him all that was conspired and complotted against him which letter being delivered him whilst he â—ate at supper he deferred the opening of it pronouncing this by-word To morrow is a new day which afterward was turned to a Proverb in Greece A wise man may in mine opinion for the interest of others as not vnmannerly to breake companie like vnto Rusticus or not to discontinue some other affaire of importance remit and defer to vnderstand such newes as are brought him but for his owne private interest or particular pleasure namely if he be a man having publike charge if he regard his dinner so much that he will not break-it off or his sleepe that he will not interrupt-it to doe it is inexcusable And in former ages was the Consulare-place in Rome which they named the most honourable at the table because it was more free and more accessible for such as might casually come in to entertaine him that should be there placed Witnesse that though they were sitting at the board they neither omitted nor gave over the managing of other affaires and following of other accidents But when all is said it is verie hard chiefely in humane actions to prescribe so exact rules by discourse of reason that fortune do not sway and keepe her right in them The fifth Chapter Of Conscience MY brother the Lord of Bronze and my selfe during the time of our civill wars travelling one day together we fortuned to meet vpon the way with a Gentleman in outward semblance of good demeanour He was of our contrarie faction but forasmuch as he counterfaited himselfe otherwise I knew it not And the worst of these tumultuous intestine broyles is that the cards are so shuffled your enemie being neither by language nor by fashion nor by any other apparant marke distinguished from you nay which is more brought vp vnder the same lawes and customes and breathing the same ayre that it is a verie hard matter to avoide confusion and shun disorder Which consideration made me not a little fearfull to meet with our troopes especially where I was not knowne lest I should be vrged to tell my name and happly doe worse As other times before it had befalne me for by such a chance or rather mistaking I fortuned once to loose all my men and horses and hardly escaped my selfe and amongest other my losses and servants that were slaine the thing that most grieved me was the vntimely and miserable death of a yoong Italian Gentleman whom I kept as my Page and verie carefully brought-vp with whom dyed as forward as budding and as hopefull a youth as ever I saw But this man seemed so fearfully-dismaid and at every encounter of horsemen and passage by or through any Towne that held for the King I observed him to be so strangely distracted that in the end I perceived and ghessed they were but guiltie alarums that his conscience gave him It seemed vnto this seely man that all might apparantly both through his blushing selfe-accusing countenance and by the crosses he wore vpon his vpper garments read the 〈◊〉 intentions of his faint-hart Of such marvailous-working power is the sting of conscience which often induceth vs to bewray to accuse and to combate our selves and for want of other evidences shee produceth our selves against our selves Occultum quatsente animâ— tortore flagellum Their minde the tormentor of sinne Shaking an vnseen whip within The storie of Bessus the Poenian is so common that even children have it in their moâ—ths who being found fault withall that in mirth he had beaten-downe a neast of yong Sparrowes and then killed them answered he had great reason to do-it forsomuch as those yong birds ceased not â—alsely to accuse him to have mâ—rthered his father which parricide was never suspected to have been committed by him and vntill that day had layen secret but the revengefull suries of the conscience made the same partie to reveal it that by all right was to doe penance for so hatefull and vnnaturall a murther Hesiodus correcteth the saying of Plato That punishment doth commonly succeed the guilt and follow sinne at hand for he affirmeth that it rather is borne at the instant and together with sinne it selfe and they are as twinnes borne at one birth together Whosoever expects punishment suffereth the same and whosoever deferveth it he doth expect it Impâ—eâ—se doth invent and iniquitie dooth frame torments against it selfe Malum consilium consultori pessimum Bad counsell is worst for the counceller that gives the counsell Even as the Waspe stingeth and offendeth others but hir selfe much more for in hurting others she looseth hir force and sting for ever vitásque in vulnere ponunt They while they others sting Death to themselves doe bring The Canâ—harides have some part in them which by a contrarietie of nature serveth as an antidot or counterpoison against their poison so likewise as one taketh pleasure in vice there is a certaine contrarie displeasure engendred in the conscience which by sundrie irksome and painfull imaginations perplexeth and tormenteth vs both waking and asleep Quippe vbi se multi per somnia saepe loquentes Aut morbo delirantes procraxe ferantur Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse Many in dreames oft speaking or vnhealed In sicknesse raving have themselves revealed And brought to light their sinnes long time concealed Apollodorus dreamed he saw himselfe first flead by the Scythians and then boyled in a pot and that his owne heart murmured saying I onely have caused this mischiefe to light vpon thee Epicurus was wont to say that no lurking hole can shroud the wicked for they can never assure themselves to be sufficiently hidden sithence conscience is ever readie to disclose them to themselves prima est haec vlâ—io quód se Iudice nemo nâ—cens absolvitur This is the first revenge no guiltie mind Is quitted though it selfe be judge assign'd Which as it doth fill vs with feare and doubt so doth it store vs with assurance and trust And I may boldly say that I have waded through many dangerous hazards with a more vntired pace onely in consideration of the secret knowledge I had of mine owne will and innocencie of my desseignes Conscia mens vt cuique sua est ita concipit intra Pectora pro facto spèmque metúmque suo As each mans minde is guiltie so doth he Inlie breed hope and feare as his deeds be Of examples there are thousands It shall suffice vs to alleage three onely and all of one man Scipio being one day accused before the Romane people of an vrgent and capitall accusation in stead of excusing himselfe or flattering the Iudges turning to them he said It will well beseeme you to vndertake to judge of his head by whose meanes you have authoritie to judge of all the world The same man another time being vehemently vrged by a Tribune of the people who charged him with sundrie imputations in
to go straight in the hart of the Citie but in the end he no sooner perceived the Duke of Burbons troupes advancing to withstand him imagining it to be some sallie the Citizens made that way he better be-thinking him-selfe turned head and the very same way he came out he went into the town againe which was more than three hundred paces distance towards the fields The like happened but not so successefully vnto Captaine Iulius-his ensigne-bearer at what time Saint Paul was taken from vs by the Earle of Bures and the Lord of Reu who was so frighted with feare that going about to cast himselfe over the towne wals with his Ancient in his hand or to creepe through a spike-hole he was cut in pieces by the assailants At which siege likewise that horror and feare is verie memorable which so did choake seize vpon and freeze the hart of a gentleman that having received no hurt at all he fell downe starke-dead vpon the ground before the breach The like passion rage doth sometimes possesse a whole multitude In one of the encounters that Germanicus had with the Germanes two mightie troupes were at one instant so frighted with feare that both betooke themselves to their heeles and ranne away two contrary waies the one right to that place whence the other fled It sometimes addeth wings vnto our heeles as vnto the first named and other times it takes the vse of feete from vs as we may reade if Theophilus the Emperour who in a battell he lost against the Agarenes was so amazed and astonied that he could not resolve to scape away by flight adeò pavor etiam auxilia formidat Feare is so afraide even of that should help Vntill such time as Manuel one of the chiefe leaders in his armie having rouzed and shaken him as it were out of a dead sleepe said vnto him Sir if you will not presently follow me I will surely kill you for better were it you should loose your life than being taken prisoner loose your Empire and all Then doth she shew the vtmost of her power when for her own service she casts vs off vnto valour which it hath exacted from our duty and honor In the first set battell the Romans lost against Hanibal vnder the Consul Sempronius a troupe of wel-nigh tenne thousand footemen was so surprised with feare that seeing no other way to take nor by what other course to give their basenes free passage they headlong bent their flight toward the thickest and strongest squadron of their enemies which with such furie it rowted and brake through as it disranked and slew a great number of the Carthaginians purchasing a reprochfull and disgracefull flight at the same rate it might have gained a most glorious victorie It is feare I stand most in feare of For in sharpnesse it surmounteth all other accidents What affection can be more violent and just than that of Pompeyes friends who in his owne ship were spectators of that horrible massacre yet is it that the feare of the Aegyptian sailes which began to approach them did in such sort daunt and skare them that some have noted they only busied themselves to hasten the marriners to make what speed they could and by maine strength of oares to save themselves vntill such time as being arived at Tyre and that they were free from feare they had leasure to bethinke themselves of their late losse and give their plaints and teares free passage which this other stronger passion had suspended and hindred Tum pavor sapientiam omnem mihi ex animo expectorat Feare then vnbreasts all wit That in my minde did â—it Those who in any skirâ—ish or sudden bickering of warre have been throughly skared sore-hurt wounded and gored as they be are many times the next day after brought to charge againe But such as have conceived a true feare of their enemies it is hard for you to make them looke them in the face againe Such as are in continuall feare to loose their goods to be banished or to besubdued live in vncessant agonie and languor and thereby often loose both their drinking their eating and their rest Whereas the poore the banished and seely servants live often as carelessely and as pleasantly as the other And so many men who by the impatience and vrging of feare have hanged drowned and head long tumbled downe from some rocke have plainely taught vs that feare is more importunate and intolerable then death The Graecians acknowledge an other kinde of it which is beyond the error of our discourse proceeding as they say without any apparant cause and from an heavenly impulsion Whole Nations and Armies are often seene surprised with it Such was that which brought so wonderfull a desolation to Carthage where nothing was heard but lamentable out-cries and frightfull exclamations the inhabitants were seene desperately to runne out of their houses as to a sudden alarum and furiously to charge hurt and entâ—â— kill one another as if they had beene enemies come to vsurpe and possesse their Citie All things were there in a disordered confusion and in a confused furie vntill such time as by praiers and sacrifices they had appeased the wrath of their Gods They call it to this day the Panike terror The eighteenth Chapter That we should not iudge of our happinesse vntill after our death scilicet vltima semper Expectanda dies homini est dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremáqué funera debâ—t We must expect of man the latest day Nor er'e he die he 's happie can we say THe very children are acquainted with the storie of Croesus to this purpose who being taken by Cyrus by him condemned to die vpon the point of his execution cried out aloude Oh Solon Solon which words of his being reported to Cyrus who inquiring what he meant by them tolde him hee now at his owne cost verified the advertisement Solon had before times given him which was that no man what cheerefull blandishing countenance soever fortune shewed them may rightly deeme himselfe happie till such time as he have passed the last day of his life by reason of the vncertaintie and vicissitude of humane things which by a very light motive and slight occasion are often changed from one to another cleane contrary state and degree And therefore Agesilaus answered one that counted the King of Persia happy because being very yong he had gotten the garland of so mightie and great a dominion yea but said he Priame at the same age was not vnhappy Of the Kings of Macedon that succeeded Alexander the great some were afterward seene to become Ioyners and Scriveners at Rome and of Tirants of Sicilie Schoolemasters at Corinth One that had conquered halfe the world and been Emperour over so many Armies became an humble and miserable suter to the raskally officers of a king of Aegypt At so high a rate did that great Pompey purchase the irkesome prolonging of his
life but for five or six moneths And in our fathers daies Lodowicke Sforce tenth Duke of Millane vnder whom the state of Italie had so long beene turmoiled and shaken was seene to die a wretched prisoner at Loches in France but not till he had lived and lingered ten yeares in thraldome which was the worst of his bargaine The fairest Queene wife to the greatest King of Christendome was she not lately seene to die by the hands of an executioner Oh vnworthie and barbarous crueltie And a thousand such examples For it seemeth that as the sea-billowes and surging waves rage and storme against the surly pride and stubborne height of our buildings So is there above certain spirits that envie the rising prosperities and greatnesse heere below Vsque adeò res humanas res abdita quaedam Obterit pulchros fasces savásque secures Proculcare ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur A hidden power so mens states hath out worne Faire swordes fierce scepters signes of honours borne It seemes to trample and deride in scorne And it seemeth Fortune doth sometimes narrowly watch the last day of our life thereby to shew her power and in one moment to overthrow what for many yeares together she had beene erecting and makes vs crie after Laberius Nimirum hac die vna plus vixi mihi quà m vivendum fuit Thus it is I have lived longer by this one day than I should So may that good advise of Solon be taken with reason But for somuch as hee is a Philosopher with whom the favours or disfavours of fortune and good or ill lucke have no place and are not regarded by him and puissances and greatnesses and accidents of qualitie are well nigh indifferent I deeme it very likely he had a further reach and meant that the same good fortune of our life which dependeth of the tranquilitie and contentment of a wel-borne minde and of the resolution and assurance of a well ordered soule should never be ascribed vnto man vntill he have beene seene play the last act of his comedie and without doubt the hardest In all the rest there may besome maske either these sophisticall discourses of Philosophie are not in vs but by countenance or accidents that never touch vs to the quick give vs alwaies leasure to keep our countenance setled But when that last part of death and of our selves comes to be acted then no dissembling will availe then is it high time to speake plaine english and put off all vizards then whatsoever the pot containeth must be shewne be it good or bad foule or cleane wine or water Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo Eijciuntur eripitur persona manet res For then are sent true speeches from the heart We are our selves we leave to play a part Loe heere why at this last cast all our lives other actions must be tride and touched It is the master-day the day that judgeth all others it is the day saith an auncient Writer that must judge of all my forepassed yeares To death do I referre the essay of my studies fruit There shall wee see whether my discourse proceede from my heart or from my mouth I have seene divers by their death either in good or evill give reputation to all their forepassed life Scipio father in law to Pompey in well dying repaired the ill opinion which vntill that houre men had ever held of him Epaminondas being demanded which of the three he esteemed most either Chabrias or Iphicrates or himselfe It is necessary said he that we be seene to die before your question may well be resolved Verily we should steale much from him if he should be weighed without the honour and greatnesse of his end God hath willed it as he pleased but in my time three of the most execrable persons that ever I knew in all abomination of life and the most infamous have beene seen to die very orderly and quietly and in every circumstance composed even vnto perfection There are some brave and fortunate deaths I have seene her cut the twine of some mans life with a progresse of wonderfull advancement and with so worthie an end even in the flowre of his growth and spring of his youth that in mine opinion his ambitious and haughtie couragious designes thought nothing so high as might interrupt them who without going to the place where he pretended arived there more gloriously and worthily than either his desire or hope aimed at And by his fall fore-went the power and name whether by his course he aspired When I judge of other mens lives I ever respect how they have behaved themselves in their end and my chiefest study is I may well demeane my selfe at my last gaspe that is to say quietly and constantly The nineteenth Chapter That to Philosophie is to learne how to die CIcero saith that to Philosophie is no other thing than for a man to prepare himselfe to death which is the reason that studie and contemplation doth in some sort withdraw our soule from vs and severally employ it from the body which is a kind of apprentisage and resemblance of death or else it is that all the wisedome and discourse of the world doth in the end resolve vpon this point to teach vs not to feare to die Truely either reason mockes vs or it only aimeth at our contentment and in fine bends all her trauell to make vs live wel and as the holy Scripture saith at our ease All the opinions of the world conclude that pleasure is our end how be it they take divers meanes vnto and for it else would men reject them at their first comming For who would giue eare vnto him that for it's end would establish our paine and disturbance The dissentions of philosophicall sects in this case are verball Transcurramus solertissimas nugas Let vs runne over such over-fine fooleries and subtill trifles There is more wilfulnesse and wrangling among them than pertaines to a sacred profession But what person a man vndertakes to act he doth ever therewithall personate his owne Although they say that in vertue it selfe the last scope of our aime is voluptuousnes It pleaseth me to importune their eares still with this word which so much offends their hearing And if it imply any chiefe pleasure or exceeding contentments it is rather due to the assistance of vertue than to any other supply voluptuousnes being more strong sinnowie sturdie and manly is but more seriously voluptuous And we should give it the name of pleasure more favorable sweeter and more naturall and not terme it vigor from which it hath his denomination Should this baser sensuality deserue this faire name it should be by competencie and not by privilege I finde it lesse voide of incommodities and crosses than vertue And besides that her taste is more fleeting momentarie and fading she hath her fasts her eves and her travels and both sweate and blood Furthermore she hath perticularly
of the death of men that is to say what words what countenance and what face they shew at their death and in reading of histories which I so attentively observe It appeareth by the shuffling and hudling vp of my examples I affect no subject so particularly as this Were I a composer of bookes I would keepe a register commented of the diverse deaths which in teaching men to die should after teach them to live Dicearcus made one of that title but of an other and lesse profitable end Some man will say to me the effect exceedes the thought so farre that there is no fence so sure or cunning so certaine but a man shall either loose or forget if he come once to that point let them say what they list to premeditate on it giveth no doubt a great advantage and is it nothing at the least to go eso farre without dismay or alteration or without an ague There belongs more to it Nature herselfe lends her hand and gives vs courage If it be a short and violent death we have no leasure to feare it if otherwise I perceive that according as I engage my selfe in sicknesse I do naturally fall into some disdaine and contempt of life I find that I have more ado to disgest this resolution that I shall die when I am in health than I have when I am troubled with a feaver forsomuch as I have no more such fast hold on the commodities of life whereof I begin to loose the vse and pleasure and view death in the face with a lesse vndanted looke which makes me hope that the further I go from that and the neerer I approch to this so much more easily do I enter in composition for their exchange Even as I have tried in many other occurrences which Caesar affirmed that often somethings seeme greater being farre from vs than if they be neere at hand I have found that being in perfect health I have much more beene frighted with sicknesse than when I have felt it The jollitie wherein I live the pleasure and the strength make the other seeme so disproportionable from that that by imagination I amplifie these commodities by one moitie and apprehended them much more heauie and burthensome then I feele them when I have them vpon my shoulders The same I hope will happen to me of death Consider we by the ordinary mutations and daily declinations which we suffer how Nature deprives vs of the night of our losse and empairing what hath an aged man left him of his youths vigor and of his forepast life Heu senibus vitae portio quanta manet Alas to men in yeares how small A part of life is left in all Caesar to a tired and crazed Souldier of his guard who in the open streete came to him to beg leave he might cause himselfe to be put to death viewing his decrepit behauiour answered pleasantly Doest thou thinke to be alive then Were man all at once to fall into it I do not thinke we should be able to beare such a change but being faire and gently led on by her hand in a slow and as it were vnperceived descent by little and little and step by step she roules vs into that miserable state and day by day seekes to acquaint vs with it So that when youth failes in vs we feele nay we perceive no shaking or transchange at all in our selves which in essence and veritie is a harder death then that of a languishing and irkesome life or that of age Forsomuch as the leap from an ill being vnto a not being is not so dangerous or steeple as it is from a delightfull and flowrishing being unto a painfull and sorrowfull condition A weake bending and faint stooping bodie hath lesse strength to beare and vndergo a heauie burden So hath our soule She must be rouzed and raised against the violence and force of this adversarie For as 〈…〉 s impossible shee should take any rest whilest shee feareth whereof if she be assured which is a thing exceeding humane condition she may boast that it is impossible vnquietnesse torment and feare much lesse the least displeasure should lodge in her Non vulius instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida neque Auster Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae Nec fulminantis magna Iovis manus No vrging tyrants threatning face Where minde is sound can it displace No troublous wind the rough seas Master Nor Ioves great hand the thunder-caster She is made Mistris of her passions and concupiscence Lady of indulgence of shame of povertie and of all fortunes injuries Let him that can attaine to this advantage Herein consists the true and Soveraigne libertie that affords vs meanes wherewith to jeast and make a scorne of force and in justice and to deride imprisonment gives or fetters in manicis Compedibus saevo te sub custode tenebo Ipse Deus simul atque volam me solvet opinor Hoc sensit moriar mor◠vltima linearerum est In gyves and fetters I will hamper thee Vnder a Iayler that shall cruell be Yet when I will God me deliver shall He thinkes I shall die death is end of all Our religion hath had no surer humane foundation then the contempt of life Discourse of reason doth not onely call and summon vs vnto it For why should we feare to loose a thing which being lost cannot be moaned but also since we are threatned by so many kinds of death there is no more inconvenience to feare them all than to endure one what matter is it when it commeth since it is vnavoidable Socrates answered one that told him The thirty Tyrants have condemned thee to death And Nature them said he What fondnesse is it to carke and care so much at that instant and passage from all exemption of paine and care As our birth brought vs the birth of all things so shall our death the end of all things Therefore is it as great follie to weepe we shall not live a hundred yeeres hence as to waile we lived not a hundred yeeres agoe Death is the beginning of another life So wept we and so much did it cost vs to enter into this life and so did we spoile vs of our ancient vaile in entring into it Nothing can be grievous that is but once Is it reason so long to feare a thing of so short time Long life or short life is made all one by death For long or short is not in things that are no more Aristotle saith there are certaine litle beasts alongst the river Hyspanis that live but one day she which dies at 8. a clocke in the morning dies in her youth she that dies at 5. in the afternoon dies in her decrepitude who of vs doth not laugh when we shall see this short moment of continuance to be had in consideration of good or ill fortune The most the least in ours if we compare it with eternitie or equall it to
thereby Therefore is it meere simplicitie to condemne a thing you never prooved neither by your selfe nor any other Why doest thou complaine of me and of destinie Doe we offer thee any wrong is it for thee to direct vs or for vs to governe thee Although thy age be not come to her period thy life is A little man is a whole man as well as a great man Neither men nor their lives are measured by the Ell. Chiron refused immortalitie being informed of the conditions thereof even by the God of time and of continuance Saturne his father Imagine truely how much an ever during life would be lesse tollerable and more painefull to a man then is the life which I have given him Had you not death you would then vncessantly curse and cry out against me that I had deprived you of it I have of purpose and wittingly blended some bitternes amongst it that so seeing the commoditie of it's vse I might hinder you from over greedily embracing or indiscreetly calling for it To continue in this moderation that is neither to flie from life nor to run to death which I require of you I have tempered both the one and other betweene sweetenes sowrenes I first taught Thales the chiefest of your Sages and Wise men that to live die were indifferent which made him answer one very wisely who asked him wherefore he died not Because saith he it is indifferent The water the earth the aire the fire and other members of this my vniverse are no more the instruments of thy life then of thy death Why fearest thou thy last day He is no more guiltie and conferreth no more to thy death then any of the others It is not the last step that causeth wearinesse it onely declares it All daies march towards death onely the last comes to it Behold heere the good precepts of our vniversall mother Nature I have oftentimes bethought my selfe whence it proceedeth that in times of warre the visage of death whether wee see it in vs or in others seemeth without all comparison much lesse dreadfull and terrible vnto vs then in our houses or in our beds otherwise it should be an armie of Phisitians and whiners and she ever being one there must needes bee much more assurance amongst contrie-people and of base condition then in others I verily beleeve these fearefull lookes and astonishing countenances wherewith we encompasse it are those that more amaze and terrifie vs then death a new forme of life the out-cries of mothers the wailing of women and children the visitation of dismaid and swouning friends the assistance of a number of pale-looking distracted and whining servants a darke chamber tapers burning round about our couch beset round with Phisitians and Preachers and to conclude nothing but horror and astonishment on every side of vs are wee not alreadie dead and buried The very children are afraid of their friends when they see them masked and so are we The maske must as well be taken from things as from men which being remooved we shall finde nothing hid vnder it but the very same death that a seely varlet or a simple maide-maide-servant did lately suffer without amazement or feare Happie is that death which takes all leasure from the preparations of such an equipage The twentieth Chapter Of the force of Imagination FOrtis imaginatio generat casum A strong imagination begetteth chance say learned clearkes I am one of those that feele a very great conflict and power of imagination All men are shockt therewith and some overthrowne by it The impression of it pierceth me and for want of strength to resist her my endevour is to avoid it I could live with the only assistance of holy and mery hearted men The sight of others anguishes doth sensibly drive me into anguish and my sense hath often vsurped the sense of a third man If one cough continually he provokes my lungs and throate I am more vnwilling to visite the sicke dutie doth engage me vnto than those to whom I am little beholding and regard least I apprehend the evill which I studie and place it in me I deeme it not strange that she brings both agues and death to such as give her scope to worke her will and applaude her Simon Thomas was a great Phisitian in his daies I remember vpon a time comming by chance to visit a rich old man that dwelt in Tholouse and who was troubled with the cough of the lungs who discoursing with the said Simon Thomas of the meanes of his recoverie he told him that one of the best was to give me occasion to be delighted in his companie and that fixing his eyes vpon the livelines and freshnes of my face and setting his thoughts vpon the jolitie and vigor wherewith my youthfull age did then flourish and filling all his senses with my florishing estate his habitude might thereby be amended and his health recovered But he forgot to say that mine might also be empaired and infected Gallus Vibius did so well enure his minde to comprehend the essence and motions of folly that he so transported his judgement from out his seate as he could never afterward bring it to his right place againe and might rightly boast to have become a soole through wisdome Some there are that through feare anticipate the hang-mans hand as he did whose friends having obtained his pardon and putting away the cloth wherewith he was hood-winkt that he might heare it read was found starke dead vpon the scaffold wounded onely by the stroke of imagination Wee sweate we shake we grow pale and we blush at the motions of our imaginations and wallowing in our beds we feele our bodies agitated and turmoiled at their apprehensions yea in such manner as sometimes we are ready to yeeld vp the spirit And burning youth although asleepe is often therewith so possessed and enfoulded that dreaming it doth satisfie and enjoy her amorous desires Vt quasi transactis saepe omnibu'rebu ' profundant Fluminis ingentes fluctus vest émque cruentent And if all things were done they powre foorth streames And bloodie their night-garment in their dreames And although it be not strange to see some men have hornes growing vpon their head in one night that had none when they went to bed notwithstanding the fortune or successe of Cyppus King of Italie is memorable who because the day before he had with earnest affection assisted and beene attentive at a bul-baâ—ting and having all night long dreamed of hornes in his head by the very force of imagination brought them foorth the next morning in his forehead An earnest passion gave the son of Croesus his voice which nature had denied him And Antiochus got an ague by the excellent beautie of Stratonicâ— so deepely imprinted in his minde Plinie reporteth to have seene Lucius Cossitius vpon his marriage day to have beene transformed from a woman to a man Pontanus and others recount the like Metamorphosies
eyeing a bird sitting vpon a tree that he seeing the Cat they both so wistly fixed their looks one vpon another so long that at last the bird tell downe as dead in the Cats pawes either drunken by his owne strong imagination or drawne by some attractiue power of the Cat. Those that love hawking have happily heard the Falkners tale who earnestly fixing his sight vpon a Kite in the aire laide a wager that with the onely force of his looke he would make it come stooping downe to the ground and as some report did it many times The Histories I borrow I referre to the consciences of those I take them from The discourses are mine and holde together by the proofe of reason not of experiences each man may adde his example to them and who hath none considering the number and varietie of accidents let him not leave to think there are store of them If I come not well for my selfe let another come for me So in the studie wherein I treat of our manners and motions the fabulous testimonies alwaies provided they be likely and possible may serve to the purpose as well as the true whether it hapned or no be it at Rome or at Paris to Iohn or Peter it is alwaies a tricke of humane capacitie of which I am profitably advised by this report I see it and reape profit by it as well in shadow as in bodie And in divers lessons that often histories affoord I commonly make vse of that which is most rare and memorable Some writers there are whose end is but to relate the events Mine if I could attaine to it should be to declare what may come to passe touching the same It is justly allowed in schooles to suppose similitudes when they have none Yet do not I so and concerning that point in superstitious religion I exceed all historicall credit To the examples I here set down of what I have read heard done or seene I have sorbid my selfe so much as to dare to change the least or alter the idlest circumstances My conscience doth not falsifie the least iot I wot not whether my insight doth Concerning this subject I doe sometimes enter into conceit that it may well become a Divine a Philosopher or rather men of exquisite conscience and exact wisdome to write histories How can they otherwise engage their credit vpon a popular reputation How can they answer for the thoughts of vnknowne persons And make their bare conjectures passe for currant paiment Of the actions of divers members acted in their presence they would refuse to beare witnes of them if by a judge they were put to their corporall oath And there is no man so familiarly knowne to them of whose inward intention they would vndertake to answer at full I hold it leâ—â—e hazardous to write of things past then present forasmuch as the writer is not bound to give account but of a borrowed trueth Some perswade mee to write the affaires of my time imagining I can see them with a sight lesse blinded with passion then other men and perhaps neerer by reason of the accesse which fortune hath given me to the chiefest of divers factions But they will not say how for the glory of Salust I would not take the paines as one that am a vowed enemie to observance to assiduitie and to constancie and that there is nothing so contrarie to my stile as a continued narration I doe so often for want of breath breake off and interrupt my selfe I have neither composition nor explication of any woorth I am as ignorant as a childe of the phrases and vowels belonging to common things And therefore have I attempted to say what I can accommodating the matter to my power Should I take any man for a guid my measure might differ from his For my libertie being so farre I might happily publish judgements agreeing with me and consonant to reason yet vnlawfull and punishable Plutarke would peradventure tell vs of that which he hath written that it is the worke of others that his examples are in all and everiewhere true that they are profitable to posteritie and presented with a lustre that lights and directs vs vnto vertue and that is his worke It is not dangerous as in a medicinable drugge whether in an old tale or report be it thus or thus so or so The one and twentieth Chapter The profit of one man is the dâ—mage of an other DEmades the Athenian condemned a man of the Citie whose trade was to sell such necessaries as belonged to burials vnder colour hee asked too much profit for them and that such profit could not come vnto him without the death of many people This judgement seemeth to be ill taken because no man profiteth but by the losse of others by which reason a man should condemne all maner of gaine The Marchant thrives not but by the licentiousnesse of youth the Husband man by dearth of corne the Architect but by the ruine of houses the Lawyer by sutes and controversies betweene men Honour it selfe and practise of religious Ministers is drawne from our death and vices No Phisitian delighteth in the health of his owne friend saith the auncient Greeke Comike nor no Souldier is pleased with the peace of his Cittie and so of the rest And which is worse let every man sound his owne conscience hee shall finde that our inward desires are for the most part nourished and bred in vs by the losse and hurt of others which when I considered I began to thinke how Nature doth not gainesay herselfe in this concerning her generall policie for Phisitians hold that The birth increase and augmentation of every thing is the alteration and corruption of another Nam quodcunque suis mutatum finibus exit Continuo hoc mors est illius quod fuit ante What ever from it's bounds doth changed passe That strait is death of that which erst it was The two and twentieth Chapter Of custome and how a receiued law should not easily be changed MY opinion is that hee conveied aright of the force of custome that first invented this tale how a countrey woman having enured herselfe to cherish and beare a yoong calfe in her armes which continuing shee got such a custome that when he grew to be a great oxe shee carried him still in her armes For truely Custome is a violent and deceiving schoole mistris She by little and little and as it were by stealth establisheth the foote of her authoritie in vs by which milde and gentle beginning if once by the aide of time it have setled and planted the same in vs it will soone discouer a furious and tyrannicall countenance vnto vs against which we have no more the libertie to lift so much as our eies wee may plainly see her vpon every occasion to force the rules of Nature Vsus efficacissimus reruÌ„ omnium magister Vse is the most effectuall master of all things I beleeve Platoes
certè semper amabo O brother reft from miserable me All our delight 's are perished with thee Which thy sweete love did nourish in my breath Thou all my good hast spoiled in thy death With thee my soule is all and whole enshrinde At whose death I have cast out of minde All my mindes sweete-meates studies of this kinde Never shall I heare thee speake speake with thee Thee brother then life dearer never see Yet shalt thou ever be belou'd of mee but let-vs a little heare this yong man speake being but sixteene yeares of age Because I have found this worke to have since bin published and to an ill end by such as seeke to trouble and subvert the state of our common-wealth nor caring whether they shall reforme it or no which they have fondly inserted among other writings of their invention I have revoked my intent which was to place-it here And lest the Authors memory should any way be interessed with those that could not thoroughly know his opinions and actions they shall vnderstand that this subject was by him treated of in his infancie onely by way of exercise as a subject common bare-worne and wyer-drawne in a thousand bookes I will never doubt but he beleeved what he writ and writ as he thought for hee was so conscientious that no lie did ever passe his lips yea were it but in matters of sport or play and I know that had it bin in his choyce he would rather have bin borne at Venice than at Sarlac and good reason why But he had an other maxime deepely imprinted in his minde which was carefully to obey and religiously to submit himselfe to the lawes vnder which he was borne There was never a better Citizen nor more affected to the welfare and quietnesse of his countrie nor a sharper enemie of the changes innovations newfangles and hurly-burlies of his time He would more willingly have imployed the vtmost of his endevours to extinguish and suppresse then to favour or further them His minde was modelled to the patterne of other best ages But yet in exchange of his serious treatise I will here set you downe another more pithie materiall and of more consequence by him likewise produced in that tender age The eight and twentieth Chapter Nine and twentie Sonnets of Steven de la Boetie to the Ladie of Grammont Countesse of Guissen MAdame I present you with nothing that is mine either because it is already yours or because I finde nothing therein woorthy of you But wheresoever these verses shall be seene for the honor which thereby shall redound to them by having this glorious Corisand◠of Andoms for their guide I thought it good to adorne them with your woorthie name I have deemed this present fit for your Ladiship forsomuch as there are few Ladies in France that either can better judge of Poesie or fitter apply the vse of it then your woorthy selfe and since in these her drooping daies none can give it more life or vigorous spirit than you by those rich and high-tuned accords wherewith amongst a million of other rar◠beauties nature hath richly graced you Madame these verses deserve to be cherished by you and I am perswaded you will be of mine opinion which is that none have come out of Gaskonie that either had more wit or better inuention and that witnesse to have proceeded from a richer vaine And let no jealousie possesse you inasmuch as you have but the remainder of that which whilome I caused to be printed vnder the name of my Lord of Foix your woorthy noble and deare kinsman For truely these have a kinde of livelinesse and more piercing Emphasis than any other and which I can not well expresse as hee that made them in his Aprils youth and when he was enflamed with a noble-glorious flame as I will one day tell your honour in your care The other were afterward made by him in favour of his wife at what time he wooed and solicited her for mariage and began to feele I wot not what martiall-chilnesse and husbands-coldnesse And I am one of those whose opinion is that divine Poesie doth no where fadge so well and so effectually applaudeth as in a youthfull wanton and vnbridled subject The above-mentioned nine and twentie Sonnes of Boetie and that in the former impressions of this booke were heere set downe have since beene printed with his other works The nine and twentieth Chapter Of Moderation AS if our sense of feeling were infected wee corrupt by our touching things that in themselves are faire and good We may so seize on vertue that if we embrace it with an over greedie and violent desire it may become vitious Those who say There is never excesse in vertue because it is no longer vertue if any excesse be in it doe but jeast at words Insani sapiens nomen ferat aequus iniqui Vltra quà m satis est virtut em si pet at ipsam A wise man mad just vnjust may I name More then is meet ev'n vertue if he claime Philosophie is a subtile consideration A man may love vertue too much and excessively demeane himselfe in a good action Gods holy word doth apply it selfe to this byase Be not wiser then you should and be soberly wise I have seene some great men blemish the reputation of their religion by shewing themselves religious beyond the example of men of their qualitie I love temperate and indifferent natures Immoderation towards good if it offend me not it amazeth and troubleth me how I should call it Neither Pausanias his mother who gave the first instruction and for her sonnes death brought the first stone Not Posthumius the Dictator that brought his owne sonne to his end whom the heate and forwardnesse of youth had haply before his ranke made to charge his enemies seeme so just as strange vnto me And I neither love to perswade or follow so savage and so deare a vertue The Archer that overshootes his marke doth no otherwise than he that shooteth short Mine eies trouble me as much in climbing vp toward a great light as to goe downe in the darke Caliscles in Plato saith The extremitie of Philosophie to bee hurtfull and perswades no man to wade further into it then the bounds of profit And that taken with moderation it is pleasant and commodious but in the end it makes a man wilde and vicious disdainfull of religion and of common lawes an enemie of civill conversation a foe to humane sensualitie and worldly pleasures incapable of all politike administration and vnfit to assist others or to helpe himselfe apt to be without revenge buffeted and bassled He saith true for in her excesse she enthralleth our naturall libertie and by an importunate wile diverts vs from the faire and plaine path which nature traceth out for vs. The love we beare to women is very lawfull yet doth Divinitie bridle and restraine the same I remember to have read in Saint Thomas in a
subject are diverse things Therefore who iudgeth by apparances iudgeth by a thing different from the subiect And to say that the senses passions referre the qualitie of strange subjects by resemblance vnto the soule How can the soule and the vnderstanding rest assured of that resemblance having of itselfe no commerce with forraigne subjects Even as he that knowes not Socrates seeing his picture cannot say that it resembleth him And would a man judge by apparances be it by all it is impossible for by their contraries and differences they hinder one another as we see by experience May it be that some choice apparances rule and direct the others This choyse must be verified by an other choyse the second by a third and so shall we never make an end In few there is no constant existence neither of our being nor of the obiects And we and our judgement and al mortal things els do vncessantly rowle turne and passe away Thus can nothing be certainely established nor of the one nor of the other both the judging and the judged being in continuall alteration and motion Wee have no communication with being for every humane nature is ever in the middle betweene being borne and dying giving nothing of it selfe but an obscure apparance and shaddow and an vncertaine and weake opinion And if perhappes you fix your thought to take it's being it would be even as if one should goe about to graspe the water for how much the more he shall close and presse that which by its owne nature is ever gliding so much the more he shall loose what he would hold and fasten Thus seeing all things are subject to passe from one change to another reason which therein seeketh a reall subsistance findes hir selfe deceived as vnable to apprehend any thing subsistant and permanent forsomuch as each thing eyther commeth to a being and is not yet altogether or beginneth to dy before it be borne Plato said that bodies had never an existence but in deede a birth supposing that Homer made the Ocean Father and Thet is Mother of the Gods thereby to shew-vs that all things are in continuall motion change and variation As he saith a common opinion amongst all the Philosophers before his time Only Parmenides excepted who denied any motion to be in things of whose power he maketh no small accoumpt Pythagoras that each thing or matter was ever gliding and labile The Stoickes affirme there is no present time and that which we call present is but conjoyning and assembling of future time past Heraclitus averreth that no man ever entred twise one same river Epicarmus avowcheth that who erewhile borrowed any mony doth not now owe it and that he who yesternight was bidden to dinner this day commeth to day vnbidden since they are no more themselves but are become others and that one mortall substance could not twise be found in one self state for by the sodainesse and lightnesse of change somtimes it wasteth and othertimes it re-assembleth now it comes and now it goes in such sort that he who beginneth to be borne never comes to the perfection of being For this being borne commeth never to an end nor ever stayeth as being at an end but after the seede proceedeth continually in change and alteration from one to another As of mans seede there is first made a shapelesse fruit in the Mothers Wombe than a shapen Childe then being out of the Wombe a sucking babe afterward he becommeth a ladde then consequently a striplin then a full-growne man then an old man and in the end an aged decrepite man So that age and subsequent generation goeth ever vndoing and wasting the precedent Mut at enim mundi naturam totius aetas Ex alióque alius status excipere omnia debet Nec manet vlla sui similis res omnia migrant Omnia commut at natura vertere cogit Of th'vniversall world age doth the nature change And all things from one state must to another range No one thing like it selfe remaines all things doe passe Nature doth change and drive to change each thing that was And when wee do foolishile feare a kinde of death when as wee have already past and dayly passe so many others For not only as Heraclitus said the death of fire is a generation of ayre and the death of ayre a generation of Water But also we may most evidently see it in our selves The flower of age dieth fadeth and fleeteth when age comes vpon vs and youth endeth in the flower of a full growne mans age Child-hood in youth and the first age dieth in infancie and yester-day endeth in this day and to day shall die in to morrow And nothing remaineth or ever continueth in one state For to proove it if we should ever continue one and the same how is it then that now we rejoyce at one thing and now at another How comes it to passe we love things contrary or we hate them or we love them or we blame them How is it that we have different affections holding no more the same sence in the same thought For it is not likely that without alteration we should take other passions and What admitteth alterations continueth not the same and if it be not one selfe same than is it not but rather with being all one the simple being doth also change ever becomming other from other And by consequence Natures senses are deceived and lie falsely taking what appeareth for what is for want of truely knowing what it is that is But then what is it that is indeed That which is eternall that is to say that which never had birth nor ever shall have end and to which no time can bring change or cause alteration For time is a fleeting thing and which appeareth as in a shadow with the matter ever gliding alwaies fluent without ever being stable or permanent to whom rightly belong these termes Before and After and it Hath beene or Shall be Which at first sight doth manifestly shew that it is not a thing which is for it were great sottishnesse and apparant false-hood to say that that is which is not yet in being or that already hath ceased from being And concerning these words Present Instant Even-now by which it seemes that especially we vphold and principally ground the intelligence of time reason discovering the same doth forth with destroy it for presently it severeth it asunder and divideth it into future and past-time as willing to see it necessarily parted in two As much happeneth vnto nature which is measured according vnto time which measureth hir for no more is there any thing in hir that remaineth or is subsistent rather all things in hir are either borne or ready to be borne or dying By meanes whereof it were a sinne to say of God who is the only that is that he was or shal be for these words are declinations passages or Vicissitudes of that which cannot last nor continue in
saevitiae pereuntis parcere morti And we have seeene when all the body tortur'd lay Yet no stroke deadly giv'n and that in humane way Of tyranny to spare his death that sought to die Verely it is not so great a matter being in perfect health and well setled in minde for one to resolve to kill himselfe It is an easie thing to shew stoutnes and play the wag before one come to the pinch So that Heliogabalus the most dissoluteman of the world amidst his most riotous sensualities intended whensoever occasion should force him to it to have a daintie death Which that it might not degenerate from the rest of his life hee had purposely caused a stately tewre to be built the nether part and fore-court wherof was floored with boardes richly set and enchased with gold and precious stones from-off which hee might headlong throwe himselfe downe He had also caused cordes to be made of gold and crimson silke therewith to strangle himselfe And a rich golden rapier to thrust himselfe through And kept poison in boxes of Emeraldes and Topases to poison himselfe with according to the humor hee might have to chuse which of these deaths should please him Impiger fortis virtute coactâ A ready minded gallant And in forst valour valiant Notwithstanding touching this man the wantonnesse of his preparation makes it more likely that he would have fainted had he beene put to his triall But even of those who most vndantedly have resolved themselves to the execution we must consider I say whether it were with a life ending stroke and that tooke away any leasure to feele the effect thereof For it is hard to gesse seeing life droope away by little and little the bodies-feeling entermingling it selfe with the soules meanes of repentance being offered whether in so dangerous an intent constancie or obstinacie were found in him In Caesars civill warres Lucius domitius taken in prussia having empoisoned himselfe did afterward rue and repent his deede It hath hapned in our daies that some having resolved to die and at first not stricken deepe enough the smarting of his flesh thrusting his arme backe twice or thrice more wounded himselfe a new and yet could never strike sufficiently deepe Whilst the arraignement of Plantius Silvanus was preparing Vrgulaniae his grandmother sent him a poignard wherewith not able to kill himselfe throughly hee caused his owne servants to cutte his veines Albucilla in Tiberius time purposing to kill hirselfe but striking over faintly gave hir enemies leasure to apprehend and imprison hir and appoint hir what death they pleased So did Captaine Demosthenes after his discomfiture in Sicilie And C. Fimbria having over feeblie wounded himselfe became a sutor to his boy to make an end of him On the other side Ostorius who forsomuch as hee could not vse his owne arme disdained to employ his servants in any other thing but to hold his dagger stiffe and strongly and taking his running himselfe caried his throate to it's point and so was thrust through To say truth it is a meate a man must swallow without chewing vnlesse his throate be frostshod And therefore Adrianus the Emperour made his Phiâ—â—tian to marke and take the just compasse of the mortall place about his pap that so his aime might not faile him to whom he had given charge to kill him Loe why Caesar being demanded which was the death he most allowed answered the least premeditated and the shortest If Caesar said it it is no faintnesse in me to beleeve it A short death saith Plinie is the chiefe happe of humane life It grie veth them to acknowledge it No man can be saide to be resolved to die that feareth to purchase it and that cannot abide to looke vpon and out-stare it with open eyes Those which in times of execution are seene to runne to their end and hasten the execution doe it not with resolution but because they will take away time to consider the same it grieves them not to be dead but to die Emori nolo sed me esse mortuum nihil aestimo I would not die too soone But care not when t is doone It is a degree of constancie vnto which I have experienced to arrive as those that cast themselves into danger or into the Sea with closed eyes In mine opinion there is nothing more worthy the noting in Socrates life then to have had thirtie whole dayes to ruminate his deaths-decree to have digested it all that while with an assured hope without dismay or alteration and with a course of actions and words rather supprest and loose-hanging then out-stretched and raised by the weight of such a cogitation That Pomponius Atticus to whome Cicero writeth being sicke caused Agrippa his sonne in lawe and two or three of his other friends to be called for to whom he said that having assaied how he got nothing in going about to be cured and what he did to prolong his life did also lengthen and augment his griefe he was now determined to make an end of one and other intreating them to allow of his determination and that by no meanes they would loose their labour to disswade him from it And having chosen to end his life by abstinence his sickenes was cured by accident The remedy he had employed to make himselfe away brought him to health againe The Physitions and his friendes glad of so happy a successe and rejoycing thereof with him were in the end greatly deceived for with all they could doe they were never able to make him alter his former opinion saying that as he must one day passe that cariere and being now so forward he would remoove the care another time to beginne againe This man having with great leasure apprehended death is not onely no whit discouraged when hee comes to front it but resolutely falles vpon it for being satisfied of that for which he was entred the combate in a braverie he thrust himselfe into it to see the end of it It is farre from fearing death to goe about to taste and savour the same The historie of Cleanthes the philosopher is much like to this His gummes being swolne his Physitions perswaded him to vse great abstinence having fasted two dayes he was so well amended as they told him he was well and might returne to his wonted course of life He contrarily having already tasted some sweetenes in this fainting resolveth not to draw backe but finish what he had so well begunne and was so farre waded into Tullius Marcellinus a yoong Romane Gentleman willing to prevent the houre of his destiny to ridde himselfe of a disease which tormented him more than he would endure although Physitions promised certainely to cure him howbeit not sodainely called his friends vnto him to determine about it some saieth Seneca gave him that counsell which for weakenesse of heart themselves would have taken others for flatterie that which they imagined would be most pleasing vnto him but a
certaine Stoike standing by saide thus vnto him Toyle not thy selfe Marcellinus as if thou determinedst some weightie matter to live is no such great thing thy base groomes and bruit beasts live also but it is a matter of consequence to die honestly wisely and constantly Remember how long it is thou do est one same thing to eat to drinke and sleepe to drinke to sleepe to eat We are ever vncessantly wheeling in this endlesse circle Not onely bad and intollerable accidents but the very saciety to live brings a desire of death Marcellinus had no neede of a man to counsell but of one to helpe him his servants were afraid to meddle with him but this Philosopher made them to vnderstand that familiars are suspected onely when the question is whether the maisters death have beene voluntary otherwise it would be as bad an example to hinder him as to kill him forsomuch as Invitum qui servat idem facit occidenti Who saves a man against his will Doth ev'n as much as he should kill Then he advertized Marcellinus that it would not be vnseemely as fruit or comfets at our tables when our bellies be full are given vnto by-standers so the life ended to distribute something to such as have beene the ministers of it Marcellinus being of a franke and liberall disposition caused certaine summes of mony to be divided amongst his servants and comforted them And for the rest there needed neither yron nor blood he vndertooke to depart from this life not by running from it Not to escape from death but to taste it And to have leisure to condition or bargaine with death having quit all manner of nourishment the third day ensuing after he had caused himselfe to be sprinckled over with luke-warme water by little and little he consumed away and as he said not without some voluptuousnesse and pleasure Verily such as have had these faintings and swownings of the heart which proceed from weakenesse say that they feele no paine at all in them but rather some pleasure as of a passage to sleepe and rest These are premeditated and digested deaths But that Caeto alone may serve to all examples of vertue it seemeth his good destiny caused that hand wherewith he gave himselfe the fatall blow to be sicke and sore that so he might have leisure to affront death and to embrace it reen forcing his courage in that danger in liew of mollifying the same And should I have represented him in his prowdest state it should have beene all bloody-gored tearing his entrailes and rending his guttes rather then with a sword in his hand as did the Statuaries of his time For this second murther was much more furious then the first The fourteenth Chapter How that our spirit hindereth it selfe IT is a pleasant imagination to conceive a spirit justly balanced between two equall desires For it is not to be doubted that he shall never be resolved vpon any match Forsomuch as the application and choise brings an inequality of prise And who should place vs between a Bottle of wine and a Gammon of Bacon with an equall appetite to eat and drinke doubtlesse there were no remedy but to die of thurst and of hunger To provide against this inconvenient when the Stoikes were demanded whence the election of two indifferent things commeth into our soule and which causeth that from out a great number of Crownes or Angels we rather take one then another when there is no reason to induce vs to prefer any one before others the answer that this motion of the soule is extraordinarie and irregular comming into vs by a strange accidentall and casuall impulsion In my opinion it might rather be said that nothing is presented vnto vs wherein there is not some difference how light so ever it be And that either to the sights or to the feeling there is ever some choise which tempteth and drawes vs to it though imperceptible and not to be distinguished In like maner he that shall presuppose a twine-third equally strong all-through it is impossible by all impossibilitie that it breake for where would you have the flaw or breaking to beginne And at once to breake in all places together it is not in nature Who should also adde to this the Geometricall propositions which by the certainty of their demonstrations conclude the contained greater then the containing and the centre as great as his circumference And that finde two lines vncessantly approaching one vnto another and yet can never meete and joyne together And the Philosophers stone and quadrature of the circle where the reason and the effects are so opposite might peradventure draw thence some argument to salve and helpe this bold speech of Pliny Solum certum nihil esse certi homine nihil miserius aut superbius This onely is sure that there is nothing sure and nothing more miserable and yet more arrogant then man The fifteenth Chapter That our desires are encreased by difficulty THere is no reason but hath another contrary vnto it saith the wisest party of Philosophers I did erewhile ruminate vpon this notable saying which an ancient writer aleadgeth for the contempt of life No good can bring vs any pleasure except that against whose losse we are prepared In aequo est dolor amissaerei timor amittendae Sorrow for a thing lost and feare of loosing it are on an even ground Meaning to gaine thereby that the fruition of life cannot perfectly be pleasing vnto vs if we stand in any feare to loose it A man might neverthelesse say on the contrary part that we embrace and claspe this good so much the harder and with more affection as we perceive it to be lesse sure and feare it should be taken from vs. For it is manifestly found that as fire is rouzed vp by the assistance of cold even so our will is whetted on by that which doth resist it Si nunquam Danaen habuisset ahenea turris Non esset Danae de love facta parens If Danae had not beene clos'd in brazen Tower Iove had not clos'd with Danae in golden shower And that there is nothing so naturally opposite to our taste as satiety which comes from ease and facility nor nothing that so much sharpneth it as rarenesse and difficulty Omnium rerum voluptas ipso quo debet fugare periculo crescit The delight of all things encreaseth by the danger whereby it rather should terrifie them that affect it Galla nega satiatur amor nisi gaudia torquent Good wench deny my love is cloied Vnlesse joyes grieve before enjoyed To keepe love in breath and longing Lycurgus ordained that the maried men of Lacedemonia might never converse with their wives but by stealth and that it should be as great an imputation and shame to finde them laid together as if they were found lying with others The difficulty of assignations or matches appointed the danger of being surprised and the shame of ensuing
sorte our ancient French leaving the high Countries of Germanie came to possesse Gaule whence they displaced the first Inhabitants Thus grew that infinite confluence of people which afterward vnder Brennus and others over-ranne Italie Thus the Gothes and Vandalles as also the Nations which possesse Greece left their naturall countries to go where they might have more elbow-roome And hardly shall we see two or three corners in the worlde that have not felt the effect of such a remooving alteration The Romanes by such meanes erected their Colonies for perceiving their Cittie to growe over-populous they were wont to discharge it of vnnecessarie people which they sent to inhabite and manure the Countries they had subdued They have also sometimes maintained warre wiâ—h some of their enemies not onely thereby to keepe their men in breath lest Idlenesse the mother of Corruption should cause them some worse inconvenience Et patimur longae pacis mala saevior armis Luxuria incumbit We suffer of long peace the soking harmes On vs lies luxury more fierce then armes But also to let the Common-wealth bloud and somewhat to allay the over vehement heat of their youth to lop the sprigs and thin the branches of this over-spreading tree too much abounding in ranknesse and gaillardise To this purpose they maintained a good while war with the Carthaginians In the treaty of Bretigny Edward the third King of England would by no meanes comprehend in that generall peace the controversie of the Dutchie of Britany to the end he might have some way to disburthen himselfe of his men of war and that the multitude of English-men which he had emploied about the warres of France should not returne into England It was one of the reasons induced Philip our King to consent that his sonne Iohn should be sent to warre beyond the seas that so he might carry with him a great number of yong hot-blouds which were amongst his trained military men There are divers now adaies which will speake thus wishing this violent and burning emotion we see and feele amongst vs might be derived to some neighbour war fearing lest those offending humours which at this instant are predominant in our bodie if they be not diverted elsewhere will still maintaine our fever in force and in the end cause our vtter destruction And in truth a forraine warre is nothing so dangerous a disâ—ase as a civill But I will not beleeve that God would favour so vnjust an enterprise to offend and quarrell with others for our commodity Nil mihi tam valdè placeat Rhammusia virgo Quòd temerè invitis suscipiatur heris That fortune likes me not which is constrained By Lords vnwilling rashly entertained Notwithstanding the weaknesse of our condition doth often vrge vs to this necessity to vse bad meanes to a good end Lycurgus the most vertuous and perfect Law-giver that ever was devised this most vnjust fashion to instruct his people vnto temperance by force to make the Helotes which were their servants to be drunke that seeing them so lost and buried in wine the Spartanes might abhor the excesse of that vice Those were also more to be blamed who anciently allowed that criminall offendors what death soever they were condemned vnto should by Phisitians all alive be torne in pieces that so they might naturally see our inward parts and thereby establish a more assured certainty in their arte For if a man must needes erre or debauch himselfe it is more excusable if he doe it for his soules health then for his bodies good As the Romans trained vp and instructed their people to valour and contempt of dangers and death by the outragious spectacles of Gladiators and deadly fighting Fencers who in presence of them all combated mangled sliced and killed one another Quid vesani aliud sibi vult ars impia luds Quid mortes iuvenum quid sanguine pasta voluptas What else meanes that mad arte of impious fense Those yong-mens deaths that blood-fed pleasing sense which custome continued even vntill the time of Theodosius the Emperour Arripe delatam tua dux in tempora famam Quódque patris superest successor laudis habeto Nullus in vrbe cadat cuius sit poena voluptas Iam solis contenta feris infamis arena Nulla cruentatis homicidia ludat in armis The fame defer'd to your times entertaine Enherite praise which doth from Sire remaine Let none die to give pleasure by his paine Be shamefull Theaters with beastes content Not in goar'd armes mans slaughter represent Surely it was a wonderfull example and of exceeding benefit for the peoples institution to see dayly one or two hundred yea sometimes a thousand brace of men armed one against another in their presence to cut and hacke one another in pieces with so great constancy of courage that they were never seene to vtter one word of faintnesse or commiseration never to turne their backe nor so much as to shew a motion of demissenesse to avoide their adversaries blowes but rather to extend their neckes to their swords and present themselves vnto their strokes It hath hapned to diverse of them who through many hurts being wounded to death have sent to aske the people whether they were satisfied with their duty before they would lie downe in the place They must not onely fight and die constantly but jocondly in such sort as they were cursed and bitterly scolded at if in receiving their death they were any way seene to strive yea maidnes encited them to it consurgit adictus Et quoties victor ferrum iugulo inserit illa Delicias ait esse suas pectúsque iacentis Virgo modesta iubet converso pollice rumpi The modest maide when wounds are giv'n vpriseth When victors sword the vanquisht throate surpriseth She saith it is hir sport and doth command T'embrue the conquer'd breast by signe of hand The first Romans disposed thus of their criminals But afterward they did so with their innocent servants yea of their free-men which were sold to that purpose yea of Senators and Roman Knights and women also Nunc caput in mortem vendunt fumus arenae Atque hostem sibi quisque parat cùm bella quiescunt They sell mens lives to death and Stages sight When wars doe cease they finde with whom to fight Hos inter fremitus novósque lusus Stat sexus rudis insciúsque ferri Et pugnas capit improbus viriles Amidst these tumults these strange sporting sights That Sex doth sit which knowes not how sword bites And entertaines vnmov'd those manly fights Which I should deeme very strange and incredible if we were not dayly accustomed to see in our wars many thousands of forraine nations for a very small some of mony to engage both their blood and life in quarrels wherein they are nothing interessed The foure and twentieth Chapter Of the Roman greatnesse I Will but speake a word of this infinite argument and slightly glance at it to shew