bore it with so great Courage and Patience that he said to the Tyrant Beat on beat on the Back of Anaxarchus thou canst not hurt him The Tyrant said he would pluck out his Tongue he hearing that presently bit it off and spit it in the Tyrant's Face Free Man to discover some Persons who had conspired against his Life the Man bit off his own Tongue and spit it in his Face swelling and bloated with Rage so by his Wisdom disappointing the Tyrant and making those Torments which his Cruelty had designed Matter of Triumph to his Heroick Courage To go further what is it that any Man may do to another which another may not do again to him We are told that it was the Custom of (x) Busiris He was the Son of Neptune by Lydia the Daughter of Epaphus and a most cruel Tyrant of the Egyptians He sacrificed his Guests to Jupiter not sparing the Priest from whom he had received the Counsel to do it but whilst he prepared to give the same Treatment to Hercules he was with Amphidama his Son and his Ministers and Officers killed by Hercules at the Altar Quis aut Eurystea durum Aut illaudati nescit Busiridis aras Virg. Georg. l. 3. Busiris to kill his Guests and himself at last was killed by Hercules his Guest (y) Regulus He was Consul and having vanquished the Salentini who inhabited that Country near the Apennine Mountains which is now called Parte dela Terra d' Otranto he triumphed at Rome and was the first of the Roman Generals who conducted a Fleet into Africa and being himself taken by the Carthaginians whom he had conquered he was put to Death by them by cutting off his Eye-lids Regulus after a Victory put many of the Carthaginians into Chains but himself soon after was forced to yield to their Fetters Dost thou therefore think that the Power of that Man ought to be magnified who cannot hinder another from committing that upon him which he lately committed upon another Consider too that if there were any thing of proper or natural Good in these Dignities and Powers they would never be attained by wicked Men for disagreeing things do not use to unite and Nature forbids that contrary things should join So that seeing wicked Men do often execute Offices of Dignity and Trust it appears that they are not good in themselves because they can reside in such Subjects The same may also be most justly said of all the Gifts of Fortune which are most commonly shewed in greatest Plenty upon the worst of Men. It ought also to be considered that no Man doubteth him to be valiant in whom he hath seen the Vertue of Fortitude shine nor him to be swift of foot in whom he hath seen Swiftness So Musick maketh a a Musician the Science of Physick a Physician and Rhetorick a Rhetorician The Nature of every thing acts properly according to its End nor is mix'd with foreign Effects of differing Beings but of its own Accord repels what is contrariant to it or may be destructive of it Riches cannot extinguish the unquenchable Thirst of Avarice nor can Power give him Command of himself who is already the Slave of his Vices and bound in the insoluble Chains of his Lusts So Dignities conferr'd upon ill Men do not only not make them worthy but rather shew their Unworthiness by laying them open and discovering their Shame But how comes this to pass you are pleased to impose upon things false Names and differing from their Natures which are often laid open and appear by the Effects of those very things so that even these Riches and this Power and that Dignity ought not of right to be called by those Names And lastly the same thing may be said of all the Gifts of Fortune in which it is manifest that nothing is desirable nor is there any thing of native Good in them since they are not always the Lot of good Men nor make them good to whom they are allotted METRUM VI. Novimus quantas dederit ruinas Urbe flammatâ patribusque caecis c. We know what Ruine (z) Nero. He governed the Roman Empire about the Year of Christ 57. So long as he used the Advice of his Master Seneca he governed well but he being removed he fell into a Course of all Wickedness and Impiety and became a great Example of Infamy Luxury Avarice and Cruelty First he appeared upon the Theatre not only as an Actor but as an Harper Next he would wear no Habit twice he would never travel without a thousand Carriages and all the Shoes of his Mules were of Silver He fished always with a Golden Net and with purple and scarlet Cords He gaping after all Mens Goods did only desire to appear rich Lastly having ordered Rome to be burnt he laid it to the Charge of the Christians and put to Death the Chief of them Peter and Paul the Apostles as also Seneca his Master Antonia his Aunt and Britannicus his Brother Octavia his Wife Agrippina his Mother and at last he killed himself Vid. Sueton. l. 6. Nero's Rage did cause When he (a) Burnt Rome He did not burn the whole City only a Part of it where the worst Buildings were which he did for a Jest that he might by it represent the Siege of Troy Sueton. l. 6. burnt Rome triumph'd o'r its Laws When all the (b) The Conscript Fathers A blazing Star saith Suetonius which is thought to portend Destruction to Governments and Potentates began now for several Nights to appear Nero being troubled at this consulted Babylus an Astrologer he answered that Princes were wont to expiate these kind of Portents by some illustrious Slaughter and to avert their Effects from themselves by throwing them upon the Heads of their Ministers and the Magistrates upon which Advice he sentenced all the Nobility and Senators to Death Conscript Fathers he did kill When yet his (c) His Brother Britannicus who was the Son of Claudius by Messalina as he himself was by Agrippina he poisoned him Brother's Blood which he did spill Was warm his (d) His Mother Agrippina was Daughter to Germanicus Sister to Caligula Wife first of Domitianus afterwards of Claudius whom she poisoned that she might make Nero her Son who rewarded her with Death Possessor of the Empire When she was dead he went to view her Body made Observations of all the Parts of it and some he praised some he dispraised Adduntur praedictis atrociora saith Suetonius nec incertis autoribus Neronem ad visendum interfectae matris cadaver accurrisse contrectâsse membra alia vituperâsse sitique interim obortâ bibisse Mother a sad Victim fell Then whilst the Body cold and breathless lay Without a Tear the Tyrant did survey Its Parts each Fault each Beauty did espy These he did praise and these he did decry This Monster yet to all those (e) All those Lands He governed the Roman Empire which
because the rest are not sought after but because they seem to bring Joyfulness and Pleasure to the Mind Voluptuous Men are from him usually called Epicures Epicurus and consequently he did declare that Happiness consisted in that alone because he imagined that other things did withdraw Joy and Chearfulness from the Heart and Spirits But I return to the Studies and Inclinations of Men whose Minds are always bent upon the chief Good and are ever seeking after it though it seemeth to be as with a darkned Understanding and like a drunken Man reeling about and not knowing which Path to take which may lead him home Do they let me ask thee seem to wander who endeavour to put themselves into a Condition of wanting nothing Certainly there is no State doth so much afford Happiness as that of having Plenty and Affluence of all good things of being out of need of being beholden to another but having sufficient for one's self Or are they guilty of Folly who think that what is the best doth deserve Esteem and Reverence Certainly no for that thing is surely not vile and contemptible which all Men with so much Intention labour after Is not Power to be numbred amongst Goods why not for is that to be esteemed feeble and without Strength which is apparently better than all other things Is Renown not to be regarded but it cannot be denied but that whatever is most excellent seemeth also to be most renowned For to what purpose shall we say that Happiness is not an anxious and melancholy thing nor subject to Grief and Trouble since even in the least things Men seek for what may delight and please them These are the things which Men desire to obtain and possess and for this Cause do they labour after Riches Dignities Commands Glory and Pleasure that they may have Sufficiences and Abundance within themselves that so they may arrive at Esteem Power and Fame It must therefore be a Good of which all are in quest by so divers Ways and different Studies And from hence it may easily appear how great the Power and Force of Nature is since notwithstanding that all Men differ very much in their Opinions of Good yet they All agree in the choice of the End of it METRUM II. Quantas rerum flectat habenas Natura potens c. I 'll take my Harp and touch each warbling String And I her Bard will sing Of Nature's powerful Hand Which doth with Reins the Vniverse command My Song shall comprehend each Law By which she doth all Beings bind and awe I 'll read her mighty (d) Pandects I stile the Book of Nature so here because the Etymology of Pandectae is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omne and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capio as containing all sorts of Learning and Things But properly the Volumes or Body of the Civil Law called Digests gathered and compiled from 37 Civilians were called Pandectae Pandects o'r My Eye into each Page shall look Of the (e) Elephantine Libri Elephantini were the Books wherein the Orders and Decrees of the Senate of Rome were written They were called so from the Largeness of them Elephantine Book And I her choicest Secrets will explore Although the (f) Punick African or of Africk and particularly of that Part of it near Carthage Punick Lion should forget Himself and to a servile Chain submit Though the same Hand which gave him Meat Presumes the noble Beast to beat Although he meanly then looks low And seems to dread his haughty Keepers Brow Yet if the Blood his Face o'r-spread Which that imperious Blow did shed His waken'd Courage doth arise And he remembers that by Right he is The powerful Monarch of the Lawns Wood Asham'd of his base Fears he loud doth cry His Plaints invade the Sky He breaks his Chain and meets his Liberty And his presuming Keeper shall A bloody Victim to his Fury fall When (g) Philomel The Text is quae canit altis garrula ramis Ales I have rendred by Philomel because she partakes of the common Nature of all of her kind The Story of Philomela Daughter of Pandion King of Athens and the Fiction upon it by the Poets is so well known that I need not insert it at length here She was ravished by Tereus King of Thrace who married her Sister Progne He cut out her Tongue that she might not discover the Rape but she wrought the whole Story in Embroidery and sent it to her Sister out of Prison Now at the Feast of Bacchus they were all met together Progne therefore took her Sister out of Prison and made her kill her Son Itys and dress him and serve him up at Table to Tereus who being enraged would have killed them but pursuing his Wife she was metamorphosed into a Swallow Tereus into a Lapwing Itys into a Pheasant and Philomel into a Nightingal who with warbling Notes is still feigned to lament the Misfortunes of her Family Ovid. Metam lib. 6. ver 510. Philomel which from the Wood The sleeping Sun was wont to serenade Into her Prison is betray'd Although she have the choicest Food Which Man can for his Taste invent Yet that will not prevent But if she from the Prison view the Shade Of that delightful Grove Where she had often mourn'd her Tragick Love The Meats prepar'd she doth despise Charm'd with the Woods which entertain her Thoughts and Eyes She nothing but the Woods affects And to their Praise her choicest Notes directs The Sapling forc'd by a strong Hand His tender Top doth downward bend But if that Hand doth it remit It strait towards Heaven again lifts up its Head The Sun in the (h) Hesperian Philosophy takes this Argument from the Sun whom the Poets fable to hide himself in the Sea when he sets that by so doing having purged and washed off the Filth and Dust which he hath contracted in his Course in the Day time he might in the Morning appear more pure and splendid The Hesperian Sea is denominated from that Star which appeareth first to us after the setting of the Sun Hesperian Main At Night his Royal Bed doth make But by (i) Secret Path. Because the way by which the Sun returns from the Western to the Eastern Part of Heaven is wholly unknown for all Countries have those other Countries placed on the part of the Globe contrary to them for Antipodes the Sun not appearing to them at the same time a secret Path again His wonted Journey towards the East doth take All things regard their Origine And gladly thither would retreat To nothing certain Order doth remain But that which makes the End to meet With its Beginning and a Round to be Fix'd on the Basis of Stability PROSA III. AND you O Men whose Thoughts are so employed upon things below that I may fitly call you earthly Animals do think ever of your Beginning though it be but with a dreaming and
Fountain and Source The Law and the wise Judg of Equity Those things to which he did a Motion give He stops and thus being mov'd he doth confirm For if their direct Motions he did not Revoke and forc'd them in a Round to move Those things which now by Order do endure Would straight from their Beginning fall and soon Would into nothing be resolv'd This Love to every thing is common then And all things do propose Good as their End For otherwise they could not last unless By Love's kind Circulation they revert To that first Cause which gave them Being God PROSA VII Phil. DOST thou not see now what follows from all the things which I have spoken Bo. What is the Consequence Ph. That all Fortune is good Bo. And how I prithee can that be Ph. Observe then that since all Fortune is either prosperous or adverse it is given either to reward or exercise the Good or to punish or correct the Bad and all Fortune is good which appears to be either just or profitable Bo. The Reason is most true and if I consider the Doctrine either of Providence or Fate which a little before thou taughtest me thy Opinion is founded upon a firm Ground But let us range it if thou pleasest amongst those Positions which a little before thou saidst were not commonly believed by the People Ph. Why so Bo. Because it is the common and frequent Phrase of Men that the Fortune of such an one is bad Ph. Wilt thou then that I shall for a while draw nearer to the Peoples way of Discourse lest we should seem too much to have receded from the Usages of Mankind Bo. As thou pleasest Ph. Thinkest thou not then that every thing which is profitable is good Bo. Yes surely Ph. But whatsoever doth either exercise or correct is profitable Bo. I confess it Ph. Therefore 't is good Bo. Why should it not Ph. But this is the Fortune of them who are either fixed in Vertue and wage a constant War against Adversity or of those who abandoning Vice take the way of Vertue Bo. I cannot deny it Ph. But what sayst thou of that pleasant Fortune which is given as a Reward to good Men do the Many conceive it to be ill Bo. Certainly no but rather they believe it to be very good as it is indeed Ph. But what sayst thou of that other which although it be sharp and inflicts just Punishment upon the Wicked do Men take it to be good Bo. No sure but rather the most wretched and tormenting thing that can be thought upon Ph. Behold then and mark well if we following the Opinion of the People have not concluded something which is very contrary to the common Opinion Bo. What is that Ph. It followeth clearly to the things before granted that whatsoever the Fortune of all those who are either in possession of or growing in Vertue or otherwise in search after her may be it is good but that the Fortune of those who live in Impiety and Sin must be the worst of any thing Bo. That is true although no one dare confess it Ph. Why so for the wise Man ought not to be cast down when he is brought into the Field to wage War with Fortune no more than the valiant Man ought to be dismayed when he hears the Trumpet sound to Battel For Difficulty and Hardship giveth the Occasion to one that he may encrease and propagate his Glory and to the other that he may confirm and improve his Wisdom From hence is Vertue denominated because leaning upon its own Strength and confiding in its proper Force it is not to be overcome by Adversity Nor thou who art so far advanced in the Course of Vertue art not to be carried away by Delights and to wallow in Lust thou must engage valiantly and fiercely against every Fortune And lest Adversity should oppress thee or Prosperity corrupt thee possess thy self of the Golden Mean and retain it with all thy Strength For whatsoever is below or goeth beyond that implies a Contempt of true Happiness and loseth the Reward of its Labour It lieth in thy own Hand to choose what Fortune thou likest for all Fortune which seemeth sharp and grievous unless it exercise the Vertues of the Good or chastise the Impiety of the Wicked is a Punishment METRUM VII Bella bis quinis operatus annis Ultor Atreides Phrygiae ruinis Fratris amissos thalamos piavit c. By ten Years bloody War and (Å¿) Phrygia It is a Region of the Lesser Asia situated towards the West according to Ptolomy and Strabo Phrygia's Fate (t) Atreides Agamemnon Paris the Son of Priam King of Troy having equipped a Fleet went into Greece to visit Menelaus King of Sparta and against the Laws of Hospitality stole away his Wife which Agamemnon the Son of Atreus and Brother of the aforesaid Menelaus very much resenting he did call together the Grecian Chieftains and sailing into Phrygia besieged Troy and having taken it after a Siege of ten Years destroyed it with Fire and Sword The same Agamemnon when he was going upon this Expedition when he arrived at Aulis a Port of Boeotia and had made a Review of his Army did ignorantly kill an Hart which had been consecrated to Diana with which the Goddess being offended did send a Pestilence and suppressed the Winds so that he laid Wind-bound in the Haven He consulted in this Exigence the Oracle which gave for Answer that the Gods would not be appeased till he had sacrificed Iphigenia his Daughter Agamemnon obeyed and himself performed the Office of the Priest by sacrificing his Daughter so that after many Labours and Perils he accomplished his Enterprize Hence Virgil. Aeneid lib. 2. Saepe fugam Danai Troja cupiere relictâ Moliri longo fessi discedere bello Fecissentque utinam saepe illos aspera Ponti Interclusit byems terruit Auster â—…untes Praecipuè cum jam hic trabibus contextus acernis Staret equus toto fonuerunt aethere nimbi Suspensi Eurypylum scitatum Oracula Phoebi Mittimus isque adytis haec tristia dicta reportat Sanguine placastis ventos virgine caesâ Cum primum Iliacas Danai venistis ad oras c. Atreides did revenge and expiate His Brother's Loss Whilst his unquiet Mind Press'd him to sail with Blood he buys a Wind For the Argolick Fleet he puts off all Compassion and vows his Daughter shall A Victim to the injur'd Goddess fall The wise Ulysses did with Tears lament His slaughtered Friends whom (u) Polyphemus Feigned to be one of the Cyclops and the Son of Neptune a huge Giant who had but one Eye and that feigned to be in his Forehead He took Vlysses and four of his Company and kept them in his Den he devoured his Companions but Vlysses having a Bottle of strong Wine he gave it to him to drink which cast him into a deep Sleep so that Vlysses with his Staff
put out his Eye and made his Escape Polyphemus Devour'd by him down to the Shades but he sent Appeas'd their Manes putting out the Eye Of that great Monster whilst he in his Den Did lie at Ease buried in Sleep and Wine His many Labours consecrate to Fame The Great (w) Alcides Philosophy proveth by the Example of Hercules that Heaven and Immortality are not to be attained to but by the undergoing of many afflicting Labours upon Earth He was feigned to be the Son of Jupiter and Alcmena and therefore hated by Juno who exercised him still with new Toils and Adventures Alcides and his mighty Name The (x) The Centaurs This was the first Labour of Hercules The Centaurs were People of Thessaly inhabiting the Country joining upon the Mountain Pelion who first attempted to make Horses tame and to fight upon them For this Reason they were looked upon by their Neighbours to be Monsters and to have the Parts both of Men and Horses Hercules setting upon these People overcame and slew many of them Centaurs and the (y) The Lion In the Nemaean Wood which was a wild Part of the Country of Achaia there was a Lion of an extraordinary Greatness which was invulnerable by any Weapon made either of Iron or Brass but Hercules attacking him kill'd him with his Hands and clothed himself with his Skin This was his second Labour Lion he o'rethrew And took the Spoil he the foul (z) The Harpies They were feigned to be Birds of so great Dimension hovering always about a Town called Stymphalus in Arcadia that they darkned the Sun and so ravenous that they spoiled the whole Country about Hercules is said to have invented a Timbrel or sounding Instrument of Brass and to have driven them all away which was his third Labour Vncisque timendae Vnguibus Arcadiae volucres Stymphâla colentes Lucret. lib. 5. Harpies slew (a) Though in the Door c. His fourth Labour was this The Hesperides Daughters of Hesperus who was Brother of Atlas viz. Egle Arethusa and Hesperethusa were feigned to have possessed Gardius lying near to Lixa called now by the Europeans L'arache a Town of Mauritania Tingitana which takes its Denomination from Tingis now Tangier which were planted with Trees which produced Golden Fruit and which were guarded by a waking Dragon which Dragon Hercules slew and carried the Fruit to Euristheus his Father-in-law Though in the Door the watchful Dragon lay He boldly took the Golden Fruit away He made grim (b) Cerberus Pirithous the Son of Ixion his Wife Hippodame being dead made an Agreement with Theseus that they should marry none who were not descended from Jupiter Upon this Theseus stole away Helena and Pirithous designing to take away Proserpina the Wife of Pluto went down to Hell Theseus and Hercules accompanying him but Pirithous upon his first Attempt was kill'd by Cerberus whom Theseus endeavouring to help was taken alive by Pluto and was bound by him till Hercules bound Cerberus in a threefold Chain This was his fifth Labour Cerberus to a Chain submit He overthrew the mighty (c) Diomedes He was King of Thracia and fed his Horses with Man's Flesh Hercules slew him and gave him to his Horses to be eaten This was his sixth Labour From whence Ovid Non tibi succurrit crudi Diomedis imago Efferus humanâ qui dape pavit equos Diomede And made his fiery Horses on him feed He burnt the Poison and did (d) The seventh Labour of Hercules was the killing of Hydra Videsis Litt. p supra Hydra tame The headlong (e) Achelous The eighth Labour of Hercules was this Achelous feigned to be the Son of Oceanus and Tethys fought with Hercules for Deianira the Daughter of Oeneus King of Caledonia but Achelous being unequal in Strength to him turned himself first into a Serpent then into a Bull but Hercules cut of his Horn which became the Cornu copiae or Horn of Plenty which made Achelous being ashamed to appear with one Horn to hide himself in a River of his Name Achelous he o'recame Blushing within his Banks he hid his Head On Libyan Sands he left (f) Antaeus He was feigned to be the Son of Neptune and the Earth and to be of so large Dimensions that he was said to be of the Height of sixty four Cubits He engaging in Fight with Hercules so often as his Strength failed him touched the Earth and recovered Strength which when Hercules perceived he lifted him up into the Air and so killed him which was his ninth Labour Antaeus dead He by the Death of (g) Cacus The tenth Labour which Hercules did accomplish was killing of Cacus feigned to be the Son of Vulcan and who infested all Italy with his Robberies and did not spare Hercules himself for he stole his Oxen and that he might not be discovered by their Footsteps he drew them by the Tails into his Cave but Hercules discovering them by their Lowing recovered his Cattel and killed Cacus revenging an Injury which Cacus had done to Evander whose Guest or Servant he had been Cacus did appease Evander's Wrath the foaming (h) The Boar. The Erymanthian Boar in Arcadia which was so large and fierce that it almost had depopulated the whole Country Hercules brought this Boar to Eurystheus King of Micene in Greece which was his eleventh Labour Boar did seize Those Shoulders which the (i) The Spheres Atlas is an high Hill of Mauritania which stretcheth it self through a great Part of Africa from the Atlantick Ocean called so from this Mountain as far Eastward as the Confines of the Desarts of Barca It is called now by the Spaniards Los Montes Claros by other Europeans the Mountain Atlas It received its Name from Atlas a King of Mauritania who because he was a great Astronomer and as it is said Inventor of Astrology was feigned to bear the Heavens upon his Shoulders by maintaining and propagating the Science of it Hercules is fabled for one Day to have eased Atlas of that Weight for which he merited an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to be admitted into the Society of the Gods From whence therefore this is called his last and noblest Labour Spheres were soon to press That both his last and noblest Labour was And he did merit to be call'd a God Who did support so glorious a Load Go then ye noble Souls disdain Delay Follow the great Example in his way Why O ye slothful do ye basely fly Who conquers Earth doth gain Eternity The End of the Fourth Book ANICIUS MANLIUS SEVERINUS BOETIUS OF THE Consolation of Philosophy BOOK the Fifth The ARGUMENT In this Book Boetius defineth Chance He declareth whether there be Free-will or not and what is the Order of Providence and he describeth the Methods of Destiny in the Administration of things He then proveth that the Prescience of God doth not take away the Liberty of Men which whole