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
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
that is to say the notable sayings and answers of Lacedaemonian Dames 479 34 The vertuous deeds of Women 482 35 A Consolatorie oration sent nnto APOLLONIUS upon the death of his sonne 509 36 A Consolatorie letter or discourse sent unto his owne Wife as touching the death of her and his daughter 533 37 How it commeth that the divine Justice differreth otherwhiles the punishment of wicked persons 538 38 That Brute beasts have discourse of reason in maner of a Dialogue named Gryllus 561 39 Whether it be lawfull to eate flesh or no the former oration or treatise 571 Of eating flesh the second Declamation 576 40 That a man cannot live pleasantly according to the doctrine of EPICURUS 580 41 Whether this common Mot be well said LIVE HIDDEN or So LIVE as no man may know thou livest 605 42 Rules and precepts of health in maner of a Dialogue 609 43 Of the Romans fortune 627 44 The Symposiacks or table Questions The first booke 641 Of Symposiacks the second booke 661 Of Symposiacks the third booke 680 Of Symposiacks the fourth booke 698 Of Symposiacks the fift booke 713 Of Symposiacks the sixt booke 729 Of Symposiacks the seventh booke 742 Of Symposiacks the eight booke 764 Of Symposiacks the ninth booke 785 45 The opinions of Philosophers 802 Of Philosophers opinions the first booke 804 Of Philosophers opinions the second booke 817 Of Philosophers opinions the third booke 826 Of Philosophers opinions the fourth booke 833 Of Philosophers opinions the fift booke 841 46 Romane Questions 850 47 Demaunds or questions as touching Greeke affaires 888 48 The Parallels or a briefe Collation of Romane narrations with the semblable reported of the Greeks 906 49 The Lives of the ten Oratours 918 50 Narrations of Love 944 51 Whether creatures be more wise they of the land or those of the water 949 52 Whether the Athenians were more renowmed for Martiall Armes or good Letters 981 53 Whether of the twaine is more profitable Fire or Water 989 54 Of the Primitive or first Cold. 992 55 Naturall Questions 1002 56 Platonique Questions 1016 57 A commentary of the Creation of the soule which PLATO desoribeth in his booke Timaeus 1030 58 Of fatall Necessitie 1048 59 A Compendious Review or Discourse That the Stoicks deliver more strange opinions than doe the Poëts 1055 60 The Contradictions of Stoicke Philosophers 1057 61 Of Common Conceptions against the Stoicks 1081 62 Against COLOTES the Epicurean 1109 63 Of Love 1130 64 Of the Face appearing within the Roundle of the Moone 1159 65 Why the prophetesse PYTHIA giveth no answer now from the Oracle in verse or Meeter 1185 66 Of the Daemon or familiar spirit of SOCRATES 1202 67 Of the Malice of HERODOTUS 1227 68 Of Musicke 1248 69 Of the Fortune or vertue of king ALEXANDER the first Oration 1263 Of the Fortune or vertue of K. ALEXANDER the second Oration 1272 70 Of Is is and OSIRIS 1286 71 Of the Oracles that have Ceased to give answere 1320 72 What signifieth this word EI engraven over the Dore of APOLLOES Temple in the City of DELPHI 1351 OF THE NOVRITVRE AND EDVCATION OF CHILDREN The Summarie THe very title of this Treatise discovereth sufficiently the intention of the authour and whosoever he was that reduced these Morals and mixt works of his into one entire volume was well advised and had great reason to range this present Discourse in the first and formost place For unlesse our minds be framed unto vertue from our infancie impossible it is that we should performe any woorthy act so long as we live Now albeit Plutarch as a meere Pagane hath both in this booke and also in others ensuing where he treateth of vertues and vices left out the chiefe and principall thing to wit The Law of God and his Trueth wherein he was altogether ignorant yet neverthelesse these excellent precepts by him deliuered like raies which proceed from the light of nature remaining still in the spirit and soule of man aswell to leaue sinners inexcusable as to shew how happie they be who are guided by the heauenly light of holy Scripture are able to commence action against those who make profession in word how they embrace the true and souereigne Good but in deed and effect do annihilate as much as lieth in them the power and efficacie thereof Moreover in this Treatise he proveth first of all That the generation of infants ought in no wise to be defamed with the blot either of adulterie or drunkennesse Then he entreth into a discourse of their education and after he hath shewed that Nature Reason Vsage ought to concurre in their instruction he teacheth how by whom they should be nurtured brought up and taught where he reproveth sharply the slouth ignorance and avarice of some fathers And the better to declare the extelleneie of these benefits namely goodinstruction knowledge and vertue which the studie of philosophie doth promise and teach he compareth the same with all the greatest goods of the world and so consequently setteth downe what vices especially they are to shun and avoid who would be capable of sincere and true literature But before he proceedeth further he describeth and limiteth how farforth children well borne and of good parentage should be urged and forced by compulsion disciphering briefly the praises of morall philosophie and concluding withall That the man is blessed who is both helpfull to his neighbour as it becommeth and also good unto himselfe All these points aboverehearsed when he hath enriched and embelished with similitudes examples apophihegmes and such like ornaments he propoundeth diuers rules pertinent to the Institution of yoong children which done he passeth from tender child-hood to youthfull age shewing what gouernment there ought to be of yoong men farre from whom he banisheth and chaseth flatterers especially and for a finall conclusion discourseth of the kinde behauior of fathers and the good example that they are to giue unto their children THE EDVCATION OF CHILDREN FOrasmuch as we are to consider what may be sayd as touching the education of children free borne and descended from gentle blood how and by what discipline they may become honest and vertuous we shall perhaps treat hereof the better if we begin at their very generation and nativitie First and formost therefore I would advise those who desire to be the fathers of such children as may live another day in honour and reputation among men not to match themselves and meddle with light women common courtisans I meane or private concubines For a reproch this is that followeth a man all the dayes of his life and a shamefull staine which by no meanes can be fetched out if haply he be not come of a good father or good mother neither is there any one thing that presenteth it selfe more readily unto his adversaries and sooner is in their mouth when they are disposed to checke taunt and revile than to twit him with such parentage In which
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
of this man but Antiochus presently answered him That he would doe whatsoever pleased the Romans then Popilius faluted him most lovingly and embraced him LUCULLUS in Armenia went with ten thousand footmen and one thousand horse to meet with king Tigranes who was an hundred and fistie thousand strong for to give him battell the sixt day it was of October and the very day of the moneth upon which before time the Romane armie under the conduct of one of the Scipioes had beene defeated by the Cimbrians and when one said unto him That the Romans feare that day exceedingly as being dismal and infortunate Why quoth he even therefore ought we this very day to fight couragiously and valiantly to the end that we may make this day to be joyfull and happie which the Romans hold as cursed and unhappie Now when the Romans did most dread the men at armes of Armenia seeing them in their complet harneis armed at al pieces mounted on bard horses he had them be of good cheere and not to feare For saith he you shall finde more adoe to dispoile and disarme them than you shall have in killing them himselfe mounting first up to the top of a certaine little hill after he had well viewed and considered the Barbarians how they moved and waved too and fro he cried out with a loud voice unto his soldiers My good friends and companions the day is ours and in very truth they were put to flight all at once of their owne selves without any onset or charge given them and in such sort Lucullus followed the chase that he killed in the verie rout aboue one hundred thousand and lost not of his owne but five men onely CNEUS POMPEIUS surnamed Magnus i. the Great was as well beloved of the Romans as his father before him was hated who being yet very yoong he sided to the faction of Sylla and notwithstanding that he had no office of State nor was so much as one of the Senate yet he leived a mightie power of armed men from all parts of Italy now when Sylla called him unto him he said That he would not make shew of his soldiers unto his soveraigne and generall before they had made some spoile and drawne bloud of their enemies and in very deed he came not unto him with his power before that hee had defaited in manie battel 's sundrie captaines of his enemies Afterwards being sent by Sylla with commission of a commander into Sicilie understanding that his souldiours as they marched brake out of order and ranke and would goe foorth to rob and spoile and commit many riots by the way he put to death all such as without licence departed from their colours and went running up downe the countrey and as for such as he sent abroad with warrant about any commission or businesse of his he sealed up their swords within the scabberds with his owne signet He was at the verie point to have put all the Mamertines to the sword for that they banded against Sylla but Sthenis one of the inhabitants an oratour and a man that could doe much with the people and leade them with his perswasive orations said unto him That it were not well that for one mans fault he should cause so many innocents to die for I quoth he am the onely man culpable and the cause of all this mischiefe having by my perswasions induced my friends with threats forced mine enemies to take part with Marius and follow his standerd Pompeius woondering at this resolute remonstrance of his said That he was content to pardon the Mamertines who suffered themselves to be ledde and perswaded by such a personage as held the safetie of his owne countrey more deare than his owne life and so he forgave the whole city and Sthenis himselfe After this being passed over sea into Africa against Domitius and having woonne the field in a great battell when his souldiers saluted him by the name of Emperour or Sovereigne captaine generall he said unto them That he would not accept of that honourable title so long as the rampar about his enemies campe stood he had no sooner said the word but they ranne all at once to this service notwithstanding it was a great showre of raine plucked downe the pallaisada mounted over the rampar entred the campe and sacked it At his returne home Sylla made exceeding much of him otherwise and did him great honour but among many other he was the first man that stiled him with the surname of Magnus howbeit when he minded to enter triumphant into Rome Sylla would have hindered him alledging for his reason That he was not as yet admitted and sworne a Senatour whereat Pompeius turning to those that were present It seemeth quoth he that Sylla is ignorant how there be more men that worship the sun rising than setting which words when Sylla heard he cried out with a loud voice Let him triumph a Gods name for I see well he wil have it and yet for all that Servilius a man of the senators degree withstood his triumph tooke great indignation against him yea many of his own souldiers set themselves against him and dasht it quite if they might not have certeine gifts and rewards which they pretended were due unto them but Pompey said with a clere audible voice That he would sooner leave triumph and all than to be so base minded as to flatter and make court unto his souldiers at which words Servilius said unto him By this now I see well ô Pompeius that thou art truely named Magnus i. Great worthy indeed to triumph There was a custome at Rome that the knights or gentlemen after they had served in the warres the complete time set downe and limited by the lawes should present their horses in the market place before the two reformers of maners called Censours and there openly recount and relate unto them in what warres or battels they had fought and the captaines under whom they had borne armes to the end that according to their demerits they might receive condigne praise or blame It so fell out that Pompeius being consull himselfe led his owne horse of service by the bridle and presented him before Gellius and Lentulus censors for the time being and when they according to the order and maner in that behalfe demanded of him whether he had served in the warres so many yeeres as the law required Even all quoth he fully and that under my selfe the sovereigne commander at all times Being in Spaine he light upon certeine papers and writings of Sertorius wherein were many letters missive sent from the principall Senatours of Rome and namely such as sollicited and called Sertorius to Rome for to raise some innovations and make a change in the State these letters he flung all into the fire giving them occasion and opportunitie by this meanes who intended mischiefe and were ill bent to change their minds repent and amend Phraates king
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
effect but in the battell of Mantinea he admonished and advised the Lacedaemonians to take no regard at all of other Thebans but to bend their whole forces against Epaminondas onely saying That wise and prudent men alone and none but they were valiant and the sole cause of victorie and therefore if they could vanquish him they might easily subdue all the rest as being blockish fooles and men in deed of no valour and so in truth it proved for when as the victory now enclined wholy unto Epaminondas and the Lacedaemonians were at the verie point to be disbanded discomfited and put to flight as the said Epaminondas turned for to call his owne together to folow the rout a Lacedaemonian chanced to give him a mortall wound wherewith hee fell to the ground and the Lacedaemonians who were with Agesilaus called themselves made head againe and put the victorie into doubtfull ballance for now the Thebanes abated much their courage and the Lacedaemonians tooke the better hearts Moreover when the citie of Sparta was neere driven and at a low ebbe for money to wage warre as being constrained to entertaine mercenarie souldiers for pay who were meere strangers Agesilaus went into Aegypt being sent for by the King of Aegypt to serve as his pensioner but for that hee was meanely and simply apparelled the inhabitants of the countrey despised him for they looked to have seene the King of Sparta richly arraied and set out gallantly and all gorgeously to be seene in his person like unto the Persian King so foolish a conceit they had of kings but Agesilaus shewed them within a while that the magnificence and majestie of Kings was to be acquired by wit wisedome and valour for perceiving that those who were to fight with him and to make head against the enemie were frighted with the imminent perill by reason of the great number of enemies who were two hundred thousand fighting men and the small companie of their owne side he devised with himselfe before the battell began by some stratageme to encourage his owne men and to embolden their hearts which policie of his he would not communicate unto any person and this it was He caused upon the inside of his left hand to be written this word Victorie backward which done he tooke at the priests or sooth-saiers hand who was at sacrifice the liver of the beast which was killed and put it into the said left hand thus written within and so held it a good while making semblance as if he mused deeply of some doubt and seeming to stand in suspense to be in great perplexity untill the characters of the foresaid letters had a sufficient time to give a print and leave their marke in the superficies of the liver then shewed he it unto those who were to fight on his side and gave them to understand that by those characters the gods promised victory who supposing verily that there was in it a certaine signe presage of good fortune ventured boldly upon the hazard of a battell And when the enemies had invested and beleaguered his campe round about such a mightie number there were of them and besides had begun to cast a trench on everie side thereof King Nectanebas for whose aid he was thither come sollicited and intreated him to make a sally and charge upon them before the said trench was fully finished and both ends brought to gether he answered That he would never impeach the deseigne and purpose of the enemies who went no doubt to give him meanes to be equall unto them and to fight so many to so many so he staied until there wanted but a verie little of both ends meeting and then in that space betweene he raunged his battell by which device they encountred and fought with even fronts and on equall hand for number so he put the enemies to flight and with those few souldiers which he had he made a great carnage of them but of the spoile and booty which he wan he raised a good round masse of money and sent it all to Sparta Being now ready to embarke for to depart out of Aegypt upon the point of returne home he died and at his death expresly charged those who were about him that they should make no image or statue whatsoever representing the similitude of his personage For that quoth he if I have done any vertuous act in my life time that will be a monument sufficient to eternize my memorie if not all the images statues and pictures in the world will not serve the turne since they be the workes onely of mechanicall artificers which are of no woorth and estimation AGESIPOLIS the sonne of Cleombrotus when one related in his presence that Philip K. of Macedon had in few daies demolished and raced the citie Olinthus Par die quoth he Philip will not be able in many more daies to build the like to it Another said unto him by way of reproch that himselfe king as he was and other citizens men growen of middle age were delivered as hostages and neither their children nor wives Good reason quoth he and so it ought to be according to justice that we our selves and no others should beare the blame and paine of our faults And when he was minded to send for certaine dog-whelps from home one said unto him that there might not be suffered any of them to goe out of the countrey No more was it permitted heeretofore quoth hee for men to be lead foorth but now it is allowed well enough AGESIPOLIS the sonne of Pausanias when as the Athenians said to him That they were content to report themselves to the judgement of the Megarians as touching certaine variances and differences between them and complaints which they made one against another spake thus unto them Why my masters of Athens this were a great shame indeed that they who are the chiefe and the verie leaders of all other Greeks should lesse skill what is just than the Megarians AG is the sonne of Archidamus at what time as the Ephori spake thus unto him Take with you the yoong able men of this citie go into the countrey of such an one for he wil conduct you his owne selfe as farre as to the verie castle of his city And what reason is it quoth he my masters you that be Ephori to commit the lives of so many lustie gallants into his hands who is a traitour to his native countrey One demaunded of him what science was principally exercised in the citie of Sparta Marie quoth he the knowledge how to obey and how to rule He was woont to say that the Lacedaemonians never asked how many their enemies were but where they were Being forbidden to fight with his enemies at the battell of Mantinea because they were far more in number He must of necessity quoth he fight with many that would have the cōmand rule of many Unto another who asked what number there might be
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
knowledge A begger upon a time craved almes of a Laconian who answered him thus But if I should give thee any thing thou wouldest make an occupation of it and beg still so much the more for verily whosoever he was that first bestowed almes upon thee was the cause of this villanous life which thou leadest now and hath made thee so vagrant and idle as thou art Another Laconian seeing a collectour going about and gathering mens devotions for the gods said thus I will now make no more reckoning of the gods so long as they be poorer than my selfe A certeine Spartan having taken an adulterer in bed with his wife a foule and ilfavoured woman Wretched man that thou art quoth he what necessitie hath driven thee to this Another having heard an oratour making long periods and drawing out his sentence in length Now by Castor and Pollux what a valiant man his here how he rolleth and roundly turneth his tongue about and all to no purpose A traveller passing thorow Lacedaemon marked among other things what great honour and reverence yoong folke did to their elders I perceive quoth he there is no place to Sparta for an olde man to live in A Spartan was upon a time asked the question what maner of Poet Tyrtaeus was A good Poet beleeve me quoth he to whet and sharpen the courages of yoong men to warre Another having very badde and diseased eies would needs goe to warfare and when others said unto him Wilt thou go indeed in that case as thou art in what deed thinkest thou to do there Why quoth he if I do no other good els I wil be sure to dull the brightnesse of mine enemies sword Buris and Spertis two Lacedaemonians voluntarily departed out of their countrey and went to Xerxes king of Persia offering themselves to suffer that paine and punishment which the Lacedaemonians had deserved by the sentence of the oracle of the gods for killing those heralds which the king had sent unto them who being come before him were desirous that he should put them to death in what maner he would himselfe for to acquit the Lacedaemonians the king wondering at this resolution of theirs not onely pardoned the fault but earnestly requested them to stay with him promising them liberall enterteinment And how can we say they live here abandoning our native soile our lawes and those kinde of men for whose sake to die we have so willingly undertaken this long voiage and when a great captaine under the king named Jndarnes intreated them stil very instantly assuring them upon his word that they should be kindly used and in equall degree of credit and honour with those who were in highest favour with the king and most advanced by him they said unto him It seemeth unto us sir that you full little know what is liberty and freedome for he that wist what a jewell it were if he be in his right wits would not change the same for the whole realme of Persia. A certeine Laconian as he way-fared came unto a place where there dwelt an olde friend and host of his who the first day of purpose avoided him and was out of the way because he was not minded to lodge him but the morrow after when he had either hired or borowed faire bedding coverings and carpets received him very stately but this Laconian mounting up to his beds trampled and stamped the faire and rich coverlets under his feet saying withall I beshrew these fine beds and trim furniture for they were the cause that yesternight I had not so much as a mat to lie upon when I should sleepe and take my rest Another of them being arrived at the city of Athens and seeing there the Athenians going up and downe the city some crying salt-fish to sell others flesh and such like viands some like publicanes sitting at the receit of custome other professing the trade of keeping brothel-houses and exercising many such vile and base occupations esteeming nothing at all foule and dishonest after he was returned home into his owne countrey when his neighbours and fellow-citizens asked him what newes at Athens and how all things stood there Passing well quoth he and it is the best place that ever I came in which he spake by way of mockerie and derision every thing there is good and honest giving them to understand that all meanes of gaine and lucre were held lawful honest at Athens and nothing there was counted villanous and dishonest Another Laconian being asked a question answered No and when the party who mooved the question said Thou liest the Laconian replied againe and said See what a foole thou art to aske me that which thou knowest well enough thy selfe Certeine Laconians were sent upon a time ambassadours to Lygdamis the tyrant who put them off from day to day and hasted with them so as he gave them no audience at the last it was tolde them that hee was at all times weake and ill at ease and not in case to be conferred with the ambassadours there upon said unto him who brought this word unto them Tell him from us that we are not come to wrestle but to parle onely with him A certeine priest inducted a Laconian into the orders and ceremonies of some holy religion but before that he would fully receive and admit him he demanded of him what was the most grievous sinne that ever he committed and which lay heaviest upon his conscience The gods know that best quoth the Laconian but when the priest pressed hard upon him and was very importunate protesting that there was no remedie but he must needs utter and confesse it Unto whom quoth the Laconian must I tell it unto you or to the God whom you serve unto God quoth the other Why then turne you behinde me quoth hee or retire aside out of hearing Another Laconian chanced in the night to goe over a church-yard by a tombe or monument and imagined that he saw a spirit standing before him whereupon he advanced forward directly upon it with his javelin and as he ran full upon it and as he thought strake thorow it he said withall Whither fliest thou from me ghost that thou art now twise dead Another having vowed to fling himselfe headlong from the high Promontorie Leucas downe into the sea mounted up the top thereof but when hee saw what an huge downfall it was he gently came downe againe on his feet now when one twitted and reproched him therefore I wist not quoth he that this vow of mine had need of another greater than it Another Laconian there was who in a battell and hot medley being fully minded to kill his enemie who was under him and to that purpose had lifted up his sword backe to give him a deadly wound so soone as ever hee heard the trumpet sound the retreat presently stated his hand and would no more follow his stroake now when one asked him why he slew not his enemie
after that her sonne was slaine when certaine embassadors from the citie Amphipolis came to Sparta and visited her demaunded of them whether her sonne died like a valiant man and as became a Spartan now when they praised him exceedinly saying that he was the bravest man in armes in all Lacedaemon she said againe unto them My sonne was indeed a knight of valour and honour my good friends but Lacedaemon hath many others yet more valiant than he was GORGO the daughter of king Cleomenes when Aristagoras the Milesian was come to Sparta for to sollicit Cleomenes to make warre upon the king of Persia in the defence of the Ionians freedome and in consideration heereof promised him a good round summe of money and the more that he contradicted and denied the motion the more he still augmented the summe of money which he promised Father quoth she this stranger heere will corrupt you if you send him not the sooner out of your house Also when her father willed hir one day to deliver certaine corne unto a man by way of a reward and recompence saying withall For this is he who hath taught me how to make wine good How now good father quoth she shall there be more wine drunke still considering that they who drinke thereof become more delicate and lesse valorous When she saw how Aristagoras had one of his men to put on his shooes Father quoth she heere is a stranger that hath no hands When she saw a foreiner comming toward her who was wont to goe softly and delicatlie shee thrust him from her and said Avaunt idle luske as thou art and get thee gone for thou art not so good of deed as a woman GYRTIAS when Acrotatus her nephew or daughters sonne from out of a braule and fray that was betweene him and other yoonkers his companions was brought home with many a wound insomuch as no man looked for life seeing his familiar friends and those of his acquaintance waile and take on piteously What quoth she let be this weeping and lamentation for now hath he shewed of what bloud he is descended neither ought wee to crie out and bewaile for the hurts of valiant men but rather to goe about their cure and salve them if haply we may save their lives When a messenger comming out of Candia where he served in the warres brought newes that the said Acrotatus was slaine in fight Why quoth she what else should he do being once gone foorth to warre but either die himselfe or else kill his enemies yet had I rather heare and it doth me much more good that he died woorthy my selfe woorthy his native countrey and his progenitours than that he should live as long as possiblie a man could like a coward and man of no woorth DEMETRIA hearing that her sonne prooved a dastard and indeed not woorthy to be her sonne so soone as ever he was returned from the wars she killed him with her owne hands whereupon was made this epigram of her By mothers hand was slaine one Demetrie For that he brake the lawes of chivalrie No marvell she a noble Spartan dame Disclaimd her sonne unwoorthy of that name Another woman of Lacedaemon being given to understand that her sonne had abandoned his ranke made him likewise away as unwoorthy of that countrey wherein he was borne saying That he was no sonne of hers And thereupon this epigram also was composed of her Amischiefe take thee wicked impe be gone in divils name Through balefull darknesse Hatredis too good and earthly shame For cowards such of craven kind like hinds are not to drinke Nor wash in faire Eurotas streame their bodies as I thinke Avaunt thou cur-dogge whelpe to hell thou divils limme unmon'd Unwoorthy Sparta soile thou art ' for thee I never gron'd Another hearing that her sonne was saved and had escaped out of the hands of his enemies wrote thus unto him There runneth a naughtie rumor of thee either stop the course thereof or else live not There was another likewise whose children had fled out of the battell and when they came home unto her she welcomed them in this manner Whither goe you running leawd lozels and cowardly slaves as you are thinke you to enter hither againe from whence you first came and therewith plucked up her cloaths and shewed them her bare belly Also another espying her sonne new returned from the wars and comming toward her What newes quoth she how goeth the world with our countrey and common-wealth and when he answered We have lost the field and all our men be slaine she tooke up an earthen pot let it fly at his head killed him out-right saying And have they sent thee to bring us the newes There was one brother recounted unto his mother what a noble death his brother died unto whom his mother answered And wert not thou ashamed that thou didst not accompanie him in so faire a journey Another there was who had sent her sonnes and five they were in number to the warres and she stood waiting at the townes end about the suburbs and hamlets neere unto them for to hearken what was the issue of the battell and of the first man whom she encountred from the campe she asked what newes and who had the day hee told her that her sonnes were slaine all five Thou leaud varlet quoth shee and base slave as thou art I did not demaund that question of thee but in what state the affaire of the common-wealth stood The victorie quoth he is ours Then am I well appaid saith shee and contented with the losse of my children Another there was unto whom as she buried her sonne slaine in the warres there came a silly old woman and moaned her saying Ah good woman what fortune is this Why good quoth she by Castor and Pollux I sweare for I bare him into this world for nothing else but that he should spend his life for Sparta and loe this is now hapned A ladie there was of Ionia who bare herselfe verie proud of a worke in tapistrie which she herselfe had made most costly and curiously but a Laconian dame shewed unto her foure children all verie well given and honestly brought up Such as these quoth she ought to be the works of a ladie of honour and herein should a noble woman in deed make her boast and vaunt herselfe Another there was who heard newes that a sonne of hers behaved himselfe not well in a strange countrey where hee was unto whom she wrote a letter in this wise There is blowen a bad brute of thee in these parts either proove it salfe or else die I advise thee Certaine fugitives or exiled persons from Chios came to Sparta who accused Paedaretus and laid many crimes to his charge his mother Teleuria hearing thereof sent for them to come unto her at whose mouthes when she heard the severall points of their imputations and judging in herselfe that hee was in fault and had done great wrongs
two vertues of one woman by the one she first gave the citizens an affection minde and heart to begin and enterprise and by the other she ministred unto them meanes to execute and performe the same for which good service of Xenocrita those of the citie offred unto her many honors prerogatives and presents but she refused them all onely she requested this favour at their hands that she might enterre the corps of Aristodemus which they graunted and more than so they chose her for to be a religious priestresse unto Ceres supposing that this dignitie would be no lesse acceptable and pleasing unto the goddesse than beseeming and fitting the person of this lady THE WIFE OF PYTHES IT is reported moreover that the wife of rich Pythes in the daies of Xerxes when he warred upon Greece was a vertuous and wise dame for this Pythes having as it should seeme found certeine mines of gold and setting his minde thereon not in measure but excessively and unsatiably for the great sweetnesse and infinit gaines that arose thereby both himselfe in person bestowed his whole time therein and also he emploied all his subjects and citizens indifferently without respect of any person to digge and delve to carrie to purge and clense the said golde oare not suffering them to follow any other trade or exercise any occupation else in the world upon which unmeasurable and incessant toile many died and all were wery and grumbled thereat insomuch as at last their wives came with olive branches like humble suppliants to the gate of this lady his wife for to moove pittie and beseech her for redresse and succour in this case she having heard their supplication sent them away home to their houses with verie good gracious words willing them not to distrust and be discomforted meane while she sent secretly for gold siners goldsmithes and other worke-men in gold such as she reposed most confidence in shut them up close within a certeine place willing them to make loaves pies tarts cakes pastrie-works and junkets of all sorts sweet meats fruits all manner of meats and viands such as she knew her husband Pythes loved best all of cleane gold afterwards when all were made and he returned home to his house for as then he was abroad in a forren country so soone as he called for supper his wife set before him a table furnished with all kinds of counterfeit viands made of gold without any thing at all either good to be eaten or drunken but all gold and nothing but gold great pleasure at the first tooke Pythes for to see so rich a sight and so glorious a banquet wherein arte had so lively expressed nature but after he had fed his eies sufficiently with beholding these goodly golden works he called unto her in good earnest for somewhat to eate but she still whatsoever his minde stood to brought it him in gold so that in the end he waxed angrie and cried out that he was ready to famish Why sir quoth she are not your selfe the cause of all this for you have given us foison and store of this mettall but caused extreame want and scarcitie of meat and all things else for all other trades occupations arts and mysteries are decaied and their use cleane gone neither is there anie man that followeth husbandry and tilleth the ground but laying aside and casting behind us all thing that should be sowen and planted upon the earth for the food and sustentation of man we doe nothing else but digge and search for such things as will not serve to feed and nourish us spending and wearing out both our selves and our citizens These words mooved Pythes verie much howbeit for all this he gave not over quite the mines and mettall works but enjoining the fifth part of his subjects to travell therein by turnes one after another he gave the rest leave to husband their lands and plie their other crafts and misteries But when Xerxes came downe with that puissant armie for to make warre upon the Greeks this Pythes shewed his magnificence in the enterteinment of him with sumptuous furniture costlie gifts and presents which he gave unto the king and all his traine for which he craved this onely grace and favour at his hands againe that of many children which he had he would dispence with him for one of them that he might not goe to the warres to the end that the said sonne might remaine with him at home in his house for to tend and looke unto him carefullie in his old age whereat Xerxes was so wroth that he commaunded that one sonne whom he requested to be killed presently and his dead body to be cloven through in the mids and divided into two parts and so dislodged and caused his armie to march betweene them both the rest of his sonneshe led with him to the warres who died all in the field whereupon Pythes being discomforted and his heart cleane cast downe did that which those ordinarilie doe who want courage and wit for he feared death and hated life willing he was not to live and yet hee had not the power to make an end of his life what did he then There was within the citie a great banke or mount of earth under which there ranne a river which they called Pythopolites within this mount he caused his tombe to be made turned aside the course of the said river in such sort that as it passed the streame might glide upon this monument of his which being prepared and done accordingly hee went downe quicke and alive into the same sepulchre having resigned over unto his wives hands the citie and the whole seignorie thereof injoyning her thus much that she should not approch herselfe unto this tombe or monument but onely every daie once send unto him his supper in a little punt or boat downe the riveret and to continue this so long untill she saw that the said punt went beyond the monument having in it all his victuals whole and untouched for then she should not need to send him any more but take this for an assured signe that he was dead Thus lived Pythes the rest of his daies but his wife governed and managed the State prudently and wrought a great change and alteration in the toilsome life of her people A CONSOLATORIE ORATION SENT UNTO APOLONIUS UPON THE DEATH OF HIS SONNE The Summarie HOwsoever Plutarch in this treatise hath displaied his eloquence and all the skill and helps that he had by the meanes of Philosophie yet we see that the same is not sufficient to set the minde and spirit of man in true repose and that such consolations are as they say but palliative cures no better wherein also is discovered the want and default of light in the reason and wisdome of man yet notwithstanding take this withall that such discourses doe recommend and shew unto us so much the better the excellencie of celestiall wisedome which furnisheth us with
most pleasant for the thing it selfe is plaine and evident to all the world To saie nothing of Homers testimonie who speaking of sleepe writeth thus Most sweetly doth a man sleepe in his bed When least he wakes and 〈◊〉 most to be dead The same he iterateth in many places and namely once in this wise With pleasant sleepe she there did meet Deaths brother germain you may weet And againe Death and sleepe are sister and brother Both twinnes resembling one another Where by the way he lively declareth their similitude and calling them twins for that brothers and sisters twinnes for the most part be very like and in another place besides he calleth death a brasen sleepe giving us thereby to understand how sencelesse death is neither seemeth he unelegantly and besides the purpose whosoever he was to have expressed as much in this verse when he said That sleepes who doth them well advise Of death are pettie mysteries And in very deed sleepe doth represent as it were a preamble inducement or first profession toward death in like manner also the cynick philosopher Diogenes said very wisely to this point for being surpressed and overtaken with a dead sleepe a little before he yeelded up the ghost when the physician wakened him and demaunded what extraordinary symptome or grievous accident was befallen unto him None quoth he onely one brother is come before another to wit sleepe before death and thus much of the first resemblance Now if death be like unto a farre journey or long pilgrimage yet even so there is no evill at all therein but rather good which is cleane contrary for to be in servitude no longer unto the flesh nor enthralled to the passions thereof which seizing upon the soule doe empeach the same and fill it with all follies and mortall vanities is no doubt a great blessednesse and felicitie for as Plato saith The body bringeth upon us an infinit number of troubles and hinderances about the necessarie maintenance of it selfe and in case there be any maladies besides they divert and turne us cleane away from the inquisition and contemplation of the truth and in stead thereof pester and stuffe us full of wanton loves of lusts feares foolish fansies imaginations and vanities of all sorts insomuch as it is most true which is commonly saide That from the bodie there commeth no goodnesse nor wisedome at all For what else bringeth upon us warres seditions battels and fights but the bodie and the greedie appetites and lusts proceeding from it for to say a truth from whence arise all warres but from the covetous desire of money and having more goods neither are we driven to purchase and gather still but onely for to enterteine the bodie and serve the turne thereof and whiles we are amused emploied thereabout we have no time to studie Philosophie finally which is the woorst and very extremitie of all in case we find some leasure to follow our booke and enter into the studie and contemplation of things this body of ours at al times in every place is ready to interrupt and put us out it troubleth it empeacheth and so disquieteth us that impossible it is to attaine unto the perfect sight and knowledge of the truth whereby it is apparent and manifest that if ever we would cleerely and purely know any thing we ought to be sequestred and delivered from this bodie and by the eies onely of the mind contemplate view things as they be then shall we have that which we desire and wish then shall we attaine to that which we say we love to wit wisedome even when we are dead as reason teacheth us and not so long as we remaine alive for if it cannot be that together with the bodie we should know any thing purely one of these two things must of necessitie ensue that either never at all or else after death we should attaine unto that knowledge for then and not before the soule shall be apart and separate from the bodie and during our life time so much neerer shall we be unto this knowledge by how much lesse we participate with the body and have little or nothing to doe therewith no more than very necessitie doth require nor be filed with the corrupt nature thereof but pure and neat from all such contagion untill such time as God himselfe free us quite from it and then being fully cleered and delivered from all fleshly and bodily follies we shall converse with them and such like pure intelligences seeing evidently of our selves all that which is pure and sincere to wit truth it selfe for unlawfull it is and not allowable that a pure thing should be infected or once touched by that which is impure and therefore say that death seeme to translate men into some other place yet is it nothing ill in that respect but good rather as Plato hath very well prooved by demōstration in which regard Socrates in my conceit spake most heavenly divinely unto the judges when he said My lords to be affraid of death is nothing else but to seeme wise when a man is nothing lesse it is as much as to make semblance of knowing that which he is most ignorant of for who wotteth certainly what is death or whetherit be the greatest felicitie that may happen to a man yet men doe feare and dread it as if they knew for certaintie that it is the greatest evill in the world To these sage sentences he accordeth well who said thus Let no man stand in doubt and feare of death Since from all travels it him delivereth and not from travels only but also from the greatest miseries in the world whereto it seemeth that the verie gods themselves give testimonie for we reade that many men in recompense of their religion and devotion have received death as a singular gift and favour of the gods But to avoid tedious prolixitie I will forbeare to write of others and content my selfe with making mention of those onely who are most renowmed and voiced by every mans mouth and in the first place rehearse I will the historie of those two yoong gentlemen of 〈◊〉 namely Cleobis and Biton of whom there goeth this report That their mother being priestresse to Juno when the time was come that shee should present herselfe in the temple and the mules that were to draw her coatch thither not in readinesse but making stay behinde they seeing her driven to that exigent and fearing lest the houre should passe under-went themselves the yoke and drew their mother in the coatch to the said temple she being much pleased and taking exceeding joy to see so great pietie and kindnesse in her children praied unto the goddesse that she would vouchsafe to give them the best gift that could befall to man and they the same night following being gone to bedde for to sleepe never rose againe for that the goddesse sent unto them death as the onely recompense and reward of their godlinesse
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
outward reputation but by their wounds and searres to be seene upon their bodies To the end therefore that such scarres might be better exposed to their sight whom they met or talked withall they went in this maner downe to the place of election without inward coats in their plaine gownes Or haply because they would seeme by this nuditie and nakednesse of theirs in humilitie to debase themselves the sooner thereby to curry favor and win the good grace of the commons even aswell as by taking them by the right hand by suppliant craving and by humble submission on their very knees 50 What is the cause that the Flamen or priest of Jupiter when his wife was once dead used to give up his Priesthood or Sacer dot all dignitie according as Ateius hath recorded in his historie WAs it for that he who once had wedded a wife and afterwards buried her was more infortunate than he who never had any for the house of him who hath maried a wife is entire and perfect but his house who once had one and now hath none is not onely unperfect but also maimed and lame Or might it not bee that the priests wife was consecrated also to divine service together with her husband for many rites and ceremonies there were which he alone could not performe if his wife were not present and to espouse a new wife immediately upon the decease of the other were not peradventure possible nor otherwise would well stand with decent and civill honesty wherupon neither in times past was it lawful for him nor at this day as it should seem is he permitted to put away his wife and yet in our age Domitian at the request of one gave licence so to doe at this dissolution and breach of wedlocke other priests were present and assistant where there passed among them many strange hideous horrible and monstrous ceremonies But haply a man would lesse wonder at this if ever he knew and understood before that when one of the Censors died the other of necessity must likewise quit resigne up his office Howbeit when Livius Drusus was departed this life his companion in office Aemylius Scaurus would not give over and renounce his place untill such time as certeine Tribunes of the people for his contumacie commanded that he should be had away to prison 51 What was the reason that the idols Lares which otherwise properly be called Praestites had the images of a dogge standing hard by them and the Lares themselves were portrated cladin dogges skinnes IS it because this word Praestites signifieth as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Presidents or standing before as keepers and verily such Presidents ought to be good house-keepers and terrible unto all stangers like as a dogge is but gentle and loving to those of the house Or rather that which some of the Romans write is true like as Chrysippus also the philosopher is of opinion namely that there be certeine evill spirits which goe about walking up and downe in the world and these be the butchers and tormentors that the gods imploy to punish unjust and wicked men and even so these Lares are held to be maligne spirits no better than divels spying into mens lives and prying into their families which is the cause that they now be arraied in such skinnes and a dogge they have sitting hard by them whereby thus much in effect is given to understand that quicke sented they are and of great power both to hunt out and also to chastice leud persons 52 What is the cause that the Romans sacrifice a dogge unto the goddesse called Genita-Mana and withall make one prater unto her that none borne in the house might ever come to good IS it for that this Genita-Mana is counted a Daemon or goddesse that hath the procuration and charge both of the generation and also of the birth of things corruptible for surely the word implieth as much as a certeine fluxion and generation or rather a generation fluent or fluxible and like as the Greeks sacrificed unto Proserpina a dog so do the Romans unto that Genta for those who are borne in the house Socrates also saith that the Argives sacrificed a dogge unto Ilithya for the more easie and safe deliverance of child-birth Furthermore as touching that Praier that nothing borne within the house might ever proove good it is not haply meant of any persons man or woman but of dogges rather which were whelped there which ought to be not kinde and gentle but curst and terrible Or peradventure for that they that die after an elegant maner of speech be named Good or quiet under these words they covertly pray that none borne in the house might die And this need not to seeme a strange kinde of speech for Aristotle writeth that in a certeine treatie of peace betweene the Arcadians Lacedēmonians this article was comprised in the capitulations That they should make none of the Tegeates Good for the aid they sent or favour that they bare unto the Lacedaemonians by which was meant that they should put none of them to death 53 What is the reason that in a solemne procession exhibited at the Capitoline plaies they proclame even at this day by the voice of an herald port-sāle of the Sardians and before all this solemnitie and pompe there is by way of mockerie and to make a laughing stocke an olde man led in a shew with a jewell or brooch pendant about his necke such as noble mens children are woont to weare and which they call Bulla IS it for that the Veientians who in times past being a puissant State in Tuscane made warre a long time with Romulus whose citie being the last that he woonne by force he made sale of many prisoners and captives together with their king mocking him for his stupiditie and grosse follie Now for that the Tuscans in ancient time were descended from the Lydians and the capitall citie of Lydia is Sardis therefore they proclamed the sale of the Veientian prisoners under the name of the Sardians and even to this day in scorne and mockerie they reteine still the same custome 54 Whence came it that they call the shambles or butcherie at Rome where flesh is to be solde Macellum IS it for that this word Macellum by corruption of language is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in the Greeke tongue signifieth a cooke like as many other words by usage and custome are come to be received for the letter C. hath great affinitie with G. in the Romane tongue and long it was ere they had the use of G. which letter Spurius Carbtlius first invented Moreover they that maffle and stammer in their speech pronounce ordinarily L. in stead of R. Or this question may be resolved better by the knowledge of the Romane historie for we reade therein that there was sometime a violent person and a notorious thiefe at Rome named
things unlesse by way of exchange he might receive of them some of their land the children therefore taking up a little of the mould with both hands gave the same unto him and having received from him the foresaid gauds went their waies The Aeolians hearing of this and withall discovering their enemies under saile directing their course thither and ready to invade them taking counsell of anger and sorrow together killed those children who were entombed along that great high way by which men go from the citie to the streight or frith called Euripus Thus you see wherefore that place was called the Childrens sepulcher 23 What is he whom in Argos they call Mixarchagenas and who be they that are named Elasians AS for Mixarchagenas it was the surname of Castor among them and the Argives beleeve verily that buried he was in their territorie But Pollux his brother they reverenced and worshipped as one of the heavenly gods Moreover those who are thought to have the gift to divert and put by the fits of the Epilepsie or falling sickenes they name Elasiae and they are supposed to be descended from Alexidas the daughter of Amphiaraiis 24 What is that which the Argives call Encnisma THose who have lost any of their neere kinsfolkes in blood or a familiar friend were woont presently after their mourning was past to sacrifice unto Apollo and thirtie daies after unto Mercurie for this they thought that like as the earth receiveth the bodies of the dead so doth Mercurie the soules To the minister of Apollo they give barley and receive of him againe in lieu thereof a piece of flesh of the beast killed for sacrifice Now after that they have quenched the former fire as polluted and defiled they goe to seeke for others elsewhere which after they have kindled they roste the said flesh with it and then they call that flesh Encnisma 25 Who is Alastor Aliterios and Palamnaeus FOr we must not beleeve it is as some beare us in hand that they be Alitery who in time of famine goe prying and spying those who grind corne in their houses and then carrie it away by violence but we are to thinke that Alastor is he who hath committed acts that be Alasta that is to say not to be forgotten and the remembrance whereof will continue a long time after And Aliterius is he who for his wickednesse deserveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to be shunned and avoided of all men and such an one is otherwise called Palamnaeus and thus much saith Socrates was written in tables of brasse 26 What should the meaning of this be that the Virgins who accompanied the men that drive the beefe from Aenus toward the citie Cassiopaea go all the way even unto the verie borders chanting this dittie Would God returne another day To native soile you never may THe Aenians being driven out of their owne countrie by the Lapithae inhabited first about Aethacia and afterwards in the province of Molossis neere unto Cassiopaea But seeing by experience little good or none growing unto them out of that countrey and withall finding the people adjoining to be ill neighbours unto them they went into the plaine of Cirrha under the leading of their king Onoclus but being surprised there with a wonderfull drought they sent unto the oracle of Apollo who commanded them to stone their king Onoclus to death which they did and after that put themselves in their voiage againe to seeke out a land where they might settle and make their abode and so long travelled they until at the last they came into those parts which they inhabit at this day where the ground is good and fertill and bringing forth all fruitfull commodities Reason they had therefore you see to wish and pray unto the gods that they might never returne againe unto their ancient countrey but remaine there for ever in all prosperitie 27 What is the reason that it is not permitted at Rhodes for the her ault or publicke crier to enter into the temple of Ocridion IS it for that Ochimus in times past affianced his daughter Cydippe unto Ocridion but Cercaphus the brother of Ochimus being enamoured of his niece Cydippe perswaded the herault for in those daies the maner was to demand their brides in mariage by the meanes of heraults and to receive them at their hands that when he had Cydippe once delivered unto him he should bring her unto him which was effected accordingly And this Cercaphus being possessed of the maiden fled away with her but in processe of time when Ochimus was verie aged Cercaphus returned home Upon which occasion the Rhodians enacted a law that from thence forth there should never any herault set foot within the temple of Ocridion in regard of this injurie done unto him 28 What is the cause that among the Tenedians it is not lawfull for a piper or plaier of the fluit to come within the temple of Tenes neither is it permitted to make any mention there of Achilles IS it not because when the stepmother of Tenes had accused him for that he would have laien with her Malpus the minstrell avouched it to be true and most falsely bare witnesse against him whereupon he was forced to flie with his sister unto Tenedos Furthermore it is said that Thet is the mother of Achilles gave expresse commandement unto her sonne and charged him in any wise not to kill Tenes for that he was highly beloved of Apollo Whereupon she commanded one of his servants to have a carefull eie unto him and eftsoones to put him in mind of this charge that he had from her lest haply he might forget himselfe and at unwares take away his life but as he overran Tenedos he had a sight of Tenes sister a faire and beautifull ladie and pursued her but Tenes put himselfe betweene for to defend and save the honour of his sister during which conflict she escaped and got away but her brothers fortune was to be slaine but Achilles perceiving that it was Tenes when he lay dead upon the ground killed his servant outright for that being present in place during the fray he did not admonish him according as he was commanded but Tenes he buried in that verie place where now his temple standeth Lo what was the cause that neither a piper is allowed to go into his temple nor Achilles may be once named there 29 Who is that whom the Fpidamnians call Polletes THe Epidamnians being next neighbours unto the Illyrians perceived that their citizens who conversed commerced and traded in trafficke with them became nought and fearing besides some practise for the alteration of state they chose everie yeere one of the best approved men of their citie who went to and fro for to make all contracts bargains and exchanges that those of Epidamnus might have with the Barbarians and likewise dealt reciprocally in these affaires and negotiacions that the Illyrians had with them now this
life with which words Porsena was so affrighted that he made peace with the Romans according as Aristides the Milesian writeth in the third booke of his storie 3 The Argives and the Lacedaemonians being at war one with another about the possession of the countrey Thyreatis the Amphictyones gave sentence that they should put it to a battell and looke whether side wan the field to them should the land in question appertaine The Lacedaemonians therefore chose for their captaine Othryades and the Argives Thersander when the battell was done there remained two onely alive of the Argives to wit Agenor and Chromius who caried tidings to the citie of victorie Meane while when all was quiet Othryades not fully dead but having some little life remaining in him bearing himselfe and leaning upon the trunchions of broken lances caught up the targets and shields of the dead and gathered them together and having erected a trophee he wrote thereupon with his owne blood To Jupiter Victor and guardian of Trophees Now when as both those parties maintained still the controversie about the land the Amphictyones went in person to the place to be eie-judges of the thing and adjudged the victorie on the Lacedaemonians side this writeth Chrysermus in the third booke of the Peloponnesiack historie The Romans levying warre against the Samnites chose for their chiefe commander Posthumius Albinus who being surprised by an ambush within a streight betweene two mountains called Furcae Caudinae a verie narrow passe lost three of his Legions and being himselfe deadly wounded fell and lay for dead howbeit about midnight taking breath was quick againe and somewhat revived he arose tooke the targets from his enemies bodies that lay dead in the place and erected a trophee and drenching his hand in their blood wrote in this manner The Romans to Jupiter Victor guardian of Trophees against the Samnites but Marius surnamed Gurges that is to say the glutton being sent thither as generall captaine and viewing upon the verie place the said trophee so erected I take this gladly quoth he for a signe and presage of good fortune and thereupon gave battell unto his enemies and won the victorie tooke their king prisoner and sent him to Rome according as Aristides writeth in his third booke of the Italian historie 4 The Persians entred Greece with a puissant armie of 500000. men against whom Leonidas was sent by the Lacedaemonians with a band of three hundred to guard the streights of Thermophylae and impeach his passage in which place as they were merie at their meat and taking their refection the whole maine power of the Barbarians came upon them Leonidas seeing his enemies advancing forward spake unto his owne men and said Sit still sirs and make an end of your dinner hardly so as you may take your suppers in another world so he charged upon the Barbarians and notwithstanding he had many a dart sticking in his bodie yet he made a lane through the presse of the enemies untill he came to the verie person of Xerxes from whom he tooke the diademe that was upon his head and so died in the place The Barbarians king caused his bodie to be opened when he was dead and his heart to be taken forth which was found to be all over-growne with haire as writeth Aristides in the first booke of the Persian historie The Romans warring against the Cathaginians sent a companie of three hundred men under the leading of a captaine named Fabius Maximus who bad his enemies battell and lost all his men himselfe being wounded to death charged upon Anniball with such violence that he tooke from him the regali diademe or frontall that he had about his head and so died upon it as writeth Aristides the Milesian 5 In the citie of Celaenae in Phrygia the earth opened and clave a sunder so as there remained a mightie chinke with a huge quantitie of water issuing thereout which caried away and drew into the bottomlesse pit thereof a number of houses with all the persons great and small within them Now Midas the king was advertised by an oracle that if he cast within the said pit the most precious thing that he had both sides would close up againe and the earth meet and be firme ground So he caused to be throwen into it a great quantitie of gold and silver but all would do no good Then Anchurus his son thinking with himselfe that there was nothing so pretious as the life soule of man after he had lovingly embraced his father and bid him farwel and with all taken his leave of his wife Timothea mounted on horseback and cast himselfe horse and all into the said chinke And behold the earth immediatly closed up whereupon Midas made a golden altar of Jupiter Idaeus touching it only with his hand This altar about that time when as the said breach or chink of earth was became a stone but after a certaine prefixed time passed it is seene all gold this writeth Callisthenes in his second booke of Transformations The river Tybris running through the mids of the market place at Rome for the anger of Jupiter Tarsius caused an exceeding great chinke within the ground which swallowed up many dwelling houses Now the oracle rendred this answere unto the Romans that this stould cease in case they flang into the breach some costly and precious thing and when they had cast into it both gold and silver but all in vaine Curtius a right noble young gentleman of the citie pondering well the words of the oracle and considering with himselfe that the life of man was more pretious than gold cast himselfe on horseback into the said chinke and so delivered his citizens and countrimen from their calamitie this hath Aristides recorded in fortieth booke of Italian histories 6 Amphtaraus was one of the princes and leaders that accompanied Pollynices and when one day they were feasting merily together an eagle soaring over his head chanced to catch up his javelin and carrie it up aloft in the aire which afterwards when she had let fall againe stucke fast in the ground and became a lawrell The morrow after as they joined battell in that verie place 〈◊〉 with his chariot was swallowed up within the earth and there standeth now the citie Harma so called of the chariot as Trismachus reporteth in the third booke of his Foundations During the warres which the Romans waged against Pyrrhus king of the Epirotes Paulus Acmylius was promised by the oracle that he should have the victorie if he would set up an altar in that verie place where he should see one gentleman of qualitie and good marke to be swallowed up alive in the earth together with his chariot Three daies after Valerius Conatus when in a dreame he thoght that he saw himselfe adorned with his priestly vestments for skilfull he was in the art of divination led forth the armie and after he had slaine many of his enemies was devouted quick
seene at all with him the master beleeved this lay with her but one time above the rest desirous to know who she was with whom he companied called for a light and so soone as he knew it was his owne daughter he drew his sword and followed after this most vilanous and and incestuous filth intending to kill her but by the providence of Venus transformed she was into a tree bearing her name to wit Myrtle as Theodorus reporteth in his Metamorphoses or transmutations Valeria Tusculanaria having incurred the displeasure of Venus became amorous of her owne father and communicated this love of hers unto her nourse who likewise went cunningly about her master and made him beleeve that there was a young maiden a neighbous child who was in fancie with him but would not in regard of modestie be knowen unto him of it nor be seene when she should frequent his companie Howbeit her father one night being drunk called for a candle but the nourse prevented him and in great hast wakened her who fled therupon into the countrey great with child where she cast her selfe downe from the pitch of a steep place yet the fruit of her wombe lived for notwithstanding that fall she did not miscarie but continued still with her great belly and when her time was come delivered she was of a sonne such an one as in the Roman language is named Sylvanus and in Greeke Aegipanes Valerius the father tooke such a thought thereupon that for verie anguish of mind he threw himselfe downe headlong from a steepe rocke as recordeth Aristides the Milesian in the third booke of Italian histories 23 After the destruction of Troy Diomedes by a tempest was cast upō the coast of Libya where raigned a king named Lycus whose maner and custome was to sacrifice unto his owne father god Mars all those strangers that arrived and were set a land in his countrey But Callirohōe his daughter casting an affection unto Diomedes betraied her father and saved Diomedes by delivering him out of prison And he againe not regarding her accordingly who had done him so good a turne departed from her and sailed away which indignitie she tooke so neere to the heart that she hanged her selfe and so ended her daies this writeth Juba in the third booke of the Libyan historie Calpurnius Crassus a noble man of Rome being abroad at the warres together with Regulus was by him sent against the Massilians for to seize a stronge castle and hard to be won named Garaetion but in this service being taken prisoner and destined to be killed in sacrifice unto Saturne it fortuned that Bysatia the kings daughter fansied him so as she betraied her father and put the victory into her lovers hand but when this yoong knight was retired and gone the damsell for sorrow of heart cut her owne throat as writeth Hesianax in the third booke of the Libian historie 24 Priamus king of Troy fearing that the city would be lost sent his yoong sonne Polydorus into Thrace to his sonne in law Polymester who married his daughter with a great quantity of golde Polymester for very covetousnesse after the destruction of the city murdered the childe because he might gaine the gold but Hecuba being come into those parts under a colour and pretence that she should bestow that golde upon him together with the helpe of other dames prisoners with her plucked with her owne hands both eies out of his head witnesse Euripides the tragaedian poet In the time that Hanniball overran and wasted the countrey of Campania in Italy Lucius Jmber bestowed his sonne Rustius for safetie in the hands of a sonne in law whom he had named Valerius Gestius and left with him a good summe of money But when this Campanian heard that Anniball had wonne a great victorie for very avarice he brake all lawes of nature and murdered the childe The father Thymbris as he travelled in the countrey lighting upon the dead corps of his owne sonne sent for his sonne in law aforesaid as if he meant to shew him some great treasure who was no sooner come but he plucked out both his eies and afterwards crucified him as Aristides testifieth in the third booke of his Italian histories 25 Aeacus begat of Psamatha one sonne named Phocus whom he loved very tenderly but Telamon his brother not well content therewith trained him foorth one day into the forest a hunting where having rouzed a wilde bore he launced his javelin or bore-speare against the childe whom he hated and so killed him for which fact his father banished him as Dorotheus telleth the tale in the first booke of his Metamorphoses Cajus Maximus had two sonnes Similius and Rhesus of which two Rhesus he begat upon Ameria who upon a time as he hunted in the chase killed his brother and being come home againe he would have perswaded his father that it was by chaunce and not upon a propensed malice that he slew him but his father when he knew the truth exiled him as Aristocles hath recorded in the third booke of Italian Chronicles 26 Mars had the company of Althaea by whom she was conceived and delivered of Meleager as witnesseth Euripides in his tragoedie Meleager Septimtus Marcellus having maried Sylvta was much given to hunting and ordinarily went to the chase then Mars taking his advantage disguising himselfe in habit of a shepherd forced this new wedded wife and gat her with childe which done he bewraied unto her who he was and gave her a launce or speare saying unto her That the generositie and descent of that issue which she should have by him consisted in that launce now it hapned that Septimius slew Tusquinus and Mamercus when he sacrificed unto the gods for the good encrease of the fruits upon the earth neglected Ceres onely whereupon she taking displeasure for this contempt sent a great wilde bore into his countrey then he assembled a number of hunters to chase the said beast and killed him which done the head and the skinne he sent unto his espoused wife Scimbrates and Muthias her unckles by the mother-side offended heereat would have taken all away from the damosell but hee tooke such displeasure thereat that hee slew his kinsmen and his mother for to be revenged of her brethrens death buried that cursed speare as Menylus reporteth in the third booke of the Italian histories 27 Telamon the sonne of Aeacus and Endeis fledde by night from his father and arrived in the isle of Euboea ** The father perceiving it and supposing him to be one of his subjects gave his daughter to one of his guard for to be cast into the sea but he for very commiseration and pitty sould her to certaine merchants and when the shippe was arrived at Salamis Telamon chaunced to buy her at their hands and she bare unto him Ajax witnesse Aretados the Gnidian in the second booke of his Insular affaires Lucius Trocius had by his wife Patris a daughter
drew forth his sword and when she had wounded Chrisippus as he slept she left the sword sticking in the wound thus was Laius suspected for the deed because of his sword but the youth being now halfe dead discharged and acquit him and revealed the whole truth of the matter whereupon Pelops caused the dead body to be enterred but Hippodamia he banished as Dositheus recordethin his booke Pelopidae Hebius Tolieix having espoused a wife named Nuceria had by her two children but of an infranchised bond woman he begat a son named Phemius Firmus a childe of excellent beauty whom he loved more deerely than the children by his lawfull wife Nuceria detesting this base son of his solicited her own children to murder him which when they having the feare of God before there eyes refused to do she enterprised to execute the deed her selfe And in truth she drew forth the sword of one of the squires of the body in the night season and with it gave him a deadly wound as he lay fast asleepe the foresaid squire was suspected and called in question for this act for that his sword was there found but the childe himselfe discovered the truth his father then commanded his body to be buried but his wife he banished as Dositheus recordeth in the third booke of the Italian Chronicles 34 Theseus being in very truth the naturall sonne of Neptune had a sonne by Hippolite a princesse of the Amazones whose name was Hippolytus but afterwards maried againe and brought into the house a stepmother named Phaedra the daughter of Minos who falling in love with her sonne-inlaw Hippolitus sent her nourse for to sollicite him but he giving no eare unto her left Athens and went to Troezen where he gave his minde to hunting But the wicked and unchaste woman seeing her selfe frustrate and disapointed of her will wrot shrewd letters unto her husband against this honest and chaste yong gentleman informing him of many lies and when she had so done strangled her selfe with an halter and so ended her daies Theseus giving credit unto her letters besought his father Neptune of the three requests whereof he had the choise this one namely to worke the death of Hippolytus Neptune to satisfie his mind sent out unto Hippolytus as he rode along the sea slde a monstrous bull who so affrighted his coatch horses that they overthrew Hippolytus and so he was crushed to death Comminius Super the Laurentine having a sonne by the nimph Aegeria named Comminius espoused afterwards Gidica and brought into his house a stepmother who became likewise amorous of her son-in law and when she saw that she could not speed of her desire she hanged her selfe and left behind her certaine letters devised against him containing many untruths Comminius the father having read these slanderous imputations within the said letters and beleeving that which his jealous head had once conceived called upon Neptune who presented unto Commintus his sonne as he rode in his chariot a hideous bull which set his steeds in such a fright that they fell a flinging and so haled the young man that they dismembred and killed him as Dositheus reporteth in the third booke of the Italian historie 35 When the pestilence raigned in Lacedaemon the oracle of Apollo delivered this answer That the mortalitie would cease in case they sacrificed yeerly a young virgin of noble blood Now whē it fortuned that the lot one yeere fell upō Helena so that she was led forth all prepared and set out readie to be killed there was an eagle came flying downe caught up the sword which lay there and caried it to cerraine droves of beasts where she laid it upon an heyfer whereupon ever after they forbare to sacrifice any more virgins as Aristodemus reporteth in the third Collect of fables The plague was sore in Falerij the contagion thereof being verie great there was given out an oracle That the said affliction would stay and give over if they sacrificed yeerly a yong maiden unto Juno and this superstition continuing alwaies still Valeria Luperca was by lot called to this sacrifice now when the sword was readie drawen there was an eagle came downe out of the aire and caried it away and upon the altar where the fire was burning laid a wand having at one end in maner of a little mallet as for the sword she laid upon a young heyfer feeding by the temple side which when the young damsell perceived after she had sacrificed the said heyfer and taken up the mallet she went from house to house and gentl knocking therewith all those that lay sicke raised them up and said to everie one Be whole and receive health whereupon it commeth that even at this day this mysterie is still performed and observed as Aristides hath reported in the 919. book of his Italian histories 36 Phylonome the daughter of Nyctimus and Arcadia hunted with Diana whom Mars disguised like a shepherd got with child She having brought foorth two twinnes for feare of her father threw them into the river Erymanthus but they by the providēce of the gods were caried downe the streame without harme or danger and at length the current of the water cast them upon an hollow oake growing up on the banke side whereas a she woolfe having newly kennelled had her den This woolfe turned out her whelps into the river and gave sucke unto the two twins above said which when a shepherd named Tyliphus once perceived and had a sight of he tooke up the little infants and caused them to be nourished as his owne children calling the one Lycastus and the other Parrhasius who successively reigned in the realme of Arcadia Amulius bearing himselfe insolently and violently like a tyrant to his brother Numitor first killed his sonne Aenitus as they were hunting then his daughter Sylvia he cloistred up as a religious nunne to serve Juno She conceived by Mars and when shee was delivered of two twins confessed the truth unto the tyrant who standing in feare of them caused them both to be cast into the river Tybris where they were carried downe the water unto one place whereas a shee woolfe had newly kennelled with her yoong ones and verily her owne whelps shee abandoned and cast into the river but the babes shee suckled Then Faustus the shepherd chauncing to espie them tooke them up and nourished as his owne calling the one Remus and the other Romulus and these were the founders of Rome citie according to Artstides the Milesian in his Italian histories 37 After the destruction of Troy Agamemnon together with Cassandra was murdred but Orestes who had beene reared and brought up with Strophius was revenged of those murderers of his father as Pyrander saith in his fourth booke of the Peloponnesian historie Fabius Fabricianus descended lineally from that great Fabius Maximus after he had wonne and sacked Tuxium the capitall citie of the Samnites sent unto Rome the image of Venus Victoresse which was so highly
Not long after there fell out to be a great drouth and the the citie was sore visued with famine insomuch as the Corinthians sent unto the oracle for to know by what meanes they might be delivered from this calamitie unto whom the god made this answer That the wrath of Neptune was the cause of all their miserie who would by no meanes be appeased untill they had revenged Actaeons death which Archias hearing who was himselfe one deputed to this embassage he was not willing to returne againe to Corinth but crossed over the seas into Sicily where he founded and built the city Syracusa and there hee begat two daughters Ortygia and Syracusa but in the end was himselfe trecherously murdred by one Telephus whom in his youth he had abused as his minion and who having the conduct of a shippe had sailed with him into sicilie 3 A poore man named Scedasus who dwelt in Leuctra a village within the territorie of the Thespians had two daughters the name of the one was Hippo and of the other Miletia or as some write clepid they were Theano and Enippe Now this Scedasus was a bounteous and kind person yea and a good fellow in his house and curteous to all strangers notwithstanding he had but small store of goods about him So there fortuned to visit him two yoong men of Sparta whom hee friendly and lovingly enterteined who being fallen into fancie with his two daughters had thus much power yet of themselves that in regard of their father Scedasus and his kindnesse unto them they attempted nothing prejudiciall unto the honest pudicitie of the virgins for that time but the next morning tooke their leave and went directly toward the city of Delphos unto the oracle of Apollo Pythius for to that purpose expresly tooke they this journey and pilgrimage after that they had consulted with the god about such matters as they came for they returned backe againe into their owne country as they passed thorough Baeotia tooke Scedasus house by the way there for to lodge who at that time was not at Leuctra but gone forth howbe it his daughters according to their courteous bringing up their usual maner of intertainment received these two guests into the house who seeing their opportunitie that they were alone forced defloured the silly maidens and after this deed seeing them exceedingly offended and angry for this villany offered unto them so as by no meanes they would be appeased they proceeded farther murdred them both and when they had so done threw them into a certeine blinde pit and so departed Seedasus being returned home found all things else in his house safe and sound as hee left them onely his two daughters hee could not meet with neither wist he what to say or doe untill such time as a bitch that he had began to whine and complaine running one while to him and another while training him as it were to the pit side whereupon at length he suspected that which was and so drew foorth the dead bodies of his two daughters understanding moreover by his neighbors that the day before they had seene going into his house those two yoong men of Lacedaemon who not long before had beene lodged with him he doubted presently that they were those who had committed this crime and namely when he called to minde that the first time they came they did nothing but praise the maidens saying That they reputed them most happy whose fortune should be to espouse them for their wives Well to Lacedaemon he went for to conferre with the Ephori about this matter and by that time that he entred within the territory of Argos he was benighted so that he took up his lodging in a common inne or hostelry within which he found another poore old man borne in the city Oreos within the province Hestraea whom when Scedasus heard to sigh and groane grievously yea and to fall a cursing of the Lacedaemonians he demaunded what the Lacedaemonians had done unto him that he fared thus against them the old man set tale an end and said That a subject he was of the Spartans and that when one Aristodemus was sent as governour from the State of Sparta into the citie Oreum he had dealt very cruelly and committed many outrages and enormites for being quoth he wantonly fallen in love with a sonne of mine and seeing that he would not frame nor be induced to satisfie his will he assaied to enforce him and by violence to hale him out of the publicke wrestling place where he exercised himselfe with other his feeres and companions the warden of the exercises empeached the said governour with the assistance of many yoong men who ranne into the rescue in such sort as for that present Aristodemus retired without effect but the next morrow having set out and manned a galley of purpose hee came with a second charge and caried away my childe and no sooner was he rowed from Oreum to the otherside of the water but he offred to abuse his body which when the youth would in no wise abide nor yeeld unto he made no more adoo but cut his throat and killed him outright in the place which done he returned backe to Oreum where hee feasted his friends and made great cheere This accident was I soone advertised of quoth the old man whereupon I went and performed the last dutie unto my sonne and solemnized his funerall and so immediately put my selfe upon my journey toward Sparta where I complained unto the Ephori or lords controulers declaring unto them the whole fact but they gave no eare unto me nor made any reckoning of my grievance Seedisus hearing this tale was il appaid troubled in his mind imagining that the Spartans would make as little account of him and therewith to requite his tale related for his part likewise unto the stranger his owne case who thereupon gave him counsel not so much as once to go unto the Ephori but to returne immediately backe into Boeotia and to erect a tombe for his two daughters Howbeit Seedasus would not be ruled by him but held on his journey forward to Sparta opened his griefe unto the lords cōtroulers before said when he saw that they tooke small heed of his words he addressed himselfe to the kings of Sparta yea and afterwards to some particular burgeosies of the citie unto whom he declared the fact and bewailed his owne infortunitie But seeing that all booted not heran up and downe the streets of the citie stretching forth his hands up to heaven and to the sun and stamping upon the ground with his feet calling upon the furies of hell to be revenged and at the last killed himselfe But in processe of time the Lacedaemonians paid deerely for this their injustice for when they were growen to that greatnes that they commanded all Greece and had planted their garrisons in everie citie first Epaminondas the Theban cut the throtes of
ready to drop into her grave then it makes no matter but it is all one to praise an honest man 〈◊〉 for one thing as another Moreover in his second booke of Friendship whenas he giveth a precept that we ought not to dissolve amities for every fault or defect he userh these very tearmes For there be faults quoth he which we must overpasse quite and make no stay at them others there be againe whereat we should a little stand and take offence and others besides which require more chastisement but some there are which we must thinke 〈◊〉 to breake friendship for ever And more than all this in the same booke he saith that we ought to converse and be acquainted with some more and with others lesse according as they be our friends more or lesse which difference and diversitie extendeth very far insomuch as some are worthy of such an amitie others of a greater some deserve thus much trust and confidence others more than it and so it is in other matters semblable And what other is his drift in all these places but to put a great difference betweene those things for which friendships are engendred And yet in his booke of Honestie to shew that there is nothing good but that which is honest he delivereth these words A good thing is eligible and to be desired that which is eligible and desirable is also acceptable that which is acceptable is likewise commendable and that which is commendable is honest withall Againe a good thing is joious and acceptable joious is venerable and venerable is honest But these speeches are repugnant to himselfe for be it that all that is good were laudable and then chastly to forbeare for to touch an olde riveled woman were a commendable thing or say that every good thing were neither venerable nor joious and acceptable yet his reason falleth to the ground for how can it be that others should be thought frivolous and absurd in praising any for such things and himselfe not worthy to be mocked and laughed at for taking joy and pleasing himselfe in such ridiculous toies as these Thus you see how he sheweth himselfe in most part of his writings and yet in his disputations which he holdeth against others he is much more carelesse to be contrary and repugnant to himselfe for in his treatise which he made as touching exhortation reproving Plato for saying that it was not expedient for him to live at all who is not taught nor knoweth not how to live he writeth in these very tearmes This speech of his quoth he is both contradictory repugnant to it selfe and besides hath no force nor efficacy at all to exhort for first and formost in shewing us that it were expedient for us not to live at all and giving us at it were counsell to die he exhorteth us to any thing rather than to the practise of studie of philolosophie because it is not possible for a man to philosophize unlesse he live nether can he become wise survive he never so long if he lead an evill and ignorant life And a little after hee saith farther That it is as meet and convenient also even for leawd and wicked persons to remaine alive But I care not much to set downe his very words First of all like as vertue barely in it selfe considered hath nothing in it for which we should desire to live even so vice hath as little for which we ought to leave this life What need we now turne over other books of Chrysippus and drip leafe by leafe to proove how contrary and repugnant he is to himselfe for even in these which now we cite and alledge he commeth out otherwhiles with this saying of Antisthenes for which he commendeth him namely that a man is to be provided either of wit to understand or else of a with to under-hang himselfe as also this other verse of Tyrtaus The bounds of vertue first come nie Or else make choise before to die And what other meaning is there of these words but this that it is more expedient for foolish and lewd persons to be out of the world than to live and in one passage seeming to correct Theognis He should not quoth he have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A man from poverty to flie O Cyrnus ought himselfe to cast Headlong from rocks most steepe and hie Or into sea as deepe and vast But rather thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Aman from sinne and vice to flie c. What other things else seemeth he to doe than to condemne and scrape out of other mens writings the same things propositions and sentences which himselfe hath inserted in his own books For he reprooveth Plato when he prooveth and sheweth that it is better not to live at all than to lead a life in wickednesse or ignorance and in one breath hee giveth counsell to Theognis to set downe in his poesie That a man ought to fling himselfe downe headlong into the deepe sea or to breake his necke from some high rocke for to avoid sinne and wickednesse And praising as hee did Antisthenes for sending fooles and witlesse folke to an halter wherewith to hang themselves he blamed him neverthelesse who said that vice was not a sufficient cause wherefore we should shorten our lives Moreover in those books against Plato himselfe concerning justice he leapeth directly at the very first into a discourse as touching the gods and saith That Cephalus did not divert men well from evill dooing by the feare of the gods affirming moreover that the discourse which he made as touching divine vengeance might easily be infringed and refuted for that of it selfe it ministreth many arguments and probable reasons on the contrary side as if the same resembled for all the world the fabulous tales of Acco and Alphito wherewith women are woont to scarre their little children and to keepe them from doing shrewd turnes Thus deriding traducing and backbiting Plato hee praiseth elsewhere and in many places else alledgeth these verses out of Euripides Well well though some this doctrine doe deride Be sure in heaven with other gods beside Sits Jupiter the deeds of men who see And will in time revenged surely bee Semblably in the first booke of Justice when he had alledged these verses heere out of Hesiodus Then Saturnes sonne god Jupiter great plagues from heaven did send Even dearth and death both which of all the people made an end he saith that the gods proceed in this wise to the end that when the wicked be thus punished others also advertised and taught by their example might beware how they commit the like or at leastwise sinne lesse What should I say moreover how in this treatise of Justice having affirmed that those who hold pleasure to be good but not the soveraigne end of good may in some sort withall preserve mainteine justice for so much he hath put downe in these very termes For haply admitting pleasure
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
out of the city and put others in prison or held the men in awe whiles themselves ruled tyrannically and with violence Whereof I had intelligence because I was as you wot well hoast unto Melon and Pelopidas with whom so long as they were in exile I was inwardly acquainted and conversed familiarly Moreover we have heard already how the Lacedaemonians condemned Phaebidas to pay a great sine for that he had seized the fort Cadmia and how they put him by and kept him from the journey and expedition of Olynthus and sent thither in stead of him Lysanoridas with two other captaines and planted a stronger garrison within the castle Furthermore we know very well that Ismenias died not the fairest kinde of death presently upon I wot not what processe framed and an action commensed against him for that Gorgidas advertised the banished who were heere by letters from time to time of all matters that passed in such sort as there remaineth for you to relate nothing els but the returne of the said banished men and the surprising or apprehension of the tyrants CAPHISIAS About that time Archidamus all we that were of the confederacie and complotted together used ordinarily to meet in the house of Simmias by occasion that he was retired and in cure of a wound which he had received in his leg where we conferred secretly of our affaires as need required but in shew and openly discoursed of matters of learning and Philosophy drawing unto us often times into our companic Archias and Leontidas men who misliked not such conferences and communications because we would remoove all suspicion of such conventicles For Simmias having abode long time in forren parts among the Barbarians being returned to Thebes but a little while before was full of all manet of newes and strange reports as touching those barbarous nations insomuch as Archias when he was at leasure willingly gaue eare to his discourses and narrations sitting in the company of us yong gentlemen as being well pleased that we should give our mindes to the study of good letters and learning rather than busie our heads about those matters which they went about and practised in the meane while And the very day on which late in the evening and toward darke night following the exiled persons abovesaid were come closely under the wall there arrived from thenee unto us a messenger whom Pherenicus sent one who was unknowen to us all unlesse it were to Charon who brought us word that to the number of twelve yoong gentlemen and those the bravest gallants of all the banished conspiratours were already with their hounds hunting in the forest Cithaeron intending to be heere in the evening and that therefore they had sent before and dispatched a vauntcourrier of purpose aswell to advertise us thereof as to be certified themselves who it was that should make his house ready for them to lie secret and hidden therein when they were once come to the end that upon this forcknowledge they might set forward and go directly thither Now as we studied and tooke some deliberation about this point Charon of himselfe offered his house whereupon when the messenger intended to returne immediatly with great speed to the exiles Theocritus the soothsaier griping me fast by the hand casting his eie upon Charon that went before This man quoth he ô Caphisias is no Philosopher nor deepe scholar neither is he come to any excellent or exquisit knowledge above others as his brother Epaminondaes and yet you see how being naturally enclined and directed withall by the lawes unto honor and vertue he exposeth himselfe willingly unto danger of death for the deliverie and setting free of his countrey whiles Epaminondas who hath had better meanes of instruction and education to the attaining of vertue than any other Boeotian whatsoever is restiffe dull and backeward when the question is of executing any great enterprise for the deliverance of his native country And to what occasion of service shall he ever be so well disposed prepared and emploied than this Vnto whome I made answere in this wife We for our parts most kinde and gently Theoritus doe that which hath beene thought good resolved and concluded upon among our selves but Epaminondas having not yet perswaded us according as he thinketh it better himselfe not to put these our designements in execution hath good reason to goe against that wherewith his nature repugneth and so he approveth not the designement whereunto he is moved and invited For it were unreasonable to force compell a physician who promiseth undertaketh to cure a disease without lancet fire for to proceed to incission cutting cauterizing Why quoth Theocritus doth not he approve of the conspiracie No quoth I neither alloweth he that any citizens should be put to death unlesse they were condemned first judicially by order of law mary he saith that if without massacre and effusion of citizens blood they would enterprise the deliverance of the city he would assist and aide them right willingly Seeing then that he was not able to enduce us for to beleeve his reasons but that we followed still our owne course he requireth us to let him alone pure innocent and impolluted with the blood of his citizens and to suffer him for to espie and attend some better occasions and opportunities by meanes whereof with justice he might procure the good of the weale publicke For murder quoth he will not containe it selfe within limits as it ought but Pherenicus happly and Pelopedas may bend their force principally upon the authors and heads of the tyranny and wicked persons but you shall have some such as Eumolpidas and Samiadas hot stomacked men set on fire with choler and desire of revenge who taking liberty by the vantage of the night will not lay downe their armes nor put up their swords untill they have filled the whole city with bloodsned and murdered many of the best and principall citizens As I thus devised and communed with Theocritus Anaxidorus ovethearing some of our words for nere he was unto us Stay quoth he and hold your peace for I see Archiaes Lysanoridas the Spartan captaine comming from the castle Cadmia and it seemeth that they make haste directly toward us Heereupon we paused and were still with that Archias calling unto Theocritus and bringing him apart by himselfe unto Lysanoridas talked with him a long while drawing him aside a little out of the way under the temple of Amphton in such sort as we were in an extreame agony perplexity for feare lest they had an inckling or suspition of our enterprise or that somthing were discovered thereupon they examined Theocritus As these matters thus passed Phyllidas whom you Archidamus know who was then the principall secretary or scribe under Archias at that time captaine generall of the armie being desirous of the approch of the conspiratours withal both privy and party with us in the complot came in
potable water and with that all those who are present set up a note and shout as if they had found Osiris againe then they take a piece of fatty and fertile earth and together with the water knead and worke it into a paste mixing therewith most precious odors persumes and spices whereof they make a little image in forme of the Moone croissant which they decke with robes and adorne shewing thereby evidently that they take these gods to be the substance of water and earth Thus when Isis had recovered Osiris nourished Orus and brought him up to some growth so that he now became strengthned fortified by exhalations vapors mists and clouds Typhon verily was vanquished howbeit not shine for that the goddesse which is the ladie of the earth would not permit suffer that the power or nature which is contrary unto moisture should be utterly abolished onely she did slacken and let downe the vehement force thereof willing that this combat and strife should still continue because the world would not have beene entier and perfect if the nature of fire had beene once extinct gone And if this goe not currant among them there is no reason and probability that any one should project this assertion also namely that Typhon in times past overcame one part of Osiris for that in olde time Aegypt was sea whereupon it is that even at this day within the mines wherein men dig for mettals yea and among the mountaines there is found great store of seafish Likewise all the fountaines welles and pits and those are many in number cary a brackish saltish and bitter water as if some remnant or residue of the olde sea were reserved which ranne thither But in processe of time Orus subdued Typhon that is to say when the seasonable raine came which tempered the excessive heat Nilus expelled and drave forth the sea discovered the champian ground and filled it continually more and more by new deluges and inundations that laied somewhat still unto it And hereof the daily experience is presented to our eies for we perceive even at this day that the overflowes and rising of the river bringing new mud and adding fresh earth still by little and little the sea giveth place and retireth and as the deepe in it is filled more and more so the superficies riseth higher by the continuall shelves that the Nile casts up by which meane the sea runneth backward yea the very Isle Pharos which Homer knew by his daies to lie farre within the sea even a daies sailing from the continent firme land of Aegypt is now a very part thereof not for that it remooved and approched neerer and neerer to the land but because the sea which was betweene gave place unto the river that continually made new earth with the mudde that it brought and so mainteined and augmented the maine land But these things resemble very neere the Theologicall interpretations that the Stoicks give out for they holde that the generative and nutritive Spirit is Bacchus but that which striketh and divideth is Hercules that which receiveth is Ammon that which entreth and pierceth into the earth is Ceres and Proserpina and that which doth penetrate farther and passe thorow the sea is Neptune Others who mingle among naturall causes and reasons some drawen from the Mathematicks and principally from Astrology thinke that Typhon is the Solare circle or sphaere of the Sunne and that Osiris is that of the Moone inasmuch as the Moone hath a generative and vegetable light multiplying that sweet and comfortable moisture which is so meet for the generation of living creatures of trees and plants but the Sunne having in it a pure firy flame indeed without any mixture or rebatement at all heateth and drieth that which the earth bringeth forth yea and whatsoever is verdant and in the flower insomuch as by his inflamation he causeth the greater part of the earth to be wholly desert and inhabitable and many times subdueth the very Moone And therefore the Aegyptians evermore name Typhon Seth which is as much to say as ruling lordly and oppressing with violence And after their fabulous maner they say that Hercules sitting as it were upon the Sunne goeth about the world with him and Mercurie likewise with the Moone by reason whereof the works and effects of the Moone resemble those acts which are performed by eloquence and wisedome but those of the Sunne are compared to such as be exploited by force and puissance And the Stoicks say that the Sunne is lighted and set on fire by the Sea and therewith nourished but they be the fountaines and lakes which send up unto the Moone a milde sweet and delicate vapour The Aegyptians faine that the death of Osiris hapned on the seventeenth day of the moneth on which day better than upon any other she is judged to be at the full and this is the reason why the Pythagoreans call this day The obstruction and of all other numbers they most abhorre and detest it for whereas sixteene is a number quadrangular or foure-square and eighteene longer one way than another which numbers onely of those that be plaine happen for to have the ambient unities that environ them equall to the spaces conteined and comprehended within them seventeene which falleth betweene separateth and disjoineth the one from the other and being cut into unequall intervals distracteth the proportion sesquioctave And some there be who say that Osiris lived others that he reigned eight and twenty yeeres for so many lights there be of the Moone and so many daies doth she turne about her owne circle and therefore in those ceremonies which they call The sepulture of Osiris they cut a piece of wood and make a certeine coffin or case in maner of the Moone croissant for that as she approcheth neere to the Sunne she becommeth pointed and cornered untill in the end she come to nothing and is no more seene And as for the dismembring of Osiris into foureteene pieces they signifie unto us under the covert vaile of these words The daies wherein the said planet is in the wane and decreaseth even unto the change when she is renewed againe And that day on which she first appeareth by passing by and escaping the raies of the Sunne they call an Unperfect good for Osiris is a doer of good and this name signifieth many things but principally an active and beneficiall power as they say and as for the other name Omphis Hermaeus saith that it betokeneth as much as a benefactour Also they are of opinion that the risings and inundations of the river Nilus answere in proportion to the course of the Moone for the greatest heigth that it groweth unto in the countrey Elephantine is eight and twenty cubits for so many illuminations there be or daies in every revolution of the Moone and the lowest gage about Mendes and Xois sixe cubits which answereth to the first quarter but the meane betweene about the city
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
auncient worke of Venus 1140.20 Lovers be flattcrers 93.30 Love teacheth Musuke c. 655.50 Love resembleth drunkennesse 654.1 Love what resemblance it hath with the Sunne 1149.50 why Lovers be Poets 654.10 Lovers how they can away with jests 667.20 Loxias one of the surnames of Apollo 103.30 Lucar what mony among the Romans 880.10 Lucifer the starre 821.30 Lucina 1142.1 Lucretia the Romane lady 491.30 Lucullus noted by Pompey for his superfluitie 386.30.40 led by Callisthenes 394.30 his valour 437.30 given to pleasure 438.40 kinde to his yonger brother 182.1 why blamed 297.20 Lungs full of pipes and holes to transmite liquors and solide meates 744.40 Luperci at Rome why they sacrifice a dogge 872.50 Lupercalia ib. Lusts and appetites of sundry sorts 567.10.1212.50 Lutatius Catulus erecteth an altar to Saturne 909.20 Lycaons sonnes Eleuther and Lebadius 900.1 Licaeum 900.10 Lycas a booke of Ariston his making 18.30 Lycian womē their vertues 489.1 Lycia overflowen by the sea 489.20 Lyciscus a traytour punished long after his treachery committed 540.10 Lycophanes what it is at Lacedaemon 475.40 Lycospades what horses 677.10 why they be fuller of stomacke than others 677.20 Lycurgus his apophthegme as touching education 4.10 his apophthegmes 462.20.422.50 his example of two whelps ib. he caused all vines to be cut down 19.30.76.40 he brought in base coine 463.10 hurt by Alcander ib. 50. his patience ib. his ordinances in Sparta 464.40 he ordeined sacrifices of least cost 402.30 honoured by the oracle of Apollo 600.20 not blamed for praising himselfe 305.1 Lycurgus the oratour his parentage 927.50 his education 928 1. his state affaires ib. his fidelity and reputation ib. 10. his building for the city 528.10.20 beloved of the people 928.30 a severe justicer ib. 20. his authority ib. 30. his ordinances and 〈◊〉 ib. he enacted that Poets might be free burgesses 928.40 Lycurgus ordeined to perpetuate the tragoedies of Aeschylus Sophocles and Euripides ib. he rescued Xenocrates the phtlosopher for going to prison 929.1 he saved his wife from the danger of law ib. his meane apparell ib. 10. his painfull studie ib. his apophthegmes ib. his children endited and acquit ib. 30. his death and sepulcher ib. he advanceth the weale publicke 929.40 his innocencie ib. his children ib. 50. his orations 930.10 his crowne and statues ib. honours decreed for him and his ib. his wealth and bounty ib. 20. surnamed Ibis ib. Lydian musicke rejected 1253.20 Lyde the wife of Callimachus 515.10 Lyde an Elegie of his composition ib. Lydiades first an usurping tyrant prooved afterward a good prince 543.30 Lying in children to be avoided 13 4 Lynceus quicke-sighted 238.30 Lyncurium 954.30 Lysander his apophthegmes 423.50 Lysander refused jewels sent to his daughters 320.10 unthankfull 357.40 Lysander slaine by Inachion for want of understanding an oracle 1200.30 Lysanoridas combined with the tyrants of Thebes 1205.20 Lysanoridas put to death 1227.1 Lysias the oratour his parentage and place of nativitie 921.40 his education ib. 50. his troubles and exploits 922.1.10.20 his age and death 922.20.30 Lysias the oratour his orations and writings 922. 20.30 his stile ib. 40. commended 195.10 his eloquence 195.10 K. Lysimachus for to quench his thirst lost a kingdome 416.1.547.40 his apophthegmes 416 1 Lysippus how he portraied K. Alexander 1296.50 Lysis his reliques 1208.1 Lysius the surname of Bacchus 330.50 M MAcareus deslowreth his owne sister 914.10 Macedonians plaine spoken men 409.30 their armie after Alexanders death compared to Cyclops 414.1 Macellus a famous theefe at Rome 869.1 Macellum the shambles there ib. Maemactes 125.20 Magas how he dealt with Philemon 124.50 Mage the sages what they thinke of Oromazes and Arimanius 1306.30 Magi the tyrants of Persia. 375.40 Magistracy shewes a man 363 364. c May the moneth why so called 879.40 Maidens not permitted to mary upon a feastivall day 885.10 Maiden-haire the hearbe why alwaies greene 686.30 Mallacos what it signifieth 505.30 Malladies new come and olde depart 782.50 Malladies new and strange whereof they proceed 783.10.20 Malladies of the soule compared with those of the body 313.20 Malcander king of Byblos 1293.40 Males how begotten 842.30 Male children and female how they be formed in the wombe 847.20 Mallowes 339.1 Man why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 668.40 Man most miserable 312.50 Mankinde most unhappy 312.50 Mans life full of miseries 512.30.40 Men derived into three sorts 601.30 made to doe good 393.30 Men unable in the act of generation 844.20.30 Men at what age they come to perfection 847.40 Of men in the moone 1176.50 Mandragoras cold and procureth sleepe 689.40 Mandragoras growing neere to a vine 19.40 Maneros who it was 1294.10 Manis a king 1296.30 Manica ib. his pride and arrogancie 1278. 20. how he was scoffed by Pasiades ib. 〈◊〉 might not be surnamed Marci 880.40 M. Manlius sought to be king of Rome ib. Manlius Imperiosus beheadeth his owne sonne 910.10 Battell of Mantinea described 983.1.10 Mantous 154.50 Marcellinus unthankefull to Cn. Pompeius 439.10 checked by him ib. Marcellus his apophthegme as touching the gods of Tarentum 429.40 March in old time the first moneth 856.10 Mariage in kinred forbidden at Rome 852.40.886.1 Mariage love discredited by Protogenes 1132.50 maintained by Daphnaeus ib. Mariage a number 1035.40 Mariage with a rich and wealthy wife argued 1137.10.20 Mariage with a wife yonger or elder ib. 40 No Mariages at Rome in May. 879.30 Mariage with the cousin germains how permitted 852.50 of Mariage precepts 315 Maried folke ought to have a reverent regard one of another 317.20 C. Marius defaited the Cimbrians 637.1 his apophthegmes 436.30 he crucified his daughter Calpurnia 912.10 he endured the cutting of his varices ib. his justice ib. 40 Marius and Sylla how they first fell out 350.30 Marius Gurges 907.30 Marpissa ravished by Aphareus 917.30 Mars and Venus commit adulterie 24. 30. disguised himselfe and lay with Sylvia 913.50 what is meant thereby in Homer 25.1 what epithets and attributes he hath 1140.50 his etymologie ib. Mars opposite unto love 1140.40 Mars hath divers acceptions in poets 30.10 Mars what God 1141.10 Marsyas the minstrell deviseth a hood or muzzle for his cheekes whiles he piped 122.40 why punished by Apollo 761.1 Martiall men ought to be strong of body 391.1 Martius Coriolanus 631.1 Masanissa an aged king 394.1 Masdes a renowmed prince 1296 30 Massacre in Argos 368.1 Mathematicks what pleasure they affoord 590.30 Mathematicks 1018.40 of three kinds 796.50 Mathematicall five solid bodies 819.20 Matter 768.50.805.30.808.10 the Matter not the man to be regarded 55.30 Meale an unperfect and raw thing 886.10 why called Mylephaton 886.20 Meats which are to be refused 613.40 for the Medes leave somewhat 750.1 Medica the herbe 583.1 Mediocrity or meane how to be taken 68.50 Mediterranean sea 1173.30 Medius an archsophister and flatterer in K. Alexanders court 104.50 Megaboetes a faire Catamit 449.40 Megabyzus pretily reprooved by Apelles 96.10.154.40 Megali a surname of some prince 1278.40 Megarians insolency against their principall burgesses 894.1 Megisto her