here By thy sweet Conversation nourish'd were With thee when dying my good Fortune fled And in thy Grave my Soul was buried The Muses at thy Funerals I forsook And of thy Joy my leave forever took Dearer than Life am I so wretched then Never to see nor speak to thee agen Nor hear thy Voice now frozen up by Death Yet will I Love thee to my latest Breadth But let us hear a little Boy of Sixteen speak In this place I did once intend to have inserted those Memoirs upon that famous Edict of January But being I since find that they are already Printed and with a malicious design by some who make it their business to molest and endeavour to subvert the state of our Government not caring whether they mend and reform it or no and that they have confounded this Writing of his with others of their own Leven Apology for Estienne de Boetie I desisted from that purpose But that the Memory of the Father may not be interested nor suffer with such as could not come near hand to be acquainted with his Principles I here give them truly to understand that it was writ by him in his very green Years and that by way of Exercise only as a common Theme that has been tumbled and tost by a Thousand Writers I make no question but that he himself believ'd what he writ being so Consciencious that way that he would not so much as lye in jest and do moreover know that could it have been in his own Choice he had rather have been Born at Venice than at Soarlac and he had reason But he had another Maxim Soveraignly imprinted in his Soul very Religiously to Obey and submit to the Laws under which he was Born There never was a better Citizen more affectionate to his Country nor a greater Enemy to all the Commotions and Innovations of his time So that he would doubtless much rather have employ'd his Talent to the extinguishing of those Civil Flames than have added any Fewel to them For he had a Mind fashion'd to the Model of better Ages But in exchange of this Serious Piece I will present you with another of a more Gay and Frolick Air from the same Hand and Writ at the same Age. CHAP. XXVIII Nine and Twenty Sonnets of Estienne de la Boetie to Madam de Grammont Countess of Guisson MAdam I offer to your Ladiship nothing of mine either because it is already yours or because I find nothing in my Writings worthy of you But I have a great desire that these Verses into what part of the World soever they may travel may carry your Name in the Front for the Honour will accrue to them by having the great Corisanda de Andonis for their safe Conduct I conceive this present Madam so much the more proper for you both by reason there are few Ladies in France who are so good Judges of Poetry and make so good use of it as you do as also that there is none who can give it that Spirit and Life your Ladyship does by that incomparable Voice Nature has added to your other perfections you will find Madam that these Verses deserve your esteem and will I dare say concur with me in this that Gascony never yielded more invention finer Expression or that more evidence themselves to flow from a Masters hand And be not Jealous that you have but the remainder of what I Publisht some Years since under the Name of Monsieur de Foix your brave Kinsman for certainly these have something in them more spritely and luxuriant as being Writ in a greener Youth and enflam'd with the Noble Ardour that I will tell your Ladyship in your Ear. The other were Writ since when he was a Suitor in the honour of his Wife already â—elishing of I know not what Matrimonial Coldness And for my part I am of the same opinion with those who hold that Poesie appears no where so Gay as in a wanton and irregular Subject These Nine and Twenty Sonnets that were inserted here are since Printed with his other Works CHAP. XXIX Of Moderation AS if we had an infectious Touch we by our manner of handling corrupt things that in themselves are laudable and good We may grasp Vertue so hard till it become Vicious if we embrace it too streight and with too violent a desire Those who say there is never any excess in Vertue for as much as it is no Vertue when it once becomes excess only play upon words Horace l. 1. Epist 6. Insani sapiens nomen ferat aequus iniqui Ultra quam satis est virtutem si petat ipsam The Wise for Mad the Just for Unjust pass When more than needs ev'n Vertue they embrace This is a subtle consideration in Philosophy A Man may both be too much in Love with Vertue and be excessive in a just Action Holy Writ agrees with this Be not Wiser than you should but be soberly Wise * 'T is like he means Henry the 3d. of France I have known a great Man prejudice thè Opinion Men had of his Devotion by pretending to be devout beyond all Examples of others of his condition I Love temperate and moderate Natures An immoderate Zeal even to that which is good though it does not offend does astonish me and puts me to study what Name to give it Neither the Mother of Pausanias who was the first instructer of her Son's process and threw the first stone towards his Death Nor Posthumus the Dictator who put his Son to Death whom the Ardour of Youth had fortunately pusht upon the Enemy a little more advanc'd than the rest of his Squadron do appear to me so just as strange and I should neither advise nor like to follow so Savage a Vertue and that costs so dear The Archer that shoots over misses as well as he that falls short and 't is equally troublesome to my sight to look up at a great Light and to look down into a dark Abyss Callicles in Plato says That the extremity of Philosophy is hurtful and advises not to dive into it beyond the limits of Profit that taken moderately it is pleasant and useful but that in the end it renders a Man Brutish and Vicious A Contemner of Religion and the common Laws an Enemy to civil Conversation and all Humane Pleasures incapable of all Publick Administration unfit either to assist others or to relieve himself and a fit Object for all sorts of Injuries and Affronts without remedy or satisfaction He says true for in its Excess it enslaves our Natural Freedom and by an impertinent subtilty leads us out of the fair and beaten way that Nature has plain'd out for us The Love we bear to our Wives is very lawful and yet Theology thinks fit to curb and restrain it As I remember I have read in one place of St. Thomas of Aquin where he condemns Marriages within any of the forbidden degrees for this
ESSAYS OF MICHAEL SEIGNEUR DE MONTAIGNE IN THREE BOOKS With Marginal Notes and Quotations And an Account of the Author's Life With a short Character of the Author and Translator by a Person of Honour Made English by CHARLES COTTON Esq Viresque acquirit eundo Virg. lib. 4. Aen. The First Volume The Third Edition with the Addition of a Compleat Table to each Volume and a full defence of the Author LONDON Printed for M. Gillyflower and W. Hensman in Westminster-Hall and R. Wellington in St. Paul's Church Yard and H. Hindmarsh in Corn-hill 1700. To the Right Honourable GEORGE Marquess Earl and Viscount Hallifax Baron of Eland Lord Privy Seal and one of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council MY LORD IF I have set down the only opportunity I ever had of kissing your Lordships Hands amongst the happy Encounters of my Life and take this occasion so many Years after to tell you so your Lordship will not I hope think your self injur'd by such a Declaration from a Man that honours You nor condemn my Ambition when I publish to the World that I am not altogether unknown to You. Your Lordship peradventure may have forgot a Conversation so little worthy your remembrance but the memory of your Lordship's obliging fashion to me all that time can never die with me and though my Acknowledgment arrives thus late at you I have never left it at home when I went abroad into the best Company My Lord I cannot I would not flatter you I do not think your Lordship capable of being flatter'd neither am I inclin'd to do it to those that are but I cannot forbear to say that I then receiv'd such an impression of your Vertue and Noble Nature as will stay with me for ever This will either excuse the Liberty I presume to take in this Dedication or at least make it no wonder and I am so confident in your Lordship's Generosity that I assure my self you will not deny your Protection to a Man whose greatest Publick Crime is that of an ill Writer A better Book if there be a better of the kind in the Original I mean had been a Present more fitly suited to your Lordship's Quality and Merit and to my Devotion I could heartily wish it such but as it is I lay it at your Lordship's Feet together with My Lord Your Lordships most Humble And most Obedient Servant Charles Cotton Place this next after the Epistle Dedicatory ADVERTISEMENT SInce the Death of the Ingenious Translator of these Essays an imperfect Transcript of the following Letter was intended for the Press but having the good fortune to meet with a more correct Copy I thought my self under a necessity of Publishing it with this Third Edition not only to do Iustice to his Memory but to the Great Person he Chose for his Patron M. G. This for Charles Cotton Esq at his House at Berisford To be left at Ashburne in Darby-shire SIR I have to long delay'd my Thanks to you for giving me such an obliging Evidence of your Remembrance that alone would have been a welcome Present but when join'd with the Book in the World I am the best entertain'd with it raiseth a strong desire in me to be better known where I am sure to be so much pleased I have till now thought Wit could not be Translated and do still retain so much of that Opinion that I believe it impossible except by one whose Genius cometh up to that of the Author You have so kept the Original Strength of his Thought that it almost tempts a Man to believe the Transmigration of Souls and that his being us'd to Hills is come into the Moor-Lands to Reward us here in England for doing him more Right then his Country will afford him He hath by your means mended his First Edition To transplant and make him ours is not only a Valuable Acquisition to us but a Just Censure of the Critical Impertinence of those French Scribblers who have taken pains to make little Cavils and Exceptions to lessen the Reputation of this great Man whom Nature hath made too big to Confine himself to the Exactness of a Studied Stile He let his Mind have its full Flight and sheweth by a generous kind of Negligence that he did not Write for Praise but to give to the World a true Picture of himself and of Mankind He scorned affected Periods or to please the mistaken Reader with an empty Chime of Words He hath no Affectation to set himself out and dependeth wholly upon the Natural Force of what is his own and the Excellent Application of what he borroweth You see Sir I have Kindness enough for Monsieur de Montaigne to be your Rival but no Body can now pretend to be in equal Competition with you I do willingly yield which is no small matter for a Man to do to a more prosperous Lover and if you will repay this piece of Justice with another pray believe that he who can Translate such an Author without doing him wrong must not only make me Glad but Proud of being his Very humble Servant Hallifax THE TRANSLATORS PREFACE TO THE READER MY Design in attempting this Translation was to present my Country with a true Copy of a very brave Original How far I have succeeded in that Design is left to every one to judge and I expect to be the more gently censured for having my self so modest an Opinion of my own Performance as to confess that the Author has suffered by me as well as the former Translator though I hope and dare affirm that the misinter pretations I shall be found guilty of are neither so numerous nor so gross I cannot discern my own Errours it were unpardonable in me if I could and did not mend them but I can see his except when we are both mistaken and those I have corrected but am not so ill natur'd as to shew where In truth both Mr. Florio and I are to be excused where we miss of the sence of the Author whose Language is such in many Places as Grammar cannot reconcile which renders it the hardest Book to make a justifiable version of that I yet ever saw in that or any other Language I understand â—nsomuch that though I do think and am pretty confident I understand French as well as many Men I have yet sometimes been forc'd to grope at his meaning Peradventure the greatest Critick would in some Places have found my Author abstruse enough Yet are not these Mistakes I speak of either so many or of so great importance as to cast any scandalous blemish upon the Book but such as few Readers can discover and they that do will I hope easily excuse The Errors of the Press I must in part take upon my self living at so remote a distance from it and supplying it with a slubber'd Copy from an illiterate Amanuensis the last of which is provided against in the Quires that must succeed THE LIFE
OF MICHAEL SEIGNEUR DE MONTAIGNE Almost entirely taken out of his own WORKS THE Race of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne in Perigord was Noble but Noble without any great lustre till his time As to Estate he was seiz'd of above two thousand Crowns of yearly Revenue He was born to his Father the third in order of Birth of his Children and by him delivered to Gossips of the meanest Condition to be baptized with a Design rather to oblige and link him to those who were likely to stand in need of him than to such as he might stand in need of He moreover sent him from his Cradle to be brought up in a poor Village of his and there continued him all the while he was at Nurse and longer forming him to the lowest and most common manner of Living Wherein he certainly so well inur'd himself to Frugality and Austerity that they had much ado during all the time of his Infancy especially to correct the refusals he made of things that Children of his age are commonly greedy of as Sugars Sweet-meats Marchpanes and the like No doubt the Greek and Latin Tongues are a very Fair and a very great Advance but as he himself observes they are now adays too dear bought His Father having made all diligent inquiry that possibly could be amongst the Learned Men for an exquisite method of Education was caution'd of the inconvenience then in Use and told that the tedious time that is employ'd in the Languages of the Ancient Greeks and Romans which cost them nothing is the only reason that we cannot arrive to that grandeur of Soul and perfection of Knowledge that was in them The expedient that he found out for this was that whilst he was at Nurse and before he began to Speak he delivered him to the Care of a German who since died a famous Physician in France totally ignorant of our Language and very well vers'd in the Latin Tongue This Man that he had brought out of his own Country and entertain'd with a very great Salary for this purpose had the Child continually in his Arms to whom there were added two others more moderately Learned to attend him and to Relieve the firâ—â— which three entertain'd him with no other Language but Latin As to the rest of the Family it was an inviolable Rule that neither his Father nor so much as his Mother Man or Maid spoke any Word in his hearing but such as every one had learn'd only to prattle with him And 't is not to be believ'd how all of them profitted by this Method his Father and Mother learn'd by this means Latin enough to understand and to serve themselves withal at need as also those Servants did who were most about his Person To be short they did Latin it at such a Rate that it overflowed to the Neighbouring Villages where by Use several Latin Appellations of Artizans and their Tools have got footing and there remain to this day For his part he was above six years old before he understood any more of French or Perigordin than of Arabick and without Art Books Grammar or Precepts without Whipping and without Tears he had learn'd to speak as pure Latin as his Master for he could neither alter it nor mix it If for Example they gave him a Theme after the College Mode they gave it to others in French but they were fain to give it him in ill Latin to put it into good And Nicholas Gronchi who has writ a Book de Commitiis Romanorum Guiliaume Guerente who has writ a Commentary upon Aristotle George Buchanan that great Scotch Poet and Mark Anthony de Mureta whom both France and Italy acknowledge for the best Orator of his Time his Domestick Tutors have oft since told him that he had that Language in his Childhood so ready and at hand they were afraid to accost him As to the Greek his Father design'd to have it taught him by Art but by a new Method and that by way of Sport and Recreation they tost their Declensions to and fro after the manner of those who by certain Tricks upon the Chess board learn Arithmetick and Geometry so amongst other things he had been advis'd to make him relish Learning and Duty by an unforc'd Will and his own Device and to Educate his Soul with all Sweetness and Liberty without Austerity or Compulsion Which he also did to such a degree of Superstition that seeing some are of Opinion that it troubles the Brains of Children to be suddenly rous'd in a Morning and to be snatch'd away from sleep wherein they are much deeper plung'd than men with haste and violence he always caused him to be waked by the sound of some Musical Instrument and was never unprovided of a Musician for that purpose But as they who are impatient to be cur'd submit to all sorts of Remedies and every ones Advice the good Man being extreamly timorous of failing in a thing he had so much set his Heart upon suffered himself at last to be carried away by the common Opinion which like Cranes always follow that which went before and submitted to Custom having now no more those Persons about him who had given him the first Instructions that he had brought out of Italy And about the sixth Year of his Age sent him to the College of Guyenne at that time very flourishing and the best in France And there it was not possible to add any thing to the Care he had in choosing for him the best Chamber-Tutors and in all other Circumstances of Education wherein he reserv'd several particular Forms contrary to the College Usance but so it was that it was a College still and this unusual method of Education was here of no greater advantage to him than at his first coming to preferr him to one of the higher Classes for at thirteen Years of Age he had run thorough his whole Course At the Age of three and thirty he married a Wife though might he have been left free to his own Choice he would have avoided marrying even Wisdom her self had she been willing But 't is to much purpose says he to resist Custom and the common Usance of Life will have it so Nevertheless this Marriage of his was not Spontaneous he was put upon it and led to it by odd Accidents And as great a Libertine as he confesses himself to be he more strictly observ'd his Matrimonial Vow than he expected from or had propos'd to himself His Father left him Montaigne in Partage as the eldest of his Sons Prophesying that he would Ruine it considering his Humour so little dispos'd to live at home But he was deceiv'd for he liv'd upon it as he entred into it excepting that it was something better and yet without Office or any other Foreign helps As to the rest if Fortune never did him any violent or extraordinary Offence so she never shewed him any signal Favour Whatever he had in his House
that proceeded from her Liberality was there before he came to it and above a hundred Years before his Time He never in his own particular had any solid and essential Advantages for which he stood indebted to her Bounty She shew'd him Airy Honorary and Titular Favours without Substance She procur'd for him the Collar of the Order of St. Michael which when young he covered above all other things it being at that time the utmost mark of Honour of the French Nobless and very Rare But of all her Favours there was none with which he was so well pleas'd as an Authentick Bull of a Roman Burgess that was granted to him with great civility and bounty in a Journey he made to Rome which is transcrib'd in Form in the sixth Chapter of the third Book of his Essays Messieurs de Bourdeax elected him Mayor of their City being then out of the Kingdom and at Rome and yet more Remote from any such Expectation which made him excuse himself but that would not serve his turn and moreover the King interpos'd his Command 'T is an Office that ought to be look'd upon with the greatest Esteem as it has no other Perquisits and Benefits belonging to it than the meer honour of its Execution It lasts but two years but may by a second Election be continued longer though that rarely happens It was to him and had been so twice before once some years since to Monsieur de Lausac and more lately to Monsieur de Byron Mareschal of France in whose place he succeeded and lest his to Monsieur de Matiguon also Mareschal of France proud of so noble a Fraternity His Father a Man of great Honour and Equity had formerly also had the same Dignity All the Children his Wife brought died at Nurse saving Leonor an only Daughter whom he dispos'd in marriage some two Years before his Death The first printing of his Essaies was in the Year 1580 at which time the publick Applause gave him as he says a little more assurance than he expected He has since added but corrected nothing His Book having been always the same saving that upon every new Impression he took the Privilege to add something that the Buyer might not go away with his Hands quite empty His Person was strong and well knit his Faâ—e not fat but full his Complexion betwixt Jovial and Melancholick moderately Sanguine and hot his Constitution healthful and spritely rarely troubled with Diseases till he grew into Years that he begun to be afflicted with the Cholick and Stone As to the rest very obstinate in his hatred and contempt of Physicians Prescriptions an hereditary Antipathy his Father having liv'd threescore and fourteen Years his Grand-father threescore and nine and his great Grandfather almost fourscore Years without having ever tasted any sort of Medicine He died in the Year 1592 the 13th of September a very constant and Philosophical Death being aged fifty nine Years six Months and eleven Days and was buried at Bourdeaux in the Church of a Commendary of St. Anthony now given to the Religious Feuillantines where his Wife Francoise de la Cassaigne and his Daughter have erected for him an honourable Monument having like his Ancestors past over his Life and Death in the Catholick Religion The Contents of the Chapters of the first Book Ch. 1. THat Men by various ways arrive at the same End Chap. 2. Of Sorrow Chap. 3. That our Affâ—â—ctions carry themselves beyond Us. Chap. 4. That the Soul discharges her Passions upon false Objects where the true are wanting Chap. 5. Whether the Governour of a Place besieg'd ought himself to go out to parley Chap. 6. That the Hour of Parley is dangerous Chap. 7. That the Intention is Iudge of our Actions Chap. 8. Of Idleness Chap. 9. Of Lyars Chap. 10. Of Quick or Slow Speech Chap. 11. Of Prognostication Chap. 12. Of Constancy Chap. 13. The Ceremony of the Interview of Princes Chap. 14. That men are justly punish'd for being obstinate in the Defence of a Fort that is not in reason to be defended Chap. 15. Of the Punishment of Cowardice Chap. 16. A Proceeding of some Ambassadours Chap. 17. Of Fear Chap. 18. That Men are not to judge of our Happiness till after Death Chap. 19. That to study Philosophy is to learn to Die Chap. 20. Of the Force of Imagination Chap. 21. That the Profit of one Man is the Inconvenience of another Chap. 22. Of Custom and that we should not easily change a Law received Chap. 23. Various Events from the same Counsel Chap. 24. Of Pedantry Chap. 25. Of the Education of Children To Madam Diana of Foix Countess of Gurson Chap. 26. That it is folly to measure Truth and Errour by our own capacity Chap. 27. Of Friendship Chap. 28. Nine and twenty Sonnets of Estienne de la Boetie to Madam de Grammont Countess of Guisson Chap. 29. Of Moderation Chap. 30. Of Cannibals Chap. 31. That a Man is soberly to judge of Divine Ordinances Chap. 32. That we are to avoid Pleasures even at the expence of Life Chap. 33. That fortune is oftentimes observed to act by the Rule of Reason Chap. 34. Of one Defect in one Government Chap. 35. Of the Custom of wearing Clothes Chap. 36. Of Cato the younger Chap. 37. That we laugh and Cry for the same thing Chap. 38. Of Solitude Chap. 39. A Consideration upon Cicero Chap. 40. That the Relish of Goods and Evils does in a great Measure depend upon the Opinion we have of them Chap. 41. Not to communicate a Man's Honour Chap. 42. Of the Inequality amongst us Chap. 43. Of Sumptuary Laws Chap. 44. Of Sleep Chap. 45. Of the Battel of Dreux Chap. 46. Of Names Chap. 47. Of the Incertainty of our Iudgment Chap. 48. Of Horses drest to the Menage call'd Destrials Chap. 49. Of Ancient Customs Chap. 50. Of Democritus and Heraclitus Chap. 51. Of the Vanity of Words Chap. 52. Of the Parcimony of the Ancients Chap. 53. Of a Saying of Caesar Chap. 54. Of Vain Subtilties Chap. 55. Of Smells Chap. 56. Of Prayers Chap. 57. Of Age. A VINDICATION OF Montagne's Essays THe Essays of Michel de Montagne are justly ranked amongst Miscellaneous Books for they are on various subjects without order and connexion and the very body of the discourses has still a greater variety This sort of confusion does not however hinder people of all qualities to extol these Essays above all the Books that ever they read and they make them their chief study They think that other Miscellanies of ancient and modern Books are nothing but an unnecessary heap of quotations whereas we find in this authorities to the purpose intermixed with the Authors own thoughts which being bold and extraordinary are very effectual to cure men of their Weakness and Vanity and induce them to seek Virtue and Felicity by lawful means But because every body is not of this opinion we must take notice here of what is said against and
for themselves put to death their brave Captains newly return'd triumphant from a Naval Victory they had obtained over the Lacedaemonians near the Arginusian Isles the most bloody and obstinate Engagement that ever the Greeks fought at Sea for no other Reason but that they rather followed their Blow and pursued the Advantages prescribed them by the Rule of War than that they would stay to gather up and bury their Dead an Execution that is yet rendred more odious by the Behaviour of Diomedon who being one of the condemn'd and a Man of most eminent both politick and military Vertue after having heard their Sentence advancing to speak no Audience till then having been allowed instead of laying before them his own Innocency or the Impiety of so cruel an Arrest only express'd a Solicitude for his Judges Preservation beseeching the Gods to convert this Sentence to their own Good and praying that for neglecting to pay those Vows which he and his Companions had done which he also acquainted them with in Acknowledgment of so glorious a Success they might not pull down the Indignation of the Gods upon them and so without more Words went courageously to his Death But Fortune a few Years after punishing them in their kind made them see the Error of their Cruelty for Chabrias Captain-General of their Naval Forces having got the better of Pollis Admiral of Sparta about the Isle of Naxos totally lost the Fruits of his Success and Content with his Victory of very great Importance to their Affairs not to incur the danger of this Example and lose a few Bodies of his dead Friends that were floating in the Sea gave opportunity to a world of living Enemies to sail away in Safety who afterwards made them pay dear for this unseasonable Superstition Seneca Tr. Cher. 2. Quaeris quo jaceas post obitum loco Quo non natae jacent Dost ask where thou shalt lie when dead With those that never Being had This other restores the sense of Repose to a Body without a Soul Cicero Tusc l. 1. Neque sepulcrum quo recipiat habeat portum corporis Ubi remissa humana vita Corpus requiescat à malis Nor with a Tomb as with a Haven blest Where after Life the Corps in Peace may rest As nature demonstrates to us that several dead things retain yet an occult Sympathy and relation to Life Wine changes its flavour and complexion in Cellars according to the changes and seasons of the Vine from whence it came and the Flesh of Venison alters its condition and taste in the powd'ring-tub according to the seasons of the living Flesh of its kind as it is observed by the Curious CHAP. IV. That the Soul discharges her Passions upon false Object where the true are wanting A Gentleman of my Country who was very often tormented with the Gout being importun'd by his Physicians totally to reclaim his Appetite from all manner of salt Meats was wont presently to reply that he must needs have something to quarrel with in the extremity of his Fits and that he fansy'd that railing at and cursing one while the Bolognia Sawsages and another the dry'd Tongues and the Hamms was some mitigation to his pain And in good earnest as the Arm when it is advanced to strike if it fail of meeting with that upon which is was design'd to discharge the blow and spends it self in vain does offend the Striker himself and as also that to make a pleasant Prospect the Sight should not be lost and dilated in a vast extent of empty Air but have some Bounds to limit and circumscribe it at a reasonable distance Ventus ut amittit vires nisi robore densae Occurant Sylvae spatio diffusus inani As Winds do lose their strength unless withstood By some dark Grove of strong opposing wood So it appears that the Soul being transported and discompos'd turns its violence upon its self if not supply'd with something to oppose it and therefore always requires an Enemy as an object on which to discharge its Fury and Resentment Plutarch says very well of those who are delighted with little Dogs and Monkeys that the amorous part which is in us for want of a legitimate Object rather than lie idle does after that manner forge and create one frivolous and false as we see that the Soul in the exercise of its Passions inclines rather to deceive it self by creating a false and fantastical Subject even contrary to its own Belief than not to have something to work upon And after this manner Brute Beasts direct their Fury to fall upon the Stone or Weapon that has hurt them and with their Teeth even execute their Revenge upon themselves for the Injury they have receiv'd from another Claudian Pannonis haud aliter post ictum saevior Ursa Cui jaculum parva Lybs amentavit habena Se rotat in vulnus telumque irata receptum Impetit secum fugientem circuit Hastam So the fierce Bear made fiercer by the smart Of the bold Lybian's mortal guided Dart Turns round upon the Wound and the tough Spear Contorted o'er her Breast does flying bear What causes of the misadventures that befall us do we not invent what is it that we do not lay the fault to right or wrong that we may have something to quarrel with Those beautiful Tresses young Lady you may so liberally tear off are no way guilty nor is it the whiteness of those delicate Breasts you so unmercifully beat that with an unlucky Bullet has slain your beloved Brother quarrel with something else Livy Livy dec l. 5. speaking of the Roman Army in Spain says that for the loss of two Brothers who were both great Captains Flere omnes repente offensare capita that they all wept and tore their Hair 'T is the common practice of Affliction And the Philosopher Bion said pleasantly of the King who by handfulls pull'd his Hair off his Head for Sorrow Does this man think that Baldness is a Remedy for Grief Who has not seen peevish Gamesters worry the Cards with their Teeth and swallow whole Bales of Dice in revenge for the Loss of their Money Xerxes whip'd the Sea and writ a Challenge to Mount Athos Cyrus employ'd a whole Army several days at work to revenge himself of the River Gâ—idus for the Fright it had put him into in passing over and Caligula demolish'd a very beautiful Palace for the Pleasure his Mother had once enjoy'd there I remember there was a Story currant when I was a Boy That one of our Neighbouring Kings having receiv'd a Blow from the Hand of GOD swore he would be reveng'd and in order to it made Proclamation that for ten Years to come no one should pray to him or so much as mention him throughout his Dominions by which we are not so much to take measure of the Folly as the Vain-Glory of the Nation of which this Tale was told They are Vices that
the Crown where for the Regulation of Community in Goods and Estates observ'd in the Country certain Sovereign Magistrates have committed to them the universal Charge and over-seeing of the Agriculture and Distribution of the Fruits according to the Necessity of every one Where they lament the Death of Children and Feast at the Decease of old Men Where they lie ten or twelve in a Bed Men and their Wives together Where Women whose Husbands come to violent Ends may marry again and others not Where the servile Condition of Women is look'd upon with such Contempt that they kill all the native Females and buy Wives of their Neighbours to supply their Use Where Husbands may repudiate their Wives without shewing any Cause but Wives cannot part from their Husbands for what cause soever Where Husbands may sell their Wives in case of sterility Where they boyl the Bodies of their dead and afterwards pound them to a pulp which they mix with their Wine and drink it Where the most coveted Sepulture is to be eaten with Dogs and elsewhere by Birds Where they believe the Souls of the happy live in all manner of Liberty in delightful Fields furnish'd with all sorts of Delicacies and that it is those Souls repeating the words we utter which we call Echo Where they fight in the Water and shoot their Arrows with the most mortal aim swimming Where for a sign of Subjection they lift up their Shoulders and hang down their Heads and put off their shooes when they enter the King's Palace Where the Eunuchs who take charge of the Religious Women have moreover their Lips and Noses cut away and disguis'd that they may not be lov'd and the Priests put out their own Eyes to be better acquainted with their Daemons and the better to receive and retain their Oracles Where every one creates to himself a Deity of what he likes best according to his own Fancy the Hunter a Lyon or a Fox the Fisher some certain Fish and Idols of every Humane Action or Passion in which place the Sun the Moon and the Earth are the principal Deities and the form of taking an Oath is to touch the Earth looking up to Heaven and there both Flesh and Fish is eaten raw Where the greatest Oath they take is to swear by the Name of some dead Person of Reputation laying their hand upon his Tomb Where the new-New-years Gift the King sends every Year to the Princes his Subjects is Fire which being brought all the old Fire is put out and the neighbouring People are bound to fetch of the new every one for themselves upon pain of Treason Where when the King to betake himself wholly to Devotion retires from his Administration which often falls out his next Successor is oblig'd to do the same by which means the Right of the Kingdom devolves to the third in Succession Where they vary the Form of Government according to the seeming necessity of Affairs Depose the King when they think good substituting ancient men to govern in his stead and sometimes transferring it into the hands of the Common-People Where Men and Women are both Circumcis'd and also Baptiz'd Where the Souldier who in one or several Engagements has been so fortunate as to present seven of the Enemies Heads to the King is made noble where they live in that rare and singular Opinion of the Mortality of the Soul Where the Women are deliver'd without Pain or Fear Where the Women wear Copper Fetters upon both their Legs and if a Louse bite them are bound in Magnanimity to bite them again and dare not marry till first they have made their King a Tender of their Virginity if he please to accept it Where the ordinary way of Salutation is by putting a Finger down to the Earth and then pointing it up towards Heaven Where Men carry Burthens upon their Heads and Women on their Shoulders the Women pissing standing and the Men cowring down Where they send their Blood in token of Friendship and cense the men they would honour like Gods Where not only to the fourth but in any other remote Degree Kindred are not permitted to marry Where the Children are four Years at Nurse and sometimes twelve in which Place also it is accounted mortal to give the Child suck the first day after it is born Where the Correction of the male Children is peculiarly design ' d to the Fathers and to the Mothers of the Females the Punishment being to hang them by the Heels in the Smoak Where they eat all sorts of Herbs without other Scruple than of the Illness of the Smell Where all things are open the finest Houses and that are furnish'd with the richest Furniture without Doors Windows Trunks or Chests to lock a Thief being there punish'd double to what they are in other Places Where they crack Lice with their Teeth like Monkeys and abhorr to see them kill'd with ones Nails Where in all their Lives they neither cut their Hair nor pare their Nails and in another Place pare those of the Right hand only letting the Left grow for Ornament and Bravery Where they suffer the Hair on the right side to grow as long as it will and shave the other and in the neighbâ—ring Provinces some let their Hair grow long before and some behind shaving close the rest Where Parents let out their Children and Husbands their Wives to their Guests to hire Where a man may get his own Mother with Child and Fathers make use of their own Daughters or their Sons without Scandal or Offence Where at their solemn Feasts they interchangeably lend their Children to one another without any consideration of Nearness of Blood In one Place Men feed upon Humane Flesh in another 't is reputed a charitable Office for a Man to kill his Father at a certain Age and elsewhere the Fathers dispose of their Children whilst yet in their Mothers Wombs some to be preserv'd and carefully brought up and others they proscribe either to be thrown off or made away Elsewhere the old Husbands lend their Wives to Young-men and in another place they are in common without offence in one place particularly the Women take it for a mark of Honour to have as many gay fring'd Tassels at the bottom of their Garment as they have lain with several men Moreover has not Custom made a Republick of Women separately by themselves Has it not put Arms into their Hands made them to raise Armies and fight Battels and does she not by her own Precept instruct the most ignorant Vulgar and make them perfect in things which all the Philosophy in the World could never beat into the Heads of the wisest men For we know entire Nations Where Death was not only despis'd but entertain'd with the greatest Triumph where Children of seven years old offer'd themselves to be whip'd to death without changing their Countenance where Riches were in such Contempt that the poorest and most wretched Citizen would
haunted his House with a little Earth of the Sepulchre of our Lord which Earth being also transported thence into the Church a Paralytick to have there been suddenly cur'd by it A Woman in Procession having touch'd St. Stephen's Shrine with a Nosegay and after rubbing her Eyes with it to have recovered her Sight lost many Years before with several other Miracles of which he professes himself to have been an Eye-Witness Of what shall we accuse him and the two Holy Bishops Aurelius and Maximinus both which he attests to the Truth of these things Shall it be of Ignarance Simplicity and Facility or of Malice and imposture Is any Man now living so impudent as to think himself comparable to them Ciciro 2. de Div. l. 2. either in Virtue Piety Learning Judgment or any kind of Perfection Qui ut Rationem nullam afferent ipsa Authoritate me frangerent Who though they should give me no Reason for what they affirm would yet convince me with their Authority 'T is a Presumption of great Danger and Consequence besides the absurd Temerity it draws after it to contemn what we do not comprehend For after that according to your fine Understanding you have establish'd the Limits of Truth and Error and that afterwards there appears a Necessity upon you of believing stranger things than those you have contradicted you are already oblig'd to quit your hold and to aquiesce That which seems to me so much to disorder our Consciences in the Commotions we are now in concerning Religion is the Catholicks dispensing so much with their Belief they fansie they appear Moderate and Wise when they grant to the Huguenots some of the Articles in Question but besides that they do not discern what advantage it is to those with whom we contend to begin to give Ground and to retire and how much this animates our Enemy to follow his blow these Articles which they insist upon as things indifferent are sometimes of very great importance and dangerous Consequence We are either wholly and absolutely to submit our selves to the Authority of our Ecclesiastical Polity or totally throw off all Obedience to it 'T is not for us to determine what and how much Obedience we owe to it and this I can say as having my self made trial of it that having formerly taken the liberty of my own Swing and Fancy and omitted or neglected certain Rules of the Discipline of our Church which seem'd to me vain and of no Foundation coming afterwards to discourse it with learned Men I have found those very things to be built upon very good and solid Ground and strong Foundation and that nothing but Brutality and Ignorance make us Receive them with less Reverence than the rest Why do we not consider what Contradictions we find in our own Judgments how many things were yesterday Articles of our Faith that to day appear no other than Fables Glory and Curiosity are the Scourges of the Soul of which the last prompts us to thrust our Noses into every thing and the other forbids us to leave any thing doubtful and undecided CHAP. XXVII Of Friendship HAving considered the Fancy of a Painter I have that serves me I had a mind to imitate his way For he chooses the fairest Place and middle of any Wall or pannel of Wainscote wherein to draw a Picture which he finishes with his utmost Care and Art and the vacuity about it he fills with Gratesque which are odd Fantastick Figures without any Grace but what they derive from their variety and the extravagancy of their Shapes And in truth what are these things I scribble other than Grotesques and monstrous Bodies made of dissenting parts without any certain Figure or any other than accidental Order Coherence or Proportion Hor. de Art Poetica Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne That a fair Woman's Face above doth show But in a Fishes Tail doth end below In the second part I go Hand in Hand with my Painter but fall very short of him in the first and the better my power of handling not being such that I dare to offer at a brave piece finely painted and set off according to Art I have therefore thought fit to borrow one of Estienno de Boitic and such a one as shall honour and adorn all the rest of my work namely a Discourse that he called The Voluntary Servitude a piece writ in his younger Years by way of Essay in honour of Liberty against Tyrants and which has since run through the hands of several Men of great Learning and Judgment not without singular and merited commendation for it is finely writ and as full as any thing can possibly be Though a Man may confidently say it is far short of what he was able to do and if in that more mature Age wherein I had the happiness to know him he had taken a design like this of mine to commit his thoughts to writing we should have seen a great many rare things and such as would have gone very near to have rival'd the best Writings of Antiquity For in Natural parts especially I know no man comparable to him But he has left nothing behind him save this Treatise only and that too by chance for I believe he never saw it after it first went out of his hands and some Observations upon that Edict of January made Famous by our Civil Wars which also shall elsewhere peradventure find a place These were all I could recover of his Remains I to whom with so affectionate a remembrance upon his Death-bed he by his last Will bequeath'd his Library and Papers the little Book of his Works only excepted which I committed to the press And this particular obligation I have to this Treatise of his that it was the occasion of my first coming acquainted with him for it was shew'd to me long before I had the good fortune to know him and gave me the first knowledge of his name proving so the first cause and foundation of a Friendship which we afterward improv'd and maintain'd so long as God was pleas'd to continue us together so perfect inviolate and entire that certainly the like is hardly to be found in Story and amongst the Men of this Age there is no sign nor trace of any such thing in use so much concurrence is requir'd to the building of such a one that 't is much if Fortune bring it but once to pass in three Ages There is nothing to which Nature seems so much to have enclin'd us as to Society and Aristotle says that the good Legislators had more respect to Friendship than to Justice Now the most supream point of its perfection is this Perfect Friendship what for generally all those that Pleasure Profit Publick or Private Interest Create and Nourish are so much the less Generous and so much the less Friendships by how much they mix another cause and design than simple and pure Friendship it self Neither
This Book Employment is as painful as any other and as great an Enemy to Health which ought to be the first thing in every Man's prospect neither ought a Man to be allur'd with the pleasure of it which is the same that destroys the Wary Avaritious Voluptuous and Ambitious Men. The Wise give us Caution enough to beware the Treachery of our Desires and to distinguish true and entire Pleasures from such as are mix'd and complicated with greater Pain For the greatest part of Pleasures say they Wheedle and Caress only to strangle us like those Thieves the Egyptians call'd Philiste and if the Head-Ach should come before Drunkenness we should have a care of Drinking too much but Pleasure to deceive us Marches before and conceals her Train Books are pleasant but if by being over Studious we impair our Health and spoil our good Humour two of the best pieces we have let us give it over for I for my part am one of those who think that no Fruit deriv'd from them can recompence so great a Loss As Men who feel themselves weakned by a long Series of Indisposition give themselves up at last to the Mercy of Medicine and submit to certain Rules of Living which they are for the future never to Transgress so he who Retires weary of and disgusted with the common way of Living ought to model this new One he enters into by the Rules of Reason and to Institute and Establish it by Premeditation and after the best Method he can contrive He ought to have taken leave of all sorts of Labour what advantage soever he may propose to himself by it and generally to have shaken off all those Passions which disturb the Tranquility of Body and Soul and then choose the Way that best suits with his own Humour Propert. lib. Eleg. 25. Unusquisque sua noverit ire via Every one best doth know In his own Way to go In Menagery Study Hunting and all other Exercises Men are to proceed to the utmost limits of Pleasure but must take heed of engaging further where Solitude and Trouble begin to mix We are to reserve so much Employment only as is necessary to keep us in Breath and to defend us from the Inconveniences that the other Extream of a Dull and Stupid Laziness brings along with it There are some Steril Knotty Sciences and chiefly Hammer'd out for the Crowd let such be left to them who are Engag'd in the Publick Service I for my part care for no other Books but either such as are pleasant and easie to delight me or those that comfort and instruct me how to Regulate my Life and Death Hor. Ep. 44. lib. 1. Tacitum sylvas inter reptare salubres Curantem quidquid dignum sapiente bonoque est Silently Meditating in the Groves What best a Wise and Honest Man behoves Wiser Men propose to themselves a Repose wholly Spiritual as having great force and vigour of Mind but for me who have a very ordinary Soul I find it very necessary to support my self with Bodily Conveniences and Age having of late depriv'd me of those Pleasures that were most acceptable to me I instruct and whet my Appetite to those that remain and are more suitable to this other season We ought to hold with all our force both of Hands and Teeth the use of the Pleasures of Life that our Years one after another snatch away from us Persius Sat. 5. Carpamus dulcia nostrum est Quod vivis cinis manes fabula fies Let us enjoy Life's Sweets for shortly we Ashes Pale Ghost's and Fables all shall be Now as to the End that Pliny and Cicero propose to us of Glory 't is infinitely wide of my account for Ambition is of all other the most contrary Humour to Solitude and Glory and Repose are so inconsistent that they cannot possibly Inhabit in one and the same place and for so much as I understand those have only their Arms and Legs disingag'd from the Crowd their Mind and Intention remain engag'd behind more than ever Perseus Sat. 1. Tun ' vetule auriculis alienis colligis escas Dost thou Old Dotard at these Years Gather fine Tales for others Ears They are only Retir'd to take a better Leap and by a stronger Motion to give a brisker Charge into the Crowd Will you see how they shoot short Let us put into the Counterpoise the Advice of two Philosophers of two very different Sects Writing the one to Idomeneus the other to Lucilius their Friends to Retire into Solitude from Worldly Honours and the Administration of Publick Affairs You have say they hitherto Liv'd Swimming and Floating come now and Die in the Harbour You have given the first part of your Life to the Light give what remains to the Shade It is impossible to give over Business if you do not also quit the Fruit and therefore disengage your selves from all the Concerns of Name and Glory 'T is to be fear'd the Lustre of your former Actions will give you but too much Light and follow you into your most private and most obscure Retreat Quit with other Pleasures that which proceeds from the Approbation of another And as to your Knowledge and Parts never concern your selves they will not lose their effect if your selves be ever the better for them Remember him who being ask'd why he took so much Pains in an Art that could come to the Knowledge of but few Persons A few are enough for me reply'd he I have enough of one I have enough of never a one He said true you and a Companion are Theatre enough to one another or you to your self Let us be to you the whole People and the whole People to you but one 'T is an unworthy Ambition to think to derive Glory from a Man's Sloath and Privacy You are to do like the Beasts of Chace who put out the Track at the entrance into their Den. You are no more to concern your self how the World talks of you but how you are to talk to your self Retire your self into your self but first prepare your self there to receive your self It were a folly to trust your self in your own Hands if you cannot Govern your self a Man may as well miscarry alone as in Company till you have rendred your self as such as before whom you dare not Trip and till you have a Bashfulness and Respect for your self Observantur species honestae animo Cicero Tusc Quaest 1 2. Let just and honest things be still Represented to the Mind Present continually to you Imagination Cato Phocion and Aristides in whose presence the Fools themselves will hide their Faults and make them Controulers of all your Intentions Should they deviate from Vertue your Respect to them will again set you right they will keep you in the way of being Contented with your self to Borrow nothing of any other but your self to restrain and fix your Soul in certain and limited Thoughts wherein
she may please her self and having understood the true and real Goods which Men the more enjoy the more they understand to rest satisfied without desire of prolongation of Life or Memory This is the Precept of the True and Natural Philosophy not of a Boasting and Prating Philosophy such as that of the two former CHAP. XXXIX A Consideration upon Cicero ONe Word more by way of Comparison betwixt these two There are to be gather'd out of the Writings of Cicero and this Younger Pliny but little in my opinion resembling his Uncle in his Humour infinite Testimonies of a beyond measure Ambitious Nature and amongst others this for one that they both in the sight of all the World solicite the Historians of their time not to forget them in their Memoirs and Fortune as if in spite has made the Vacancy of those Requests Live upon Record down to this Age of ours when she has long since Damn'd the Histories themselves to Oblivion But this exceeds all meanness of Spirit in Persons of such Quality as they were to think to derive any great and living Renown from Babling and Prating even to the Publishing of their private Letters to their Friends and so withal that though some of them were never sent the opportunity being lost they nevertheless expose them to the light with this worthy excuse that they were hereafter unwilling to lose their Labours and have their Lucubrations thrown away Was it not very well becoming two Consuls of Rome Soveraign Magistrates of the Republick that Commanded the World to spend their time in contriving Quaint and Elegant Missives thence to gain the Reputation of being Criticks in their own Mother Tongues What could a pitiful School-master have done worse whose trade it was to get his Living If the Acts of Xenophon and Caesar had not far enough transcended their Eloquence I scarce believe they would ever have taken the pains to have writ them They made it their business to recommend not their Speaking but their doing And could the perfection of eloquence have added any lustre proportionable to the merit of a great Person certainly Scipio and Laelius had never resigned the honour of their Comedies with all the luxuriances and delicacies of the Latine Tongue to an African Slave for that that work was theirs the Beauty and Excellency of it do sufficiently declare besides Terence himself confesses as much and I should take it ill from any one that would dispossess me of that belief 'T is a kind of injurious Mockery and Offence to extol a Man for Qualities misbecoming his Merit and Condition though otherwise commendable in themselves but such as ought not however to be his chiefest Talent As if a Man should commend a King for being a good Painter a good Architect a good Marks-man or a good Runner at the Ring commendations that add no Honour unless mentioned altogether and in the train of those that are more properly applicable to him namely his Justice and the Science of governing and conducting his People both in Peace and War At this rate agriculture was an Honour to Cyrus and Eloquence and the knowledge of good Letters to Charlemaigne I have in my time known some who by that Knack of Writing have got both their Titles and Fortune disown their Apprenticeage purposely corrupt their Stile and affect ignorance in so vulgar a quality which also our Nation observes to be rarely seen in very intelligent hands to seek a reputation by better qualities Demosthenes his Companions in the Embassy to Philip extolling that Prince for Handsome Eloquent and a Stout Drinker Demosthenes reply'd that those were commendations more proper for a Woman an Advocate or a Spunge than for a King Hor. Carm. Imperet bellante prior jucentem Lenis in hostem First let his Empire from his valour flow And then by mercy on a prostrate foe 'T is not his profession to know either how to Hunt or to Dance well Virg. Aen. l. 6. Orabunt Causas alii coelique meatus Describent radio fulgentia sydera dicent Hic regere imperio populos sciat Let others plead at the litigious Bar Describe the Sphears point out each twinkling Star Let this Man rule a greater art by far Plutarch says moreover that to appear so excellent in these less necessary Qualities is to produce Witness against a Mans self that he has spent his time and apply'd his Study ill which ought to have been employ'd in the acquisition of more necessary and more useful things so that Philip King of Macedon having heard that Great Alexander his Son Sing once at a Feast to the Wonder and Envy of the best Musicians there Art not thou asham'd said he to him to Sing so well And to the same Philip a Musician with whom he was disputing about some things concerning his Art Heav'n forbid Sir said he that so great a misfortune should ever befal you as to understand these things better than I. A King should be able to answer as Iphicrates did the Orator who prest upon him in his invective after this manner And what art thou that thou brav'st it at this rate art thou a Man at Arms art thou an Archer art thou a Pike I am none of all this but I know how to Command all these And Antisthenes took it for an argument of little Valour in Ismenas that he was commended for Playing excellently well upon a Flute I know very well that when I hear any one insist upon the Language of Essays I had rather a great deal he would say nothing 'T is not so much to elevate the Stile as to depress the Sence and so much the more offensively as they do it Disgracefully and out of the Way I am much deceived if many other Essayists deliver more worth nothing as to the matter and how well or ill soever if any other Writer has strewed them either much more Material or thicker upon his Paper than my self To bring the more in I only Muster up the Heads should I annex the sequel I should strangely Multiply this Volume And how many Stories have I Seattered up and down in this Book that I only touch upon which should any one more curiously search into they would find matter enough to produce infinite Essays Neither those Stories nor my allegations do always serve simply for Example Authority or Ornament I do not only regard them for the use I make of them They carry sometimes besides what I apply them to the seed of a more Rich and a Bolder matter and sometimes collaterally a more delicate Sound both to me my self who will express no more in this Place and to others who shall happen to be of my Ear. But returning to the speaking vertue I find no great choice betwixt not knowing to speak any thing but very ill and not knowing to speak any thing but very well Non est ornamentum virile concinnitas Sen. Ep. 6. Neatness of Stile is no
Manly Ornament The Sages tell us that as to what concerns Knowledge there is nothing but Philosophy and to what concerns effects nothing but vertue that is generally proper to all Degrees and to all orders There is something like this in these two other Philosophers for they also promise Eternity to the Letters they Write to their Friends but 't is after another manner and by accommodating themselves for a good end to the vanity of another for they Write to them that if the concern of making themselves known to future Ages and the Thirst of Glory do yet detain them in the management of publick affairs and make them fear the Solitude and Retirement to which they would persuade them let them never trouble themselves more about it forasmuch as they shall have Credit enough with Posterity to assure them that were there nothing else but the very Letters thus Writ to them those Letters will render their names as known and famous as their own publick actions themselves could do And besides this difference these are not Idle and empty Letters that contain nothing but a fine Gingle of well chosen Words and fine Couch'd Phrases but rather repleat and abounding with Grave and Learn'd Discourses by which a Man may render himself not more Eloquent but more Wise and that instruct us not to speak but to do well A way with that Eloquence that so enchants us with its Harmony that we should more Study it than things Unless you will allow that of Cicero to be of so Supream a perfection as to form a compleat Body of it self And of him I shall further add one Story we read of him to this purpose wherein his nature will much more manifestly be laid open to us He was to make an Oration in publick and found himself a little straitned in time to fit his Words to his Mouth as he had a mind to do when Eros one of his Slaves brought him word that the audience was deferr'd till the next Day at which he was so ravish'd with Joy that he enfranchis'd him for the good news Upon this Subject of Letters I will add this more to what has been already said that it is a kind of Writing wherein my Friends think I can do something and I am willing to confess I should rather have chose to publish my Whimsies that way than any other had I had to whom to Write but I wanted such a settled Corrsepondency as I once had to attract me to it to raise my Fancy and maintain the rest against me For to Traffick with the Wind as some others have done and to Forge vain Names to direct my Letters to in a serious subject I could never do it but in a Dream being a sworn Enemy to all manner of falsification I should have been more diligent and more confidently secure had I had a Judicious and Indulgent Friend to whom to address than thus to expose my self to various judgments of a whole People and I am deceiv'd if I had not succeeded better I have naturally a Comick and familiar Stile but it is a peculiar one and not proper for Publick business but like the Language I speak too Compact Irregular Abrupt and Singular and as to Letters of Ceremony that have no other substance than a fine contexture of courteous and obliging Words I am wholly to seek I have neither faculty nor relish for those tedious offers of Service and Affection I am not good natur'd to that degree and should not forgive my self should I offer more than I intend which is very remote from the present practice for there never was so abject and servile prostitution of tenders of Life Soul Devotion Adoration Vassal Slave and I cannot tell what as now all which expressions are so commonly and so indifferently Posted to and fro by every one and to every one that when they would profess a greater and more respective inclination upon more just occasions they have not where-withal to express it I hate all air of Flattery to Death which is the cause that I naturally fall into a Shy Rough and Crude way of speaking that to such as do not know me may seem a little to relish of disdain I Honour those most to whom I shew the least Honour and Respect and where my Soul moves with the greatest Cheerfulness I easily forget the Ceremonies of Look and Gesture I offer my self Faintly and Bluntly to them whose I effectually am and tender my self the least to him to whom I am the most devoted Methinks they should read it in my Heart and that my expression would but injure the Love I have conceived within To Welcome take Leave give Thanks Accost offer my Service and such verbal Formalities as the Laws of our modern civility enjoyn I know no Man so stupidly unprovided of Language as my self And have never been employ'd in Writing Letters of Favour and Recommendation that he in whose behalf it was did not think my mediation Cold and Imperfect The Italians are great Printers of Letters I do believe I have at least an hundred several Volumes of them of all which those of Hannibal Caro seem to me to be the best If all the Paper I have Scribled to the Ladies all the time when my Hand was really prompted by my Passion were now in being there might Peradventure be found a Page worthy to be communicated to our young enamorato's that are Besotted with that Fury I always Write my Letters Post and so precipitously that though I Write an intolerable ill Hand I rather choose to do it my self than to imploy another for I can find none able to follow me and never transcribe any but have accustomed the great ones that know me to endure my Blots and Dashes and upon Paper without Fold or Margent Those that cost me the most Pains are the worst of mine when I once begin to draw it in by Head and Shoulders 't is a sign that I am not there I fall too without premeditation or design the first word begets the second and so to the end of the Chapter The Letters of this Age consist more in fine Foldings and Prefaces than matter whereas I had rather Write two Letters than Close and Fold up one and always assign that employment to some other as also when the business of my Letter is dispatch'd I would with all my heart transferr it to another Hand to add those long Harangues Offers and Prayers that we place at the Bottom and should be glad that some new custom would discharge us of that unnecessary trouble as also of superscribing them with a long Ribble-row of Qualities and Titles which for fear of mistakes I have several times given over Writing aâ—d especially to Men of the long Robe There are so many innovations of Offices that 't is hard to place so many Titles of Honour in their proper and due order which also being so dearly bought they are neither to be
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By W. Drummond The Faithful Register or The Debates in four several Parliaments viz. That at Westminster October 21. 1680 that at Oxford March 21. 1680 and the two last Sessions of King James The Works of Cornelius Tacitus Made English by Mr. Dryden Sir Roger L'Estrange and other Gentlemen with the Political Reflections and Historical Notes of Monsieur Amelot and those of the Learned Sir Henry Savile In Three Volumes Memoirs of the Duke of Savoy during the War A Yoyage in the Years 1695 1696 1697 on the Coasts of Africa c. by a Squadron of French Men of War Illustrated with Figures The present State of England with Remarks upon the Ancient State thereof Ey Edward Chamberlain The 19 th Edition with great Improvements Hobb's Three Discourses viz. Of Humane Nature or The fundamental Elements of Policy De Corpore Politico or The Elements of Law Moral and Politick Of Liberty Necessity and Chance The Third Edition Valor Beneficiorum or A Valuation of all Ecclesiastical Preferments in England and Wales To which is added a collection of Precedents in Ecclesiastical Matters Davenport's Abridgment of Cook on Littleton Advice to a Daughter By the right Honourable the M. of H. The Fifth Edition corrected Idem in French Moral Maxims By the Duke of Rochefoucault Walsingham's Manual or Prudential Maxims of State for the States-man and the Courtier To which is now added Fragmenta Regalia or Observations on Queen Elizabeth her Times and Favours By Sir Robert Naunton Remembrances of Methods Orders and Proceeding used and observed in the House of Lords Extracted out of the Journal By Henry Scobel Esq Clark to the Parliament To which is added the Privileges of the Baronage in and out of Parliament By Iohn Shelden Esq Memorials of the method and manner of Proceedings in Parliament in Passing Bills with the order of the House of Commons Gathered out of the Journal-books from the time of Edward the VI. To which is added Arcana Parliamentaria with the Antiquity Power Order State Persons Manner and Proceedings in Parliament By Cambden Selden Cotton c. Monarchy Asserted to be the best most Ancient and Legal Form of Government in a conference had at White-hall with Oliver Cromwell and a Committee of Parliament made good by the Arguments of Oliver Saint John Lord Chief Justice Lord Chief Justice Glyme Lord Whitlock Lord Lish Lord Frimes Lord Broghall the Master of the Rolls Sir Charles Woolsby Sir Richard Onslow Coll. Jones The Art of Restoring Health explaining the nature and causes of Distempers and shewing that every man is or may be his own best Physicion By M. Flammand M. D. The Compleat Gard'ner Or Directions for Cultivating and right ordering of Fruit Gardens and Kitchen Gardens By the famous Monsieur de la Quintinye chief Director of all the Gardens of the French King is now at the Request of several of the Nobility and Gentry compendiously abridg'd and made of more use with very considerable Improvements By George London and Henry Wise 2d Edit A Compleat Body of Chirurgical Operations containing their Definitions and Causes from the structures of the several Parts The Signs of the Diseases for which the Operations are made The Preparations for and the Manual Performance of each The Manner of Cure after every particular Operation Together with Remarks of the most skilful Practitioners upon each Case as also Instructions for Sea-Chirurgeons and all concerned in Midwisery The whole Illustrated with copper Plates explaining the several Bandages and Instruments By Monsieur de la Vaugâ—ion M. D. and Intendant of the Royal Hospitals about Paris Done into English The Court and Country Cook directing how to order all manner of Entertainments and the best sorts of the most Exquisite Ragoo's wherein is given a particular account of the Entertainments of several of the Royal Family and Nobless of France To which is added a second part containing the whole Art of Confectionary according to the most refin'd modes now in use With an Explanation of the Terms relating to
not frightful 423 Custom Stupifies our Senses 145 Custom of several Nations in Marriages 151 Custom 's Power 158 Custom veils the true Aspect of things 160 Custom fundamental Reason for many things 161 Custom of wearing Cloaths 353 Custom and Manners of the French 502 Cyrus great Master of Horse service 497 Cyrus's Reverence to Religion 22 D DEath discharges Men of all Obligations 39 Death the Day that judges of all the foregoing Years 90 Death of three most Execrable Persons 91 Death Vnavoidable 95 Death End of our Race 96 Death a harsh word to the Romans 97 Death has many ways to surprize Men. 98 Death's Remembrance profitable to Men. 102 Death's Image presented by the Aegyptians to the Company after their Feasts 108 Death's contempt certain foundation of Religion 112 Death part of the Order of the Vniverse 113 Death cannot concern us either Living or Dead 117 Death's Image less dreadful in War than at home 121 Death preferr'd to a continual Trouble 190 Death of Arius and his Pope Leo. 341 Death of Heliogabalus Ibid. Death of Irenaeus Ibid. Death of Ignatius and his Son both proscrib'd 350 Death of Lilius Giraldus and Costalin 351 Death what is several Opinions concerning the same 402 Death prevented or hastned 403 Death Shameful endur'd with great Courage Ibid. Death constantly lookt on the Face or Voluntarily sought after 409 Death Frightful to some People Ibid. Death of Otho the Emperour 462 Death how felt 411 Dead Men dealt with as being Alive 19 Dead bodies Boil'd Pounded and Drunk with Wine 153 Deceit and cunning in War hat'd by the Achaians 32 Deceit and Cunning allow'd in War 36 Deceit ought to be corrected in the greenest Years 146 Defeat of Leonidas 333 Democracy 159 Democritus his Face 514 Dependance upon Princes 233 Deserters punish'd with Death by the Romans 75 Desires of gathering Riches has no Limits 429 Devotion mix'd with an execrable Life 538 Devotion of the Heathen 544 Dexterity of a Man throwing a grain of Millet through the Eye of a Needle 526 Diogenes his Opinion concerning Men. 515 Difference betwixt Man and Man 439 Dioclesian retir'd to a private Life 456 Dioscorides Island the Inhabitants thereof Christians 544 Discipline of the Lacedaemonians 208 Discourse Pleasant and Witty 301 Disease of the Mind 376 Diseases of the Mind and Body cured with Pain and Grief 313 Disputes rouse Heresies 543 Diversion allow'd to Youth 255 Diviners punish'd when found false 328 Divinity and Philosophy have a saying to every thing 310 Divinity Queen and Regent 544 Dionysius his way of discovering Conspiracies made against him 188 Doublets Belly pieces as high as the Breast 502 Duty of Man to know himself 15 Dying's Resolution how ought to be digested 109 Dying's time 342 Dying's voluntary Resolution 405 Dying of Old Age very scarce 552 E EDict of January famous by the Civil Wars 285 Education of Children the greatest difficulty of Human Science 219 Edward the black Prince 1 Emperours obnoxious to Passions 444 Empire of Constantinople 347 Employments for a sedentary Life 384 Employments for a retired Life 385 Engines of Dionysius's Invention 495 Engines made by Archimedes 194 Enquiry's Office projected 351 Enterprizes Military 181 Errours of Opinions 529 Essays of Language 394 Events in War for the most part depend upon Fortune 486 Evil what is how enters Men. 402 Exercises fit for Youth 253 Exercises wherein Men are to proceed to the utmost limits of Pleasure 388 Extremity hurtful to Vertue 309 F FAintness from Frigidity 527 Faith of Military Men very uncertain 36 Family of obscure Extraction the most proper for Falsification 471 Farting and Organiz'd Farts 134 Fashion of some Nations of going Naked 353 Fashion's Inconstancy 503 Fashion of the French Court rules the whole Kingdom 459 Fathers not concern'd at the Death of their Children 422 Fear the strongest of all Passions 83 Fear of an Ensign Ibid. Fear of a Gentleman 84 Fear nails and fetters Men. Ibid. Fear throws men upon Valiant despair 85 Fear in its trouble exceeds all other Accidents Ibid. Fear is more insupportable than Death it self 86 Feast of Paulus Aemilius 520 Feeding upon human Flesh 156 Feet performing the Service of Hands 148 Felicity of Men's lives depends upon the Tranquility of their Spirits 9â— Fighting with Rapier and Cloak 503 Fire sent for a new-new-year's gift 154 Firmness of a Prince riding a rough Horse 501 Fish kept in lower Rooms 507 Fish's pre-eminence over Flesh Ibid. Flight in War granted by several Nations 66 Fondness and pernicious Education of Mothers 228 Flood 's strange alterations 318 Formularies of Faith establish'd by the Ancients 543 Fortitude what is 66 Fortune has a great share in many Arts. 180 Fortune's Inconstancy 345 Fortune often meets with Reason Ibid. Fortune sometimes seems to play upon Men. Ibid. Fortune playing the Physician 348 Fortune doth what Art can't do Ibid. Fortune corrects the counsels of Men. Ibid. Fortune surpasses the rules of Prudence 345 Fortunes benefits how ought to be Relished 44â— Foundtaion of Notre Dam la grande de Boitiers 469 Francisco Taverna pump'd up by King Franciâ— 51 France Antartick where Veleguignon landed 317 French wisdom early but of no continuance 251 Friendship of several kinds 286 Friendship begot by voluntary Liberty 287 Friendship its true Idea 294 Friendship true and perfect 295 Friendship common and ordinary 296 Friendship allows community of Goods 297 Friendship 's rare Example 298 Friendship perfect admits no Division 299 Friendship disunites all obligations Ibid. Friendship are scarce 302 Frost hard at the mouth of the Lake Maeotis 357 Fruits eaten after Dinner 505 G GAuls had Missible arms in abomination 494 Generals changing their habit upon the point of an Engagement 481 Generals richly cloath'd in the Battle 482 Generals obscurely arm'd in War Ibid. Gentlemens Duty towards those that come to visit them 69 Gifts interdicted betwixt Man and Wife 297 Gipsies wash their Children so soon as they are born 417 Glory and Curiosity Scourges of the Soul 283 Glory and repose inconsistent 389 God ought to be call'd upon but seldom 24 Golden Age. 324 Good and Evil. 50 Good one of a Thousand 372 Good Men free from all injuries 378 Goods of Fortune despised 382 Goods equally Evil to the unjust 448 Government of Anacharsis 456 Governour of a place how ought to behave himself in the time of a Seige 33 Governour of a besieged place may go out to parly 34 Great men ought to hide their Faults 451 Greatness of the King of Mexico 315 Greek and Latine may be bought cheaper than 't is commonly 268 Greek taught by tricks 270 Green-sickness 420 H HAirs pull'd off in great Sorrow 29 Hairs suffer'd to grow on one side and shav'd on the other 155 Hairs pincht off 504 Happiness of Men not to be counted before they are dead 87 Head uncover'd in the presence of God 356 Heads naked in all Seasons 355 Heads of the Aegyptians harder than those of the Persians 335 Heraclitus
to be very reserv'd in Writing of Religion would carry with it a very good colour of Utility and Justice and me amongst the rest to hold my prating I have been told that even those who are not of 〈◊〉 Church do nevertheless amongst themselvâ—â— expresly forbid the Name of God to be 〈◊〉 in common Discourse Not so much as by way of Interjection Exclamation Assertion of a Truth or Comparison and I think theâ— in the right And upon what occasion soever we call upon God to accompany and assist us it ought always to be done with the greatest Reverence and Devotion There is as I remember a passage in Xenophon where he tells us that we ought so much the more seldom to call upon God by how much it is hard to compose our Souls to such a degree of Calmness Penitency and Devotion as it ought to be in at such time otherwise our Prayers are not only vain and fruitless but Vicious in themselves Forgive us we say our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us What do we mean by this Petition but thâ—â— we present him a Soul free from all Rancour and Revenge And yet we make nothing of Invoking God's Assistance in our Vices and inviting him into our unjust Designs Pers. Sat. 2. Quae nisi seductis nequeas committere divis Which only to the God's apart Thou hast the Impudence to impart The Covetous Man Prays for the conservation of his superfluous and peradventure ill got Riches The Ambitious for Victory and the Conduct of his Fortune the Thief calls God to his Assistance to deliver him from the Dangers and Difficulties that obstruct his Wicked Designs Or returns him thanks for the Facility he has met with in Robbing a poor Peasant At the Door of the House they are going to Storm or break into by force of a Petarre they fall to Prayers for success having their instruction and Hopes full of Cruelty Avarice and Lust Id. Ibid. Hoc ipsum quo tu Jovis aurem impellere tentas Dic agedum Staio proh Jupiter ô bone clamet Jupiter at sese non clamet Jupiter ipse The Prayers with which thou dost assault Jove's Ear Repeat to Stains whom thou soon wilt hear But Jupiter good Jupiter Exclaim But Jupiter Exclaims not Marguarette Queen of Navarre tells of a Young Prince whom though she does not name is easily enough by his great Quality to be known who going upon an Amorous Assignation to Lie with an Advocates Wife of Paris his way thither being through a Church he never pass'd that Holy place going to or returning from this Godly Exercise but he always Kneel'd down to Pray wherein he would emplore the Divine Favour his Soul being full of such Vertuous Mediations I leave others to judge which nevertheless she instances for a Testimony of singular Devotion But it is by this proof only that a Man may conclude no Man not very fit to treat of Theological Affairs A true Prayer and Religious reconciling of our selves to Almighty God cannot enter into an impure Soul and at the very instant subjected to the very Dominion of Satan He who calls God to his Assistance whilst in a Habit of Vice does as if a Cut-purse should call a Magistrate to help him or like those who introduce the Name of God to the Attestation of a Lye Lucan l. 5. Tacito mala vota susurro Concipimus In Whispers we do guilty Prayers make There are few Men who durst Publish to the World the Prayers they make to Almighty God Persius Sat. 2. Haud cuivis promptum est murmurque humilesque susurroâ— Tollere de Templis aperto vivere voto 'T is not convenient for every one To bring the Prayer he mutters over there Out of the Temple to the publick Ear. And this is the reason why the Pythagorâ—â—â—s would have them always Publick to be heard by every one to the end they might not prefer indecent or unjust Petitions as he did who having Hor. l. 1. Epist 10. Clare cum dixit Apollo Labra movet metuens audiri pulebra Laverna Da mihi fallere da justum sanctiumque videri Noctem peccatis fraudibus objice nubem Apollo's Name pronounc'd aloud for fear Any his Oraisons should over-hear Mutter'd betwixt his Teeth Laverna great Grant me the Talent to Deceive and Cheat All I shall have to do with ev'ry where Yet all the while Holy and Just appear And from the sight of Men be pleas'd to Shroud My Sins with Night Frauds with a Sable Cloud The God did severely punish the Wicked Prayers of Oedipus in granting them He had Pray'd that his Children might amongst themselves Determine the Succession to his Throne by Arms and was so miserable as to see himself taken at his word We are not to Pray that all things may go as we would have them but as most conducing to the good of the World and we are not in our Prayers to Obey our Wills but Prudence We seem in truth to make use of our Prayers as of a kind of Gibberish and as those do who employ Holy Words about Sorceries and Magical Operations And as if we made account the benefit we are to reap from them depended upon the contexture sound and gingle of Words or upon the composing of the Countenance For having the Soul contaminated with Concupiscence not touch'd with Repentance or comforted by any late Reconciliation with Almighty God we go to present him such Words as the Memory suggests to the Tongue and hope from thence to obtain the Remission of our Sins There is nothing so easie so sweet and so favourable as the Divine Law She calls and invites us to her Guilty and Abominable as we are Extends her Arms and receives us into her Bosom as foul and polluted as we at present are and are for the future to be But then in return we are to look upon her with a respective and a graceful Eye we are to receive this Pardon with all imaginable gratitude and submission and for that instant at least wherein we address our selves to her to have the Soul sensible of the ills we have committed and at defiance with those Passions that seduc'd her to offend for neither the Gods nor Good Men says Plato will accept the present of a Wicked Man Hor. l. 3. Ode 23. Immunis aram si tetigit manus Non sumptuosâ— blandior hostia Mollivit aversos Penates Farre pio saliente mica The pious Off ring of a piece of Bread If by a pure Hand on the Altar laid Than Costly Hecatombs will better please Th' offended Gods and their just Wrath appease CHAP. LVII Of Age. I Cannot allow of the Proportion we settle upon our selves and the space we allot to the duration of Life I see that the Wise contract it very much in comparison of the common Opinion What said the Younger Clato to those who would stay his Hand from Killing himself
am I now of an Age to be Reproach'd that I go out of the World too soon And yet he was but Eight and Forty Years Old He thought that to be a mature and competent Age considering how few arrive unto it and such as soothing their Thoughts with I know not what course of Nature promise to themselves some Years beyond it could they be privileg'd from the infinite number of Accidents to which we are by natural subjection expos'd might have some Reason so to do What an Idle Conceit it is to expect to Die of a decay of Strength which is the last of effects of the extreamest Age and to propose to our selves no shorter lease of Life than that considering it is a kind of Death of all others the most rare and very hardly seen We call that only a Natural Death as if it were contrary to Nature â—o see a Man break his Neck with a Fall be Drown'd in Shipwrack at Sea or snatch'd away with a Pleurisie or the Plague and as if our ordinary condition of Life did not expose us to these Inconveniences Let us no more flatter our selves with these fine sounding Words We ought rather at a venture to call that Natural which is Common and Universal To Die of Old Age is a Death rare extraordinary and singular and therefore so much less Natural than the others 'T is the last and extreamest sort of Dying And the more remote the less to be hop'd for It is indeed the Boundary of Life beyond which we are not to pass Which the Law of Nature has pitch'd for a 〈◊〉 not to be exceeded But it is withal a Privilege she is rarely seen to give us to last till then 'T is a Lease she only Signs by particular favour and it may be to one only in the space of two or three Ages and then with a Pass to boot to carry him through all the Traverses and Difficulties she has strew'd in the way of this long Carreer And therefore my Opinion is that when once Forty Years Old we should consider it as an Age to which very few arrive For seeing that Men do not usually proceed so far it is a fign that we are pretty well advanc'd and since we have exceeded the ordinary Bounds which make the just measure of Life we ought not to expect to go much further having escap'd so many Precipices of Death whereinto we have seen so many other Men to fall we should acknowledge that so extraordinary a Fortune as that which has hitherto rescu'd us from those imminent Perils and 〈◊〉 us alive beyond the ordinary term of Living is not likely to continue long 'T is a fault in our very Laws to maintain this Errour That a Man is not capable of managing his own Estate till he be Five and Twenty Years Old whereas he will have much ado to manage his Life so long Augustus cut off Five Years from the Ancient Roman Standard and declar'd that Thirty Years Old was sufficient for a Judge Sâ—â—vius Tullius superseded the Knights of above Seven and Forty Years of Age from the Fatigues of War Augustus dismiss'd them at Forty Five Though methinks it seems a little unlikely that Men should be sent to the Fire-side till Five and Fifty or Sixty Years of Age. I should be of Opinion that both our Vacancy and Employment should be as far as possible extended for the Publick Good But I find the fault on the other side that they do not employ us Early enough This Emperour was arbiter of the whole World at Nineteen and yet would have a Man to be Thirty before he could be fit to bear Office in the Common-wealth For my part I believe our Souls are Adult at Twenty such as they are ever like to be and as capable then as ever A Soul that has not by that time given evident earnest of its Force and Vertue will never after come to proof Natural Parts and Excellencies produce that they have of Vigorous and Fine within that Term or never Of all the great Humane Actions I ever Heard or Read of of what sort soever I have Observ'd both in former Ages and 〈◊〉 own more perform'd before the Age of Thirty than after And oft times in the very Lives of the same Men. May I not confidently instance in those of Hannibal and his great concurrent Scipio The better half of their Lives they Liv'd upon the Glory they had acquir'd in their Youth great Men after 't is true in comparison of others but by no means in comparison of themselves As to my own particular I do certainly believe that since that Age both my Understanding and my Constitution have rather decay'd than improv'd and retir'd rather than advanc'd T is possible that with those who make the best use of their Time Knowledge and Experience may grow up and encrease with their Years but the Vivacity Quickness and Steadiness and other pieces of us of much greater Importance and much more Essentially our own Languish and Decay Lucret. l. 3. Ubi jam validis quassatum est aevi viribus Corpus obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus Claudicat ingenium delirat linguaque mensque When once the Body 's shaken by Time's Rage The Blood and Vigour Ebbing into Age The Judgment then Halts upon either Hip The Mind does Doat Tongue into Nonsense Trip. Sometimes the Body first submits to Age sometimes the Soul and I have seen enow who have got a Weakness in their Brains before either in their Hams or Stomach And by how much the more it is a Disease of no great pain to the infected Party and of obscure Symptoms so much greater the danger is And for this reason it is that I complain of our Laws not that they keep us too long to our Work but that they set us to work too late For the Frailty of Life consider'd and to how many Natural and Accidental Rubs it is Obnoxious and Expos'd Birth though Noble ought not to share so large a Vacancy and so tedious a course of Education The End of the First Book Books Printed for and Sold by MATTHEW GILLYFLOWER at the Spread-Eagle in Westminster-Hall FOLIO's CAbbala or Mysteries of State and Government In Letters of Illustrious Persons in the Reigns of Henry the VIII Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles The Third Edition with large Additions The Compleat Gard'ner or Directions for the right Ordering of Fruit-gardens and Kitchin-gardens with the Culture of Oranges and Melons Made English by John Evelyn Esq The compleat Horseman discovering the surest Marks of the Beauty Goodness Faults and Imperfections of Horses with the Signs and Causes of their Diseases the true Method both of their Preservation and Cure with the regular Use of Bleeding and Purging Also the Art of Shooing Breeding and Backing of Colts with a Supplement of Riding By the Sieur de Solleysell Querry to the French King Made English from the 8th Edition by Sir John Hope