Reigning Monarch A Monarch who by submission while a Subject taught others to obey and himself to command Whose Patience Generosity and Courage were never more the envy of the factious than the triumph of the Loyal Whose Auspicious Entrance on a Throne assures the happiest progress and merits the longest Establishment on it A Monarch whose accomplishments are in each respect so admirable that they surmount flattery and desie the rankest malice Whose Vertues are every way so Illustrious that they dazle as much as enlighten and what his piety abhors they even threaten to eclipse the Glories of his Royal Predecessour March 3. 1684 5. THE LIFE OF Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus THAT the Lives of illustrious Authours should be a Preface to their Works custome has not made more fashionable than use does requisite For after all the Philosophick advice to weigh the value of what is said without any poize from the authority of the Speaker a reception though not the Nature of truths depends much on the Character of him who delivers them So that the same Argument manag'd to the same advantage shall by a respect to the Writer be oblig'd with attention and caress or else by a misconceit be prejudg'd to scorn and neglect The consequence of this must farther be that those drudges for the publick whose names and repute are yet obscure ought in policy to lie conceal'd lest their meanness when discover'd prejudice their attempts While of such again whose open esteem can secure an acceptance of whatever they deal in it is their prudence to own their endeavours and it is their interest as much as honesty to legitimate their Issue where the dignity of the Parent will be entail'd on the offspring This justifies our brave Roman that while living he dar'd Father what ever was the result of his manly wit and this accounts for the greater convenience of prefixing his Life since a knowledge of his deserts will be sure to put an estimate on his labours Most of the learned Worthies of past generations have by a later piety been thus reviv'd as far as a groping after their reliques would permit But alas many were interr'd so deep so dark that even their ruines were perish'd and the utmost diligence could recover but few of their remains This unhappiness is abundantly redress'd in the memory of our present Authour who in his Epistles has left us such copious memorials of his life and temper that from thence alone there wants nothing but a method to collect as full an account of him as is necessary to bestow or natural to desire He was born An. Chris. 62. U. C. 815. At Novo-Comum a Town of Italy eminent for nothing so much as for being the place of nativity to so great a Man who we presume esteem'd it afterward no scandal to have peep'd into the World from so obscure a part of it but thought it rather noble to shed a lustre on his birth place than to derive a glory from it However by his gratefull munificence it was soon made more populous and remarkable by the encouragement he there gave to Inhabitants in the Erecting of a publick School liberally endow'd with a Library adjoyning so competently furnish'd that no question it invited a choice resort He was the Son of L. Caecilius by a Sister of Pliny the Natural Historian He lost his Father while young who for ought we know left him no other Legacy but that of a good example His widow'd Mother destitute of the helps of Education delivers him up to his learn'd and wealthy Uncle who yet resolv'd if degenerate in vertue not to own him allied in bloud This trial was soon made and our Eaglet stood the test For by a vigilant observance of his inclinations and deportment the old Gentleman was so well satisfi'd that by the custome of their Laws he adopted him into a nearer Relation and at his death occasion'd by the eruptions of Vesuvius left him heir of his Name and fortunes But before this casualty he had been very provident for the breeding his Nephew He assign'd him first to Quintilian that Master of Eloquence who transfus'd into him all those precepts which hitherto so richly oblige the World and he found him so quick so tractable that he never saw reason to spur his industry or amend his apprehension he had in him the luscious comfort of a docile learner and the onely danger was lest his jealousies might have curb'd that forwardness he was surpris'd at and made him inclinable to suspect that from his Scholar he would soon commence his Rival But he prefer'd his duty before any envious regards and it is certain did not onely initiate him in the Elements of that Art he profest but laid him in directions for the methodizng of all his future studies which the obedient Pupil so embrac'd that when emancipate from his more immediate discipline he still copied his prescriptions and conform'd to that model which was set him by so able an Architect As appears particularly from his so often running through the Decads of Livy which was a task no question advis'd him by his great Instructer who always betray'd a singular affection for this Authour and in his most excellent Institutions recommends him as most worthy of a repeated perusal When thus lectur'd in Rhetorick he was now ripe for a course in Philosophy and to enter upon this under as expert a guide as he had attain'd the former he was given up to the tuition of Nicetes a learned Priest who was to make him both honest and devout such was the discipline of that polite age that a being principled in Religion was one of the chief accomplishments of a Gentleman and though all was no better than Idolatry and Romance a being verst in their sacred rites was not esteem'd a fit knowledge for an Augur onely much less was the being moulded into strict and pious thought prejudicial in the depressure of their spirits in the souring of their humours or in the spoiling of their complaisance Under his government he made so good a proficience that his Uncle with joy perceiv'd he was fitted both for years and learning to reap the advantages and conquer the inconveniences of a foreign travel which he knew well was a completing piece of Education if the Itinerant was of age and discretion not to hug novelties not to ape customs but to collect remarks and then digest them to observe to reflect to compare and to better his judgment by a residence abroad rather than burthen his memory for ostentation at return With these hopes he dispatch'd him to Syria which was then as much the common Mart of Literature as Egypt had been before Yet here the wary old Uncle would not trust him with a disposal of his own time but lest too great a leasure might expose him to such temptations which he should be too idle to resist he provides him an employ and lists him a young Volunteer
equal to the value of so inestimate a Prize But farther yet Military Discipline was let sink into disorderly and corrupt practices that your Skill and Conduct might amend and re-inforce it Unheard-of Examples were brought in to be balanc'd by the most regular Proceedings of your Reign And in short a Prince was forc'd to Condemn those he would willingly have sav'd that we might have a Prince whose will can never be forc'd You deserv'd to have been Adopted long before you actually were so though indeed had your Adoption been sooner the blessing of your Reign must have needs been less You waited for that convenience of time wherein the acceptance of a Crown was rather a Courtesie to others than a kindness to your self The trembling state fled for Sanctuary to your protecting Bosome the ruinous and just falling Empire was by Nerva's choice assign'd to be upheld by you From distant Countries you were call'd home and importun'd to comply with the being Adopted As Commanders employ'd in Foreign Service are upon urgent occasions recall'd to divert their Arms to the more seasonable defence of their own Countrey Thus in one and the same action the mutual Gallantry of Father and Son do interchangeably appear he bestows on you a Crown you return it to him better guarded and more confirm'd You are the first who could ever make a requital equal to such a Present the obligation whereof you have so fully discharg'd that the giver does even yet remain your debtor For by his imparting to you a share of the Empire you become onely the more thoughtfull and concern'd he the more quiet and secure 7. O rare and unheard-of passage to a Throne It was not your own Ambition not your own Jealousies but another's desire another's fear that push'd you on to the Imperial Dignity and though you seem to have attain'd the highest pitch of Honour yet the condition you exchang'd for this was indeed more happy it being the most desirable comfort to live a Subject under the best of Princes You were admitted to a relieving participation of his cares and troubles rather than a dignifying share of his power and greatness Nor did a bright and smiling but the black and clouded face of affairs induce you to accept the offer You interpos'd to bear a chearfull part in the support of the Empire when the other sustainer of it was now weary of the pressure There was no Alliance no Relation between the Adopter and the Person Adopted save that both were best besitting the one to make the other to be made choice of You therefore were Adopted not as others for the sake or by the interest of a Wise your Adopter not being biast by the relation of a Father-in Law but disengag'd and impartial as a generous Prince and the Divine Nerva is in no other sense your Parent than as he is the common Father of us all Nor indeed in Elective Kingdoms is it fit that a Successour should be otherwise assum'd Were you Sir to transfer from your self to another this vast legacy of the Roman Empire would you look for an Heir no farther than your own Bed and must the Successour to all your Imperial Dignity be no better than what happens to be found within the narrow limits of your own House Would you not rather bestow some pains in a search through the whole City and take him for your Son him for your next Heir who is best accomplish't and most like those Gods he must one day represent He who is to govern all ought sure to be chosen out of all for you leave not a Lord of your private Family that you must needs assign him who comes next in bloud but a supreme Governour of a free-born People It were stiff and Tyrannical nay absurd not to Adopt him who is born to be an Emperour should he not be Adopted This was the course the great the good Nerva took well thinking there could be no difference between Generation and Election if Children were not Adopted with better Judgment than they are begot Though indeed it is the humour of Subjects more patiently to admit the unhappy issue than the ill choice of Princes 8. This danger therefore Nerva did most cautiously avoid and trusted not to the shallow advice of Men but took counsel from the Gods themselves While not in a private Chamber but an open Temple not before the Nuptial Bed but the Holy Altar of Jupiter that best and greatest God did the Ceremony of your Adoption pass that Adoption from whence we date our lives our liberties our peace our joy our all The Gods were indeed and well might they be proud of appropriating this honour to themselves this was their project their enterprise Nerva was no more than a Trustee in their behalf he in Adopting and you in being Adopted did both but shew your submission to the Dictates of Divine Pleasure A Laurel was brought from Pannonia the Gods so ordering it that the inauguration of a victorious Prince might be attended with the Omen of Conquest and success This the Emperour Nerva stuck in the bosome of Jupiter when on the sudden being elevated in some kind of Divine transport before a numerous Assembly of Men and Gods he pronounced you his Adopted Son that is the staff of his declining years the support of his pressing Empire Then as if he had been disburthen'd of the load of Government how did he hug himself in a lightsome rest and ease Nor indeed is there much difference between the perfect resignation of a Crown and the taking a Partner into Sovereignty save that this last is more difficult and less practicable than the other He now leans intirely on your shoulders and by their strength upholds both himself and the Empire Your youth your vigour seem to recover his and upon the influence of your power all Factions all Tumults are gag'd and eternally silent Though this happiness it must be confest is owing not to a bare Adoption but to the efficacy of that Person who is so Adopted So that had Nerva made choice of any other he had come short of this happy this blest event Most of us may yet remember when an Adoption was not the appeasment but the rise and occasion of an uproar and Sedition We might now again have felt the same dismal effects if the Election had fell on any but on you That Emperour it is true who by too great remissness has fool'd away his due respect and esteem must ask his Subjects leave to dispose of his Empire But your Election was free and absolute without noise or murmur as much no question out of awe and regardfull dread of you as out of reverence to that Prince who declar'd you Elect. You were admitted to be a Son a Caesar an Emperour a Collegue of the Tribunitian Power all these dignities heapt on you at the same time which a late natural Father durst onely by degrees bestow upon
laugh at those torments that never hurt them Their Fines must be now proportion'd to their faults their hopes of escape must be now less than their fear of smart and they must dread others as much as they themselves were lately dreaded With a noble courage did the Divine Titus begin to secure us from these mischiefs by the guard of severe and seasonable Edicts and in gratitude for this attempt was he deservedly deified How much more justly hereafter yet long may the coming of that hereafter be shall you be worthy of the same divine honours who have built upon and completely finish'd those Laws which at the rough foundation were thought meritorious of entitling him a God The difficulty of this accomplishment was much the greater upon this account that the Emperour Nerva who deserv'd you for his Son deserv'd you his Successour made so many additions to this Edict of Titus that he seem'd to leave no room for your completing hand and yet you have so far enlarg'd it as if nothing had been done before Any of these Reformations singly dispenc'd would have been highly gratious and well accepted of but you pour'd them forth all at once like the Sun and beams of day which sprinkle not their light by fits and parcels but dart it forth in discontinued streams not confin'd to particular corners but expanded through the whole surface of the World 36. What a blessing is it to see the Treasury free and unoppressive in as profound a quiet as before all disturbances created by Informers It is now a Temple indeed and the Deity it was dedicated to does there certainly reside It is no longer a drainer of the People a repository of exactions or dishonest gains and there is now one place at least where the innocent are no longer made a prey to the unjust Yet are all lawfull dues levied to the full and no abatements made of what would be injurious to the Republick to lose Nor are the penalties remitted to any whom a fair trial shall convict Yet is there a free Process for recovery of damages upon malitious or suborn'd accusers And in short the case is so well alter'd that men fear the Laws not the Informers But perhaps you have not taken so much care in regulating of your private Exchequer as of the Treasury Yes the greater by how much more boldly you can dispose of your own than of what belongs to the publick Your Advocate your Attorney may be now cited and proceeded against as the Law directs For justice may be now had against them as well as against ordinary Offenders their penalties the same or greater if you measure their punishment by the greatness of their figure and quality Not the Princes will and pleasure but Lots and an Urn the common method of Elections assign a Judge to the Exchequer And if any be otherwise promoted it is free to reject him and to say of one he is unqualified because he is timorous and does not sufficiently understand the interest of his Countrey and of another he is more fit for the employ because he is true to his Countrey and loyal to his Prince Caesar and his subjects try out their Titles at the same Bar And what Sir is to your eternal credit your Exchequer is often cast which yet can never come to the worst but under a good Prince This is great obligation and what a greater yet that your Advocates are all persons of such integrity that the people desire no other Counsel no other Judges though it be free for any not to entertain them or to appeal from them For though you assign them you leave it to our choice to comply or refuse knowing it is the highest grace of Royal favours to have the liberty of not accepting them 37. The charges and expence of Government impose a necessity of taxes which though they appear a burthen and grievance to particular persons yet is that seeming inconvenience vastly out-balanc'd by their promoting the welfare of the community For this use and purpose was the twentieth part of all Legacies formerly assign'd And this being light and easie to those heirs onely who bore no relation to the deceas'd but hard and grievous to the next of bloud it was levi'd onely upon the one and remitted to the other Forasmuch as it was apparent that men would not without reluctance or rather not at all endure to have any part embezelled or par'd off from that Estate which their birth had given them a title to which was never the possession of a distinct family or which they could but barely hope would be bequeathed to them but which was their proper and immediate inheritance and ought to pass downward by right of descent and proximity of bloud Yet was this exemption allow'd onely to the ancient Denizens all the late-comers whether enfranchis'd by the privilege that the Latins might claim or by the boon and favour of the Prince except by express dispensation they had obtain'd the right of kindred were in respect of the nearest relation accounted as no better than Aliens Thus what was design'd for the greatest ease and benefit was soon perverted into the greatest grievance The City of Rome was fill'd with jars discords and breaches in families while the next heirs without any undutifull or disobliging carriage were in a manner dishinherited and debarr'd their right Yet were some so sond of the honour of being incorporated with us that they thought not onely the forfeiture of the twentieth part of their estates but the loss of kindred was abundantly recompenc'd by the title of Roman Citizens Though upon those who priz'd it at so high a value it ought the more freely to have been conferr'd Your Father Nerva therefore did hereupon decree that what goods past from the Mother to the Children or from the Children to the Mother though at their being Indenizen'd they had not receiv'd the right of cognation should not be liable to this tribute of the twentieth part The same immunity he allow'd to a Son as heir to his Father provided he were not emancipated from his Fahter's power and disposal thinking it unjust oppressive and almost impious to exact any thing in cases of so near alliance and judging it no less than some sort of Sacrilege to cut asunder the holy ties of relation by so sharp and rigid an imposal Nor could he digest it as at all reasonable that any Tax should so be rais'd as to make Fathers and Children strangers to each other 38. Thus far went your Royal Predecessour wherein though he fell short perhaps of the best of Princes he came up at least to the best of Fathers For being to adopt one of as large a Soul as himself he betray'd this generous piece of indulgence that he would but slightly begin and barely set the example leaving to his Son an entire and almost unattempted Field of glory Immediately therefore to his Charity did your munificence farther add
that as the Son in the inheritance of his Father so the Father in that of the Son should be exempt from all encumbrances and by his unhappy ceasing to be a parent not lose the advantage of his once having been so It is an Heroical mercy of you Caesar not to exact Tribute of tears nor to make a Father's loss your gain Parents shall now succeed to what their Children died possess'd of without fraud or diminution nor indeed would it be any way just that they should have partners in their inheritance who have none in their sorrows No persons left Childless are call'd to account amidst their fresh and undigested grief nor is the Father compell'd to bring in an Inventary of what was left him by his Son Our Prince's unparallel'd bounty herein will appear the more admirable if I knew the grounds and reasons of it For it may indeed be deservedly reputed an ambition vain glory profuseness or any worse name rather than liberality if not grounded on some firm and solid reason Your motives therefore for thus doing were what are highly Sir worthy of your Clemency to abate the afflictions of disconsolate parents and after the shrewd temptation of one loss not superadd the trial of another It is indeed misery enough for a mournfully surviving Father to be sole heir to a dear departed Son without the dividing with a co-heir contrary to the will and knowledge of the deceas'd Farther when divine Nerva had decreed that Children coming to an enjoyment of their Fathers Estates should be exempt from a payment of the twentieth part it was but reasonable this privilege should extend to those inheritances which past from Sons to Fathers as well as from Father to Son For why should Children have the advantage of their Parents and why should not the same equity ascend This exception Caesar is by you remov'd and the Father made capable to succeed the Son supposing the Son to have been in his Father's power which supposal too you took always for granted having respect to that prime and fundamental Law of Nature which does at no time acquit Children from a subjection to their Parents nor allows to Rational beings what is wildly practis'd among brutes alone that strength should give the onely Title to Dominion and Command 39. Neither would our Prince rest satisfied to exempt the first degree of bloud from an imposition of the twentieth part but his goodness scorning these limits flies beyond and endows the second likewise with the same privilege So that the Brother in the Sisters Estate the Sister again in the Brothers the Grandfather and Grandmother in that of the Grandchildren and these again in that of theirs should come to a free enjoyment without tax or composition And to those who by the right of Latium were made free of Rome he granted the same immunities allowing in all consanguinity a free passage to the direct course of nature Which are favours indeed that former Princes were content to be petition'd for yet not with so much intention of shewing their Prerogative to grant as their power to deny Hence may we aptly learn what a generous Soul it argued to gather up and reunite our scatter'd and as it were divorc'd Families to regraft and so husband them as that fresh branches may shoot forth from the first paternal stocks to comply with that which has been so often refus'd to give to all in common what particular favourites could never obtain and finally to bar himself of so many occasions of exerting his Prerogative in conferring these favours as extraordinary on them whose loyalty had deserv'd 'em and in detaining them from such who had been factious or ungratefull He deem'd it I believe unreasonable that petition should be made to an earthly Prince for what the Gods themselves by a branch of their eternal law had long since past into a natural charter If by birth you are Brothers and Sisters Grandfather and Grandchildren or such like relations this title exempts you from the foremention'd tax without any other Ceremony of peculiar licence The Emperour affording this farther instance of his humanity parallel to all the former thinks it as invidious to make a mock gilt of what was your own by a Precedent property as it would be unjust to take whatever you are legally possess'd of With courage therefore and a bold assurance stand for honours sue for offices this breach and interruption of descents shall be no bar to your hopes or designs All shall entirely enjoy the same proximity of bloud they did before with more of freedom more of privilege Nay the most remote and just ceasing degrees of affinity in conveyances of small or but competent estates shall be eas'd of this contribution of the twentieth part For our indulgent Prince has impos'd it onely on those plentifull fortunes that can well asford to bear it out 40. A low and slender inheritance shall be eas'd from this burthen In such cases the gratefull heir may bestow it on a Monument in memory of the Testatour or may disburse it all in the charges of his Funeral none to correct or restrain him none to call him to account For on whatever consideration the Legacy was bequeath'd him he may arbitrarily dispose of it as his own will or discretion shall direct The Law for payment of the twentieth part is now so order'd that a man must be very rich besore he can come within the compass of it What before was the subject of fear and grief is now turn'd into joy what was judg'd an oppression is chang'd into ease and privilege So as the heir not dreads but wishes his Estate may come within the reach of this Law By another clause of this Edict it is provided that those who were in Arrears to the State for this tribute should be freely remitted and without expence discharg'd To remedy what is gone and past seems even beyond the power of the Gods themselves Yet this have you perform'd While past debts are outdated and those persons who long since contracted them are neither now to owe nor to pay hereafter You so perfectly redress all our former grievances that there remains no token of our ever having suffer'd under evil Princes Nay if your power were of equal extent with your mercy or were not feasible which is indeed not possible you would not onely reinstate those who had been injuriously outed of their possessions but even restore to life as many as without guilt or cause have been no better than formally murthered But since you could not reinsuse their lost bloud you have at least redeem'd their spent fortunes by forgiving those fines and lapses which were made due in the Reign of your Predecessours Another Prince would have been so incens'd at their being behind-hand in Arrears that he would have punish'd their backwardness with a fine of double nay perhaps fourfold value to the principal debt But you think it equally dishonest to exact what
your Reign the most malitious can find no occasion of complaint All management of affairs is a subject of content all of joy The good are prefer'd and the bad which is the securest state of society neither fear nor are fear'd knowing they shall not unjustly be accus'd themselves nor daring unjustly to accuse others You remedy all our distempers yet at our own entreaties at our own request and whomever you make good you add this farther obligation to the favour that it was not what you impos'd or enforc'd but what they themselves defir'd 47. By your conduct how well order'd the life how regulated the manners of our Roman youth What trouble what charge do you spare for in a Princely Education of them What encouragement do you give to Masters of Rethoricks What countenance and advancement to Philosophers So that under your patronage our studies are animated with life vigour and a safe repose which the dull cruelty of former ages persecuted into flight and banishment While the Prince conscious of his own vices expell'd those arts which would be sure to reprehend them not so much out of hatred as fear of coming within their lash and reproof But these same arts you embrace entertain and give attention to You readily perform whatever they enjoyn and love them as eagerly as you are deservedly approv'd by them Every Professour in each part of learning after all your other excellent endowments must more especially commend your easiness of access With an open and hospitable soul your Father over his Palace Gates set up this Inscription The Publick Buildings but in vain he had done this except he had adopted a Son who would have liv'd in publick And how well does the course of your life agree with this Motto so exactly indeed that it seems invented by none but your self For what Courts what Temples are more open and passable Not the Capitol it self that place of your adoption has more of company more of resort There be no Bars no rough denial of entrance no hard language nor affronts and after an escape through a thousand Guards and Centinels no excluding at last from the presence Chamber A prosound stilness is all around you but the greatest about your Person Every where such becoming silence such awfull quiet that the Imperial Court may well present her self as a pattern of modesty to the smallest family and most humble cottage 48. How familiarly you entertain all comers How patiently you epect them Dedicating one entire part of the day to this diversion though so much taken up with more serious and urgent affairs So that we come to pay our Addresses not in a timorous hurry not as if we ran for our life and the loss of our heads were to be the forseit of our slackness but leisurely and as our own conveniency will best admit of Nay when the Prince does purposely attend our waiting on him we may make so bold as to absent if any necessary occasions detain us at home And for this rudeness we need make no elaborate excuse your goodness forgives sooner than our submission can acknowledge the offence For you know it is every man's comfort and ambition as well as his duty to visit you frequently to wait on you often and therefore to enlarge our joy you give a freer and more repeated admission to your presence Nor to bestow these customary salutes must we search you out in retirements and solitudes but we enter your Palace and there engage in a familiar converse with you as if your Court were an Ordinary or place of publick entertainment for all which lately that timorous Monster had fortified with whatever might strike a terrour and amazement While turnning his Palace into a lurking den he sometime there suck'd the bloud of his nearest relations and at other times sallied out to worry and devour the noblest prey he could seize or trepan Terrour and threatnings were without within dread and danger so that it seem'd alike perilous to be either admitted or excluded Add to this the monster himself was fatal to meet ghastly to look on pride in his Forehead fury in his Eyes a womanish paleness in his Body impudence shining through his Face in fiery redness that argued more of bloud than blush None could presume to approach him none might dare to salute him never peeping out of his dark retirements never creeping forth from his belov'd confinement except by rapine and desolation to make as great a solitude of those places he should visit as of those he left 49. Yet within these walls and apartments he harbour'd the Traytours he nurs'd up the conspiracy and enclos'd with himself the revenger of his Villanies Providence His long call'd for punishment broke through the Guards and rush'd on through bolts and fasten'd Gates as easily as if open doors and a clear passage had seem'd to egg and invite it His usurp'd pretence of divinity could then avail him nothing and in vain did he hope for shelter in those Closets and withdrawing Rooms where he had wont so often to retire out of a fear a scorn and a hatred of mankind How much more safe how much more secure is the same Palace now it is no longer impannell'd with trenches and baricadoes no longer fenc'd with the engins of cruelty but fortified alone by the arts of love While experience hereby learns this one great Truth that a Prince's strongest Guard is his own Innocence And to need no defence is the most inaccessible fort the strongest bulwark In vain does he encompass himself with terrour who is not first furrounded with loyalty and love His jealousies serve but to augment his dangers and arms of defence invite on weapons of execution Nor are they your serious hours onely which you spend in our sight and society Do you not joyn company with us as frequently in your repasts and diversions Are not your meals always publick and your table free for all comers Do you not take as great a pleasure in feasting us as we do a pride in being your guests Are you not willing and patient to hear our impertinencies and do you not invite us on to a freedom of diseourse The time allotted to these banquets does not your humanity toward us enlarge as much as temperance toward your self would abridge and contract You do not make a full meal by your self in private and then sit gravely at the upper end of a publick table making remarks and observations on the humours and behaviours of the guests You do not belch from an overcharg'd stomach and affront rather than feast your deluded friends by setting before them such dishes which you your self scorn to touch or taste of Nor hating the hurry and uneasiness of such crouded entertainments do you withdraw to hidden rarities and a retir'd gluttony Farther we admire not the costliness of your plate dishes nor the exquisite cookery nor the stately serving them up but your endearing pleasantness
a privacy and solitude You therefore who are the Princes more especial favorites whose friendship and familiarity he more designedly courts improve that good opinion he is pleas'd to conceive of you this ought to be your Province this your duty Neither envy nor be jealous that you are possibly less regarded than some others for when by his more signal affecting of particular persons he has given proof that he can love intensly he is to be excus'd if he love some in a more remiss degree However be assur'd that in your Loyalty toward him there can be no mean observ'd since you are not to prescribe but onely follow in his example the laws and measures of your love This man would be caress'd when present that esteem'd when absent both shall have their will none by residence shall grow cheap none by distance shall be forgot Every one in all circumstances preserves that respect he merits and our Prince can sooner let his eyes loose the resemblance than his heart forfeit the memory of his absent friend 88. Many Princes who have been Lords of their subjects have been yet slaves to their own servants Their pleasure was a command their advice a law through their eyes passd all representments to their ears came all petitions and by their llands were dispens'd all places of preferment Whereas you indeed are courteous and obliging to your servants yet still keep them at so due a distance that it seems a competent reward for their industry if they be but by your judgment approv'd honest and faithfull And indeed nothing is more an argument of a weak Prince than powerfull servants First therefore you retain none but such who have best deserv'd by their Loyalty to your sacred self or first adherence to your Royal Father And these when admitted to your service you so exquisitely frame and mould that they learn to take measures of their fortune not from your condition of Supremacy but from their own of subjection While we pay them the much greater respect because their modesty does less demand it Was it not therefore upon just motives that the Senate and people of Rome conferr'd on you the sirname of Best True this Title has been before assum'd but never till now deserv'd For might the merits of any Prince have laidany tolerable claim thereto it had certainly been by publick consent assign'd and not by a selfish ambition usurp'd Had it been more proper to have stil'd you Happy No that had been a compliment to your fortune not a Character of your vertues Or had it been better to have entitled you Great No this had been an Epithet of envy more than of glory An Excellent Prince adopted you into his own name and the Senate has superadded the name of Best which is as justly your due as that you derive from birth-right It being no more significant nor distinguishing to call you Trajan than to call you Best Thus of old were the Pisos sirnam'd frugal the Laelii wise and the Metelli pious Which several appellations are all compris'd in this one of yours for he cannot properly be entitled Best who excells not all others in every of their respective vertues Deservedly therefore after many other Titles was this annext as of all the greatest It is much less to be Emperour to be Caesar to be Augustus than to be of all Emperours of all Caesars of all Augustus s the Best Hence is the Supreme Parent of the World ador'd first by the attribute of Best and not till secondly by that of Greatest The more divine your glory who are equally both the Best by far and by far the Greatest You have gain'd a name that never can descend or be transferr'd to another In a good Prince it will seem borrow'd and in a bad it must appear usurp'd Nay should each of your Successours assume it it would after all be esteem'd peculiarly yours For as the rehearsal of Augustus reminds us of that person it was first conserr'd on so a repetition of this name of Best shall always prompt posterity to reflect on you and whenever after they are compell'd to flatter others with this Title so oft shall they recollect who first deserv'd it 89. What joys Divine Nerva are you now crown'd with that you see the event so well answer your hopes that he proves to be the Best whom you elected under a prospect of his being so What a comfort and contentment is it that compar'd with this your Son you your self are infinitely excell'd Nor indeed could any thing argue a soul more untainted with spite and envy than that being your self so Excellent you were not affraid of adopting one whose brighter eminence should in some measure shadow and obscure your yielding lustre And you happy Trajan his natural Father who if not promoted to the honour of a God are at least advanc'd to the dignity of a Heroe what a pleasure must it needs reflect to see him who during your stay on Earth was but a common Souldier at best but a Tribune now since your remove so great a General so great a Prince You seem to engage in an amicable contention with his adoptive Father whether were more glorious to have elected or to have begot so illustrious a Son Both of you do indeed equally that is infinitely deserve of the Commonwealth to which you are the occasion of so rich a blessing who though he could bestow but the credit of a triumph on the one and the glory of deifying on the other yet are you both adorn'd by all his honours no less effectually than if you your selves had merited them 90. I know my Lords that as other Romans so more especially the Consuls ought so to express their joys as to seem more affected with the benefits conserr'd on the publick than with any interest resulting to themselves For as it is more frequent and indeed more just to have ill Princes hated for common injuries than for any private damage so ought the good to be more respected and belov'd for their influence on the protection of mankind than for any favours reach'd out to particular persons But whereas it has been authoriz'd by custome that Consuls after a presentment of the publick thanks should in their own names return some acknowledgement of their private obligations give me leave to discharge this part of my duty not with more respect to my self than to Cornutus Tertullus my worthy Collegue For why should I not address my thanks for him in whose advance and interest I my self am equally concern'd Especially since our Severeign has made us joynt Partners in that honour to which had he promoted but any one of us our affections were so united our friendship so inviolate it had indifferently oblig'd us both That tyrannick enemy of good men by the Sequestration and Murther of our best friends had made us alike sufferers while we still dreaded that Thunder which often fell so near us The same belov'd
one of his own Sons 9. A signal instance this of your admirable prudence that you please and oblige not onely when Successour but while Companion and Co-partner in the Empire For Successour indeed you must have been even against your own will but half sharer you need not have been content with if your ambition would have otherwise advis'd Can posterity ever believe that the Son of a Patrician a Consular Triumphal Father one who was himself at the head of a stout a numerous and an obedient Army was not by that Army created Emperour He who while he commanded in Germany had conferr'd on him by our Senate the title of Germanicus Can it be imagin'd that one in these powerfull circumstances should make no attempt upon the Empire that he should take no other method toward his own advance than that of serving and obeying For obedience Coesar was your onely ambition and it was out of duty alone that you complied with the being made a Prince Never more Loyally approving your self a Subject than when you submitted to the summons of being ordain'd a Sovereign When absent and ignorant of the honours done you made Germanicus Coesar Emperour and yet after all this preferment still as submissive and humble as a private man It will seem strange that you could not know whether ever you should be an Emperour â—ay you actually were so before ever you knew it And as soon as the messenger of your advancement came your reception of the news betrayed that you had rather have remain'd in the quality you were in if it had been manners or duty to have refus'd the honour But must not a Subject have obey'd his Sovereign an Ambassadour his Prince a Son his Father Where then were all discipline Where were that long practis'd Tradition deliver'd down to us from our Ancestours That whatever were enjoy'd by Royal command should without farther dispute be chearfully perform'd And what if he should have order'd you from Province to Province from the service of one War to the task of another Think by the same authority he sent you out to the conduct of an Army by the same he recalls you to the acceptance of a Crown Nor is there much difference between his commissioning you a General and his ordaining you an Emperour save that in this last your obedience is the more creditable because The glory of being dutifull is so much the more as it is exercis'd in any thing contrary to the bent of a man 's own inclination 10. It confirm'd and advanc'd the authority of him who commanded that his authority had so lately been encroacht upon Which blest you with an opportunity of being then more seasonably Loyal when others were more basely factious The command of the Prince was backt with the Votes of the Senate and consent of the people It was not onely the single judgment of Nerva but a concurrent and universally approv'd Election He onely as an honour due to his Imperial dignity led the way and did that which all first would soon have done had not his doing prevented ' em Nor indeed would the World have been ravisht with joy at the event if they had not jointly both allow'd and applauded the design before ever it was put in execution But with how discreet a temper good Gods did you behave your self amidst all these caresses of fortune An Emperour in Style in Effigies in Statue but in Modesty Vigilance Industry an Officer a Deputy a Common Soldier While in a becoming posture you marcht before your Colours led up your Troops and wish'd no other benefit might accrue by your adoption than the honour of acquitting your self a dutifull and obedient Son in which state of subjection you desir'd a long continuance a long scene of glory Providence had exalted you to the first place yet could you contentedly have demean'd your self to the second and there have remained much longer yet longer to a good old age Nor while another shar'd with you in the title of Emperour were you willing your self to appear more than a private Subject Heaven heard your Prayers which were no other than consistent with the good and happiness of that just and pious old man who the Gods wisely remov'd to a better World that after so Divine and consummate an action he might have no leisure to misemploy his pains in any trifle of mortal concern For There is this respect due to an unimitable exploit that as it is the best so it ought to be the last of all our earthly undertakings and therefore ought the Authour immediately to be deifi'd it being likely the World will enquire whether he were not a God when he did it Thus he who had no better claim to the title of common parent than by being yours being great in same when he had liv'd a while to see how well you could bear up under the weight of an Empire left you to the World and the World to you Leaving us sensible of our greater loss because in you he provided that our loss should be the less 11. When dead you as a respectfull Son first honour him with your tears then with a Temple Not herein imitating those former presidents which have afforded indeed examples of like Piety but upon far different inducements Tiberius deified Augustus but it was onely his ambition to entail a Godhead on the Crown Nero past the same compliment on Claudius but it was onely to expose him Titus did as much for Vespasian and Domitian for Titus but the first that he might appear the Son this latter the Brother of a God You have enroll'd your Father among the Stars not to strike an awe into the people not to put an affront on his fellow Deities not to derive an honour on your self but because you devoutly thought him more than humane It abates much from the glory of this honour when it is done by those whose pride thinks themselves as really Gods as those whom by this ceremony they make so And though you have consecrated to his Divinity an Altar with its due ornaments and a Priest to Officiate at it yet have you prov'd him a God in nothing more than that you your self are so much like him For in a Prince who dies after a setled appointment of his Heir the most convincing Argument of his Divinity is a good Successour Has the dazelling immortality of your Father blinded you into any pride or conceitedness Do you copy after the vain and affected humour of our modern kinsmen to deified Heroes Or do you not rather imitate those more generous souls of the Ancients who bravely founded this Empire which our enemies have but of late found courage to assault though now they dare so we have no surer proof of their flight or conquest than the pageantry of their triumphs This makes 'em assume some spirit and emboldens 'em to shake off that yoke they think they have now long enough labour'd under nor would they