to be good although not the supreme good or the end and honesty to be of the kind of those things which are eligible and to be desired for their owne sake wee may by that meanes save justice while we permit and allow that which is honest and just to be a greater good than pleasure Having I say delivered the same also in his books of pleasure yet in his treatise against Plato reprooving him for raunging health in the number of good things he affirmeth that not onely justice but also magnanimity temperance and all other vertues are abolished and perish in case we hold that either pleasure or health or any other thing whatsoever can be numbred and reputed among good things unlesse the same be honest Now as touching the apologie or answer that may be made in defence of Plato I have elsewhere written against Chrysippus but even in this very place there is manifestly to be seene a repugnancy and contradiction against himselfe considering that one while hee saith that justice may stand well enough if a man suppose pleasure joined with honesty to be good and another while contrariwise he findeth fault with all those who repute any thing else to be good but onely that which is honest as if thereby they abolished and overthrew all vertues And because he would leave no meanes at all to salve and save his contradictions writing of justice against Aristotle he challengeth him for untrueth in that hee affirmeth that if pleasure were granted to bee the soveraigne good both Justice were overthrowen and therewith also every vertue besides For this is certaine quoth he that those who are of this opinion doe indeed abolish Justice howbeit I see no let why other vertues may not stand if not those which be of them selves expetible yet such at leastwise as be good and vertuous really And thereupon he proceedeth presently to name them every one severally But it were not a misse to recite his ownelwords as he delivered them For suppose quoth he that by this discourse and reason Pleasure seeme the very end of all good things yet we are not to inferre hereupon that all is comprised under it and therefore we must say that neither any vertue is to be desired nor vice to be eschued for it selfe but all these things are to be referred unto a scope and marke proposed and yet in the meane time what should hinder but that fortitude prudence continence patience and other such vertues may be good and expetible like as their contraries bad and to be avoided What man therfore was there ever in his speeches and disputations more rash and audacious than he considering that he charged the two princes of Phylosophers with imputations the one for abolishing all vertue in that he confessed not that onely to be good which is honest and the other in that if pleasure were supposed and set downe to be the end of good things he thought not that all vertues except onely Justice might subsist and be maintained what a woonderfull liberty and monstrous licentiousnesse rather is this in discoursing of one and the same subject matter to tax and reproove that in Aristotle which he setteth downe himselfe and afterwards in accusing Plato to subvert and undo the very same And yet in his demonstrations as touching Justice he affirmeth expresly that every perfect duety is a lawfull deed and a just action Now whatsoever is performed by continence by patience by prudence or by fortitude is a perfect duty ergo it followeth that it is likewise a lawfull action How chanceth it then that he leaveth not justice for them in whom he admitteth prudence continence and valour considering that all the acts which they performe according to these vertues be perfect duties and by consequence just and lawfull operations Whereas Plato in a certeine place hath written that injustice being a certaine intestine sedition and corruption of the soule never casteth off and loseth her power even in those who have it within them for she causeth a wicked man to fight with himselfe she troubleth vexeth and tormenteth him Chrysippus reproving this assertion of his saith that it was falsely and absurdly spoken that any one could doe wrong or injurie to himselfe For quoth he all injurie and outrage must needs be to another but afterwards forgetting himselfe and what he had said in that treatise of his entituled The demōstrations of justice he affirmeth that whosoever doth injustice wrongeth himselfe and in offering injurie to another doth himselfe wrong in that he is the very cause why himselfe transgresseth the lawes wherein unworthily he hurteth and woundeth his owne person Lo what he said against Plato discoursing that injustice could not be against a mans selfe but against another For to be perticularly and privately unjust there must quoth he be many such as speake contrary one unto another and otherwise this word injustice is taken as if it were amongst many that are in such fort injuriously affected one to another wheras no such matter can properly and fitly argree to one alone but in as much as he is so disposed and affected to another But contrary to all this in his demonstrations he argueth and reasoneth thus to prove that the injust man doth wrong and injury to himselfe The law quoth he followeth expresly to be the author or cause of transgression but to commit injustice is a transgression he therefore who causeth himselfe to doe injury transgresseth the law of himselfe Now be that trespasseth against any one doth him wrong and injurie he therefore who wrongeth any other whomsoever doth injure to himselfe Againe sinne is of the kinde of hurts and dammages that are done but every man that sinneth offendeth and sinneth against himselfe and therefore whosoever sinneth hurteth also and endamageth himselfe unwoorthily and if he doe so then by consequence he must needs wrong himselfe Furthermore thus also hee reasoneth Hee that suffereth hurt and dammage by another woundeth and offendeth himselfe withall unworthily and what is that else but to doe wrong and injury he therefore that receiveth injury of any other whatsoever wrongeth his owne selfe That the doctrine of good things and evill which himselfe bringeth in and approoveth he saith is most accordant unto mans life yea and connexed as much as any thing else with those prenotions and anticipations which by nature are inbred and ingenerate in us for so much hath he delivered in his third booke of Exhortations but in the first booke he affirmeth quite contrary that this doctrine doth divert and withdraw a man from all things else as if they were of no moment nor helpefull and effectuall any jot to the atteining of happinesse soveraigne felicity See how he accordeth herein with himselfe when he affirmeth that doctrine of his which plucketh us away from life from health from indolence and integrity of senses and teacheth besides that whatsoever we crave in our praiers at gods hands concerne us not at all nor
incumbred with grievous maladies but wee would gladly require and request of them if they will acknowledge their owne passions and accidents which they endure and not upon a vaine bravery of words to win a popular favour and applause of the people incurre the crime of insolent arrogance and be convict of leasing either not to admit the firme and strong constitution of the flesh for the element and principle of all joy or els not to beare us in hand and affirm that those who be fallen into painfull anguish and dolourous disease doe laugh disport and be wantonly merie for well it may be that the body and flesh may be many times in good plight and in firme disposition but that the hope should be assured and certeine that the same will so continue never yet could enter into a man of staied minde and sound judgement But like as in the sea according to the Poet Aeschylus The night alwaies even to a pilot wise Breeds woe for feare lest tempests should arise So doth a calme For why who knowes what will ensue and future time is ever uncertaine Impossible it is therefore that a soule which placeth and reposeth her fovereigne good in the sound disposition of the bodie and in the hope of continuance therein should hold long without feare and trouble for that the bodie is not onely subject to stormes and tempests without as the sea is but the greatest part of troublesome passions and those which are most violent she breedeth in herselfe and more reason there is for a man to hope for faire weather in Winter than to promise himselfe a constitution of bodie exempt from paine and harme to persever and remaine so long for what els hath given Poets occasion and induced them to call the life of man a day-flower unstable unconstant and uncerteine or to compare it unto the leaves of trees which put out in the Spring season fade and fall againe in Autumne but the imbecillitie and seeblenesse of the flesh subject to infinit infirmities casualties hurts and dangers the best plight whereof and highest point of perfection physicians themselves are wont to admonish us for to suspect feare diminish and take downe For according to the Aphorisme of Hippocrates The good constitution of a body when it is at the height is dangerous and slipperie and as Euripides the poet said verie well Whose body strong whose fast and brawny flesh Did shew erewhile a colour gate and fresh Soone gone he was and extinct so dainly As starre that seemes to shoot and fall from sky Nay that which more is a common received opinion it is that those persons who are most faire and in the flowre of their beautie if they be eie-bitten or looked wistly upon by a witching or envious eie sustaine much hurt and damage thereby because the perfection and highest degree of vigour in the bodie is most subject to a sudden alteration by reason of very weakenesse and frailtie and that there is small or no assurance at all that a man should leade his life without paine and sorrow may evidently appeere by that which they themselves doe saie unto others for they affirme That whosoever commit wickednesse and transgresse the lawes live all their daies in miserie and feare for howsoever they may perhaps live undetected yet impossible it is that they should promise themselves assured securitie never to be discovered insomuch as the doubt and feare of future punishment will not give them leave to take joy or assuredly to use the benefit of present impunitie in delivering these speeches to other they perceive not how they speake against themselves For semblably well it may be that oftentimes they may have their health and carrie able bodies about them but to be assured that they shall continue so alwaies or a long time is a thing that cannot be performed for needs they must evermore stand in doubt and distrust of their bodie for the time to come like as women great with child are ever gruntling and groning against the time of their travell otherwise let them say why they attend still a sure and confident hope of that which hetherto they never could attaine unto Moreover it is not sufficient to worke assured confidence for a man to forbeare sinne and wrong-doing or not at all to offend the lawes considering that to be afflicted justly and for desert is not the thing to be feared but simply to endure paine is fearefull and terrible For if it be a griefe and trouble to be touched and vexed with a mans owne sinnes and trespasses he cannot chuse but be molested and disquieted also with the enormities and transgressions of others And verily if the outragious violence and crueltie of Lachares was not more offensive and troublesome to the Athenians and likewise the tyrannie of Dionysius to the Syracusanes yet I am sure at leastwise it was full as much as to their owne selves for whiles they vexed them tormented they were and molested themselves and they looked to suffer punishment one time or other for their wrongs and outrages for that they offered the same before unto their citizens and subjects who fell into their hands What should a man alledge to this purpose the furious rage of the multitude the horrible and bloudie crueltie of theeves and rovers the mischievous pranks of proud and presumptuous inheritors plague and pestilence by contagion and corruption of the aire as also the fell outrage of the angry sea in a ghust whereof Epicurus himselfe writeth he had like to have beene swallowed up as he sailed to the citie Lampsacus It may suffice to relate in this place the nature onely of our body and fraile flesh which hath within it selfe the matter of all maladies cutting as we say merrily in the common proverb out of the verie ox leather thongs that is to say taking paines and torments from it selfe thereby to make life full of anguish fearefull and dangerous as well to good persons as to bad in case they have learned to rejoice and to found the confidence and surety of their joy upon nothing else but the flesh and the hope thereof according as Epicurus himselfe hath left written as in many other of his books so in those especially which hee entituled Of the sovereigne end of all good things We may therefore directly conclude that these men doe hold for the foundation of a joyfull pleasant life not a principle that is not onely unsteadie tottering and not to be trusted upon but also base vile and every way contemptible if so be that to avoid evils be their onely joy and the soveraigne felicitie that they seeke for and in case they say That they respect and regard naught else and in one word That nature hereselfe knoweth not where else to lodge and bestow the said happinesse but onely there from whence is chased and driven away that which might annoy and offend her and thus hath Metrodorus written in his treatise against
insomuch as eftsoones in disputation he would alluding to a verse in Homer cry out aloud in this maner Unhappy man thus for to doe Thine owne pure strength will worke thy woe as if he lay open and ministred great advantages and meanes against himselfe to those who went about for to infringe and calumniate his opinions But as touching those treatises and discourses which he hath put foorth and set out against ordinary custome his followers do so gloriously boast and joy that they give out if all the books of the Academiques that ever lived were laid together they deserved not to be compared with that which Chrysippus wrote in calumniation of the senses an evident signe either of their ignorance who say so or els of their owne blinde selfe-love Howbeit certeine it is that afterwards being desirous to defend custome and the senses he was found much inferior to himselfe and the latter treatise came farre short of the former and was nothing at all so pithy in such sort as he is contradictorie and repugnant to himselfe whiles he alwaies prescribeth and willeth to conferre and oppose contrary sentences not as one patronizing any but making an ostentation that they be false and afterwards sheweth himselfe to be a more vehement accuser than a defender of his owne proper sentences and counselling others to take heed of repugnant and contrary disputations as those which distract and impeach their perception himselfe is more studious and diligent to addresse such proofes as overthrow perception than those which are to establish and confirme the same and yet that he feared no lesse hee declareth plainly in the fourth booke of his lives where he writeth thus We are not rashly nor without good respect and advisement to admit and allow repugnant disputations and contrary opinions to be proposed nor to answere those probable arguments which are brought against true sentences but heerein we must warily goe to worke and cary our selves so as fearing 〈◊〉 lest the hearers being thereby distracted and diverted let goe this apprehension and conception and be not of sufficient capacity to comprehend their solutions but after such a feeble sort as that their comprehensions be ready to falter and shake considering that even they who customably comprehend sensible objects and other things which depend of senses quickly forgo the same being distracted as well by Megarian interrogatories as by others more forcible and in greater number Now would I gladly demand of these Stoicks whether they thinke these Megarian interrogatories more puissant than those which Chrysippus hath written in sixe bookes or rather Chrysippus himselfe would be asked the question For marke I pray you what he hath written of the Megarian disputation in his booke entituled The use of speech after this maner Such a thing as befell in the disputation betweene Stilpo and Menedemus both renowmed personages for their learning and wisedome and yet the whole maner of their arguing is now turned to their reproch and plain mockery as if their arguments were either very grosse or else too captious sophistical and yet good sir these arguments which it pleaseth you to scorne and tearme the reproach of those who make such interrogatories as containing in them notorious leawdnesse you feare lest they should divert any from perception And even your owne selfe 〈◊〉 so many books as you doe against custome whereunto you have adjoined whatsoever you could devise and invent labouring to surmount and surpasse Arcesilaus did you never expect and looke to scare and terrifie any of the readers that should light upon them For Chrysippus verily useth not onely slender and naked arguments in disputing against custome but as if he were an advocate pleading at the barre mooveth affections being passionate and affectionate himselfe breaking out eftsoones into these tearmes of giving the foole and imputing vanity and sottishnesse and to the end that he might leave no place for contradiction at all but that he delivereth repugnances and speaketh contraries thus hath he writen in his Positions naturall A man may very well when he hath once perfectly comprised a thing argue a little on the contrary side and apply that defence which the matter it selfe doth affoord yea and otherwhiles when he doth comprehend neither the one nor the other discourse of either of them pro contra as much as the cause will yeeld Also in that treatise of his concerning the use of speech after he had said we ought not to use the power and faculty of disputation no more than armes or weapons in things that tend to no purpose and when the case requireth it not he addeth soone after these words For we ought to imploy the gift of reason and speech to the finding out of trueth and such things as resemble it and not contrariwise howsoever many there be that are wont so to doe And peradventer by these Many he meaneth those Academicks who ever doubt and give no assent to any thing and they verily for that they comprehend neither the one nor the other doe argue on both parts to and fro that it is perceptible as if by this onely or especiall meanes the trueth yeelded a certeine comprehension of it selfe if there were nothing in the world comprehensible But you who accuse and blame them writing the contrary to that which you conceive as touching custome and exhorting others to doe the same and that with an affectionate defence doeplainly confesse that you use the force of speech and eloquence in things not onely unprofitable but also hurtfull upon a vaine ambtious humor of shewing your ready wit like to some yoong scholar These Stoicks affirme that a good deed is the commandement of the law and sin the prohibition of the law and therefore it is that the law forbiddeth fooles and leawd folke to doemany things but prescribeth them nothing for that indeed they are not able to doe ought well And who seeth not that impossible it is for him who can doe no vertuous act to keepe himselfe from sin and transgression Therefore they make the law repugnant to it selfe if it command that which to performe is impossible and forbid that which men are not able to avoid For he that is not able to live honestly cannot chuse but beare himselfe dishonestly and whosoever he be that cannot be wise must of necessity become a foole and even them selves doe holde that those lawes which are prohibitive say the same thing when they forbid one and command likewise another For that which saith thou shalt dot steale saith verily the same to wit Steale not but it forbiddeth withall to steale and therefore the law forbiddeth fooles and leawd persons nothing for otherwise it should command them somewhat And thus they say that the Physician biddeth his apprentise or Chyrurgian to cut or to cauterize without adding thereto these words handsomly moderatly and in good time The Musician likewise commandeth his scholar to sing or play upon the harpe a lesson without putting
tooles may be repaired if they be worne or new made if the first be gon but to recover a brother that is lost it is not possible no more than to make a new hand if one be cut away or to set in another eie in the place of that which is plucked out of the head and therefore well said that Persian ladie when shee chose rather to save the life of her brethren than of her children For children quoth shee I may have more but since my father and mother be both dead brother shall I never have But what is to be done will some man say in case one be matched with a bad brother First this we ought evermore to remember that in all sorts of amities there is to be found some badnesse and most true is that saying of Sophocles Who list to search throughout mankinde More bad than good is sure to finde No kinted there is no societie no fellowship no amitie and love that can be found sincere sound pure and cleare from all faults The Lacedaemonian who had married a wife of little stature We must quoth he of evils chuse ever the least even so in mine advice a man may very well and wisely give counsell unto brethren to beare rather with the most domesticall imperfections and the infirmities of their owne blood than to trie those of strangers for as the one is blamelesse because it is necessarie so the other is blame-worthy for that it is voluntarie for neither table-friend and fellow gamester nor play-fere of the same age ne yet hoast or guest Is bound with links of brasse by hand not wrought Which shame by kinde hath forg'd and cost us nought but rather that friend who is of the same blood who had his nourishment and bringing up with us begotten of one father and who lay in the same mothers wombe unto whom it seemeth that Vertue herselfe doth allow connivencie and pardon of some faults so as a man may say unto a brother when he doth a fault Witlesse starke naught yea wretched though thou be Yet can I not forsake and cast off thee lest that ere I be well aware I might seeme in my hatred towards thee for to punish sharpely cruelly and unnaturally in thy person some infirmitie or vice of mine owne father or mother instilled into thee by their seed As for strangers and such as are not of our bloud we ought not to love first and afterwards make triall and judgement of them but first we must trie and then trust and love them afterwards whereas contrariwise nature hath not given unto proofe and experience the precedence and prerogative to go before love neither doth she expect according to that cōmon proverbe That a man should eate a bushell or two of salt with one whom he minded to love and make his friend but even from our nativitie hath bred in us and with us the very principle and cause of amitie in which regard we ought not to be bitter unto such nor to search too neerely into their faults and infirmities But what will you say now if contrariwise some there be who if meere aliens and strangers otherwise yet if they take a foolish love and liking unto them either at the taverne or at some game and pastime or fall acquainted with them at the wrestling or fensing schoole can be content to winke at their faults be ready to excuse and justifie them yea and take delight and pleasure therein but if their brethren do amisse they be exceeding rigorous unto them and inexorable nay you shall have many such who can abide to love churlish dogs skittish horses yea and finde in their hearts to feed and make much of fell ounces shrewd cats curst unhappie apes and terrible lions but they cannot endure the hastie and cholericke humor the error and ignorance or some little ambitious humor of a brother Others againe there be who unto their concubines and harlots will not sticke to assigne over and passe away goodly houses and faire lands lying thereto but with their brethren they will wrangle and go to law nay they will be ready to enter the lists and combat for a plot of ground whereupon a house standeth about some corner of a messuage or end of a little tenement and afterwards attributing unto this their hatred of brethren the colourable name of hating sinne and wickednesse they go up downe cursing detesting and reproching them fortheir vices whiles in others they are never offended nor discontented therewith but are willing enough daily to frequent and haunt their company Thus much in generall tearmes by way of preamble or proaeme of this whole treatise It remaineth now that I should enter into the doctrine and instructions thereto belonging wherein I will not begin as other have done at the partition of their heritage or patrimonie but at the naughtie emulation hart burning and jealousie which ariseth betweene them during the life of their parents Agesilaus king of Lacedaemon was wont alwaies to send as a present unto each one of the auncients of the citie ever as they were created Senatours a good oxe in testimony that he honored their vertue at length the lords called Ephori who were the censurers overseers of each mans behavior cōdemned him for this in a fine to be paid unto the State subscribling and adding a reason withall for that by these gifts and largesses he went about to steale away their hearts and favors to himselfe alone which ought indifferently to regard the whole body of the city even so a man may do well to give this counsell unto a sonne in such wise to respect honour his father and mother that hee seeke not thereby to gaine their whole love nor seeme to turne away their favour and affection from other children wholy unto himselfe by which practise many doe prevent undermine and supplant their brethren and thus under a colourable and honest pretense in shew but in deed unjust and unequall cloke and cover their avarice and covetous desire for after a cautelous and subtill maner they insinuate themselves and get betweene them and home and so defraud and cousen them ungentlemanly of their parents love which is the greatest and fairest portion of their inheritance who espying their time and taking the opportunitie and vantage when their brethren be otherwise employed and least doubt of their practises then they bestir them most and shew themselves in best order obsequious double-diligent sober and modest and namely in such things as their other brethren do either faile or seeme to be slacke and forgetfull But brethren ought to do cleane contrarie for if they perceive their father to be angrie and displeased with one of them they should interpose themselves and undergo some part of the heavie load they ought to case their brother and by bearing a part helpe to make the burden lighter then I say must they by their service and ministerie gratifie their brother
honest persons never respecting whether they be poore strangers and banished or no Do we not see that all the world doth honor and reverence the temple of Theseus aswell as Parthenon and Eleusinium temples dedicated to Minerva Ceres and Proserpina and yet was Theseus banished from Athens even that Theseus by whose meanes the same citie was first peopled and is at this day inhabited and that citie lost he which he held not from another but founded first himselfe As for Eleusis what beautie at all would remaine in it if we dishonor Eumolpus and be ashamed of him who remooving out of Thracia instituted at first among the Greeks the religion of sacred mysteries which continueth in force and is observed at this day what shall we say of Codrus who became king of Athens whose sonne I pray you was he was not Melanthius his father a banished man from Messina Can you chuse but commend the answere of Antisthenes to one who said unto him Thy mother is a Phrygian So was quoth he the mother of the gods why answer you not likewise when you are reproched with your banishment even so was the father of that victorious conqueror Hercules the grand-fire likewise of Bacchus who being sent out for to seeke lady Europa never returned backe into his native countrie For being a Phaenician borne At Thebes he after did arrive Far from his native soile beforne And there begat a sonne belive Who Bacchus did engender tho That mooves to furie women hight Mad Bacchus runneth to and fro In service such is his delight As for that which the Poet Aeschylus would seeme covertly by these darke words to insinuate or rather to shew a farre off when he saith thus And chaste Apollo sacred though be were Yet banished a time heaven did for be are I am content to passe over in silence and will forbeare to utter according as Herodotus saith and whereas Empedocles in the very beginning of his philosophie maketh this praeface An auncient law there stands in force decreed by gods above Groundedupon necessitie and never to remoove That after men hath 〈◊〉 hands in bloudshed horrible And in remorse of sinne is vext with horrour terrible The long liv'd angels whith attend in heaven shall chase him quite For many thousand yeeres from view of every blessed wight By vertue of this law am I from gods exiled now And wander heere and there throughone the world I know not how This he meaneth not of himselfe alone but of all us after him whom he declareth and sheweth by these words to be meere strangers passengers forreiners and banished persons in this world For it is not bloud quoth he ô men nor vitall spirit contemperate together that hath given unto us the substance of our soule and beginning of our life but hereof is the bodie only composed and framed which is earthly and mortall but the generation of the soule which commeth another way and descendeth hither into these parts beneath he doth mitigate and seeme to disguise by the most gentle and milde name that hee could devise calling it a kinde of pilgrimage from the naturall place but to use the right tearme indeed and to speake according to the very truth she doth vague and wander as banished chased and driven by the divine lawes and statutes to and fro untill such time as it setleth to a bodie as an oister or shell fish to one rocke or other in an island beaten and dashed upon with many windes and waves of the sea round about as Plato saith for that it doth not remember nor call to mind from what height of honor from how blessed an estate it is translated not changing as a man would say Sardis for Athens nor Corinth for Lemnos or Scyros but her resiance in the very heaven and about the moone with the abode upon earth and with a terrestriall life whereas it thinketh it strange and as much discontented heere for that it hath made exchange of one place for another not farre distant much like unto a poore plant that by remooving doth degenerate and begin to wither away and yet we see that for certaine plants some soile is more commodious and sortable than another wherein they will like thrive and prosper better whereas contrariwise there is no place that taketh from a man his felicitie no more than it doth his vertue fortitude or wisedome for Anaxagoras during the time that he was in prison wrote his Quadrature of the circle and Socrates even when he drunke poison discoursed as a philosopher exhorting his friends and familiars to the studie of philosophie and was by them reputed happie but contrariwise Phaeton and Icarus who as the poets do report would needs mount up into heaven through their owne folly and inconsiderate rashnes fell into most greevous and wofull calamities THAT WE OVGHT NOT TO TAKE UP MONEY UPON VSVRIE The Summarie THe covetous desire of earthly goods is a passion inturable but especially after that it hath gotten the masterie of the souse in such sort as the advertisements which are made in regard of covetous men be not proposed for any thing els but for the profit and benefit of those persons who are to keepe themselves from the nets and snares of these enemies of humane societie Now among all those who haveneed of good counsels in this behalfe we must range them that take up money upon interest who serving as a pray and bootie to these greedie and hungry hunters aught so much the rather to looke unto their owne preservation if they would not be cruelly devoured And as this infortunitie hath bene in the world ever since the entrie of sinne that alwates some or other yea and great numbers have endevoured to make their commoditie and gaine by the losse and dammage of their neighbours so we may see heere that in Plutarchs time things were growen to a woonderfull confusion the which is nothing diminished since but contrariwise it seemeth that in these our daies it is come to the very height And for to applie some remedie heereto our authour leavethusurers altogether as persons gracelesse reprobate and ancapable of all remon strance addressing himselfe unto borrowers to the end that he might discover and lay open unto them the snares and nets into which they plunge themselves and this he doth without specifying or particularising over neere of usurie because there is no meane or measure limited nor any end of this furious desire of gathering and heaping up things corruptible Considering then that covetous folke have neither nerve nor veine that reacheth or tendeth to the pittie of their neighbours meet it is and good reason that borrowers should have some mercie and compassion of themselves to weigh and ponder well the grave discourses of this authour and to applie the same unto the right use He saith therefore that the principall meanes to keepe and save themselves from the teeth of usurie is to make the best of their owne and
the world whereby all things are governed How is it possible then that these two positions should subsist together namely that God is in no wise the cause of any dishonest thing and that there is nothing in the world be it never so little that is done but by common nature and according to the reason thereof For surely among all those things that are done necessarily there must be things dishonest and yet Epicurus turneth and windeth himselfe on every side imagining and devising all the subtill shifts that he can to unloose set free and deliver our voluntary free will from this motion eternall because he would not leave vice excuseable without just reprehension whereas in the meane while he openeth a wide window unto it and giveth it libertie to plead That committed it is not onely by the necessitie of destiny but also by the reason of God and according to the best nature that is And thus much also moreover is to be seene written word forword For considering that common nature reacheth unto al causes it cannot otherwise be but all that is done howsoever and in what part soever of the world must be according to this common nature and the reason thereof by a certeine stint of consequence without impeachment for that there is nothing without that can impeach the administration thereof neither mooveth any part or is disposed in habitude otherwise than according to that common nature But what habitudes and motions of the parts are these Certeine it is that the habitudes be the vices and maladies of the minds as covetousnesse lecherie ambition cowardise and injustice as for the motions they be the acts proceeding from thence as adulteries thefts treasons manslaughters murders and parricides Chrysippus now is of opinion That none of all these be they little or great is done without the reason of Jupiter or against law justice and providence insomuch as to breake law is not against law to wrong another is not against justice nor to commit sinne against providence And yet he affirmeth that God punisheth vice and doth many things for the punishment of the wicked As for example in the second booke of the gods Otherwhiles there happen quoth he unto good men grievous calamities not by way of punishment as to the wicked but by another kinde of oeconomy and disposition like as it falleth out usually unto cities Againe in these words First we are to understand evill things and calamities as we have said heeretofore then to thinke that distributed they are according to the reason and dispose of Jupiter either by way of punishment or else by some other oeconomie of the whole world Now surely this is a doctrine hard to bee digested namely that vice being wrought by the disposition and reason of God is also punished thereby howbeit this contradiction he doeth still aggravate and extend in the second booke of Nature writing thus But vice in regard of grievous accidents hath a certeine peculiar reason by it selfe for after a sort it is committed by the common reason of nature and as I may so say not unprofitably in respect of the universall world for otherwise than so there were no good things at all and then proceeding to reproove those who dispute pro contra and discourse indifferently on both parts he I meane who upon an ardent desire tobroch alwaies and in every matter some novelties exquisite singularities above all other saith It is not unprofitable to cut purses to play the sycophants or commit loose dissolute and mad parts no more than it is incommodious that there should be unprofitable members hurtfull and wretched persons which if it be so what maner of god is Jupiter I meane him of whom Chrysippus speaketh in case I say he punish a thing which neither commeth of it selfe nor unprofitably for vice according to the reason of Chrysippus were altogether irreprehensible and Jupiter to be blamed if either he caused vice as a thing unprofitable or punished it when he had made it not unprofitably Moreover in the first booke of Justice speaking of the gods that they oppose themselves against the iniquities of some But wholly quoth he to cut off all vice is neither possible nor expedient is it if it were possible to take away all injustice all transgression of lawes and all folly But how true this is it perteineth not to this present treatise for to enquire and discourse But himselfe taking away and rooting up all vice as much as lay in him by the meanes of philosophy which to extirpe was neither good nor expedient doeth heerein that which is repugnant both to reason and also to God Furthermore in saying that there be certeine sinnes and iniquities against which the gods doe oppose themselves he giveth covertly to understand that there is some oddes and inequality in sinnes Over and besides having written in many places that there is nothing in the world to be blamed nor that can be complained of for that all things are made and finished by a most singular and excellent nature there be contrariwise sundry places wherein hee leaveth and alloweth unto us certeine negligences reprooveable and those not in small and trifling matters That this is true it may appeere in his third book of Substance where having made mention that such like negligences might befal unto good honest men Commeth this to passe quoth he because there be some things where of there is no reckoning made like as in great houses there must needs be scattered and lost by the way some bran yea and some few graines of wheat although in generality the whole besides is well enough ruled and governed or is it because there be some evill and malignant spirits as superintendents over such things wherein certeinly such negligences are committted the same reprehensible and he saith moreover that there is much necessitie intermingled among But I meane not hereupon to stand nor to discourse at large but to let passe what vanity there was in him to compare the accidents which befell to some good and vertuous persons as for example the condemnation of Socrates the burning of Pythagoras quicke by the Cylonians the dolorous torments that Zeno endured under the tyrant Demylus or those which Antiphon suffred at the hands of Dionysius when they were by them put to death unto the brans that be spilt and lost in great mens houses But that there should bee such wicked spirits deputed by the divine providence to have the charge of such things must needs redound to the great reproach of God as if he were some unwise king who committed the government of his provinces unto evill captaines and rash headed lieutenants suffering them to abuse and wrong his best affected subjects and winking at their rechlesse negligence having no care or regard at all of them Againe if it be so that there is much necessity and constraint mingled among the affaires of this world then is not God the
as if they thought to hide themselves within the bodies of the blacke storkes called Ibides of dogges and haukes passeth all the monstrous woonders and fixions of tales that can be devised Likewise to hold that the soules of those who are departed so many as remaine still in being are regenerate againe onely in the bodies of these beasts is as absurd and incredible as the other And as for those who will seeme to render a civill and politicke reason heereof some give out that Osiris in a great expedition or voiage of his having divided his armie into many parts such as in Greeke are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say bands and companies he gave unto every of them for their severall ensignes the portractures and images of beasts and each band afterwards honored their owne had in reverence as some holy and sacred thing Others affirme that the kings who succeeded after Osiris for to terrify their enimies went forth to battell carying before them the heads of such beasts made in gold and silver vpon their armes Some there be againe who alledge that there was one of these their subtile and fine headed kings who knowing that the Aegyptians of their owne nature were lightly disposed ready to revolt and given to change and innovations also that by reason of their great multitude their power was hardly to be restrained and in maner invincible in case they joined together in counsell and drew jointly in one common line therefore he sowed among them a perpetuall superstition which gave occasion of dissention and enmity among them that never could be appeased For when he had given commandement unto them for to have in reverence those beasts which naturally disagreed and warred together even such as were ready to eat and devour one another whiles every one endevored alwaies to succor and maintaine their owne and were moved to anger if any wrong or displeasure were done to those which they affected they sell together themselves by the eares ere they were aware and killed one another for the enmity and quarell which was betweene those beasts whom they adored and so fostered mutuall and mortall hatred For even at this day of all the Aegyptians the Lycopolitans onely eat 〈◊〉 because the wolfe whom they adore as a god is enimy unto sheepe And verily in this our age the Oxyrinchites because the Cynopolites that is to say the inhabitants of the city Cynopolis eat the fish named Oxyrinchos that is to say with the sharpe becke whensoever they can entrap or catch a dogge make no more adoe but kill him for a sacrifice and eat him when they have done Vpon which occasion having levied warre one against the other and done much mischiefe reciprocally after they had beene well chastised and plagued by the Romans they grew to attonement and composition And for as much as many of them doe say that the soule of Typhon departed into these beasts it seemeth that this fiction importeth thus much that every brutish and beastly nature commeth and proceedeth from some evill daemon and therefore to pacific him that he doe no mischiefe they worship and adore these beasts And if paradventure there happen any great drowght or contagious heat which causeth pestilent maladies or other unusuall and extraordinary calamities the priests bring forth some of those beasts which they serve and honor in the darke night without any noise in great silence menasing them at the first and putting them in fright Now if the plague or calamity continue still they kill and sacrifice them thinking this to be a punishment and chastisement of the said evill daemon or else some great expiation for notable sinnes and transgressions For in the city verily of Idithya as Manethos maketh report the maner is to burne men alive whom they called Typhony whose ashes when they had boulted through a tamise they scattered abroad untill they were reduced to nothing But this was done openly at a certaine time in those daies which are called Cynades or Canicular Mary the immolation of these beasts which they accounted sacred was performed secretly and not at a certaine time or upon perfixed daies but according to the occurrences of those accidents which happned And therefore the common people neither knew nor saw ought but when they solemnize their obsequies and funerals for them in the presence of all the people they shew some of the other beasts and throw them together into the sepulcher supposing thereby to vex and gall Typhon and to represse the joy that he hath in doing mischiefe For it seemeth that Apis with some other few beasts was consecrated to Osiris howsoever they attribute many more unto him And if this be true I suppose it importeth that which we seeke and search all this while as touching those which are confessed by all and have common honors as the foresaid stroke Ibis the hauke and the Babian or Cynecephalus yea and Apis himselfe for so they call the goat in the city Mendes Now their remaineth the utility and symbolization heereof considering that some participate of the one but the most part of both For as touching the goat the sheepe and the Ichneumon certaine it is they honor them for the use and profit they receive by them like as the inhabitants of Lemnos honor the birds called Corydali because they finde out the locusts nests and quash their egges The Thessalians also have the storkes in great account because whereas their country is given to breed a number of serpents the said storks when they come kill them up all By reason whereof they made an edict with an intimation that whosoever killed a storke should be banished his country The serpent Aspis also the wezill and the flie called the bettill they reverence because they observe in them I wot not what little slender images like as in drops of water we perceive the resemblance of the Sunne of the divine power For many there be even yet who both thinke and say that the male wezill engendreth with the female by her care and that she bringeth forth her yoong at the mouth which symbolizeth as they say and representeth the making and generation of speech As for the beetils they hold that throughout all their kinde there is no female but all the males doe blow or cast their seed into a certaine globus or round matter in forme of bals which they drive from them and roll to and fro contrary waies like as the Sunne when he moveth himselfe from the west to the east seemeth to turne about the heaven cleane contrary The Aspis also they compare to the planet of the Sunne because he doth never age and wax old but mooveth in all facility readinesse and celerity without the meanes of any instruments of motion Neither is the crocodile set so much by among them without some probable cause For they say that in some respect he is the very