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
not repent mee for calling them vayne since there is no vanity nor fondnes comparable to this for they are not contented to bee vaine in their liues but will also after their drathes enterprise their vanities in sumptuous and stately sepulchres The coale of the Cedar in mine opinion that is high and fayre is nothing more whether when it is burnt then the coale of the oake which is little and crooked I meane oftentimes the Gods doe permit that the bones of a poore Philosopher are more honoured then the bones of Princes With death I wil threaten thee no longer for sith thou art giuen to the vices of this life thou wouldest not as yet that with a word it should destroy thee but I will tell thee on â— word more though it grieue thee to heare it which is that God created thee to die women bare thee to dye and thou camest into the world for to die and to conclude I say some are borne to day on condition they dye tomorrow â—â—d giue their places to others When the great and fearefull Trees beginne to budde by the rootes it signifieth that time draweth on for them to cut the drie withered branches meane that to see hildren borne in Ihe House is no other but to cite the Grand-fathers and Fathers to the graue If a man would aske me what death is I would say a miserable lake wherein all worldly men are taken for those that most safely thinke to passe it ouer remaine therein most subtilly deceyned I haue alwayes read of the Ancients past and haue seene of the young men present and I suppose that the selfe same will bee to come hereafter that when life most sweetest seemeth to any man then suddenly death entereth in at their dores O immortall Gods I cannot tell if I may call you cruell I know not if I may call you mercifull because you gaue vs flesh bones honour goods friends and also you giue vs pleasure finally yee giue to men all that they want saue onely the cuppe of life which to your selues you did reserue Since I may not that I would I will that I may but if it were referred to my will I would rather one onely day of life then all the riches of Rome for what auayleth it to toyle and take paines to encrease honour and worldly good since life dayly diminisheth Returning therefore to my first purpose thou must know that thou esteemest thy selfe and glorifiest in thy personage and beauty I would gladly know of thee and of others which are young and faire if you doe not remeÌ„ber that once yee must come to bee olde and rotten for if you thinke you shall liue but a little then reason would you should not esteem your heaâ—ties much for by reason it as a straunge thing that lise should abate vs and folly traine vs. If you thinke to become aged yee ought to remember and alwayes to thinke that the steele of the knife which doth much seruice at length decayeth and is lost for lacke of looking to Truely the young man is but a new knife the which in processe of time cankereth in the edge For on one day hee breaketh the poynt of vnderstanding another he looseth the edge of cutting and to morrow the rust of diseases taketh him and afterwards by aduersitie he is writhen and by infirmities hee is diseased by riches hee is whetted by pouertie hee is dulled againe and finally oftentimes it chanceth that the more sharpe he is whetted so much the more the life is put in hazard It is a true thing that the feete and hands are necessarie to climbe to the vanities of youth and that afterwards stumbling a little immediately rowling the head downewards wee discend into the misery of age For to our seeming yesterday wee knew one that was young and beautifull and within short time after wee heare that he is dead and rotten When I consider many men as well friends as enemies which were not long agoe flourishing in beauty and youth ' and presently I see them to bee old and drie sicke and foule truely I thinke that as then I dreamed of them or that they be not now as they were then What thing is more fearefull or more credible then to see a man become miserable in short space that the fashion of his visage should change the beauty of the face should bee lost the beard waxe white the head bould the cheekes and forehead full of wrinckles the teeth as white as Iuorie become blacke the light feete by the goute to seeme crepeled and and afterward waxeth heauy the palsey weakenneth the strong arme the fine smoth throat with wrinckles is playted the body that was straight and vpright waxeth weake and crooked Aboue all that I haue spoken I say to thee Epesipus which presumest to bee fayre that hee which through his propernesse in youth was the mirrour of all becommeth to bee such a one that he doubteth whether he be the selfe same now in his age that he was in his youth Doe what thou wilt praise and glorifie thy beautie as much as thou thinkest good yet in the end the beauty of men is none other but as a vayle to couer their eyes a payre of fetters for the feete manacles for the hands a lime rodde for the winges a theefe of time an occasion of daunger a prouoker of trouble a place of lecherie a sinke of all euill and finally it is an inuentor of debates and a scourge of the affectioned man Since thou hast forsaken thy study I am not bound to send thee any thing chiefly wasting thy money in childish and youthfull to yes but not withanding all those things I sende thee by Aulus Vegenus two thousand crownes for thy apparrell and truelle thou shalt be very vnthankfull if thou doest not know the benefite done vnto thee for a man ought to giue more thanks for that which is done of curtesie then for that which is offered of necessitie I cannot tell what to let thee vnderstand in these partes but that thy sister Anania Salaria is married who sayth shee is content I pray God it bee so for with money men may bee holpen to marriages but it lyeth in the gods to content the parties If thou wilt know of Torings thy cofin thou shalt vnderstand shee is embarked in the fleet which went to Spaine indeed I neuer thought otherwise wise on her after shee had been three dayes hidde in the way of Salaria For maydes that will betimes gather their grapes it is a token that they will go on warfare with Souldiers Of Annius Rufus thy friend and companion I certifie thee that hee is gone into the Isle of Helespont and hee goeth by the authority of the Senate to vnderstand the gouernement thereof and albeit he bee young yet he is wise and therefore I suppose he will render a good account of his commission for of these two extremities the aged that doe
and of the Senate best fauoured to whom they committed the charge of the most cruell and dangerous warres For their strife was not to beare rule and to be in office or to get money but to be in the Frontiers to ouercome their enemies In what estimation these foure Frontiers were wee may easily perceyue by that wee see the most noble Romanes haue passed some part of their youth in those places as Captaines vntill such time that for more weighty affaires they were appointed from thence to som other places For at that time there was no word so grieuous and iniurious to a Citizen as to say Goe thou hast neuer beene brought vp in the wars and to proue the same by examples The great Pompey passed the Winter season in Constantinople The aduenturous Scipio in Colonges the couragious Caesar in Gades and the renowmed Marius in Rhodes And these foure were not only in the Frontiers aforesaid in their youth but there they did such valiant acts that the memory of them remaineth euermore after their death These thinges I haue spoken to proue sith wee finde that Marcus Aurelius father was Captain of one of these 4. Frontiers it followeth that he was a man of singular wisdome and prowesse For as Scipio sayd to his friend Masinissa in Affrike It is not possible for a Romane Captaine to want eyther wisdome or courage for thereunto they were predestined at their birth Wee haue no authenticke authorities that sheweth vs frō whence when or how in what countries and with what persons this captaine passed his youth And the cause is for that the Romane Chroniclers were not accustomed to write the things done by their Princes before they were created but onely the acts of yong men which from their youth had their hearts stoutly bent to great aduentures and in my opinion it was well done For it is greater honour to obtaine an Empire by policy and wisdome then to haue it by discent so that there be no tyranny Suetonius Tranquillus in his first booke of Emperours counteth at large the aduenturous enterprises taken in hand by Iulius Caesar in his yong age and how far vnlikely they were from thought that he should euer obtaine the Romane Empire writing this to shew vnto Princes how earnestly Iulius Caesars heart was bent to win the Romane Monarchy and likewise how wisdom fayled him in behauing himselfe therin A Philosopher of Rome wrote to Phalaris the Tirant which was in Cicilia asking him Why hee possessed the realme so long by tyranny Phalaris answered him againe in another Epistle in these few wordes Thou callest mee tyrant because I haue taken this realme and kept it 32. yeares I graunt then quoth hee that I was a tyrant in vsurping it For no man occupyeth another mans right but by reason he is a tyrant But yet I will not agree to be called a Tyrant sith it is now xxxii yeares since I haue possessed it And though I haue atchieued it by tyranny yet I haue gouerned it by wisdome And I let thee to vnderstand that to take another mans goods it is an easie thing to conquere but a hard thing to keepe an easie thing for to keepe them I ensure thee it is very hard The Emperour Marcus Aurelius married the daughter of Antoninus Pius the 16. Emperour of Rome and she was named Faustina who as sole Heyre had the Empire and so through marriage Marcus Aurelius came to be Emperour This Faustine was not so honest and chast as shee was faire and beautifull Shee had by him two sonnes Commodus and Verissimus Marcus Aurelius triumphed twice once when he ouercame the Parthians and another time when hee conquered the Argonants He was a man very well learned and of a deepe vnderstanding Hee was as excellent both in the Greeke and Latine as hee was in his mothers tongue Hee was very temperate in eating and drinking hee wrote many things full of good learning and sweete sentences He dyed in conquering the realme of Pannonia which is now called Hungarie His death was as much bewayled as his life was desired And hee was loued so deare and entirely in the City of Rome that euery Romane had a statue of him in his house to the end the memory of him among them should neuer decay The which was neuer read that they euer did for any other King or Emperour of Rome no not for Augustus Caesar who was best beloued of all other Emperours of Rome Hee gouerned the Empire for the space of eighteene yeere with vpright iustice and died at the age of 63 yeeres with much honor in the yeere Climatericke which is in the 63. years wherein the life of man runneth in great perill For then are accomplished the nine seuens or the seuen nines Aulus Gelius writeth a Chapter of this matter in the booke De noctibus Atticis Marcus Aurelius was a Prince of life most pure of doctrine most profound and of fortune most happy of all other Princes in the world saue only for Faustine his wife and Commodus his sonne And to the end we may see what Marcus Aurelius was from his infancy I haue put here an Epistle of his which is this CHAP. II. Of a letter which Marcus Aurelius sent to his friend Pulio wherein he declareth the order of his whole life and amongst other things he maketh mention of a thing that happened to a Romane Censor with his Host of Campagnia MAreus Aurelius only Emperour of Rome greeteth thee his old friend Pulio wisheth health to thy person peace to the common-wealth As I was in the Temple of the Vestall Virgins a letter of thine was presented vnto me which was written long before and greatly desired of me but the best therof is that thou writing vnto me briefly desirest that I should write vnto thee at large which is vndecent for the authority of him that is chiefe of the Empire in especiall if such one be couetous for to a Prince there is no greater infamy then to be lauish of words and scant of rewards Thou writest to me of the griefe in thy leg and that thy wound is great and truly the paine thereof troubleth me at my heart and I am right sorry that thou wantest that which is necessary for thy health and that good that I do wish thee For in the end all the trauels of this life may be endured so that the body with diseases be not troubled Thou lettest me vnderstand by thy letters that thou art arriued at Rhodes and requirest me to write vnto thee how I liued in that place when I was yong what time I gaue my minde to study and likewise what the discourse of my life was vntill the time of my being Emperor of Rome In this case truly I maruell at thee not a little that thou shouldest aske me such a question and so much the more that thou didst not consider that I cannot with out great trouble and
places are Arbours and Gardeins to wofull and heauie hearts A slaue hath nothing to care for but himselfe alone but you that be princes haue to satisfie and please all men For the Prince should haue a time for himselfe and also for those which are about him The diuine Plato said well that hee that should haue the least parte of a Prince and belonging to a Prince ought to be the Prince himselfe For to that ende the Prince should bee all his owne he ought to haue no part in himselfe Though a slaue work trauel in the day yet he sleepes without care in the night but you Princes passe the time in hearing importunate suites and the nights in fetching innumerable sighs Finally I say that in a slaue be it well or be it euill all his paine is finished in one yeare or is ended at his death but what shall a wofull Prince doe when he dyeth If he were good there is but a short memory of his goodnesse and if hee hath beene euill his infamy shall neuer haue end I haue spoken these things to the end that great and small Lords and seruants should confesse and acknowledge the true Seigniory to be onely vnto him who for to make vs Lords aboue became a seruant heere beneath CHAP. XXX When the Tyrants beganne to ratgne and vpon what occasion commaunding and obeying first begann And how the authority which the Prince hath is by the ordinance of God CEasing to speake any further of the Poeticall Histories and auncient faynings and speaking the truth according to the diuine Histories the first that did liue in this World was our Father Adam who did eate of the fruite forbidden and that not so much for to trespasse the commaundement of one as for not to displease his wife Eue For many now a dayes had rather suffer theyr conscience a long time to bee infected then one onely day to see theyr wiues displeased The first homicide of the worlde was Caine The first that dyed in the World was Abel The first that had two wiues in the World was Lamech The first City of the World was by Enoch built in the fields of Edon The first Musition was Tubalcaim The first which sayled in the World was Noe The first Tyrant of the World was Nembroth The first Priest was Melcrisedech The first King of the World was Anraphel The first Duke was Moyses The first which was called Emperour in the World was Iulius Caesar For vntill this time they which gouerned were called Consuls Censors and Dictators And from Iulius Caesars hitherto haue beene called Emperours The first battell that was giuen in the world as wee reade was in the wilde valleyes which now they call the dead and salt sea For a great part of that that then was the maine land is novv the dead sea The holy Scriptures cannot deceyue vs for it is full of all truth and by them it is declared that eighteene hundred yeares after the World beganne there was no battell assembled nor company that met to fight in the field for at that time when they had no ambition nor couetousnesse they knew not what battell meant It is reason therefore that in this writing we declare the cause why the first battell was fought in the world to the end Princes may thereof bee aduertised and the curious Reader remaine therein satisfied The manner was this that Bassa being King of Sodome Bersa King of Gomorrhe Senaab King of Adamee Semebar King of Seboime and Vale King of Segor were all fiue Tributaries to Chodor Lanmor King of the Elamites which fiue Kings conspired against him because they would pay him no tribute and because that they would acknowledge no homage vnto him For the realmes paying tribute haue alwayes rebelled and sowed sedition This rebellion was in the 13 yeare of the raigne of Chodor Laomor King of the Elamites and immediately the yeare following Anraphel king of Sernaar Arioch king of Ponte and Aradal King of the Allotali ioyned with Chodor Laomor All which together beganne to make warres to destroy Cities and Countries vpon their enemies For the olde malice of the warre is That where they cannot haue their enemies which are in the fault they put to sacke and destroy those which are innocent and guiltlesse So the one assaulting and the other desending in the end all come to the field they gaue battell as two enemies and the greatest part was ouercome of the fewest and the fewest remayned victorious ouer the greatest which thing God would suffer in the first battell of the world to the end Princes might take example that all the mishappes of the Warres come not but because they are begun of an vniust occasion If Chodor Laomor had helde himselfe contented as his Predecessors did and that hee had not conquered Realmes in making them subiect and had not caused them to pay tribute neyther they vnto him would haue denyed reason nor hee with them would haue waged battell For thorow the couetousnesse of the one and the ambition of the other enmities grew betweene the people This considered which wee haue spoken of Sygnorie and of those which came into contentions for signories Let vs now see from whence the first originall of seruitude came and the names of seruantes and Lordes which were in the old time and whether seruitude was by the discorde of vertuous men first brought into the World or else inuented by the ambition of tyrants for when the one commaundeth and the other obeyeth it is one of the nouelties of the world as the holy Scripture declareth vnto vs in this manner The holy Patriarch Noah had three sons which were Sam Ham and Iaphet and the second sonne which was Ham begot Cusn and this Cusn begotte Nimrod Nimrod made himselfe a Hunter of wilde beasts in the woodes and mountaines Hee was the first that beganne to play the Tyrant amongst men enforcing their persons and taking their goods and the Scripture called him Oppressor hominum which is to say an Oppressor of men For men of euill life alwaies commit much euill in a Common-wealth He taught the Chaldeans to honor the fire hee was the first that presumed to be an absolute Lord and the first that euer required of men homage and seruice This cursed tyrant ended his life in the golden World wherein all things were in common with the Common-wealth For the Auncients vsed their goods in common but their wils onely they reserued to themselues They ought not so thinke in a light matter for his persō to haue been a tyrant but they ought to think it a greater matter to haue beene a rebel in a Common-wealth much more they ought to esteeme it as an euill matter in him which hath beene as hee was a disturber of the good customes of his country but the most vniust of all is to leaue behind him any euil custom brought into the common wealth for if hee deserue great
dyed Truely this case was no lesse to be lamented then the other for so much as Gaius lost his Sister the Husband lost his Wife and his Childe and the wife and the childe lost their liues and for that that Rome lost so Noble and excellent a Romane and aboue all for that it chaunced in such a time of so great ioy and pleasure For there can come no vnluckier newes then in the time of much myrth to heare tell of any great mischance Of this matter mention is made in Blandus in the book of the declinatioÌ„ of the Empire The second warre of Affrike which was betweene Rome and Carthage was in the 540. yeares after the Foundation of Rome wherein were Captaines Paulus Emilius and Publius Varro the which two Consulls fought the great and famous bloudy Battell of Cannas in the Prouince of Apulia I say famous because Rome neuer lost such Nobilitie and Romaine youth as shee lost in that day Of these two Consulles Paulus Emilius in the Battell was slayne and Publius Varro was ouercome and the most couragious Hanniball remained conquerour of the Field wherein dyed xxx Senatours and 300. officers of the Senate and aboue xl thousand footmen and three thousand horsemen Finally the end of all the Roman people had been that day if Hannibal had had the witte to haue followed so noble a victory as he had the courage to giue so cruell a Battell A litle before that Publius Varro departed to goe to the warres hee was married to a faire and young Romaine called Sophia and within seuen moneths shee was quicke and as newes was brought her that Paulus Aemilius was dead and her husband ouercome she died suddenly the creature remaining aliue in her bodie This case aboue all was very pittifull in that that after he himselfe was vanquished and and that he had seene his companion the Consull Emilius slaine with so great a number of the Romane people Fortune would that with his own eyes he should behold the entrailes of his wife cut to take out the Childe and likeewise to see the Earth opened to burie his wife Titus Liuius saith that Publius Varro remained so sorrowfull in his heart to see himselfe ouercome of his enemyes and to see his wife so suddenly and so vnluckely stricken with death that all the time that his life endured he neyther combed his beard slept in bed nor dined at the Table and hereat we ought not to maruel for a man in his hart may be so wounded in one houre that hee shall neuer reioyce all the dayes of his life If wee put no doubts in Titus Liuius the Romaines had long and tedious warres against the Samnites which endured for the space of lxiii yeares contiually vntill such time as the Consull Ancus Rutilius who was a vertuous man did set a good appointment of peace between the Samnites and the Romanes For the noble stout harts ought alwaies by vertue to bring their enemies to peace These warres therfore being so cruell and obstinate Titus Venurius and Spurius Posthuminus which were Romaine Captains were ouercome by Pontius the valiant Captaine of the Samnites who after the victorie did a thing neuer seene nor heard of before That is to say that all the Romaine prisoners whom hee tooke hee put about theyr necks a yoke wherein was written In spight of Rome the Romaines shall be subtects to the yoke of the Samnites Wherewith indeed the Romains were greatly iniuried wherefore they sought stoutto be reueÌ„ged of the Samnites for the harts that are haughty proud caÌ„not suffer that others haue theyr mindes lofty and high The Romaines therefore created to bee Captaine of the Warre one named Lucius Papirius who had Commission to goe against the Samnites This Lucius was more Fortunate in his doings then comely of his person for he was deformed of his face notwithstanding hee did so good seruice in the warre and Fortune fauoured him so well that he did not onely ouercome and vanquish but also destroyed them and though the iniurie which the Samnites did to the Romaines was great yet truely the iniurie which the Romaines did to the Samnites was much greater For Fortune is so variable that those which yesterday we saw in most prosperitie too day wee see in greatest aduersitie This Lucius Papirius therfore did not only vanquish the Samnites kept them prisoners and made yokes for theyr neckes but also he bound them with cords together in such sort that they made them plough the ground drawing two and two a plough And yet not herewith conteÌ„ted but with gads they pricked and tormented them If the Samnites had had pitie of the Romaines beeing ouercome the Romaines likewise would haue taken compassion of them when they were Conquerours And therefore the prosperous haue as much neede of good counsell as the miserable haue neede of remedie For the man which is not merciful in his prosperitie hee ought not to maruel though he finde no friendes in his necessitie This Lucius Papirius had a Daughter maried to a Senator of Rome who was called Torquatus and she was called Ypolita And about that time that she should haue bene deliuered shee went forth to receiue her Father the which she ought not to haue don for the throng of the people in receiuing him being great and she herselfe being great with child by a most heauie chaunce as she would haue passed in at a narrow gate shee was so prest in the throng that she chaunged her life for death and her Father turned his mâ—th and ioy into sorrow and sadnes For he tooke the death of his daughter very heauilie and so much the more because it was so suddenly I say hee tooke it heauily since he was so stoute a man and so Sage withall that all Rome thought much that any such sudden chaunce should haue dismayed so worthie a man that of his wisedome he could take no benefite but heereat let no man maruell For ther are many that haue harts to shed the bloud of their enemies and yet caÌ„not withholde the teares of their eyes Annius Seuerus in the third booke De infelieitate Fortuna saith that the day that this wofull mishap chaunced to Lucius Papirius hee lift vp his eyes to the Heauens and weeping saide Oh Fortune deceiuer of all mortall men thou madest mee to conquere in warre to the intent to ouercome me in peace My mind was to declare vnto you all these ancients hystories to the end that al may know how tender women with childe are and how diligent their Husbands ought to bee to preserue them since there is nothing so tender to be kept nor any glasse so easie to be broken For there is much glasse that thogh it fall to the ground yet it doeth not breake but a woman with Childe onely for treading her foote awry we see with daunger to be deliuered CHAP. XI That Women great with childe and especially Princesses great
they did more esteeme the good will wherewith they gaue it then they did the gifts themselues for there was so much indeed that sufficed both to make the Image of the Goddesse Berecinthia and also for a long time to maintaine the Warres Therefore from that day that those Matrons presented their Iewels in the high Capitoll the Senate forthwith in remembrance of the gentlenesse graunted them these fiue things as a priuiledge for at that time Rome neuer receiued seruice or benefite of any person but Shee rewarded it with double payment The first thing that the Senate granted the Romane Women was That in the day of their buriall the Oraters might openly make Orations in the prayse of their liues for in olde time men vsed neyther to exalt them when they were dead nor yet to accompany them to their graues The second thing that was graunted vnto them was That they might sit in the Temples for in the olde time when the Romanes did offer Sacrifices to their Gods the aged did alwayes sit the Priests kneele the marryed men did leane but the women though they were of Noble and high linage could neyther be suffered to talke sit nor leane The third thing that the Senate granted the women of Rome was That euery one of them might haue two rich Gownes and that they should not aske the Senate leaue to weare them for in the old time if any woman were apparelled or did buy any new Gowne without asking licence of the Senate she should immediately lose her Gowne and because her husband did condiscend vnto the same he was banished the Common-wealth The fourth thing which they granted them was That they should drinke Wine when they were sicke for there was in Rome a custome inuiolable that though their life was in hazard they durst not drinke wine but water for when Rome was well corrected a woman that drunke wine was as much slandered among the people as if she had committed Adultery towards her husband The fith thing granted by the Senate vnto the women was That a man might not deny a Romane being with childe any honest and lawfull thing that she demanded I cannot tell why the Ancients of Rome esteemed more of women with childe then others that had no children All these fiue thinges were iustly granted to the Matrons and Noble Romane Ladyes And I can tell thee Faustine that they were of the Senate most willingly granted for it is reason that women which in vertues doe excell should with all meanes be honoured I will tell thee Faustine the especiall cause that mooued the Romanes to grant vnto you Matrones this last priuiledge that is to say That a man cannot deny them any thing being with child Thou oughtest to know that the others as well Greekes as Latines did neuer giue Lawes nor Institutions vnto their people without great occasions for the great multitude of lawes are commonly euill kept and on the other part are cause of sundry troubles We cannot deny but that the Ancients did well auoyde the great number of Institutions for it is better for a man to liue as reason commandeth him then as the lawe constraineth him The case therefore was that in the yeere of the foundation of Rome 364. Fuluius Torquatus then being Consull in the warre against the Volces the Knights of Mauritania brought to Rome an huge Monster with one eye called Monoculus which he had found in the Desarts of Aegipt at the time the wife of Torquatus called Macrina should haue beene deliuered of child for the Consull did leaue her great This Macrina amongst all was so honest that they spent as much time in Rome to praise her for her vertues as they did set foorth her husband for his Victories They read in the Annalles of that time That the first time that this Consull Torquatus went into Asia he was eleuen yeeres out of his Country and his found for a truth that in all the time that Torquatus was absent his wife was neuer seene to looke out at the window which was not a thing smally esteemed for though it was a custome in Rome to keepe the doore shut it was lawfull notwistanding to speake to women at the windowes Though men at that time were not so bold and the women were so honest yet Macrina wife to Torquatus liued so close solitary to her selfe that in all these eleuen yeeres there was neuer man that saw her goe through Rome or that euer saw her doore open neither that shee consented at any time from the time that shee was eight yeeres of age that any man should enter into her house and moreouer there was neuer man saw her face wholly vncouered This Romane Ladie did this to leaue of her a memorie and to giue example of her vertue She had also three children whereof the eldest was but fiue yeeres olde and so when they were eight yeeres of age immediately shee sent them out of her house towards their Parents lest vnder the colour to visite the children others should come to visite her O Faustine how many haue I heard that haue lamented this excellent Romane and what will they thinke that shall follow her life Who could presently restrain a Romane woman from going to the window eleuen yeeres since things now adayes are so dissolute that they doe not onely desire to see them but also run in the Streetes to babble of them Who should cause now adayes a Romane woman that in the eleuen yeeres she should not open her dores since it is so that when the husband commaunded her to shut one doore she will make the whole house to ring of her voyce Hee that now would commaund his wife to tarry at home and let her of her vagaries into the Towne shall perceiue that there is no Basiliske nor Viper that carryeth such poison in her taile as she will spit with her tongue Who could make a Romane woman to bee eleuen yeeres continually without shewing her face to any man since it is so that they spend the most part of their time in looking in a Glasse setting their Ruffes brushing their Cloathes and painting their faces Who would cause a Romane woman to keepe her selfe eleuen yeeres from being visited of her Neighbors and Friends since it is true that now women thinke them greatest enemies which visite them most seldome Returning therefore to the Monster As they led this Monster before the doore of Torquatus his house she being great with childe and her husband in the warre by chance a Mayde of his told her how that this Monster passed by wherefore so great a desire tooke her to see the Monster that for to keepe that she had begun suddenly for this desire she dyed Truely I tell thee Faustine that this Monster had passed many times by the Streete where she dwelt and she would neuer notwithstanding go to the window and much lesse out of her doore to see it The death of this Romane of
so woful that each wise man without comparison would haue greater pleasure to bee in the wars of Affricke then in the peace at Rome For in the good war a man seeth of whom he should take heed but in the euill peace no man knoweth whom to trust Therefore my children since you are naturall of Rome I will tell you what Rome is at this present I let you know that the Vestall virgins are now dissolute the honour of the gods is forgotten the profite of the Common weale no man secketh of the exercise of chiualrie there is no memory for the orphanes and widdowes there is no man doth answer to minister iustice they haue no regard and the dissolute vices of the youth are without measure Finally Rome that in times past was a receite of all the good and vertuous is now made a denne of all theeues and vitious I feare me I feare me lest our mother Rome in short time will haue some sudden and great fall for both men and Cities that fal from the top of their felicitie purchase greater infamie with those that shal come after then the glory that they haue had of them that be past Peraduenture my children you desire to see the walles and buildings of Rome for those things which children see first in their youth the same they loue and keepe alwayes in memory vntill their age As the auncient buildings of Rome are destroied and the few that are now built So would I you should lose your earnest affection to come to see them For indeede the noble hearts are ashamed to see that thing amisse which they cannot remedie Do not thinke my children though Rome be made worse in manners that therefore it is diminished in buildings For I let you vnderstand if you know it not that if a wall doth decay there is no man that doth repayre it If a house fall there is no man that will rayse it vppe againe If a streete bee foule there is no man that will make it cleane If the Riuer carry away any bridge there is no man that will set it vp againe If any Antiquity decay there is no man that will amend it If any wood be cut there is no man that wil keepe it If the Trees waxe olde there is no man that will plant them a new If the pauement of the streetes bee broken there is no man that will laye it againe Finally there is nothing in Rome at this day so euill handled as those things which by the common voyces are ordered These things my children though I doe greatly lament as it is reason yet you ought little to esteeme them all but this all onely ought to bee esteemed and with droppes of bloud to be lamented That now in Rome when the buildings in many places fall downe the vices all wholy together are raysed vp O wofull mother Rome since that in thee the more the wals decay the more the vices encrease Peraduenture my children since you are in those frontiers of Africke you desire to see your parents here in Rome And there at I maruell not for the loue which our naturall Country doth giue the strange country cannot take away All those which come from those parties doe bring vs no other certaine newes but of the multitude of those which die and are slaine in Affricke therefore since you send vs such news from thence looke not that we should send you any other then the like from hence for death hath such authority that it killeth the armed in the warres and slayeth the quiet in peace I let you know that Licia your sister is dead Drusio your vnckle is dead Torquatus your neighbour is dead His wise our cosen and her 3. daughters are dead Fabius your great friend is dead Euander and his children are dead Bibulus which read for me in the chaire the last yeare is also dead Finally there are so many and so good with all that be dead that it is a great shame and pitty to see at this present so many euil as do liue know ye my children that all these and many others which ye left aliue full high in Rome are now become wormes meat full low vnder the earth and death also doth summon me vnto the graue If you my children did consider what shall become of you hereafter truely you will thinke it better to weepe a thousand yeares with the dead then to laugh one houre with those that be aliue Remembring that I bare yee in great paine and haue nourished you in great trauel that yee came of my proper entrailes I would haue you as children about me for the comfort and consolation of my paines but in the end beholding the prowesses of these that are past that bindeth their heires I am content to suffer so long absēce your persons onely to the end you may gette honour in chiualrie for I had rather heare tell you should liue like knights in Affricke then to see you vtterly lost here in Rome My children as you are in the wars of Affricke so I doubt not but that you desire to see the pleasurs of Rome for there is no man in this world so happy but at his neighbours prosperity had som enuy enuy not the vicious neyther desire to bee among vices for truly vices are of such condition that they bring not with thē so much pleasure as they leaue sorrow behind them for the true delight is not in pleasure which suddenly vanisheth but in the truth which euer remaineth I thanke the gods for all these things first for that they made me wise and not foolish for to a woman it is a smal matter to be called so fraile that indeed she bee not foolish The second I thank the gods because in all times of my troubles they haue giuen me patience to endure them for the man onely in this life may be called vnhappie to whom the gods in his troubles giueth not patiēce The 3. I thanke the gods for that those 65. years which I haue liued I neuer hitherto was defamed For the Woman by no reason can complaine of her fortune if in none of her troubles shee hath lost her honour The fourth I thanke the Gods that in this fortie yeares I haue liued in Rome and remained widow there was neuer man nor woman that contended with mee For since we women little profite the commonwealth it is but reason that shee which with euill demeanors hath passed her life should by iustice receiue her death The fifth I giue the Gods thankes that they gaue me children the which are better contented to suffer the trauells of Affrike then to enioy the pleasures of Rome Doe not count me my Children for so vnlouing a Mother that I would not haue you alwaies before mine eyes but considering that many good mens children haue been lost onely for being brought vp in the excessiue pleasures of Rome I doe content my selfe with your absence For
the man that desireth perpetuall renon me though hee bee not banished hee ought to absent himselfe from his Natiue countrey My deare childrē I most earnestly desire you that alwayes you accompanie your selues with the good with the most Auncients and with those which are graue and most expert in counsell and with those that haue most seene the world and doe not vnderstand most of the world by those that haue seene most countreys For the ripe councell proceedeth not from the man that hath trauelled in many Countreys but from him that hath selt himselfe in many daungers Since the nature of the Countrey my Children doth knocke with the hāmer at the heart of man I feare that if you come and see your friends and parents you shall alwayes line in care pensiuenes and being pensiue you shall alwayes liue euill contented and you shall not do that which becometh Romane knights to do And you not being valiaunt knights your enemyes shall alwayes reioyce ouer you and your desires shal neuer take effect for of those men which are carefull and heauy proceedeth alwaies seruices vnworthie I desire you heartily and by this present letter I counsell you that you will not in any wise seeke to come to Rome For as I haue saide you shall know few of those that did know you for eyther they are dead or banished poor or sick aged or come to nought sad or euill contented So that sithence you are not able to remedie their griefes it is best you should not come hither to see their troubles For no man cōmeth to Rome but to weepe with the liuing or to sigh for thē that be dead Truly my children I know not what pleasure is in Rome that shold cause any good man to come hither and to forsake Affrike for if there you haue any enemies here you shal want friends If you haue the Sword that pierceth the body we haue the tōgue here that destroyeth the renowme If you be vexed with the Thieues of Affrike wee are wounded with the traytours flatterers and lyars of Italie If you lacke rest we haue here too much trouble Finally seeing that I doe see in Rome and hearing that which I doe heare of Affrike I cōmend your warre and abhorre your peace If you doe greatly esteem that which I haue said esteem much more that which I shall say which is that wee alwayes heare that you are conquerors of the Affricanes and you shall heare alwayes that we are conquered by vices Therefore if am a true mother I had rather see you win a perpetuall memory among strangers then to liue with infamie at home in your countrey Peraduenture with hope that you shallenioy some goods you will offer to take occasion to come to Rome When this thing shall come to your minds remember my Children that your father being aliue had not much and that vnto your Mother beeing a widow many things wanted And remember that your father bequeathed you nothing but weapons and knowe that from mee you shalll enherite nothing but Bookes For I had rather leaue my Children good doctrine whereby they may liue then euill Riches whereby they may perish I am not rich nor I neuer trauelled to bee rich and the cause was that I saw many mens children vndone only through the hope they had to inherit their parents goods and afterward went a hunting after vices For they seldome times do any worthy feates which in theyr Youth inherite great Treasures This thing therefore beeing true as it is indeede I doe not say onely that I would watch and toyle as many do to get riches and treasures but also if I had treasor before I would giue them vnto you I would as the Phylosopher did cast them into the fire For I had rather haue my children poore and vertuous in Affricke then rich and vicious in Rome You knowe very well my Children that there was among the Tharentines a Law well obserued that the Sonnes should not inherit any thing of the fathers but weapons to fight and that the Daughters should inherite the goods for to marry thēselues withall Truely this Law was very iust for the Sonne that hath alwaies respect to the inheritance will not haue to his Father any great confidence For hee ought to bee called a valiant Romain Knight that with his life hath wonne and by his sword hath gotten Riches Since you are in straunge Realmes I pray you heartily that you be eonuersant with the good as good brethren remembring alwayes that you were my children and that I gaue you both sucke of mine owne proper breasts And the day that I shall heare of your disagreement the same day shall be the end of my life For the discord in one city of parents doth more harme then a whole armie of enemies It is good for you my Children to liue in loue and concord together but it is more requisite to keepe you with the Romain knights The which with you and you with them if you doe not loue together in the warres you shall neuer haue the vpper hand of your enemies For in great Armies the discords that arise amongst them do more harme then the enemies do against whom they fight I thinke well my children that you would be very desirous to know of my estate that is to say whether I am in health whether I am sicke whether I am poore whether I am pleased or whether I am discontented In this case I knowe not why you should desire to knowe it since you ought to presuppose that according to the troubles which I haue passed the miseries which with mine eyes I haue seen I am filled with this world For wise men after fifty yeares and vpwardes ought rather to applie theyr mindes how to receyue death then to seeke for pleasures how to prolong life When mans Flesh is weake it alwayes desireth to bee well kept euen vnto the graue And as I am of flesh and Bone so I do feele the troubles of the world as all mortall men doe But for all this doe not thinke that to bee poore or sicke is the greatest miserie neither thinke that to bee whole and rich is the chiefest felicity for there is none other felicitie of the old fathers but for to see their children vertuous In my opinion it is an honor to the coūtry that the fathers haue such children which will take profit with their counsell and contrariwise that the children haue such fathers which can giue it them For the childe is happy that hath a wise father and more happie is the father that hath not a foolish son I doe write oft times vnto you my children but there is a law that none be so hardy to write to men of war in the field except first they inrowle the letters in the Senate Therefore since I write vnto you more letters then they would they do send lesse then I desire Though this law be painefull to
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
great Lordes ought to recommend their children to their Maisters to the ende they may teache them to change their appetites and not to follow their owne will so that they withdrawe them from their owne will and cause them to learne the aduise of another For the more a man giueth a Noble mans sonne the bridle the more harder it is for them to receyue good doctrine CHAP. XXXIII Princes ought to take heede that theyr Children bee not brought vp in pleasures and vayne delightes For ofte times they are so wicked that the Fathers would not onely haue them with sharpe discipline corrected but also with bitter teares buryed BY experience we see that in Warre for the defence of men Rampiers and Forts are made according to the qualitie of the enemyes and those which saile the daungerous Seas doe chuse great Ships which may breake the waues of the raging Seas So that all wise men according to the quality of the danger doe seeke for the same in time some remedie Ofte times I muse with my selfe and thinke if I could finde anie estate anie age anie Land anie Nation anie Realme or any World wherein there hath beene any man that hath passed this life without tasting what aduersitie was For if such an one were found I thinke it should bee a monstrous thing throughout all the earth and by reason both the deade and liuing should enuie him In the ende after my count made I find that he which but yesterday was rich to day is poore hee that was whole I see him to day sicke he that yesterday laughed to day I see him weepe he that had his hearts ease I see him now sore afflicted hee that was Fortunate now I see him vnluckie Finally him whome lately we knew aliue in the towne now wee see buryed in the graue And to be buryed is nothing else but to be vtterly forgotten For mans friendship is so fraile that when the Corps is couered with earth immediatly the dead is forgotten One thing me thinketh to all men is grieuous and to those of vnderstandng no lesse painfull which is that the miseries of this wicked world are not equally deuided but that oft times all worldly calamityes lyeth in the necke of one man alone For we are so vnfortunate that the worlde giueth vs pleasures in sight and troubles in proofe If a man should aske a Sage man now a daies who hath liued in meane estate and that hee would bee contented to tell him what hee hath past since three yeares that he beganne to speake vntill fiftie yeares that hee began to waxe olde what things thinke you he would telvs that hath chanced vnto him truely all these that follow The griefes of his Children the assaults of his enemyes the importunities of his wife the wantonnes of his daughters sicknes in his person great losse of goods generall famine in the citie cruel plagues in his countrey extreame colde in winter noysom heate in Summer sorrowfull deaths of his friendes and enuious prosperities of his enemyes Finally hee will say that hee passed such and so manie things that oft times he bewailed the woful life and desired the sweet death If the miserable man hath passed such things outwardly what would he say of those which he hath suffered inwardly the which though some discrete men may know yet truly others dare not tell For the trauells which the bodie passeth in 50. yeares may well bee counted in a day but that which the heart suffereth in one day cānot be counted in a hundred yeres A man cannot denie but that wee would count him rash which with a reede would meet another that hath a sword and him for a foole that wold put off his shooes to walke vpon the Thornes But without comparison we ought to esteeme him for the most foole that with his tender flesh thinketh to preuaile against so manie euill fortunes for without doubt the man that is of his body delicate passeth his life with much paine Oh how happie may that man bee called which neuer tasted what pleasure meaneth For men which from their infancie haue bin brought vp in pleasures for want of wisedome know not how to chuse the good and for lacke of force cannot resist the euill which is the cause that Noble-mens children oft times commit sundry heinous offences For it is an infallible rule that the more a man giueth himselfe to pleasures the more he is intangled in vices It is a thing worthie to be noted and woefull to see how polliticke we be to augment things of honour how bolde we be to enterprize them how fortunate to compasse them how diligent to keepe them how circumspect to sustaine them and afterward what pittie it is to see how vnfortunate we are to loose all that which so long time we haue searched for kept and possessed And that which is most to bee lamented in this case is that the goods and Honours are not lost for want of diligence and trauell of the father but for the aboundance of pleasures and vices of the sonne Finally let the Riche man knowe that that which hee hath wonne in labour and toyle waking his Sonne beeing euill brought vp shal consume in pleasures sleeping One of the greatest vanities that reigneth at this day amongst the children of vanitie is that the Father cannot shewe vnto his Sonne the loue which he beareth him but in suffering him to be brought vp in the pleasures and vanities of this life Truly he that is such a one ought not to be called a pittifull father but a cruell step-father for no man will denie me this but that where there is Youth liberty pleasure and Money there will all the vices of this world be resident Lycurgus the great King giuer of lawes and sage Philosopher ordained to the Lacedemonians that all the children which were borne in Citties and good Townes should bee sent to be brought vp in villages till they were xxv yeares of age And Liuius saith that the Lygures were which in olde time were confederates with those of Capua and great enemyes to the people of Rome They had a Lawe amongst them that none should take wages in the warres vnlesse he had bin brought vp in the fields or that he had bin a heard man in the Moūtains so that through one of these two waies their flesh was hardned their joyntes accustomed to suffer the heate and the cold and their bodies more meete to endure the trauells of the warres In the yeare of the foundation of Rome 140. the Romalnes made cruell warres with the Lygures against whome was sent Gneus Fabritius of the which in the end he triumphed and the day following this triumph hee spake vnto the Senate in these words Worthie Senatours I haue beene these fiue yeares against the Ligures and by the immortall Gods I sweare vnto you that in all this time there passed not one weeke but wee had eyther battell or some
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
age lay in Winter season in an Isle called Chetyn which now is called Cypres wherein is a little mountain as yet full of Wood which is called the mount of Archadia where groweth an hearbe called Ilabia which the Auncients say that if it bee cut it droppeth bloud and the nature of it is that if one doe rubbe any man with the bloud thereof hote although hee would not yet hee shall loue him and if they doe annoint him with the bloude that is colde hee shall hate him Of this hearbe wee neede not doubt any thing at all for I did proue it and anointed one with that bloud who would sooner loose his life then that loue which he bare mee There was a Kingin that Isle of great example of life and greatly renowned of clemency though in deed neyther by writing nor by wordes I could neuer know his name but that hee was buried vnder foure pillars in a Tombe of Marble and about the Tombe were engrauen these Greeke and ancient letters where amongst other things these wordes were engrauen The mighty gods whiles they drew out the length Of my weake yeares to passe the floud of life This rule I had my Common wealth to strength To nourish peace and stint vaine blasts of strife By vertues way if ought I could obtaine By vices path I neuer sought to get By dreadles peace if I could right attaine By clattering armes blind hazard could not let By curteous meanes if I could ouercome By raging threates I heaped vp no dread By secret shiftes if I might guide my dome By open force I nowlde the paine were spread By gentle read if I could chastice eke By sharpe wayes no further proofe I sought In outward sight I neuer thought to stricke Before I had to couerte chekes them brought My free consent could neuer vainely heare My tongue to tell one sweet entising lye Nor yet my hollow eares would euer heare Their crooked tales that flatter oft awry My schooled heart was alwayes taught to stay From eager lust of others heaped good I forst my selfe his proper wealth to way And stand content as fortune iudgement stoode My friends decay I alwayes watcht to ayde And recked not for bent of enuies bow In huge expence I neuer lauish payde My glittring golde nor spared yet to low For grieuous faults I neuer punisht wighi With mind appeased but erst I would forgiue My griefe did grow when iust reuenge did hight And eke I ioyed to pardon men to liue A mortall man amongst blinde heapes of men Nature my mother produced me here And therefore loe inclosed in this denne The eagre wormes my senselesse carcasse teare Amongst the Wights that vertue did enhaunce A vertuous life I freely passed on And since that death his kingdome did aduance My heauenlie sprite to haunt the Gods is gone HOw thinkest thou Antigonus what Epitaph was this and what prince ought he to be of whom I should say his life ought to bee glorious and his memory eternall I sweare vnto thee by the law of a good man and as the Gods may prosper me I tooke not so much pleasure in Pompey with his Hierusalem in Semiremis with her India in king Cyrus with his Babylon in Caius Caesar with his Gawles in Scipio with his Affrike as I haue in the king of Cypres in his graue For more glorie hath that king there in that sharpe mountaine being deade then others haue had in prowde Rome beeing aliue CHAP. IX ¶ Marcus Aurelius continueth his Letter against cruell Iudges Of the words which the Emperor Nero spake concerning Iustice and of the instructions the Emperour Augustus gaue to a Iudge which hee sent into Dacia NEITHER for that which I write in this Letter nor yet for that king Cirus had in his Graue my intention is not to defende the euil to the ende that for their euill deedes and outragiousnesse they should bee punished for by this means it shold bee worse for mee to fauour them then for them to bee euill for they through debility do offend and I by malice doe erre But in this case it seemeth vnto mee and to all others which are of good iudgement that since frailety in men is naturall and the punishment which they giue is voluntary Let Iudges therefore in ministring iustice shew that they do it for the weale of the Common-wealth and not with a mind for to reuenge To the end the faulty may haue occasion to amned the faultes past and not reuenge iniuries present the diuine Plato in the books of his Common-wealth sayde that Iudges ought to haue two things present before their eyes that is to say that in iudging things touching the good of others they shew no couetousnes and in punishing any man they shew no reuenge For Iudges haue licence to chastice the bodie but therefore they haue no licence to hurt theyr hearts Nero the Emperour was greatly defamed in his life and verie cruell in his iustice And withall his cruelties it chanced that as one in a day brought him a iudgement for to subscribe to behead certain murtherers Hee fetching a great sigh sayd these words O how happy were I if I had neuer learned to write onely to bee excused to subscribe this sentence Certainely the Emperour Nero for speaking such a pittifull word at that time deserued immortal memory but afterwardes his so cruell life peruerted so notable a sentence For speaking the truthe one euil word sufficeth to deface manie good wordes O how many realmes and countreyes haue bin lost not so much for the euills which in those the wicked haue committed as for the disordinate Iustices which the ministers of iustice therein haue executed For they thinking by rigour to correct the dammages past haue raysed vppe present slaunders for euer It is knowne to all men who and what the Emperour Augustus hath bin who in all his doings was exceeding good For he was noble valiant stout fierce and a louer of iustice and aboue all very pittifull And for so much in other things hee shewed his pitie and clemencie he ordained that no prince should subscribe iudgements of death with his owne hand neyther that hee should see iustice done of any with his owne eyes Truely the law was pittifully ordained and for the cleannes purenes of Emperors very necessary For it seemeth better for Princes to defend theyr Landes with the sharpe sword then to subscribe a sentence of death with the cruell penne This good Emperour Augustus was very diligent to chuse ministers of iustice and very carefull to teach them how they should behaue themselues in the Common-wealth admonishing them not onely of that they had to doe but also of that they ought to flie For the ministers of iustice oftentimes faile of theyr duetie In Capua there was a gouernour named Escaurus who was a iust iudge though hee were somewhat seuere whom the Emperour Augustus sent to the realme of Dace to take charge
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
it The miserable man is not born with so many present commodities he cannot eate drinke nor goe make himself ready aske nor yet complain and that which is more hee knoweth not scarsely how to sucke for the mothers oft times would giue to their children if they could the bloud of their heart and yet they cannot cause them to take the milke of their brests O great misery of mans nature forsomuch as the brute beasts as soone as they are come forth of their mothers wombe can know and seeke but when it is offred vnto man he cannot know it We must note also that to brute beasts nature hath giuen cloathing wherewith they may keepe themselus from the heate of Sommer and defend themselues from the colde of Winter which is manifest for that to Lambes and sheepe she hath giuen wooll to birdes feathers to hogges bristles to horses hayre to fishes scales and to snailes shels Finally I say there is no beast which hath neede with his hands to make any garment nor yet to borrow it of another Of all this the miserable man is depriued who is borne all naked and dyeth all naked not carrying with him one onely garment and if in the time of his life he will vse any garment hee must demaund of the beasts both leather and wooll thereunto he must also put his whole labour and industry I would aske Princes and great Lords if when they are borne they bring with them any apparrell and when they dye if they carry with them any treasure To this I answere no but they dye as they are borne as well the rich as the poore and the poore as the rich And admit that in this life fortune doth make difference betweene vs in estates yet nature in time of our birth and death doth make vs all equall We must also thinke and consider that for so much as nature hath prouided the beasts of garments shee hath hath also taken from them the care of what they ought to eate for there is no beast that doth eyther plow sow or labour but doth content her selfe and passeth her life eyther with the flyes of the ayre with the Corne that shee findeth in the high-wayes with the hearbes in the fieldes with the Ants of the Earth with the grapes of the vine or with the fruites which are fallen Finally I say that without care all beasts take their rest as if the day following they should haue no neede to eate Oh what a great benefite should GOD doe to the miserable man if he had taken from him the trauell to apparrell himselfe and the care to search for things to eate But what shall the poore miserable man doe that before he eateth hee must tyll sow hee must reape and thresh the Corne hee must cleanse it grinde it paste it and bake it and it cannot bee prouided without care of minde nor be done without the proper sweate of the browes And if perchaunce any man did prouide for himselfe with the sweate of others yet shall hee liue with his owne offences Also in other things the silly beasts doe excell vs For in the Flowers in the leaues in the hearbes in the straw in the Oates in the bread in the flesh or in the fruits which they eate or in the waters which they drinke they feele no paine although it be not sweet nor take no displeasure thogh theyr meates be not sauorie Finally such as Nature hath prouided them without disguysing or making themselus better they are contēted to eate Man could loose nothing if in this point he agreed with beasts but I am very sorrie that there are many vicious and prowd men vnto whom nothing wanteth eyther to apparell or eate but they haue too much to maintaine themselues and herewith not contented they are such Drunkards to taste of diuers wines and such Epicures to eate of sundry sorts of meates that oft times they spend more to dresse them then they did cost the buying Now when the Beasts are brought foorth they haue knowledge both of that that is profitable and also of that which is hurtfull for them For we see this that the sheep doth fly the wolfe the catte flieth the dogge the ratte flieth the catte and the chicken the kyte so that the beasts in opening the eyes doe immediately knowe the friendes whom they ought to followe and the Enemies whome they ought to flye To the miserable man was vtterly denyed this so great priuiledge For in the worlde there hath bin many beastly men who haue not onely attayned that which they ought to know whiles they liued but also euen as like beasts they passed their dayes in this life so they were infamed at the time of their death Oh miserable creatures that we are which liue in this wicked world For wee know not what is hurtfull for vs what we ought to eate from what we ought to abstaine nor yet whom wee should hate wee doe not agree with those whome wee ought to loue wee know not in whome to put our trust from whom we ought to flie nor what it is we ought to choose nor yet what wee ought to forsake Finally I say that when wee thinke oft times to enter into a sure Hauen within three steps afterwards wee fall headlong into the deepe Sea Wee ought also to consider that both to wilde and tame beasts nature hath ginen arms or weaponsto defend themselues and to assault their enemyes as it appeareth For that to byrds shee hath giuen wings to the Harts swifte feete to the Elephants tuskes to the Serpents scales to the Eagles tallons to the Fawkon a beake to the Lyons teeth to the Bulles hornes and to the Beares pawes Finally I say that she hath giuen to the Foxes subtiltie to know how to hyde themselues in the Earth and to the Fishes little finnes how to swimme in the water Admit that the wretched men haue few enemyes yet in this they are none otherwise priuiledged then the beasts for we see without teares it cannot be told that the beasts which for the seruice of Man were created with the selfe same beasts men are now a dayes troubled and offended And to the ende it seeme not wee should talke of pleasure let euery man bethinke with himselfe what it is that we suffer with the Beasts of this life For the Lyons doe feare vs the Wolues deuoure our sheep the dogges do byte vs the Cats scratche vs the Beare doeth teare vs the Serpents poyson vs the Bulls hurt vs with their hornes the Byrds doe ouerflye vs the Rats doe trouble vs the spyders doe annoy vs and the worste of all is that a little Flye sucketh our bloud in the day and the poore Flea doth hynder and let vs from sleeping in the night Oh poore and miserable man who for to sustaine this wretched life is enforced to begge all things that he needeth of the Beasts For the beasts do giue him wooll the
which we are ignorant we haue no paine to attaine vnto them and lesse griefe also to lose them My intention to tell thee this was because that I knew that which I would not haue knowne and haue heard that which I would not haue heard that is to say that the dayes and troubles of Claudinus thy husband are ended and now thy sorrowes Lauinia his wife doe beginne It is now a good while that I haue known of the death of the good Claudinus my friend and thy husband though I did dissemble it And by the God Mars I sweare vnto thee that it was not for that I would not bewaile him but because I would not discomfort thee For it were extreame cruelty that shee which was so comfortlesse and sorrowfull for the absence of so long time should bee killed with my hand through the knowledge of the death of her so desired husband It were too vnkind and vnseemely a thing that shee of whom I haue receyued so many good works should receiue of me so euill newes The auncients of Carthage held for an inuiolable Law that if the Father did tell the death of his sonne or the sonne the death of the Father or the woman the death of her husband or the husband the death of his wife or any other semblable wofull and lamentable death that he should bee cast into the prison among them which were condemned to die It seemed to those of Carthage that he which sayde vnto another that his brother kinsman or friend was dead immediately they should kill him or hee ought to dye or at the least hee should neuer bee seene in his presence If in this case the Law of the Carthaginians was inst then I ought to be excused though I haue not told this heauie newes For as oft as we see him who hath brought vs any euill tidinges our sorrowes by his sight is renewed againe Since Claudinus thy Husband dyed I haue not had one houre of rest for to passe the time away for feare least such woefull and sorrowfull newes should come to thy knowledge But now that I know that thou knowest it I feele double paine For now I feele his death my care and thy want of consolation and the dammage by his death shall followe the Romaine Empire Thou hast lost a noble Romaine valiaunt in bloud moderate in prosperities pacient in aduersities couragious in daungers diligent in affaires wise in counsels faithful to his friends subtill and wary of his Enemyes a louer of the common-wealth and very honest in his person and aboue all and wherof I haue most enuie is that hee neuer offended man in his life nor hurt any with his tongue We finde seldome times so many vertues assembled in one man For saying the truth if a man doe narrowly examine the vices of manie which presume to be very vertuous I sweare that he should finde more to reproue then to praise Since thou hast lost so good a Husband and I so faithfull a Friend wee are bound thou to bewaile so great a losse and I to sigh for so good a companion And this I do not desire for Claudine who now resteth among the Gods but for vs others which remaine in daunger of so many euills For the dead doe rest as in the sure Hauen and we others doe faile as yet in raging Sea O thou heauy heart how doe I see thee betweene the Bell and the clappers that is to say that thou wantest the companie of the good and art enuironned with the flocke of euill For the which occasion I doubt often times whether I may first bewaile the euill which liue or the good which are dead because in the ende the euill men do offend vs more which we finde then doth the good men which we loose It is a great pittie to see the good and vertuous men dye but I take it to be more sorrow to see the euill and vitious men liue As the diuine Plato sayeth the gods to kill the good which serue them and to giue long life to the euill which offend them is a mysterie so profound that daily wee doe lament it and yet wee can neuer attayne to the secretes thereof Tell me I pray thee Lauinia knowest thou not now that the Gods are so mercifull with whom we go when we dye and that men are so wicked with whom we be whiles we liue that as the euill were borne to dye so the good dye to liue For the good man though hee dye liueth and the euill man though he liue dyeth I sweare vnto thee by the Mother Berecynthia and so the God Iupiter do preserue mee that I speake not this which I will speake fainedly which is that considering the rest that the dead haue with the Gods and seeing the sorrowes and troubles wee haue here with the liuing I say and affirme once againe that they haue greater compassion of our life then wee others haue of their death Though the death of men were as the death of beasts that is to say that ther were no Furyes nor diuels which should torment the euill and that the Gods should not rewarde the good yet wee ought to be comforted to see our friends die if it were for no other but to see them deliuered from the thraldome of this world The pleasure that the Pilot hath to bee in sure Hauen the glorie that the captaine hath to see the day of victorie the rest that the Traueller hath to see his journey ended the contentation that the workeman hath to see his work come to perfection all the same haue the dead seeing themselues out of this miserable life If men were borne alway to liue it were reason to lament them when we see them dye but since it is true that they are borne to dye I would say since needes dye wee must that wee ought not to lament those which dye quickly but those which liue long I am assured that Clandine thy Husband remembring that which in this life hee hath passed and suffered and seeing the rest that hee hath in the other though the Gods would make him Emperour of Rome he would not be one day out of his graue For returning to the worlde hee should dye againe but being with the Gods hee hopeth to liue perpetually Ladie Lauinia most earnestly I desire thee so vchemently not to pierce the heauens with thy so heauie sighes nor yet to wette the earth with thy so bitter teares since thou knowest that Claudine thy husband is in place where there is no sorrowe but mirth where there is no paine but rest where hee weepeth not but laugheth where hee sigheth not but singeth where he hath no sorrowes but pleasures where hee feareth not cruell death but enioyeth perpetuall life Since therefore this is true it is but reason the widdow appease her anguish considering that her husband endureth no paine Oftentimes with my selfe I haue thought what the Wddowes ought to imagine
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
faithfull friend about them to helpe them to passe that paine And not without a cause I say that he ought to be a faithfull friend For many in our life do gape after our goods few at our deaths are sory for our offences The wise and sage men before nature compelleth them to die of their owne will ought to die That is to say that before they see themselues in the pangs of death they haue their consciences ready prepared For if we count him a foole which wil passe the sea without a ship truely we will not count him wise which taketh his death without any preparation before What losest a wisest man to haue his will well ordained in what aduenuenture of honour is any man before death to reconcile himselfe to his enemies and to those whom he hath borne hate and malice What loseth he of his credite who in his life time restoreth that which at his death they will command him to render wherein may a man shew himselfe to bee more wise then when willingly hee hath discharged that which afterwards by processe they will take from him O how many Princes and great Lords are there which onely not for spending one day about their testament haue caused their children and heires all the dayes of their life to bee in trauerse in the Law So that they supposing to haue left their children wealthy haue not left them but for Atturneyes and Counsellers of the law The true and vnfained Christian ought euery morning so to dispose his goods and correct life as if he shold dye the same night And at night in like manner he ought to commit himselfe to GOD as if he hoped for no life vntill morning For to say the truth to sustaine life there are infinite trauels but to meete with death there is but one way If they will credite my wordes I would coūsell no man in such estate to liue that for any thing in the worlde he should vndoe himselfe The Riche and the poore the great and the smal the Gentlemen and the Plebeyans all say and sweare that of death they are exceeding fearefull To whome I say and affirm that he alone feareth death in whome we see amendment of life Princes and great Lords ought also to be perfect to ende before they ende to dye before they die and to be mortified before they bee mortified If they doe this with themselues they shall as easily leaue their life as if they channged from one house to another For the most parte of men delight to talke with leysure to drinke with leysure to eate with leysure and to sleepe with leysure but they die in haste Not without cause I say they die in haste since wee see them receiue the sacrament of the Supper of the Lord in haste male their willes by force and with speede to confesse and receyue So that they take it and demaund it so late and so without reason that often times they haue loste their Sences and are readie to giue vp the spirite when they bring it vnto them What auaileth the Ship-master after the ship is sunke what doe weapons after the battell is lost What auaileth pleasures after men are dead By this which I haue spoken I will demaund what it auayleth the sicke being heauie with sleepe and berefte of their sences to call for Confessors vnto whome they confesse their sinnes Euill shall hee bee confessed which hath no vnderstanding to repent himselfe What auaileth it to call the confessor to vnderstand the secrets of his Conscience when the sicke man hath lost his speech Let vs not deceyue our selues saying in our age we will amend hereafter and make restitution at our death For in mine opinion it is not the poynt of wise men nor of good Christiās to desire so much time to offend and they will not espie any to amend Would to GOD that the third parte of the precious time which men occupie in sinne were employed about the meditations of Death and the cares which they haue to accomplish their Fleshly lusts were spent in bewayling their filthie sinnes I am very sorrie with my heart that they so wickedly spend and passe their-life in vices and pleasures as if there were no GOD vnto whom they shold render account for their offences All worldlings willingly doe sinne vpon a vaine hope onely in Age to amend and at death to repent But I would demaund him that in this hope sinned what certainty he hath in age of amendment and what assurance he hath to haue long warning before hee die Since we see by experience there are moe in number which dye young then olde it is no reason wee should commit so many sinnes in one day as that wee should haue cause to lament afterwards all the rest of our life And afterwards to bewayle the sins of our long life we desire no more but one space of an houre Considering the the Omnipotencie of the Diuine mercie it sufficeth yea and I say that the space of an houreis to much to repent vs of our wicked life but I would counsel all since the sinner for to repent taketh but one houre that that be not the last houre For the sighes and repentance which proceed from the bottome of the heart penetrate the high Heauens but those which come of necessity doeth not pierce the bare seeling of the House I allow and commende that those which visit◠the sick do counsell them to examin their consciences to receiue the Communion to pray vnto GOD to forgiue their enemyes and to recommend themselues to the deuoute prayers of the people and to repent them of their sinnes Finally I say that it is very good to doe all this But yet I say it is better to haue done it before For the diligent and careful Pyrate prepareth for the Tempest when the Sea is calme Hee that deepely would consider how little the goods of this life are to be esteemed Let him go to see a rich man when hee dyeth and what he doeth in his bed And he shall finde that the wife demandeth of the poore husband her dowrie the Daughter the third parte the other the fifth the childe the preheminence of age the Sonne in law his Marriage the physition his duetie the Slaue his libertie the Seruaunts their wages the creditours their debtes and the worst of all is that none of those that ought to inherite his goods will giue him one glasse of water Those that shall heare or read this ought to consider that that which they haue seene done at the death of their neighbours the same shall come vnto them when they shall be sicke at the poynt of death For so soone as the Rich shutteth his eyes forthwith there is great strife betweene the children for his goods And this strife is not to vnburthen his soule but which of them shall inherite most of his possessions In this case I will not my pen trauell any
further since both rich and poore doe daylie see the experience hereof And in thigs verie manifest it sufficeth onely for wise men to be put in memorie without wasting any more time to perswade them Now the Emperor Marcus Aurelius had a secretarie verie wise vertuous through whose hands the affaires of the Empire passed And when this secretarie saw his Lord and Master so sicke and almost at the houre of death and that none of his parents or friends durst speake vnto him he plainly determined to doe his dutie wherein hee shewed verie well the profound knowledge hee had in wisedome and the great good wil he bare to his Lord. This Secretary was called Panutius the vertues and life of whom Sextus Cheronensis in the life of Marcus Aurelius declareth CHAP. L. Of the Comfortable words which the Secretary Panutius spake to the Emperour Marcus Aurelius at the houre of his death O My Lord and Master mytongue cannot keepe silence mine eyes cannot refraine from bitter teares nor my heart leaue from fetching sighs nor yet reason can vse his duty For my bloud boyleth my sinews are dried my powers be open my heart doth faint and my spirit is troubled And the occasion of all this is to see that the wholesome counsels which thou giuest to others ether thou canst not or will not take for thy selfe I see thee die my Lord and I die for that I cannot remedy thee For if the gods would haue granted me my request for the lengthning of thy life one day I would giue willingly my whole life Whither the sorrow bee true or fayned it needeth not I declare vnto thee with wordes since thou mayest manifestly discerne it by my countenance For mine eyes with teares are wet and my heart with sighes is very heauie I feele much the want of thy companie I feele much the dammage which of thy death to the whole commonwealth shall ensue I feele much thy sorrowe which in thy pallace shall remaine I feele much for that Rome this day is vndone but that which aboue all things doth most torment my heart is to haue seene thee liue as wise and now to see thee dye as simple Tell me I pray thee my Lord why do men learne the Greeke tongue trauell to vnderstand the Hebrew sweate in the Latine chaunge so many Maisters turne so many bookes and in studie consume so much money and so many yeares if it were not to knowe how to passe life with honor and take death with patience The end why men ought to studie is to learne to liue well For there is no truer science in man then to know how to order his life well What profiteth it me to know much if thereby I take no profite what profiteth me to know straunge Languages if I refrain nor my tongue from other mens matters what profiteth it to studie many bookes if I studie not but to begyule my friendes what profiteth it to know the influence of the starres and the course of the Elements if I cannot keepe my selfe from vices Finally I say that it little auayleth to to bee a master of the Sage if secretly hee bee reported to bee a follower of fooles The chiefe of all Phylosophie consisteth to serue GOD and not to offend men I aske thee most Noble Prince what auaileth it the Pilot to know the Arte of Sayling and after in a Tempest by negligence to perish What auaileth it the valiaunt Captaine to talke much of Warres and afterwards he knoweth not how to giue the Battell What auayleth it the guyde to tell the nearest way and afterwards in the middest to loose himselfe All this which I haue spoken is saide for thee my Lord For what auayleth it that thou beeing in health shouldest sigh for death since now when hee doeth approche thou weepest because thou wouldest not leaue life One of the things wherein the wise man sheweth his wisdome is to know how to loue and how to hate For it is great lightnes I should rather say follie to day to loue him whome yesterday we hated and to morrowe to slaunder him whom this day wee honoured What Prince so high or what Plebeyan so base hath there been or in the world shall euer be the which hath so little as thou regarded life and so highly commended death What things haue I written beeing thy Secretarie with mine owne hand to diuers Prouinces of the world where thou speakest so much good of death that sometimes thou madest mee to hate life What was it to see that letter which thou wrotest vnto the noble Romaine Claudinaes widdowe comforting her of the death of her Husband which dyed in the warres Wherein shee aunswered that she thought her trouble comfort to deserue that thou shouldst write her such a Letter What a pittifull and sundry letter hast thou written to Antigonus on the death of thy childe Verissimus thy sonne so much desired Whose death thou tookest so that thou exceedest the limits of Phylosophie but in the ende with thy princely vertues thou didst qualifie thy woful sorows What Sentences so profound what wordes so well couched didst thou write in that booke intituled The remedy of the sorrowfull the which thou didst send from the warre of Asia to the Senatours of Rome and that was to comfort them after a sore plague And how much profite hath thy doctrine done since with what new kinde of consolation hast thou comforted Helius Fabatus the Sensour when his son was drowned in the riuer where I do remember that when we entred into his house we found him weeping and when wee went from thence wee lest him laughing I doe remember that when thou wentst to visite Gneus Rusticus in his last disease thou didst speake to him so effectuously that with the vehemency of thy words thou madest the teares to runne downe his cheekes And I demanding him the occasions of his lamentations he said The Emperor my Lord hath told me so much euils that I haue won and of so much good that I haue lost that I weepe I weepe not for life which is short but for death which is long The man whom aboue all thou hast loued was Torquatus whom thou didst obey as thy father and seruedst as thy master This thy faithfull friend being readie to die and desiring yet to liue thou sendest to offer sacrifices to the gods not for that they should graunt himselfe but that they should hasten his death Herewith I being astonied thy noblenesse to so satisfie my ignorance sayd vnto mee in secret these wordes Maruell not Panutius to see me offer sacrifices to hasten my friends death and not to prolong his life for there is nothing that the faithfull friend ought so much to desire to true friend as to see him ridde from the trauels of the earth and to enioy the pleasures of heauen Why thinkest thou most noble Prince that I reduce all these things to thy memory but for to
demaund thee how it is possible that I which haue heard thee speake so well of death doe presently see thee so vnwilling to leaue life since the gods commaund it thy age willeth it thy disease doth cause it thy feeble nature doth permit it the sinfull Rome doth deserue it and the sickle fortune agreeth that for our great miserie thou shouldest die Why therefore sighest thou so much for to die The trauels which of necessitie must needes come with stout heart ought to be receiued The cowardly heart falleth before hee is beaten downe but the stout and valiant stomacke in greatest perill recouereth most strength Thou art one man and not two thou owest one death to the gods and not two Why wilt thou therefore being but one pay for two and for one onely life take two deaths I meane that before thou endest life thou diest for pure sorrow After that thou hast sayled and in the sayling thou hast passed such perill when the gods doe render thee in the safe Hauen once againe thou wilt runne into the raging Sea where thou scapest the victorie of life and thou dyest with the ambushments of death Threescore and two yeeres hast thou fought in the Field and neuer turned thy backe and fearest thou now beeing enclosed in the Graue Hast thou not passed the pykes and bryers wherein thou hast beene enclosed and now thou tremblest being in the sure way Thou knowest what dammage it is long to liue and now thou doubtest of the profit of death which ensueth It is now many yeeres since death and thou haue beene at defyance as mortall enemies and now to lay thy hands on thy Weapons thou flyest and turnest thy backe Threescore and two yeeres are past since thou wert bent against fortune and now thou closest thy eyes when thou oughtest ouer her to triumph By that I haue told thee I meane that since wee doe not see thee take death willingly at this present we do suspect that thy life hath not in times past beene very good For the man which hath no desire to appeare before the gods it is a token he is loaden with vices What meanest thou most noble Prince why weepest thou as an infant and complainest as a man in despaire If thou weepest because thou dyest I answer thee that thou laughest as much when thou liuedst For of too much laughing in the life proceedeth much wayling at the death Who hath alwaies for his heritage appropriated the places being in the common wealth The vnconstancy of the minde who shall bee so hardy to make steadie I meane that all are dead all die all shall die among all wilt thou alone liue Wilt thou obtaine of the gods that which maketh them gods That is to say that they make thee immortall as thēselues Wilt thou alone haue by priuiledge that which the gods haue by nature My youth demandeth thy age what thing is best or to say better which is lesse euill to die well or to liue euill I doubt that any man may attaine to the meanes to liue well according to the continuall and variable troubles and vexations which daily we haue accustomed to carrie betweene our hands alwayes suffering hunger cold thirst care displeasures temptations persecutions euill fortunes ouerthrowes and diseases This cannot be called life but a long death and with reason wee will call this life death since a thousand times we hate life If an ancient man did make a shew of his life from time he is come out of the intrailes of his mother vntill the time hee entreth into the bowels of the earth and that body would declare al the sorrowes that he hath passed and the heart discouer all the ouerthrows of fortune which he hath suffered I imagine the gods would maruell and men would wonder at the body which hath endured so much and the heart which hath so greatly dissembled I take the Greeks to be more wise which weepe when their children bee borne and laugh when the aged dye then the Romanes which sing when their children are borne and weepe when the olde men die Wee haue much reason to laugh when the olde men die since they dy to laugh and with great reason wee ought to weepe when the children are borne since they are borne to weepe CHAP. LI. Panutius the Secretarie continueth his exhortation admonishing all men willingly to accept death vtterly to forsake the world and all his vanities SInce life is now condemned for euill there remaineth nought else but to approoue death to be good Oh if it pleased the immortall gods that as I oftentimes haue heard the disputation of this matter so now that thou couldest therewith profite But I am sorry that to the Sage and wise man counsell sometimes or for the most part wanteth None ought to cleaue much to his owne opinion but sometimes he should follow the counsell of the third person For the man which in all things will follow his owne aduise ought well to be assured that in all or the most part hee shall erre O my Lord Marke sith thou art sage liuely of spirit of great experience and ancient didst not thou thinke that as thou hadst buried many so likewise some should burie thee What imaginations were thine to thinke that seeing the ende of their dayes others should not see the end of thy yeares Since thou diest rich honorably accompanied olde and aboue all seeing thou diest in the seruice of the commonwealth why fearest thou to enter into thy graue Thou hast alwaies beene a friend as much to know things past as those which were hid and kept secret Since thou hast prooued what honours and dishonours deserue riches and pouertie prosperitie and aduersitie ioy and sorrow loue and fear vices and pleasures mee seemeth that nothing remaineth to know but that it is necessarie to know what death is And also I sweare vnto thee most noble Lord that thou shalt learne more in one houre what death is then in an hundred yeares what life meaneth Since thou art good and presumest to be good and hast liued as good is it better that thou die and goe with so many good then that thou scape and liue amongst so many euill That thou feelest death I maruell nothing at all for thou art a man but I doe maruell that thou dissemblest it not since thou art discreet Many things doe the sage men feele which inwardly doe oppresse their heart but outwardly they dissemble them for the more honour If all the poyson which in the sorrowfull heart is wrapped were in small peeces in the feeble flesh scattered then the wals would not suffice to rubbbe neither the nayles to scratch vs. What other thing is death but a trap or doore wherewith to shut the shop wherein all the miserie of this wofull life are vendible What wrong or preiudice doe the gods vnto vs when they call vs before them but from an old decayd house to change
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
sufficient to protect and defende mee in all my causes And shortly after these words passed betweene tham Marke Anthonie shewed the friendship hee bare to the one and the enmitie hee had to the other For he caused Tullie to be put to death and raysed Salust to great honour A Friend may well imparte to the other all his owne as bread wine money time conuersation and such like but hee cannot notwithstanding giue him part of his heart for that suffereth it not to be parted nor deuided because it cā be giuē but to one alone This graunted to bee true as needs it must doubtles that the heart cannot bee deuided but onely giuen to one then is it of necessitie that hee that will seeke to haue many Friends must needs repaire to the shambles to prouide him of many hearts Many vaunt themselues and thinke it a glory to haue numbers of friends but let such well consider to what vse that legendarie of Friendes doe serue them they shall then easily finde they stand them in no oeher steede but to eate to drinke to walke to babble and to murmure togethers and not one to helpe the other with their goods fauour and credite at their neede nor friendly to reprooue them of theyr faults and vices which doubtles ought not to bee so For where true and perfect friendship raigneth neyther I with my friend nor hee with mee should dissemble any vice of faulte Ouide sayth in his booke De Arte amandi that the law of true and vnfained Loue is so streight that no friendship but mine in thy heart should harbour and in mine should lodge none others loue but thine for loue is none other thing But one heart liuining in two bodyes and two bodyes obeying in one heart In this World there is no treasure comparable to a true and sure Friend sith to a faithfull Friende a man may safely discouer the secrets of his heart bewray vnto him his gryping griefes trusting him with his honour committing to his guyde and custodie all his goods hee shall succour him in his miserie counsell him in perill reioyce at his prosperitie and mourne at his aduersitie And in fine I conclude such a friend neuer wearyeth to serue him in his life nor to lament him after his death I graunt that Golde and Siluer is good Kinsefolkes are good and Money is good but true friends exceede them all without comparison For all these things cannot warrant vs from necessitie if sinister Fortune plunge vs into it but rather encrease our torments and extreamitie Also they doe not reioyce vs but rather heape further griefes vpon vs neither doe they succour vs but rather eache houre giue vs cause to complaine and much lesse do they remember and aduise vs of that that is good but still doe deceyue vs not directing vs the right way but still bringing vs out of our way and when they haue led vs awry out of the High-way they bring vs into Desart woods and high and dangerous mountaines whence from we must fall downe headlong A true friend is no partaker of these conditions but rather hee is sorry for the least trouble that happeneth to his friend hee feareth not neither spareth his goods nor the daunger of his person he careth not to take vpon him any painfull iourney quarrels or sutes nor yet to put his life in euery hazard of death And yet that that is most of all to bee esteemed is that like as the heart and bowels euer burne with pure and sincere loue so doth hee wish and desire with gladsome mind to beare the burthen of all his friends mishaps yea more then yet is spoken of Alexander the Great offered great presents to the Philosopher Zenocrates who would not vouchsafe to receyue them much lesse to beholde them And beeing demaunded of Alexander why he would not receyue them hauing poore kinsfolkes and parents to bestow them on hee answered him thus Truely I haue both brothers and sisters O Alexander yet I haue no kinsman but him that is my friend and one onely friend I haue who hath no need of any gifts to bee giuen him For the onely cause why I chose him to be my sole and only friend was for that I euer saw him spise these worldly things Truly the sentence of this good Philosopher Zenocrates is of no small efficacy for him that will aduisedly consider of it sith that not seldome but many times it happeneth that the great troubles the sundry dangers the continuall necessities and miseries wee suffer in this vale of misery haue for the most part procceded from our parents and afterwards by our friends haue beene mediated and redressed Therefore since wee haue thought it good and necessary to chose a friend and that hee bee but one onely each man must bee wise lest in such choise hee be deceyued For oft times it happeneth that those that take little regarde herein grant their friendship to such a one as is too couetous impatient a great babler seditious and presumptuous and of such conditions that sometimes it should be lesse euill for vs to haue him our enemie then to account of him as of our deer friend Him whom wee will chuse for our faithfull friend amongst other manners and conditions hee must chiefly and before all bee indued with these that he be courteous of nature fayre spoken hard and stout to indure pain patient in troubles sober in diet moderate in his words graue and ripe in his counsels and aboue all stedfast in friendshippe and faithfull in secrets And whom wee shall find with these laudable vertues and conditions adorned him may wee safely take and accept for our friend But if wee see any of these parts wanting in him wee ought to shun him as from the plague knowing for certainety that the friendshippe of a fayned and fantasticall friend is much worse and perillous then the enmity of a knowne and open enemy for to the hands of one wee commit our heart and faith and from the deceites and treasons of the other wee defend our selues with our whole force and power Seneca writing to his deere and faithfull friend Lucillus sayeth vnto him I pray thee O Lucillus that thou order and determine thine affayres by the aduice and counsell of thy friend but also I doe remember thee that first thou see well what manner of friend thou hast chosen thee for there is no marchandise in the world this day that men are so soone beguiled in as they are in the choise of friends Therfore the graue sentence of Seneca wisely wayed wee should assent with him in opinion that sith no man buyeth a Horse but hee first causeth him to bee ridden nor bread but first hee seeth and handleth it nor wine but hee tasteth it nor flesh but first he wayeth it nor corne but hee seeth a sample nor house but hee doth first value it nor Instrument but that first hee playeth on it
knowest well Camilla not being content with thy owne Countrey folke thou haddest such resorte and haunt of strangers to thee that thou canst speake all languages I will marke them that haue marked mee hurt them that haue hurted mee persecute them that haue persecuted mee defame them that haue slaundered mee all other my penne pardoneth for that they pardoned me in their play Because my letter begunne with that ye did to my person therefore I will end it with that it knoweth of your good names And thus I conclude that a man may escape from all dangers in shunning them but from women there is no way but to flye from them Thus I end and beseech the gods that I may see of you that which you would see of mee and sith yee bee louers I counsell you as you haue sent mee the play in a mockery euen so receyue my aunswere Marke now the Rhodian to the amorous Ladies of Rome CHAP. VIII Of a Letter sent by Marcus Aurelius to his loue Boemia for that shee desired to goe with him to the warres MArcus the Romane Pretor beeing in the warres of Dacia sendeth health to his louing Boemia remayning in the pleasures of Rome Escaping from a cruell battell thy fewe lines I read and vnderstood thy large information I let thee know thou hast astonied me more then mine enemies haue feared me and taking thy letter in my hands the herbe of malice entred into my heart When I temper my body with the delights I thinke my heart free from the venome of thy amours sith I of my will and thou for want of power hath giuen vs to bee free of our pleasures I thinke as well to make a diuorce of our sorrowes But yee bee such yea such I say as are the banishments of loue and the treasure of griefes The loue of you all ought to bee digested with pilles but the passion of one of you will not bee oppressed with all the rubarbe in Alexandria Yee shew your selues cruell to pardon an enemie and euer lightly you change your friendes I haue curiously made search whilest delight gouerned my youth yet could I neuer see in a woman stedfastnesse nor reason in their loue nor end in their hate The present wantonnesse quarrelleth with my youth passed because thou seest not in me the auncient good will towardes thee nor the present seruice And certainely hearing thy accusation and not my iustification thou mightest pay me as iustly with death as I pay thee with forgetfulnesse The which forgetfulnesse ought to bee as straunge in him that serueth as ingratitude in the Lady that is serued thinkest thou that I haue forgotten the law of Venus when I commaunded that the curious Louers should exercise their strength in chiualry and occupy their hearts in loue and more it willeth a man to weare his clothes cleanly their feet right their bodies constant their voyce soft and humble demure and modest of cheare they ought to haue eyes open alwayes looking vp to the Windowes and their hearts ready to flye into the aire For a truth my friend Boemia hee is a grosse louer that hath his will in captiuity and his iudgment free The iudgment is of no value where the will is in thraldome This I say that thou mayest know though my age hath left the exercise yet my vnderstanding hath not forgot the art Thou complaynest because I giue my selfe vnto much quiet and that I haue forgotten thee I will not deny the truth the day of my forgetting maketh thee priuie of my thoughts And reason the Ouerseer declareth that it is not requisite for my grauitie to permit I should loue nor in thy age to suffer to be beloued The world doth dissemble many things in youth which in age meriteth grieuous corrections The wanton toyes of youth proceed of ignorance but the villanies done in age grow of malice When I walked in the nights I ietted the streetes I sang ballades I gazed to the Windowes I played on the Gitiornes I scaled the walles I wakened the youth Thinkest thou that I win what I did in my youth but sithence I see my selfe bereaued of all my wonted wanton toyes and polished with so many white hayres cladde with so many sorrowes eyther I thinke now I was not then or else I dreame now not knowing the way I stray in nor seeing that stony way ready to stumble in Vnwittingly I haue fallen into the stayres not foreseeing the Whirlepoole guidelesse I entred in the rashnesse of my youth I lost mee for the which I aske pardon And nowe that I am out of the bryers thou woldest haue me further in then euer I was Now that I cannot take the purgations thou offerest to mee the sirropes I haue awaked all night and now thou giuest me a fresh alarum By our auncient friendshippe I pray thee and by the Gods I coniure thee that sithence my heart is rebell to thy will that thy doubtfull will doe suffer and let alone my will out of doubt And because thou shouldest not thinke any ingratitude in my white hayres as I may in thy young wanton person I will that wee account that wee haue gotten and that wee hope to get Tell mee what commeth of these vaine pleasures the time euill spent the fame in way of perdition the goods consumed the credite lost the gods offended the vertuous slaundered from whence wee gette the names of bruit beasts and surnames of shame Such bee yee and others Thou writest in thy Letter how thou wouldest willingly leaue Rome come to see mee in the Warres of Dacia Considering thy folly I laugh but knowing thy boldnesse I beleeue thee And when I thinke on this I turne to my bosome and peruse thy seale doubting whether the Letter were thine or not The veines of my heart doe chaunge my colour doth turne imagining that eyther shame hath vtterly forsaken thee or els grauitie hath wholly abandoned mee for such lightnes should not be beleeued but of the like persons Thou knowest well he that doth euil deserueth punishment sooner then hee that doth infamy I would aske thee whether thou wilt goe thou sufferedst to be cut as a sower grape and now thou wouldest bee sold for good wine thou camest in with Cheries and yet wouldest remaine as quinces Wee haue eaten thee in blossomes and thou wilt bee like the fruite the nuttes bee pleasant but the shelles bee hard By dung thou wert made ripe in thy youth and thou thinkest to bee in still Thou art nought else but rotten And if thou bee rotten thou art to bee abhorred Thou art not content with forty yeares which thou hast whereof 25. thou diddest passe in taste like to sweet wine that is solde or like the Melons that bee ripe and mellow Art not thou that Boemia which lacketh two teeth before are not thine eyes sunken into thy head thy hayres whiter the flesh wrinckled and thy hand perished with the gowt and one rib marred with
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
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