seeing that we have not as yet mentioned Plato who hath Divinely Philosophiz'd on Human Calamities and so lively represented the miseries of this life that many of his Disciples reading his Books have cast themselves down headlong from the tops of Rocks and Mountains into Rivers that so cutting the thread of their Calamitous life they might have the enjoyments of the next This great Philosopher Plato in a Dialogue that he hath made concerning Death and contempt of this life introduceth Socrates who deduceth by an admirable Eloquence the miseries and frailties of Human condition as followeth Knowest thou not saith He that Human life is nothing but a peregrination which the wise perform and pass in joy singing with gladness when that by necessity they approach unto the end of it Dost thou not well know that man consisteth of spirit which is enclosed in his body as in a Tabernacle which Nature has bestowed upon him not without great vexation and though she does bequeath some small benefits to us yet are they nevertheless hid and of a short durance and consumed in sorrow and trouble by reason of which the soul resenting the dolour cometh to desire the Coelestial Habitation and wisheth for the Fruition of heavenly pleasures Consider that the going out of this world is no other thing than a mutation and exchange of evil for good and what evil saith He and misery doth not man endure from his birth to his Sepulchre What kind of sorrow is there that he hath not experienced be it of heat of cold of torments in his body as also of his mind What other messenger or more certain forerunner can he have of his misery than his tears sighings and groanings But after he hath born so many evils and come to the 7th year of his age he must have Guardians and Tutors for his instruction in Learning moreover growing and coming into his youth he had need of Correctors who with rigor must observe his actions to tame and accustom him to labour CHAP. V. Of the Misery attending the state of Manhood HIS youth being past over hair begins to cover his chin and then he grows man and then is the time that he entreth into greater anxiety and vexation of spirit he must then frequent publick places keep up a conversation in company if he be of a Noble and Illustrious Extraction he is forced to undertake a thousand warlike stratagems and enterprises and expose himself to an infinite of perils and hazard his life and spill his blood that he may dye in the bed of honour or else he shall be looked on as of a cowardly mean and dastardly spirit If he be of a low condition and ordinary Fortune and be called to the exercise of mechanick Arts that hindreth him not from enduring a thousand vexations infinite labour and travel as well of body as mind he must work night and day must sweat blood and water for to get that which is necessary for the maintenance and suppor of his life and what labour or diligence soever he useth he can scarcely procure himself that which is necessary It is not therefore without cause that Marc. Aurel. considering the miserable condition of Human life was accustomed to say I thought in my self whether there could be found any State any Age any Land any Kingdom in which there could be found a man who durst vaunt that he never tasted in his life what was adverse Fortune this would be such a monster that both the living and dead would have desire to see him and then he concludes in the end I have found my reckoning saith he that he that was yesterday rich is to day poor he that was yesterday whole is to day sick he that laugh'd yesterday to day I saw cry he that I saw yesterday in prosperity I saw to day in adversity he that I saw yesterday amongst the living I see him now amongst the dead CHAP. IV. Mans Misery more particularly considered and first of the miserable life of Mariners REturn we then to our Subject deducing things in particular and who is he among men who hath betaken himself to any State or Trade and way of living that has not at last complained and been weary of it And that this may more evidently appear consider we the principal states in particular Begin we then at them who swim on the water and who gain their livings on the Sea and in how many perils are they night and day What is their habitation but a nasty and stinking prison the same is their diet What are their garments but as it were a Sponge of water They are always as vagabonds and in continual exile without any rest agitated by the Winds Rain Hail Snow at the mercy of Pyrats and Rovers Rocks and Tempests in continual hazard of being intomb'd in the bellies of fishes Wherefore Byas that Sage Grecian Philosopher knew not whether he should reckon these sort of people amongst the Terrestrial creatures or Aquatils and doubted whether he ought to number them amongst the living or the dead And another called Anacharsis said That they were no farther distant from the dead than the breadth of two or three fingers as much as the timber contained in thickness upon which they swam CHAP. VII Of the Misery attending the life of Husbandmen AND if the manner of living of Mariners seemeth terrible to us what greater sweetness think we to find in Agriculture and Rustical labour which at first look seemeth sweet happy quiet simple and innocent and that which many Patriarchs and Prophets have chosen as that in which there was the least of fraud and cousenage and that for which many Roman Emperours have forsaken their Palaces Theatres and other Pompous and Resplendant Edifices that they may retire themselves into the fields and cultivate their Lands with their hands and enjoy that innocent pleasure which they imagined might be found in a Country life but to them who would consider every thing more exactly it will appear that these Roses are not without their thorns and
City of Constantinople hath been afflicted with so great and such an unheard of Pestilence that they that were struck with it imagin'd that their approaching deaths were not occasioned by the maladies they groaned under but that they were kill'd by others and died furiously with these apprehensions In the time of Heraclee there sprung up such a contagion in Italy that in a little time it swept away thousands and the violence of the distemper was so great that many through impatiency in their sickness precipitated themselves into the River Tiber that they might obtain some refreshment in that extream heat which inwardly parched them Thucidides a Greek Author writeth That in his time the Air was so corrupted in Greece that there died an infinite number of people without finding the least remedy Moreover he addeth a thing more strange That those who returned to their former health lost their memory and knowledg so far that they knew not one another the Father not knowing his own Son Marc. Aurelius an Author worthy of Credit assureth us That in his time there was such a Mortality in Italy that the Historians who wrote of those times found less difficulty in counting the small number of those that were alive than in counting the great number of those that were dead The Soldiers of Vidius Cassius being in Selucia a City of Babylon entred the great Temple of Apollo where they found a Cabinet which having opened and hoping therein to find a great and inestimable Treasure there came out such an infectious air that it corrupted first all Babylon afterwards Greece and then Rome where it excited so many Pestilences that it destroy'd almost the third part of the World But leaving the Ancient Histories let us descend to them which have past under our own age as it were that we who are Christians may learn by these great miseries and afflictions which God sends us to know the great weakness and infirmity of our Humane Condition For when his anger is inflam'd against our sins he makes us feel the smart of his Justice so rigorously that there is no kind of torment and vexation with which he does not afflict and persecute his Creatures What experience have we had of this in the Year 1528 that when the Pest invaded the French Camp during the Siege of Naples the violence of the Distemper was so sharp and sudden that one was sooner dead than thought to be so And this unhappy Disease afflicted not only the Vulgar who were by it almost extinguished but also the Nobility and Commanders the Lords of Lautrec of Vaudemont De la val De Moleac the Chateignary Grandmont and other notable personages the memory of whom cannot be rehears'd without sorrow which happened also to the English when they had taken Boulon In which City was ingendred so great a Pestilence that the living could scarce bury the dead so that the King of England could not find in his Countrey any that would go and inhabit it and was necessicated to carry them thither by force bound and Manicl'd for the more they carried the more they died so that the Cantons of the City were corrupted and putrified through the Exhalations and Vapors that proceeded from the dead Carcasses The Year after that the defunct French King espous'd Queen Elenor Germany was assaulted with a new kind of Malady of which the Infected died in less than 24 hours in a pestilential Sweat and this distemper having taken its original from the Ocean spread in an instant throughout all Germany as a sudden conflagration which wasteth and consumeth every thing for before there could be found a Remedy there died so many thousands of men that many Provinces became as Desarts and waste places through the putrefaction of the Air that consum'd all that did touch it and that the Air was so much infected that their Garments were stain'd as it were with a red Cross Joachim Scilerus writeth That when the Pestilence so vehemently tormented England for so long time the vigour of the Poyson was so strong that not only Men were suffocated and extinguish'd by it but also â—he Birds left their Eggs Nests and little ones the Beasts their Dens and Caverns the Serpents and Moles appear'd in Troops upon the Earth leaving their proper abodes for vexation of the venomous Vapor contain'd in the Earth so that they were found dead under the Trees in the Fields with Pustules and Sores on their little members In the Year five hundred forty six the last day of May arose a Plague which lasted nine Months so great and terrible in Aix a City of Province that the people died at their Victuals so that the Church-yards were so full of dead Corpses that scarce any place was to be found for the interring of those that were brought thither the most part of the sick the second day fell into a Frensie and cast themselves into Wells Others threw themselves out at Windows Others were troubled with a Flux of Blood at the Nose which ran down night and day like a Flood and with this effusion of Blood they ended their lives nay the matter came to that extremity and desolation that the Women with Child miscarried in four days time they and the Children which they went withal perishing who were found afterwards changed to a Violet and Azure colour as if the blood was scattered through the whole Body In short the affliction was so great that the Father regarded not his Son nor the Husband his Wife and with Gold and Silver in their hands oftentimes died through hunger and thirst and if it happen'd at any time that they had wherewith to satisfie Nature the Distemper was so severe and violent that oftentimes they were found dead with the meat in their mouths and the fury of the Malady was so enflam'd that scarcely could there be found a person free from it And indeed people were by one single look infected a thing wonderfully strange and their breath was so venomous that thence immediately arose pestilential Buboes That which a Phisician hath left us in writing is a thing wonderful and monstrous in Nature who being deputed by them of the City for to help and succour the sick recounteth That this Distemper was so cruel and malign that notwithstanding all Medicines it ceas'd not to destroy all them that were therewith surprized having no other hope of easement in their pains than by death and were so opiniated and resolute in this that as soon as they found themselves therewith seized they themselves put an end to their miserable lives Which the same Physician asserts as having seen and experimented it in many especially in a Woman whom be called at a Window in order that she might take some Remedies whom he perceived through the same sowing up her self in her Winding sheet so that those that interred the infected entring into her house a little while after found her dead and stretch'd in the middle of
distempered that they have knocked their own heads against the wall as did a Learned man of our time called Ange Politian Some have been constrained in their sickness to eat Serpents as do those who are infected with the Leprosie From the bodies of others have issued out great number of Serpents as did out of the body of the Philosopher Pherecides Some there have been in whose bodies have been ingendred such great quantity of Lice that they have been eaten up with them CHAP. VI. Of Poysons NEither are these evils enough but Man hath invented of himself more to set forward his own death as well as his Neighbours as if those which Nature had prepared for him and were born with him were not sufficient to crush him Such are the poysons which men make now-a-days and that so dexterously that there can be no preservation from them unless men should shun all Society and betake themselves to Desarts with the brute Beasts in the company of whom he is more certain of safety than with men Some Ancient Authors as Orpheus Orus Medesius Heliodorus and Aratus have taught the Composition of five hundred sorts of Poysons and some others have since augmented the number but if they were now alive they would be reputed as dull and insiped so much is humane malice increased In former Ages they made use of certain Drugs which are of their nature so venemous that a Grain weight of them would kill a man immediately and was sold at an hundred Crowns an Ounce so great a Tribute paid he that used them yet nevertheless they had this consideration that they made him Swear who bought them that he should not use it in their Province nor against their Friends and Allies but only against strangers but men are grown in these our times so ingeniously industrious to do evil that they have found out ways to poyson men by scent only as did a certain Sienois to his Corrival presenting him with a Nosegay of Flowers the smell of which struck him dead immediately Another a Florentine Cavalier having taken off his Head-piece that he might refresh himself was espied by his Enemy who rubbed on the inside of it so deadly a poyson that as soon as ever he put it on his head made him give up the Ghost immediately They spare not in Italy so much as their Flamboies and Torches but corrupt and sophisticate them and that so artificially that the smoak of them poysoneth so that you dare scarcely light your Torches for your conduct in the night if you have suspicion of an Enemy 'T is a small matter to apply poyson to meats and drinks as in time past for men have found out means now-a-days to poyson the very Horssaddles Boots and Spurs and that which seemeth more pernicious is that some have lost their lives by shaking hands with them whose pretence was Friendship Some have been poysoned by Letters and Papers sent them which when opened there flies out such a poysonous vapour which rising upward penetrateth to the brain And so artificial are they in these Compositions that the venom killeth according to the intention of the Murderer for if he pleases the party shall live three months six month a year or longer so that death shall answer the time of the design of the Composition Moreover if they please they can so order the effects of the poyson that it shall hurt but one member at a time An experiment not much unlike to this we now speak of hath been found too true to their cost who drank of a poysoned Fountain on this-side the Rhine which caused their teeth to fall out of their heads who tasted of it but mens malice hath extended farther yet and hath given greater testimony of their execrable wickedness in that they have not stuck to mingle poyson with the blessed Sacrament CHAP. VI. Of the great Calamities which Men have suffered by the overflowing of Water WHAT remaineth more for the perfecting of Man's Misery seeing the very Elements rise up against him and are as Witnesses and Ministers of Gods vengeance for his sins what is there more necessary to Humane Life than Water seeing that neither Man Beast nor Herb can subsist without it not to reckon the Ornament and Beauty which it bringeth to the Universe it is the most ancient and mightiest of all the Elements as saith Pliny and Isidore It ruineth and layeth low the Mountains predominateth and governeth the Earth puts out the Fire turneth it self into Vapours surpasseth the Region of the Air from whence afterwards it descendeth to engender and produce all things on the Earth and yet nevertheless what Chastisements hath Antiquity experimented from the vigor of this Element when the Deluge of Water overflowed and covered the whole Earth when the Veins of the Heavens were opened that the Waters surpassed the highest Mountain by fifteen Cubits as Moses describeth it in Genesis How many times hath Egypt been drown'd by the overflowing of the River Nilus How many thousands of men have lost their Lives and been buried in the bellies of Fishes How sensible has Greece been of the fury of the Waters when the greatest part of Thessaly was drown'd all the Inhabitants expecting nothing but the entire ruin of mankind by the violence of this Element What mischief received the Romans by the overflowing of the River Tiber which swelled after such a manner that the waters mounted above the highest Towers and Pinacles of the City the Bridges were broken down their Gold Silver Corn Wine Cloth Silk Stuff Oiles Wool and other Goods to the value as was computed of two or three Millions of Gold lost and consumed above 3000 Men Women and Children were destroyed by the violence of the Flood Jasper Contaren writeth in his Book of the four Elements That in our time Valence a City of Spain lacked but little of being drowned with all its Inhabitants by the violence and before unknown eruption of Water so that if it had not been speedily succoured with Ramparts they had all undoubtedly perished CHAP. VII Of Fire and the Mischiefs which Men have receiv'd by it WHAT is there more admirable in Nature than the Fire by the benefit of which all our Meats are seasoned the Lives of many preserved the Metals Calcinated and made flexible the Iron softned macerated and vanquished the Stones which we use in the structure of our Buildings baked and hardened in the belly of the Earth by its aid and assistance and yet nevertheless how many famous Cities have been burned and reduced to Ashes the most ancient Testimony of this is in the Sacred Writings concerning Sodom and Gomorrah upon which the Lord rained Fire and Brimstone from Heaven The last Conflagration and Universal ruin of the Earth must be executed by the fury of this Element as is written by the Prophets and Apostles In the time of Lucius Marcus and Sextus Julius Consuls there broke out such a great Flame from two Mountains that all
the Cities Towns and Hills thereabouts with their Inhabitants were consumed by the violence thereof which issued out with unconceivable vehemency I could likewise make mention of Thunders and Lightnings and how many Noble Personages have been destroy'd by this sudden and violent Death as Joroastus King of the Bactrians Captain in the Thehan Wars Ajax after the destruction of Troy Anastasius Emperour after the 27th Year of his Empire Carius also and many other Kings and Emperors who have come to an untimely end by this kind of Death CHAP. VIII Of Earth quakes THE Air is so requisite for the Conservation of Man that there is no Creature can live without it and yet nevertheless it 's so pernicious to mankind when it is corrupt and putrified that the most part of the forementioned Pestilences take their first original from it The Earth which is the most sweet and tractable of the Elements being the common Mother and receptacle of us all being born it nourisheth and sustains us and at last takes us into her entrails as in our Couch and keepeth us until our God shall call us to appear before his Tribunal and yet nevertheless she produceth all the venom and poison with which our poor life is continually assaulted and sometimes by her quakings and agitations many Towns have been demolished and many thousands of Men swallowed down into the depth of her Abyss In the Reign of Mithridates the Earth began to be moved with such an impetuosity that there was not only many Cities ruined but there was above a hundred thousand people swallowed up in it In the Reign of Constantine there was such a great number of Cities and their Citizens ruined in Asia that with great difficulty could the Historians number them In the time of Isocrates and Plato the Earth so opened in Europe that two great Cities with all their Inhabitants were in an instant overthrown and ruined There was never since the memory of man read of a more terrible Earthquake than that which was in the time of Tiberius Caesar by which in the space of a night twelve great Cities were swallowed with all their Inhabitants amongst which was Rollonia Ephesus Caesarea Philadelphia and many others Marc. Varro one of the most worthy Authors that have written in Latin saith That in Spain there was a great Town scituated in a Sandy-placc which was so hollowed and digged by the Connies that finally the Inhabitants for sook it for fear of being buried in its Ruins The same Author writes That there was a City in France which was rendred uninhabitable by reason of the great number of Frogs The same happened in Africa by means of the Grashoppers Theophrastus makes mention of a certain Province made desolate by innumerable companies of Worms Pliny makes mention of a Province that borders on the limits of Ethiopia where the Ants and Scorpions and other Vermin have drove into exile the Men that inhabited there The Flies drove away the Magarenses in Greece The Wasps chased the Ephesians Anthenor writeth That great swarms of Bees drove from a City its Inhabitants and made their Nests in their Houses What testimony have we here of Humane frailty what a School and Discipline to learn Man to know himself in what evidence of the Power of God over his Creatures whose Judgments are so terrible and affrightful that as soon as ever Man beginneth to glory and raise himself against his God he knoweth well how to depress him and therefore he sendeth him Heralds and forerunners of his Anger War Famine and Plagues But moreover there 's no Element nor living Creature though never so contemptible which seeketh and worketh not his ruin and who are not as Ministers and Executors of the Divine Justice as is manifest not only by the testimony of Ethnicks but also by the Sacred Writings when the Frogs and Grashoppers abandoned their proper Elements to ascend up even to the Chamber and Bed of obstinate Pharaoh We have hitherto deduced a strange Philosophy of the misery of Man for if he were of Iron or Steel or harder than a Diamond it would be notwithstanding miraculously wonderful how he could last the one half part of his life-time without being shattered and broken seeing the pain anguish travel and Martyrdom which he must every minute endure and yet notwithstanding the many misfortunes wherewith he is continually afflicted he humbleth not himself under the Almighty hand of his Creator which thing being not well understood by Plato and Pliny seeing this great Gulf of misery in which Man is plunged from his Birth even to his Sepulchre they have called Nature Step-dame and cruel Extortioner who causeth Man to pay so much for his Excellency and Dignity But both the one and the other have under the name of Nature unreasonably accused God of cruelty and injustice for all these evils and this Sea of Misery wherewith Man is overwhelmed cometh not from the hatred of God but from the malice and corruption of Man for he equalling himself with his Maker declined and fell from his pristine Nobility defacing in himself the Image of God and imprinting instead thereof the Image of the Devil Arrogancy and Audaciousness is the cause of all the wounds and maledictions which he receiveth for had it not been for Ambition and desire of being great we had been as the Angels we had remained and been now what we shall be in the Resurrection crowned with Glory and Honour Neither is this all but what is worse and far more vexatious are the distempers of our minds they being far more dangerous than those of our bodies for they of the Body shew themselves by signs either by the bad colour of the Visage or by the unequal beating of the Pulse or some other intemperature or signs of disorder and having known them the Remedy is presently sought after but he that is distempered in mind is render'd uncapable of judging of his own Condition so that the Patient knowing not his distemper seeketh not after Remedies and yet is there also a greater abuse of them which have their bodies afflicted for we call them by the names of the Diseases wherewith they are tormented as them who are troubled with Phrensie we call them Phrenetick them who are vexed with the Palsie we call them Paralytick them who labour under Joint-evil we call Gouty But we do quite otherwise in the maladies of the Mind for those who are angry and Cholerick burning in their Passion murthering one another we call them Valiant and Magnanimous and look on them as persons having their Honour in great Recommendation Those who seduce Women and Maidens immersing themselves in Lust and lasciviousness we term them Lovers and persons endued with Kindness Hmility and sweetness of Disposition Those who are Ambitious and do endeavour by all illicite means to make themselves Great and Honourable we call them Noble Gallant and Persons of Noble and active Spirits Them who are Covetous and make