age that passed in a man till his old age was accounted of our Ancestors but as a race of that length which directed to honour so that the last age is more happy then the middle because it hath more authority and lesse labour The highest perfâ—ction in age is authority How great Majesty was in * L. Cecillius Metellus how great in Attillius * Collatinus whom the generall consent of all nations did allow to be the chiefe among the people the verses on his sepulchre are well known By right therefore he is to be held noble and of authority in whose praises the reports of all men do consent what men of wisedome have we seen of late Pub. Crossus the high Priest and after him Marcus * Lepidus that succeeded him in the office what should I speak of Paulus or of Affricanus or of Maximus whom I named before Not only iu whose speech but also in whose looks remained authority Age hath especially honoured age such reverence that it is more to be accounted of then all the pleasures of youth XVII TABLE of Annotations 1. CYrus Minor reigned in Persia 353. years after the building of Rome in the times of Aggaeus and Zacharias the Prophets in Judea 2. Marcus Valerius Corvinus fighting against a French souldur that challenged him in the lists a crow came and sat upon his head and smoâ—e her wings in his enemies face and so blinded him that Valerius obtained the victory and ever after was called Corvinus he was after both Consul and Dictator CHAP. XVIII BUt you must remember that in all this speech I have praised only that age which is built on the foundation of youth from whence it happened that that speech of mine wherein I affirmed that age to be miserable which only defended it selfe by speech was so generally applauded of all men for neither gray haires nor wrinckles get authority suddainly but the honest and vertuous deeds of the age before spent obtain the chiefest fruits of authority For these things are honourable which do seem but of small account v.z. to be saluted to be sought unto to have place given to them to be risen unto to be brought in to be conducted out and to give counsel which both among us and in other well mannerd cities is observed diligently T is said that Lisander of Lacedemon of whom I spake even now was wont to say that Lacedemon was a most fit and honest habitation for old age for nowhere was that age more reverenced or honoured then there It comes now to my mind that a certain old man at Athens at the plays comming in among the people no man would give him room but when he came among the Lacedemonians who when they come of an embassage sit all in one place they all rose up to him and received the old man to sit with them to whom when great praise was given for the courteous deed one of them said that the Athenians knew good manners but would not use them Many excellent Ceremonies are observed in our Colledge of Auguries whereof this which we speak of is one that every man in their consultations gives his opinion according to his age the oldest first and so downwards for Augurs are not only preferred before some that are honoured but also before many which besides their years and gravity are in office what are therefore the pleasures of the body to be compared to the rewards of authority which whosoever make th use of seemes to me to have gone well through the enterlude of his life and not like an unskilfull player to fayle in the last act CHAP. XIX BUt old men are froward unconstant peevish and crabbed and we complaine also that they are covetous but these be the faults of the manners not of the age but way wardnesse and those faults may have some excuse though not justly yet such may seem probable For sometimes they think they are mocked or despised and besides every small offence to a weak body is grievous all which not withstanding may be sweetned both by good manners arts and that may wel be seen both in the life and the play of those two Brothers in 1 Adelphus in 2 Terence how much crabbednesse in the one and how much courtesie in the other Even so the case stands for as all wines do not grow soure and tart in continuance so not all age I like severity in an old man but not bitternesse Bnt as for covetousnesse in age I know not what it meanes for there can be no greater absurdity then when the journey is almost done to take care to provide much more provision XIX TABLE of Annotations 1. ADelphus a comedy written by Terence wherein is shewed the difference of ages in two brothers the one Mitio a milde gentle man the other Demea a froward perverse man 2. Terence born at Carthage he wrote six Comedies which are now extant some report that he wrote more but they were drowned in a ship at sea he was well-beloved of Scipio and Laelius CHAP. XX THere remaineth the fourth cause which seemeth to vex and grieve our age very much the approching of death which surely followeth age at the heeles O miserable old man whatsoever thou be which canst not learne in all thy life forespent to despise death which is either plainly to be neglected if it kill the soule with the body or to be desired if it bring happinesse after life for no third way is found what should I then fear if after death I shall be either nothing or else happy but what fool though he be a young man is there that can tell whether he shall live till night for That age hath more causes of death then Age hath young men sooner fall into diseases their sicknesse is and more grievous and dangerous hey are healed with more pain and trouble so that few of them come to be old which if some of them happen to do they live more prudently and better then before for understanding counsell and reason is in age which if it were not there there could be no Cities But I return to death which as it were hangs over our heads thinke you that it is the particular fault of age when you see it common to youth I have well perceived not only by the death of my dear son but also of your 1 brothers Scipio who were expected to great dignity that death is common to all ages XX TABLE of Annotations 1. PAulus Aemylius had four sons two by adoption and two by another wife of which last two the one died five dayes before his triumph and the other three dayes after His sons by adoption were Scipio and Fabius CHAP. XXI BUt the young man hopes to live long which the old man cannot He hopes foolishly for what is greater folly then to account uncertain things for certain false for true the old man hath nothing to hope for more therefore he is in
better state then the former seeing that what the other wisheth for he hath obtained already the young man would live long the old man hath lived long O you immortall gods what is there in mans life that is of any long continuance for let us live long and we expect the years of the King of the * Taresians for I have seen it written that there was one Arganthonius at Gades which reigned eighty years and lived an hundred and twenty but to me nothing seemeth of long continuance of which there is any end for when that end shall come then that which is past flies away like smoak and that only will remaine which you have obtained by vertue and good deeds the houres you see runs on and the dayes and the moneths and the years neither doth the time past ever return nor can any tell what will follow That time which a man hath given him to live he ought to be contented with it for a good actor is not applauded in the midst of a Scene so a wise mans praise comes not till the end The time of our age is short indeed but long enough to live well and honestly But if your age seem longer then your youth you ought to grieve no more then the husbandman doth when the sweetnesse of the spring is past that the summer and the winter are come For the spring doth as it were signifie youth and shows what fruit will come the other seasons of plucking and gathering the fruit are compared to the latter times of our age For the fruit of age as I have said is the memory of the abundance of good deeds heretofore done all things which are done by the rules of God and nature are to be accounted good but it is a rule of nature that old men must die which also happeneth to young men though they resist it Therefore a young man seemeth to me to die like fire put out with water but old men like fire which being put out by no force is quietly consumed of it selfe and as apples on trees being not ripe are plucked of by violence but being ripe they fal of themselves so force taketh away the life of young men but ripenesse of age the life of old men which consideration is so pleasant to me that I seem to behold the eatth as a quiet port whether after a long and troublesome navigation I shall arrive The end of all ages is certain but the end of old age is uncertain which is death and a man may live therin uprightly and contemne death hence it comes that old men are more bold and hearty then young men which made that Solon answered to 1 Pysistratus the Tyrant when he asked him what made him so bold he answered old age But the end he answered old age But the end of life is then best when nature the minde being well and all the sences perfect doth dissolve the same work which she her selfe hath made For as that workeman which hath made a ship or building knowes best how to unjoyn it so the same nature which hath made a man best dissolves him that which is newly joyned is hardly sodered but old work is easily taken in pieces Now that little time of life which we have is not to be greedily desired of old men nor without cause to be refused and Pythagoras forbids that unlesse the Emperour which is God command we ought not to depart from our station and guard of life it is the 2 speech of Solon the wise when he wisheth his death to be lamented of his friends I beleeve he would be dear to them But I know not if Ennius wrote better or no No man shall weep my death Nor spend a sighing breath It seemes he thinketh not that death to be lamented which obtaineth immortality Now for the sense or pain of dying if there be any it remaineth but a small time especially in old men But this ought to be considered of in youth that wee might learne before to neglect death without which meditation no man can be of 〈◊〉 quiet minde T is certain we must die but when uncertain whether to day or no we know not therefore who can be quiet in minde while he feares death continually hanging over his head concerning which there needs no long disputation when I remember not only 3 L. Brutus who was slain in delivering his countrey not only * M. Marcellus whom after his death his cruellest enemies could not suffer to want honourable buriall and many others but also our legions of souldiers who as I have written in my book of Originals have often gone into those places with a chearfull and constant minde from whence they never looked to returne Shall therfore wise and learned old men feare that which young men rude and unletterd have contemned Truly me thinks that the satiety of all things makes also a satiety of life There are certain studies in children shall young men desire them there are others in youth shall age require them and there be studies in the last age therefore as the studies of former ages fail so do the studies of old age so that when the satiety or fulnesse of life commeth it bringeth also a fit time for death XXI Table of Annotations 1. PYsistratus King of Athens the sonne of Hippocrates he reigned at Athens when Servius Tullius reigned at Rome he made the first librarie at Athens which after Xerxes carried into Persia 2. The speech of Solon is in latin this Mors mea ne careat lacrymis linquamus amicis Maerorem ut celebrent funera nostra fletu Thus in English Let not my death want teares but leave to all Sorrow and grones to make my funerall 3. Lucius Brutus he deposed Tarquinius Superbus it is said that when for feare of Tarquin he counterfeited himselfe mad he was intreated by Tarquins sonnes to go with them to the oracle of Apollo to make them sport by the way whether they went to know which of them should reigne after their fathers death it was there answered that he which did first kisse his mother should rule whereupon they hasted home apace to their mother but Brutus understanding the oracles true meaning fell to the earth and kissed it as being the generall mother of all by which meanes he after expulsing of Tarquin for the rape of Lucretia did governe the common-wealth himselfe and was the first Consul he put to death his own sonnes for taking part with Tarquin he was stain by the lake Regulus in a battell CHAP. XXII I See no cause why I should not dare to tell you my opinion of death which I seem to behold the better because I am so much the neerer it I do verily beleeve that your fathers P. Scipio and C. Laelius most honourable men and my good friends do now live and indeed such a life as is only worthy to be called a life For while we are shut up in the
Attillius were made Consuls but he dyed when he was threescore and tenne yeers old Cepiâ— and Philippus being Consuls the second time when I being threescore and five in good strength and with a cleere voyce pleaded the 5 Voconian Law For so long lived Ennius he bore two burdens old age and poverty in such sort that he seemed almost to be delighted with them V. TABLE of Annotations 1. PLato the sonne of Aristo and Periander borne at Athens the same yeere and day that Apollo was borne at Delos a swarme of Bees when he was young light on his mouth when he lay in his Cradle in token of his Eloquence to come he was Scorates his Scholer after whose death he went to Philolanuan among the Pythagoreans and from thence to Egypt where he was healed of a disease by the Seawater wherefore he was wont to say the Sea ebbe dand flowed all manner of diseases When he dwell at Athens he brought into one volumn al the works of Pythag. Heraclitus and Socrates Dionysius the Tyrant when he had caused him to be sold and hearing that he was safely returned into his owne Country wrote to him that he would not either speake or write evil of him Who answered that he had not so much idle time as once to thinke of him he dyed being 84 yeere old 2. Socrates the sonne of Sophroniscus a Lapidary and Phenareta a Midwife borne at Athens master to Plato a man of great patience he had two wives Xantippe and the daughter of Aristidas he was wont to say that whether a man did marry or no he should repent he was often troubled with the scolding of Xantippe his curst wife but never moved Alcibiades whom he deerely loved was wont to tell him that he could not abide the railing of Xantippe yet quoth Socrates I can for I am used to it but quoth he canst thou abide the gagling of thy Geese at home Yea quoth Alcibiades for they lay me egges so quoth Socrates Xantippe brings me children He seldome wrote any thing saying that wisdome should be printed in mens hearts not on beasts skins He was judged to be the wisest man that lived by the Oracle of Apollo for which he was envyed and accufed that he would not worship Images and was condemned by fourescore judges to be poysoned which was forthwith done by the executioners 3. Panathenaicus a booke which Socrates wrote of all the noble ghests and deeds of the Athenians which Book is lost 4. Gorgias of Leontia an excellent Rhetorician the Scholler of Empedocles and master to Socrates and other excellent Phylosophers he got so much by his Art that he first set up a golden Statua in the Temple of Apollo He dyed as Plyny saith being a hundred and nine yeere old 5. The Voconian Law was made by Caius Voconius which was that no man should make his daughter his sole heyre which was after repealed by Domitianus Caesar CHAP. VI BUt when I consider in my mind I finde 4. causes why age may seem miserable the first that it hindereth men from doing their affaires the second it weakneth the body the third it taketh away all pleasures the fourth that it is neere death of these causes as much as they may prevaile and are just if you please we will see a little Doth age hinder us from our affaires From what From those which are done in youth and in strength are then the businesses of old men nothing Which though with weake bodies yet with strong minds may be done Then neither Quintus Maximus nor 1 Lucius Paulus your father Scipio the father in Law to my now dead 2 sonne and other old men when with counsel and authority they defended the Common-wealth did nothing The 3 Curii the 4 Fabritii the 5 Corimcam did nothing it happen that 6 Appius Claudius was blind in his age yet he doubted not when the Senate inclined to Peace with 7 Pyrrhus to say that which Ennius hath set dovvn in verses Whether now bend your minds a headlong fall to bring Which heretofore hadwont to stand as straight as any thing And many other things most gravely for you knovv the verse and Oration of Alpius is extant and these things he did seventeen yeere after his second Consulship vvhen there vvas ten yeeres betvveen each Consulship and he had been 8 Censor before the first of vvhich vvarre of Pyrrhus before spoken it is recorded it vvas great for so vve have received it from our fore-fathers Therefore they bring nothing vvhich affirme that old age is not busied in affaires and they are like them vvhich say the Pylatin sailing doth nothing vvhen some mad fellovves climbe the ropes others leap up and dovvn the hatches and others Pumpe But he holding the Sterne and sitting quietly in the Poope doth nâ—t as the young men do but farre better and that of more import great matters are compassed not by strength swiftnes and celerity of body but by counsel authority and vvisdome of vvhich things age is not deprived but stored unlesse you vvill say that I vvho have been souldier Tribune and Legate and Consul in divers vvarres do novv seeme to loyter vvhen I vvage not vvarre yet do I prescribe to the Senate vvhat things may be done and I shew them long before hovv Siege may be laid to subtill 9 Carthage of vvhich I vvill never cease to feare till I be assured that it bee rased to the ground which victorie I beseech the immortall Gods to reserve for you O Scipio that you may follovv the example of your Grandfather from whose death it is now this 33 yeeres yet his fame remains to all posterity he dyed a yeere before I was Censor nine yeeres after my Consullship who I being in the office was the second time made Consull Therefore if he had lived an hundred yeer should he have been aweary of his age Running leaping tilt and barriers are not fit exercises for age but wisdome counsell and discretion which unlesse they had been in old men our ancestors would never have called the chief councel a * Senate Among the Lacedemonians they which bear greatest Offices as they be so also are they called old men and if you will read of forrainge matters you shall find many Common-wealths overthrown by young men but restored and held up by old men Tell me how you have lost your great Common-wealth so quickly Thus it is answered in the play of the 10 Poet Naevius There came forth new Orators fooles and young men For rashnesse is a quality of youth but prudence of age VI TABLE of Annotations 1. LUcius Paulus Aemylianus an excellent man father to Scipio and brother in Law to Cato 2. Cato the sonne of Cato Major who valiantly fighting under Paulus Aemylius against Perseus was slaine he marryed Tertia the daughter to Paulus Aemylius 3. Curii 4. Fabritii a noble stock not only memorable for their severe life but their justice and continency
the strength of a Bull or an Elephant for that which is naturally ingraffed in a man that it becommeth him to use and to desire to do nothing above his strength For what speech can be more contemptible then that of 1 Milo Crotoniata who when he was an old man and saw the wrestlers exercising themselves in the 2 Chase is reported to have beheld his Armes and weeping to say But these are now dead no not them so much as thou thy selfe thou trifler for never wast thou â—nobled by thy virtue or wisedome but by thy beast-like force and strong armes 3 Sexius Aemylius spake no such thing nor 4 Titus Coruncanus many years before nor Publius Crassus of late of whom lawes were prescribed to the Citizens whose wisedome continued till their last gaspe IX TABLE of Annotations MIlo Crotoniata a man of such strength that at the games at Olympus he came in with an ox on his shoulders which with his bare fist he slew and some say immediately eat him his death for all his strength was miserable for comming into a wood in his age and seeing a tree gape in the midst being by some meanes cleft he trusting to his former strength thought to rend it in pieees but putting his fingers into the rift the tree suddainly closed and he being caugbt by the hands was there devoured by wolves 2. The chase at mount Olympus where once in five yeares were runnings wrestlings and such like for games first instituted by Hercules who there first wrestled himselfe they were had in such estimations among the Grecians that they counted their yeares by them 3. Sextus Aemylius a man excellently skilled in the lawes and ordinances of Rome 4. Titus Coruncanus he first professed the laws none of his writings remain but many of his witty sayings are to be found in Authors 5. Publius Crassus a very rich man and skilfull in the lawes of Rome he was Consull with Africanus CHAP. X. BUt it may be thought that an Orator may be weakned with age For that office consisteth not onely of wit but also of strength of body strong sides and voyce yet that shrilnesse of voyce doth altogether shew it self I know not by what meanes in old age which I my selfe have not yet lost and yet you see my yeares notwithstanding the speech of an old man is comely quiet remisse and the gentle and decked Oration of an eloquent old man makes audience to it selfe which singularity if you cannot obtaine yet may you give precepts to youth for what can be more pleasant then old age garded with the studies of youth Shal we not then leave that strength at least to age that it may teach youth bring them up and instruct them in all good duties then which what can be more necessary or more excellent So that to my understanding 1 Cnaeus and Publius Scipio and your two grand fathers Lucius Aemylius and Paulus Affricanus seemed happy in the company of noble young men Neither are any masters of good Arts to be thought unhappy though through their paines in teaching their strength wax old and decay for that defection and failing of strength is oftener caused by the faults of youth then of age for an intemperate and lustfull youth delivereth a corrupt and decrepit body to age Yet 2 Cyrus in 3 Xâ—nphon on his death bed denieth that ever he felt himself much weaker by age then he was in his youth I remember 4 Lucius Metellus when I was a boy who foure yeers after his second Consulship was made High-Priest and served in that office 22 yeeres he was of so good strength and health in his last age that he required not youth I need not speak much of my selfe though it be a thing that belongs to old men and it is granted to our age for doe you not see how often 5 Nestor doth brag in Homer of his own virtues for he had then lived three ages of man So that he needed not feare least that speaking the truth of himselfe he should be counted in solent or talkative for as Homer saith out of his mouth flowed words more sweet then hony which made that 6 Captaine of Greece never wish that he had ten such as strong 7 Ajax but ten such as wise Nestor which if he might obtaine he doubted not but that 8 Troy should soon be overthrown But I returne to my self I am now in the fourescore and fourth yeere of mine age I cannot truly say as Cyrus did but I would I could yet this I can say that though I am not of so great strength as I was being a souldier in the Carthaginian warre or Questor in the same warre or Consul in Spaine or foure yeeres after when being Tribune of the souldiers I fought at 9 Thermopylae Marcus Aâ—tillius Glabrio being Consul yet as you see old age hath not altogether weakned me it hath not overthrown me The Courts want not my strength nor the pleading places nor my friends nor my Glyents nor my ghests Neither did I ever assent to that old and lauded proverb that warns a man to be old quickly if he will be an old man long but I had rather be an old man man lesse while then make my selfe an old man before I were So that as yet no man could come and find me idle at home yet have I lesse strength then either of you neither have you the strength of 10 Titus Pontius the Centurion is he therefore better then you But let him make much of it it will not endure long Milo is said to have entered the Listes of Olympus with a live Oxe on his shoulders whether had you rather now have this mans strength of body or Pythagoras his strength of wit to be given you To conclude use that strength which you have while you have it but when it is gone require it not unlesse you thinke it a seemly thing of young men to require their child-hood againe and ancient men their youth There is but one course of age and one way of nature and the same simple and to every part of age its own timelines is given for as infirmity belongs to child-hood fiercenesse to youth and gravity to age so the true ripenesse of age hath a certaine natural gravity in it which ought to be used in it own time I thinke you have heard Scipio of King 11 Massinissa what he doth at this day being a man of ninety yeeres old when he goes any whether on foot he will never ride in that journey how far soever it be likewise when he rides a journey he will never alight neither could any storm make him weare his hat surely there is great drynesse of body in him therfore he may well execute all the offices and duties of a King Thus you see exercise and temperance way preserve some of the former strength even in old age X. TABLE of Annotations 1. CNaeus and Publius Scipio were brethren and cald
whoredome adultery and all such evill was stirred up by no other bait then pleasure And forasmuch as nature or some God hath given nothing more excellent to a man then his minde to this divine gift there is no greater enemy then pleasure For lust bearing rule there is no place for temperance neither in the Kingdome of pleasure can virtue consist To the better understanding whereof he bade one imagine in his minde some one nusled in as great pleasure as could be he thought that no man would doubt but that while he was thus delighted he could deeply consider of nothing in his minde nor performe any thing by his reason therefore nothing is so detestable as pleasure especially if it be great and of long continnance for then it cleane extinguisheth the light of the mind These things 2 Nearchus the Tarentine our friend who was in the league of Rome said that Architas spake to 3 Caius Pontius the Samnite his father of whom * Spurius Posthumus and T. Viturius the Consuls were overcome in the 4 Caudine war and that he had heard it of his ancestors when there was present at that speech Plato of Athens whom I find to have come to Tarentum * Lucius Camillus Appius Claudius being Consuls But to what end is all this that you may understand that if we cannot despise pleasure by wisedome and reason we ought to give great thanks to old age which brings to passe that we shall not lust to do that which we ought not to do For pleasure the enemy of reason hindereth counsell and as I may so say it blindeth the eyes of the minde that it cannot have fellowship with vertue It was against my will that I cast 5 Lucius Flaminius the brother to that valiant man Titus Flaminius out of the senate seven yeers after he had been Consul but I thought his lust was noted for he when he was Consul in France was intreated to behead one of his prisoners for sport by a Harlot in a banquet which he did he his brother Titus being Censor who was next before me escaped but to me and * Flaccus such hainous and wicked lust could not be in any wise allowed which with his own private shame might joyn a blot to the Empire I have often heard it of my Elders who said that they have heard it of old men that Caius Fabritius was wont to marvell that when he was Embassad or with King Pyrrhus he heard 6 Cinaeas the Thessalonian say that there was * one at Athens who professed himselfe a wise man and affirmed that all our actions ought to be referred to pleasure and that M. Curius and T. Coruncanus were wont to wish that he could perswade that thing to Pyrrhus and the Samnits whereby they might be the easilier overcome when they had given themselves to pleasure Marcus Curius lived with 7 Publius Decius who in his fourth Consulship five years before Curius was Consul bequeathed himself to death for the Common-wealth Fabritius Coruncanus knew him wel who as wel by the life as by the deeds of this Publius Decius of whom I speak did judge that there was some other thing more excellent in its own nature then pleasure to be followed which every good man pleasure being contemned ought to seek after But to what end speak we so much of pleasure because that you may see that no blame but much praise is to be given to age because it doth not lust after pleasure which is so dangerous a thing XII TABLE of Annotations 1. ARchitas of Tarentum a Pythagorean Philosopher he was the Governour of the city he learned Geometry of Plato and by that art made an artificiall dove which flew like a live one 2. Nearchus a Pythagorean Philosopher and Host to Cato as Plutarch writes 3. Caius Pontius the sonne of Hernius who wished that he might live till the Romans grew covetous for then he thought that they might be overcome 4. Caudine war was fought at a wooddy hill so called between the Romans and the Samnites 5. Lucius Flaminius Consul 562 years ab urbe cond. who after he was put out of his degree of Senator by Cato sitting in the lowest and common place of the Theater was so pitied by the People for his humility thatwith great acclamations they advanced him to the seate where the Consuls sate 6. Cinaeas Schollar to Demosthenes a man of such eloquence that by his perswasion Pyrrhus gat many cities and therefore much honoured by him 7. Publius Decius Coss. with Fab. Max. Quintil. An. ab urb cond. 458. his father fighting against the Latines when by the oracle of Apollo it was told that that Army should have the victory whose Captain was first slain he valiantly and willingly cost himselfe among the enemies and for the good of his countrey was there slain whose example his sonne following did the like CHAP. XIII AGe wanteth banquetting gluttony and quaffing it is also without surfeting drunkennesse or dreaming but yet if we may any wayes take some pleasure because we do not easily resist her flatteries for divine Plato calleth pleasure the bait of evils because men are caught therwith as fishes with a hook tho age despiseth immoderate banquets yet may it be delighted with moderate meetings When I was a boy I remember I have seen 1 Caius Duillus the sonne of * Marcus he which first overcame the Carthaginians by sea comming from supper he took great pleasure to have lighted torches carried before him and musicians to play before him which use he being a private man without any example had taken to himselfe But wherefore speak I so much of others I will now returne to my selfe First I had companions like my selfe and divers companies and fellowships I being Questor were by me in stituted the holy writs of the 2 great mother being performed I did banquet then with my equals neither did I esteem the delight of those banquets by the bodies pleasure more then for the company and conference of my friends Well did our Ancestors call the sitting together of friends at a feast * Convivium because it hath a conjunction of life better then the Greeks which call it both compotatio and concaenatio a drinking together and a supping together But I am delighted with moderate feasts for the delight of conference and that not only with my equals of which but few now remain but also with men of your age and with you and I give great thankes to age that hath taken away the desire of meat and drinke in me and increased the desire of study but if any of these things do also delight any man least I should seem to be at utter defiance with pleasure in which peradventure there may be a naturall mean I do not see but that in these pleasures themselves age may have sense feeling For those stewardships in feasts do much delight me and that speech which is used by
fetters of this body we performe a certain grievous burden and duty of necessity For the soule is divine and is thrust down from a most heavenly dwelling and is as it were drowned in the earth a place contrary to divine and eternall nature and surely I thinke that the immortall gods have put soules into men for this cause that beholding the earth and the order of the heavens they should imitate them in the order and constancie of their life neither doth reason and disputation only drive me to thinke so but the authority and opinion of the best Philosophers I have heard that Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans that were almost our neighbours who were called 1 Italian Philosophers never doubted but that we had our soules chosen out of the most divine essence I have heard also that Socrates who was judged the wisest in all the world by the 2 oracle of 3 Apollo did dispute concerning the immortality of the soule But what need many words so I thinke and so I have perswaded my selfe that seeing there is such swiftnesse of understanding such memory of things past such fore-sight of things to come such arts such sciences and such inventions that that spirit which containeth these things cannot but be immortall And for as much as the soule is alwayes moved and hath no beginning of motion because it moveth it selfe nor shall have no end of motion because it shall never leave it selfe and seeing that the nature of the soule is simple of it selfe and hath nothing mingled with it contrary to it I beleeve it cannot be divided and therefore cannot die and it is a great argument that men know many things before they are borne because when they are boyes and learne hard arts they so swiftly conceive innumerable things that they seem not then to learne them but as it were to remember them again These are almost the very words of Plato XXII Table of Annotations 1. PYthagoreans he calleth them his neighbours because they were of Calabria which joyned on the borders of Italy and Rome 2. Oracle of Apollo stood in Delphos an Isle where in the name of Apollo the devill through a brazen image made doubtfull answers to questions that were asked it continued till the birth of Christ and about that time it ceased 3. Apollo the sonne of Jupiter and Latona born at one birth with his sister Diana in the Isle Delos he is accounted for the sonne and the god of Physicians Musicians Painters and Poets CHAP. XXIII 1. Cyrus the great in Xenophon at his death said thus Doe not suppose O my dear children that I when I shall depart from you shall turne to nothing or become no where for while I lived with you you did not see my soule but you understood that it was in my body by the things which I did therefore beleeve that it is the same still though hereafter you shall not see it For the honours and good name of noble men should not live after their deaths if in their lives their soules or mindes did nothing worthy remembrance Verily I could never be perswaded that the soules of men did only live while they were in mortall bodies and not afterwards nor that the soule is any longer foolish then while it is in the foolish body but that after being freed and pure from the mixture of the body it becomes wise and seeing that man is dissolved by death the end of all other things is apparent for all things go from whence they came the soule only neither when it cometh nor when it goeth doth appeare Now there is nothing more like death then sleep and the soules of them that sleep do greatly declare the divinesse thereof for sometime they are freed from the body for a time and do behold many things to come whereby may be gathered what they will after be when they have clearly freed themselves out of the bonds of the body wherefore if the soul be thus immortall saith he worship me as a god but if it die with the body yet yee fearing the gods which do behold and governe all this faire world shall keep my memory inviolable This spake Cyrus on his death-bed XXIII TABLE of Annotations 1. CYrus the great sonne of Cambises he slew Astyages last King of the Medes and translated the monarchy to the Persians rule He left behind him two sonnes Cambises and Tranvazares CHAP. XXIV BUt if you please let us see a little of our later times no man shall perswade me Scipio that either your two grandfathers Paulus and Africanus or the Uncle of Africanus or many other excellent men whom it is not now necessary to name would have indeavoured so much in great affaires unlesse they had known that in their posterity their memory should live together with their praise Do you thinke that after the manner of old men I may boast something of my selfe that I would have taken such paines in the City and in the Campe if I should have ended my fame together with my life Were it not better to lead a quiet and peaceable old age without labour and contention but I know not by what meanes the soule lifting it selfe up doth so behold the memory that shall be left to posterity as if it should then live when it had once died Which unlesse it were so that memory remained and the soule were immortal scarce would any excellent minde indevour to get renown and glory But suppose that every wise man dieth with a good soule and every foole with a bad doth it not seem to you that that soule which knoweth more and is of deeper understanding doth see that it shall go to a better place then that soule whose intellect is more dull and mortall Truely I am verry desirous to fee your fathers whom I love so well and I not onely wish to see them whom I have known but also them of whom I have heard and read therefore from the place whether I am going shall no man withhold me nor from thence as a ball strike mee back and if any god would grant me to be now a child in my cradle againe and to be young I would refuse it Neither would I having runne my full course be called back again For what profit hath life or rather what trouble but say it have some commodity yet when it hath a fulnesse and satiety it ought to have an end I will not deplore my life forespent as many learned men have done neither do I repent that I have lived because I have so lived that I think I was not borne in vaine and I depart out of this life as from an Inne not as from a continuall habitation for nature hath given us a place to rest in not to dwell in O happy shall that day be when I shall come into the company and counsell of those men of whom I spake before and not onely to them but to my deare sonne Cato then whom no man was better or more excellent in piety whose body was by me interred which thought to dye before him but his soule not forgetting me but continually beholding me is gone thither where he perceived that I should come whose death I did the better beare not that I take it very patiently but I comforted my selfe with this hope that I should not live long after him And in these things Scipio for you say that you and Loelius were wont to marvell at it is mine age light and not onely not troublesome but also pleasant But if I do erre that the soules of men bee immortall I do erre willingly neither will I while I live be wrested from mine opinion wherein I am delighted but if when I am dead as some small Philosophers say I shall feel nothing I fear not least the dead Philosophers should laugh at this my error But if we were not immortall yet it were to be wished that a man die in his due time for of nature as of all things else there is an end But old age is the last act of our life as of a play of which there ought to be an end especially when there is satiety and fulnesse of time joyned with it Thus much I had to say concerning old age which I wish you may obtain that those things which you have heard me speak of you might know by experience FINIS PRinted or sold by Wlliam Leake at the signe of the Crown in Fleetstreet between the two Temple gates Thefe Books Callis learned readings upon the statute 23 of H. 8. Cap. 5. of Sewers Perkins on the Law in English 8o The Parsons Law in English 8o Topicks in the Lawes of England 8o Nyes artificiall Fire-workes and Gunnery Wilbies second set of musick 3. 4. 5 and 6. parts The Fort-Royall of the Scriptures or a vade mecum Concordance presenting to the world a 100 of the most usefull heads of Scripture common placed for present use Mathematical Recreations 8o Dellamans Vse of the Horizontall Quadrant 8o Garden of Naturall Contemplations by D. Fulke 8o Brinlleys Corderius in English 8o * In a book of the Consolation of Philosophy which is lost * Turpe est dicere non putaram * Pares cum paribus facillime congregantur * Consul 550 yeeres ab urbe cond. * Coss. breifly for Consul * A Senio In the Play called Attellana * Cons. An. 333. * Cons. An. 337. * Censor with Cato * An Epicure of the sect of Aristippus * Tribune with L. Menenius * A con vivo * rebus Venereis * L. Andronius he was made free for his good wit by L. Salinator * An excellent Orator * Assidue discens plurima fio senex * occatio * An excellent Physician he cured King Philips eye when it was shot out with an arrow * A Town in Persia * High Priest Anno 671. * Coss with Sulp. Paterculus Anno 672. * High Priest Anno 671. The fourth Objection to age neernesse to death * A place neer the sea-shore of Gades * Slain by Hanniball in the Carthage warre