drinketh when he commeth vnto it and vnles he be compelled he doth nothing he taketh no care for the common welth for he neither knoweth how to folow reason nor yet how to resist sensualitie Therfore if a man at al times should eate when he desireth reuenge himselfe when he is moued commit adultrie when he is tempted drinke when he is thristie and slepe when he is drousey we might more properly cal such a one a beaste nourished in the mountaines than a man brought vp in the common wealth For him properly we maye cal a man that gouerneth him self like a man that is to say conformable vnto such things as reason willeth and not wher sensuality leadeth Let vs leaue these vaine men whyche are aliue and talke of them that be dead against whom we dare say that whyles they were in the world they folowed the world liued according to the same It is not to be marueiled at that sins they were lyuing in the worlde they were noted of some worldlye point But seing their vnhappy and wicked life is ended why wil they then smel of the vanities of the world in their graues It is a great shame and dishonor for men of noble stout harts to se in one minut thend of our life and neuer to see the end of our folye We neither read heare nor se any thing more common then suche men as be most vnprofitable in the comon wealth and of life most reprobate to take vpon them most honour whiles they liue and to leaue behind them the greatest memorye at their death What vanity can be greater in the world then to esteme the world whych estemeth no man and to make no compt of god who so greatly regardeth al men what a greater foly can ther be in man then by muche trauaile to encrease his goodes and with vaine pleasours to lose his soule It is an olde plague in mannes nature that many or the most parte of menne leaue the amendment of their life farre behind to set their honor the more before Suetonius Tranquillus in the first booke of the Emperours sayth that Iulius Cesar no further thenne in Spaine in the Citye of Cales nowe called Calis sawe in the temple the triumphes of Alexander the great paynted the whyche when he hadde wel vewed he sighed marueilous soore and beinge asked why he dyd so he aunswered What a wofull case am I in that am now of thage of .30 yeres and Alexander at the same yeres had subdued the whole worlde and rested him in Babilon And I being as I am a Romaine neuer dyd yet thyng woorthy of prayse in my lyfe nor shal leaue any renoume of me after my death Dion the Grecian in the second boke de Audacia saythe that the noble Drusius the Almayne vsed to visite the graues and tombes of the famous and renowmed which were buried in Italy and did this alwaies especially at his going to warfare and it was asked him why he did so he aunswered I vysite the sepulchers of Scipio and of diuers others which are dead before whom al the earth trembled when they were alyue For in beholdyng their prosperous successe I dyd recouer both strength and stoutnes He sayth furthermore that it encourageth a man to fight against hys enemies remembring he shal leaue of him a memory in time to come Cicero sayth in his Rhethorike and also Plynie maketh mencion of the same in an epistle that there came from Thebes in Egipt a knight to Rome for no other purpose but onelye to see whether it were true or no that was reported of the notable thinges of Rome Whom Mecenas demaunded what he perceyued of the Romaynes and what he thought of Rome He aunswered the memorye of the absente dooth more content me then the glory of the present doth satisfye me And the reason of this is The desire which men haue to extol the lyuing and to be equal vnto the dead maketh thinges so straunge in their lyfe that they deserue immortal fame after their death The Romaynes reioysed not a litle to heare such wordes of a straungers mouth wherby he praysed them whych were departed and exalted them that yet lyued O what a thing it is to consider the auncient heathens whych neyther feared hel not hoped for heauen yet by remembraunce of weakenes they toke vnto them strength ▪ by cowardnes they were boldened through feare they became hardy of daungers they toke encouragement of enemies they made frendes of pouertye they toke pacience of malyce they learned experience finally I say they denied their owne willes folowed thopinions of others only to leaue behind them a memory with the dead and to haue a lytle honor with the lyuing O how many are they that trust the vnconstauntnes of fortune only to leaue some notable memorye behind them Let vs cal to mynd some worthy examples wherby they may se that to be true which I haue spoken What made king Ninus to inuent such warres Quene Semiramis to make such buildings Vlisses the Grecian to sulke so many seas king Alexander to conquere so many landes Hercules the Thebane to set vp his pillers where he did Caius Cesar the Romayne to giue .52 battailes at his pleasure Cirus king of Persia to ouercome both the Asiaes Hannibal the Carthagian to make so cruel warres against the Romaines Pirrhus king of Epirotes to come downe into Italy Atila king of the Huns to defye al Europe truly they woulde not haue taken vppon them such daungerous enterprises only vppon the words of theym whych were in those dayes present but because we should so esteme them that should come after Seing then that we be men and the chyldren of men it is not a lytle to bee marueiled at to see the diuersity betwene the one and the other and what cowardnes ther is in the harts of some and contrarywise what courage in the stomakes of others For we se commonly now a daies that if there be 10. of stout courages whych are desirous with honour to dye there are 10. thousand cowards whiche throughe shamefull pleasurs seke to prolong their life The man that is ambitious thinketh him most happy who with much estimacion can kepe his renowme and with litle care regarde his lyfe And on the other side he that wil set by his lyfe shal haue but in small estimacion his renowme The Sirians the Assirians the Thebanes the Caldes the Grekes the Macedonians the Rodians the Romaines the Huns the Germaines and the Frenchmen if such noble men as among these were most famous had not aduentured their lyues by such daūgerous enterprises they had neuer got such immortal fame as they had don to leaue to their prosperity Sextus Cheronensis in his third boke of the valiaunt deedes of the Romaines saith that the famous captaine Marcus Marcellus which was the first of al men that sawe the backe of Hannibal in the fielde was demaunded of one how he durst enter into
whan they had no ambition nor couetousnes they knewe not what battaile mente It is reason therfore that in this wrytinge we declare the cause why the first battaile was fought in the worlde to the ende princes may therof be aduertised and the curious reader remaine therin satisfyed The maner was thus that Bassa being king of Sodome Bersa kyng of Gomorrhe Senaab kyng of Adamee Semebar king of Seboime and Vale king of Segor were al fyue tributaries to Chodor laomor kynge of the Aelamites which fyue kynges conspired agaynst hym because they woulde paye hym no tribute and because they woulde acknowledge no homage vnto hym For the Realmes payeng tribute haue alwayes rebelled and sowed sedicions This rebellion was in the 13 yere of the reigne of Chodor Laonâ—or king of the Aelamytes and immediatly the yere following Anraphel king of Sernaar Arioch kinge of Ponte and Aradal kinge of the Allotali ioyned with Chodor-Laomor The which altogether beganne to make warres to destroy cities countreys vppon their enemyes For the olde malice of the warre is that where they cannot haue their enemyes whiche are in the faulte they put to sacke and distroy those which are innocent and giltlesse So the one assaulting and the other defending in the end all come to the field they gaue battayle as two enemyes and the greatest part was ouercome of the fewest and the fewest remained victorious ouer the greatest which thing GOD would suffer in the first battaile of the world to the end princes might take example that all the mishappes of the warres come not but because they are begon of an vniust occasion If Chodor Laomor had held himselfe contented as hys predecessours dyd and that he had not conquered Realmes in makinge theym subiect and had not caused theym to paye trybute neither they vnto him woulde haue denied reason nor he with theym woulde haue waged battaile For throughe the couetousnes of the one and the ambition of the other enmyties grewe betwene the people This considered whiche we haue spoken of sygnorye and of those which came into contentions for signoryes Let vs now se from whence the first oryginal of seruitude came and the names of seruauntes and lordes whiche were in the olde tyme and whether seruitude was by the discord of vertuous men firste brought into the world or els inuented by the ambytion of Tyrauntes For when the one commaundeth and the other obeyeth it is one of the nouelties of the world as the holy scripture declareth vnto vs in this maner The patriarche Noah had 3. sonnes which wer Shem Ham and Iaphet and the second sonne which was Ham begotte Cush and this Cush begot Nimrod Nimrod made him selfe a honter of wild beastes in the woodes and mountaines he was the first that began to play the tyraunt amongeste men inforcynge theyr personnes and taking theyr goodes and the scriptures called him Oppressor hominum which is to say an oppressor of men For men of euyl life alwayes coÌ„mit much euill in a common wealth He taught the Chaldeans to honour the fyre he was the first that presumed to be an absolute lorde and the firste that euer requyred of men homage and seruice This cursed tyraunte ended his lyfe in the golden world wherin al thinges were in common with the common wealth For the auncientes vsed their goodes in common but their willes onelye they reserued to them selues They ought not to thinke it a lighte matter for his person to haue bene a Tiraunt but they ought to thinke it a greater mater to haue bene a rebell in a common wealthe And muche more they oughte to take and esteame it as an euill matter in hym whyche hathe bene as he was a disturber of the good customes of hys countrye but the moste vniuste of all is to leaue behynd hym anye euyll custome brought into the common wealthe For if hee deserue greate infamye whyche woorketh euyll in hys lyfe trulye hee deserueth muche moore whych trauayleth to bryng that euyl in vre after hys death Eusebius semeth to affirme that after this Nimrod had destroyed the realme of Chaldea by his plagues he came to dwel in Italy with viii sonnes built the citie of Camesa which afterwards in Saturnes time was called Valentia in the time of Romulus it was called as it is at this present Rome And sithe this thinge was thus a man ought not to maruaile that Rome in auncient time was possessed with tyraunts and with tirauntes beaten downe since by so famous renowmed tyraunts it was founded For euen as Hierusalem was the doughter of the pacient the mansion of the quyet kinges in Asia so was Rome the mother of proude princes in Europe The histories of the gentiles which knew not the holy scripture declare in an other sort the beginninge of Signorye and seruitude when they came into the worlde for the Idolatrers not onlye did not know the creatoure of the world but also they were ignoraunte of many things which beganne in the world They therefore say that the Tyranne Nimrod amongest the others had a sonne called Belus that this Belus was the first the raigned in the land of Syria that he was the first that inuented warres on the earth that he set vp the first monarchie among the Assirians in the end he died after he had reigned 60 and 5. yeres in Asia left the world in great warres The first monarchie of the worlde was that of the Assirians continued 132. yeres The first king was Belus the last king was Sardanapalus whom at that tyme when he was slaine they found spinninge with women hauing a distaffe in his hand wherwith they vse to spinne truly this vile death was to good for such a cowardly king For the prince ought not to defend that with the distafe that his predecessours had wonne with the sworde As we haue said Nimrod begat Belus who had to wife Semyramis which was the mother of Ninus which Ninus succeded his father in tyranny in the empire also and both the mother the sonne not coÌ„tented to be Tyraunts inuented statues of newe gods For mans malice poursueth rather the euil which the wicked do inuent then the good which vertuous men begine We would haue shewed you how the graundfather the father the mother the sonne were Idolatrers warlicke to the end princes and great Lords might se that they beganne their Empyres more for that they were ambitious parsonnes then for that they were good paciente or vertuous men Albeit that Nimerod was the first that euer committed anye tyranny whether it be true or not that Belus was the firste that inuented warres and that Chodorlaormor was the first that inuented battayles and that ther be others wherof the writinges make no mencion euery man taking for himselfe afterwards all togethers those were occasions of euyll enough in the world to agre vnto those things Our inclinacion is greatly
that the doughters should inherit the goodes for to mary them selues with all Truly this law was very iust for the sonne that hath alwayes respect to the enheritaunce will not haue to his father any great confidence For he ought to be called a valiant Romaine knight that with his life hath wonne honour and by the sword hath gotten riches Since you are in straung realmes I praye you hartely that you be conuersaunt with the good as good brethren remēbring alwayes that you wer my children and that I gaue you both sucke of myne owne propre breastes And the daye that I shall here of your disagrement the same day shal be the end of my life For the discord in one citie of parentes doth more harme then a hole armie of enemys It is good for you my childrē to liue in loue concord togethers but it is more requisit to kepe you with the Romaine knightes The which with you you with thē if you do not loue together in the warres you shall neuer haue the vpper hand of your enemies For in great armies the discordes which rise emongest thē do more harme then the enemys do against whō they fight I think wel my children that you wold be very desirous to know of my estate that is to wete whether I am in health whether I am sick whether I am poore whether I am pleased or whether I am miscontented In this case I know not why you shold desire to know it since you ought to presuppose that accordyng to the troubles which I haue passed the miseries that with mine eyes I haue sene I am filled with this world for wise men after .50 yeres and vpwarde ought rather to apply their mindes how to receiue death thē to seke pleasurs to prolong life When mans flesh is weake it always desireth to be wel kept euen vnto the graue And as I am of flesh bone so I do feale the troubles of the world as al mortal men do But for al this do not think that to be pore or sick is the greatest misery neither thinke that to be hole riche is the chefest felicity for ther is none other felicity of the old fathers but for to se their childrē vertuous In my opiniō it is an honour to that countrey that the fathers haue such children which wil take profit with their counsell contrary wyse that the children haue such fathers which can giue it them For the child is happy that hath a wise father more happy is the father that hath not a folish sonne I do write oft times vnto you my children but there is a law that none be so hardy to write to men of war in the field except first they inrowle the letters in the senate Therfore since I write vnto you more letters then they would they do send lesse then I desire Thoughe this law be painefull to mothers which haue children yet we must confesse it is profitable for the weale publik For if a man should write to one in the warre that his family is not well he would forsake the warres to remedye it Yf a man wryte vnto him that it is prosperous he hath then a desire to enioye it Be not displeased my children thoughe all the letters I do sende vnto you come not to your handes For all that I do not cease to visite the temples for your owne health nor yet to offre sacrifices to the Gods for your honour For if we do please the gods we haue not cause to feare our enemies I say no more in this case my children but that I beseche the immortall Gods that if your lyues maye profyte the common wealth then they shorten my dayes and lēgthen your yeres but if your lyues should be to the domage of the common wealth then those immortall gods I desire that first I may vnderstand the end of your dayes before that the wormes should eate my flesh For rather then by your euill lyfe the glory of our predecessours should be bleamished it were much better both your liues wer ended The grace of the Gods the good renowme amongest men the good fortune of the Romains that wisedom of the greekes the blessing of Scippio of al other your predecessours be alwayes with you my children Of the education and doctrine of children whiles they are yong Wherein the auctour declareth many notable histories Chap. xxxii ALl mortall men which will trauell and see good fruite of their trauell ought to do as the chefe artificer did that painted the world For the man that maketh god the head of his workes it is vnpossible that he should erre in the same That whych we beleue and reade by wrytinge is that the eternall created the world in short space by his mighte but preserued it a lōg time by his wisedome Wherof a man may gather that the time to do a thing is short but the care and thought to preserue it is long We see daily that a valiaunt captaine assaulteth his enemies but in the end it is god that giueth the victorye but let vs aske the conquerour what trauell it hath bene vnto him or wherin he hath perceaued most daunger that is to wete either to obteine the victory of his enemies or els to preserue them selues amongest the enuious and malicious I sweare and affirme that such a knight wil swere that ther is no comparison betwene the one and the other for by the bloudy sweard in an houre the victorye is obteined but to kepe it with reputation the swete of al the life is required Laertius in the booke of the lyfe of the philophers declareth and Plato also hereof maketh mention in the bookes of hys common wealth that those of Thebes vnderstandyng that the Lacedemonians hadde good lawes for that whych they were of the godes fauoured and of menne greatly honoured determined to send by common assent and agreement a wise philosopher the beste esteamed amongest them whose name was Phetonius to whome they commaunded that he should aske the lawes of the Lacedemonians and that he shoulde be verye circumspecte and ware to see what their rules and customes were Those of Thebes were then very noble valliant and honest so that their principal end was to come to honour renowme to erect buildinges to make them selues of immortall memory for beyng vertuous For in buildyng they were very curious and for vertues they had good Philosophers The philosopher Phetonius was more thē a yeare in the realme of the Lacedemonians beholding at sondry times all thinges therin for simple men do not note thinges but onely to satisfye the eyes but the wise menne beholdeth them for to know and vnderstand their secrettes After that the philosopher had well plainely sene and behelde all the thinges of the Lacedemonians he determined to returne home to Thebes and beyng arriued all the people came to see him and here him For the vanitie of the common people is
the gods onely which had no beginning shall haue also no endyng Therefore mee thinketh most noble prince that sage men ought not to desire to lyue long For men which desire to liue much eyther it is for that they haue not felt the trauailes past beecause they haue been fooles or for that they desire more time to geeue them selues to vices Thou mightst not complayn of that sins they haue not cut thee in the flower of the herb nor taken thee greene from the tree nor cut in thee in the spring tide and much lesse eat the eager beefore thou were ripe By that I haue spoken I mean if death had called thee when thy lyfe was sweetest though thou hadst not had reason to haue complayned yet thou mightst haue desired to haue altered it For it is a great grief to say vnto a yong man that hee must dye and forsake the world What is this my lord now that the wall is decayed ready to fall the flower is withered the grape dooth rotte the teeth are loose the gown is worn the launce is blunt the knife is dull and doost thou desire to return into the world as if thou hadst neuer knowen the world These lxii yeares thou hast liued in the prison of thys body wilt thou now the yron fetters haue rot thy legges desire yet to length thy days in this so woful prison They that wil not be cōtented to lyue lx years fyue in this death or to dye in this lyfe will not desire to dye in lx thousand years The Emperour Augustus octauian sayd That after men had lyued .l. years eyther of their own will they ought to dye or els by force they shoold cause them selues to bee killed For at that time all those which haue had any humain felicity are at the best Those which liue aboue that age passe their days in greeuous torments As in the death of children in the losse of goods importunity of sōne in laws in mainteining processes in discharging debts in sighing for that is past in bewailing that that is present in dissēbling iniuries in hearing woful news in other infinit trauails So that it were much better to haue their eies shut in the graue then their harts bodies aliue to suffer so much in this miserable life Hee whom the gods take from this miserable life at the end of 50. years is quited from al these miseries of life For after that time hee is not weak but crooked he goeth not but rouleth hee stumbleth not but falleth O my lord Mark knowest thou not that by the same way whereby goeth death death cometh Knowst not thou in like maner that it is 52. years that life hath fled from death and that there is an other time asmuch that death goeth seeking thy life and death going from Illiria where hee left a great plague and thou departing from thy pallayce ye .ii. now haue met in Hungary knowst not thou that where thou leapedst out of thy mothers intrails to gouern the land immediatly death leaped out of his graue to seeke thy life Thou hast always presumed not onely to bee honored but also to bee honorable if it bee so synce thou honoredst the Imbassadours of Princes which did send them the more for their profyt then for thy seruice why doost thou not honor thy messenger whom the gods send more for thy profyt then for their seruices Doost thow not remember well when Vulcane my sonne in law poysoned mee more for the couetousnes of my goods then any desire hee had of my life thou lord diddest come to comfort mee in my chamber and toldst mee that the gods were cruell to slea the yong and were pytiful to take the old from this world And thou saydst further these woords Comfort thee Panutius For if thow were born to dye now thou diest to liue Sins therefore noble prince that I tell thee that which thow toldst mee and counsaile thee the same which thou coūsayledst mee I render to thee that which thow hast geeuen mee Fynally of these vines I haue gathered these clusters of grapes ¶ The aunswer of the emperour Marcus to Panutius his secretory wherein hee declareth that hee tooke no thought to forsake the world but all his sorow was to leaue beehynd hym an vnhappy chyld to enheryt the Empire Cap. lij PAnutius blessed bee the milk thou hast sucked in Dacia the bread which thou hast eaten in Rome the learning which thou hast learned in Greece the bringing vp which thou hast had in my pallace For thou hast serued as a good seruant in life and geeuest mee counsayl as a trusty frend at death I commaund Commodus my sonne to recompence thy seruice and I beseech the immortal gods that they acquite thy good counsayls And not wythout good cause I charge my sonne with the one and require the gods of the other For the payment of many seruices one man alone may doo but to pay one good counsayl it is requisyt to haue all the gods The greatest good that a frend can doo to his frend is in great wayghty affayres to geeue him good and holsome counsayl And not without cause I say holsome For commonly it chaunceth that those which think with their counsayl to remedy vs do put vs oftentimes in greatest perils All the trauayles of lyfe are hard but that of death ys the most hard and terrible Al are great but this is the greatest All are perillous but this is most perillous All in death haue end except the trauayl of death whereof wee know no end That which I say now no man perfectly can know but onely hee which seeth him self as I see my self now at the point of death Certainly Panutius thou hast spoken vnto mee as a wise man but for that thou knowst not my grief thow couldst not cure my disease for my sore is not there where thou hast layd the playster The fistula is not there where thou hast cut the flesh The opilation is not there where thou hast layd the oyntments There were not the right vayns where thou dydst let mee blood Thou hast not yet touched the wound which is the cause of all my grief I mean that thou oughtst to haue entred further with mee to haue knowen my grief better The sighes which the hart fetcheth I say those which come from the hart let not euery man thynk which heareth thē that he can immediatly vnderstand them For as men can not remedy the anguishes of the spirit so the gods likewise woold not that they shoold know the secrets of the hart Without fear or shame many dare say that they know the thought of others wherein they shew them selues to bee more fooles then wise For since there are many things in mee wherein I my self doubt how can a straunger haue any certayn knowledge therein Thow accusest mee Panutius that I feare death greatly the which I deny but to feare it as mā I doo confesse For
the yle of Scicili haue caried a great quantitie of corne into Spaine and into Affrike the which thing was forbidden by a Romayne lawe and therefore they haue deserued greuous puniâ—â—ement Nowe because thou arte vertuous thou mayst teache me to do wel and I that am olde wil teach the to say wel this is because that amongest wyse and vertuous men it is enoughe to saye that the lawe commaundeth appointeth and suffereth this thing but in as much as it is agreing with reason For the crowne of the good is reason and the scourge of the wicked is the lawe The fourth thing that commonly through the worlde amongest all men was accepted was the barbars And let no man take this thing in mockery For if they doe reade Plinie in the .59 chapiter the seuenth booke they shal finde for a truth that the Romaines wer in Rome .454 yeres without pouling or shauing the hayres of the beard of any man Marcus Varro said that Publius Ticinius was the firste that brought the barbers from Scicili to Rome But admitte it were so or otherwise yet notwithstandinge there was a greate contention amonge the Romaynes For they sayde they thought it a rashe thinge for a man to committe his life to the courtesie of another Dionisius the Siracusan neuer trusted his beard with any barbor but whaÌ„ his doughters were very little they clipped his beard with sisers but after they became great he woulde not put his trust in them to trimme his bearde but he him selfe did burne it with the shales of nuttes This Dionisius Siracusan was demanded why he would not trust any barbours with his beard He answered because I know that ther be some which wil geue more to the barbor to take away my life than I wil giue to trimme my beard Plinie in the seuenth booke saith that the great Scipio called African and the Emperour Augustus wer the first that caused them in Rome to shaue their beards And I thinke thend why Plinie spake these things was to exalte these twoo princes which had as greate courage to suffer the raysours touche their throtes as th one for to fight against Hannibal in Afrike and thother against Sextus Pompeius in Scicili The fifte thing which coÌ„monly through the world was accepted were the dialles and clockes which the Romaines wanted a long tyme. For as Plinie and Marcus Varro say the Romaines were without clockes in Rome for the space of .595 yeres The curious hystoriographers declare thre maner of dialles that were in olde time that is to say dialles of the houres dialles of the sonne and dialls of the water The dialle of the son Aneximenides Millesius inuented who was great Animandras scholer The dialle of the water Scipio Nasica inuented and the Diall of houres one of the scholers of Thales the Phylosopher inuented Of all these antiquities whyche were brought into Rome none of them were so acceptable to the Romaines as the dialles were wherby they measured the daye by the houre For before they could not saye we wil ryse at .vii. of the clocke we will dine at .x. we will see one thother at .xii. at .i. we will doe that we oughte to doe But before they sayde after the sonne is vp we wil doe such a thinge and before it goe downe we wyll doe that we ought to doe Thoccasion of declaryng vnto you these .v. antiquities in this preamble was to no other intente but to call my booke the Dial of Prynces The name of the booke veing newe as it is maye make the learning that is therein greatly to be estemed God forbyd that I should be so bolde to saye they haue ben so longe time in Spayne without dialles of learning as they were in Rome without the diall of the sonne the water and of the houres For that in Spayne haue ben alwayes men well learned in sciences and very expert in the warres By great reason and of greater occasion the Princes oughte to be commended the knyghtes the people their wittes and the fertilitye of their countrey but yet to all these goodnes I haue sene manye vnlearned bookes in spayne which as broken dialles deserue to be cast into the fier to be forged anew I do not speake it without a cause that manye bookes deserue to be broken and burnte For there are so many that without shame and honestie doe set forthe bookes of loue of the worlde at this daye as boldely as if they taught theim to dispise and speake euil of the world It is pitye to see how many dayes and nightes be consumed in readyng vayne bookes that is to say as Orson and Valentine the Courte of Venus the .iiii. sonnes of Amon and diuerse other vaine bokes by whose doctrine I dare boldlye say they passe not the tyme but in perdicion for they learne not how they oughte to flye vice but rather what way they may with more pleasour embrace it This dial of princes is not of sande nor of the sonne nor of the houres nor of the water but it is the dial of lyfe For that other dialles serue to know what houre it is in the nyghte and what houre it is of the day but this sheweth and teacheth vs how we ought to occupye our mindes and how to order our lyfe The propertye of other dyalles is to order thinges publyke but the nature of this dyal of prynces is to teache vs how to occupye our selues euery houre and how to amende our lyfe euery momente It lytle auayleth to keape the dyalles well and to see thy subiectes dissolutely without any order to range in routes and dayly rayse debate and contention amonge them selues Jn this Prologue the Aucthour speaketh particularlye of the booke called Marcus Aurelius which he translated and dedicated to the Emperour Charles the fyfte THe greatest vanitye that I find in the world is that vayne men are not only conteÌ„t to be vaine in their life but also procure to leue a memory of their vanity after their death For it is so thought good vnto vaine and light men whyche serue the worlde in vaine workes that at the houre of death when they perceyue they can do no more that they can no lenger preuaile they offer them selues vnto death which now they see approche vpon them Manye of the world are so fleshed in the world that although it forsaketh them in déedes yet they wyl not forsake it in theyr desires And I durst sweare that if the world could graunt them perpetual life they woulde promyse it alwayes to remaine in their customable follye O what a nomber of vaine men are aliue whiche haue neither remembraunce of god to serue him nor of his glorye to obey him nor of their conscience to make it cleane but like brute beasts folow and ronne after their voluptuous pleasours The brute beast is angrye if a man kepe him to much in awe if he be wery he taketh his rest he slepeth when he lysteth he eateth and
him afraide in the night And Xerxes which was the sonne of kyng Darius when he passed into Italye to wage battaile before all other thinges he sente fower thousand horsemen to Delphos wher the Temple of God Apollo was to beate it downe for the pryde of Xerxes was so great that he would not onlye subdue men but also conquere the gods It chaunsed that euen as they approched nere the Temple to beat it downe a sodaine tempest fell vpon them so that with stones and thunder boltes they were al killed in the fields and so dyed Brennus was one of the renowmed Captaines of the Gothes who sithe he had conquered and subdued the Greekes determined also to robbe the treasours of the temples saying that gods should gyue vnto men and not men vnto gods and that it was greate honoure to the goddes that with their goodes men should be made riche But as they beganne to robbe the Temple there fell a multitude of arrowes from heauen that the Captaine Brennus dyed there and all his men with him not one left alyue After that Sextus Pompeius was vanquished in the battaile by sea neare vnto Scicile by Octavus Angustus he retired him selfe into the Arkes Lacinii where there was an auncient Temple consecrated to the godesse Iuno endewed with maruelous treasours And it chaunsed one day that his souldyers asking him money and he beinge then withoute he commaunded theym to beate downe the Temple of the goddesse Iuno and to paye them selues with the spoile of her treasure The historiographers saye that within a whyle after it chaunsed Sextus Pompeius to be taken of the knightes of Marcus Antonius and when he was broughte before Titus generall of the armye he spake vnto him these woordes I wil thou know Sextus Pompeius I do not condemne the to dye for thoffences thou hast committed against my Lord Marcus Antonius But because thou hast robbed and beaten downe the Temple of the Goddesse Iuno For thou knowest that the good Captaynes oughte to forget the offences against men and to reuenge the iniuryes done vnto the Goddes ¶ How Valentine the Emperoure because he was an euyll Chrystian loste in one day both the Empire and his lyfe and was burned alyue in a shepecote Cap. xxiiii WHen Iulian the Apostate was Emperour of Rome he sente to conquere Hongarie of no iust title hee had to it more then of Ambicion to vnite it to the Romaine Empire For tyrannous princes vse all their force to vsurpe others realmes by crueltye and lytle regard whether they maye do it by iustice And because the Romaine Empire was of great force this Ambicious Emperour Iulian had in that warres a mighty and puysant Armie which did wonderfull muche harme throughe al the countryes they came For the fruites of warres is to bereue the enemyes of lyfe and to spoyle the men of their goodes It chaunsed one day as 5 knyghtes wente out of the campe to make a rode they found a young man that caried a halter in hys hande and as they would haue taken it awaye from hym to haue tyed their horses to let them feede he was so hardy and stout that he defended hym selfe from them all so that he had more strength alone then they fyue altogethers The Romayne knyghtes amazed to see this younge man defend hym selfe from them all so stoutly very instauntly desired him to go to the Romaine campe with them and they promised him he should haue great interteynment For the Romaines were so dyligent that they woulde omit no good thinge for want of money so that it wer for the publike weale This yonge man was called Gracian and was borne and brought vp in the country of Pannonia in a citie they called Cibata his lynage was not of the lowest sort of the people nor yet of the most estemed Citizens but were men that lyued by the swete of their browes and in loue of the common people And truly it is no small benefite that God had made him of a meane estate for to be of base linage maketh men to be despised and not regarded and to come of a noble bloud and high synage maketh men to be proud and lofty This yonge man being come into the Romaynes campe the fame was immediatly spred how that he alone had vanquished fiue knyghtes And his strength and courage was so highely estemed that wythin a while after he was made Pretour of the armie For the Romaynes not according to fauour but according to the habilytie of men deuyded the offices and degrees of honoure in warres Tyme therfore working his nature and manye estates beinge decayed after thys yonge Gracian was made Pretour of the armye and that he was sufficiently tryed in the warres fortune which many times bringeth that to passe in a day that mans malyce cannot in many yeres raised this Gracian to be Emperoure of Rome For trulye one hower of good successe is more worthe thenne al worldly fauour This Gracian was not onlye singuler in strengthe couragious in battaile fortunate in all his affaires but also he was luckye of children That is to wete he had two sonnes which were Emperours of Rome the one was called Valente the other Valentinian In this case the children mighte glorye to haue a father so stout but the glorie of the father is greater to haue sonnes of such nobilytie For there is no greater felicitie in this world then duringe life to come to honour and riches after death to leaue good children to enioy them The eldest of the two sonnes was the Emperour Valente who ruled in the Orient for the space of .iiii. yeres was the xxxix Emperour of Rome from Iulius Cesar though some do beginne at the time of Octauian sayeng that he was vertuous and that Iulius Cesar vsurped the Empire lyke a tiraunt This Valente was beautifull of personne but poore of vertues so that he was more beautifull thenne vertuous more couragious thenne mercifull more riche thenne charitable more cruell then pitefull For there are manye Princes that are verye expert to deuise newe orders in a common wealthe but there are few that haue stoute hartes to put the same in execution In those dayes the sect of Arrian the cursed heretike florished and the Emperour Valente was greatly blinded therin in somuch that he did not only fauour the Arrians but also he persecuted the Christiās which was shewed for somuch as he killed caused to be killed for that occasiō many lay men toke many clerkes banished many Bishopps ouerthrew many Churches robbed the goods of the Chrishiās dyd infinite other mischeues in the comcomon wealth For the prince whych is infected wyth heresy liueth without feare of the Church ther is neyther mischiefe nor treasō but he wil comit In the desertes of Egipte in the mountaynes of Armenia and in the cityes of Alexandrie there was a greate multitude of fryers and relygious men amongest whom were many wise men and pure
to be blamed for those which haue credit for their euil are many and those whych haue power to do well are very fewe ¶ Of the golden age in times past and worldly miserie which we haue at this present Cap. xxxi IN the first age golden world al liued in peace ech man toke care for his owne lands euery one planted sowed their trees corne eueryone gathered his frutes and cut his vynes kned their breade and brought vp their children and finally all liued by their owne proper swette trauaile so that they all liued without the preiudice or hurt of any other O worldly malice O cursed wicked world that thou neuer sufferest things to remaine in one estate and thought I cal the cursed maruaile not therat for when we are in most prosperitie then thou with death persecutest vs most cruelly Without teares I say not that I wil say that 2000 yeres of the world wer past before we knew what the world ment god suffering it and worldly malice inuenting it ploughes were turned into weapons oxen to horses goades to lances whippes to arrowes slinges to crosbowes simplycitye into malice trauaile into Idlenes rest to paine peace to warre loue to hatred charitie to crueltie Iustice to tyranny profite to domage almes to theft aboue al fayth into Idolatrie And finallye the swete they had to profite in their owne goods they tourned to bloud sheading to the domage of the comon wealth And herein the world sheweth it selfe to be a world herein worldly malice sheweth it selfe to be malicious in somuch as the one reioyceth the other lamenteth the one reioceth to stomble to the end the other may fall breake his necke the one reioyceth to be poore to the end the other maye not be riche the one reioyseth to be dispraised to the end the other may not be honored the one delighteth to be sad to the ende the other shoulde not be merye to conclude we are so wicked that we banishe the good from our owne house to the end that the euill might enter in at the gates of an other man When the creator created the whole world he gaue to eche thinge immediatly his place that is to wete he placed intelligence in the vppermoste heauen he placed the starres in the firmament the planettes in the orbes the byrdes in the ayre the earth on the center the fyshes in the water the serpentes in the holes the beastes in the mountaines and to al in generallye he gaue place to reste them selues in Now let princes and great Lordes be vaine glorious sayenge that they are Lords of the earth for truly of all that is created god only is the true Lord therof because the miserable man for his part hath but the vse of the fruit for if we thinke it reasonable that we should enioy the profite of that which is created then were it more conuenient we should acknowledge god to be the Lord therof I do not deny but confesse the God created al things to the end they should serue man vpoÌ„ condicion that maÌ„ shold serue God likewise but wheÌ„ the creature riseth against god immediatly the creator resisteth against man For it is but reason that he be disobeyd who one only coÌ„maundemeÌ„t wil not obey O what euil fortune hath the creature only for disobeying the comaundement of his creator For if man had kept his coÌ„maundement in Paradise god had conserued to the world the signorie but the creatures whome he created for his seruice are occasion to him of great troubles for the ingratitude of benefit heapeth great sorow to the discret hart It is great pitie to behold the man that was in paradise that might haue bene in heauen now to se him in the world aboue al to be interred in the intrailes of the earth For in terrestiall paradise he was innocent in heauen he had bene blessed but nowe he is in the worlde enuirouned with cares and afterwardes he shal be throwen into hys graue and gnawen of the wormes Let vs nowe see the disobedience wee hadde in the commaundemente of GOD and what fruite we haue gathered in the world For he is very simple that dare commit any vice taking no delight nor pleasure therof in his body In my opinion through the sinnes whiche our forefathers committed in paradise the seruitude remaineth in vs their children which are on the earth For so much as if I entre into the water I drowne if I touche the fire I burne if I cone neare a dog he biteth me if I threaten a horse he casteth me if I resiste the wynde it bloweth me downe if I persecute the serpent he poysoneth me if I smite the beare he destroieth me and to be brief I saie that the man that without pitie eateth men in his life the wormes shal eate his intrailes in the graue after his death O princes great lordes lode your selues with cloth of gold heape vp your great treasours assemble many armies inuente Iustes Torneis seke your pastimes reueÌ„ge your selues of your enemies serue your selues with your subiectes marrye your children to mighty kinges set them in great estate cause your selues to be feared of your enemies imploye your bodies to al pleasures leue great possessions to your heires rayse sumptuous buildinges to leaue memory of your persons I sweare by him that shal iudge me that I haue more compassion to see your sinfull soules then I haue enuy to see your vicious liues For in the end all pastimes will vanishe away and they shal leaue you for a gage to the hungry wormes of the earth O if princes did consider though they haue bene borne princes created norished in great estates that the day thei are borne death immediatly commeth to seke the end of their life and taketh them here and there when they are whole when they are sicke now tombling then rising he neuer leaueth them one houre vntill their woful burial Therfore sith it is true as in dede it is that that whiche princes possesse in this life is but small that which they hope in the other is so great truly I marueile why princes the which shal lie so straight in the graue dare liue in such so great largenes in their life To be riche to be lordes to haue great estates men should not therof at al be proude since they see how fraile mans condicion is for in th end life is but lone but death is enheritage Death is a patrimonie heritage which successiuely is inherited but life is a righte which daily is surrendred For death counteth vs somuche his owne that oftimes vnwaâ—es he coÌ„meth to assault vs life taketh vs such straungers that oftetimes we not doubting therof it vanisheth away If this thing theÌ„ be true why wil princes great lordes presume to coÌ„maunde in a straunge house which is this life as in their own house which is the
to goe out to receyue thee nor to prepare our selues to resiste thee neyther to lyfte vp our eyes to behold thee nor to open our mouthes to salute thee neither to moue our handes to trouble thee ne yet to make warre to offende thee For greater is the hate that we beare to ryches and honors whiche thou louest then the loue is that thou hast to destroye men and subdue countreis which we abhorre It hath pleased thee we should see thee not desiring to see thee and we haue obeied thee not willing to obey thee and that we shoulde salute thee not desirous to salute thee wherewith we are content vpon condicion that thou be pacient to heare vs. For that whiche we will saye vnto thee shall tende more vnto the amendement of thy lyfe then to diswade thee frō conquering of our countrey For it is reason that princes whiche shall come hereafter do know why we liuing so litle esteme that which is our own why thou dieng taking suche paynes to possesse that whiche is an other mans O Alexander I aske thee one thing and I doubte whether thou canst aunswere me thereunto or no for those hartes which are proude are also moste commonly blinded Tell me whether thou goest from whence thou commest what thou meanest what thou thinkest what thou desirest what thou sekest what thou demaundest what thou searchest and what thou procurest and further to what realmes and prouinces thy disordinate appetite extendeth without a cause I doe not demaunde thee this question what is that thou demaundest and what it is that thou sekest for I thinke thou thy selfe knowest not what thou wouldest For proud and ambitious hartes knowe not what will satisfie them Sith thou art ambitious honor deceiueth thee sithe thou art prodigall couetousnes begileth thee sithe thou art younge ignoraunce abuseth thee and sithe thou art proude all the worlde laugheth thee to scorne in suche sorte that thou followest men and not reason thou followest thyne owne opinion and not the counsel of another thou embrasest flatterers and repulsest vertuous menne For princes and noble men had rather be commended with lies then to be reproued with truthe I can not tell to what ende you princes lyue so disceiued and abused to haue and kepe in your pallaces mo flatterers iuglers and fooles then wyse and sage mē For in a princes pallace if there be any which extolleth their doings there are tenne thousand which abhorre their tyrannies I perceiue by these dedes Alexander that the gods wyll soner ende thy lyfe then thou wilt ende thy warres The man that is brought vp in debates discentions and strife al his felicitie consisteth in burning destroying and bloudsheding I see thee defended with weapons I see thee accompanied with tyrauntes I see thee robbe the temples I see thee without profite wast the treasours I see thee murder the innocent and trouble the pacient I see thee euill willed of all and beloued of none whiche is the greatest euil of al euilles Therfore how were it possible for thee to endure suche and so great trauayles vnlesse thou art a foole or els because god hath appointed it to chastise thee The Gods suffer oftetimes that men being quiet should haue some weighty affaires that is not for that they should be honored at this present but to the end thei should be punished for that which is past Tell me I praye thee peraduenture it is no great folly to empoueryshe many to make thy selfe alone riche it is not peraduenture folly that one shoulde commaunde by tyranny and that al the rest lose the possession of their signorie It is not folly perchaunce to leue to the damnation of our soules many memories in the world of our body It is not folly perchaunce that the Gods approue thy disordinate appetite alone and condemne the wil and opinion of all the worlde besyde peraduenture it is not folly to winne with the teares of the poore and comfortlesse wydowes so great and bloudie victories peraduenture it is no folly willingly to wette the earth with the bloud of innocentes onely to haue a vayne glory in this world Thou thinkest it no folly peraduenture god hauing deuided the worlde into so many people that thou shouldest vsurpe them to thee alone O Alexander Alexander truly such workes proceade not from a creature noryshed among men on the earth but rather of one that hath bene broughte vp among the infernall furies of hell For we are not bounde to iudge men by the good nature they haue but by their good and euyll workes whiche they doe The man is cursed if he haue not bene cursed he shal be cursed that liueth to the preiudice of all other in this world present onely to be counted couragious stoute and hardy in tyme to come For the gods seldome suffred them to enioye that quietly in peace whiche they haue gotten vniustly in the warres I would aske the what insolency moued the to rebel against thy lorde king Darius after whose death thou hast sought to conquere all the worlde and this thou doest not as a kyng that is an inheriritour but as a tyraunt that is an oppressor For him properly we call a tyraunt that without iustice and reason taketh that which is an other mans Either thou searchest iustice or thou searchest peace or els thou searchest ryches and our honor thou searchest rest or els thou searchest fauoure of thy frendes or thou searchest vengeaunce of thyne enemies But I sweare vnto thee Alexander that thou shalt not finde any of all these thinges if thou seakest by this meanes as thou hast begonne for the swete suger is nor of the nature of the bitter gumbe Howe shall we beleue thou searchest iustice sith against reason and iustice by tyranny thou rulest all the earth howe shall we beleue thou searchest peace sithe thou causest them to paie tribute which receiueth thee and those which resiste thee thou handlest them like enemies howe can we beleue that thou searchest reste sithe thou troublest all the worlde How can we beleue thou searchest gentlenes sithe thou arte the scourge and sworde of humaine fraylnes howe can we beleue that thou searchest ryches sithe thine owne treasure suffiseth thee not neyther that whiche by the vanquished cometh vnto thy handes nor that which the conquerours offer thee how shal we beleue thou searchest profite to thy frēds sithe that of thyne olde frendes thou haste made newe enemies I let thee vnderstande Alexander that the greatest ought to teache the leaste and the leaste ought to obeye the greatest And frendshippe is onely amongest equalles But thou sithe thou sufferest none in the worlde to be equall and lyke vnto thee loke not thou to haue any frende in the worlde For princes oftymes by ingratitude loase faithfull frendes and by ambicion wynne mortall enemies Howe shall we beleue thou searchest reuenge of thine enemies sythe thou takest more vengeaunce of thy selfe being aliue then thyne enemies woulde take of
thee if they toke the prysoner though perchaunce in times past they vsed thy father Philip euill and haue now disobeied thee his sonne It were better counsell for thee to make them thy frendes by gentlenes then to confirme them ennemies by crueltie For the noble and pitifull hartes when they are reuenged of any make of them selues a bucherye Wee can not with trouthe saye that thy trauayles are well imployed to wynne suche honour sythe thy conuersation and lyfe is so vnconstaunt For trulye honour consisteth not in that flatterers saye but in that whiche Lordes doe For the great familiaritie of the wycked causeth the lyfe to be suspected Honour is not gotten by lyberall geuinge of treasoures at hys death but by spendynge it well in his lyfe For it is a sufficient profe that the man whiche esteameth renowme dothe lytle regarde money and it is an apparaunte token that man who lytle esteameth money greatlye regardeth his renowme A man wynneth not honour by murdering innocentes but by destroying tyrauntes for all the armonie of the good gouernement of princes is in the chastising of the euill and rewarding the good Honour is not wonne in taking and snatching the goodes of an other but in geuing and spendinge his owne For there is nothing that beautifieth the maiestie of a prince more thē to shewe his noblenes in extending mercy and fauour to his subiectes and geuing giftes and rewardes to the vertuous And to conclude I will let the know who he is that winneth both honour in this life and also a perpetuall memory after his death and that is not he whiche leadeth his lyfe in warres but he that taketh his death in peace O Alexander I see thou arte younge and that thou desirest honour wherfore I let thee vnderstande that there is no man farther from honour then he whiche procureth and desireth the same For the ambicious mē not obteining that which they desire remayne alwayes defamed and in wynning and getting that whiche they searche honour notwithstanding will not followe them Beleue me in one thynge Alexander that the true honour ought through worthy deades to be deserued and by no meanes to be procured for all the honour that by tyranny is wonne in the ende by infamy is lost I am sory for thee Alexander for I see thou wantest iustice since thou louest tyranny I see thou lackest peace because thou louest warre I see thou art not ryche because thou hast made all the worlde poore I see thou lackest rest because thou sekest contention and debate I see thou hast no honour because that thou winnest it by infamy I see thou wantest frendes because thou haste made them thyne ennemies Finally I see thou doest not reuenge thy selfe of thy ennemies because thou arte as they would be the scourge to thy selfe Then since it is so why arte thou alyue in this world sithe thou lackest vertues for the which life ought to be desired For truly that man whiche without his owne profite and to the domage of another leadeth his life by iustice ought forthwith to lose his breath For there is nothing that soner destroieth the weale publyke then to permit vnprofitable men therein to liue Therefore speaking the trouthe you lordes and princes are but poore I beleue thou conquerest the worlde because thou knowest not thy superiour therein and besydes that thou wylte take lyfe from so many to the ende that by their death thou maiest wynne renowme If cruell and warrelike princes as thou arte should inherite the liues of them whome they slaye to augmente and prolonge their liues as they doe inheritie goodes to maintayne their pryde although it were vnmeate then warre were tollerable But what profiteth the seruaunt to lose his life this day and his maisters death to be differred but vntil the morowe O Alexander to be desirous to commaunde muche hauinge respite to liue but litle me thinketh it were a great foly and lacke of wysedome Presumptuous and ambicious men whiche measure their workes not with the fewe daies they haue to liue but with the arrogant and haughty thoughtes they haue to commaunde They leade their lyfe in trauayle and take their death with sorowe And the remedy hereof is that if the wyse man cannot obtayne that which he would he should content him selfe with that which he may I let thee knowe Alexander that the perfection of men is not to see much to heare much to knowe much to procure much to come to much to trauayle much to possesse much and to be able to doe much but it is to be in in the fauour of the gods Finally I tell thee that that man is perfecte who in his owne opinion deserueth not that he hath and in the opinion of another deserueth muche more then that he possesseth We are of this opinion amonge vs that he is vnworthy to haue honour who by suche infamous meanes searcheth for it And therfore thou Alexander deseruest to be sclaue to many because thou thinkest to deserue the signorie ouer all By the immortall gods I sweare I can not imagine the great mischiefe which entred into thy breast so vnrighteously to kill kyng Darius whose vassale and frende thou wert onely because thou wouldest possesse the Empire of the whole worlde For truly seruitude in peace is more worth then signorie in warre And he that shall speake against that I haue spoken I saye he is sicke and hath loste his taste ¶ The sage Garamante continueth his oration shewing that perpetuitie of life can not be bought with any worldly treasure Among other notable matters he maketh mention of the seuen lawes which they obserued Cap. xxxiiii THou wilt not deny me Alexander that thou wert more healthfull when thou waste kyng of Macedonia then thou art nowe being lorde of all the earth for the excessiue trauayle bryngeth menne out of all order Thou wilt not denye me Alexander that the more thou gettest the more thou desirest for the hart which with couetousnes is set on fier cannot with wood and bowes of riches but with the earth of the graue be satisfied and quenched Thou wilt not denie me Alexander but the aboundaunce that thou thy selfe hast semeth vnto thee litle and the litle whiche an other man possesseth semeth vnto thee muche for the gods to the ambicious couetous hartes gaue this for penaunce that neither with enough nor with to muche they should contente them selues Thou wilt not denie me Alexander if in dede thy harte be couetous that first the pleasures of life shall ende before thy couetousnes for where vices haue had power long time in the harte there death onely and none other hath authoritie to pluck vp the rootes Thou wilt not denie me Alexander that though thou hast more then all yet thou enioyest least of any for the prince that possesseth muche is alwayes occupied in defending it but the prince that hath litle hath time and leasure in quiet to enioye it Thou wilt not denie me
for in the ende tyme is of such power that it cause the renowmed men to be forgotten and all the sumptuous buildinges to decaye and fall to the earth If thou wilt knowe my frende Pulio in what tyme the tyraunt this philosopher was I wyll thou knowe that when Catania the renowmed citie was builded in Cicilia neare the mount Ethna and when Perdica was the fourth kyng of Macedonia and that Cardicea was the thirde kyng of the Meedes and when Candare was fift king of Libeans and that Assaradoche was ninth king of the Assirians and when Merodache was twelft king of Caldeans and that Numa Pompilius reigned second king of the Romaines in the time of those so good kinges Periander reigned amonges the Assirians And it is meete thou knowe an other thyng also whiche is this That this Periander was a tyraunt not only in dede but also in renowme so that thei spake of no other thing thorowe Greece but it tended hereunto Though he had euill workes he had good wordes procured that the affaires of the cōmon wealth shuld be wel redressed For generally there is no man so good but a mā may finde somwhat in him to be reproued neither any man so euill but he hath some thing in him to be cōmended I doe yet remēber of my age being neither to young nor to old that I saw the emperour Traian my lord suppe once in Agrippine it so chaunced that wordes were moued to speake of good euil princes in times past as wel of the Grekes as of the Romains that al those which were present there cōmended greatly the emperour Octauian they al blamed the cruel Nero. For it is an aūcient custome to flatter the princes that are present to murmure at princes that are past When the good emperour Traian was at dinner when he praied in the tēple it was maruel if any mā sawe him speake any word that day since he sawe that thei excessiuely praised the emperour Octauian that the others charged the emperour Nero with more then neded the good Traian spake vnto them these wordes I am glad you cōmende the emperour Octauian but I am angry you should in my presence speake euil of the emperour Nero of none other for it is a great infamy to a prince being aliue to heare in his presence any prince euill reported after his death Truly the emperour Octauian was very good but ye will not denye me but he might haue bene better and the emperour Nero was very euil but yet you will graunt me he might haue ben worse I speake this because Nero in his first fiue yeares was the best of all and the other nyne folowyng he was the worste of all so that there is bothe cause to disprayse him and also cause to commende him When a vertuous man will speake of princes that are dead before princes whiche are aliue he is bounde to prayse onely one of their vertues which they had hath no licence to reuyle the vices whereof thei were noted For the good deserueth rewarde because he endeuoreth him selfe to folowe vertue the euill likewyse deserueth pardon because through frayltie he hath consented to vyce All these wordes the emperoure Traian spake I being present and they were spoken with suche fiercenes that all those whiche were there present bothe chaunged their colour and also refrained their tongues For truly the shamelesse man feeleth not so muche a great strype of correction as the gentill harte doth a sharpe worde of admonition I was willing to shewe thee these thinges my frende Pulio because that since Traian spake for Nero and that he founde in hym some prayse I doe thynke no lesse of the tyraunte Periander whome thoughe for his euyll workes he dyd we doe condemne yet for his good wordes that he spake for the good lawes whiche he made we doe prayse For in the man that is euill there is nothing more easier then to geue good counsayle and there is nothing more harder then to worke well Periander made dyuerse lawes for the common wealth of the Corinthians whereof here folowing I wil declare some We ordeyne and commaunde that if any by multipliyng of wordes kyll an other so that it were not by treason that he be not therefore condemned to die but that they make hym slaue perpetuall to the brother of him that is slayne or to the nexte of his kynne or frends for a shorte deathe is lesse payne then a longe seruitude We ordeyne and commaunde that if any these be taken he shall not dye but with a hotte iron shal be marked on the forehead to be knowen for a thefe for to shammefaste men longe infaime is more payne then a short lyfe We ordeyne and commaunde that the man or woman whiche to the preiudice of an other shall tell any lye shall for the space of a moneth carie a stone in their mouthe for it is not meete that he whiche is wonte to lye should alwayes bee authorysed to speake We ordeyne and commaunde that euery man or woman that is a quareler and sedicious persone in the common wealth be with great reproche bannished frome the people for it is vnpossible that he shoulde bee in fauoure with the Gods which is an enemie to his neighbours We ordeyne and commaunde that if there be any in the common wealth that haue receiued of an other a benefite and that afterwardes it is proued he was vnthankefull that in suche case they put hym to death for the man that of benefites receiued is vnthankefull oughte not to lyue in the worlde amonge menne Beholde therefore my frende Pulio the antiquitie whiche I declared vnto thee and howe mercifull the Corinthians were to murtherers theues and Pirates And contrarie howe seuere they were to vnthankefull people whome they commaunded forthwith to be putte to deathe And truly in myne opinion the Corinthians had reason for there is nothinge troubleth a wyse man more then to see him vnthankefull to him whome he hath shewed pleasure vnto I was willing to tel thee this historie of Periander for no other cause but to the end thou shouldest see and know that forasmuch as I doe greatly blame the vice of vnthankefulnes I will laboure not to be noted of the same For he that reproueth vice is not noted to be vertuous but he which vtterly flieth it Count vpon this my worde that I tel thee which thou shalt not thinke to be fained that though I be the Romain Emperour I wil be thy faithfull frend wil not faile to be thankefull towardes thee For I esteme it no lesse glory to know how to keape a frend by wysedom then to come to the estate of an emperour by philosophie By the letter thou sentest thou requiredst me of one thing to answere thee for the whiche I am at my wittes end For I had rather open my treasures to thy necessities then to open the bookes to answere to thy
demaundes although it be to my cost I confesse thy request to be reasonable and thou deseruest worthy prayse for in the end it is more worth to knowe how to procure a secrete of antiquities past then to heape vp treasures for the necessities in time to come As the philosopher maketh philosophie his treasour of knowledge to liue in peace to hope to loke for death with honour so the couetous being suche a one as he is maketh his treasure of worldly goodes for to keape preserue life in this world in perpetuall warres and to end his life and take his death with infamie Herein I sweare vnto thee that one daie emploied in philosophy is more worth then ten thousand which are spent in heaping riches For the life of a peaceable man is none other then a swete peregrination and the life of sedicious persones is none other but a long death Thou requirest me my frend Pulio that I write vnto thee wherin the auncientes in times past had their felicitie knowe thou that their desires were so diuerse that some dispraised life others desired it some prolonged it others did shorten it some did not desire pleasures but trauailes others in trauailes did not seke but pleasures the whiche varietie did not proceade but of diuerse endes for the tastes were diuerse and sondry men desired to taste diuerse meates By the immortall Gods I sweare vnto thee that this thy request maketh me muse of thy life to see that my phylosophie answereth thee not sufficiently therein For if thou aske to proue me thou thinkest me presumptuous if thou demaunde in mirth thou countest me to be to light if thou demaundest it not in good earnest thou takest me for simple if thou demaūdest me for to shew it thee be thou assured I am ready to learne it if thou demaundest it for to knowe it I confesse I can not teache it thee if thou demaundest it because thou maiest be asked it be thou assured that none wylbe satisfied with my aunswere and if perchaunce thou doest aske it because thou sleapinge haste dreamed it seing that nowe thou art awake thou oughtest not to beleue a dreame For all that the fantasie in the nighte doth imagine the tongue doth publishe it in the morning O my frende Pulio I haue reason to complayne of thee for so muche as thou doest not regarde the authoritie of my persone nor the credite of thy phylosophie wherefore I feare leaste they wyll iudge thee to curious in demaundinge and me to simple in aunsweringe all this notwithstanding I determine to aunswere thee not as I ought but as I can not according to the greate thou demaundest but according to the litle I knowe And partely I doe it to accomplyshe thy requeste and also to fulfyll my desire And nowe I thinke that all whiche shall reade this letter wyll be cruell iudges of my ignoraunce ¶ Of the Philosopher Epicurus IN the Olimpiade the hundreth and thre Serges being king of Perses and the cruel tyraunt Lysander captaine of the Peloponenses a famous battayle was fought betwene the Athenians and Lysander vpon the great ryuer of Aegcon whereof Lysander had the victory and truly vnles the histories deceiue vs the Athenians tooke this conflicte greuously because the battayle was loste more through negligence of their captaines then through the great nombre of their enemies For truly many winne victories more through the cowardlynesse that some haue than for the hardinesse that others haue The philosopher Epicurus at that tyme florished who was of a liuely wytte but of a meane stature and had memorie fresh being meanely learned in philosophie but he was of much eloquence and for to encourage and counsell the Athenians he was sent to the warres For whan the auncientes tooke vpon them any warres they chose first sages to geue counsaile then captaines to leade the souldiours And amongest the prisoners the philosopher Epicurus was taken to whom the tyraunt Lysander gaue good entertainement and honoured him aboue all other and after he was taken he neuer went from him but redde philosophie vnto him and declared vnto him histories of times paste and of the strengthe and vertues of many Greekes and Troyans The tyraunt Lysander reioysed greatly at these thinges For truly tyrauntes take great pleasure to heare the prowesse vertues of auncientes past to folow the wickednes vices of them that are present Lysander therefore taking the triumphe hauing a nauy by sea a great army by land vpon the ryuer of Aegeon he and his captaines forgotte the daunger of the warres gaue the brydel to the slouthfull flesh so that to the great preiudice of the cōmon wealth they led a dissolute and ydle life For the maner of tyrannous princes is to leaue of their owne trauaile to enioy that of other mens The philosopher Epicurus was alwaies brought vp in the excellent vniuersitie of Athens wher as the philosophers liued in so great pouertie that naked they slept on the groūd their drinke was colde water none amongest them had any house propre they despised riches as pestilēce labored to make peace where discord was they were only defenders of the common wealth they neuer spake any idle worde it was a sacrilege amōgest thē to heare a lie finally it was a lawe inuiolable amongst thē that the philosopher that shuld be idle shuld be banished he that was vicious shuld be put to death The wicked Epicurus forgetting the doctrine of his maisters not esteming grauitie wherunto the sages are bound gaue him self wholy both in words deedes vnto a voluptuous beastly kinde of life wherin he put his whole felicitie For he said ther was no other felicitie for slouthful men then to sleape in soft beds for delicate persons to fele neither heat nor cold for fleshly mē to haue at their pleasur amorous dames for drōkardes not to wāt any pleasaunt wines gluttons to haue their filles of all delicate meates for herein he affirmed to consiste all worldly felicitie I doe not marueile at the multitude of his scholers which he had hath shal haue in the world For at this day ther are few in Rome that suffer not thē selues to be maistred with vices the multitude of those which liue at their owne willes and sensualitie are infinite And to fell the truthe my frend Pulio I doe not marueile that there hath bene vertuous neither I do muse that there hath bene vicious for the vertuous hopeth to reste him selfe with the gods in an other worlde by his well doing and if the vicious be vicious I doe not marueile though he will goe and ingage him selfe to the vices of this world since he doth not hope neither to haue pleasure in this nor yet to enioy rest with the gods in the other For truly the vnstedfast belefe of an other life after this wherin the wicked shal be punished the good rewarded causeth
Seruilius Caius Brisius theÌ„ Consulles in Rome â–ª which were appointed against the Attikes in the moneth of Ianuarye immediately after they were chosen in the .29 yere of the reigne of Ptolom aeus Philadelphus this greate Prince Ptolomaeus built in the cost of Alexandrye a great tower which he named Pharo for the loue of a louer of his named Pharo Dolouina this tower was built vpon .4 engins of glasse it was large and high made 4. square and the stones of the tower were as bright shining as glasse so that the tower being 20. foote of bredth if a candel burned with in those without might se the lyght therof I let the know my frend Pulio that the auncient historiographers did so much esteme this buildynge that they compared it to one of the vii buildinges of the worlde At that time when these thinges florished ther was in Egipt a philosopher called Zeno by whose counsayle industrie Ptolomaeus built that so famous a tower gouerned his land For in the old time the princes that in their life were not gouerned by sages were recorded after their death in the register of foles As this tower was stronge so had he great ioy of the same because he kept his derely beloued Pharo Dolouina therin enclosed to the end she should be wel kept and also wel contented He had his wyues in Alexandria but for the most part he continued with Pharo Dolouina For in the old time the Perses Siconians and the Chaldeans did not marie but to haue children to enherite their goodes the resydue of their lyfe for the most part to leade with their concubynes in pleasure and delightes The Egiptians had in great estymacion men that were great wrastlers especially if they were wise men and aboue all things they mayde great defiaunce againste straungers and all the multitude of wrastlers was coÌ„tinually great so ther were notable masters among them For truly he that dayly vseth one thing shal at the last be excellent therein The matter was thus That one day as amongest them there were many Egiptians there was one that would not be ouerthrowen nor cast by any man vnto the earth This philosopher Zeno perceyuing the strength courage of this great wrastler thought it much for hys estimacion if he might throw him in wrastlyng and in prouing he threw him deade to the earthe who of none other cold euer be cast This vyctorie of Zeno was so greatlye to the contentacion of his person that he spake with his tongue and wrote with hys penne that ther was none other felycitye then to know how to haue the strength of the armes to cast downe others at his feete The reason of this philosopher was that he said it was a greater kinde of victory to ouerthrowe one to the earth then to ouercome many in the warres For in the warres one onlye wrongefullye taketh the vyctorye since there be many that do winne it but in wrestling as the victorie is to one alone so let the only vyctorye and glory remaine to him and therfore in this thinge felicitie consisteth for what can be more then the contentacion of the hart Truly we cal him in this world happie that hath his hart content and hys body in health ¶ Of the Philosopher Anacharsis WHen the king Heritaces reigned among the Meedes and that Tarquin Priscus reigned in Rome ther was in the coastes of Scithia a philosopher called Anacharsis who was borne in the citie of Epimenides Cecero greatly commended the doctrine of this philosopher and that he can not tell whiche of these two thinges were greater in him that is to wete the profoundnes of knowledge that the gods had giuen him or the cruel malyce wherwith he persecuted his enemyes For truly as Pithagoras saith Those which of men are most euyl wylled of the gods are best beloued This phylosopher Anacharsis then being as he was of Scithia whych nacion amongeste the Romaines was estemed Barbarous it chaunsed that a malycious Romaine sought to displease the Phylosopher in wordes and trulye he was moued thereunto more throughe malyce then through simplicite For the outward malycious words are a manifest token of the inward enuious harte This Romaine therefore sayde to the philosopher it is vnpossible Anacharsis that thou shouldest be a Sithian borne for a man of such eloquence cannot be of such a barbarous nation to whom Anacharsis aunswered Thou hast sayde well and herein I assent to thy wordes howbeit I do not alow thy intencion for as by reason thou mayst dispraise me to be of a barbarous countrey and commend me for my good lyfe so I iustly may accuse the of a wicked lyfe and prayse the of a good countrey And herein be thou iudge of both which of vs two shal haue the most praise in the world to come eyther thou that art borne a Romaine and leadest a barbarous lyfe or I that am borne a Sithian and leade the lyfe of a Romaine For in the ende in the Garden of this lyfe I had rather be a grene apple tree and beare fruite then to be a drie Libane drawen on the ground After that Anacharsis had bene in Rome long time and in Greece he determined for the loue of his countrey nowe being aged to retourne home to Scithia wherof a brother of his named Cadmus was kyng who had the name of a kyng but in dede he was a Tiraunt Since this good phylosopher sawe hys brother exercise the workes of a tyraunte seing also the people so dissolute he determined to gyue hys brother the best counsayle he could to ordeyne lawes to the people in good order to gouerne them whych thing being sene of the Barbarous by the consent of them al as a man who inuented new deuyses to lyue in the world before them all openly was put to death For I wyl thou know my frende Pulio that there is no greater token that the common wealth is full of vyce then when they kyll or banysh those whych are vertuous therin So therfore as they ledde thys phylosopher to death he sayd he was vnwillyng to take his death and loth to lose his life Wherfore one sayd vnto him these words Tel me Anachaâ—sis sith thou art a man so vertuous so sage and so olde me thinketh it should not greue the to leaue this miserable lyfe For the vertuous man should desire the company of the vertuous men the which thys world wanteth the sage ought to desire to liue with other sages wherof the world is destitute and the old man ought litle to esteme the losse of his life since by true experience he knoweth in what trauayles he hath passed his dayes For truly it is a kind of foly for a man which hath trauayled and fynished a daungerous and long iourney to lament to se himselfe now in the end therof Anacharsis aunswered him Thou speakest very good words my frend I would that thy life were as thy counsell
of Corinthe for I haue no commission to treate of peace with vnthriftye players but with sage gouernours Those of Athens comaunded me not to kepe company with those that haue their hāds occupied with dyce but with those that haue their bodyes loden with harnes with those that haue their eyes daseled with their bookes For those men which haue warre with the dice it is vnpossible they shold haue peace with their neighbours After he had spoken these wordes he returned to Athens I let the vnderstand my frend Pulio that the Corinthians thinke it to be the greatest felicitie in the world to occupie dayes nightes in playes and meruel not hereat neyther laugh thou them to scorne For it was tolde we by a Greeke being in Antioche that a Corinthian estemed it more felycitie to winne a game then the Romaine captaine dyd to winne a triumphe As they say the Corinthians were wyse and temperate men vnlesse it were in playes in the which thing they were to vycious Me thynke my frend Pulio that I aunswere the more ampely then thou requyrest or that my health suffreth the whych is lytle so that both thou shalte be troubled to reade it and I here shal haue paine to wryt it I wil make the a briefe some of al the others whiche now come vnto my remembraunce the which in dyuerse things haue put their ioy and chiefe felycities Of Crates the philosopher CRates the philosopher put his felycitie to haue good fortune in prosperous nauigacions sayeng that he which sayleth by sea can neuer haue perfecte ioy at his hart so long as he considereth that betwene death life there is but on bourde Wherfore the harte neuer feeleth so great ioy as when in the hauen he remembreth the perrils whyche he hath escaped of the sea Of Estilpho the philosopher EStilpho the philosopher put all his felycitie to be of great power sayeng that the man which can do litle is worth lytle and he that hath litle the gods do him wrong to let him lyue so long For he only is happie which hath power to oppresse his enemyes and hath wherwith al to succour him selfe and reward his frendes Of Simonides the philosopher SImonides the philosopher put all his felycitie to be wel beloued of the people sayinge that churlyshe men and euyl condicioned shoulde be sent to the mountaynes amongest brute beastes For ther is no greater felycity in this lyfe then to be beloued of all in the common wealthe Of Archita the philosopher ARchita the Philosopher had all his felycity in conquering a battaile sayeng that naturallye man is so much frende to hym selfe and desireth so much to come to the chiefe of his enterprise that thoughe for lytle trifles he played yet he woulde not be ouercome For the hart willynglye suffereth all the trauayles of the lyfe in hope afterwardes to wynne the vyctorye Of Gorgias the philosopher GOrgias the philosopher put all his felycytie to heare a thing whych pleased him sayeng that the body feleth not so much a great wound as the hart doth an euyl word For truly ther is no musicke that soundeth so swete to the eares as the pleasaunt words are sauoury to the hart Of Crisippus the philosopher CRisippus the Philosopher had all his felycitye in this world in making great buildynges sayeng that those which of them selues lefte no memorye both in their lyfe and after their death deserued infamye For greate and sumptuous buyldynges are perpetuall monumentes of noble courages Of Antisthenes the philosopher ANtisthenes the phylosopher put al his felicye in renowne after his death For sayth he there is no losse but of lyfe that flytteth without fame For the wiseman neade not feare to dye So he leaue a memory of his vertuous lyfe behind him Of Sophocles the philosopher SOphocles had all his ioy in hauyng children whych should possesse the inheritaunce of their father sayenge that the graffe of him that hath no children surmounteth aboue al other sorrowes For the greatest felicity in this lyfe is to haue honoure and riches and afterwards to leaue children whych shal inherite them Of Euripides the philosopher EVripides the Philosopher had all his ioy in keaping a fayre woman sayeng hys tongue wyth wordes could not expresse the griefe whiche the hart endureth that is accumbred with a foule woman therfore of truth he whych happeneth of a goodly and vertuous woman ought of ryght in hys lyfe to desire no more pleasure Of Palemon the philosopher PAlemon put the felycytye of men in eloquence sayeng and swearing that the man that cannot reason of al things is not so lyke a reasonable man as he is a brute beast For accordyng to the opinyons of many there is no greater fely citye in thys wretched worlde then to be a man of a pleasaunte tongue and of an honest lyfe Of Themistocles the philosopher THemistocles put all hys felycity in discending from a noble lynage sayeng that the man whych is come of a meane stocke is not bounde to make himselfe of a renowmed fame For truly the vertues and prowesses of them that are past are not but an example to moue them to take great enterprises which are present Of Aristides the philosopher ARistides the philosopher put all his felycitie in keaping temporal goods sayeng that the man which hath not wherwith to eate nor to susteine his lyfe it were better counsayle for him of his free wil to goe into the graue then to do any other thing For he only shal be called happie in this worlde who hath no nede to enter into another mans house Of Heraclitus the philosopher HEraclitus put all his felycitie in heaping vp treasoure sayenge that the prodygall man the more he getteth the more he spendeth but he hath the respecte of a wyse man who can keape a secrete treasoure for the necessityes to come Thou hast now sufficiently vnderstode my frend Pulio how that .vii. monethes since I haue bene taken with the feuer quartaine and I swere vnto the by the immortall gods that at this present instaunt writyng vnto the my hand shaketh which is an euident token that the cold doth take me wherefore I am constrayned to conclude this matter which thou demaundest me although not according to my desier For amongest true frends though the workes do cease wherewith they serue yet therefore the inward partes ought not to quaile wherwyth they loue If thou dost aske me my frend Pulio what I thynke of all that is aboue spoken and to whych of those I do sticke I aunswere the. That in this world I do not graunt any to be happie and if ther be any the gods haue them with them because on the one side chosynge the playne and drye way without clay and on the other syde all stonye and myerie we may rather call this lyfe the precipitacion of the euyl then the safegard of the good I wil speake but one word only but marke wel what therby I meane whych is
that amongest the myshappes of fortune we dare saye that ther is no felycitie in the world And he only is happie from whom wisedom hath plucked enuious aduersitie and that afterwards is brought by wisedome to the highest felycitye And thoughe I would I cannot endure any lenger but that the immortall gods haue the in their custoditye and that they preserue vs from euyl fortune Sith thou art retired now vnto Bethinie I know well thou wouldest I should write the some newes from Rome and at this presente there are none but that the Carpentines and Lusitaines are in great strife and dissension in Spayne I receiued letters how that the barbarous were quyet though the host that was in Illiria were in good case yet notwistanding the army is somwhat fearefull and timerous For in all the coaste and borders ther hath bene a great plague Pardon me my frend Pulio for that I am so sickely that yet I am not come to my selfe For the feuer quartaine is so cruel a disease that he which hath it contenteth himselfe with nothinge neither taketh pleasure in any thing I send the .ii. of the best horses that can be found in al Spayne also I send the ii cuppes of gold of the richest that can be founde in Alexandria And by the lawe of a good man I swere vnto the that I desire to sende the ii or .iii. howers of those which trouble me in my feauer quartaine My wife Faustine saluteth the and of her part and mine also to Cassia thy olde mother and noble widowe we haue vs commended Marcus the Romaine Emperour with his owne hande writeth this and againe commendeth him vnto his dere frend Pulio ¶ That princes and great Lordes ought not to esteme them selues for being fayre and wel proportioned Cap. xli .. IN the time that Iosue triumphed amongest the Hebrues and that Dardanus passed from great Grece to Samotratia and when the sonnes of Agenor were seking their sister Europe and in the time that Siculus reigned in Scicil in great Asia in the Realme of Egipt was buylded a great cytie called Thebes the which king Busiris built of whom Diodorus Sicculus at large mencioneth Plynie in the .36 chapter of his naturall historie and Homere in the second of his Iliade and Statius in al the booke of his Thebiade do declare great meruelles of this citye of Thebes which thing ought greatly to be estemed for a man oughte not to thinke that fayned whiche so excellente auctours haue writen For a truth they say that Thebes was in circuite .40 myles and that the walles were .30 stades hye and in breadthe .6 They say also that the citie had a hundreth gates very sumptuous and strong and in euery gate .ii. hundreth horsemen watched Through the middest of Thebes passed a great riuer the which by mylles and fishe dyd greatly profite the citie When Thebes was in his prosperity they say that there were two hundreth thousand fiers and besydes all this al the kynges of Egipt were buried in that place As Strabo sayth De situ orbis when Thebes was destroyed with enemies they found therin lxxvii tombes of kings whych had bene buried there And here is to be noted that al those tombes were of vertuous kings For among the Egiptians it was a law inuiolable that the king which had bene wicked in his lyfe should not be buried after his death Before the noble and worthy Numantia was founded in Europe the riche Carthage in Affricke and the hardye Rome in Italy the goodly Capua in Campaigne and the great Argentine in Germanie and the holy Helia in Palestine Thebes onlye was the most renowmed of all the world For the Thebanes amongest al nacions were renowmed aswel for their riches as for their buyldings and also because in theyr lawes customes they had many notable seuere things al the men were seuere in their workes although they would not be knowen by their extreame doinges Homere sayth that the Thebanes had v. customes wherein they were more extreme then any other nacion 1. The first was that the children drawing to v. yeres of age were marked in the forehead with a hoote yron because in what places so euer they came they should be knowen for Thebanes by that marke 2. The second was that they should accustome their children to trauaile alwayes on foote And the occasion why they dyd this was because the Egiptians kept their beastes for their gods and therfore when so euer they trauayled they neuer rydde on horsebacke because they should not seme to sitte vpon their god 3. The third was that none of the citizens of Thebes shold mary with any of straunge nacions but rather they caused them to marrye parentes with parentes because that frendes maryeng with frendes they thoughte the frendshippe and loue should be more sure 4. The fourthe custome was that no Thebane should in any wise make a house for himselfe to dwel in but first he should make his graue wherin he should be buryed Me thinketh that in this point the Thebanes were not to extreme nor excessiue but that they did lyke sage and wise men yea and by the law of veryte I sweare that they were sager then we are For if at the least we dyd imploye our thought but two howers in the weke to make our graue it is vnpossible but that we should correcte euerye daye our life 5. The fift custome was that all the boies which were excedinge faire in their face shoulde be by theym strangled in the cradell and all the girles whiche were extreame foule were by them killed sacrifised to the godds Sayeng that the gods forgotte themselues when they made the men faire and the women foule For the man which is very faire is but an vnparfite woman and the woman which is extreme foule is but a sauage and wilde beast The greatest God of the Thebaines was Isis who was a red bull nourisshed in the riuer of Nile and they had a custome that all those which had red heere immediately should be sacrifyâ—ed The contrarye they did to the beastes for sithe their God was a bul of tawnye couloure none durst be so bold to kyl any beasts of the same coloure In such fourme and maner that it was lawfull to kyll both men and women and not the brute beastes I do not say this was wel done of the Thebaines to sley their children nor yet I do say that it was wel done to sacrifice men women which had red or taunye heere nor I thinke it a thinge reasonable that they should do reuerence to the beastes of that coloure but I wonder why they should so much dispise foule women and faire men sith all the world is peopled bothe with faire and foule Then sith those barbarous lyuyng as they did vnder a false law did put him to death whom the Gods had adorned with any beautie we then which are Christians by reason ought much lesse to esteme
the beautie of the body knowing that most commonly thervpon ensueth the vnclennes of the soule Vnder the christall stone lyeth oftentimes a daungerous worme in the faier wal is nourisshed the venemous Coluber within the middell of the white tothe is ingendered great paine to the gummes in the fynest clothe the motes do most hurt and the most fruitful tree by wormes is sonest perisshed I meane that vnder the cleane bodyes faire countenaunces are hid many and abhominable vyces Truly not only to children which are not wise but to all other which are lyght and fraile beauty is nothing els but the mother of many vyces and the hinderer of all vertues Let princes and great Lords beleue me which thinke to be faire and wel disposed that where there is great aboundaunce of corporal goods and graces there ought to be great bones of vertues to be able to beare them For the moste highe trees by great windes are shaken I say that it is vanytie to be vaine glorious in any thinge of this world be it neuer so parfite and also I saye that it is a greate vanytie to be proude of the corporall beautye For amonge all the acceptable giftes that nature gaue to the mortalles there is nothinge more superfluous in man and lesse necessarie then the beautye of the body For truly whether we be faire or foule we are nothing the better beloued of God neyther thereby the more hated of men O blyndnes of the world O lyfe which neuer lyueth nor shal lyue O death which neuer hath end I know not why man through the accident of this beautye shoulde or durst take vpon him any vaine glory or presumption sith he knoweth that all the fairest and most parfitest of flesh must be sacrificed to the wormes in the graue And knowe also that all the propernes of the members shal be forfeited to the hongry wormes which are in the earth Let the great scorne the lytle asmuch as they will the faire mocke the foule at their pleasure the hole disdaine the sicke the wel made enuy the deformed the white hate the blacke and the Giantes dyspise the dwarfes yet in the end al shall haue an end Truly in myne opinion the trees beare not the more fruit for that they are streight only nor for being high neither for geuing great shadowe nor for being beautifull nor yet for being great By this comparison I meane that though a noble stout man be proper of parson and noble of linage shadowing of fauour comlye in countenaunce in renowne very high and in the common wealth puissaunt that therfore he is not the better in lyfe For truly the common wealthes are not altered by the simple labourers which trauaile in the fieldes but by the vicyous men which take great ease in their liues Vnlesse I be deceiued the swine and other beastes are fed vnder the okes with the acornes and amonge the pricking briers and thornes the swete roses do grow the sharpe beeche giueth vs the sauoury chesnutts I meane that the deformed and litle creatures oft times are most profitable in the common wealth For the lytle and sharpe countenaunces are signes of valiaunt and stout hartes Let vs cease to speake of men which are fleshely being eftsones rotten and gone and let vs talke of sumptuous buildinges which are of stone which if we should go to se what they were we may know the greatnes and the height of them Then we shal not know the maner of their beauty and that which semed to be perpetuall in shorte space we see it ende and loase the renowne in such sort that ther is neuer memory of them after Let vs also leaue the auncient buildinges and come to the buildings now a days and one shal see that there is no man that maketh a house be it neuer so strong nor so faire but liuing a lytle while he shal see the beauty therof decay For ther are a great nombre of auncient men which haue sene both the toppes of famous and stronge buyldings made also the foundacion and ground therof decayed And that this is true it appeareth manyfestly for that if the toppe decay or the walles fall or els if the tymber be weke or the ioyntes open or the windowes waxe rotten or the gates do breake the buildinges forth with do decay What shall we say of goodly haules and galleries well appointed the which within short space by coles or candels of childrē or by torches of pages or smoke of chimneys by cobwebbes of spyders become as dry foule as before they were freshe and faire Then if that be true which I haue said of these things I would now gladly know what hope man cā haue of the cōtinuaunce of his beauty since we se the like destruction of corporal beauty as of stones wood bricke and clay O vnprofitable Princes O children of vanity to folyshe hardy do you not remember that all your healthe it subiecte to sicknes as in the payne of the stomack in the heate of the lyuer in the inflamacion of the feete in the distemperaunce of humors the mocions of the ayre in the coniunctions of the Moone in the Eclipse of the sunne I say do not you knowe that you are subiect to the tedyous sommer and vntollerable winter Of a trouth I cannot tel how you can be among so many in perfections and corruptions so full of vaine glory by your beauty seing and knowinge that a litle feuer doth not only deface and marre the beauty but also maketh and couloureth the face al yelow be it neuer so wel fauoured I haue maruailed at one thing that is to wete that all men are desirous to haue all things about their body cleane their gownes brushed their coates nette the table handsome and the bedde fine and only they suffer their soules to be foule spotted and filthi I durst say and in the faith of a christian affirme that it is a great lacke of wisedome and a superfluitie of folye for a man to haue his house cleane and to suffer his soule to be corrupted I would know what preheminence they haue which are fayre aboue others to whom nature hath denyed beautye Peraduenture the beauteful man hath two soules and the defourmed creature hath but one peraduenture the most fayrest are the most healthful and the most deformed are the most sicklyest Peraduenture the most fayrest are the wysest and the most defourmed the most innocentes peraduenture the fairest are most stoute and the defourmed most cowardes peraduenture the fayre are most fortunate and the foule most vnluckyest peraduenture the fayre only are excepted from vyce and the foule depryued from vertue peraduenture those whych are fayre of ryght haue perpetuall lyfe and those whych are foule are bound to replenyshe the graue I say no certaynlye Then if this be true why do the great mocke the litle the fayre the foule the right the crooked and the whyte the blacke since they know
declareth that he was more valiaunte in feates of warre then comely of personage For though he was lame of one foote bleamished of one eye lackyng one eare and of bodye not muche bygger than a dwarfe yet for all thys he was a iuste manne verye constant stoute mercyfull couragious and aboue all he was a great enemy to the ignoraunt and a specyall frende to the sage Of thys Kynge Cresus Seneca speaketh in hys booke of clemencie and sayeth that the sages were so entierly beloued of hym that the greekes whyche hadde the fountaine of eloquence dyd not call hym a louer but entitled hym the loue of sages For neuer no louer dyd so muche to attayne to the loue of hys ladye as he dyd to drawe to hym and to hys countreye sage menne Thys kynge Cresus therefore beyng lorde of many Barbarous nations the whiche loued better to drinke the bloude of the innocent then to learne the science of the wise lyke an excellent Prince determined for the comfort of his person and remedye of his common wealth to searche out the greaetst sages that were in Grece At that tyme flourished the famous and renowmed philosopher Anacharsis who though he was borne brought vp amonges the Scithies yet he was alwaies resident notwithstāding in Athens For the vniuersitie of Athens dyd not despise those that were Barbarians but those that were vitious The king Cresus sent an embassatour in great auctoritie with riches to the Phylosopher Anacharsis to perswade and desire him and with those giftes and presentes to present him to the end it myght please him to come and see his person and to sette an order in his common wealth Cresus not contented to send him giftes which the imbassatour caried but for to let him vnderstande why he dyd so wrote hym a letter with hys owne hand as hereafter foloweth The letter of kyng Cresus to Ancharsis the Philosopher CResus kyng of Lydes wysheth to the Anacharsis great Philosopher which remainest in Athens health to thy person and encrease of vertue Thou shalte see howe well I loue the in that I neuer saw the nor knew the to write vnto the a letter For the thinges whiche with the eyes haue neuer bene sene seldome times with the hart are truly beloued Thou doest esteme litle as truth is these my small giftes and presentes which I send the yet I praye the greatly esteme the will and hart wherwith I doe visite the. For noble hartes receyue more thankefully that whych a man desireth to gyue them then that which they doe giue them in dede I desire to correcte thys my Realme and to see amendement in the common wealth I desire some good order for my person and to take order touchyng the gouernement of my palace I desire to communicate with a sage som thinges of my lyfe and none of these thinges can be done without thy presence For there was neuer any good thyng made but by the meane of wisdom I am lame I am crooked I am balde I am a counterfeyte I am black and also I am broken finally amongest all other men I am a monster But all these imperfections are nothyng to those that remayne that is to wete I am so infortunate that I haue not a Philosopher with me For in the world ther is no greater shame than not to haue a wyse man about him to be conuersaunt withall I count my selfe to be dead though to the symple fooles I seme to be alyue And the cause of my death is because I haue not with me some wyse person For truly he is only aliue amongest the lyuyng who is accompanied wyth the sages I desire the greatly to come and by the immortall gods I coniure the that thou make no excuse and if thou wilt not at my desire do it for that thou art bound For many men oftentimes condescend to do that whych they would not more for vertues sake then to satisfye the demaunde of any other Thou shalt take that which my embassatour shal giue the and beleue that which he shall tell in my behalfe and by this my letter I do promise the that when thou shalt ariue here I wil make the treasourer of my coffers only coūsailour of mine affaires secretary of my coūsail father of my childrē refourmer of my realm maister of my person gouernour of my cōmō wealth finally Anacharsis shal be Cresus because Cresus may be Anacharsis I saye no more but the gods haue the in their custodie to whome I praye that they may hasten thy commynge The imbassatour departed to goe to Athens bearyng with him this letter and many iewels and bagges of gold and by chaunce Anacharsis was reading in thuniuersity at the arriual of the imbassatoure to Athens Who openly said and dyd his message to Anacharsis presenting vnto hym the giftes and the letter Of whiche thinge all those of the vniuersitie marueiled for the barbarous princes were not accustomed to seke philosophers to gouerne their cōmon wealth but to put them to death and take from them their liues After the great philosopher Anacharsis had hard the embassage sene the giftes and receiued the letter without alteryng his countenaunce or elacion of his person impedimente in his tong or desire of the riches immediately before all the philosophers said these wordes which heare after are writen The letter of the Philosopher Anacharsis to the king Cresus ANacharsis the least of the philosophers wisheth to the Cresus most mightye and puissaunt king of Lides the health whiche thou wisshest hym and the increase of vertue which thou sendest him They haue told vs many thinges here in these parties aswel of thy realme as of thy person and there in those parties they say many thinges as wel of our vniuersity as of my selfe For the harte taketh greate pleasour to knowe the condicions and liues of all those in the world It is wel done to desier and procure to know all the liues of the euill to amend our owne It is wel done to procure and knowe the liues of the good for to follow them but what shall we do since now a dayes the euill doe not desire to knowe the liues of the euil but for to couer them and kepe them secrete and do not desier to know the liues of the good for to followe them I let the know king Cresus that the philophers of Greece felte not so muche payne to be vertuous as they felte in defendyng thē from the vicious For if a man once behold vertue immediatly she suffreth to be taken but the euil for any good that a man can doe vnto them neuer suffereth them selues to be vanquished I beleue well that the tirannye of the Realme is not so great as they talke of here neyther oughtest thou lykewyse to beleue that I am so vertuous as they reporte me to be there For in mine opinion those whiche declare newes of straunge countries are as the poore which were their garmentes al to
be beleued for the saying of the graue authours on the one parte and by that we dayly see on the other parte For in the ende it is more pleasure to heare a man tell mery tales hauing grace and comlines in his wordes then to heare a graue man speake the truthe with a rude and rough tongue I haue founde in many wrytinges what they haue spoken of Pithagoras and his doughter but none telleth her name saue only in a pistle that Phalaris the tyraunt wrate I fouÌ„d this word written where he saith Polichrata that was the doughter of the philosopher Pithagoras was young and exceading wyse more faire then riche and was so much honoured for the puritie of her life and so high estemed for her pleasaunt tongue that the worde which she spake spinning vpon her distaffe was more estemed then the philosophy that her father red in the schole And he sayd more It is so great a pitie to see and heare that women at this present are in their life so dishonest in their tongues so malicious that I haue greater pleasure in the good renowme of one that is dead then in the infamie of all them which are aliue For a good woman is more worth with her distaffe spinning then a hundred euel queenes with their roiall scepters reigning By the wordes which Phalaris saied in his letter it seamed that this doughter of Pithagoras was called Polichrate Pithagoras therefore made many commentaries as wel of his owne countrey as of straungers In the end he died in Mesopotamia where at the houre of his death he spake vnto his doughter Polichrate saied these wordes I see my doughter that the houre wherein I must ende my life approcheth The Gods gaue it me and nowe they wil take it from me nature gaue me birth now she geueth me death the earth gaue me the body and now it retourneth to ashes The woful fatall destinies gaue me a litle goodes mingled with manie trauailes so that doughter of all thinges which I enioyed in this world I cary none with me for hauing all as I had it by the waye of borowyng nowe at my death eche man taketh his owne I die ioyfully not for that I leaue thee riche but for that I leaue thee learned And in token of my tender harte I bequethe vnto the al my bookes wherin thou shalt finde the treasure of my trauailes And I tel thee that that I geue thee is the riches gotten with mine owne sweat and not obtained to the preiudice of an other For the loue I beare vnto thee doughter I pray thee and by the immortall gods I coniure thee that thou be such so good that althoughe I die yet at the least thou mayst kepe my memory for thou knowest wel what Hoâ—ere saieth speaking of Achilles and Pirrus that the good life of the childe that is aliue keapeth the renowme of the father that is dead These were the wordes which this philosopher spake vnto his doughter lieng in his death bed And though perhaps he spake not these wordes yet at the least this was the meaning As the great poet Mantuan saieth king Euander was father of the giant Pallas and he was a great frende of king Eneas he vaunted him selfe to discend of the linage of the Troyans and therfore when king Eneas prince Turnus had great warres betwene them which of them should haue the princesse Lauinia in mariage the which at that time was only heire of Italy king Euander ayded Eneas not only with goodes but also sending him his owne sonne in persone For the frendes ought for their true frendes willingly to shed their bloud in their behalfe without demauÌ„ding thei ought also to spend their goods This king Euander had a wyfe so well learned that that which the Grekes saied of her semeth to be fables That is to say of her eloquence wisdome for they say that if that which this woman wrote of the warres of Troye had not bene through enuy cast into the fire the name of Homere had at this day remained obscure The reason hereof is because the woman was in the time of the destruction of Troy and wrate as a witnes of sight These wordes passed betwene the Romaine Calphurnius and the poet Cornificius I desire to declare the excellency of those fewe auncient women as wel Grekes as Latines Romaines to thintent that princesses and great ladies may knowe that the auncient women were more esteamed for their sciences then for their beauties Therefore the princesses and great Ladies ought to thinke that if they be women they were also in lyke maner and if they be frayle the others were also weake If they be maried the other also had husbandes if they haue their wylles the other had also what they wanted if they be tender the others were not strong Finally they ought not to excuse them selues saying that for to learne women are vnmete For a woman hath more abilitie to learne sciences in the scholes then the Parate hath to speake wordes in the cage In my opinion princesses great ladies ought not to esteame theÌ„selues more then an other for that they haue fairer heares then other or for that they are better appareled then an other or that they haue more ryches then an other But they ought therfore to esteame them selues not for that they can doe more then others To say the truth the faire and yelow heares the riche and braue apparel the great treasures the sumptuous palaces and strong buildinges these and other like pleasures are not guides and leaders to vertues but rather spies scout watches for vices O what a noble thinge were it that the noble ladies would esteme them selues not for that they can doe but for that that they knowe For it is more commendation to knowe howe to teache twoo philosophers then to haue authoritie to commaunde a hundred knightes It is a shame to write it but it is more pitie to see it that is to wete to read that we read of the wisdome and worthines of the auncient matrones paste and to see as we doe see the frailenes of these younge ladies present For they coueted to haue disciples both learned and experimented and these of this present desire nothing but to haue seruauntes not only ignoraunt but deceitful and wicked And I do not marueile seing that which I se that at this present in court she is of litle value lest estemed among ladies which hath fairest seruauntes is lest enterteined of gentlemen What shall I say more in this matter but that they in times past striue who should write better compile the best bookes and these at this presente doe not striue but who shal haue the richest and most sumptuous apparel For the ladies thinke it a iolier matter to weare a gown of a new fachion then the auncientes did to read a lesson of philosophie The auncient ladies striue whiche of them was
and the other a latine The king Seuleucus here with not contented prouided secreatly by the meane of a seruaunt of his named Parthemius that he shold haue no other office in the pallace but that what the maysters taught or did to his sonne Antigonus in the day he should secreatly come and tel him in the night But by the dilligence of Parthemius it came to the knowledge of the tutors that they had ouerseers for in the end ther is nothing accustomably but at the last wil be reueiled Since the ii philosophers knew the secret one day they sayd vnto the king Seuleucus these wordes Mightye prince Seuleucus since thou hast of trust committed thy son Antigonus into our haÌ„des why doest thou appoint thy seruauÌ„t Parthemius as accuser of our liues if thou countest vs euil and him good thou shalt showe vs great fauoure if thou wilt discharge vs commit to hym the tuition of thy son For we let the to know that to men of honor it is an vntollerable euil to shame theÌ„ and no dishonor to licence them Thou hast appointed Parthemius to goe and dog vs to see what we do or say openly and afterwardes to make relation vnto the secreatly the worst is that by the relation of the symple we should be condemned beyng sages for triacle is not so contrary to poison as ignorauÌ„ce is to wisedom And truly most noble prince it is a great matter that dayly inquisition be made of man for there is no beard so bare shauen but that it wil grow againe I meane that there is no man of so honest a lyfe but iâ— a man make inquisition he may finde wherwithall to detect The king Seuleucus aunswered them Consyder my frendes that I do know right well that neither the aucthoritie of the parson nor the good creadite of renowme wold be steyned for any other frend in this world if the rude men do it not much lesse ought the Sages to do it For ther is nothing that men trauaile for somuch in this life as to leaue of theÌ„ good renowme after their death Since you are sages and maisters of my sonne and likewyse counsailers of my house it is not mete you shold with any be offended for by good reason he alone ought to be estemed in the pallaces of princes that wil geue vnto the prince good couÌ„cell That which I haue sayed to Parthemius was not for the doubt of your faith neither to thinke any daunger in your aucthority And if the thing be wel considered it goeth well for you and not euil for me and the reason herof is that either you are good or els you are euil If you be good you ought to be glad that daily your seruices be reported vnto me For the continuall betyng in the princes eares of the good seruices of his seruauntes must nedes cause at the last their seruices to be well rewarded Yf you be euill and in teaching my sonne negligent it is but reason that I be aduertised For if the father be deceiued in his opinioÌ„ the son shall receiue poison in his doctrine and also bycause you shal not vndoe my realme nor slaunder me by your euil counsel If the fatal destenies permit that my son be euill I am he that loseth most therby â–ª for my realme shal be distroyed and my renowme vtterly abolished in the end my sonne shall not enioye the heritage And if all passe so you will care litel for you wil saye you are not in the faulte since the childe would not receiue your doctrine Wherefore me thinke it not euill done to ouer see you as you ouer see hym for my dutye is to see that you be good and your dutye is to trauaile that your disciples be not euill This kynge Seuleucus was an honorable man and dyed aged as Plutarke sayth and Patroclus more plainely declareth in the third boke of the warre of the Assirians and for the contrarye hys sonne Antigonus came to be a wycked Prince in all his doynges And this a man may wel perceiue that if he had not bene of his father so muche corrected and of the maisters so well instructed without doubte he wold haue proued much more wicked then he was For yong men on the on part beyng euill inclined and on the other parte euill taught it is vnpossible but that in the ende they should be vitious and defamed In my opininion though children be not euill inclined yet the fathers therof ought not to cease to correcte them for in tyme to come those that write will commende the diligence of the fathers in correcting the vices of the children I haue declared this example to councell that the father be not so necgligent that he shoulde vtterly forget to loke vnto his sonne thinking that now the maister hath the charge of him And of my concell that father ought in this thing to be so aduerâ—ised that if at the first he beheld the child with two eies that theÌ„ he shuld loke vnto him with .iiii. eies For oftetimes it is more requisite that the maysters be punished then the scollers Though princes are not daily informed of the life of the maisters as king Seuleucus was yet at the least oftetymes they ought to enquire of the state of the life of the behauiour both of the maisters and also of the children And this thing they ought not to do only once but also they ought to cal the maisters and councel them lykwise that they haue great respect to the doctrine of their children thinking alwayes to geue them good counsel to shew vnto their scollers afterwardes For otherwyse the mayster immediatly is discouraged when he seeth the father to be necgligent and nothing careful for the bringing vp of his children Princes in one thing ought to haue great respect that is to wete lest the maisters beare with the secreat vyces of children And he ought not to doe thus but also to call them vnto hym to aduyse them to warne them to praye them to counsell and commaunde them that they haue great respect to the bringyng vp of his childreÌ„ and further that he geue them some notable councell to thentente that the maisters afterwarde maye make relation therof to their scollers For there is no manne so weake nor childe so tender but the force whyche he hath to be vitious is ynough if he wil to be vertuous â–ª I would nowe demaunde the maisters and tutour which do gouerne the children of noble and vertuous men what more strength is required to be a glutton then to be a sober man to be a babler or to be silent to be dylygente or to be necgligent to be honest then to be dissolute and as of those few I speake so I coulde resite manye others In this case I wyll not speake as a man of science but as one of experience and that is that by the faith of a christian I swere that with lesse trauaill of the maister
shall esteme it more that when I doe geue you my sonne to teache I geue you more then if I gaue you all the ryches of the Realme For in him that hath the reformacion of the childes life dependeth the fame of the Father after he is deade So that the Father hathe no greater renowme then to see hys chylde leade an honeste lyfe I praye the Gods that they maye be so mercyful and the fatall destinies so fortunate that if tyll thys time you haue watched to teache the children of others that from hence forwarde you watche to teache thys my sonne Comodus whyche I truste shal be to the comforte of all For the thynge that is vniuersally good to all oughte to be preferred before that whyche tendeth but to the commoditie of some You see my frendes that there is a greate difference to teache the chyldren of Prynces and to teache the children of the people the cause hereof is that the greatest parte of those come to the scooles and vniuersities to learne to speake but I doe not geue you my sonne Comodus to the ende you should teache hym to speake many wordes but that you should learne him to do good workes For all the glorye of the Prynces is that in the workes whyche he doth he be vprighte and in the woordes that he speaketh he be very discrete After that the children haue spente manye yeares in scooles after their Fathers haue spente muche money vppon them yf perchaunce the chylde can dispute in Greeke or Latin anye thyng at all thoughe he be lyghte and vitious the Father thynketh hys goodes well imployed For in Rome nowe a dayes they esteme an Oratour more whyche can doe nought but bable then a philosopher whyche is vertuous O wofull men that now lyue in Rome and muche more wofull shall those be whyche hereafter shall succede For Rome is no more that Rome whyche it was wont to be that is to wete that the fathers in olde tyme sente their children to scooles and studies to learne them to be silent and nowe they sende them to learne to speake to muche They learned them then to be sage and temperate and nowe they learne them to be dissolute And the worste of all is that the scooles where the sage and pacient were wont to be and from whence issued the good and vertuous workes are nowe full of bablynge Oratours and none issue oute from thence at this present but the euill and vitious So that if the sacred Romain lawes are exalted once in a weeke with their tongues they are broken tenne tymes in the daye in their workes What will you I say more since I can not tel you any thing without hurting my mother Rome but that at this present al the pleasures of vain men is to see their children ouercome others by disputing but I let you vnderstand that all my glory shal be when my son shal surmount others not in wordes but in silence not to be troublesome but to be pacient not in speakyng subtill wordes but in doing vertuous workes For the glorie of good menne is in workyng muche and speakyng littell Consider my frendes and do not forget get it that this daye I committe my honour vnto you I put into your handes the estate of Comodus my sonne the glory of Rome the rest of the people which are my subiectes the gouernement of Italye which is your countrey and aboue all I referre vnto your discretions the peace and tranquillitie of the hole common wealth Therefore he that hath suche a charge by reason ought not to slepe For as the wise men say to great trust is required much diligence I will saye no more but that I would my sonne Comodus shoulde be so well taught that he should haue the feare of god and the science of philosophers the vertues of the auncient Romaynes the approued councell of the aged the corage of the Romaine youth and the constancy of you whiche are his masters Fynally I would that of al the good he shold take the good as of me he ought to take the heritage and succession of the Empyre For he is the true prince and worthy of the empyre that with his eyes doth beholde the great signories he ought to enherite and dothe employe his harte howe to gouerne it wherby he shal lyue to the great profit of the common wealth And I proteste to the immortall gods with whom I hope to goe and to the goodnes of my predecessours whose faith I am bound to kepe I proteste to the Romaine lawes the whyche I dyd sweare to obserue in the conquest of Asia wherein I bound my selfe to continue and to the frendeshyppe of the Rhodiens the whiche I haue offered my selfe to kepe to the ennemitye of the Affricans the whyche not for me but for the oth of my predecessours I haue bounde my selfe to mainteine And I proteste vnto the vessell of the hyghe Capitall where my bones ought to be burnt that Rome do not complaine of me beyng alyue nor that in the worlde to come she curse me after my death If perchaunce the prince Comodus my sonne by his wicked lyfe should be occasion of the losse of hinderaunce to the common wealth And thoughe you whych are his masters vndoe it for not geuyng hym dew punishement and he thoroughe hys wicked gouernement destroye it yet I discharge my selfe by all these protestations that I haue made whyche shal be witnesses of my will For the father is bound no more towardes his child but to banyshe hym from his pleasures and to geue him vertuous masters And if he be good he shal be be the glory of the father the honor of him selfe the wealth of you and the profite and comoditie of the hole common wealth That tutours of Princes and noble mens children ought to be very circumspect that their scollers doe not accustome them selues in vices whilles they are yonge and speciallye they must kepe them from foure vices Chap. xxxix THe good and experte Surgeons vnto greate and daungerous woundes do not onelye applye medycynes and oyntementes whyche doe resolue stop but also do minister other good playsters for to restraine and heale them And verelye they shewe them selues in the one no lesse sage then in the other experte for as greate dylygence ought to be had to preserue the weake fliesh and to purge the rotten wounde to the end it maye be healed so lykewise the wyse trauailers learne diligentely the waye before they take vppon them any iourney that is to wete yf there be any daungers in the waye eyther of robbynge or sleyinge wherein there is anye by pathe that goeth oute of the hyghe waye Truly he that in this point is circumspecte is woorthy to be counted a sage man For accordyng to the multitude of the perylles of the world none can be assured vnlesse he know first where the daunger is wherin he may fal To shew therfore that which by these parables I meane
not geeuen thee nor neuer will geeue thee For the goddes are so iuste in deuydynge theire giftes that to them to whom theye geue contentacion theye take from them ryches and to those whom theye geeue riches they take their contentacion Plutarche in the fyrste of hys pollytike puttethe this example and he declareth not the name of thys phylosopher O howe greate a benefyte is that whiche the goddes geeue to prynces and greate lordes in geeuinge them theire healthe in geeuynge them ryches and in geuinge them honour but if besides those hee geueth them not contentacion I saye that in geeuynge them the goodes hee geuethe them trauaile and daunger For if the trauaile of the poore bee greater thenne the trauayle of the riche wytheoute comparison the discontentacion of the ryche is greater then the discontentacion of the poore Menne lytle regardynge theire healthe beecome sicke lytle esteeminge theire riches beecome poore and beecause theye knowe not what honoure is theye become dishonoured I meane that the rashe prynces vntill suche time as theye haue benne well beaten in the warres will alwayes lytle regarde peace The daye that yowe prynces proclayme warres agaynste youre enemies you set at lybertye all vyces to your subiectes Yet yowe saye youre meanynge is not theye shoulde bee euyll I saye it is true Yet all thys ioyned togethers ye geeue them occasion that theye bee not good Let vs knowe what thynge warre is and then we shall see whyther it bee good or euill to followe it In warres theye doe noughte els but kyll menne robbe the temples spoyle the people destroye the innocentes geeue lybertie to theeues seperate friendes and rayse stryfe all the whiche thynges cannot bee done wytheoute greate hurte of iustyce and scrupulosytie of conscyence The sedycious manne hym selfe canne not denaye vs that if twoe Prynces take vppon them warres beetweene them and that bothe of them seeme to haue ryghte yet the one of them onelye hathe reason So that the prynce whyche shall fyghte agaynste iustice or defende the vniuste cause shall not escape oute of that warre iustifyed Not issuynge oute iustifyed hee shall remayne condempned and the condemnation shall be that all the losses murders burnynges hangynges and robberies whiche were done in the one or other common wealthe shall remayne vppon the account of hym whyche tooke vppon hym the vniuste warre Allthoughe hee dothe not fynde an other prynce that will demaunde an accoumpte of hym heare in thys lyfe yet hee shall haue a iuste iudge that will in another place laye it to hys charge The prince whiche is vertuous and presumethe to be a christian beefore hee beeginne the warre oughte to considre what losse or profyte will ensue thereof Wherein if the ende bee not prosperous hee loseth his goodes and honoure and if hee perchaunce attaine to that he desyred peraduenture his desire was to the domage of the common wealthe and then hee oughte not to desire it For the desire of one should not hurte the profite of all When GOD oure lorde dyd create prynces for prynces and people accepted them for their lordes it is to beleue that the goddes neuer commaunded suche things nor the men would euer haue excepted such if they had thought the princes would not haue done that they were boūd but rather that whereunto they were enclined For if men follow that whereunto theire sensualitie enclinethe them they do alwaies erre Therefore if they suffer them selues to bee gouerned by reason they are always sure And besides that princes should not take vppon them warres for the burdening of theire conscience the mispendinge of their goodes and the losse of their honour they ought also to remember the dutie that they owe to the common wealth the which they are bounde to kepe in peace and iustice For we others nede not gouernours to search vs enemies but princes which may defend vs from the wicked The diuine Plato in his .4 booke de legibus sayeth that one demaunded him why he did exalt the Lidians so much and so muche dispraise the Lacedemonians Plato aunswered If I cōmend the Lidians it is for that they neuer were occupied but in tilling the field and if I do reproue here the Lacedemonians it is because theye neuer knewe nothinge els but to conquere realmes And therefore I saye that more happie is that realme where men haue their handes with labouring full of blysters then where theire armes in fightinge are wounded withe sweordes These wordes whiche Plato spake are verye true and woulde to god that in the gates and hartes of princes they were written Plinius in an epistle sayethe that it was a prouerbe muche vsed amongest the Grekes that he was kyng whiche neuer sawe kynge The lyke maye we saye that he onelye maye enioye peace whiche neuer knewe what warre meant For simple innocent though a man be there is none but will iudge him more happye whiche occupyeth his handekerchiefe to drye the sweate of his browes then he that breakethe it to wipe the bloude of his heade The princes and greate lordes which are louers of warre ought to consider that they do not onelye hurte in generall all men but also specially the good and the reason is that allthoughe they of their own willes do abstaine from battaile doe not spoile do not rebell nor sleye yet it is necessarie for them to endure the iniuries and to suffer theire owne losse and damages For none are meete for the warre but those whiche litle esteeme theire life and muche lesse theire consciences If the warre weare onely with the euill againste the euill and to the hurte and hinderaunce of the euill litle shoulde theye fele whiche presume to be good But I am sory the good are persecuted the good are robbed and the good are slaine For if it were otherwyse as I haue sayde the euill againste the euill we would take litle thought both for the vanquishinge of the one and muche lesse for the destruccion of the other I aske nowe what fame what honoure what glorye what victorie or what riches in that warre can be wonne wherein so manye good vertuous wyse men are loste There is suche penurye of the good in the worlde and such nede of them in the common wealthe that if it weare in oure power wee wythe oure teares oughte to plucke them oute of theire graues and geeue them lyfe and not to leade them into the warres as to a shambles to be put toe deathe Plinie in one epistle and Seneca in an other saye that when theye desyred a Romayne captain that with his army he should enter into a greate daunger whereof greate honoure shoulde ensue vnto hym and lytle profyte to the cōmon wealthe He aunswered For nothynge woulde I enter into that daunger if it were not to geue life to a romayn citizē For I desire rather to go enuironed with the good in Rome then to go loden with treasures into my coūtreye Comparinge prince to prince and lawe
moue mee to speake and the faythe whyche I owe vnto you dothe not suffer mee that I shoulde keepe it close For manye thinges oughte to be borne amonge friendes thoughe theye tell them in earnest whiche ought not to be suffered of others thoughe theye speake it in gest I come therefore to shewe the matter and I beseche the immortall goddes that there bee noe more then that whiche was tolde mee and that it bee lesse then I suspecte Gaius Furius youre kinsman and my especiall friende as hee went to the realme of Palestyne and Hierusalem came to see mee in Antioche and hathe tolde mee newes of Italy and Rome and among others one aboue al the residewe I haue committed to memorye at the whiche I coolde not refraine laughinge and lesse to bee troubled after I hadde thought of it O how manye thinges doe wee talke in gest the whiche after wee haue well considered geeue occasion to be sorye The emperoure Adrian mye good lorde had a Iester whose name was Belphus yonge comelye and stoute allbeeit hee was verye malicious as suche are accustomed to bee and whiles the imbassadours of Germaine supped with the Emperour in greate ioye the same Belphus beeganne to iest of euery one that was present according to his accustomed manner with a certeine malicious grace And Adrian perceiuing that some chaunged colour others murmured and others weare angrye hee saide vnto thys Iester frinde Belphus if thou loue mee and mye seruice vse not these spytefull iestes at our supper which being considered on may turne vs to euil rest in our beddes Gaius Furius hath tolde me so many slaunders chaunced in Italy such nouelties done in Rome such alteracion of our Senate such contentiō strife betwene our neighbours suche lightnes of yow twoo that I was astonied to here it ashamed to writ it And it is nothing to tell after what sort he told thē vnto me onlesse you had sene how earnestly he spake them imagining that as he told thē without taking anye paine so did I receiue them as he thought with out any griefe though in deede euerye woorde that he spake seemed a sharpe percinge arrowe vnto my hart For oft times some telleth vs thynges as of small importaunce the whiche do pricke our hartes to the quicke By the oppynion of all I vnderstande that you are verye olde and yet in your owne fantasies you seame verye yonge And further theye saye that you apparell youre selues a newe nowe as thoughe presentlye you came into the worlde moreouer they saye that you are offended with nothinge so muche as when theye call you olde that in theaters where comedies are played and in the fieldes where the brute beastes do runne you are not the hindmost and that there is no sport nor lightnes inuented in Rome but first is registred in youre house And finally they say that you geue your selues so to pleasures as thoughe you neuer thought to receiue displeasures O Claude and Claudine by the god Iupiter I sweare vnto you that I am a shamed of your vnshamefastnes am greatly abashed of your maners and aboue all I am excedingly greeued for your great offence For at that time that you ought to lift vp your handes yow are returned againe into the filth of the world Many thinges men commyt which though they seme graue yet by moderacion of the person that committeth them they are made light but speaking according to the trouthe I fynde one reason wherebye I mighte excuse youre lightnes but to the contrarye I see tenne wherebye I maye condempne youre follyes Solon the phylosopher in hys lawes sayde to the Athenians that if the yonge offended hee shoulde bee gentlye admonished and grieuouslye punished beecause hee was strong and if the olde dydde erre he shoulde be lightlye punished and sharpelye admonished sithe he was weake and feble To this Licurgus in his lawes to the Lacedemonians sayde contrarye that if the yonge did offende hee shoulde bee lightly punished and greuously admonished sins through ignoraunce he dyd erre and the olde manne whiche did euill shoulde be lightly admonished and sharpely punished sins through malice he did offend These two phylosophers being as theye haue bene of suche authoritie in the worlde that is paste and consideringe that their lawes and sentences were of suche weighte it shoulde be muche rashenesse in not admittinge the one of them Nowe not receyuyng the one nor reprouynge the other mee thynketh that there is greate excuse to the yonge for theire ignoraunce and greate condempnacion o the aged for theire experience Once agayne I retourne to saye that you pardone me mye friendes and you oughte not greatlye to weye it thoughe I am somewhat sharpe in condempnation since you others are so dissolute in youre liues for of youre blacke lyfe mye penne dothe take ynke I remember well that I haue harde of thee Claude that thou haste bene lusty and couragious in thye youthe so that thye strengthe of all was enuyed and the beauty of Claudine of all men was desired I will not write vnto you in this letter mye frindes and neigheboures neither reduce to memorye howe thou Claude haste imployed thy forces in the seruice of the common wealth and thou Claudine hast wōne muche honoure of thy beautye for sundrye tymes it chaunced that men of manye goodlye gyftes are noted of greuous offences Those whiche striued with thee are all dead those whom thow desiredst are dead those which serued thee Claudine are deade those whiche before thee Claudine sighed are deade those which for thee died are nowe dead and sins all those are dead withe they re lightnesse do not you others thinke to dye your follyes allso I demaunde nowe of thy youthe one thinge and of thy beauty another thinge what do you receiue of these pastimes of these good interteinmentes of these abundances of these great contentacions of the pleasures of the worlde of the vanytye that is paste and what hope you of all these to carye into the narrowe graue O simple simple and ignoraunt persones howe oure life consumeth and we perceiue not howe we liue therein For it is no felicitie to enioy a short or long life but to knowe to employe the same well or euill O children of the earthe and disciples of vanytie nowe you knowe that tyme flyethe without mouing his wynges the life goeth without liftinge vppe hys feete the worlde dispatcheth vs not tellinge vs the cause men beegile vs not mouinge theire lippes our flesh consumeth to vs vnwares the heart dieth hauing no remedy finally our glory decayeth as if it had neuer bene and death oppresseth vs wythoute knockinge at the doore Thoughe a man be neuer so simple or so very a foole yet he can not denaye but it is impossible to make a fier in the botome of the sea to make a waye in the ayre of the thinne bloude to make roughe sinewes and of the softe vaines to make harde bones I
if thou be euill lyfe shal bee euyl imployd on thee and if thou bee good thou oughtest to die imediatly and because I am woors thē all I liue lōger then all These woordes which Adrian my lord sayed doe plainely declare and expresse that in short space the pale and cruel death doth assaulte the good and lēgthneth life a great while to the euil The opinion of a philosopher was that the gods are so profound in their secrets high in their misteryes and so iust in their woorks that to men which least profit the common wealth they lengthen lyfe longest and though he had not sayd it we others see it by experience For the man which is good and that beareth great zeale and frendship to the common wealth either the gods take him from vs or the enemies do sley him or the daungers doe cast him away or the the trauailes do finish him When great Pompeius Iulius Cesar became enemyes from that enmite came to cruel warres the cronicles of that time declare that the kings and people of the occidental part became in the fauour of Iulius Cesar and the mightiest most puisaunte of al the oriental parts came in the ayd of great Pompeius beecause these two Princes were loued of few and serued and feared of al. Amongst the diuersity and sundry nations of people which came out of the oriental part into the host of the great Pompeius one nation came maruelous cruel barbarous which sayd they dwelled in the other side of the mountayns Riphees which go vnto India And these barbarous had a custome not to liue no longer then fifty years therfore when thei came to that age they made a greater fier and were burned therin aliue and of their owne willes they sacrificed them selues to the gods Let no man bee astoined at that wee haue spoken but rather let them maruel of that wee wyl speak that is to say that the same day that any man had accomplished fifty years immediatly hee cast him self quick in to the fier and the parents children and his freends made a great feast And the feast was that they did eat the fleash of the dead half burned and drank in wyne and water the asshes of his bones so that the stomak of the children beeing aliue was the graue of the fathers beeing dead All this that I haue spoken with my toung Pompeius hath seen with his eies for that some beeing in the camp did accomplish fifty years bycause the case was straunge hee declared it oft times in the Senate Let euery man iudge in this case what hee will and condemne the barbarous at his pleasure yet I wyll not cease too say what I think O golden world which had such men O blessed people of whom in the world to come shal bee a perpetuall memory What contēpt of world what forgetfulnes of him self what stroke of fortune what whip for the flesh what litell regard of lyfe O what bridell for the veruous O what confusion for those that loue lyfe O how great example haue they left vs not to feare death Sithens those heeare haue wyllingly dispised their own liues it is not to bee thought that they died to take the goods of others neither to think that our life shoold neuer haue end nor our couetousnes in like maner O glorious people and .10 thousand sold happy that the proper sensuallyty beeing forsaken hath ouercome the natural appetyte to desire to liue not beeleeuing in that they saw and that hauing faith in that they neuer saw they striued with the fatall destines By the way they assalted fortune they chaunged life for death they offred the body to death and aboue al haue woon honor with the gods not for that they should hasten death but because they should take away that which is superfluus of life Archagent a surgiō of Rome and Anthonius Musus a phisition of the Emperor Augustus and Esculapius father of the phisick shoold get litel mony in that country Hee that thē shoold haue sēt to the barbarous to haue doone as the Romaynes at that tyme did that is to wete to take siroppes in the mornings pylls at night to drynk mylk in the morning to noynt them selues with gromelsede to bee let bloud to day and purged to morrow to eat of one thing and to abstein from many a man ought to think that hee which willingly seeketh death wil not geue mony to lengthen lyfe ¶ The Emperor concludeth his letter and sheweth what perilles those old men lyue in which dissolutely like yong children passe their days and geeueth vnto them holsome counsell for the remedy therof Cap. xxii BVt returning now to thee Claude to thee Claudine mee thinketh that these barbarous beeing fifty years of age and you others hauing aboue thre score and 10. it should bee iust that sithens you were elder in years you were equal in vertue and though as they you wyl not accept death paciently yet at the least you ought to amend your euel liues willingly I do remember that it is many years sithens that Fabritius the yong sonne of Fabritius the old had ordeyned to haue deceiued mee of the which if you had not told mee great inconueniences had hapned and sithens that you did mee so great a benefit I woold now requite you the same with an other like For amongst frends there is no equal benifit then to deceyue the deceyuer I let you know if you doo not know it that you are poore aged folks your eyes are soonk into your heads the nostrels are shutt the hears are white the hearing is lost the tonge faltreth the teeth fall the face is wrincled the feete swoln the stomak cold Finally I say that if the graue could speak as vnto his subiects by iustice hee myght commaund you to inhabit his house It is great pity of the yong men and of their youthfull ignorante for then vnto such their eyes are not opened to know the mishaps of this miserable life when cruell death doth end their dayes and adiorneth thē to the graue Plato in his book of the common wealth sayd that in vaine wee geeue good counsels to fond light yongmen For youth is without experiēce of that it knoweth suspicious of that it heareth incredible of that is told him despising the counsayl of an other and very poore of his own Forsomuch as this is true that I tell you Claude and Claudine that without comparison the ignorance which the yong haue of the good is not so much but the obstinacion which the old hath in the euel is more For the mortal gods many times do dissemble with a .1000 offeces committed by ignorance but they neuer forgeeue the offence perpetrated by malice O Claude and Claudine I doo not meruel that you doo forget the gods as you doo which created you and your fathers which beegot you and your parēts which haue loued you and your frends which haue
vnderstandyng And if in this case I may bee beeleeued they ought to bee well noted of wyse men not written beefore the gates but imprinted within the harts Better knew hee fortune then thow since hee tooke him self for one disherited and not as heire and when hee lost any thing as thow hee knew that hee receiued it by loan and not that it was his own Men in this lyfe are not so much deceiued for any thing as to thynk that the temperall goods shoold remayn with them duryng lyfe Now that god dooth suffer it now that our wofull fortune dooth deserue it I see no greater myshaps fall vnto any then vnto them which haue the greatest estates and ryches so that truly wee may boldly say that hee alone which is shut in the graue is in safegard from the vnconstancy of fortune Thy messenger hath told mee further that this sommer thow preparedst thy self to Rome now that it is winter thou wylt sayl to Alexandria O thou vnhappy Mercury tell mee I pray thee how long it is sythens thow lost thy sensis forasmuch as when this lyfe dooth end thy auaryce beeginneth a new Thou foundest two cyties very meete for thy traffyck that is to weete Rome which is the scourge of all vertues and Alexandria which is the chiefest of all vyces And if thow louest greatly these two cyties here I pray thee what marchaundise are solde therein In Rome thow shalt lode thy body with vyces and in Alexandria thow shalt swell thy hart with cares By the fayth of a good man I sweare vnto thee that if perchance thou buyest any thing of that that is there or sellest ought of that thou bringest from thence thou shalt haue greater hunger of that thou shalt leaue then contentacion of that thou shalt bryng Thou doost not remember that wee are in winter and that thou must passe the sea in the which if the Pyrats doo not deceiue mee the surest tranquyllyty is a signe of the greatest torment Thow myghtst tel mee that thy ships should retourn without frayt and therefore they shal sayle more surely To this I aunswere thee that thou shalt send them more loden with couetousnesse then they shall returne loden with silks O what a good chaunge shoold it bee if the auarice of Italy coold bee chaunged for the silk of Alexandry I sweare vnto thee that in such case thy sylk woold frayght a shyp and our couetyse woold lode a whole nauy That couetousnes is great which the shame of the world dooth not oppresse neither the feare of death dooth cause to cease And this I say for thee that sythens in this daungerous time thou durst sayle eyther wisedome wanteth or els auaryce and couetousnes surmounteth To satisfy mee and to excuse thee with those which speak to mee of thee I can not tell what to say vnto them but that GOD hath forgotten thee and the seas doo know thee I pray thee what goest thow to seeke synce thow leauest the gouernaunce of thy howse and saylest in Alexandrie Peraduenture thow goest to the goulph Arpyn where the maryners cast in thy lead Take heede Mercury and consyder well what thow doost for peraduenture where as thow thinkest to take from the fysh the hard lead thow mayst leaue vnto them thy soft flesh I haue knowen many in Rome which for to recouer one part of that that they haue lost haue lost all that which was left vnto them O my frend Mercury note note note well this last woord whereby thou shalt know what it is that you couetous men gape for in this life Thou seekest care for thy selfe enuy for the neighbours spurs for straungers a bayt for theeues troubles for thy body damnacion for thy renowm vnquietnes for thy life annoyance for thy frends and occasion for thy ennemies Finally thou searchest maledictions for thy heires and long sutes for thy children I can not wryte any more vnto thee beecause the feuer dooth so behemently vexe mee I pray thee pray to the gods of Samia for mee for medecines littel profiteth if the gods bee angry with vs. My wife Faustine saluteth thee and shee sayeth that shee is sory for thy losse shee sendeth thee a rich iewell for Fabilla thy doughter and I send thee a cōmission to th end they shall geeue thee a ship in recompence of thy lead If thou saylest with it come not by Rhodes for wee haue taken it from their pirats The gods bee in thy custody geeue mee and Faustine a good life with ours a good name amōg straungers I doo not write vnto thee with mine own hand for that my sicknes dooth not permit it ¶ That Princes and noble men ought to consider the mysery of mans nature and that brute beasts are in some poynts reason set a part to be preferred vnto mā Cap. xxxij MYdas the auncient kyng of Phrigia was in his gouernment a cruell tyrant and contented not him self to play the tiraunt in his own proper countrey but also mainteined rouers on the sea and theeues in the lād to robbe straūgers This king Mydas was wel knowen in the realms of orient and in such sort that a frend of his of Thebes sayd vnto him these woords I let thee to weete king Mydas that all those of thy own realm doo hate thee and al the other realms of Asia doo feare thee and this not for that thou canst doo much but for the crafts and subtilties which thou vsest By reason where of all straungers and all thine own haue made a vow to god neuer to laugh during the time of thy life nor yet to weepe after thy death Plutarche in the book of pollitiques sayth that when this king Mydas was born the ants brought corn into his cradel and into his mouth and when the nurse woold haue taken it from him he shut his mouth and woold not suffer any parson to take it from him They beeing all amazed with this straunge sight demaūded the oracle what this beetokened Who aunswered that the chyld should bee marueilous rych and with that exceeding couetous which the ants dyd beetoken in fylling his mouth with corne And afterwards hee woold not geeue them one onely grayn and euen so it chaunced that kyng Mydas was exceedyng rych and allso very couetous for hee woold neuer geeue any thyng but that which by force was taken from him or by subtelty robbed In the schools of Athens at that tyme florished a philosopher called Sylenus who in letters and purenes of lyfe was highly renowmed And as kyng Mydas was knowen of many to haue great treasures so this phylosopher Silenus was no lesse noted for despysyng them This phylosopher Silenus trauaylyng by the borders of Phrigia was taken by the theeues whych robbed the countrey and beeing brought beefore kyng Mydas the kyng sayd vnto hym Thow art a phylosopher and I am a kyng thou art my prisoner and I am thy lord I wyll that immedyatly thow tell mee what raunsome
that is hurtful for them For wee see this that the sheepe flyeth the wolf the catt flyeth the dog the ratt flyeth the catt and the chicken the kyte so that the beasts in opening the eyes doo immediatly know the frends whō they ought to folow and the enemies whom they ought to fly To the miserable man was vtterly denyed this so great priuilege For in the world there hath been many beastly men who hath not onely attained that which they ought to know whiles they lyued but also euen as like beasts they passed their daies in this life so they were infamed at the tyme of their death O miserable creatures that wee are which lyue in this wicked world for wee know not what is hurtfull for vs what wee ought to eat from what wee ought to abstain nor yet whom wee shoold hate wee doo not agree with those whom wee ought to loue wee know not in whom to put our trust from whom wee ought to fly nor what it is wee ought too choose nor yet what wee ought to forsake Finally I say that when wee think oft times to enter into a sure hauen within .3 steps afterward wee fall headlong into the deepe sea Wee ought also to consider that both to wild and tame beasts nature hath geeuen armes or weapons to defend them selues and to assault their enemies as it appeareth for that to birds shee hath geeuen wings to the harts swiftfeete to the Elephants tushes to the serpents scales to the Eagle tallons to the Faucon a beake to the lyons teeth to the bulles hornes and to the bears pawes Finally I say that shee hath geeuen to the Foxes subtilty to know how to hyde them selues in the earth and to the fishes lyttle finnes how to swim in the water Admit that the wretched men haue few enemies yet in this they are none otherwise priuileged then the beasts for wee see without teares it cannot bee told that the beasts which for the seruice of men were created with the self same beastes men are now adays troubled and offended And to the end it seeme not wee should talk of pleasure let euery man think with him self what it is that wee suffer with the beasts of this life For the Lyons do fear vs the wolfes deuoure our sheepe the dogges doo bite vs the cattes scratche vs the Bear doth tear vs the serpents poysō vs the Bulles hurt vs with their horns the birds do ouerfly vs the ratts doo trouble vs the spiders do annoy vs and the woorst of all is that a litel flye sucketh our blood in the day the poore flea doth let vs from slepe in the night O poore and miserable mā who for to sustein this wretched life is enforced to begge al things that hee needeth of the beastes For the beasts do geeue him wool the beast do draw him water the beasts do cary him him from place to place the beasts do plough the land and carieth the corn into their barnes Finally I saye that if the mā receiue any good he hath not wherwith to make recompēce if they doo him any euill he hath nought but the tong to reuenge Wee must note also that though a man lode a best with stripes beate her driue her by the foule wayes though he taketh her meat from her yea though her yonglings dye yet for none of all these things shee is sad or sorowfull and much lesse doth weepe though shee should weepe shee cannot For beasts little esteame their life much lesse feare death It is not so of the vnhappy and wretched mā which can not but bewayle the vnthankfullnes of their frends the death of their children the want which they haue of necessityes the case of aduersitie which doo succede theim the false witnes which is brought against theym and a thousād calamities whice doo torment their harts Fynally I say that the greatest cōfort that men haue in this life is to make a riuer of water with the teares of their eyes Let vs inquire of princes and great lords what they can doo whē they are borne whether they can speak as oratours if they can ronne as postes if they can gouerne them selues as kinges if they can fyght as men of warre if they can labor as laborers if they can woork as the masons if they knew to teach as maisters these litell children would aunswer that they are not onely ignoraunt of all that wee demaund of them but also that they can not vnderstād it Let vs retourne to ask them what is that they know since they know nothing of that wee haue demaunded them they wil aunswer that they can doo none other thing but weepe at their byrth and sorow at their death Though al those which sayle in this so perillous sea doo reioyce and take pleasure and seeme too sleap soundly yet at the last there cometh the winde of aduersity which maketh them al to know their foly For if I bee not deceyued and if I know any thing of this world those which I haue seene at the time of their birth take shipp weeping I doubt whether they will take land in the graue laughing O vnhappy life I shoold say rather death which the mortalls take for life wherein afterwards wee must cōsume a great time to learn all arts sciences and offices and yet notwithstanding that whereof wee are ignorante is more thē that which wee know Wee forget the greatest part saue only that of weeping which no man needeth to learn for wee are borne and liue weeping and vntill this present wee haue seene none dye inioy Wee must note also that the beasts doo lyue and dye with the inclinations where with they were borne that is to weete that the wolfe foloweth the sheepe and not the birds the hounds follow the hares and not the ratts the sparrow flyeth at the birds and not at the fish the spider eateth the flyes and not the herbs Finally I say that if wee let the beast search hys meat quietly wee shall not see hym geeuen to any other thing The contrary of al this happeneth to men the which though nature hath created feeble yet Gods intētiō was not they should bee malitious but I am sory since they cannot auoyde debilyty that they turne it into malice The presumption which they haue to bee good they turne to pryde and the desire they haue to bee innocent they tourne into enuy The fury which they should take against malice they turne into anger and the liberality they ought to haue with thee good they conuerte into auaryce The necessity they haue to eat they turne into gluttony and the care they ought to haue of their conscience they turne into neglygence Finally I say that the more strength beasts haue the more they serue and the lesse men are worth somuch the more thanks haue they of god The innocency of the brute beast consydered and the malice of the malitious man marked without comparison the
and cold of the ayre that is whot and moyst of fyre that is dry and whot So that taking the world in this sort there is no reason why wee shoold complayn and lament of it since that without him wee cannot lyue corporally When the paynter of the world came into the world it is not to bee beeleeued that hee reproued the water which bare hym when hee went vppon it nor the ayre that ceased to blow in the sea nor the earth that trembled at his death nor the light which seased to lyght nor the stones which brake in sonder nor the fish whych suffred them selues to bee taken nor the trees which suffered them selues to bee drye nor the monuments that suffered them selues to bee opened For the creature knowledged in his creator omnipotency and the creator founded in the creature due obedience Oftentymes and of many parsons wee heere say o wofull world o miserable world o subtyl world o world vnstable and vnconstant And therfore it is reason wee know what the world is whereof the world is from whence this world is wherof this world is made and who is lord of thys world since in it all things are vnstable all things are miserable all disceitfull and all things are malicious which can not bee vnderstanded of this materiall world For in the fyre in the ayre in the earth and in the water in the lyght in the planets in the stones and in the trees there are no sorows there are no miseries there are no disceit nor yet any malyce The world wherein wee are born where wee lyue where wee dye differeth much from the world wherof wee doo complayn for the world agaynst whom wee fight suffreth vs not to bee in quiet one hour in the day To declare therfore my entencion this wicked world is no other thing but the euill lyfe of the worldlings where the earth is the desire the fire the couetice the water the inconstancy the ayre the folly the stones are the pride the flowers of the trees the thoughts the deepe sea the hart Fynally I say that the sonne of this world is the prosperity and the moone is the continuall chaunge The prince of this so euill a world is the deuill of whom Iesus Christ sayd The prince of this world shall now bee cast out and thys the redeemer of the world sayeth For hee called the worldlings and their worldly lyues the world For since they bee seruaunts of sinne of necessity they must bee subiects of the deuyll The pryde the auaryce the enuy the blasphemy the pleasures the lechery the neglygence the glottony the yre the malyce the vanity and the folly This is the world agaynst whych wee fight al our lyfe and where the good are princes of vyces and the vyces are lords of the vicious Let vs compare the trauels which wee suffer of the elements wyth those whych wee endure of the vyces and wee shall see that lyttle is the perill wee haue on the sea and the land in respect of that which encreaseth of our euyll lyfe Is not hee in more daunger that falleth through malyce into pryde then hee which by chaunce falleth from a high rock Is not hee who wyth enuy is persecuted in more daunger than hee that with a stone is wounded Are not they in more perill that liue among vicious men than others that liue among bruit and cruell beasts Doo not those which are tormented with the fire of couetousnes suffer greater daunger then those which lyue vnder the mount Ethna Fynally I say that they bee in greater perils whych with hygh immaginations are blynded then the trees which with the importunat wyndes are shaken And afterwards this world is our cruell enemy it is a deceitfull frend it is that which always keepeth vs in trauell it is that which taketh from vs our rest it is that that robbeth vs of our treasor it is that which maketh him self to bee feared of the good that which is greatly beeloued of the euill It is that which of the goods of other is prodigall and of his own very miserable Hee is the inuenter of all vyces and the scourge of all vertues It is hee which entertaineth al his in flattery and fair speech This is hee which bringeth men to dissention that robbeth the renowm of those that bee dead and putteth to sack the good name of those that bee aliue Fynally I say that this cursed world is hee which to all ought to render accompt and of whom none dare ask accompt O vanity of vanity where all walk in vanity where all think vanity where all cleue to vanity where all seemeth vanity and yet this is lyttle to seeme vanity but that in dede it is vanity For as false witnes shoold hee bere that woold say that in this world ther is any thing assured healthfull and true as hee that woold say that in heauen there is any vnconstant variable or false thing Let therfore vayn princes see how vayn their thoughts bee and let vs desire a vayn prince to tell vs how hee hath gouerned him wyth the vanities of the world For if hee beeleeue not that whych my penne wryteth let him beeleeue that whych hys parson prooueth The woords written in the book of Ecclesiastes are such I Dauids sonne that swaies the kingly seat with hungry thurst haue throwen amid my brest A vayn desire to proue what pleasures great In flying life haue stable foot to rest To tast the sweet that might suffise my will with rayned course to shunne the deeper way whose streams of his delight shoold so distill as might content my restles though to stay For lo queene follies imps through vayn beelief So proudly shape their serch of tickle retch that though desert auailes the waue of grief to science toppe their claimming will doth stretch And so to draw some nice delighting end Of fansies toyl that feasted thus my thought I largely wayed my wasted bounds to bend to swelling realms as wisedoms dyall wrought I ryall courts haue reached from the soyl to serue lodge my huge attending trayn Ech pleasant house that might bee heapt with toy◠I reared vp to weeld my wanton rayn I causd to plant the long vnused vynes to smooth my tast with treasure of the grape I sipped haue the sweete in flaming wynes old rust of care by hidd delight to skape Fresh arbors I had closed to the skies A shrouded space to vse my fickle feete rich gardeins I had dasing still myne eyes A pleasant plot when dainty food was meet High shaking trees by art I stroue to sett to fraight desire with fruit of leeking tast VVhen broyling flame of sommers sunne did hett the blossomd bows his shooting beams did wast From rocky hills I forced to bee brought Cold siluer springs to bayne my fruitful ground Large thrown out ponds I labord to bee wrought where nūbers huge of swimming fish were found Great compast parkes I gloried long to plant
the troubles disceits of this world If I bee not deceiued if I vnderstand any thing of this world the remedy which the world geeueth for the troubles certainly are greater trauailes then the trauailes them selues so that they are salues that doo not heal our wounds but rather burn our flesh When the diseases are not very old rooted nor daungerous it profiteth more oftentimes to abide a gentle feauer then to take a sharp purgacion I mean that the world is such a deceyuer and so double that hee dooth contrary to that hee punisheth That is to weete that if hee doo perswade vs to reuenge an iniury it is to the end that in reuenging that one wee shoold receiue a thousand incōueniences And where as wee think it taketh from vs it encreaseth infynite So that this cursed guide making vs to beeleeue it leadeth vs vpon the dry land among our frends causeth vs to fall into the imbushment of our enemies Princes and great lords in the thoughts they haue and in the woords that they speak are greatly esteemed and afterwards in the woorks which they doo and in the affaires they trauaile are as litle regarded The contrary of all this dooth the wicked world who with al those hee companieth in his promisses hee is very gentle afterwards in his deedes hee is very proud For speakyng the trouth it costeth vs deare and wee others doo sell it good chepe I say much in saying that wee sell it good chepe but in manner I shoold say better that wee geeue it willingly For few are those in number which cary away wages of the world and infinite are those which doo serue it onely for a vayn hope O princes and great lords I counsaile and require you that you doo not trust the world neither in word deede nor promise though hee sweare and sweare agayn that hee will keepe all hee hath promised with you Suppose that the world dooth honor you much flatter you much visit you oft offer you great treasures and geeue you much yet it is not beecause hee wil geeue it yee by lytle lytle but that afterwards hee might take it all from yee again in one day For it is the old custome of the world that those whych aboue all men hee hath set beefore now at a turn they are furdest beehinde What may wee haue in the world and in his flatteries since wee doo know that one day wee shall see our selues depryued thereof and that which is more hee vseth such craft and subtilty with the one and the other that in old men whom reason woold shoold not bee vicious hee the more to torment their parsons hath kyndled a greater fyer in their harts so that this malicious world putteth into old ryches a new couetousnesse and in the aged engendreth cruell auaryce and that in that tyme when it is out of tyme. Wee ought greatly to consyder how by the world wee are deceyued but much more wee ought to heede that wee bee not by it distroyed For where as wee thynk to bee in open lyberty hee keepeth vs secret in pryson Wee thynk wee are whole and hee geeueth vs sicknesse Wee thynk wee haue all things yet wee haue nothing Wee thynk that for many yeares long shal bee our life when that at euery corner wee are assaulted of death Wee think that it counteth vs for mē that bee wise when hee keepeth vs bond like vnto fooles We think that it encreaseth our good when that in deede it burdeneth our cōsciens Fynally I say that by the way where wee thynk to contynue our renowme and life wee lose without recouery both lyfe and fame O filthy world that when thou doost receiue vs thou doost cast vs of when thou doost assēble vs thou doost seperat vs when thou seemest to reioice vs thou makest vs sad when thou pleasest vs how thou displeasest vs when thou exaltest vs how thou hūblest vs when thou doost chastice vs how thou reioicest Fynally I say that thou hast thy drynks so impoysoned that wee are without thee with thee and hauyng the theefe within the house wee goe out of the dores to seeke hym Though men bee diuers in gestures yet much more are they variable in their appetites And sith the world hath experiēce of so many years it hath appetites prepared for all kynd of people For the presumptuous hee procureth honors to the auaricious hee procureth riches and to those which are gluttons hee presenteth dyuers meats The fleshly hee blindeth with women and the negligent hee letteth rest and the end why hee dooth all these things is that after hee hath fed them as fysh hee casteth vpon them the nettes of all vices Note princes and great lords note noble men though a prince doo see him self lord of all the world hee ought to thynk that of no value is the seignory onles hee him self bee vertuous For litle it profiteth that hee bee lord of the vicious which is him self the seruant of all vices Many say that the world dooth beeguile them and other say that they haue no power against the world To whō wee may aunswere That if at the first temptacions wee woold haue resisted the world it is vnpossible that so oftentimes it durst assault vs. For of our small resistaunce commeth his so great audacity I can not tell if I shall dissemble I shal hold my peace or whither I shal say that I woold say since it greeueth my hart so much onely to think of it For I feele my eyes redyer to lament it then my fingers able to write it It is so that euery man suffereth himself to bee gouerned so of the world as if god were not in heauen hee had not promised to bee a good christian here in earth For all that hee will wee will that which hee followeth wee follow and that which hee chooseth wee choose And that which is greatest sorow of all if wee doo refrayn our selues from aduersity it is not for that of our own nature wee woold cease from it but beecause the world will not commaund vs to doo it Litle is that which I haue spoken in respect of that I will speak which is that the world hath made vs now so ready to his law that from one hower to another it chaungeth the whole state of this life So that to day hee maketh vs hate that which yesterday wee loued he maketh vs complayn of that which wee commended hee maketh vs to bee offended now with that which beefore wee did desire hee maketh vs to haue mortall enemies of those which before were our speciall frends Fynally I say that the world maketh vs to loue that in our lyfe which afterwards wee beewaile at the hower of death If the world did geeue vnto his minyons any perfect and accomplished thing it were somewhat that for a time a man should remayn in the seruice of his house But since that in the world all things are graunted not
during life but as lendyng whych ought to bee rendered the day following I know not what man is so very a foole that in the world dooth hope for any perpetuall thyng For all that hee geeueth hee geeueth with such condicion that they shall render it vnto him when hee shall demaund it and not at the dyscrecion of him that dooth possesse it Peraduenture the world can geeue vs perpetual life I say certainly no. For in the sweetest tyme of all our lyfe then sodainly wee are assaulted of cruell death Peraduenture the world can geeue vs temporall goods in abundaunce I say certaynly no. For no man at any tyme had so much riches but that whych hee wanted was more then that hee possessed Peraduenture the world can geeue vs perpetual ioy I say certaynly no. For exemptyng those days whych wee haue to lament and allso the hours whych wee haue to sygh there remayneth not for vs one moment to laugh Peraduenture hee can geeue vs perpetuall health I say certaynly no. For to men of long lyfe without comparison the diseases are more which they suffer then the years are whych they lyue Peraduenture the world can geeue vs perpetuall rest I say certaynly no. For if the days bee few wherein wee see the elements without clouds fewer are the howers whych wee feale our harts without cares Therefore synce that in this myserable world there is no health perpetuall nor lyfe perpetuall nor ryches perpetuall nor ioy perpetuall I woold know what it is that the worldlyngs woold of the world synce they know that it hath no good thing to geeue them but onely by lendyng or by vsury If it bee vsury there is no gayn of money but rather retourn with restitucion of vices O children of vanyty O maisters of lyghtnes synce it is so that yee now determyne to follow and serue the world looke not of the world to haue any thyng but thyngs of the world In it is nothyng but pryde enuy leachery hate yre blasphemy auaryce and folly And if yee ask yf hee haue in hys gouernaunce any vertuous thyng hee will aunswer you that hee dooth neuer sell such marchaundyse in hys shop Let no man thynk that the world can geeue vs that whych it hath not for it self And if wee will chaunge any thyng with it and it with vs hee is so subtil to sel so curious to buy that that which hee taketh shal bee of great measure and that which hee selleth vs shal want much weight ¶ Of a letter the Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote to hys frend Torquatus to comfort hym in hys banishment which is notable for all men to learn the vanities of this world Cap. xli MArcus Emperour of Rome companion in the empyre with hys brother Annius Verus to thee Torquatus of the city of Gayetta wisheth health to thy parson strength against thy euil fortune I being in the Temple of the vestal virgins about three moneths hence I receyued a letter of thine the which was in such sort that neither mine eyes for that tyme could make an end to read it nor synce I haue had the hart to aunswer it For in the inconueniences of our frends if wee haue no faculty nor might for to remedy it at the least wee are bound to beewaile it Thy sorow maketh mee so heauy thy payn dooth trouble mee so much I am so carefull of thy anguish so tormented with thy grief that if the gods had geeuen power to wofull men to depart theire sorows as they haue geeuen to rych men to depart their goods by the faith I owe to god I sweare that as I am the greatest of thy frends I woold bee hee which shoold take the most part of thy griefes I know ryght well and as well as hee that hath prooued it that asmuch difference as there is beetween the bark the tree the mary and the bone the corn the straw the gold and the drosse the trueth and the dreames so much is there to here the trauailes of another and to tast his own Notwithstandyng comfort thy self my frend Torquatus for where the frends bee trew the goods and the euills are common beetwyxt them Oftentymes with my self I haue marueiled to what end or intencion the immortall Gods haue geeuen trauaile and torments to men synce it is in their power to make vs to lyue wythout them I see no other thyng why the myshaps ought pacyently to bee suffered but beecause in those wee know who are our faithfull frends In battaile the valyaunt man is knowen in tempesteous weather the Pilot is knowen by the touch stone gold is tryed and in aduersyty the frend is knowen For my frend dooth not ynough to make mee mery vnlesse allso hee dooth take part of my sorow I haue heard say here and now by thy letter I haue seene how they haue banished thee from Rome and confyscated thy goods and that for pure sorow thow art sick in thy bed whereof I maruell not that thou art sick but to bee as thou art aliue For saying to thee the trueth where the hart is sore wounded in short space it hath accustomed to yeeld vp vnto the body I see well that thow complaynest and thou hast reason to complayn to see thy self banyshed from Rome and thy goods confiscate to see thy self out of thy countrey without any parentage yet therefore thy sorow ought not to bee so extreame that thow shooldst put thy lyfe in hazard For hee alone ought to haue lycence and allso is bound to hate lyfe whych dooth not remember that hee hath serued the Gods nor hath doone any profyt to men If the affaires of the Empire dyd not occupy mee and the emperyall maiesty dyd not wythdraw mee I woold immedyatly haue to come to comfort thy person where thow shooldst haue seene by experience wyth what grief I feele thy trouble And therefore if thou takest mee for thy frend thow oughtst to beeleeue of mee that which in this case I woold of thee which is that as thow hast been the most entyer frend which I had in Rome so ys thys the thing that most I haue felt in this lyfe Tell mee my frend Torquatus what is it thow suffrest there that I doo not lament here It may bee that sometyme thow laughest but I allways weepe sometimes thow comfortest thy self but I am allways sad It may bee that thow lightnest thy payn but I am in sighyng It may bee that sometymes thow castest from thee sorow but for mee I cannot receiue consolation It may bee that thow hopest remedy of longlyfe but for mee I fynd no remedy more healthfull then present death Fynally I say that here I feele all that thow feelest there and furthermore I suffer all that which as a frend I ought to suffer here so that both our paynes are made one most cruell sorrow wherewyth my wofull lyfe is tormented I woold greatly desire to come and see thee and to help to
taketh away fear from death The deuine Plato demaūded Socrates how hee beehaued him self in life and how hee woold beehaue him self in death hee aunswered I let thee weete that in youth I haue traueled to liue wel and in age I haue studied to dye well and sith my life hath been honest I hope my death shal bee ioyful And though I haue had sorow to lyue I am sure I shall haue no payn to dye Truely these woords were woorthy of such a man Men of stout harts suffer maruelously when the swet of their trauel is not rewarded when they are faithful and their reward answereth nothing to their true seruice when for their good seruices their frends beecome vnthankful to them when they are woorthy honor and that they preferre them to honorable rome and office For the noble and valyant harts doo not esteeme to lose the reward of their labor but think much vnkindnes when a man dooth not acknowledge their trauel O happy are they that dye For without inconuenience and without payn euery man is in hys graue For in this tribunall iustice to all is so equally obserued that in the same place where wee haue deserued life in the same place wee merited death There was neuer nor neuer shall bee iudge so iust nor in iustice so vpryght that geeueth reward by weight payn by measure but somtimes they chastice the innocent and absolue the gylty they vex the faultlesse and dissemble with the culpable For litle auayleth it the plaintif to haue good iustice if conscience want to the iudge that shoold minister Truely it is not so in death but all ought to count them selues happy For hee which shall haue good iustice shal bee sure on his part to haue the sentence When great Cato was censor in Rome a famous Romayn dyed who shewed at his death a merueylous courage and when the Romayns praised him for that hee had so great vertu and for the woords hee had spoken Cato the Censour laughed at that they sayd for that they praised him And hee beeing demaunded the cause of his laughter aunswered Ye maruell at that I laugh and I laugh at that you maruel For the perils and trauels considered wherein wee liue and the safety wherein wee dye I say that it is no more needful to haue vertue strength to liue then courage to dye The aucthor heereof is Plutarch in his Apothegmes Wee cannot say but that Cato the Censour spake as a wise man since dayly wee see shamefast and vertuous persons suffer hunger cold thrist trauel pouerty inconuenience sorows enmities and mishaps of the which things wee were better to see the end in one day then to suffer them euery hour For it is lesse euill to suffer an honest death then to endure a miserable lyfe O how small cōsideration haue men to think that they ought to dye but once Since the trueth is that the day when wee are born and comen in to the world is the beeginning of our death and the last day is when wee doo cease to liue If death bee no other but an ending of lyfe then reason perswadeth vs to think that our infancy dyeth our chyldhod dyeth our manhod dyeth our age shall dye whereof wee may consequently conclude that wee dye euery yere euery day euery hour and euery moment So that thinking to lead a sure lyfe wee tast a new death I know not why men fear so much to dye since that from the time of their birth they seeke none other thing but death For time neuer wanted to any man to dye neither I knew any man that euer failed of this way Seneca in an epistle declareth that as a Romain woman lamented the death of a child of hers a philosopher said vnto her Woman why beewaylest thou thy child she aunswered I weepe beecause hee hath liued .xxv. yeres I woold hee shoold haue liued till fyfty For amongst vs mothers wee loue our children so hartely that wee neuer cease to beehold them nor yet end to beewayl them Then the Philosopher said Tell mee I pray thee woman why doost thou not complayn of the gods beecause they created not thy sonne many yeres beefore hee was born as well as thou complaynest that they haue not let him liue .l. yeres Thou weepest that hee is dead so soone and thou doost not lament that hee is borne so late I tel thee true woman that as thou doost not lament for the one no more thou oughtst to bee sory for the other For wythout the determination of the gods wee can not shorten death and much lesse lengthen life So Plinie sayd in an epistle that the cheefest law whych the gods haue geeuen to humayn nature was that none shoold haue perpetuall life For with disordinat desire to liue long wee shoold neuer reioice to goe out of this payn Two philosophers disputyng beefore the great Emperor Theodose the one sayd that it was good to procure death and the other lykewise sayd it was a necessary thing to hate lyfe The good Theodose takyng hym by the hand said All wee mortalles are so extreem in hatyng and louyng that vnder the colour to loue and hate lyfe wee lead an euyll lyfe For wee suffer so many trauels for to preserue it that sometymes it were much better to lose it And further hee sayd dyuers vayn men are come into so great follies that for fear of death they procure to hasten death And hauing consideration to this mee seemeth that wee ought not greatly to loue lyfe nor with desperation to seeke death For the strong and valiaunt men ought not to hate lyfe so long as it lasteth nor to bee displeased with death when hee commeth All commended that whych Theodose spake as Paulus Diaconus sayth in his lyfe Let euery man speak what hee will and let the philosophers counsell what they list in my poor iudgement hee alone shal receiue death without payn who long before is prepared to receiue the same For sodayn death is not only bitter to hym which tasteth it but also it feareth him that hateth it Lactantius sayd that in such sort man ought to liue as if from hence an hour after hee shoold dye For those men which will haue death beefore their eies it is vnpossible that they geeue place to vain thoughts In my oppinion and also by the aduyse of Apuleius it is as much folly to fly from that which wee cannot auoyd as to desire that wee cannot attain And this is spoken for those that woold flye the vyage of death which is necessary and desire to come agayn which is vnpossible Those that trauell by long ways if they want any thing they borow it of their company If they haue forgotten ought they returne to seeke it at their lodging or els they write vnto their frends a letter But I am sory that if wee once dye they will not let vs return agayn wee cannot speak and they will not agree
wee shall write but such as they shal finde vs so shall wee bee iudged And that which is most fearfull of all the execucion and sentence is geeuē in one day Let princes and great lords beeleeue mee in this Let them not leaue that vndoon till after their death which they may doo during their lyfe And let them not trust in that they commaund but in that whiles they liue they doo Let them not trust in the woorks of an other but in their own good deedes For in the end one sigh shal bee more woorth then all the frends of the world I counsel pray and exhort all wise and vertuous men and also my self with them that in such sort wee liue that at the hour of death wee may say wee liue For wee cannot say that wee lyue whē wee liue not well For all that tyme which without profit wee shall liue shall bee counted vnto vs for nothing ¶ Of the death of Marcus Aurelius the Emperor and how there are few frends which dare say the truth to sick men Cap. xlix THe good Emperor Marcus Aurelius now beeing aged not only for the great yeres hee had but also for the great trauels hee had in the warres endured It chaunced that in the .xviii. yere of his Empire and .lxxii. yeres from the day of his birth and of the foundation of Rome .v. hundreth xliii beeing in the warre of Pannony which at this tyme is called Hungary beeseeging a famous citie called Vendeliona sodaynly a disease of the palsey tooke him which was such that hee lost his life and Rome her Prince the best of lyfe that euer was born therein Among the heathen princes some had more force then hee other possessed more ryches then hee others were as aduenturous as hee and some haue knowē as much as hee but none hath been of so excellent and vertuous a lyfe nor so modest as hee For his life beeing examined to the vttermost there are many princely vertues to follow few vices to reproue The occasion of his death was that going one nyght about his camp sodeinly the disease of the palsey tooke him in his arme so that from thence forward hee coold not put on his gown nor draw his sword and much lesse cary a staffe The good emperor beeing so loden with yeres and no lesse with cares the sharp winter approching more and more great aboundance of water and snow fell about the tenis so that an other disease fell vppon him called Litargie the which thing much abated his courage and in his hoast caused great sorow For hee was so beeloued of all as if they had been his own children After that hee had proued all medicins and remedies that coold bee found and all other things which vnto so great and mighty princes were accustomed to bee doon hee perceiued in the end that all remedy was past And the reason hereof was beecause his sicknes was exceeding vehement he him self very aged the ayer vnholsom aboue al beecause sorows cares oppressed his hart Without doubt greater is the disease that proceedeth of sorow then that which proceedeth of the feuer quartain And thereof ensueth that more easely is hee cured which of corrupt humors is full then hee which with profound thoughts is oppressed The emperor then beeing sick in his chamber in such sort that hee coold not exercise the feats of arms as his men ranne out of their camp to scirmidge the Hungarions in lyke maner to defend the fight on both parts was so cruell through the great effution of blood that neither the hungarion had cause to reioyce nor yet the romayn to bee mery Vnderstanding the euil order of his specially that .v. of his captains were slain in the conflict that hee for his disease coold not bee there in person such sorows persed his hart that although hee desired foorthwith to haue dyed yet hee remained two days three nights without that hee woold see light or speak vnto any man of his So that the heat was much the rest was small the sighs were continuall and the thirst very great the meat lytle and the sleepe lesse and aboue all his face wrynkled and his lips very black Sometimes hee cast vp his eyes and another tyme hee wrong his hands always hee was sylent and continually hee sighed His tong was swollen that hee coold not spit and his eyes very hollow with weeping So that it was a great pity to see his death and no lesse compassion to see the confusion of his pallace and the hinderaunce of the warre Many valiant captains many noble Romayns many faithfull seruaunts and many old frends at all these heauines were present But none of them durst speak to the Emperor Marke partly for that they tooke him to bee so sage that they knew not what counsel to geeue him and partly for that they were so sorowfull that they coold not refrayn their heauy tears For the louing and true frends in their lyfe ought to bee beeloued and at their death to bee beewailed Great compassion ought men to haue of those which dye not for that wee see them dye but beecause there are none that telleth them what they ought to doo Princes and great lords are in greater perill when they dye then the Plebeyans For the counsaylour dare not tell vnto his Lord at the hour of death that which hee knoweth and much lesse hee will tell him how hee ought to dye and what things hee ought to discharge whiles hee is aliue Many goe to visit the sick that I woold to god they went some other where And the cause heereof is that they see the sick mans eyes hollow the flesh dryed the arms without flesh the colour enflamed the ague continuall the payn great the tong swollen nature consumed and beesydes al this the house destroyed and yet they say vnto the sick man bee of good cheere I warrant you you shall liue As yong men naturally desire to liue and as death to all old men is dredfull so though they see them selues in that dystresse yet they refuse no medicine as though there were great hope of lyfe And thereof ensueth oftentymes that the miserable creatures depart the world without confessing vnto god and making restitutions vnto men O if those which doo this knew what euil they doo For to take away my goods to trouble my person to blemish my good name to sclaunder my parentage and to reprooue my lyfe these woorks are of cruell enemyes but to bee occasion to lose my soul it is the woorke of the deuill of hell Certeinly hee is a deuyll whych deceiueth the sick with flatteries and that in steede to healp hym to dye well putteth him in vayn hope of long lyfe Heerein hee that sayth it winneth lyttle and hee that beeleeueth it aduentureth much To mortall men it is more meete to geeue counsels to reform their consciences with the truth then to hasard their houses
with lyes With our frends wee are shamelesse in their life and also bashfull at their death The which ought not to bee so For if our fathers were not dead and that wee did not dayly see these that are present dye mee thinketh it were a shame and also a fear to say to the sick that hee alone shoold dye But since thou knowst as well as hee and hee knoweth as well as thou that all doo trauell in this perillous iurney what shame hast thou to say vnto thy frend that hee is now at the last point If the dead shoold now reuyue how woold they complayn of their frends And thys for no other cause but for that they woold not geeue them good counsell at their death For if the sick man bee my frend and that I see peraduenture hee will dye why shall not I counsell him to prepare him self to dye Certeinly oftentimes wee see by experyence that those which are prepared and are ready for to dye doo escape and those which think to liue doo perish What shoold they doo which goe to vysit the sick perswade them that they make their testaments that they confesse their sinnes that they discharge their conscience that they receiue the Communion and that they doo reconcile them selues to their enemies Certeinly all these things charge not the launce of death nor cut not the threed of lyfe I neuer saw blyndnes so blynd nor ignoraunce so ignorant as to bee ashamed to counsell the sick that they are bound to doo when they are whole As wee haue sayd heere aboue Princes and great Lords are those aboue all other that liue and dye most abusedly And the cause is that as their seruaunts haue no harts to perswade them when they are mery so haue they no audacity to tell them trueth when they are in peril For such seruaunts care lytle so that their maisters beequeath them any thing in theyr willes whether they dye well or lyue euyll O what misery and pity is it to see a Prince a Lord a gentleman and a rych person dye if they haue no faythfull frend about them to help them to passe that payn And not wythout a cause I say that hee ought to bee a faythfull frend For many in our lyfe doo gape after our goods and few at our deaths are sory for our offences The wyse and sage men before nature compelleth them to dye of their own will ought to dye That is to weete that beefore they see them selues in the pangues of death they haue their consciences ready prepared For if wee count him a foole whych will passe the sea without a shippe truely wee will not count him wise which taketh his death without any preparacion beefore What loseth a wise man to haue his will well ordained in what aduenture of honor is any man beefore death to reconsile him self to his enemies and to those whom hee hath born hate and malyce What loseth hee of his credit who in his lyfe tyme restoreth that which at his death they will commaund him to render wherein may a man shew him self to bee more wise then when willingly hee hath discharged that which afterwards by proces they will take from him O how many princes great lords are there which only not for spending one day about their testament haue caused their children and heirs all the days of their life to bee in trauerse in the law So that they supposing to haue left their children welthy haue not left them but for atturneis and counselers of the law The true and vnfained Christian ought euery morning so to dyspose his goods and correct his lyfe as if hee shoold dye the same night And at night in like maner hee ought so to commit him self to god as if hee hoped for no lyfe vntill morning For to say the truth to sustein life there are infinit trauels but to meete death there is but one way If they will credit my woords I woold counsell no man in such estate to liue that for any thing in the world hee shoold vndoo him self The rich and the poore the great and the small the gentlemen and the Plebeians all say and swear that of death they are exceeding fearfull To whom I say and affirm that hee alone feareth death in whom wee see amendment of lyfe Princes and great lords ought also to bee perfect beefore they bee perfect to end beefore they end to dye beefore they dye and to bee mortified beefore they bee mortified If they doo this with them selues they shall as easely leaue their lyfe as if they chāged from one house to an other For the most part of men delight to talk with leisure to drink with leisure to eat with leisure to sleep with leisure but they dye in haste Not without cause I say they dye in haste since wee see thē receiue the sacrament of the supper of the lord in haste make their willes by force with speed to confesse and receiue So that they take it and demaund it so late and so without reason that often times they haue lost their senses and are ready to geeue vp the spirit when they bring it vnto them What auaileth the ship maister after the ship is sonk what doo weapons auayl after the battell is lost What auaileth pleasures after men are dead By that I haue spoken I will demaund what it auaileth the sick beeing heuy with sleep and beereft of their senses to call confessors to whom they confesse their sinnes Euill shal hee bee confessed whych hath no vnderstandyng to repent him self What auayleth it to call the confessor to vnderstand the secret of his conscience when the sick man hath lost his speach Let vs not deceiue our selues saying in our age wee will amend heereafter make restitution at our death For in myne oppinion it is not the poynt of wyse men nor of good christians to desire so much tyme to offend and they wil neuer espy any to amend Woold to god that the third part of tyme which men occupy in sinne were employed about the meditations of death and the cares which they haue to accomplish their fleshly lusts were spent in beewayling their filthy sinnes I am very sory at my hart that thei so wickedly passe their life in vyces and pleasures as if there were no God to whom they shoold render account for their offences All worldlings willingly doo sinne vppon hope only in age to amend and at death to repent but I woold demaund him that in this hope sinned what certeinty hee hath in age of amendment and what assuraunce hee hath to haue long warning beefore hee dye Since wee see by experience there are mo in nomber which dye yong then old it is no reason wee shoold commit so many sinnes in one day that wee shoold haue cause to lament afterwards all the rest of our lyfe And afterwards to beewail the sinnes of our long life wee desire no more but one
space of an hour Considering the omnipotency of the diuine mercy it suffiseth ye and I say that the space of an hour is to much to repent vs of our wicked lyfe but yet I woold counsell all since the sinner for to repent taketh but one hour that that bee not the last hour For the sighs and repentaunce which proceed from the bottom of the hart penetrate the high heauens but those which come of necessity dooth not perse the seeling of the house I allow and commend that those that visit the sick doo counsell them to examin their conscienses to receiue the communion to pray vnto god to forgeeue their enemiez and to recommend them selues to the deuout prayers of the people and to repent their sinnes fynally I say that it is very good to doo all this but yet I say it is better to haue doon it beefore For the diligent and carefull Pirate prepareth for the tempest when the sea is calm Hee that deepely woold consider how little the goods of this lyfe are to bee esteemed let him goe to see a rich man when hee dyeth and what hee dooth in his bed And hee shall fynd that the wife demaundeth of the poore husband her dower the doughter the third part the other the fift the child the preheminence of age the sonne in law his mariage the phisition his duity the slaue his liberty the seruants their wages the creditors their debts and the woorst of all is that none of those that ought to enherit his goods wil geeue him one glasse of water Those that shall here or read this ought to consider that that which they haue seene doon at the death of their neighbors the same shall come to them when they shal bee sick at the point of death For so soone as the rych shutteth his eyes foorthwith there is great strife beetweene the children for his goods And this strife is not to vnburthen his soule but whych of them shall inherit most of his possessions In this case I will not my penne trauel any further since both rich and poore dayly see the experience hereof And in things very manyfest it suffyseth only for wyse men to bee put in memory without wasting any more tyme to perswade them Now the Emperor Marcus Aurelius had a secretary very wise and vertuous through whose hands the affairs of the Empire passed And when this secretary saw his lord and maister so sick and almost at the hour of death and that none of his parents nor frends durst speak vnto him hee plainly determined to doo his duity wherein hee shewed very well the profound knowledge hee had in wisdom and the great good will hee bare to his lord This secretary was called Panutius the vertues and lyfe of whom Sextus Cheronensis in the lyfe of Marcus Aurelius declareth ¶ Of the comfortable woords which the Secretary Panutius spake to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius at the hour of his death Cap. l. O My lord and maister my tong cannot keepe silence myne eies cannot refrayn from bitter tears nor my hart leaue from fetching sighes ne yet reason can vse his duity For my blood boyleth my sinnews are dryed my pores bee open my hart dooth faint and my spirit is troubled And the occasion of all this is to see that the wholsom counsels which thou geeuest to others either thou canst not or wil not take for thy self I see thee dye my lord and I dye for that I cannot remedy thee For if the gods woold haue graunted mee my request for the lengthning of thy lyfe one day I woold geeue willingly my whole life Whether the sorow bee true or fained it nedeth not I declare vnto thee with woords since thou mayst manyfestly discern it by my countenaunce For my eies with tears are wet and my hart with sighs is very heauy I feele much the want of thy company I feele much the domage which of thy death to the whole common wealth shal ensue I feele much thy sorow which in thy pallace shal remaine I feele much for that Rome this day is vndoon but that which aboue al things dooth most torment my hart is to haue seen thee liue as wise and now to see thee dye as symple Tell mee I pray thee my lorde why doo men learn the Greek tong trauel to vnderstand the hebrew sweat in the latin chaunge so many maisters turn so many bookes and in study consume so much money and so many yeres if it were not to know how to passe lyfe with honor and take death with pacience The end why men ought to study is to learn to liue well For there is no truer science in man then to know how to order his life well What profiteth it mee to know much if thereby I take no profit what profiteth mee to know straunge languages if I refrain not my tong from other mens matters what profiteth it to study many books if I study not but to begyle my frends what profiteth it to know the influence of the starres and the course of the elements if I cannot keepe my self from vyces Fynally I say that it lytle auayleth to bee a maister of the sage if secretly hee bee reported to bee a folower of fooles The cheef of all philosophy consisteth to serue god and not to offend men I ask thee most noble prince what auaileth it the Pilot to know the art of sayling and after in a tempest by neglygence to perish What auayleth it the valyaunt captayn to talk much of warre and afterwards hee knoweth not how to geeue the battayl What auaileth it the guyde to tell the neerest way and afterwards in the midst to lose him self All this which I haue spoken is sayd for thee my Lord. For what auayleth it that thou beeing in health shooldst sigh for death since now when hee dooth approch thou weepest because thou wooldst not leaue life One of the things wherein the wise man sheweth his wisedom is to know how to loue and how to hate For it is great lightnes I shoold rather say folly to day to loue him whom yesterday wee hated and to morow to sclaunder him whom this day wee honored What Prince so hygh or what Plebeyan so base hath there been or in the world shall euer bee the whych hath so lyttle as thou regarded lyfe and so hyghly commended death What thyngs haue I wrytten beeing thy Secretary with my own hand to dyuers prouynces of the world where thou speakest so much good of death that sometymes thou madest mee to hate lyfe What was it to see that letter which thou wrotest to the noble Romayn Claudines wydow comforting her of the death of her husband which dyed in the warres Wherein shee aunswered That shee thought her trouble comfort to deserue that thou shooldst write her such a letter What a pitifull and sauory letter hast thou written to Antigonus on the death of thy child Verissimus thy sonne so much desired Whose death
thou tookest so that thou exceedest the limits of philosophy but in the end with thy princely vertues thou didst qualify thy wofull sorows What sentences so profound what woords so wel couched didst thou write in that booke entytuled The remedy of the sorowfull the which thou didst send from the warre of Asia to the Senators of Rome and that was to comfort them after a sore plague And how much profit hath thy doctrin doon since with what new kinde of consolation hast thou comforted Helius Fabatus the Sensour when his sonne was drowned in the ryuer where I doo remember that whē wee entred into his house wee found him weeping and when wee went from thence wee left him laughing I doo remember that when thou wentst to visit Gneus Rusticus in his last disease thou spakest vnto him so effectuously that with the vehemency of thy woords thou madest the tears to run down his cheeks And I demaunding him the occasions of his lamentacions hee said The emperor my lord hath told mee so much euils that I haue wonne and of so much good that I haue lost that if I weepe I weepe not for lyfe which is short but for death which is long The man whom aboue all thou hast loued was Torquatus whom thou didst obey as thy father and seruedst as thy maister This thy faithfull frend beeing ready to dy and desyring yet to liue thou sendst to offer sacrifices to the gods not for that they shoold graunt him lyfe but that they shoold hasten his death Herewith I beeing astonied thy noblenesse to satisfy my ignoraunce said vnto mee in secret these woords Maruel not Panutius to see mee offer sacrifyces to hasten my frends death and not to prolong his life For there is nothing that the faithfull frend ought so much to desyre to his true frend as to see him ridde from the trauels of this earth and to enioy the pleasures of heauen Why thinkest thou most noble prince that I reduce all these things to thy memory but for to demaund thee how it is possible that I which haue hard thee speak so well of death doo presently see thee so vnwilling to leaue life since the gods commaund it thy age willeth it thy disease dooth cause it thy feeble nature dooth permit it the sinfull Rome dooth deserue it and the fickle fortune agreeth that for our great misery thou shooldst dye Why therfore sighest thou so much for to dye The trauels whych of necessity must needes come wyth stout hart ought to bee receiued The cowardly hart falleth beefore hee is beaten down but the stout and valyaunt stomack in greatest perill recouereth most strength Thou art one man and not two thou oughtst one death to the gods and not two why wilt thou therefore beeyng but one pay for two and for one only lyfe take two deaths I mean that beefore thou endest lyfe thou dyest for pure sorow After that thou hast sayled and in the sayling thou hast passed such perill when the gods doo render thee in the safe hauen once agayn thou wilt run in to the raging sea wher thou scapest the victory of lyfe and thou dyest with the ambushements of death Lxii. yeres hast thou fought in the field and neuer turned thy back and fearest thou now beeing enclosed in the graue hast thou not passed the pykes and bryers wherein thou hast been enclosed and now thou tremblest beeing in the sure way Thou knowest what dommage it is long to liue and now thou doutest of the profit of death which ensueth It is now many yeres since death and thou haue been at defiaunce as mortall enemies and now to lay thy hands on thy weapons thou flyest and turnest thy back Lxii. yeres are past since thou were bent agaynst fortune and now thou closest thy eyes when thou oughtst ouer her to tryumph By that I haue told thee I mean that since wee doo not see thee take death willyngly at this present wee doo suspect that thy lyfe hath not in tymes past been very good For the man which hath no desire to appeere beefore the gods it is a token hee is loden with vyces What meanest thou most noble prince why weepest thou as an infant and complainest as a man in dispaire If thou weepest beecause thou diest I aunswer thee that thou laughedst as much when thou liuedst For of too much laughing in the life proceedeth much wayling at the death Who hath always for his heritage appropriated the places beeing in the common wealth The vnconstancy of the mynd who shal bee so hardy to make steddy I mean that all are dead all dye and al shal dye and among all wilt thou alone lyue Wilt thou obtayn of the gods that which maketh them gods That is to weete that they make thee immortall as them selues Wilt thou alone haue by priuiledge that which the gods haue by nature My youth demaundeth thy age what thing is best or to say better which is lesse euill to dye well or to lyue euill I doubt that any man may attayn to the means to lyue well according to the continuall variable troubles whych dayly wee haue accustomed to cary beetweene our hands always suffring hunger cold thirst care displeasures temptacions persecucions euil fortunes ouerthrows and diseases Thys cannot bee called lyfe but a long death and with reason wee will call this lyfe death since a thousand tymes wee hate lyfe If an auncient man did make a shew of his lyfe from tyme hee is come out of the intrailes of his mother vntill the tyme hee entreth into the bowels of the earth and that the body woold declare all the sorows that hee hath passed and the hart discouer all the ouerthrows of fortune which hee hath suffered I immagin the gods woold maruell and men woold wonder at the body whych hath endured so much and the hart whych hath so greatly dissembled I take the Greekes to bee more wise whych weepe when their children bee borne and laugh when the aged dye then the Romayns whych syng when the children are borne and weepe when the old men dye Wee haue much reason to laugh when the old men dye since they dye to laugh and with greater reason wee ought to weepe when the children are borne since they are borne to weepe ¶ Pannatius the secretary continueth his exhortatiō admonishing al men willingly to accept death and vtterly to forsake the world and all his vanities Cap. li. SIns lyfe is now condempned for euill there remaineth nought els but to approue death to bee good O if it pleased the immortall gods that as I oftentimes haue hard the disputacions of this matter so now that thow cooldst therewith profit But I am sory that to the sage and wise man counsaile sometimes or for the most part wanteth None ought to cleue so much to his own opinion but sometimes hee shoold folow the counsaile of the thyrd parson For the man which in all things will follow his own
aduise ought wel to bee assured that in al or the most part hee shall erre O my lord Mark sith thou art sage liuely of spirit of great experience and auncient didst not thou think that as thou hadst buried many so like wise some should burie thee What imaginacions were thine to think that seeing the end of their days others should not see the end of thy yeares Since thou diest rych honourably accompanied old and aboue all seeing thou diest in the seruice of the common wealth why fearest thou to enter into thy graue Thou hast always beene a frend as much to know things past as those which were hid and kept secret Sins thou hast proued what honors and dishonors doo deserue ryches and pouerty prosperity and aduersity ioy and sorow loue and feare vices pleasures mee seemeth that nothing remayneth to know but that it is necessarye to know what death is And also I sweare vnto thee most noble lord that thow shalt learn more in one hour what death is then in a hundreth years what life meaneth Since thou art good and presumest to bee good and hast lyued as good is it not better that thow dye goe with so many good then that thow scape and liue amongst so many euill That thou feelest death I maruell nothing at all for thou art a man but I doo maruail that thou dissemblest it not since thou art discrete Many things doo the sage men feele which inwardly doo oppresse their hart but outwardly they dissemble them for the more honor If all the poyson which in the sorowfull hart is wrapped were in small peeces in the feeble flesh scattered then the walles woold not suffice to rubbe neither the nayles to scratch vs. What other thing is death but a trap or doore where with to shut the shop wherein all the miseries of this wofull lyfe are vendible What wrong or preiudice doo the gods vnto vs whē they cal vs beefore them but from an old decaied house to chaunge vs to a new builded pallace And what other thing is the graue but a strong fort wherein wee shut our selues from the assaults of lyfe broyles of fortune Truely wee ought to bee more desirous of that wee fynd in death then of that wee leaue in lyfe If Helia Fabricia thy wife doo greeue thee for that thou leauest her yong doo not care For shee presently hath litle care of the perill wherein thy lyfe dependeth And in the end when shee shall know of thy death shee will bee nothing greued Trouble not thy self for that shee is left widow For yong women as shee is which are maried with old men as thou when their husbands dye they haue their eies on that they can robbe and their harts on them whom they desire to mary And speaking with due respect when with their eies they outwardly seeme most for to beewaile then with their harts inwardly doo they most reioyce Deceyue not thy self in thinking that the empresse thy wife is yong and that shee shal fynd none other Emperor with whom agayn shee may mary For such and the like will chaunge the cloth of gold for gownes of skynnes I mean that they woold rather the yong shepeheard in the field then the old emperour in his royall pallace If thou takest sorow for the children whom thou leauest I know not why thou shooldst do so For truely yf it greeue thee now for that thou dyest they are more displeased for that thow lyuest The sonne that desireth not the death of his father may bee counted the onely Phenix of this world for if the father bee poore he wisheth him dead for that hee is not maintained if hee bee rich hee desireth his death to enherit the sooner Sins therefore it is true as in deede it is it seemeth not wisedome that they sing thou weepe If it greue thee to leaue these goodly pallaces these sūptuous buildings deceiue not thy self therein For by the god Iupiter I sweare vnto thee that since that death dooth finish thee at the end of .lxii. yeares tyme shal consume these sūptuous buildings in lesse then xl If it greeue thee to forsake the cōpany of thy frends neighbors for them also take as litle thought sins for thee they wil not take any at all For amongst the other compassions that they ought to haue of the dead this is true that scarcely they are buryed but of their frends neighbors they are forgotten If thou takest great thought for that thou wilt not dye as the other emperors of Rome are dead mee seemeth that thou oughtst allso to cast this sorow from thee For thou knowst ryght wel that Rome hath accustomed to bee so vnthankful to those which serue her that the great Scipio also woold not bee buryed therein If it greeue thee to dye to leaue so great a seignory as to leaue the empire I can not think that such vanity bee in thy head For temperat reposed men when they escape from semblable offices do not think that they lose honor but that they bee free of a troblesome charge Therefore if none of al these things moue thee to desire lyfe what should let thee that through thy gates enter not death it greeueth men to dye for one of these two things eyther for the loue of those they leaue beehynd them or for the feare of that they hope Sins therefore there is nothing in this lyfe worthy of loue nor any things in death why wee shoold feare why doo mē feare to dye According to the heauy sighs thou fetchest the bitter tears thou she dest according also to the great payn thou shewest for my part I think that the thing in thy thought most forgotten was that the gods shoold cōmaund thee to pay this debt For admit that al think that their life shal end yet no man thinketh that death wil come so soone For that men think neuer to dye they neuer beeginne their faults to amend so that both life fault haue end in the graue togethers Knowst not thou most noble prince that after the long night cōmeth the moist morning Doost thou not know that after the moyst morning there commeth that cleere sunne Knowst not thou that after the cleare sunne cōmeth the cloudy element Doost thou not know that after the dark myst there commeth extream heat And that after the heat cometh the horrible thunders after the thunders the sodeyn lightnings that after the perilous lightnings commeth the terrible hayle Fynally I say that after the tempesteous troublesome time commonly commeth cleare faire weather The order that time hath to make him self cruel gentill the self same ought men to haue to liue dye For after the infancy cōmeth chyldhod after chyldhod commeth youth after youth cōmeth age after age cōmeth the fearfull death Finally after the fearful death cōmeth the sure life Oftentimes I haue read of thee not seldome hard that
cruel punyshment of those that liue that rather thē they would endure it they wysh to bee dead Thou oughtst to think my sonne that I haue beegot thee I haue nouryshed thee I haue taught thee I haue trymmed thee I haue chastised thee and I haue exalted thee And for this consyderation though by death I am absent it is not reasō that thou euer forget mee For the true not vnthākfull chyld ought the same day to bury his father in his tender hart when others haue layd hym in the hard graue One of the visible chastisements which the gods geeue to men in this world is that the children obey not their fathers in their life For the self same fathers did not remēber their owne fathers after their death Let not yong Princes think after they haue inherited after they see theyr father dead after they are past correction of their masters that al things ought to bee doone as they thē selues wil it for it will not bee so For if thei want the fauour of the Gods haue maledyction of their fathers they liue in trouble and dye in daunger I require nought els of thee my sonne but that such a father as I haue been to thee in my life such a sonne thou bee to mee after my death I commend vnto thee my sonne the veneracion of the gods and this cheefely aboue al thing For the prince with maketh accompt of the gods neede not to feare any storme of fortune Loue the gods thou shalt bee beeloued Serue them thou shalt bee serued Feare them thou shalt bee feared Honor them thou shalt bee honored Doo their commaūdements they will geeue thee thy harts desire For the gods are so good that they doo not onely receiue in accompt that which wee doo but also that which wee desire to doo I commend vnto thee my sonne the reuerence of the Temples that is to weete that they bee not in discorde that they bee cleane renewed that they offer therin the sacrifices accustomed For wee doo not this honor to the substaūce wherwith the temples are made but to the Gods to whome they are consecrated I commend vnto thee the veneration of priestes I pray thee though they bee couetous auaricious dissolute vnpacient negligēt vicious yet that thei bee not dishonored For to vs others it apperteineth not to iudge of the life they leade as mē but wee must consider that they are mediators beetwene the gods vs. Beehold my sonne that to serue the gods honor the temples reuerence the priestes it is not a thing voluntary but very necessary for Princes For so long endured the glory of the Greekes as they were worshippers of their Gods carefull of theyr Temples The vnhappi realme of Catthage was nothing more cowardly nor lesse rych then that of the Romaynes but in the ende of the Romaynes thei were ouercome beecause they were great louers of their treasours and litle worshippers of their Temples I commend vnto thee my sonne Helia thy stepe mother remember though shee bee not thy mother yet shee hath been my wyfe That which to thy mother Faustine thou oughtst for bringing thee into the world the selfe same thou oughtst to Helia for the good entertainmēt which shee hath shewed thee And in deede often tymes I beeing offended with the shee mainteined thee caused mee to forget so that shee by her good woords did winne againe that which thou by thy euill woorks didst loose Thou shalt haue my curse yf thou vsest her euyll thou shalt fall into theire of the gods if that agreest that other doo not vse her wel For all the domage which shee shal feele shal not bee but for the inconuenience of my death iniury of thy persō For her dowrye I leaue her the tributes of Hostia the orchyardes of Vulcanus which I haue made to bee planted for her recreation Bee thou not so hardy to take them from her for in taking them from her thou shalt shewe thy wickednes in leauing them her thy obedyence in geeuing her more thy bounty liberalyty Remember my sonne that shee is a Romaine woman yong a wydow of the house of Traiane my lord that shee is thy mother adoptatiue my naturall wyfe aboue al for that I leaue her recommended vnto thee I commend vnto thee my sonne in laws whome I will thou vse as parents and frends And beeware that thou bee not of those which are brethern in woords cousins in woorks Bee thou assured that I haue willed somuch good to my doughters that the best which were in al the countries I haue chosen for their persons And they haue beene so good that if in geeuing them my doughters they were my sonne in laws in loue I loued them as chyldren I commend vnto thee my Systers doughters whome I leaue thee al maryed not with straūge kings but with natural senatours So that al dwel in Rome where they mai doo thee seruices and thou maist geue them rewards gifts Thy sisters haue greatly inheryted the beauty of thy mother Faustine haue taken lytle nature of their father Marke But I sweare vnto thee that I haue geeuen them such husbands and to their husbands such and so profitable counsailes that they would rather loose their lyfe then agree to any thing touching their dishonor Vse thy sisters in such sort that they bee not out of fauor for that their aged father is dead and that they beecome not proud for to see their brother Emperor Women are of a very tender condicion for of small occasion they doo complayne of lesse they wax proud Thou shalt keepe them preserue them after my death as I did in my lyfe For otherwise their conuersacion to the people shal bee very noisome to thee very importunate I comend vnto thee Lipula thy yongest Sister which is inclosed with in the virgine vestalles who was doughter of thy mother Faustine whome so derely I haue loued in life whose death I haue beewailed vntil my death Euery yeare I gaue to thy sister sixe thousand Sexterces for her necessyties in deede I had maryed her also if shee had not fallen into the fire burnt her face For though shee were my last I loued her with all my hart All haue esteemed her fal into the fire for euyll luck but I doo coūt the euil luck for good fortune For her face was not so burned with coles as her renowme suffred peryl among euill tongs I sweare vnto thee my sonne that for the seruice of the gods for the renowme of men shee is more sure in the Temple with the vestal Virgins then the art in the Senate with thy Senatours I suppose now that at the end of the iourney shee shal find her selfe better to bee enclosed then thou at liberty I leaue vnto her in the prouynce of Lucania euery yeare six
saluation the euil gotten good a cause of his eternal dānation More ouer yet what toyle and trauayl is it to the body of the man how much more perill to the liuing soule when hee consumeth his hole days and life in wordly broile and yet seely man hee can not absent him self from that vile drudgery till death dooth sommon him to yeeld vp his accoūt of his lief and dooings And now to conclude my prologue I say this booke is deuided into two parts that is to weete in the first tenne chapters is declared how the new come courtier shall beehaue him self in the princes court to winne fauor credit with the prince the surplus of the woork treateth when hee hath atcheeued to his princes fauor acquired the credyt of a worthy courtier how hee shal then continew the same to his further aduaūcement And I doubt no whit but that my lords gentlemen of court wil take pleasure to read it and namely such as are princes familiars and beeloued of court shall mostly reap profyt thereby putting the good lessons aduertisements they fynd heretofore writen in execucion For to the yong courtiers it sheweth them what they haue to doo putteth in remembraunce also the old fauored courtier lyuing in his princes grace of that hee hath to bee circūspect of And fynally I conclude sir that of al the treasors riches gyfts fauors prosperities pleasures seruices greatnes power that you haue possesse in this mortal transitory life by the faith of a christian I sweare vnto you also that you shal cary no more with you then the onely time which you haue wel vertuously emploied during this your pilgrimage ¶ The Argument of the booke entituled the fauored courtier wheare the author sheweth the intent of his woork exhorting all men to read and study good and vertuous bookes vtterly reiectyng fables and vayn trifflyng stories of small doctrine erudicion AVlus Gelius in his booke De noctibus atticis sayeth that after the death of the great poet Homer seuen famous Cyties of Greece were in great controuersy one with the other ech one of them affirmyng that by reason the bones of the sayd poet was theirs and onely apperteined to them all seuen takyng their othes that hee was not onely born but also norished and brought vp in euery one of them And this they did supposing that they neuer had so great honor in any thing but that this was farre greater to haue educated so excellent and rare a man as hee was Euripides also the philosopher born and brought vp in Athens trauayling in the realme of Macedonia was sodeynly striken with death which wofull newes no sooner came to the Athenians ears declared for a trouth but with al expedicion they depeached an honorable imbasy onely to intreat the Lacedemonians to bee contented to deliuer them the bones of the sayd philosopher protesting to them that if they woold franckly graunt them they woold regratify that pleasure done them and if they woold deny them they should assure them selues they woold come to demaund them with sweord in hand Kyng Demetrius held Rhodes beesyged long tyme which at length hee wanne by force of armes and the Rhodians beeing so stubborn that they would not yeeld by composition nor trust to his princely clemency hee commaunded to strike of all the Rhodians heads and to rase the cyty to the hard foundacions But when hee was let vnderstand that there was euen then in the cyty Prothogenes a phylosopher and paynter doutyng least in executyng others hee allso vnknowen myght bee put to the sweord reuoked his cruel sentence and gaue straight commaundement foorthwith they should cease to spoyle and deface the town further and also to stay the slaughter of the rest of the Rhodiens The diuine Plato beeing in Athens aduertised that in the cyty of Damasco in the realme of Palestine were certayn bookes of great antiquity whych a philosopher born of that countrey left beehynd hym there when hee vnderstoode it to bee true went thither immediatly led with the great desyre hee had to see them and purposely if they dyd lyke him afterwards to buy them And when hee saw that neyther at his sute nor at the requests of others hee could obtein them but that hee must buy them at a great price Plato went and sold all his patrimony to recouer them and his own not beeing sufficient hee was fayn to borrow vpon interest of the cōmon treasory to help him So that notwithstanding hee was so profound and rare a philosopher as in deede hee was yet hee woold sell all that small substaunce hee had only to see as hee thought some prety new thing more of philosophy As Ptholomeus Philadelphus kyng of Egipt not contented to bee so wise in al sciences as hee was nor to haue in his library .8000 bookes as hee had nor to study at the least .4 howers in the day nor ordinaryly to dispute at his meales wyth philosophers sent neuertheles an imbassage of noble men to the Ebrews to desire them they woold bee contented to send him some of the best lerned and wisest men among them to teach him the Ebrew tongue to read to him the bookes of their laws When Alexander the great was born his father kyng Phillippe wrote a notable letter immediatly to Aristottle among other matters hee wrote there were these I doo thee to weete O greatest philosopher Aristotle if thou knowst it not that Olimpias my wife is brought to bed of a sonne for which incessantly I geeue the gods immortal thanks not so much that I haue a sonne as for that they haue geeuen him mee in thy tyme. For I am assured hee shal profit more with the doctrine thou shalt teach him thē hee shal preuail with the kingdoms I shal leaue him after mee Now by the examples aboue recited and by many more we coold alledge wee may easly consider with what reuerence and honor the auncient kyngs vsed the learned and vertuous men of their tyme. And wee may also more playnly see it syth then they held in greater price and estimacion the bones of a dead philosopher then they doo now the doctrine of the best learned of our time And not without iust occasiō dyd these famous heroycal princes ioy to haue at home in their houses abrode with them in the feeld such wise learned men whilst they liued after they were dead to honor their bones and carcases and in dooing this they erred not a iot For who so euer accompanieth continually with graue wise men enioyeth this benefit and priuiledge beefore others that hee shall neuer bee counted ignorant of any Therefore continuing still our fyrst purpose let vs say that who so euer will professe the company of sober and wise men yt can not otherwise bee but hee must maruelously profyt by their comapny For beeing in their company they will put all
wee are all of the earth wee liue in the earth and in th end wee haue to turne into the earth as to our naturall thing If the planets and the beasts coold help vs wyth the instrument and benefite of the tongue they woold take from vs the occasions of vayn glory For the starres woold say that they were created in the firmament the Sunne in the heauens the byrdes in the ayer the Salamaunder in the fyer and the fysh in the water but only the vnhappy man was made of earth and created in the earth So that in that respect wee cannot glory to haue other kinsfolk neerer to vs then are the woormes the flyes and horseflyes If a man did consider well what hee were hee woold assertain vs that the fyer burnes him water drownes him the earth wearies him the ayre troubles him the heate greeues him the cold hurts him and the day is troublesom to him the night sorowfull hunger and thirst makes him suffer meat and drink filles him his enemies daily follow him and his frends forget him So that the tyme a man hath to lyue in thys wretched world cannot bee counted a lyfe but rather a long death The first day wee see one borne the self same wee may make rekening that hee beginnes to dye and although that parson lyued amongst vs a hundreth yeres after in this world wee shoold not say therefore that hee lyued along tyme but only that hee taryed a great tyme to dye Therefore that parson that hath his lyfe tyed to so many trybutes I can not deuyse or think with my selfe why or wherefore hee shoold bee proud But now returning againe to our purpose let vs say and exhort the seruaunts and familiers of princes that they take heede they bee not proud and presumptuous For it seeldom happeneth that the fauored of kings and princes fall out of fauor and credit for that they haue or can doo much nor for that they craue and desyre much but for that they are to bold and presume to much For in the court of kings Princes there is nothing more hurtfull and lesse profitable then pryde and presumption For oft tymes the ouerweening of the courtier and the foolysh vayne pryde and reputacion hee hath of hym self brings him to bee in the princes disgrace and makes the people also to bee offended and angry wyth him For till this day wee neuer saw nor hard tell of any that euer got into the princes fauor and credit for that hee was proud and high mynded but only for that hee hath shewed himself an humble obedient curteous louyng and a faithful seruant I woold bee of this mynd that the courtier that seeth hee is receiued into fauor in the princes court shoold euer waxe better in seruing well then grow woorse in presuming to much And I dare boldly say and affirme that it is a mere point of folly by his pryde and rashenesse to lose all that good in one day that by great good fortune hee hath attained to in many yeres And though that the fauored courtier subiect possible to his fantasticall humor bee sometymes ouercome wyth cholor carnal desyre drawen with auaryce and addicted to the gorge enuenomed with enuy plunged insloth and ydlenes or some other vyce and imperfection it shal not skill much neither bee any great wonder since all mankynd is subiect to those passions and neither the prince nor the common weale will recken much of that For of all these faults and vyces there can come no greater hurt to him saue only that that the common people woold murmure against him But his pryde and pecokes glory once knowen and espied euery man casteth his eys vppon him to beehold his princely gate and curseth hym in woord and deede Therefore let a man bee in as great fauor as hee can deuyse to bee as woorthy noble ritch and of as great power and aucthority as hee desyreth to bee I neuer saw any yll in al my lyfe if with al these vertues hee were proud and high mynded but in th end hee was persecuted of many and hated and enuyed of all For those that are in greatest fauor about the prince haue secret enemies enough to hinder their credit although they doo not purchase them new to accuse them of their pryde and presumption And as wee are taught by experience the burning coal cannot long bee kept alyue without it bee couered with the whot ymbers Euen so I mean that the fauor of the prince cannot bee long maintained without good bringing vp and ciuile maners gentle conuersation and familiarity The great mē of auctority about the prince runne estsones into great and many daungers and this happeneth because they woold not bee reproued in any thing what so euer they doo much lesse here any woord that shoold displease them neyther can they abyde to bee told of their faults much lesse suffer to bee corrected for them Nether doo they suffer willyngly to bee counselled in any thing bee it neuer of so great weight and importance neyther woold they haue any compaygnion with them in fauor and credit with the Prince but they desire to bee both on the right hand of the prince and of the left styll they only woold bee the fauored of the prince and none other aspiring to gouerne them in all their dooings and to bee thought and reputed the sole and only rulers of the affairs of the prince and his common weal and to bee beleeued in all things of the prince and to bee obeyd also of the comon people Those therfore that are continually resient in the court of princes and that haue the cheefest roomes and offices of auctority in the court let them well consider and keepe in memory this one woord that I will tell them And that is this That the first day that they take vppon them to bee superintēdēts and gouernors of the common weal euen in the self same day they shal come to put in hasard their honor fauor and credit how great so euer it bee For with great difficulty are the lest things the prince himself cōmaundeth executed or doon in his realm or common weal and therefore may the fauored of the court see how much more hard it is for him to rule as sole absolute lord the affairs of the realme and to bee obeied in the common weal since the kyng him self cannot doo it by his regall auctority And therefore the lesse hee shall desire to meddle with thaffairs of the people the more shall hee lyue in quiet and contented For naturally the common people are so vnstable and vncertain in their dooings vnthankfull of benefits receiued and so ingratefull of a good turne doon them that the beloued of the court or any other person in fauor with the prince can euer doo any thing for the people bee it neuer so well but they will speak ill and mislyke of him and fynd fault with some of his dooings It is impossible
you haue hitherto geeuen mee you will moderate your correction and punishment which after this I looke for that you wil geeue mee that you punish mee with pyty and not with vtter destruction and ruyn And yet hee added this furder to his woords Not without cause I coniure thee O fortune doo beeseech you immortal gods that you will punish mee fauorably but not to vndoo mee because I am assured that ouermuch felicity and prosperyty of this life is no more but a prediction and presage of a great calamity ill ensuyng happe Truely al the examples aboue recited are woorthy to bee noted to bee kept always beefore the eyes of our mynd sith by them wee come to know that in the prosperity of this our thrawled life there is litle to hope for much to bee afrayd of It is true wee are very frayle by nature since we are borne fraile wee liue frayl and dayly wee fall into a thowsand fraylties but yet notwithstanding wee are not so frayl but wee may if wee will resist vice And all this commeth onely because one sort of people foloweth an other but one reason seeldome foloweth an other If wee fall if wee stomble if wee bee sick if wee break our face are wee suer that seruing as wee doo the world that the world will recure remedy vs No sure it is not so For the remedy the world is woont to geeue to our troubles is euer notwithstanding greater trouble then the first So that they are like to searing yrons that burn the flesh and heale not the wound For the world is full of guile disceyt subtill to deciue but very slow to geeue vs remedy And this wee see plainly For if it perswade vs to reuenge any iniury receyued it dooth it only in reuenging of that to make vs receiue a thousand other iniuries And if sometimes wee think wee receiue some comfort of the world of our payns and troubles of the body it afterwards ouer lodeth our mynds with a sea of thoughts cogitacions So that this accursed and flattering world maketh vs beleeue and perswadeth vs the right perfyt way in the end wee are cast vnwares into the nettes of all wickednes priuily layd to snare vs. How great so euer a man bee in fauor with the kyng how noble of blood how fyne of wyt how ware so euer hee bee let euery man bee assured that practiseth in the world hee shall in the end bee deceyued by him For hee costeth vs very deere wee sell our selues to him good cheap I told you but litle to tell you wee sold our selues good cheap for I should haue sayd better in saying wee haue geeuen our selues in pray wholly to him without receiuing any other recompence And in deede they are very few and rare that haue any reward of him infinit are they that serue him without any other recompence more then a foolish and vayn hope O trayterous world in how short a time doost thou receiue vs and afterwards with a glimse of an eye sodeinly doost put vs from thee thou gladdest and makest vs sorofull thou callest vs to honor and abasest vs thou punishest vs doost vs a thousand pleasures And fynally I say thou doost make vs so vile and poysonest vs with thy vile labors that wythout thee wee are yet euer with thee and that that greeues vs woorst of all ys that hauing the theefe in the house wee goe out of the house to geeue him place and make him owner When the world knoweth one once that is proud and presumptuous hee procureth him honor to another that is couetous riches to an other that is a glutton good meats to an other that is carnall the commodity of women to an other that is idle quiet and ease all thys dooth the traterous world to the end that after as fysh whom hee hath fed hee may lose the net of sinne vpon vs to catch vs in If wee would resist the first temptacions the world offereth vs it is impossyble hee durst so many times assault vs. For to say truely by our small resistaunce increaseth his ouer great audacity I woold these louers of this world woold but tel mee a litle what reward or what hope they can hope of him why they should suffer so many incombers broiles and troubles as they doo To think the world can geeue vs perpetual life it is a mockry and extreame madnes to hope of it For wee see when life is most deere to vs and that wee are lothest to leaue the world then ariueth death in an vnhappy hower to swallow vs vp and to depriue vs of all thys worldly felicity To hope that the world will geeue vs assured mirth this ys also a madnes For the days excepted wee must lament the due hours allotted out to cōplain alas wee shal see a small surplus of time left to laugh and bee meery I can say no more but exhort euery man to looke well about him what hee dooth and that hee bee aduised what hee thinketh For when wee thynk and beleeue wee haue made peace with fortune euen then is shee in battell against vs. And I doo assuredly beleeue that that I now prepare my self to speak euen presently shal bee read of many but obserued of few and that is that I haue seene those come out of their own propre houses moorning lamenting that had spent and consumed all their time in laughing and making good cheere seruing this miserable world Which is but only a geeuer of al euels a ruyn of the good a heap of sinne a tyrant of vertues a traytor of peace and warre a sweete water of errors a riuer of vices a persecutor of the vertuous a combe of lyes a deuiser of nouelties a graue of the ignorant a cloke of the wicked an ouen of lechery and fynally a Caribdis where all good and noble harts doo perish and a right Silla where all noble desires and thoughts are cast away togeethers For it is most certayn that this worldling that is not content with this world and that leaueth his fyrst state and that taketh vppon him a new maner of life and chaungeth from house to house and contrey to contrey hee shall neuer notwithstanding content him self nor quyet his mynd And the cause heereof is that if a worldling depart out of his house neuer to come agayn into it there are yet at hand immediatly other tenne licentious persons that doo but watch to enter into his house Speaking more particulerly I say that in the court of prynces they account them happy and fortunat that bee in fauor with the prince that haue great affairs in court that bee rich and of power that bee serued and honored of euery man and that take place and goe beefore euery man So that it may bee sayd that the common people doo not call those fortunat that deserue to bee fortunate but onely those that haue
they haue obteined great renowme in their life and lefte a perpetuall memorie of theym after their death I wil tel you an auncyent history as profitable to restraine our vices as it dyd then augment vertues whych is this The realme of the Lacedemoniens as Plato sayth was a long tyme as dissolute through the vnthriftines of women as infamed by the vyces of men so that of al nations they were called barbarous what time Greece of the philosophers was called the mother of phylosophers Licurgus a wise phylosophers in knowledge and a right iust king in gouernaunce partly with his doctrine very profitable partly with his lyfe most pure ordeyned lawes in the sayd realme wherby he expelled all vyces and planted al vertues I cannot tel whych of these two were moste happiest the kyng hauynge so obedyent people or els the realme to haue soo worthy a kinge Among other lawes for women he enacted one worthye of hyghe commendacion the whiche commaunded that the father whych dyed shoulde geue nothynge to his doughter and another that neither liuing nor dieng he shold geue any money to mary her with to thintent that none should take her for her goodes but al onlye for her vertues and not for her beautye but for her qualyties wher as nowe some be forsaken bycause where as now some be forsaken because they are poore soo then they abode vnmaried because they were vicious O time worthye to be desired when maydens hoped not to be maried with their fathers goodes but by the vertuous workes of their owne persons this was the time called the golden world when neither the doughter feared to be disherited by the father in his lyfe nor the father to dye sorowfull for leuynge her without dowrye at his death O Rome cursed be he that first brought gold into thy house cursed be he that first began to horde vp treasour Who haue made Rome to be so rich of treasure and so poore of vertues who hath caused noble men to mary the Plebeians leaue the doughters of Senatours vnmaryed what hath made that the rich mannes doughter is demaunded vnwillyng the doughters of a poore man none wil desire What hath caused that one marieth a foole with fyue hundreth markes rather then a wise womā with ten thousand vertues then I wil not say that in this case the flesh vanquished the flesh but I say that vanity is ouercome of malyce For a couetous person wil soner now a daies take a wife that is rich foule then one that is poore and faire O vnhappie woman that bring forth chyldren and more vnhappie be the doughters that are borne the which to take in mariage no man desireth neyther for the bloud of their predecessours nor the fauour of their frendes nor the worthynes of their persons nor for the purity of their lyues O wicked worlde where the doughter of a good man without moneye shal haue no mariage but it was not wont to be so For in the old time when they treated of mariages first they spake of the persons and after of the goods not as they do at this present in this vnhappie time for now they speake first of the goods last of al of the persons In the said golden world first they spake of the vertues that the person was endewed with and when they were maried as it were in sport they would speake of the goods When Camillus triumphed ouer the Gauls he had then but one sonne and he was such one that his desertes meryted great praise for the renowne of his father dyuers kinges desired to haue him to their sonnes and diuers senatours desired to haue him to their sonne in law This yong man being of the age of xxx yeres the father at lx was importunately stirred by his natural frends and desires of straunge kings for to marie him but alway the old Camille withstode the concel of his frends the importunity of the straungers When it was demaunded why he determyned not vpon some mariage for his sonne syth thereby should ensue the quyet life of the man the ioy of himselfe in his age he aunswered I wil not mary my sonne because some offer me rich doughters some noble of linage some yong and some faire But ther is none hath sayd to me I geue you my vertuous doughter Certenly Camil merited triumphe for that he did and deserued eternal memory for that he sayde I spake to you Faustine all these words because I se you leade your doughter to theatres and playes and bring her into the capitolle you put her to the keaping of the sword plaiers you suffer her to see the tumblers yet do you not remember that she is yong and you not to aged you go into the streates withoute lycence and sporte you by the ryuers I finde no vyllannye therin nor thynke that youre doughter is euyl but I saye it bycause you geue occasion that she shoulde not bee good Beware beware Faustine neuer trust to the race of flesh of yong people nor haue no confidens in old folkes for ther is no better way then to flye the occasion of al things For this intent the virgins vestalles are closed vp betwene the walles to eschew the occasions of open places not to be more lyght and folyshe but to be more sad vertuous flieng occasions The yong shal not say I am yong and vertuous nor the old shal not say I am old and broken For of necessity the dry flaxe wil bren in the fier the grene flagge smoke in the flame I say though a man be a dyamond set among men yet of necessitie he ought to be quicke and to melt as waxe in the heate amonge women we cannot deny that thoughe the wood be taken from the fyer and the Imbers quenched yet neuertheles the stones oftentime remaine hotte In lykewise the flesh though it be chastised with hotte and dry disseases consumed by many yeres with trauaile yet concupiscens abydeth stil in the bones What nede is it to blase the vertues and deny our naturalyties certeinly ther is not so old a horse but if he se a mare wil ney once or twise ther is no man so yong nor old but let him se faire yong damosels eyther he wil gyue a sigh or a wishe In al voluntarie things I deny not but that one maye be vertuous but in natural thinges I confesse euery man to be weake When you take the wood from the fier it leaueth burnyng when sommer cometh the cold winter ceaseth when the sea is calme the waues leaue their vehement mocions when the sonne is set it lightneth not the world I wil say that then and not before the flesh wil cease to trouble vs when it is layd in the graue of the flesh we are borne in the flesh we lyue and in the fleshe we shal dy therby it foloweth that our good lyfe shal soner end then our fleshly desires
put to destruction and brought to noughte but with greate diffyculty they are remedyed and repayred againe And further I demaund what God of the gentiles was so puissaunt to do this which the god of the Hebrues dyd in that auncient and opulent realme of the Egypcians That is to witte when he would and when it pleased him he made the ryuers runne bloud infected the fleshe darkened the ayer dryed the seas slew the first begotten obscured the sōne and did wonders in Chanaan other wōderful thinges in the read sea Finally he cōmaunded the sea to drowne the prince aliue with al his Egypcians that it should let the Hebrues passe dry Yf one of these false gods had done any one of these thinges it had bene to be maruailed at but the true god doing it we shold not meruaile at al. For according to our lytle vnderstandyng it semeth a great thing but in respect of that the deuyne power can do it is nothing For wher God putteth his hande there are no men so myghty no beastes so proude nor heauen so highe nor sea so deape that can resyst his power For as he gaue them power so can he take it from theym at hys pleasure Further what God of the gentyles altough they were assembled together could haue had the power to haue destroyed one man only as the true God dyd the which in the tyme of kyng Zedechias made an hundreth and foure score thousande of the campe of the assiryans dye the Hebrues being a sleape which were their mortal enemyes And truly in this case god shewed to princes and greate lordes howe lytle their monnye and their subtyle wyttes preuayle them in feates of warre when god hath determined another thinge for their desertes For in the ende the first inuencion of warres proceadeth of mans ambicion and worldlye malyce but the victorye of them procedeth of the deuine pleasoure What god of the gentyles could haue done that which our true God dyd when he brought vnder the feete of the renowmed Captayne Iosue two and thirty kynges and Realmes whom he depryued not only from their lādes but also bereft theym of theyr lyues in tearing them in pieces and deuydyng the myserable realmes into 12 Tribes Those realmes which in old time belonged vnto the Hebrues were more then 2000 yeres kept of them in tiranny wherfore God would that by the handes of Iosue they should be restored And though god differred it a long tyme it was to gyue theym greauous tormentes and not for that god had forgotten them And althoughe princes do forget manye wronges and tirannies yet notwithstandynge riuers of bloude cease not to runne before the face of the dyuine Iustice If all the auncient goddes hadde had power woulde not they also haue holpen their princes since the goddes lost no lesse in losinge theyr temples then menne loste in losing their realmes For it touched more the case of the auncyentes to lose one lytle Temple thenne for men to lose a noble Realme We see that the goddes of the troians could not resist the greekes but that both men and gods gods men came into Carthage from Carthage in to Trinacrie and from Trinacrie into Italie and from Italie tino Laurentum and from Laurentum into Rome So they went about flieng declaring that the gods of Troy were no lesse conquered of the gods of Greece then the Dukes and captaynes of grece were vanquished of the captaynes of Troy the which thing is hard to them that presume to be gods For the true god doth not only make himselfe feared but also beloued and feared both That we say of the one the same we may wel say of the others That is to know that al the gods in the realmes and temples wherin they honored and serued but wee see th one destroyeth the other as it is declared by the Hebrues which were in bondage of the Assirians the Assirians of the Persians the Persians of the Macedonians the Macedonians of the Medes the Medes of the Grekes the Grekes of the Penians the Penians of the Romaines the Romaines of the Gothes the Gothes of the Moores So that that ther was no realme nor nacion but was conquered Neyther the wryters can deny but they would haue exalted their gods and ceremonies that the gods their worshippers shuld not haue end But in the end both gods and men had al end except the christian religion which shal neuer haue end For it is founded of that which hath neyther beginning nor ending One of the things which comforteth my hart most in the christian religion is to see that since the time the churches wer founded the kinges and princes most puissant haue ben alwayes theyr enemyes and the most feble and poore alwayes greatest helpers and defenders of the same O glorious militaunte church which now is no other then gold amongest the rust a rose amongest the thornes corne amongest the chaffe marye amongest the bones Margarites amōgest the peble stones a holy soule amongest the rotten flesh a Phoenix in the cage a shippe rokking in the raging seas which the more she is beaten the faster she sayleth And there is no Realme soo litle nor no manne of so litle fauoure but when other doo persecute him hee is by his frendes parentes and defendoures fauoured and succoured so that manye times those whiche thinke to destroye are destroyed those which seme to take their part were their chiefest enemies Doth not that procede of the great secret of god For though God suffred the wicked to be wicked a while god will not therfore suffer that one euil man procure an other to do euil The Palestines and those of Hierusalem had not for their principall enemyes but the Caldeans and the Caldians had for their enemyes the Idumeans the Idumeans the Assirians the Assirians the Persians the Persians the Arginians the Arginians the Athenians the Athenians had for their principal enemyes the Lacedemonians and the Lacedemonians the Sydonians the Sydonians the Rhodians and the Rhodians the Scithians the Scithians the Hunnes the Hunnes had the Alaines the Alaines the Svveuians and the Svveuians the Vandales the Vandales the Valerians the Valerians the Sardinians the Sardinians the Affricanes the Affricanes the Romaines the Romaines the Daciās the Dacians the Gothes the Gothes the Frenchmen the Frenchmen the Spanyardes and the Spanyardes the Mores And of all these realmes the one hath persecuted the other And not al one but our holy mother the church hath alwayes ben oppressed persecuted with those realmes and hath bene socoured of none but of Iesu Christ only and he hath euer succoured and defended it wel For the things that God taketh charge of although al the world wer agaynst them in the end it is impossible for them to perishe ¶ How ther is but one true God how happy those Realmes are which haue a good christian to their king and how the gentils affirme that the good princes
after their death were changed into gods the wycked into deuils whych thing the Auctoure proueth by soundry examples Cap. x. ALthough the common opinion of the simple people was that ther were many gods yet not withstandinge al the Phylosophers affyrmed that ther was but one God who of some was named Iupiter the whiche was chiefe aboue al other gods Others called him the first intelligence for that he had created al the world Others called him the first cause because he was the beginner of all things It semeth that Aristotle vnderstode this thinge and was of this opinion forasmuch as he sayth in his .12 booke of his metaphisickes All superiour and inferiour thinges wold be well ordered and many thinges muche better by tharbitrement of one then by the aduice of many Marcus Varro in hys booke De theologia mistica Tullius in hys booke De natura Deorum although these were gentyles and curious enoughe of the Temples yet they do mocke the gentiles whych beleued ther were manye gods that Mars Mâ—rcury and lykewyse Iupiter the whole flocke of gods which the gentyles set vp wer al mortal men as we are But because they knew not that ther wer good nor bad angels nor knew not that ther was any paradise to reward the good nor hel to torment the euil They held thys opinion that the good men after their death wer gods and the euyl men deuils And not contented with these folysh abuses the deuil brought them into such an errour that they thought it consisted in the Senates power to make some gods and other deuils For when ther dyed at Rome any Emperour if he had bene wel willed of the Senate immediatly he was honoured for a god and if he died in dyspleasure of the Senate he was condemned for a deuyl And to the end we do not speake by fauour but by writting Herodian sayth that Faustine was the doughter of Antonius Pius wife of Marcus Aurelius which wer Emperours the one after the other And truly ther wer few eyther of their predecessours or of their successours which wer so good as they wer and in myne opinion more better therfore was she made a goddesse and her father a god An Emperour that coueteth perpetual memory must note 5. thinges which he should haue in his life That is to saye pure in lyfe vpright in iustice aduenturous in feates of armes excellent in knowledge and welbeloued in his prouinces which vertues were in these 2. excellente Emperors This Empresse Faustine was passing fayre and the wrytters praise her beauty in such sorte that they sayde it was vnpossible for her to be so beautiful but that the gods had placed som deuine thing in her Yet not with standing this added therunto it is doubtful whether the beauty of her face was more praysed then the dishonestie of her lyfe discommended For her beauty maruelously amazed those that saw her her dishonesty offended them moch that knew her Yet after the Emperour Marcus Aurèlius had triumphed ouer the Parthians as he went visitinge the prouinces of Asia the goodlye Faustine in 4. daies dyed in the mounte Taurus by occasion of a burnynge feuer and so annealed was caried to Rome And since she was the daughter of so good a father and wife of so dearely beloued an Emperour amonges the Gods she was canonyzed but consideringe her vnconstant or rather incontinent lief it was neuer thought that the Romaines would haue done her so much honor Wherfore the Emperour reioysed so much that he neuer ceased to render thankes vnto the Senate For truely the benefite ought to be acceptable to him that receiueth it especially whan it commeth vnloked for The contrary came to the death of Tiberius third Emperour of Rome which was not only killed and drawen throughe the streates by the Romans but also the priestes of all the Temples assembled together and openly prayed vnto the gods that they would not receiue him to them and prayed to the infernal furyes that greauously they would torment him sayinge it is iustly required that the Tirant which dispraiseth the life of the good in his life should haue no place amoÌ„gest the good after his death Leauing the common opinion of the rude people whiche in the olde time had no knowledge of the true god declaring the opinion of Aristole which called god the first cause the opinion of the Stoickes which called him the firste intelligeÌ„ce and the opinion of Cicero which vnder the colour of Iupiter putteth none other god but him I saye and confesse according to the religion of christian faith there is but one only God which is the creatour of heauen and earth whose excellency and puissaunt maiestie is litle to that our tong can speake For our vnderstaÌ„ding can not vnderstand nor our iudgemeÌ„t can determine neither our memory can comprehende and much lesse our tonge can declare it That which princes and other faithful ought to beleue of god is that they ought to know god to be almighty and incomparable a god immortall incorruptible immouable great omnipotent a perfite and sempiternall God for all mans power is nothing in respecte of his diuine maiesty I saye that our lord god is the onely hyghe god that if the creature hath any good it is but a meane good For a man comparing wel the good which he possesseth to the misery and calamitie whiche persecute him with out doubte the euill which foloweth him is greater then the good which accompanieth him Also our god is immortall and eternall which like as he had no beginning so shall he neuer haue ending And the contrarye is to the miserable man which if some see him borne others see him dye For the byrth of the children is but a memory of the graue to the aged Also God onely is vncorruptible the which in his beyng hath nother corruption nor diminution but al mortall men suffer corruption in their soules throughe vyce and in their bodyes through wormes for in the end no man is priuileged but that hys bodye is subiecte to corruption and hys soule to be saued or damned Also God is no chaungelyng and in this case thoughe he chaungeth his worke yet he chaungeth not his eternall counsayle But in men it is all contrarye for they oftetimes beginne their busynes with grauitye and afterward chaung theyr counseill at a better tyme and leaue it lyghtlye I haue now shewed you that God only is incomprehensible the maiestie of whom can not be attained nor his wisedome vnderstanded which thing is aboue mans intelligence For there is no man so sage nor profound but that an other in an other tyme is as sage and profound as he Also God onely is omnipotent for that he hath power not only ouer the lyuinge but also ouer the dead not onely ouer the good but also ouer the euill For the man which doth not feele his mercy to giue him glory he wil make him feele his