liberty They take good advice foâ— neglect and rational Counsels for an unâ—dermining of their Authority they cannoâ— endure a Truth and Fortune hath madâ— them so tender as suspitions serve them foâ— proofs to condemn the innocent they are like to those that having not a perfect health cannot endure a clear air nor the light of the Sun the least exercise disquieteth them and what would be but a Diversion to one in health doth trouble and incommodate them thus the most part of great personages cannot bear with Fidelity in their Domesticks Truth must be corrupted if you will have them to receive it and the temper of their minds is so weak that sincerity in a servant is able to offend them the remedies which men present unto them seem to them poysons they think men aim at their Honour while they reprehend their Faults and let them express themselves therein in never so mild terms they always take it for an injury Who sees not that this greatness is meer weakness and that the Choler which transports them is a mark of the infirmity which accompanies them Thus the holy Scripture which very well knows the original of all our disorders teacheth us that the malice of Women is not more violent than that of men save only because their nature is more infirm and that they have not strength enough to sustain the impetuosity of this Passion for when she finds resistance or cannot easily work her end she presently slackens and losing her rage suffers her self to be guided by Reason but when she meets with any one that gives himself over to her power who suffers himself to be born away by her motions and who hath not strength enough to oppose her violence she takes the freedom to fly at all and believes that she may promise her self any thing from a slave who can refuse her nothing if she possess the soul of a King who hath not courage enough to defend himself against her tyranny she makes use of the weakness of his mind and of the strength of his Fortune to execute all her designs she perswades him that Revenge is glorious that a Prince is never more absolute than when he is dreaded and that of all the marks of Soveraignty there is none more certain than the death of Enemies then States become Tyrannies Towns are overflown with the blood of Subjects the number of Executioners is greater than that of the Offenders and all things are in a deplorable condition because Choler abuseth the power of a Prince who cannot resist her What hath not she undertaken when she hath had Kings for her slaves and made use of their power to execute her Fury What marks of Cruelty hath she left in the world when she hath reigned in the hearts of Monarchs What Champaigns hath she strew'd over with dead Garkases And what Provinces hath she made desolate Cambyses to satisfie his Choler made the noses of all the Inhabitants of Syria be cut off and judging that Death was too common and too honourable a punishment he would invent another which should be as strange as shameful He had dealt more ignominiously with all the people of Ethiopia had not a happy accident withstood the execution of so damnable a design for he was surpriz'd by a Famine in the Desarts which forced him to return to his own State but before he put on this resolution he follow'd the mad counsel of his Choler and suffer'd the best part of his Army to perish by Famine when his souldiers wanted Victuals they fed upon the leaves of trees and such Herbs as the uncultivated Earth brought forth when they were engaged in the Desarts and that the scorching Sands afforded them no further nourishment they ate the Leather of their Bucklers and all such other â—hings as necessity enforceth men to make â—ood of but when they could see no end of this their forlorn condition this unnatural Prince provided them a food more cruel than the Famine he made them be decimated and forced them to eat one another his Passion govern'd in him amidst so many misfortunes and after he had lost one part of his forces and eaten up another he had not resolved to retreat had he not feared that the lot might at last have fallen upon himself and so have made him try the excess of that cruelty which he had commanded but to shew that Unworthiness is inseparable from Choler this savage monster made exquisite Cates be carried upon the backs of his Camels whilst his miserable souldiers committed murders to defend themselves from famine and left posterity in dispute who were the most to be commiserated those who lived in so much misery or those who died with so much cruelty In fine Choler never goes unaccompanied with weakness and it sometimes a generous word escape her mouth it always proceeds from a base soul and which affects Greatness only to cover its Baseness Caligula is reported to have been offended with the Heavens when their Thunder hindered his Sports that he challenged his gods to fight with him and that using the words of a Poet he said to them Either take me out of the world or I will take you out of it Into what degree of madness had his Choler thrown him For he must not only imagine that his gods could not hurt him but that their fortune as wel as that of men depended upon his will Seneca was of opinion that this insolence cost him his life and made his Subjects conspire against him for they thought it past Patience to tolerate a man that could not tolerate the gods Choler then hath nothing in it of Greatness and even then when she seems to contemn both Heaven and Earth she discovers her unworthiness or if you take her Excesses for marks of her Greatness confess that Riot is magnificent because it builds Thrones of Gold decks it self with purple cuts through mountains turns the Channels of streams encloses Rivers within Parks makes Gardens in the Air and finds inventions to remove Forrests confess that Avarice is a glorious crime since it rolleth it self on Mountains of gold it possesseth Territories as large as Provinces and that her Earmers have more ground to cultivate than the first Consuls of Rome had to manage acknowledge that Incontinence is Courageous since she passeth the seas to seek out what she loves that she fights either to come by it or to keep it since women who are possess'd with this passion despise death to satisfie their desires and expose themselves to the fury of their Husbands to please their Adulterers Lastly confess that Ambition is generous since she finds not any honour that contents her will have all years bear her name and that all Pens be employed in writing her praises but certainly all these passions are pusillanimous what shadow soever they have of Greatness they are in truth mean and poor and there is nothing great which bears not
banished when their conditions meet together friendship is not to be blamed nay the very excess thereof is to be prais'd since being more divine than humane more grounded upon grace than nature she should be freed from all those Laws which are only made for common friendship But in the one and the other of them the pains which accompany them must be endured and we must remember that as there is nothing so perfect in the world but hath its faults there is nothing so pleasing which hath not its dislikes Friendship is that which sweetens life and who is not therewithal endued cannot hope for happiness It is the most rational concord which this world can afford and of as many pleasures as are I find none more harmless nor more true but it hath its incommodity and who begins to love must prepare to suffer Absence is a short death and death is an eternal absence which entayles upon us as much sorrow as the presence of the beloved gives satisfaction A man who loseth his friend loseth one half of himself he is at once both alive dead and death accords not with life save only to make him more miserable But say they should be so fortunate in their fate as they should both die in one day they could not shun the miseries which accompany life they seem by being linkt together in affection to have given Fortune the greater hold of them and their soul seems to be in two bodies only that it may be the more capable of grief Aristotle therefore would not have a man to have many friends lest he should be bound to spend his whole life in bewailing their misfortunes or that exacting the same duty from them he might not trouble all their joy and make his friendship fatal 'T is true that these pains are pleasing and that by a just dispensation of love they are always mingled with some contentment Tears are sweet when Friendship is the cause of their shedding if they ease him that sheds them they comfort him for whom they are shed and they make them both taste of true pleasure in a common misery thus their malady bears the cure thereof about with it and deserves rather to be envied than pitied since the sufferer and bemoaner are equally assured of their mutual fidelity But 't is much the harder matter to regulate the love between men and women and to prescribe bounds unto a Passion which asks counsel only of it self and which thinks it self not true if it be not in excess Therefore the greatest part of our Divines do blame it and though it be not faulty but as it is dangerous they forbid the use thereof to shun the hazard To say true this virtue is never so pure but that it hath some clouds it easily slides from the soul into the body and grant it could be without danger it could never be without scandal The age is too corrupt to judge uprightly of these communications if they were publickly allowed of they would serve for a cloak to irregular affections and under pretence of friendship every one would assume the liberty to make Love I know very well there have been Saints in former ages but they have not been exempt from calumnies Paulinus bare no respect to the Empress Eudoxe save only for that she was learned he was enamoured of her mind not of her body and if he drew many times near to this fair Sun it was that he might be thereby enlightned not heated Yet their frequent conversation caused Jealousie in young Theodosius and an Apple as fatal as that of Paris wrought the death of Paulinus and Eudoxes banishment I know there is no Sex amongst Souls and that a mans mind may be found in a Womans Body I know that Virtue undervalues not the advantages of Beauty and that she is oft-times more eloquent in the mouth of a fair Maid than in the like of an Orator I know there have been Muses as well as Amazons and that men have no Endowments which women possess not with as much or more of excellency Augustus followed Livias Counsel and consulted with her in his most important affairs as oft as with Mecaenas or Agrippa Great Origen's School was open as well to women as to men he thought them no less capable of the Secrets of Learning or Mysteries of Religion than men so as a man may conclude for these Reasons and out of these Examples that the conversation of women is no less profitable than pleasing and that if there be danger in their friendships there is therein likewise advantage But notwithstanding whatsoever all these discourses may perswade us I am firmly of opinion that an honest woman ought to have no other friend than her Husband and that she gave a Divorce of friendship when she engaged herself in marriage She must have no more Masters nor Servants since she hath given away her liberty and she ought to suspect even the holiest affections since they may serve for colors to lewd desires Such complacencies as are found in those who are not of the same sex are seldom innocent the same discourse which entertains works upon their wills and love glides into the heart under the name of sutableness of disposition and of Civility The Malady is contracted before it be known men are oft-times in a Fever before they feel any distemper and poyson hath already infected the heart before we think the mouth hath swallowed it Briefly the danger is equal on all sides men make strong assaults and women weak defences The freedom of conversation makes men more insolent and the pleasingness thereof makes women less couragious I shall therefore never approve of such friendships as may cause more harm than advantage and which for vain satisfaction of the sense hazards the souls health We live under a Religion which commands us to forgo pleasures which are purely innocent we are taught by a Master which commands his Disciples to pluck out such eyes and cut off such hands as have been cause of scandal to them we are brought up in a School where we are forbidden to look upon the face of women yet under pretence of a naughty custom we will have it lawful for us to win their Affections and to contract Friendship with them which beginning by irregular inclinations are entertained by useless discourse and end in criminal delights Chastity runs hazzards enough and needs not to have new Gins laid for her The lustre of apparel freedom of conversation and that which is termed civility make sufficient open war against continency there needs no addition of Wiles or cunning to surprize her When men shall be Angels it shall be lawful for them to contract amity with women when death shall have severed them from their bodies they may without scandal converse together and satisfie their inclinations but as long as they shall have sense common with Beasts and that Beauty shall make more
The THIRD DISCOURSE Of the good use of Audacity or Boldness SInce the Nature of man is out of order and that she stands in need of Grace to recover the Innocence which she hath lost we must not wonder if Passions not succour'd by Virtue become criminal and if by their proper inclination they degenerate into some sins Effects are always answerable to their Causes the fruit holds of the tree and men for all their freedom draw their humors from the Sun that lightens them and from the earth that nourisheth them whatsoever can be taken to correct their defaults some marks thereof remain always and education is never powerful enough wholly to change Nature This is evidently seen in Fear for she leanâ— so much toward disorder as it is very hard to stay her and she is so giddy a humour that she oftner sides with Vice than with Virtue she is so unconstant that she produceth rather contrary than different effects and she takes upon her so many several shapes as it is hard to know her Sometimes she bereaves us of our strength and brings us to a condition of not defending our selves sometimes she infuseth a chilness throughout all our members and detaining the bloud about the heart she makes the image of Death appear in our faces anon she takes our speech away from us and leaves us only sighs to implore aid from our friends sometimes she fastens wings to our feet and makes us overcome them by our swiftness who overcame us by their courage sometimes she imitates Despair and paints out the danger so hideous to us on all parts as she makes us resolve to change a fearful flight into an honourable resistance she is sometimes so indiscreet as thinking to shun an evil she runs headlong upon it and oftentimes out of a strange fantasticalness she engageth her self in a certain death to shun a doubtful one If her effects be extravagant her inclinations are not more rational for unless she be guided by wisdom she easily degenerates into hatred despair or loathfulness we do not much love what we fear and as love is so free that it cannot endure constraint it is so noble as it cannot tolerate an outrage all that doth affright it irritates it when men will by violence overcome it it turneth to Aversion and changeth all its gentleness into choler hence it is that Tyrants have no Friends for being bound to make themselvs dreaded they cannot make themselves be beloved and their government being grounded upon rigour it cannot produce love those who are nearest them hate them the praises which men give them are false and of so many Passions which they endeavour to excite Fear Hatred are the only true ones likewise seeing that the mischief of their condition obligeth them to cruelty they renounce Love and care not though they be hated so they be feared God alone can accord the two Passions it is only he that can make himself to be feared of those that love him and loved of those that fear him yet do Divines confess that perfect Charity banisheth Fear and that those who love him best are those who fear him least But though it be usual for this Passion to turn it self into Hatred yet is she not always permitted so to do and this change is a sign of her ill nature there are some whom we ought to fear and cannot hate their greatness obligeth us to respect them and their justice forbids us to hate them that Majesty which environs them produceth fear but the protection which we draw from thence ought to make us love them so as the propensity to Hatred is a disorder in Fear and to follow her irrational inclination is to abuse this Passion She also easily changeth her self into Despair and though she march differing ways she fals into the same praecipice for she paints out dangers in so horrid a manner unto Hope as she makes her â—ose all her courage and this generous Passion suffers her self to be so far perswaded by â—er enemy that keeping aloof from the gâ—od which she did pursue they both of them turn to an infamous Faint-heartedness But of all the monsters which fear doth produce none is more dangerous than Slothfulness for though this vice be not so active as others and that her nature which is remiss suffers her not to frame any great designs against Virtue yet is it guilty of all the outrages that are done thereunto and seems to be found in all the counsels which are plotted to her prejudice it hath such an aversion to labour as it cannot endure Innocence because she is laborious and we may say that if it be not one of her most violent enemies it is the most dangerous most opinionated enemy that Innocence hath it produceth all the sins which cover themselves with darkness and to make them cease it would be only requisite to kill this their Father which gives them their birth 't is this that nourisheth uncleanness and Love would have no vigour were it not for it 't is this that entertains Voluptuousness and who to amuse her doth furnish her with shameful entertainments 't is this that authorizeth Poormindedness and which diverts it from those glorious labours that make men famous 'T is this in fine which loseth States which corrupteth Manners which banisheth Virtues and is the cause of all Vices mean while it assumes to it self a venerable name and to colour its laziness it causeth it self to be called honest Vacancy but certainly there is a great deal of difference between the rest of Philosophers and the idleness of the Voluptuous the former are always a doing when they seem to do least they are most busied and when men think they are unserviceable they oblige the whole world to their labours For they make Panegyricks on Virtue they compose Invectives against Vice they discover the secrets of Nature or they describe the perfections of her Author but the later are always languishing if their mind labour 't is for the service of the body if they keep from the noise of the world 't is that they may taste pleasure with the more freedom and if they banish themselves from the company of men 't is that they may be with lewd women these wretches know how to conceal themselves but they know nat how to live their Palaces are their Sepulchres and their useless rest is a shameful death The leisure-times of good men must be rational they must not withdraw themselves to solitariness but when they can be no longer serviceable to the State they must leave the world but not abandon it they must remember that they make a part of it that whither soever they retire themselves the Publique hath always a right in them those are not solitary but savage who forgo Society because they cannot endure it who keep far from the Court because they cannot endure to see their enemies