him and in this maner began to perswade Above all things my good childe quoth he studie and endevour to imitate the humanitie and sociable nature of your noble father unlesse haply you have me in jealousie and suspition as if I went about to compasse your death The youth was abashed to heare him say so and went with him well supper was no sooner ended but they made an end of the yoong gentleman also and strangled him outright so that it is no ridiculous and foolish advertisement as some let not to say but a wise and sage advise of Hesiodus when he saith Thy friend and lover to supper do invite Thy foe leave out for he will thee requite Be not in any wise bashfull and ashamed to refuse his offer whom thou knowest to hate thee but never leave out and reject him once who seemeth to put his trust and confidence in thee for if thou do invite thou shalt be invited againe and if thou be bidden to a supper and go thou canst not choose but bid againe if thou abandon once thy distrust and diffidence which is the guard of thy safty and so marre that good tincture and temperature by a foolish shame that thou hast when thou darest not refuse Seeing then that this infirmitie and maladie of the minde is the cause of many inconveniences assay we must to chase it away with all the might we have by exercise beginning at the first like as men do in other exercises with things that are not very difficult nor such as a man may boldly have the face to denie as for example if at a dinner one chance to drinke unto thee when thou hast drunke sufficiently already be not abashed to refuse for to pledge him neither force thy selfe but take the cup at his hand and set it downe againe on the boord againe there is another perchance that amids his cups chalengeth thee to hazzard or to play at dice be not ashamed to say him nay neither feare thou although thou receive a flout and scoffe at his hands for deniall but rather do as xenophanes did when one Lasus the sonne of Hermiones called him coward because he would not play at dice with him I confesse quoth he I am a very dastard in those things that be lewd and naught and I dare do nothing at all moreover say thou fall into the hands of a pratling talkative busie bodie who catcheth hold on thee hangeth upon thee and will not let thee go be not sheepish and bashfull but interrupt and cut his tale short shake him off I say but go thou forward and make an end of thy businesse whereabout thou wentest for such refusals such repulses shifts and evasions in small matters for which men cannot greatly complaine of us exercising us not to blush and be ashamed when there is no cause do inure and frame us well before-hand unto other occasions of greater importance And heere in this place it were not amisse to call unto remembrance a speech of Demosthenes for when the Athenians being sollicited and mooved to send aid unto Harpalus were so forward in the action that they had put themselves in armes against king Alexander all on a sodaine they discovered upon their owne coasts Philoxenus the lieutenant generall of the kings forces and chiefe admirall of his Armada at sea now when the people were so astonied upon this unexpected occurrent that they had not a word to say for very feare What wil these men do quoth Demosthenes when they shall see the sunne who are so afraid that they dare not looke against a little lampe even so I say to thee that art given much to blush and be abashed What wilt thou be able to do in weightie affaires namely when thou shalt be encountred by a king or if the bodie of some people or state be earnest with thee to obtaine ought at thy hand that is unreasonable when thou hast not the heart to refuse for to pledge a familiar friend if he chance to drinke unto thee offer thee a cup of wine or if thou canst not find meanes to escape and wind thy selfe out of the company of a babling busie bodie that hath fastened and taken hold of thee but suffer such a vaine prating fellow as this to walke and leade thee at his pleasure up and downe having not so much power as to say thus unto him I will see you againe hereafter at some other time now I have no leasure to talke with you Over and besides the exercise and use of breaking your selves of this bashfulnesse in praising others for small and light matters will not be unprofitable unto you as for example Say that when you are at a feast of your friends the harper or minstrell do either play or sing out of tune or haply an actour of a Comedie dearely hired for a good piece of money by his ill grace in acting marre the play and disgrace the authour himselfe Menander and yet neverthelesse the vulgar sort doe applaud clap their hands and highly commend and admire him for his deed in mine advice it would be no great paine or difficulty for thee to give him the hearing with patience and silence without praising him after a servile and flattering maner otherwise than you thinke it meet and reason for if in such things as these you be not master of your selfe how will you be able to hold when some deare friend of yours shall reade unto you either some foolish rime or bad poësie that himselfe hath composed if he shal shew unto you some oration of his owne foolish and ridiculous penning you will fall a praising of him will you you will keepe a clapping of your hands with other flattering jacks I would not els And if you doe so how can you reprove him when he shall commit some grosse fault in greater matters how shall you be able to admonish him if he chance to forget himselfe in the administration of some magistracie or in his carriage in wedlocke or in politike government And verily for mine owne part I do not greatly allow and like of that answere of Pericles who being requested by a friend to beare false witnesse in his behalfe and to binde the same with an oath whereby he should be forsworne I am your friend quoth he as far as the altar as if he should have said Saving my conscience and duety to the gods for surely he was come too neere already unto him But he who hath accustomed himselfe long before neither to praise against his owne minde one who hath made an oration nor to applaud unto him who hath sung nor to laugh heartily at him who came out with some stale or poore jest which had no grace hee will I trow never suffer his friend and familiar to proceed so farre as to demand such a request of him or once be so bolde as to move him who before had refused in smaller trifles to satisfie his desire in
true and assuredremedies and in stead of leaving the heart afflicted amid humane thoughts and considerations raiseth and lifteth it up unto the justice wisedome and bountie of the true God and heavenly father it causeth it to see the estate of eternall life it assureth it of the soules immortalitie of the resurrection of the bodie points of learning wherein the Pagans were altogether ignorant and of the permanent and everlasting joies above in the kingdome of heaven Now albeit as this trueth of God revealed unto us in his sacred word hath instructed and resolved us sufficiently it will not be amisse and impertinent to learne of our authour and such others those things which themselves did not well and thorowly understand neither in life nor yet in death for that the foundation failed them and they missed the ground-worke indeed and in cleaving and leaning to I wot not what fortune and fatall destinie they caused man to rest and stay himselfe upon a vaine shadow of vertue and willed him in one word to seeke for consolation where there was nothing but desolation for happinesse in misery and for life in death As touching the argument and contents of this treatise adorned it is with notable reasons similitudes examples and testimonies the substance whereof is this That Apollonius unto whom it is addressed ought not to be over-pensive and heavie for the death of his sonne deceased in the flower of his age To move and perswade him thereto Plutarch after he had excused himselfe in that he wrote no sooner unto him and shewed that space of time comming betweene doth better prepare mens hearts which sorow and be in anguish to receive comfort he condemneth aswell blockish and senselesse folke as also those that be weaklings and over-tender in adversitie Which done he entreth into a generall review of the remedies which be appropriate to cure the miseries and afflictions of man namely that hee ought to holde a meane and to continue alwaies like himselfe to cast his eie and have regard upon the divers accidents of our life and in enjoying the blessings thereof to thinke upon future crosses and calamities to be armed with reason for to beare all changes to remember and carefully to thinke upon the estate of this mortall and transitorie life to consider the evils and miseries of the same to endure patiently that which can not be avoided and prevented with all the cares and lamentations that be and to compare our owne adversities with other mens Then he proceedeth unto the particular consolations of those who are heavie and sorowfull for the death of their children kinsfolke or friends to wit That there is no harme nor evill at all in death but rather that it is a good thing that the houre of it being uncertaine it is a comfort unto those whom it summoneth who no doubt would be cast downe and overthrowen with the apprehension of miseries to come in case they had any foresight thereof After this he proveth at large by three inductions and arguments of Socrates that there is not any evill in death which he confirmeth by divers examples and then returning into his consolations he mainteineth and holdeth That whosoever die yoong are most happie that the consideration of Gods providence ought to reteine and stay us that we are not to mourne and lament for the dead neither in regard of them nor of our selves that since over-long heavinesse and sorow maketh a man miserable it were very good for him to be rid and dispatched of that paine quickly Having finished this point he resolveth and assoileth certeine difficulties which are presented in these maters and then taking in hand his purpose againe he ruleth and reformeth the affections of the living toward them that are departed he reclaimeth them from persisting and continuing obstinately in bewailing their absence willing them rather to bewaile the case of those who are living and by many reasons doth prove and conclude that they who die betimes have one marvellous advantage over those that remaine alive in the world Then he teacheth a man to mainteine and cary himselfe as he ought in all affaires refuteth those who can abide no paine and trouble and knitting up all the premisses in few words he adjoineth certaine necessarie and profitable counsels in such accidents and before that he concludeth the whole treatise he describeth the felicity of those whom death cutteth off in the prime of their yeeres having a speciall regard herein to Apollonius the 〈◊〉 unto whom he writeth and assuring him by the recitall of the good parts and vertues which were in his sonne lately departed that he was without all question in that place of repose and rest which the Poets do imagine Upon which occasion he treateth of the immortalitie of the soule according to the doctrine of Plato and his followers which is the very end and closing up of all that had bene delivered before A CONSOLATORIE ORAtion sent unto Apollonius upon the death of his sonne IT is not newly come upon me now at this present and not before to pitie your case and lament in your behalfe ô Apollonius having heard long since as I did the heavy newes concerning the untimely death of your sonne a yoong gentleman singularly well beloved of us all as who in that youth and tender yeeres of his shewed rare examples of wise carriage staied and modest behaviour together with precise observance of those devout dueties and just offices which either perteined to the religious service of the gods or were respective to his parents and friends for even from that time have I condoled with you and had a fellow-feeling of your sorrow but for me to have come then and visited you immediatly upon his decease departure out of this world to present you with an exhortation to beare patiently and as becommeth a man that unfortunate accident had bene an unseemly part of mine and unconvenient considering how in that verie instant your minde and bodie both overcharged with the insupportable burden of so strange and unexpected a calamitie were brought low and much infeebled and my selfe besides must needs have moaned you felt part of your griefe and sorrowed with you for companie for even the best and most skilfull Physicians when they meet with violent rhewmes and catarrhes which suddenly surprise any part of the body doe not proceed at the first to a rough cure by purgative medicines but permit this rage and hot impression of inflamed humours to grow of it selfe to maturitie by application onely of supple oiles mild liniments and gentle fomentations But now that since your said misfortune some time which useth to ripen all things is passed betweene and given good opportunitie considering also that the present disposition and state of your person seemeth to require the helpe and comfort of your friends I thought it meet and requisit to impart unto you certeine reasons and discourses consolatorie if happily by that meanes I may ease
honestly Right excellent also are those verses of Euripides as touching them who endure long maladies I hate all those by meat and drink Who to prolong their daies doe think By Magick arte and sorcery The course of death who turne awry Where as they should be glad and faine When as they see it is but vaine Of earth to live upon the face For yoongers then to quit the place As for Merope in pronouncing these manlike and magnanimous words she mooveth the whole theater to this consideration of her speeches when she saith I am not th' onely mother left Who of faire children am bereft Nor yet a widow am I alone Who my deere husband have for gone For others infinite there bee Who have felt like calamitiee Unto this a man may very aptly adjoine these verses also What is become of that magnificence Where is king Craesus with his opulence Or Xerxes he whose monstrous worke it was By bridge the firth of Hellespont to pas To Pluto now they are for ever gon To houses of most deepe oblivion Their goods and their wealth together with their bodies are perished howbeit beleeve me some will say many are mooved perforce to weepe and lament when they see a yoong person die before due time and yet I assure you this hastie and untimely death admitteth so readie consolation that even the meanest and most vulgar comicall poets have seene into the thing and devised good meanes and effectuall reasons of comfort for consider what one of them saith in this case to him that mourned and lamented for the unripe and unseasonable death of a friend of his in these words If thou hadst knowne for certaine that thy friend Who now is dead should have beene blesse day Throughout that course of life which was behind In case the gods had staid his dying day His death had beene vntimely I would say But if long life should bring him greefes incurable To him haply was death than now more favorable Seeing then uncertaine it is whether the issue and end of this life will be expedient unto a man and whether he shall be delivered and excused thereby from greater evils or no we ought not to take ones death so heavilie as if we had utterly lost all those things which we hoped for and promised our selves by his life to enjoy and therefore me thinks that Amphiaraus in a certaine tragedy of a poet did not impertinently and without good purpose comfort the mother of Archemorus who tooke it to the heart and grieved excessively that her sonne a yoong infant died so long before the ordmarie time for thus he saith unto her No man there is of womans body born But in his dates much travell he doth beare Children some die the parents long beforn And are by them enterred then they reare And get yoong babes for those that buried were Lastly themselves into the graves doe fall This is the course this is the end of all Yet men for them doe weepe and sorrow make Whose bodies they on biere to earth doe send Although in truth a way direct they take As eares of corne full ripe which downward bend As some begin so others make an end Why should men grieve and sigh at natures lore What must shall be thinke it not hard therefore In summe every man ought both in meditation within himselfe and in earnest discourse also with others to hold this for certaine that the longest life is not best but rather the most vertuous for neither he that plaieth most upon a lute or citterne is commended for the cunnigest musician no more than he who pleadeth longest is held the most eloquent orator nor he that sitteth continually at the helme is praised for the best pilot but they that doe best deserve the greatest commendation for we are not to measure goodnesse by the length of time but by vertue by convenient proportion and measure of all words and deeds for this is that amiable beautie which is esteemed happie in this world and pleasing to the gods which is the reason that the poets have left unto us in writing that the most excellent worthies or demie gods and such as by their saying were begotten by gods changed this their mortal life and departed before they were old for even he Who was of mightie Jupiter and Phaebus loved best Permitted was not long to live and in old age to rest For this we alwaies see that ordinarily the maturitie of yeeres and the same well emploied is preferred before old age and long life for thus we repute those trees and plants best which in least time beare most frute as also those living creatures which in little space yeeld greatest profit and commodity to mans life furthermore little difference you shall finde betweene short time and long in comparison of eternitie for that a thousand yea and ten thousand yeeres according to Simonides are no more than a very prick or rather the smallest indivisible portion of a prick in respect of that which is infinit We reade in histories that there be certaine living creatures about the land of Pontus whose life is comprised within the compasse of one day for in the morning they are bred by noone they are in their vigor and at best and in the evening they be old and end their lives would not these creatures thinke you if they had the soule of man and that use of reason which we have feele the very same passions that we doe if the like accidents befell unto them certes those that died before noone would minister occasion of mourning and weeping but such as continued all day long should be reputed happy Well our life should be measured by vertue and not by continuance of time so that we are to esteem such exclamations as these foolish and full of vanitie Oh great pittie that he was taken waie so yoong it ought not to have beene that he should die yet and who is he that dare say This or that ought But many things else have beene are and shall be done heereafter which some man might say ought not to have been done howbeit come we are not into this life for to prescribe lawes but rather to obey those lawes which are decreed and set down already by the gods who governe the world and the ordinances of destinie and divine providence But to proceed those who so much deplore lament the dead do they it for love of thēselves or for their sake who are departed if in regard of their own selves for that they find how they are deprived of some pleasure or profit or els disappointed of support in their old age which they hoped to receive by those who are departed surely this were but a small occasion no honest pretence of lamentation for that it seemeth they bewaile not the dead persons but the losse of those cōmodities which they expected from them but in case they grieve in the behalf of those that
ceaseth to be it commeth and goeth together in such sort as that which beginneth to breed never reacheth to the perfection of being for that in very deed this generation is never accomplished nor resteth as being come to a ful end and perfection of being but continually changeth and moveth from one to another even as of humane seed first there is gathered within the mothers wombe a fruit or masse without forme then an infant having some forme and shape afterwards being out of the mothers belly it is a sucking babe anon it proves to be alad or boy within a while a stripling or springall then a youth afterwards a man growen consequently an elderly ancient person last of ala croked old man so that the former ages precedent generations be alwais abolished by the subsequent those that follow But we like ridiculous fooles be affraid of one kinde of death when as we have already died so many deaths and doe nothing daily and hourely but die still For not onely as Heraclitus saith the death of fire is the life of aire and the end of aire the beginning of water but much more evidently we may observe the same in our selves The floure of our yeeres dieth and passeth away when old age commeth youth endeth in the floure of lusty and perfect age childhood determineth in youth infancy in childhood Yesterday dieth in this day and this day will be dead by to morow neither continueth any man alwaies one and the same but we are engendred many according as the matter glideth turneth and is driven about one image mould or patterne common to all figures For were it not so but that we continued still the same how is it that we take delight now in these things whereas we joied before in others how is it that we love and hate praise and dispraise contrary things how commeth it to passe that we use divers speeches fal into different discourses are in sundry affections retaine not the same visage one countenance one minde and one thought For there is no likelihood at all that without change a man should entertaine other passions and looke who is changed he continueth not the same and if he be not the same he is not at all but together with changing from the same he changeth also to be simply for that continually he is altered from one to another and by consequence our sense is deceived mistaking that which appeareth for that which is indeed and all for want of knowledge what it is to be But what is it in trueth to be Surely to be eternall that is to say which never had beginning in generation nor shall have end by corruption and in which time never worketh any mutation For a moveable and mutable thing is time appearing as it were in a shadow with the matter which runneth and floweth continually never remaining stable permanent and solid but may be compared unto a leaking vessell conteining in it after a sort generations and corruptions And to it properly belong these tearmes 〈◊〉 and after Hath bene shall be which presently at the very first sight do evidently shew that time hath no being For it were a great folly and manifest absurditie to say that a thing is which as yet commeth not into esse or hath already ceased to be And as for these words Present Instant Now c. by which it seemeth that principally we ground and mainteine the intelligence of Time reason discovereth the same and immediatly overthroweth it for incontinently it is thrust out dispatched into future and past so that it fareth with us in this case as with those who would see a thing very farre distant for of necessitie the visuall beames of his sight doe faile before they can reach thereto Now if the same befall to nature which is measured that unto time which measureth it there is nothing in it permanent nor subsistent but all things therein be either breeding or dying according as they have reference unto time And therefore it may not be allowed to say of that which is It hath beene or it shall be for these termes be certaine inclinations passages departures and chaunges of that which cannot endure nor continue in being Whereupon we are to conclude that God alone is and that not according to any measure of time but respective to eternity immutable and unmooveable not gaged within the compasse of time nor subsert either to inclination or declination any way before whom nothing ever was nor after whom ought shall be nothing future nothing past nothing elder nothing yoonger but being one really by this one Present or Now accomplisheth his eternitie and being alway Neither is there any thing that may truely be said to be but he alone nor of him may it be verified He hath beene or shall be for that he is without beginning and end In this maner therefore we ought in our worship and adoration to salute and invocate him saying EI that is to say Thou art unlesse a man will rather according as some of the ancients used to doe salve him by this title EI EN that is to say Thou art one for god is not many as every one of us who are a confused heape and masse composed or rather thrust together of infinit diversities and differences proceeding from all sorts of alterations but as that which is ought to be one so that which is one ought to be for alternative diversitie being the difference of that which is departeth from it and goeth to the engendring of that which is not And therefore very rightly agreeth unto this god the first of his names as also the second and the third for Apollo he is called as denying and disavowing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say plurality multitude likewise Iëias which is as much to say as One or alone thirdly Phoebus by which name they called in the olde time All that was cleane and pure without mixture and pollution And semblably even at this day the Thessalians if I be not deceived say that their priests upon certeine vacant dayes when they keepe forth of their temples and live apart pivatly to themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now that which is one is also pure and syncere for pollution commeth by occasion that one thing is mingled with another like as Homer speaking in one place of Yvorie having a tincture of red said it was polluted and the word that he useth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diers also when they would expresse that their colours be medleies or mixed use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to be corrupted and the very mixture they tearme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Corruption It behooveth therefore that the thing which is syncere and incorruptible should be also one and simple without all mixture whatsoever In which regard they who thinke that Apollo and the Sunne be both one god are worthy to
an Indian Dog of rare 〈◊〉 964.10 a Dog counterfeited a part in a play 967.30 Dogs crucified at Rome 638.30 a Dog saluted as king in AEthiopia 1087.40 a Dog resembleth Anubis 1305.10 a Dog why so much honoured in AEgypt 1305.20 Dogs why they pursue the stone that is throwen at the. 1015.10 a Dog why he resembleth Mercurie 1291.40 Dolphins loving to mankind 344.30.751.20.979.1.10 delighted in Musicke ib. Dolphins spared by fishers 344.30 a Dolphin saved a maidens life 344.40 a Dolphin the armes that Vlysses bare in his shield 980.20 Dolphins how affectionate to a boy of Jasos 979.40 Dolphin how crafty he is and hard to be caught 972.10 Dolphins in continuall motion 974.1 C. Domitius his apophthegme 431.30 he overthrew K. Antiochus ib. Dorian Musicke commended by Plato 1253.40 Dorians pray to have an ill hey harvest 1008.10 Doryxenus who it is 893.30 Cocke Doves squash their hennes egges 954.20 Dragon consecrated to Bacchus 699.20 A Dragon enamoured of a yong damosell 966.10 who never Dreamed in all their life time 1349.50 Dreames to be considered in case of health 618.10 Dreames how they come 841.30 how to be regarded 255.10 Dreames in Autumne little to be regarded 784. 1. the reason thereof ib. how to be observed in the progresse of vertue 255.10 Drinke whether it passe through our lungs 743.20 the wagon of our meat 743.50 Drinkes which are to be taken heed of 613.30 Drinking leisurely moistneth the belly 743.50 Drinke five or three but not foure 695.20 Dromoclides a great states man in Athens 348 40 Drunkenesse what persons it soonest assaileth 652.10 Drunckenesse is dotage 765.20 Faults committed in Drunkenesse doubly punished 336.50 Halfe Drunke more brainsicke than those who be thorow drunke 694.20 Drunkenesse most to blame for intemperate speech 194.10 how defined 194.40 soone bringeth age 690.10 Dryades what Nymphs 1141.30 Duality the authour of disorder and of even numbers 1341.1 Duplicity of the soule 65.40 Dying is a kinde of staining or infection 774.40 Dysopia what it is 163.20 E EAres give passage to vertue for to enter into yong mens mindes 52.10 Eare delights are dangerous 18.40 Eare-sports how to be used 〈◊〉 10. when to be used at a feast 761.30 Eares of children and yong 〈◊〉 how to be desended 52.10 Earely eating condemned in olde time 775.30 Earth whether it be the element of colde 999.40 Earth called Estia or Vesta wherefore 1002.1 Earth by god not alwaies placed below 649.1 Earth whether but one or twaine 829.50 Earth what prerogative it hath 1345.30 what it is 830. 1. what forme it hath 830. 10 the situation thereof 830.10 why it bendeth southerly 830.30 Earth whether it moove or 〈◊〉 830.40 Earthquakes how occasioned 831.20 Earth corrupteth waters 〈◊〉 it causeth diversity of waters 774.40 Earth for the most part not inhabited 1177.40.50 Echemythia 139.10 Echeneis a fish 676.10 the reason how she staieth a ship 676.50 Echo how it is caused 839.20 In Eclipses of the moone why they rung basons 1183.20 Eclipses of the Sunne 1171.20.30 Eclipses why more of the Moone then of Sunne 1172. 10. of eclipses the cause 1172.10 Education of what power it is 4.10.6.40 Eeles comming to hand 970.1 Eeles bred without generation of male or female 672.10 Egge or henne whether was before 669.50 Egges resemble the principles of all things 670.50 The Egge whereof came Castor and Pollux 671.20 E. signifieth the number five 1354 30 EI. written upon the temple at Delphi what it signifieth 1353 30.1354 EI. an gold in brasse and in wood 1354.30 EI. a stone 345.20 EI. as much as 〈◊〉 EI. of what force it is in logicke 1355. why E. is preferred before other letters 1356.40 Eight resembleth the female 884.20 Eight the first cubicke number 884.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth both the fruit and the tree of the olive 32.1 Elaeus the city whereof it tooke the name 917.40 Elaphebolia a feast when instituted 485.10.699.50 Elasiae who they be 895.40 Electra concubine to Deiotarus with the privity and permission of his wife 50.40 Elegie whose invention 1257.10 Elements 4. 994.40 which be elements 805.10.808.1 Elements before elements 813.50 Eleon 901.10.20 Elephants how they be prepared for fight 959.1 Elephants docible 961.10 their wit patience and mildenesse 961.30 Elephant of king Porus how dutifull unto him 963.40 Elephants witty and loving to their fellowes 965.40 devout and religious ib. 50. full of love and amorous they can abide no white garments 323.40 Elephantiasis a disease not long knowen 780.30 Eleutherae 899.50 Eleutheria what feast 914.40 Elians why excluded frō the Isthmick games at Corinth 1194.40 Elieus the father of Eunostus 900.40 Ellebor root clenseth malancholie 659.10 Ellebor 91.50 Elops the onely fish swimming downe the streame and winde 973.50 Eloquence becommeth old men 391.10 in princes most necessary 352.10 Elpenor 899.20 Elpenor his ghost 791.40 Elpisticke Philosophers 709.1 Elysius the father of Euthynous 518.30 Elysian field in the moone 1183.30 Emerepes his apophthegme 557.1 Empona her rare love to her husband 1157.1158 cruelly put to death by Vespasian ib. Empusa 598.30 Empedocles his opinion touching the first principles 807.50 how he averted a pestilence 134.10 a good common wealths man 1128.10 Emulation that is good 256.50 Enalus enamoured of a virgin destined for sacrifice 345.1 Encnisma what it is 895.50 Encyclia what sciences 9.1 Endrome the name of a canticle 1256.40 Endimatia what dance 1251.30 Engastrinythi what they be 1327 1 In England or great Brittaine why folke live long 849.50 by Enimies men may take profit 237.20.30.50 of Enimies how to be revenged 239.30 Enneaterides 891.1 Entelechia 805.30.808.10 No enterring the reliques of triumphant persons within the city of Rome 876.50 Enthusiasme 1344.20 Enthusiasmus 654.40 of sundry sorts 1142. 50. what kinde of fury 1142.40 Envy 1070.50 Envy a cause of mens discontent 156.1.10 Envy among brethren 183.10 how it may be avoided 184.1.10.20 Envy and hatred differ 234.1 Envy what it is 234.20 Envious men be pitifull 235.50 Envy hurtfull especially to scholars and hearers 53.50 Envy of divers sorts 53.50.54.1 Envious eie hath power to bewitch 724.20 Envy whome it assaileth most 388.20 compared to smoake ib. 30 how it is to be quenched 389.1 Envy not excusable in old age 399 10. in yong persons it hath many pretenses 399.10 Enyalius what god 154.50.1141.10 Epacrii a faction in Athens 1149 10 Epact daies 1292.10 Epaenetus his apophthegme 557.1 Epaminondas beheadeth his owne sonne 910.1 Epaminondas his commendation 53.20 Epaminondas accused of a capitall crime 477.40 his plea. ib. his death 428.1 Epaminondas the nickename of a talkative fellow 207.20 Epaminondas had a grace in denying his friends requests 361.10 how carefull for the Thebans 295.40.50 he retorted a reprochfull scoffe upon Calistratus 363.50 his valiant exploit 400 10. his magnanimity 303 20. his apophthegmes 425.40 he could not abide fat and corpulent soldiers ib. his sobriety and frugality ib. 50. debased by the Epicureans 1129.10 his apophthegme 625.50 admired in commending himselfe 303.10 Epaphus 1302.20
their wilde and untamed affections with great care and vigilance For this floure of age having no forecast of thrift but set altogither upon spending and given to delights and pleasures winseth and flingeth out like a skittish and frampold horse in such sort that it had need of a sharpe bit and short curb And therefore they that endeuor not by all good meanes forcibly to hold in and restraine this age but give yoong men libertie and suffer them to do after their own mind plunge them ere they be aware into a licentious course of life and all maner of wickednesse Wherefore good and wise fathers ought in this age especially to be vigilant and watchfull over their sonnes they ought I say to keepe them downe and inute them to wisedome and vertue by teaching by threatning by intreatie and praiers by advise and remonstrances by perswasion and counsell by faire promises by setting before their eies the examples of some who being abandoned to their pleasures and all sensualitie have fallen headlong into great calamities and wofull miseries and contrariwise of others who by mastering their lusts and conquering their delights have wonne honor and glorious renowne For surely these be the two Elements and foundations of vertue Hope of reward and Feare of punishment For as hope inciteth and setteth them forward to enterprise the best and most commendable acts so feare plucketh them backe that they dare not enter upon lewd and wicked pranks In summe Fathers ought with great care to divert their children from frequenting ill companie for otherwise they shall be sure to catch infection and carie away the contagion of their leandnes This is that Pythagoras expresly forbiddeth in his Aenigmaticall precepts under covert and dark words which because they are of no small efficacie to the attaining of vertue I will briefly set downe by the way and open their meaning Taste not quoth he of the black tailed fishes Melanuri which is as much to say as Keepe not company with infamons persons such as for their naughtie life are noted as it were with a blacke coale Passe not over a balance That is we ought to make the greatest account of equitie and justice and in no case to transgresse the same Sit not upon the measure Choenix That is to say we are to flie sloth and idlenes that we may forecast to make provision of things necessarie to this life Give not every man thy right hand which is all one with this Make no contracts and bargaines indifferently with all persons Weare not a ring streight upon thy finger i. Live in freedome and at libertie neither intangle and clog thy life with troubles as with gives Dig not nor rake into the fire with a sword whereby he giveth us a caveat not to provoke farther a man that is angrie for that is not meete and expedient but rather to give place unto those that are in heat of choller Ear not thy heart that is to say offend not thine owne soule nor hurt and consume it with pensive cares Abstaine from beanes i. Intermeddle not in the affaires of State and government for that in olde time men were woont to passe their voices by beanes so proceeded to the election of Magistrates Put not viands in a chamber-pot whereby he signifieth that we should not commit good and civill words to a wicked minde because speech is the nutriment of the understanding which becommeth polluted by the leudnesse of men Returne not backe from the limits and confines when thou commest unto them that is to say If wee perceive death approching and that wee are come to the uttermost bounds of our life we ought to beare our death patiently and not be discouraged thereat But now is it time to retume againe to my matter which I proposed before in the beginning namely as I have alreadie said we are to withdraw our children from the societie and companie of leud persons and flatterers especiallie for that which many a time and often I have said to divers and sundrie fathers I will now repeat once againe namely That there is not a more mischievous and pestilent kinde of men or who doe greater hurt to youth and sooner overthrow them then these flatterers who are the undoing both of fathers and sonnes causing the olde age of the one and the youth of the other wretched and miserable presenting with their leud and wicked counsels an inevitable bait to wit Pleasure wherewith they are sure to be caught Fathers exhort their sonnes that be wealthie to sobrietie and these incite them to drunkenesse Fathers give them counsell to live chaste and continent these provoke them to lust and loosenesse of life Fathers bid them to save spare and be thriftie these will them to spend scatter and be wasters Fathers advise their children to labour and travell these flatterers give them counsell to play or sit still and doe nothing What all our life say they is no more but a moment and minute of time to speake of we must live therefore and enjoy our owne whiles wee have it we must not live beside our selves and languish What need you regard and care for the menaces of a father an olde doting foole carying death in his face and having one foot in the grave we shall see him one of these dayes turne up his heeles and then will we soone have him forth and cary him aloft bravely to his grave You shall have one of these come and bring unto a youth some common harlot out of the stinking stewes having bome him in hand before that she is some brave dame and citizens wife for to furnish whom he must robbe his father there is no remedie Thus fathers goodmen in one houre are bereaved and spoiled of that which they had saved many a yeere for the maintenance of their olde age To be short a wretched and cursed generation they be hypocrites pretending friendship but they can not skill of plaine dealing and franke speech Rich men they claw sooth up and flatter the poore they contemne and despise It seemeth they have learned the Art of singing to the Harpe for to seduce yoong men for when their yoong masters who mainteine and feed them begin to laugh then they set up by and by a loud laughter then they yawne shew all their teeth counterfeit cranks fained and supposed men bastard members of mankinde and this life who compose themselves and live to the will and pleasure of rich men and notwithstanding their fortune is to be free borne and of franke condition yet they chuse voluntarily to be slaves who thinke they have great injurie done unto them if they may not live in all fulnesse and superfluitie to be kept delicately and doe nothing that good is And therefore all futhers that have any care of their childrens good education and wel doing ought of necessitie to chase and drive away from them these gracelesse imps and shamelesse beasts they shall doe
whiles we be tempering about this immoderate shamefacednesse for to remoove it that we do not draw away with it grace and modesty gentlenes and debonarity which be adjacents and lie close unto it under which qualities lieth lurking and sticketh close to the foresaid naughtie bashfulnesse flattering him that is possessed therewith as if he were full of humanitie courtesie civilitie and common sense not opinionative severe inflexible and untractable which is the reason that the Stoicke Philosophers when they dispute of this matter have distinguished by severall names this aptnes to blush or over-much bashfulnesse from modestie and shamefacednesse indeed for feare lest the aequivocation and ambiguitie of one common word might give some occasion and vantage to the vicious passion it selfe to do some hurt As for us they must give us leave to use the tearmes without calumniation or rather permit us to distinguish according to Homer when he saith Shame is a thing that doth mickle harme and profiteth as much neither without good cause is it that in the former place he putteth downe the harme and discommoditie thereof for surely it is not profitable but by the meanes of reason which cutteth off that which is superfluous and leaveth a meane behinde To come then unto the remedies thereof it behooveth him first and formost who is given to blushing at every smal matter to beleeve be perswaded that he is possessed with such an hurtfull passion now there is nothing hurtfull which is good and honest neither ought he to take pleasure and delight when he shall be tickled in the eare with praises and commendations when he shall heare himselfe called gentle jolly and courteous in steed of grave magnanimous and just neither let him do as Pegasus the horse in Euripides who When mount his back Bellerophontes should With trembling stoup'd more than his owne selfe would that is to say give place and yeeld after a base manner to the demaunds and requests of everie man or object himselfe to their wil and pleasure for feare forsooth lest one should say of him Lo what a hard man is this See how inexorable he is It is reported of Bocchorus a king of Egypt that being rough fell austere the goddesse Isis sent the serpent called Aspis for to wind and wreath about his head and so to cast a shadow over him from above to the ende that hee might be put in minde to judge aright but this excessive shamefastnesse which alwaies overspreadeth and covereth them who are not manly but faint-hearted and effeminate not suffering them once to dare to deny or gainsay any thing surely would avert and withdraw judges from doing justice close up their mouthes that in counsels and consultations should deliver their opinion frankly yea and cause them both to say and do many things inconsiderately against their minde which otherwhiles they would not For looke whosoever is most unreasonable and importunate he will ever tyrannize and dominier over such an one forcing by his impudencie the bashfulnesse of the other by which meanes it commeth to passe that this excessive shame like unto a low piece of soft ground which is ready to receive all the water that comes and apt to be overflowed and drowned having no power to withstand and repulse any encounter nor say a word to the contrarie whatsoever is proposed yeeldeth accesse to the lewdest desseignes acts and passions that be An evill guardian and keeper of childhood and yoong age is this excessive bashfulnesse as Brutus well said who was of this minde that neither he nor she could well and honestly passe the flower of their fresh youth who had not the heart and face to refuse and denie any thing even so likewise a bad governesse it is of the bride-bed and womens chamber according to that which shee saide in Sophocles to the adulterer who repented of the fact Thy flattering words have me seduced And so perswaded I am abused In such sort as this bashfulnes over and besides that it is vicious and faultie it selfe spoileth and marreth cleane the intemperate incontinent person by making no resistance to his appetites and demaunds but letting all ly unfortified unbard and unlockt yeelding easie accesse and entrance to those that will make assault and give the attempt who may by great gifts and large offers catch and compasse the wickedest natures that be but surely by perswasions and inductions and by the meanes withall of this excessive bashfulnesse they oftentimes conquer and get the mastrie even of such as are of honest and gentle disposition Here I passe-by the detriments and damages that this bashfulnesse hath beene the cause of in many matters and that of profit and commoditie namely how many men having not the heart to say nay have put forth and lent their money even to those whose credite they distrust have beene sureties for such as otherwise they would have beene loth and unwilling to engage themselves for who can approove and commend this golden sentence written upon the temple of Apollo Be surety thou maist but make account then to pay howbeit they have not the power to do themselves good by that warning when they come to deale in the world And how many have come unto their end and died by the meanes of this foolish qualitie it were hard to reckon For Creon in Euripides when he spake thus unto Medea For me Madame it were much better now by flat deniall your minde to discontent Than having once thus yeelded unto you sigh afterwards full sore and ay repent gave a very good lesson for others to follow but himselfe overcome at length through his foolish bashfulnesse graunting one day longer of delay at her request overthrew his owne state and his whole house Some there were also who doubting and suspecting that they were laide for to be bloodily murdered or made away by poison yet upon a foolish modestie not refusing to go into the place of daunger came to their death and were soone destroied Thus died Dion who notwithstanding hee knew well enough that Callippus laide wait for him to take away his life yet forsooth abashed he was to distrust his friend and host and so to stand upon his guard Thus was Antipater the sonne of Cassander massacred who having first invited Demetrius to supper was bidden the morrow after to his house likewise and for that he was abashed to mistrust Demetrius who the day before had trusted him refused not to go but after supper he was murdered for his labour Moreover when Polysperchon had undertaken and promised unto Cassander for the summe of one hundred talents to kill Hercules a base sonne of king Alexander by lady Barsine he sent and requested the said Hercules to sup with with him in his lodging the yoong gentleman had no liking at all to such a bidding but mistrusting and fearing his curtesie alleaged for his excuse that he was not well at ease whereupon Polysperchon came himselfe in person unto
hard hearing have no sense at all of musicke and are nothing mooved and affected therewith a great infortunitie this was of blind Tiresias that hee could not see his children and friends but much more unfortunate and unhappie were Athamas and Agave who seeing their children thought they saw lions and stags And no doubt when Hercules fell to be enraged and mad better it had beene and more expedient for him that he had not seene nor knowne his owne children than so to deale with those who were most deere unto him and whom he loved more than all the world besies as if they had beene his mortall enemies Thinke you not then that there is the same difference betweene the passions of Atheists and superstitious folke Atheists have no sight nor knowledge of the gods at all and the superstitious thinke there are gods though they be perswaded of them amisse Atheists neglect them altogether as if they were not but the superstitious esteeme that to bee terrible which is gracious amiable cruell and tyranlike which is kind and fatherlike hurtful and damageable unto us which is most carefull of our good and profit rough rigorous savage and fell of nature which is void of choler and without passion And hereupon it is that they beleeve-brasse founders cutters in stone imagers gravers and workers in waxe who shape represent unto them gods with bodies to the likenesse of mortall men for such they imagine them to be such they adorne adore and worship whiles in the meane time they despise philosophers and grave personages of State and government who do teach and shew that the majestie of God is accompanied with bountie magnanimitie love and carefull regard of our good So that as in the one sort we may perceive a certeine sencelesse stupiditie and want of beleife in those causes from whence proceed all goodness so in the other we may observe a distrustfull doubt and feare of those which cannot otherwise be than profitable and gracious In sum impietie and Atheisme is nothing else but a meere want of feeling and sense of a deitie or divine power for default of understanding and knowing the soveraigne good and superstition is a heape of divers passions suspecting and supposing that which is good by nature to bee bad for superstitious persons feare the gods and yet they have recourse unto them they flatter them and yet blaspheme and reproch them they pray unto them and yet complaine of them A common thing this is unto all men not to be alwaies fortunate whereas the gods are void of sicknesse not subject to old age neither taste they of labour or paine at any time and as Pindarus saith Escape they do the passage of the first Of roaring Acheron and live alway in mirth But the passions and affaires of men be intermedled with divers accidents and adventures which run as well one way as another Now consider with me first and formost the Atheist in those things which happen against his minde and learne his disposition and affection in such occurrences if in other respects he be a temperate and modest man beare he will his fortune patiently without saying a word seeke for aide he will and comfort by what meanes he can but if he be of nature violent and take his misfortune impatiently then he directeth and opposeth all his plaints and lamentations against fortune and casualtie then he crieth out that there is nothing in the world governed either by justice or with providence but that all the affaires of man run confusedly headlong to destruction but the fashion of the superstitious is otherwise for let there never so small an accident or mishap befal unto him he sits him downe sorrowing and thereto he multiplieth and addeth other great and greevous afflictions such as hardly be remooved he imagineth sundry frights feares suspicions and troublesome terrors giving himselfe to all kinde of wailing groaning and dolefull lamentation for he accuseth not any man fortune occasion or his owne selfe but he blameth God as the cause of all giving out in plaine termes that from thence it is that there falleth and runneth over him such a celestiall influence of all calamitie and misery contesting in this wise that an unhappie or unluckie man he is not but one hated of the gods woorthily punished and afflicted yea and suffring all deservedly by that divine power and providence now if the godlesse Atheist be sicke he discourseth with himselfe and calleth to minde his repletions and full feedings his surfeiting upon drinking wine his disorders in diet his immoderate travell paines taken yea and his unusuall and absurd change of aire from that which was familiar unto that which is strange and unnatuturall moreover if it chance that he have offended in any matter of government touching the State incurred disgrace and an evill opinion of the people and country wherein he liveth or beene falsly accused and slandered before the prince or sovereigne ruler he goeth no farther than to himselfe and those about him imputing the cause of all thereto and to nothing els and thus he reasoneth Where have I beene what good have I done and what have I not done Where have I slipt what dutie begun is left by me undone whereas the superstitious person will thinke and say that everie disease and infirmitie of his bodie all his losses the death of his children his evill successe and infortunitie in managing civill affaires of State and his repulses and disgraces are so many plagues inflicted upon him by the ire of the gods and the verie assaults of the divine justice insomuch as he dare not go about to seeke for helpe and succour nor avert his owne calamitie he will not presume to seeke for remedie nor oppose himselfe against the invasion of adverse fortune for feare forsooth lest hee might seeme to fight against the gods or to resist their power and will when they punish him thus when he lieth sicke in bed he driveth his physician out of the chamber when he is come to visit him when he is in sorrow he shutteth and locketh his doore upon the Philosopher that commeth to comfort him and give him good counsell Let me alone will he say and give me leave to suffer punishment as I have deserved wicked and profane creature that I am accursed hated of all the gods demi-gods and saints in heaven Whereas if a man who doth not beleeve nor is perswaded that there is a God be otherwise in exceeding griefe and sorrow it is an ordinarie thing with him to wipe away the teares as they gush out of his eies and trickle downe the cheekes to cause his haire to be cut and to take away his mourning weed As for a superstitious person how shoud one speake unto him or which way succour and helpe him without the doores he sits clad in sackloth or else girded about his loines with patched clothes and tattered rags oftentimes he will welter and wallow in the
same doth shew in every street All signes of griefe with plaints and groanes among he looketh with a pale face under his chaplet of flowers upon his head he sacrificeth yet quaketh for feare he maketh his praiers with a trembling voice he putteth incense into the fire and his hand shaketh withall to be short he maketh the speech or sentence of Pythagoras to be vaine and foolish who was wont to say That we are then in best case when we approch unto the gods and worship them For verily even then it is when superstitious people are most wretched miserable to wit whē they enter into the temples sanctuaries of the gods as if they went into the dennes of beares holes of serpents and dragons or caves of whales such monsters of the sea I marvel much therfore at them who call the miscreance sinne of atheists Impiety give not that name rather to superstition And yet Anaxagoras was accused of impietie for that he held and said that the Sun was a stone wheras never man yet called the Cimmerians impious or godlesse because they suppose beleeve there is no Sunne at all What say you then shall he who thinketh that there be no gods at all be taken for a profane person and excommunicate and shall not he who beleeveth them to be such as superstitious folke imagine them be thought infected with more impious and wicked opinions For mine owne part I would be better pleased and content if men should say of me thus There neither is nor ever was in the world a man named Plutarch than to give out of me and say Plutarch is an unconstant man variable cholericke full of revenge for the least occasion that is or displeased and given to grieve for a small matter who if when you invite others to supper he be left out and not bidden or if upon some businesse you be let and hindered so that you come not to his doore for to visit him or otherwise do not salute and speake unto him friendly will be ready to eat your heart with salt to set upon you with his fangs and bite you will not sticke to catch up one of your little babes and worry him or will keepe some mischievous wild beast of purpose to put into your corne-fields your vineyard or orchards for to devoure and spoile all your fruits When Timotheus the musician one day in an open Theater at Athens chanted the praises of Diana giving unto her in his song the attributes of Thyas Phoebus Moenas and Lyssas that is to say Furious Possessed Enraged and Starke mad as Poets are wont to doe Cinesias another minstrell or musician rose up from out of the whole audience and said thus aloud unto him Would God thou haddest a daughter of those quallities And yet these superstitious folke thinke the same of Diana yea and worse to neither have they a better opinion of Apollo Iuno and Venus for all of them they feare and tremble at And yet what blasphemie uttered Niobe against Latona like unto that which superstition hath perswaded foolish people to beleeve of that goddesse to wit that she being displeased with the reprochfull words that Niobe gave her killed with her arrowes all the children of that silly woman Even daughters sixe and sonnes as many just Ofripe yeeres all no helpe but die they must so insatiable was she of the calamities of another so implacable was her anger For grant it were so that this goddesse was full of gall and choler say that she tooke an hatred to leawd and wicked persons or grieved could not endure to heare herselfe reproched or to laugh at humane follie and ignorance certes she should have bene offended and angry yea and discharged her arrowes upon these who untruely impute and ascribe unto her that bitternesse and exceeding crueltie and sticke not both to deliver in words and also to set downe in writing such things of her Wee charge Heccuba with beastly and barbarous immanitie for saying thus in the last booke of Homers Iliads O that I could his liver get Amid his corps to bite and eat As for the Syrian goddesse superstitious folke are perswaded that if any one do eate Enthoises or such little fish as Aphyae she will likewise gnaw their legs fill their bodies with ulcers and putrifie or rot their liver To conclude therefore is it impiously done to blaspheme the gods and speake badly of them and is it not as impious to thinke and imagine the same considering that it is the opinion and conceit of the blasphemer and foule mouthed profane person which maketh his speech to be reputed naught and wicked For even we our selves detest and abhorre foule language for nothing so much as because it is a signe of a malicious minde and those we take for to be our enemies who give out bad words of us in this respect that we suppose thē to be faithlesse and not to be trusted but rather ill affected unto us and thinking badly of us Thus you see what judgement superstitious folke have of the gods when they imagine them to be dull and blockish treachetous and disloiall variable and fickle minded full of revenge cruell melancholike and apt to fret at every little matter whereupon it must needs follow that the superstitious man doth both hate and also dread the gods for how can it otherwise be considering that he is perswaded that all the grearest calamities which either he hath endured in times past or is like to suffer heereafter proceed from them now whosoever hateth and feareth the gods he is no doubt their enemie neither is it to be woondred at for all this that although he stand in dread of them yet he adoreth and worshippeth them he praieth and sacrificeth unto them frequenteth duly and devoutly their temples and is not willingly out of them for do we not see it ordinarily that reverence is done unto tyrants that men make court unto them and crie God save your grace yea and erect golden statues to the honour of them howbeit as great devotion and divine honour as they doe unto them in outward apparence they hate and abhorre them secretly to the heart Hermolaus courted Alexander and was serviceable about him Pausanias was one of the squires of the bodie to king Philip and so was Chaereas to Caligula the Emperour but there was not of these but even when he served them said thus in his heart Certes in case it did now lie in mee Of thee thou tyrant revenged would I be Thus you see the Atheist thinketh there be no gods but the superstitious person wisheth that there were none yet he beleeveth even against his will that there be nay he dare not otherwise doe for feare of death Now if he could like as Tantalus desired to goe from under the stone that hung over his head be discharged of this feare which no lesse doth presse him downe surely he would embrace yea and thinke the
above all other things to see unto those goods which we may enjoy during the same and to oppose them against the present griefe and sorrow Afterwards he prooveth by sundrie and diversreasons that banishment is not in it selfe simply naught he 〈◊〉 and laieth open the folly and miserie of those who are too much addicted unto one countiey shewing by notable examples that a wise man may live at ease and contentment in all places that the hubitation in a strangeregion and the same limited and confined straightly withineertaine precincts doth much more good 〈◊〉 than harme that a large countrey lying out farre everie way maketh a man never a whit the more happie whereas contraiwise to be enclosed and pent up bringesh many commodities with it 〈◊〉 that this is the onely life and that is no life at all to be evermoreflitting to and fro from place to place Now when he hath beautified this theame abovesaid with many faire 〈◊〉 and proper in ductions he comforteth those who are de barred and excluded from any citie or province resuting with very good and sound arguments certaine persons who held banishment for a note of infamie shewing withall that it is nothing else but sinne and vice which bringeth a man into a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and condition concluding by the examples of Anaxagoras and Socrates that neither imprisonment nor death can enthrall or make miserable the man who loveth vertue And contrariwise he giveth us to under stand by theexamples of Phaëthon and Icarus that vitious and sinfull persons fall datly and continually one way or other into most grievous calamities through their owne audaciousnes and follie OF EXILE OR BANISHMENT SEmblable is the case of wise sentences and of good friends the best and most and assured be those reputed which are present with us in our calamities not in vaine and for a shew but to aide and succour us for many there be who will not sticke to present themselves yea and be ready to conferre and talke with their friends in time of adversitie howbeit to no good purpose at all but rather with some danger to themselves like as unskilfull divors when they goe about to helpe those that are at point to be drowned being clasped about the body sinke together with themfor company Now the speeches and discourses which come from friends and such as would seeme to be helpers ought to tend unto the consolation of the partie afflicted and not to the defence and justification of the thing that afflicteth for little need have we of such persons as should weepe and lament with us in our tribulations distresses as the maner is of the Chori or quires in Tragedies but those rather who will speake their minds frankely unto us and make remonstrance plainly That for a man to be sad and sorrowfull to afflict and cast downe himselfe is not onely every way bootlesse and unprofitable but also most vaine and foolish but where the adverse occurrents themselves being well handled and managed by reason when they are discovered what they be give a man occasion to say thus unto himselfe Thou hast no cause thus to complaine unlesse thou be dispos'd to faine A meere ridiculous follie it were to aske either of bodie and flesh what it aileth or of soule what it suffereth and whether by the occurrence of this accident it fare worse than before but to have recourse unto strangers without to teach us what our griefe is by wailing sorrowing and grieving together with us and therefore when wee are apart and alone by our selves wee ought ech one to examine our owne heart and soule about all and every mishap and infortunitie yea and to peise and weigh them as if they were so many burdens for the bodie is pressed downe onely by the weight of the fardell that loadeth it but the soule often times of it selfe giveth a surcharge over and above the things that molest it A stone of the owne nature is hard and yce of it selfe colde neither is there any thing without that giveth casually to the one the hardnesse to resist or to the other the coldnesse to congeale but banishments disgraces repulse and losse of dignitie as also contrariwise crownes honours sovereigne magistracies preeminences and highest places being powerfull either to afflict or rejoice hearts in some measure more or lesse not by their owne nature but according to judgement and opinion every man maketh to himselfe light or heavie easie to be borne or contrariwise intolerable whereupon we may heare Polynices answering thus to the demand made unto him by his mother How then is it a great calamitie To quit the place of our nativitie POLYNICES The greatest crosse of all it is doubtlesse And more indeed than my tongue can expresse but contrariwise you shall heare Aleman in another song according to a little Epigram written of him by a certeine Poet At Sardes where mine ance stours sometime abode did make If I were bred and nourished my surname I should take Of some Celinus or Bacelus in robes of golde arai'd And jewels fine while I upon the tabour plai'd But now Alcman I cleped am and of that Sparta great A citizen and poet for in Greekish muse my vaine Exalts me more than Dascyles or Gyges tyrants twaine for it is the opinion and nothing els that causeth one and the same thing to be unto some good and commodious as currant and approved money but to others unprofitable and hurtfull But set case that exile be a grievous calamitie as many men doe both say and sing even so among those meats which we eat there be many things bitter sharpe hote and biting in taste howbeit by mingling therewith somewhat which is sweet and pleasant we take away that which disagreeth with nature like as there be colours also offensive to the sight in such sort as that the eies be much dazled and troubled therewith by reason of their unpleasant hew or excessive and intolerable brightnesse If then for to remedie that inconvenience by such offensive and resplendent colours we have devised meanes either to intermingle shadowes withall or turne away our eies from them unto some greene and delectable objects the semblable may we doe in those sinister and crosse accidents of fortune namely by mixing among them those good and desireable blessings which a man presently doth enjoy to wit wealth and abundance of goods a number of friends and the want of nothing necessarie to this life for I do not thinke that among the Sardinians there be many who would not be very wel content with those goods and that estate which you have even in exile and chuse rather with your condition of life otherwise to live from home and in a strange countrey than like snailes evermore sticking fast to their shels be without all good things els enjoy only that which they have at home in peace without trouble and molestation Like as therefore in a certaine Comaedie there was one who exhorted
drive the same without forth to the superficiall parts but contrariwise a man of government if he be not able to keepe a citie altogether in peace concord but that some troubles will arise yet at leastwise he must endevour to conteine that within the citie which is the cause thereof and nurceth the sedition and in keeping it close to labour for to heale and remedie it to this end that if it be possible he have no need either of physician or physicke from forren parts for the intentions of a man of State and government ought to be these namely to proceed in his affaires surely and to flie the violent and furious motions of vaine-glorie as hath beene said alreadie howbeit in his resolution A courage bold and full of confidence Undaunted heart and fearlesse be must have Which will not quatle for any consequence But see the end much like to sculdiors brave In field themselves who manly do behave And hazard lims and life for to defend Their countrey deere and enemies to off end and not onely to oppose himselfe against enemies but also to be armed against perilous troubles and dangerous tumults that he may be readie to resist and make head for he ought not in any case himselfe to moove tempests and raise commotions no nor when he seeth boisterous stormes comming forsake and leave his countrey in time of need He must nor I say drive his citie under his charge upon apparent danger but so soone as ever it once begin to be tossed and to float in jeopardie than is it his part to come to succor by casting out from himselfe as it were a sacred Anchor that is to say to use his boldnesse and libertie of speech considering that now the maine point of all lieth a bleeding even the safetie of his countrey Such were the dangers that hapned unto Pergamus in Neroes time and of late daies to the Rhodians during the Empire of Domitian as also before unto the Thessalians while Augustus was Emperour by occasion that they had burned Petraeus quick In these and such like occurrences a man of State and government especially if he be woorthie of that name Never shall you see Sleepie for to bee nor drawing his foote backe for feare no nor to blame and lay the fault of others ne yet to make shift for one and put himselfe out of the medley of danger but either going in embassage or embarked in some ship at sea or else readie to speake first and to say not onely thus We we Apollo have this murder don From these our coasts avert this plague anon but although himselfe be not culpable at all with the multitude yet will he put his person into danger for them For surely this is an act right honest and besides the honestie in it selfe it hapneth divers times that the vertue and noble courage of such a man hath beene so highly admired that it hath daunted the anger conceived against a whole multitude and dispatched all the fiercenesse and furie of a bitter menace like as it befell unto a King of Persia in regard of Bulis and Sperthis two gentlemen of Sparta and as it was seene in Pompey to his host and friend Sthenon for when he was fully determined to chastice the Mamertines sharpely and to proceede against them in all rigor for that they had rebelled the said Sthenon stept unto him and thus frankly spake That he should do neither well nor justly in case he did to death a number of innocents for one man who alone was faultie for it is I my selfe quoth he who caused the whole citie to revolt and take armes inducing my friends for love and forcing mine enemies for feare These words of his went so neere unto the heart of Pompey that he pardoned the citie and most courteously entreated Sthenon semblaby the host of Sylla having shewed the like valour and vertue although it were not to the like person died a noble death for when Sylla had woon the citie Praenesle by assault he meant to put all the inhabitants thereof to the sword excepting onely one host of his whom in regard of old hospitalite he spared and pardoned but this host friend said flatly unto him that he would never remaine alive to see that bloudy massacre not hold his life by the murtherer of his countrey and so cast himselfe into the troupe of his fellow-citizens in the heate of execution and was killed with them Well pray unto the gods we ought to preserve and keepe us that we fall not into such calamities and troublesome times to hope also and looke for better daies Moreover we are to esteeme of everie publike magistracie and of him who exerciseth it as of a great and sacred thing and in that regard to honour the same above all Now the honour which is due unto authoritie is the mutuall accord and love of those who are set in place to exercise the same together and verily this honor is much more worth than either all those crownes and diademes which they beare upon their heads or their stately mantles and roabes of purple wherewith they be arraied Howbeit they that laid the first ground and beginning of amitie their service in warres when they were fellow-souldiors or the passing of their youthfull yeeres together and contrariwise take this a cause now of enmitie that they either are joined captaines in commission for the conduct of an armie or have the charge of the Common-weale together it can not be avoided but that they must incur one of these three mischiefes For either if they esteem their fellowes and companions in government to be their equals they begin themselves first to grow into tearmes of dissention or if they take them to be their betters they fall to be envious or else in case they hold them to be inferiour unto them in good parts they despise contemne them Whereas they should indeed make court unto the greater honor and adorne their equals and advance their inferiors and in one word to love and embrace all as having an amitie and love engendred among themselves not because they have eaten at one table drunke of the same cup or met together at one feast but by a certaine common band and publike obligation as having in some sort a certaine fatherly benevolence contracted and growen upon the common affection unto their countrey Certes one reason why Scipio was not so well thought of at Rome was this that having invited all his friends to a solemne feast at the dedication of his temple to Hercules he left out Mummius his colleague or fellow in office for say that otherwise they tooke not one another for so good friends yet so it is that at such a time and upon such occasions they ought to have honored and made much one of the other by reason of their common magistracie If then Scipio a noble personage otherwise and a man of woonderfull regard incurred the imputation and
of flowers upon my head up into the Capitoll to sacrifice and give those unto Jupiter for my victorie meane while whosoever will give his voice either for or against me let him doe as he thinketh good and having thus said he went out of the court and all the people followed after him leaving his accusers to plead there their fill to the bare wals T. QUINTIUS immediately upon his comming to the management of State affaires grew to such reputation and renowme that before he had beene Aedile Praetour or Tribune of the common-weale he was chosen Consull of Rome who being sent as captaine and lieutenant generall for the people of Rome to warre against Philip king of Macedonia was counselled and perswaded to a parle and personall conference first with him Philip for the better securitie of his owne person demaunded of him hostages Because quoth he the Romanes have heere many captaines besides you but the Macedonians have none but my selfe No 〈◊〉 indeed quoth Quintius that you are heere by your selfe alone for you have done to death all your kinsfolk and friends After that he had vanquished in battell king Philip he caused proclamation to be made in the solemnitie of the Isthmian games That he restored all the Greeks to their auncient liberties and full freedome to live from that day forward according to their owne lawes and thereupon the Greeks caused all the Romanes to be sought out throughout all Greece who had beene sold thither for slaves during the warres with Annibal and having redeemed bought them againe out of their masters hands for 500. drams a poll they presented them unto him as a free gift these followed him in his triumph with caps upon their heads as the custome was of such slaves as were newly affranchised endued with liberty The Acheans were minded and fully purposed to enterprise the conquest of the isle Zacinthus But he admonished them not to goe forth of Peloponnesus unlesse they would put themselves into evident danger like unto the Tortoises when they stretch soorth their heads out of their shels When the brute was blowen over all Greece that king Antiochus came with a mightie power insomuch as all men wondered were affraid to heare what numbers there were of soldiors and fighting men and what diversitie of armors they brought with them he made such a speech as this in the generall counsell of the Acheans It was my chance quoth he upon a time to be lodged in the house of an old host and friends of mine within the citie of Chalcies and as I sat with him at supper I marvelled how possiblie he could come by so many sorts of venison which I saw served up to the boord before me at last mine host answered that all was but swines flesh and the same altered by sundry kinds of sauces and varietie of dressing Semblably quoth he be you not dismaid and troubled at this great armie of king Antiochus whom you heare named his men at armes and horsemen armed at all pieces his light horse his petronels and archers on horsebacke and his footemen for all these be no more but poore Syrians men borne to servitude and slaverie and no better differing one from another onely in diversitie of harneis and weapons Philopaemon was at that time captaine generall of the Acheans who had a number sufficient both of horse and foot but he wanted money for their pay whereat Quintius merily scoffing Philopaemon quoth he hath hands and feet enough but he wants a bellie which jest was indeed the more pleasant for that Philopaemons body was in truth naturally so shapen and made so flat as if he had no belly at all C. DOMITIUS he whom Scipio the great left in his place next after his brother L. Scipio in the warre against king Antiochus when he had viewed the armie of his enemies standing in battel-array the Romane captaines who were about him counselled him with all expedition to give them battell but hee answered them thus That they had not day enough to massacre and hew in peeces so many millions of men to spoile also and make pillage of their tents and baggage and then to returne when all was done into the campe for to refresh and looke to themselves so the morrow after he charged upon them and slue fiftie thousand enemies P. LICINIUS a Consull of Rome in one battell of horsemen was vanquished by king Perseus and lost about two thousand and eight hundred men partly slaine and partly taken prisoners in the field after which victorie Perseus sent unto the said Consull embassadours to treat of peace and attonement in which treatie the condition which the vanquished proposed to the Conquerour was That he should submit himselfe wholy and his whole estate unto the Romans for to doe with them according to their will and discretion PAVLUS AEMILIUS making sute for his second Consulship was rejected and tooke repulse but afterwards when it was seene that the warre against King Perseus was drawen out in length and like to hold long through the ignorance sloth and idlenesse of those captaines which were sent with the armie the Romaines chose him consull for the second time but he said unto thē I con you no thank at al now for that you have not elected me for to gratifie my selfe because I sought for no office at this time but in regard that your selves stand in need of a captaine Being returned from the common-place into his owne house hee found a little daughter that he had named Tertia weeping and all blubbered with teares What is the matter quoth he that my pretie girle crieth and weepeth thus with that the childe O father quoth she our Perseus is dead now a little puppie she had of that name In good houre be it spoken my sweet daughter quoth he I take it for a good osse and presage of happie fortune When he was arrived and come into the campe hee found much bibble-babble there and vaunting braverie on everie hand of those souldiors who would busily intermeddle in the affaires properly pertaining to the captaine and in more matters than concerned them hee willed them to be quiet and still not to be dealing in such things but onely to looke well to their swords whether they were sharpe edged and wel pointed As for the rest quoth he I will provide therefore Those that kept the night sentinels he commanded neither to beare launce nor weare sword to the end that knowing they had no meanes to fight in case they should be surprised by the enemie they should be the more vigilant and carefull to withstand sleepe After that he had passed over the mountaines in Macedonie and was newly entred into the campe hee found his enemies readie ranged in battell-array before him whereupon Scipio Nasica advised him to charge out of hand If I were quoth he as yoong as you I should be of the same mind that you are but now long experience
quoth he be throwen for all as if he would say This cast for it there is but one chance to lose all When Pompey was fled from Rome to the sea side and Metellus the superintendent of the publike treasurie would have hindred him for taking foorth any money from thence keeping the treasure house fast shut he threatned to kill him whereat Metellus seeming to be amazed at his adacious words Tush tush quoth he good yoong man I would thou shouldest know that it is harder for me to speake the word than to doe the deed And for that his soldiors staid long ere they were transported over unto him from Brundusuim to Dyrrhachium he embarked himselfe alone into a small vessell without the knowledge of any man who he was purposing to passe the seas alone without his companie but it hapned so that he was like to have beene cast away in a gust and drowned with the waves of the sea whereupon he made himselfe knowne unto the pilot and spake unto him aloud Assure thy selfe and rest confident in fortune for wot well thou hast Caesar a ship boord howbeit for that time he was empeached that he could not crosse the seas as well in regard of the tempest which grew more violent as also of his souldiers who ran unto him from all sides and complained unto him for griefe of heart saying That he offred them great wrong to attend upon other forces as if he distrusted them Not long after this he fought a great battell wherein Pompeius hand the upper had for a time but for that he followed not the train of his good fortune he retired into his campe which when Caesar saw he said The victorie was once this day our enemies but their head and captaine knew not so much upon the plaines of 〈◊〉 the very day of the battell Pompey having arranged his army in array commanded his soldiers to stand their ground and not to advaunce forward but to expect their enimies and receive the charge wherin Caesar afterwards said He did amisse and grossely failed for that therby he let slack as it were the vigor vehemencie of his soldiors which is ministred unto thē by the violence of the first onset abated that heat also of courage which the said charge would have brought with it When he had defaited at his very first encounter Pharnaces king of Pontus he wrote thus unto his friends I came I saw I vanquished After that Scipio and those under his conduct were discomfited and put to flight in Africke when he heard that Cato had killed himselfe he said I envie thy death ô Cato for that thou hast envied me the honour of saving thy life Some there were who had Antonie and Dolabella in jealousie and suspicion and when they came unto him and said That he was to looke unto himselfe and stand upon his good guard he made them this answer That he had no distrust nor feare of them who ledde an idle life be well coloured and in so good liking as they But I feare quoth he these pale and leane fellowes pointing unto Brutus and Cassius One day as he sat at the table when speech was mooved and the question asked what kind of death was best Even that quoth he which is sudden and least looked for CAESAR him I meane who first was surnamed Augustus being as yet in his youth required and claimed of Antonie as much money as amounted to two thousand and five hundred Myriades which he had transported out of Julius Caesars house after he was murdred and gotten into his owne hands for that he entended to pay the Romans that which the said Caesar had bequeathed unto them by his last will and testament for he had left by legacie unto every citizen of Rome 75. drams of silver but Antonie deteined the said summe of money to himselfe and answered yoong Caesar that if he were wife he should desist from demanding any such monies of him which when the other heard he proclaimed open port sale of all the goods that came to him by his patrimonie in deed sold the same and with the money raised thereof he satisfied the foresaid legacies unto the Romanes in which doing he wan all the hearts of the citizens of Rome to himselfe brought their evill wil and hatred upon Antonie Afterwards Rymetalces king of Thracia left the part of Antonius and turned to his side but he overshot himselfe so much at the table being in his cups and namely in that he could talke of nothing else but of this great good service and casting in his teeth this worthy alliance and confederacie of his so as he became odious therefore insomuch as one time at supper Caesar taking the cup dranke to one of the other kings who sat at the boord saying with a loud voice Treason I love well but traitors I hate The Alexandrians after their citie was woonne looked for no better than to suffer all the extremities and calamities that might follow upon the forcing of a city by assault but this Caesar mounting up into the publike place to make a speech unto the citizens having neere by unto him a familiar friend of his to wit Arius an Alexandrian borne pronounced openly a generall pardon saying that he forgave the citie first in regard of the greatnesse and beautie thereof secondly in respect of king Alexander the great their first founder and thirdly for Arius his sake who was his loving friend Understanding that one of his Procuratours named Eros who did negotiate for him in Aegypt had bought a quaile of the game which in fight would beat all other quailes and was never conquered himselfe but continued still invincible which quaile notwithstanding the said slave had caused to be rosted and so eaten it he sent for him and examined him thereupon whether it was true or no and when he confessed Yea he commanded him presently to be crucified and nailed to the mast of his ship He placed Arius in Sicilie for his agent and procuratour in stead of one Theodorus and when one presented unto him a little booke or bill wherein were written these words Theodorus of Tharsis the bauld is a theefe how thinke you is he not when he had read this bill he did nothing else but subscribe underneath I thinke no lesse He received yeerely upon his birth day from Mecaenas one of his familiar friends who conversed daily with him a cup for a present Athenodorus the Philosopher being of great yeeres craved licence with his good favour to retire unto his owne house from the court by reason of his old age and leave he gave him but at his farewell Athenodorus said unto him Sir when you perceive your selfe to be mooved with choler neither say do nor ought before you have repeated to your selfe all the 24. letters in the Alphabet Caesar hearing this advertisement tooke him by the hand I have need still quoth he of your company and
and lying Another for to animate him to this warre alleaged the prowesses and worthy exploits atchieved by them at other times against the Persians Me thinkes quoth he you know not what you say namely that because we have overcome a thousand sheepe we should therefore set upon fiftie woolves He was upon a time in place to heare a musician sing who did his part very well and one asked him how he liked the man and what he thought of him May quoth he I take him to be a great amuser of men in a small matter When another highly extolled the citie of Athens in his presence And who can justly and dulie quoth he praise that citie which no man ever loved for being made better in it When Alexander the great had caused open proclamation to be made in the great assemblie at the Olympick games That all banished persons might returne unto their owne countries except the Thebanes Behold quoth Eudamidas heere is a wofull proclamation for you that be Thebans howbeit honorable withall for it is a signe that Alexander feareth none but you onely in all Greece A certaine citizen of Argos said one day in his hearing That the Lacsedaemonians after they be gone once out of their owne countrey and from the obeisance of their lawes proove woorse for their travelling abroad in the world But it is contrary with you that be Argives and other Greekes quoth he for being come once into our cities Sparta you are not the woorse but proove the better by that meanes It was demaunded of him what the reason might be wherefore they used to sacrifice unto the Muses before they did hazard a battell To the end quoth he that our valiant acts might be well and woorthilie written EURYCRATIDAS the sonne of Anaxandrides when one asked him why the Ephori sat every day to decide and judge of contracts betweene men For that quoth he we should learne to keepe our faith and truth even among our enemies ZEUXIDAMUS likewise answered unto one who demaunded of him why the statutes and ordinances of prowesse and martiall fortitude were not reduced into a booke and given in writing unto yoong men for to reade Because quoth he we would have them to be acquainted with deeds and not with writings A certaine Aetolian said That warre was better than peace unto those who were desirous to shew themselves valorous men And not warre onely quoth he for by the gods in that respect better is death than life HERONDAS chaunced to be at Athens what time as one of the citizens was apprehended arraigned and condemned for his idlenesse judicially and by forme of law which when he understood and heard a brute and noise about him he requested one to shew him the partie that was condemned for a gentlemans life THEARIDAS whetted his sword upon a time and when one asked him if it were sharpe he answered Yea sharper than a slanderous calumniation THEMISTEAS being a prophet or soothsaier foretold unto king Leonidas the discomsiture that should happen within the passe or streights of Thermopylae with the losse both of himselfe and also of his whole armie whereupon being sent away by Leonidas unto Lacedaemon under a colour and pretense to enforme them of these future accidents but in truth to the end that he should not miscarie and die there with the rest he would not so doe neither could he forbeare but say unto Leonidas I was sent hither for a warrior to fight and not as an ordinary courrier and messenger to carrie newes betweene THEOPOMPUS when one demaunded of him how a king might preserve his kingdome and roiall estate in safetie said thus By giving his friends libertie to speake the truth and with all his power by keeping his subjects from oppression Unto a stranger who told him that in his owne countrey among his citizens he was commonly surnamed Philolacon that is to say a lover of the Laconians It were better quoth he that you were called Philopolites than Philolacon Another embassadour there came from Elis who said That he was sent from his fellow-citizens because he onely of all that citie loved and followed the Laconike maner of life of him Theopompus demaunded And whether is thine or the other citizens life the better he answered Mine Why then quoth he how is it possible that a citie should safe in which there being so great a number of inhabitants there is but one good man There was one said before him that the citie of Sparta maintained the state thereof entier for that the kings there knew how to governe well Nay quoth he not so much therefore as because the citizens there can skill how to obey well The inhabitants of the citie Pyle decreed for him in their generall counsell exceeding great honors unto whom he wrote backe againe That moderate honors time is woont to augment but immoderate to diminish and weare away THERYCION returning from the citie Delphos found king Philip encamped within the streight of Peloponnesus where he had gained the narrow passage called Isthmos upon which the city of Corinth is seated whereupon he said Peloponnesus hath but bad porters and warders of you Corinthians THECTAMENES being by the Ephori condemned to death went from the judgement place smiling away and when one that was present asked him if he despised the lawes and judiciall proceedings of Sparta No iwis quoth he but I rejoice heereat that they have condemned me in that fine which I am able to pay and discharge fully without borrowing of any friend or taking up money at interest HIPPODAMUS as Agis was with Archidamus in the campe being sent with Agis by the king unto Sparta for to provide for the affaires of weale publicke and looke unto the State refused to goe saying I cannot die a more honorable death than in fighting valiantly for the defence of Sparta now was he fourescore yeeres old and upward and tooke armes where hee raunged himselfe on the right hand of the king and there fighting by his side right manfully was slaine HIPPOCRATIDAS when a certaine prince or great lord of Caria had written unto him that he had in his hands a Lacedaemonian who having beene privie unto a conspiracie and treason intended against his person revealed not the same demaunding withall his counsell what he should doe with him wrote back againe in this wise If you have heeretofore done him any great pleasure and good turne put him to death hardly and make him away if not expell him out of your countrey considering he is a base fellow uncapable altogether of vertue He chaunced to encounter upon the way a yoong boy after whom followed one who loved him and the boy blushed for shame whereupon he said unto him Thou oughtest to goe in their company my boy with whom thou being seene needest not to change colour for the matter CALLICRATIDAS being admirall of a fleet when the friends of Lysander requested him to pleasure them in killing some of
know what tyranny is for a greater griefe it would be unto me another day to see thee for to serve like a slave vnworthily than to die here presently hereat Aristotimus through impatience of furious anger drew his sword upon the woman herselfe meaning to run her thorow but one of his familiar friends named Cylon who made semblant to be true faithful unto him but hated him secretly in his hart indeed was of the complices in that conspiracy of Hellanicus stepped before him and by his effectuall praiers turned his hand making remonstrance unto him that it was no generous and manly deed but a womanish act neither savoured it of a prince or such a personage as knew how to manage great affaires of State to deale in that sort which he forced and pressed so instantly that hardly and with much ado though it were Aristotinus was of a better minde bethought himselfe and went his way Now there befell unto him a strange accident which presaged what mischiefe was toward him for about high noone it was when being in his bed-chamber reposing himself with his wife whiles his dinner was now readie to be served up those of his houshold might perceive an eagle soaring round over his house and she let fal a bigge stone directly upon the very place of the roofe of the said chamber where he lay as if upon deliberate purpose she had aimed and leveled as it were so to doe himselfe hearing the noise and rap that the stone gave upon the house top over his head and withall the outcry beneath of those who beheld the foule was mightily affrighted and demanded what the matter might be when he understood what it was hee sent presently for the wizard or soothsaier whom he was wont to use in such cases and all troubled and perplexed in spirit asked him what this signe might presage the soothsaier cōforted him willed him to be of good cheere saying unto himselfe That it was Jupiter who wakened him shewed how willing he was to assist and succour him but unto other citizens whom he might trust he expounded it otherwise and assured them that it was the vengeance of God which speedily would light upon the tyrants head whereupon Hellanicus and his adherents were resolved to deferre the execution of their desseignes no longer but to set upon the enterprise the next morrow in the night that came betweene Hellanicus as he slept dreamed and in that vision he thought that one of his sons late deceased stood before him said Father what meane you to lie a sleepe considering that once to morrow you must be captaine general and sovereigne governor of this citie Hellanicus wonderfully encouraged by this vision started up and went to sollicit the rest of his complices and companions in the said conspiracie By this time was Aristotimus advertised that Craterus was comming to aide him with a puissant armie and lay encamped neere to Olympia in the assurance and confidence whereof he presently tooke Cylon with him and went foorth without any guard about his person Hellanicus seeing the opportunitie now offred and taking the vantage thereof gave not the signal and watchword which was agreed upon with those who first were to set to the execution of their entended enterprise but stretching foorth both his hands with a loud voice cried out Now now my masters and valiant men what staie you for can you desire a fairer theater to shew your valour in than to fight for the defence of your libertie in the very heart of your native countrey At which words Cylon drew his sword first and smot one of them that followed and accompanied Aristotimus but Thrasibulus and Lampis came afront and ran upon the tyrant himselfe who preventing the venue of their stroake fled for refuge and sanctuarie into the temple of Jupiter where they slew him out-right and drew his dead corps into the market place and then assembled all the citizens thither for to recover their freedome but many of the people could not prevent the women for they ranne out with the first in great alacritie weeping and crying out for very joy and environing their husbands round about crowned them and set chaplets of flowers upon their heads then the multitude of the common people set upon the tyrants house and assaulted it his wife having shut her-selfe within her chamber there hung herselfe and whereas she had two daughters virgins as yet but in the prime and flower of their yeeres ready for marriage those they tooke and by force haled them out of the house with full intent to kill them in the end after they had abused their bodies first and then perpetrated all the villanie shame they could devise unto them which no doubt they would have put in execution but that Megisto with other honest matrons of the citie opposed themselves and came betweene who cried aloud unto them that in so dooing they should commit an indignitie unbeseeming them if considering that now being in the verie traine and high way of recovering their libertie for to live from hencefoorth in a popular government they should perpetrate as violent outrages as the most bloudy and cruell tyrants are used to commit the people in good respect and reverence to the honour and authoritie of this vertuous and honest dame who spake her minde so frankely unto them with teares gushing out of her eies were reclaimed and advised to offer no abuse nor vilanie unto their persons but to put unto their choise what death they would die and when they had brought them both back againe into the house and intimated unto them that there was no other remedie but die they must and that presently the elder of the twaine named Myro untied her girdle from about her waste and with a running noose did it about her owne necke in maner of an halter then kissing and embracing her yoonger sister she praied her to marke what she did and according to her example to doe thereafter To the end quoth she that we may not die basely unwoorthy the place from whence we are come and descended but the yoonger desired againe that she might die first caught hold of the girdle and snatched it from her then the elder Well sister quoth she I never yet refused to do any thing that you desired at my hands even now content I am to doe so much for you as to endure and suffer that which will be more greevous unto me than death it selfe namely to see my most deere and best beloved sister to die before me which said she her selfe taught her how to fit the said girdle to her necke and to knit it for the purpose and when she perceived once that the life was out of her bodie she tooke her downe and covered her breathlesse corps then addressing her speech unto dame Megisto her selfe she besought her that she would not suffer her bodie after she was dead to lie shamefully above
before you were acquainted therewith have ordained mine owne sonnes to be judges namely for Asia two Minos and Rhadamanthus and one for Europe to wit Aeacus These therefore after they be dead shall sit in judgement within a meddow at a quarrefour or crosse-way whereof the one leadeth to the fortunate isles the other to hell Rhadamanthus shall determine of them in Asia Aeacus of those in Europe and as for Minos I wil grant unto him a preeminence in judgement above the rest in case there happen some matter unknowen to one of the other two and escape their censure he may upon weighing and examining their opinions give his definitive sentence and so it shall be determined by a most sincere and just doome whether way each one shall goe This is that O Callicles which I have heard and beleeve to be most true whereout I gather this conclusion in the end that death is no other thing than the separation of the soule from the body Thus you see ô Apollonius my most deere friend what I have collected with great care and diligence to compose for you sake a consolatorie oration or discourse which I take to be most necessarie for you as well to asswage and rid away your present griefe to appease likewise and cause to cease this heavinesse and mourning that you make which of all things is most unpleasant and troublesome as also to comprise within it that praise and honour which me thought I owed as due unto the memoriall of your sonne Apollonius of all others exceedingly beloved of the gods which honour in my conceit is a thing most convenient and acceptable unto those who by happie memorie and everlasting glorie are consecrated to immortalitie You shall doe your part therefore and verie wisely if you obey those reasons which are therein conteined you shall gratifie your sonne likewise and doe him a great pleasure in case you take up in time and returne from this vaine affliction wherewith you punish and undoe both bodie and mind unto your accustomed ordinarie and naturall course of life for like as whiles he lived with us he was nothing well appaied and tooke no contentment to see either father or mother sadde and desolate even so now when he converseth and so laceth himselfe in all joy with the gods doubtlesse he cannot like well of this state wherein you are Therefore plucke up your heart and take courage like a man of woorth of magnanimitie and one that loveth his children well release your selfe first and then the mother of the yoong gentleman together with his kinsfolke and friends from this kind of miserie and take to a more quiet peaceable maner of life which will be both to your sonne departed and to all of us who have regard of your person as it becommeth us more agreeable A CONSOLOTARIE LETTER OR DISCOURSE SENT UNTO HIS OWNE WIFE AS TOUCHING THE DEATH OF HER AND HIS DAUGHTER The Summarie PLutarch being from home and farre absent received newes concerning the death of a little daughter of his a girle about two yeeres old named Timoxene a childe of a gentle nature and of great hope but fearing that his wife would apprehend such a lesse too neere unto her heart he comforteth her in this letter and by giving testimonie unto her of vertue and constancie 〈◊〉 at the death of other children of hers more forward in age than she was he exhorteth her likewise to patience and moderation in this newe occurrence and triall of hers condemning by sundry reasons the excessive sorrow and unwoorthy fashion of many fond mothers 〈◊〉 withall the inconveniences that such excessive heavinesse draweth after it Then continuing his consolation of her he declareth with what eie we ought to regard infants and children aswell before as during and after life how happie they be who can content themselves and rest in the will and pleasure of God that the blessings past ought to dulce and mitigate the calamities present to stay us also that we proceed not to that degree and height of infortunitie as to make account onely of the misadventures and discommodities hapning in this our life Which done he answereth to certeine objections which his wife might propose and set on foot and therewith delivereth his owne advice as touching the incorruption and immortalitie of mans soule after he had made a medly of divers opinions which the ancient Philosophers held as touching that point and in the end concludeth That it is better and more expedient to die betimes than late which position of his he confirmeth by an ordinance precisely observed in his owne countrey which expresly for bad to mourne and lament for those who departed this life in their childhood A CONSOLATORIE LETTER or Discourse sent unto his owne wife as touching the death of her and his daughter PLUTARCH unto his wife Greeting THe messenger whom you sent of purpose to bring me word as touching the death of our little daughter went out of his way as I suppose and so missed of me as he journeyed toward Athens howbeit when I was arrived at Tanagra I heard that she had changed this life Now as concerning the funerals and enterring of her I am verily perswaded that you have already taken sufficient order so as that the thing is not to doe and I pray God that you have performed that duetie in such sort that neither for the present not the time to come it worke you any grievance displeasure but if haply you have put off any such complements which you were willing enough of your selfe to accomplish untill you knew my minde and pleasure thinking that in so doing you should with better will and more patiently beare this adverse accident then I pray you let the same be performed without all curiositie and superstition and yet I must needs say you are as little given that way as any woman that I know this onely I would admonish you deare heart that in this case you shew both in regard of your selfe and also of me a constancie and tranquillitie of minde for mine owne part I conceive and measure in mine owne heart this losse according to the nature and greatnesse thereof and so I esteeme of it accordingly but if I should finde that you tooke it impatiently this would be much more grievous unto me and wound my heart more than the 〈◊〉 it selfe that causeth it and yet am not I begotten and borne either of an oake or a rocke whereof you can beare me good witnesse knowing that wee both together have reard many of our children at home in house even with our owne hands and how I loved this girle most tenderly both for that you were very desirous after foure sonnes one after another in a row to beare a daughter as also for that in regard of that fancie I tooke occasion to give her your name now besides that naturall fatherly affection which men cōmonly have toward little babes there was one
all just and honest actions when it hath chased and removed out of the way ire and wrath and therefore men are mollified appeased and become gentle by examples of men when they heare it reported how Plato when hee lifted up his staffe against his page stood so a good while and forbare to strike which hee did as he said for to represse his choler And Architas when he found some great negligence and disorder at his ferme-house in the countrey in his houshold servants perceiving himselfe moved and disquieted therewith insomuch as he was exceeding angrie and readie to flie upon them proceeded to no act but onely turning away and going from them said thus It is happie for you that I am thus angrie with you If then it be so that such memorable speeches of ancient men and woorthy acts reported by them are effectuall to represse the bitternesse and violence of choler much more probable it is that we seeing how God himselfe although he standeth not in feare of any person nor repenteth of any thing that he doth yet putteth off his chastisements and laieth them up a long time should be more wary and considerate in such things and esteeme that clemencie long sufferance and patience is a divine part of vertue that God doth shew and teach us which by punishment doth chastise and correct a few but by proceeding thereto slowly doth instruct admonish and profit many In the second place let us consider that judiciall and exemplarie processe of justice practised by men intendeth and aimeth onely at a counter change of paine and griefe resting in this point That he who hath done evill might suffer likewise proceeding no farther at all and therefore baying and barking as it were like dogges at mens faults and trespasses they follow upon them and pursue after all action by tract and footing but God as it should seeme by all likelihood when hee setteth in hand in justice to correct a sinfull diseased soule regardeth principally the vicious passions thereof if haply they may be bent wrought so as they will incline turne to repentance in which respect he staieth long before that he inflict any punishment upon delinquents who are not altogether past grace incorrigible for considering withall and knowing as he doth what portion of vertue soules have drawen from him in their creation at what time as they were produced first and came into the world as also how powerfull and forcible is the generositie thereof and nothing weake and feeble in it selfe but that it is cleane contrary to their proper nature to bring forth vices which are engendered either by ill education or els by the contagious haunt of leaud company and how afterward when they be well cured and medicined as it falleth out in some persons they soone returne unto their owne naturall habitude and become good againe by reason heereof God doth not make haste to punish all men alike but looke what he knoweth to be incurable that he quickly riddeth away out of this life and cutteth it off as a very hurtfull member to others but yet most harmefull to it selfe if it should evermore converse with wickednesse but to such persons in whom by all likelihood vice is bred and ingendred rather through ignorance of goodnesse than upon any purpose and will to chuse naughtinesse hee giveth time and respit for to change and amend how beit if they persist still and continue in their leaud waies hee paieth them home likewise in the end and never feareth that they shall escape his hands one time or other but suffer condigne punishment for their deserts That this is true consider what great alterations there happen in the life and behaviour of men and how many have beene reclaimed and turned from their leaudnesse which is the reason that in Greeke our behaviour and conversation is called partly 〈◊〉 that is to say A conversion and in part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one because mens maners be subject to change and mutation the other for that they be ingendered by use or custome and the impression thereof being once taken they remaine firme and sure which is the cause also as I suppose that our ancients in olde time attributed unto king Cecrops a double nature and forme calling him Double not for that as some said of a good element and gracious prince he became a rigourous fell and cruell tyrant like a dragon but contrariwise because having bene at the first perverse crooked and terrible he proved afterward a milde and gentle lord and if we make any doubt hereof in him yet we may be sure at leastwise that Gelon and Hiero in Sicilie yea and Pisistratus the sonne of Hipocrates all usurpers who atteined to their tyrannicall dominion by violent and indirect meanes used the same vertuously and howsoever they came unto their sovereigne rule by unlawfull and unjust meanes yet they grew in time to be good governours loving and profitable to the common weale and likewise beloved and deare unto their subjects for some of them having brought in and established most excellent lawes in the countrey and caused their citizens and subjects to be industruous and painfull in tilling the ground made them to be civill sober and discreet whereas before they were given to be ridiculous as noted for their laughter and lavish tongues to be true labourers also and painfull who had bene idle and playfull And as for Gelon after he had most valiantly warred against the Carthaginians and defaited them in a great battell when they craved peace would never grant it unto them unlesse this might be comprised among the articles and capitulations That they should no more sacrifice their children unto Saturne In the citie also of Megalopolis there was a tyrant named Lydiades who in the mids of his usurped dominion repented of his tyrannie and made a conscience thereof detesting that wrongfull oppression wherein he held his subjects in such sort ' as he restored his citizens to their ancient lawes and liberties yea and afterwards died manfully in the field fighting against his enemies in the defence of his countrey Now if any one had killed Miltiades at the first whiles he exercised tyrannie in Chersonesus or if another had called judicially into question Cimon enditing him for keeping his owne sister and so being condemned of incest had caused him to be put to death or disfranchised and banished Themistocles out of the citie for his loose wantonnesse and licentious insolencie shewed publickly in the Common place as Alcibiades afterwards was served and proscribed for the like excesse and riot committed in his youth Where had bene then that famous victorie At chieved on the plaines of Marathon Where had bene that renowmed chivalrie Performed neere the streame Eurymedon Or at the mount faire Artemision Where Athens youth as poet Pindare said Freedome first the glorious ground-worke laid For so it is great natures and high minds can bring foorth no meane matters nor the
oracle to go to the house habitation of Tettix there by certaine expiatorie sacrifices oblations to appease pacifie the ghost of Archilochus now this house of Tettix was the cape or promontory Taenarus for it is said that Tettix the Cādian arriving with his fleet in times past at the head of Taenarus there built a citie inhabited it neere unto the place where the maner was to conjure spirits raise the ghosts of those that were departed The semblable answer being made to those of Sparta namely that they should make meanes to pacifie the soule of Pausanias they sent as farre as into Italy for sacrificers exorcists who had the skil to conjure spirits they with their sacrifices chased his ghost out of the temple This is one reason therefore quoth I that doth confirme and proove that both the world is governed by the providence of God and also that the soules of men do continue after death neither is it possible that we should admit the one denie the other If it be so then that the soule of man hath a subsistence being after death it is more probable soundeth to greater reason that it should then either taste of paine for punishment or enjoy honor for reward for during this life here upon earth it is in continuall combat in maner of a champion but after al combats performed finished then she receiveth according to her deserts Now as touching those honors or punishments which it receiveth in that other world 〈◊〉 by her-selfe and separate from the bodie the same concern and touch us nothing 〈◊〉 who remaine alive for either we know them not or give no beliefe thereto but such as be either conferred or inflicted upon their children or posteritie for that they be apparant and evident to the world those doe containe and curbe wicked men that they doe not execute their malicious desseignes And considering that there is no punishment more ignominous or that commeth neerer to the quicke and toucheth the heart more than for men to see their ofspring or those that depend upon them afflicted for their sake punished for their faults that the soule of a wicked person enemie to God and to all good lawes seeth after his death not his images statues or any ensignes of honor overthrowne but his owne children his friends kinsfolk ruinate undone persecuted with great miseries tribulations suffring grievous punishment for it there is no man I thinke but would chuse rather to forgoe all the honors of Jupiter if he might have them than to become again either unjust or intemperate lascivious And for the better testimonie truth hereof I could relate unto you a narration which was delivered unto me not long since but that I am afraid you will take it for a fabuolus tale devised to make sport In regard wherof I hold it better to alledge unto you nothing but substantial reasons and arguments grounded upon very good likelihood and probabilitie Not so quoth Olympiacus in any case but rehearse unto us the narration which you speake of And when others also requested the same at my hands Suffer me yet first quoth I to set abroad those reasons which carie some good shew of truth and then afterwards if you thinke well of it I will recite the fable also if so be it is a fable As for Bion when he saith that God in punishing the children of wicked men and sinners for their fathers is much more ridiculous than the physician who for the maladie of father or grandsire goeth about to minister medicine unto the child or nephew surely this comparison faulteth heerein that things be partly semblable and in part divers and unlike for if one be cured of a disease by medicinable meanes this doth not by and by heale the maladie or indisposition of another For never was there man yet being sicke of a feaver or troubled with bleered and impostumate eies became cured by seeing an ointment applied or a salve laid unto another But contrariwise the punishment or execution of justice upon malefactors is for this cause done publikely before all the world that justice being ministred with reason and discretion should effect thus much namely to keepe in and retaine some by the chasticement and correction of others But that point wherein the foresaid comparison of Bion answereth to our matter in question himselfe never understood for many times it falleth out that a man being fallen sicke of a dangerous disease how beit not incurable yet through his intemperance and disorder afterwards suffreth his bodie to grow into greater weaknesse and decay untill at last he dieth whereupon his sonne after him being not actually surprised with the same disease but onely disposed thereto a learned physician some trustie friend or an expert annointer and master of exercises perceiving so much or rather indeed a kind friend and gentle master governor who hath a carefull eie over him taketh him in hand bringeth him to an exquisite maner of austere diet cutteth off all superssuity of viands deintie cates banketting dishes debarreth him of unseasonable drinkings and the company of women purgeth him continually with soveraigne medicines keepeth his body downe by ordinarie labour and exercise and so doth dissipate and dispatch the first beginning and small inclination to a dangerous disease in not permitting it to have head to grow forward to any greatnesse And is not this an usual practise among us to admonish those who are borne of sickly and diseased parents to take good heed unto themselves and not to neglect their indisposition but betimes and even at the very first to endevor for to remoove and rid away the root of such inbred maladies which they bring with them into the world for surely it is an easie matter to expell and drive out yea and to conquer and overcome the same by prevention in due time Yes verily answered they all Well then quoth I we commit no absurditie nor doe any ridiculous thing but that which is right necessarie and profitable when we ordeine and prescribe for the children of those who are subject to the falling sicknesse to madnesse phrenesie and the gout exercises of the bodie diets regiments of life and medicines appropriate for those maladies not when they are sicke thereof but by way of precaution to prevent that they should not fall into them for the bodie ingendred of a corrupt and diseased bodie neither needeth nor deserveth any punishment but physicke rather by good medicines and carefull attendance which diligence and heedfull regard if any one upon wantonnesse nicetie and delicacie doe call chastisement because it depriveth a man of pleasures and delights or haply inferreth some pricke of dolour and paine let him goe as he is we passe not for him Now if it be expedient to cure and medicine carefully one body issued and descended from another that is corrupt is it meet and convenient
owne safetie and life mooveth us but even for our pleasure we have a poore sheepe lying under our hand with the throat turned upward a philosopher of the one side should say Cut the throat for it is a brute beast and another admonish us on the other side saying Stay your hand and take heed what you doe for what know you to the contrarie whether in that sheepe be the soule lodged of some kinsman of yours or peradventure of some God Is the danger before God all one and the same whether I refuse to eat of the flesh or beleeve not that I kill my child or some one of my kinsfolke But surely the Stoicks are not equally matched in this fight for the defence of eating flesh For what is the reason that they so band themselves and be so open mouthed in the maintenance of the belly and the kitchin what is the cause that condemning pleasure as they doe for an effeminate thing and not to be held either good or indifferent no nor so much as familiar and agreeable to nature they stand so much in the patronage of those things that make to the pleasure and delight of feeding And yet by all consequence reason would that considering they chase and banish from the table all sweet perfumes and odoriferous ointments yea and al pastrie worke and banketting junkets they should be rather offended at the sight of bloud and flesh But now as if by their precise philosophicall rules they would controule our day books and journals of our ordinarie expences they cut off all the cost bestowed upon our table in things needlesse and superfluous meane while they sinde no fault with that which savoureth of bloudshed and crueltie in this superfluitie of table furniture We doe not indeed say they because there is no communication of rights betweene beasts and us but a man might answer them againe verie well No more is there betweene us and perfumes or other forraine and exoticall sauces and yet you would have us to absteine from them rejecting and blaming on all sides that which in any pleasure is neither profitable nor needfull But let us I pray you consider upon this point a little neerer to wit whether there be any communitie in right and justice betweene us and unreasonable creatures or no and let us doe it not subtilly and artificially as the captious manner is of these sophisters in their disputations but rather after a gentle and familiar sort having an eie unto our owne passions and affections let us reason and decide the matter with our selves THAT A MAN CANNOT LIVE PLEASANTLY ACCORDING TO THE DOCTRINE OF EPICURUS The Summarie GReat disputations there have beene holden among the Philosophers and Sages of the world as touching the sovereigne good of man as it may appeere even at this day by the books that are extant among us and yet neither one nor other have hit the true marke whereat they shot to wit The right knowledge of God Howbeit some of them are a great deale farther out of the way than others and namely the Epicureans whom our author doth perstringe in many places as holding a doctrine cleane contrary unto theirs according as his writings doe testifie And forasmuch as Epicurus and his disciples placed and established this sovereigne good in pleasure of the bodie this their opinion is heere examined and confuted at large for in forme of a dialogue Plutarch rehearseth the communication or conference which he had with Aristodemus Zeuxippus and Theon as they walked together immediately after one lecture of his upon this matter who having shewed in generall tearmes the absurdities of this Epicurian doctrine maint eineth in one word That it is no life at all for to live according to the same Then he explaneth and sheweth what the Epicureans meane by this word To live and from thence proceedeth forward to refute their imagination and whatsoever dependeth thereupon and that by sound and weighty arguments intermingling many pretie conceits and pleasant jests together with certeine proper similitudes for the purpose After he had prooved that they were deceived themselves and seduced their disciples he holdeth moreover this point That even they deprive themselves of the true good which consisteth in the repose and contentment of the mind rejecting as they doe all Histories Mathematicall arts and liberall sciences and among the rest Poëtrie and Musicke shewing throughout all this discourse that such persons are deprived of common sense Passing forward he holdeth and mainteineth that the soule taketh joyin a contentment proper to it selfe and afterwards in discoursing of the pleasure that active life doth bring he refuteth more and more his adversarie addressing to this purpose a certeine conference and comparison betweene the pleasures of bodie and soule whereby a man may see the miserie of the one and the excellencie of the other This point he enricheth with divers examples the end whereof sheweth That there is nothing at all to be counted great or profitable in the schoole of Epicurus whose scholars never durst approove his opinion especially in death also That vertuous men have without all comparison much more pleasure in this world than the Epicureans who in their afflictions know not how to receive any joy or comfort by remembrance of their pleasures past And this is the very summe of the dialogue during the time that the above named persons did walke who after they were set began the disputation a fresh and spake in the first place of Gods providence condemning by diversreasons the atheisme of the Epicureans who are altogether inexcusable even in comparison of the common sort given to superstition continuing and holding on this discourse he depainteth very lively the nature of the Epicureans and commeth to represent and set down the contentment that men of honor have in their religion where also he holdeth this point That God is not the author of evill and that the Epicureans are sufficiently punished for their impietie in depriving themselves of that pleasure which commeth unto us by meditation of the divine wisedome in the conduct and management of all things Consequently he sheweth that this their prophane philosophie overthroweth and confoundeth all persons as well in their death as during their life Whereupon he proceedeth to treat of the immortality of the soule and of the life to come describing at large the misery of the Epicureans and for a finall conclusion he compriseth in fower or five lines the summary of all their error and so shutteth up and concludeth the whole disputation THAT A MAN CANNOT live pleasantly according to the doctrine of Epicurus COlotes one of the disciples and familiar followers of Epicurus wrote and published a booke wherein he endevoured to proove and declare That there was no life at all to speake of according to the opinions and sentences of other Philosophers Now as touching that which readily came into my minde for the answere of his challenge and the discourse against his
witnesseth Aeschylus 11 Who be they that are named Aposphendoneti IN times past the Eretrians held the Island Corcyra untill Charicrates arrived there with a fleet from Corinth and vanquished them whereupon the Eretrians tooke sea againe and returned toward their naturall countrey whereof their fellow-citizens being advertised such I say as stirred not but remained quiet repelled them and kept them off from landing upon their ground by charging them with shot from slings Now when they saw they could not win them by any faire language nor yet compel them by force of armes being as they were inexorable and besides many more than they in number they made saile to the coasts of Thracia where they possessed themselves of a place wherein they report Methon one of the predecessors and progenitors of 〈◊〉 sometime dwelt and there having built a citie they named it Methone but themselves were surnamed Aposphendoneti which is as much to say as repelled and driven backe by slings 12 What is that which the Delphians call Charila THe citizens of Delphos do celebrate continually three Enneaterides that is to say feasts celebrated every ninth yeere one after another successively Of which the first they name Septerion the second Herois and the third Charila As touching the first it seemeth to be a memorial representing the fight or combat that Phoebus had against Python and his flight after the conflict and pursuit after him into the valley of Tempe For as some do report he fled by occasion of a certaine manslaughter and murder that he had committed for which he sought to be purged others say that when Python was wounded and fled by the way which we call Holy Phoebus made hot pursuit after him insomuch as he went within a little of overtaking him and finding him at the point of death for at his first comming he found that he was newly dead of the wounds which he had received in the foresaid fight also that he was enterred and buried by his sonne who as they say was named Aix this novenarie feast therefore called Septerion is a representation of this historie or else of some other like unto it The second named Herois containeth I wot not what hidden ceremonies and fabulous secrets which the professed priests in the divine service of Bacchus called Thyades know well enough but by such things as are openly done and practised a man may conjecture that it should be a certaine exaltation or assumption of Semele up into heaven Moreover as concerning Charila there goeth such a tale as this It fortuned upon a time that after much drougth there followed great famine in the citie of Delphos insomuch as all the inhabitants came with their wives and children to the court gates crying out unto their king for the extreame hunger that they endured The king thereupon caused to be distributed among the better sort of them a dole of meale and certaine pulse for that he had not sufficient to give indifferently to them all and when there came a little yong wench a siely orphane fatherlesse and motherlesse who instantly besought him to give her also some reliefe the king smote her with his shoe and flung it at her face The girle poore though she was forlorne and destitute of all worldly succour howbeit carying no base mind with her but of a noble spirit departed from his presence and made no more a doe but undid her girdle from her wast and hanged her selfe therewith Well the famine daily encreased more and more and diseases grew thereupon by occasion whereof the king went in person to the Oracle of Apollo supposing to finde there some meede and remedie unto whom Pythia the prophetesse made this answere That the ghost of Charila should be appeased and pacified who had died a voluntarie death So after long search and diligent enquirie hardly found in the end it was that the young maiden whom he had so beaten with his shoe was named Charila whereupon they offered a certaine sacrifice mixed with expiatorie oblations which they celebrate and performe from nine yeers to nine even to this day For at this solemnity the king sitting in his chaire dealeth certaine meale and pulse among all commers as well strangers as citizens and the image of this Charila is thither brought resembling a young girle now after that everie one hath received part of the dole the king beateth the said image about the eares with his shoe and the chiefe governesse of the religious women called Thyades taketh up the image and carieth it into a certaine place ful of deepe caves where after they have hung an halter about the necke of it they enterre it under the ground in that verie place where they buried the corps of Charila when she had strangled her selfe 21 What is the meaning of that which they call among the Aeneians Begged-flesh THE Aeneians in times past had many transmigrations from place to place for first they inhabited the countrey about the Plaine called Dotion out of which they were driven by the Lapithae and went to the Aethicae and from thence into a quarter of the province Molossis called Arava which they held and thereof called they were Paravae After all this they seized the citie Cirrha wherein after that they had stoned to death their king Onoclus by warrant and commandement from Apollo they went downe into that tract that lieth along by the river Inachus a countrey inhabited then by the Inachiens and Achaeans Now they had the answere of an oracle on both sides to wit the Inachiens and Achaeans that if they yeelded and gave away part of their countrey they should lose all and the Aeneians that if they could get once any thing at their hands with their good wils they should for ever possesse and hold all Things standing in these tearmes there was a notable personage among the Aeneians named Temon who putting on ragged clothes and taking a wallet about his necke disguised himselfe like unto a begger and in this habite went to the Inachiens to crave their almes The king of the Inachiens scorned and laughed at him and by way of disdaine and mockerie tooke up a clod of earth and gave it him the other tooke it right willingly and put it up into his budget but he made no semblance neither was he seene to embrace this gift and to joy therein but went his way immediately without begging any thing else as being verie well content with that which he had gotten already The elders of the people woondring hereat called to mind the said oracle and presenting themselves before the king advertised him not to neglect this occurrent nor to let this man thus to escape out of his hands But Temon having an inckling of their desseigne made haste and fled apace insomuch as he saved himselfe by the meanes of a great sacrifice even of an hundred oxen which he vowed unto Apollo This done both kings to wit of the Inachiens and the Aeneians sent
like as Homer when he calleth Juno or any other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth her to have a bigge and large eie and by the epithit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaneth one that braggeth and boasteth of great matters Or rather because that the foot of a beefe doth no harme howsoever horned beasts otherwise be hurtfull and dangerous therefore they invocate thus upon him and beseech him to come loving and gracious unto them Or lastly for that many are perswaded that this is the god who taught men first to plough the ground and to sowe corne 37 Why have the Tanagraeans a place before their city called Achilleum for it is said that Achilles in his life time bare more hatred than love unto this cicy as who ravished and stole away Stratonicon the mother of Poemander and killed Acestor the sonne of Ephippus POEmander the father of Ephippus at what time as the province of Tanagra was peopled and inhabited by tenures and villages onely being by the Achaeans besiedged in a place called Stephon for that he would not go foorth with them to warre abandoneth the said fort in the night time and went to build the citie Poemandria which he walled about The architect or master builder Polycrithus was there who dispraised all his worke and derided it in so much as in a mockerie he leapt over the trench whereat Poemander tooke such displeasure and was so highly offended that he meant to fling at his head a great stone which lay there hidden of olde upon the nightly sacrifices of Bacchus But Poemander notknowing so much pulled it up by force and threw it at him and missing Polycrithus hit his son Leucippus and killed him outright Hereupon according to the law and custom then observed there was no remedie but needs he must depart out of Boeotia in manner of an exiled man and so as a poore suppliant and stranger to converse wandring abroad in another countrey which was neither safe nor easie for him to doe at that time considering that the Achaeans were up in armes and entred into the countrey of Tanagra He sent therefore his sonne Ephippus unto Achilles for to request his favour who by earnest supplications and praiers prevailed so much that he entreated both him and also Tlepolemus the sonne of Hercules yea and Peneleus the sonne of Hippalcmus who were all of their kindred by whose meanes Poemander had safe conduct and was accompanied as farre as the citie of Chalcis where he was assoiled absolved and purged by Elpenor for the murder which he had committed In remembrance of which good turne by those princes received he ever after honoured them and to them all erected temples of which that of Achilles continueth unto this day and according to his name is called Achilleum 38 Who be they whom the Boeotians call Psoloes and who be Aeolies THE report goeth that Leucippe Arsinoe and Alcathie the daughters of Minyas being enraged and bestraight of their right wits longed exceedingly to eat mans flesh and cast lots among themselves which of them should kill their owne children for that purpose So the lot falling upon Leucippe she yeelded her sonne Hippasus to be dismembred and cut in pieces by occasion whereof their husbands simply arraied and in mourning weeds for sorrow and griefe were called Psoloes as one would say foule and smokie and the women 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say distracted and troubled in their minds or Oconoloae so as even at this day the Orchomenians call those women who are descended from them by those names and everie second yeere during the festivall daies called Agrionia the priest of Bacchus runneth after them with a sword drawen in his hand coursing and chasing them yea and lawfull it is for him to kill any one of them that he can reach and overtake And verily in our daies Zoilus the priest killed one but such never come to any good after for both this Zoilus himselfe upon a certaine little ulcer or sore that he had fell sicke and after he had a long time pined away and consumed therewith in the end died thereof and also the Orchomenians being fallen into publicke calamities and held in generall for condemned persons translated the priesthood from that race and linage and conferred it upon the best and most approoved person they could chuse 39 What is the cause that the Arcadians stone them to death who willingly and of purpose enter within the pourprise and precincts of Lycaeum but if any come into of ignorance and unawares then they send to Eleutherae AS for these may it not be that they are held free and absolved who do it upon ignorance and by reason of this their absolution this maner of speech arose to send them to Eleutherae which signifieth Deliverance much like as when we say thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say into the region of the secure or thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say thou shalt go to the Mannour of the Pleasant Or haply it alludeth to the tale that goeth in this wise that of Lycaons sonnes there were but two onely to wit Eleuther and Lebadus who were not partakers of the horrible crime that their father committed in the sight of Jupiter but fled into Baeotia in token whereof the Lebadians enjoy still their burgeosie in commune with the Arcadians and therefore to Eleutherae they send those who against their willes or unawares are entred within that pourprise consecrat unto Jupiter into which it is not lawful for any man to go Or rather as Architemus writeth in his Chronicles of Arcadia for that there were some who being ignorantly entred into the said place were delivered and yeelded unto the Phliasians who put them over to the Megarians and from the Megarians they were carried to Thebes but as they were transported and conveyed thither they were staied about Eleutherae by meanes of violent raine terrible thunder and other prodigious tokens by occasion whereof some would have the citie to take the name Eleutherae Moreover whereas it is said that the shadow of him who commeth within this precinct of Lycaeum never falleth upon the ground it is not true howbeit it goeth generally currant and is constantly beleeved for an undoubted truth But is it not thinke you for that the aire turneth presently into darke cloudes and looketh obscure and heavie as it were when any enter into it or because that whosoever commeth into it incontinently suffereth death And you know what the Pythagoreans say namely that the soules of the dead cast no shadow nor winke at all Or rather for that it is the sun that maketh shadowes and the law of the countrey bereaveth him that entreth into it of the sight of the sunne which covertly and aenigmatically they would give us to understand under these words For even he who commeth into this place is called Elaphos that is to say a Stag and therefore Cantharion the Arcadian who fled unto
warred against the Lacedaemonians and when the time was come that magistrates should be elected at Thebes himselfe in person repaired thither having given order and commandement in the meane while unto his sonne Stesimbrotus in no wise to fight with the enemie The Lacedaemonians having intelligence given them that the father was absent reproched and reviled this yoong gentleman and called him coward wherewith he was so galled that he fell into a great fit of choler and forgetting the charge that his father had laid upon him gave the enemies battell and atchieved the victorie His father upon his returne was highly offended with his sonne for transgressing his will and commandement and after he had set a victorious crown upon his head caused it to be strooken off as Ctesiphon recordeth in the third booke of the Boeotian histories The Romanes during the time that they maintained warre against the Samnites chose for their general captain Manlius surnamed Imperious who returning upon a time from the camp to Rome for to be present at the election of Consuls straightly charged his son not to fight with the enemies in his absence The Samnites hereof advertised provoked the yoong gentleman with most spitefull and villanous tearmes reproching him likewise with cowardise which he not able to endure was so farre mooved in the end that he gave them battel and defeated them but Manlius his father when he was returned cut him shorter by the head for it as testifieth Aristides the Milesian 13 Hercules being denied marriage with the Ladie Iole tooke the repulse so neere to heart that he forced and sacked the citie Oechalia But Iole flung herselfe headlong downe from the wall into the trench under it howbeit so it fortuned that the winde taking hold of her garments as she fell bare her up so as in the fall shee caught no harme as witnesseth Nicias of Malea The Romans whiles they warred upon the Tuskans chose for their commander Valerius Torquatus who having a sight of Clusia their kings daughter fancied her and demanded her of him in marriage but being denied and rejected he wan the citie and put it to the saccage The ladie Clusia flung herselfe downe from an high tower but through the providence of Venus her habillements were so heaved up with the winde that they brake the fall and albeit shee light upon the ground shee escaped alive Then the captaine before named forced her and abused her bodie in regard of which dishonour and vilanie offered unto her by a generall decree of all the Romanes confined he was into the Isle of Corsica which lieth against Italy as witnesseth Theophilus in the third booke of his Italian historie 14 The Carthaginians and Sicilians being entred into league banded themselves against the Romanes and prepared with their joint forces to warre upon them whereupon Metellus was chosen captaine who having offered sacrifice unto all other gods and goddesses left out onely the goddesse Vesta who thereupon raised a contrarie winde to blow against him in his voiage Then Caius Julius the soothsayer said unto him that the winde would lie in case before he embarked and set saile he offered in sacrifice his owne daughter unto Vesta Metellus being driven to this hard exigent was constrained to bring foorth his daughter to be sacrificed but the goddesse taking pitie of him her in stead of the maiden substituted a yoong heyfer and carried the virgin to Lavintum where she made her a religious priestresse of the Dragon which they worship and have in great reverence within that citie as writeth Pythocles in his third booke of Italian affaires In like manner is the case of Iphigenia which hapned in Aulis a citie of Boeotia reported by Meryllus in the third booke of Boeotian Chronicles 15 Brennus a king of the Galatians or Gallo-Greekes as he forraied and spoiled Asia came at length to Ephesus where he fell in love with a yoong damosell a commoners daughter who promised to lie with him yea and to betray the citie unto him upon condition that he would give unto her carquanets bracelets and other jewels of gold wherewith ladies are woont to adorne and set out themselves Then Brennus requested those about his person to cast into the lap of this covetons wench all the golden jewels which they had which they did in such quantitie that the maiden was overwhelmed under them quick pressed to death with their waight as Clitipho writeth in the first booke of the Galatian historie Tarpeia a virgin and yoong gentlewoman of a good house having the keeping of the Capitoll during the time that the Romanes warred against the Albanes promised unto their king Tatius for to give him entrance into the castle of mount Tarpeius if in recompence of her good service he would bestow upon her such bracelets rings and carquanets as the Sabine dames used to weare when they trimmed up themselves in best manner which when the Sabines understood they heaped upon her so many that they buried her quick underneath them according as Aristides the Milesian reporteth in his Italian historie 16 The inhabitants of Tegea and Phenea two cities maintained a lingring warre one against the other so long until they concluded in the end to determine all quarrels and controversies by the combat of three brethren twinnes of either side And the men of Tegea put soorth into the field for their part the sonnes of one of their citizens named Reximachus and those of Phinea for themselves the sonnes of Damostratus When these champions were advanced foorth into the plaine to performe their devoir it fortuned that two of Reximachus his sonnes were killed outright in the place and the third whose name was Critolaus wrought such a stratagem with his three concurrents that he overcame them all for making semblance as though he fled he turned suddenly back slew them one after another as he espied his advātage when they were singled and severed asunder in their chase after him At his returne home with this glorious victorie all his citizens did congratulate and rejoice with him onely his owne sister named Demodice was nothing glad therefore because one of the brethren whom he had slaine was espoused unto her whose name was Demoticus Critolaus taking great indignation hereat killed her out of hand The mother to them both sued him for this murder and required justice howbeit hee was acquit of all actions and enditements framed against him as writeth Demaratus in the second booke of Arcadian acts The Romans and the Albanes having warred a long time together chose for their champions to decide all quarrels three brethren twinnes both of the one side and the other For the Albanes were three Curiatii and for the Romans as many Horain The combate was no sooner begun but those of Alba laid two of their adversaries dead in the dust the third helping himselfe with a feigned flight killed the other three one after the other as they were divided asunder
afterwards fell away and came to nothing so as at this present that goodly countrey is become subject and made thrall to the most violent wicked and wretched nation under heaven THE LIVES OF THE ten oratours ANTIPHON I. ANtipho the sonne of Saphilus and borne in the borough and corporation of Karannum was brought up as a scholar under his owne father who kept a Rhetorick schoole whereunto Alcibiades also by report was wont to go and resort when he was a young boy who having gotten sufficiencie of speech and eloquence as some thinke himselfe such was the quicknesse of his wit and inclination of of his nature he betooke himselfe to affaires of State and yet he held a schoole neverthelesse where he was at some difference with Socrates the Philosopher in matter of learning and oratorie not by way of contention and aemulation but in maner of reprehension finding fault with some points as Xenophon testifieth in the first booke of his Commentaries as touching the deeds and sayings of Socrates He penned orations for some citizens at their request for to be pleaded and pronounced in judiciall courts and as it is given out by some was the first who gave himselfe to this course and professed so to do for there is not extant one oration written in maner of a plea by any oratours who lived before his time no more by those that flourished in his daies for it was not the maner yet and custome to compose oraions for others Themistocles I meane Pericles and Aristides notwithstanding that the time presented unto them many occasions yea and meere necessiries so to do neither was it upon their insufficiencie that they thus abstained as it may appeare by that which Historians have written of everie one of these men above mentioned Moreover if we looke into the most ancient oratours whom we can cal to mind to wit Alcibiades Critias Lysius and Archilochus who have written one the same stile and exercised the same forme maner of pleading it wil be found that they all conversed and conferred with Antiphon being now very aged and farre stept in yeeres for being a man of an excellent quicke and readie wit he was the first that made and put forth the Institutions of oratorie so as for his profound knowledge he was surnamed Nestor And Cecilius in a certaine treatise which he compiled of him conjectureth that he had beene sometime schoolemaster to Thucydides the Historiographer for that Antipho is so highly commended by him In his speeches and orations he is verie exquisite and ful of perswasion quicke and subtil in his inventions in difficult matters verie artificiall assailing his adversarie after a covert maner turning his words and sayings respective to the lawes and to move affections withal aiming alwaies to that which is decent seemely and carying the best apparance shew with it He lived about the time of the Persian warre when Gorgias Leontinus the great professor in Rhetoricke flourished being somewhat yonger than he was and he continued to the subversion of the popular state and government which was wrought by the 400 conspirators wherin himselfe seemed to have had a principall hand for that he had the charge and command of two great gallies at sea and was besides a captaine and had the leading of certaine forces during which time he wan the victorie in divers battels and procured unto them the aide of many allies also he moved the young and lustie able man of warre to take armes he rigged manned and set out sixtie gallies and in all their occasions was sent embassadour to the Lacedaemonians when as the citie Ectionia was fortified with a wall but after that those 400 before said were put downe and overthrowen he was together with Archiptolemus one of the 400 accused for the conspiracie condemned and adjudged to the punishment which is due unto traitours His corps was cast forth without sepulture himselfe and all his posteritie registred for infamous persons upon record and yet some there be who report that he was put to death by the 30 tyrants and namely among the rest Lysias testifieth as much in an oration which he made for Antiphoes daughter for a little daughter he had unto whom Calleschrus made claime in right for his wife and that the thirtie tyrants wee they who put him to death Theopompus beareth witnesse in the fifteenth of his Philippickes But more moderne surely was this man and of a later time yea and the sonne of one Lysidonides of whom 〈◊〉 maketh mention as of no wicked man in his commedie called Pytine For how should he who before was executed by those 400 returne to life againe in the time of the thirtie usurpers or tyrants but his death is reported otherwise namely that being verie aged he sailed into Cicily when as the tyrannie of the former Denys was at the highest and when the question was proposed at the table which was the best brasse as some said this and others that he answered that for his part he thought that brasse was best whereof the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton were made which when Denys heard he imagining that the speech imported thus much covertly as to set on the Syracusians for to attempt some violence upon his person commanded him to be put to death Others report that the said tyrant gave order that he should be made away upon indignation that he skoffed at his tragoedies There be extant in this oratours name three score orations whereof as Cecilius saith 25 are untruly reported to be his Noted he is and taxed by Plato the comicall poet together with Pysander for avarice love of money It is said moreover that he composed certaine tragoedies alone and others with Dionysius the tyrant who joined with him At the same time also when he gave his mind unto Poetrie he devised the art of curing the griefes and maladies of the minde like as physicians pretend skill for to heale the diseases and paines of the bodie Certes having built a little house at Corinth in the market place hee set up a bill on the gate wherein hee made profession That he had the skill to remedie by words those who were vexed and grieved in spirit and he would demaund of those who were amisse the causes of their sorrow and according thereto apply his comforts and consolations Howbeit afterwards supposing this art and profession to be too base and meane for him he turned his studie to Rhetoricke and taught it Some there be who attribute unto Antipho the booke of Glaucus the Rhegine as touching poets but principally is that treatise commended which he made unto Herodotus as also that which is dedicated to Erasistratus touching the Ideaes and the oration of Message which he penned for his owne selfe another against Demosthenes the captaine which he named Paranomon for that he charged him to have broken the lawes Also another oration he wrote against Hippocrates the general commander
the world whereby all things are governed How is it possible then that these two positions should subsist together namely that God is in no wise the cause of any dishonest thing and that there is nothing in the world be it never so little that is done but by common nature and according to the reason thereof For surely among all those things that are done necessarily there must be things dishonest and yet Epicurus turneth and windeth himselfe on every side imagining and devising all the subtill shifts that he can to unloose set free and deliver our voluntary free will from this motion eternall because he would not leave vice excuseable without just reprehension whereas in the meane while he openeth a wide window unto it and giveth it libertie to plead That committed it is not onely by the necessitie of destiny but also by the reason of God and according to the best nature that is And thus much also moreover is to be seene written word forword For considering that common nature reacheth unto al causes it cannot otherwise be but all that is done howsoever and in what part soever of the world must be according to this common nature and the reason thereof by a certeine stint of consequence without impeachment for that there is nothing without that can impeach the administration thereof neither mooveth any part or is disposed in habitude otherwise than according to that common nature But what habitudes and motions of the parts are these Certeine it is that the habitudes be the vices and maladies of the minds as covetousnesse lecherie ambition cowardise and injustice as for the motions they be the acts proceeding from thence as adulteries thefts treasons manslaughters murders and parricides Chrysippus now is of opinion That none of all these be they little or great is done without the reason of Jupiter or against law justice and providence insomuch as to breake law is not against law to wrong another is not against justice nor to commit sinne against providence And yet he affirmeth that God punisheth vice and doth many things for the punishment of the wicked As for example in the second booke of the gods Otherwhiles there happen quoth he unto good men grievous calamities not by way of punishment as to the wicked but by another kinde of oeconomy and disposition like as it falleth out usually unto cities Againe in these words First we are to understand evill things and calamities as we have said heeretofore then to thinke that distributed they are according to the reason and dispose of Jupiter either by way of punishment or else by some other oeconomie of the whole world Now surely this is a doctrine hard to bee digested namely that vice being wrought by the disposition and reason of God is also punished thereby howbeit this contradiction he doeth still aggravate and extend in the second booke of Nature writing thus But vice in regard of grievous accidents hath a certeine peculiar reason by it selfe for after a sort it is committed by the common reason of nature and as I may so say not unprofitably in respect of the universall world for otherwise than so there were no good things at all and then proceeding to reproove those who dispute pro contra and discourse indifferently on both parts he I meane who upon an ardent desire tobroch alwaies and in every matter some novelties exquisite singularities above all other saith It is not unprofitable to cut purses to play the sycophants or commit loose dissolute and mad parts no more than it is incommodious that there should be unprofitable members hurtfull and wretched persons which if it be so what maner of god is Jupiter I meane him of whom Chrysippus speaketh in case I say he punish a thing which neither commeth of it selfe nor unprofitably for vice according to the reason of Chrysippus were altogether irreprehensible and Jupiter to be blamed if either he caused vice as a thing unprofitable or punished it when he had made it not unprofitably Moreover in the first booke of Justice speaking of the gods that they oppose themselves against the iniquities of some But wholly quoth he to cut off all vice is neither possible nor expedient is it if it were possible to take away all injustice all transgression of lawes and all folly But how true this is it perteineth not to this present treatise for to enquire and discourse But himselfe taking away and rooting up all vice as much as lay in him by the meanes of philosophy which to extirpe was neither good nor expedient doeth heerein that which is repugnant both to reason and also to God Furthermore in saying that there be certeine sinnes and iniquities against which the gods doe oppose themselves he giveth covertly to understand that there is some oddes and inequality in sinnes Over and besides having written in many places that there is nothing in the world to be blamed nor that can be complained of for that all things are made and finished by a most singular and excellent nature there be contrariwise sundry places wherein hee leaveth and alloweth unto us certeine negligences reprooveable and those not in small and trifling matters That this is true it may appeere in his third book of Substance where having made mention that such like negligences might befal unto good honest men Commeth this to passe quoth he because there be some things where of there is no reckoning made like as in great houses there must needs be scattered and lost by the way some bran yea and some few graines of wheat although in generality the whole besides is well enough ruled and governed or is it because there be some evill and malignant spirits as superintendents over such things wherein certeinly such negligences are committted the same reprehensible and he saith moreover that there is much necessitie intermingled among But I meane not hereupon to stand nor to discourse at large but to let passe what vanity there was in him to compare the accidents which befell to some good and vertuous persons as for example the condemnation of Socrates the burning of Pythagoras quicke by the Cylonians the dolorous torments that Zeno endured under the tyrant Demylus or those which Antiphon suffred at the hands of Dionysius when they were by them put to death unto the brans that be spilt and lost in great mens houses But that there should bee such wicked spirits deputed by the divine providence to have the charge of such things must needs redound to the great reproach of God as if he were some unwise king who committed the government of his provinces unto evill captaines and rash headed lieutenants suffering them to abuse and wrong his best affected subjects and winking at their rechlesse negligence having no care or regard at all of them Againe if it be so that there is much necessity and constraint mingled among the affaires of this world then is not God the
either filled themselves with trouble and smoke or else running with their heads forward into beastly and filthy pleasures pined away and were consumed But such as by wise and discret discourse of reason accompanied with honest and shamefast modestie have taken from Love the burning furious and firie heat thereof and left behinde in the soule a splendeur and light together with a moderate heat and not a boiling agitation thereof stirring as one said a slippery motion of the seed when as the atomes of Epicurus by reason of their smoothnesse and tickling are driven together which causeth a certeine dilatation woonderfull degenerative like as in a plant or tree which putteth foorth leaves blossomes and fruit for that she receiveth nutriment because the pores and passages of docilitie obedience and facilitie to be perswaded by enterteining gently good admonitions and remonstrances be open such I say within a small time pierce farther and passe beyond the bodies of those whom they Love entring as farre as into their soules and touch their towardnesse their conditions and manners reclaiming their eies from beholding the bodie and conversing together by the communication of good discourses behold one another by that meanes provided alwaies that they have some marke and token of true beautie imprint ted within their understanding which if they cannot finde they forsake them and turne their Love unto others after the maner of bees which leave many greene leaves and faire floures because they can gather out of them no hony but looke when they meet with any trace any influence or semblance of divine beauty smiling upon them then being ravished with delight and admiration and drawing it unto them they take joy and contentment in that which is truly amiable expetible and to be embraced of all men True it is that Poets seeme to write the most part of that which they deliver as touching this god of Love by way of meriment and they sing of him as it were in a maske and little 〈◊〉 they speake in good earnest touching the very truth whether it be upon judgement and reason or some divine instinct and inspiration as for example among other things that which they give out concerning the generation of this god in this maner Dame Iris with faire winged shoes and golden yellow haire Conceived by sir Zephyrus the mightiest god did beare Unlesse it be so that you also are perswaded by the Grammarians who holde that this fable was devised to expresse the variety and gay 〈◊〉 as it were of sundry colours represented in this passion of Love For what else should in respect quoth Daphnaeus Listen then said my father and I will tell you Forced we are by manifest evidence to beleeve that when we behold the rainbow it is nothing else but a reflexion of raies and beames which our eies suffer when our sight falling upon a cloud somwhat moist but even smooth withall and of an indifferent and meane thickenesse meeteth with the Sunnebeames and by way of repercussion seeth the radiant raies thereof and the shining light about it and so imprinteth in our mind this opinion that such an apparition indeed is settled upon the clowd And even such is the sophisticall device and subtile invention of that in the generous and toward minds of gentle lovers it causeth a certaine reflexion of memorie from beauties appearing here and so called in regard of that divine lovely indeed blessed and admirable beautie Howbeit the common sort pursuing and apprehending the image onely thereof expressed in faire persons as well boies as yong damosels as it were in mirrors can reape no fruit more certaine and assured than a little pleasure mingled with paine among which is nothing else as it seemeth but the error and wandring dizzinesse or conceit of most folke who in clowds and shadowes seeke and hunt after the contentment of their lust and desire much like unto yong children who thinke to catch the rainbow in their hands being drawen and allured thereto by the deceitfull shew presented to their eies Whereas the true lover indeed who is honest and chast doth farre otherwise for he lifteth up his desire from thence to a divine spirituall and intelligible beauty and whensoever he meeteth with the beauty of a visible bodie he useth it as the instrument onely of his memorie he imbraceth and loveth it by conversing also with it ioifully with contentment his understanding is more and more inflamed Such amorous persons as these whiles they hant these bodies here neither rest so sitting still in a desire and admiration of this cleare beautie nor when they are come thither after their death returne they hither againe as fugitives for to hover and keepe about the dores chambers and cabinets of yong maried wives which are nothing else but vaine dreames and illusions appearing to sensuall men and women given overmuch to voluptuous pleasures of the body and such as untruely be called lovers For he who intrueth is amorous and is thither come where true beauties are and converseth with them as much as it is possible and lawfull for a man to doe is winged anon mounteth up on high he is purified and sanctified continually abiding resident above dauncing walking and disporting alwaies about his god untill he come backe again into the greene and faire meddowes of the Moone and of Venus where being laid a sleepe he beginneth to receive a regeneration and new nativity But this is an higher point and deeper matter than we have undertaken at this present to discourse upon To returne therefore unto our love this propertie also it hath like as all other gods according to Euripides To take great joy and much content When men with honors him prosent And contrariwise he is no lesse displeased when abuse or contempt is offered unto him For most kinde and gracious he is unto them that receive and intertaine him courteously and againe as curst and shrewd to those who shew themselves stiffe-necked and contumacious unto him For neither Jupiter surnamed Hospitall is so ready to chastice and punish wrongs done unto guests and suppliants nor Jupiter Genetal so forward to prosecute accomplish the curses and execrations of parents as love quickly heareth the praiers of those lovers who are unthankfully requited by their loves being the punisher of proud rude and uncivill persons For what should one speake of Euchcyntus and Leucomantis her I meane who even at this day is called in Cypres Paracyptusa And peradventure you have not heard of the punishment of Gorgo in Candia who was served much after the maner of the said Paracyptusa save onely that she was turned into a stone when she would needs looke out at a window and put forth her body to see the corps of her lover enterred But of this Gorgo there was somtime one inamoured whose name was Asander a yoong gentleman honest and of good parentage descended who having beene before time of worshipfull and wealthy estate was
another when they be parted and asunder and they embrace one the other in the darke many times Moreover that this Core or Proserpina is one while above in heaven and in the light another while in darkenesse and the night is not untrue onely there is some error in reckoning and numbring the time For we see her not six moneths but every sixth moneth or from six moneths to six moneths under the earth as under her mother caught with the shadow and seldome is it found that this should happen within five moneths for that it is impossible that she should abandon and leave Pluto being his wife according as Homer hath signified although under darke and covert wordes not untruely saying But to the farthest borders of the earth and utmost end Even to the faire Elysian fields the gods then shall thee send For looke where the shadow endeth and goeth no farther that is called the limit and end of the earth and thither no wicked and impure person shall ever be able to come But good folke after their death in the world being thither carried lead there another easie life in peace and repose howbeit not altogether a blessed happie and divine life untill they die a second death but what death this is aske me not my Sylla for I purpose of my selfe to declare shew it unto you hereafter The vulgar sort be of opinion that man is a subject compounded and good reason they have so to thinke but in beleeving that he consisteth of two parts onely they are deceived for they imagine that the understanding is in some sort a part of the soule but the understanding is better than the soule by how much the soule is better and more divine than the bodie Now the conjunction or composition of the soule with understanding maketh reason but with the bodie passion whereof this is the beginning and principle of pleasure and paine the other of vertue and vice Of these three conjoined and compact in one the earth yeeldeth for her part the body the Moone the soule and the Sunne understanding to the generation or creation of man and understanding giveth reason unto the soule **** even as the Sunne light and brightnesse to the Moone As touching the deathes which we die the one maketh man of 3. two and the other of 2. one And the former verily is in the region and jurisdiction of Ceres which is the cause that we sacrifice unto her Thus it commeth to passe that the Athenians called in olde time those that were departed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Cereales As for the other death it is in the Moone or region of Proserpina And as with the one terrestriall Mercury so with the other celestiall Mercurie doth inhabit And verily Ceres dissolveth and seperateth the soule from the bodie sodainly and forcibly with violence but Proserpina parteth the understanding from the soule gently and in long time And heereupon it is that the is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say begetting one for that the better part in a man becommeth one and alone when by her it is separated and both the one and the other hapneth according to nature Every soule without understanding as also endued with understanding when it is departed out of the body is ordeined by fatall destiny to wander for a time but not both alike in a middle region betweene the earth and the Moone For such soules as have beene unjust wicked and dissolute suffer due punishment and paines for their sinfull deserts whereas the good and honest untill such time as they have purified and by expiration purged foorth of them all those infections which might be contracted by the contagion of the body as the cause of all evill must remaine for a certeine set time in the mildest region of the aire which they call the meddowes of Pluto Afterwards as if they were returned from some long pilgrimage or wandring exile into their owne countrey they have a taste of joy such as they fecie especially who are professed in holy mysteries mixed with trouble and admiration and ech one with their proper and peculiar hope for it driveth and chaseth foorth many soules which longed already after the Moone Some take pleasure to be still beneath and even yet looke downward as it were to the bottome but such as be mounted aloft and are there most surely bestowed first as victorious stand round about adorned with garlands and those made of the wings of Eustathia that is to saie Constancie because in their life time here upon earth they had bridled and restreined the unreasonable and passible part of the soule and made it subject and obedient to the bridle of reason Secondly they resemble in sight the raies of the Sunne Thirdly the soule thus ascended on high is there confirmed and fortified by the pure aire about the Moone where it doth gather strength and solidity like as iron and steele by their tincture become hard For that which hitherto was loose rare and spongeous groweth close compact and firme yea and becommeth shining and transparent in such sort as nourished it is with the least exhalation in the world This is that Heracletus meant when he said that the soules in Plutoes region have a quicke sent or smelling And first they behold there the greatnesse of the Moone her beauty and nature which is not simple nor void of mixture but as it were a composition of a starre and of earth And as earth mingled with a spirituall aire and moisture becommeth soft and the blood tempered with flesh giveth it sense even so say they the Moone mingled with a celestiall quintessence even to the very bottome of it is made animate fruitfull and generative and withall equally counterpeised with ponderosity and lightnesse For the whole world it selfe being thus composed of things which naturally moove downward and upward is altogether void of motion locall from place to place which it seemth that Xenocrates himselfe by a divine discourse of reason understood taking the first light thereof from Plato For Plato was he who first affirmed that every starre was compounded of fire and earth by the meanes of middle natures given in certeine proportion in as much as there is nothing object to the sense of man which hath not in some proportion a mixture of earth and light And Xenocrates said that the Sunne is compounded of fire and the first or primitive solid the Moone of a second solid and her proper aire in summe throughout neither solid alone by it selfe nor the rare apart is capable and susceptible of a soule Thus much as touching the substance of the Moone As for the grandence bignesse thereof it is not such as the Geometricians set downe but farre greater by many degrees And seldome doth it measure the shadow of the earth by her greatnesse not for that the same is small but for that it bringeth a most servent and swift motion to the end
were so fierce and untractable used those robes and habillimonts which were proper usuall and familiar to them and all to gaine their hearts by little and little mollifying by that meanes the fiercenesse of their courage pacifying their displeasure and dulcing their grimnesse and austeritie would any man blame or reproove and not rather honour and admire his politicke wisdome in that with a little change and altering of his garments he had the dexteritie and skill to gaine all Asia and lead it as he would making himselfe thus by his armour master and lord of their bodies and by his apparell alluring and winning their hearts And yet these men commend Aristippus the Philosopher and disciple of Socrates for that one while wearing a poore thinne and thred-bare cloke and another while putting on a rich mantell of tissew wrought and died at Miletus he knew how to keepe decorum and decently to behave himselfe as well in the one garment as the other meane while they blame and condemne Alexander in that as he honored the habit of his owne countrey so he disdained not the apparell of another which he had conquered by armes intending therby to lay the ground-worke foundation of greater matters for his desseigne and purpose was not to over-runne and waste Asia as a captaine and ring-leader of a rable of theeves and robbers would doe nor to sacke and racke harry and worrie it as the praie and booty of unexpected and unhoped for felicity like as afterwards Anniball did by Italy and before time the Trierians delt by Ionia and the Scythians by Asia who made havocke and waste as they went but as one who meant to range all the nations upon earth under the obedience of one and the same reason and to reduce all men to the same policie as citizens under government of a common-weale therefore thus he composed and transformed himselfe in his raiment and habit And if that great God who sent the soule of Alexander from heaven to earth below had not so suddenly called it away againe unto himselfe peradventure there had beene but one law to rule and overlooke all men living the whole world haply had beene governed by one and the same justice as a common light to illustrate all places whereas now those parts of the earth which never had a sight of Alexander remaine in the shadow of darknesse as destitute of the very light of the sunne and therefore the very first project of his expedition and voiage sheweth that he caried the minde of a true Philosopher indeed who aimed not at the gaining for himselfe daintie delights and costly pleasures but intended to procure and compasse an universall peace concord unitie and societie of all men living one with another In the second place consider we his words and sentences for that in other kings and potentates also their maners and intentions of their minde are principally bewraied by their speeches Antigonus the elder when a certeine Sophister upon a time presented and pronounced unto him certeine commentaries and treatises which he had composed as touching justice Good fellow quoth he thou art a foole to come and preach unto one of justice when thou seest me bending mine ordinance against the cities of other princes and battering their wals as I do Denys also the tyrant was wont to say that we should deceive children with dies and cockal bones but beguile men with othes And upon the tombe of Sardanapalus was engraven this epitaph What I did eat and drinke I have the sports also remaine Which lady Venus did vouchsave all else I count but vaine Who can denie but that by the last of those speeches and apophthegmes sensuall lust and voluptuousnesse was authorized by the second Atheisme and impietie and by the first injustice and avarice Now if you take away from the sayings of Alexander his roiall crowne and diademe the addition of Jupiter Amnion whose sonne he was stiled to be and the nobility of his birth certes you would say they were the sage sentences of Socrates Plato or Pythagoras For we must not stand upon the brave titles and proud inscriptions which Poets have devised to be imprinted or engraven upon his pictures images and statues having an eie and regard not to shew the modestie but to magnifie the puissance of Alexander as for example This image here that stands in brasse so bright Of Alexander is the portraict right Up toward heaven he both his eies doth cast And unto Jove seemes thus to speake at last Mine is the earth by conquest I it hold Thou Jupiter in heaven mayst be bold And another Of Jupiter that heavenly God of might The sonne am I Great Alexander hight These were the glorious titles which glavering Poets I say in flattery of his fortune fathered upon him But if a man would recount the true apophthegmes indeed of Alexander he may do well to beginne first at those which he delivered in his childhood for being in footmanship the swftest of all other yoong lads of his age when his familiar play-feeres and mates were in hand with him very earnestly to runne a course at the Olympian games for a prise he demanded of them againe whether he should meet with kings there for his concurrents in the race and when they answered No Then were the match quoth he not equally nor indifferently made wherin if I have the woorse a king shall be foiled and if I gaine the victorie I shall but conquer private persons When his father Philip chanced in a battell against the Triballians to be runne thorow the thigh with a launce and albeit that he escaped danger of death yet was much grieved and dismaied to limpe and halt thereupon as he did Be of good cheere good father quoth he and go abroad hardly in the sight of the whole world that at every step you tread and set forward you may be put in minde of your valour and vertue How say you now proceed not these answeres from a Philosophicall minde and shew they not an heart which being ravished with a divine instinct and ardent love of good and honest things careth not for the defects of the bodie for how greatly thinke you joyed and gloried he in the wounds that he received in his owne person who in every one of them bare the testimony and memoriall of some nation subdued some battell won of some cities forced by assaile or of some kings that yeelded to his mercie Certes he never tooke care to cover and hide his scarres but caried them about him and shewed them where ever he went as so many marks and tokens engraved to testifie his vertue and prowesse And if at any time there grew some comparison either by way of serious disputation in points of learning or in table talke as touching the verses of Homer which of them were best when some seemed to commend this verse others that he would evermore preferre this above all other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A
worke as beseemed so great a king and one derived from a divine race the end whereof was not a masse of gold to be caried along after him upon ten thousand camels backs nor the superfluous delights of Media not sumptuous and dilicate tables not faire and beautifull ladies not the good and pleasant wines of Calydonia nor the dainty fish of Hyrcania out of the Caspian sea but to reduce the whole world to be governed in one and the same order to be obedient to one empire and to be ruled by the same maner of life And verily this desire was inbred in him this was nourished and grew up with him from his very infancie There came embassadors upon a time from the king of Persia to his father Philip who at the same time was not in the country but gone forth Alexander gave them honorable intertainement very courteously as became his fathers sonne but this especially was observed in him that he did not aske them childish questions as other boies did to wit about golden vines trailed from one tree to another nor of the pendant gardens at Babylon hanging above in the aire ne yet what robes and sumptuous habiliments their king did weare but all his talke and conference with them was concerning matters most important for the state of an empire inquisitive he was what forces and power of men the king of Persia could bring out into the field and maintaine in what ward of the battell the king himselfe was arranged when he fought a field much like unto that Ulysses in Homer who demanded of Dolon as touching Hector His martiall armes where doth he lay His horses tell me where stand they Which be the readiest and shortest waies for those who would travel from the coasts of the Meditteranean sea up into the high countries in so much as these strangers the embassadors wondered exceedingly and said Now surely this child is the great king and ours the rich No sooner was his father Philip departed this life but presently his heart served him to passe over the straights of Hellespont and being already fed with his hopes and forward in the preparation and provision of his voiage he made what speed he could to set foot in Asia But see heere how fortune crossed his designes she averted him quite and drew him backe againe raising a thousand troubles and busie occasions to stay hinder his intended course First she caused those barbarous nations bordering and adjoining upon him to rise up in armes and thereby held him occupied in the warres against the Illyrians and Triballians by the meanes whereof he was haled away as farre as to Scythia and the nations inhabiting along the river Danubie who diverted him cleane from his affaires intended in the high provinces of Asia Howbeit having overrunne these countries and dispatched all difficulties with great perils and most dangerous battels he set in hand againe with his former enterprise and made haste to his passage voiage a second time But lo even there also fortune excited the city of Thebes against him and laid the warre of the Greeks in his way to stop his expedition driving him to extreame streights and to a very hard exigent by fire and sword to be revenged of a people that were his owne countrymen and of the same kinred and nation the issue whereof was most grieveous and lamentable Having exploited this he crossed the seas at the last furnished with provision of money and victuals as Phylarchus writeth to serve for thirty daies and no longer or as Aristobulus reporteth having onely seventy talents of silver to defray the whole charges of the voiage For of his owne demaine and possessions at home as also of the crowne revenewes he had bestowed the most part upon his friends and followers onely Perdiccas would receive nothing at his hands but when he made offer to give him his part with the rest demanded thus of him But what reserve you for yourselfe Alexander Who answered My hopes Why then quoth he I will take part thereof for it is not reason that we should receive your goods but wait for the pillage of Darius And what were those hopes of Alexander upon which he passed over into Asia Surely not a power measured by the strong wals of many rich populous cities not fleets of ships sailing through the mountaines not whips and fetters testifying the folly and madnesse of barbarous princes who thought thereby to punish and chastice the raging sea But for externall meanes without himselfe a resolution of prowesse in a small power of armed men well trussed and compact together an aemulation to excell one another among yong men of the same age a contention and strife for vertue and glory in those that were his minions about him But the great hopes indeed and most assured were in his owne person to wit his devout religion to Godward the 〈◊〉 confidence and affiance that he had in his friends frugality continence bounty a contempt of death magnanimity and resolution humanity courtesie affable intertainment a simple nature plaine without plaits not faigned and counterfait constancie in his counsell celerity in his execution soveraignty and priority in honor and a resolute purpose to accomplish any honest duty and office For Homer did not well and decently to compose and frame the beautifull personage of Agamemnon as the patterne of a per fect prince out of three images after this maner For eies and head much like he was in sight To Jove who takes in lightning such delight God Mars in wast and loines resembled he In brest compar'd to Neptune he may be But the nature of Alexander in case that God who made or created him formed and compounded it of many vertues may we not well and truly say that he endued with the courageous spirit of Cyrus the sober temperance of Agesilaus the quicke wit and pregnant conceit of Themistocles the approoved skill and experience of Philip the valourous boldnesse of Brasidas the rare eloquence and sufficiencie of Pericles in State matters and politicke government For to speake of those in ancient times more continent he was and chast than Agamemnon who preferred a captive concubine before his owne espoused and lawfull wife as for Alexander he absteined from those women whom he tooke prisoners in warre and would not touch one of them before he had wedded her more magnanimous than Achilles who for a little money yeelded the dead corps of Hector to be ransommed whereas Alexander defraied great summes in the funerals and interring of Darius bodie Againe Achilles tooke of his friends for the appeasing of his choler gifts and presents after a mercenary maner but Alexander enriched his very enemies when he had gotten the victorie More religious he was than Diamedes a man who was evermore ready to fight against the gods whereas he thought that all victory happy successe came by the grace and favour of the gods Deerer he was to his
neere kinsfolke and friends and more entirely beloved than Ulysses whose mother died for sorrow and griefe of heart whereas when Alexander died his very enemies mother for kinde affection and good will died with him for company In summe if it was by the indulgence of Fortune that Solon established the common-wealth of Athens so well at home that Miltiades conducted the armies so happily abroad if it was by the benefit and favour of fortune that Aristides was so just then farewell vertue for ever then is there no worke at all effected by her but onely it is a vaine name and speech that goeth of her passing with some shew of glorie and reputation thorow the life of man feined and devised by these prating Sophisters cunning Law-givers and Statists Now if every one of these persons and such like was poore or rich feeble or strong foule or faire of long life or short by the meanes of fortune againe in case ech of them shewed himselfe a great captaine in the field a great politician or wise law-giver a great governour and ruler in the city and common-wealth by their vertue and the direction of reason within them then consider I pray you what Alexander was in comparison of them all Solon instituted at Athens a generall cutting off and cancelling of all debts which he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as A discharge of burdens but Alexander out of his owne purse paied all debts in the name of debtors due unto their creditors Pericles having imposed a tax and tribute upon the Greeks with the money raised by that levie beautified the citadell or castle of Athens with temples and chapels whereas Alexander sent of the pillage and treasure which he gat from the Barbarians to the number of tenne thousand talents into Greece with commandement to build there with sacred temples to the honour of the gods Brasidas wan a great name and reputation of valour among the Greeks for that he passed from one end to another thorow his enemies campe pitched along the sea side before the towne Methon but that wonderfull leape that Alexander made into a towne of the Oxydraques which to them that heare it is incredible and to as many as saw it was most fearefull namely at what time as he cast himselfe from the battlements of the walles among his enemies ready to receive him with pikes with javelins with darts and naked swords whereto may a man compare but unto a very flash of lightning breaking volently out of a cloud and being carried with the winde lighteth upon the ground resembling a spirit or apparition resplendent all about with flaming and burning armours insomuch as at the first sight men that saw it were so affrighted as they ran backward and fled but after that they beheld it was but one man setting upon many then they came againe and made head against him Heere Fortune shewed no doubt many plaine and evident proofs of her speciall good will 〈◊〉 Alexander namely first when she put him into an ignoble base and barbarous towne and there inclosed him sure enough within the walles thereof then after that those without made haste to rescue him and reared their scaling ladders against the walles for to get over and come unto him she caused them all to breake fall in pieces whereby she overthrew and cast them downe who were climbed halfe way up againe of those three onely whose hap it was to mount up to the top before the ladders brake and who flang themselves desperatly downe and stood about the king to guard his person she fell upon one immediatly and killed him in the place before he could do his master any service a second overwhelmed with a cloud of arrowes and darts was so neere death that he could do no more but onely see and feele All this while the Macedonians without ranne to the walles with a great noise and outcry but all in vaine for artillerie they had none nor any ordinance or engins of battery onely they laied at the walles with their naked swords and bare hands and so earnest they were to get in that they would have made way with their very teeth if it had beene possible Meane while this fortunate prince upon whom Fortune attended at an inch ready now to accompany and defend him you may be sure as at all times els was taken and caught as a wilde beast within toiles abandoned and left alone without aide and succour not iwis to win the city of Susa or of Babylon nor to conquer the province of Bactra nor to seize upon that mighty body of king Porus for of great and renowmed attempts although the end alwaies prove not happy yet there can redound no infamy But to say a trueth Fortune was on his behalfe so spightfull and envious but on the other side so good and gracious to the Barbarians so adverse I say she was to Alexander that she went about as much as lay in her to make him not onely lose his life and body but also to forfeit his honour and glory for if he had beene left lying dead along the river Euphrates or Hydaspes it had beene no great desastre and indignitie neither had it beene so dishonorable unto him when he came to joine with Darius hand to hand if he had beene massacred among a number of great horses with the swords glawes battle-axes of the Persians fighting for the empire no nor when he was mounted upon the wals of Babylon if he had taken the foile and bene put by his great hope of forcing the city for in that sort lost Pelopidas and Epaminondas their lives and their death was rather an act of vertue than an accident of infortunitie whiles they gave the attempt to execute so great exploits and to gaine so worthy a prise But as touching fortune which now we examine and consider what piece of worke effected she In a Barbarous countrey farre removed on the further side of a river within the walles of a base village in comparison to shut up and enclose the king and sovereigne lord of the earth that he might perish there shamefully by the hands rude weapons of a multitude of Barbarous rascals who should knocke him downe with clubs and staves and pelt him with whatsoever came next hand for wounded he was in the head with a bill that clove his helmet quite thorow and with a mighty arrow which one discharged out of a bow his brest-plate was pierced quite thorow whereof the steile that was without his bodie weighed him downe heavily but the yron head which stucke fast in the bones about one of his paps was foure fingers broad and five long And to make up the full measure of all mischiefs whiles he defended himselfe right manfully before and when the fellow who had shot the foresaid arrow adventured to approch him with his sword to dispatch him outright with a dead thrust him he got within
of the waters that served the city as also to the Arcenall c. Moreover they had power to attach the bodies of great persons and were charged to see unto the provision of corne and victuals At the first none but of noble families or Patricians were advanced to this place but in processe of time Commoners also atteined thereto More of them how in Iulius Casars time there were elected six Aediles whereof two were named Cereals See Alexander at Alexander lib. 4. cap. 4. Genial dieth Aegineticke Mna or Mina Seemeth to be the ancient coine or money of Greece for they were the first that coined money and of them came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caelius Rhodig Aeolius Modus In Musicke a certeine simple plaine and mild tune apt to procure sleepe and bring folke to bed Aequinox That time of the yeere when the daies and nights be of equall length which hapneth twice in the yeere to wit in March and September Aestivall that is to say Of the Summer as the Aestivall Solstice or Tropicke of the Sunne when he is come neerest unto us and returneth Southward from us Aloïdae or Aloïadae were Othus and Ephialtes two giants so named of Aloëus the giant their supposed father for of his wife Iphimedia Neptune begat them It is said that every moneth they grew nine fingers Alphabet The order or rew of Greeke letters as they stand so called of Alpha and Beta the two formost letters and it answereth to our A.B.C. Alternative By course or turnes one after another going and comming c. Amphictyones Were a certein solemne counsell of State in Greece who held twice in the yeere a meeting in the Spring and Autunne at Thermopyle being assembled from the 12 flourithing cities of Greece there to consult of most important affaires Amphitheatre A spacious shew place in forme round and made as it were of two Theaters See Theater Amphora A measure in Rome of liquors only It seemeth to take that name of the two eares it had of either side one it conteined eight Congios which are somewhat under as many of our wine gallons Amnets Preservatives hung about the necke or otherwise worne against witchcraft poison eiebiting sicknesse or any other evils Anarchie The state of a city or countrey without government Andria A societie of men meeting together in some publicke hall for to eat and drinke Instituted first among the Thebans like to the Phiditia in Lacedaemon Annales Histories Records or Chronicles conteining things done from yere to yeere Anniversarie Comming once enery yeere at a certeine time as the Nativity of Christ and Sturbridge faire c. Antarcticke That is to say Opposit unto the Arcticke See 〈◊〉 Antidote A medicine properly taken inwardly against a poison or some pestilent and venimous disease A counterpoison or preservative Antipathie A repugnance in nature by reason of contrarie affections whereby some can not abide the smell of roses others may not endure the sight of a Cat c. Antiparistasis A 〈◊〉 or restraint on every side whereby either colde or heat is made stronger in it selfe by the restraining of the contrary as the naturall heat of our bodies in Winter through the coldnesse of the aire compassing it about likewise the coldnesse of the middle region of the aire in Summer by occasion of the heat on both sides cansing thunder and haile c. Antiphonie A noise of contrarie sounds Antipodes Those people who inhabit under and beneath our Hemisphaere and go with their feet full against ours Apathte Impassibilitie or voidnesse of all affections and passions Apaturia A feast solemnized for the space of foure daies at Athens in the honour of Bacchus So called of Apate that is to say Deceit because Xanthius the Boeotian was in single fight slaine deceitfully by Thimoeles the Athenian For the tale goeth that whiles they were in combat Bacchus appeared behind Xanthius clad in a goats skinne and when Thimoeles charged his concurrent for comming into the field with an assistant as he looked backe he was killed by Thimoeles abovenamed Apologie A plea for the defence or excuse of any person Apothegme A short sententious speech Apoplexie A disease comming suddenly in maner of a stroke with an universall astonishment and deprivation of sense and motion which either causeth death quickely or else endeth in a dead palsey Archontes Were chiefe magistrates at Athens at first every tenth yeere and afterwards yeerely chosen by lot unto whom the rule of the common-welth in their popular state was committed of whom the first was named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say King the second Archon that is to say Ruler the third Polemarchus and the other six Thesmothelae Arctick that is to say Northerly so called of Arctos in Greeke which signifieth the Beare that is to say those conspicuous seaven starres in the North named Charlematns waine neere unto which is that pole or point of the imaginarie axell-tree about which the heavens turne which thereupon is named The pole Arctick and over against it underneath our Hemisphaere is the other pole called Antarctick in the South part of the world Aristocratre A forme of Government or a State wherein the nobles and best men be Rulers To Aromatize that is to say To season or make pleasant by putting thereto some sweete and odoriferous spices Astragalote Mastis A scourge or whip the strings whereof are set and wrought with ankle-bones called Astragali thereby to give a more grievous lash Atomi Indivisible bodies like to motes in the Sunne beames of which Democritus and Epicurus imagined all things to be made Atticke pure that is to say The most fine and eloquent for in Athens they spake the purest Greeke insomuch as Thucydides called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Greece of Greece as one would say the very quintenssence of Greece Averrunct or Averruncani Were gods among the Romans supposed to put by and chace away evils and calamities such as Hercules and Apollo among the Greekes called thereupon Apotropaei Auspices Plutarch seemeth to take for Augures that is to say Certeine priests or soothsaiers who by the inspection and observation of birds did foretell future things Axiomes Were principal propositions in Logicke of as great authoritie and force as Maximes in law and it should seeme that those Maximes be derived corruptly from Axiomes B BAcchanalta named also 〈◊〉 Certein licentious festivall solemnities in the honor of Bacchus performed at the first by day light and afterward in the night season with all maner of filthy wantonnesse instituted first in Athens and other cities of Greece euery three yeeres in Aegypt also at last they were taken vp in Italy and at Rome Bacchiadae A noble familie in Corinth who for the space almost of 200. yeeres there ruled Bachyllion A song or daunce which seemeth to take the name of a famous Tragoedian poet named Bachyllus who devised and practised it like as Pyladion of Pylades as notable a Comoedian
1031.30 Ale a counterfeit wine 685.40 Alalcomenae the name of a citie in Ithacesia 901.40 Alalcomenion in Boeotia ib. Alastor 896.1 Alastores 1330.40 Alcamenes his Apophthegmes 453.20 Alcathoe 899.30 Alcestis cured by Apollo 1146.30 Alcibiades of loose behaviour 350.50 Alcibiades a not able flatterer 88.50 his apophthegmes 419.30 he had no good utterance 252.10 Alcioneus the sonne of K. Antigonus a forward knight 530.1 Alcippus and his daughters their pitifull historie 948.10 Alcyons the birds 615.20 Alcyon a bird of the sea of a wonderfull nature 977.30 how she builds her nests 218.10 Alcmaeonidae debased and traduced by Herodotus 1231.20 Alcman the Poet. 270.40 Alcmenaes tombe opened 1206.1 Alenas how declared K. of Thessalie 191.1 K. Alexander the great winketh at his sisters follies 372.50 his respect to Timoclia 504. 1. his apophthegmes 411.10 his magnanimitie ib. his activitie ib. his continencie ib. his magnificence ib. his bountie and liberalitie 411.30 he noteth the Milesians ib. 40. his gratious thankefulnes to Tarrias 1279.50 his frugalitie and sobrietie in diet 412.10 entituled Jupiter Ammons sonne ib. 20. he reprooveth his flatterers ib. he pardoneth an Indian his archer 413.10 his censure of Antipater 412.30 his continence ib. 40. he presumeth not to be compared with Hercules 413.30 his respect of those who were in love 412.40.50 whereby he acknowledged himselfe mortall 105.20.766.30 he honored Craterus most and affected Hephestion best 413.40 his death day observed 766.1 his demeanour to king Porus. 413.40 his ambitious humour 147.40 639.20 he used to sit long at meat 655.10 he dranke wine liberally ib. he wisheth to be Diogenes 296.20 his flesh yeelded a sweet smell 655.10 his moderate cariage to Philotas 1280.20.30 he died with a surfet of drinking 613.20 how he was crossed by Fortune 1283.20 he would not see King Darius his wife a beautifull Lady 142.20 he was favorable to other mens loves 1280. 1. his picture drawen by Apelles 1274.50 his statue cast in brasse by Lysippus ib. his bounty to Persian women 487.1 whether he were given to much drinking 655.10 he intended a voyage into Italie 639.20 his sorrow compared with that of Plato 75.1 he forbeareth the love of Antipatrides 1145.1 he contesteth with Fortune 1264. 30. how hee reprooved his flatterers 1282.1 Alexander nothing beholden to Fortune 1264.40 Alexander his misfortunes and crosses in warre 1264.40.50 The meanes that Alexander had to conquer the world 1265.40 how he enterteined the Persian ambassadours in his fathers absence 1283.10 what small helps he had by Fortune 1265.30 Alexander the great a Philosopher 1266.10 he is compared with Hercules 1282.40 how he joined Persia Greece together 1267.40 his adverse fortune in a towne of the Oxydrates 1284.50 Epigrams and statues of him 1269.10.20 his hopes of conquest whereupon grounded 1283.40 his apophthegmes 1269.30 his kindnes and thankefulnes to Aristotle his master 1270.10 how he honored Anaxarchus the Musician ib. his bounty to Pyrrho and others ib. his saying of Diogenes ib. his many vertues joined together in his actions 1270.10 he espoused Roxane 1278.50 his behavior toward the dead corps of King Darius 1271.10 his continency ib. 20. 1279.1 his liberalitie compared with others 1271.30 his affection to good arts and Artisans 1274.20 his answere 〈◊〉 the famous architect Staficrates 1275.40 he graced Fortune 1276.40 his sobriety and milde cariage of himselfe 1278.1 his temperance in diet 1278.50 his exercises and recreations ib. he espoused Statira the daughter of Darius 1278.50 his hard adventures and dangers 1281.30 compared with other Princes 1284.10 Alexander Tyrant of Pherae his bloudy minde 1273.30 Alexander Tyrant of Pherae 428.10 killed by Pytholaus 1155.20 Alexander the 〈◊〉 6 9.20 Alexandridas his apophthegmes 453.30 Alexidimus bastard son of Thrasibulus 329.20 Alexis on old Poet. 385.50 what pleasures he admitteth for principall 27.40 Alibantes 989.50 Alibas what body 785.20 Alimon a composition 338.40 Alima 339.1 Aliterij who they were 143.50 Aliterios 896.1 Allegories in Poets 25.1 Allia field 859.20.637.20 Alliensis dies 858.30 Almonds bitter prevent drunkennesse 656.1 they kill foxes 16.30 their vertues and properties otherwise 656.10 Aloiadae what Gyants 1175.20 Alosa a fish 953.20 Alphabet letters coupled together how many sillables they will make 782.30 Alpheus the river of what vertue the water is 1345.1 Altar of hornes in Delos a woonder 978.20 Altar of Jupiter Idaeus 908.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of divers significations 29.20 Alysson the herbe what vertues it hath 684.40 Alynomus how he came to be K. of Paphos 1281.20 K. Amasis honoureth Polycritus his sister and mother 505.20 Ambar how it draweth strawes c. 1022.40 Ambition defined 374.50 Ambitious men forced to praise themselves 597.10 Ambrosia 338.10.1177.30 Amenthes what it 〈◊〉 1299.20 Amoebaeus the Musician 67.10 Amestris sacrificed men for the prolonging of her life 268.20 Amethyst stones why so called 684.1 their vertue 18.50 Amiae or Hamiae certeine fishes whereof they take their name 974.30 Amity and Enmity the beginning of all things 888.1 Aminocles enriched by shipwracks 1237.30 Amnemones who they be 889.20 Amoun and Ammon names of Jupiter 1291.1 Amphiaraus 908.20 Amphiaraus commended 419.10 he comforteth the mother of Archemorus 43.1 520.50 Amphictyones 390.40 Amphidamas his funerals 716.20 Amphidamas 334.40 Amphithea killeth her selfe 914.10 Amphion of what Musicke he was author 1249.20 Amphissa women their vertuous act 491.20 Amphitheus delivered out of prison 1226.20 Amphitrite a name of the sea 1317.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it is 687.20 Anacampserotes what plants 1178.50 Anacharsis the Philosopher had no certaine place of abode 336.1 put his right hand to his mouth c. 195.40 Anacreon his odes 759.1 Anaxagoras his opinion of the first principle of all things 806.10 how he tooke the death of his sonne 529.10.132.1 why he was thought impious 266.20 Anaxander his apophthegmes and epigrams 453.50 Anaxarchus tortured by Nicocreon 75.10 he flattereth Alexander 295.20 reproved by Timon 70.50 a loose and intemperate person 752.1 Anaxilas his apophthegmes 453.50 Anaximander his opinion of men and fish 780.10 his opinion of the first principle 805.50 his opinion of God 812.1 Anaxemenes confuted by Aristotle 995.1 his opinion of the first principle 806.1 Anchucus the sonne of Midas his resolute death 908.1 Ancient men how to accept of dignities 396.50 Ancus Martius king of Rome 631.1 Andorides the oratour his parentage acts and life 920.40 accused for impiety ib. acquit 921.1 he saved his owne father from death ib. a great statist and a merchant besides ib. 10. arrested by the K. of Cyprus ib. 20. banished ib. his orations and writings 921.30 when he flourished ib. Andreia 762.1 Androclidas his apophthegmes 454.1 Androcides how he painted the gulfe of Scylla 705.30 Anger the sinewes of the soule 75. 10. how it differeth from other passions 119. 20. 30. how it may be quenched and appeased 120.10 how set on fire ib. 20. compared with other passions 121.10.20 c. who are not subject unto it 123.50.124.1 mixed with other passions 131.10 to prevent it as great
representeth a godlesse man 24.50 K KAimin what it signifieth 1310.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Poets of divers significations 32.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what place 717.10 Kalends whereof they tooke the name 857.50.858.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what exercise or feat of activitie 716.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 680.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wallnut tree why so called 683.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1166.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 746.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 953.10 Killing of a man but upon necessitie 863.50 to be a King what a trouble and burden it is 392.1 Kings abused by flatterers and parasites 94.1 Kings sonnes learne nothing well but to ride an horse 96.40 Kings ought to be milde and gracious 125.10 Kissing the eare 53.20 Kissing of kinsfolke by women how it first came up 484.20 why women Kisse the lips of their kinsfolke 852.20.30 Knowledge simply is the greatest pleasure 588.40.50 much Knowledge breedes manie doubts 784.1 KNOVV THY SELFE 84. 40. 346.1 526.50 240.40 1120.30 1201.10 this Mot hath given occasion of manie questions disputations 1354 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who they were 679.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 785.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth 670.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kinde of Sophisme or masterfull syllogisme 622.20 not fit for feasts 645.1 Kyphi a certeine composition 1308.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 775.1 L L. who pronounce in stead of R. 869.1 Laarchus usurped the tyrannie of Cyrenae 504.30 murdered ib. Labotas his apophthegmes 461.1 Labour with alacrity 619.1 Labour See Diligence Lacedaemonians bountifull to the Smyrnians 103.10 their modestie to them ib. how they scared their children from drunkennesse 121.50 they shewed their Ilotae drunke to their children 1091.10 why they sacrifice to the Muses before battell 125.50 Lacedaemonian apophthegms 469. 50 444.1 Lacedaemonians reverence old age 473.20 Lacedaemonian customes and orders 475. 10. how they lost their ancient reputation 479.1 10 Lacedaemonian womens apophthegmes 479.30 Lacedaemonians forbid torchlights 475.30 the Laconisme or short speech of the Lacedaemonians 103.10.20 Lachares a tyrant over the Athenians 586.10 Lachesis her function 1184.40 1219.30 Lachesis 679.50.797.40.1049 10 Lacydes a fast friend to Cephisocrates and made no shew thereof 102.40 Lacydes noted for effeminate wantonnesse 241.20 Ladas the famous runner 356 Laelius advanced Scipio 357.50 Laesmodias 759.20 Lais a famous courtisan 61.1 Lais became a maried wife 1154.10 stoned to death for envie of her beauty ib. Lamachus 378. 10. his apophthegme 419.50 Lamentation for the dead how to be moderated 521.40 Lamia the witch 135.1 Lamps why the Romans never put forth but suffer to goe out of their owne accord 875. 10. 748.30 the golden Lampe of Minerva 765.10 Lampe burning continually at the temple of Jupiter Ammon 1322. 10. why lesse oile was consumed therein every yeere than other ib. c. Lampon 759.30 the rich merchant 388.1 Lampsace the daughter of Mandron her vertuous act 497. 40. honored as a goddesse 498.1 Lampsacum the city how it tooke that name 497.50 Lapith of the Stoicks 1055.30 Lares what images 868.10 Largesses 377.20 Lasus what he conferred to musick 1257.20 Lautia what presents they were 865.50 Law of what power it is 294.295 Leaena her rare taciturnitie 196.30 Leager 902.50 Lead why it causeth water to bee more cold 735.10 Lead plates and plummets seeme to sweat and melt in hard winters 740.10 Leander bewitched with the love of Aretaphilaes daughter 499 20. hee exerciseth tyrannie ib. 30.40 betraied by Aretaphila into the hands of Anabus 500.10 put to death ib. 30 Leaves of trees not to be plucked 683.10 Left-hand Auspices presage best 876.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lenity of parents to their children 16.10 Leon the sonne of Eucratidas his apophthegmes 461.30 Leon the Bizantine a mery conceited person 355.30 Leonidas the sonne of Anaxandridas his apophthegmes 461. 40. his valiant death 907.40 his heart all hairy ib. his vision with the temple of Hercules at Thebes 1239.1 his noble acts not able apophthegmes 1239 10.20 Leontidas together with Archias tyrannized in Thebes 1204. 30. a valiant man 1225.50 he killeth Cephisodorus ib. he was killed himselfe by Pelopidas 1226.1 Lcontis a tribe 660.30 Leotychidas the first his apophthegmes 461.10 Leotychidas the sonne of Ariston his apophthegmes 461.20 Leschenorius an epithet of Apollo 1353.50 Lethe 609.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say The common-wealth 872.40 Letters in Aegypt invented by Mercurie 789.20 Letters in the alphabet just 24. how they arise 789.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gorge or we sand 744.10 Leucippe 899.30 Leucippidae 902.50 Leucippus killed by Poemander 899.20 Leucomantis 1152.20 Levites whereof they tooke that name 712.20 Leucothea what it is 64.50 Leucothea kind to her sisters children 191.20 Leucothea or 〈◊〉 temple admitteth no maide servant to enter into it 855.30 Liberality what it is 69.10 Libitina supposed to be Venus 857.40 her temple how emploied ib. Libs what winde 829.30 P. Licinius vanquished by Perseus 431.40 his demaunde of Perseus ib. Lictors officers of Rome why so called 872.30.40 Life and language ought to concur in a governour 352.1 Life is but an illusion 603.40 Life solitary and hidden discommended 606.20 Life hidden or unknowen a sentence full of absurdities 607.30.40 of Life three sorts 9.40 long Life not best 521.20 Life of man transitory and 〈◊〉 585.40 Light how delectable it is 608.40 Lightning how it is shot foorth 1022.30 Lightning 704.20 what effects it worketh 705.1.10 bodies smitten with Lightning 〈◊〉 not 705.20 folke a sleepe never blasted with Lightning 705.40 what things be smitten with Lightning ib. 50 Lightning how it cōmeth 827.40 Line or flaxe the herbe 1289.10 Linus of what Musicke he was the inventor 〈◊〉 Lion how stout he is in 〈◊〉 of his whelpes 218.30 Lion why the Aegyptians consecrated to the sunne 710.50 Lions heads gaping serve for 〈◊〉 of fountains in Aegypt 710.50 Lion how he goeth in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 959.1 Lions kinde one to another 966.1 Lions portraied with mouthes 〈◊〉 open in the porches of the Aegyptians temples 1302.30 Literature compared with the 〈◊〉 of fortune and nature 7.1 Liver diseased how it is discovered 782.50 Lochagas his apophthegmes 462.20 Lochia a surname of Diana 1142 1.697.20 Locrians law against curiositie 139.1 Locrus 130.1 what cities he built 893.1 Locusts engendred in Sicilie 671.30 Lode-stone how it draweth iron 1022.30 Logicke or Dialecticke 804.40 Lotos the herbe in Homer 1057 50 Love of yoong boies how permitted 14.1 Love of what power it is 294.295.1143.40 against Love-drinks 316.40 Love in yoong persons soone hot and quickly cold ib. of Love or amity foure branches 1142.30 Love lively described 1143.30 Love of boies compared with that of women 〈◊〉 Love 〈◊〉 commended ib. Love a violent affection 1138.50 Cato his saying of Lovers 1143.30 The bounty and goodnesse of Love 1146.50 how it comes to be called a god 1139.10 Love an ancient god 1140.20 Love covereth defects and imperfections 59.40 Love the most
be gone out of this world soone wil they shake off their sorrow if they be perswaded and beleeve that after death they feele no ill obey they wil that ancient wise sentence which teacheth us to extend as much as we can all good things but to draw in and restraine those that be ill now if sorrow is to be counted good we ought to augment and encrease the same as much as possibly we can but if we acknowledge it as it is indeed to be naught we are to shorten diminish it as much as we may yea to abolish it quite if it lie in our power and that this may be easily effected it appeereth by the precedent of such a consolation as this We reade that a certaine ancient Philosopher went upon a time to visit queene Arsinoe who mourned lamented much for a sonne of hers lately departed this life to her he used these or such like words Madame at what time as Jupiter dealt among the petie gods goddesses other heavenly wights certaine honors and dignities it chaunced that dame Sorow was not present among the rest but after that the distribution and dole was made she also came in place and presented her selfe craving of Jupiter her part of honor as well as the other Jupiter being thus driven to his shifts for that he had divided and given away all before not having any thing else to bestow gave unto her the honor which is done unto those that be departed this life to wit teares plaints and lamentations as other petie gods and goddesses therfore love those who honor them and none else even so good lady Sorow if you make not much of her and give her divine honor will not come neere unto you but in case you worship and honor her dutifully with those prerogatives which be allotted unto her to wit weeping wailing and lamentations she will affect and love you she will haunt you yea she will alway minister matter unto you that she may be continually honored by you This device of the Philosopher wonderfully wrought with the woman and perswaded her in such sort as she staied her plaints gave over her weeping and cast off all her sorrow In one word a man may deale in this wise with one that is in sorrow and demand of him Whether art thou minded one day to cease this mourning and make an end of piteous lamentation or to persist still in afflicting and tormenting thy selfe as long as thou livest for if thou continue all thy life time in this dolourous anguish thou wilt procure and bring upon thy selfe perfect miserie infelicitie in the highest degree through thy effeminate sostnesse and feeblenesse of heart but if thou meanest at the length to change this fit and to lay all mourning aside why doest not thou beginne betimes and resolve out of hand to be delivered from this miserie at once for looke what reasons and meanes thou art to use hereafter for to be freed from these paines and perplexities by the helpe of the same thou maiest presently be quit of this unhappie plight and state wherein thou art And as it fareth in our bodies the sooner that wee ridde away the crasie indispositions and maladies thereof the better it is for us even so it is in the diseases and passions of the soule that therefore which thou art minded and disposed to yeeld unto long time give forthwith unto reason unto literature and knowledge discharge thy selfe I say and that with speed of these calamities which now environ and compasse thee round about But haply you will say I never thought that this would have befallen unto me neither did I so much as doubt any such thing yea but you ought to cast doubts afore-hand you should long time before have considered and meditated of the vanitie weakenesse and instabilitie of mans affaires by which meanes you had not bene surprised as you are nor taken so unprovided as by some sudden incursion of enemies Very well and wisely therefore it seemeth that noble Theseus in Euripides was prepared and armed against all such accidents of fortune when he thus said According as a wise man once me taught I did in minde all wiseries forecast And namely how I might be overcaught With bitter spight and not to sit so fast In native soile but forc't to slie at last Untimely death of wise of childe of friend How sonne might hap full crosse unto my minde In summe I did misfortunes manifolde Est soones propose and set before mine eies To th' end that I acquainted thus of olde With such fore-casts might sonne learne to de spise And set nought by adverse calamities For no mischance or fortune overthwart Could now be strange and nip me to the hart But those who are effeminate base-minded and not exercised before-hand in such premeditations never plucke up their spirits nor set their mindes to deliberate and consult as touching any honest or prositable course but suffer themselves to breake out into extremities and miseries remedilesse afflicting and punishing their harmelesse bodies and as Alcaeus was woont to say forcing them to be sicke with them for companie which ailed nought before And therefore Plato in my conceit gave a very wise admonition That in such casualties and mischances as these we should be quite aswell for that it is uncerteine whether it be good or ill for them whose death we seeme to lament as also because there can no good ensue unto us by such pensivenesse and sorow for this is certeine That as sage consultation in a mans selfe as touching that which is hapned alreadie doth remove sorrow so griefe impeacheth wise counsell which would have a man to employ and accommodate all his affaires and occurrences the best way he can like as in playing at the tables to dispose so of his cast and chance whatsoever as may most serve to win the game If it be our hap therefore to stumble and catch a fall by the crooked aspect of adverse fortune we must not doe as little children who laying their hands upon that part which is hurt fall a puling or setting up a crie but apply our minds presently to seeke for remedie to set that upright which is fallen to rectifie that which is out of frame by helpe of good medicines and in one word to put away all moanes and lamentations Certes it is reported that he whosoever he was that set downe lawes and statutes to the Lycians ordeined expresly That whensoever they were disposed to mourne and lament they should be araied in womans apparell as giving them thereby to understand that to weepe and waile was but a feminine and servile passion nothing at all befitting grave persons well descended or honestly brought up for to say a trueth to weepe and waile thus is meere womanish and bewraieth a base and abject minde and like as women ordinarily be more prone and forward thereto than men so Barbarians rather than Greeks