Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
opinion_n	great_a	see_v	time_n	2,318	5	3.3017	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12820	Staffords heauenly dogge: or The life, and death of that great cynicke Diogenes, whom Lertius stiles Canem Cœlestem, the heauenly dogge, by reason of the heauenly precepts he gaue Taken out of the best authors, and written to delight great hearts, and to raise as high as heauen the minds that now grouell on the earth, by teaching them how to ouercome all affections, and afflictions.	Stafford, Anthony.	1615 (1615)	STC 23128; ESTC S117802	17,172	108

to what place thou wilt and that is part of my Country I am not a Citizen of Athens nor of Corinth but of the World I am free of this capacious Circumferēce and therefore cannot bee sent from home Any place habitable for man or beast I can liue in Thou canst not send me thither where I shall not tread vpon some earth drink some water Hauing heauen ouer and earth vnder me I cannot doe amisse The basest Souldier of thine army was neuer driuen by Necessity to that hardnesse which I voluntary put my age The lees of Life for on my neuer violated word my later dayes are as pleasing to mee as were my first Sure some woman first broached that opinion who had rather bee strucken dead then strucken in yeares I haue not a Character of age but my haire My sight is quicke my ioynts nimble my backe strong my heart good No man that sees me would think that the earths lappe were my best Lodging Thou seest by this time great Alexander that thou canst not send mee out of mine owne Country or if thou couldst yet that I am so armed against the miseries of an exile that banishment to me would rather be a iourney of pleasure then of penance But thou wilt say that thy power extends it selfe farther and that thou art Master of my life I graunt it thou art so What of that Hee is not a Philosopher that this can moue It would trouble me no more to lay downe my life then it would do thee to take it Yea good Gods what a sight it is to behold an austere bushbearded Philosopher who feares a razor as much as a rope quake at the name of death euen as a treuant boy does at the name of his Tutor Such a one was old Antisthenes whom I hearing exclaime and say Who shall free me of my griefes I forthwith gaue him a dagger and told him that could ease him to which he made reply that he desired to be rid of his griefes not of his life I cannot abstaine from extremity of laughter when I ruminate Homers Mars whom he describes beaten and howling so that the clamours of ten thousand men could not drowne the noise hee made Perhaps he wanted Venus there to wipe his face to stroke his head and to drie his n'eyes Though he was a god and could not die yet he could not contemne paine which a weak woman in trauaile can endure A lofty spirit indeede feares not death but to deserue it and verely he deserues it that cannot suffer it He that abhorreth death telleth vs that hee hath yet done nothing to make himselfe liue heereafter and therefore would yet bee because hee neuer yet was An earthly body is too in hers Alexander condemnes Diogenes to die and Nature Alexander Take this old head off see if not vndaunted I stand the stroke and why because I know thou art but natures Executioner I will stare my headsmā in the face with as much confidence as if he came to barbe mee What I must that I will do without so much as a repine or a struggle I am not ignorant that Necessity Fate are twins what Fate decrees that Necessity exacts I professe to thee I would neither eate nor drinke but that Necessity will haue it so neither would I die did not Necessity will it but Necessity bidding I will as willingly die as either eate or drinke And if I should not stripes were my due since I see nothing horrible in death No euill can happen to him in this life that truely comprehends that in the priuation of life there is no euill Those who compare death to sleepe shew vs the little harme is in it Death is nothing to him that contemplates it aright for while we are Death is absent when death is come we are then departed So that it is a false opinion of deaths cruelty and not death it selfe that torments vs. Certainely had Nature written the day of each mans death in his forehead al the world would haue died with thought and not one haue liued to his assigned day There is no death miserable but that which giues an end to a profane life the wicked leauing their infamy as an inheritance to their posteritie Blessed is hee and next to the Gods happy that dies his head begirt with a Garland of glorious actions whose sweet sauour shall perfume the world Thus shall I die who haue liued with more innocency then Men and with approbation of the Gods Destroy then my body victorious man make it a subiect of dishonour and shame nay exercise all imaginable villany vpon it and thou shalt see me stand like one elected by Ioue to trie how much humane Nature can suffer All thy torments cannot alter the temper of my mind nor can any punishment displease mee Is it thy will the rage of fire consume mee with a thankefull heart I accept it thinking it better to hau● my body consume in an Element noble and borne with Heauen it selfe then to haue putrifaction and corruption prey vpon it Wilt thou drowne mee Though this bee the most terrible of deaths because the substance of the Soule as some thinke is fiery and therefore abhorrs to be quenched yet it shall nothing at all ap●ale me I had as liefe the Fishes should deuoure me as the Wormes All paines all deaths are to mee indifferent As a strong constitution can away with heates and coldes and all such annoyances so a good disposition can withstand the malice and the fury of Tyrants together with all such afflictions Thou canst prouide no torture mighty Monarch against which my minde is not forearmed Thus much on the passiue part now on the Actiue Leauy Diogenes an Army of men and see if he do not as well as thou teach them the military Discipline and bee to them an example of Valour But what shall draw mee into the field An Ambition to be stiled Monarch of the World standing for I had rather giue my body to the ground then giue ground In this cause I would not care to die with conquering so by death I might conquer Here should my prowesse proclaime to my Souldiers that Fortune is sometime wanting to the valiant but euer to cowards In this quarrell were Alexander my foe I would single him out and fist to fist encounter him though I knew destruction to be the certaine wages of his sword I would then make it apparant to Alexander that a Philosophers courage cannot fall though his Body cannot stand and that though it be the taske of one man to take Diogenes prisoner yet millions of men cannot subdue his soule Nay which more is Fortune to whose will thou and thine army are subiect could neuer yet cause the mind of Diogenes to stoop That blind Queene of this Ball who is aboue thee and Kings is vnder mee My mind is not deiected but erected against Fortunes worst If thy