him and in this maner began to perswade Above all things my good childe quoth he studie and endevour to imitate the humanitie and sociable nature of your noble father unlesse haply you have me in jealousie and suspition as if I went about to compasse your death The youth was abashed to heare him say so and went with him well supper was no sooner ended but they made an end of the yoong gentleman also and strangled him outright so that it is no ridiculous and foolish advertisement as some let not to say but a wise and sage advise of Hesiodus when he saith Thy friend and lover to supper do invite Thy foe leave out for he will thee requite Be not in any wise bashfull and ashamed to refuse his offer whom thou knowest to hate thee but never leave out and reject him once who seemeth to put his trust and confidence in thee for if thou do invite thou shalt be invited againe and if thou be bidden to a supper and go thou canst not choose but bid againe if thou abandon once thy distrust and diffidence which is the guard of thy safty and so marre that good tincture and temperature by a foolish shame that thou hast when thou darest not refuse Seeing then that this infirmitie and maladie of the minde is the cause of many inconveniences assay we must to chase it away with all the might we have by exercise beginning at the first like as men do in other exercises with things that are not very difficult nor such as a man may boldly have the face to denie as for example if at a dinner one chance to drinke unto thee when thou hast drunke sufficiently already be not abashed to refuse for to pledge him neither force thy selfe but take the cup at his hand and set it downe againe on the boord againe there is another perchance that amids his cups chalengeth thee to hazzard or to play at dice be not ashamed to say him nay neither feare thou although thou receive a flout and scoffe at his hands for deniall but rather do as xenophanes did when one Lasus the sonne of Hermiones called him coward because he would not play at dice with him I confesse quoth he I am a very dastard in those things that be lewd and naught and I dare do nothing at all moreover say thou fall into the hands of a pratling talkative busie bodie who catcheth hold on thee hangeth upon thee and will not let thee go be not sheepish and bashfull but interrupt and cut his tale short shake him off I say but go thou forward and make an end of thy businesse whereabout thou wentest for such refusals such repulses shifts and evasions in small matters for which men cannot greatly complaine of us exercising us not to blush and be ashamed when there is no cause do inure and frame us well before-hand unto other occasions of greater importance And heere in this place it were not amisse to call unto remembrance a speech of Demosthenes for when the Athenians being sollicited and mooved to send aid unto Harpalus were so forward in the action that they had put themselves in armes against king Alexander all on a sodaine they discovered upon their owne coasts Philoxenus the lieutenant generall of the kings forces and chiefe admirall of his Armada at sea now when the people were so astonied upon this unexpected occurrent that they had not a word to say for very feare What wil these men do quoth Demosthenes when they shall see the sunne who are so afraid that they dare not looke against a little lampe even so I say to thee that art given much to blush and be abashed What wilt thou be able to do in weightie affaires namely when thou shalt be encountred by a king or if the bodie of some people or state be earnest with thee to obtaine ought at thy hand that is unreasonable when thou hast not the heart to refuse for to pledge a familiar friend if he chance to drinke unto thee offer thee a cup of wine or if thou canst not find meanes to escape and wind thy selfe out of the company of a babling busie bodie that hath fastened and taken hold of thee but suffer such a vaine prating fellow as this to walke and leade thee at his pleasure up and downe having not so much power as to say thus unto him I will see you againe hereafter at some other time now I have no leasure to talke with you Over and besides the exercise and use of breaking your selves of this bashfulnesse in praising others for small and light matters will not be unprofitable unto you as for example Say that when you are at a feast of your friends the harper or minstrell do either play or sing out of tune or haply an actour of a Comedie dearely hired for a good piece of money by his ill grace in acting marre the play and disgrace the authour himselfe Menander and yet neverthelesse the vulgar sort doe applaud clap their hands and highly commend and admire him for his deed in mine advice it would be no great paine or difficulty for thee to give him the hearing with patience and silence without praising him after a servile and flattering maner otherwise than you thinke it meet and reason for if in such things as these you be not master of your selfe how will you be able to hold when some deare friend of yours shall reade unto you either some foolish rime or bad poësie that himselfe hath composed if he shal shew unto you some oration of his owne foolish and ridiculous penning you will fall a praising of him will you you will keepe a clapping of your hands with other flattering jacks I would not els And if you doe so how can you reprove him when he shall commit some grosse fault in greater matters how shall you be able to admonish him if he chance to forget himselfe in the administration of some magistracie or in his carriage in wedlocke or in politike government And verily for mine owne part I do not greatly allow and like of that answere of Pericles who being requested by a friend to beare false witnesse in his behalfe and to binde the same with an oath whereby he should be forsworne I am your friend quoth he as far as the altar as if he should have said Saving my conscience and duety to the gods for surely he was come too neere already unto him But he who hath accustomed himselfe long before neither to praise against his owne minde one who hath made an oration nor to applaud unto him who hath sung nor to laugh heartily at him who came out with some stale or poore jest which had no grace hee will I trow never suffer his friend and familiar to proceed so farre as to demand such a request of him or once be so bolde as to move him who before had refused in smaller trifles to satisfie his desire in
true and assuredremedies and in stead of leaving the heart afflicted amid humane thoughts and considerations raiseth and lifteth it up unto the justice wisedome and bountie of the true God and heavenly father it causeth it to see the estate of eternall life it assureth it of the soules immortalitie of the resurrection of the bodie points of learning wherein the Pagans were altogether ignorant and of the permanent and everlasting joies above in the kingdome of heaven Now albeit as this trueth of God revealed unto us in his sacred word hath instructed and resolved us sufficiently it will not be amisse and impertinent to learne of our authour and such others those things which themselves did not well and thorowly understand neither in life nor yet in death for that the foundation failed them and they missed the ground-worke indeed and in cleaving and leaning to I wot not what fortune and fatall destinie they caused man to rest and stay himselfe upon a vaine shadow of vertue and willed him in one word to seeke for consolation where there was nothing but desolation for happinesse in misery and for life in death As touching the argument and contents of this treatise adorned it is with notable reasons similitudes examples and testimonies the substance whereof is this That Apollonius unto whom it is addressed ought not to be over-pensive and heavie for the death of his sonne deceased in the flower of his age To move and perswade him thereto Plutarch after he had excused himselfe in that he wrote no sooner unto him and shewed that space of time comming betweene doth better prepare mens hearts which sorow and be in anguish to receive comfort he condemneth aswell blockish and senselesse folke as also those that be weaklings and over-tender in adversitie Which done he entreth into a generall review of the remedies which be appropriate to cure the miseries and afflictions of man namely that hee ought to holde a meane and to continue alwaies like himselfe to cast his eie and have regard upon the divers accidents of our life and in enjoying the blessings thereof to thinke upon future crosses and calamities to be armed with reason for to beare all changes to remember and carefully to thinke upon the estate of this mortall and transitorie life to consider the evils and miseries of the same to endure patiently that which can not be avoided and prevented with all the cares and lamentations that be and to compare our owne adversities with other mens Then he proceedeth unto the particular consolations of those who are heavie and sorowfull for the death of their children kinsfolke or friends to wit That there is no harme nor evill at all in death but rather that it is a good thing that the houre of it being uncertaine it is a comfort unto those whom it summoneth who no doubt would be cast downe and overthrowen with the apprehension of miseries to come in case they had any foresight thereof After this he proveth at large by three inductions and arguments of Socrates that there is not any evill in death which he confirmeth by divers examples and then returning into his consolations he mainteineth and holdeth That whosoever die yoong are most happie that the consideration of Gods providence ought to reteine and stay us that we are not to mourne and lament for the dead neither in regard of them nor of our selves that since over-long heavinesse and sorow maketh a man miserable it were very good for him to be rid and dispatched of that paine quickly Having finished this point he resolveth and assoileth certeine difficulties which are presented in these maters and then taking in hand his purpose againe he ruleth and reformeth the affections of the living toward them that are departed he reclaimeth them from persisting and continuing obstinately in bewailing their absence willing them rather to bewaile the case of those who are living and by many reasons doth prove and conclude that they who die betimes have one marvellous advantage over those that remaine alive in the world Then he teacheth a man to mainteine and cary himselfe as he ought in all affaires refuteth those who can abide no paine and trouble and knitting up all the premisses in few words he adjoineth certaine necessarie and profitable counsels in such accidents and before that he concludeth the whole treatise he describeth the felicity of those whom death cutteth off in the prime of their yeeres having a speciall regard herein to Apollonius the 〈◊〉 unto whom he writeth and assuring him by the recitall of the good parts and vertues which were in his sonne lately departed that he was without all question in that place of repose and rest which the Poets do imagine Upon which occasion he treateth of the immortalitie of the soule according to the doctrine of Plato and his followers which is the very end and closing up of all that had bene delivered before A CONSOLATORIE ORAtion sent unto Apollonius upon the death of his sonne IT is not newly come upon me now at this present and not before to pitie your case and lament in your behalfe ô Apollonius having heard long since as I did the heavy newes concerning the untimely death of your sonne a yoong gentleman singularly well beloved of us all as who in that youth and tender yeeres of his shewed rare examples of wise carriage staied and modest behaviour together with precise observance of those devout dueties and just offices which either perteined to the religious service of the gods or were respective to his parents and friends for even from that time have I condoled with you and had a fellow-feeling of your sorrow but for me to have come then and visited you immediatly upon his decease departure out of this world to present you with an exhortation to beare patiently and as becommeth a man that unfortunate accident had bene an unseemly part of mine and unconvenient considering how in that verie instant your minde and bodie both overcharged with the insupportable burden of so strange and unexpected a calamitie were brought low and much infeebled and my selfe besides must needs have moaned you felt part of your griefe and sorrowed with you for companie for even the best and most skilfull Physicians when they meet with violent rhewmes and catarrhes which suddenly surprise any part of the body doe not proceed at the first to a rough cure by purgative medicines but permit this rage and hot impression of inflamed humours to grow of it selfe to maturitie by application onely of supple oiles mild liniments and gentle fomentations But now that since your said misfortune some time which useth to ripen all things is passed betweene and given good opportunitie considering also that the present disposition and state of your person seemeth to require the helpe and comfort of your friends I thought it meet and requisit to impart unto you certeine reasons and discourses consolatorie if happily by that meanes I may ease
his death they will evermore have the same in their mouthes to kindle anew and refresh their sorow went he suddenly and never bad his friends farewell when he departed they lament and say That he was ravished away and forcibly taken from them if he languished and was long in dying then they fal a complaining and give out that he consumed and pined away enduring much paine before hee died to be short every occasion circumstance whatsoever is enough to stirre up their griefe and minister matter to mainteine sorowfull plaints And who be they who have mooved and brought in all these outcries and lamentations but Poets and even Homer himselfe most of all other who is the chiefe and prince of the rest who in this maner writeth Like as a father in the fire of wofull funerals Burning the bones of his yoong sonne sonne after his espousals Sheds many teares for griefe of minde and weepeth bitterly The mother likewise tender heart bewailes him piteously Thus he by his untimely death both parents miserable Afflicts with sorrowes manifold and woes inexplicable But all this while it is not certeine whether it be wel and rightly done to make this sorrow for see what followeth afterwards He was their onely sonne and borne to them in their olde age Sole heire of all and to enjoy a goodly heritage And who knoweth or is able to say whether God in his heavenly providence and fatherly care of mankinde hath taken some out of the world by untimely death foreseeing the calamities and miseries which otherwise would have hapned unto them and therefore we ought to thinke that nothing is befallen them which may be supposed odious or abominable For nothing grievous thought may be Which commeth by necesitie Nothing I say that hapneth to man either by primitive cause immediatly or by consequence aswell in this regard that often times most kinds of death preserve men from more grievous aduersities and excuse them for greater miseries as also for that it is expedient for some never to have bene borne and for others to die in their very birth for some a little after they be entred into this life and for others againe when they are in their flower and growen to the verie hight and vigor of their age all which sorts of death in what maner soever they come men are to take in good part knowing that whatsoever proceedeth from fatall destinie can not possiblie be avoided and besides reason would that being well taught and instructed they should consider and premeditate with themselves how those whom we thinke to have bene deprived of their life before their full maturitie go before us but a little while for even the longest life that is can be esteemed but short and no more than the very minute and point of time in comparison of infinit eternitie also that many of them who mourned and lamented most within a while have gone after those whom they bewailed and gained nothing by their long sorow onely they have in vaine afflicted and tormented themselves whereas seeing the time of our pilgrimage here in this life is so exceeding short we should not consume our selves with heavinesse and sadnesse nor in most unhappie sorrow and miserable paines even to the punishing of our poore bodies with injurious misusage but endevour and strive to take a better and more humane course of life in conversing civilly with those persons who are not ready to be pensive with us and fit to stirre up our sorrow and griefe after a flattering sort but rather with such as are willing meet to take away or diminish our heavinesse with some generous and grave kinde of consolation and we ought to have ever in minde these verses in Homer which Hector by way of comfort delivered unto his wife Andromache in this wise Unhappy wight do not my heart vexe and sollicit still For no man shorten shall my daies before the heavenly will And this I say Andromache that fatall destinie No person good or bad once borne avoid can possibly And of this fatall destinie the same Poet speaketh thus in another place No sooner out of mothers wombe are bades brought forth to light But destinie hath spun the thread for every mortall wight These and such like reasons if we would conceive and imprint before-hand in our mindes we should be free from this foolish heavinesse and delivered from all melancholy and namely considering how short is the terme of our life betweene birth and death which we ought therefore to spare and make much of that we may passe the same in tranquillitie and not interrupt it with carking cares and dolefull dumps but laying aside the marks and habits of heavinesse have a regard both to cheerish our owne bodies and also to procure and promote the welfare and good of those who live with us Moreover it will not be amisse to call to minde and remember those arguments and reasons which by great likelihood wee have sometime used to our kinsefolke and friends when they were afflicted with like calamities when as by way of consolation we exhorted and perswaded them to beare the common accidents of this life with a common course of patience and humane cases humanely Neither must we shew our selves so far short and faultie as to have bene sufficiently furnished for to appease the sorrow of others and not be able by the remembrance of such comforts to do our selves good we ought therefore presently to cure the anguish of our heart with the sovereigne remedies and medicinable drogues as it were of reason and so much the sooner by how much better we may admit dealy in any thing els than in discharging the heart of griefe and melancholie for whereas the common proverbe and by-word in every mans mouth pronounceth thus much Who loves delaies and his time for to slacke Lives by the losse and shall no sorrows lacke Much more dammage I supose he shall receive who deferreth and putteth off from day to day to be discharged of the grievous and adverse passions of the minde A man therefore is to turne his eies toward those worthy personages who have shewed themselves magnanimous and of great generositie in bearing the death of their children as for example Anaxagor as the Clazomenian Pericles and Demosthenes of Athens Dion the Syracusian and king Antigonus besides many others both in these daies and also in times past of whom Anaxagor as as we reade in historie having heard of his sonnes death by one who brought him newes thereof even at what time as he was disputing in naturall philosophie and discoursing among his scholers and disciples paused a while and staied the course of his speech and said no more but thus unto those who were about him Well I wist that I begat my sonne to be a mortall man And Pericles who for his passing eloquence and excellent wisedome was surnamed Olympius that is to say divine and heavenly when tidings came to him that his
factour that thus bought and solde in their name was called Poletes 30 What is that which in Thracia they call Araeni Acta that is to say the Shore of Araenus THe Andrians and Chalcidians having made a voiage into Thrace for to chuse out a place to inhabit surprised jointly together the citie Sana which was betraied and delivered into their hands And being advertised that the Barbarians had abandoned the towne Achantus they sent forth two spies to know the truth thereof these spies approched the towne so neere that they knew for certaine that the enemies had quit the place and were gone The partie who was for the Chalcidians ran before to take the first possession of it in the name of the Chalcidians but the other who was for the Andrians seeing that he could not with good footmanship overtake his fellow flang his dart or javelin from him which he had in his hand and when the head thereof stucke in the citie gate he cried out aloud that he had taken possession thereof in the behalfe of the Andrians with his javelin head Hereupon arose some variance and controversie betweene these two nations but it brake not out to open warre for they agreed friendly together that the Erythraeans Samians and Parians should be the indifferent judges to arbitrate and determine all their debates and sutes depending betweene them But for that the Erythraeans and Samians awarded on the Andrians side and the Parians for the Chalcidians the Andrians in that verie place tooke a solemne oth and bound the same with inprecations curses and maledictions that they would never either take the daughters of the Parians in mariage or affiance their owne unto them and for this cause they gave this name unto the place and called it the Shore or banke of Araenus where as before it was called the Port of of the Dragon 31 Why do the wives of the Eretrians at the solemne feast of Ceres rost their flesh meat not at the fire but against the Sunne and never call upon her by the name of Calligenia IT is for that the dames of Troy whom the king led away captive were celebrating this feast in this place but because the time served to make saile they were enforced to haste away and leave their sacrifice unperfect and unfinished 32 Who be they whom the Milessians call Ainautae AFter that the tyrants Thoas and Damasenor had beene defaited there arose within the city two factions that mainteined their several sides the one named Plontis the other Cheiromacha In the end that of Plontis who were indeed the richest mightiest persons in the city prevailed and having gotten the upper hand seised the soveregne authority government and because when they minded to sit in consultation of their waightiest affaires they went a ship-boord and launched into the deepe a good way off from the land and after they had resolved and decreed what to doe returned backe againe into the haven therefore they were surnamed Ainautae which is as much to say as alway sailing 33 What is the cause that the Chalcidians name one place about Pyrsophion The assembly of lusty gallants NAuplius as the report goeth being chased and pursued by the Achaeans fledde for refuge like an humble suppliant to the Chalcidians where partly hee answered to such imputations which were laide against him and in part by way of recrimination recharged them with other misdemeanors and outrages whereupon the Chalcidians being not purposed to deliver him into their hands and yet fearing lest by treachery and privy practise hee should be made away and murdred allowed him for the guard of his person the very flower of the lustiest yoong gallants in all their citie whom they lodged in that quarter where they might alwaies converse and meet together and so keepe Nauplius out of danger 34 What was he who sacrificed an ox unto his benefactour THere hovered sometime a shippe of certeine men of warre or rovers and ankered about the coast of Ithacestia within which there was an old man who had the charge of a number of earthen pots conteining Amphors a piece with pitch in them now it fortuned that a poore mariner or barge-man named Pyrrhias who got his living by ferrying and transporting passengers approched the said shippe and delivered the old man out of the rovers hands and saved his life not for any gaine that hee looked for but onely at his earnest request and for very pure pitie and compassion now in recompence heereof albeit hee expected none the old man pressed instantly upon him to receive some of those pots or pitchers aforesaid the rovers were not so soone retired and departed out of the way but the old man seeing him at libertie and secure of danger brought Pyrrhias to these earthen vessels and shewed unto him a great quantitie of gold and silver mingled with the pitch Pyrrhtas heerby growing of a sudden to be rich and full of money entreated the old man very kindly in all respects otherwise and besides sacrificed unto him a beese and heereupon as they say arose this common proverb No man ever sacrificed an ox unto his benefactour but Pyrrhias 35 What is the cause that it was a custome among the maidens of the Bottiaeans in their dauncing to sing as it were the faburden of a song Go we to Athens THe Candiots by report upon a vow that they had made sent the first borne of their men unto Delphos but they that were thus sent seeing they could not finde sufficient meanes there to live in plentie departed from thence to seeke out some convenient place for a colonie to inhabite and first they setled themselves in Japigia but afterwards arrived to this verie place of Thracia where now they are having certeine Athenians mingled among them for it is not like that Minos had caused those yoong men to be put to death whom the Athenians had sent unto him by way of tribute but kept them for to doe him service some therefore of their issue descended from them being reputed naturall Candiots were with them sent unto the citie of Delphos which is the reason that the yoong daughters of the Bottiaeans in remembrance of this their originall descent went singing in their festivall daunces Go we to Athens 36 What should be the reason that the Eliens wives when they chaum himnes to the honour of Bacchus pray him to come unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say with his bull foote for the hymne runneth in this forme pleaseth it thee right woorthy lord Bacchus to come unto this holy maritime temple of thine accompanied with the Graces 〈◊〉 I say to this temple with an ox or beefe foot then for the faburden of the song they redouble O woorthy bull ô woorthy bull IS it for that some name this god The sonne or begotten of a cow and others tearme him Bul or is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thy great foot
their wilde and untamed affections with great care and vigilance For this floure of age having no forecast of thrift but set altogither upon spending and given to delights and pleasures winseth and flingeth out like a skittish and frampold horse in such sort that it had need of a sharpe bit and short curb And therefore they that endeuor not by all good meanes forcibly to hold in and restraine this age but give yoong men libertie and suffer them to do after their own mind plunge them ere they be aware into a licentious course of life and all maner of wickednesse Wherefore good and wise fathers ought in this age especially to be vigilant and watchfull over their sonnes they ought I say to keepe them downe and inute them to wisedome and vertue by teaching by threatning by intreatie and praiers by advise and remonstrances by perswasion and counsell by faire promises by setting before their eies the examples of some who being abandoned to their pleasures and all sensualitie have fallen headlong into great calamities and wofull miseries and contrariwise of others who by mastering their lusts and conquering their delights have wonne honor and glorious renowne For surely these be the two Elements and foundations of vertue Hope of reward and Feare of punishment For as hope inciteth and setteth them forward to enterprise the best and most commendable acts so feare plucketh them backe that they dare not enter upon lewd and wicked pranks In summe Fathers ought with great care to divert their children from frequenting ill companie for otherwise they shall be sure to catch infection and carie away the contagion of their leandnes This is that Pythagoras expresly forbiddeth in his Aenigmaticall precepts under covert and dark words which because they are of no small efficacie to the attaining of vertue I will briefly set downe by the way and open their meaning Taste not quoth he of the black tailed fishes Melanuri which is as much to say as Keepe not company with infamons persons such as for their naughtie life are noted as it were with a blacke coale Passe not over a balance That is we ought to make the greatest account of equitie and justice and in no case to transgresse the same Sit not upon the measure Choenix That is to say we are to flie sloth and idlenes that we may forecast to make provision of things necessarie to this life Give not every man thy right hand which is all one with this Make no contracts and bargaines indifferently with all persons Weare not a ring streight upon thy finger i. Live in freedome and at libertie neither intangle and clog thy life with troubles as with gives Dig not nor rake into the fire with a sword whereby he giveth us a caveat not to provoke farther a man that is angrie for that is not meete and expedient but rather to give place unto those that are in heat of choller Ear not thy heart that is to say offend not thine owne soule nor hurt and consume it with pensive cares Abstaine from beanes i. Intermeddle not in the affaires of State and government for that in olde time men were woont to passe their voices by beanes so proceeded to the election of Magistrates Put not viands in a chamber-pot whereby he signifieth that we should not commit good and civill words to a wicked minde because speech is the nutriment of the understanding which becommeth polluted by the leudnesse of men Returne not backe from the limits and confines when thou commest unto them that is to say If wee perceive death approching and that wee are come to the uttermost bounds of our life we ought to beare our death patiently and not be discouraged thereat But now is it time to retume againe to my matter which I proposed before in the beginning namely as I have alreadie said we are to withdraw our children from the societie and companie of leud persons and flatterers especiallie for that which many a time and often I have said to divers and sundrie fathers I will now repeat once againe namely That there is not a more mischievous and pestilent kinde of men or who doe greater hurt to youth and sooner overthrow them then these flatterers who are the undoing both of fathers and sonnes causing the olde age of the one and the youth of the other wretched and miserable presenting with their leud and wicked counsels an inevitable bait to wit Pleasure wherewith they are sure to be caught Fathers exhort their sonnes that be wealthie to sobrietie and these incite them to drunkenesse Fathers give them counsell to live chaste and continent these provoke them to lust and loosenesse of life Fathers bid them to save spare and be thriftie these will them to spend scatter and be wasters Fathers advise their children to labour and travell these flatterers give them counsell to play or sit still and doe nothing What all our life say they is no more but a moment and minute of time to speake of we must live therefore and enjoy our owne whiles wee have it we must not live beside our selves and languish What need you regard and care for the menaces of a father an olde doting foole carying death in his face and having one foot in the grave we shall see him one of these dayes turne up his heeles and then will we soone have him forth and cary him aloft bravely to his grave You shall have one of these come and bring unto a youth some common harlot out of the stinking stewes having bome him in hand before that she is some brave dame and citizens wife for to furnish whom he must robbe his father there is no remedie Thus fathers goodmen in one houre are bereaved and spoiled of that which they had saved many a yeere for the maintenance of their olde age To be short a wretched and cursed generation they be hypocrites pretending friendship but they can not skill of plaine dealing and franke speech Rich men they claw sooth up and flatter the poore they contemne and despise It seemeth they have learned the Art of singing to the Harpe for to seduce yoong men for when their yoong masters who mainteine and feed them begin to laugh then they set up by and by a loud laughter then they yawne shew all their teeth counterfeit cranks fained and supposed men bastard members of mankinde and this life who compose themselves and live to the will and pleasure of rich men and notwithstanding their fortune is to be free borne and of franke condition yet they chuse voluntarily to be slaves who thinke they have great injurie done unto them if they may not live in all fulnesse and superfluitie to be kept delicately and doe nothing that good is And therefore all futhers that have any care of their childrens good education and wel doing ought of necessitie to chase and drive away from them these gracelesse imps and shamelesse beasts they shall doe
feareth Neptune and standeth in dread least he shake cleaue and open the earth and so discover hell he will rebuke also himselfe when he is offended and angrie with for Apollo the principal man of all the Greekes of whom Thetu complaineth thus in the Poet Aesohylus as touching Achilles her sonne Himselfe did sing and say al good of me himselfe also at wedding present was Yet for all this himselfe and none but be hath slaine and done to death my sonne alas He will like wise represse the treares of Achilles now departed and of Agamemnon being in hell who in their desire to revive and for the love of this life stretch foorth their impotent and seeble hands And if it chaunce at any time that he be troubled with passions and surprised with their enchantments and sorcerie he will not sticke nor feare to say thus unto himselfe Make hast and speed without delay Recover soone the light of day Beare well in minde what thou seest heere And all report to thy bed feere Homer spake this in mirth and pleasantly fitting indeed the discourse wherein he describeth hell as being in regard of the fiction a tale fit for the eares of women and none els These be the fables that Poets do feigne voluntarily But more in number there are which they neither devisenor counterfeit but as they are perswaded and do beleeve themselves so they would beare us in hand and infect us with the same untruthes as namely when Homer writeth thus of Iupiter Two lots then of long sleeping death he did in balance put One for Achilles hardy knight and one for Hector stout But when he pis'd it just mids behold str Hectors death Weigh'd downward unto bell beneath Then Phoebus slopt his breath To this fiction Aeschylus the Poët hath aptly fitted one entire Tragedie which he intituled Psychostasia that is to say the weighing of Soules or ghosts in balance Wherein he deviseth to stand at these skales of Iupiter Thetu of the one side and Aurora of the other praying each of them for their sonnes as they fight But there is not a man who seeth not cleerely that this it but a made tale and meere fable devised by Homer either to content and delight the Reader or to bring him into some great admiration and astonishment Likewise in this place T' is Iupiter that mooveth warre He is the cause that men do jarre As also this of another Poët When God above some house will overthrow He makes debate twixt mort all men below These and such like speeches are delivered by Poëts according to the very conceit and beliese which they have whereby the errour and ignorance which themselves are in as touching the nature of the gods they derive and communicate unto us Semblably the strange wonders and marvels of Hell The descriptions by them made which they depaint unto us by fearefull and terrible termes representing unto us the fantasticall apprehensions and imaginations of burning and flaming rivers of hideous places and horrible torments there are not many men but wot well ynough that therein be tales and lies good store no otherwise than in meates and viands you shall finde mixed otherwhiles hurtfull poyson or medicinable drugs For neither Homer nor Pindarus nor Sophocles have written thus of Hell beleeving certainely that there were any such things there From whence the dormant rivers dead of blacke and shady night Cast up huge mists and clouds full darke that overwhelme the light Likewise The Ocean coast they sailed still along Fast by the clifs of Leucas rocke among As also Here boyling waves of gulfe so deepe do swell Where lies the way and downfall into hell And as many of them as bewailed and lamented for death as a most piteous and woful thing or feared want of sepulture as a miserable and wretched case uttered their plaints and griefes in these and such like words Forsake me not unburied so Nor unbewailed when you go Semblably And then the soule from body flew and as to hell she went She did her death her losseof strength and youthfull yeeres lament Likewise Doe not me kill before my time for why to see this light Is sweet sorce me not under earth where nothing is but night These are the voices I say of passionate persons captivate before to error and false opinions And therefore they touch us more neerely and trouble us so much the rather when they finde us likewise possessed of such passions and feeblenes of spirit from whence they proceed In which regard we ought to be prepared betimes and provided alwaies before hand to encounter and withstand such illusions having this sentence readily evermore resounding in our cares as it were from a trunke or pipe That Poetrie is fabulous and maketh smal reckoning of Truth As for the truth indeed of these things it is exceeding hard to be conceived comprehended even by those who travell in no other businesse but to search out the knowledge and understanding of the thing as they themselves do confesse And for this purpose these verses of Empedocles would be alwaies readie at hand who saith that the depth of such things as these No eie of man is able to perceive No care to heare nor spirit to conceive Like as these also of Xenophanes Never was man nor ever will be Able to sound the veritie Of those things which of God I write Or of the world I do endite And I assure you The very words of Socrates in Plato imply no lesse who protesteth and bindeth it with an oath that he cannot attaine to the knowledge of these matters And this will be a good motive to induce yoong men to give lesse credit unto Poëts as touching their certaine knowledge in these points wherein they perceive the Philosophers themselves so doubtfull and perplexed yea and therewith so much troubled Also the better shall we stay the mind of a yoong man cause him to be more warie if at his first entrance into the reading of Poëts we describe Poetrie unto him giving him to understand that it is an art of Imitation a science correspondent every way to the seat of painting and not onely must he be acquainted with the hearing of that vulgar speech so common in every mans mouth that Poësie is a speaking picture and picture a dumbe Poësie but also we ought to teach him that when we behold a Lizard or an Ape wel painted or the face of Thersites lively drawen we take pleasure therein praise the same wonderfully not for any beautie in the one or in the other but because they are so naturally counterfeited For that which is soule of it selfe ilfavored in the owne nature cannot be made faire seemly but the skil of resembling a thing wel be the same faire or be it foule is alwaies commended wheras contrariwise he that takes in hand to purtray an ilfavoured bodie and makes thereof a faire beautifull image shall exhibite a
a fall there I say am I grieved most also when I see how I was deceived As for that exceeding inclination and frowardnes of mind thus to love and affect a man could I never yet to this day weane my selfe from so inbred it is and setled in me mary to stay my selfe from giving credit over-hastily and too much I may peradventure use that bridle which Plato speaketh of to wit wary circumspection for in recommending the Mathematician Helicon I praise him quoth he for a man that is as much to say as a creature by nature mutable and apt to change And even those who have beene well brought up in a citie to wit in Athens he saith that he is afraid likewise of them lest being men and comming from the seed of man they do not one time or other bewray the weaknesse and infirmitie of humane nature and Sophocles when he speaketh thus Who list to search through all deeds of mankind More had then good he shall be sure to find seemeth to clip our wings and disable us wonderfully Howbeit this difficultie and caution in judging of men and pleasing our selves in the choise of friends will cause us to be more tractable and moderate in our anger for whatsoever commeth sodainly and unexpected the same soone transporteth us beside our selves We ought moreover as Panatius teacheth us in one place to practise the example of Anaxagoras and like as he said when newes came of his sons death I know well quoth he that I begat him a mortall man so in every fault of our servants or others that shall whetten our choler ech one of us may sing this note to himselfe I knew wel that when I bought this slave he was not a wise Philosopher I wist also that I had gotten formy friend not one altogether void of affections and passions neither was I ignorant when I tooke a wife that I wedded a woman Now if withall a man would evermore when he seeth others do amisse adde this more unto the dittie as Plato teacheth us and sing thus Am not I also such an other turning the discursion of his judgement from things abroad to those which are with in himselfe and among his complaints and reprehensions of other men come in with a certeine caveat of his owne and feare to be reproved himselfe in the like he would not haply be so quicke forward in the hatred and detestation of other mens vices seeing that himselfe hath so much need of pardon But on the contrary side every one of us when he is in the heat of choler and punisheth another hath these words of severe Aristides and precise Cato ready enough in his mouth Steale not Sirrha Make no more lies Why art thou so idle then c. To conclude that which of all others is most unseemely and absurd we reproove in anger others for being angry and such faults as were committed in choler those our selves will punish in choler not verily as the Physicians useto do who A bitter medicine into the body poure When bitter choler they meane to purge and scoure But we rather doe encrease the same with our bitternesse and make more trouble than was before And therefore when I thinke and discourse with my selfe of these matters I endevour withall and assay to cut off somewhat from needlesse curiositie For surely this narrow searching and streight looking into everie thing for to spie and find out a fault as for example to sift thy servant and call him into question for all his idle houres to prie into every action of thy friend to see where about thy sonne goeth and how he spendeth all his time to listen what whispering there is betweene thy wife and another be the verie meanes to breed much anger daily braules and continualljarres which grow in the end to the height of curstnesse and frowardnes hard to be pleased with any thing whatsoever For according as Euripides saith in one place we ought in some forto do All great affatres God ay himselfe directeth But matters small to Fortune he committeth For mine owne part I do not thinke it good to commit any busines to Fortune neither would I have a man of understanding to be retchlesse in his owne occasions But with some things to put his wife in trust others to make over unto servants and in some matters to use his friends Herein to beare himselfe like a Prince and great commaunder having under him his Deputies Governours Receivers Auditors and Procurators reserving unto himselfe and to the disposition of his owne judgement the principall affaires and those of greatest importance For like as little letters or a small print do more offend and trouble the eies then greater for that the eies be verie intentive upon them even so small matters doe quickly moove choler which thereupon soone getteth an ill custome in weightier matters But above all I ever reckon that saying of Empedoles to be a divine precept and heavenly oracle which admonisheth us To fast from sin I commended also these points and observations as being right honest commendable and beseeming him that maketh profession of wisedome and philosophie which we use to vow unto the gods in our praiers Namely To forbeare both wine and women and so to live sober and chaste a whole yeere together and in the meane while to serve God with a pure and undefiled heart Also to limit and set out a certaine time wherein we would not make a lie observing precisely not to speake any vaine and idle word either in earnest or in bourd With these and such like observations also I acquainted and furnished my soule as being no lesse affected to teligion and godlines than studious of learning and philosophie Namely first enjoined my selfe to passe a certaine few Holy-daies without being angrie or offended upon any occasion whatsoever no lesse than I would have vowed to forbeare drunkennesse and abstaine altogether from wine as if I sacrificed at the feast Nephalta wherein no wine was spent or celebrated the solemnitie Melisponda in which Honie onely was used Thus having made an entrance I tried afterwards a moneth or two by little and little what I could do and ever I gained more and more time exercising my selfe still to forbeare sinne with all my power and might Thus I proceeded and went forward daily blessing my selfe with good words and striving to be milde quiet and voide of malice pure and cleane from evill speeches awd lewd deeds but principally from that passion which for a little pleasure and the same not verie lovely bringeth with it great troubles and shamefull repentance in the end Thus with the grace of God assisting me somewhat as I take it in this good resolution and course of mine experience it selfe approoved and confirmed my first intenr and judgement whereby I was taught That this mildnesse clemency and debonaire humanitie is to none of our familiars who live and converse daily with us so sweete so pleasant
the night long toile and moile like a drudge and hireling thy selfe hire other labourers for day-wages lie in the winde for inheritances speake men faire in hope to be their heire and debase thy selfe to all the world and care not to whom thou cap and knee for gaine having I say so sufficient meanes otherwise to live at ease to wit thy niggardise and pinching parsimonie whereby thou maist be dispensed for doing just nothing It is reported of a certaine Bizantine who finding an adulterer in bed with his wife who though she were but foule yet was ilfavoured enough said unto him O miserable caitise what necessitie hath driven thee thus to doe what needes Sapragoras dowrie well goe to thou takest great paines poore wretch thou fillest and stirrest the lead thou kindlest the fire also underneath it Necessarie it is in some sort that Kings and Princes should seeke for wealth and riches that these Governours also and Deputies muder them should bee great gatheres yea and those also who reach at the highest places and aspire to rule and soveraigne dignities in great States and cities all these I say have need perforce to heape up grosse summes of money to the end that for their ambition their proud port pompe and vaine-glorious humour they might make sumptuous feasts give largesses reteine a guard about their persons send presents abroad to other States mainteine and wage whole armies buie slaves to combat and fight at sharpe to the outtrance but thou makest thy selfe so much adoo thou troublest and tormentest both body and minde living like an oister or a shell-snaile and for to pinch and spare art content to undergo and indure all paine and travell taking no pleasure nor delight in the world afterwards no more than the Baine-keepers poore asse which carying billots and fagots of drie brush and sticks to kindle fire and to heat the stouphes is evermore full of smoake soot ashes and sinders but hath no benefit at all of the bane and is never bathed washed warmed rubbed scoured and made cleane Thus much I speake in reproch and disdaine of this miserable asse-like avarice this base raping and scraping together in maner of ants or pismires Now there is another kind of covetousnesse more savage and beast-like which they prosesse who backbite and slander raise malicious imputations forge false wils and testaments lie in wait for heritages cogge and cousen and intermeddle in all matters will bee seene in everie thing know all mens states busie themselves with many cares and troubles count upon their fingers how many friends they have yet living and when they have all done receive no fruition or benefit by all the goods which they have gotten together from all parts with their cunning casts subtil shifts And therefore like as we have in greater hatred and detestation vipers the venemous flies Cantharides and the stinging spiders called Philangia Tarantale than either beares or lions for that they kill folke and stinge them to death but receive no good or benefit at all by them when they are dead even so be these wretches more odious and woorthy to be hated of us who by their miserable parsimonie and pinching doe mischiefe than those who by their riot and wastfulnesse be hurtfull to a common-weale because they take and catch from others that which they themselves neither will nor know how to use Whereupon it is that such as these when they have gotten abundance and are in maner full rest them for a while and doe no more violence as it were in time of truce and surcease of hostilitie much after the maner as Demosthenes said unto them who thought that Demades had giuen over all his lewdnesse and knavery O quoth he you see him now full as lions are who when they have filled their bellies prey no more for the lice untill they be hungrie againe but such covetous wretches as be imploied in government of civill affaires and that for no profit nor pleasure at all which they intend those I say never rest nor make holiday they allow themselves no truce nor cessation from gathering heaping more together still as being evermore emptie have alwaies need of al things though they have all But some man perhaps will say These men I assure you do save lay up goods in store for their children and heires after their death unto whom whiles they live they will part with nothing If that be so I can compare them very well to those mice and cats in gold mines which feed upon the gold-ore and licke up all the golden sand that the mines yeeld so that men can not come by the golde there before they be dead and cut up in maner of anatomies But tell me I pray you wherefore are these so willing to treasure up so much money and so great substance and leave the same to their children inheritours and successors after them I verily beleeve to this end that those children and heires also of theirs should keepe the same still for others likewise and so to passe from hand to hand by descent of many degrees like as earthen conduct-pipes by which water is conveied into some cesterne withhold and reteine none of all the water that passeth through them but doe transmit and send all away from them ech one to that which is next and reserve none to themselves thus doe they untill some arise from without a meere stranger to the house one that is a sycophant or very tyrant who shall cut off this keeper of that great stocke and treasure and when he hath dispatched and made a hand of him drive and turne the course of all this wealth and riches out of the usuall chanell another way or at leastwise untill it fall into the hands as commonly men say it doth of the most wicked and ungracious imp of that race who wil disperse and scatter that which others have gathered who will consume and devour all unthristily which his predecessors have gotten and spared wickedly for not onely as Euripides saith Those children wastfull prove and bad Who servile slaves for parents had but also covetous carles pinching peni-fathers leave children behind thē that be loose riotous spend-thrifts like as Diogenes by way of mockery said upon a time That it were better to be a Megarians ram than his sonne for wherein they would seeme to instruct and informe their children they spoile and mar them cleane ingrafting into their hearts a desire and love of money teaching them to be covetous and base minded pinch-penies laying the foundation as it were in their heires of some strong place or fort wherein they may surely guard and keepe their inheritance And what good lessons and precepts be these which they teach them Gaine and spare my sonne get and save thinke with thy selfe and make thine account that thou shalt be esteemed in the world according to thy wealth and not otherwise But surely this not to instruct a
Athenian who said unto him after a boasting and vaunting maner We have driven you oftentimes from the river Cephasus but we quoth he never yet drave you frō the river Eurotas In like sort replied Phocion pleasantly upon Demades when he cried aloud The Athenians will put thee to death if they enter once into their raging fits But they quoth he will doe the same by thee if they were in their right wits and Crassus the oratour whē Domitius demanded this question of him When the lamprey which you kept and fed in your poole was dead did you never weepe for it and say true came upon him quickly againe in this wise And you sir when you had buried three of of your wives one after another did you ever shed teare for the matter tell troth And verilie these rules are not onely to be practised in matters of State-affairs but they have their use also in other parts of mans life Moreover some there be who will intrude and thrust themselves into all sorts of publike affaires as Cato did and these are of opinion that a good citizen should not refuse any charge or publike administration so farre foorth as his power will extend who highly commend Epaminondas for that when his adversaries and evill willers upon envie had caused him to be chosen a bailife and receiver of the citie revenues thereby to doe him a spight and shrewd turne hee did not despise thinke basely of the said office but saying that not onely magistracie sheweth what maner of man one is but also a man sheweth what the magistracie is he brought that office into great dignitie and reputation which before was in no credite and account at all as having the charge of nothing els but of keeping the streetes cleane of gung-farming and carying dung foorth out of the narrow lanes and blinde allies and turning water-courses And even I Plutarch my selfe doubt not but I make good sport and game unto many who passe through our citie when they see me in the open streetes otherwhiles busie and occupied about the like matters but to meete with such I might helpe my selfe with that which I have found written of Antisthenes for when some there were that meruailed much at him for carrying openly in his hands through the market place a peece of salt fish or stock-fish which he had bought It is for mine own selfe quoth he alowd that I carie it but cōtrariwise mine answer is to such as reprove me when they finde me in proper person present at the measuring and counting of bricks and tiles or to see the stones sand and lime laid downe which is brought into the citie it is not for my selfe that I builde but for the city and common-wealth for many other things there be which if a man exercise or manage in his owne person and for himselfe hee may bee thought base minded and mechanical but in case he do it for the common-wealth and the State and for the countrey and place where he liveth it cannot be accounted a vile or ungentleman-like service but a great credite even to bee serviceable ready and diligent to execute the meanest functions that be Others there are who thinke the fashion that Pericles used to be more starely grave and decent and namely Critelaus the peripateticke among the rest who was of this mind that as the two great galiasses to wit Salaminia at Athens and Paralos were not shot or lanched into the sea for every small matter but onely upon urgent and necessarie occasions even so a man of government should be emploied in the chiefe greatest affaires like as the soveraigne and king of the worlde according to the poet Euripides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For God himselfe doth manage and dispence things of most weight by his sole government But matters high and of small consequence he doth referre to fortunes regiment For we cannot commend the excessive ambition the aspiring and contentious spirit of Theagenes who contented not himselfe to have gone through all the ordinary games with victory and to have wonne the prizes in many other extraordinary mastries and feats of activity to wit not onely in that generall exercise Pancratton wherein hand and foote both is put to the uttermost at once but also at buffets at running a course in the long race Finally being one day at a solemne anniversarie feast or yeeres-maund in the memorial of a certaine demi-god as the manner was when he was set the meat served up to the boord he would needs rise from the table for to performe another general Pancratium as if forsooth it had belonged to no man in the world to atchieve the victorie in such feats but himselfe if hee were present in place by which profession he had gotten together as good as twelve hundred coronets as prizes at such combats of which the most part were of small or no valew at all a man would say they had beene chaffe or such refuse and riffe raffe Like unto him for all the world be those who are readie as a man would say at all howers to cast of all their clothes to their verie single wastcot or shirt for to undertake all affaires that shall be presented by which meanes the people have enough and too much of them they become odious and yrkesome unto them in such sort that if they chance to do well and prosper they envie them if they do otherwise than well and miscarrie they rejoice and be glad at heart therefore Againe that which is admired in them at their first entrance into government turneth in the end to a jest and meere mockerie much after this order Metiochus is the Generall captaine Metiochus looketh to the high waies Metiochus bakes our bread Metiochus grinds our meale Metiochus doth everie thing and is all in all finally Metiochus shall pay for this one day and crie woe is me in the end Now was this Metiochus one of Pericles his followers and favorites who making use of his authoritie out of measure and compasse by the countenance thereof would employ himselfe in all publike charges and commissions whatsoever untill at the last he became contemptible and despised For in truth a man of government ought so to carrie himselfe as that the people should evermore have a longing appetite unto him be in love with him and alwaies dosirous to see him againe if he be absent This policie did Scipio Africanus praclife who aboad the most part of the time in the countrey by this meanes both easing himselfe of the heavie loade of envie and also giving those the while good leasure to take breath who seemed to bee kept downe by his glorie Timesias the Clazomenian was otherwise a good man and a sufficient polititian howbeit little wist he how he was envied in the citie because he would seeme to do everie thing by himselfe untill such time as there befell unto him such an accident as this There chanced to
drive the same without forth to the superficiall parts but contrariwise a man of government if he be not able to keepe a citie altogether in peace concord but that some troubles will arise yet at leastwise he must endevour to conteine that within the citie which is the cause thereof and nurceth the sedition and in keeping it close to labour for to heale and remedie it to this end that if it be possible he have no need either of physician or physicke from forren parts for the intentions of a man of State and government ought to be these namely to proceed in his affaires surely and to flie the violent and furious motions of vaine-glorie as hath beene said alreadie howbeit in his resolution A courage bold and full of confidence Undaunted heart and fearlesse be must have Which will not quatle for any consequence But see the end much like to sculdiors brave In field themselves who manly do behave And hazard lims and life for to defend Their countrey deere and enemies to off end and not onely to oppose himselfe against enemies but also to be armed against perilous troubles and dangerous tumults that he may be readie to resist and make head for he ought not in any case himselfe to moove tempests and raise commotions no nor when he seeth boisterous stormes comming forsake and leave his countrey in time of need He must nor I say drive his citie under his charge upon apparent danger but so soone as ever it once begin to be tossed and to float in jeopardie than is it his part to come to succor by casting out from himselfe as it were a sacred Anchor that is to say to use his boldnesse and libertie of speech considering that now the maine point of all lieth a bleeding even the safetie of his countrey Such were the dangers that hapned unto Pergamus in Neroes time and of late daies to the Rhodians during the Empire of Domitian as also before unto the Thessalians while Augustus was Emperour by occasion that they had burned Petraeus quick In these and such like occurrences a man of State and government especially if he be woorthie of that name Never shall you see Sleepie for to bee nor drawing his foote backe for feare no nor to blame and lay the fault of others ne yet to make shift for one and put himselfe out of the medley of danger but either going in embassage or embarked in some ship at sea or else readie to speake first and to say not onely thus We we Apollo have this murder don From these our coasts avert this plague anon but although himselfe be not culpable at all with the multitude yet will he put his person into danger for them For surely this is an act right honest and besides the honestie in it selfe it hapneth divers times that the vertue and noble courage of such a man hath beene so highly admired that it hath daunted the anger conceived against a whole multitude and dispatched all the fiercenesse and furie of a bitter menace like as it befell unto a King of Persia in regard of Bulis and Sperthis two gentlemen of Sparta and as it was seene in Pompey to his host and friend Sthenon for when he was fully determined to chastice the Mamertines sharpely and to proceede against them in all rigor for that they had rebelled the said Sthenon stept unto him and thus frankly spake That he should do neither well nor justly in case he did to death a number of innocents for one man who alone was faultie for it is I my selfe quoth he who caused the whole citie to revolt and take armes inducing my friends for love and forcing mine enemies for feare These words of his went so neere unto the heart of Pompey that he pardoned the citie and most courteously entreated Sthenon semblaby the host of Sylla having shewed the like valour and vertue although it were not to the like person died a noble death for when Sylla had woon the citie Praenesle by assault he meant to put all the inhabitants thereof to the sword excepting onely one host of his whom in regard of old hospitalite he spared and pardoned but this host friend said flatly unto him that he would never remaine alive to see that bloudy massacre not hold his life by the murtherer of his countrey and so cast himselfe into the troupe of his fellow-citizens in the heate of execution and was killed with them Well pray unto the gods we ought to preserve and keepe us that we fall not into such calamities and troublesome times to hope also and looke for better daies Moreover we are to esteeme of everie publike magistracie and of him who exerciseth it as of a great and sacred thing and in that regard to honour the same above all Now the honour which is due unto authoritie is the mutuall accord and love of those who are set in place to exercise the same together and verily this honor is much more worth than either all those crownes and diademes which they beare upon their heads or their stately mantles and roabes of purple wherewith they be arraied Howbeit they that laid the first ground and beginning of amitie their service in warres when they were fellow-souldiors or the passing of their youthfull yeeres together and contrariwise take this a cause now of enmitie that they either are joined captaines in commission for the conduct of an armie or have the charge of the Common-weale together it can not be avoided but that they must incur one of these three mischiefes For either if they esteem their fellowes and companions in government to be their equals they begin themselves first to grow into tearmes of dissention or if they take them to be their betters they fall to be envious or else in case they hold them to be inferiour unto them in good parts they despise contemne them Whereas they should indeed make court unto the greater honor and adorne their equals and advance their inferiors and in one word to love and embrace all as having an amitie and love engendred among themselves not because they have eaten at one table drunke of the same cup or met together at one feast but by a certaine common band and publike obligation as having in some sort a certaine fatherly benevolence contracted and growen upon the common affection unto their countrey Certes one reason why Scipio was not so well thought of at Rome was this that having invited all his friends to a solemne feast at the dedication of his temple to Hercules he left out Mummius his colleague or fellow in office for say that otherwise they tooke not one another for so good friends yet so it is that at such a time and upon such occasions they ought to have honored and made much one of the other by reason of their common magistracie If then Scipio a noble personage otherwise and a man of woonderfull regard incurred the imputation and
quoth he be throwen for all as if he would say This cast for it there is but one chance to lose all When Pompey was fled from Rome to the sea side and Metellus the superintendent of the publike treasurie would have hindred him for taking foorth any money from thence keeping the treasure house fast shut he threatned to kill him whereat Metellus seeming to be amazed at his adacious words Tush tush quoth he good yoong man I would thou shouldest know that it is harder for me to speake the word than to doe the deed And for that his soldiors staid long ere they were transported over unto him from Brundusuim to Dyrrhachium he embarked himselfe alone into a small vessell without the knowledge of any man who he was purposing to passe the seas alone without his companie but it hapned so that he was like to have beene cast away in a gust and drowned with the waves of the sea whereupon he made himselfe knowne unto the pilot and spake unto him aloud Assure thy selfe and rest confident in fortune for wot well thou hast Caesar a ship boord howbeit for that time he was empeached that he could not crosse the seas as well in regard of the tempest which grew more violent as also of his souldiers who ran unto him from all sides and complained unto him for griefe of heart saying That he offred them great wrong to attend upon other forces as if he distrusted them Not long after this he fought a great battell wherein Pompeius hand the upper had for a time but for that he followed not the train of his good fortune he retired into his campe which when Caesar saw he said The victorie was once this day our enemies but their head and captaine knew not so much upon the plaines of 〈◊〉 the very day of the battell Pompey having arranged his army in array commanded his soldiers to stand their ground and not to advaunce forward but to expect their enimies and receive the charge wherin Caesar afterwards said He did amisse and grossely failed for that therby he let slack as it were the vigor vehemencie of his soldiors which is ministred unto thē by the violence of the first onset abated that heat also of courage which the said charge would have brought with it When he had defaited at his very first encounter Pharnaces king of Pontus he wrote thus unto his friends I came I saw I vanquished After that Scipio and those under his conduct were discomfited and put to flight in Africke when he heard that Cato had killed himselfe he said I envie thy death ô Cato for that thou hast envied me the honour of saving thy life Some there were who had Antonie and Dolabella in jealousie and suspicion and when they came unto him and said That he was to looke unto himselfe and stand upon his good guard he made them this answer That he had no distrust nor feare of them who ledde an idle life be well coloured and in so good liking as they But I feare quoth he these pale and leane fellowes pointing unto Brutus and Cassius One day as he sat at the table when speech was mooved and the question asked what kind of death was best Even that quoth he which is sudden and least looked for CAESAR him I meane who first was surnamed Augustus being as yet in his youth required and claimed of Antonie as much money as amounted to two thousand and five hundred Myriades which he had transported out of Julius Caesars house after he was murdred and gotten into his owne hands for that he entended to pay the Romans that which the said Caesar had bequeathed unto them by his last will and testament for he had left by legacie unto every citizen of Rome 75. drams of silver but Antonie deteined the said summe of money to himselfe and answered yoong Caesar that if he were wife he should desist from demanding any such monies of him which when the other heard he proclaimed open port sale of all the goods that came to him by his patrimonie in deed sold the same and with the money raised thereof he satisfied the foresaid legacies unto the Romanes in which doing he wan all the hearts of the citizens of Rome to himselfe brought their evill wil and hatred upon Antonie Afterwards Rymetalces king of Thracia left the part of Antonius and turned to his side but he overshot himselfe so much at the table being in his cups and namely in that he could talke of nothing else but of this great good service and casting in his teeth this worthy alliance and confederacie of his so as he became odious therefore insomuch as one time at supper Caesar taking the cup dranke to one of the other kings who sat at the boord saying with a loud voice Treason I love well but traitors I hate The Alexandrians after their citie was woonne looked for no better than to suffer all the extremities and calamities that might follow upon the forcing of a city by assault but this Caesar mounting up into the publike place to make a speech unto the citizens having neere by unto him a familiar friend of his to wit Arius an Alexandrian borne pronounced openly a generall pardon saying that he forgave the citie first in regard of the greatnesse and beautie thereof secondly in respect of king Alexander the great their first founder and thirdly for Arius his sake who was his loving friend Understanding that one of his Procuratours named Eros who did negotiate for him in Aegypt had bought a quaile of the game which in fight would beat all other quailes and was never conquered himselfe but continued still invincible which quaile notwithstanding the said slave had caused to be rosted and so eaten it he sent for him and examined him thereupon whether it was true or no and when he confessed Yea he commanded him presently to be crucified and nailed to the mast of his ship He placed Arius in Sicilie for his agent and procuratour in stead of one Theodorus and when one presented unto him a little booke or bill wherein were written these words Theodorus of Tharsis the bauld is a theefe how thinke you is he not when he had read this bill he did nothing else but subscribe underneath I thinke no lesse He received yeerely upon his birth day from Mecaenas one of his familiar friends who conversed daily with him a cup for a present Athenodorus the Philosopher being of great yeeres craved licence with his good favour to retire unto his owne house from the court by reason of his old age and leave he gave him but at his farewell Athenodorus said unto him Sir when you perceive your selfe to be mooved with choler neither say do nor ought before you have repeated to your selfe all the 24. letters in the Alphabet Caesar hearing this advertisement tooke him by the hand I have need still quoth he of your company and
most pleasant for the thing it selfe is plaine and evident to all the world To saie nothing of Homers testimonie who speaking of sleepe writeth thus Most sweetly doth a man sleepe in his bed When least he wakes and 〈◊〉 most to be dead The same he iterateth in many places and namely once in this wise With pleasant sleepe she there did meet Deaths brother germain you may weet And againe Death and sleepe are sister and brother Both twinnes resembling one another Where by the way he lively declareth their similitude and calling them twins for that brothers and sisters twinnes for the most part be very like and in another place besides he calleth death a brasen sleepe giving us thereby to understand how sencelesse death is neither seemeth he unelegantly and besides the purpose whosoever he was to have expressed as much in this verse when he said That sleepes who doth them well advise Of death are pettie mysteries And in very deed sleepe doth represent as it were a preamble inducement or first profession toward death in like manner also the cynick philosopher Diogenes said very wisely to this point for being surpressed and overtaken with a dead sleepe a little before he yeelded up the ghost when the physician wakened him and demaunded what extraordinary symptome or grievous accident was befallen unto him None quoth he onely one brother is come before another to wit sleepe before death and thus much of the first resemblance Now if death be like unto a farre journey or long pilgrimage yet even so there is no evill at all therein but rather good which is cleane contrary for to be in servitude no longer unto the flesh nor enthralled to the passions thereof which seizing upon the soule doe empeach the same and fill it with all follies and mortall vanities is no doubt a great blessednesse and felicitie for as Plato saith The body bringeth upon us an infinit number of troubles and hinderances about the necessarie maintenance of it selfe and in case there be any maladies besides they divert and turne us cleane away from the inquisition and contemplation of the truth and in stead thereof pester and stuffe us full of wanton loves of lusts feares foolish fansies imaginations and vanities of all sorts insomuch as it is most true which is commonly saide That from the bodie there commeth no goodnesse nor wisedome at all For what else bringeth upon us warres seditions battels and fights but the bodie and the greedie appetites and lusts proceeding from it for to say a truth from whence arise all warres but from the covetous desire of money and having more goods neither are we driven to purchase and gather still but onely for to enterteine the bodie and serve the turne thereof and whiles we are amused emploied thereabout we have no time to studie Philosophie finally which is the woorst and very extremitie of all in case we find some leasure to follow our booke and enter into the studie and contemplation of things this body of ours at al times in every place is ready to interrupt and put us out it troubleth it empeacheth and so disquieteth us that impossible it is to attaine unto the perfect sight and knowledge of the truth whereby it is apparent and manifest that if ever we would cleerely and purely know any thing we ought to be sequestred and delivered from this bodie and by the eies onely of the mind contemplate view things as they be then shall we have that which we desire and wish then shall we attaine to that which we say we love to wit wisedome even when we are dead as reason teacheth us and not so long as we remaine alive for if it cannot be that together with the bodie we should know any thing purely one of these two things must of necessitie ensue that either never at all or else after death we should attaine unto that knowledge for then and not before the soule shall be apart and separate from the bodie and during our life time so much neerer shall we be unto this knowledge by how much lesse we participate with the body and have little or nothing to doe therewith no more than very necessitie doth require nor be filed with the corrupt nature thereof but pure and neat from all such contagion untill such time as God himselfe free us quite from it and then being fully cleered and delivered from all fleshly and bodily follies we shall converse with them and such like pure intelligences seeing evidently of our selves all that which is pure and sincere to wit truth it selfe for unlawfull it is and not allowable that a pure thing should be infected or once touched by that which is impure and therefore say that death seeme to translate men into some other place yet is it nothing ill in that respect but good rather as Plato hath very well prooved by demōstration in which regard Socrates in my conceit spake most heavenly divinely unto the judges when he said My lords to be affraid of death is nothing else but to seeme wise when a man is nothing lesse it is as much as to make semblance of knowing that which he is most ignorant of for who wotteth certainly what is death or whetherit be the greatest felicitie that may happen to a man yet men doe feare and dread it as if they knew for certaintie that it is the greatest evill in the world To these sage sentences he accordeth well who said thus Let no man stand in doubt and feare of death Since from all travels it him delivereth and not from travels only but also from the greatest miseries in the world whereto it seemeth that the verie gods themselves give testimonie for we reade that many men in recompense of their religion and devotion have received death as a singular gift and favour of the gods But to avoid tedious prolixitie I will forbeare to write of others and content my selfe with making mention of those onely who are most renowmed and voiced by every mans mouth and in the first place rehearse I will the historie of those two yoong gentlemen of 〈◊〉 namely Cleobis and Biton of whom there goeth this report That their mother being priestresse to Juno when the time was come that shee should present herselfe in the temple and the mules that were to draw her coatch thither not in readinesse but making stay behinde they seeing her driven to that exigent and fearing lest the houre should passe under-went themselves the yoke and drew their mother in the coatch to the said temple she being much pleased and taking exceeding joy to see so great pietie and kindnesse in her children praied unto the goddesse that she would vouchsafe to give them the best gift that could befall to man and they the same night following being gone to bedde for to sleepe never rose againe for that the goddesse sent unto them death as the onely recompense and reward of their godlinesse
and the woorse sort of people are given thereto more than the better also if you goe thorow all barbarous nations you shall not finde those who are most haughtie-minded and magnanimous or cary any generositie of spirit in them such as be the Almans or Gaules addicted hereunto but Aegyptians Syrians Lydians and such other for some of these by report use to go downe into hollow caves within the ground and there hide themselves for many daies together and not so much as see the light of the sunne because forsooth the dead partie whom they mourne for is deprived thereof In which regard Ion the Tragicall Poet having as it should seeme heard of such fooleries bringeth in upon the stage a woman speaking in this wise Come forth am I now at the last Your nourse and childrens governesse Out of deepe caves where some daies past I kept in balefull heavinesse Others there be also of these Barbarians who cut away some parts and dismember themselves slit their owne noses crop their eares misuse disfigure the rest of their bodies thinking to gratifie the dead in doing thus if they seeme to exceed all measure that moderation which is according to nature There are besides who reply upon us and say That they thinke we ought not to waile and lament for every kind of death but onely in regard of those that die before their time for that they have not as yet tasted of those things which are esteemed blessings in this life to wit the joies of marriage the benefit of literature and learning the perfection of yeeres the management of common weale honors and dignities for these be the points that they stand upon and grieve most who lose their friends or children by untimely death for that they be disappointed and frustrate of their hopes before the time ignorant altogether that this hastie and overspeedie death in regard of humane nature differeth nothing at all from others for like as in the returne to our common native countrey which is necessarily imposed upon al and from which no man is exempted some march before others follow after and all at length meet at one and the same place even so in traveling this journey of fatall destinie those that arrive late thither gaine no more advantage than they who are thither come betime now if any untimely or hastie death were naught simply that of little babes and infants that sucke the brest and cannot speake or rather such as be newly borne were woorst and yet their death we beare verie well and patiently whereas we take their departure more heavily and to the heart who are growen to some good yeeres and all through the vanitie of our foolish hopes whereby we imagine and promise to our selves assuredly that those who have proceeded thus farre be past the woorst and are like to continue thus in a good and certaine estate If then the prefixed terme of mans life were the end of twentie yeeres certes him that came to be sifteene yeeres old we would not judge unripe for death but thinke that he had attained to a competent age and as for him who had accomplished the full time of twentie yeeres or approched neere thereto we would account him absolute happy as having performed a most blessed and perfect life but if the course of our life reached out to two hundred yeeres he who chanced to die at one hundred yeeres end would be thought by us to have died too soone and no doubt his untimely death we would bewaile and lament By these reasons therefore and those which heeretofore we have alledged it is apparent that even the death which we call untimely soone admitteth consolation and a man may beare it patiently for this is certaine that Troilus would have wept lesse yea even Priamus himselfe shed fewer teares in case he had died sooner at what time as the kingdome of Troy flourished or whiles himselfe was in that wealthy estate for which he lamented so much which a man may evidently gather by the words which he gave to his sonne Hector when he admonished and exhorted him to retire from the combat which he had with Achilles in these verses Returne my sonne within these wals that thou from death maist save The Trojan men and women both let not Achilles have Of thee that honour as thy life so sweet to take away By victorie in single fight and hast thy dying day Have pittie yet my sonne of me thy wofull aged sire Ere that my wits and senses faile whom Jupiter inire Will else one day at th' end of this my old and wretched yeeres Consume with miserable death out-worne and spent with teeres As having many objects seene of sorrow and hearts griefe My sonnes cut short by edge of sword who should be my reliefe My daughters trail'd by haire of head and ravisht in my sight My pallace rac'd their chambers sackt wherein I tooke delight And sucking babes from mothers brests pluckt and their braines dasht out Against the stones of pav'ment hard lie sprawling all about When enemie with sword in hand in heat of bloudy heart Shall havocke make and then my selfe at last must play my part Whom when some one by dint of sword or launce of dart from farre Hath quite bereft of vitall breath the hungry dogs shall arre About my corps and at my gates hale it and drag along Gnawing the flesh of hoarie head and grisled chin among Mangling besides the privie parts of me a man so old Unkindly slaine a spectacle most piteous to behold Thus spake the aged father tho and pluckt from head above His haires milke-white but all these words did Hector nothing move Seeing then so many examples of this matter presented unto your eies you are to thinke and consider with your selfe that death doth deliver and preserve many men from great greevous calamities into which without all doubt they should have fallen if they had lived longer But for to avoid prolixitie I will omit the rest my selfe with those that are related already as being sufficient to proove shew that we ought not to breake out beside nature and beyond measure into vaine sorrowes and needlesse lamentations which bewray nothing else but base and seeble minds Crantor the philosopher was wont to say That to suffer adversitie causelesse was no small easement to all sinister accidents of fortune but I would rather say That innocencie is the greatest and most soveraigne medicine to take away the sense of all dolour in adversitie moreover the love and affection that we beare unto one who is departed consisteth not in afflicting and punishing our selves but in doing good unto him so beloved of us now the profit and pleasure that we are able to performe for them who are gone out of this world is the honour that we give unto them by celebrating their good memorials for no good man deserveth to be mourned and bewailed but rather to be celebrated with praise and
particular propertie that gave an edge thereto and caused me to love her above the rest and that was a speciall grace that she had to make joy and pleasure and the same without any mixture at all of curstnesse or forwardnesse and nothing given to whining and complaint for she was of a woonderfull kinde and gentle nature loving she was againe to those that loved her and marvellous desirous to gratifie and pleasure others in which regards she both delighted me and also yeelded no small testimonie of rare debonairitie that nature had endued her withall for shee would make pretie meanes to her nourse and seeme as it were to intreat her to give the brest or pap not onely to other infants like her selfe her play feeres but also to little babies and puppets and such like gauds as little ones take joy in and wherewith they use to play as if upon a singular courtesie and humanitie shee could sinde in her heart to communicate and distribute from her owne table even the best things that shee had among them that did her any pleasure But I see no reason sweet wife why these lovely qualities and such like wherein we tooke contentment and joy in her life time should disquiet and troubles us now after her death when we either thinke or make relation of them and I feare againe lest by our dolour and griefe we abandon and put cleane away all the remembrance thereof like as Clymene desired to do when she said I hate the bow so light of Cornel tree All exercise abroad farewell for me as avoiding alwaies and trembling at the remembrance and commemoration of her sonne which did no other good but renew her griefe and dolour for naturally we seeke to flee all that troubleth and offendeth us We ought therefore so to demeane our selves that as whiles she lived we had nothing in the world more sweet to embrace more pleasant to see or delectable to heare than our daughter so the cogitation of her may still abide and live with us all our life time having by many degrees our joy multiplied more than our heavinesse augmented if it be meet and fit that the reasons and arguments which wee have often times delivered to others should profit us when time and occasion requireth and not lie still and idle for any good wee have by them nor challenge and accuse us for that in stead of joies past we bring upon our selves many moregriefs by farre They that have come unto us report thus much of you and that with great admiration of your vertue that you never put on mourning weed nor so much as changed your robe that by no meanes you could be brought to disfigure your selfe or any of your waiting maidens and women about you nor offer any outrage or injurie to them in this behalfe neither did you set out her funerals with any sumptuous panegyricall pompe as if it had bene some solemne feast but performed every thing soberly and civilly after a still maner accompained onely with our kinsefolke and friends But my selfe verily made no great woonder that you who never tooke pride and pleasure to be seene either in theater or in publike procession but rather alwaies esteemed all such magnificence so vaine and sumptuositie superfluous even in those things that tended to delight have observed the most safe way of plainnesse and simplicitie in these occasions of sorrow and sadnesse For a vertuous and chaste matrone ought not onely to keepe herselfe pure and inviolate in Bacchanall feasts but also to thinke thus with herselfe that the turbulent stormes of sorrow and passionate motions of anguish had no lesse need of continencie to resist and withstand not the naturall love and affection of mothers to their children as many thinke but the intemperance of the mind For we allow and graunt unto this naturall kindnesse a certaine affection to bewaile to reverence to wish for to long after and to beare in minde those that are departed but the excessive and insatiable desire of lamentations which forceth men and women to loud out-cries to knocke beat and mangle their owne bodies is no lesse unseemely and shamefull than incontinence in pleasures howbeit it seemeth by good right to deserve excuse and pardon for that in this undecencie there is griefe and bitternesse of sorrow adjoined where as in the other pleasure and delight for what is more absurd and sencelesse than to seeme for to take away excesse of laughter and mirch but contrariwise to give head unto streames of teares which proceed from one fountain and to suffer folke to give themselves over to weeping and lementation as much as they will as also that which some use to doe namely to chide and rebuke their wives for some sweet perfumes odoriferous pomanders or purple garments which they are desirous to have and in the meane while permit them to tear their haire in time of mourning to shave their heads to put on blacke to sit unseemely upon the bare ground or in ashes and in most painfull maner to crie out upon God and man yea and that which of all others is woorst when their wives chastise excessively or punish unjustly their servants to come betweene and staie their hands but when they rigorously and cruelly torment themselves to let them alone and neglect them in those crosse accidents which contrariwise had need of facilitie and humanitie But betweene us twaine sweet heart there was never any need of such fraie or combat and I suppose there will never be For to speake of that frugalitie which is seene in plaine and simple apparell or of sobrietie in ordinary diet and tending of the bodie never was there any philosopher yet conversing with us in our house whom you put not downe and strucke into an extraordinarie amaze nor so much as a citizen whom you caused not to admire as a strange and woonderfull sight whether it were in publicke sacrifices or in frequent theaters and solemne processions your rare simplicitie semblably heeretofore you shewed great constancie upon the like conflict and accident at the death of your eldest sonne and againe when that gentle and beautifull Charon departed from us untimely in the prime of his yeeres and I remember very well that certaine strangers who journeied with me along from the sea side at what time as word was brought of my sonnes death came home with others to my house who seeing all things there setled nothing out of order but all silent and quiet as they themselves afterward made report began to thinke that the said newes was false and no such calamitie had hapned so wisely had you composed ali matters within house when as iwis there was good occasion given that might have excused some disorder and confusion and yet this sonne you were nurse unto your selfe and gave it suck at your owne pappe yea and endured the painfull incision of your brest by reason of a cancerous hard tumour that came by a contusian Oh
present succour in time of adversitie unto as many as refuse not to remember and call to minde their joies passed and who never at all for any accident whatsoever complaine of fortune which we ought not to doe in reason and honestie unlesse we would seeme to accuse and blame this life which we enjoy for some crosse or accident as if we cast away a booke if it have but one blur or blot in it being otherwise written throughout most cleane and faire for you have heard it oftentimes said that the beatitude of those who are departed dependeth upon the right and sound discourses of our understanding and the same tending to one constant disposition as also that the chaunges and alterations of fortune beare no great sway to inferre much declination or casualitie in our life but if we also as the common sort must be ruled and governed by externall things without us if we reckon and count the chaunces and casualties of fortune and admit for judges of or felicitie our miserie the base and vulgar sort of people yet take you no heed to those teares plaints and moanes that men or women make who come to visit you at this present who also upon a foolish custome as it were of course have them ready at command for every one but rather consider this with your selfe how happie you are reputed even by those who come unto you who would gladly and with all their hearts be like unto you in regard of those children whom you have the house and family which you keepe the life that you leade for it were an evill thing to see others desire to be in your estate and condition for all the sorrow which now afflicteth us and your selfe in the meane time complaining and taking in ill part the same and not to be so happy and blessed as to find and feele even by this crosse that now pincheth you for the losse of one infaut what joy you should take and how thankefull you ought to be for those who remaine alive with you for heerein you should resemble very well those Criticks who collect and gather together all the lame and defective verses of Homer which are but few in number and in the meane time passe over an infinite sort of others which were by him most excellently made In this maner I say you did if you would search narrowly and examine every particular mishap in this life and finde fault therewith but all good blessings in grose let go by and never once respect the same which to do were much like unto the practise of those covetous misers worldings and peni-fathers who 〈◊〉 and care punish both bodie and minde untill they have gathered a great deale of good together and then enjoy no benefit or use thereof but if they chance to forgo any of it they keepe a piteous wailing and wofull lamentation Now if haply you have compassion and pitie of the poore girle in that she went out of this world a maiden unmarried and before that she bare any children you ought rather on the contrarie side to rejoice and take delight in your selfe above others for that you have not failed of these blessings nor bene disappointed either of the one or the other for who would holde and mainteine that these things should be great to those who be deprived of them and but small to them who have and enjoy the same As for the childe who doubtlesse is gone into a place where she feeleth no paine surely she requireth not at our hands that we should afflict grieve our selves for her sake for what harme is there befallen unto us by her if she her selfe now feele no hurt And as for the losses of great things indeed surely they yeeld no sense at all of dolor when they are come once to this point that there is no more need of them or care made for thē But verily thy daughter Timoxena is bereft not of great matters but of small things for in trueth she had no knowledge at all but of such neither delighted she in any but in such seeing then that she had no perceivance nor thought of those things how can she properly and truely be said to be deprived thereof Moreover as touching that which you heard of others who are woont to perswade many of the vulgar sort saying That the soule once separate from the bodie is dissolved and feeleth no paine or dolor at all I am assured that you yeeld no credit and beliefe to such positions aswell in regard of those reasons and instructions which you have received by tradition from our ancestors as also of those sacred and symbolical mysteries of Bacchus which we know wel enough who are of that religious confraternitie and professed therein Being grounded therefore in this principle and holding it firmely for an undoubted trueth That our soule is incorruptible and immortall you are to thinke that it fareth with it as it doth with little birds that are caught by the fowler alive and came into mens hands for if it have bene kept and nourished daintily a long time within the bodie so that it be inured to be gentle and familiar unto this life to wit by the management of sundry affaires and long custome it returneth thither againe and reentreth a second time after many generations into the bodie it never taketh rest nor ceaseth but is inwrapped within the affections of the flesh and entangled with the adventures of the world and calamities incident to our nature for I would not have you to thinke that olde age is to be blamed and reproched for riuels and wrinckles nor in regard of hoarie white haires ne yet for the imbecillitie and feeblenesse of the body but the worst and most odious thing in it is this That it causeth the soule to take corruption by the remembrance of those things whereof it had experience whiles it staied therein and was too much addicted and affectionate unto it whereby it bendeth and boweth yea and reteineth that forme or figure which it tooke of the bodie by being so long devoted thereto whereas that which is taken away in youth pretendeth a better estate and condition as being framed to a gentler habit more soft tractable and lesse compact putting on now a naturall rectitude much like as fire which being quenched if it be kindled againe burneth out and recovereth vigor incontinently which is the cause that it is farre better Betimes to yeeld up vitall breath And soone to passe the gates of death before that the soule have taken too deepe an imbibition or liking of terrene things here below and ere it be made soft and tender with the love of the bodie and as it were by certeine medicines and forcible charmes united and incorporate into it The trueth hereof may appeate yet better by the fashions and ancient customes of this countrey for our citizens when their children die yong neither offer mortuaries nor performe any sacrifices
all just and honest actions when it hath chased and removed out of the way ire and wrath and therefore men are mollified appeased and become gentle by examples of men when they heare it reported how Plato when hee lifted up his staffe against his page stood so a good while and forbare to strike which hee did as he said for to represse his choler And Architas when he found some great negligence and disorder at his ferme-house in the countrey in his houshold servants perceiving himselfe moved and disquieted therewith insomuch as he was exceeding angrie and readie to flie upon them proceeded to no act but onely turning away and going from them said thus It is happie for you that I am thus angrie with you If then it be so that such memorable speeches of ancient men and woorthy acts reported by them are effectuall to represse the bitternesse and violence of choler much more probable it is that we seeing how God himselfe although he standeth not in feare of any person nor repenteth of any thing that he doth yet putteth off his chastisements and laieth them up a long time should be more wary and considerate in such things and esteeme that clemencie long sufferance and patience is a divine part of vertue that God doth shew and teach us which by punishment doth chastise and correct a few but by proceeding thereto slowly doth instruct admonish and profit many In the second place let us consider that judiciall and exemplarie processe of justice practised by men intendeth and aimeth onely at a counter change of paine and griefe resting in this point That he who hath done evill might suffer likewise proceeding no farther at all and therefore baying and barking as it were like dogges at mens faults and trespasses they follow upon them and pursue after all action by tract and footing but God as it should seeme by all likelihood when hee setteth in hand in justice to correct a sinfull diseased soule regardeth principally the vicious passions thereof if haply they may be bent wrought so as they will incline turne to repentance in which respect he staieth long before that he inflict any punishment upon delinquents who are not altogether past grace incorrigible for considering withall and knowing as he doth what portion of vertue soules have drawen from him in their creation at what time as they were produced first and came into the world as also how powerfull and forcible is the generositie thereof and nothing weake and feeble in it selfe but that it is cleane contrary to their proper nature to bring forth vices which are engendered either by ill education or els by the contagious haunt of leaud company and how afterward when they be well cured and medicined as it falleth out in some persons they soone returne unto their owne naturall habitude and become good againe by reason heereof God doth not make haste to punish all men alike but looke what he knoweth to be incurable that he quickly riddeth away out of this life and cutteth it off as a very hurtfull member to others but yet most harmefull to it selfe if it should evermore converse with wickednesse but to such persons in whom by all likelihood vice is bred and ingendred rather through ignorance of goodnesse than upon any purpose and will to chuse naughtinesse hee giveth time and respit for to change and amend how beit if they persist still and continue in their leaud waies hee paieth them home likewise in the end and never feareth that they shall escape his hands one time or other but suffer condigne punishment for their deserts That this is true consider what great alterations there happen in the life and behaviour of men and how many have beene reclaimed and turned from their leaudnesse which is the reason that in Greeke our behaviour and conversation is called partly 〈◊〉 that is to say A conversion and in part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one because mens maners be subject to change and mutation the other for that they be ingendered by use or custome and the impression thereof being once taken they remaine firme and sure which is the cause also as I suppose that our ancients in olde time attributed unto king Cecrops a double nature and forme calling him Double not for that as some said of a good element and gracious prince he became a rigourous fell and cruell tyrant like a dragon but contrariwise because having bene at the first perverse crooked and terrible he proved afterward a milde and gentle lord and if we make any doubt hereof in him yet we may be sure at leastwise that Gelon and Hiero in Sicilie yea and Pisistratus the sonne of Hipocrates all usurpers who atteined to their tyrannicall dominion by violent and indirect meanes used the same vertuously and howsoever they came unto their sovereigne rule by unlawfull and unjust meanes yet they grew in time to be good governours loving and profitable to the common weale and likewise beloved and deare unto their subjects for some of them having brought in and established most excellent lawes in the countrey and caused their citizens and subjects to be industruous and painfull in tilling the ground made them to be civill sober and discreet whereas before they were given to be ridiculous as noted for their laughter and lavish tongues to be true labourers also and painfull who had bene idle and playfull And as for Gelon after he had most valiantly warred against the Carthaginians and defaited them in a great battell when they craved peace would never grant it unto them unlesse this might be comprised among the articles and capitulations That they should no more sacrifice their children unto Saturne In the citie also of Megalopolis there was a tyrant named Lydiades who in the mids of his usurped dominion repented of his tyrannie and made a conscience thereof detesting that wrongfull oppression wherein he held his subjects in such sort ' as he restored his citizens to their ancient lawes and liberties yea and afterwards died manfully in the field fighting against his enemies in the defence of his countrey Now if any one had killed Miltiades at the first whiles he exercised tyrannie in Chersonesus or if another had called judicially into question Cimon enditing him for keeping his owne sister and so being condemned of incest had caused him to be put to death or disfranchised and banished Themistocles out of the citie for his loose wantonnesse and licentious insolencie shewed publickly in the Common place as Alcibiades afterwards was served and proscribed for the like excesse and riot committed in his youth Where had bene then that famous victorie At chieved on the plaines of Marathon Where had bene that renowmed chivalrie Performed neere the streame Eurymedon Or at the mount faire Artemision Where Athens youth as poet Pindare said Freedome first the glorious ground-worke laid For so it is great natures and high minds can bring foorth no meane matters nor the
parents being wicked and vicious were themselves honest and very profitable to the common-wealth Are we not then to thinke that it were far better to punish in due time and maner convenient than to proceed unto revenge hastily and out of hand like as that was of Callippus the Athenian who making semblance or friendship unto Dion stabbed him at once with his dagger and was himselfe afterwards killed with the same by his friends as also that other of Mitius the Argive who was murdered in a certeine commotion and civill broile for it hapned so that in a frequent assembly of the people gathered together in the market place for to beholde a solemne shew a statue of brasse fell upon the murderer of Mitius and killed him outright And you have heard I am sure ô Patrocleas have you not what befell unto Bessus the Poeonian and Ariston the Oeteian two colonels of mercenarie and forren souldiers No verily quoth he but I would gladly know This Ariston quoth I having stollen and caried away out of this temple certeine jewels and costly furniture of queene Eriphyle which of long time had there bene kept safe by the grant and permission of the tyrants who ruled this citie carried them as a present to his wife but his sonne being on a time upon some occasion displeased and angrie with his mother set fire on the house and burnt it with all that was within it As for Bessus who had murdered his owne father he continued a good while not detected until such time as being one day at supper with certeine of his friends that were strangers with the head of his speare he pierced and cast downe a swallowes neast and so killed the yong birds within it and when those that stood by seemed as good reason there was to say unto him How commeth this to passe goood sir and what aile you that you have committed so leud and horrible an act Why quoth he againe doe these birds crie aloud and beare false witnesse against me testifying that I have murdered mine owne father hee had no sooner let fall this word but those who were present tooke holde thereof and wondering much thereat went directly to the king and gave information of him who made so diligent inquisition that the thing upon examination was discovered and Bessus for his part punished accordingly for a parricide Thus much I say have we related that it may be held as a confessed trueth and supposition that wicked men otherwhiles have some delay of their punishment as for the rest you are to thinke that you ought to hearken unto Hesiodus the Poet who saith not as Plato did that the punishment of sinne doth follow sinne hard at the heeles but is of the same time and age as borne and bred in one place with it and springing out of the very same root and stocke for these be his words in one place Bad counsell who deviseth first Unto himselfe shall finde it worst And in another Who doth for others mischiefe frame To his owne heart contrives the same The venimous flies Cantharides are said to conteine in themselves a certeine remedie made and compounded by a cōtrarietie or antipathie in nature which serveth for their owne counterpoison but wickednesse ingendering within it selfe I wot not what displeasure and punishment not after a sinfull act is committed but even at the very instant of committing it beginneth to suffer the paine due to the offence neither is there a malefactour but when he seeth others like himselfe punished in their bodies beareth forth his owne crosse whereas mischievous wickednesse frameth of her selfe the engines of her owne torment as being a wonderfull artisan of a miserable life which together with shame and reproch hath in it lamentable calamities many terrible frights fearefull perturbations and passions of the spirit remorse of conscience desperate repentance and continuall troubles and unquietnesse But some men there be who for all the world resemble little children that beholding many times in the theater leaud and naughtie persons arraied in cloth of golde rich mantles and robes of purple adorned also with crownes upon their heads when they either dance or play their parts upon the stage have them in great admiration as reputing them right happie untill such time as they see them how they be either pricked and pierced with goads or sending flames of fire out of those gorgeous costly and sumptuous vestments For to say a trueth many wicked persons who dwel in stately houses are descended from noble parentage sit in high places of authoritie beare great dignities and glorious titles are not knowen for the most part what plagues and punishments they susteine before they be seene to have their throats cut or their necks broken by being cast downe headlong from on high which a man is not to tearme punishments simply but rather the finall end and complishment of thereof For like as Herodicus of Selymbria being fallen into an incurable phthisicke or consumption by the ulcer of his lungs was the first man as Plato saith who in the cure of the said disease joined with other Physicke bodily exercise and in so doing drew out and prolonged death both to himselfe and to all others who were likewise infected with that maladie even so may we say that wicked persons as many as seeme to have escaped a present plague and the stroke of punishment out of hand suffer in truth the paine due for their sinfull acts not in the end onely and a great time after but susteine the same a longer time so that the vengeance taken for their sinfull life is nothing slower but much more produced and drawen out to the length neither be they punished at the last in their olde age but they waxe olde rather in punishment which they have endured all their life Now when I speake of long time I meane it in regard of our selves for in respect of the gods the whole race of mans life how long soever it be thought is a matter of nothing or no more than the very moment and point of the instant For say that a malefactour our should suffer the space of thirtie yeres for some hainous fact that he hath committed it is all one as if a man should stretch him upon the racke or hang him upon a jibbet in the evening toward night and not in the morning betimes especially seeing that such an one all the while that he liveth remaineth close and fast shut up as it were in a strong prison or cage out of which he hath no meanes to make an escape and get away Now if in the meane while they make many feasts manage sundry matters and enterprise divers things if they give presents and largesses abroad and say they give themselves to their disports and pleasures it is even as much and all one as when malefactours during the time they be in prison should play at dice or cockall game having continually over head the rope
still bee somewhere and continue though they indured otherwise all maner of paines and calamities than wholy to bee taken out of the universall world and brought to nothing yea and willing they are and take pleasure to heare this spoken of one that is dead How he is departed out of this world into another or gone to God with other such like manner of speeches importing that death is no more but onely a change or alteration but not a totall and entire abolition of the soule And thus they use to speake Then shall I call even there to mind The sweet acquaintance of my friend Also What shall I say from you to Hector bold Or husband yours right deere who liv'd so old And herof proceeded and prevailed this errour that men supposed they are well eased of their sorrow and better appaied when they have interred with the dead the armes weapons instrustruments and garments which they were wont to use ordinarily in their life time like as Minos buried together with Glaucus His Candiot pipes made of the long-shanke bones Of dapple doe or hinde that lived once And if they be perswaded that the dead either desire or demand any thing glad they are and willing to send or bestow the same upon them And thus did Periander who burnt in the funerall fire together with his wife her apparell habilliments and jewels for that he thought she called for them and complained that she lay a cold And such as these are not greatly affraid of any judge Aeacus of Ascalaphus or of the river Acheron considering that they attribute unto them daunces theatricall plaies and all kinde of musicke as if they tooke delight and pleasure therein and yet there is not one of them all but is readie to quake for feare to see that face of death so terrible so unpleasant so glum and grizly deprived of all sense and growen to oblivion and ignorance of all things they tremble for very horrour when they heare any of these words He is dead he is perished he is gone and no more to be seene grievously displeased and offended they be when these and such like speeches are given out Within the earth as deepe as trees do stand His hap shall be to rot and turne to sand No feasts he shall frequent nor heare the lute And harpe ne yet the sound of pleasant flute Againe When once the ghost of man from corps is fled And pass'd the ranks of teeth set thicke in head All meanes to catch and fetch her are but vaine No hope there is of her returne againe But they kill them stone dead who say thus unto them We mortall men have bene once borne for all No second birth we are for to expect We must not looke for life that is eternall Such thoughts as dreames we ought for to reject For casting and considering with themselves that this present life is a smal matter or rather indeed a thing of nought in comparison of eternitie they regard it not nor make any account to enjoy the benefit thereof whereupon they neglect all vertue and the honourable exploits of action as being utterly discouraged and discontented in themselves for the shortnesse of their life so uncerteine and without assurance and in one word because they take themselves unfit and unworthy to performe any great thing For to say that a dead man is deprived of all sense because having bene before compounded that composition is now broken and dissolved to give out also that a thing once dossolved hath no Being at all and in that regard toucheth us not howsoever they seeme to be goodly reasons yet they rid us not from the feare of death but contrariwise they doe more confirme and enforce the same for this is it in deed which nature abhorreth when it shal be said according to the Poet Homers words But as for you both all and some Soone may you earth and water become meaning thereby the resolution of the soule into a thing that hath neither intelligence nor any sense at all which Epicurus holding to be a dissipation thereof into I wot not what emptinesse or voidnesse small indivisible bodies which he termeth Atomi by that meanes cutteth off so much the rather all hope of immortalitie for which I dare well say that all folke living men and women both would willingly be bitten quite thorow and gnawen by the hel-dog Cerberus or cary water away in vessels full of holes in the bottome like as the Danaides did so they might onely have a Being and not perish utterly for ever and be reduced to nothing And yet verily there be not many men who feare these matters taking them to be poeticall fictions and tales devised for pleasure or rather bug beares that mothers and nourses use to fright their children with and even they also who stand in feare of them are provided of certeine ceremonies and expiatorie purgations to helpe themselves withall by which if they be once cleansed and purified they are of opinion that they shall goe into another world to places of pleasure where there is nothing but playing and dauncing continually among those who have the aire cleere the winde milde and pure the light gracious and their voice intelligible whereas the privation of life troubleth both yoong and old for we all even every one of us are sicke for love and exceeding desirous To see the beautie of sunnes light Which on the earth doth shine so bright as Euripides saith neither willing are we but much displeased to heare this And as he spake that great immortall eie Which giveth light thorowout the fabricke wide Of this round world made haste and fast did hie With chariot swift cleane out of sight to ride Thus together with the perswasion and opinion of immortallity they bereave the common people of the greatest and sweetest hopes they have What thinke wee then of those men who are of the better sort and such as have lived justly and devoutly in this life Surely they looke for no evill at all in another world but hope and expect there the greatest and most heavenly blessings that be for first and formost champions or runners in a race are never crowned so long as they be in combat or in their course but after the combat ended and the victory atchieved even so when these persons are perswaded that the proofe of the victorie in this world is due unto them after the course of this life wonderfull it is and it can not be spoken how great contentment they finde in their hearts for the privitie and conscience of their vertue and for those hopes which assure them that they one day shall see those who now abuse their good gifts insolently who commit outrage by the meanes of their might riches and authoritie and who scorne and foolishly mocke such as are better than themselves paie for their deferts and suffer woorthily for their pride and insolencie And forasmuch as never any of them who
before the citie And Servius Tullius who augmented the puissance of the people of Rome and brought it unto a goodlie and beautifull maner of government no prince so much having set downe and established a good order for the giving of suffrages and voices at the elections of magistrates and enacting of lawes and besides instituted the order of millitarie discipline having been himselfe the first censour of mens maners and the controller or overseer of every mans life and behaviour who seemed also to have been a right valiant prince and most prudent withall this man I say whollie avowed himselfe the vassaile of Fortune and did homage to her acknowledging all principalitie to depend upon her in such sort as men say Fortune her selfe used to come lie with him descending downe by a window into his chamber which now the call the gate Fenestella He founded therefore within the Capitoll one temple to the honor of Fortune called Primigenia which a man may interpret first begotten and another to Fortune obsequens which some take to be as much as obeisant others gratious and fauourable But not to stand any longer upon the Romaine names and appellations I will leave them endevour to reckon up and interpret in Greeke the meaning and signification of all these temples founded and dedicated in the honor of Fortune For in the mount Palatine there standeth one chappell of private Fortune and another of gluing Fortune which tearme may haplie seeme to be ridiculous howbeit by way of a metaphor it carieth a signification verie important as if we were to understand thus much by it That it draweth unto it and catcheth those things which be farre off and holdeth fast whatsoever sticketh and cleaveth to it Moreouer neere unto the fountaine called Muscosa that is to say mossie there is another chappell of Fortune the virgin as also in the mount Esquiltus another of Aduerse Fortune upon the streete called the Long Way an altar there is erected to Fortune Good-hope or as it were Hope and neere adjoining unto the altar of Venus Epi-talaria that is is to say Foote-winged Venus a chappell and image of Fortune Masculine besides a thousand honors and denominations more of Fortune which Servius for the most part instituted and ordeined as knowing full well that in the regiment of all humane things Fortune is of great importance or rather can doe all in all And good reason he had therefore considering that himselfe by the beneficiall favor of Fortune being descended as he was by birth from a captive and that of an enemie nation was raised and advaunced to royall dignitie For when the citie of the Corniculanes was won forciblie by the Romanes a certaine young damsell named Ocrisia being taken prisoner who notwithstanding her infortunate captivitie was neither for beauty of face nor comely behaviour blemished or stained was given unto queene Tanaquil the wife of king Tarquin to serve her and afterwards bestowed in marriage upon one of the reteiners or dependants to the king such as the Romans call Clientes and from these two came this foresaid Servius Others say that it was nothing so but that this maiden Ocrisia taking ordinarily certaine first-frutes or assaies as it were both of viands and wine from the kings table carried the same to the hearth of the domesticall altar and when one day above the rest she cast these primicies or libaments aforesaid as her usuall manner was into the fire upon the hearth behold all on the sudden when the flame went out there arose out of the said hearth the genitall member of a man whereat the yoong damosell being affrighted reported what a strange sight she had seene unto queene Tanaquil alone who being a wise and wittie ladie appparelled and adorned the maiden like a bride in every respect and shut her up with the foresaid apparition taking it for a divine thing presaging some great matter Some say that this was the domesticall or tutelar god of the house whom they call Lar others Vulcane who was enamored of this yoong virgine but whatsoever it was Ocrisia was thereupon with childe and so was Servius borne Now whiles he was but an infant there was seene a shining light much like unto the flash of lightning to blaze out of his head round about But Valerius Antias recordeth this narration otherwise saying that Servius had a wife named Gegania who hapned to die by occasion of whose death hee grew into a great agonie and passion of sorrow in the presence of his mother untill in the end for very heavinesse and melancholy hee fell a sleepe and as he slept the woman of the house might perceive his head shining out in a light fire a sufficient argument and testimonie that engendred he was of fire yea and an assured presage of a kingdome unlooked for which he attained unto after the decease of Tarquinius by meanes of the port and favour that Tanaquil graced him with For otherwise of all the kings that were of Rome he seemed to bee the man that was unlikest to reach unto a monarchie and least intended or minded to aspire thereunto considering that when he was king he determined to resigne up the crowne though hee was empeached and staied for so doing because Tanaquil upon her death-bed conjured and bound him by an oath to continue in his roiall estate and dignitie and in no case to give over the politike government of the Romans wherein hee was borne Lo how the regall power kingdome of Servius may be wholly ascribed unto Fortune seeing that as hee came unto it beyond all hope and expectation so hee held it even against his will But to the end it may not be thought that we withdraw our selves and retire flying unto antiquitie as it were into a place obscure and darke for want of more cleere and evident proofes let us leave the historie of the kings and turne our speech unto the most glorious acts of the Romans and their warres which were of greatest name and renowme wherein I will not deny and who is there but must confesse there did concurre Both boldnesse stout and fortitude with martiall discipline In warre which aie cooperant with vertue doth combine according as Timotheus the poet writeth but the prosperous traine and happy course of their affaires the violent streame also current of their progresse into such puissance growth of greatnesse sheweth evidently unto those who are able to discourse with reason and to judge aright that this was a thing conducted neither by the hands nor counsels ne yet by the affections of men but by some heavenly guidance and divine direction even by a fore-winde and gale of Fortune blowing at the poupe and hastening them forward Trophees upon trophees by them were erected one triumph met with another continually the former bloud upon the weapons not yet cooled but still warme was washed away by new bloudshed comming upon it they reckoned and numbered their victories not
he is inclosed and clasped within the armes as one would say of a net endureth his fortune resolutely and never dismaieth for the matter nay he is very well appaied and pleased for he is glad in his heart that he hath so many fishes about him caught in the same net which hee may devour and make merrie with at his pleasure without paines taking and when he sees that he is drawen up neere to the land he makes no more adoe but gnawes a great hole in the net away he goes But say that he cannot dispatch this feat so quickly but he comes into the fishers hands yet hee dieth not for this at the first time for they draw a rish or reed thorow the skinne along his crest and so let him go but if he suffer himselfe to be taken the second time then they beat and cudgell him well and know him they do by the seames or skars remaining of the foresaid reed Howbeit this falleth out verie seldome for the most part of them when they have beene once pardoned do acknowledge what favour they have received and beware for ever after how they do a fault and come into danger againe But whereas there be infinit other examples of subtle slights and wittie wiles which fishes have invented both to foresee and prevent a perill also to escape out of a danger that of the cuttle is woorthie to be recited and would not be passed over in silence for having about her necke a bladder or bag hanging full of a blacke muddie liquor which thereupon they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Inke when she perceives herselfe beset compassed about so as she is ready to be taken she casteth forth from her the said inke full craftily that by troubling the water of the sea all about her and making it looke thicke and blacke she might avoid the sight of the fisher and so make an escape unseene Following heerein the gods in Homer who many times with overspreading a back cloud withdraw and steale away those whom they are minded to save but enough of this Now as touching their craft and subtiltie in assailing and chasing others there be many experiments and examples presented unto our sight for the fish called the Starre knowing full well that whasoever he toucheth wil melt and resolve offreth and yeeldeth her body to be handled suffering as many as passe by her or approch neere to stroke him and as for the cramp-fish Torpedo you all know well enough her powerfull propertie not onely to benumme and stupifie those who touch her but also to transmit a stupefactive qualitie even along the maishes and cords of the net to the verie hands of the fishers who have caught her And some there be who report thus much moreover as having farther experience of her woonderfull nature that in case she escape and get away alive if men do baddle aloft in the water or dash the same upon them they shall feele the said passion running up to the verie hand and benumming their sense of feeling as it should seeme by reason of the water which before was altered and turned in that manner This fish therefore having an imbred knowledge hereof by nature never fighteth a front with any other neither hazardeth himselfe openly but fetching a compasse about the prey which it hunteth after shooteth forth from her these contagious influences like darts infecting or charming rather the water first therewith and after wards by meanes thereof the fish that she laieth for so that it can neither defend it selfe nor flie and make an escape but remaineth as it were arrested and bound fast with chaines or utterly astonied The sea-frog called the Fisher which name he gat by a kind of fishing that he doth practise is knowen well enough to many and Aristotle saith that the cuttle aforesaid useth likewise the same craft that he doth His manner is to hang downe as it were an angle line a certaine small string or gut from about his necke which is of that nature that hee can let out in length a great way when it is loose and draw it in againe close together verie quickly when he list Now when he perciveth some small fish neere unto him hee suffreth it to nibble the end thereof and bite it and then by litle and little and prively plucketh and draweth it backe toward him untill he can reach with his mouth the fish that hangeth to it As touching poulps or purcuttles and how they change their colour Pindarus hath ennobled them in these verses His mind doth alter most mutable To poulpe the sea fish skinne semblable Which changeth hue to all things sutable To live in all worlds he is pliable The poet Theognis likewise Put on a mind like polyp fish and learne so to dissemble Which of the rocke whereto it sticks the colour doth resemble True it is that the chamaeleon also eftsoone changeth colour but it is not upon any craftie desseigne that he hath nor yet for to hide himselfe but only for that he is so timorous for cowardly he is by nature and feareth everie noise Over and besides as Theophrastus writeth full he is of a deale of wind and the bodie of this creature wanteth but a little of being all lungs and lights whereby it may bee guessed that it standeth altogether upon ventositie and wind and so consequently verie variable and subject to change whereas that mutabilitie of the polype is a powerfull and setled action of his and not a momentarie passion or infirmitie for hee altereth his colour of a deliberate purpose using it as a sleight or device either to conceale himselfe from that whereof he is affraid or else to catch that whereof hee feedeth and by meanes of this deceitfull wile he praieth upon the one that escapeth him not escapeth the other that passeth by sees him not But to say that he eateth his owne cleies or long armes that he useth to stretch foorth is a loudlie marie that he standeth in feare of the lampray and the conger is verie true for these fishes do him many shrewd turnes and he cannot requite them the like so slipperie they be and so soone gone Like as the lobster on the other side if they come within his clutches holdeth them fast squeizeth them to death for their glibby slicknesse serveth them in no stead against his rough cleies and yet if the polype can get entangle him once within his long laces hee dies for it See how nature hath given this circular vicissitude to avoid and chase one another by turnes as a verie exercise and triall to make proofe of their wit and sagacitie But Aristotimus hath alledged unto us the hedghoge or land urchin and stood much upon I wot not what foresight he hath of the winds and a woondrous matter he hath made also of the triangular flight of cranes As for me I will not produce the sea urchins of this
in the power of a Toniaeum that which is proper unto a vehement Spondiasme it will fall out that he shall place jointly together two Diatoniques the one simple and the other compound for this euharmonique reenforced and comming thicke upon the Mese which now adaies is so much used seemeth not to be devised by the Poet. Thus may a man soone perceive if he observe and marke one very well who plaieth upon a pipe after the old maner For by his good will the Hemitone in the Mese will be incompounded Thus you see what were the first rudiments and beginnings of Euharmoniques But afterwards the demi-tone was divided and distracted as well in Lydian as in Phrygian Musicke and it seemeth that Olympus hath amplified and augmented Musicke because he brought in that which never yet was found and whereof his predecessors all were ignorant so that he may very well be thought the Greekish and elegant Musician Semblably we are to speake of the numbers and measures in Musicke called Rhythmi for devised there were and found out to the rest certeine kinds and speciall sorts of Rhythmi as also there were those who ordeined and instituted such measures and numbers For the former innovation of Terpander brought one very good forme into Musicke Polymnestus after that of Terpander another which he used and yet he adhered also to that good forme and figure before Semblably did Thaletas and Sacadas And these men verily were sufficient in making of these Rhythmi and yet departed not from that good and laudable forme But Crexus Timotheus and Philoxenus and those about their age were overmuch addicted to new devices and loved novelties in affectiong that sigure which in these daies is called Philanthropon that is to say humane and Thematicon that is to say positive For antiquitie embraced few strings simplicitie also and gravity of Musicke Thus having according to my skill ability discoursed of the primitive Musicke and of the first authors who invented it and by what inventions in processe of time it grew to some meane perfection I will breake off my speech and make an end giving leave to our friend Soterichus for to speake in his turne who is a man not onely well studied in Musicke and as well practised therein but also throughly seene in all other learning liberall literature For mine owne part I am better acquainted with the fingring Musicke manuall practise than otherwise When Lysias had thus said he held his peace and then Soterichus after him began thus You have heere good Onesicrates mooved and exhorted us to discourse of Musicke a venerable science and a profession right pleasing to the gods and for mine owne part I greatly approove of my master Lysias as well for his good conceit and knowledge as for his memorie whereof he hath given us a sufficient proofe by reciting the authors and inventors of the first Musicke and the writers also thereof This will I put you in minde by the way that in all his proofes he hath reported himselfe to the registers and records of those who have written thereof and to nothing else But I am of a farre other minde and thinke verily that no earthly man was the inventour of this so great good which Musicke bringeth with it unto us but even god Apollo himselfe who is adorned with all maner of vertues For neither Marsyas nor Olympus ne yet Hyagnis as some doe thinke devised the use of the flute and pipe no more than both of the one and the other the lute or harpe onely was the invention of Apollo for this god devised the play which may easily be knowen by the daunces and solemnities of sacrifices which were brought in with the sound of hautboies and flutes to the honour of that god according as Alcaeus among many others hath left written in one of his hymnes moreover his very image in the Isle of Delos testifieth as much where he is portraied standing thus holding in his right hand a bow and in his left the Graces and every one of them hath an instrument of Musicke the one an harpe or lute another the shaulme or hautboies and she in the middes a flute or shrill fife neere unto her mouth And because I would not have you to thinke that I have picked this out of mine owne fingers ends both Anticles and Hister in their Commentaries and Elucidartes of these things doe quote and alledge as much As for the image aforesaid and the dedication thereof so auncient it is that by report it was made and erected in the time that Hercules lived Moreover the childe that bringeth the lawrell out of the valley of Tempe to the citie of Delphos is accompanied with a piper or plaier of the hautboies yea and the sacrifices which were woont in old time to besent from the Hyperboreans into the Isle of Delos went with a sort of hautboies flutes pipes and lutes or stringed instruments about them And some there be who say more than this namely that god Apollo himselfe plaied upon the flute and hautboies And thus writeth Alcman an excellent Poet and maker of sonnets And Corinna saith furthermore that Apollo was taught by Minerva for to pipe See how honourable and sacred every way Musicke is as being the very invention of the gods And in olde time they used it with great reverence and according to the dignitie thereof like as they did all other such exercises and professions whereas in these daies men rejecting and disdaining the majestie that it hath in stead of Musicke manly holy and acceptable to the gods bring that into the theaters which is effeminate enervate broken puling and deceitfull And therefore Plato in this third booke of his Common-weath is offended with such Musicke and utterly rejecteth the Lydian harmonie which is meet for mones and lamentations like as it is said that the first institution and making thereof was lamentable for Aristoxenus in his first booke of Musicke reporteth that Olympus sounded with the hautboies a dolefull and funerall dumpe in Lydian Musicke upon the death of Python And others there be who affirme that Melanippides began first this tune Pindarus in his Paeans saith that this Lydian Musicke began first to be taught at the wedding of Niobe others that one Torebus used first this harmonie according as Dionysius Iambus writeth The Myxolydian Musicke also is full of affection and in that regard meet for tragedies Aristoxenus writeth that Sappho invented first this Myxolydian harmonie of whom the tragedie makers learned it and joined it with the Dorian for that as the one giveth a certeine dignitie and stately magnificence so the other mooveth affections and a tragedy you wot well is mixed of them both Howbeit in their rolles and registers who have written of Musicians it is said that Pythoclides the plaier of the hautboies was the first inventer of this Musicke But Lysis referreth the invention thereof to Lamprocles the Athenian who having found and perceived that
ceaseth to be it commeth and goeth together in such sort as that which beginneth to breed never reacheth to the perfection of being for that in very deed this generation is never accomplished nor resteth as being come to a ful end and perfection of being but continually changeth and moveth from one to another even as of humane seed first there is gathered within the mothers wombe a fruit or masse without forme then an infant having some forme and shape afterwards being out of the mothers belly it is a sucking babe anon it proves to be alad or boy within a while a stripling or springall then a youth afterwards a man growen consequently an elderly ancient person last of ala croked old man so that the former ages precedent generations be alwais abolished by the subsequent those that follow But we like ridiculous fooles be affraid of one kinde of death when as we have already died so many deaths and doe nothing daily and hourely but die still For not onely as Heraclitus saith the death of fire is the life of aire and the end of aire the beginning of water but much more evidently we may observe the same in our selves The floure of our yeeres dieth and passeth away when old age commeth youth endeth in the floure of lusty and perfect age childhood determineth in youth infancy in childhood Yesterday dieth in this day and this day will be dead by to morow neither continueth any man alwaies one and the same but we are engendred many according as the matter glideth turneth and is driven about one image mould or patterne common to all figures For were it not so but that we continued still the same how is it that we take delight now in these things whereas we joied before in others how is it that we love and hate praise and dispraise contrary things how commeth it to passe that we use divers speeches fal into different discourses are in sundry affections retaine not the same visage one countenance one minde and one thought For there is no likelihood at all that without change a man should entertaine other passions and looke who is changed he continueth not the same and if he be not the same he is not at all but together with changing from the same he changeth also to be simply for that continually he is altered from one to another and by consequence our sense is deceived mistaking that which appeareth for that which is indeed and all for want of knowledge what it is to be But what is it in trueth to be Surely to be eternall that is to say which never had beginning in generation nor shall have end by corruption and in which time never worketh any mutation For a moveable and mutable thing is time appearing as it were in a shadow with the matter which runneth and floweth continually never remaining stable permanent and solid but may be compared unto a leaking vessell conteining in it after a sort generations and corruptions And to it properly belong these tearmes 〈◊〉 and after Hath bene shall be which presently at the very first sight do evidently shew that time hath no being For it were a great folly and manifest absurditie to say that a thing is which as yet commeth not into esse or hath already ceased to be And as for these words Present Instant Now c. by which it seemeth that principally we ground and mainteine the intelligence of Time reason discovereth the same and immediatly overthroweth it for incontinently it is thrust out dispatched into future and past so that it fareth with us in this case as with those who would see a thing very farre distant for of necessitie the visuall beames of his sight doe faile before they can reach thereto Now if the same befall to nature which is measured that unto time which measureth it there is nothing in it permanent nor subsistent but all things therein be either breeding or dying according as they have reference unto time And therefore it may not be allowed to say of that which is It hath beene or it shall be for these termes be certaine inclinations passages departures and chaunges of that which cannot endure nor continue in being Whereupon we are to conclude that God alone is and that not according to any measure of time but respective to eternity immutable and unmooveable not gaged within the compasse of time nor subsert either to inclination or declination any way before whom nothing ever was nor after whom ought shall be nothing future nothing past nothing elder nothing yoonger but being one really by this one Present or Now accomplisheth his eternitie and being alway Neither is there any thing that may truely be said to be but he alone nor of him may it be verified He hath beene or shall be for that he is without beginning and end In this maner therefore we ought in our worship and adoration to salute and invocate him saying EI that is to say Thou art unlesse a man will rather according as some of the ancients used to doe salve him by this title EI EN that is to say Thou art one for god is not many as every one of us who are a confused heape and masse composed or rather thrust together of infinit diversities and differences proceeding from all sorts of alterations but as that which is ought to be one so that which is one ought to be for alternative diversitie being the difference of that which is departeth from it and goeth to the engendring of that which is not And therefore very rightly agreeth unto this god the first of his names as also the second and the third for Apollo he is called as denying and disavowing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say plurality multitude likewise Iëias which is as much to say as One or alone thirdly Phoebus by which name they called in the olde time All that was cleane and pure without mixture and pollution And semblably even at this day the Thessalians if I be not deceived say that their priests upon certeine vacant dayes when they keepe forth of their temples and live apart pivatly to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now that which is one is also pure and syncere for pollution commeth by occasion that one thing is mingled with another like as Homer speaking in one place of Yvorie having a tincture of red said it was polluted and the word that he useth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diers also when they would expresse that their colours be medleies or mixed use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to be corrupted and the very mixture they tearme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Corruption It behooveth therefore that the thing which is syncere and incorruptible should be also one and simple without all mixture whatsoever In which regard they who thinke that Apollo and the Sunne be both one god are worthy to