years of age It is full both of Reason and Piety too to take Example by the Humanity of Jesus Christ himself who ended his Life at three and thirty years The greatest man that ever was no more than a man Alexander died also at the same Age. How many several ways has Death to surprize us Quid quisque vitet nunquam homini satis Cautum est in horas Man fain would shun but 't is not in his Power T' evade the dangers of each threatning hour To omit Fevers and Pleurisies who would ever have imagin'd that a Duke of Brittany should be press'd to death in a Crowd as that Duke was at the entry of Pope Clement into Lyons Have we not seen one of our Kings kill'd at a Tilting and did not one of his Ancestors dye by the justle of a Hog Aeschylus being threatned with the fall of a house was to much purpose so circumspect to avoid that danger when he was knock'd o' th' head by a Tortoise-shell falling out of an Eagles Talons in the Fields Another was choak'd with a Grape-stone an Emperour kill'd with the scratch of a Comb in combing his Head Aemilius Lepidus with a stumble at his own threshold and Anfidius with a justle against the door as he entred the Council Chamber And betwixt the very Thighs of Women Cornelius Gallus the Praetor Tigillinus Captain of the Watch at Rome Ludovico Son of Guido de Gonzaga Marquis of Mantua and of worse example Spensippus a Platonick Philosopher and one of our Popes The poor Judge Bebius whilst he repriev'd a Criminal for eight dayes only was himself condemn'd to death and his own day of Life was expir'd Whilst Caius Julius the Physician was anointing the Eyes of a Patient Death clos'd his own and if I may bring in an Example of my own Blood A Brother of mine Captain St. Martin a young man of three and twenty years old who had already given sufficient testimony of his Valour playing a match at Tennis receiv'd a blow of a Ball a little above his right Ear which though it was without any manner of sign of Wound or depression of the Skull and though he took no great notice of it nor so much as sate down to repose himself he nevertheless died within five or six hours after of an Apoplexy occasion'd by that blow Which so frequent and common Examples passing every day before our Eyes how is it possible a man should disingage himself from the thought of Death or avoid fancying that it has us every moment by the Collar What matter is it you will say which way it comes to pass provided a man does not terrifie himself with the expectation For my part I am of this mind that if a man could by any means avoid it though by creeping under a Calves skin I am one that should not be ashamed of the shift all I aim at is to pass my time pleasantly and without any great Reproach and the Recreations that most contribute to it I take hold of as to the rest as little glorious and exemplary as you would desire praetulerim delirus inersque videri Dum mea delectant mala me vel denique fallant Quà m sapere ringi A Fool or Coward let me censur'd be Whilst either Vice does please or cozen me Rather than be thought wise and feel the smart Of a perpetual aking anxious Heart But 't is folly to think of doing any thing that way They go they come they gallop and dance and not a word of Death All this is very fine but withall when it comes either to themselves their Wives their Children or Friends surprizing them at unawares and unprepar'd then what torment what out-cries what madness and despair Did you ever see any thing so subdu'd so chang'd and so confounded A man must therefore make more early tryal of it and this bruitish negligence could it possibly lodge in the Brain of any man of Sense which I think utterly impossible sells us its merchandize too dear Were it an Enemy that could be avoided I would then advise to borrow Arms even of Cowardize it self to that effect but seeing it is not and that it will catch you as well flying and playing the Poltron as standing to 't like a man of Honour Nempe fugacem persequitur virum Nec parcit umbellis juventae Poplitibus timidoque tergo No speed of foot prevents Death of his prize He cuts the Hamstrings of the man that flies Nor spares the tender Stripling 's back does start T' out-run the distance of his mortal Dart. And seeing that no temper of Arms is of proof to secure us Ille licet ferro cautus se condat aere Mors tamen inclusum protrahet inde caput Shell thee with Steel or Brass advis'd by dread Death from the Cask will pull the cautious Head let us learn bravely to stand our ground and fight him And to begin to deprive him of the greatest Advantage he has over us let us take a way quite contrary to the common course Let us disarm him of his Novelty and Strangeness let us converse and be familiar with him and have nothing so frequent in our thoughts as Death Let us upon occasions represent him in all his most dreadful shapes to our imagination at the stumbling of a Horse at the falling of a Tile at the lest prick with a Pin let us presently consider and say to our selves Well and what if it had been Death it self and thereupon let us encourage and fortifie our selves Let us evermore amidst our jollity and Feasting set the remembrance of our frail condition before our Eyes never suffering our selves to be so far transported with our Delight but that we have some intervals of reflecting upon and considering how many several wayes this Jollity of ours tends to Death and with how many dangers it threatens it The Egyptians were wont to do after this manner who in the height of their Feasting and Mirth caus'd a dried Skeleton of a Man to be brought into the Room to serve for a Memento to their Guests Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora. Think every day soon as the day is past Of thy Lives date that thou hast liv'd the last The next day's joyful Light thine Eyes shall see As unexpected will more welcome be Where Death waits for us is uncertain let us every where look for him The Premeditation of Death is the Premeditation of Liberty who has learnt to dye has forgot to serve There is nothing of Evil in Life for him who rightly comprehends that Death is no Evil to know how to dye delivers us from all Subjection and Constraint Paulus Aemylius answer'd him whom the miserable King of Macedon his Prisoner sent to entreat him that he would not lead him in his Triumph Let him make that Request to himself In truth in all things if
of Opposition Certainly had it been capable of any manner of Moderation or Society it is to be believ'd that in the Sack and Desolation of Thebes to see so many valiant Men lost and totally destitute of any further Defence cruelly massacred before his Eyes would have appeas'd it where there were above six thousand put to the Sword of which not one was seen to fly or heard to cry out for Quarter but on the contrary every one running here and there to seek out and to provoke the Victorious Enemy to help them to an honourable end Not one who did not to his last Gasp yet endeavour to revenge himself and with all the Arms of a brave Despair to sweeten his own Death in the Death of an Enemy Yet did their Vertue create no Pity and the length of one day was not enough to satiate the Thirst of the Conquerours Revenge but the Slaughter continued to the last Drop of Blood that was capable of being shed and stop'd not till it met with none but naked and impotent Persons old Men Women and Children of them to carry away to the number of thirty thousand Slaves CHAP. II. Of Sorrow NO Man living is more free from this Passion than I who neither like it in my self nor admire it in others and yet generally the World I know not why is pleas'd to grace it with a particular Esteem endeavouring to make us believe That Wisdom Vertue and Conscience shroud themselves under this grave and affected Appearance Foolish and sordid Disguise The Italians however under the Denomination of Vn Tristo decipher a clandestine Nature a dangerous and ill-natur'd Man and with good reason it being a Quality always hurtful always idle and vain and as cowardly mean and base by the Stoicks expresly and particularly forbidden their Sages But the Story nevertheless says that Psammenitus King of Egypt being defeated and taken Prisoner by Cambyses King of Persia seeing his own Daughter pass by him in a wretched Habit with a Bucket to draw Water though hi◠Friends about him were so concerned as to break out into Tears and Lamentations at the miserable sight yet he himself remain'd unmov'd without uttering a Word of Discontent with his Eyes fix'd upon the Ground and seeing moreover his Son immediately after led to Execution still maintain'd the same Gravity and Indifference till spying at last one of his Domesticks drag'd away amongst the Captives he could then hold no longer but fell to tearing his Hair and beating his Breast with all the other Extravagancies of a wild and desperate Sorrow A Story that may very fitly be coupled with another of the same kind of a late Prince of our own Nation who being at Trent and having News there brought him of the Death of his elder Brother but a Brother on whom depended the whole Support and Honour of his House and soon after of that of a younger Brother the second Hope of his Family and having withstood these two Assaults with an exemplary Resolution one of his Servants hapning a few days after to dye he suffer'd his Constancy to be overcome by this last Accident and parting with his Courage so abandon'd himself to Sorrow and Mourning that some from thence were forward to conclude that he was only touch'd to the Quick by this last Stroak of Fortune but in truth it was that being before brim full of Grief the least Addition overflow'd the Bounds of all Patience Which might also be said of the former Example did not the Story proceed to tell us That Cambyses asking Psammenitus Why not being mov'd at the Calamity of his Son and Daughter he should with so great Impatience bear the Misfortune of his Friend It is answer'd he because this last Affliction was only to be manifested by Tears the two first exceeding all manner of Expression And peradventure something like this might be working in the Fancy of the ancient Painter who being in the Sacrifice of Iphigenia to represent the Sorrow of the Assistants proportionably to the several Degrees of Interest every one had in the Death of this fair innocent Virgin and having in the other Figures laid out the utmost Power of his Art when he came to that of her Father he drew him with a Veil over his Face meaning thereby that no kind of Countenance was capable of expressing such a degree of Sorrow Which is also the reason why the Poets feign the miserable Mother Niobe having first lost seven Sons and successively as many Daughters to be at last transform'd into a Rock Diriguisse malis Whom Grief alone Had Pow'r to stiffen into Stone Thereby to express that melancholick dumb and deaf Stupidity which benums all our Faculties when opprest with Accidents greater than we are able to bear and indeed the Violence and Impression of an excessive Grief must of necessity astonish the Soul and wholly deprive her of her ordinary Functions as it happens to every one of us who upon any sudden Alarm of very ill News find our selves surpriz'd stupified and in a manner depriv'd of all Power of Motion till the Soul beginning to vent it self in Sighs and Tears seems a little to free and disingage it self from the sudden Oppression and to have obtain'd some room to work it self out at greater Liberty Et via vix tandem voci laxata dolore est Yet scarce at last by strugling Grief a Gate Unbolted is for Sighs to sally at In the War that Ferdinand made upon the Widdow of King John of Hungary about Buda a Man at Arms was particularly taken notice of by every one for his singular gallant Behaviour in a certain Encounter unknown highly commended and as much lamented being left dead upon the Place but by none so much as by Raisciac a German Lord who was infinitely enamour'd of so unparalell'd a Vertue When the Body being brought off and the Count with the common Curiosity coming to view it the Arms were no sooner taken off but he immediately knew him to be his own Son A thing that added a second Blow to the Compassion of all the Beholders only he without uttering a Word or turning away his Eyes from the woful Object stood fixtly contemplating the Body of his Son till the Vehemency of Sorrow having overcome his Vital Spirits made him sink down stone-dead to the Ground Chi puo dir com' egli arde è in picciol fuoco What Tongue is able to proclaim How his Soul melted in the gentle Flame say the Inamorato's when they would represent an insupportable Passion misero quod omnes Eripit sensus mihi Nam simul te Lesbia aspexi nihil est super mi Quod loquar amens Lingua sed torpet tenuis sub artus Flamma dimanat sonitu suopte Tinniunt aures gemina teguntur Lumina nocte all-conquering Lesbia thine Eyes Have ravish'd from me all my Faculties At the first Glance of their victorious Ray I was so struck I knew not
their Tables Dishes Cups and all And as the Egyptians after their Feasts were wont to present the Company with a great Image of Death by one that cry'd out to them Drink and be merry for such shalt thou be when thou art dead so it is my Custom to have Death not only in my Imagination but continually in my Mouth neither is there any thing of which I am so inquisitive and delight to inform my self as the manner of mens Deaths their Words Looks and Gestures nor any places in History I am so intent upon and it is manifest enough by my crowding in Examples of this kind that I have a particular fancy for that Subject If I were a Writer of Books I would compile a Register with a Comment of the various Deaths of men and it could not but be useful for who should teach men to dye would at the same time teach them to live Dicearchus made one to which he gave that Title but it was design'd for another and less profitable end Peradventure some one may object and say that the pain and terror of dying indeed does so infinitely exceed all manner of imagination that the best Fencer will be quite out of his Play when it comes to the Push but let them say what they will to premeditate is doubtless a very great Advantage and besides is it nothing to come so far at least without any visible Disturbance or Alteration But moreover Nature her self does assist and encourage us If the Death be sudden and violent we have not leisure to fear if otherwise I find that as I engage further in my Disease I naturally enter into a certain loathing and disdain of Life I find I have much more ado to digest this Resolution of dying when I am well in Health than when sick languishing of a Fever and by how much I have less to do with the Commodities of Life by reason I even begin to lose the use and Pleasure of them by so much I look upon Death with less Terror and Amazement which makes me hope that the further I remove from the first and the nearer I approach to the latter I shall sooner strike a Bargain and with less Unwillingness exchange the one for the other And as I have experimented in other Occurrences that as Caesar says things often appear greater to us at distance than near at hand I have found that being well I have had Diseases in much greater Horror than when really afflicted with them The Vigour wherein I now am and the Jollity and Delight wherein I now live make the contrary Estate appear in so great a disproportion to my present condition that by imagination I magnifie and make those inconveniences twice greater than they are and apprehend them to be much more troublesome than I find them really to be when they lie the most heavy upon me and I hope to find Death the same Let us but observe in the ordinary changes and Declinations our Constitutions daily suffer how Nature deprives us of all sight and sense of our bodily decay What remains to an old man of the vigour of his Youth and better days Heu senibus vitae portio quanta manet Alas to men of youthful Heat bereft How small a Portion of Life is left Caesar to an old weather-beaten Souldier of his Guards who came to ask him leave that he might kill himself taking notice of his wither'd Body and decrepid motion pleasantly answer'd Thou fanciest then that thou art yet alive Should a man fall into the Aches and impotencies of Age from a spritely and vigorous Youth on the sudden I do not think Humanity capable of enduring such a change but Nature leading us by the hand an easie and as it were an insensible pace step by step conducts us to that miserable condition and by that means makes it familiar to us so that we perceive not nor are sensible of the stroak then when our Youth dies in us though it be really a harder Death than the final Dissolution of a languishing Body which is only the Death of old Age forasmuch as the Fall is not so great from an uneasie Being to none at all as it is from a spritely and florid Being to one that is unweildy and painful The Body when bow'd beyond its natural spring of Strength has less Force either to rise with or support a Burthen and it is with the Soul the same and therefore it is that we are to raise her up firm and erect against the Power of this Adversary for as it is impossible she should ever be at rest or at Peace within her self whilst she stands in fear of it so if she once can assure her self she may boast which is a thing as it were above Humane Condition that it is impossible that Disquiet Anxiety or Fear or any other Disturbance should inhabit or have any Place in her Non vultus instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida neque Auster Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus A Soul well settled is not to be shook With an incensed Tyrant's threatning Look Nor can loud Auster once that Heart dismay The ruffling Prince of stormy Adria Nor yet th' advanced hand of mighty Jove Though charg'd with Thunder such a Temper move She is then become Sovereign of all her Lusts and Passions Mistress of Necessity Shame Poverty and all the other Injuries of Fortune Let us therefore as many of us as can get this Advantage which is the true and sovereign Liberty here on Earth and that fortifies us wherewithall to defie Violence and Injustice and to contemn Prisons and Chains in Manicis Compedibus saevo te sub custode tenebo Ipse Deus simul atque volam me solvet opinor Hoc sentit moriar mors ultima linea verum est With rugged Chains I 'll load thy Hands and Feet And to a surly Keeper thee commit Why let him shew his worst of Cruelty God will I think for asking set me free Ay but he thinks I 'll dye that Comfort brings For Death 's the utmost Line of Humane things Our very Religion it self has no surer humane Foundation than the Contempt of Death Not only the Argument of Reason invites us to it for why should we fear to lose a thing which being lost can never be miss'd or lamented But also seeing we are threatned by so many sorts of Death is it not infinitely worse eternally to fear them all than once to undergo one of them And what matter is it when it shall happen since it is once inevitable To him that told Socrates the thirty Tyrants have sentenc'd thee to Death and Nature them said he What a ridiculous thing it is to trouble and afflict our selves about taking the only Step that is to deliver us from all Misery and Trouble As our Birth brought us the Birth of all things so in our Death is the Death of
in Company with him the said Lord Almoner and another Bishop he was presently aware of this Gentleman who had been denoted to him and presently caus'd him to be call'd to his Presence to whom being come before him seeing him pale and trembling with the Conscience of his Guilt he thus said Monsieur such a one You already guess what I have to say to you your Countenance discovers it and therefore 't is in vain to disguise your Practice for I am so well inform'd of your Business that it will but make worse for you to go about to conceal or to deny it you know very well such and such Passages which were the most secret Circumstances of his Conspiracy and therefore be sure as you tender your own Life to confess to me the whole Truth of your Design The poor Man seeing himself thus trap'd and convinc'd for the whole Business had been discover'd to the Queen by one of the Complices was in such a Taking he knew not what to do but joyning his Hands to beg and sue for Mercy he meant to throw himself at this Prince's Feet who taking him up proceeded to say Come on Sir and tell me have I at any time heretofore done you any Injury or have I through my particular Hatred or private Malice offended any Kinsman or Friend of yours It is not above three Weeks that I have known you What Inducement then could move you to attempt my Death To which the Gentleman with a trembling Voice reply'd That it was no particular Grudge he had to his Person but the general Interest and Concern of his Party and that he had been put upon it by some who had perswaded him it would be a meritorious Act by any means to extirpate so great and so powerful an Enemy of their Religion Well said the Prince I will now let you see how much more charitable the Religion is that I maintain than that which you profess Yours has perswaded you to kill me without hearing me speak and without ever having given you any cause of Offence and mine commands me to forgive you convict as you are by your own Confession of a Design to murther me without Reason Get you gone that I see you no more and if you are wise choose henceforward honester Men for your Counsellors in your Designs The Emperour Augustus being in Gaule had certain information of a Conspiracy L. Cinna was contriving against him who thereupon resolv'd to make him an Example and to that end sent to summon his Friends to meet the next morning in Counsel but the night between he past over with great unquietness of Mind considering that he was to put to death a young man of an illustrious Family and Nephew to the great Pompey which made him break out into several ejaculations of Passion What then said he Shall it be said that I shall live in perpetual Anxiety and continual Alarm and suffer my Assassinates in the mean time to walk abroad at Liberty Shall he go unpunished after having conspir'd against my Life a Life that I have hitherto defended in so many Civil Wars and so many Battels both by Land and Sea And after having setled the Universal Peace of the whole World shall this man be pardoned who has conspired not only to Murther but to Sacrifice me For the Conspiracy was to kill him at Sacrifice After which remaining for some time silent he re-begun louder and straining his Voice more than before to exclaim against himself and say Why liv'st thou If it be for the good of many that thou should'st Dye must there be no end of thy Revenges and Cruelties Is thy Life of so great value that so many Mischiefs must be done to preserve it His Wife Livia seeing him in this perplexity Will you take a Woman's Counsel said she Do as the Physicians do who when the ordinary Recipe's will do no good make Tryal of the contrary By severity you have hitherto prevail'd nothing Lepidus has follow'd Savidienus Murena Lepidus Caepio Murena and Egnatius Caepio Begin now and try how Sweetness and Clemency will succeed Cinna is convict forgive him he will never henceforth have the Heart to hurt thee and it will be an Act of Glory Augustus was glad that he had met with an Advocate of his own Humour wherefore having thank'd his Wife and in the Morning countermanded his Friends he had before summon'd to Council he commanded Cinna all alone to be brought to him who being accordingly come and a Chair by his Appointment set him having commanded every one out of the Room he spake to him after this manner In the first place Cinna I demand of thee patient Audience do not interrupt me in what I am about to say and I will afterwards give thee Time and Leisure to answer Thou know'st Cinna that having taken thee Prisoner in the Enemies Camp and that an Enemy not only made but born so I gave thee thy Life restor'd thee all thy Goods and finally put thee in so good a posture by my Bounty of living well and at thy ease that the Victorious envy'd the Conquer'd The Sacerdotal Office which thou mad'st Suit to me for I conferr'd upon thee after having deny'd it to others whose Fathers have ever borne Arms in my Service and after so many Obligations thou hast undertaken to kill me At which Cinna crying out that he was very far from entertaining any so wicked a Thought Thou dost not keep thy Promise Cinna continued Augustus that thou would'st not interrupt me Yes thou hast undertaken to murther me in such a Place such a Day in such and such Company and in such a Manner At which Words seeing Cinna astonish'd and silent not upon the Account of his Promise so to be but interdict with the Conscience of his Crime Why proceeded Augustus to what end would'st thou do it Is it to be Emperour Believe me the Republick is in a very ill Condition if I am the only Man betwixt thee and the Empire Thou art not able so much as to defend thy own House and but t'other day wast baffled in a Suit by the oppos'd Interest of a mean manumitted Slave What hast thou neither Means nor Power in any other thing but only to attempt against Caesar I quit claim to the Empire if there is no other but I to obstruct thy Hopes Can'st thou believe that Paulus that Fabius that the Cassians and Servilians and so many Noble Romans not only so in Title but who by their Virtue honour their Nobility would suffer or endure thee After this and a great deal more that he said to him for he was two long Hours in speaking Well Cinna go thy way said he I again give thee that Life in the Quality of a Traytor and a Parricide which I once before gave thee in the Quality of an Enemy Let Friendship from this time forward begin betwixt us and let us try to make it appear whether I have given or
their death which is accordingly pay'd them The death of the forenamed Bishop with his sword in his hand has more of generosity in it and less of feeling the ardour of Combat taking away part of the later There are some Governments who have taken upon them to regulate the Justice and opportunity of voluntary death so much as in former times there was kept in our City of Marseilles a Poyson prepared out of Hemlock at the publick charge for those who had a mind to hasten their end having first before the six hundred which were their Senat given account of the reasons and motives of their design and it was not otherwise Lawful than by leave from the Magistrate and upon just occasion to do violence to themselves The same Law was also in use in other places Sextus Pompeius in his Expedition into Asia toucht at the Isle of Cea in Negropont it accidentally hapned whilst he was there as we have it from one that was with him that a woman of great quality having given an account to her Citizens why she was resolv'd to put an end to her life invited Pompeius to her death to render it the more honorable an invitation that he vnwillingly accepted but having long tried in vaiâ— by the power of his eloquence which waâ— very great and disswasion to divert her froâ— that design he acquiese't in the end in her owâ— will She had past the age of fourscore anâ— ten in a very happy Estate both of Body anâ— mind but being then laid upon her bed betteâ— drest than ordinary and leaning upon heâ— Elbow the Gods said she O Sextus Pompeiuâ— and rather those I leave than those I go to seeâ— reward thee for that thou hast not disdain'd 〈◊〉 be both the Counsellor of my life and thâ— Witness of my death For my part havinâ— always try'd the smiles of fortune for 〈◊〉 lest the desire of living too long may maâ—â— me see a contrary face I am going by a haâ—â—py end to dismiss the remains of my Soâ—â— leaving behind two daughters of my Boâ—â— and a Legion of Nephewes which having 〈◊〉 with some exhortations to her family to 〈◊〉 in peace she divided amongst them her Good and recommending her domestick Gods 〈◊〉 her eldest daughter she boldly took the Boâ—â— that contain'd the Poison and having maâ—â— her vowes and prayers to Mercury to coâ—â—duct her to some happy abode in the othâ—â— World she roundly swallow'd the mortal Pâ—â—tion which having don she entertained 〈◊〉 company with the progress of its operatiâ—â— and how the cold by degrees seized the seâ—â—â—ral parts of her body one after another 〈◊〉 having in the end told them it began to seize upon her heart and bowels she call'd her daughters to do their last Office and close her Eyes Pliny tells us of a certain Hyperborean Nation where by reason of the sweet temperature of the Aire Lives did rarely end but by the voluntary surrender of the Inhabitants but that being weary of and sotted with living they had a custom at a very old age after having made good cheer to precipitate themselves into the Sea from the top of a certain rock destin'd for that service Paine and the fear of a worse death seem to me the most excusable incitements CHAP. IV. To morrow's a new Day I Give and I think with good reason the Palm to Jacques Amiot of all our French Writers not only for the propriety and purity of his language wherein he excells all others nor for his constancy in going thorough so long a work nor for the depth of his knowledge having been able so successfully to smooth and unravel so knotty and intricate an Author for let People tell me what they will I understand nothing of Greek but I meet with sence so well united and maintained throughout his whole Translation that certainly he either knew the true fancy of the Author or having by being long conversant with him imprinted a lively and general â—dea of that of Plutarch in his Soul he has delivered us nothing that either derogates from or contradicts him but above all I am the most taken with him for having made so discreet a choise of a Book so worthy and of so great utility wherewith to present his Country We dunces had been lost had not this Book raised us out of the dirt by this favour of his we dare now speak and write the Ladies are able to read to Schoolmasters 't is our Breviary If this good Man be yet living I would recommend to him Xenophon to do as much by that 'T is a much more easy task than the other and consequently more proper for his age And besides I know not how methinks though he does briskly and clearly enough trip over steps another would have stumbled at that nevertheless his style seemes to be more his own where he does not encounter those difficulties and rowles away at his own ease I was just now reading this passage where Plutarch says of himself that Rusticus being present at a Declamation of his at Rome he there receiv'd a Packet from the Emperor and deferr'd to open it till all was don for which says he all the company highly applauded the gravity of this person 'T is true that being upon the discourse of that curiosity and that eager passion for news which makes us with so much indiscretion and impatience leave all to entertain a new commer and without any manner of respect or civility teare open on a suddain in what company soever the Letters are delivered to us he had reason to applaud the gravity of Rusticus upon this occasion and might moreover have added to it the commendation of his civility and courtesy that would not interrupt the current of his Declamation But I doubt whether any one can commend his prudence for receiving unexpected Letters and especially from an Emperor it might have fal'n out that the deferring to read them might have been of great prejudice The vice opposite to curiosity is negligence to which I naturally incline and wherein I have seen some Men so extream that one might have found the Letters had been sent them three or four days before still seal'd up in their pockets I never open any Letters directed to another not only those entrusted with me but even such as fortune has guided to my hand and am very angry with my self if my Eyes unawares steal any contents of Letters of importance he is reading when I stand near a great Man Never was Man less inquisitive or less prying into other mens affairs than I. In our Fathers days Monsieur de Boutieres had like to have lost Turin for having being engag'd in good company at supper deferred to read an Advertisement was sent him of the Treason was plotted against that City where he commanded And this very Plutarch has given me to understand that Julius Caesar had preserved himself if going to the Senate the day he was
of very good Understanding once did that he hoarded up Wealth not to extract any other fruit and use from his Parsimony but to make himself honour'd and sought to by his own Relations and that Age having depriv'd him of all other Forces it was the only remaining Remedy to maintain his Authority in his Family and to keep him from being neglected and despis'd by all the World and in truth not only old age but all other imbecillity according to Aristotle is the Promoter of Avarice This is something but it is Physick for a Disease that a man should prevent A Father is very miserable that has no other hold of his Childrens Affection than the need they have of his Amstance if that can be call'd Affection he must render himself worthy to be respected by his Vertue and Wisdom and belov'd by his Bounty and the sweetness of his Manners Even the very Ashes of a rich Matter have their Value and we are wont to have the Bones and Relicks of worthy Men in regard and reverence No old Age can be so ruinous and offensive in a man who has past his Life in Honour but it must be Venerable especially to his Children the Soul of which he must have train'd up to their Duty by Reason not by Necessity and the Need they have of him nor by roughness and force errat longè mea quidem sententia Qui imperium credat esse gravius aut stabilius Vi quod fit quà m illud quod amicitia adjungitur And he does mainly vary from my sence Who thinks the Empire gain'd by violence More absolute and durable than that Which gentleness and friendship do create I condemn all Violence in the Education of a tender Soul that is design'd for Honour and Liberty There is I know not what of Servile in Rigour and Restraint and I am of opinion that what is not to be done by Reason Prudence and Address is never to be effected by Force I my self was brought up after that manner and they tell me that in all my first Age I never felt the Rod but twice and then very easily I have practis'd the same Method with my Children who all of them died at Nurse but Leonor my onely Daughter is arriv'd to the age of six years and upward without other Correction for her Childish Faults her Mothers Indulgence easily concurring than Words only and those very gentle In which kind of proceeding though my end and expectation should be both frustrated there are other Causes enough to lay the Fault on without blaming my Discipline which I know to be natural and just and I should in this have yet been more Religious towards the Males as born to less Subjection and more free and I should have made it my business to swell their Hearts with Ingenuity and Freedom I have never observ'd other effects of Whipping unless to render them more cowardly or more wilful and obstinate Do we desire to be belov'd of our Children Will we remove from them all occasion of wishing our Death though no occasion of so horrid a Wish can either be just or excusable Nullum scelus rationem habet let us reasonably accommodate their Lives with that is in our power In order to this we should not marry so young that our Age shall in a manner be confounded with theirs for this inconvenience plunges us into many very great Difficulties I say the Gentry of the Nation who are of a condition wherein they have little to do and live upon their Revenues only For elsewhere where the Life is dedicated to profit the plurality and numbers of Children is an encrease to the good husbandry and they are as so many new Tools and Instruments wherewith to grow rich I married at three and thirty years of Age and concur in the opinion of thirty five which is said to be that of Aristotle Plato will have no body marry before thirty but he has reason to laugh at those who undertake the work of Marriage after five and fifty and condem their Off-spring as unworthy of Aliment and Life Thales gave to this the truest Limits who young and being importun'd by his Mother to Marry answered That it was too soon and being grown into years and urg'd again That it was too late A man must deny opportunity to every importunate Action The ancient Gauls look'd upon it as a very horrid thing for a man to have had Society with a woman before twenty years of age and strictly recommended to the men who design'd themselves for War the keeping their Virginity till well grown in years forasmuch as Courage is abated and diverted by the use of Women Ma hor congiunto à giovinetta sposa Lieto homai de figli era invilito Negli affetti di padre di marito But now being married to a fair young wife He 's quite faln off from his old course of life His metle is grown rusty and his care His Wife and Children do betwixt them share Muleasses King of Tunis he whom the Emperour Charles the Fifth restor'd to his Kingdom reproacht the Memory of his Father Mahomet with the Frequentation of Women styling him Loose Effeminate and a Getter of Children The Greek History observes of Jecus the Tarentine of Chryso Astiplus Diopompus and others that to keep thir Bodies in order for the Olympick Games and such like Exercises they deny'd themselves during that preparation all Commerce with Venus In a certain Country of the Spanish Indies men were not admitted to marry till after Fourty years of Age and yet the Girls were allowed to go to 't at Ten. 'T is not time for a Gentleman of Five and thirty years old to give place to his Son who is Twenty he being himself in a condition to serve both in the Expeditions of War and in the Court of his Prince has himself need of all his Equipage and yet doubtless ought to allow his Son a share but not so great a one as wholly to disfurnish himself and for such a one the saying that Fathers have ordinarily in their mouths That they will not put off their Cloaths before they go to bed is proper enough But a Father over-worn with Age and Infirmities and depriv'd by his weakness and want of health of the common Society of men wrongs himself and his to rake together a great Mass of useless Treasure He has liv'd long enough if he be wise to have a mind to strip himself to go to bed not to his very Shirt I confess but to that and a good warm Night-Gown the remaining Pomps of which he has no further use he ought voluntarily to surrender to those to whom by the order of Nature they belong 'T is reason he should refer the use of those things to them seeing that Nature has reduc'd him to such an Estate that he cannot enjoy them himself otherwise there is doubtless ill nature and envy in the case The greatest
had all the pleasure of it and all the Obligation I forc'd and rack'd my self to put on and maintain this vain Disguise and have by that means depriv'd my self of the pleasure of his Conversation and I doubt in some measure his Affection which could not but be very cold towards me having never other from me than Austerity nor felt other than a tyrannical manner of proceeding I find this Complaint to be rational and rightly apprehended for as I my self know by too cortain Experience there is no so sweet Consolation in the loss of Friends as the conscience of having had no reserve of secret for them and to have had with them a perfect and entire Communication Oh my Friend am I the better for being sensible of this or am I the worse I am doubtless much the better I am consolated and honoured in the sorrow for his death Is it not a pious and a pleasing Office of my Life to be always upon my Friends Obsequies Can there be any joy equal to this Privation I open my self to my Family as much as I can and very willingly let them know in what estate they are in my opinion and good will as I do every body else I make haste to bring out and expose my self to them for I will not have them mistaken in me in any thing Amongst other particular Customs of our ancient Gauls this as Caesar reports was one That the Sons never presented themselves before their Fathers nor durst never appear in their company in publick till they began to bear Arms as if they would intimate by that that it was also time for their Fathers to receive them into their familiarity and acquaintance I have observ'd yet another sort of Indiscretion in Fathers of my time That not contented with having depriv'd their Children during their own long lives of the share they naturally ought to have had in their Fortunes they afterwards leave to their Wives the same Authority over their Estates and Liberty to dispose of them according to their own fancy And have known a certain Lord one of the principal Officers of the Crown who having in his prospect by right of succession above Fifty thousand Crowns yearly Revenue died necessitous and overwhelm'd with debt at above fifty years of age his Mother in his extreamest decrepitude and necessity being yet in possession of all his Goods by the Will of his Father who had for his part liv'd till near Fourscore years Old This appears by no means reasonable to me And therefore I think it of very little advantage to a man whose Affairs are well enough to seek a Wife that will charge his Estate with too great a Joynture There being no sort of foreign Debt or Encumbrance that brings greater and more frequent ruin to Estates and Families than that My Predecessors have ever been aware of that danger and provided against it and so have I But these who dissuade us from rich Wives for fear they should be less tractable and kind are out in their Advice to make a man lose a real Convenience for so frivolous a Conjecture It costs an unreasonable Woman no more to pass over one Reason than another They love but where they have the most wrong Injustice allures them as the Honour of their vertuous Actions does the good and the more Riches they bring with them they are by so much the more gentle and sweet Natur'd as women who are fair are more inclin'd and proud to be chast 'T is reasonable to leave the administration of Affairs to the Mothers during the minority of the Children but the Father has brought them up very ill if he cannot hope that when they come to Maturity they will have more Wisdom and Dexterity in the management of Affairs than his Wife considering the ordinary Weakness of the Sex It were notwithstanding to say the truth more against Nature to make the Mothers depend upon the Discretion of their Children They ought to be plentifully provided for to maintain themselves according to their Quality and Age by reason that Necessity is much more indecent and insupportable to them than to men and therefore the Son is rather to be cut short than the Mother In general the most judicious Distribution of our Goods when we come to dye is in my Opinion to let them be distributed according to the Custom of the Country The Laws have considered it better than we know how to do and 't is better to let them fail in their Election than rashly to run the hazard of miscarrying in ours Neither are they properly ours since by a Civil Prescription and without us they are all judg'd to certain Successors And although we have some liberty beyond that yet I think we ought not without great and manifest cause to take away that from one which his Fortune has allotted him and to which the publick Equity gives him Title and that it is against reason to abuse this liberty in making it to serve our own frivilous and private Fancies My Destiny has been kind to me in not preventing me with Occasions to tempt and divert my Affection from the common and legitimate Institution I see well enough with whom 't is time lost to employ a long Diligence of Good Offices A word ill taken obliterates ten years merit and he is happy who is in place to oyle their Good Will at this last Passage The last Action carries it Not the best and most frequent Offices but the most recent and present do the Work These are people that play with their Wills as with Apples and Rods to gratifie or chastise every Action of these that pretend to an Interest in their Care 'T is a thing of too great weight and consequence to be so tumbled and tost and alter'd every moment And wherein the Wise men of the World determin once for all having therein above all things a regard to reason and the publick observance We also lay these Masculine Substitutions too much to heart proposing a ridiculous Eternity to our Names And are moreover too superstitious in the vain Conjectures of the future which we derive from the little Observations we make of the Words and Actions of Children Peradventure they might have done me an injustice in dispossessing me of my Right for having been the most dull and heavy the most slow and unwilling at my Book not of all my Brothers only but of all the Boys in the whole Province Whether about learning my Lesson or any other bodily Exercise 'T is a folly to make an extraordinary Election upon the Credit of these Divinations wherein we are so often deceived If the Rule of Primogeniture were to be violated and the Destinies corrected in the Choice they have made of our Heirs one might more plausibly do it upon the account of some enormous personal Deformity a constant and incorrigible Vice and in the opinion of us French who are great admirers of Beauty
they are rich in their own native Beauty and are able to justifie themselves the least end of a Hair will serve to draw them into my Argument Amongst others condemn'd by Philip Herodicus Prince of Thessaly had been one He had moreover after him caus'd his two Sons in Law to be put to Death each leaving a Son very young behind him Theoxena and Archo were their two Widows Theoxena though highly courted to it could not be perswaded to marry again Archo married Poris the greatest Man of the Aenians and by him had a great many Children which she dying left in a very tender Age. Theoxena mov'd with a Maternal charity towards her Nephews that she might have them under her own Eyes and in her own Protection married Poris when presently comes a Proclamation of the King's Edict This brave spirited Mother suspecting the cruelty of Philip and afraid of the Insolence of the Souldiers towards these fine and tender Children was so bold as to declare that she would rather kill them with her own hands than deliver them Poris startled at this Protestation promis'd her to steal them away and to Transport them to Athens and there commit them to the Custody of some faithful Friends of his They took therefore the opportunity of an Annual Feast which was celebrated at Aenia in Honour of Aeneas and thither they went Having appear'd by day at the Publick Ceremonies and Banquet they stole the Night following into a Vessel laid ready for the purpose to escape away by Sea The Wind prov'd contrary and finding themselves in the Morning within sight of the Land from whence they had launch'd over-night were made after by the Guards of the Port which Poris perceiving he labour'd all he could to make the Mariners do their utmost to escape from the Pursuers But Theoxena frantick with Affection and Revenge in pursuance of her former Resolution prepar'd both Arms and Poyson and exposing them before them Go to my Children said she Death is now the only means of your Defence and Liberty and shall administer occasion to the Gods to exercise their sacred Justice These sharp Swords and these full Cups will open you the way into it Courage fear nothing And thou my Son who art the eldest take this Steel into thy Hand that thou may'st the more bravely Dye The Children having on one side so powerfull a Counsellour and the Enemy at their Throats on the other ran all of them eagerly upon what was next to hand and half dead were thrown into the Sea Theoxena proud of having so gloriously provided for the safety of her Children clasping her Arms with great affection about her Husband's Neck Let us my Friend said she follow these Boys and enjoy the same Sepulchre they do And so embrac'd threw themselves head-long over-board into the Sea so that the Ship was carried back empty of the Owners into the Harbour Tyrants at once both to kill and to make their Anger felt have pump't their Wit to invent the most lingring Deaths They will have their Enemies dispatch'd but not so fast that they may not have leisure to taste their Vengeance And therein they are mightily perplex'd for if the Torments they inflict are violent they are short if long they are not then so painful as they desire and thus torment themselves in contriving how to torment others Of this we have a thousand Examples of Antiquity and I know not whether we unawares do not retain some traces of this Barbarity all that exceeds a simple Death appears to me absolute Cruelty neither can our Justice expect that he whom the fear of being executed by being Beheaded or Hang'd will not restrain should be any more aw'd by the imagination of a languishing Fire burning Pincers or the Wheel And I know not in the mean time whether we do not throw them into despair for in what condition can the Soul of a man expecting four and twenty hours together to be broken upon a Wheel or after the old way nail'd to a Cross be Josephus relates that in the time of the War the Romans made in Judea happening to pass by where they had three days before crucified certain Jews he amongst them knew three of his own Friends and obtained the favour of having them taken down of which two he says died the third liv'd a great while after Chalcondilas a Writer of good credit in the Records he has left behind him of things that happen'd in his time and near him tell us as of the most excessive Torment of that the Emperour Meckmed very often practis'd of cutting off men in the middle by the Diaphragma with one blow of a Cimeter by which it follow'd that they died as it were two Deaths at once and both the one part says he and the other were seen to stir and strive a great while after in very great Torment I do not think there was any great sufferance in this motion The Torments that are the most dreadful to look on are not always the greatest to endure and I find those that other Historians relate to have been practic'd upon the Epirot Lords to be more horrid and cruel where they were condemn'd to be flead alive by pieces after so malicious a manner that they continued fifteen days in this misery As also these other two following Croesus having caus'd a Gentleman the favourite of his Brother Pantaleon to be seized on carried him into a Fuller's Shop where he caus'd him to be scratch'd and carded with the Cards and Combs belonging to that Trade till he died George Jechel chief Commander of the Peasants of Polonia who committed so many Mischiefs under the Title of the Crusado being defeated in Battel and taken by the Vayvod of Transylvania was three days bound naked upon the Rack exposed to all sorts of Torments that any one could contrive against him during which time many other Prisoners were kept fasting in the end he living and looking on they made his beloved Brother Lucat for whom he only entreated taking upon himself the blame of all their evil Actions to drink his Blood and caused twenty of his most favour'd Captains to feed upon him tearing his flesh in pieces with their Teeth and swallowing the morsels The remainder of his Body and his Bowels so soon as he was dead were boyl'd and others of his followers compell'd to eat them CHAP. XXVIII All things have their Season SUch as compare Cato the Censor with the younger Cato that kill'd himself compare two beautiful Natures and much resembling one another The first acquir'd his Reputation several ways and excells in Military Exploits and the Utility of his publick Vocations but the Virtue of the younger besides that it were blasphemy to compare any to him in Vigour was much more pure and unblemish'd For who can acquit the Censor of Envy and Ambition having dar'd to justle the Honour of Scipio a man in Worth Valour and all other excellent Qualities
taken by Scipio in Affrick Scipio having put the rest to death sent him word that he gave him his Life for he was a man of Quality and Questor to whom Petronius sent answer back that Caesar's Souldiers were wont to give others their Lives and not to receive it and immediately with his own hand kill'd himself Of their Fidelity there are infinite Examples amongst which that which was done by those who were besieg'd in Salona a City that stood for Caesar against Pompey is not for the rarity of an Accident that there hapned to be forgot Marcus Octavius kept them close besieg'd they within being reduc'd to the extreamest necessity of all things so that to supply the want of men most of them being either slain or wounded they had manumitted all their Slaves and had been constrain'd to cut of all the Womens Hair to make Ropes besides a wonderful Dearth of Victuals and yet continuing resolute never to yield After having drawn the Siege to a great length by which Octavius was grown more negligent and less attentive to his Enterprize they made choice of one Day about Noon and having first plac'd the Women and Children upon the Walls to make a shew sallied upon the Besiegers with such fury that having routed the first second and third Court of Guard and afterwards the fourth and all the rest and beaten them all out of their Trenches they pursu'd them even to their Ships and Octavius himself was fain to fly to Dyrrachium where Pompey lay I do not at present remember that I have met with any other Example where the Besieged ever gave the Besieger a total Defeat and won the Field nor that a sally ever arriv'd at the consequence of a pure and entire Victory of Battel CHAP. XXXV Of three good Women THey are not by the dozen as every one knows and especially in the Duties of Marriage for that is a bargain full of so many nice Circumstances that 't is hard a Womans Will should long endure such a restraint Men tho' their condition be something better under that tye have yet enough to do The true touch and test of a happy Marriage respects the time of their Cohabitation only if it has been constantly mild loyal and commodious In our Age Women commonly reserve the publication of their good Offices and their vehement affection towards their Husbands untill they have lost them or at least till then defer the Testimonies of their good Will A too slow Testimony and that comes too late by which they rather manifest that they never lov'd them till dead Their Life is nothing but Trouble their Death full of Love and Courtesie As Fathers conceal their affection from their Children Women likewise conceal theirs from their Husbands to maintain a modest Respect This mystery is not for my pallat 't is to much purpose that they scratch themselves and tear their Hair I whisper in a Wayting-woman or a Secretaries Ear how were they how did they live together I always have that good Saying in my head jactantius maerent quae minus dolent They make the most ado who are least concern'd Their whimpering is offensive to the living and vain to the dead we should willingly give them leave to laugh after we are dead provided they will smile upon us whilst we are alive Is it not to make a man revive in spite that she who spit in my face whilst I was shall come to kiss my feet when I am no more If there be any Honour in lamenting a Husband it only appertains to those who smil'd upon them whilst they had them let those who wept during their Lives laugh at their Deaths as well outwardly as within Moreover never regard those blubber'd Eyes and that pittiful Voice but consider her Deportments her Complexion and the plumpness of her Cheecks under all those formal Veils 't is there the discovery is to be made There are few who do not mend upon 't and Health is a quality that cannot lye that starch'd and ceremonious Countenance looks not so much back as forward and is rather intended to get a new one than to lament the old When I was a Boy a very beautiful and virtuous Lady who is yet living and the Widow of a Prince had I know not what more Ornament in her Dress than our Laws of Widow-hood will well allow which being reproach'd withall as a great Indecency she made Answer That it was because she was resolv'd to have no more Friendships and would never marry again I have here not at all dissenting from our Customs made choice of three Women who have also express'd the utmost of their Goodness and Affections about their Husbands deaths yet are they Examples of another kind than are now in Use and so severe as will hardly be drawn into Imitation The younger Pliny had near unto a House of his in Italy a Neighbour who was exceedingly tormented with certain Ulcers in his private Parts His Wife seeing him so long to languish intreated that he would give her leave to see and at leisure to consider of the condition of his Disease and that she would freely tell him what she Thought This Permission being obtain'd and she having curiously examin'd the Business found it impossible he could ever be cur'd and that all he was to hope for or expect was a great while to linger out a painful and miserable Life and therefore as the most sure and sovereign Remedy resolutely advis'd him to kill himself But finding him a little tender and backward in so rude an Attempt Do not think my Friend said she that the Torments I see thee endure are not as sensible to me as to thy self and that to deliver my self from them I will not my self make use of the same Remedy I have prescrib'd to thee I will accompany thee in the Cure as I have done in the Disease fear nothing but believe that we shall have pleasure in this Passage that is to free us from so many Miseries and we will go happily together Which having said and rous'd up her Husband's Courage she resolv'd that they should throw themselves headlong into the Sea out of a Window that lean'd over it and that she might maintain to the last the loyal and vehement Affection wherewith she had embrac'd him during his Life she would yet have him dye in her Arms but for fear they should fail and lest they should leave their hold in the fall and through fear she tyed herself fast to him by the waste and so gave up her own Life to procure her Husband's repose This was a mean Woman and even amongst that condition of People 't is no very new thing to see some rare Examples of Virtue extrema per illos Justitia excedens terris vestigia fecit When from the Earth Justice her self bereft She her lost steps upon such People left The other two were noble and rich where Examples of Vertue are rarely
Consciences though never so much commanded to it by them themselves In such Commissions there is an evident mark of Ignominy and Condemnation And he who gives it does at the same time accuse you and gives it if you understand it right for a Burthen and a Punishment As much as the publick Affairs are better'd by your Exploit so much are your own the worse and the better you behave your self in it 't is so much the worse for your self And it will be no new thing nor peradventure without some colour of Justice if the same Person ruin you who set you on work If Treachery can be in any case excusable it must be only so when it is practis'd to chastise and betray Treachery There are Examples enow of Treacheries not only rejected but chastised and punish'd by those in Favour of whom they were undertaken Who is ignorant of Fabricius his Sentence against Pyrrhus his Physician But this we also find recorded that some Persons have commanded a thing who afterward have severely reveng'd the Execution of it upon him they had employ'd rejecting the Reputation of so unbridled an Authority and disowning so lewd and so base a Servitude and Obedience Jaropele Duke of Russia tamper'd with a Gentleman of Hungary to betray Boleslaus King of Poland either by killing him or by giving the Russians opportunity to do him some notable Mischief This Gallant goes presently in hand with it was more assiduous in the Service of that King than before so that he obtain'd the honour to be of his Council and one of the chiefest in his Trust with these Advantages and taking an opportune occasion of his Masters absence he betray'd Visilicia a great and rich City to the Russians which was entirely sack'd and burn't and not only all the Inhabitants of both Sexes young and old put to the Sword but moreover a great number of Neighbouring Gentry that he had drawn thither to that wicked end Jaropele his Revenge being thus satisfied and his Anger appeas'd which was not however without pretence for Boleslaus had highly offended him and after the same manner and sated with the effect of this Treachery coming to consider the foulness of it with a sound Judgment and clear from Passion look'd upon what had been done with so much horror and remorse that he caus'd the Eyes to be boar'd out and the Tongue and shameful Parts to be cut off of him that had perform'd it Antigonus perswaded Agaraspides's Souldiers to betray Eumenes their General his Adversary into his hands But after he had caus'd him so deliver'd to be slain he would himself be the Commissioner of the Divine Justice for the Punishment of so detestable a Crime and committed them into the hands of the Governour of the Province with express command by all means to destroy and bring them all to an evil end So that of all that great number of men not so much as one ever return'd again into Macedonia The better he had been serv'd the more wickedly he judg'd it to be and meriting greater Punishment The Slave that betray'd the place where his Master P. Sulpitius lay conceal'd was according to the promise of Sylla's proscription manumitted for his Pains but according to the promise of the publick Justice which was free from any such Engagement he was thrown headlong from the Tarpeian Rock And our King Clouis instead of the Arms of Gold he had promised them caus'd three of Canacre's Servants to be hang'd after they had betray'd their Master to him though he had debauch'd them to it They hang'd them with the purse of their Reward about their Necks After having satisfied their second and special faith they satisfie the general and first Mahomet the second being resolv'd to rid himself of his Brother out of Jealousie of State according to the Practice of the Ottoman Family he employ'd one of his Officers in the Execution who pouring a quantity of Water too fast into him choak'd him This being done to expiate the Murther he deliver'd the Murtherer into the hands of the Mother of him he had so caus'd to be put to Death for they were but half Brothers by the Fathers side who in his Presence ript up the Murtherers Bosom and with her own revenging hands rifled his Breast for his Heart tore it out and threw it to the Dogs And even to the vilest Dispositions it is the sweetest thing imaginable having once got the trick in a vicious Action to foist in all security into it some shew of Virtue and Justice as by way of Compensation and Conscientious Remorse To which may be added that they look upon the Ministers of such horrid Crimes as upon People that reproach them with them and think by their Deaths to race out the Memory and Testimony of such Proceedings Or if perhaps you are rewarded not to frustrate the publick Necessity of that extream and desperate Remedy he that does it cannot for all that if he be not such himself but look upon you as a cursed and execrable fellow and conclude you a greater Traytor than he does against whom you are so for he tries the Lewdness of your Disposition by your own hands where he cannot possibly be deceiv'd you having no Object of preceding hatred to move you to such an Act. But he employs you as they do condemn'd Malefactors in Executions of Justice an Office as necessary as dishonest Besides the baseness of such Commissions there is moreover a Prostitution of Conscience Being the Daughter of Sejanus could not be put to death by the Law of Rome because she was a Virgin she was to make it lawful first ravish'd by the Hang-man and then strangled not only his hand but his Soul is slave to the publick Convenience When Amurath the first more grievously to punish his Subjects who had taken part in the Parricide Rebellion of his Son ordain'd that their nearest Kindred should assist in the Execution I find it very handsome in some of them to have rather chosen to be unjustly thought guilty of the Parricide of another than to serve Justice by a Parricide of their own And whereas I have seen at the taking of some little Fort by assault in my time some Rascals who to save their own Lives would consent to hang their Friends and Companions I look upon them to be in a worse Condition than those that were hang'd 'T is said that Wittoldus Prince of Lituania introduc'd into that Nation that the Criminal condemn'd to death should with his own hand execute the Sentence thinking it strange that a third Person innocent of the Fault should be made guilty of Homicide A Prince when by some urgent Circumstance or some impetuous and unforeseen accident that very much concerns his Estate compell'd to forfeit his Word and break his Faith or otherwise forc'd from his ordinary Duty ought to attribute this Necessity to a lash of the Divine Rod Vice it is not for
warts and blemishes I am not a French-man but by this great City great in People great in the felicity of her Scituation but above all great and incomparable in variety and diversity of Commodities the Glory of France and one of the most noble Ornaments of the World God of his Goodness compose our Differences and deliver us from this Civil War I find her sufficiently defended from all other Violences I give her caution that of all sorts of People those will be the worst that shall set it in Division I have no fears of her but of her self and certainly I have as much fear for her as for any other City in the Kingdom Whilst she shall continue I shall never want a retreat where I may live or dye sufficient to make me amends for parting with any other home or retreat whatever Not because Socrates has said so but because it is in truth my own Humour and peradventure not without some excess I look upon all men as my Compatriots and embrace a Polander with as sincere an Affection as a French-man preferring the universal and common tye to all National tyes whatever I am not much taken with the sweetness of a natural Air Acquaintance wholly new and wholly my own appear to me full as good as the other common and accidental ones with our Neighbours Friendships that are purely of our own acquiring ordinarily carry it above those to which the Communication of the Clime or of Blood oblige us Nature has plac'd us in the World free and unbound we imprison our selves in certain streights like the Kings of Persia who oblige themselves to drink no other Water but that of the River Choaspes and foolishly quit claim to their right of usage in all other Streams and as to what concern'd themselves dried up all the other Rivers of the World What Socrates did towards his end to look upon a Sentence of Banishment as worse than a Sentence of Death against him I shall I think never be either so decrepid or so strictly habituated to my own Country to be of that Opinion These Celestial Lives have Images enow which I embrace more by Esteem than Affection and they have some also so elevated and extraordinary that I cannot embrace them so much as by Esteem for as much as I cannot conceive them This Humour was very tender in a man that thought the whole World his City It is true that he disdain'd Travel and had hardly ever set his Foot out of the Attick Territories What though he complain'd of the Money his Friends offer'd to save his Life and that he refus'd to come out of Prison by the Mediation of others not to disobey the Laws in a time when they were otherwise so corrupted These Examples are of the first kind for me of the second there are others that I could find out in the same Person Many of these rare Examples surpass the force of my Action but some of them do moreover surpass the force of my Judgement These Reasons set aside Travel is in my Opinion a very improving thing the Soul is there continually imploy'd in observing new and unknown things and I do not know as I have often said a better School wherein to model Life than by incessantly exposing to it the diversity of so many other lives fancies and usances and to make it relish so perpetual a variety of the form of humane Nature The Body is therein neither idle nor over-wrought and that moderate Agitation puts in breath I can keep on Horse-back as much tormented with the Stone as I am without alighting or being weary eight or ten hours together Vires ultra sortemque senectae Beyond the strength and common use of Age. No Season is Enemy to me but the parching heat of a scorching Sun for the Vmbrellas made use of in Italy ever since the time of the ancient Romans more burthen a mans Arm than they relieve his Head I would fain know what pain it was to the Persians so long ago and in the Infancy of their Luxury to make such Ventiducts and plant such Shades about their abodes as Xenophon reports they did I love Rain and to dabble in the Dirt as well as tame Ducks do the change of Air and Climate never concern me every Sky is alike I am only troubled with inward Alterations which I bred within my self and those are not so frequent in Travel I am hard to be got out but being once upon the Road I hold out as well as the best I take as much pains in little as in great Attempts and am as sollicitous to equip my self for a short Journey if but to visit a Neighbour as for the longest Voyage I have learnt to travel after the Spanish fashion and to make but one Stage of a great many Miles and in excessive heats I always travel by Night from Sun-set to Sun-rising The other method of baiting by the way in haste and hurry to gobble up a Dinner is especially in short days very inconvenient My Horses perform the better for never any Horse tir'd under me that was able to hold out the first days Journey I water them at every Brook I meet and have only a care they have so much way to go before I come to my Inn as will warm the Water in their Bellies My unwillingness to rise in a Morning gives my Servants leisure to dine at their ease before they go out For my own part I never eat too late my Appetite comes to me in eating and not else and am never hungry but at Table Some of my Friends blame me for continuing this travelling Humour being married and old But they are out in 't for it is the best time to leave a man's House when a man has put it into a way of continuing without us and settled such an Oeconomy as corresponds to it for mere Government 'T is much greater imprudence to abandon it to a less faithful House-keeper and who will be less sollicitous to provide for the Family and look after your Affairs The most useful and honourable Knowledge and Employment for the Mother of a Family is the Science of good Housewifry I see some that are covetous indeed but very few that are saving 'T is the supream quality of a Woman and that a man ought to seek after before any other as the only dowry that must ruine or preserve our Houses Let men say what they will according to the Experience I have learn't I require in married Women the Oeconomical Virtue above all other Virtues I put my Wife to 't as a Concern of her own leaving her by my absence the whole Government of my Affairs I see and am asham'd to see in several Families I know Monsieur about Dinner time come home all dirt and in great disorder from trotting about amongst his Husbandmen and Labourers when Madam is perhaps scarce out of her Bed and afterwards is
do we manifestly covet to see though but in Shadow and the Fables of Theaters the pomp of Tragick representations of humane Fortune 'T is not however without compassion of what we hear but we please our selves in rouzing our displeasure by the rarity of these to be pitied Events Nothing tickles that does not pinch And good Historians skip over as a stagnant Water and dead Sea calm Narrations to be again upon the Narrative of Wars and Seditions which they know are most acceptable to the Readers I question whether or no I can handsomly confess at how mean and vile a rate of Repose and Tranquility I have pass'd over above the one half of my Life in the rui◠of my Country I make my self a little to◠good a bargain of Patience in accidents that do not so much regard what they take from me as what remains safe both within and without There is comfort in evading one while one another while another of those evils that are levell'd at me too at last but at present hurt others only about us as also that in matters of publick Interest the more my affection is universally dispers'd the weaker it is To which may be added that it is half true Tantum ex publicis malis sentimus quantum ad privatas res pertinet We are only so far sensible of publick Evils as they respect our private Affairs And that the Health from which we fell was such that it self consolates the regret we ought to have It was Health but not otherwise than in comparison of the Sickness that has succeeded it We are not fall'n from any great height The corruption and thievery which is in Dignity and Office seems the most insupportable to me We are less injuriously rifled in a Wood than in a place of security It was an universal Juncture of particular Members rotten to emulation of one another and the most of them with inveterate Ulcers that neither requir'd nor admitted of any Cure This conclusion therefore did really more animate than press me by the assistance of my Conscience which was not only at peace within it self but elevated and I did not find any reason to complain of my self Also as God never sends Evils any more than Goods absolutely pure to men my Health continued at that time more than usually good and as I can do nothing without it there are few things that I cannot do with it It afforded me means to rouze up all my provisions and to lay my hand before the wound that would else peradventure have gone farther and experimented in my Patience that I had some opposition against Fortune and that it must be a great shock could throw me out of the Saddle I do not say this to provoke her to give me a more vigorous Charge I am her humble Servant and submit to her pleasure Let her be no other towards me than she has used to be in God's Name Do you ask if I am sensible of her Assaults Yes certainly I am But as those who are possess'd and oppress'd with sorrow may sometimes suffer themselves nevertheless by intervals to taste a little Pleasure and are sometimes surpriz'd with a Smile So have I so much power over my self as to make my ordinary Condition quiet and free from disturbing Thoughts but I suffer my self withall by fits to be surpriz'd with the stings of those unpleasing imaginations that assault me whilst I am arming my self to drive them away or at least to wrestle with them But behold another aggravation of the evil which befell me in the taile of the rest I am both without doors and within assaulted with a most violent Plague in comparison of all other For as sound bodies are subject to more grievous Maladies forasmuch as they are not to be forc'd but by such so my very healthfull Air where no contagion though very near in the memory of man could ever take footing coming to be corrupted produc'd most strange Effects Mista senum juvenum densantur funera nullum Saeva caput Proserpina fugit In death both young and old by heaps do join Nor any Head escapes sad Proserpine I was to suffer this pleasant Condition that the sight of my House was frightful to me Whatever I had there was without Guard and left to the mercy of every one I my self who am of so hospitable a Nature was my self i◠very great distress for a Retreat for my Family A wild and scatter'd Family frightful both to its Friends and self and filling every Place with horror where it did attempt to settle being to shift abode so soon as any ones singer began but to ake All Diseases are then concluded to be the Plague and People do not stay to examine and be sure whether they are it or no. And the mischief on 't is that according to the Rules of Art in every danger that a man comes near he must undergo a Quarantine in the suspence of his Infirmity your imagination all that while tormenting you at pleasure and turning even your Health it self into a Feaver yet would not at all this have gon very near to my Heart had I not withall been compell'd to be sensible of others sufferings and miserably to serve six Months together for a Guide to this Caravanne For I carry my Antidotes within my self which are Resolution and Patience Apprehension which is particularly fear'd in this Disease does not so much trouble me And if being alone I should have taken it it had been a more spritely and a longer flight 'T is a kind of death that I do not think of the worst sort 't is commonly short stupid without pain and consolated by the publick condition without ceremony without mourning and without a crowd But as to the People about us the hundredth part of them could not be sav'd videas desertaque regna Pastorum longè saltus lateque vacantes Deserted Realms now may'st thou see of Swains And every where forsaken Groves and Plains In this place my best Revenue is manual What an hundred men plow'd for me lay a long time fallow But then what example of resolution did we not see in the simplicity of all this People Every one generally renounc'd all care of Life The Grapes the principal Revenue of the Country hung in clusters upon the Vines every one indifferently preparing for and expecting Death either to Night or to Morrow with a Countenance and Voice so far from fear as if they had contracted with Death in this Necessity and that it had been an universal and inevitable Sentence 'T is always such But how slender hold has the resolution of dying The distance and difference of a few hours and the sole consideration of company renders the apprehension various to us Do but observe these by reason that they dye in the same Month Children young People and old they are no longer astonish'd at it they lament no more I saw
But withal if it once comes in my sight 't is in vain to perswade me to forbear so that when I design to Fast I must be parted from those that eat Suppers and must have only so much given me as is required for a regular Collation for if I sit down to Table I forget my resolution When I order my Cook to alter the manner of dressing any Dish of Meat all my Family know what it means that my Stomach is out of order and that I shall scarce touch it I love to have all meats that will indure it very little boyl'd or roasted and love them mightily mortified and even to stinking in many Nothing but hardness generally offends me of any other quality I am as patient and indifferent as any man I have known So that contrary to the common humour even in Fish it oft happens that I find them both too fresh and too firm Not for want of Teeth which I ever had good even to Excellence and that Age does but now begin to threaten at this time of my Life I have ever been us'd every Morning to rub them with a Napkin and before and after Dinner God is favourable to those whom he makes to dye by degrees 't is the only benefit of old Age the last Death will be so much the less painful it will kill but a quarter of a man or but half a one at most I have one Tooth lately fall'n out without drawing and without pain it was the natural term of its duration Both that part of my Being and several others are already dead and others half dead of those that were most active and in highest esteem during my vigorous years so that I melt and steal away from my self What a folly would it be in my understanding to apprehend the height of this fall already so much advanc'd as if it were from the utmost Precipice I hope I shall not I in truth receive a principal Consolation in the meditations of my Death that it will be just and natural and that henceforward I cannot herein either require or hope from Destiny any other but unlawfull Favour Men make themselves believe that they have formerly had as greater Statures so longer Lives But they deceive themselves and Solon who was of those elder times does nevertheless limit the Duration of Life to threescore and ten years I who have so much and so universally ador'd this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mean is best of ancient times and shall I who have concluded the most moderate measure the most perfect pretend to an immeasurable and prodigious old Age Whatever happens contrary to the Course of Nature may be troublesome but what comes according to her should always be acceptable and pleasant Omnia quae secundum Naturam fiunt sunt habenda in bonis All things that are done according to Nature are to be accounted good And so Plato likewise says that the Death which is occasion'd by Wounds and Diseases is violent but that which surprises us old Age conducting us to it is of all others the most easie and in some sort delicious Vitam adolescentibus vis aufert senibus maturitas Young men are taken away by force old men by Maturity Death mixes and confounds it self throughout with Life decay anticipates its Hour and Shoulders even into the course of our growing up I have Pictures of my self taken at five and twenty and five and thirty years of Age I compare them with that lately drawn how often is it no more me how much more is my present Image unlike the former than to that I shall go out of the World withall It is too much to abuse Nature to make her trot so far that she must be forc'd to leave us and abandon our Conduct our Eyes Teeth Legs and all the rest to the mercy of a foreign and begg'd assistance and to resign us into the hands of Art being weary of following us her self I am not very fond either of Sallets or Fruits except Melons My Father hated all sorts of Sawces and I love them all Eating too much hurts me but for the quality of what I eat I do not yet certainly know that any sort of Meat disagrees with my Stomach neither have I observed that either Full-moon or Decrease Spring or Autum are hurtfull to me We have in us motions that are inconstant and for which no reason can be given For Example I found Radishes first grateful to my Stomach since that nauseous and now at present grateful again In several other things likewise I find my Stomach and Appetite to vary after the same manner I have chang'd and chang'd again from White to Claret from Claret to White I am a great lover of Fish and consequently make my Fasts Feasts and my Feasts Fasts and believe what some People say that it is more easie of digestion than Flesh. As I make a Conscience of eating Flesh upon Fish-days so does my Taste make a Conscience of mixing Fish and Flesh the difference betwixt them seems to me to be too great so to do From my Youth I have us'd sometimes to be out of the way at Supper either to sharpen my Appetite against the next Morning for as Epicurus fasted and made lean Meals to accustom his Pleasure to make shift without abundance I on the contrary do it to prepare my Pleasure to make better and more chearful use of Abundance or else I fasted to preserve my Vigour for the service of some Action of Body or Mind for both the one and the other of those are cruelly dull'd in me by Repletion and above all things I hate that foolish coupling of so healthful and spritely a Goddess with that little belching God bloated with the fume of his Liquor or to cure my sick Stomach and for want of fit Company For I say as the same Epicurus did that a man is not so much to regard what he eats as with whom And commend Chilo that he would not engage himself to be at Perianders Feast till he first was inform'd who were to be the other Guests No Dish is so acceptable to me nor no Sawce so alluring as that which is extracted from Society I think it to be more wholesome to eat more liesurely and less and to eat ofter but I will have the value of Appetite and Hunger enhanc'd I should take no pleasure to be fed with three or four pittiful and stinted Repasts a day after a Physical manner Who will assure me that if I have a good Appetite in the morning I shall have the same at Supper But especially let us old Fellows take the first opportune time of eating and leave to Almanack-makers the hopes and Prognosticks The utmost fruit of my health is pleasure let us take hold of the present and known I avoid constancy in these Laws of Fasting Who will that one Form shall serve him let him evade the continuing of it We harden our selves
Cicero Lucaeâ— 4. Ovid. Epist. Aniad Seneca Cicero de â—in l. 2. Luc. lib. 9. Cicero Cicero de fin Aug. de Civit Dei Cicero Thus. l. 2. Tib. lib. 1. Eleg. 9. Cicero Cat. Epig. 4 Seu. Provid Sen. Ep. 47. Cicero Parad. Ulti Ibid. Cicero Thus. lib. 2. Tasso Canâ—â— 10. Aug. de Civet Dei Terenee Phor. Act. 5 Sâ—e 3. Juvenal Sat. 8. Horace lib. 1. Sat. 2. Ed. lib. 2. Sat. 7. Plaut Tri. Act. 2. Sce. 2. Luere lib. 2. Lucre. lib. 4. Senec. Ep. 115. Horace lib. 2. Ode 16. Lucre. lib. 2. Idem Perseus Sat. 2. Ter. Heart Act. 1. Sce. Horace lib. 1. Epist. 2. Hor. lib. 1. El. 2. Hor. lib. 1. Ep. 12. Lucret. lib. 5. Ovid. Amâ—â— l. 2. Ele. 19. Hor. ear lib. 3. Ode 29. Seneca Thiest Act. 2. Scae. 1. Lucret. l. 5. Corn. Nep. in vit A. Hici. Quinct Decla 4. Aeneid lib. 12. Aeneid lib. 4. Juvenal Saly 10. Homer Iliads 20. Petrar Son 83. Luc. lib. 7. Porti Lat. in Decla Luc. lib. 4. Maye's Luc. * As at the Battel of Ivry in the person of Henry the Great Manil. Astron lib. 4· Livius l. 23 â—vi l. 3. Caesars Com. Virg. Aneid lib. 10. Lucan l. 8. Mr. Mrys Trans Virg. Aenei 9. Livi. l. 38. Id. ibid. Id. ibid. Aeneid l. 4. Livel 35. Mart. l. 2. Livi. l. 40. Caesar de bello civili lib. 1. Mart lib. 2. Epig. 62. Id. lib. 6. Epi. 93. Aeneid l. 2. Ovid. de pont lib. 4. Eleg. 9. Mart. lib. 11. Epist. 50. Lucret. l. 4. Mart. l. 7. Epig. 47. Plut. vit Tit. Quint. Flaminius Mart. lib. â— Epig. 34. Hor. lib. 1. Sat. 5. Suet. in vita Cae. Id. eod not quoted by Montaigne Hor. lib. 7. Ode 11. Persius Sat. 1. Juven Sat. 10. Juven â—at 5. Ter. Adelph Act. 3. Scae. 5. Lucret. l. 3. Lucret. l. 6. Plaut Mostel Art 1. Sce. 3. Ben. Johnson Martial li. 6. Ep. 55. Id. lib. 2. Ep. 12. Hor. Ep. 12. Juven Sat. 8. Perse. Sat. ◠〈◊〉 Ibid. Lucan l. 5. Perseus Sat. 2. Hor. lib. 1. Epist. 10. Hor. l. 3. Ode 23. Lucret. l. 3. Irresolution the most common Vice of our Nature Aulus Gel. ex Pub. Min. Instability of our manners and opinions Augustus Hor. l. 1. G. 1. Id. lib. 2. Sat. 7. Lucret. lib. 3. Cicero A Maid threw her self out of a window for fear of a Rape Hor. lib. 2. Ep. 2. Id. Ibid. Cicero Tusc. 2. The Valour of Alexander extream in its kind Cicer. Sen. Epist. 120. Tib. lib. 2. Erg. 1. Hor. lib. 1. Sat. 3. The Germans great Drinkers Lucret. lib. 3. Virg. Egâ— 6. Juveâ— Sat. 13. Cornel. Gall. Epig. 1. Horace lib. 3. Ode 21. Drinking to a debauch in Vse amongst the best governed Nations Delicacy to be avoided in Wine A Character of the Authors Father Marvellous Chastity of the Age wherein the Authors Father lived One of the names of Bacchus Hor. lib. 3. Ode 23. Lucret. lib. 3. Terence Virg. 6. Cicero Tusc. l. 5. Aenied l. 4. To Philosophize what Several Accidents worse to suffer than Death Senec. The. Act. 1. Sca. 1. Death depends upon the Will Aeneid lib. 6. Hor. lib. 4. Ode 4. Sen. Th. Act. 1. Scen. 1. Mart. lib. 11. Epig. 57. Hor. lib. 3. Ode 3. Mar. lib. 2. Epig. 80. Lucan lib. 7. Lucret. lib. 3. Ignominious sepulture of self homicides Idem Ibid. Sulpitii Servasti Josep Antiq Jews p. 537. Montluc Comment Sen. Ep. 13. Aeneid lib. 11. Macchab. l. 2. Cap. 14. The utility of the French Plutarch Negligence the opposite vice to Curiosity Juven Sat. 13. Strange discovery of a Parricide Erasm. Adag Virg. Geâ— lib. 4. Lucret. lib. 5. Juven Sat. 13. Ovid. Fast. lib. 1. The confident innocency of Scipio Pub. Sy. min. de dolore Lucret. lib. 3. Luc. lib. â— Sleep the Image of Death Tâ—sso Cant. â—â— Tasso Cant. 8. Lucret. lib. 3. Ovid Tust lib. 1. Eleg. 3. Aeneid lib. 4. Id. lib. 10. Lucret. lib. 3. Ovid. Trist. lib. 1. Eleg. 3. Orders of Knighthood instituted to reward Military Vertue The Order of Saint Michel Mart. lib. 2. Epig. 82. Valour of the Citizens of Sparta The Order of the Holy Ghost The affection of Parents towards their Children greater than that of Children towards them and why Young men given to filching Gascon 's generally addicted to stealing Terence Adelph Act. 1. Sâ—e 1. The Age of Marriage The Vse of Women enervates young Men Tasso Cant. 10. Hor. lib. 1. Ep. 1. Ter. Adel. ac 4. Scen. 2. The Author seems to hint that the Judges were young Men themselves The ancient Gauls nâ—ver permitted their Sons to present themselves before them till they came to bear Arms. The Saâ—ick Law never seen by any Goats trained to give suck to Children Books immortal Children His Romance of Theagines and Cariclea Cordus 's Writings condemn'd to the Fire Ovid. Meta lib. 10. Li. lib. 5. Aeneid lib. 6. Aristo Cant. 12. Arms of the Roman Infantry and their Militiary Discipline Cicero Thus lib. 2. Arms of the Parthians Claud. in Ruff. lib. 2. Prob. lib. 4. Eleg. 1. Censure of Virgil And Lucan Of Terence Of Lucretius Catullus Epig. 40. Of Terence Comparison betwixt Catullus and Martial Mart. prae lib. 8. Virg. Georg. 4. The Characters of Plutarch and Seneca Censure of Cicero And of Plato Cicero de Sencet Caesar's Com. commended Froissard Censure of Guicciardin And of Philip de Commines Inclinations to Goodness Thai Vertue cannot be exercised without some difficulty Sen. Epist. 25. The Vertue of Socrates The noble Death of Cato accompanied with Pleasure Cicero Thuse lib. 1. * Caesar. Hor. lib. 1. Ode 37. Cicero de Offic. lib. 1. Vertue turn'd into Habit in Cato and Socrates Italians subtile and quick of Apprehension Germans and Suisses Loggerheads Aeneid 11 Horat. lib. 1. Sat. 6. Horat. lib. 2. Ode 17. Ju. sat 8. The Pleasure of the Chace What Hor. Ep. 2. Julius Caesar 's Clemency St. Luke Chap. 12. v. 40. The severe Laws of Persia moderated by Artaxerxes Hogs Sacrificed in Figure to the Divine Justice by the Egyptians The Cruelties exercised in Civil Wars Sen. de Clem. Aeneid l. 7. Beasts brought alive by Pythagoras to turn out Ovid. Met. lib. 15. Pythagoras his Transmutation of Souls Id ibid. Clad in Ruff. lib. 2. Ovid. Met. lib. 15. Beasts rever'd for Gods by some of the Ancients Juven sat 15. Learning brought in to esteem by Francis the First in France Sebonde Lucr. lib. 5. What Books are proper to translate Object against Sebonde 's Book the first The marvellous effects of lively Faith Incerto Vertue the particular mark of Christian Religion God assists our Faith and Religion not our Passions Proposition Whether it be Lawful to take Arms against the King in defence of Religion Lucret. 13. Bion an Atheist What Atheism is Divinity imprinted on the outward Fabrick of the World The World a Sacred Temple Manil. l. 4 Wisdom only belongs to the Divinity Heroicum Adagium 1 Pet. 55. The Wisdom of the World folly