a perpetuall memorie What contempt of world what forgetfulnesse of himselfe what stroke of fortune what whippe for the flesh what little regard of life O what bridle for the vertuous O what confusion for those that loue life O how great example haue they left vs not to feare death Sithens those here haue willingly despised their owne liues it is not to be thought that they dyed to take the goods of others neither yet to thinke that our life should neuer haue end nor our couetousnesse in like manner O glorious people and ten thousand fold happy that the proper sensuality being forsaken haue ouercom the naturall appetite to desire to liue not beleeuing in that they saw and that hauing faith in that they neuer saw they striued with the fatall Destenies By the way they assaulted fortune they changed life for death they offered the body to death and aboue all haue wonne honour with the Gods not for that they shoulde hasten death but because they should take away that which is superfluous of life Archagent a Surgeon of Rome and Anthonius Musus a Physition of the Emperour Augustus and Esculapius father of the Phisicke should get little money in that Countrie Hee that then should haue sent to the barbarous to haue done as the Romanes at that time did that is to say to take sirrops in the mornings pils at night to drinke milke in the morning to annoint themselues with gromeâ—seed to bee let bloud to day and purged to morrow to eate of one thing and to abstaine from many a man ought to thinke that hee which willingly seeketh death will not giue money to lengthen life CHAP. XXII The Emperour concludeth his letter and shewed what perils those olde men liue in which dissolutely like young children passe their dayes and giueth vnto them wholesome counsell for the remedy thereof BVt returning to thee Claude and to thee Claudine me thinketh that these barbarous men beeing fifty yeares of age and you others hauing aboue threescore and tenne it should be iust that sithence you were elder in yeares you were equall in vertue and though as they you wil not accept death patiently yet at the least you ought to amend your euill liues willingly I doe remember that it is many yeares sithens that Fabritius the young sonne of Fabritius the olde had ordayned to haue deceiued mee of the which if you had not told me great inconueniences had happned and sithens that you did me so great a benefite I would now requite you the same with another the like For amongst friends there is no equal benefite then to deceiue the deceyuer I let you know if you do not know it that you are poore aged folks your eyes are sunke into your heads the nostrels are shut the haires are white the hearing is lost the tongue faultereth the teeth fall the face is wrinkled the feete swolne and the stomacke cold Finally I say that if the graue could speake as vnto his Subiects by iustice he might commaund you to inhabite his house It is great pitty of the yong men and of their youthfull ignorance for then vnto such their eies are not opened to know the mishaps of this miserable life when cruell death doth end their dayes and adiorneth them to the graue Plato in his booke of the Common wealth sayde that in vaine wee giue good counsels to fond and light young men for youth is without experience of that it knoweth suspitious of that it heareth incredible of that is tolde him despising the counsell of an other and very poore of his own For so much as this is true that I tell you Claude and Claudine that without comparison the ignorance which the young haue of the good is not so much but the obstination which the olde hath in the euill is more For the mortall Gods many times doe dissemble with a thousand offences commited by ignorance but they neuer forgiue the offence perpetrated by malice O Claude and Claudine I doe not maruell that you doe forget the gods as you doe which created you and your Fathers which begot you and your parents which haue loued you and your friends which haue honoured you but that which I most maruell at is that you forget your selues For you neuer consider what you ought to bee vntill such time as you bee there where you would not bee and that without power to returne backe againe Awake awake since you are drowned in your dreames open your eyes since you sleepe so much accustome your selues to trauels sithence you are vagabonds learne that which behoueth you since now you are olde I meane that in time conuenient you agree with death before he make execution of life Fifty two yeeres haue I knowne the things of the world and yet I neuer saw a Woman so aged thorough yeares nor old man with members so feeble that for want of strength could not if they list doe good nor yet for the same occasion should leaue to bee euill if they list to be euill It is a maruellous thing to see and worthy to note that all the corporall members of Man waxeth old but the inward hart and the outward tongue For the heart is alwayes giuen to inuent euills and the tongue is alwayes able to tell Lyes Mine opinion is that the pleasaunt Summer beeing past you should prepare your selues for the vntemperate winter which is at hand And if you haue but fewe dayes to continue you should make hast to take vp your lodging I meane that sith you haue passed the dayes of your life with trauell you should prepare your selues against the night of death to be in the hauen of rest Let mockeryes passe as mockeries and accept trueth as truth that is to say that it were a very iust thing and also for your honour necessarie that all shose which in times past haue seen you young and foolish should now in your age see you graue and sage For there is nothing that so much forgetteth the lightnesse and follyes of youth as doth grauity and constancie in Age. When the Knight runneth his carriere they blame him not for that the Horses mane is not finely combed but at the end of his race he shold see his horse amended and looked vnto What greater confusion can be to any person or greater slaunder to our mother Rome then to see that which now a dayes therein we see That is to say that the old which can scarcely creepe through the streetes to beholde the playes and games as young men which search for nought else but onely pompe and vanitie It grieueth mee to speake it but I am much more ashamed to see that the olde Romaines do daylie cause the white haires to be plucked out of their heads because they would not seeme old to make their beard small to seem yong wearing their hosen very close their shyrts open before the gowne of the Senatour embrodered the Romane signe richly enamelled the
of her Husband doe spoyle her of her goods For in this case their heires oftentimes are so disordered that for a worne cloake or a broken shirt they wil trouble and vexe the poore widdowe If perchance the miserable widdow haue children I say that in this case shee hath double sorrow For if they are young shee endureth much paine to bring them vp so that each houre and moment theyr Mothers liue in great sorrows to bethinke them only of the life death of their children If perhaps the Children are olde truely the griefes which remaine vnto them are no lesse For so much as the greatest part of them are either proud disobedient malicious negligent Adulterers gluttons blasphemers false lyars dull-headed wanting witte or sickly So that the ioy of the woefull Mothers is to bewaile the deaths of their well beloued Husbands and to remedy the discordes of theyr youthfull children If the troubles which remaine vnto the careful mothers with their sonnes be great I say that those which they haue with their Daughters bee much more For if the Daughter be quicke of wit the Mother thinketh that shee shall be vndone If shee be simple she thinketh that euery man will deceyue her If she be faire shee hath enough to doe to keepe her If shee be deformed she cannot marrie her If she be well mannered she will not let her go from her If shee be euill mannered she cannot endure her If she be too solitary she hath not wherewith to remedy her If she be dissolute she will not suffer her to bee punished Finally if she put her from her she feareth she shal be slaundered If she leaue her in her house she is afraid she shal be stollen What shall the wofull poor widdow doe seeing herselfe burdened with daughters and enuironed with sonnes and neyther of them of sufficient age that there is any time to remedy them nor substance to maintaine them Admit that shee marrie one of her sonnes and one daughter I demand therfore if the poor widdow wil leaue her care anguish truly I say no thogh she chuse rich personages wel disposed she cānot scape but that day that shee replenished her selfe with daughters in law the same day she chargeth her heart with sorrows trauels and cares O poore widdowes deceyue not your selues and doe not imagine that hauing married your sonnes and daughters from that time forwardes yee shall liue more ioyfull and contented For that layde aside which their Nephewes doe demaund them and that their sonnes in Law do rob them when the poore olde woman thinketh to be most surest the young man shall make a claim to her goods what daughter in Law is there in this world who faithfully loueth her stepmother And what sonne in Law is there in the world that desireth not to bee heyre to his father in Lawe Suppose a poore widdow to be fallen sicke the which hath in her house a sonne in Law and that a man aske him vpon his oath which of these two things hee had rather haue eyther to gouerne his mother in Law with hope to heale her or to bury her with hope to inherite her goods I sweare that such would sweare that he could reioyce more to giue a ducket for the graue then a penny for a Physition to cure and heale her Seneca in an Epistle sayeth That the Fathers in Law naturally do loue their daughters in Law and the sons in Law are loued of the mothers in Law And for the contrary he saieth that naturally the sonnes in law doe hate their mothers in Law but I take it not for a generall rule for there are mothers in Law which deserue to be worshipped and there are sonnes in Law which are not worthie to be beloued Other troubles chaunce dayly to these poore widdowes which is that when one of them hath one onely sonne whom she hath in steade of a husband in stead of a brother in steade of a sonne shee shall see him dye whom sith shee had his life in such great loue shee cannot though she would take his death with patience so that as they bury the deade body of the innocent childe they burie the liuely heart of the woefull and sadde mother Then let vs omit the sorrowes which the mothers haue when their children dye and let vs aske the mothers what they feele when they are sicke They will aunswere vs that alwayes and as oftentimes as their children bee sicke the death of their husband then is renued imagining that it will happen so vnto them as it hath done vnto others And to say the truth it is no maruell if they doe feare For the vine is in greater perill when it is budded then when the grapes are ripe Other troubles oftentimes increase to the poore widdowes the which amongst others this is not the least that is to say the little regard of the Friendes of her Husband and the vnthankfulnes of those which haue been brought vp with him The which since hee was layde in his graue neuer ented into the gates of his house but to demaund recompence of their old seruices and to renew and beginne new suites I would haue declared or to say better briefly touched the trauells of widdowes to perswade Princes that they remedie them and to admonish Iudges to heare them and to desire all vertuous men to comfort them For the Charitable worke of it selfe is so Godly that hee deserueth more which remedyeth the troubles of the one onely then I which write their miseries altogether CHAP. XXXVII Of a letter which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius wrote to a Romane Lady named Lauinia comforting her for the death of her husband MArcus of mount Celio Emperour of Rome chiefe Consull Tribune of the people high Bishop appointed against the Daces wisheth health and comfort to thee Lauinia noble and worthy Romane matron the late wife of the good Claudinus According to that thy person deserueth to that which vnto thy husband I ought I thinke well that thou wilt suspect that I weigh thee little for that vnto thy great sorrowes complaints and lamentations are now arriued my negligent consolations When I remember thy merites which cannot fayle and imagine that thou wilt remember my good will wherewith alwayes I haue desired to serue thee I am assured that if thy suspition accuse mee thy vertue and wisdome will defend me For speaking the truth though I am the last to comfort thee yet I was the first to feele thy sorrowes As ignorance is the cruell scourge of vertues and sputre to all vices so it chaunceth oft times that ouer much knowledge putteth wise mē in doubt and slaundereth the innocent For as much as wee see by experience the most presumptuous in wisedome are those which fall into most perilous vices We find the Latines much better with the ignorance of vices then the Greekes with the knowledge of vertues And the reason hereof is for that of things
valiant but all these giftes are but meanes to make them vicious And in such case if the Fathers would bee gouerned by my counsell I would rather desire that members should want in them then that vices should abound Of the most fairest children which are borne in the Empire my sonne Commodus the Prince is one But I would to the immortall Gods that in face hee resemble the blackest of Ethiope and in manners the greatest Philosopher of Greece For the glory of the Father is not nor ought not to bee in that his child is fayre of complexion and handsome of person but that in his life hee bee very vpright Wee will not call him a pittifull Father but a great enemy who exalteth forth his child for that he is faire and doth not correct him though hee be vicious I durst say that the father which hath a child endued with many goodly gifts and that hee doth employ them all to vices such a child ought not to bee borne in the world and if perchance he were borne hee ought immediately to be buried CHAP. LIII The Emperour Marcus Aurelius concludeth his matter and sheweth that sondry young Princes for being vicious haue vndone themselues and empouerished their Realms O What great pitty is it to see how the father buyeth his child of the gods with sighes how the mother deliuers thē with pain how they both nourish them with trauels how they watch to sustain them how they labour to remedy them afterwards they haue so rebelled and be so vicious that the miserable Fathers oftentimes do die not for age but for the griefes wherewith their children torment them I doe remember that the Prince Commodus my sonne beeing young and I aged as I am with great paines we kept him from vices but I feare that after my death hee will hate vertues I remember many yong Princes which of his age haue inherited th' Empire of Rome who haue bin of so wicked a life that they haue deserued to loose both honour and life I remember Dennys the famous tyraunt of Scycile of whom is saide that as great reward hee gaue to those that inuented vices as our Mother Rome did to those which cōquered realms Such worke could not be but of a tyraunt to take them for most familiar which are most vicious I remember foure young Princes which gouerned the Empyre but not with such valiauntnes as the great Alexander that is to say Alexander Antiochus Syluius and Ptholomeus vnto whom for their vanity and lightnes as they called Alexander the Great Emperour in Greece so likewise do they call these young men tyrants in Asia Very happie was Alexander in life and they vnhappy after his death For all that which with glorious triumphs hee wanne with vile vices they lost So that Alexander deuided betweene them foure the worlde and afterwards it came into the handes of moe then foure hundreth I doe remember that king Antigonus little esteemed that which cost his Lorde Alexander much Hee was so light in the behauiour of his person and so defamed in the affayres of the Common-wealth that for mockerie and contempt in the steed of a crown of golde hee bare a garland in the steed of a scepter hee carryed nettles in his hand and of this sort and manner he sate to iudge among his counsellors vsed to talke with strangers This yong Prince doth offend me much for the lightnes he committed but much more I maruell at the grauitie of the Sages of Greece which suffered him It is but meete hee be partaker of the paine which condescended to the faulte I do remember Caligula the fourth Emperor of Rome who was so young and foolish that I doubt of these two things which was greatest in his time That is to say The disobedience that the people bare to their Lorde or the hate which the Lord bare to his people For that vnhappie creature was so disordered in his manners that if all the Romaines had not watched to take life from him hee would haue watched to take life from them This Caligula wore a brooche of gold in his cap wherein were written these wordes Vtinam omnis populus vnam precise ceruicem haberet vt vno ictu omnes necarem Which is to say would to God all the people had but one necke to the ende I might kill them all at a stroke I remember the Emperour Tiberius th'adoptiue sonne of the good Caesar Augustus which was called Augustus because hee greatly augmented the Empyre But the good Emperor did not so much augment the state of his Common-wealth during his life as Tyberius did diminish it after his death The hate and malice which the Romain people bare to Tiberius in his life was manifestly discouered after the time of his death For the day that Tyberius dyed or better to say when they killed him the Romaine people made great processions and the Senators offered great presents in the temples and the priests gaue great Sacrifices to their Gods and all to the end their gods shold not receiue the soule of this Tyraunt amongst them but that they would sende it to be kept among the Furyes of hell I remember Patrocles 2. K. of Corinth inherited the realm at xxii yeres of his age who was so disordred of his flesh so indiscret in his doings so couetous of goods such a coward of his person that wher his father had possessed the Realm 40. yeres the sonne did not possesse it thirtie moneths I remember Tarquine the prowde who though among eight Knights of Rome was the last and comlyest of gesture valiaunt in Armes Noblest of bloud and in giuing most liberall yet he employed all his gifts and grace◠which the Gods had giuen him euill For hee employed his beautie to ryot and his forces to tyrannie For through the treason villanie which hee committed with the Romaine Lucretia he did not only lose the realme and flying saued his life but also for euer was banished and all his Linage likewise I remember the cruell Emperour Nero who liued inherited and dyed young and not without a cause I say that hee liued and dyed young For in him was graffed the stocke of the noble worthie Caesars and in him was renued the memory of those tyrants To whom thinkest thou Panutius this Tyrant would haue giuen life since he with his owne hand gaue his Mother her death Tell mee I pray thee who thinkest thou hath made that cursed heart who slewe his Mother out of whose wombe he came opened the breasts which gaue him sucke Shedde the bloud wher of he was born Tore the armes in which hee was carryed saw the entrails wherin he was formed The day that the Emperour Nero slewe his mother an Orator said in the Senate Iure interficienda erat Agrippina qua tale portentum peperit in populo Romano Which is to say iustly deserued Agrippina to bee put to death which brought forth
beginner ender of all things God the giuer of all things Laert. de antiq Graec. The wisdome of Bias the Philosopher Bias the occasion of peace Laert de antiq Graec. Certaine questions resolued by Byas Laws made by Byas God the Creator of all things Rewards 〈…〉 to the 〈…〉 the wicked The mercifull goodnes of God How God punisheth ingratitude Leuit. 10. God the onely ruler of all estates The iust iudgement of God The permission of God The plague of God vpon Idolaters 2. Reg. 6. A good admonition for all Estates Babylon besieged The stout resolution of Pirius The reward due to those that contemne God A good caneat for Magistrates The wickednes of Ahab The punishment of Ahab What mischiefe followes the contemners of God The cruelty of Pompeius The punishment of sacriledge The pride of Xerxes euerthrown The misrable end of Brennus The valour of Gracian What maketh a man to be respected in this world Gracian chosen Emperour The heresie of Arian The description of a religious man The cruelty of Valente The duety of euery good Prince The folly and ouersight of the Emperour The miserable end of the Emperour Valentinian A custome among the Romanes The duty of euery good Christian The description of the Emperour Valentinian The saying of Seneca The death of the Emperour The wisedome and discretion of young Gracian The olde Prouerbe not alwayes true The Oration of the Emperour The duety of euery good Souldier The tyranny of Thyrmus The death of Thyrmus The wickednes of Valent. The death of Theodosius The iudgement of God The lawes ordained by the Counsel of Hyponense What is required of euery true Christian No respect of persons with God Man may purpose but God disposeth The speech of Appolonius A wort saving 〈◊〉 worthie obseruation What we lost by the fall of Adam The difference of opinions The soule mistresse of the body What is required in the gouernemēt of the common wealth God suffereth euill Gouernors for the offences of the people 1 Reg. 8. The folly of youth The power and 〈…〉 of a King The folly of men How much we are boūd to pray vnto God for good Gouernors The gouernment of Rome The care of Princes The reason why warres first began How seruitude began The first tyrant that euer was Belus the first inuentor of wars The mutability of the World God made al things for the vse of man What man loft by Adams fall A warning for all sorts of people Nothing so sure as death The reason wee haue to obey our Prince The pride of Alexander A compendious reprehension How wee ought to iudge of men The propertie of a tyrant In what true Honor consisteth How a Prince must winne honour How true honour is wonne The propertie of a wise man What mean a wise man should vse The greedy desires of man neuer satisfied The man is happie that hath content How a man ought to conceyue of himselfe The lawes of the Garamantes What gifts God bestoweth vp on Princes aboue other men What is required in a Prince What time Thales the Philosopher flourished Thales the first that found out the North starre Questions resolued by Thaks Princes and Magistrates supporters of the common wealth The description of Plutarch The authoritie of Princes What is most requisite in the Common wealth God the only letter vp of Princes Man differeth from all other creatures What benfite cōmeth by a good Prince Good lawes ordayned What the Prince ought to do The King compared to the Common wealth The King the onely head of all The death of Iulius Caesar A Prince ought not to be sparing in words What is required in a Prince for the gouernment of the Common-wealth The commendations of the Emperour Alexander Scue us The feasts of the Romanes The duty of euery good Christian An ancient custome in Rome An other custome in Rome Nothing so hurtfull as an enuious tongne Enuse an enemie to vertue The prayse of Marcus Aurelius Patience ouercommeth many matters True patience described The property of a wise man The replye of the Emperour How a Prince ought to behaue himselfe The Court neuer without flatterers The loue of the prince to his people The fondnes of our time Pride the ouerthrow of great personages Pride the fall of many great men Tarquine noted of vnthankfullnes The punishment of Tarqui The miserable end of euill Gouernours The true patterne of a vertuous Prince A true saying of Homer A description of a perfect friend What pleasure it is to remember dāgers past Two good properties of Marcus Aurelius The Epitaph of Periander An vsuall custome among all Nations Diuers laws made by to Periander the tyrant The punishment of ingratitude The commendation of Phylosophy The battell betweene the Athenians and Lysander The pouerty of the Philosophers of Athens The small hope of the wicked The Philosopher Aeschilus described Aeschilus the first inuenter of Tragedies Aeschilus his opinion wherein the felicity of this life consisted Wherein true felicity consisteth Of the Philosopher Zeno. The strength of Zeno. Wherein felicity consisteth No respect of persons with God The opinion of Anacharsis The felicity of the Sarmatians The Epitaph of Lucius Pius An ancient custome in Rome Warres in Greece euer since the destruction of Troy Idlenes and pastimes hated by the philosopher Crates the Philosopher Estilpho Simonides Archita Gorgias Chrysippus Antistenes Sophocles Euripides Palemon Themistocles Aristides Heraclitus No perfect felicity in this world A description of the City of Thebes Strabo de situ orbis A Law among the Aegyptians By the example of the Thebanes is shewed the duty of euery Christian An in humane custome among the Thebans Beauty the mother of vices Time the consumer of al things The smalest creatures profitable in the commonwealth What folly it is for man not to regard his own soule The vertue of the mind beautifieth the whole body The deformity of Iulius Caesar The valiant deeds of Hanniball The description of Alexander The letter of Marcus Aurelius What offence comes by much talke Learning well regarin ancient times An euill man a wicked member in a common-wealth How children should be brought The description of a yong man The of the wicked The office of death What death is The miserable estate of man The counsell of wise men euer respected among the Ancients What is required of euery Magistrate What hurt commeth by euill Counsellors What benefite proceedeth frō good Councellors Time best spent in the seruice of God How little wisedome now a dayes is regarded Youth subiect to many vices How circumspect Princes ought to be 〈…〉 Theodosius The duety of euery good Christian The loue of a master to his seruants The fault of many Princes The inconstancy of the world The younger sort must accompany with the vertuous Proud and ambitious men ought not to gouerne Plin lib. de nat hist The description of Cresus The godly minde of Cresus The letter of king Cresus The description
the state of the rich is good if they will Godly vse it I say the estate of the Religious is good if they be able to profite others I say the estate of the communaltie is good if they will content themselues I say the estate of the poore is good if they haue pacience For it is no merite to suffer troubles if wee haue not pacience therein During the time of this our miserable life we cannot denie but in euery estate there is both trouble danger For then onely our estate shall be perfite when we shall come gloriously in soule and bodie without the feare of death and also when we shall reioyce without daungers in life Returning againe to our purpose Mightie Prince although wee all be of value little wee all haue little we all can attaine little wee all know little we all are able to doe little we all loue but little yet in all this little the state of Princes seemeth some great and high thing For that worldly men say There is no such felicitie in this life as to haue authoritie to cōmaund many and to be bound to obey none But if eyther subiects knew how deere Princes by their power to command or if princes knew how sweet a thing it is to liue in quiet doubtles the subjects would pittie their rulers and the rulers would not enuie their subiects For full fewe are the pleasures which Princes enjoy in respect of the troubles that they endure Since then the estates of Princes is greater then all that hee may do more then all is of more value then all vpholdeth more then all And finally that from thence proceedeth the gouernement of all it is more needefull that the House the Person and the life of a Prince be better gouerned and ordered then all the rest For euen as by the meate-yard the Marchaunt measureth all his wares So by the life whole of the Prince is measured the whole common-weale Many sorrowes endureth the woman in nourishing a way-ward child great trauell taketh a Schoolmaster in teaching an vntoward scholler much paines taketh an Officer in gouerning a multitude ouer-great How great then is the paine and perill wherevnto I offer my selfe in taking vpon mee to order the life of such an one vpon whose life dependeth all the good estate of a Common-weale For Noble Princes and great Lords ought of vs to bee serued and not offended wee ought to exhort them not to vexe them wee ought to encreate them not to rebuke them wee ought to aduise them and not to defame them Finally I say the right simple reckon I that Surgion which with the same plaisters hee layed to a harde heele seeketh to cure the tender Eyes I meane by this comparison that my purpose is not to tell Princes and Noble-men in this booke what they be but to warne them what they ought to bee not to tell them what they do but to aduise them what they ought to doe For that Noble-man which will not amende his life for remorse of his owne conscience Iidoe thinke hee will doe it for the writing of my pen. Paulus Dyaconus the first Hystoriographer in the second booke of his Commentaryes sheweth an antiquitie right worthie to remember and also pleasaunt to read Although indeed to the hinderaunce of my selfe I shall rehearse it It is as of the Henne who by long scraping on the Dung-hill discouereth the knife that shall cut her owne throate Thus was the case Hanniball the most renowmed Prince and captain of Carthage after hee was vanquished by the aduenturous Scipio fled into Asia to king Antiochus a prince then liuing of great vertue who receyued him into his realme tooke him into his protection and right honourably intertayned him in his house And truly king Antiochus did heerein as a pittyfull prince For what can more beautifie the honour of a Prince then to succour Nobilitie in their needefull estate These two Noble Princes vsed diuers exercises to spende the time honourablie and thus they diuided their time Sometime to hunt in the mountains otherwhiles to disporre them in the fields oft to view their Armeys But chiefly they resorted to the Schooles to heare the Phylosophers And truely they did like wise and skilfull men For there is no houre in a day otherwise so well employed as in hearing a wise pleasant tongued man There was at a time in Ephesus a famous Philosopher called Phormio which openly and publikely read and taught the people of the realme And one day as these two Princes came into the Schoole the Philosopher Phormio chaunged the matter whereupon he read and of a sudden began to talke of the meanes and wayes that Princes ought to vse in warre and of the order to bee kept in giuing battell Such so strange and high phrased was the matter which hee talked of that not onely they maruelled which neuer before saw him but euen those also that of long time had daily heard him For herein curious and flourishing wits shew their excellency in that they neuer want fresh matter to entreate vpon Greatly gloried the King Antiochus that this Philosopher in presēce of this strange Prince had so excellently spoken so that strangers might vnderstand he had his realme stored with wise men For couragious and noble Princes esteem nothing so precious as to haue men valiāt to defend their Frontiers and also wise to gouerne their common-weales The Lecture read King Antiochus demaunded of the Prince Hannibal how he liked the talke of the Philosopher Formio to whom Hanibal stoutly answered and in his answer shewed himselfe to bee of that stoutnesse he was the same day when he wan the great battell at Cannas for although noble hearted and couragious Princes lose all their estates and realmes yet they will neuer confesse their harts to be ouerthrowne nor vanquished And these were the words that at that time Hannibal sayde Thou shalt vnderstand K. Antiochus that I haue seene diuers doting old men yet I neuer saw a more dotard foole thē Phormio whom thou callest such a great Philosopher For the greatest kinde of folly is when a man that hath but a little vaine science presumeth to teach not those which haue onely science also such as haue most certaine experience Tell me King Antiochus what hart can brooke with patience or what tongue can suffer with silence to see a silly man as this Philosopher is nourished all his life time in a corner of Greece studying Philosophie to presume as hee hath done to talke before the prince Hannibal of the affayres of warre as though hee had beene eyther Lord of Affrique or Captaine of Rome Certes hee eyther full little knoweth himselfe or else but little esteemeth vs For it appeareth by his vaine wordes hee would seeme to know more in matters of warre by that hee hath read in bookes then doth Hanniball by the sundry great battels which he hath fought in the fields Oh King Antiothus how
your Bookes full of lawes and the common wealth full of vices Wherefore I sweare vnto you that there are more Thebaines which follow the delitiousnesse of Denis the tyrant then there are vertuous men that follow the lawes of Lycurgus If you Thebaines doe desire greatly to know with what lawes the Lacedemonians doe preserue their Common-wealth I will tell you them all by word and if you will reade them I will shew you them in writing but it shall bee vpon condition that you shall sweare al openly that once a day you shall employ your eyes to reade them and your persons to obserue them for the Prince hath greater honour to see one onely law to be obserued in deed then to ordaine a thousand by writing You ought not to esteeme much to be vertuous in heart nor to enquire of the vertue by the mouth nor to seeke it by labour and trauell of the feet but that which you ought greatly to esteeme is to know what a vertuous law meaneth and that knowne immediately to execute it and afterwards to keepe it For the chiefe vertue is not to doe one vertuous worke but in a swet and trauell to continue in it These therfore were the words that this Philosopher Phetonius sayde to the Thebaines the which as Plato sayeth esteemed more his words that hee spake then they did the Lawes which he brought Truly in mine opinion those of Thebes are to bee praysed and commended and the Philosopher for his word is worthy to be honoured For the ende of those was to search lawes to liue well and the end of the Philosopher was to seeke good meanes for to keepe them in vertue And therefore he thoght it good to shew them and put before their eyes the gibbet and the sword with the other Instruments and torments for the euill do refraine from vice more for feare of punishment then for any desire they haue of amendment I was willing to bring in this history to the end that all curious and vertuous men may see and know how little the Ancients did esteeme the beginning the meane and the end of vertuous works in respect of the perseuerance and preseruation of them Comming therefore to my matter which my penne doth tosse and seeke I aske now presently what it profiteth Princesses and great Ladies that God doe giue them great estates that they be fortunate in marriages that they bee all reuerenced and honoured that they haue great treasures for their inheritances and aboue all that they see their wines great with Childe and that afterward in ioy they see them deliuered that they see their mothers giuing their children sucke and finally they see themselues happy in that they haue found them good nurses health full and honest Truly all this auayleth little if to their children when they are young they doe do not giue masters to instruct them in vertues and they also if they doe not recommend them to good guides to exercise them in feates of Chiualry The Fathers which by sighes penetrate the heauen by praiers importune the liuing God onelie for to haue children ought first to thinke why they will haue children for that iustly to a man may be denied which to an euill end is procured In mine opinion the Father ought to desire to haue a child for that in his age he may sustaine his life in honour and that after his death hee may cause his fame to liue And if a Father desireth not a sonne for this cause at the least he ought to desire him to the end in his age hee may honour his hoary head and that after his death hee may enherite his goods but we see few children do these thinges to their fathers in their age if the fathers haue not taught them in their youth For the fruit doth neuer grow in the haruest vnlesse the tree did beare blosoms in the spring I see oftentimes many Fathers complaine of their children saying that they are disobedient and proude vnto them and they do not consider that they themselues are the cause of all those euils For too much abundance and liberty of youth is no other but a prophesie and manifest token of disobedience in age I know not why Princes and great Lords do toyle oppresse so much scratch to leaue their children great estates and on the other side wee see that in teaching them they are and shewe themselues too negligent for Princes and great Lordes ought to make account that all that which they leaue of their substance to a wicked heyre is vtterly lost The wise men and those which in their consciences are vpright and of their honours carefull ought to bee very diligent to bring vppe their children and chiefly that they consider whether they bee meete to inherite their estates And if perchance the fathers see that their children bee more giuen to folly then to noblenes and wisdome then should I bee ashamed to see a father that is wise trauell all the dayes of his life to leaue much substance to an euill brought vp childe after his death It is a griefe to declare and a monstrous thing to see the cates which the Fathers take to gather riches and the diligence that children haue to spend them And in this case I say the sonne is fortunate for that hee doth enherite and the Father a foole for that he doth bequeath In my opinion Fathers are bound to instruct their children well for two causes the one for that they are nearest to them and also because they ought to be their heyres For truly with great griefe and sorrow I suppose hee doth take his death which leaueth to a foole or an vnthrift the toyle of all his life Hyzearchus the Greeke Hystorian in the booke of his Antiquities Sabellicus in his generall hystory sayeth that a father and a sonne came to complain to the famous Philosopher and ancient Solon Solinon the Sonne complained of the father and the father of the sonne First the sonne informed the quarrell to the Philosopher saying these words I complaine of my Father because hee being rich hath disinherited mee and made me poore and in my steade hath adopted another heyre the which thing my father ought not nor cannot doe for since he gaue me so frayle flesh it is reason hee giue me his goods to maintaine my seeblenes To these wordes answered the father I complaine of my sonne because hee hath not beene as a gentle sonne but rather as a cruell enemie for in all things since hee was borne hee hath beene disobedient to my will wherefore I thought it good to disinherite him before my death I would I were quit of all my substance so that the gods had quit him of his life for the earth is very cruell that swalloweth not the child aliue which to his father is disobedient In that he sayeth I haue adopted another child for mine heyre I confesse it is true and for so much
as hee sayeth that I haue disinherited him and abiected him from my heritage hee beeing begotten of my body hereunto I answere That I haue not disinherited my sonne but I haue disinherited his pleasure to the entent hee shall not enioy my trauell for there can bee nothing more vniust then that the young and vicious sonne should take his pleasure of the swet and droppes of the aged father The sonne replyed to his Father and sayde I confesse I haue offended my Father and also I confesse that I haue liued in pleasures yet if I may speake the truth though I were disobedient and euill my Father ought to beare the blame and if for this cause hee doeth dishenherite mee I thinke hee doth me great iniurie for the father that instructeth not his son in vertue in his youth wrongfully disinheriteth him though he be disobedient in his age The Father againe replyeth and sayeth It is true my sonne that I brought thee vp too wantonly in thy youth but thou knowest well that I haue taught thee sundry times and besides that I did correct thee when thou camest to some discretion And if in thy youth I did not instruct thee in learning it was for that thou in thy tender age diddest want vnderstanding but after that thou hadst age to vnderstand discretion to receyue and strength to exercise it I beganne to punish thee to teache thee and to instruct thee For where no vnderstanding is in the child there in vaine they teach doctrine Since thou art old quoth the sonne and I young since thou art my Father and I thy sonne for that thou hast white hayres on thy beard and I none at all it is but reason that thou be belieued and I condemned For in this world wee see oft times that the small authoritie of the person maketh him to loose his great iustice I graunt thee my Father that when I was a childe thou diddest cause mee to learne to reade but thou wilt not denie that if I did commit any faulte thou wouldst neuer agree I should be punished And hereof it came that thou suffering me to do what I would in my Youth haue bin disobedient to thee euer since in my age And I say vnto thee further that if in this case I haue offended truely mee thinketh thou canst not bee excused for the fathers in the youth of their children ought not onely to teach them to dispute of vertues what vertue is but they ought to inforce thē to be vertuous in deed For it is a good token when Youth before they knowe vices haue been accustomed to practise vertues Both partyes then diligently heard the good Phylosopher Solon Solinon speake these words I giue iudgement that the Father of this childe be not buryed after his death and I commaund that the Sonne because in his youth hee hath not obeyed his Father who is olde should be disinherited whilest the Father liueth from all his substance on such condition that after his death his sonnes should inherite the Heritage and so returne to the heyres of the Sonne and liue of the Father For it were vniust that the innocencie of the Sonne should be condemned for the offence of the Father I do commaund also that all the goods be committed vnto some faithfull person to the end they may giue the Father meat and drinke during his life and to make a graue for the Sonne after his death I haue not without a cause giuen such iudgement the which comprehendeth life and death For the Gods will not that for one pleasure the punishment bee double but that wee chastise and punish the one in the life taking from him his honour and goods and that wee punish others after their death taking from them memorie and buryall Truely the sentence which the Philosopher gaue was very graue and would to GOD wee had him for a iudge of this world presently For I sweare that hee should finde manie Children now a dayes for to disinherite and moe Fathers to punish For I cannot tell which is greater The shame of the children to disobey their Fathers or the negligence of the Fathers in bringing vp their children Sextus Cheronens in the second book of the sayings of the Philosophers declareth that a Citizen of Athens saide vnto Dyogenes the Phylosopher these wordes Tell mee Dyogenes What shall I doe to be in the fauour of the Gods and not in the hatred of men For oft times amongst you Phylosophers I haue hearde say that there is a great difference between that that the gods will and that which men loue Dyogenes answered Thou speakest more then thou oughtest to speake that the Gods will one thing and men another for the Gods are but as a center of mercy and men are but as a denne of malice if thou wilt enioy rest in thy dayes and keepe thy life pure and cleane thou must obserue these three things The first honour thy Gods deuoutely for the man which doeth not serue and honour the Gods in all his enterprises hee shall be vnfortunate The second bee very diligent to bring vp thy children well for the man hath no enemie so troublesome as his owne sonne if hee bee not well brought vp The third thing bee thankefull to thy good benefactors and friends for the Oracle of Apollo sayth that the man who is vnthankefull of all the world shall be abhorred And I tell thee further my friend that of these three things the most profitable though it be more troublesome is for a man to teach and bring vp his children well This therefore was the answere that the Philosopher Diogenes made to the demaund of the Citizen It is great pitty and griefe to see a young childe how the bloud doth stirre him to see how the flesh doth prouoke him to accomplish his desire to see sensuality goe before and he himselfe to come behind to see the malitious World to watch him to see how the Diuell doth tempte him to see how vices binde him and in all that which is spoken to see how the Father is negligent as if hee had no children whereas in deede the olde man by the fewe vertues he hath had in his Youth may easily knowe the infirmityes and vices wherewith his Sonne is incompassed If the expert had neuer beene ignorant if the Fathers had neuer beene children if the vertuous had neuer been vicious if the fine wittes had neuer been deceiued it were no maruell if the Fathers were negligent in teaching their children For the little experience excuseth men of great offences but since thou art my Father and that first thou wert a Sonne since thou art old and hast bin young and besides all this since that pride hath inflamed thee lechery hath burned thee wrath hath wounded thee Negligence hath hindred thee Couetousnes hath blinded thee Glotonie surfetted thee Tell mee cruell Father since so many vices haue reigned in thee why hast thou not an
perillous skirmish And that which a man ought most to maruell at is that I neuer perceyued any feare or cowardlinesse to bee in those barbarous people whereby they were constrained to demaund peace of the people of Rome These Lygures pursued with such fiercenesse the wars that often times they tooke away from vs all hope to winne the victory for betweene Armies the great might of the one doth put alwayes the others in feare And I wil tell you Fathers conscript their bringing vp to the ende the Romaine youth should take heereby example When they are young they are put to bee Sheapheardes because they should accustome their flesh in those mountaines to endure trauell by the which custome they are so much masters of themselues the countrey being alwayes full of snow and Ise in the winter and also noysom through the extreame heate in the Summer that I sweare by the God Apollo in all this time of fiue yeares of those wee haue not seene one prease to the Fire in the winter nor couet the shadow in the Summer Doe not yee thinke worthie Senators that I was willing to declare vnto you these things in the Senate for any desire I haue that you should esteeme any thing the more my Triumph but I doe tell it you to this ende that you may haue an eye and take heede to your men of warre to the ende they may alwayes be occupied and that you suffer them not to be idle For it is more perillous for the Romaine Armyes to bee ouercome with vices thē to be discomfited with their enemies And to talke of these matters more at large me thinketh they should prouide and commaund that Rich men should not be so hardie to bring vppe their children too delicately for in the ende it is vnpossible that the delicate person should win with his hands the honour of many victories That which moued me to say somuch as I haue sayd worthie Senatours is to the ende you may knowe that the Lygures were not ouercome by the power of Rome but because Fortune was against them And since in nothing Fortune sheweth her selfe so variable as in the things of the warre mee thinketh that though the Ligures are nowe vanquished and ouercome yet notwithstanding you ought to entertain them in loue and to take them for your confoederates For it is not good counsell to hazzard that into the handes of Fortune which a man may compasse by friendship The Authour of this which is spoken is called Iunius Pratus in the Booke of the concord of Realmes and hee saieth in that place that this captaine Gneus Fabritius was counted no lesse sage for that he spake then esteemed valiant for that hee did In the olde time those of the Isles Balleares which now are called Maiorque and Minorque though they were not counted wise yet at the least in bringing vp their Children they shewed rhemselues not negligent Because they were broght vp in hardnes in their youth and could endure all painefull exercises of the warres Those of Carthage gaue fiue prisoners of Rome for one slaue of Maiorque Dyodorus Siculus saith in those Iles the mother did not giue the children bread with their own hands but they did put it on a high poale so that they might see the Bread with theyr eyes but they could not reach it with their hāds Wherfore when they would eat they should first with hurling of stones or slinges win it or else fast Though the worke were of children yet the inuention came of a high wit And hereof it came that the Baleares were esteemed for valiant mē as well in wrastling as in slinges for to hurle for they did hurle with a sling to hit a white as the Lygures shoot now in a Crosse-bow to hit the pricke Those of Great Brittaine which now we cal England amongst all the barbarous were men most barbarous but you ought to know that within the space of few yeares the Romanes were vanquished of them many times for time in all things bringeth such change and alteration that those which once wee knew great Lords within a while after wee haue seene themslaues Herodian in his history of Seuerus Emperour of Rome sayeth That an Ambassadour of Brittaine being one day in Rome as by chance they gaue him a froward answer in the Senate spake stoutely before them all and saide these words I am sorry you will not accept peace nor graunt Truce the which thing shall bee for the greater iustification of your warre For afterwardes none can take but that which fortune shall giue For in the end the delicate flesh of Rome shall feele if the bloudy swords of Brittaine will cut The English history sayeth and it is true that though the country be very cold that the water freezeth oft yet the women had a custome to carry theyr children where the water was frozen and breaking the Ice with a stone with the same Ise they vsed to rubbe the body of the Infant to the end to harden their flesh and to make them more apter to endure trauels And without doubt they had reason for I wish no greater pennance to delicate men then in the Winter to see them without fire and in the Summer to want fresh shadow Sith this was the custome of the Brittaines it is but reason we credite Iulius Caesar in that hee sayeth in his Comentaries that is to say that he passed many daungers before hee could ouercome them for they with as little feare did hide themselues diued vnder the colde water as verily a man would haue rested himselfe in a pleasant shadow As Lucanus and Appianus Alexandrinus say amongst other Nations which came to succour the greate Pompey in Pharsalia were the Messagetes the which as they say in their youth did suck no other but the milke of Camels and eate bread of akorns These barbarous people did these things to the end to harden their bodies to bee able to endure trauell to haue their legges lighter for to runne In this case wee cannot cal them barbarous but wee ought to call them men of good vnderstanding for it is vnpossible for the man that eateth much to runne fast Viriatus a Spaniard was King of the Lusitaines and a great enemy of the Romaines who was so aduenturous in the war and so valiant in his person that the Romaines by the experience of his deedes found him inuincible for in the space of 13. yeares they coulde neuer haue any victory of him the which when they saw they determined to poyson him did so indeed At whose death they more reioyced then if they had wonne the Sgniorie of all Lusitania For if Viriatus had not dyed they had neuer brought the Lusitanians vnder their subiection Iunius Rusticus in his Epitomie sayeth that this Viriatus in his youth was a Heard-man kept cattell by the riuer of Guadiana and after that he waxed older vsed to robbe and assault men by
hands Notwithstanding all this you you must know that in the warre you must first often hazard your life and afterwards to the discretion of such tongues commit your honour Our folly is so foolish and the desires of men so vaine that more for one vaine word then for any profite wee desire rather to get vaine glory with traue then to seeke a good life with rest And therefore willingly wee offer our liues now to great trauell and paine onely that among vaine men hereafter we may haue a name I sweare by the immortall Gods vnto thee my Cornelius that the day of my triumph whereas to the seeming of all those of this world I went triumphing in the chariot openly yet I ensure thee my heart wept secretly Such is the vanitie of men that thogh of reason wee be admonished called and compelled yet if we flie from her and contrarie though wee be rebuked euill handeled and dispised of the world yet we will serue it If I bee not deceyued it is the prosperitie of Foolish men and want of good iudgements that cause the men to enter into others Houses by force rather then to be desirous to be quiet in their owne with a good will I meane that wee should in following vertue sooner bee vertuous then in haunting vices be vicious for speaking the truth men which in all and for all desire to please the world must needes offer themselues to great trauell and care Oh Rome Rome cursed be thy folly and cursed be he that in thee brought vp so much pride and be he cursed of men and hated of Gods which in thee hath inuented such pompe For very fewe are they that worthily vnto it haue attained but infinite are they which through it haue perished What greater vanitie or what equall lightnes can bee then that a Romaine captaine because hee hath conquered Kingdomes troubled quyet men destroyed citties beaten downe castles robbed the poore enriched tyrants caried away treasors shed much bloud made infinite widowes and taken many Noble mens liues should be afterwardes with great triumph of Rome receyued in recompence of all this damage Wilt thou now that I tell thee a greater follie which aboue al other is greatest I let thee know infinite are they that dye in the wars and one only carieth away the glorie thereof So that these wofull and miserable men thogh for their carkas they haue not a graue yet one captaine goeth triumphing alone through Rome By the immortall Gods I sweare vnto thee and let this passe secretly as between friends that the day of my triumph when I was in my triumphant chariot beholding the miserable captiues loden with yrons and other men carrying infinite treasours which wee had euill gotten and to see the carefull widowes weepe for the death of theyr Husbandes and remembred so many noble Romans that lost their liues in Affrike thogh I seemed to reioice outwardly yet I ensure thee I did weepe drops of bloud inwardly For he is no man borne in the worlde but rather a Furie bred vp in hell among the Furies that can at the sorrowes of another take any pleasure I know not in this case what reputation the Prince or Captaine should make of himselfe that commeth from the Warres and desireth to enter into Rome For if hee thinke as it is reason on the wounds he hath in his bodie or the Treasors which he hath wasted on the places that he hath burnt on the perills that he hath escaped on the iniuryes which hee hath receiued the multitudes of men which vniustly are slaine the Friends which hee hath lost the enemies which he hath goten the litle rest that he hath enjoyed and the great trauels that he hath suffered in such case I say that such a one with sorowful sighs ought to lamēt with bitter teares ought to be receiued In this case of triumphing I neither commend the Assyrians nor enuie the Persians nor am content with the Macedonians nor allowe the Caldeans nor content me with the Greekes I curse the Troians and condemne the Cathagenians because that they proceeded not acording to the zeale of iustice but rather of the rage of pride to set vp triumphes endamaged their countries and left an occasion to vndoe vs. O cursed Rome cursed thou hast beene cursed thou art and cursed thou shalt be For if the fatall destenies doe not lye vnto mee and my iudgement deceiue me not and fortune fasten not the naile they shall see of thee Rome in time to come that which we others presently see of the Realmes past Thou oughtest for to know that as thou by tyranny hast made thy selfe Lady of Lords so by iustice thou shalt returne to bee the seruant of seruants O vnhappy Rome and vnhappy againe I returne to call thee Tell mee I pray thee why art thou at this day so dear of Marchandize so cheape of folly where are the ancient fathers which builded thee and with their vertues honored thee in whose stead presently thou magnifyest so manie tirants which with their vices deface thee Where are all those noble and vertuous Batons which thou hast nourished in whose stead thou hast now so many vicious and vagabonds Where are those which for thy liberty did shed their bloud in whose stead now thou hast those that to bring thee into subiection haue lost their life Where are thy valiant Captaines which with such great trauell did endeauour themselues to defend the walls from enemies in whose stead haue succeeded those that haue plucked them down and peopled them with vices and vicious where are thy great priests they which did alwayes pray in the temples in whose stead haue succeeded those that know not but to defile the churches and with their wickednesse to moue the gods to wrath where are those so many Philosophers and Oratours which with their counsell gouernd thee in whose stead haue now succeeded so many simple and ignorant which with their malice doe vndoe thee O Rome all those Auncients haue forsaken thee and wee succeeded those which now are new if thou knewest truely the vertue of them and diddest consider the lightnesse of vs the day that they ended their life the selfe same day not one stone in thee should haue beene lefte vpon another And so those fields should haue sauoured of the bones of the vertuous which now stinke of the bodies of the vicious Peraduenture thou art more auncient then Babylon more beautifull then Hierusalem more rich then Carthage more strōg then Troy more in circuite then Corinth more pleasāt then Tirus more fertile then Constantinople more high then Camena more inuincible then Aquileta more priuiledged then Gādes more enuironed with Towers then Capua and more flourishing then Cantabria We see that all those notable Cities perished for all their vertuous defenders and thinkest thou for to remaine being replenished with so much vice and peopled with so many vitious O my mother
more sure when by white hayres they seemed to bee olde when they retired to the Aultars of the Temples Oh what goodnesse Oh what wisedome what valiantnesse and what innocencie ought the aged men to haue in the auncient time since in Rome they honoured them as Gods and in Greece they priuiledged those whyte haires as the temples Plinie in an Epistle he wrote to Fabarus saith that Pyrrus king of the Epyrotes demaunded of a phylosopher which was the best citie of the world who aunswered him thus The best Citie of the world is Molerda a place of three hundreth Fyres in Achaia because all the walles are of blacke stones and all those which gouerne haue hoary heads And further he saide Woe bee vnto thee Rome Woe be vnto thee Carthage Woe be vnto thee Numantia Wo be vnto thee Egipt and woe bee vnto thee Athens Fyue Cittyes which count themselues for the best of the Worlde whereof I am of a contrary opinion For they auaunte themselues to haue whyte Walles and are not ashamed to haue young Senatours This phylosopher saide very well and I thinke no man will say lesse then I haue saide Of this word Senex is deriued the name of a Senatour For so were the gouernours of Rome named because the first King that was Romulus chose an hundred aged men to gouerne the Common-wealth and commaunded that all the Romane youth should employ themselues to the warres Since wee haue spoken of the honour which in the old time was giuen to the auncient men it is reason wee know now from what yeares they accounted men aged to the end they should reuerently bee honoured as aged men For the makers of lawes when they hadde established the honours which ought to be done to the Aged did as well ordain from what day and yeare they should beginne Diuers auncient phylosophers did put six ages from the time of the birth of man vntill the houre of his death That is to say Childe-hood which lasteth vntill seuen yeares Infancie which lasteth vntill seuenteene yeares Youth which continueth till thirtie yeares Mans estate which remaineth till fiftie and fiue yeares Age which endureth till three-score and eighteene yeares Then last of all Crooked-age which remaineth till death And so after man had passed fiue and fifty yeares they called him aged Aulus Gelius in his tenth booke in the 27 Chapter sayth that Fuluius Hostilius who was King of the Romanes determined to count all the olde and yong which were amongst the people and also to know which should be called Infants which yong and which old And there was no little difference among the Romane Philosophers and in the end it was decreed by the King and the Senate that men till seuenteene years should bee called Infants and till sixe forty should be called young and from sixe and forty vpwards they should be called olde If wee will obserue the Law of the Romanes wee know from what time we are bound to call and honor the aged men But adding hereunto it is reason that the olde men know to what prowesses and vertues they are bound to the end that with reason and not with fainting they bee serued for speaking the truth if wee compare duty to duty the olde men are more bound to vertue then the young to seruice Wee cannot deny but that all states of Nations great small young and old are bound to bee vertuous but in this case the one is more to bee blamed then the other For oftentimes if the young men doe offend it is for that hee wanteth experience but if the old man offend it is for the aboundance of malice Seneca in an Epistle sayde these words I let thee know my friend Lucillus that l am very much offended and I doe complaine not of any friend or foe but of my selfe and none other And the reason why I thinke this is that I see my selfe old in vices so little is that wherein I haue serued the Gods and much lesse is that I haue profited him And Seneca sayeth further Hee which prayseth himselfe most to bee aged and that would bee honoured for being aged ought to bee temperate in eating honest in appartell sober in drinking soft in words wise in counsell and to conclude he ought to be very patient in aduersity and far from vices which attempt him Worthy of prayse is the greate Seneca for those wordes but more worthy shall the olde men if they wil conforme their workes according to these words For if wee see them for to abandon vices and giue themselus to vertues we will both serue them and honour them CHAP. XVIII That Princes when they are aged should be temperate in eating sober in drinking modest in apparrell and aboue all true in communication IT is consonant to the counsell of Seneca that the aged should bee temperate in eating which they ought to doe not onely for the reputation of their persons but also for the preseruation of theyr liues For the olde men which are drunke and amorous are persecuted with their owne diseases and are defamed by the tongues of other That which the ancient men should eate I meane those which are noble and vertuous ought to bee very cleane and well dressed and aboue all that they doe take it in season time for otherwise too much eating of diuers things causeth the young to bee sicke and enforceth the olde to die Young men though they eate dishonestly very hastily and eate speaking we can doe no lesse but dissemble with them but the olde men which eate much and hastily of necessitie we ought to reproue them For men of Honour ought to eate at table with a great grauitie as if they were in any counsell to determine causes It is not mine intention to perswade the feeble olde men not to eate but onely to admonish them to eate no more then is necessarie We doe not prohibite them to eate delicate things but to beware of superfluous things We doe not counsell them to leaue eating hauing need but to withdraw themselues from curiositie For though it bee lawfull for aged men to eate sufficient it is not honest for them to eate to ouercome theyr stomacks It is a shame to write it but more shame ought they to haue which doe it which is that the goods which they haue wonne and inherited by their predecessours they haue eaten and drunken so that they haue neyther bought House not vyne nor yet marryed any Daughter but they are naked and their poore children goe to the Tauernes and Innes and the miserable Fathers to the Hospitalles and Churches When any man commeth to pouertie for that his house is burned or his shippe drowned or that they haue taken all from him by Lawe or that hee hath spent it in pleading against his enemies or any other in conueniēce is come vnto him me thinketh we are all bound to succor him and the hart hath cōpassion to behold him
banishment I did helpe him with money and moreouer he was banished another time for the lightnes hee did commit in the night in the Citie and I maruell not hereof For we see by experience that Olde men which are fleshed in vices are more obstinate to correct then the young Oh what euill fortune haue the old men which haue suffered themselues to waxe olde in vice For more dangerous is the fire in an old house then in a newe and a great cut of a sword is not so perillous as a rotten Fistula Though olde men were not honest and vertuous for the seruice of the Gods and the commonwealth for the saying of the people nor for the example of the young yet he ought to bee honest if it were but for the reuerence of their yeares If the poore old man haue no teeth how shall he eate If he haue no heate in his stomacke how can he disgest If hee haue no taste how can he drinke if he be not strong how can hee be an adulterer if he haue no feet how can he goe if he haue the palsey how can he speake if he haue the gowte in his hands how can he play Finally such like worldly vicious men haue employed their forces being young desirous to proue al these vices and when they are old it grieueth thē extreamly that they cānot acomplish their desire Amongst all these faultes in olde men in myne opinion this is the chiefest that since they haue proued all things that they should still remaine in theyr obstinate follie There is no parte but they haue trauelled no villanie but they haue essayed no Fortune but they haue proued no good but they haue persecuted no euill but hath chanced vnto them nor there is any wickednes but they haue attēpted These vnhappie men which in this sort haue spent all their youth haue in the ende theyr combes cut with infirmities and diseases yet they are not so much grieued with the vices which in them doe abound to hinder them from vertues as they are tormented for want of corporall courage to further them in their lustes Oh if wee were Gods or that they would giue vs licence to knowe the thoughtes of the olde as wee see with our eyes the deedes of the young I sweare to the God Mars and also to the Mother Berecynthia that without comparison wee would punish more the wicked desires which the aged haue to be wicked then the light deedes of the young Tell mee Claude and Claudine doe you thinke though you behaue your selues as young you shall not seme to be olde Knowe you not that our nature is the corruption of our bodie and that our bodie hindereth our vnderstandings and that the vnderstandings are kept of our soule and that our soule is the mother of desires and that our desires are the scourge of our youth and that our youth is the ensigne of our age and age the spye of death and that death in the end is the house where life taketh his harbor from whēce youth flyeth a foot frō whence age cānot escape a horseback I would reioyce that you Claude and Claudine would but tell mee what you finde in this life that so much therwith you should be contented since no we you haue passed foure-score yeares of life during the which time either you haue bin wicked in the worlde or else you haue bin good If you haue bin good you ought to thinke it long vntill you bee with the good Gods if you haue bin euill it is iust you dye to the ende you be no worse For speaking the truth those which in threescore and ten yeares haue bin wicked in workes leaue small hope of their amendment of life Adrian my Lord beeing at Nola in Campania one brought vnto him a nephew of his from the studie whereas the yong childe had not profited a little for hee became a great Grecian and Latinist and moreouer hee was faire gratious and honest And this Emperour Adrian loued his Nephew so much that he saide vnto him these wordes My Nephewe I knowe not whether I ought to say vnto thee that thou art good or euill For if thou be euill life shall be euill employed on thee and if thou be good thou oughtest to dye immediately and because I am worse then all I liue longer then all These words which Adrian my Lord said doe plainly declare and expresse that in short space the pale and cruell death doth assault the good and lengtheneth life a great while to the euill The opinion of a phylosopher was that the gods are so profound in their secrets high in their mysteries and so iust in their works that to men which least profite the commonwealth they lengthen life longest and though he had not saide it we others see it by experience For the man which is good and that beareth great zeale friendship to the Commonwealth eyther the Gods take him from vs or the Enemyes doe slay him or the daungers doe cast him away or the trauells doe finish him When the great Pompeyus and Iulius Caesar became enemyes and from that enmitie came to cruell warres the Gronicles of the time declare that the kings and people of the occidental part became in he fauour of Iulius Caesar and the mightiest and most puissant of al the oriental parts came in the ayde of great Pompeius because these two Princes were loued of a few and serued and feared of all Amongst the diuersity and sundry nations of people which came out of the Orientall part into the hoast of the great Pompeius one nation came maruellous and cruell barbarous which sayde they dwelled on the other side of the mountaine Riphees which goe vnto India And these Barbarians had a Custome not to liue no longer then fifty yeares and therefore when they came to that age they made a greater fire and were burned therin aliue and of their owne wils they sacrificed themselues to the Gods Let no man be astonied at that we haue spoken but rather let them maruell of that wee will speake that is to say that the same day any man had accōplished fifty yeares immediately hee cast himselfe quicke into the fire and his friends made a great feast And the feast was that they did eate the flesh of the dead halfe burned and dranke in wine and water the ashes of his bones so that the stomacke of the childrē being aliue was the graue of the Fathers being dead All this that I haue spoken with my tongue Pompeius hath seene with his eyes for that some being in the camp did accomplish fifty yeares and because the case was strange hee declared it oft in the Senate Let euery man iudge in this case what he will and condemne the barbarians at his pleasure yet I will not cease to say what I thinke O golden world which had such men O blessed people of whom in the World to ome shall be
their trauell and with a good will it should be granted for the gods vse for a little seruice to giue a great reward Triphon and Agamendo aunswered vnto the god Apollo that for their good will for their trauell and for their expences they demaunded no other reward but that it would please him to giue them the best thing that might bee giuen vnto man and that vnto them were most profite saying That the miserable men haue not the power to eschew the euill nor wisedome to chuse the good The god Apollo answered that he was contented to pay them their seruice which they had done and for to grant them that which they had demaunded By reason whereof Triphon and Agamendo hauing dined suddenly at the gates of the temple fel down dead so that the reward of their trauel was to plucke them out of their miserie The reason to declare these two examples is to the ende that all mortall men may knowe that there is nothing so good in this worlde as to haue an ende of this life and though to lose it there be no sauour yet at the least there is profite For wee would reproue a traueller of great foolishnes if sweating by the way he would sing and after at his iourneyes ende hee should beginne to weepe Is not hee simple which is sorry for that hee is come into the Hauen is not hee simple that giueth the battell and fighteth for that hee hath got the victorie Is not he stubborne which is in great distresse and is angry to be succoured Therefore more foolish simple and stubborn is hee which trauelleth to dye and is loath to meete with death For death is the true refuge the perfect health the sure Hauen the whole victorie the flesh without bones Fish without scales and corne without slrawe Finally after death wee haue nothing to bewayle and much lesse to desire In the time of Adrian the Emperour a Phylosopher called Secundus being meruellously learned made an oration at the funerall of a Noble Romaine Matrone a Kins-woman of the Emperours who spake exceedingly much euill of life and maruellous much good of death And when the Emp demanded him what death was The phylosopher aunswered thus Death is an eternall sleepe a dissolution of the bodie a terror of the rich a desire of the poore a thing inhetitable a pilgrimage vncertaine a Theefe of men a kinde of sleeping a shadow of life a separation of the liuing a companie of the dead a resolution of all trauels and the end of all ydle desires Finally Death is the scourge of all euill and the chiefe reward of the good Truely this Phylosopher spake very well and hee should not doe euill which profoundly would consider that hee had spoken Seneca in an Epistle declareth of a Phylosopher whose name was Bessus to whom when they demanded what euill a man can haue in Death since men feare it so much Hee aunswered If any damage or feare is in him who dyeth it is not for the feare of death but for the vice of him which dyeth Wee may agree to that the Phylosopher saide that euen as the deafe cannot iudge harmony nor the blind colours so likewise they cannot say euill of death especially he which neuer tasted it For of all those which are dead none returned again to complaine of Death and of these fewe that liue all complaine of life If any of the dead returned hither to speak vvith the liuing and as they haue proued it so they vvould tell vs. If there were any harme in secrete death it were reason to haue some feare of death But though a man that neuer saw heard felt nor tasted death doeth speake euill of Death should wee therefore feare Death Those ought to haue done some euill in their life which doe feare speake euill of death For in the last houre in the streight iudgement the good shal be known the euill discouered There is no Prince nor Knight rich nor poore whole nor sicke lucky nor vnluckie which I see with their vocations to be contented saue onely the dead which in theyr graues are in peace rest and are neither couetous proud negligent vain ambicious nor dissolute So that the state of the dead ought to bee best since wee see none therein to bee euill contented And since therefore those which are poore â—oe seek the meanes wherwith to endch themselues those which are sad rio seeke wherby to reioyce and those which are sicke to seeke to be healed why is it that those which haue such feare of Death doe seeke remedie against that feare In this case I would say that he which will not feare to die let him vse himself well to liue For the guyltles taketh away feare from death The diuine Plato demaunded Socrates how hee behaued himselfe in life and how he would behaue himselfe in death He answered I let thee know that in youth I haue trauelled to liue well and in age I haue studyed to die well and sith my life hath been honest I hope my death shall be ioyfull And although I haue had sorrow to liue I am sure I shall haue no paine to dye Truely these wordes are worthie of such a man Men of stout harts suffer maruellously when the swear of theyr trauell is not rewarded when they are faithful and their rewards aunswereth nothing to their true seruice when for their good seruices their Friends become vnthankefull to them when they are worthy honour and that they preferre them to honorable room and office For the noble and valiant harts doe not esteeme to loose the rewarde of their labour but thinke much vnkindenesse when a man doeth not acknowledge theyr trauells Oh happie are they that dye For without inconuenience and without paine euery man is in his graue For in this Tribunall iustice to all is so equally obserued that in the same place where wee haue deserued life in the same place we merited death There was neuer nor neuer shall be iudge so iust nor in iustice so vpright that giueth reward by weight and paine by measure but that somtimes they chasten the innocent absolue the guiltie they vexe the faultlesse and they dissemble with the culpable For little auaileth it the playntife to haue good iustice if conscience want to the iudge that should minister it Truely it is not so in Death but all ought to account themselues happie For he which shall haue good iustice shall bee sure on his parte to haue the sentence When great Cato was Censor in Rome a famous Romaine dyed who shewed at his death a maruellous courage and when the Romains praised him for that hee had so great vertue and for the words he had spoken Cato the Censor laughed at that they sayd for that they praised him And he being demanded the cause of his laughter annswered Yee maruell at that I laugh and I laugh at that yee maruell For the perills
and trauells considered wherein wee liue and the safetie wherein wee dye I say that it is more needefull to haue vertue and strength to liue then courage to dye The Authour hereof is Plutarch in his Apothegmes Wee cannot say but that Cato the Censor spake as a wise man since daylie we see shamefast and vertuous persons suffer hunger cold thyrst trauell pouerty inconuenience sorrows enmities and mishaps of the which things wee were better to see the ende in one day then to suffer them euery houre For it is lesse euill to suffer an honest death then to endure a miserable life Oh how small consideration haue men to thinke that they ought to dye but once Since the truth is that the day when wee are born and come inthis worlde is the beginning of our death and the last day is when we do cease to liue If death bee no other but an ending of life then reason perswadeth vs to thinke that our infancie dyeth our childhood dyeth our manhoode dyeth and our Age shall dye wherof we may consequently cōclude that we dye euery yeare euery day euery houre and euery moment So that thinking to leade a sure life we taste a new death I know not why men feare so much to dye since that from the time of their birth they seeke none other thing but death For time neuer wanteth for any man to dye neyther I knew any man that euer fayled of this way Seneca in an Epistle declareth that as a Romaine Woman lamented the death of a Childe of hers a Phylosopher saide vnto her Woman why bewaylest thou thy childe She aunswered I weepe because hee hath liued xxv yeares and I would he should haue liued till fiftie For amongst vs mothers wee loue our Children so hartily that we neuer cease to behold them nor yet ende to bewaile them Then the Phylosopher said Tell me I pray thee woman Why doest thou not complame of the Gods because they created not thy Sonne manie yeares before he was borne as well as thou complavnest that they haue not let him liue fiftie yeares Thou weepest that hee is deade so soone and thou dost not lament that he is borne so late I tell thee true Woman that as thou doest not lament for the one no more thou oughrest to bee sorrie for the other For without the determination of the Gods we cannot shorten death and much lesse lengthen our life So Plinie saide in an Epistle that the chiefest law which the Gods haue giuen vnto humane nature was that none shold haue perpactual life For with dis-ordinate desire to liue long wee should reioyce to goe out of this paine Two Phylosophers disputing before the great Emperor Theodose the one saide that it was good to procure death and the other likewise sayde it was a necessary thing to hate life The good Theodose taking him by the hand sayd All wee mortalles are so extreame in hating and louing that vnder the colour to loue and hate life wee leade an euill life For we suffer so many trauells for to preserue it that sometimes it were much better to loose it And further hee sayde Diuers vaine men are come into so great follyes that for feare of Death they procure to hasten death And hauiwg consideration to this me seemeth that wee ought not greatly to loue life nor with desperation to seeke Death For the strong and valiant men ought not to hate Life so long as it lasteth nor to bee displeased with death when hee commeth All commended that which the Emperour Theodose spake as Paulus Dyacon saith in his life Let euery man speake what he will and let the Phylosophers counsell what they lift in my poore iudgment hee alone shall receyue death without paine who long before is prepared to receyue the same For sudden death is not onely bitter vnto him which tasteth it but also it seareth him that hateth it Lactantius saide that in such sorte man ought to liue as if from hence an houre after he should dye For those men which will haue Death before their eyes it is vnpossible that they should giue place to vaine thoughts In my opinion and also by the aduise of Apuleius It is as much follie to flie from that which we cannot auoyd as to desire that wee can not attaine And this is only spoken for those that would flye the voyage of death which is necessarie and desire to come againe which is vnpossible Those that trauell by long wayes if they want any thing they borrow it of their companie If they haue forgotten ought they returne to seeke it at their lodging or else they write vnto their friends a letter But I am sorrie that if wee once dye they will not let vs returne again we cannot speake and they will not agree we shall write but such as they shall finde vs so shall wee bee iudged And that which is most fearfull of all the execution and sentence is giuen in one day Let Noble Princes and great Lords beleeue mee in this Let them not leaue that vndone til after their death which they may doe during their life And let them not trust in that they commaund but in that whiles they liue they doe Let them not trust in the workes of an other but in theyr owne good deedes For in the end one sigh shall be more worth then all the friendes of the world I counsell pray and exhort all wise and vertuous men and also my selfe with them that in such a sort wee liue that at the houre of death wee may say we liue For wee cannot say that wee liue when we liue not well For all that time which without profite wee shall liue shall be counted vnto vs for nothing CHAP. XLIX ¶ Of the death of Marcus Aurelius the Emperour and how there are fewe Friendes which dare say the truth to sicke men THe good Emperor Marcus Aurelius now beeing aged not onely for the yeares he had but also for the great trauells hee had in the warres endured It chaunced that in the xviii yeare of his Empire and lxxij yeares from the day of his birth and of the foundation of Rome fiue hundreth xliii beeing in the warre of Pannonie which at this time is called Hungaria besieging a famous cittie called Vendeliona suddenly a disease of the palsey tooke him which was such that hee lost his life and Rome her Prince the best of life that euer was borne therein Among the Heathen princes some had more force then he others possessed more riches then hee others were as aduenturous as hee and some haue knowne as much as hee but none hath bin of so excellent and vertuous a life nor so modest as hee For his life being examined to the vttermost ther are many princely vertues to follow and fewe vices to reproue The occasion of his death was that that in going one Night about his Campe suddenly the disease of the palsey tooke him in
sonne in lawes in maintaining processes in discharging debts in fighing for that is past in bewayling that that is present in dissembling iniuries in hearing woful newes and in other infinite trauels I So that it were much better to haue their eyes shut in the graue thē their hearts and bodies aliue to suffer so much in this miserable life He whom the gods take from this miserable life at the end of fiftie yeeres is quitted from all these miseries of life For after that time hee is not weake but crooked hee goeth not but rowlleth he stumbleth nor but falleth O my Lord Marke knowest thou not that by the same way whereby goeth death death cometh Knowest not thou in like manner that it is 62. yeers that life hath fled from death that there is another time asmuch that death goeth seeking thy life and death going from Illiria where he left a great plague thou departing frō thy pallace ye two haue now met in Hungarie Knowest not thou that where thou leapedst out of thy mothers intrailes to gouerne the land immediately death leaped out of his grauè to seeke thy life Thou hast alwayes presumed not onely to bee honored but also to be honorable if it bee so since thou honouredst the Embassadors of Princes which did send them the more for their profite then for thy seruice why dost thou not honor thy messenger whom the gods send more for thy profite then for their seruices Doest thou not remember well when Vulcan my sonne in law poysoned me more for the couetousnesse of my gods then any desire that hee had of my life thou Lord that diddest come to comfort mee in my chamber and toldst me that the gods were cruell to slay the yong and were pitiful to take the old from this world And thou saidst further these wordes Comfort thee Panutius for if thou wert borne to the now thou drest to liue Since therefore noble Prince that I tell thee that which thou toldst me and counsell thee the same which thou counsellest me I render to thee that which thou hast giuen me Finally of these vines I haue gathered these cluster of grapes CHAP. LII The answer of the Emperour Marcus to Panutius his Secretarie wherein he declareth that he tooke no thought to forsake the world but all his sorow was to leaue behind him an vnhappie child to inherit the Empire PAnutius blessed be the milke which thou hast sucked in Dacia the bread which thou hast eaten in Rome the larning which thou hast learned in Greece and the bringing vppe which thou hast had in my pallace For thou hast serued as a good seruant in life and giuest mee good counsell as a trustie friende at death I command Commodus my son to recompence thy seruice and I beseech the immortall gods that they acquite thy good counsels And not without good cause I charge my son with the one and requrie the gods of the other For the payment of many seruices one man alone may doe but to pay one good counsell it is requisite to haue all the gods The greatest good that a friend can doe to his friend is in great and waightie affaires to giue him good and wholesome counsell And not without cause I say wholesome For commonly it chaunceth that those which thinke with their counsell to remedy vs doe put vs oftentimes in greatest perils All the trauells of life are hard but that of death is the most hard and terrible Al are great but this is the greatest All are perillous but this is most perrillons All in death haue ende except the trauell of death whereof wee know no end that which I say now no men perfectly can know but he which seeth himselfe as I see my selfe now at the point of death Certainly Panutius thou hast spoken vnto mee as a wise man but for that thou knowst not my griefe thou couldst not cure my disease for my sore is not there where thou hast layde the plaister The fistula is not there where thou hast cutte the flesh The opilation is not there where thou hast layd the oyntments There were not the right veines where thou didst let me bloud Thou hast not yet touched the wound which is the cause of all my griefe I meane that thou oughtest to haue entred further with mee to haue knowne my griefe better The sighes which the heart fetcheth I say those which come from the heart let not euerie man think which heareth them that he can immedialy vnderstand them For as men cannot remedie the anguishes of the spirit so the gods likewise would not that they should know the secrets of the heart Without feare or shame many dare say that they know the thought of others wherein they shew themselues to bee more fooles then wise For since there are many things in me wherein I my selfe doubt how can a stranger haue any certaine knowledge therein Thou accusest me Panutius that I feare death greatly the which I deny but to feare it as man I doe confesse For to deny that I feare not death should bee to denie that I am not of flesh We see by experience that the Elephants do feare the Lyon the Beare the Elephant the wolfe the Beare the Lambe the Wolfe the Rat the Cat the Cat the Dog the Dog the man Finally the one and the other do feare for no other thing but for feare that one killeth not the other Then since bruite beasts refuse death the which though they die feare not to fight with the suries nor hope not to rest with the gods so much the more ought we to feare death which die in doubt whether the furies will teare vs in peeces with their torments or the gods will receiue vs in to their houses with ioy Thinkest thou Panutius that I doe not see well my vine is gathered and that it is not hid vnto me that my palace falleth in decay I know well that I haue not but the kernell of the Raison the skin and that I haue not but one sigh of all my life vntill this time There was great difference betweene me and thee now there is no great difference betwixt me and my selfe For about the ensign thou dost place the army In the riuers thou castest thy nets within the parkes thou huntest the buls in the shadow thou takest cold By this I meane that thou talkest so much of death because that thou art sure of thy life O miserable man that I am for in short space of all that is life I haue possessed with mee I shall carrie nothing but onely my winding sheete Alasse how shall I enter into the field not where of fierce beasts I shall bee assaulted but of the hungrie wormes deuoured Alasse I see my selfe in that distresse from whence my fraile flesh cannot escape And if any hope remaine it is in thee O death When I am sicke I would not that hee that is whole should comfort me When
iustice but none do reioyce that they execute it in his house And therfore after the Prince endeth his life the people will take reuenge of those which haue beene ministers thereof It were great infamy to the Empire offence to the gods iniurie to mee vnthankefulnes to thee hauing found the armes of my seruants ready eighteene yeers that thy gates should be shut against them one day Keepe keepe these things my sonne in thy memory and since particularly I doe remember them at my death consider how heartily I loued them in my life CHAP. LVII The good Marcus Aurelius Emperour of Rome endeth his purpose and life And of the last words which he spake to his sonne Commodus and of the table of Counsels which he gaue him WHen the Emperor had ended his particular recommendations vnto his sonne Commodus as the dawning of the day beganne to appeare so his eyes beganne to close his tongue to faulter and his handes to tremble as it doth accustome to those which are at the point of death The Prince perceyuing then little life to remaine commaunded his Secretary Panutius to goe to the coffers of his bookes and to bring one of the coffers before his presence out of the which hee tooke a table of 3. foote of bredth and 2. of length the which was of Eban bordered all about with Vnicorne And it was closed with 2. lids very fine of red wood which they call rasing of a tree where the Phenix as they say breedeth which did grow in Arabia And as there is but one onely Phenix so in the world is there but one onely tree of that sort On the vttermost part of the Table was grauen the god Iupiter and on the other the goddesse Venus and in the other was drawne the god Mars and the goddesse Diana In the vppermost part of the table was carued a Bull and in the nethermost part was drawne a King And they sayde the painter of so famous and renowmed a worke was called Apelles The Emperour taking the Table in his handes casting his eyes vnto his Sonne said these words Thou seest my sonne how from the turmoyles of Fortune I haue escaped and how I into miserable destinies of death do enter where by experience I shall know what shall be after this life I meane not now to blaspheme the Gods but to repent my sinnes But I would willinglie declare why the Gods haue created vs since there is such trouble in life and paine in death Not vnderstanding why the Gods haue vsed so great crueltie with creatures I see it now in that after lxij yeares I haue sayled in the daunger and perill of this life now they commaund mee to land and harbour in the graue of death Now approcheth the houre wherein the band of Matrimonie is loosed the threede of Life vntwined the key doth locke the sleepe is wakened my life doth ende and I goe out of this troublesome paine Remembring mee of that I haue done in my life I desire no more to liue but for that I knowe not whether I am carryed by death I feare and refuse his darts Alas what shall I doe since the Gods tell mee not what I shall do What counsell shall I take of any man since no man will accompanie mee in this iourney Oh what great disceipt Oh what manifest blindnes is this to loue one thing all the dayes of our life and to cary nothing with vs after our death Because I desired to be rich they let me dye poore Because I desired to liue with companie they let me die alone For such shortnes of life I know not what hee is that will haue a house since the narrow graue is our certaine mansion place Belieue mee my sonne that manie things past doe grieue mee sore but with nothing so much I am troubled as to come so late to the knowledge of this life For if I could perfectly belieue this neyther should men haue cause to reproue me neyther yet I now such occasion to lament me Oh how certaine a thing is it that men when they come to the point of death doe promise the Gods that if they prerogue their death they will amend their life but notwithstanding I am sorry that we see them deliuered from death without any manner of amendment of life They haue obtained that which of the Gods they haue desired and haue not performed that which they haue prornised They ought assuredly to thinke that in the sweetest time of their life they shall be constrained to accept death For admit that the punishment of ingrate persons be deferred yet therefore the fault is not pardoned Be thou assured my Sonne that I haue seene ynough hearde selte tasted desired possessed eaten slept spoken and also liued ynough For vices giue as great troubles to those which follow them much as they do great desire to those which neuer proued them I confesse to the immortall Gods that I haue no desire to liue yet I ensure thee I would not die For life is so troublesome that it wearyeth vs and Death is so doubtfull that it feareth vs. If the Gods deferred my death I doubt whether I should reforme my life And if I do not amend my life nor serue the gods better nor profit the commonwealth more and if that euery time I am sick it should grieue mee to dye I say it is much better for mee now to accept death then to wish the lengthening of my life I say the life is so troublesom so fickle so suspicious so vucertaine and so importunate Finally I say it is a life without life that hee is an obstinate foole which so much desireth it Come that that may come for finally notwithstanding that I haue spoken I willingly commit selfe into the hands of the gods since of necessitie I am therunto constrained For it proceedeth not of a little wisedome to receiue that willingly which to doe wee are constrained of necessitie I will not recommend my selfe to the Priests nor cause the Oracles to be visited nor promise any thing to the temples nor offer sacrifices to the gods to the end they should warrant me from death and restore mee to life but I will demaund and require them that if they haue created mee for any good thing I may not lose it for my euill life So wise and sage are the gods in that they say so iust true in that they promise that if they giue vs not that which wee others would it is not for that they will not but because wee deserue it not for wee are so euill and worth so little and we may doe so little that for many good works wee deserue no merite and yet with and euill worke wee be made vnworthy of all Since therefore I haue put my selfe into the hands of the gods let them doe with me what they will for their seruice for in the end the worst that they will do is much better then
rising at midnight to serue God yet haue they great hope after their death of the heauenly rest and comfort but poore Courtiers alas what should I say hard is their life and more perillous their death into greater danger truly putteth he himselfe that becommeth a Courtier then did Nasica when gee was with the Serpent then King Dauid with the Philistines then the Southsayers with Euah then Hercules with Antheon then Theseus with the Minocaure then King Menelaus with the wilde Bore then Corebus with the Monster of the marish and then Perseus with the monstrous whale of the sea For euery one of these valiant mē were not afraid but of one but the miserable Courtier standeth in feare of all For what is he in Court that seeing his neere Kinsman or deerest friend more in fauour or credit then himselfe or richer then he that wisheth not his friendes death or at the least procureth by all meanes he can he shall not equall nor goe euen with with him in credite or reputation One of the worst things I consider see in Courtiers is that they loose much time and profite little For the thing wherein they spend their dayes and hestow the nights for the most part is to speake ill of those that are their betters or excel them in vertues and to vndoe those that are their equals and companions to flatter the beloued and among the inferiour sort to murmur one against an other and alwayes to sigh and lament for the times past And there is nothing that prouoketh Courtiers more to complaine then the dayly desire they haue to see sundry and new alterations of time For they little weigh the ruine of the Common weale so they may enlarge and exalt their owne estates Also it is a thing of course in Court that the reiected and fauourlesse Courtiers meete together murmuring at their Princes and backbiting their councellers and officers saying they vndoe the Realme and bring all to nought And al this presupposed for that they are not in the like fauour and estimation that they be in which beareth office and rule in the Common-weale And therefore when it commeth in question for a Courtier to aduaunce himselfe and to come in credit in the Court one Gourtier can scarsly euer trust an other On the other side mee thinketh that the life of the Court is not the very life in deede but rather an open penance And therefore in my opinion wee should not reckon Courtiers aliue but rather dead buried in their life For then the Courtier euer findeth himselfe plunged with deaths extream passious when hee perceyueth an other to be preferred and called before him Alas what great pitty is it to see a haplesse and vnfortunate Courtier for hee seely soule awaketh a thousand times in the night tosseth from side to side of his bed sometime vpright hee lyeth lamenting his yron happe now he sigheth for his natiue soyle and sorroweth then for his lost honour so that in maner he spendeth the whole night in watch and cares imagining with himselfe all the wayes hee can to come in credite and fauour againe that he may attaine to wealth and preferment before others which maketh mee thinke that it is not a paine but a cruell torment no seruice but tribute and not once only but euer that the body of the poore miserable Courtier abideth that in despite of him his wretched heart doth beare By the Law of the Court euery Courtier is bound to serue the King to accompany the beloued of the Court to visite noble men to wayte vpon those that are at the Princes elbow to giue to the vshers to present the Auditors to entertaine the Wardens and captaines of the Ports to currey fauour with the Harbingers to flatter the Treasurer to trauell and speake for their friendes and to dissemble amongst their enemies What legges are able to doe all these things what force sufficient to abide these brunts what heart able to endure them and moreouer what purse great inough to supply all these deuises I am of opinion there was neuer any so foolish nor marchant so couetons that hath solde himselfe in any fayre or exchangde himselfe for any other Marchandize but only the vnhappy Courtier who goeth to the court to sell his liberty for a litle winde and vaine smoake of the court I graunt that a courtier may haue in the court plenty of golde and siluer sumptuous apparrell fauour cresite and authoritie yet withall this aboundance yee cannot deny me but he is as poore of liberty as rich of substance or credite And therefore I dare boldly say this word againe for one time the Courtier hath his desire in Court a thousand times they will enforce him to accomplish others desires which neyther please nor like him Surely it commeth of a base and vile minde and no lesse cowardly for any man lightly to esteeme his liberty and fondly to embrace bondage and subiection being at others commaundement And if the Courtier would aunswere mee to this that though hee serue yet at least hee is in his Princes fauour I would replye thus Though hee bee in fauour with the Prince yet is he notwithstanding slaue to all his other officers For if the Courtier will sell his horse his moyle his cloke his sworde or any other such like whatsoeuer hee shall haue ready money for all sauing for his liberty which hee liberally bestoweth on all for nothing So that hee seemeth to make more estimation of his sword or appaarrell hee selleth then he doth of his liberty which hee giueth For a man is not bound to trauell at all to make himselfe master of others more then pleaseth him but to recouer liberty or to maintaine it he is bound to dye a thousand deaths I speake not these things for that I haue read them in my bookes but because I haue seene them all with mine eyes and not by science but by experiennce and I neuer knew Courtier yet content in Court much lesse enioying any iot of his liberty which I so much esteeme that if al men were sufficient to know it and knew well how to vse it he would neuer for any Treasure on earth forgoe it neyther for any gage lendi◠were it neuer so precious Yet is there in Court besides this an other kind of trouble I haue not yet touched and that is not small For oft times thither commeth of our friends which be straungers whom of necessitie and for honesties sake the Courtier must Lodge with him at home the Court beeing already full pestered And this happeneth oft in such a time when the poore Courtyer hath neither Lodging of his owne to lodge them in nor happily six pence in his purse to welcome themwithall I would you would tell mee also what griefe and sorrowe the poore Courtyer feeleth at his heart when hee lodgeth in a blinde narrowe-lane eateth at a borrowed table sleepeth in a hyred bedde and perhaps his
of Cresus The liberal mind of Cresus The answer of the Philosopher Anacharsis Wherein consisteth true phylosophy How little the phylosophers desire riches Certaine points required to be performed by the physopher The description of Phalaris The speech 〈…〉 The frailtie of the flesh Couetousnes the ouer throw of Iustice What princes ought to doe Two things requisite in euery man The letter of Phalaris Cruelty wel rewarded The praise of Alexander the great The prayse of Alexander the Great The saying of Diogines The saying of Alexander Two notable things of K. Philip of Macedonie The prayse of Ptolome Alexander vnhappy in his death Pholosophers onely reioyce in pouertie A custome among the Egyptians The miserable death of Euripdes The worthy saying of Archelaus A saying worthy obseruation Sentences of Cinna No loue comparable to that of man and wife Fiue things follow marriage The loue of the Father to the child The saying of Solon A third coÌ„modity of Marriage What inconenience so loueth them that are not maryed in the feare of the Lord. The fourth commodity belonging to mariage The worthie sayings of Lycurgus The prayse of marriage The cares incident to maâ—â—age No man content with his owne estate Marriage the cause of loue and amitie Mariage a meanes of Peace betweene God and man What is required of euery vertuous Prince A law among the Tharentines A law among the Athenians A worthie saying of Socrates The spech of Cimonius A beastly custome in old time in England An ancient custome among the Romains A law among the Cymbrians The law of the Armenians A custome among the Hungarians The custom of the Scythians Good counsell for all sorts of women Women bound to loue their Husbands The tongue cause of debate The loue of women towards theyr Husbands The praise of Women The Law amongst the Lidians The loue of Sinoris Comma How good women ought to behaue themselues The death of Sinoris and Camma Good couÌ„sell for women The great dangers women sustaine The custome of the Achaians The Law of the Parthians The Law of the Lideans Women weake of nature The foolish opinion of some women A propertie of a wise discreete Husband Good counsell for Women The saying of 〈…〉 The office of the Husband and dutie of the wife The law of Lycurgus The propertie of good Houswifes What inconuenience coÌ„meth by gadding abroad The commendations of Lucretia The praises of the wiues of Numidia Where loue wanteth discord resteth A propertie of a good woman The quality of naughty House-wiues The Follie of man How the man childe ought to be brought vp How womeÌ„ ought to carry themselues in the time they goe with childe The desire of Women Tibullus de casibus triumphi The first Dictator in Rome The first rebell in Rome An auncient custome vsed by the Ladyes in Rome The first victorie the Romaines obtained by Sea The death of Sophia Titus Liuius The mutabilitie of Fortune The death of Ypolita The dangsâ— of women with childe A good warning for women with childe Aristotle de Animalibus The propertie of a good Husband Reasonable Creatures may take example by the vnreasonable A custome among the Mauritanians A custome in Hungary The false opinion of the Heathen The Commendation of the Emperour Octauian The saying of Pisto How good counsell ought to be regarded What is required of women with child Pulio de moribus antiq Lucius Seneca his counsell How vertuous Princes ought to be How the Emperour Marcus Aurclius spent his time A custome among the Romanes The speech of Marcus Aurelius at his death Rome destroyed by the Gothes The importunity of the Empresse A law a-among the Romane What euill commeth by the tong What is required in a Woman The Emperours answere What is required of euery Man What hurt commeth by not gouerning the tongue Crosses incident to Marriage What women naturally are inclined vnto Women can not endure to haue superiours Annales of Pompeyus A Law among the Barbarians The frailty of man The cause why men ought to endeauor to be vertuous How wee ought to to spend our time Reason leadeth to vertue Sensualitie to vice What dangers are incident to men by following women Women neuer contented Women coÌ„pared to golden pilles The speech of Drusio What inconuenience follow those that are discontented in marriage How euery man woman ought to behaue themselues What hurte cometh by misgouerning the tongue How marryed folkes ought to carry themselues Rules for euery man to followe that meanes to liue in peace Women extreame in their demands A froward Woman described Rome in ancient times rich in vertues Fiue things granted to the Matrones of Rome The commendation of a vertuous woman The Epitaph of Macrine Foure things which women naturally desire Women bound by Gods Law to giue her children sucke The example of dumb creatures may teach women to bring vp their owne children Arist de Animal The description of children in their infancie What loue women ought to beare their children The reward of the Roman Captain The speech of Scipio the AffricaÌ„ What dutie is required betweene the Parents and the childe The eruelty of Nero towards his Mother The reason that may moue women to giue their children sucke A custome of Asia The saying of Iunius Rustious How men and women ought to be stow theyr time What profit cometh to Women by giuing their childreÌ„ suck How women ought to spend the time about theyr children Pleasures that women may take in their children The lawes of the Auncients What care Women ought to haue of their children A good example for women A good example for all sorts of women What inconuenieÌ„ce cometh by changing Nurses Arist de secret secretorum How children ought to be nourished and brought vp Good counsell for one that would liue long Aristot De Animalib What Dyet Nurses ought to vse An example of the women of Thrace Women giuing sucke ought to abstaine from wine WomeÌ„ prohibited to drink wine in former times 〈…〉 The speech of Sabina The answer of the Consull Fuluius Wherefore the Consull would not haue his children nourished in his house What is required in euery good Nurse The description of Pressilla What is required of a Nurse for bringing vp of children What is required of a good Captaine How Alexander gouerned his armie A custome among the Persians What time it requisite for a man to eate Strabo de situ Orbis What order the Auncients vsed concerning marriage The custome of the Chaldeans How long women ought to giue their children sucke Questions demanded by the Philosopher Arethus When Rome flourished How circumspect a man ought to bee to speake the truth What property belongeth to the goute What inconuenieÌ„ce commeth by eating too much fruit What hurt commeth by Iugglers and players Titus Liuius The pollicy of the auncient Romaines God the onely Physitian The mutabilitie of mans life What difference there is betweene man and beast Ioseph de bello
weight and measure plentifull and chiefly if there be good doctrine for the young and little couetousnesse in the old Affro the Historiographer declareth this in the tenth booke De rebus Atheniensium Truly in my opinion the words of this philosopher were few but the sentences were many And for none other cause I did bring in this history but to profite mee of the last word wherein for aunswere hee sayeth that all the profite of the Common wealth consisteth in that there be princes that restraine the auarice of the aged and that there bee Masters to teach the youthfull We see by experience that if the brute beasts were not tyed and the corne and seedes compassed with hedges or ditches a man shold neuer gather the fruit when they are ripe I meane the strife and debate will rise continually among the people if the yong men haue not good fathers to correct them and wise masters to teach them Wee cannot deny but though the knife be made of fine steele yet sometimes it hath neede to bee whet and so in like manner the young man during the time of his youth though he doe not deserue it yet from time to time hee ought to bee corrected O Princes and great Lords I know not of whom you take counsell when your sonne is borne to prouide him of a Master and gouernour whom you chuse not as the most vertuous but as the most richest not as the most sagest but as the most vile and euill taught Finally you doe not trust him with your children that best deserueth it but that most procureth it Againe I say O princes and great Lords why doe you not withdraw your children from their hands which haue their eyes more to their owne profite then their hearts vnto your seruice For such to enrich themselus doe bring vp princes viciously Let not Princes thinke that it is a trifle to know how to finde and chuse a good Master and the Lord which herein doth not employ his diligence is worthy of great rebuke And because they shall not pretend ignorance let them beware of that man whose life is suspitious and extreame couetous In my opinion in the pallace of princes the office of Tutorshippe ought not to be giuen as other common offices that is to say by requests or money by priuities or importunities eyther else for recompence of seruices for it followeth not though a man hath beene Ambassadour in strange Realms or captaine of great Armies in warre or that hee hath possessed in the royall pallace Offices of honour or of estimation that therefore he should bee able to teach or bring vp their children For to bee a good Captaine sufficeth onely to be hardy and fortunate but for to bee a Tutour and gouernour of Princes hee ought to be both sage and vertuous CHAP. XXXV Of the two children of Marcus Aurelius the Emperour of the which the best beloued dyed And of the Masters he prouided for the other named Comodus MArcus Aurelius the 17. Emperour of Rome in the time that hee was married with Faustine onely daughter of the Emperour Antonius Pius had onely two sonnes whereof the eldest was named Comodus and the second Verissimus Of these two children the heyre was Comodus who was so wicked in the 13. yeares he gouerned the Empire that hee seemed rather the Disciple of Nero the cruell then to discend by the mothers side from Antonius the mercifull or sonne of Marcus Aurelius This wicked child Comodus was so light in speech so dishonest in person and so cruell with his people that oft-times hee being aliue they layed wagers that there was no vertue in him to bee found nor any one vice in him that wanted On the contrary part the second sonne named Verissimus was comely of gesture proper of person and in witte very temperate and the most of all was that by his good conuersation of all hee was beloued For the fayre and vertuous Princes by their beauty draweth vnto them mens eyes and by their good conuersation they winne their hearts The child Verissimus was the hope of the common people and the glory of his aged Father so that the Emperor determined that this child Verissimus should bee heyre of the Empire and that the Prince Commodus should bee dishenherited Wherat no man ought to maruell for it is but iust since the childe dooth not amend his life that the father doe dishenherite him When good will doth want and vicious pleasures abound the children oft times by peruerse fortune come to nought So this Marcus Aurelius being 52. yeares old by chance this childe Verissimus which was the glory of Rome and the hope of the Father at the gate of Hostia of a sodaine sicknesse dyed The death of whom was as vniuersally lamented as his life of all men was desired It was a pittifull thing to see how wofully the Father tooke the death of his entirely beloued son and no lesse lamentable to beholde how the Senate tooke the death of their Prince being the heyre for the aged Father for sorrow did not go to the Senate and the Senate for a few dayes enclosed themselues in the hie Capitoll And let no man maruell though the death of this young Prince was so taken through Rome for if men knew what they lose when they lose a vertuous Prince they would neuer cease to bewayle and lament his death When a Knight a Gentleman a Squire an Officer or when any of the people dyeth there dyeth but one but when a Prince dyeth which was good for all and that he liued to the profite of all then they ought to make account that all do dye they ought all greatly to lament it for oft times it chanceth that after 2. or 3. good Princes a foule flocke of Tyrants succeede Therfore Marcus Aurelius the Emperor as a man of great vnderstanding and of a princely person though the inward sorrow from the rootes of the heart could not bee plucked yet hee determined to dissemble outwardly to bury his grieues inwardly For to say the truth none ought for any thing to shewe extreame sorrow vnlesse it be that hee hath lost his honour or that his conscience is burdened The good Prince as one that hath his vineyarde frozen wherein was all his hope contented with himselfe with that which remaineth his so deerly beloued sonne being dead and commaunded the Prince Comodus to be brought into his pallace being his onely heire Iulius Capitolinus which was one of those that wrote of the time of Marcus Aurelius saide vpon this matter that when the Father saw the disordinate frailenesse and lightnes and also the little shame which the prince Comodus his Sonne brought with him the aged man beganne to weepe and shed teares from his eyes And it was because the simplenesse and vertues of his deere beloued Sonne Verissimus came into his minde Although this Noble Emperour Marcus Aurelius for the death of
his sonne was very sorrowfull yet notwith standing this hee prouided how his other sonne Comodus shold be gouerned and this before that either of age or bodie he were greater For we cannot denye but when Princes are men they will bee such as in theyr youth they haue been brought vp The good Father therefore knowing that the euill inclinations of his should doe him damage and the Empire in like manner he sent throughout all Italie for the moste sagest and expert men to be gouernours and tutours of Comodus the Prince Hee made them seeke for the moste profoundest in learning the most renowmed of good fame the most vertuous in deedes and the most deepest in vnderstanding For as the dust is not swept with fine cloth but with drye broomes so the lightnes and follyes of young men are not remedyed but by the hard discipline of the aged This commaundement being published and proclaimed in Rome and the bruite scattered through Italie there came and ranne thither diuers kinde of Sages whom he commaunded to be examined Hee being truely informed of the bloud of their predecessours of the age of their persons of the gouernement of their houses of the spending of their goods of their credite among their neighbours of the sciences they knew and aboue all they were no lesse examined of the purenes of their liues then of the grauitie of their persons for there are many men which are graue in open wordes and verie light in secrete workes Speaking therfore more particularly hee commanded they should examine the Astronomers of astronomy the Phylosophers of Phylosophie the Musitians in musicke the Orators in orations and so forth of other Sciences in order wherin euery one said hee was instructed The good Emperour was not so contented to doe this once but sundrie times and not all in one day but in many and not onely by another man but also by himselfe Finally they were all examined as if they had been all one and that the same one should haue remayned and been kept for all to bee the onely Master and Tutour of the young childe and prince Comodus To acquire a perfect knowledge and to be sure not to erre in choyce of things in my opinion is not onely required experience of himselfe and a cleare vnderstanding but also the aduise of another For the knowledge of things wholly together is easie but the choyce of them particularly is harde This thing is onely spoken because the good Emperour sent and commaunded to choose gouernours and Masters of his children Of many he chose few and of few the most wisest of the most wisest the most expert of the most expert the best learned of the best learned the most temperate of the most temperate the most ancient and of the most ancient the most noble Certainely such election is worthy prayse because they be true masters and teachers of Princes which are noble of bloud ancient in yeers honest in life men of little folly and of great experience According to the seuen liberall Sciences two masters of euery one were chosen so that the Prince was but one and the others were 14. but this notwithstanding the workes of this Prince Comodus were contrary to the expectation of his father Marcus Aurelius because the intention of the good father was to teach his son all sciences and the study of the son was to learne all vices At the bruite of so great a thing as this was that the Emperor sought to prouide tutors for the Prince Comodus and that they should not bee those which were best fauoured but those which were found the most wisest In short space there came so many Philosophers to Rome as if the diuine Plato had beene reuiued againe in Greece Let vs not maruell at all if the Sages desired the acquaintance of familiarity of this good Emperour for in the ende there is no man so sage nor so vertuous in his life but somtime will seeke after the fauours of the world Since there were many Sages and that of those he chose but foureteene It was necessary hee should honestly and wisely dispatch and giue the others leaue as did behoue him And herein the good Emperour shewed himselfe so wise that shewing to some a merry countenance to others speaking gently and to others by a certaine hope and to others by gifts and presents and all the good company of the Sages departed and the good Emperor dispatched them not one being sadd which departed but very well pleased For it is not comely for the magnificence of a Prince that the man which commeth to his Pallace onely for his seruice should returne murmuring or without reward This good Emperour shewed him selfe Sage to seeke many Sages hee shewed himselfe wise in the choyce of some and of a good vnderstanding in dispatching others and in contenting them all for as wee see dayly by experience though the election be good cōmonly great affections thereupon engender for those for not beeing chosen are sorry and to see that others chosen are shamefast In such case likewise let it not be esteemed litle to serch a good remedie for the Goldsmith oft times demaundeth more for the workemanshippe then the siluer is worth I meane that sometimes Princes doe deserue more honour for the good meanes they vse in their affaires then for the good sucesse whereunto it commeth for the one aduenture guideth but the other wisedome aduanceth The good Emperour not contented with this prouided that those foureteen Philosophers which should remaine in his Pallace should sit at the table and accompany his person the which thing he did to see if their life were comformable to their doctrine and if their words did agree to their workes for there are many men which are of a goodly tongue and of a wicked life Iulius Capitolinus and Cinna Catullus which were writers of this History say that it was a wonder to see how this good Emperour did marke them to know if they were sober in feeding temperat in drinking modest in going occupyed in studying aboue all if they were very sage in speaking and honest in liuing Would to God that Princes of our time were in this case so diligent and carefull and that in committing in trust their affayres they would not care more for one then for others For speaking with due reuerence there aboundeth no wisedome in that Prince which committeth a thing of importance to that man whom hee knoweth not whether hee is able to bring it to passe or not Many talke euill and maruel that Princes and great Lords in so many things do erre and for the contrary I maruell how they hit any at all For if they committed their weighty affayres to skilfull men though perhappes they erre once yet they hitt it a hundred times but when they commit theyr businesse to ignorant men if they hit once they misse a thousand times againe In this case I say there is nothing destroyeth