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
for all his enemies threates without speaking one word returned onely an assured sterne and disdainefull countenance vpon him which silent obstinacie Alexander noting said thus vnto himselfe What would hee not bend his knee could he not vtter one suppliant voyce I will assuredly vanquish his silence and if I can not wrest a word from him I will at least make him to sobbe or groane And converting his anger into rage commanded his heeles to bee through-pierced and so all alive with a cord through them to be torne maâ—gled and dismembred at a carts taile May it be the force of his courage was so naturall and peculiar vnto him that because he would no-whit admire him he respected him the lesse or deemed he it so proper vnto himselfe that in his height he could not without the spight of an envious passion endure to see it in an other or was the naturall violence of his rage incapable of any opposition surely had it received any restraint it may be supposed that in the ransacking and desolation of the Citie of Thebes it should have felt the same in seeing so many Worthies lost and valiant men put to the sword as having no meanes of publike defence for aboue six thousand were slaine and massacred of which not one was seene either to runne away or beg for grace But on the contrary some here and there seeking to affront and endevouring to check their victorious enemies vrging and provoking them to force them die an honourable death Not one was seene to yeelde and that to his last gaspe did not attempt to revenge himselfe and with all weapons of dispaire with the death of some enemie comfort and sweeten his owne miserie Yet could not the affliction of their vertue find any ruth or pitie nor might one day suâ—â—ice to glut or asswage his revengefull wrath This burcherous slaughter continued vnto the last drop of any remaining blood where none were spared but the vnarmed and naked the aged and impotent the women and children that so from amongst them they might get thirtie thousand slaves The second Chapter Of Sadnesse or Sorrowe NO man is more free from this passion than I for I neither love nor regard it albeit the world hath vndertaken as it were vpon covenant to grace it with a particular favour Therewith they adorne age vertue and conscience Oh foolish and base ornament The Italians have more properly with it's name entitled malignitie for it is a qualitie ever hurtfull ever sottisâ— and as ever base and coward the Stoikes inhibit their Elders and Sages to be therewith tainted or have any feeling of it But the Storie saith that Psamneâ—icus king of Aegypt hauing been defeated and taken by Cambises king of Persia seeing his owne daughter passe before him in base and vile aray being sent to draw water from a well his friends weeping wailing about him he with his eies fixed on the ground could not be mooved to vtter one word and shortly after beholding his sonne led to execution held still the same vndaunted countenance but perceiving a familiar friend of his haled amongst the captives he began to beat his head and burst forth into extreame sorrow This might well be compared to that which one of our Princes was lately seene to doe who being at Trent and receiving newes of his elder brothers death but such a brother as on him lay all the burthen and honour of his house and shortly after tidings of his yonger brothers decease who was his second hope and having with an vnmatched countenance and exemplar constancie endured these two affronts it fortuned not long after that one of his servants dying he by this latter accident suffered himselfe to be so far transported that quitting and forgetting his former resolution he so abandoned himselfe to all maner of sorrow and griefe that some argued only this last mischance had toucht him to the quicke but verily the reason was that being otherwise full and over plunged in sorrow the least surcharge brake the bounds and barres of patience The like might I say be judged of our storie were it not it followeth that Cambises inquiring of Psamneticus why he was nothing distempered at the misfortune of his sonne and daughter he did so impatiently beare the disaster of his friend It is answered he Because this last displeasure may be manifested by weeping whereas the two former exceede by much all meanes and compasse to bee expressed by teares The invention of that ancient Painter might happily fitte this purpose who in the sacrifice of Iphigenia being to represent the griefe of the by-standers according to the qualitie and interest each one bare for the death of so faire so yong and innocent a Lady having ransacked the vtmost skill and effects of his art when he came to the Virgins father as if no countenance were able to represent that degree of sorrow he drew him with availe over his face And that is the reason why our Poets faine miserable Niobe who first having lost seaven sonnes and immediately as many daughters as one over-burthened with their losses to have beene transformed into a stone Diriguisse malis And grew as hard as stone By miserie and moane Thereby to expresse this mournfull silent stupiditie which so doth pierce vs when accidents surpassing our strength orewhelme vs. Verily the violence of a griefe being extreame must needs astonie the mind hinder the liberty of her actions As it hapneth at the sudden alarum of some bad tidings when wee shall feele ourselves surprised benummed and as it were deprived of al motion so that the soule bursting afterward forth into teares and complaints seemeth at more ease and libertie to loose to cleare and dilate it selfe Et via vix tandem voci laxata dolore est And scarse at last for speach By griefe was made a breach In the warres which king Ferdinando made against the widow of Iohn king of Hungaria about Buda a man at armes was particularly noted of all men forsomuch as in a certaine skirmish he had shewed exceeding prowesse of his body and though vnknowne beeing slaine was highly commended and much bemoaned of all but yet of none so greatly as of a Germane Lord called Raisciac as he that was amased at so rare vertue his body being recovered and had off this Lord led by a common curiositie drew neere vnto it to see who it might be and having caused him to be disarmed perceived him to be his owne sonne which knowne did greatly augment the compassion of all the camp he only without framing word or closing his eyes but earnestly viewing the dead body of his sonne stood still vpright till the vehemencie of his sad sorrow having suppressed and choaked his vitall spirits fell'd him starke dead to the ground Chipuo dir com'egli arde è in piâ—ciâ—l fâ—oÌ„co He that can say how he doth frie In pettie-gentle flames doth lie say those Lovers that would liuely
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
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
evils and mischiefe then they vnder-tooke not this maner of revenge without cause and that consequently it was more smartfull and cruell then theirs and therevpon began to leave their old fashion to follow this I am not sorie we note the barbarous horror of such an action but grieved that prying so narrowly into their faults we are so blinded in ours I thinke there is more barbarisme in eating men alive then to feed vpon them being dead to mangle by tortures and torments a body full of lively sense to roast him in peeces to make dogges and swine to gnawe and teare him in mammockes as wee have not onely read but seene very lately yea and in our owne memorie not amongst ancient enemies but our neighbours and fellow-citizens and which is woorse vnder pretence of pietie and religion then to roast and eate him after he is dead Chrysippus and Zeno arch pillers of the Stoicke sect have supposed that it was no hurte at all in time of need and to what end soever to make vse of our carrion bodies and to seed vpon them as did our forefathers who being besieged by Caesar in the Citie of Alexia resolved to sustaine the famine of the siege with the bodies of old men women other persons vnserviceable and vnfit to fight Vascones fama est alimentis talibus vsi Produxere animas Gascoynes as same reports Liu'd with meates of such sorts And Phisitians feare not in all kindes of compositions availefull to our health to make vse of it be it for outward or inward applications But there was never any opinion found so vnnaturall and immodest that would excuse treason treacherie disloialty tyrannie crueltie and such like which are our ordinarie faults We may then well call them barbarous in regard of reasons rules but not in respect of vâ—â—â— at exceed them in all kinde of barbarisme Their warres are noble and generous and have as much excuse and beautie as this humane infirmitie may admit they ayme at nought so much and have no other foundation amongst them but the meere jelousie of vertue They contend not for the gaining of new landes for to this day they yet enjoy that naturall vbertie and fruitesulnesse which without labouring toyle doth in such plenteous aboundance furnish them with all necessary things that they neede not enlarge their limits They are yet in that happy estate as they desire no more then what their naturall necessities direct them whatsoever is beyond it is to them fuperfluous Those that are much about one age doe generally enter-call one another brethren and such as are yoonger they call children and the aged are esteemed as fathers to all the rest These leave this full possession of goods in common and without division to their heires without other claime or title but that which nature doth plainely impart vnto all creatures even as shee brings them into the world If their neighbours chance to come over the mountaines to assaile or invade them and that they get the victory over them the Victors conquest is glorie and the advantage to be and remaine superior in valour and vertue else have they nothing to doe with the goods and spoyles of the vanquished and so returne into their countrie where they neither want any necessarie thing nor lacke this great port on to know how to enioy their condition happily and are contented with what nature affoordâ—th them So doe these when their turne commeth They require no other ransome of their prisoners but an acknowledgement and confession that they are vanquished And in a whole age a man shall not finde one that doth not rather embrace death then either by word or countenance remissely to yeeld one jot of an invincible courage There is none seene that would not rather be slaine and devoured then sue for life or shew any feare They vse their prisoners with all libertie that they may so much the more holde their lives deare and precious and commonly entertaine them with threats of future death with the torments they shall endure with the preparations intended for that purpose with mangling and slicing of their members and with the feast that shall be kept at their charge All which is done to wrest some remisse and exact some faint-yeelding speech of submission from them or to possesse them with a desire to escape or runne away that so they may have the advantage to have danted and made them afraid and to have forced their constancie For certainly true victory consisteth in that onely point Victoria nulla est Quà m quae confessos animo quoque subingat hostes No conquest such as to suppresse Foes hearts the conquest to confesse The Hungarians a most warre-like nation were whilome woont to pursue their pray no longer then they had forced their enemie to yeeld vnto their mercie For having wrested this confession from-him they set him at libertie without offence or ransome except it were to make him sweare never after to beare armes against them Wee get many advantages of our enemies that are but borrowed and not ours It is the qualitie of porterly-rascall and not of vertue to have stronger armes and sturdier legs Disposition is a dead and corporall qualitie It is a tricke of fortune to make our enemie stoope and to bleare his eies with the Sunnes-light It is a pranke of skill and knowledge to be cunning in the arte of fencing and which may happen vnto a base and woorthlesse man The reputation and woorth of a man consisteth in his heart and will therein consists true honor Constancie is valour not of armes and legs but of minde and courage it consisteth not in the spirit and courage of our horse nor of our armes but in ours He that obstinately faileth in his courage Si succiderit de genu pugnat If hee slip or fall he fights vpon his knee He that in danger of imminent death is no whit danted in his assurednesse he that in yeelding vp his ghost be holding his enemie with a scornefull and fierce looke he is vanquished not by vs but by fortune he is slaine but not conquered The most valiant are often the most vnfortunate So are there triumphant losses in envie of victories Not those foure-sister-victories the fairest that ever the Sunne beheld with his all-seeing eie of Salamis of Plateae of Micale and of Sicilia durst ever dare to oppose all their glorie together to the glory of the King Lâ—onidas his discomsiture and of his men at the passage of Thermopylae what man did ever runne with so glorious an envie or more ambitious desire to the goale of a combat then Captaine Ischolas to an evident losse and overthrow who so ingeniously or more politikely did ever assure him-selfe of his welfare then he of his ruine He was appointed to defend a certaine passage of Peloponesus against the Arcadians which finding himselfe altogether vnable to performe seeing the nature of the place and inequalitie of the forces and
at a dog misst him and there withall hit and slew his stepdame had she not reason to pronounce this verse T 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chance of it selfe than wee Doth better say and see Fortune hath better advise then wee Icetes had practised and suborâ—ed two souldiers to kill â—smoleâ—n then residing at Adraâ—â— in Sâ—eâ—ly They appointed a time to doe as he should be assisting at some sacrifice and scattering then selves amongst the multitude as they were winking one vpon another to shew how they had a verie â—t opportunitie to doe the deede Loe heere a third man that with a huge blow of a sword striketh one of them over the head and fels him dead to the ground and so runnes away His fellow suppoting himselfe disâ—â—vered and vndone runs to the altar suing for sanctuarie with promise to confesse the truth Even as he was declaring the conspiracie behold the third man who had likewise beene taken whom as a murtherer the people tugged and haled through the throng toward â—â—â—oleon and the chiefest of the assembly where he humbly calleth for mercie alleadging that he had justly murthered the murtherer of his father whom his good chance was to â—â—de there averring by good witnesses before them all that in the Citie of the Leontines his father had beene proditoriously slaine by him on whom he had now revenged himselfe In meede whereof because he had beene so fortunate in seeking to right his fathers vntimely death to save the common-father of the Sâ—cilians froâ— so imminent a danger he had ten Attike mines awarded him This fortune in her directions exceedeth all the rules of humane wisedome But to conclude is not an expresse application of hir favour goodnesse and singular pietie manifestly discovered in this action Ignatâ—us the Father and the Sonne both banished by proscription by the Triumvirs of Rome resolved on this generous act to yeeld their lives one into anothers hands and therby frustrate the Tyrants cruelty They furiously with their keen rapiers drawne ran one against another Fortune so directed their points that each received his mortall stroke adding to the honor of seld-seene an amity that they had just so much strength left them to draw their armed and bloody hands from out their goared wounds in that plight so fast to embrace and so hard to claspe one another that the hangmen were forced at one stroke and togither to cut off both their heads leaving their bodies for ever tied in so honorable a knot and their wounds so joyned that they lovingly drew and suckt each others blood breath and life The foure and thirtieth Chapter Of a defect in our policies MY whilome-father a man who had no helpe but from experience and his owne nature yet of an vnspotted iudgement hath heer-tofore told me that he much desiâ—ed to bring in this custome which is that in all cities there should be a certain appointed place to which whosoever should have need of any thing might come and cause his businesse to be registred by some officer appointed for that purpose As for example if one have pearles to sell he should say I seeke to sell some pearls and another I secke to buy some pearls Such a man would faine have companie to travell to Paris Such a one enquireth for a servant of this or that qualâ—ties Such a one seeketh for a Master another a work-man Some this some that every man as he needed And it seemeth that this meanes of enter-warning one another would bâ—ing no small coâ—â—oditie vnto common commerce societie For there are ever â—onditions that enter-seeke one another and because they vnderstand not one another they leave men in great nâ—â—esâ—â—tie I vnderstand to the infamous reproach of our age that even in our sight two â—ost excellent men in knowledge have miserably perished for want of food and other necessaries Lâ—lius Gregorius Giraldus in Italy and Sebastâ—anâ—â— Castalio in Germaâ—ie And I verily beleeve there are many thousands who had they knowne or vnderstood their wants would either have sent for them and with large stipends entertained them or would have convaide them succour where ever they had beene The world is not so generally corrupted but I know some that would earnestly wish and with harty affections desire the goods which their forefathers have left them might so long as it shal please fortune they may enjoy them be emploied for the reliefe of rare and supply of excellent mens necessitie such as for any kind of worth and vertue are remarkable many of which are daily seene to be pursued by ill fortune even to the vtmost extremitie and that would take such order for them as had they not their ease and content it might onely be imputed to their want of reason or lacke of discretion In this Oeconomicke or houshold order my father had this order which I can commend but no way follow which was that besides the day booke of household affaires wherin are regâ—stred at least expences paiments giâ—ts bargains sales that require not a Notaâ—â—es hand to them which booke a receiver had the keeping of he appointed another journall-booke to one of his servants who was hâ—s clarke wherein he should insert orderly set downe all accidents worthy the noting day by day register the memories of the historie of â—as house A thing very pleasant to reade when time began to weare out the remembrance of them and fit for vs to passe the time withall and to resolve some doubts when such a worke was begunne when ended what way or course was taken what accidents hapned how long it continued all our voyages where and how long we were from home our marriages who died and when the receiving of good or bad tidings who came who went changing or remooving of houshold officers taking of new or discharging of old servants and such like matters An ancient custome and which I would have all men vse and bring into fashion againe in their severall homes and I repent my selfe I have so foolishly neglected the same The five and thirtieth Chapter Of the vse of Apparell WHatsoever I ayme at I must needes force some of customes contradictions so carefully hath she barred all our entrances I was devising in this chil-cold season whether the fashion of these late discovered Nations to go naked be a custome forced by the hote temperature of the ayre as we say of the Indians and Moores or whether it be an originall manner of manking Men of vnderstanding forasmuch as whatsoever is contained vnder heaven as saith the holie Writ is subject to the same lawes are wont in such-like considerations where naturall lawes are to be distinguished from those invented by man to have recourse to the generall policie of the world where nothing that is counterfet can be admitted Now all things being exactly furnished else-whence with all necessaries to maintaine this being it is not to be imagined that we alone should be produced in a defective
extravagancie of force He will iudge there were yet place for one or two degrees of invention to reach vnto the fourth in consideration of which he will through admiration ioyne handes for the last yet first in some degree and space but which space he will sweare can by no humane spirit be filled-vp he wil be much amazed he will be much amated Loe here are wonders we haue more Poets than iudges and interpreters of poesie It is an easier matter to frame it then to knowe-it Being base and humble it may be iudged by the precepts and art of it But the good loftie the supreme divine is beyond rules and aboue reason Whosoeuer discerneth hir beauty with a constant quicke-seeing and setled looke he can no more see and comprehend the same then the splendor of a lightning flash It hath no community with our iudgement but ransacketh and ravisheth the same The furie which prickes and moves him that can penetrate hir doth also stricke and wound a third man if he heare-it either handled or recited as the Adamant stone drawes not only a needle but infuseth some of hir faculty in the same to drawe others And it is more apparently seene in theaters that the sacred inspiration of the Muses having first stirred vp the Poet with a kinde of agitation vnto choler vnto griefe vnto hatred yea and beyond him self whether and how soever they please doth also by the Poet strike enter into the Actor and consequently by the Actor a whole auditorie or multitude It is the ligament of our sences depending one of another Even from my infancie Poesie hath had the vertue to transpierce and transport me But that lively and feeling-mouing that is naturally in me hath diversly beene handled by the diversitie of formes not so much higher or lower for they were ever the highest in every kind as different in colour First a blithe and ingenious fluidity then a quaint-witie and loftie conceit To conclude a ripe and constant force Ovid Lucan and Virgill will better declare it But here our Gallants are in their full cariere Sit Cato dum viuit sanè vel Caesare maior Let Cato Junior while he doth live greater than Caesar be Saith one inuictum devictâ morte Catonem Cato vnconquered death being vanquished Saith another And the third speaking of the civill warres betweene Caesar and Pompey Victrix causa dijs placuit sed victa Catoni The cause that overcame with Gods was greater But the cause overcome pleasd Cato better And the fourth vpon Caesars commendations Et cuncta terrarum subacta Praeter atrocem animum Catonis Of all the earth all parts inthralled Catoes minde onely vnappalled And the hartes-master after he hath enstalled the names of the greatest Romanes in his picture endeth thus his dantem iura Catonem Chiefe justice Cato doe decree Lawes that for righteous soules should be The seven and thirtieth Chapter How we weepe and laugh at one selfe-same thing WHen we reade in Histories that Antigonus was highly displeased with his sonne at what time he presented vnto him the head of King Pirrhus his enemie slaine but a little before in fight against him which he no sooner saw but hee burst foorth a weeping And that Renate Duke of Loraine wept for the death of Charles Duke of Burgundie whom hee had eftsoones discomfired and was as an assistant mourner at his funeralles And that in the battel of Auroy which the Earle of Montfort had gained against the faction of Charles de Blois for the Dutchie of Britanie the victorious conqueror met with the bodie of his enemie deceased mourned very grievously for him a man must not suddenly exclaime Ecosi auvien ' che l'animo ciaseuna Sua passion sotto contrarie manto Ricuopre con la vista hor chiara hor bruna So happens it the minde covers each passion Vnder a cloake of colours opposite To sight now cleare now darke in divers fashion When Caesar was presented with Pompeis head Histories report that he turn'd his looks aside as from a ghastly and vnpleasing spectacle There hath beene so long a correspondencie and societie in the managing of publike affaires mutually betweene them such a communitie of fortunes so many reciprocall offices and bondes of alliance that a man cannot think his countenance to have beene forced false and wâ—ly as this other supposeth tutúmque putauit I am bonus esse socer lacrymas non sponte cadentes Effudit gemitúsque expressit pectore laeto Now to be kinde indeed he did not doubt Father in lawe teares which came hardly out He shed and grones exprest From inward pleased brest For certainly howbeit the greatest number of our actions bee but masked and painted over with dissimulation and that it may sometimes be true Haredis fletus sub persona risus est The weeping of an heire is laughing vnder a visard or disguise Yet must a man consider by judging of his accidents how our mindes are often agitated by divers passions For as they say there is a certaine assembly of divers humors in our bodies whereof she is soveraigne mistris who most ordinarily according to our complexions doth command vs so in our minde although it containe severall motions that agitate the same yet must one chiefly be predominant But it is not with so full an advantage but for the volubilitie and supplenesse of our minde the weakest may by occasion reobtaine the place againe and when their turne commeth make a new charge whence we see not onely children who simplie and naturally follow nature often to weepe and laugh at one selfe-same thing but none of vs all can vaunt himselfe what wished for or pleasant voyage soever he vndertake but that taking leave of his family and friends he shall feele a chilling and panting of the heart and if he shed not teares at least he puts his foote in the stirrop with a sad and heavie cheere And what gentle flame soever doth warme the heart of yong virgines yet are they hardly drawne to leave and forgo their mothers to betake them to their husbands whatsoever this good fellow say Est ne nouis nuptis odio Venus únnê parentum Frustrantur falsis gaudia lacrymulis Vbertim thalami quas intra limina fundunt Non it a me diui veragemunt uiverint Doe yoong Birdes hate indeed fresh Venus toyes Or with false teares delude their parents joyes Which in their chambers they powre out amaine So helpe me God they do not true complaine So is it not strange to mourne for him dead whom a man by no meanes would have alive againe When I chide my boy I doe it with the best heart I have They are true and not fained imprecations but that fit past over let him have need of me I will gladly doe him all the good I can and by and by I turne ouer another leafe If I chance to call one knaue or asse my
common deplored and bewailed their countries misfortunes some went home to their owne houses othersome staied there to be entombed with Vibius in his owne fire whose death was so long and lingring forsomuch as the vapor of the wine having possessed their veines and slowed the effect and operation of the poyson that some lived an houre after they had seene their enemies enter Capua which they caried the next day after and incurred the miseries and saw the calamities which at so high a rate they had sought to eschew Taurea Iubellius another citizen there the Consul Fulvius returning from that shamefull slaughter which he had committed of 225. Senators called him churlishly by his name and having arested him Command quoth he vnto him that I alâ—o be massacred after so many others that so thou maist brag to have murthered a much more valiant man then ever thou wast Fulvius as one enraged disdaining him forasmuch as he had newly received letters from Rome contrarie to the inhumanitie of his execution which inhibited him to proceed any further Iubellius continuing his speach said sithence my Countrie is taken my friends butchered having with mine owne hands slaine my wife and children as the only meane to free them from the desolation of this ruine I may not die the death of my fellow-citizens let vs borrow the vengeance of this hatefull life from vertue And drawing a blade he had hidden vnder his garments therwith ran himselfe through and falling on his face died at the Consuls feet Alexander besieged a citie in India the inhabitants whereof perceiving themselves brought to a very narrow pinch resolved obstinately to deprive him of the pleasure he might get of his victorie and together with their citie in despite of his humanitie set both the Towne themselves on a light fire and so were all consumed A new kind of warring where the enemies did all they could and fought to save them they to loose themselves and to be assured of their death did all a man can possible effect to warrant his life Astapa a Citie in Spaine being very weake of wals and other defences to withstand the Romanes that besieged the same the inhabitants drew all their riches and wealth into the market-place whereof having made a heap and on the top of it placed their wives and children and encompassed and covered the same with drie brush wood that it might burne the easier and having appointed fiftie lusty yong men of theirs for the performance of their resolution made a sallie where following their determined vow seeing they could not vanquist suffered themselves to be flame every mothers childe The fiftie after they had massacred every living soule remaining in the Citie and set fire to the heap joyfully leaped there-into ending their generous libertie in a state rather insensible then dolorous and reprochfull shewing their enemies that if fortune had been so pleased they should aswell have had the courage to bereave them of the victorie as they had to yeeld it them both vaine and hideous yea and mortall to those who allured by the glittering of the gold that moulten ran from out the flame thicke and three-fold approching greedily vnto it were therein smothered burned the formost being vnable to give backe by reason of the throng that followed them The Abideans pressed by Philip resolved vpon the verie same but being prevented the King whose heart yerned and abhorred to see the fond-rash precipitation of such an execution having first seized-vpon and saved the treasure and moveables which they had diversly condemned to the flames and vtter spoyle retiring all the Souldiers granting them the full space of three daies to make themselves away that so they might do it with more order and leasure which three daies they replenished with blood and murther beyond all hostile crueltie And which is strange there was no one person saved that had power vpon himselfe There are infinite examples of such-like popular conclusions which seeme more violent by how much more the effect of them is more vniversall They are lesse then severall what discourse would not doe in every one it doth in all The vehemence of societie ravishing particular judgements Such as were condemned to die in the time of Tiberius and delaide their execution any while lost their goods and could not be buried but such as prevented the same in killing themselves were solemnly enterred might at their pleasure bequeath such goods as they had to whom they list But a man doth also sometimes desire death in hope of a greater good I desire saith Saint Paul to be out of this world that I may be with Iesus Christ and who shall release me out of these bonds Cleombrotus Ambraciota having read Platoes Phaedon was so possessed with a desire and longing for an after-life that without other occasion or more adoe he went and headlong cast himselfe into the sea Whereby it appeareth how improperly we call this voluntarie dissolution dispaire vnto which the violence of hope doth often transport-vs and as often a peacefull setled inclination of judgement Iaques du Castell Bishop of Soissons in the voyage which Saint Lewes vndertooke beyond the Seas seeing the King all his Armie readie to returne into France and leave the affaires of Religion imperfect resolved with himself rather to go to heaven And having bidden his friends farewell in the open view of all men rushed alone into the enemies troops of whom he was forthwith hewen in pieces In a certaine kingdome of these late-discovered Indies vpon the day of a solemne procession in which the Idols they adore are publikely caried vp and downe vpon a chariot of exceeding greatnesse besides that there are many seen to cut and slice great mammocks of their quicke flesh to offer the said Idols there are numbers of others seen who prostrating themselves alongst vpon the ground endure verie patiently to be mouldred and crushed to death vnder the Chariots wheeles thinking thereby to purchase after their death a veneration of holinesse of which they are not defrauded The death of this Bishop armed as we have said argueth more generositie and lesse sence the heat of the combate ammusing one part of it Some common-wealths there are that have gone about to sway the justice and direct the opportunitie of voluntarie deaths In our Citie of Marseille they were wont in former ages ever to keep some poison in store prepared and compounded with hemlocke at the Cities charge for such as would vpon any occasion shorten their daies having first approved the reasons of their enterprise vnto the six hundred Elders of the Towne which was their Senate For otherwise it was vnlawfull for any bodie except by the Magistrates permission and for verie lawfully-vrgent occasions to lay violent hands vpon himselfe The verie same law was likewise vsed in other places Sextus Pompeius going into Asia passed through the Iland of Cea belonging to Negropont it fortuned whilst he abode there
both which with a naturall kinde of ligament or seame hold and are fastned together In such sort as what we speake we must first speake it vnto our selves and before we vtter and send the same forth to strangers we make it inwardly to sound vnto our eares I haue said all this to maintaine the coherency and resemblance that is in all humane things and to bring vs vnto the generall throng We are neither aboue nor vnder the rest what ever is vnder the coape of heaven saith the wise man runneth one law and followeth one fortune Indupedita suis fatalibus omnia vinclis All things enfolded are In fatall bonds as fits their share Some difference there is there are orders and degrees but all is vnder the visage of one same nature res quaeque suo ritâ— procedit omnes Foedere naturae certâ— discrimina servant All things proceed in their course natures all Keepe difference as in their league dothe fall Man must be forced and marshalled within the listes of this policie Miserable man with all his wit cannot in effect goe beyond it he is embraced and engaged and as other creatures of his ranke are he is subjected in like bondes and without any prerogative or essentiall pre-excellencie what ever Priviledge he assume vnto himselfe he is of very meane condition That which is given by opinion or fantasie hath neither body nor taste And if it be so that he alone above all other Creatures hath this liberty of imagination and this licence of thoughts which represent vnto him both what is and what is not and what him pleaseth false-hood and truth it is an advantage bought at a very high rate and whereof he hath litle reason to glorie For thence springs the chiefest source of al the mischiefs that oppressehim as sinne sickenesse irresolution trouble and despaire But to come to my purpose I say therefore there is no likely-hood we should imagine the beasts doe the very same things by a naturall inclination and forced genuitie which we doe of our owne free-wil and industrie Of the very same effects we must conclude alike faculties and by the richest effects inferr the noblest faculties and consequently acknowledge that the same discourse and way we hold in working the very same or perhapps some other better doe beasts hold Wherefore shall we imagine that natural compulsion in them that prove no such effect our selves Since it is more honourable to be addressed to act and tyed to worke orderly by and through a naturall and vnavoideable condition and most approching to Divinitie then regularly to worke and act by and through a casuall and rash libertie and it is safer to leave the reignes of our conduct vnto nature then vnto our selves The vanitie of our presumption maketh vs rather to be beholding and as it were endebted vnto our owne strength for our sufficiency then vnto hir liberalitie and enrich other creatures with natural giftes and yeeld those vnto them that so we may en-noble and honour our selves with gifts purchased as me thinketh by a very simple humour For I would prize graces and value gifts that were altogether mine owne and naturall vnto me as much as I would those I had begged and with a long prentishippe shifted For It lyeth not in our power to obtaine a greater commendation then to be favored both of God and Nature By that reason the Foxe which the inhabitants of Thrace vse when they will attempt to march vpon the yce of some frozen river and to that end let hir go loose afore them should we see hir running alongst the river side approch hir eare close to the yce to listen whether by any farre or neere distance she may heare the noyse or roaring of the water running vnder the same and according as she perceiveth the ice thereby to be thicke or thinne to goe either forward or backeward might not we lawfully judge that the same discourse possesseth hir head as in like case it would ours And that it is a kinde of debating-reason and consequence drawen from naturall sense Whatsoever maketh a noyse moveth whatsoever mooveth is not frozen whatsoever is not frozen is liquide whatsoever is liquide yeelds vnder any weight For to impute that only to a quicknes of the sense of hearing without discourse or consequence is but a fond conceipt and cannot enter into my imagination The like must be judged of so many wiles and inventions wherewith beasts save themselves from the snares and scape the baâ—ts we lay to entrap them And if we will take hold of any advantage tending to that purpose that it is in our power to seize vpon them to employ them to our service and to vse them at our pleasure it is but the same oddes we have one vpon another To which purpose wee have our slaves or bond-men and were not the Climacides certaine women in Syria which creeping on al foure vpon the ground served the Ladies in steed of footstoles or ladders to get vp into their coches Where the greater part of free men for very slight causes abandon both their life and being to the power of others The wives and Concubines of the Thracians strive and contend which of them shal be chosen to bee slaine over hir husbands or lovers tombe Have tyrants ever failed to find many men vowed to their devotion Where some for an over-plusse or superergation have added this necessity that they must necessarily accompany them as well in death as in life Whole hostes of men have thus tyed themselves vnto their Captaines The tenor of the oath ministred vnto the schollers that entered and were admitted the rude schoole of Roman Gladiators emplied these promises which was this We vow and sweare to suffer our selves to be enchained beaten burned and killed with the sword and endure whatsoever any lawfull fenser ought to endure for his maister most religiously engaging both our bodie and soule to the vse of his service Vre meum si vis flamma caput pete ferrâ— Corpus intorto verbere â—ergaseca Burnetyrant if thou wilt my head with fire with sword My body strike my backe cut with hard-twisted cord Was not this a very strict covenant Yet were there some yeares ten thousand found that entered and lost themselves in those schooles When the Scithians buried their King they strangled over his dead body first the chiefest and best beloved of his Concubines then his Cup-bearer the Master of his horse his Chamberlaine the Vsher of his Chamber and his master Cooke And in his anniversary killed fiftie horse mounted with fifty Pages whom before they had slaine with thrusting sharpe stakes into their fondament which going vp along their chine-bone came out at their throte Whom thus mounted they set in orderly ranckes about the tombe The men that serve-vs doe it better cheape and for a lesse curious and favourable entreating then wee vse vnto birdes vnto horses and vnto dogges What carke and
enemie approach to fight with him the little bird let lest he might surprise him whilst he sleepeth with his singing and pecking him with his bill awakens him and gives him warning of the danger he is in The bird liveth by the scraps and feedeth vpon the leavings of that monster who gently receiveth him into his mouth and suffers him to pecke his jawes and teeth for such mammockes of flesh as sticke betweene them and if he purpose to close his mouth he doth first warne him to be gone faire and easie closing it by little and little without any whit crushing or hurting him The shell-fish called a Nacre liveth even so with the Pinnotere which is a little creature like vnto a Crabfish and as his porter or vsher waites vpon him attending the opening of the Nacre which he continually keepes gaping vntill he see some little fish enter in fit for their turne then he creepes into the Nacre and leaves not pinching his quicke flesh vntill he makes him close his shell and so they both together fast in their hold devour their prey In the maner of the Tunnies life may be discovered a singular knowledge of the three parts of the Mathematikes First for Astrologie it may well be said that man doth learne it of them For wheresoever the winter Solstitium doth take them there do they stay themselves and never stir till the next Aequinoctium and that is the reason why Aristotle doth so willingly ascribe that arte vnto them Then for Geometrie and Arithmetike they alwaies frame their shole of a Cubike figure every way square and so forme a solide close and wel-ranged battailon encompassed round about of sixe equall sides Thus orderly marshaled they take their course and swim whither their journey tends as broad and wide behind as before So that he that seeth and telleth but one ranke may easily number all the troope forsomuch as the number of the depth is equall vnto the bredth and the bredth vnto the length Touching magnanimitie and haughtie courage it is hard to set it forth more lively and to produce a rarer patterne then that of the Dog which from India was sent vnto Alexander to whom was first presented a Stag then a wilde Boare and then a Beare with each of which he should have foughten but he seemed to make no accompt of them and would not so much as remoove out of his place for them but when he saw a Lion he presently rouzed himselfe shewing evidently he meant onely so noble a beast worthie to enter combate with him Concerning repentance and acknowledging of faults committed it is reported that an Elephant having through rage of choller slaine his governour conceived such an extreame inward griefe that he would never afterward touch any food and suffered himself to pine to death Touching clemencie it is reported of a Tiger the fiercest and most inhumane beast of all who having a Kid given her to feed vpon endured the force of gnawing hunger two daies together rather then she would hurt him the third day with maine strength she brake the cage wherein she was kept-pent and went elsewhere to shift for feeding as one vnwilling to seize vpon the seelie Kid her familiar and guest And concerning priviledges of familiaritie and sympathie caused by conversation is it not oft seen how some make Cats Dogs and Hares so tame so gentle and so milde that without harming one another they shall live and continue together But that which experience teacheth sea-faring men especially those that come into the seas of Sâ—â—ilie of the qualitie and condition of the Halcyon bird or as some call it Alcedo or kings-fisher exceeds all mens conceit In what kinde of creature did ever nature so much prefer both their hatching sitting brooding and birth Poets faine that the Iland of Delos being before wandring and fleeting vp and downe was for the delivery of Latona made firme and setled But Gods decree hath been that all the watrie wildernesse should be quiet and made calme without raine wind or tempest during the time the Halcyon sitteth and bringeth forth her yoong-ones which is much about the Winter Solstitium and shortest day in the yeare By whose priviledge even in the hart deadest time of Winter we have seven calme daies and as many nights to saile without any danger Their Hens know no other Cocke but their owne They never forsake him all the daies of their life and if the Cocke chance to be weake and crazed the Hen will take him vpon her neck and carrie him with her wheresoever she goeth and serve him even vntill death Mans wit could neuer yet attaine to the full knowledge of that admirable kind of building or structure which the Halcion vseth in contriving of her neast no nor devise what it is-of Plutarke who hath seen and handled many of them thinkes it to be made of certaine fish-bones which she so compacts and conjoyneth together enterlasing some long and some crosse-waies adding some foldings and roundings to it that in the end she frameth a round kind of vessell readie to floate and swim vpon the water which done she carrieth the same where the Sea-waves beate most there the Sea gently beating vpon it snewes her how to daube and patch vp the parts not well closed and how to strengthen those places and fashion those ribs that are not fast but stir with the Sea-waves And on the other side that which is closely wrought the Sea beating on it doth so fasten and conjoyne together that nothing no not stone or yron can any way loosen divide or break the same except with great violence and what is most to be wondred at is the proportion and figure of the concavitie within for it is so composed and proportioned that it can receive or admit no manner of thing but the Bird that built-it for to all things else it is so impenetrable close and hard that nothing can possiblie enter in no not so much as the Sea-water Loe-heer a most plaine description of this building or construction taken from a verie good Author yet me thinks it doth not fully and sufficiently resolve vs of the difficultie in this kinde of Architecture Now from what vanitie can it proceed we should so willfully contemne and disdaeinfully interpret those effects which we can neither imitate nor conceive But to follow this equalitie or correspondencie betweene vs and beasts somewhat further the priviledge whereof our soule vants to bring to her condition whatsoever it conceiveth and to dispoile what of mortall and corporall qualities belongs vnto it to marshall those things which she deemed worthie her acquaintance to disroabe and deprive their corruptible conditions and to make them leave as superfluous and base garments thicknesse length deapth weight colour smell roughnesse smoothnesse hardnesse softnesse and all sensible accidents else to fit and appropriate them to her immortall and spirituall condition so that Rome and Paris which I have in my soule
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
replyed I thanke Iesus Christ that he hath deprived me of my sight that so I might not view thy impudent face affecting therby as they say a kind of Philosophicall patience So it is this part cannot be referred to the cruelties which he is said to have exercised against vs. He was saith Eutropius my other testimony an enemy vnto Christianity but without shedding of bloud But to returne to his justice he can be accused of nothing but of the rigors he vsed in the beginning of his Empire against such as had followed the faction of Constantius his Predecessour Concerning sobrietie he ever lived a Souldiers kinde of life and in time of peace would feede no otherwise than one who prepared and enured himselfe to the austeritie of warre Such was his vigilancie that he divided the night into three or foure parts the least of which hee allotted vnto sleepe the rest he employed in visiting the state of his army and his guardes or in study for amongest other his rare qualities he was most excellent in all sorts of learning It is reported of Alexander the Great that being laide down to rest fearing lest sleep should divert him from his thoughts and studies he caused a basen to be set neere his bed side and holding one of his handes out with a brazen ball in it that if sleepe should surprize him loosing his fingers endes the ball falling into the basen might with the noyse rouze him from out his sleepe This man had a mind so bent to what he vndertook and by reason of his singular abstinence so little troubled with vapours that he might well have past this devise Touching military sufficiencie he was admirable in all partes belonging to a great Captaine So was he almost all his life time in continuall exercise of War and the greater part with vs in France against the Alemans and French Wee have no great memorie of any man that either hath seene more dangers nor that more often hath made triall of his person His death hath some affinitie with that of Epaminoudas for being strucken with an arrow and attempting to pull it out he had surely done it but that being sharpe-cutting it hurt and weakened his hand In that plight he earnestly requested to bee carryed forth in the middest of his army that so he might encourage his souldiers who without him couragiously maintained the battell vntill such time as darke night severed the Armies Hee was beholding to Philosophie for a singular centempt both of himselfe and of all humane things Hee assuredly believed the eternitie of soules In matters of religion he was vicious every-where He was surnamed Apostata because he had forsaken ours notwithstanding this opinion seemes to mee more likely that never tooke it to hart but that for the obedience which he bare to the lawes he dissembled til he had gotten the Empire into his hands He was so superstitious in his that even such as lived in his time and were of his owne religion mocked him for it and it was saide that if he had gained the Victory of the Parthians hee would have consumed the race or breede of Oxen to satisfie his sacrifices He was also besetted with the Art of sooth saying and gave authoritie to all manner of prognostikes Amongst other things hee spake at his death he saide he was much beholding to the Gods and greatly thanked them that they had not suffred him to be slaine sodainely or by surprize as having long before warned him both of the place and houre of his end nor to die of a base and easie death more beseeming idle and effeminate Persons nor of a lingring languishing and dolorous death and that they had deemed him worthy to end his life so nobly in the course of his victories and in the flower of his glory There had before appeared a vision vnto him like vnto that of Marcus Brutus which first threatned him in Gaule and afterward even at the point of his death presented it selfe to him in Persia The speach he is made to speake when he felt himselfe hurt Thou hast vanquished ô Nazaraean or as some wil have it Content thy self oh Nazaraean would scarce have beene forgotten had it beene believed of my testimonies who being present in the army have noted even the least motions and wordes at his death no more than certaine other wonders which they annex vnto it But to returne to my theame he had long before as saith Marcellinus hatched Paganisme in his hart but forsomuch as he saw all those of his armie to be Christians he durst not discover him selfe In the end when he found himselfe to be sufficiently strong and durst publish his minde he caused the Temples of his Gods to be opened and by all meanes endevoured to advance idolatrie And to attaine his purpose having found in Constantinople the people very loose and at ods with the Prelates of the christian church and caused them to appeare before him in his pallace he instantly admonished them to appease all their civill dissentions and every one without hinderance or feare apply themselves to follow and serve religion Which he verie carefully sollicited hoping this licence might encrease the factions and controversies of the division and hinder the people from growing to any vnity and by consequence from fortifying themselves against him by reason of their concord and in one mind-agreeing intelligence having by the cruelty of some Christians found that There is no beast in the world so much of man to be feared as man Loe-heere his very words or very neare Wherin this is worthy consideration that the Emperor Iulian vseth the same receipt of libertie of conscience to enkindle the trouble of civill dissention which our Kings employ to extinguish It may be saide on one side that To give factions the bridle to entertaine their opinion is to scater contention and sew division and as it were to lend it a hand to augment and encrease the same There beeing no Barre or Obstacle of Lawes to bridle or hinder hir course But on the other side it might also bevrged that to give factions the bridle to vpholde their opinion is by that facilitie and ease the readie way to mollifie and release them and to blunt the edge which is sharpned by rarenesse noveltie and difficultie And if for the honour of our Kings devotion I believe better it is that since they could not doe as they would they have fained to will what they could not The twentieth Chapter We taste nothing purely THe weakenes of our condition causeth that things in their naturall simplicitie and puritie cannot fall into our vse The elements we enjoy are altered Metals likewise yea golde must be empaired with some other stuffe to make it fit for our service Nor vertue so simple which Ariston Pirrho and the Stoikes made the end of their life hath beene able to doe no good without composition Nor the Cirenaike sensualitie or Aristippian voluptuousnes
and of a wondrous strange disposition to ridde herselfe from the importunate pursuit of a thousand amorous sutors who sollicited her for mariage prescribed this law vnto them that shee would accept of him that should equall her in running on condition those she should ouercome might lose their lives Some there were found who deemed this prize worthy the hazard and who incurred the penaltie of so cruell a match Hippomenes comming to make his essay after the rest deuoutly addressed himselfe to the diuine protectresse of all amorous delights earnestly inuoking her assistance who gently listning to his hearty praiers furnished him with three golden Apples and taught him how to vse them The scope of the race being plaine according as Hippomenes perceiued his swift footed mistresse to approch his heeles he let fall as at vnawares one of his Apples the heedlesse maiden gazing and wondring at the alluring beautie of it failed not to turne and take it vp Obstupuit virgo nitidique cupidine pomi Declinat cursus aurumque volubile tollit The maid amaz'd desiring that faire gold Turnes by her course takes it vp as it rold The like hee did at his need with the second and third vntill by this digressing and diverting the goale and aduantage of the course was judged his When Physitians cannot purge the rheume they divert and remooue the same vnto some lesse dangerous part I also perceiue it to be the most ordinary receit for the mindes diseases Abducendus etiam nonnunquam animus est ad alia studia sollicitudines curas negotia Loci denique mutatione tanquam aegroti non conualescentes saepe curandus est Our minde also is sometimes to bee diuerted to other studies cogitations cares and businesses and lastly to be cured by change of place as sicke folkes vse that otherwise cannot get health We make it seldome to shocke mischiefes with direct resistance we make it neither to beare nor to breake but to shun or divert the blow This other lesson is too high and over-hard It is for them of the first ranke meerely to stay vpon the thing it selfe to examine and iudge it It belongeth to one onely Socrates to accost and entertaine death with an vndaunted ordinary visage to become familiar and play with it He seeketh for no comfort out of the thing it selfe To die seemeth vnto him a naturall and indifferent accident thereon he wishly fixeth his sight and thereon he resolueth without looking else-where Hegosias his disciples who with hunger starued themselues to death incensed therevnto with the perswading discourses of his lessons and that so thicke as King Ptolomey forbad him any longer to entertaine his schoole with such murtherous precepts Those considered not death in it selfe they iudge it not This was not the limit of their thoughts they run on and ayme at another being Those poore creatures we see on scaffolds fraught with an ardent deuotion therein to the vttermost of their power employing all their sences their eares attentive to such instructions as Preachers give them their hands and eies liâ—t vp towardes heaven their voice vttering loud and earnest praiers all with an eager and continual ruth-mooving motion doe verily what in such an vnavoidable exigent is commendable and conuenient One may well commend their religion but not properly their constancy They shunne the brunt they divert their consideration from death as we vse to dandle and busie children when we would lance them or let them bloud I have seene some who if by fortune they chanced to cast their eies towards the dreadfull preparations of death which were round about them fall into trances and with fury cast their cogitations else-where We teach those that are to passe-over some steepy downe fall or dreadfull abisse to shut or turne aside their eies Subrius Flauius being by the appointment of Nero to be put to death by the hands of Niger both chiefe commanders in war when he was brought vnto the place where the execution should be performed seeing the pit Niger had caused to be digged for him vneuen and vnhandsomely made Nor is this pit quoth he to the souldiers that stood about him according to the true discipline of war And to Niger who willed him to hold his head steddy I wish thou wouldest stricke as steddily He guessed right for Nigers arme trembling he had divers blowes at him before he could strike it off This man seemeth to haue fixed his thoughts surely and directly on the matter He that dies in the fury of a battle with weapons in hand thinkes not then on death and neither feeleth nor considereth the same the heate of the fight transports him An honest man of my acquaintance falling downe in a single combat and feeling himselfe stab'd nine or ten times by his enemy was called vnto by the by-standers to call on God and remember his conscience but he tould me after that albeit those voices came vnto his eares they had no whit mooued him and that he thought on nothing but how to discharge and reuenge himselfe In which combat he vanquished and slew his aduersary He who brought L. Syllanus his condemnation did much for him in that when he heard him answer he was prepared to die but not by the hands of base villaines ran vpon him with his souldiers to force him against whom obstinately defending himselfe though vnarmed with fists and feet he was slaine in the conflict dispersing with a ready and rebellious choller the painefull sence of a long and fore-prepared death to which he was assigned We euer thinke on somewhat else either the hope of a better life doth settle and support vs or the confidence of our childrens worth or the future glory of our name or the auoyding of these liues mischieues or the reuenge hanging ouer their heads that have caused and procured our death Spero equidem medijs si quid â—ia numina possunt Supplicia hausurum scopulis nomine Dido Saepe vocaturum Audiam haec manes veniet mihi fama sub imos I hope if powers of heaven have any power On rockes he shall be punisht at that houre He oft on Didoes name shall pittilesse exclaime This shall I heare and this report shall to me in my grave resort Xenophon sacrificed with a crowne on his head when one came to tell him the death of his sonne Gryllus in the battell of Mantinea At the first hearing whereof hee cast his crowne to the ground but finding vpon better relation how valiantly hee died hee tooke it vp and put it on his head againe Epicurus also at his death comforted himselfe in the eternitie and worth of his writings Omnes clari nobilitati labores fiunt tolerabiles All glorious and honourable labours are made tolerable And the same wound and the same toile saith Xenophon toucheth not a Generall of an armie as it doth a private souldier Epaminondas tooke his death much the more cheerefully being informed that the victorie