Selected quad for the lemma: peace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
peace_n	check_n	good_a	great_a	26	3	2.1009	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68475	Essays vvritten in French by Michael Lord of Montaigne, Knight of the Order of S. Michael, gentleman of the French Kings chamber: done into English, according to the last French edition, by Iohn Florio reader of the Italian tongue vnto the Soueraigne Maiestie of Anna, Queene of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, &c. And one of the gentlemen of hir royall priuie chamber; Essais. English	Montaigne, Michel de, 1533-1592.; Florio, John, 1553?-1625.; Hole, William, d. 1624, engraver.	1613 (1613)	STC 18042; ESTC S111840	1,002,565	644

examples I would faine tell them that the fruit of a Chirurgions experience is not the storie of his practises or the remembrance that hee hath cured foure who had the plague and healed as many that had the Goute except he know and haue the wit from his vse and experience to draw a methode how to frame his judgements and by his skill and practise make vs perceaue hee is become wiser in his arte As in a consort of instruments one heares not seuerally a Lute a Vyol a Flute or a paire of Virginalles but a perfect-full harmonie the assemblie and fruit of all those instruments in one If their travels and charges have amended them it is in the production of their vnderstanding to make it appeare It sufficeth not to number the experiments they ought to be well poised and orderly sorted and to extract the reasons and conclusions they containe they should bee well disgested and thorowly distilled There were never so many Historians It is ever good and profitable to heare them for out of the magazin of their memorie they store vs with diuers good instructions and commendable documents Verily a chiefe part for the assistance and directing of our life But now a daies wee seeke not after that but raher whether the Collectors and reporters of them be praise woorthy themselues I hate all maner of tyrannie both verball and effectuall I willingly bandie and oppose my selfe against these vaine and friuolous circumstances which by the sences delude our judgement and holding my selfe aloofe of from these extraordinarie greatnesses haue found that for the most part they are but men as others be Rarus enim fermè sensus communis in illa Fortuna For common sense is seldome found In fortunes that so much abound They are peraduenture esteemed and discerned lesse then they bee forsomuch as they vndertake more and so shew themselues they answer not the charge they haue taken There must necessarily be more vigour and strength in the bearer then in the burden Hee who is not growne to his full strength leaves you to ghesse whether hee haue any left him beyond that or have beene tried to the vtmost of his power Hee who sainteth vnder his burden bewraieth his measure and the weakenesse of his shoulders That 's the reason why amongst the wiser sort there are so many foolish and vnapt mindes seene and more then of others They might happily have beene made good husbandmen thriving merchants and plodding artificers Their naturall vigour was cut out to this proportion Learning is a matter of great consequence they faint vnder it To enstall and distribute so rich and so powerfull a matter and availefully to employ the same their wit hath neither sufficient vigour nor conduct enough to manage it It hath no preuailing vertue but in a strong nature and they are very rare and such as are but weake saith Socrates corrupt and spoilingly deface the dignitie of Philosophie in handling the same Shee seemeth faultie and vnprofitable being ill placed and vnorderly disposed Loe how they spoile and entangle themselves Humani qualis simulator simius oris Quem puer arridens pretioso stamine serum Velavit nudasque nates ac terga reliquit Ludibrium mensis Such counterfets as Apes are of mans face Whom children sporting at featly incase In coastly coates but leave his backeside bare For men to laugh at when they feasting are To those likewise who sway and command vs and have the world in their owne hands t' is not sufficient to have a common vnderstanding and to be able to doe what wee can effect They are farre beneath vs if they be not much above vs. As they promise more so owe they more And therefore silence is in them not onely a countenance of respect and grauitie but often of thrift and profit Megabysus going to visite Apelles in his worke-house stood still a good while without speaking one word and then began to discourse of his workes Of whom he received this rude and nipping checke So long as thou heldest thy peace by reason of thy garish clothes goodly chaines and stately pompe thou seemedst to be some worthy gallant but now thou hast spoken there is not the simplest boy of my shop but scorneth and contemns thee That great state of his those rich habilliments and goodly traine did not permit him to bee ignorant with a popular ignorance and to speake impertinently of painting He should have kept mute and concealed his externall and presuming sufficiency Vnto how many fond and shallow minds hath in my dayes a sullen cold and silent countenance served as a title of wisedome and capacity Dignities charges and places are necessarily given more by fortune then by merit and they are often to blame that for it lay the blame on Kings Contrariwise it is a wonder that being so vntoward they should therein have so good lucke Principis est virtus maxima nosse suos Chiefe vertue it is knowne In Kings to know their owne For Nature hath not given them so perfect a sight that it might extend it selfe and overlooke so many people to discerne their pre-excellency and enter their breasts where lodgeth the knowledge of our will and better worth It is by coniectures and as it were groping they must try vs by our race alliances dependences riches learning and the peoples voice all over-weake arguments He that could devise a meane how men might be iudged by law chosen by reason and advanced by desert should establish a perfect forme of a Commonwealth Yea but he hath brought that great businesse vnto a good passe It is to say something but not to say sufficiently For this sentence is justly received That counsels ought not to be iudged by the events The Carthaginians were wont to punish the ill counsels of their Captaines although corrected by some fortunate successe And the Roman people hath often refused triumphes too famous succesfull and most profitable victories forsomuch as the Generals conduct answered not his good fortune It is commonly perceived by the worldes actions that fortune to teach vs how farre hir power extendeth vnto all things and who taketh pleasure to abate our presumption having not beene able to make silly men wise she hath made them fortunate in enuie of vertue And commonly gives hir selfe to favour executions when as their complot and devise is meerely hirs Whence we dayly see that the simplest amongst vs compasse diverse great and important affaires both publike and private And as Sirannez the Persian Prince answered those who seemed to wonder how his negotiations succeeded so ill his discourses being so wise That he was only maister of his discourses but fortune mistris of his affaires successe These may answer the like but with a contrary bias Most things of the world are made by themselves Fata viam inveniunt Fates finde and know which way to goe The issue doth often aucthorize a simple conduct Our interposition is in a

vnto him All haile Diogenes And to thee no health at all replied Diogenes that endurest to live in so wretched an estate True it is that a while after Speusippus as overtired with so languishing a condition of life compassed his owne death But this goeth not without some contradiction For many are of opinion that without the expresse commandement of him that hath placed vs in this world we may by no meanes forsake the garrison of it and that it is in the hands of God onely who therein hath placed-vs not for our selves alone but for his glorie and others service when ever it shall please him to discharge vs hence and not for vs to take leave That we are not borne for our selves but for our Countrie The Lawes for their owne interest require an accompt at our hands for our selves and have a just action of murther against-vs Else as forsakers of our owne charge we are punished in the other world Proxima deinde tenent moestiloca qui sibi let hum Insontes p●perere manu lucémque perosi Proi●cere animas Next place they lamentable hold in hell Whose hand their death caus'd causelesse but not well And hating life did thence their soules expell There is more constancie in vsing the chaine that holds-vs then in breaking the same and more triall of stedfastnesse in Regulus then in Cato It is indiscretion and impatience that hastneth our way No accidents can force a man to turne his backe from lively vertue She seeketh-out evils and sorrowes as her nourishment The threats of fell tyrants tortures and torments executioners and torturers doe animate and quicken her Duris vt ilex t●nsa bipennibus Nigrae feraci frondis in Algid● Per damna per caedes ab ipso Ducit opes animúmque ferro As holme-tree doth with hard axe lopt On hils with many holme-trees topt From losse from cuttings it doth feel Courage and store rise ev'n from steel And as the other saith Non est vt put as virtus pater Timere vitam sed magis ingentibus Obstare nec se vertere ac retro dare Sir ti 's not vertue as you vnderstand To feare life but grosse mischiefe to withstand Not to retire turne backe at any hand Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere mortem Fortius ille facit qui miser esse potest T' is easie in crosse chance death to despise He that can wretched be doth stronger rise It is the part of cowardlinesse and not of vertue to seek to squat it selfe in some hollowlurking hole or to hide her selfe vnder some massie tombe thereby to shun the strokes of fortune She never forsakes her course nor leaves her way what stormie weather soever crosse-her Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidam ferient ruina If the world broken should vpon her fall The ruines may her strike but not appall The avoyding of other inconveniences doth most commonly drive vs into this yea sometimes the shunning of death makes vs to run into it Hic rogo non furor est ●● moriare mori Madnesse is 't not say I To die lest you should die As those who for feare of a break-necke down-fall doe headlong cast themselves into-it multos in summa pericula misit V●●turi timor ipse mali fortissimus ille est Qui promptus metuenda pati si cominus instent Et differre potest The verie feare of ils to come hath sent Many to mightie dangers strongest they Who fearfull things t' endure are readie bent If they confront them yet can them delay vsque adeo mortis formidine vitae Percipit humanos odium luc●sque videndae Vt sibi consciscant moerenti pectore let hum Ob●i●i fontem curarum hunc esse timorem So far by feare of death the hate of life And seeing-light doth men as men possesse They grieving kill themselves to end the strife Forgetting feare is spring of their distresse Plato in his lawes alots him that hath deprived his neerest and deerest friend of life that is to say himselfe and abridged him of the destinies course not constrained by any publike judgement nor by any lewde and inevitable accident of fortune nor by any intolerable shame or infamie but through basenesse of minde and weaknesse of a faint-fearfull courage to have a most ignominious and ever-reproachfull buriall And the opinion which disdaineth our life is rediculous For in fine it is our being It is our all in all Things that have a nobler and richer being may accuse ours But it is against nature we should despise and carelesly set our selves at naught It is a particular infirmitie and which is not seen in any other creature to hate and disdaine himselfe It is of like vanitie that we desire to be other then we are The fruit of such a desire doth not concerne-vs forasmuch as it contradicteth and hindereth it selfe in it selfe He that desireth to be made of a man an Angell doth nothing for himselfe He should be nothing the better by it And being no more who shall rejoice or conceive any gladnesse of this change or amendment for him Debet enim mis●rè fortè aegréque futurum est Ipse quoque esse in eo tum tempore cùm male possit Accidere For he who shall perchance proove miserable And speed but ill should then himselfe be able To be himselfe when ills may chance vnstable The securitie indolencie impassibilitie and privation of this lives-evils which we purchase at the price of death bring vs no commoditie at all In vaine doth be avoide warre that can not inioy peace and boot●lesse doth ●● shun paine that hath no meanes to feel rest Amongst those of the first opinion great questioning hath been to know what occasions are sufficiently just and lawfull to make a man vndertake the killing of himselfe they call that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reasonable orderly out-let For although they say a man must often die for slight causes since these that keep vs alive are not verie strong yet is some measure required in them There are certaine fantasticall and braine-sicke humors which have not only provoked particular men but whole Nations to defeat themselves I have heretofore alleaged some examples of them And moreover we read of certaine Mi●●sian virgins who vpon a surious conspiracie hanged themselves one after an other vntill such time as the Magistrate provided for it appointing that such as should be found so hanged should with their owne halters be dragged naked through the streets of the Citie When Threicion perswadeth Cleom●nes to kill himselfe by reason of the bad and desperate estate his affaires stood in and having escaped a more honourable death in the battell which he had lately lost moveth him to accept of this other which is second to him in honour and give the conqueror no leisure to make him endure either another death or else a shamefull life Cleomenes with a Lacedemonian and Stoike courage

What we may doe doth little please It woormes vs more that hath lesse ease To this purpose might the opinion of an ancient Writer be adjoyned that torments doe rather encourage vices than suppresse them that they beget not a care of well-doing which is the work of reason and discipline but only a care not to be surprized in doing evill Latiùs excis● pestis contagia serpunt Th' infection of the plague nigh-spent And rooted out yet further went I wot not whether it be true but this I know by experience that policie was never found to bee reformed that way The order and regiment of manners dependeth of some other meane The Greeke stories make mention of the Agrippians neighbouring vpon Scithia who live without any rod or staffe of offence where not onely no man vndertakes to buckle with any other man but whosoever can but save himself there by reason of thei vertue and sanctity of life is as it were in a Sanctuary And no man dares so much as touch him Manie have recourse to them to attone and take vp quarrels and differences which arise amongst men else where There is a Nation where the enclosures of Gardens and Fields they intend to keep severall are made with a seely twine of cotten which amongst them is found to be more safe and fast then are our ditches and hedges Furem signata sollicitant Aperta effractarius praeterit Things sealed vp solicite a thiefe to breake them open Whereas a common burglayer will passe by quietly things that lie open Amongst other meanes ease and facility dooth haply cover and sence my house from the violence of civill warres Inclosure and fencing draws on the interprise and distrust the offence I have abated and weakned the souldiers designe by taking hazard and al meanes of military glory from their exploite which is wont to serve them for a title and steade them for an excuse What is performed couragiously at what time justice lieth dead and law hath not hir due course is ever done honorably I yeeld them the conqest of my house dastardly and tretcherous It is never shut to any that know●keth It hath no other guardian or provision but a Porter as an ancient custome and vsed ceremony who serveth not so much to defend my gate as to offer it more decently and courteously to all commers I have nor watch nor sentinell but what the Starres keepe for mee That Gentleman is much to blame who makes a shew to stand vpon his guarde except he be very strong indeede Who so is open on one side is so every where Our Fore-fathers never dreamed on building of frontire Townes or Castles The meanes to assaile I meane without batterie and troopes of armed men and to surprise our houses encrease dayly beyond the meanes of garding or defending Mens wits are generally exasperated and whetted one that way An invasion concerneth all the defence none but the rich Mine was sufficiently strong according to the times when it was made I have since added nothing vnto it that way and I would feare the strength of it should turne against my selfe Seeing a peaceable time will require we shall vnfortifie them It is dangerous not to be able to recover them againe and it is hard for one to be assured of them For concerning intestine broiles your owne servant may be of that faction you stand in feare of And where religion serveth for a pretence even alliances and consanguinitie become mistrustfull vnder collour of justice Common rents cannot entertaine our private garisons They should all be consumed We have not wherewith nor are we able to do it without our apparant ruine or more incommodiously and therewithall injuriously without the common peoples destruction The state of my losse should not be much worse And if you chance to be a looser your owne friends are readier to accuse your improvidence and vnhedinesse then to moane you and excuse your ignorance and carelesnesse concerning the offices belonging to your profession That so many strongly-garded houses have beene lost whereas mine continueth still makes mee suspect they were overthrowne onely because they were so diligently garded It is that which affoordeth a desire and ministreth a pretence to the assailant All gards beare a shew of warre which if God be so pleased may light vpon me But so it is I will never call for it It is my sanctuary or retreate to rest my selfe from warres I endevour to free this corner from the publike storme as I doe another corner in my soule Our warre may change forme and multiply and diversifie how and as long as it list but for my selfe I never stirre Amongst so many baricaded and armed houses none but my selfe as farre as I know of my qualitie hath meerely trusted the protection of his vnto the heavens for I never remooved neither plate nor hangings nor my evidences I will neither feare nor save my selfe by halfes If a full acknowledgement purchaseth the favour of God it shall last me for ever vnto the end if not I have continued long enough to make my continuance remarkeable and worthy the registring What Is not thirtie yeares a goodly time The sixteenth Chapter Of Glory THere is both name and the thing the name is a voyce which noteth and signifieth the thing the name is neither part of thing nor of substance it is a stranger-piece ioyned to the thing and from it God who in and by himselfe is all fulnesse and the tipe of all perfection cannot inwardly be augmented or encreased yet may his name be encreased and augmented by the blessing and praise which we give vnto his exteriour workes which praise and blessing since we cannot incorporate into him forsomuch as no accession of good can be had vnto him we ascribe it vnto his name which is a part without him and the neerest vnto him And that is the reason why glory and honour appertaineth to God onely And there is nothing so repugnant vnto reason as for vs to goe about to purchase any for our selves For being inwardly needie and defective and our essence imperfect and ever wanting amendment we ought onely labour about that Wee are all hollow and emptie and it is not with breath and words we should fill our selves Wee have neede of a more solide substance to repaire our selves An huuger-starved man might be thought most simple rather to provide himselfe of a faire garment then of a good meales-meate We must run to that which most concerneth vs. Gloria in excelsis Deo interrapax hominibus Glory be to God on high and peace in earth amongst men As say our ordinary prayers We are in great want of beautie health wisedome vertue and such like essentiall partes Exteriour ornaments may be sought-for when we are once provided of necessary things Divinitie doth very amply and pertinently treate of this subject but I am not very conversant with it Chrysippus and Diogenes have beene the first and most

Doe not well-fitting fall Choose we out the most necessary and most beneficiall matter of humane society it will be a mariage yet is it that the Saints counsell findeth and deemeth the contrary side more honest excluding from it the most reverend vocation of men as we to our races assigne such beasts as are of least esteeme The second Chapter Of Repenting OThers fashion man I repeat him and represent a particular one but ill made and whom were I to forme a new he should be far other then he is but he is now made And though the lines of my picture change and vary yet loose they not themselves The world runnes all on wheeles All things therein moove without entermission yea the earth the rockes of Caucasus and the Pyramides of Aegypt both with the publike and their owne motion Constancy it selfe is nothing but a languishing and wauering dance I cannot settle my obiect it goeth so vnquietly and staggering with a naturall drunkennesse I take it in this plight as it is at th' instant I ammuse my selfe about it I describe not the essence but the passage not a passage from age to age or as the people reckon from seaven yeares to seaven but from day to day from minute to minute My history must be fitted to the present I may soone change not onely fortune but intention It is a counter-roule of divers and variable accidents and irresolute imaginations and sometimes contrary whether it be that my selfe am other or that I apprehend subiects by other circumstances and considerations Howsoever I may perhaps gaine say my selfe but truth as Demades said I never gaine-say Were my minde setled I would not essay but resolue my selfe It is still a Prentise and a probationer I propose a meane life and without luster T' is all one They fasten all morall Philosophy as well to a popular and priuate life as to one of richer stuffe Every man beareth the whole stampe of humane condition Authors communicate themselves vnto the world by some speciall and strange marke I the first by my generall disposition as Michael de Montaigne not as a Grammarian or a Poet or a Lawyer If the world complaine I speake too much of my selfe I complaine it thinkes no more of it selfe But is it reason that being so private in vse I should pretend to make my selfe publike in knowledge Or is it reason I should produce into the world where fashion and arte have such sway and command the raw and simple effects of nature and of a nature as yet exceeding weake To write bookes without learning is it not to make a wall without stone or such like thing Conceites of musicke are directed by arte mine by hap Yet have I this according to learning that never man handled subject he vnderstood or knew better then I doe this I have vndertaken being therein the cunningest man alive Secondly that never man waded further into his matter nor more distinctly sifted the partes and dependances of it nor arrived more exactly and fully to the end he proposed vnto himselfe To finish the same I have need of naught but faithfulnesse which is therein as sincere and pure as may be found I speake truth not my belly-full but as much as I dare and I dare the more the more I grow into yeares for it seemeth custome alloweth old age more liberty to babbell and indiscretion to talke of it selfe It cannot herein be as in trades where the Crafts-man and his worke doe often differ Being a man of so sound and honest conuersation write he so foolishly Are such learned writings come from a man of so weake a conversation who hath but an ordinary conceite and writeth excellently one may say his capacity is borrowed not of himselfe A skilfull man is not skilfull in all things But a sufficient man is sufficient euery where even vnto ignorance Heere my booke and my selfe march together and keepe one pace Else-where one may commend or condemne the worke without the worke-man heere not who toucheth one toucheth the other He who shall iudge of it without knowing him shall wrong himselfe more then me he that knowes it hath wholly satisfied mee Happie beyond my merite If I get this onely portion of publike approbation as I may cause men of vnderstanding to thinke I had beene able to make vse and benefit of learning had I beene endowed with any and deserued better helpe of memorie excuse wee heere what I often say that I seldome repent my selfe and that my conscience is contented with it selfe not of an Angels or a horses conscience but as of a mans conscience Adding euer this clause not of ceremonie but of true and essentiall submission that I speake inquiring and doubting meerely and simply referring my selfe from resolution vnto common and lawfull opinions I teach not I report Noe vice is absolutely vice which offendeth not and a sound iudgement accuseth not For the deformitie and incommoditie thereof is so palpable as peraduenture they haue reason who say it is chiefly produced by sottishnesse and brought forth by ignorance so hard is it to imagine one should know it without hating it Malice sucks vp the greatest part of her owne venome and therewith impoysoneth herselfe Vice leaueth as an vlcer in the flesh a repentance in the soule which still scratcheth and bloodieth it selfe For reason effaceth other griefes and sorrowes but engendereth those of repentance the more yrkesome because inwarde As the colde and heate of agues is more offensiue then that which comes outward I account vice but each according to their measure not onely those which reason disalowes and nature condemnes but such as mans opinion bath forged as false and erronious if lawes and custome authorize the same In like manner there is not goodnesse but gladdeth an honest disposition There is truely I wot not what kinde or congratulation of well doing which reioyceth in our selues and a generous jollitie that accompanieth a good conscience A minde couragiouslie vicious may happily furnish it selfe with security but shee cannot bee fraught with this selfe-ioyning delight and satisfaction It is noe small pleasure for one to feele himselfe preserued from the contagion of an age so infected as ours and to say to himselfe could a man enter and see euen into my soule yet should he not finde me guilty either of the affliction or ruine of any body nor culpable of enuie or reuenge nor of publike offence against the lawes nor tainted with innouation trouble or sedition nor spotted with falsifying of my worde and although the libertie of times alowed and taught it every man yet could I neuer bee induced to touch the goods or diue into the purse of any French man and haue alwayes liued vpon mine own as well in time of war as of peace nor did I euer make vse of any pooremans labour without reward These testimonies of an vnspotted conscience are very pleasing which naturall ioy is a great benefit vnto vs

on all handes To the Chibelin I was a Guelf to Guelf a Ghibelin Some one of my Poets expresseth as much but I wot not where it is The situation of my house and the acquaintance of such as dwelt round about me presented me with one visage my life and actions with another No formall accusations were made of it for there was nothing to take hold of I never opposed my selfe against the lawes and who had called me in question should have lost by the bargaine They were mute suspicions that ranne vnder hand which never want apparance in so confused a hurly-burly no more than lacke of envious or foolish wittes I commonly affoord ayde vnto injurious presumption that fortune scattereth against me by a fashion I never had to avoid justifying excusing or interpreting my selfe deeming it to be a putting of my conscience to compromise to pleade for hir Perspicuitas enim argumentatione elevatur For the cleering of a cause is lessened by the arguing And as if every man saw into mee as cleare as I doe my selfe in lieu of withdrawing I advance my selfe to the accusation and rather endeare it by an erronious and scoffing confession except I flatly hold my peace as of a thing vnworthy any answer But such as take it for an over-proud confidence doe not much lesse disesteeme and hate me for it than such as take it for weakenesse of an indefensible cause Namely the great with whom want of submission is the extreame fault Rude to all justice that is knowen or felt not demisse humble or suppliant I have often stumbled against that piller So it is that by the harmes which befell mee an ambicious man would have hanged himselfe and so would a covetons churle I have no care at all to acquire or get Sit mihi quod nunc est etiam minus vt mihi vivam Quod superest aevi si quid superesse volent dij Let me have that I have or lesse so I may live Vnto my selfe the rest if any rest God give But losses that come vnto me by others injury be in larceny or violence pinch mee in a manner as one sicke and tortured with avarice An offence causeth vndoubtedly more griefe and sharpenesse than a losse A thousand severall kindes of mischiefes fell vpon mee one in the necke of another I should more stoutly have endured them had they come all at once I bethought my selfe amongst my friendes to whom I might commit a needy a defective and vnfortunate olde age But after I had surveyed them all and cast mine eyes every where I found my selfe bare and far to seeke For one to sowse himselfe downe headlong and from so great a height hee should heedily forecast that it may be in the armes of a solide stedfast vigorous and fortunate affection They are rare if there be any In the end I perceived the best and safest way was to trust both my selfe and my necessity vnto my selfe And if it should happen to be but meanly and faintly in Fortunes grace I might more effectually recommend my selfe vnto mine owne favour more closely fasten and more neerely looke vnto my selfe In all things men relie vpon strange props to spare their owne onely certaine and onely powerfull know they but how to arme themselves with them Every man runneth out and vnto what is to come because no man is yet come into himselfe And I resolved that they were profitable inconveniences forsomuch as when reason will not serve we must first warne vntoward Scholars with the rod as with fire and violence of wedges we bring a crooked peece of wood to be straight It is long since I call to keepe my selfe vnto my selfe and live sequestred from alience and strange things notwithstanding I daily start out and cast mine eyes aside Inclination a great mans favourable word a kind looke doth tempt me God he knowes whether there bee penury of them now-adayes and what sense they beare I likewise without frowning listen to the subornings framed to drawe mee to some towne of merchandise or city of trafficke and so coldly defend my selfe that it seemes I should rather endure to be overcome than not Now to a spirit so indocile blowes are required and this vessell that of it selfe is so ready to warpe to vnhoope to escape and fall in peeces must be closed hooped and strongly knockt with an adze Secondly that this accident served me as an exercitation to prepare my selfe for worse if worse might happen if I who both by the benefite of fortune and condition of my maners hoped to be of the last should by this tempest be one of the first surprised Instructing my selfe betimes to force my life and frame it for a new state True-perfect liberty is for one to be able to doe and worke all things vpon himselfe Potentissimus est qui se habet in potestate Hee is of most power that keepes himselfe in his owne power In ordinary and peacefull times a man prepares himselfe for common and moderate accidents but in this confusion wherein wee have beene these thirty yeeres every French man be it in generall or in particular doth hourely see himselfe vpon the point of his fortunes over-throw and downefall By so much more ought each one have his courage stored and his minde fraughted with more strong and vigorous provisions Let vs thanke Fortune that hath not made vs live in an effeminate idle and languishing age Some whom other meanes could never bring vnto it shall make themselves famous by their misfortunes As I reade not much in Histories these confusions of other states without regret that I could not better them present So doth my curiosity make me somwhat please my selfe with mine eies to see this notable spectacle of our publike death her symptomes and formes And since I could not hinder the same I am content to bee appointed as an assistant vnto it and thereby instruct my selfe Yet seeke we evidently to know in shadowes and vnderstand by fabulous representations vpon Theaters to shew of the tragicke revolutions of humane fortune It is not with out compassion of that wee heare but wee please our selves to rowze vp our displeasure by the rarenesse of these pitifull events Nothing tickles that pincheth not And good Historians avoid calme narrations as a dead water or mort-mere to retreeve seditions finde out warres whereto they know we call them I doubt whether I may lawfully avow at how base a rate of my lifes rest and tranquillity I have past it more than halfe in the ruine of my Country In accidents that touch mee not in my freehold I purchase patience very cheape and to complaine to my selfe I respect not so much what is taken from mee as what is left me both within and without There is comfort in sometimes eschewing one and sometimes another of the evills that one in the necke of another surprise vs and elsewhere strike vs round about As matters of publike interrests

have in my conceit lost much because they refused to publish themselves at forty yeares of age to stay vntill they were three score Maturity hath her defects aswell as greenenesse and worse And as in commodious or vnfit is old age vnto this kinde of worke as to any other Whosoever put 's his decrepitude vnder the presse committeth folly if thereby he hopes to wring out humors that shall not taste of dotage of ●oppery or of drousinesse Our spirit becommeth costive and thickens in growing old Of ignorance I speake sumptuously and plentiously and of learning meagerly and pitiously This acce●●orily and accidentally That expressely and principally And purposely I treate of nothing but of nothing nor of any one science but of vnscience I have chosen the time where the life I have to set forth is all before mee the rest holdes more of death And of my death onely should I finde it babling as others doe I would willingly in dislodging give the World advise Socrates hath been a perfect patterne in all great qualities I am vexed that ever he met with so vnhansome and crabbed a body as they say he had and so dissonant from the beauty of his minde Himselfe so amorous and so besotted on beauty Nature did him wrong There is nothing more truly semblable as the conformity or relation betweene the body and the minde Ipsi animi magni refert quali in copore locati sint multa enim è corpore existunt quae acuant mentem multa quae obtundant It is of great import in what body the minde is bestowed for many things arise of the body to sharpen the minde and many things to dull and rebate it This man speakes of an vnnaturall ill-favourdnesse and membrall deformity but we call ill-favourdnesse a kinde of vnseemelinesse at the first sight which chiefely lodgeth in the face and by the colour worketh a dislike in vs A freckle a blemmish a rude countenaunce a sower looke proceeding often of some inexplicable cause may be in well ordered comely and compleate limmes The foulenesse of face which invested a beauteous minde in my deare friend La Boitie was of this predicament This superficiall ill-favourdnesse which is notwithstanding to the most imperious is of lesse prejudice vnto the state of the minde and hath small certainty in mens opinion The other by a more proper name called a more substantiall deformity beareth commonly a deeper inward stroke Not every shooe of smooth-shining leather but every well-shapen and hansome-made shoe sheweth the inward and right shape of the foot As Socrates said of his that it justly accused so much in his mind had he not corrected the same by institution But in so saying I suppose that according to his wonted vse he did but jest and so excellent a mind did never frame it selfe I cannot often enough repeate how much I esteeme beauty so powerfull and advantagious a quality is she He named it a short tyranny And Plato the priviledge of Nature We have none that exceeds it in credit She possesseth the chiefe ranke in the commerce of society of men She presents itselfe forward she seduceth and preoccupates our judgement with great authority and wonderfull impression Phryne had lost her plea though in the hands of an excellent lawyer if with opening her garments by the sodaine flashing of hir beauty she had not corrupted her judges And I finde that Cyrus Alexannder and Caesar those three Masters of the World have not forgotten or neglected the same in atchieving their great affaires So hath not the first Scipio One same word in Greeke importeth faire and good And even the Holy-Ghost calleth often those good which he meaneth faire I should willingly maintaine the ranke of the goods as imployed the song which Plato saith to have beene triviall taken from some auncient Poet Health beeuty and riches Aristotle saith that the right of commaunding doth of duty belong to such as are faire and if haply any be found whose beauty approached to that of the Gods images that veneration is equally due vnto them To one that asked him why the fairest were both longer time and oftner frequented This question quoth he ought not to bee mooved but by a blinde man Most and the greatest Philosophers paide for their schooling and attained vnto Wisedome by the intermission of their beauty and favour their comlines Not onely in men that serue me but in beastes also I consider the same within two inches of goodnesse Yet me thinkes that the same feature and manner of the face and those lineaments by which some argue certaine inward complexions and our future fortunes is a thing that doth not directly nor simply lodge vnder the Chapter of beauty and ill favourdnesse no more than all good favours or cleerenesse of aire doe not alwayes promise health nor all fogges and stinkes infection in times of the plague Such as accuse Ladies to contradict the beauty by their manners guesse not alwayes at the truth For In an ill favourd and ill composed face may sometimes harbour some aire of probitie and trust As on the contrary I have sometimes read betweene two faire eyes the threats of a maligne and dangerous ill-boding nature There are some fauourable Physiognomies For in a throng of victorious enemies you shall presently ammiddest a multitude of vnknowen faces make choise of one man more than of others to yeeld yourselfe vnto and trust yòur life and not properly by the consideration of beauty A mans loòke or aire of his face is but a weake warrant notwithstanding it is of some consideration And were I to whippe them I would more rudely scourge such as maliciously bely betray the promises which Nature had charactred in their front And more severely would I punish malicious craft in a debonaire apparance and in a mild promising countenance It seemeth there bee some lucky and well boding faces and other some vnlucky and ill presaging And I thinke there is some Arte to distinguish gently-milde faces from nyaes and simple the severe from the rude the malicious from the froward the disdainefull from the melancholike and other neighbouring qualities There are some beauties not onely fierce-looking but also sharpe-working some others pleasing-sweete and yet wallowishly tastlesse To prognosticate future successes of them be matters I leave vndecided I have as elsewhere I noted taken for my regard this ancient precept very rawly and simply That We cannot erre in following Nature and that the soveraigne document is for a man to conforme himselfe to her I have not as Socrates by the power and vertue of reason corrected my naturall complexions nor by Arte hindered mine inclination Look how I came into the World so I goe-on I strive with nothing My two Mistris partes live of their owne kindenesse in peace and good agreement but my nurses milke hath thanks be to God beene indifferently wholesome and temperate Shall I say thus much by the way That I see a certaine

image of bookis● or scholasticall preud'hommie only which is in a maner in vse amongst vs held and reputed in greater esteeme than it deserveth and which is but a servant vnto precepts brought vnder by hope and constrained by feare I love it such as lawes and religions make not but over-make and authorize that they may bee perceived to have wherewith to vphold her selfe without other aide sprung vp in vs of her owne proper roots by and from the seed of vniversall reason imprinted in every man that is not vnnaturall The same reason that reformeth Socrates from his vicious habite yeelds him obedient both to Gods and men that rule and commaund his Citty couragious in his death not because his soule is immortall but because hee is mortall A ruinous instruction to all common-weales and much more harmefull than ingenious and subtile is that which perswadeth men that onely religious beliefe and without manners sufficeth to content and satisfie divine justice Custome makes vs see an enormous distinction betweene devotion and conscience I have a favourable apparence both in forme and in interpretation Quid dixi habere me Imò habui Chreme Heu tantùm attriti corporis ossavides I have what did I say I had what 's now away Alas you onely now behold Bones of a body worne and old And which makes a contrary shew to that of Socrates It hath often betided me that by the simple credite of my presence and aspect some that had no knowledge of me have greatly trusted vnto it were it about their owne affaires or mine And even in forraine countries I have thereby reaped singular and rare favours These two experiments are hapily worthy to be particularly related A quidam gallant determined vpon a time to surprise both my house and my selfe His plot was to come riding alone to my gate and instantly to vrge entrance I knew him by name and had some reason to trust him being my neighbour and somewhat alide vnto me I presently caused my gates to be opened as I do to all men He comes-in all afrighted his horse out of breath both much harassed He entertaines me with this fable that within halfe a league of my house he was sodainely set-vpon by an enemie of his whome I knew well and had heard of their quarrell that his foe had wondrously put him to his spurres that being surprised vnarmed and having fewer in his company then the other he was glad to runne away and for safety had made haste to come to my house as to his sanctuary That he was much perplexed for his men all which he supposed to be either taken or slaine I endevoured friendly to comfort and sincerely to warrant and refresh him Within a while came gallopping foure or five of his Souldiers amazed as if they had beene out of their wits hasting to be let-in Shortly after came others and others all proper men well mounted better armed to the number of thirty or there abouts all seeming distracted for feare as if the enemie that pursued them had beene at their heeles This mysterie beganne to summon my suspicion I was not ignorant of the age wherin I lived nor how much my house might bee envied and had sundry examples of others of my acquaintance that had beene spoiled beset and surprised thus and thus So it is that perceiving with my selfe there was nothing to be gotten though I had begunne to vse them kindly if I continued not and being vnable to rid my selfe of them and cleare my house without danger and spoiling all as I ever doe I tooke the plainest and naturall well meaning way and commaunded they should be let in and bid welcome And to say truth I am by nature little suspicious or mistrustfull I am easily drawen to admit excuses and encline to mild interpretations I take men according to common order and suppose every one to meane as I doe and believe these perverse and tretcherous inclinations except I be compelled by some autenticall testimonie no more then monsters or miracles Besides I am a man that willingly commit my selfe vnto fortune and carelesly cast my selfe into her armes Whereof hitherto I have more just cause to commend myselfe then to complaine And have found her more circumspect and friendly carefull of my affaires then I am my selfe There are certaine actions in my life the conduct of which may justly be termed difficult or if any be so disposed prudent And of those suppose the third part of them to be mine owne truely the other two are richly hirs We are to blame and in my conceit we erre that we doe not sufficiently and so much as we ought trust the heavens with ourselves And pretend more in our owne conduct then of right appertaines vnto vs. Therefore doe our desseignes so often miscarry and our intents so seldome sort to wished effect The heauens are angry and I may say envious of the extension and large priviledge we ascribe vnto the right of humane wisedome to the prejudice of theirs and abridge them so much the more vnto vs by how much more we endeuour to amplifie them But to come to my former discourse These gallants kept still on horsebacke in my court and would not alight their Captaine with me in my hall who would never have his horse set-vp still saying that he would not stay but must necessarily withdraw himselfe so soone as he had newes of his followers He saw himselfe master of his enterprise and nothing was wanting but the execution Hee hath since reported very often for he was no whit scrupulous or afraid to tell this story that my vndaunted lookes my vndismaide countenance and my liberty of speech made him reject all manner of treasonable intents or trecherous desseignes What shall I say more He bids me farewell calleth for his horse gets vp and offreth to be gone his people having continually their eies fixed vpon him to observe his lookes and see what signe he should make vnto them much amazed to see him be gone and wondring to see him omit and forsake such an advantage An other time trusting to a certaine truce or cessation of armes that lately had beene published through our campes in France as one suspecting no harme I vndertooke a journey from home through a dangerous and very ticklish country I had not rid far but I was discovered and behold three or foure troupes of horsemen all severall wayes made after me with purpose to entrap me One of which overtooke mee the third day where I was round beset and charged by fifteene or twenty Gentlemen who had all vizardes and cases followed aloofe-off by a band of Argoletiers I was charged I yeelded I was taken and immediately drawne into the bosome of a thicke Wood that was not far-off there puld from my Horse stripped with all speed my truncks and cloke bags rifled my box taken my Horses my equipage and such things as I had dispersed and shared amongst them We