we may observe how very careful Men that went to Sea used to be that no Blasphemer or profane Person should embark in the same Vessels no profligate wicked Wretch to endanger their Safety or render their Voâ—age Disastrous or Unsuccesful One single Jonas you see whom God was Angry with had like to have lost all the Ship 's Crew And Bias when some wicked Wretches call'd upon their Gods in a Storm made them this ingenious Reproof by way of Raillery Hold your Peace that they may not discover such vile Wretches as you are on board Albuquerque who was Viceroy of the Indies under Emanuel King of Portugal when in extreme Danger laid hold on a young Boy and clung fast to him that so his Innocence might be a Shelter and Sanctuary to him against the Wrath of God So beneficial hath Virtue been esteemed and so destructive Vice not only to the Guilty or the Vitious Persons themselves but to all that are concerned with them or come within the Reach of their Influence But yet to esteem a Life thus retired and at a Distance from Evil absolutely the Best and most Excellent to think it better qualify'd than any other for the Exercise and Perfection of Virtue to call it more Difficult and Unpleasant more Laborious and Painful than any other as some who extol a voluntary renouncing the World would fain persuade us to believe is a mighty Error in themselves or a gross Cheat upon other People For quite contrary it is the most effectual Expedient of throwing off the Cares and troublesome Incumbrances of Life and rendring it light and easie and to say the very Best of it is but a very mean and moderate Attainment an imperfect Beginning or rather a mere Disposition to be Virtuous It is not to meddle with Business to abandon Difficulties and Troubles But how is this done It is not by engaging with and bravely overcoming them but by cowardly running away declining the Combate and hiding ones self from them It is to play least in Sight and be buried alive for fear we should not live well when we are seen No Doubt is to be made but a Prince a Magistrate or Parochial Priest are more perfect more valuable when Good in their kind than Monks and Hermits For in truth such Societies and Seminaries were only design'd to prepare Men for Dignities and Business to qualifie them for Society and the World And Colleges and Cloisters do not give but only lead Men to Usefulness and Perfection He that maintains his Post in the World and satisfies the Duty which the several Relations and Capacities he stands in require from him that converses with Wife and Children and Servants and Neighbours and Friends that manages his own Estate and engages in Business fit for his Condition He I say that undertakes to act so many different Parts and to answer the several Characters as becomes him hath incomparably more Work upon his Hands and is infinitely more Valuable if he perform it than the Recluse who is determined to one single thing and hath only the Duty to himself to take care of For Company and Variety of Conversation is infinitely more hazardous than Solitude and Plenty much harder to manage than Want In a State of Abstinence and Freedom from Business a Man hath but one Pass to guard in the Use and Management of several Things many Considerations must be attended to many Duties discharged and he lyes open to Attacks from several Quarters at once And there is no Doubt in the World to be made but a Man may much more easily conquer Himself to disclaim and refuse Riches and Honours great Offices and gainful Preferments than he can govern himself in the Use or come off with Virtue and just Commendation in the Discharge of them It is no very difficult Matter to live without a Wife but to live with a Wise and behave ones self in all Respects as a Husband ought to do to order and educate Children and bear due Regard and make fit Provisions for a Family and all its Dependencies is a Task Men seldom give themselves the trouble to consider But They that do and make a right Judgment of it will be very far from extolling Caelibacy as some do or think it an Argument of higher Virtue or a State of greater Difficulty than Marriage 2. Nor are Men less mistaken when they suppose that Solitude is a safe Shelter from all manner of Vice and that He who takes Sanctuary in it and sequesters himself from the World rides in Harbour and is out of the Reach of Tempests and Temptations for These find a way to pursue and overtake us even There This is indeed a Convenient Retreat from the Corruptions of ill Company from the Clutter and Crowd of Cares and Business and the Mischiefs that threaten and come upon us from Without but there are other Enemies and Dangers from Within which we always carry about us and cannot run away from Spiritual and Internal Difficulties Domestick and peculiar Evils and the Scripture takes express Notice that the Wilderness was the Place where our Saviour was Assaulted and Tempted by the Devil Retirement is a dangerous Weapon in the Hands of Young Men such as are Hot and Imprudent Rash and Unskilful and there is great Reason to fear that what Crates said to a Young Man whom he found walking all alone is generally true of such Persons and that such when they are by Themselves are in very bad Company This is the Place where Fools lay their wicked Projects here they find Leisure and Opportunities for contriving their own Ruine here they cherish and indulge unlawful Desires file and polish and refine upon their own Passions without Observation without Controul A Man had need be very Wise to know how to make the best Use of Privacy watchful and well fortify'd before he is fit to be trusted with Himself For many times ones Own Hands are the very Worst he can be put into It is an excellent Petition which the Spaniards use even to a Proverb * Guarda mi Dios de mi. Nemo est ex imprudentibus qui sibi relinqui debeat Solitudo omnia persuadet O Lord I beseech thee preserve me from My Self Very few indeed have discretion enough to be left to Themselves and nothing is so bad but Secrecy and Solitude are powerful Temptations to comply with it But for Men to take up their Heels and skulk in a Corner upon any Private and Personal Consideration though it be a lawful and commendable one in it self which yet is the best and not always the Truth of the Case for very often Cowardice and Weakness of Spirit Peevishness and Pets or some other discontented or vicious Passion is at the Bottom of all this pompous and pretended Contempt of the World is to turn Deserter and not dare to stand to our Arms. There is a mighty Difference between forsaking the World and falling out with
Years together converted and establish'd many He never took any Degree or Title in Divinity but satisfy'd himself with deserving and being capable of the Highest and had therefore no other Title or Character but That of Priest only He never saw Paris in Seventeen or Eighteen Years and then resolv'd to come and end his days there but being a great lover of Retirement he had obliged himself by Vow to become a Carthusian and was absolved of it about the end of the Year 1588. He went from Bourdeaux coming by Xaintes and Anger 's where he made several learned Sermons and arriv'd at Paris at the time the States were conven'd at Blois Then he presented himself to the Prior of the Carthusians one John Michel a Person of great Piety who since dy'd Prior-General of the great Carthusian Monastery in Dauphiné To Him he communicated his Intention but it was not accepted by reason of his Age which was not less than Seven or Eight and Forty And all the most pressing Intreaties he could use were ineffectual for the Excuse was still this That That Order required all the Vigour of Youth to support its Austerities Hereupon he addrest himself to the Provincial of the Celestines in Paris but there too with the same Success and upon the same Reasons alledged for repulsing him Thus after having done his utmost to fulfil his Vow and himself not being in any degree accessory to its not taking effect he was assured by Faber Dean of the Sorbon Tyrius a Scotch Jesuite and Feuardent a Franciscan all very learned and able Divines that there lay no manner of Obligation upon him from that Vow But that he might with a very safe and good Conscience continue in the World as a Secular and was at large and at his own Disposal without any need of entring into any other Religious Order Hereupon in the Year 1589. he returned back by Anger 's where he preached the whole Lent to the great Admiration and Benefit of the People From thence he went back again to Bourdeaux where he contracted a very intimate Acquaintance and Friendship with Monsieur Michel de Montagne Knight of the Order of the King and Author of the Book so well known by the Title of Montagne's Essays For him Monsieur Charron had a very great Esteem and did from him receive all possible Testimonies of a reciprocal Affection For among other things Monsieur Montagne order'd by his last Will that in regard he left no Issue-Male of his own Monsieur Charron should after his decease be entituled to bear the Coat of Arms plain and as they belong'd to his Noble Family The Troublesome Times detaining Monsieur Charron at Bourdeaux from the Year 1589. to that of 1593. he composed his Book called Les Trois Veritez The Three Truths and published it in 1594. but without his Name to it This was received with great Applause of Learned Men and they printed it after the Bourdeaux Copy two or three times at Paris and afterwards at Brussels in Flanders under the Sham-Name of Benedict Valiant Advocate of the Holy Faith because the Third Part of that Book contains a Defence of the Faith in answer to a little Tract concerning the Church written formerly by the Sieur Plessis de Mornay The Publication of this Book brought him into the Acquaintance of Monsieur Antony d' Ebrard de S. Sulpice Bishop and Count of Caors who upon perusing and liking the Book sent for Monsieur Charron tho' he had never seen him before made him his Vicar-General and Canon-Theologal in his Church which he accepted and there he put out the Second Edition with his own Name to it in 1595. enlarging it also with a Reply to an Answer printed at Rochelle and written against what he called his Third Truth While he was at Caors the King was pleased to summon him to the General Assembly of all the Clergy of France held the same Year 1595. Hither he came in the Quality of a Deputy and was chosen first Secretary to the Assembly As he was in this Attendance an Invitation was sent him to preach at St. Eustache's Church the most populous Parish in the whole City of Paris which he did upon All-Saints-Day 1595 and two Days after As also the Six Sundays in Lent 1596. In 1599 he returned to Caors and in that Year and 1600. he composed Eight Discourses upon the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as many others upon the Knowledge and Providence of God the Redemption of the World the Communion of Saints And likewise his Books of Wisdom While he was thus employing himself and enjoying that Retirement at Caors my Lord John Chemin Bishop of Condom presented him with the Chantership in his Church to draw him over into that Diocess But having at the same time an Offer from M. Miron Bishop of Angiers and being courted by Him to reside at Anjou this was most agreeable to his Inclination The making a determinate Resolution was a Work of Time for his Affection and Convenience drawing several Ways kept the Balance long in suspense Anjou he looked upon as the sweetest Dwelling the most delightful Retreat that France could give him but that Province being then embroyl'd in Civil Wars for Bretany was not then reduced and so like to make a very troublesome Neighbour Condom carry'd the Point It happen'd too that the Theologal Chair at Condom was just then void and this being tendred him by the same Bishop he accepted that and resolved to set up his Staff there To this purpose he bought a House which he built new and furnished to his own Fancy and Convenience resolving to give himself all the Ease and Diversion he could and make the best of his growing Years the Infirmities whereof would be soften'd at least by good Humour and a pretty Dwelling After he was setled at Condom he printed those Christian Discourses mention'd just now which were Sixteen in all and also his Books of Wisdom at Bourdeaux in the Year 1601. which gave him a great Reputation and made his Character generally known So that Monsieur Charron began from that time to be reckon'd among the Glories and topping Wits of France Particularly Messieur Claude Dormy Bishop of Bologne by the Sea and Prior of St. Martin's in the Fields at Paris wrote him several Letters upon that occasion expressing the great Esteem he had for Him and his Writings and as a Testimony of his Value and Opinion of him offer'd him the Theologal's Place in his Church These Letters made Monsieur Charron desirous to see Paris once more that so he might contract a Personal Acquaintance with and express his Acknowledgments for the Favours of this great Prelate and at the same time in hope to get an Opportunity of reprinting his Books and Discourses with the Addition of some new Tracts For indeed the Impression at Bourdeaux he thought wanted correcting and upon a Review was not at all to his Satisfaction In pursuance of this Design
Thing we attempt to give an Account of By this Temperament is to be understood the Mixture and Proportion of the Four Prime Qualities Of the Temperament of the Brain Hot and Cold Moist and Dry or rather a Fifth Quality which is as it were a Harmony resulting from a due Conjunction of all these together like that Concord in Sounds which arises from a Friendly Complication of different Notes Now upon that Mixture of the Brain it is that the State and the Operations of the Reasonable Soul depend Only This is Man's great Unhappiness that the Three Faculties Understanding Memory and Imagination do each of them require different nay contrary Temperaments for their Exercise and Perfection The Temperament proper for the Understanding is a Predominance of Dry and this gives us some Account how it comes to pass that Persons far gone in Years are more Intelligent and Judicious than those that are Younger For besides the Advantages which Art and Study and Experience may give them they have a Disposition to it from Nature The Brain as Men grow older purifying it self from Excrementitious Humours and growing dryer every Day For the same Reason in all likelihood Melancholy Persons and those under Affliction and Want and Persons that are fasting it being an Effect of Grief and Fasting to keep the Brain dry may be better disposed to think and qualified to do it to good Purpose as well as some of them are necessitated by their Circumstances to apply themselves to it This is farther observable in Brutes Ants and Bees and Elephants as they are the Dryest so they are the most capable and ingenious of any and those of a moist Constitution the Swine for Instance are Stupid and Senseless Thus again in Men Those of Southerly Countries excel in Wisdom from the Drought of their Brain and their inward Heat being moderated by that of a Violent Sun without which exhales it The Temperament best accommodated to the Memory is Moist and hence it is that Children are more ready and perfect in it than old People hence it is most apt and faithful in a Morning when the Brain hath been well refreshed and throughly moistned by a good Nights Sleep hence also the Inhabitants of the Northern Climates have the strongest Memories for These are under a moister Air by Means of their great Distance from the Sun But this Moisture must not be so mistaken as if I meant that the Temper of the Memory is fluid like Water but rather such a Moisture as we may observe in Air Glew Grease or Oyl something of such a Substance and Continuity of Parts as may both take the Impression easily and keep it a great while as we see Pictures do that are laid in Oyl Colours The Temperament sittest for the Imagination is Hot which makes Distracted Hair-brain'd and Feverish People excel all others in bold and lofty Flights of Fancy Thus Poetry Divination and all that depends upon Imagination were always thought to proceed from a sort of Fury and Inspiration This Faculty is for the same Reason most Vigorous in Youth and the Flower of our Age The Poets accordingly flourished at these Years and Almighty God who even in Supernatural Influences and Effects made great use of Natural Causes and did as little Violence as was possible to a Course of his own Instituting ordered the Matter so that most of the Prophets should do so too The same Reason holds likewise for those Middle Regions and more Moderate Climates between the North and the South where Men are observ'd to excel in those Arts and Sciences which are derived from the Strength and Sprightliness of Fancy Now from this great inequality of these Mixtures and Proportions it frequently happens that a Man may be tolerably well to pass in all these Three Faculties and not arrive at an Excellence in any one of them as also That a Man may be conspicuous and exceeding well Accomplish'd in one of these Respects and yet very Wanting and Despicable in the other Two It is manifest the Temperaments adapted for the Memory and the Understanding are the most Distant and Contrary in the World for what can be more so than Moist and Dry That of the Imagination does not seem so remote from the Rest for Hot will agree well enough with Moist or Dry and is far from being Incompatible with either and yet though these seem so consistent in Nature we see them very seldom reconcil'd in Fact For those who are esteemed most Excellent in Imagination are generally found very Weak both in Point of Memory and Understanding and thought near a Kin to Fools or Mad-Men The Reason whereof may possibly be This. That the Heat which feeds and exalts their Imagination wasts and exhausts that Moisture with which the Memory is assisted and also the finest and most volatile of Those Spirits of which that Dryness Partakes which is serviceable to the Understanding and the Faculty when destitute of these grows flat and heavy So that in Effect This is an Enemy to both the other Temperaments and Experience shews it to be Destructive of them From all that hath been said we may plainly see that the Principal Temperaments which serve But Three of them assist and set the reasonable Soul on working and which distinguish the Excellencies of the Mind according to its Faculties are Three and cannot exceed that Number For Cold which is the Fourth is of no significance at all Hot and Moist and Dry only can contribute to Mens Ingenuity The Other is a sluggish unactive Principle and instead of quickening does only benumb and stupifie the Soul and put a Stop to all its Motions Therefore when in reading some Authors we find them recommending Cold as of use to the Understanding and saying that Men of a Cold Brain such as those of Melancholy Complexions or under the Southern Climes are Prudent Wise Ingenious and the like we must not there understand the Word Cold in its Natural and most received Sense but interpret it of a large Abatement and more moderate Degree of Heat only For nothing can be more opposite to Wisdom and a good Understanding than that Excess of Heat which yet to the bettering of the Imagination and refining the Fancy would be of great Importance And according to the three Temperaments of the Brain there are three corresponding Faculties of the Reasonable Soul But both the One and the Other of these admit of several Degrees and may be variously subdivided and distinguished The Principal Offices to be discharged by the Understanding and the different Qualifications of Men The Faculties Subdivided with regard to it are Three To conclude truly To distinguish nicely and To choose wisely The Sciences that fall properly under this Faculty are School-Divinity The Speculative Part of Physick Logick Natural and Moral Philosophy The Memory hath likewise Three Qualities to be distinguished by For there is One sort of Memory which easily receives Impressions and
least was never asserted of Man nor the Powers and Operations of his Reasoning Soul disputed as to the Reality of them except by such as set up for Universal Scepticism and are for reducing all to a State of Confusion and Uncertainty And therefore if because Brutes seem to act by a Faculty which we cannot perfectly account for we should allow to these Brutes some few dusky Glimmerings of Reason which yet there is no absolute Necessity for because they have something like it yet no Impartial Considerer can ever admit that it will bear a Question whether They or We have the Better of this Point or that Some Men excel others more than some again excel Beasts for there is no Man how mean and untaught soever if provided with what we call Common Sense but sinds an Ability in himself nay exercises that Ability every Day even when he does not know or think of it of considering comparing and determining in such a manner as no good Arguments have ever yet been offered to shew that Beasts either do or can do They are justly thought to do somewhat very extraordinary when by long Custom and severe Discipline and daily Example and Instruction brought to imitate some very common Actions of Men But what Divine Heights do Men themselves ascend to when they have proportionable Pains taken with Them And here in Justice the Comparison ought to lie between the Best of each Kind not the Best of One and the Lowest of the Other the most unapt and neglected of Men and the most teachable and improved of Brutes For the Advantages or the Want of Art cannot at all affect the Dispute where the Gifts of Nature are the Matter in Question And these are distributed with so very uneven a Hand in the Case before us that He must be either very Stupid or very Perverse who does not see the mighty Disproportion As to the other Part of this Discourse whether Reason be any Real Benefit and we might not have been as well or better without it I shall only need to add that the several Instances produced here are only such as are Sad and very Reproachful Truths in Regard of those Abuses of Reason Men are Guilty of and the wicked or the mischievous Purposes they pervert it to But as to the Thing it self they are no more a Reflection upon it than the Surfeits and Bestiality of Gluttons and Sots are upon the common Refreshments of Life What is said upon this Occasion will do well indeed to be considered by those vicious and indiscreet Men who apply That as a Spur to their Wickedness and Passion which was intended for a Curb to both And the World ought to be humbled and reformed by a serious Reflection how Accessory Men become to their own Miseries and how obstinately fond they are of them when their very Remedies are industriously turned into the worst of Diseases But All this Notwithstanding Monsieur Charron 's Argument here is abundantly refuted by himself in the last Words of this whole Treatise where he vindicates the Honour of Eloquence from the mischievous Effects which some ill-designing Men apply it to by this Parallel For says he even That Reason and Understanding which is the Peculiar Prerogative of Humane Nature and sets us above Brutes is most miserably abus'd turn'd against God and our selves and made the Occasion of our more inexcusable Ruine But This is only an Accidental Misfortune far from the Natural Tendency of so Noble a Privilege And He who would argue from hence that Mankind had better want these Faculties may justly seem to have degenerated into Brute and to be quite forsaken of all that Reason which he so Wildly and so rashly condemns So just Ground is there for reading this Treatise with those Cautions to be laid down upon the XXXVIIth Chapter and so truly does our Author keep up his Character of an Academick Philosopher CHAP. XXXV The Third Respect under which we proposed to consider Man is by taking a short View and summary Account of his Life The True Value the Continuance and Description of Humane Life and the several Parts or Stages of it ONE very Considerable One indeed of the Principal Of the Worth or just Estimate of Life and most Necessary Points of Wisdom is rightly to understand the True Value of Life and to make so just an Estimate of it as to keep or to lose it to cherish and preserve or to neglect and lay it down and so to manage our selves in the whole Conduct of it as Duty and Decency require There is not any One Case in which Men are more apt to be wanting nor where their Failings are of more Dangerous Consequence for the involving them in new and infinite Difficulties The Mean and the Ignorant the Worldling and the Man of Pleasure and in general all that do not or cannot consider prize Life extravagantly They look upon it as the Supreme Good and prefer it so much before all other Things as not to admit a Comparison between them If Life were to be sold at a Price nay if a short Reprieve only and Lengthening out their Term a little can be had they can think nothing too Dear no Conditions too hard to be submitted to but are satisfied the purchase ought to be made at any Rate For This they tell you is their Happiness and when That is gone All is gone their very Motto is Nothing more precious than Life Vitâ nihil charius They value and love it not only as the Scene of Action and Enjoyment and upon the account of the Conveniences and Opportunities it affords but upon its own supposed intrinsick worth and live merely for the sake of Living And how can we think it strange that such Persons should be so very defective in the rest of their Duty so mis-led with Errours and extravagant Notions when they make the very first Step wrong and set out in so gross a Mistake concerning this great Fundamental Article of Wisdom and Virtue There is also a Contempt of Life that declines as much to Vice in the other Extreme and represents it as a Burden or a Trifle Worth Nothing or Worse than Nothing But this Undervaluing is the effect of Weakness and Ignorance of Pride and Ingratitude For we know very well that when it falls into Wise and Good Hands it is capable of becoming an Instrument of great and general use both to our selves and to others Now I can by no means be of Their Opinion taken literally and plainly who give it out for their Princple That * Optimum non nasci aut quam citissimè aboleri the greatest Happiness is Not to live at all and the next most desirable thing is to live but a very little while Nor is that Argument they use in vindication of this Opinion at all sufficient or Satisfactory What Hurt say they could there be in Non-Existence and what Matter had it been if I were never
I call Moderation in his Pleasures and Desires 4. There remains yet a Fourth Direction which is a Short Compass and a constant Regard to ones self For besides that our Desires must not be let fly at large nor our Pleasures run wild without any Check or Controul the very Course and Figures they move in must be managed and rightly ordered It is not enough that a stop be put to their Career but if the Reader will permit that Allusion they must not move in a Right Line but in a Circle of which the Person himself is the Center My meaning is They must not run out into Lengths a great distance from us as Right Lines do but they must have a constant respect to keep near and quickly return again to the Point from whence they set out at first For This is to terminate in our selves and to make our own Necessities and Enjoyments the Subject and the Measure of them And what miserable work do They make who do not govern themselves by this Reflection How wretched for want of keeping close and moving round their proper Center are the Slaves to Avarice and Ambition and infinite others who are sollicitous for Posterity and contriving to keep up the Family in long distant Successions or upon any pretence as vain as these run beyond themselves and are perplexed for things that no way concern them Such Actions are properly Excentrical and Irregular Fanciful and Vain and yet so very frequent withal that if all these Unreasonable Projects were reduced or quite taken away out of our lives it is incredible how great a part of Men's Cares and Anxieties would be cut off with them CHAP. VII Of Decent Deportment and Evenness of Temper in Prosperity and Adversity EVERY Man in this World hath two sorts of Fortune to grapple with a Good and an Ill Fortune or Prosperity and Adversity as we commonly call it These are the Rencounters in which a Man ought to stand upon his Guard the Trying Seasons when we are most obliged to have our Wits about us The two Schools by whose Discipline we are trained up in Wisdom the Essays or Touchstones which bring Men's Minds to the Test and discover whether they be Standard or not The Common and Ignorant part of the World have no notion of Trial except in One of These only They can by no means imagine how Prosperity and kind Fortune should possibly make a Man work or involve him in any Difficulty or Trouble they hear no Threatning and so they fear no Danger They are so transported so giddy with their Joy upon these occasions that they lose all Sense know not where they are nor what they do and so Insolent that there is no enduring them And in Affliction again they are so miserably subdued so perfectly stunned and confounded that they have no manner of sense left but are affected with this Sickness and Feebleness of the Mind as we generally see men with That of the Body who are always uneasy and in pain can bear neither Heat nor Cold but are restless and dissatisfied in either Extreme But Wise Men have quite different notions of the matter Which the harder They observe and acknowledge a Difficulty in Both and think it an instance of equal weakness on Which side soever the miscarriage happens And indeed it is the same Vicious defect and as egregious a Folly for a Man not to be able to govern himself in Prosperity as not to support himself under Adversity But though all Men of Judgment allow a Difficulty on Either side yet on which hand the difficulty is Greater they are not so perfectly agreed Some are of Opinion that Adversity is the harder Task of the Two by reason of its extreme Severity and that sensible sharpness we feel under the smart of it So says one Philosopher * Difficilius est Tristitiam sustinere quam à delectabilibus abstinere It is harder to endure and bear up under Grief than to deny one's self and be moderate in Joy and another †Majus est Difficilia perstringere quam Laeta moderati It is a nobler Victory to get well over Hardships than to temper Pleasures Others again rather incline to Prosperity and think This the nicer and more dangerous State of the Two They observe very truly that Good Fortune charms and gets within us by her Smiles and kind Caresses That there is Treachery at the bottom of all this Fondness that it unbends and softens the Mind enervates all its Powers steals away its generous Qualities and as Dalilah dealt by Sampson betrays the strength and vigour of the Soul and reduces the best and bravest Heroes to the Condition of common Men. And of This we have frequent Instances Persons who have been firm and inflexible stood their ground and born the shock of Adversity with all the Resolution and Gallantry in the World and yet even These Invincible Sufferers whom Affliction could not break Prosperity hath quickly vanquished and melted down Courtship and Flattery have effected what Threats and Blows never could and Verified that Saying That Prosperity is no such easy matter but This must be Endured too how odd soever that expression may sound and †Mâ—â—ni â—â—â—oris est serre prosperitatem is really a difficult and laborious thing to be born As Full Ears load and lay the Corn so does too much good Fortune bend and break the Mind It deserves to be considered too as another Disadvantage that Affliction moves Pity and reconciles our very Enemies but Prosperity provokes Envy and loses us our very Friends Again Adversity is a desolate and abandoned State the generality of People are like those infamous Animals that live only upon Plenty and Rapine and as Rats and Mice forsake a tottering House so do These the Falling Man Now This hath sometimes that good effect that when One perceives himself thus reduced and destitute and that his own Endeavours are all he hath to trust to his Courage is awakened he rouzes and shakes himself collects and exerts all his Powers and with wonderful Bravery and Success forces his way through In Prosperity quite contrary Every body is making their Court by Compliments and Commendations proffers of Service and officious Assistances and This is a Temptation to Negligence and Security we trust to Others and neglect our Selves apprehend no difficulty because we feel none and promise absolute safety while we see not our danger Till at last our false Confidences deceive us and we are sensible of our Error when it is too late to retrieve it Thus much and a great deal more might be urged on both sides of the Question which I shall not take upon me to determine on either side For it may be that it is not capable of any general and positive Decision one way or other And the most probable Resolution we can come to in the case is in my poor Judgment This That Both the forementioned
Enlargement and Spinning out our Discourses our Repetitions and formal Amplifications are a certain sign of a Man's Ostentation and Vanity and loving to hear himself Talk and as such it is certain too to be troublesome and offensive and never fails to tire and to prejudice the Company against us The Sixth and indeed the Chief Direction is To observe due Form and Order and not to make impertinent Digressions and Excursions in our Discourses Oh the horrid Confusion and Vexation that there is in disputing or talking with an impertinent Coxcomb that ventures at All knows nothing of the Matter will be kept to no Method but is eternally out of Time This seems the only reasonable excuse for breaking abruptly and renouncing all Measures nay for leaving the Field and giving quite out For what can you expect but Teazing and Torment from a Fellow that is Untractable and Incorrigible Not to discern the Strength of what you offer against him to take his own course to run away with his own Notions and never Reply to the Objections of an Adversary to hang upon some one word to catch hold upon a thing accidental and by the by and let go the principal and designed Argument of Discourse to confound and jumble all suspect every word deny every thing at a venture to proceed in no order to weary you with formal Prefaces and unprofitable Digressions and after a world of words nothing to the purpose to grow Loud and Clamorous to stick to his own Sense and not to be one whit moved by all one can say to insist upon Forms and Terms of Art and never come to the true head of an Argument nor know the real Merits of the Cause These are the Qualities and common Practice of Pedants and Sophisters Arrogant and Affected Coxcombs And from this Description we may very easily learn how to distinguish between judicious and pertinent Wisdom and prating Impertinence and Folly This is Bold and Rash Hot and Fierce Arrogant and Assured the Former is never Confident or Positive but Cautious and Fearful Modest and Referved Calm and Peaceable The Wise Man is full of Respect and free in making Allowances obtains his Victory fairly and uses it generously but the Impertinent is full of Self-satisfaction and Joy leaves the field with an air of Gaiety and Boasting as taking for granted that the Day is his own all his Countenance and Behaviour is triumphant and proclaims to the Company that he looks upon himself as absolute Conqueror Lastly When we are reduced to a necessity of contradicting any thing said particular care should be taken that we do it not after a bold and assuming manner nor betray any thing that looks like Eagerness and a Spirit of Contention For if it have any of these ill Symptoms it can never be well received and the Mischief will be much greater to the Author himself than to the Person whom it is directed against The only way to render any opposition tolerably easy to the Company and to be secure from any of those ill Resentments which are apt to follow upon it is to contrive that it should be produced upon the spot and immediately applied to the Matter which gave the Provocation that it be not far fetched not foreign to the present Discourse nor ripping up somewhat long past and forgotten It must also be levelled at the Thing alone and be free from any Personal Reflections nor must we contradict any thing because such a one says it but merely because the Thing it self deserves and the vindication of Innocence or Truth requires it In which case if there be any manner of occasion put into our hands it is a very proper expedient to soften the difference of Opinion with some particular Commendation of the Person we oppose But above all things we must be sure that in all matters of this Nature we command our Temper and Reason with all the Coolness and calm Argument the gentlest Terms and most inoffensive Language that is possible CHAP. X. Prudent Management of Business THIS Particular does in strictness belong to the Virtue of Prudence of which our intended Method hath not as yet led us to treat but reserved that to the following Book And there indeed is the proper place for insisting severally upon the many Rules and Admonitions which answer to the several Kinds and Branches of Prudence and provice against that infinite variety of Occurrences which call for the exercise of it in Human Life But in the mean while I will so far enter into that Subject at present as to lay down some of the principal Points of Prudence which may serve for common and general Topicks Thus to instruct my Schollar in the Gross how to behave himself well and wisely in the common Correspondence and Commerce of the World and to make him a Master of his Business For the due Management whereof I would recommend these Eight Directions that follow The First of these is That he would be sure to get good Information Knowledge of Men and Things and a competent Knowledge of Men and Things For the Men he hath to deal with it is requisite he be well acquainted with their particular Humour and Disposition their Understanding and Capacity their Inclination and governing Passions their Intention and Design and the Methods by which they move The Things or particular Business in which a man is engaged or which he proposes to undertake ought likewise to be well understood Whereby I mean not such a slender and superficial Knowledge as considers the Appearances only but a thorough Examination to the very bottom Such a Disquisition as does not only consider the Things themselves in their own Nature but enlarges and extends it self to the Accidents which they in any probability may be incumbred with and the several Consequences they are like to draw after them Now in order to attaining this Knowledge it is necessary to take a close and particular view of our Affairs to turn them all manner of ways eye them in all the different Prospects they are capable of and nicely scan all the Forms and Circumstances of them which our own Imagination can represent them under For there are a great many Attempts which have a fair and beautiful side full of Invitation and large Promises and yet if you turn the other side look horrid and forbidding and shew nothing but Deformity and Danger Now there is no occasion to prove the Necessity of such a Knowledge as This because it is so very evident that This is the very Compass Men must steer by For no Man doubts but that the different Tempers of Men and conditions of Things bring us under an absolute Necessity of changing our Measures and making all our Scheme suitable to them A Man in this case should be as vigilant and as dextrous as the Seamen are who immediately gibe their Sails and ply their Oars differently as the Wind shifts or their Course they run brings
and restores our Souls to perfect Liberty and true Enjoyment Instead of locking us up in the dark it sets us in the clearest and brightest Light and serves us as we use to deal by the best Fruits when we take off the Skin or Shell or other Covering that so we may see and use them and taste their Natural Excellence It removes us out of a streight inconvenient Dwelling from a Dark and Rheumatick and Diseased Place where we can see but a very little Spot of Heaven and only receive Light by Reflection and at a vast distance through Two little Holes of our Eyes into a Region of absolute Liberty confirmed and uninterrupted Health perpetual and incessant Light a Sun that never sets and Endless Day without any gloomy Intervals * Aequaliter tibi splendebit omne Coeli latus Totam lucem suo loco prope totus aspicies quam nunc per angustissimas ocuâ—orum Vias procul intueris miraris A Place where our Faculties shall be enlarged and all Heaven will display it self to us where we shall not only see Light but dwell with it in its own proper Sphere In a word It delivers us from the very Thing we dread most by making us Immortal and putting a sinal and full Conclusion to that Death which took place from the Instant we came into the World and was finished at our Passage into Eternity †Dies iste quem tanquam extremum reformidas aeterni natalis est For the Day we have such dreadful Apprehensions of as if it were to be our Last is really our First the joyful Birthday into a Life which can never have an End We come now to consider the Second Sort of Resentment which Men are affected with upon the account of Death which is Waiting for and entertaining it with contented and chearful Minds when it comes This is indeed the Quality of a Good a Gentle and well-governed Spirit and the Practice of it is peculiar to a plain easy way of living and to Persons who as they make the best of Life and enjoy the Quiet of it so know very well how to esteem it as it deserves but still they make Reason the Standard of all their Affections and Actions and as they are well satisfied to stay here so they readily obey when Providence thinks fit to call them out of the World This is a Medium very justly tempered a Masterly Greatness of Soul and such an Indifference to all here below as a Life of Retirement and Peace seems best qualified for and the Two Extremes between which it lies are Desiring and Dreading Courting and Running away from Death accoring to that of the Poet * Summum nec metuas diem nec optes With Courage firm and Soul sedate Attend the Motions of thy Fate And whether Death be far or near Live free from eager Wish and anxious Fear Now these Extremes except there be some very particular and uncommon Reason to give them countenance are both of them Vicious and exceeding blameable and when I come hereafter to speak of this Matter in its proper place you will see that nothing less than a very extraordinary Cause can render them so much as excusable To desire and pursue Death is very criminal for it is very unjust to throw away one's Life without a sufficient Reason it is spightful to the World and injurious to our Friends to grudge them the longer Use and Continuance of a thing which may be serviceable to them It is the blackest Ingratitude to God and Nature thus to slight and throw back again the best and most valuable Present they can make us as if it were a Trifle or a Burden not worth our keeping It savours too much of Peevishness and Pride and shews us humoursome and difficult when we cannot be easy and bear the Lot that falls to our share but will needs quit our hands of the Station God hath called us to when there is nothing extraordinary to render it cumbersome And on the other hand to fear and flee Death when summoned to it is an Offence against Nature Justice Reason and every Branch of our Duty since Dying is Natural Necessary and Unavoidable Reasonable and Just First It is Natural Dying is Natural it is a part of that Great Scheme by which the Order of the Universe is established and maintained and the whole World lives and subsists And who are We that all this Regularity should be broken and a new System contrived in Our Favour Death is really one of the Principal and most Material Articles in the Constitution and Administration of this vast Republick and of infinite Use and Advantage it is for determining the Continuance and promoting a Constant Succession of the Works of Nature The Failure of Life in One Instance propagates it afresh in a Thousand others * Sic Rerum Summa novatur Thus Life and Death successive keep their round Things dye to live and by decays abound But which comes nearer home Death is not only a part of this Great Complex and Universal Nature but of thy Own Nature in particular and That every whit as essential a part as that Birth which gave Thee Life So that in cherishing an Aversion and running away from This thou attemptest to flee from thy own self Thy Being is divided equally between Death and Life These are the Two Proprietors and each claims a share and hath an indefeasible Right in every one of us These are the Terms upon which Thou wer't created and Life was given with a Purpose and upon Condition of being taken away rather indeed it was only lent and like all other Trusts or Debts must be demanded back and may be called in at pleasure If then the Thoughts of Dying discontent Thee consider that the Hardship does not lye here but carry thy Reflections higher and be concerned that ever thou wast born For either there is no cause of Repining in either case or else the Ground of all the Complaint lies in having lived at all You had Neighbours Fare and purchased Life at the Market Price which is The laying it down again no body hath it cheaper and therefore they who do not like the Bargain and are loth to go out again should have refused at first and never come into the World at all But this is what Men were they capable of such a Choice would never do if their Fondness of Life be so excessively great The First Breath you drew bound you fast and all the Advances you made toward a more perfect Life were so many Steps toward Death at the same time †Nascentes morimur finisque ab origine pendet Asson as born we dye and our Live's End Upon its first Beginning does depend Manil. Ast 4. To be concerned then that we must Dye is to be concerned that we are Men for every one that is so is Mortal And upon the strength of this Impression it
oftentimes with a Malefactor's Repentance and esteem the Sense of his Guilt his Shame and Remorse and Self-condemnation a Punishment sufficient †Ignoscere pulchrum Jam misero poenaeque genus vidisse precantem Relenting Misery inclines the Brave Conquerours are most triumphant when they save Justice and Mercy may suspend their Strife He suffers for his Crime who yields to beg his Life Nor is there any just Ground of that Apprehension which some People very inconsiderately pretend upon these Occasions that such Mercy will be taken for Tameness or Impotence that it makes a Prince despicable in the Eyes of his People gives his Enemies Advantage provokes turbulent Spirits to insult and loosens the Nerves of Government For the Effect is really quite contrary Such Mildness is a mighty strengthening to a Prince adds Vigour and Efficacy to his Commands and wonderfully raises his Reputation A Prince that is well belov'd shall be able to do more with the Hearts of his Subjects than all the Awe and Terror in the World This may put Men into trembling and astonishment but it gives them no true Principle of Obedience and as Salust argued in his Oration to Caesar such Governments are never Stable and of long Continuance because they are built upon an ill bottom Whoever he be that is feared by a great many hath a great many whom he hath reason to be afraid of too The Fear which he sheds down upon all about him dashes back again upon his own Head Such a sort of Life is full of Anxieties and Misgivings and a Man is surrounded with Dangers that threaten him continually from every Quarter It is true indeed this Clemency ought not to be extended without any Distinction Judgment as was said in the beginning of the Paragraph must direct and determine it For as it is a Virtue and that which attracts the profoundest Veneration when judiciously managed so is it a Vice of most pernicious Consequence when degenerating into soft and easie Tameness After these Four Principal Virtues which are the brightest Jewels in a Prince's Diadem Liberality there follow some others of a Second Form and these though inferiour to the former in Lustre have yet their just Value and are necessary and useful though not so absolutely and in so high a degree Liberality for instance which is so much more suitable to a Prince's Character as it is a greater Reflection upon him to be vanquish'd by Bounty and Magnificence than to be worsted in the Field But here too there is great need of Discretion for where That is wanting this Quality will be apt to do more Hurt than Good There are two Kinds of Liberality The one consists in Sumptuousness and Shew and this is to very little purpose Of two Kinds It is certainly a very idle and vain Imagination for Princes to think of raising their Character and setting themselves off by August and Splendid and expensive Appearances especially too among their own Subjects where they can do what they please and are sure to have no Rival of their Grandeur This seems rather a Mark of a little Soul an Argument that they want a due Sense of what they really are and is both beneath Them to do and very unacceptable to their People to see For however for the present Subjects may gaze at their Pomps with Delight yet assoon as the Entertainment is over they presently begin to reflect that Their Princes are thus enrich'd and adorn'd with Their Spoils that This is no better than being sumptuously feasted at Their Cost and that the Money which now feeds their Sight with Triumphs and Gaudy Greatness is pinch'd from more necessary Occasions and wou'd have been much better sav'd to feed their Bellies And besides all this a Prince should be so far from Lavish and Profuse that he should make great Conscience of Frugality for indeed he should think nothing he enjoys strictly his own since engag'd in a Trust that requires his All his very Life and Person to be devoted to the Good of others The Second sort of Liberality is that which consists in distributing Gifts and making Presents Of This indeed there is considerable Use and a just Commendation due to it But then this must be discreetly manag'd too and good Care should always be taken To what Persons in what Proportions and after what Manner this is done As to the Persons They ought to be well chosen such whose Merits recommend them to their Bounty such as have been serviceable to the Publick such as have hazarded their Fortunes and their Persons and run thro' the Dangers and Fatigues of War These are such Persons as none but the Unthinking or the very Ill-natur'd can grudg any thing to or envy the Favour so as to represent the Prince as Partial or Undistinguishing in his Liberality Whereas quite otherwise great Gratuities distributed without any regard to Merit and where there really is none derive Shame and Odium upon the Receiver and are entertain'd without those due Acknowledgments and that grateful Sense which the Favours of a Prince ought to find Some Tyrants have been sacrific'd and given up to the Rage and Spite of an incens'd Rabble by those very Servants whom they had rais'd from Nothing while these Creatures of theirs have been as much diverted with their Masters Misfortunes as any of their Enemies and have taken this Course to ingratiate themselves with the Mobb and for securing their own Fortunes by giving Demonstrations of the Hatred and Contempt to the Person from whom those Fortunes were entirely deriv'd Nor is it less necessary that the Proportion of a Prince's Liberality should be strictly regarded for otherwise this may run out into such Squandering and Excess That both the Giver and the Government may be impoverish'd and brought to Ruine by it For to give to every body and upon every Occasion is to play with a losing Hand and till all 's gone Private Men are for making their Fortunes and it is not possible to satisfie them they will soon grow extravagant in their Requests if they find their Prince to be so in his Favours and the Rule they Measure by is not Reason but Example not how much is fit to be granted to Them but how much hath already been granted to Others However by this Means the Publick Treasures will be exhausted and a King be necessitated to seize other Peoples Rights that * Quod Ambiticne exhaustum per Scelera supplendum so Injustice and Oppression may heal and reimburse these Wants which Ambition and Prodigality have created Now it were insinitely better to give nothing at all than to take away from one to give to another For after all our Kindness the Gratitude and Affection of those that are obliged by us never makes so deep Impressions nor sticks half so close as the Resentments of them that have been injur'd and plunder'd Besides This Profuseness is its own Destruction for the Spring
odious Colours but make all the Allowances they can bear Much less ought we to misconstrue Severity upon particular Offenders or esteem the number of his Guards or the Strength of his Forts or the Majesty and Style-Imperial of his Commands to be Tyranny For all these things are not only useful in a very high degree but in some Circumstances indispensably necessary And such Authoritative Methods in Kings are much better and more desirable than the softest Entreaties and kindest Caresses of Tyrants And thus I have represented the Two firm Supports of a Prince and a State and happy is it for Them who know how to acquire and to continue these Advantages to themselves and by so doing effectually prevent the Two Contraries which are the very Murderers and certain Undoers of a Prince and Government Hatred I mean and Contempt Concerning which I beg the Readers Patience to say one Word because a brief Consideration of them may be of some Service towards the preventing or defending our selves from them Hatred then which is the direct Contrary to Love and Good-will Hatrod is an obstinate wicked perverse Affection of the Mind whereby the Subjects are violently prejudiced and bitterly set against the Prince and his Government This commonly springs either from some Apprehension of future Mischiefs or from a Desire of revenging some past Injury or else from a Resentment compounded of both these together When this Hatred is very rank and fierce and when it spreads and grows Epidemical the Danger is extremely great and the Consequence commonly fatal and very seldom it is that a Prince is able to stemm or get over it * Multorum odiis nullae opes possunt resistere Multae illis manus Illi una cervix No Power says Tully is so great as to be a match for a general Hatred The Multitude have many Hands and the Prince hath but one Head This is it they thirst after This what they want to put an End to their Rage and he is but a Man equal in this regard to any one of his Enemies but expos'd to the Attempts of them All. You see then how important how necessary it is for a Prince to preserve himself from such a dangerous such an irresistible Mischief and the most likely Course that can be taken for this purpose will be to avoid the two Extremes of Cruelty and Avarice so directly opposite to that Gentleness and Liberality which were observ'd before to be the powerful Instruments and most powerful Motives to gain the Kindness and good Affection of any People First he must by all means keep himself clear and untainted from any base and barbarous Cruelty Cruelty such as is a Blemish to his Character scandalous and abominable and unbecoming his Grandeur On the other Hand let his Mind be strongly armed by Clemency the Reasons and Necessity whereof have been shewn already when we treated of the Virtues more peculiar to a Prince But still in regard Publick Punishments are necessary and unavoidable and these even when most just even when most necessary carry some face and appearance of Cruelty it concerns a Governour to carry himself very prudently in the management of this Matter and perhaps there are not many Cases which require more Dexterity and Address And therefore I will presume to venture at a little particular Advice upon this Occasion As first Let him by no means be too eager and hasty in laying his Hand upon the Sword of Justice but shew that he draws it meerly in his own Defence and by his slowness to be provok'd and loathness to revenge convince the World that what he does of this kind is the effect of meer Necessity and sore against his Inclination †Libenter damnat qui cito ergo illi parsimonia etiam vilissimi Sanguinis He that passes Sentence speedily does it willingly and with a Glee whereas there is a Tenderness due and a King ought to be very saving even of the worst and vilest Blood Secondly Let the Principle upon which he proceeds be the Prospect of the Publick Good and let the making their Faults exemplary and preventing the spreading and growth of it in others and a Relapse of the Sufferer himself be the Motives of Punishment rather than any thirst of Vengeance or a desire to torment the guilty Person Thirdly Whatever of this kind is necessary to be done let it be put in execution with all possible Calmness and Temper A King should be like his Laws cool and sedare void of all manner of Passion and therefore Anger and Joy and any other Emotion of the Soul is highly unbeseeming but if any Passion may be allowed That of Pity is the only one that can shew it self with a good Grace upon these Occasions Fourthly Let the Execution be only what is usual and according to the Laws and Customs of the Country in such Cases for the aggravating of the Pain and inventing new and more exquisite Methods of Torment are so many certain Marks of a cruel and remorseless Mind Fifthly Let not the Prince have any hand in inflicting the Punishment nor so much as be present at the Execution for this looks like insulling and taking satisfaction in the Sufferings of the Criminal Lastly if there be a necessity of Punishing a great many let it be done with all convenient speed upon all together that it may be over and forgotten as soon as possible For the prolonging their Execution and repeating these Tragical Sights One by One looks as if a Man play'd the Epicure in Blood For we naturally contrive that those things may be lengthened out or often renewed to us which give us Entertainment and Delight And every Body hastens to make an End of That which is disagreeable and raises his Aversion The next thing which he ought to keep himself free from Avarice is Avarice than which no Vice whatsoever can possibly be more misbecoming a great Man Now this may discover it self two Ways either in Extortion and exacting more than is fit or in Niggardliness and in giving less than is fit The former of These will be sure to disgust the Common People who are all of them naturally covetous and esteem their Pocket the tenderest Part for Money is their Blood their Life their very Soul And therefore nothing gives them so sensible an Affliction or raises their Indignation like the Exactions that rob them of it The Second discontents all that have served the State who have any Pretensions to Merit and have spent their Time and Pains their Strength and Blood upon the Publick and therefore think some proportionable Gratuity their due Now we have already taken Occasion in the last Chapter to discourse the matter of the Publick Treasure at large how the Prince ought to manage himself in this whole Point what Methods are proper for the raising of Funds what Taxes fit to be imposed for the putting his Exchequer into Stock what
the most successful Artifices upon those Occasions Nay some Philosophers and wise Men have allow'd such Mediators to be liberal even at the expence of Truth and think that the Folly and Madness of an incensed Multitude may as innocently be amused with Fables and Fictions as the Simplicity of Children and the Phrensies of Feverish Men are with idle Stories and Promises that are never intended to be made good Pericles had a wonderful Knack at this I eading the People at Pleasure he held them fast by the Eyes the Ears the Belly entertain'd them with Shews and Plays and Feasts and then made them do whatever he had a mind to This I confess is much the meaner Method of the Two There is something in it servile and ignoble but those Punctilio's must be laid aside where Necessity gives a Dispensation But then they are only sit for some Deputy or Agent and can never be Condescensions becoming a Prince in his own Person And thus we see Menenius Agrippa manag'd the Matter when delegated from the Senate to the Commoners of Rome But if such a one pretends to act with a high Hand and expects to reduce People when they fly out and break through all the Restraints of Reason and Duty without making any Concessions or offering any Terms of Accommodation as Appius and Coriolanus and Cato and Phocion did this is a very idle Attempt and must succeed accordingly SECT VIII Faction and Combinations BY Factions and Combinations I mean the Divisions and Bandings together of Subjects against one another and These may differ both in Quality and Number as the Persons concerned are Great and Wealthy or of a meaner Fortune and Condition or as the Clans and Parties are each of them more or less numerous This sometimes proceeds from private Piques and Grudges which have grown and been cherish'd between single Persons or are perpetuated and made hereditary to whole Families but the usual and more frequent Original of it is Ambition and Emulation that Bane of Society and Government which sets the World on Fire by kindling in every one a desire of aspiring to the highest and most honourable Post The Divisions which happen between Persons of Eminence and the first Quality are by much the more dangerous and destructive to the Common-wealth Some indeed there have been who set up for Politicians and pretend that these disagreeing Parties are of great Service and Convenience to the Publick and that a Prince by this means is safer and better supported as Cato was of Opinion that the Authority of Masters in private Families was secured by the Discords and Quarrels of their Servants But This seems a Notion too resin'd and far-fetch'd and we may venture to say there are but a few Cases in which the Observation holds good It may be true with regard to Tyrants and lawless Governours to whom nothing is so formidable as the good Agreement of their Subjects because such a general Understanding may tend to unite them against their common Oppressor It may hold too in slight and inconsiderable Factions such as the Quarrels and Competitions betwixt one City and another or betwixt Ladies at Court who pretend to set up for Intelligence and under-hand Interests But in any Combinations of Consequence and in Governments well constituted and duly administred it is manifestly false It is of infinite Concern and absolute Necessity that in such Circumstances all making of Parties should be check'd and Faction crusht in the very Egg. All their Distinctions the Names they go by the Dress or Badges by which they know one another and all the Foppery of that kind utterly discountenanc'd and put down For even Trifles of this Nature have sometimes laid the Seeds and been the first Beginnings of prodigious and unconceivable Mischiefs Witness the miserable Combustion and horrid Murders which Zonaras tells us happen'd in Constantinople by the Persons who distinguish'd themselves by wearing Blue and Green in the Reign of Justinian And accordingly all Clubs or private Cabals that tend to the promoting such Divisions should be carefully dispersed and strictly forbidden The Counsel I have to give upon such Accidents is briefly This. If the Faction happen between two Peers or Persons otherwise of Consideration and Character in the State the Prince will do well to bring them to a better Understanding by fair Means and good Words or if That do not succeed by laying his positive Commands and threatning the Party who refuses to be reconciled with his Displeasure and other severe Penalties upon his Disobedience And this Course we find taken by Alexander the Great to compose the Difference between Hephestion and Craterus and by Archidamus with Two of his Friends If they still stand out it may be proper to nominate some Arbitrator between them and This a Person liable to no just suspicion of Partiality no way interested or prejudiced for or against either of the Parties And this will also be a very good Expedient to end the Disputes and settle the Pretensions controverted on both sides between greater Numbers of Subjects or between Cities or Societies of Men. If it be requisite that the Prince himself interpose let this by all means be done with the Assistance of Counsel that so the Odium of the Thing may be taken off from himself and those who suffer in the determination may have no Foundation for Resentment For the Counsel of Princes serves to this and many other Purposes as well as for Direction and it is Prudence to call them together and act with and by them in a very solemn manner in sundry Instances where there arises nothing of Difficulty that can deserve the Formality of a Debate If the Faction be among Persons of meaner Circumstances but so that great Numbers are engag'd in it or if it grow too strong to be composed by gentler Methods and the Course of Civil Justice the Prince must then have recourse to his last Remedy and extinguish it by Force But in this way of quelling it especially he must take good heed not to discover any particular Inclination to one side above the other For This is very Ominous and many Kings have lost themselves by their unreasonable Partialities They are the common Fathers of their whole Country and it is unworthy the Dignity of that Relation as well as beneath the Majesty of their Character to make Distinctions and be of a Party themselves They must be Friends to All their Subjects not side with Some and by making their Quarrels their 〈◊〉 suffer themselves to become Enemies and in effect denounce War against Others We easily see the the Indecorum of such Proceedings when the Master of a Family debases himself to take part with one Servant against another for what is this indeed but to become a Fellow-Servant too and to forget that both the Contending Parties are under his Jurisdiction But sure the Absurdity is more monstrous in Princes when they forget that all the Subjects are
to entertain must receive Satisfaction from the Second Question I insert this Caution by the way because it frequently falls out that a Man is staked down as it were to one party almost whether he will or no. For though he may not make it any part of his Choice and Design nay though in his own Private Judgment he cannot but disapprove it yet in despight of Intention Inclination and Good Sense he may find himself involved and intangled by some Considerations so Powerful that he cannot with any Decency break through them And these being such Bands as Nature hath ty'd him up in or such as Counterbalance all Motives to the contrary will at least carry a sufficient Excuse for his doing as he does Now this first Question hath several Arguments pro and con and abundance of eminent Instances might be produced of Persons who have behaved themselves directly contrary to each other with regard to it So that differing Judgments and Authorities as well as different Reasons minister just ground of Scruple in the Case The Resolutions which seem to me most convenient to be come to according to the different Circumstances of the Persons concern'd in this Debate are such as follow On the one Hand Nothing seems more agreeable to the Character of a Wise and a Good Man than to have nothing at all to do with the Follies and Factions of the World and therefore such a one cannot do better than to stand by and let them try it out by themselves Especially too if we consider what Account hath already been given of these Divisions how irregular and unlawful they are in their own Nature and first Causes what Wickedness Barbarity and Injustice of all sorts they engage Men in That these are inseparable Attendants of such practices and it is not possible to have any hand in them and continue Innocent I say If all these Considerations be fairly laid together it scarce looks any longer like a Matter of free Choice what a Man may or may not do but seems rather a Point of Duty than of bare Allowance and Permission absolutely to decline any Concern in them And accordingly it appears that several excellent Persons have had so great an abhorrence of these Things and such a Sense of the Personal Obligations they violate that no Considerations could prevail with them to come in particularly Asinius Pollio who the Historian tells us Velleius lib. 3. excused himself for these very Reasons to Agustus when he entreated his Company and Assistance in the Expedition against Mark Anthony But then on the other Hand What shall we say to those Reasons which enforce our Obligation to take part with good Men to protect and strengthen such as much as in us lies and to defend Equity and Right against all that oppose and encroach upon it The Great Solon was so strongly possess'd in Favour of these Engagements that he is for inflicting very severe Punishments upon Them that affect Ease and Obscurity and refuse to appear and act openly in such Exigencies of State And that rigid Professor of Virtue Cato govern'd himself by this Rule for he did not only declare and come into One Party in the Civil Wars of Rome but took a Command among the Malâ— contents under Pompey Now if we would know what Measures are fit to be taken where Judgments are so divided and Reasons probable and plausible enough for each to alledge in his own Justification my poor Opinion is This For Persons of Eminence and Character in the World such as are in publick Trust or great Reputation or extraordinary Abilities and are known to be leading and significant Men in the State These I conceive not only may fall into that Side which they in their Conscience think the best but so far as I am able to discern they are bound to do it For he is a very ill Pilot that steers the Ship in calm and favourable Weather and runs away from the Helm when it grows Foul and Stormy What shall become of the Vessel if the best Hands let her drive when there is the greatest Need of Working her and keeping her tight These Gentlemen ought in Extremities especially to stand in the Gap and act like Men of Honour the Care of the Government is upon them and its Safety or Ruine lyes at the Door But then for Persons in a private Capacity such as make none at all or but very inconsiderable Figure in the Government These are more at their own Liberty For as their Condition supposes all the Assistance they can contribute to be of no mighty consequence so the with-holding that Assistance can do no great Damage And therefore they may be allowed to retire into some Place of Security and seek their own Ease and Quiet at a Distance from the Noise and Clutter of the contending Parties But then both these kind of Men those that do and those that do not declare lie under an Obligation to demean themselves in such manner as I am going to prescribe In the mean while I add thus much only upon the present Subject concerning those who are disposed to come in and act That in the choosing what Party they should side with sometimes the Case is so plain that it is almost impossible they can be mistaken For where the Injustice of the Cause and other Disadvantages are so evident that they look one full in the Face and forbid him no Man of common Sense will go in thither But it often happens that there are Reasons on both Sides Each pretends Right and Justice and each hath Advantages to invite us and then the Difficulty of coming to a Resolution is very great because a Man must not only weigh the Arguments on both Sides and settle the Point of Right and Wrong first but he hath several other Considerations to attend to such as may and ought to carry some Weight with them though they have not immediately respect to the Justice of the Cause And now it may be Seasonable to proceed to the other Part of this Advice which relates to the Behaviour of the Persons under these several Capacities To all which I might satisfie my self with prescribing in one Word Moderation and Temper that they would particularly take Atticus for their Pattern whose Name hath been so much celebrated for his Prudence and Modesty in the midst of that boisterous Age in which he lived One who was always believed in his Judgment to favour the right Side and respected by all good Men for doing so but yet one who behaved himself so Prudently and Inoffensively that he never involved himself in the Common Confusions nor drew down the Displeasure of ill Men or any Inconvenience from that Party who were sensible enough he did not approve their Proceedings But to be a little more particular and first for Them who openly declare themselves It is certain that These ought by no Means to be violent or betray indecent Heats and
Learning Let us next enquire whether we can find Learning destitute of Wisdom and the Instances of this Part are no less obvious and numerous than the other Do but take notice of great part of the Men who make Learning their Study and Profession whose Heads are full of Aristotle and Cicero the Philosophers and the School-Men Are there any People in the World more aukward and uncouth in Business Is it not a common Proverb when we see a Man Odd and Clumsie to say He is a mere Scholar One would almost think that they had pored away their Senses and that excess of Knowledge had stunn'd and stupify'd them How many are there who would have made excellent Persons had they not sunk and dwindled into Pedantry and had been wiser Men if they had traded upon their own Natural Stock and never sat down to Books at all and how many of their own Brethren do we see who never had that Education and prove much shrewder Men and better Contrivers more quick and expert in all manner of Business Take one of your Nice Disputants or quaint Rhetoricians bring him into a debate at the next Corporation where any Matter of Government or Civil Interest is under Deliberation put him upon speaking to the Point and he shall Blush and Tremble turn Pale and Cough and Hem But it is Odds if he say any Thing to the Purpose At last perhaps you shall have a formal Harangue some Definitions of Aristotle or Quotations out of Tully with an Ergo at the End of them And yet at the same Meeting you shall have a dull plodding Alderman that chalks up all his Acounts behind the Door and can neither write nor read and yet this Fellow by seeing and knowing the World shall out of his own Observation and Experience come to better Resolutions and propose more feasible and proper Expedients than the subtilest and most refin'd Student of them all Were Matters indeed so managed that Men turned their Speculation into Practice and took Care to apply their Reading to the Purposes of Human Life the Advantage of Learning would be unspeakable and we see how illustriously such Persons shine in the World And therefore what I have said upon this Occasion is not to be stretched to the Prejudice of Learning in general but only to such a false Opinion of it as depends upon This alone for the most eligible and Only Qualification of the Mind of Man and so rests upon it and buries it in Inactivity This the foregoing Instances shew is frequently done and a very vulgar Error and consequently they prove the Point for the Illustration of which alone they are produced and that is That this Distinction between Wisdom and Learning is not Imaginary but grounded upon a real Differece and that in Fact these Two do not always go Hand in Hand nor meet in the same Person This I design to make appear more fully in the following Paragraphs of this Chapter for I have already promised not to content my self with urging bare matter of Fact but likewise to enter into the Reason of the Thing An Enquiry which I am the more Zealous and look upon my self obliged to satisfie that so I may prevent any Offence being taken at the former Reflection and cut off any Suspicious which some might be provoked to entertain concerning me as if I were an Enemy to Learning and thought it Insignificant and Despicable There is I confess ground sufficient for this Question why Wisdom and Learning should not go together for it is a very odd Case and seems foreign to the Reason of the Thing that a Man should not be very much the Wiser for being a better Scholar since Learning and Study is without Controversie the ready Road and a most Excellent Instrument and Preparation to Wisdom Take any Two Men equal in all other Respects let the One be a Man of Letters the Other not so 'T is plain He who hath employed his Time in Study ought to be a great deal Wiser than the other and it will be expected from him that he should prove so For he hath all the Advantages that the Unletter'd Man hath a Natural Capacity Reason and Understanding and he hath a great deal more besides too the Additional Improvements of Reading which have furnish'd him with the Examples Directions Discourses and Determinations of the Greatest Men that ever were in the World Must not this Person then be Wiser more Apprehensive and Judicious of a more exalted Virtue and greater Address than the other who is altogether destitute of such Helps Since he hath the same Stock to set up with and all these foreign Assistances acquired and transported to him from all the Quarters of the Universe besides Since as one says very truly The Natural Advantages when joyn'd and strengthened by the Accidental make a Noble and Complete Composition And yet in despight of all our Reasonings to the contrary Experience and undeniable Matter of Fact give us Ten thousand Instances of it's being otherwise Now the true Reason and satisfactory Answer to this Doubt stands really thus That the Methods of Instruction are not well ordered Books and Places of Publick Education furnish Men with admirable Matter but they do not imbibe and use it as they should do Hence it is that vast Improvements in Knowledge turn to so very slender Account They are Poor in the midst of Plenty and like Tantalus in the Fable starved with the Meat at their Mouths When they apply themselves to Reading the Thing they principally aim at is to learn Words more than Things or at least they content themselves with a very slight and superficial Knowledge of Things and He is reputed the best Scholar who hath made the largest Collections and cramm'd his Memory fullest Thus they are I earned but not with any Care of polishing their Minds and forming their Judgments or growing practically Wise Like a Man that puts his Bread in his Pocket and not in his Stomach and if he go on Thus he may be famish'd for want of Sustenance notwithstanding both Pockets are full Thus they continue Fools with a vast Treasure of Wisdom in their Brains They study for Entertainment or Ostentation or Gain or Applause and not for their own true Benefit and the becoming Useful to the World They are living Repertories and Common-place Books and would be rare Compilers of Precedents and Reports Cicero they tell you or Aristotle or Plato say Thus and Thus but all this while They say not one Tittle of their own Observation They are guilty of Two great Faults One is that they do not apply what they read to themselves nor make it their own by Meditation Reflection and Use so that all this while they have not advanc'd one Step in Virtue nor are One whit more Prudent more Resolute and Confirm'd in Goodness and thus their Scholarship is never digested and incorporated with the Soul but swims and floats about in the Brain
and consequently can never nourish or do them any manner of Good The Other is That in all this Time and Trouble so diligently spent in heaping together the Wealth of other Men they neglect their own Proper and Natural Fund and let this lie dead and rust upon their Hands for want of Exercise Now Others who are not capable of Study have nothing but their own Common Sense and Reason to be intent upon and therefore they must keep it in constant Employment They manure and cultivate their little Plat of Ground and reap a Crop in proportion to their Diligence grow Better and Wiser more Resolure and Steady though not so Knowing or so Eloquent so Wealthy or so Celebrated in the World The whole of which Observation may be reduced to that short Maxim of an Author to this purpose That weak and little Souls are spoiled by Learning but vigorous and great Ones are perfected by it The Former are diverted by it from Matters more Weighty and Substantial the Latter make it only Subservient to such and transcribe it all into their own Practice Now the Method which I would prescribe for reforming this unprofitable and superficial Way of Study is as follows Not to trouble our Heads and wast our Time in retaining and treasuring up other Mens Knowledge only that we may be able to repeat and quote it and make a Shew and Noise with it in Company or else to convert it to Gain and so employ it to Sordid and Mercenary Purposes but to enrich our Minds in good Earnest by making other Mens Notions our own Not barely to give them Lodging and Entertainment in our Souls and use them like Guests but to incorporate and transubstantiate them Not only to sprinkle the Mind with them but thoroughly to soak and drench it that the Tincture may be taken all over and we may become effectually Wise and Good and Generous and brave For if This be not done what is all our Study good for * Non paranda nobis solùm sed fruenda sapientia est We must not only get Wisdom but we must use and enjoy it if we will do any thing to Purpose We must not do like the Gatherers of Nosegays that pick up here and there whole Flowers and after that make them up into Nosegays to sell or give away For thus unskilful Students do They get together a Collection of good Sayings and Observations out of the Books they have read merely for the Sake of Ostentation and to put them off in all Company where they come But we must imitate the Bees that never take away the Flower entire but sit and brood upon it suck out the Life and Spirit and Quintessence and convert it into their own Substance and Nourishment and when This is done they do not render it back again in Thyme or Marjoram as they drew it in but distil it into most delicious and excellent Honey Just after the same Manner We are not obliged to put our selves under the Slavery of getting Things by Heart and saying them again by Rote which some value themselves upon nor need we tye up our Attention to that superstitious Vanity of others That of remembring precisely the very Passage and Page and Chapter all which devours our Time and our Pains and is bought very Dear with the Loss of that which our Minds should principally aim at but we should draw out the Marrow and Substance of our Authors feed and feast our Thoughts upon them deduce Inferences and form the Judgment and give the Soul quite another Turn we should bring all Home and lay it close to our Hearts that it may be entirely of a Piece with us instruct our Understandings regulate our Affections direct and incline our Wills and guide our Consciences in all their practical Determinations and Debates In a Word The Principles of Honesty and Wisdom and Prudence and Perseverance which we meet with scattered up and down in Books we are to collect into one entire Body and out of that make an Honest Wise Prudent and Well-resolved Man So says Tacitus upon a like Occasion * Non ad pompam nec ad speciem nec ut nomine magnisico sequi otium velis sed quò firmior adversus fortuita Rempublicam capessas Our Intention must not be Pomp and Shew the Credit and Reputation of being Book-learned but the fitting our selves for Action and Business and fortifying our Minds against any Accidents that may happen to us In order hereunto there must be Care used that a Proper and Prudent Choice be made of the Sciences young People apply their Studies to Now those which I dare take upon me to recommend because they manifestly conduce most of any to that sort of Study which I have here been propounding are Natural and Moral Philosophy for These teach us what it is to live and what to live Well and entertain us with the Images and Beauties both of Nature and of Virtue shew us what we are and what be ought to be Under the Heads of Morality I comprehend Politicks Oeconomicks and History as well as that which is more Peculiarly call'd Ethicks All other Studies are in a manner Emptiness and Air Diversions to recreate the Mind but not of Weight enough to make them our Business And therefore we should take a little of Them by the by but these we may fix and dwell upon because They will not fail to stick by Us and amply to reward our Pains This End to which the Instruction of young People should be directed and the stating our Comparison between Wisdom and acquired Learning hath detain'd us a very great while by Reason of the Controversies arising upon it Let us now at length prosecute the other Parts of this Subject and come to those Directions which still remain behind Now the Manner of either informing one's self or instructing others is very various For first there are Two Ways of Learning the One Verbal that is by Precepts Instructions and Lessons read or heard or explained to us or else by Conference and Discourse with able and good Men thus polishing and whetting our Minds upon Theirs as Iron is brightened and cleansed and sharpened by the File This is a very agreable and pleasant and Natural Course The Other Method of Instruction is by Facts This is what we call Example and a mighty Advantage may be made of it not only with Regard to those Good and Commendable Ones which we shall do well carefully to Copy and conform our selves to but to those likewise that are Ill such as we are obliged to avoid and detest and suffer no manner of Resemblance or Agreement with Some Dispositions are so formed that they improve abundantly more by this kind of Instruction taken from Contraries and are much more dextrous at Declining than Imitating This is particularly the Method which publick Justice takes with us It condemns one Malefactor that he may be a Warning and create
Proverb That he who never asks Questions will never be a Wise Man that is If a Man's Mind be not kept stirring it will rust and mould and nothing but constant Use and Exercise can cleanse and brighten it Now whatever of this Kind falls under his Consideration should be managed to the best Advantage applyed and brought home to himself discoursed and advised upon with others and that whether it be somewhat already past to discover what Defects there were and which were the false Steps in it or whether it be somewhat future that he may govern himself regularly be warned of any Hazards and Dangers that attend what he goes about and prevent Miscarriages and Inconvenience by growing wise in Time Children should never be left to their own idle Fancies to dare and trifle alone For their Age and Capacity not being of it self able to furnish Noble Matter of Thought will certainly dwindle into Vanity and feed upon Impertinencies and Whimsies of a Size with their Imaginations They should therefore be kept in constant Employment to exercise and give them a Manly Way of thinking and particularly to beget and excite this inquisitive Humor and eager Appetite of Knowledge which will be sure to keep their Souls always awake and busie and by inspiring them with a Noble Emulation be Eternally putting forward to fresh and larger Attainments And this Curiosity if qualified as I have here described it will neither be Vain and Fruitless in it self nor Troublesome or Unmannerly to any they converse with Thirdly Another necessary Care in the Instructing of Children is To frame and mould their Minds after the Model of Universal Nature taking the World at large for our Pattern to make the Universe their Book and whatever Subject lies before them to draw it in sull Proportion and represent the several Opinions and Customs which do or ever have prevailed with regard to it The Greatest and most Excellent Persons have always had the freest and most enlarged Souls For this indeed strengthens and confirms the Mind delivers it from Wonder and Surprise and fixes it in Reason and Resolution which is the highest Point of Wisdom This Particular and the Benefits of it as well as the Absurdity and great Uneasinesses of the Contrary hath been so largely insisted upon heretofore See Book II. Ch. 2. that I shall omit what might be said more upon it here adding only this Observation That such a large and universal Spirit must be the Business and Acquest of early Application and Diligence in the Master before the Prepossessions of his Native Country and Customs have taken too fast Hold upon his Scholar and when he is ripe for Travelling and Conversation that which will contribute most to the perfecting him in this Disposition is going abroad conferring much with Foreigners or if that cannot be yet informing himself at Home by reading such Books as give Account of Travels into remote Parts of the World and contain the Histories of all Nations Lastly Children ought to be taught betimes not to swallow things at a venture nor receive any Opinions upon Trust and the bare Authority of the Person who delivers them but to seek and expect all the Evidence that can be had before they yield their Assent The contrary Easiness of Mind is to suffer one's self to be led about hood-winked to renounce the Use of Reason quite and submit to the Condition of Brutes whose Business is only to know their Driver and go as they are directed Let every Thing therefore be fairly propounded let the Arguments on each Side be stated and set in their true Light and then let him choose as Judgment shall determine him If he be at a Loss which Side he should incline to let him deliberate longer and doubt on such a distrust and uncertainty of Mind is an excellent Sign more Safe more Promising than a rash Confidence which resolves Right or Wrong and thinks it self always sure though it can give no reason why The Perplexities and Dilemmas of a cautious and considerate Person are much to be preferred before even the true Determinations that are made in a Heat and by Chance But then as the Youth should be taught always to practise upon his own Judgment so should he learn likewise to have a Modest Diffidence of his Abilities and when any Difficulty interposes or the Resolution is of great Consequence to consult those who are proper to be advised with and never venture to come to a peremptory Determination merely upon the Strength of his own reasoning For As the being able to examine and compare Things is One Argument of Sufficiency so is the calling in Help Another and the refusing to rest upon one's own single Opinion is no Reflexion upon our Wisdom No Disparagement to what we think alone but rather the quite contrary Next after the Soul of Children Parents are obliged to take Care of their Bodies Advice for the Body and this is not to be deferr'd any more than the other It hath no distinct and separate Seasons but must go along with the Former and only differs in This that tho' we ought to express a constant Care and Concern for both yet we are not obliged to have that Concern equal for both But since Nature hath united these Two into One and the same Person we must contribute to the Good of each by our joynt Endeavours Now the Care of the Body will be most profitably Exprest not in the Indulging its Appetites or treating it tenderly as the Generality of those who pretend to resined Education do but by utterly abandoning all Softness and effeminate Nicety in Cloths and Lodging Meat and Drink to give it plain and hearty Nourishment a simple and wholesome Diet considering the Convenience of Health and Digestion more than the Pleasures and Delicacy of the Palate To support it in a Condition of Strength capable of supporting Labour and Hardship and accordingly inure it to Heat and Cold Wind and Weather That so the Muscles and Nerves as well as the Soul may be fortified for Toil and by That for Pain For the Custom of the Former hardens us against the Latter In a Word to keep the Body Vigorous and Fresh and the Appetite and Constitution indifferent to all forts of Meats and Tasts For the several Parts of this Advice are by no Means so insignificant as they may seem It were enough to say that they conduce mightily to the preserving and confirming our Health but That is not all for the Benefit extends beyond our own Persons and the Publick is the better for them as they enable and qualifie Men for the enduring Fatigues and so fit them for Business and the Service of their Country It is now Time to apply our selves to the Third Branch of this Duty Directions for Manâ—ners which contains a Parents Carey of his Childrens Manners in which Soul and Body both are very highly concern'd Now this Care consists of Two
that there is no Distinction observ'd in our Respects to the Memory of the Good and the Bad. Kings are the Law 's Fellows if they be not their Masters And the Revenge which Justice will not permit to be taken upon their Persons it is but sitting that it shou'd take upon their Reputation and the Estates of their Successors We owe Subjection and Obedience to all Kings alike because This is an Obligation annex'd to their Offices and payable purely upon that Consideration but we cannot be accountable for our Affection and Esteem to all alike because These will depend upon their Qualities and are due only to their Merits and Virtue Let us then resolve patiently to endure even the worst and most unworthy while we have them let us endeavour to cover and conceal the Vices of the Living for this is what Respect to their Authority requires from us and besides the Weight and Difficulty of their Charge and the Preservation of Publick Peace and Order challenge our joint Endeavours and stand in need of the utmost we can possibly do to support them But when they are withdrawn and gone off the Stage it wou'd be hard to deny us a just Liberty of expressing our real Thoughts of them without all that Reserve Nay it is an honest and a commendable Pattern which these Proceedings set to Posterity who cannot but look upon it as a singular Commendation of our Obedience and Respect that we were content to pay these to a Master whose Imperfections we were very well acquainted with Those Writers who upon the Account of Personal Interest or Obligations espouse the Memory of a wicked Prince and set it off to the World do an Act of Private Justice at the Expence of the Publick For to serve or shew themselves grateful they defraud Mankind of the Truth This Reflection were an admirable Lesson for a Successor if it cou'd be well observ'd and a powerful Check it might be to the Exorbitancies of Power to think with one's self that the Time will thortly come when the World will make us as free with his Character as they do at present with his Predecessor's CHAP. XVII Duty of Magistrates THose few Wise and Good Men who are Members of the Common-wealth would doubtless be better pleased to retire into themselves and live at Ease full of that sweet Content which excellent and intelligent Persons know how to give themselves in the Contemplation of the Beauties of Nature and the works of Providence than to sacrifice all this satisfaction to Business and a publick Post were it not that they hope to do some good in being serviceable to their Country by their own Endeavours and in preventing the whole Administration of Affairs from falling into ill or unskilful hands This may and ought to prevail with Persons of this Character to consent to the trouble of being Magistrates But to cabal and make Parties and court Employments of Trust with Eagerness and Passion especially such as are judicial is a very base and scandalous Practice condemned as such by all good Laws even those of Pagan Republicks as the Julian Law among the Romans abundantly testisies unbecoming a Man of Honour and the shrewdest sign that can be that the Person is unsit for the Trust he seeks so vehemently To buy publick Offices is still more infamous and abominable the most sordid the most villainous way of Trading in the World For it is plain he that buys in the Piece must make himself whole by selling out again in Parcels Which was a good Reason for the Emperour Severus when he was declaring against a Fault of this nature to say That it was very hard to condemn a Man for making Money of that which he had given Moncy for before Just for all the World as a Man dresses and sets his Person in order and form putting on his best Face before he goes abroad that he may make a Figure and appear well in Company so is it sit that a Maâ— should learn to govern his own Passions and bring his Mind to good Habits before he presume to meddle with publick Business or take upon him the Charge of governing other People No Man is so weak to enter the Lasts with an unmanaged Horse or to hazard his Person with such a one in any Service of Consequence and Danger but trains and teaches him first breeds him to his hand and uses him to the Exercise he is designed for And is there not the same reason that this wild and restiff part of our Soul should be tamed and accustomed to bear the Bit Should be perfectly instructed in those Laws and Measures which are to be the Rules of our Actions and upon which the good or ill Conduct of our Lives will depend Is it not reasonable I say That a Man should be Master of his own private Behaviour and expert in making the best of every Accident and Occasion before he venture out upon the publick Stage and either give Laws to others or correct them for the neglect of those they have already And yet as Socrates observed very truly the manner of the World is quite otherwise For though no body undertakes to Exercise a Trade to which he hath not been Educated and served a long Apprenticeship and how Mean or Mechanical soever the Calling be several Years are bestowed upon the Learning of it Yet in the case of publick Administrations which is of all other Professions the most intricate and difficult so absurd so wretchedly careless are we that every body is admitted every body thinks himself abundantly qualified to undertake them These Commissions are made Complements and things of Course without any Consideration of Men's Abilities or regarding at all whether they know any thing of the matter as if a Man's Quality or the having an Estate in his Country could inform his Understanding or secure his Integrity or render him capable of discerning between Right and Wrong and a competent Judge of his Poorer but perhaps much honester and wiser Neighbours Magistrates have a mixt Quality and are placed in a middle Station between sovereign Princes and private Subjects These Subalterns therefore have a double Task incumbent upon them and must learn both how to Command and how to Obey To obey the Princes who trust and employ them to submit to and truckle under the Paramount Authority of their Superiour Officers to pay Respect to their Equals to Command those under their Jurisdiction to Protect and Defend the Poor and those that are unable to Contend for their own to stand in the Gap and oppose the powerful Oppressor and to distribute Right and Justice to all Sorts and Conditions of Men whatsoever And if this be the Business of a Magistrate well might it grow into a Proverb that the Office discovers the Man since no mean Abilities no common Address can suffice for the sustaining so many Characters at once and to Act each part so well as to merit a general
take our measures from Reason and Nature and be satisfied with what these desire and prescribe to us we shall seldom or never want enough for our purpose But if we will create to our selves fantastical and imaginary wants nothing can ever satisfie us * Si ad naturam vives nunquam eris pauper si ad opinionem nunquam dives Exiguum natura desiderat opinio immensum He that lives by Nature says Seneca can never be Poor and he that lives by Fancy can never be Rich for the former will gladly take up with a little but the latter grasps at all and there is no end of it A Man that is master of any sort of Trade or bred up to any Profession nay he that hath neither of these advantages if he have but the use of his Hands is safe from these Extremities and will find no just reason to fear or to complain of this first sort of Poverty The other sort consists in the want of those things which exceed a sufficient provision for the uses of Nature and minister to Pomp and Pleasure Delicacy and Supersluity what we commonly call a Decency and this is in truth the thing most Men are so mightily concerned for loss of rich and sumptuous Furniture the not having a Down Bed and a Table well spread or a stately House shut out from the Comforts and the Ornaments of Life But this when all is done is not Want but Niceness and that is the very Disease we labour under Now all complaints of this Nature are highly unjust for what they dread as Poverty is rather to be preferred and wished for We see the Wisest Man that ever lived was for neither Poverty nor Riches but only such Food as was a convenient Subsistence for him It is more agreeable to nature more truly rich more quiet and safe than all that abundance Mankind are so fond of First it is more congruous and agreeable to our Condition because Man came Naked into the World and he must go so out and how can he call any thing his own which he neither brought along with him nor can carry away with him The Possessions we pretend to here are like the Furniture in an Inn ours to use while we stay but not to remove when we leave the House And therefore all we ought to look at is our present Accommodation Secondly it is more true Riches for a larger Mannor none can be possest of He that hath enough hath all the World 1 Tim. 6 Godliness with Contentment is great Gain says the Apostle it is safer and more quiet For here is no Fear to perplex no hope of Booty to tempt no danger of Enemies to fence against Poverty is secure in the inidst of Banditi A little Man when covered all over with his Buckler is less liable to danger than a bigger and stronger who is in many parts exposed and cannot bring his whole Body within the compass of his Shield such a condition as it does not burden and fatigue a Man with great Troubles so neither does it make him capable of great Losses And therefore these sort of People are always more easie and free and cheerful for they have not so much to take care of nor can they suffer so much by any storm that shall happen to blow Such a Poverty as this is snugg and close gay and jolly and secure all foul Weather flies over its head it makes us truly our own Men masters of our Lives without the hurry and noise the squabbles and contentions which are the necessary incumbrances of plentiful Fortunes and devour the greatest part of their Ease and Time who stand possest of them And what precious things are these to be called the Goods of this World that are big with so many Mischiefs such substantial and vexatious Evils that expose us to Injuries enslave us to Jealousies and Suspicions to anxious Fears and inordinate Desires and have so many thousand artifices to trouble and disquiet us He that is discontented with the loss of these things is miserable indeed because he is deprived of his Possessions and understanding both and so does more than double his loss The Life of Men in moderate Circumstances is a condition much like that of Coasters but that of the rich is like Sailors out at Sea These are tost and driven and cannot make Land though they would never so fain they must wait a favourable Gale and the Current of the Tide to carry them in The former are always near home and have it in their power to Debark whenever they please To all these Considerations we shall do well to add one more That of Great and Generous and justly Celebrated Persons who have despised such Losses nâ—y have welcomed and improved them to their advantage and thanked Almighty God for them as so many signal Blessings Such as Zeno after his Wrack the Fabricij Serrani and the Curij among the Romans And this is an extraordinary Attainment in Virtue when a Man can find his account and discern and satisfie himself with the wisdom and kindness of Providence in instances which the generality of the World look upon with the greatest Horrour and Aversion The Gods were heretofore painted Naked to intimate that they are above both the Necessities and Gayeties of this World and how Godlike a Quality the Philosophers heretofore esteemed the despising of them we may learn by that voluntary Poverty which so many of them embraced at least if it was the work of Fate and not their own Choice by that easie Content and Acquiescence of Spirit with which they entertained it To summ up all then in one word to Persons of Prudence and unprejudiced Affections Men of elevated Souls refined and purged from the dross of Sensuality and Avarice this condition of Life will appear preferrable but to all People who think at all it is very tolerable CHAP. XXVI Of Infamy or Disgrace THis Affliction is of several sorts according to the different Senses of which the Title here is capable If by Disgrace be meant the loss of Honour or Dignity or offices of Importance and Trust the Man is rather a Gainer than otherwise and hath made a very advantageous Exchange For what are such promotions but splendid slaveries by which a Man hires himself out to the Publick and lays out his Property and the enjoyment of his Person in the Service of other People These Honours shine indeed and glister but with that dazling light they kindle Envy and Jealousie burn up the Owner and at last go out in Exile and Poverty Let a Man but refresh his memory with the Histories of all Antiquity and the most memorable passages of Great Men see how thick a cloud they set in and whether almost to a Man those that were most renowned for Gallantry and Virtue did not finish their course in Banishment or a Prison by Poyson or some other violent Death See the declining Aristides
and simple things for this indifferency and simplicity of Manners is the Mother of inward Peace and Content And therefore * Ad omnia compositi simus quae bona paratiora sint noâ—is meliora gratlora let us be prepared and capable of every thing satisfied with what comes next and esteeming those conveniences best and most acceptable which are nearest at hand and will cost us least trouble This is the general Rule given by Philosophers and would be of great use for the crossing these particular humours gives birth to furious Passions and infinite Inconveniences Cotys upon receiving a very Noble Present of Beautiful but brittle Ware broke all the Vessels immediately to prevent his being angry whenever they should happen to be broken by any other hand This is what I cannot much extol by reason it plainly shewed a distrust of his own Vertue and Resolution and condemned him of Cowardice and Fear He had therefore done a great deal better in sparing that extravagant way of Prevention and settling in his Mind a firm Resolve not to be moved at such an Accident whensoever it should happen 4. Curiosity which makes us eager and inquisitive into things which we had much better live in contented Ignorance of Thus Caesar when upon his Victory he took the Letters and Memorials and several other Papers of Consequence written by his Enemies burnt them without ever examining what they contained 5. Credulity and easiness to receive every new Impression 6. And above all the rest a cavilling and captious Humour jealousie of other People's Behaviour and fancying they design Injuries and Affronts to us This Indeed is very much beneath a Man of Spirit and Generosity for how much soever it may seem to savour of Pride and so indeed it does yet this is a false Pride and the Opinion of ones self at the same time that it is more than it ought to be is yet degenerate and of a Bastard breed mingled with meanness and a little Soul and therefore wanting Solidity for this self-conceit and being conscious of some notable Defect it exposes the Person yet more by this peevish and suspicious temper For he that looks upon himself under the Contempt of another is in some sense less than he at least he debases himself and becomes so either in Reality or in Opinion by these distrusts and nicenesses in point of Respect * Nemo non eo à quo se contemptum judicat minor est If therefore we would express a just and generous Sense of our own Worth we should put any other interpretation rather than this upon the doubtful passages of Conversation Imagine them to proceed from Folly or Indiscretion an unthinking Gayety some defect in the Person or what he did not observe or could not help if it come from our Friends let us call it too great freedom and the priviledge they take upon intimacy with us If from those under our own Government we should not suppose they knew they did amiss or ever were so stupid and fool-hardy to provoke a Person who they know hath power to chastise and make them smart severely for their Insolence If it proceed from mean and insignificant Fellows we can neither receive any Dignity nor suffer any Indignity from such hands Our Honour is not at their disposal and therefore we should not descend so low as to be angry whenever they please to provoke us Agathocles and Antigonus made a jest of those that affronted them and scorned to punish them when they had them at their mercy Caesar had a peculiar Excellence this way Moses and David and the other celebrated Patterns of Virtue in Holy Writ have done so too †Magnam fortunam magnus animus decet A great Post should have a great Soul to fill it The noblest Conquest is to subdue our selves and to leave it in the power of no other Person to disorder us Flying into Passion is a shrewd symptom of Guilt and a Consciousness that we deserve all the indignities put upon us He cannot be a truly great Man who bends under another Man 's ill treatment a Conquest there must be on some side for if we do not subdue our Anger it will subdue us and therefore the only way to preserve our Liberty and our Honour is to get above this rebellious Passion and †Injurias offensiones supreme despicere look down upon the Tempests gathering below with scorn and Contempt The second division of remedies consists of such as are fit to be made use of at the time when any provocations to this passion are offered to us and when we feel it is going to make insurrection And these are 1. keeping the body constantly in one posture and not allowing our selves in the least motion sitting silent and keeping our thoughts within our own Breasts For any sort of agitation of our Limbs Hands Feet but especially of the Tongue sets the blood and humours presently into a ferment and kindles a sire in the Soul The beginning of contention is like the letting out of water and it is the second word that makes the quarrel 2. A prudent reserve backwardness in crediting what we hear slowness in resolving allowing space to think and consider and state the merits of the cause and suspending our determination and resentment till all this be fairly done For could we once but bring our selves to reason upon the point we should presently give a check to this growing Fever A Philosopher advised Augustus never to let his anger loose till he had first repeated the Letters of the Alphabet and some Christians have given the same counsel in effect but better in the diversion they prescribe when they direct us to say over the Lord's Prayer before we give any vent to the boyling passion All we say and do in heat should be shrewdly suspected and carefully watched and therefore it is but fit we should make a halt * Nihil tibi liceat dum irasceris Quare Quia vis omnia liceâ—â— Allow your self in nothing when you are angry because there is nothing so ill which you would not at such a time be content to allow your self We ought to be afraid and extreamly jealous of our selves for while our minds are in disorder it is impossible we should do any thing properly and as we ought Reason at such a time is intangled in the passions and can do us no more service than wings do a Bird whose feet are fast in the Lime-twigs we may flutter and struggle but shall very hardly be able to extricate our selves by all the efforts we can make and therefore we should never trust our selves but take sanctuary in the company of some friend and there mellow and compose our passions by his calm advice and wise conversation 4. Another good expedient when we feel the storm gathering will be to divert and disperse it by somewhat that is agreeable and entertaining and in
done in a fair and honourable way by disdaining the thing and the Person that is guilty of it or if you please advancing the Conquest higher still and reclaiming him Caesar was remarkable for both these good Qualities No Victory is so desireable none so triumphant as that which makes your Enemy buckle under you by kindness undeserved That which lays him with his mouth in the Dust and strikes him dumb at his own Baseness and so shames his Spight into Friendship For what can melt him if this will not What can deserve Laurels so justly as the being thus invincible and not suffering any Aggravations an Injury is capable of to stop our hands or get the better of Virtue and Reason This indeed is a Resolution we should settle to our selves as considering that the more grievous the Crime and the bitterer and more implacable the Spight the more fit it is for us to pardon it And the better we could justifie taking a severe Revenge the more it makes for our Honour and Commendation to take none at all Remember how great a Contradiction it is to all Equity and Reason that the same Person should be Judge and Party both in the same Cause and yet this is an Absurdity which every one that undertakes to revenge his own Quarrels unavoidably runs upon This ought therefore constantly to be left to the Arbitration of a third Person or at least a Man should never take it into his own hands without advising with his Friends following such measures as they who are calm and indifferent Judges think proper and not leaning to the rash and hot determinations of our own disordered Minds The Old Poetical Fables have given us a beautiful Representation of this Matter in their accounts of the Heathen Deities and the Limitations of their respective Provinces and Powers Jupiter they tell you hath a right to cast such Thunderbolts as are favourable to Mankind and portend good Events by vertue of his own Despotick Authority But when any Thunder is to be discharged upon wicked Men and those Bolts are let fly which carry Devastation and Ruin and any sort of mischievous Effects This he hath no right to do of his own head nor without the advice and assistance of twelve Gods met in Counsel This was a very significant Thought and shewed the importance of the Occasion That even the Supreme of all the Heavenly Powers who had unlimited Commission to do good to all the World of his own head should yet have it restrained and his hands tied up from hurting so much as one single Person till the matter and merits of the Cause had been solemnly debated But the Reason couched at the bottom deserves our attention Kindness and Beneficence there can be no danger in no mistakes no excesses of this kind are pernicious But when Revenge and Punishment come under Deliberation this is so nice a point that even the wisdom of Jupiter himself was not secure from all possibility of Errour and therefore an assembly of dis-interested Persons was requisite to direct and moderate his Anger And this Moderation and Temper is what every Man should make it his Business to acquire and be well fixed in Which with respect to the case now before us is but another name for Clemency For by that I mean such a mildness and sweetness of Spirit such an inclination to forgive and be kind as curbs and holds in the violent Careers of Passion and makes us move coolly and regularly This will arm us with Patience will convince us that we cannot be injured in reality except from our own selves and that for the wrongs others maliciously intend us so much and no more will stick as we fasten and bind upon our selves by resenting the Provocation This will secure us the good will and affections of all Mankind and will season all our Behaviour with that Modesty and Decency that cannot fail to render our Conversation innocent courteous and agreeable and universally desired CHAP. XXXV Remedies against Jealousie THe only method of any Efficacy for avoiding this Passion is to take care to deserve the advantage we desire For Jealousie is little else at the bottom but the distrust and misgiving of ones own Mind and an Argument that we are conscious of our own want of merit When the Emperour Aurelius was asked by his Wife Faustina what he would do if his Enemy Cassius should win the Field his answer was I do not serve the Gods so ill that they should have such an Affliction in reserve for me So they that partake of another's Affection and are tempted to any suspicion of losing it will do well to silence such uneasie Suggestions by telling themselves The Regard I have for him is so sincere that I dare be confident he will not rob me of a treasure I value so highly An assurance of our own faithfulness and deserving better usage is the best pledge of our Friend's kindness and fidelity to us in return He that pursues a Prize virtuously will be content that others should seek it in the same way For this does but serve to awaken and illustrate and exalt his worth Weakness only creates fear of Rivals because this suspects that when we come to have our merits laid in the balance with those of other Competitors our Imperfections will be more distinctly seen and we shall suffer by the Comparison Whereas otherwise if you take away Emulation you eclipse the honour of Virtue and quench the most powerful Incentive to good and gallant actions As to that particular kind of Jealousie between Married Persons the Counsel expedient to be given on the Man's part seems to be this That if any reproach happen to them from the disloyalty of their Wives they should recollect what great and renowned Fellow-sufferers they have had in this Calamity who yet bore it with exemplary patience and made no words of their Misfortune Such were Lucullus Caesar Pompey Cato Augustus Antony and a great many besides But you will say the World hath discovered your shame and it is grown common talk And pray who is there that the World does not talk of to their prejudice more or less whether they have any ground for such Discourse or no How many Persons of Honour and Virtue have you your self heard branded with the infamous Title If you make a bustle and blaze abroad your Disgrace the Ladies will only have the advantage of the better Jest And the commonness of this Affliction one would think should long ago have worn out all the uneasiness of it But however put the worst of the Case that you are in reality the thing you suspect yet how is this a just Calamity it is no reflection upon your Virtue or your Wisdom the World is most unreasonable and absurd in loading the innocent Person with Infamy and rendring that ridiculous which is in no degree a Fault But if they will proceed by wrong measures your own breast should follow
those that are right and equitable Nay even in respect of others there is some remedy left still For it is in your own power to render your Virtue so illustrious that it shall stifle and swallow up this Misfortune and make your name never mentioned among Wise and Good Men at least with one whit the less Esteem They will cover your Infamy by their just Commendations and curse the wicked occasion of it who is so much the more profligate and abandoned despicable and detestable for using a Good Man ill As to the Women they are not so easily satisfied because their very Nature seems more disposed to Suspicion and Curiosity But the best Advice I can give them is to dissemble any apprehensions of this kind which is the true and prudent Medium between two very vicious and foolish Extremes The one that silly tormenting of themselves which devours their Spirits destroys all their satisfaction and flies out into transports of Fury and Rage The other that tame Negligence practised in the Indies and some other Eastern Countries where Wives use their utmost endeavours to advance the honour of their Husbands which is there thought to consist in the number of Wives and Mistresses or their satisfaction or the increase of Posterity by turning Bawds and Procurers This is a piece of service which I think they might very well be excused But when all is done the only cure for this Evil on both sides is such an affectionate and discreet such a modest and reserved Carriage as shall minister no manner of occasion for calling the fidelity of either Party into question CHAP. XXXVI Temperance the fourth Cardinal Virtue Of Temperance in General TEmperance is capable of a double Signification Sometimes it is taken in a general Sense for Moderation and that Temper which we commonly say should be preserved in all manner of things whatsoever In this comprehensive Interpretation it does not denote any one Virtue in particular but the Complex of them all in common and is that quality which seasons and gives a relish to good actions of every sort In this Latitude we are under perpetual obligations to it but chiefly so in those matters that admit of Controversie and engage us in Differences and Disputes For the due observance of it thus understood there needs but this single Direction of laying aside all personal and self-ended Considerations and make it our entire business to stick close to our Duty For all lawful and commendable Affections are temperate Hatred and Anger and Cruelty are excesses much beyond the limits of Justice and Duty and are only second-second-hand Remedies necessary to be used upon them who refuse to be kept to their Duty by the power of Reason and the softer arts of Perswasion But when this Term is used in a more restrained Signification then it imports a check and regulation of things pleasant and delightful to Sense and such as our natural and carnal Appetites eagerly long after and are gratified by At present we extend it a little farther for the Rule and Measure of a Man's Duty in all kinds of Prosperity as Fortitude was said to be in every sort of Adversity So that Temperance supplies the place of a Bridle and Fortitude that of a Spur this checks our Carcer of Gayety that quickened our sluggish Fears and rouzed us out of Despondency With these two in Conjunction we are able to manage that brutal and restiff and wild part of us which consists of the Passions and shall not fail to demean our selves well and wisely in every condition and change of Fortune Which is in truth the very summ and substance of Wisdom and the very perfection I desire my Reader should aspire to The general Object then of Temperance is all manner of Prosperity every thing that is pleasurable and gay but especially and more peculiarly Pleasure which this Virtue regulates and retrenches All that part which is superfluous and unnatural and vicious it pares quite away and that which is natural and necessary it keeps within due measures Thus we find it described by an Old Author * Voluptatibus imperat alias odit abigit alias dispensat ad sanum modum redigit nec unquam ad illas propter illas venit scit optimum esse modum cupitorum non quantum velis sed quantam debeas Pleasures are her Province and proper Dominion over these she presides and exercises her Coercive power Some she detests and utterly discards others she corrects and distributes in their just proportions She never chooses any meerly for their own sakes and the best measure of gratifying our Appetites she declares to be the taking not so much of any of these Objects as we have an inclination to but so much only as is fit for us This is the authority and superintendance of Reason over those eager and violent Affections which carry our Wills towards Pleasures and sensual Delights The curb of our Soul the instrument to scumm off those Ebullitions which by the Heat and Intemperance of the Blood are apt to boyl over that so the Mind may be preserved uniform and in consistence with Reason And not debase it self by submitting and accommodating its measures to sensible Objects but preserve its rightful Superiority and force them to serve and sute themselves to the Dictates of the Mind By this we wean our Souls from the childish delights of the World and qualifie them for a more substantial and generous sustenance In short it is a Rule that squares all things by the proportions of Nature Necessity Simplicity Ease Health and Strength and Hardiness For these are things that commonly go together and they are the measures and bounds which Wisdom sets out As on the other hand Art and Luxury Superfluity Variety Multiplicity Difficulty Sickness a weak and tender Constitution bear one another company and are the usual attendants of Intemperance and Folly * Simplici curâ constant necessaria in delicijs laboratur Ad parata nati sumus nos omnia nobis difficilia faciliam fastidio facimus The Necessaries of Life come cheap and easie all the Labour and Toil is about the Delights and Entertainments of it Nature intended we should take up with such things as she hath made ready at hand and designed to free us from trouble but we have created it to our selves and made Life one perpetual difficulty by nauseating and disdaining every thing that is easie CHAP. XXXVII Of Prosperity and Advice thereupon THat Prosperity which comes to us leisurely and regularly in the usual Course of the World and a common concurrence of visible Causes and Effects as particularly by our own Industry or Frugality Prudence and good Management or by eminent Accomplishments and Deferts is abundantly more stable and safe and less exposed to the Envy of other People than that which drops as it were into a Man's mouth and is let down from Heaven upon him to the surprise of