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
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
the Realme of Thracia which then was subiect to the Romanes And the Emperour Valente without any couenant receiued them into his land wherein hee committed great folly and vsed little wisedome for it is a generall rule where rebels vagabonds strangers come to inhabite there the Realme and dominions is destroyed The Gothes remained certain yeares among them without any dissention or quarrelling against the Romaines but afterwards through the couetousnes of Maximus chiefe Captain of the Romaines who denyed the Gothes of their prouision which so long time remained Friendes arose betweene them so cruell warres that it was the occasion of the losse and vtter vndoing both of Rome and of all Italie For truly there is no enmity doth somuch hurt as that of Friends when they fall out at discord The Warres now being kindled the Gothes were scattred through the Kingdome of Thrace and they left no Forte but they battered downe they came to no Townes Villages nor Cities but they sacked and spoyled They tooke no Women but they forced and rauished they entred into no house but they robbed Finally the Gothes in short time shewed the poison that they had against the Romans let no man maruell that the Gothes committed so many cruel and hainous facts sith we that are Christians doe commit dayly greater offences For among rebels it is a common errour that that which they rob in the warres they say they are not bound to restore in peace The Emperor Valente was then in the citie of Antioch and sith he had assembled there a great armie and had great aide out of Italy he determined himselfe in person to goe into the campe of the Romans and to giue the onset against the Gothes wherein hee shewed himselfe more bold then wise for a Prince in battael caÌ„ do no more then one man nor fight more then one man and if he die he is the occasion of the death and destruction of them all When both the hosts of the Romaines and the Gothes ioyned there was betweene them a cruell and mortall fight so that in the first brunt the Gothes shewed themselues so valiant that they put to flight the Romans horsemen leauing their footemen alone in great ieopardie the which in short space after were discomfited and slaine not one left aliue For the barbarous sware that that day the Gothes should all die or else vtterly they would destroy the name of the Romanes And in this first charge the Emperour Valente was mortally wounded who perceyuing he had his deathes wound and that the battell was lost hee determined to flye and saue himselfe but when fortune beginneth to persecute any man shee leaueth him not vntill shee see him dead or beaten downe without recouery Therefore as this wicked Emperour thinking to saue himselfe came into a sheepecote the enemies seeing him in the end set fire on the shepecote and burnt him aliue So in one day hee loft his person his life his honour and his Empire For it is meete that Princes and great Lords should lift vp their eyes to consider well the Historie of Valente that they stray not from the Catholike Faith that they dishonour not Gods Ministers and maintaine heresyes For as this accursed Emperour Valente for his wicked doings was condignely punished by the hands of Almighty God So let them be assured the selfe same God will not pardon their offences For it is a rule infallible That that Prince which is not a good Christian shal fall into the hands of his cruell enemies CHAP. XXV Of the Emperor Valentinian and Gracian his Sonne which raigned in the time of Saint Ambrose which because they were good Christians were alwayes fortunate and that God giueth victory vnto Princes more through the teares of them that pray then thorow the weapons of those that fight IAlentinian and Valent were brethren and the eldest of them was Valentinian who succeeded in the Empire after the death of his Father to bee Pretor of the Armies For amongst the Romaines there was a Law in vre that if the Father dyed in the fauour of the people of right the sonne without any other demand was heyre This Valentinian was a lusty yong man of a sanguine complexion and of his body well shaped and aboue all hee was a good Christian and of all the people generally welbeloued For nothing adorneth the noble man more then to bee counted ciuill and courteous of behauiour At that time when the Emperour Iulian persecuted most the Christians Valentinian was Pretour of the Armies and when Iulian was aduertised that Valentinian was a Christian hee sent vnto him and bad him doe sacrifice to the Idols of the Romane Emperor or else to forsake the office of his Pretorship Iulian would gladly haue killed Valentinian but he durst not for it was a Law inuiolable amongst the Romanes that no Citizen should be put to death without the decree of the Senate Valentinian receyuing the message of this Emperour Iulian aduertised of his will which was to renounce his faith or to leaue his office hee did not onely resigne his office but therewithall forgaue the Emperour all the money hee ought him for arrerages of his sernice And because hee would liue with a more quiet conscience he went from Rome into a Cloyster where hee banished himselfe for two yeares and a halfe for this hee was highly esteemed and commended For it is a good signe That man is a good Christian which of his owne free will renounceth worldly goods Shortly after it happened that Iulian the Emperour went to conquere the Realme of Persia where in a battell hee was very sore wounded and fell downe dead in the present place For to the mishaps of Fortune the Emperour with all his estate and pleasures is as much subiect as is the poorest man that lieth in the streetes When the newes came to Rome that Iulian was dead by the consent of all Valentinian was created Emperour so that hee being banished for Christs sake was called againe and crowned Prince of the Romane Empire Let no man care to loose all that hee possesseth let no man weigh to see himselfe despised for Christes sake For in the end men cannot in a thousand yeeres so much abase vs as God in one houre can exalt vs. In the same yeare which was from the foundation of Rome â—119 in a City called Atrobata it rained very fine wooll so that all the City became rich In the same yeare in the City of Constantinople it hayled such great stones that they killed many men left no heards in the fields aliue At that same time there came an Earthquake throughout Italy and so likewise in Sicille that many houses fell and slew sundry persons and aboue all the sea rose in such sort that it drowned many Cities nigh thereunto Paulus Diaconus in the 11. booke De Legibus Romanorum sayeth that the Emperour Valentinian was of a subtill wit of
sate perisheth in the graue but vertue science makes men to be of immortall memory The gods neuer commanded it neither the studies and vniuersities of Italy suffered it to haue the body fine and trimme the visage faire and cleare and the heart full of Phylosophy for the true Phylosopher of all other things esteemeth least the setting forth of the body For that the demonstrations and tokens of a true perfect phylosopher is to haue his ere 's troubled his eye bries burnt and the head bald the ball of his eyes sunke into his head the face yellow the body leane and feeble the flesh dry the soâ—te vnhosed the garment poore the eating little and the watching great Finally he ought to liue as a Lacedemonian and speake as a Grecian The tokens of a valiant renowmed captain are his wounds and hurts and the signe of a studious phylosopher is the despising of the world For the wise man ought to thinke himselfe as much dishonored if they call him stout and sturdie as a captaine when they call him a coward and negligent I like well that the phylosopher study the ancient antiquities of his forefathers that wrote the profound things for the time to come that hee teach profitable wholesome doctrines to those which are now aliue that he diligently enquire of the motion of the starres that he consider what causeth the alteration of the elements But I sweare vnto thee Epesipus that neuer sage of Rome came to those things nor phylosopher of Greece likewise but in searching the quietnesse of the soule despising the pleasures of the body Touching the body I am like to beasts but concerning the spirit I am partly like to the gods sith that following the things of the flesh I am made lesse then my self and in following the motions of the spirit I am made more then I am For truly sensualitie maketh vs inferiour to beasts and reason maketh vs superiour vnto men The worldly malice presumption naturally desireth rather to mount then to descend and to command rather then to be commanded And since it is so why do we by vices abase our selues to do lesse then beasts being possible for vs by vertues to do more then men Amongst all the members which men can haue there is nothing more tender to breake nor any thing more easy to corrupt then is the handsomnes of the body where we are so proud For in mine opinion to esteeme himselfe to be a handsome and proper person is no other thing but to esteeme our selues that dreaming we shal be rich and mighty and afterwards awaking we find our selues to be poore and miserable And me thinkes thâ—s thing to be true because I will declare what it is to see a yong man in his first age the head litle the haire yeallow the brow long the eyes green the cheeks whit the nose sharp the lips coloured the beard forked the face liuely the necke small the body of good proportion the arme little the fingers long and to conclude so well proportioned in his members that mens eyes should alwayes desire to behold him and the hearts alwayes seeke to loue him If this yong man so faire and well proportioned remained long time in his beautie and disposition it were good to desire it to procure it to keepe it to pay sâ— it and to loue it well for in the end if we loue the beautie in beasts and buildings by greater reason wee should desire it in our selues But what shall wee say that when we do not watch this litle floure which yesterday florished on the tree faire and whole without suspition to be lost one little hoary frost sodainly wasteth and consumeth it the vehement wind ouerthrows it the knife of enuy cutteth it the water of aduersitie vndoeth it and the heate of persecutions pineth it and finally the worme of short life gnaweth it and the putrifaction of death decayeth and bringeth it down to the ground O mans life that art alwayes cursed I count fortune cruell and thee vnhappy since she will that thou tarriest on her which dreaming giueth thee pleasures and waking worketh the displeasures which giueth into thy hands trauell to tast and suffereth thee not onely to listen after quier which will thou proue aduersitie and agree that thou haue prosperitie but at her will finally she giueth ther life by ounces and death without measure The wicked and vitious say that it is a great pleasure to liue in ease but I protest vnto them that there was neuer any mortall man had so much pleasure in vices but that he remained in great paine after that they were banished from him For the heart which of long time hath bene rooted in vice incontinently is subiect to some great alteration I would all would open their eyes to see how wee liue deceiued for all the pleasures which delight the body make vs beleeue that they come to abide with vs continually but they vanish away with sorrows immediatly And on the contrary part the infirmities and sorrowes that blind the soule say that they come onely to lodge as guests and ramaine with vs continually as housholders I maruell of thee Epesipus why thou doest not consider what shall becom of the beauty of thy body hereafter sith thou leest presently the beauty of those departed interred in the graue By the diuersitie of fruits man doth know the diuersitie of trees in the Orchyard that is to say the Oake by the Acornes the Date tree by the Dates and the Vines by the Grapes but when the roote is dry the body cut the fruit gathered the leafe fallen and when the tree is layd on fire and become ashes I would now know if this ashes could bee knowne of what tree it was or how a man might know the difference of the one froÌ„ the other By this coÌ„parison I meane to say that for so much as the life of this death the death of this life commeth to seeke vs out wee are all as trees in the Orchard whereby some are knowne by the rootes of their predecessors others by the leaues of their wordes others by the branches of their friendes some in the flowers of their beauty and other some by the barke of their foule skinne The one in their mercifulnesse the other in their stoutenesse other in their hardinesse beeing aged others in their hastinesse of their youth others in their barrennesse by theyr pouerty others by their fruitfulnesse in riches Finally in one onely thing wee are all alike that is to say that all vniuersally goe to the graue not one remayning I aske now when death hath done his office executing all earthly men in the later dayes what difference is there then betweene the fayre and the foule which lye both in the narrow graue certainely there is none and if there bee any difference it shall bee in the making of their graues which vaine men inuented And I doe
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
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
vs to a new builded Pallace And what other thing is the graue but a strong fort wherin we shut our selues from the assaults of life and broyles of fortune Truely wee ought to bee more desirous of that wee finde in death then of that wee haue in life If Helia Fabricia thy wife doe greeue thee for that thou leauest her yong doe not care for shee presently hath little care of the perill wherein thy life dependeth And in the end when she shall know of thy death shee will be nothing greeued Trouble not thy selfe for that she is left a widdow for yong women as shee is which are married to olde men as thou when their husbands die they haue their eyes on that they can robbe and their hearts on them whom they desire to marrie And speaking with due respect when with their eyes they outwardly seeme most for to bewayle then with their hearts inwardly doe they most reioyce Deceiue not thy selfe in thinkeing that the Empresse thy wife is yong and that she shall finde none other Emperor with whom again she may marrie For such and the like will change the cloth of gold for gownes of skinnes I meane that they would rather the young shepheard in the field then the olde Emperour in his royall pallace If thov takest sorrow for the children whom thou leauest I know not why thou shouldst do so For truely if it greeue thee now for that thou diest they are more displeased for that thou liuest The sonne that desireth not the death of his father may be counted the onely Phenix of this world for if the father bee poore he wisheth him dead for that he is not maintained and if hee rich he desireth his death to enherite the sooner Since therefore it is true as indeed it is it seemeth not wisedome that they sing and thou weepe If it greeue thee to leaue these goodly pallaces and these sumptuous buildings deceiue not thy selfe therein For by the god Iupiter I sweare vnto thee that since that death doth finish thee at the end of threescore and two yeeres time shall consume these sumptuous buildings in lesse then 40. If it greeue thee to forsake the company of thy friends and neighbors for them also take as little thought since for thee they will not take any at all For amongst the other compassions that they ought to haue of the dead this is true that scarcely they are buried but of their friends and neighbours they are forgotten If thou takest greatest thought for that thou wilt not die as the other Emperours of Rome are dead me seemeth that thou oughtest also to cast this sorrow from thee for thou knowest right well that Rome hath accustomed to bee so vnthankefull to those which serue her that the great Scipio also would not be buried therein If it greeue thee to die to leaue so great a Seignory as to leaue the Empire I cannot thinke that such vanity be in thy head for temperate and reposed men when they escape from semblable offices doe not thinke that they lose honour but that they be free of a trouble some charge Therefore if none of all these things moue thee to desire life what should let thee that throgh thy gates enter not death it greeueth men to dy for one of these two things either for the loue of those they leaue behinde them or for feare of that they hope Since therefore there is nothing in this life worthy of loue nor any thing in death why we should feare why doe men feare to die According to the heauy fighes thou fetchest the bitter teares thou sheddest and according also to that great paine thou shewest for my part I thinke that the thing in thy thought most forgotten was that the gods should commaund thee to pay this debt For admit that all thinke that their life shall end yet no man thinketh that death wil come so soon For that men think neuer to die they neuer begin their faults to amend so that both life and fault haue end in the graue together Knowest not thou most noble Prince that the long night commeth the middest morning Doest thou not know that after the moist morning there cometh the cleare Sun Knowest not thou that after the cleare Sun commeth the cloudy Element Doest thou not know that after the darke myst there commeth extreme heate And after the heate commeth the horrible thunders and after the thunders the sodaine lightnings and after the perilious lightnings commeth the terrible haile Finally I say that after the tempestuous and troublesome time commonly commeth cleare and faire weather The order that time hath to make himselfe cruell and gentle the selfe same ought men to haue to liue and die For after the infancy commeth childhood after childhood commeth youth after youth commeth age and after age commeth the feareful death Finally after that feareful death commeth the sure life Oftentimes I haue read and of thee not seldome heard that the gods onely which had no beginning shall haue also no ending Therefore mee thinketh most noble Prince that sage men ought not to desire to liue long Formen which desire to liue much either it is for that they haue not felt the trauels past because they haue bene fooles or for that they desire more time to giue themselues to vices Thou mightest not complaine of that since they haue not cut thee in the flower of the herbe nor taken thee greene from the tree nor cut thee in the spring tide and much lesse eate thee eager before thou wert ripe By that I haue spoken I meane if death had called thee when thy life was sweetest though thou hadst not had reason to haue complayned yet thou mightest haue desired to haue altered it For it is a greater griefe to say vnto a yong man that he must die and forsake the world What is this my Lord now that the wall is decaied ready to fall the flower is an hered the grape doth rot the teeth are loose the gowne is worne the lance is blunt the knife is dull and dost thou desire to returne into the world as if thou hadst neuer knowne the world These threescore and two yeeres thou hast liued in the proportion of this body and wilt thou now that the yron fetters haue rot thy legges desire yet to lengthen thy daies in this so wofull prison They that will not be contented to liue threescore yeeres and fiue in this death or to die in this life will not desire to liue threescore thousand yeeres The Emperour Augustus Octauian saide That alter men had liued fiftie yeeres either of their owne will they ought to dye or else by force they should cause themselues to bee killed For at that time all those which haue any humaine felicitie are at the best Those which liue aboue that age passe their daies in grieuous torments As in the death of children in the losse of goods and importunitie of
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