Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prince_n	duke_n	son_n	wales_n	3,665	5	10.2344	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38620	The falshood of human virtue a moral essay / done out of French.; Fausseté des vertus humaines. English	Esprit, Mr. (Jacques), 1611-1678.	1691 (1691)	Wing E3277; ESTC R3094	107,156	314

to be the visible Cause of all the happy Events of Human Life 'T is our Ignorance says a certain Poet which makes us imagine that blind Chance governs all Human Affairs 'T is our mistake ô Fortune that has plac'd Thee in Heaven which has made us believe that thy capricious Decrees regulate our Actions Wh●re Prudence Reigns no Deity From that same Breast can absent be Prudence deprives thee of thy Power and destroys thee of thy Divinity 't is she alone that has the power to make us happy and her Laws alone observ'd or violated are the causes of our Good or Evil Destiny Nothing so clearly shews us the ridiculous vanity of men as that same pleasure which they take to be undeceiv'd from popular Opinions and yet at the same time they are undeceiv'd to deceive themselves after another manner For certainly 't is a great absurdity to refer all Events to a Cause so irregular and blind as Fortune But on the other side it is as great an error to look upon Prudence as the insallible source of our Happiness and the prosperity of Families Common-wealths and Empires as we shall shew in due place To make it therefore eviden● That the good Opinion which Men have of Prudence is ill grounded we need no more then to examin the Nature of Men without prejudice and consider that it is always full of distrust timorousness and uncertainty which proceeds from the obscurity and inconstancy of the matter For she has to do with Men whose Hearts are impenetrable and who are continually subject to change thro the lightness of their humour thro the succession of their passions and the diversity of their interests So that as Heraclitus assur'd us that he could have no natural Knowledg because the Object of the Sciences ought to be constant but that Nature was in a perpetual motion still gliding along like a stream where we can never consider the water because it passes away before we can well look upon it so we may affirm in like manner that Prudence can assure her self of nothing seeing that Man is never in the same posture but varies in his Disposition and Affections thro an infinite number of Causes both internal and external I admire with the rest of the world the ways that Aristotle has discover'd to facilitate perswasion by rousing the pasons that are predominant in men In a word it frequently happens that Submissions will move the most inhuman and cruel to Pity and Compassion that with Menaces we force the Timorous to yeild and that with Money we obtain our desires from persons uninteressed But I cannot see how Prudence can safely make use of these no more then upon the Avarice of one in whom desire of Revenge upon his Enemy may be more powerful at the very time that I promise my self to corrupt him with the offer of a large Sum. But a Person of vast Natural parts who is of great experience and who is otherways Learned and compleatly read in History Shall not he act with security Yes if he meet with subjects and occasions altogether like to those which he has seen or observ'd in History But it is as rarely possible to meet with this Resemblance as to find out two Men of the same Complexion and Features 'T is no true Consequence in Physic that a Medicine that has been given with success to that Choleric person will cure another For Choler says Galen is not only different from all other Humours but varies also from it self And this difficulty to encounter subjects and occasions altogether alike is the reason that Prudence and Physic are much indebted to Hazard and that Prudent Men and wise and wary Physitians proceed with so much caution and take so much care before they determine How did uncertainties fill the Soul of Alexander with restless trouble and inquietude the Night before the Battel of Arbela So that we cannot imagine a greater confusion at Sea between contending Surges and mountainous Billows when agitated by tempestuous Winds then in the Breast and Soul of Alexander where so many various thoughts and passions at that time strugled together It is clear then that Human Prudence is erroneous and uncertain and that there is no secure reliance upon it for any true success or prosperity But it is not enough to have shewn that it is unprositable we must also prove it to be hurtful Which is a Truth we may be easily convinc'd of after we have freed our selves of all manner of prejudice if then we do but examine whether Prudence does not frequently do much mischief with her circumspection her scruples and her cautions How many has she not perplex'd How many grand Affairs has she not caus'd to miscarry How many Families has she not undone How many great Fortunes have been made how many Treaties have been advantageously concluded how many Victories won contrary to the Rules of Prudence The Battel which Alexander won not far from the Banks of Granicus which made way for all his succeeding Renown was it not lookt upon by the Romans as a piece of Rashness that deserv'd to be severely punish'd And that River which as I may so say was the Cradle of his Glory might it not as well have prov'd his Tomb It is impossible for us to have other perswasions then these when we remember that the Enterprize of Lucullus against Tigranes attended with Victory and the Defeat of an hundred thousand men was nevertheless both censur'd and blam'd at Rome when we remember I say that the Equity of that grave and judicious People did not think it a thing fit to applaud the daring Temerity of the General of an Army because it had prosper'd nor to approve a Success that had advanc'd the Glory of the Empire since it was from a Cause that might have been its Ruin If you would see an Example of a Battel lost thro the Councels of Military Prudence and after all the care imaginable taken to secure the Victory cast but an eye upon the Battel of Poitiers and there behold King John inexorable and haughtily refusing to the Prince of Wales the Peace which he sought with so much earnestness and upon Conditions so advantageous Doubtless the Assurances which the King then had of Victory were both probable and rational For he found himself at the Head of four and fifty thousand Men accompanied with his four Sons the Duke of Orleans his Brother two Marshals of France five and twenty Dukes Counts and Great Lords and all the Nobility of France yet notwithstanding all this Force he was defeated and taken Prisoner by the Prince so weak at that time that he had scarce Ten thousand fighting men in the Field and those so ill provided with Victuals that they had but for one day a scant remainder left and so far advanced into the heart of the Kingdom that to all outward appearance it was impossible for him to retreat The Battels thus gain'd and lost

Industries to prevent its growth for if she suffer Choler once to get a head she evidently endangers her seit to be at the mercy of that powerful and imperious Passion It is also certain that Reason knows how to make a good use of Choler in regard it is the Natural Property of Choler to deprive Man of the use of Reason And for that this Passion is too blind and too violent to be under Conduct besides that the desire of Mischief and Revenge is inseparable from its Nature But it is not so with Zeal which animates all true Christians to which the Holy Fathers have sometime given the Name of Anger tho it arise from the Sensitive Appetite as it is there produc'd by the Love of God in whose Service it is but just that all the Powers of the Soul should be employ'd and let it be never so forcible or vehement its strength and vehemence are still obedient to the Dictates of Reason A zealous Preacher cries out vehemently against Sinners but he is no way exasperated against 'em nor doth he carry any Animosities in his Heart while he reproves and reproaches them in his Words On the other side when Men are in Anger they chide and punish with Animosity and at the same time that they discharge themselves from these obligations of Charity they wrong tender Vertue every hour Therefore saith St. Augustin The most quick-sighted Philosophers and whose Opinions approach nearest to Truth believe that Choler is absolutely evil because say they the slightest Emotions of it are malicious and irregular and that forces us to sin against Reason at the very time when we do that which Reason commands us We ought to have the same opinion of all the Humane Passions adds the Holy Doctor They resemble that Selve-Love that gives 'em Birth they are vehement disorderly and vicious like that whereas the Fears and Joys the Sorrows and other Passions of Christians that derive themselves from Charity are Peaceable Mild Prudent and Moderate If Human Passions then be so contrary to Reason that it is impossible that Reason should be serviceable to 'em we may easily conclude That it is not the office of Mildness to reduce Choler to that point of Moderation set down by Aristotle to which so soon as it is reduced becomes virtuous but to withstand all its Emotions and so to extinguish 'em that nothing may be able to re-kindle ' em Therefore Mildness can never be sufficiently extoll'd if the same Mildness of which some Persons make a shew in their proceedings were a real Vertue and if it effectually carried off the tartness and bittetness of Choler whereas it only seemingly removes it as I am going to make out If we had a true Idea of the Condition of Man or if we knew that he is possessed with a Self-Love altogether violent and erroneous and that this Self-Love renders him impetuous wild and inhuman the knowledge of this would spare us the trouble of shewing that Mildness is no real Vertue since no body being deceiv'd by the seeming Mildness of a Person that never was transported with Passion in his Life all Men would judge of him as of a Lyon which we still believe to be fierce and cruel tho we see him to be gentle and obedient to his Governor and would be so far from pronouncing such a person Mild and Peaceable that they would think it sufficient to say he was Tam'd But what is it that has the Power to tame a Man Either the Kindness that is done him or the Benefit which he hopes to receive which is apparent from hence that the Favourites of Kings and Princes and all Servants that are particularly beloved by their Masters suffer their cross Humors and sometimes their Rebukes and Repulses with an extraordinary Mildness so that that which makes it appear that th●s Mildness is only a Violence put upon their natural Inclinations is this That at the same time that they shew themselves so Mild to those upon whom their whole Fortune depends they unchain themselves against all others like tamed Lyons that only quit their wildness in the presence of their Governors that feed ' em This same Mildness proceeds also very frequently from the fear of being put to shame For Pride which inflames Man with a continual desire to make himself the Master of others causes him to be asham'd every time that he finds himself transported with Choler and that it appears he is not Master of himself Sometimes Mildness is only a vain and ambitious desire to triumph over a violent Passion that triumphs over the most part of Man which sort of Vanity is to be met with in Magistrates in Philosophers and all those that labour for Moderation and would be thought prudent Persons In other Persons Mildness is a desire to gain to themselves the Love of all Men particularly of those with whom they associate For there are some Vertues as Valour Generosity and Magnanimity which give us admission into the Breasts of Men and fix us in their Esteem others as Mildness and Goodness which open their Hearts and attract their Friendship Love of Peace and Repose obliges many People engaged in Marriage to restrain their natural Ardor and Impatiency and to imitate the Manners and Customs of Mild and Moderate Persons because they find no better way to keep Peace at home than to give their Wives their Children and their Servants a good example Mildness in Dispute is a secret desire we have to vanquish our Opponents which is an effect of our experience that Heat in Disputes troubles and confounds the Judgment which is the reason we forbear to chase our selves to the end that being in perfect possession of our selves we may be able to explain our selves with clearness and force which is the most probable way to prevail The same is to be said of Mildness in Negotiations For it is a Moderation which we never regard but only to get an advantage over those with whom we n●goti●te which is a cunning kind of coolness which certain stout Men observe in Duels by which they take time and leisure and watch their opportunity to thrust home Signeur Contarini Ambassador in France to this Coldness added an apparent Indifferency insomuch that sometimes he would sit all the whole time of the Conference without speaking a word to the business he came about When they waited on him to his Coach he spoke of it as of a thing which he had forgotten and treated as he went down Stairs But the Duke d'Olivares made use of a stratagem quite contrary to studied Mildness for he endeavour'd by counterfeit and meditated heats to put the Persons in disorder with whom he negotiated The Mildness of Princes who when they have it in their power to punish with exile or imprisonment such as go beyond the bounds of Respect and Duty pass by their indiscretion and insolence without any notice or expression of their displeasure in such as