the Crown where for the Regulation of Community in Goods and Estates observ'd in the Country certain Sovereign Magistrates have committed to them the universal Charge and over-seeing of the Agriculture and Distribution of the Fruits according to the Necessity of every one Where they lament the Death of Children and Feast at the Decease of old Men Where they lie ten or twelve in a Bed Men and their Wives together Where Women whose Husbands come to violent Ends may marry again and others not Where the servile Condition of Women is look'd upon with such Contempt that they kill all the native Females and buy Wives of their Neighbours to supply their Use Where Husbands may repudiate their Wives without shewing any Cause but Wives cannot part from their Husbands for what cause soever Where Husbands may sell their Wives in case of sterility Where they boyl the Bodies of their dead and afterwards pound them to a pulp which they mix with their Wine and drink it Where the most coveted Sepulture is to be eaten with Dogs and elsewhere by Birds Where they believe the Souls of the happy live in all manner of Liberty in delightful Fields furnish'd with all sorts of Delicacies and that it is those Souls repeating the words we utter which we call Echo Where they fight in the Water and shoot their Arrows with the most mortal aim swimming Where for a sign of Subjection they lift up their Shoulders and hang down their Heads and put off their shooes when they enter the King's Palace Where the Eunuchs who take charge of the Religious Women have moreover their Lips and Noses cut away and disguis'd that they may not be lov'd and the Priests put out their own Eyes to be better acquainted with their Daemons and the better to receive and retain their Oracles Where every one creates to himself a Deity of what he likes best according to his own Fancy the Hunter a Lyon or a Fox the Fisher some certain Fish and Idols of every Humane Action or Passion in which place the Sun the Moon and the Earth are the principal Deities and the form of taking an Oath is to touch the Earth looking up to Heaven and there both Flesh and Fish is eaten raw Where the greatest Oath they take is to swear by the Name of some dead Person of Reputation laying their hand upon his Tomb Where the New-years Gift the King sends every Year to the Princes his Subjects is Fire which being brought all the old Fire is put out and the neighbouring People are bound to fetch of the new every one for themselves upon pain of Treason Where when the King to betake himself wholly to Devotion retires from his Administration which often falls out his next Successor is oblig'd to do the same by which means the Right of the Kingdom devolves to the third in Succession Where they vary the Form of Government according to the seeming necessity of Affairs Depose the King when they think good substituting ancient men to govern in his stead and sometimes transferring it into the hands of the Common-People Where Men and Women are both Circumcis'd and also Baptiz'd Where the Souldier who in one or several Engagements has been so fortunate as to present seven of the Enemies Heads to the King is made noble where they live in that rare and singular Opinion of the Mortality of the Soul Where the Women are deliver'd without Pain or Fear Where the Women wear Copper Fetters upon both their Legs and if a Louse bite them are bound in Magnanimity to bite them again and dare not marry till first they have made their King a Tender of their Virginity if he please to accept it Where the ordinary way of Salutation is by putting a Finger down to the Earth and then pointing it up towards Heaven Where Men carry Burthens upon their Heads and Women on their Shoulders the Women pissing standing and the Men cowring down Where they send their Blood in token of Friendship and cense the men they would honour like Gods Where not only to the fourth but in any other remote Degree Kindred are not permitted to marry Where the Children are four Years at Nurse and sometimes twelve in which Place also it is accounted mortal to give the Child suck the first day after it is born Where the Correction of the male Children is peculiarly design ' d to the Fathers and to the Mothers of the Females the Punishment being to hang them by the Heels in the Smoak Where they eat all sorts of Herbs without other Scruple than of the Illness of the Smell Where all things are open the finest Houses and that are furnish'd with the richest Furniture without Doors Windows Trunks or Chests to lock a Thief being there punish'd double to what they are in other Places Where they crack Lice with their Teeth like Monkeys and abhorr to see them kill'd with ones Nails Where in all their Lives they neither cut their Hair nor pare their Nails and in another Place pare those of the Right hand only letting the Left grow for Ornament and Bravery Where they suffer the Hair on the right side to grow as long as it will and shave the other and in the neighbâ—ring Provinces some let their Hair grow long before and some behind shaving close the rest Where Parents let out their Children and Husbands their Wives to their Guests to hire Where a man may get his own Mother with Child and Fathers make use of their own Daughters or their Sons without Scandal or Offence Where at their solemn Feasts they interchangeably lend their Children to one another without any consideration of Nearness of Blood In one Place Men feed upon Humane Flesh in another 't is reputed a charitable Office for a Man to kill his Father at a certain Age and elsewhere the Fathers dispose of their Children whilst yet in their Mothers Wombs some to be preserv'd and carefully brought up and others they proscribe either to be thrown off or made away Elsewhere the old Husbands lend their Wives to Young-men and in another place they are in common without offence in one place particularly the Women take it for a mark of Honour to have as many gay fring'd Tassels at the bottom of their Garment as they have lain with several men Moreover has not Custom made a Republick of Women separately by themselves Has it not put Arms into their Hands made them to raise Armies and fight Battels and does she not by her own Precept instruct the most ignorant Vulgar and make them perfect in things which all the Philosophy in the World could never beat into the Heads of the wisest men For we know entire Nations Where Death was not only despis'd but entertain'd with the greatest Triumph where Children of seven years old offer'd themselves to be whip'd to death without changing their Countenance where Riches were in such Contempt that the poorest and most wretched Citizen would
of youthful Heat berest How small a Portion of Life is left Caesar to an old weather-beaten Souldier of his Guards who came to ask him leave that he might kill himself taking notice of his whither'd Body and decrepid motion pleasantly answer'd Thou fansiest then that thou art yet alive Should a man fall into the Aches and impotencies of Age from a spritely and vigorous Youth on the sudden I do not think Humanity capable of enduring such a change but Nature leading us by the hand an easie and as it were an insensible pace step by step conducts us to that miserable condition and by that means makes it familiar to us so that we perceive not nor are sensible of the stroak then when our Youth dies in us though it be really a harder Death than the final Dissolution of a languishing Body which is only the Death of old Age forasmuch as the Fall is not so great from an uneasie being to none at all as it is from a spritely and florid Being to one that is unweildy and Painful The Body when bow'd beyond its natural spring of Strength has less Force either to rise with or support a burthen and it is with the Soul the same and therefore it is that we are to raise her up firm and erect against the Power of this Adversary for as it is impossible she should ever be at rest or at Peace within her self whilst she stands in fear of it so if she once can assure her self she may boast which is a thing as it were above Humane Condition that it is impossible that Disquiet Anxiety or Fear or any other Disturbance should inhabit or have any Place in her Horat. l. 3. Od. 3. Non vultus instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida neque Auster Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus A Soul well settled is not to be shook With an incensed Tyrant's threatning Look Nor can loud Auster once that Heart dismay The ruffling Prince of stormy Adria Nor yet th' advanced hand of mighty Jove Though charg'd with Thunder such a Temper move She is then become Sovereign of all her Lusts and Passions Mistress of Necessity Shame Poverty and all the other Injuries of Fortune Let us therefore as many of us as can get this Advantage which is the true and sovereign Liberty here on Earth and that fortifies us wherewithal to defie Violence and Injustice and to contemn Prisons and Chains Horat. l. 1. Epist 16. in Manicis Compedibus saevo te sub custode tenebo Ipse Deus simul atque volam me solvet opinor Hoc sentit moriar mors ultima linea rerum est With rugged Chains I 'll load thy Hands and Feet And to a surly Keeper thee commit Why let him shew his worst of Cruelty God will I think for asking set me free Ay but he thinks I 'll die that Comfort brings For Death 's the utmost Line of Humane things Our very Religion it self has no surer humane Foundation than the Contempt of Death The contempt of Death a certain Foundation of Religion Not only the Argument of Reason invites us to it for why should we fear to lose a thing which being lost can never be miss'd or lamented but also seeing we are threatned by so many sorts of Death is it not infinitely worse eternally to fear them all than once to undergo one of them And what matter is it when it shall happen since it is once inevitable To him that told Socrates the thirty Tyrants have sentenc'd thee to Death and Nature them said he What a ridiculous thing it is to trouble and afflict our selves about taking the only Step that is to deliver us from all Misery and Trouble As our Birth brought us the Birth of all things so in our Death is the Death of all things included And therefore to lament and take on that we shall not be alive a hundred Years hence is the same Folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred Years ago Death is the beginning of another Life So did we weep and so much it cost us to enter into this and so did we put of our former Veil in entring into it Nothing can be grievous that is but once and is it reasonable so long to fear a thing that will so soon be dispatch'd Long Life and short are by Death made all one for there is no long nor short to things that are no more Aristotle tells us that there are certain little Beasts upon the Banks of the River Hypanis that never live above a day they which die at eight of the Clock in the Morning die in their Youth and those that die at five in the Evening in their extreamest Age Which of us would not laugh to see this Moment of Continuance put into the consideration of Weal or Woe The most and the least of ours in comparison of Eternity or yet to the Duration of Mountains Rivers Stars Trees and even of some Animals is no less ridiculous But Nature compels us to it Go out of this World says she as you enter'd into it the same Pass you made from Death to Life without Passion or Fear the same after the same manner repeat from Life to Death Your Death is a part of the Order of the Universe 't is a part of the Life of the World Lucret. l. 2. Inter se mortales mutua vivunt Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt Mortals amongst themselves by turns do live And Life's bright Torch to the next Runner give Alluding to the Athenian Games wherein those that run a Race carried Torches in their Hands and the Race being done deliver'd them into the Hands of those who were to run next 'T is the Condition of your Creation Death is a part of you and whilst you endeavour to evade it you avoid your selves This very Being of yours that you now enjoy is equally divided betwixt Life and Death The day of your Birth is one days advance towards the Grave Senec. Her fur chor 3. Prima quae vitam dedit hora carpsit The Hour that gave of Life the benefit Did also a whole Hour shorten it Manil. Ast 4. Nascentes morimur finisque ab origine pendet As we are born we die and our Life's end Upon our Life's beginning does depend All the whole time you live you purloin from Life and live at the expence of Life it self the perpetual work of our whole Life is but to lay the foundation of Death you are in Death whilst you live because you still are after Death when you are no more alive Or if you had rather have it so you are dead after Life but dying all the while you live and Death handles the dying much more rudely than the dead If you have made your profit of Life you have had enough of it go your way satisfied Lucret. l. 3. Cur non ut
that proceeded from her Liberality was there before he came to it and above a hundred Years before his Time He never in his own particular had any solid and essential Advantages for which he stood indebted to her Bounty She shew'd him Airy Honorary and Titular Favours without Substance She procur'd for him the Collar of the Order of St. Michael which when young he covered above all other things it being at that time the utmost mark of Honour of the French Nobless and very Rare But of all her Favours there was none with which he was so well pleas'd as an Authentick Bull of a Roman Burgess that was granted to him with great civility and bounty in a Journey he made to Rome which is transcrib'd in Form in the sixth Chapter of the third Book of his Essays Messieurs de Bourdeax elected him Mayor of their City being then out of the Kingdom and at Rome and yet more Remote from any such Expectation which made him excuse himself but that would not serve his turn and moreover the King interpos'd his Command 'T is an Office that ought to be look'd upon with the greatest Esteem as it has no other Perquisits and Benefits belonging to it than the meer honour of its Execution It lasts but two years but may by a second Election be continued longer though that rarely happens It was to him and had been so twice before once some years since to Monsieur de Lausac and more lately to Monsieur de Byron Mareschal of France in whose place he succeeded and lest his to Monsieur de Matiguon also Mareschal of France proud of so noble a Fraternity His Father a Man of great Honour and Equity had formerly also had the same Dignity All the Children his Wife brought died at Nurse saving Leonor an only Daughter whom he dispos'd in marriage some two Years before his Death The first printing of his Essaies was in the Year 1580 at which time the publick Applause gave him as he says a little more assurance than he expected He has since added but corrected nothing His Book having been always the same saving that upon every new Impression he took the Privilege to add something that the Buyer might not go away with his Hands quite empty His Person was strong and well knit his Faâ—e not fat but full his Complexion betwixt Jovial and Melancholick moderately Sanguine and hot his Constitution healthful and spritely rarely troubled with Diseases till he grew into Years that he begun to be afflicted with the Cholick and Stone As to the rest very obstinate in his hatred and contempt of Physicians Prescriptions an hereditary Antipathy his Father having liv'd threescore and fourteen Years his Grand-father threescore and nine and his great Grandfather almost fourscore Years without having ever tasted any sort of Medicine He died in the Year 1592 the 13th of September a very constant and Philosophical Death being aged fifty nine Years six Months and eleven Days and was buried at Bourdeaux in the Church of a Commendary of St. Anthony now given to the Religious Feuillantines where his Wife Francoise de la Cassaigne and his Daughter have erected for him an honourable Monument having like his Ancestors past over his Life and Death in the Catholick Religion The Contents of the Chapters of the first Book Ch. 1. THat Men by various ways arrive at the same End Chap. 2. Of Sorrow Chap. 3. That our Affâ—â—ctions carry themselves beyond Us. Chap. 4. That the Soul discharges her Passions upon false Objects where the true are wanting Chap. 5. Whether the Governour of a Place besieg'd ought himself to go out to parley Chap. 6. That the Hour of Parley is dangerous Chap. 7. That the Intention is Iudge of our Actions Chap. 8. Of Idleness Chap. 9. Of Lyars Chap. 10. Of Quick or Slow Speech Chap. 11. Of Prognostication Chap. 12. Of Constancy Chap. 13. The Ceremony of the Interview of Princes Chap. 14. That men are justly punish'd for being obstinate in the Defence of a Fort that is not in reason to be defended Chap. 15. Of the Punishment of Cowardice Chap. 16. A Proceeding of some Ambassadours Chap. 17. Of Fear Chap. 18. That Men are not to judge of our Happiness till after Death Chap. 19. That to study Philosophy is to learn to Die Chap. 20. Of the Force of Imagination Chap. 21. That the Profit of one Man is the Inconvenience of another Chap. 22. Of Custom and that we should not easily change a Law received Chap. 23. Various Events from the same Counsel Chap. 24. Of Pedantry Chap. 25. Of the Education of Children To Madam Diana of Foix Countess of Gurson Chap. 26. That it is folly to measure Truth and Errour by our own capacity Chap. 27. Of Friendship Chap. 28. Nine and twenty Sonnets of Estienne de la Boetie to Madam de Grammont Countess of Guisson Chap. 29. Of Moderation Chap. 30. Of Cannibals Chap. 31. That a Man is soberly to judge of Divine Ordinances Chap. 32. That we are to avoid Pleasures even at the expence of Life Chap. 33. That fortune is oftentimes observed to act by the Rule of Reason Chap. 34. Of one Defect in one Government Chap. 35. Of the Custom of wearing Clothes Chap. 36. Of Cato the younger Chap. 37. That we laugh and Cry for the same thing Chap. 38. Of Solitude Chap. 39. A Consideration upon Cicero Chap. 40. That the Relish of Goods and Evils does in a great Measure depend upon the Opinion we have of them Chap. 41. Not to communicate a Man's Honour Chap. 42. Of the Inequality amongst us Chap. 43. Of Sumptuary Laws Chap. 44. Of Sleep Chap. 45. Of the Battel of Dreux Chap. 46. Of Names Chap. 47. Of the Incertainty of our Iudgment Chap. 48. Of Horses drest to the Menage call'd Destrials Chap. 49. Of Ancient Customs Chap. 50. Of Democritus and Heraclitus Chap. 51. Of the Vanity of Words Chap. 52. Of the Parcimony of the Ancients Chap. 53. Of a Saying of Caesar Chap. 54. Of Vain Subtilties Chap. 55. Of Smells Chap. 56. Of Prayers Chap. 57. Of Age. A VINDICATION OF Montagne's Essays THe Essays of Michel de Montagne are justly ranked amongst Miscellaneous Books for they are on various subjects without order and connexion and the very body of the discourses has still a greater variety This sort of confusion does not however hinder people of all qualities to extol these Essays above all the Books that ever they read and they make them their chief study They think that other Miscellanies of ancient and modern Books are nothing but an unnecessary heap of quotations whereas we find in this authorities to the purpose intermixed with the Authors own thoughts which being bold and extraordinary are very effectual to cure men of their Weakness and Vanity and induce them to seek Virtue and Felicity by lawful means But because every body is not of this opinion we must take notice here of what is said against and
for themselves put to death their brave Captains newly return'd triumphant from a Naval Victory they had obtained over the Lacedaemonians near the Arginusian Isles the most bloody and obstinate Engagement that ever the Greeks fought at Sea for no other Reason but that they rather followed their Blow and pursued the Advantages prescribed them by the Rule of War than that they would stay to gather up and bury their Dead an Execution that is yet rendred more odious by the Behaviour of Diomedon who being one of the condemn'd and a Man of most eminent both politick and military Vertue after having heard their Sentence advancing to speak no Audience till then having been allowed instead of laying before them his own Innocency or the Impiety of so cruel an Arrest only express'd a Solicitude for his Judges Preservation beseeching the Gods to convert this Sentence to their own Good and praying that for neglecting to pay those Vows which he and his Companions had done which he also acquainted them with in Acknowledgment of so glorious a Success they might not pull down the Indignation of the Gods upon them and so without more Words went courageously to his Death But Fortune a few Years after punishing them in their kind made them see the Error of their Cruelty for Chabrias Captain-General of their Naval Forces having got the better of Pollis Admiral of Sparta about the Isle of Naxos totally lost the Fruits of his Success and Content with his Victory of very great Importance to their Affairs not to incur the danger of this Example and lose a few Bodies of his dead Friends that were floating in the Sea gave opportunity to a world of living Enemies to sail away in Safety who afterwards made them pay dear for this unseasonable Superstition Seneca Tr. Cher. 2. Quaeris quo jaceas post obitum loco Quo non natae jacent Dost ask where thou shalt lie when dead With those that never Being had This other restores the sense of Repose to a Body without a Soul Cicero Tusc l. 1. Neque sepulcrum quo recipiat habeat portum corporis Ubi remissa humana vita Corpus requiescat à malis Nor with a Tomb as with a Haven blest Where after Life the Corps in Peace may rest As nature demonstrates to us that several dead things retain yet an occult Sympathy and relation to Life Wine changes its flavour and complexion in Cellars according to the changes and seasons of the Vine from whence it came and the Flesh of Venison alters its condition and taste in the powd'ring-tub according to the seasons of the living Flesh of its kind as it is observed by the Curious CHAP. IV. That the Soul discharges her Passions upon false Object where the true are wanting A Gentleman of my Country who was very often tormented with the Gout being importun'd by his Physicians totally to reclaim his Appetite from all manner of salt Meats was wont presently to reply that he must needs have something to quarrel with in the extremity of his Fits and that he fansy'd that railing at and cursing one while the Bolognia Sawsages and another the dry'd Tongues and the Hamms was some mitigation to his pain And in good earnest as the Arm when it is advanced to strike if it fail of meeting with that upon which is was design'd to discharge the blow and spends it self in vain does offend the Striker himself and as also that to make a pleasant Prospect the Sight should not be lost and dilated in a vast extent of empty Air but have some Bounds to limit and circumscribe it at a reasonable distance Ventus ut amittit vires nisi robore densae Occurant Sylvae spatio diffusus inani As Winds do lose their strength unless withstood By some dark Grove of strong opposing wood So it appears that the Soul being transported and discompos'd turns its violence upon its self if not supply'd with something to oppose it and therefore always requires an Enemy as an object on which to discharge its Fury and Resentment Plutarch says very well of those who are delighted with little Dogs and Monkeys that the amorous part which is in us for want of a legitimate Object rather than lie idle does after that manner forge and create one frivolous and false as we see that the Soul in the exercise of its Passions inclines rather to deceive it self by creating a false and fantastical Subject even contrary to its own Belief than not to have something to work upon And after this manner Brute Beasts direct their Fury to fall upon the Stone or Weapon that has hurt them and with their Teeth even execute their Revenge upon themselves for the Injury they have receiv'd from another Claudian Pannonis haud aliter post ictum saevior Ursa Cui jaculum parva Lybs amentavit habena Se rotat in vulnus telumque irata receptum Impetit secum fugientem circuit Hastam So the fierce Bear made fiercer by the smart Of the bold Lybian's mortal guided Dart Turns round upon the Wound and the tough Spear Contorted o'er her Breast does flying bear What causes of the misadventures that befall us do we not invent what is it that we do not lay the fault to right or wrong that we may have something to quarrel with Those beautiful Tresses young Lady you may so liberally tear off are no way guilty nor is it the whiteness of those delicate Breasts you so unmercifully beat that with an unlucky Bullet has slain your beloved Brother quarrel with something else Livy Livy dec l. 5. speaking of the Roman Army in Spain says that for the loss of two Brothers who were both great Captains Flere omnes repente offensare capita that they all wept and tore their Hair 'T is the common practice of Affliction And the Philosopher Bion said pleasantly of the King who by handfulls pull'd his Hair off his Head for Sorrow Does this man think that Baldness is a Remedy for Grief Who has not seen peevish Gamesters worry the Cards with their Teeth and swallow whole Bales of Dice in revenge for the Loss of their Money Xerxes whip'd the Sea and writ a Challenge to Mount Athos Cyrus employ'd a whole Army several days at work to revenge himself of the River Gâ—idus for the Fright it had put him into in passing over and Caligula demolish'd a very beautiful Palace for the Pleasure his Mother had once enjoy'd there I remember there was a Story currant when I was a Boy That one of our Neighbouring Kings having receiv'd a Blow from the Hand of GOD swore he would be reveng'd and in order to it made Proclamation that for ten Years to come no one should pray to him or so much as mention him throughout his Dominions by which we are not so much to take measure of the Folly as the Vain-Glory of the Nation of which this Tale was told They are Vices that
the number of his few sad days And his sad thoughts full of his fatal doom Can dream of nothing but the blow to come The end of our Race is Death 't is the necessary Object of our aim which if it fright us how is it possible to advance a step without a Fit of an Ague The Remedy the Vulgar use is not to think on 't but from what brutish stupidity can they derive so gross a blindness They must bridle the Ass by the Tail Lucret. l. 4. Qui capite ipse suo instituit vestigia retro He who the order of his steps has laid To light and natural motion retrograde 't is no wonder if he be often trap'd in the Pitfall They use to fright People with the very mention of Death and many cross themselves as it were the name of the Devil and because the making a mans Will is in reference to dying not a man will be perswaded to take a Pen in hand to that purpose till the Physician has pass'd sentence upon him and totally given him over and then betwixt Grief and Terror God knows in how fit a condition of Understanding he is to do it The Romans by reason that this poor syllable Death was observ'd to be so harsh to the Ears of the People and the sound so ominous had found out a way to soften and spin it out by a Periphrasis and instead of pronouncing bluntly such a one is dead to say such a one has liv'd or such a one has ceas'd to live for provided there was any mention of Life in the Case though past it carried yet some sound of Consolation And from them it is that we have borrow'd our expression of the late Monsieur such and such a one Peradventure as the Saying is the term we have liv'd is worth our money The Author's birth I was born betwixt eleven and twelve a clock in the Forenoon the last of February 1533. according to our Computation beginning the Year the first of January and it is now but just fifteen days since I was compleat nine and thirty years old I make account to live at least as many more In the mean time to trouble a mans self with the thought of a thing so far of is a sensless Foolery But what Young and Old die after the very same manner and no one departs out of Life otherwise than if he had but just before enter'd into it neither is any so old and decrepid who has heard of Methusalem that does not think he has yet twenty years of Constitution good at least Fool that thou art who has assur'd unto thee the term of Life Thou dependâ—st upon Physicians Tales and Stories but rather consult Experience and the fragility of humane Nature for according to the common course of things 't is long since that thou liv'dst by extraordinary Favour Thou hast already out-li'vd the ordinary term of Life and that it is so reckon up thy Acquaintance how many more have died before they arriv'd at thy Age than have attain'd unto it and of those who have ennobled their Lives by their Renown take but an Account and I dare lay a Wager thou wilt find more who have dyed before than after five and thirty years of age It is full both of Reason and Piety too to take Example by the Humanity of Jesus Christ himself who ended his Life at three and thirty years The greatest man that ever was no more than a man Alexander died also at the same Age. How many several ways has Death to surprize us Hor. l. 2. Od. 13. Quid quisque vitet nunquam homini satis Cautum est in horas Man fain would shun but 't is not in his Power T'evade the dangers of each threatning hour To omit Fevers and Pleurisies who would ever have imagin'd that a Duke of Britanny should be press'd to death in a Crow'd as that Duke was at the entry of Pope Clement into Lyons Have we not seen one of our * Henry II. of France running against Montgomery 2. Philip the eldest son of Lewis the Gross the 40th King of France Kings kill'd at a Tilting and did not one of his Ancestors die by the justle of a Hog Aeschylus being threatned with the fall of a house was to much purpose so circumspect to avoid that danger when he was knock'd o' th' head by a Tortoise-shell falling out of an Eagles Talons in the Fields Another was choak'd with a Grape-stone an Emperour kill'd with the scratch of a Comb in combing his Head Aemilius Lepidus with a stumble at his own threshold and Aufidius with a justle against the door as he entred the Council Chamber And betwixt the very Thighs of Women Corâ—elius Gallus the Prator Tigillinus Captain of the Watch at Rome Ludovico Son of Guido de Gonzaga Marquis of Mantua and of worse example Speusippus a Platonick Philosopher and one of our Popes The poor Judge Bebiâ—â— whilst he repriv'd a Criminal for eight days only was himself condemn'd to death and his own day of Life was expir'd Whilst Caius Julius the Physician was anointing the Eyes of a Patient Death clos'd his own and if I may bring in an Example of my own Bloud A Brother of mine Captain St. Martin a young man of three and twenty years old who had already given sufficient testimomy of his Valour playing a match at Tennis receiv'd a blow of a Ball a little above his right Ear which though it was without any manner of sign of Wound or depression of the Skull and though he took no great notice of it nor so much as sate down to repose himself he nevertheless died within five or six hours after of an Apoplexy occasion'd by that blow Which so frequent and common Examples passing every day before our Eyes how is it possible a man should disingage himself from the thought of Death or avoid fansying that it has us every moment by the Collar What matter is it you will say which way it comes to pass provided a man does not terrifie himself with the expectation For my part I am of this mind that if a man could by any means avoid it though by creeping under a Calves skin I am one that should not be ashamed of the shift all I aim at is to pass my time pleasantly and without any great Reproach and the Recreations that most contribute to it I take hold of as to the rest as little glorious and exemplary as you would desire Hâ—raâ—e Epist 2 l. 2. praetulerim dâ—lirus inersque videri Dum mea dâ—lectant mâ—la me vel deni fallant Quà m sapere ringi A Fool or Coward let me censur'd be Whilst either Vice does please or cozen me Rather than be thought wise and â—eel the smart Of a perpetual aking anxious Heart But t is folly to think of doing any thing that way They go they come they gallop and dance and not a word of Death All
have no business with any one but a man's self Hor. l. 2. Od. 16. Quid brevi fortes jaculamur aevo Multa Why cut'st thou out such mighty Work vain man Whose Life 's short date 's compriz'd in one poor span For we shall there find work enough to do without any need of Addition One complains more than of Death than he is thereby prevented of a glorious Victory another that he must die before he has married his Daughter or settled and provided for his Children a third seems only troubled that he must lose the society of his beloved Wife a fourth the conversation of his Son as the principal concerns of his Being For my part I am thanks be to God at this instant in such a condition that I am ready to dislodge whenever it shall please him without any manner of regret I disengage my self throughout from all Worldly Relations my leave is soon taken of all but my self Never did any one prepare to bid adieu to the World more absolutely and purely and to shake hands with all manner of Interest in it than I expect to do The deadest Deaths are the best Lucret. l. 3. miser O miser aiunt omnia ademit Una dies infesta mihi tot praemia vitae Wretch that I am they cry one fatal day So many joys of Life has snatch'd away And the Builder Aeneid l. 4. manent dit il opera interrupta minaeque Murorum ingentes aequataque machina Coelo Stupendious Piles say he neglected lie And Tow'rs whose Pinacles do pierce the Sky A man must design nothing that will require so much time to the finishing or at least with no such passionate desire to see it brought to Perfection We are born to action Ovid. Amor. lib. 2. Eleg. 10. Cum moriar medium solvar inter opus When Death shall come he me will doubtless find Doing of something that I had design'd I would always have a man to be doing and as much as in him lies to extend and spin out the Offices of life and then let Death take me planting Cabbages but without any careful thought of him and much less of my Garden 's not being finished I saw one die who at his last gasp seem'd to be concern'd at nothing so much as that Destiny was about to cut the thread of a Chronicle History he was then compiling when he was gone no farther than the fifteenth or sixteenth of our Kings Lucret. l. 3. Illud in his rebus non addunt nec tibi earum J am desiderium rerum superinsidet una They tell us not that dying we 've no more The same desires and thoughts that heretosore We are to discharge our selves from these vulgar and hurtful Humours and Concerns To this purpose it was that men first appointed the places of Sepulture and Dormitories of the dead near adjoyning to the Churches and in the most frequent places of the City to accustom says Lycurgus the common People Women and Children that they should not be startled at the sight of a dead Corps and to the end that the continual Objects of Bones Graves Monuments and Funeral Obsequies should put us in Mind of our frail condition Silius Itaâ—icus l. 11. Quinetiam exhilarare viris convivia caede Mos olim miscere epulis spectacula dira Certatum ferro saepe super ipsa cadentum Pocula respersis non parco sanguine mensis 'T was therefore that the Ancients at their Feasts With tragick Objects us'd to treat their Guests Making their Fencers with their utmost spite Skill Force and Fury in their presence fight Till streams of Blood of those at last must fall Dash'd o'er their Tables Dishes Cups and all And as the Egyptians after their Feasts were wont to present the Company with a great Image of Death by one that cry'd out to them Drink and be merry for such shalt thou be when thou art dead so it is my Custom to have Death not only in my Imagination but continually in my Mouth neither is there any thing of which I am so inquisitive and delight to inform my self as the manner of mens Deaths their Words Looks and Gestures nor any places in History I am so intent upon and it is manifest enough by my crowding in Examples of this kind that I have a particular fancy for that Subject If I were a Writer of Books I would compile a Register with a Comment of the various Deaths of men and it could not but be useful for who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live Dâ—cearchus made one to which he gave that Title but it was designâ—d for another and less profitable end Peradventure some one may object and say that the pain and terror of dying indeed does so infinitely exceed all manner of imagination that the best Fencer will be quite out of his Play when it comes to the Push but let them say what they will to premeditate is doubtless a very great Advantage and besides is it nothing to come so far at least without any visible Disturbance or Alteration But moreover Nature her self does assist and encourage us If the Death be sudden and violent we have not leisure to fear if otherwise I find that as I engage further in my Disease I naturally enter into a certain loathing and disdain of Life I find I have much more ado to digest this Resolution of dying when I am well in Health than when sick languishing of a Fever and by how much I have less to do with the Commodities of Life by reason I even begin to lose the use and Pleasure of them by so much I look upon Death with less Terror and Amazement which makes me hope that the further I remove from the first and the nearer I approach to the latter I shall sooner strike a bargain and with less Unwillingness exchange the one for the other And as I have experimented in other Occurrences that as Caesar says things often appear greater to us at distance than near at hand I have found that being well I have had Diseases in much greater Horror than when really afflicted with them The Vigour wherein I now am and the Jollity and Delight wherein I now live make the contrary Estatâ— appear in so great a disproportion to my present condition that by Imagination I magnifie and make those inconveniences twice greater than they are and apprehend them to be much more troublesome than I find them really to be when they lie the most heavy upon me and I hope to find Death the same Let us but observe in the ordinary changes and Declinations our Constitutions daily suffer how Nature deprives us of all sight and sense of our bodily decay What remains to an old man of the vigour of his Youth and better days Corn. Galli vel potius Maximian Eleg. 1. He is senibus vitae portio quanta manet Alas to men
of which St. Augustine gives a very great proof upon his Adversaries 'T is a Conflict that is more decided by strength of Memory than the force of Reason We are to content our selves with the Light it pleases the Sun to communicate to us by Virtue of his Rays and who will lift up his Eyes to take in a greater let him not think it strange if for the reward of his presumption he there lose his sight Sapien. Cap. 9. v. 13. Quis hominum potest scire consilium Dei aut quis poterit cogitare quid velit Dominus Who amongst Men can know the Counsil of God or Who can think what the Will of the Lord is CHAP. XXXII That we are to avoid Pleasures even at the expence of Life I Had long ago Observ'd most of the Opinions of the Ancients to concur in this That iâ— is happy to Die when there is more ill than good in Living and that to preserve Life to our own Torment and Inconvenience is contrary to the very Rules of Nature as these old Laws instruct us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Happy is Death whenever it shall come To him to whom to Live is troublesome Whom Life does persecute with restless Spite May Honourably bid the World good Night And infinitely better 't is to Die Than to prolong a Life of Misery But to push this Contempt of Death so far as to employ it to the removing our selves from the danger of Coveting Honours Riches Dignities and other Favours and Goods as we call them of Fortune as if Reason were not sufficient to perswade us to avoid them without adding this new Injunction I had never seen it either enjoin'd or practis'd till this passage of Seneca fell into my hands who advising Lucilius a Man of great Power and Authority about the Emperour to alter his Voluptuous and Magnificent way of Living and to retire himself from this Worldly Vanity and Ambition to some Solitary Quiet and Philosophical Life and the other alledging some Difficulties I am of Opinion says he either that thou leave that Life or Life it self I would indeed advise thee to the gentle way and to untie rather than to break the Knot thou hast undiscreetly Knit provâ—ded that if it be not otherwise to be unti'd then resolutely break it There is no man so great a Coward that had nor rather once fall than to be always falling I should have found this Counsel conformable enough to the Stoicâ—l Roughness But it appears the more strange for being borrowed from Epicurus who writes the same thing upon the like occasion to Idominius And I think I have Observ'd something like it but with Christian Moderation a mongst our own People St. Hilary Bishop of Poictiers that famous Enemy of the Arian Heresie being in Syria had intelligence thither sent him that Abra his only Daughter whom he left at home under the Eye and Tuition of her Mother was sought in Marriage by the greatest Noblemen of the Country as being a Virgin Vertuously brought up Fair Rich and in the Flower of her Age whereupon he writ to her as it appears upon Record that she should remove her Affection from all those Pleasures and Advantages were propos'd unto her for he had in his Travels found out a much greater and more worthy Fortune for her a Husband of much greater Power and Magnificence that would present her with Robes and Jewels of inestimable value wherein his design was to dispossess her of the Appetite and use of Worldly delights to join her wholly to God But the nearest and most certain way to this being as he conceiv'd the Death of his Daughter he never ceas'd by Vows Prayers and Oâ—aisons to Beg of the Almighty that he would please to call her out of this World and to take her to himself as accordingly it came to pass for soon after his return she Died at which he exprest a singular Joy This seems to out do the other forasmuch as the applies himself to this means at the first sight which they only take subsidiarily and besides it was towards his only Daughter But I will not omit the latter end of this Story though it be from my purpose St. Hilary's Wife having understood from him how the Death of their Daughter was brought about by his desires and design and how much happier she was to he remov'd out of this World than to have stay'd in it conceiv'd so Lively an Apprehension of the Eternal and Heavenly Beatitude that she Begg'd of her Husband with the extreamest Importunity to do as much for her and God at their joint Request shortly after calling her to him it was a Death embrac'd on both sides with singular Content CHAP. XXXIII That Fortune is oftentimes Observ'd to Act by the Rule of Reason THe Inconstancy and various Motions of Fortune may reasonably make us expect she should present us with all sorts of Faces Can there be a more express Act of Justice than this The Duke of Valentenois having resolv'd to Poison Adrian Cardinal of Cornetto with whom Pope Alexander the Sixth his Father and himself were to go to Supper in the Vatican he sent before a Bottle of Poisoned Wine and withal strict Order to the Butler to keep it very safe The Pope being come before his Son and calling for Drink the Butler supposing this Wine had not been so strictly recommended to his Care but only upon the account of its Excellency presented it presently to the Pope and the Duke himself coming in presently after and being confident they had not meddled with his Bottle took also his Cup so that the Father Died immediately upon the place and the Son after having been long tormented with Sickness was reserv'd to another and a worse Fortune Sometimes she seems to play upon us just in the nick of an Affair Monsieur d' Estree at that time Guidon to Monsieur de Vendosme and Monsieur de Liques Lieutenant to the Company of the Duke of Ascot being both pertenders to the Sieur de Foungueselles his Sister though of several Parties as it oft falls out amongst Frontier Neighbours the Sieur de Liques carried her but on the same Day he was Married and which was worse before he went to Bed to his Wife the Bridegroom having a mind to break a Lance in honour of his new Bride went out to Skirmish near to St. Omers where the Sieur d' Estree proving the stronger took him Prisoner and the more to illustrate his Victory the Lady her self was fain Catullus Conjugis ante coacta novi dimittere collum Quam veniens una atque altera rursus hyems Noctibus in longis avidum saturasset amorem Of her fair Arms the Amorous Ring to break Which clung so fast to her new Spouse's Neck E're of two Winters many a friendly Night Had sated her Loves greedy Appetite to request him of Courtesie to deliver up his
our late War of Milan where there hapned so many takings and re-takings of Towns the people impatient of so many various changes of Fortune took such a resolution to die that I have heard my Father say he there saw a List taken of five and twenty masters of Families that made themselves away in one weeks time An accident somewhat resembling that of the Zanthians who being besieg'd by Brutus precipitated themselves Men Women and Children into such a furious appetite of dying that nothing can be done to evade death they did not put in practice to avoid life insomuch that Brutus had much ado to save but a very small number Every opinion is of force enough to make it self to be espoused at the expence of life The first Article of that valiant Oath that Greece took and observâ—d in the Median War was that every one should sooner exchange life for death than their own Laws for those of Persia What a World of people do we see in the Wars betwixt the Turks and the Greeks rather embrace a cruel death than to uncircumcise themselves to admit of Baptism An example of which no sort of Religion is incapable The Kings of Castile having Banishâ—d the Iews out of their Dominions Iohn King of Portugal in consideration of eight Crowns a Head sold them a retirement into his for a certain limited time upon condition that the time prefixt coming to expire they should be gone and he to furnish them with Shipping to transport them into Africk The limited day came which once laps'd they were given to understand that such as were afterwards found in the Kingdom should reâ—aâ—n Slaves Vessels were very slenderly provided and those who embark'd in them were rudely and villainously used by the Seamen who besides other indignities kept them cruising upon the Sea one while forwards and another backwards till they had spent all their provisions and were constrain'd to buy of them at so dear rates and so long withal that they set them not on Shoar till they were all stript to their very Shirts The news of this inhumane usage being brought to those who remained behind the greater part of them resolved upon Slavery and some made a shew of changing Religion Emanuel the successor of Iohn being come to the Crown first set them at liberty and afterwards altering his mind order'd them to depart his Country assigning three Ports for their Passage Hoping says the Bishop Osorius no contemtible Latin Historian of these later times that the favour of the liberty he had given them having fâ—il'd of converting them to Christianity yet the difficulty of committing themselves to the mercy of the Mariners and of abandoning a Country they were now habituated to and were grown very rich in to go and expose themselves in strange and unknown Regions would certainly do it But finding himself deceiv'd in his expectation and that they were all resolv'd upon the Voyage he cut off two of the three Ports he had promised them to the end that the length and incommodity of the passage might reduce some or that he might have opportunity by crouding them all into one place the more conveniently to execute what he had designed which was to force all the Children under fourteen years of Age from the Arms of their Fathers and Mothers to transport them from their sight and conversation into a place where they might be instructed and brougâ—â— up in our Religion He says that this produc'd a most horrid Spectacle The natural affection betwixt the Parents and their Children and moreover their Zeal to their ancienâ— Belief contending against this violent Deâ—ree Fathers and Mothers were commonly seen making themselves away and by a yet much more Rigorous Example precipitating out of Love and Compassion their young Children into Wells and Pits to avoid the Severity of this Law As to the remainder of then the time that had been prefixâ—d being expird for want of means to transport them they again return'd into Slavery Some also turn'd Christians upon whose Faith as also that of their Posterity even to this Day which is a Hundred Years since few Portuguese can yet reâ—ie or believe them to be real Converts though Custom and length of time are much more powerful Counsellors in such Changes than all other Constraints whatever In the Town of Castlenau-Darry Fifty Hereticks Albeg â—is at one time suffer'd themselves to be Burnt alive in one Fire rather than they would renounce their Opinions Quoties nâ—â— modo ductores nostri dicit Cicero sed universi â—tiam exercitus ad non dubiam mortem concurrerut How oft have not only our Leaders but whole Armies run to a certain and apparent Death I have seen an intimate Friend of mine run headlong upon Death with a real affection and that was rooted in his heart by divers plausible Arguments which he would never permit me to dispossess him off upon the first Honourable occasion that offer'd it self to him to precipitate himself into it without any manner of visible reason with an obstinate and ardent desire of Dying We have several Examples of our own times of those even so much as to little Children who for fear of a Whipping or some such little thing have dispatch'd themselves And what shall we not fear says one of the Ancients to that purpose if we dread that which Cowardise it self has chosen for its refuge Should I here produce a tedious Catalogue of those of all Sexes and Conditions and of all sorts even in the most happy Ages who have either with great Constancy look'd Death in the Face or voluntarily sought it and sought it not only to avoid the Evils of this Life but some purely to avoid the Satiety of Living and others for the hope of a better Condition elsewhere I should never have done Nay the number is so infinite that in truth I should have a better Bargain on 't to reckon up those who have fear'd it This one therefore shall serve for all Pyrrho the Philosopher being one Day in a Boat in a very great Tempest shew'd to those he saw the most affrighted about him and encourag'd them by the Example of a Hog that was there nothing at all concern'd at the Storm Shall we then dare to say that this advantage of Reason of which we so much Boast and upon the account of which we think our selves Masters and Emperours over the rest of the Creatures was given us for a Torment To what end serves the Knowledge of things if it renders us more Unmanly If we lose the Tranquility and Repose we should enjoy without it And if it put us into a worse Condition than Pyrrho's Hog Shall we employ the Understanding that was conferr'd upon us for our greatest Good to our own Ruine Setting our selves against the design of Nature and the universal Order of things which intend that every one should make use of the Faculties Members and Means he has to his own best
had sent to the Port having awak'd him to let him know that the Tempestuous weather had hindred the Senators from putting to Sea he dispatch'd a way another messenger and composing himself again in the Bed settled again to sleep and did so till by the return of the last messenger he had certain intelligence they were gone We may here further compare him with Alexander too in that great and dangerous Storm that threatned him by the Sedition of the Tribune Metellus who attempting to publish a Decree for the calling in of Pompey with his Army into the City at the time of Catiline's Conspiracy was only and that stoutly oppos'd by Cato so that very sharp language and bitter menaces past betwixt them in the Senate about that affair but it was the next day in the Fore-Noon that the controversie was to be decided where Metellus besides the favour of the People and of Caesar at that time of Pompey's Faction was to appear accompanied with a Rabble of Slaves and Fencers and Cato only fortified with his own Courage and Constancy so that his Relations Domesticks and several vertuous People of his Friends were in great apprehensions for him And to that Degree that some there were who past over the whole Night without Sleep Eating or Drinking for the manifest danger they saw him running into of which his Wife and Sisters did nothing but Weep and torment themselves in his House whereas he on the contrary Comforted every one and after having Supp'd after his usual manner went to Bed and slept profoundly till Morning that one of his fellow Tribunes rouz'd him to go to the encounter The knowledge we have of the greatness of this Mans Courage by the rest of his Life may warrant us securely to judge that his indifference proceeded from a Soul so much elevated above such accidents that he disdain'd to let it take any more hold of his Fancy than any other ordinary adventure In the Naval Engagement that Augustus won of Sextus Pompeius in Sicily just as they were to begin the Fight he was so fast asleep that his Friends were compell'd to wake him to give the Signal of Battel And this was it that gave Mark Anthony afterwards occasion to reproach him that he had not the Courage so much as with open Eyes to behold the order of his own Squadrons and not to have dar'd to present himself before the Souldiers till first Agrippa had brought him news of the Victory obtain'd But as to the business of young Marius who did much worse for the day of the last Battel against Sylla after he had order'd his Army given the word and Signal of Battel he laid him down under the Shade of a Tree to repose himself and fell so fast asleep that the Rout and Fight of his Men could hardly awake him having seen nothing of the Fight he is said to have been at that time so extreamly spent and worn out with Labour and want of Sleep that Nature could hold out no longer Now upon what has been said the Physicians may determine whether sleep be so necessary that our lives depend upon it for we read that King Perseus of Macedon being Prisoner at Rome was wak'd to Death but Pliny instances such as have lived long without sleep Herodotus speaks of Nations where the Men sleep and wake by half years And they who write the Life of the Wise Epimenides affirm that he slept seven and fifty years together CHAP. XLV Of the Battel of Dreux OUR Battel of Dreux is remarkable for several extraordinary accidents But such as have no great kindness for the Duke of Guise nor do much favour his reputation are willing to have him thought to blame and that his making a Halt and delaying time with his Forces he Commanded whilst the Constable who was General of the Army was Rack'd through and through with the Enemies Artillery his Battalion Routed and himself taken Prisoner is not to be excus'd And that he had much better have ran the hazard of charging the Enemy in the Flank than staying for the advantage of falling in upon the Rear to suffer so great and so important a loss But besides what the event demonstrated who will consider it without passion or prejudice will easily be induced to confess that the aim and design not of a Captain only but of every Private Souldier ought to look at the Victory in general and that no particular occurrences how nearly soever they may concern his own interest should divert him from that pursuit Philopoemen in an encounter with Machanidas having sent before a good strong party of his Archers to begin the Skirmish which were by the Enemy Routed and pursu'd who pursuing them and pushing on the Fortune of their Arms in the heat of Victory and in that pursuit passing by the Battalion where Philopoemen was though his Souldiers were impatient to fall on yet he was better temper'd and did not think fit to stir from his post nor to present himself to the Enemy to relieve his Men but having suffer'd them to be chas'd about the Field and Cut in pieces before his Face then charged in upon their Battallion of Foot when he saw them left Naked by their Horse and notwithstanding that they were Lacedaemonians yet taking them in the nick when thinking themselves secure of the victory they began to disorder their Ranks he did his business with great facility and then put himself in pursuit of Machanidas Which case is very like that of Monsieur de Guise In that Bloody Battel betwixt Agesilaus and the Boeotians which Xenophon who was present at it reports to be the rudest and most Blood that he had ever seen Agesilaus wav'd the advantage that Fortune presented him to let the Baeotians Battalion pass by and then to Charge them in the Rear how certain soever he made himself of the Victory judging it would rather be an effect of Conduct than Valour to proceed that way And therefore to shew his prowess rather chose with a wonderful ardour of Courage to charge them in the Front but he was well beaten and wounded for his pains and constrain'd at last to disengage himself and to take the course he had at first neglected opening his Battalion to give way to this torrent of the Boeotians fury and being past by taking notice that they march'd in disorder like men that thought themselves out of danger he then pursu'd and charg'd them in their Flanks and Rear yet could not so prevail as to bring it to so general a Rout but that they leisurely retreated still Facing about upon him till they were retired into safety CHAP. XLVI Of Names WHat variety of Herbs soever are shuffled together in the Dish yet the whole Mass is swallow'd up in one name of a Sallet In like manner under the consideration of Names I will make a hodge-podge of differ'ng Articles Every Nation has certain Names that I know not why are taken
not frightful 423 Custom Stupifies our Senses 145 Custom of several Nations in Marriages 151 Custom 's Power 158 Custom veils the true Aspect of things 160 Custom fundamental Reason for many things 161 Custom of wearing Cloaths 353 Custom and Manners of the French 502 Cyrus great Master of Horse service 497 Cyrus's Reverence to Religion 22 D DEath discharges Men of all Obligations 39 Death the Day that judges of all the foregoing Years 90 Death of three most Execrable Persons 91 Death Vnavoidable 95 Death End of our Race 96 Death a harsh word to the Romans 97 Death has many ways to surprize Men. 98 Death's Remembrance profitable to Men. 102 Death's Image presented by the Aegyptians to the Company after their Feasts 108 Death's contempt certain foundation of Religion 112 Death part of the Order of the Vniverse 113 Death cannot concern us either Living or Dead 117 Death's Image less dreadful in War than at home 121 Death preferr'd to a continual Trouble 190 Death of Arius and his Pope Leo. 341 Death of Heliogabalus Ibid. Death of Irenaeus Ibid. Death of Ignatius and his Son both proscrib'd 350 Death of Lilius Giraldus and Costalin 351 Death what is several Opinions concerning the same 402 Death prevented or hastned 403 Death Shameful endur'd with great Courage Ibid. Death constantly lookt on the Face or Voluntarily sought after 409 Death Frightful to some People Ibid. Death of Otho the Emperour 462 Death how felt 411 Dead Men dealt with as being Alive 19 Dead bodies Boil'd Pounded and Drunk with Wine 153 Deceit and cunning in War hat'd by the Achaians 32 Deceit and Cunning allow'd in War 36 Deceit ought to be corrected in the greenest Years 146 Defeat of Leonidas 333 Democracy 159 Democritus his Face 514 Dependance upon Princes 233 Deserters punish'd with Death by the Romans 75 Desires of gathering Riches has no Limits 429 Devotion mix'd with an execrable Life 538 Devotion of the Heathen 544 Dexterity of a Man throwing a grain of Millet through the Eye of a Needle 526 Diogenes his Opinion concerning Men. 515 Difference betwixt Man and Man 439 Dioclesian retir'd to a private Life 456 Dioscorides Island the Inhabitants thereof Christians 544 Discipline of the Lacedaemonians 208 Discourse Pleasant and Witty 301 Disease of the Mind 376 Diseases of the Mind and Body cured with Pain and Grief 313 Disputes rouse Heresies 543 Diversion allow'd to Youth 255 Diviners punish'd when found false 328 Divinity and Philosophy have a saying to every thing 310 Divinity Queen and Regent 544 Dionysius his way of discovering Conspiracies made against him 188 Doublets Belly pieces as high as the Breast 502 Duty of Man to know himself 15 Dying's Resolution how ought to be digested 109 Dying's time 342 Dying's voluntary Resolution 405 Dying of Old Age very scarce 552 E EDict of January famous by the Civil Wars 285 Education of Children the greatest difficulty of Human Science 219 Edward the black Prince 1 Emperours obnoxious to Passions 444 Empire of Constantinople 347 Employments for a sedentary Life 384 Employments for a retired Life 385 Engines of Dionysius's Invention 495 Engines made by Archimedes 194 Enquiry's Office projected 351 Enterprizes Military 181 Errours of Opinions 529 Essays of Language 394 Events in War for the most part depend upon Fortune 486 Evil what is how enters Men. 402 Exercises fit for Youth 253 Exercises wherein Men are to proceed to the utmost limits of Pleasure 388 Extremity hurtful to Vertue 309 F FAintness from Frigidity 527 Faith of Military Men very uncertain 36 Family of obscure Extraction the most proper for Falsification 471 Farting and Organiz'd Farts 134 Fashion of some Nations of going Naked 353 Fashion's Inconstancy 503 Fashion of the French Court rules the whole Kingdom 459 Fathers not concern'd at the Death of their Children 422 Fear the strongest of all Passions 83 Fear of an Ensign Ibid. Fear of a Gentleman 84 Fear nails and fetters Men. Ibid. Fear throws men upon Valiant despair 85 Fear in its trouble exceeds all other Accidents Ibid. Fear is more insupportable than Death it self 86 Feast of Paulus Aemilius 520 Feeding upon human Flesh 156 Feet performing the Service of Hands 148 Felicity of Men's lives depends upon the Tranquility of their Spirits 9â— Fighting with Rapier and Cloak 503 Fire sent for a new-new-year's gift 154 Firmness of a Prince riding a rough Horse 501 Fish kept in lower Rooms 507 Fish's pre-eminence over Flesh Ibid. Flight in War granted by several Nations 66 Fondness and pernicious Education of Mothers 228 Flood 's strange alterations 318 Formularies of Faith establish'd by the Ancients 543 Fortitude what is 66 Fortune has a great share in many Arts. 180 Fortune's Inconstancy 345 Fortune often meets with Reason Ibid. Fortune sometimes seems to play upon Men. Ibid. Fortune playing the Physician 348 Fortune doth what Art can't do Ibid. Fortune corrects the counsels of Men. Ibid. Fortune surpasses the rules of Prudence 345 Fortunes benefits how ought to be Relished 44â— Foundtaion of Notre Dam la grande de Boitiers 469 Francisco Taverna pump'd up by King Franciâ— 51 France Antartick where Veleguignon landed 317 French wisdom early but of no continuance 251 Friendship of several kinds 286 Friendship begot by voluntary Liberty 287 Friendship its true Idea 294 Friendship true and perfect 295 Friendship common and ordinary 296 Friendship allows community of Goods 297 Friendship 's rare Example 298 Friendship perfect admits no Division 299 Friendship disunites all obligations Ibid. Friendship are scarce 302 Frost hard at the mouth of the Lake Maeotis 357 Fruits eaten after Dinner 505 G GAuls had Missible arms in abomination 494 Generals changing their habit upon the point of an Engagement 481 Generals richly cloath'd in the Battle 482 Generals obscurely arm'd in War Ibid. Gentlemens Duty towards those that come to visit them 69 Gifts interdicted betwixt Man and Wife 297 Gipsies wash their Children so soon as they are born 417 Glory and Curiosity Scourges of the Soul 283 Glory and repose inconsistent 389 God ought to be call'd upon but seldom 24 Golden Age. 324 Good and Evil. 50 Good one of a Thousand 372 Good Men free from all injuries 378 Goods of Fortune despised 382 Goods equally Evil to the unjust 448 Government of Anacharsis 456 Governour of a place how ought to behave himself in the time of a Seige 33 Governour of a besieged place may go out to parly 34 Great men ought to hide their Faults 451 Greatness of the King of Mexico 315 Greek and Latine may be bought cheaper than 't is commonly 268 Greek taught by tricks 270 Green-sickness 420 H HAirs pull'd off in great Sorrow 29 Hairs suffer'd to grow on one side and shav'd on the other 155 Hairs pincht off 504 Happiness of Men not to be counted before they are dead 87 Head uncover'd in the presence of God 356 Heads naked in all Seasons 355 Heads of the Aegyptians harder than those of the Persians 335 Heraclitus