Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A32237
|
The courtier's calling, shewing the ways of making a fortune, and the art of living at court, according to the maxims of policy & morality in two parts, the first concerning noblemen, the second concerning gentlemen / by a person of honour.
|
Person of honour.
|
1675
(1675)
|
Wing C301; ESTC R12838
|
89,719
|
262
|
to Poverty and Want and if Age kindles in them a spark of Reason they endeavour then but in vain to recal and overtake him These are bad players at Tennis who are forc'd to run after their Ball And as they are not accustomed to Labour or Subjection being abandoned by their Frieddâ— and destitute of a subsistance they from Luxury and Debauchery run into the most extreme Wickedness Then they quit the Court and instead of doing duty at the Prince's Palace they take up their station on some High-way They are never without Almanacks to know the Country-Fayres and Marts These are a sort of Merchants who sell all and buy nothing and in the end their Destiny or rather their Conduct prepares for them a Fortune at the end of a Gibbet or upon a Scaffold I protest the frequenting the company of Fools is not so dangerous and does not cause a man to make such dreadful Lapses but 't is a Barricado which always blocks up the way to Fortune All agree that no man can Accomplish himself with them Folly is no good Tutour to teach us Wisdome Neither can I conceive what bond of Friendship an Ingenious man can make with a Fool all their qualities are so different that they cannot be supposed to be reconciled together I think there need not many arguments to disswade a Prudent person from being concern'd with such a one I can scarce believe that he is able to endure him When any one is taken with our Conversation and Courts our Friendship 't is a great argument without doubt that he is much of the same Sentiments and opinion Nature has not created Heterogeneous Bodies to be United she is a Mistris that inspires Passions and inclinations more prevalent than our Reason A Fool is fit for nothing but to divert an Ingenious person sometimes he may make a pastime of him but not a Friend I could say that he would serve very well to be cullied if I would adhere to the opinion of many who believe that men of parts ought to be maintain'd at his Expence But this Maxime comes not within my precepts as being contrary to Honesty I had rather that men should avoid his Company than cheat him Injustice is upon all accounts Injustice his weakness ought to move us to compassion and his Holly should neither dismount our Wisdome nor violate our own Integrity But let us pass him by forasmuch as he cannot instruct us in that which remains to be known of the knowledge of the world CHAP. XVIII Whether a Private Gentleman may play at Games of Hazard and upon what account GAmes of Hazard are a Recreation or rather a kinde of Commerce among men from whence arises a Problem which well deserves to be illustrated Such as follow a severe Vertue banish them as Vicious and will not permit Youth to use them They consider them as a violent passion which domineers Tyrannically over the Minde and filling our Heads with empty hopes oftentimes brings us to the Hospital 'T is this which causes Shipracks on the main Land which frustrates our designes by depriving us of the means of executing them which renders us chargeable and beholding to our Friends and which causes our Company to be avoided as importunate and unprofitable There is nothing more easie than to make it appear deformed and villaâ—â—ous when we paint it on the worst side 'T is a Proteus which receives diverse forms and a Cameleon which often changâ—s its Colours But if we compare its advantages together with its defects examining it in its whole as well as in its parts it will not be impossible to evince that it may be more profitable than hurtful if we observe circumstances which are necessary therein I affirm that Gaming is as dangerous to a person of Quality as it is advantageous to a private Gentleman the one hazards very much because he is Rich the other hazards but little because he is not so and yet a Private person may hope for as much from the fortune of Play as the greatest Lord So that what I shall hereafter say as to this particular concerns onely private Gentlemen I have always esteemed the love of Gaming to be a gift of Nature of which I have acknowledged the benefit my opinion is not to be suspected in this matter forasmuch as she has given me no inclination to it therefore I speak thereof as a difinteress'd person and without Passion I lay this for a foundation that we should naturally delight therein for without such a Disposition we shall never be other than Cullies The Exercises of the Body are a great accomplishment but very improper to win Money withal our known address is obliged to give others such odds as render the parties so equal that it seems unuseful to our good success I intend to speak onely of Cards and Dice which require our study and our application First of all we ought to know all the advantage which the most subtile Cheats have by their slight of hand and afterwards understand the make of all sorts of Dice and the Cut and marks of Cards Then so soon as we have gathered together a considerable Stock of Money let us get into the greatest Gaming-houses and hold for a Maxime always to attaque the bâ—st Purses I have heard a wise Gamester who had won a very considerable Estate profess that for to reduce Gaming into an Art he had found out no other secret than to make himself Master of his Passion and to propose to himself this Exercise as a Trade of gaining Money by discreetly managing his fortunate and unfortunate hours without being transported or dejected His reason was that Chance being the Soul of Gaming it would not be Chance if it did not oftentimes change that every thing has its continuance which although unknown to us does yet come within the reach of the Rules of our Prudence Your good Fortune does vex and trouble him that looses against you Venture at whatsoever he sets you so long as you can answer it out of his Stock the more he looses the less he will be capable of managing his bad Fortune Passion precipitates him into a blindness of which you ought to take an advantage and if Fortune runs against you Grata superveniet quae non sperahitur hora. give her time to spit out her Venome and do not set very much at once propound to your self a sum to lose without hazarding any more devide your Stock to re-unite your Fortune and your last piece will bring back all your others if you be engaged with passionate Gamesters We seldome see a Gamester want Money as he looses it with care so he regains it with little trouble There is a certain Charity among them which does not permit them to desert one another in distress Although they have but three Dice for their whole Estate and can give no other security but Fortune yet they will be sooner entrusted with a considerable sum
Latine and yet teaches us how we should make use of those two Languages we finde it in Palaces we meet with it among Princes and great Lords it intrudes into Ladies Bed-chambers it takes delight in the society of Souldiers and contemns not Merchants Artists or Mechanicks 't is that men commonly call the knowledge of the World whose guide is Prudence and Tutors are conversations and experience of affairs It renders the same office to the other Sciences that a Lapidary does to unpolisht Diamonds who by his art gives them their beauty lustre and estimation Ut fuerit melius non dedicisse sibi And truly can there be any thing more impertinent than a man of St. James's quarter who never saw the Louvre but from the other side of the Seine To what purpose do his Greek and Latine serve but to render him ridiculous among accomplisht persons and make thâ—m profess that he is more ignorant in the knowledge of the World than the most stupid are in that of the University The Colledge gives us the first notions of things it heaps together Materials for the structure of a beautiful Palace but 't is the knowledge of the World which teaches us the Architecture which shews us the order and connexion of all the parts which makes us appear accomplisht without affecting the vanity of being accounted Learned which polishes our discourse and our Manners which renders us discreet in our conversations and agreeable to the whole World Without it Learning becomes barbaroas and displeasing and 't is the reason why persons of a mean extraction to whom Nature has given Wit and the University Learning finde it so difficult a matter to get their Bread they almost ever appear such as they are because they receiving a tincture from the filth of their education which having no resemblance with that of persons of Quality cannot conceal their natural difference The greatest art to purge a Gentleman of this Intection is to bring him forth early into the World to prescribe him select discourses to oblige him to make his Court to persons of Quality to make him observe all the Punctilio's of a gentile and courteous deportment to give him a certain boldness in all his actions without impudence or affectation to render him civil without debasing himself and complaisant without flattering others to enjoyn him the conversation of Ladies and permit him to carry on some intrigues with them Truly the most prudent and learned receive oftentimes very useful Lessons from the ignorant of this Sex It seems that Nature created it not onely for our delight but also to give us Rules whereby we might become more agreeable Beauty has a certain efficacious power whereby it renders us wise and discreet as much by hazard as by any result of our Reason And as that has right to charm us so we suppose that we have the same to please it and not being able to satisfie our selves without the fruition thereof we most servently embrace all the means that may render us amiable This Passion instructs us much better than Rhetorick the art of perswading and discovers to us all the graces of Eloquence It compares our actions it regulates our Steps it makes us gentile it quickens our Fancy it polishes and a wakens our Wit and it is very profitable when it runs not into excets it is like to that liquour which exhilarates the better sort but intoxicates the Rabble Therefore I do not permit it to any but good Wits who take it as a means to perfect themselves in the knowledge of the World and not thereby to become Vicious The most excellent things are corrupted by a bad use 't is in our power not to render our selves faulty by our moderation Our Condition would be worse than that of the Beasts if we should abstain from every thing that carries danger along with it The Fire which warms us may also Burn us the Air which we Breath may be Infected and the Wine which comforts and nourishes us may in like manner make us Drunk And from hence would it be reasonable to conclude that we ought to be deprived of the use of Fire Air and Wine It 's the same with our Passions as with our Arms they serve for our defence when they obey us but they have a contrary effect when they pass into the hands of our Enemies We represent them as Monsters for want of knowing them their force proceeds from the weakness of our Reason let us give it leisure to examine them throughly it will easily subject them 'T is then that it will appoint them to good uses and that Love it self as dangerous as it is will cease to be hurtful The most Renowned Antient and Modern Captains have found out a way of adjusting this with their Employments they have accounted it onely a slight Barricado which could not put a stop to the success of their Enterprizes nor to the progress of their Glory The Learned have pursued it as the Soul of Nature the Bond of civil society and the Father of Pleasure and Peace The Devout have made it a necessary Vertue and the principle of Charity which unites them with their Neighbour And for my part I propound it as a light which heating the Heart enlightens the Minde to discover the Excellencies of this Knowledge of the World which I esteem so necessary for an accomplisht Person CHAP. XVI That Conferences are more prositable than the Reading of Books DIogenes the Cynick being one day at Dinner and seeing Aristippus pass by his Tub said to him Aristippus if you could content your self with Bread and Garlike as I do you would not be the King of Syracuse's Slave And you replyed the Courtier if you knew how to live with Princes would not make so bad chear It is true that this Morose and Pedantick Philosophy is not design'd for Gentlemen they are born to be sociable and ought to understand all the Maximes of the World Complaisant humours assisted with this practical knowledge gain and ravish the friendship of all people because they know how to set forth gracefully and pertinently the Talents of Nature and the advantages of the Sciences which they have acquired I say moreover that it has often made accomplisht persons without the assistance of Learning The World is a great Book which instructs us continually Conversations are living Studies which are not at all inferiour to Books Good Conferences are like Flints which from a cold and dark heap produce heat and light if men strike them one against another The familiar Discourses of two or three good Wits may be more advantageous to us than the empty disputations of all the Pedants of the Universities together they vent more Matter in one day than we read in a Library in three The action and air of the Countenance have certain Charms which have a great influence on our minds for every one confesses that an Oration spoken by a good Orator