that which cannot offend vs despight our selues Nature hath caused vs to be all borne equally rich esteemes so little of the goods she giues vs which we tearme riches as of our passions and the feare to lose them Seneca sayes that the Gods were more propitious and fauourable when they were but of earth then since when they were made of Gold or Siluer meaning thereby that the rest and tranquillity of the mind was more frequently found in the life of our fore-fathers who sought no other riches then the fruites of their labours then it hath done since when men being curious to open the bosome and rip vp the bowells of the earth haue therein found Mines of Gold and Siluer which shee hath dispersed and sowen among vs as seed of discord and diuision The meanest estate and condition and those steps which are neerest the earth are still the firmest and surest as the highest are the most dangerous And if Pouertie bee any way harsh or distastfull it is onely because she can throw vs into the armes of Hunger Thirst Heate Cold or other discommodities So in Pouertie it is not she which is to be feared but rather Griefe and Paine whereof we will hereafter speake in its proper place But some one will say who is he that apprehends and feares not Death There is no pouerty so poore which findes not wherewith to liue The body is easily accustomed and hardned to endure Heate or Cold but what remedy is there against Death who with his sharpe sithe cuts and reapes away so many pleasures yea the very threed of our life which can neuer be regained for although old men approach Death in despight of themselues and that their distast of worldly pleasures the forerunner thereof should yet giue them resolution to aduance boldly neuerthelesse they retire backe they tremble at the ghastly sight and shadow of Death yea they are affraide sincke downe in their beds and wrap themselues vp in their couerlets and to vse but one word they dye euery moment at the onely feare and thought of Death And I who am in the Spring-time of my age cherished of the Muses and beloued of Fortune in the very hight of all pleasures and voluptuousnesse shall not I yet feare Death So many Griefes and Sorrowes so many conuulsions and gnashing of our teeth are they not to be apprehended and feared can the linkes of that marriage of the Body and Soule be dissolued and broken but by some violent effect and power those who are insensible feare their dissolution Flowers and Trees seeme to mourne at the edge of the Knife and shall not then our sense and feeling bee sensible thereof yea and remarke and see it in our feare I answere It is true that of all things which Nature representeth vnto vs most terrible there is nothing which shee hath depainted in such fearefull colours as the figure and image of Death Euery thing tendes to the conseruaâ—ion of its being and generously oppose and fight against those who seeke to destroy it But the feare which wee entermixe with it is not of the match oâ— party but is onely of our owne proper beliefe and inuention Paine which seemes to be the iustest cause to make vs apprehend it is excluded and hath nothing to doe with it because the seperation of the soule and body is done in so sodaine a moment and instanâ— that our Vnderstanding hardly perceiuing it it iâ— very difficult for our sense to doe it Those gastly lookes which deuance it or the rewâ—rd of good or euill which followes it are no appurtenances â—or dependancies of this instant or moment But I will say more For as there is no time in this instant so likewise there is no paine because the senses cannot operate or agitate according to the opinion of Philosophers but with some certaine Interim of time and which is more that those last panges are passed away without any sense or feeling thereof And contrariwise if in this seperation the paine should be either in the body or soule or both First the body feeles it not because there is nothing but the senses which can perceiue it who being in disorder and confusion by the disturbance of the vitall spirits which they oppresse and restraine their disposition is thereby vitiated The function of the senses being interrupted they cease to operate and therefore of feeling the effect of paine but more especially when the spirits abandon them and retire and withdrawe themselues from the heart The which wee perceiue and see in those who fall in a swoone whose eyes remaine yet open without seeing and without operation which happeneth and comes to passe because the spirits which should make the wheeles of the sight to moue and operate haue abandoned their places and functions The Soule of her selfe cannot remedy it no more then a Fountainer can cause his water-workes to play when there is no water the which by reason thereof is then meerely out of his power And as the eye by the defect hereof performes not her function and without perceiuing thereof ceaseth to operate so all the other senses by the same rule and reason doe faile vs. When our Soule will take her last farewell of our body shee flyes to the regions of the Liuer and Heart as to her publique places all the spirits being dispierced and bending here and there in the body to take her last fare-well of them which retire without that the parts or members farther off doe feele any paine of this seperation but because henceforth they can no more feele it for that they carie away with them the heat and strength of feeling If therefore there be any paine it must be in the noble parts who profer their last farewell and thankes to the Soule for the care labour and paine which shee hath had to giue them life and motion The Husband cannot lâ—aue or goe from his Wife without a great sense and feeling of sorrowe for his sighes griefes and teares testifie how bitter and displeasing this seperation is to him Can therefore this seperation of the soule from the body bee performed with lesse griefe and paine Some will say that the most remote parts and members shall be insensible thereof and endure and suffer nothing in this reluctation and conflict which is onely because they haue giuen this charge and conferred this commission to the noble parts to performe it As in the seperation of one whom we deerely affect and loue all the whole body which suffereth in this farewell to make his griefe and sorrowes the more apparent commits the charge thereof to the eyes by their teares and to his breast by her sighes to expresse his sense and feeling thereof I answere that there is no paine because the spirits who withdrawe themselues by the defects and failing of others in these interiour parts are either in good and perfect order and their function is common and therefore without paine or else
deformed a countenance that albeit they are the daughters of Nature yet wee cannot loue them and behold them at one time 186 The fift Discourse Of Felicitie Section I. EVery thing naturally tends to its repose onely man strayes from his felicity or if he approach it hee stayes at the branches insteed of embracing the trunke or body of the tree 191 Section II. It is not without reason that wee complaine of Fortune because hourely shee teacheth vs her mutable and variable humour pa. 202 Section III. Wealth and Riches are too poore to giue vs the felicitie which we seeke and desire 207 Section IV. Glory and Reputation hath no thing which is solide but Vanity we must therefore else-where seeke our Soueraigne contentment 211 Section V. Honours and Dignities expose to the world all their splendour and glory But contrariwise Felicity lockes vp all her best things in her selfe and hath no greater Enemie then Shewe and Ostentation 219 Section VI. Among all the faire flowers which an extreame fauour produceth wee haue not yet seene this Felicity to bud forth and flourish 222 Section VII Kings and Soueraigne Princes owe vs their continuall care and motion as the Starres doe and therefore they haue no greater Enemie then repose and tranquility 228 Section VIII As the light is inseparable from the Sun so Felicity is an inseparable accident of Vertue 232 The sixth Discourse Of Morall Vertue Section I. SIcke or distempered mindes are not capable of all sorts of remedies but they shall finde none more Soueraigne then the diuerting thereof pag. 250 Section II. The life of a Wise man is a Circle whereof Temperance is the Centre whereunto all the lynes I meane all his actions should conduce and ayme 264 Section III. To thinke that Vertue can indifferently cure all sorts of euils or afflictions is a testimony of Vanity or else of our being Apprentices and Nouices in Philosophy 277 Section IV. As it belongs to none but to the minde to iudge of true or false so our sense ought to be the onely Iudge either of Pleasure or Paine 288 Section V. Although wee graunt that Mans felicity consists in Vertue yet I affirme against the Stoicks that Felicity is incompatible with Griefe and Paine 299 Section VI. Mans life is a harmony composed of so many different tones that it is very difficult for Vertue to hold and keepe them still in tune pag. 310 THE IVDGEMENT OF HVMANE ACTIONS The first Discourse Of Vanitie SECTION I. Man diuerteth his eyes from his condition not to know the deformitie thereof and abandoneth them to follow his owne vaine imaginations MY enterprise to depaint and chalke out the vanitie of Man hath it may be no lesse vanitie in his designe then in his subiect but it greatly skils not to what I intend to speake for whatsoeuer I say or doe I still aduance I say it imports not where I strike for all my blowes are directed and bent to fall on Vanitie and if the Pensill be not bold and the Colours liuely enough we will imitate the industry of that Painter who being to represent in a Table the sorrowes of those who assisted at the sacrifice of Iphigenia most ingeniously ouervayled the face of this Virgins Father with a Courtaine as well knowing that all his art and industry was incapable and confused herein if hee should vndertake to represent at life all the parts and passions which sorrow had so liuely imprinted on his face It were a happinesse if onely to overvaile the face of Man were to couer all his Vanities but when wee haue extended this vaile or courtaine ore all his body I much feare there will yet remaine more to be concealed and hidden then that which wee haue already couered For this imagination cannot suffer this constraint and his desire which followes him with out-spred wings findes no limmits but in her infinity Man is composed of body spirits and soule This animated body participates most of earth as neerest to the place of his extraction and to say truely is a straying and a vagabond plant The spirits participate most of the ayre and serue as the meanes or medium to fasten ioyne and stay the soule which falles from heauen into the body of men as a ray or sparkle of the Diuinitie that comes to reside in an vnknowne place Those spirits which dwell in the bloud are as little chaines to vnite and fasten the soule to the body which comming to dissolue from thence followes the entire dissolution of this compound They participate as partakers of these two contrary natures by the extremities that which is most pure and subtill in them is vnited to the superiour parts as that which is grosser is vnited and fastned to the affluence of bloud and these are they that so dexterously make affections to flye from one to the other subiect which they embrace so strictly and deerely and in this marriage is sworne communitie of goods and wealth or rather of misery they haue no longer but one and the same interest and in this mixture actions as passions distill from these different springs by one onely and the selfe same pipe They wedde themselues to contentions and quarrels which are not easily appeased but notwithstanding this discord they maintaine themselues in their perpetuall warre fearing nothing but peace which is separation Doth it not seeme to thee O man that thou much deseruest to bee lamented and pittied sith in the composition of such different pieces thou findest thy selfe engaged to calme the stormes and tempests which arise in thy breast by the contrary motion of so many different passions If thou wilt cast thine eyes vpon thy birth thou shalt see that after hauing languished nine monthes in prison fedd and nourished with the waters of rottennesse and corruption it selfe thou commest into the world with cryes and teares for thy welcome as if despight of thee that Destiny had placed thee on Earth to sweat vnder the heauy yoke and burthen of a miserable slauery but grieue not at thy teares for they cannot be imployed to weepe at a more miserable condition then thine owne because among other creatures thou art the most disgraced by nature abandoned naked on earth without couering or Armes swathed and bound and without knowledge of any thing which is fit or proper for thy necessities And reason it selfe which befalls thee afterwards as the onely aduantage whereof thou mayst vaunt and glory doth most commonly turne to thy shame and confusion through vices and interiour diseases which it ingendreth in thee Vnfortunate that thou art those weapons which thou imployest to thy ruine were giuen thee for thy conseruation Me thinkes those barbarous Indians of Mexico doe singular well who at the birth of their Children exhort them to suffer and endure as if nature gaue no other prerogatiue to man then miserie whereunto hee is lincked and chained by the misfortune and dutie of his condition Let vs consider a little that
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hic vera felicitas THE IVDGMENT OF Humane Actions A most Learned Excellent Treatise of Morrall Philosophie which fights agaynst Vanytie Conduceth to the fyndinge out of true and perfect Felicytie Written in French by Monsieur Leonard Marrande And Englished by Iohn Reynolds LONDON Imprinted by A. Mathewes for Nicholas Bourne at the Royall Exchange 1629 I Cecill sculp TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE AND truly Noble EDWARD Earle of DORSET Lord Lieutenant of his Majesties Counties of Sussex and Middlesex Lord Chamberlaine to the Queene One of the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Priuie Councell and Knight of the most Illustrious Order of the Garter His Singular good Lord and Master RIGHT HONOVRABLE EIther by Earthly accident or Heauenly prouidence meeting with this late imprinted French Treatise of The Iudgement of Humane Actions written by Monsieur Marande a name that I more honour then know and diuing into the perusall thereof I found it for matter so solide and for phrase so curious a Master-peece of Morall Philosophie that I sawe my selfe engaged yea and in a manner bound to deuest it from its French garbe and to sute it in our English attire and habite as desirous that England as well as France should participate of that benefit and Felicitie But as I was entering into this taske and casting my selfe vpon the resolution of this attempt I was instantly met and assayled by an obstacle of no small importance For considering that France hath now made and declared her selfe Englands enemie and consâ—quently giuen vs no iust cause or reasons to loue French men but many to hate them I therefore in honour to my Prince and Country to whose prosperity and seruice my best blood and life shall euer bee prostrated at first began to reiect this Booke because written by a French man and so to looke on the translation thereof rather with an eye of contempt then of affection But at last recollecting my thoughts and considering that Peace is the gift and blessing of God and Charâ—ty the true marke of a Christian I therefore from my heart and soule wishing and desiring a safe honorable and perdurable peace betweene these two mighty neighbour Sister Kingdomâ—s in particular and to all Christians and the whole Christian world in general And also well knowing that Learning is vniuersally to be cherished and vertue honoured in all persons times and places of the whole world without exception or distinction then these premiâ—es considered this my last consideration preuailed and vanquished my first and so I re-assumed my former designe and resolution to finish it although in regard of the deepe matter and the knottie and elegant stile thereof I ingeniously confesse that many Gentlemen both of England and Scotland had beene farre more capable for the discharge and performance thereof then my selfe Hauing thus made my selfe an English Eccho to this French Author and now in these times of Warre taken this Booke as a rich French prise and landed him on our English shores Where should this Impe of my labour looke but on your Ho on whom my hopes heart haue euer looked or to whom else should it flye for harbour and shelter but onely to your Lordship who in all the stormes and tempests of these my weather beaten fortunes haue so graciously and generously serued me both for shelter and harbour when the immerited malice of some and the vndeserued ingratitude of others haue denied it me The which yet I speake and remember more out of sensibility to my selfe â—hen any way out of passion much lesse of Enuie to them as resting contented with this resolution to keepe the griefe thereof to my selfe to leaue the shame to them and to giue the thankes and glory to your Honour As this Booke of Marande is curious so he made his Dedication thereof wherefore led by the fame and lustre of his example I could doe no lesse then immitate him herein for as he directed it to the Cardinall of Richelieu So your Lordships Merits and my dutie enforce me to inscribe it to your Honour who are as much the Cardinalls equall in Vertues as by many degrees his superiour in bloud and extraction And although I well know that shall rather wrong mine Author then right my selfe to erect or proffer any Paâ—â—gerike to his Merits and Iudgement on this his Booke because of it selfe iâ— sufficiently peâ—formes and acts that part Yet when your Lordshipâ— leasure and pleasure shall borow so much time from your great and weighty â—ffâ—ires of the State to giue it to the perusâ—ll and contemplation of this his Booke I doubt not but you will then see and acknowledge that Marande herein as another Cornelius Agrippa learnedly fights against the Vanitie of Humane Sciences and as a second Montaigne iudiciously contests against the poyson of our hearts I meane against our intemperate and therefore our pernicious Passions For in this worke of his as in a rich Treasurie and Sacrary of Nature He with a zeale and iudgement euery way worthy of himselfe laughes at the Vanitie of all Humane Artes and Actions as also generally at all the presumptuous and profane professors thereof and by reasons as cleare as the Sunne passeth his iudgement on them prouing GOD to bee the sole Author and Giuer of Wisdome and that GOD and none but GOD ought to bee the onely obiect of our desires and affections Here hee hath deuested and stript our passions naked and curiously delineated and depointed them to vs in their true colours and naturall deformity Heere he hath taught vs to beleeue and our thoughts and resolutions to know that exorbitant Ambition prooues most commonly the bane of our hearts the poyson of our mindes and the Arch-Enemie and Traytor to our owne fortunes and fâ—licitie Here hee hath curiously arraigned and anatomized the power and functions of the Senses and shewed vs how violently and maliciously they euery moment conspire to corrupt our bodies and to betray our soules to sinne and voluptuousnesse Here he hath brought home to our Vnderstanding and Iudgement what power our soules haue ouer our bodies and God ouer our soules and that our bodies can expect no true tranquillity or felicity here on Earth except our soules doe first fetch it from Heauen and deriue it from God And here hee hath crowned Reason to be the Queene of our soules and adopted Vertue to bee no lesse then a Princesse and Daughter of Heauen and taught vs how tenderly and religiously we ought to loue either and honour both of them sith thereby they will then infallibly prooue the two spirituall guides to conduct vs to true happinesse in this life and consequently to bring vs to true felicity and glory in that to come Which considered As also that such is the vniuersall iniquity of our times the generall deprauation and corruption of our liues and manners that through the darke cloudes of our humane Vanitie and Ambition we many times
cannot see Reason for Passion nor permanent Felicitie for transitory Delights and Pleasures And therefore that the World or rather the Courts of Kings and Princes which is the pride and glory thereof very often vseth vs not as a Lady of Honour but as a deboshed Strumpet or Courtisan who many times strangleth vs when shee makes greatest shew to embrace and kisse vs and the which in that regard and consideration I may pertinently and properly parallell to the Panther whose skinne is faire but his breath infectious Therefore out of the zeale of my best prayers and the candour and integrity of my best seruice and wishes eternally desiring and wishing that your Lordships prosperities and Honours may bee as infinite as your Vertues and Merits and as immortall as you are mortall I hope and implore that your Honour will please to pardon this my presumption for proffering vp this poore Epistle to your rich consideration and for being so ambitious to make this vnworthy translation of mine soare so high as to your Honourable protection and patronage in affixing and placing your Noble name thereto as a Stately Porch or Front to this rich and stately Temple of Vertue Not but that I perfectly know that your Honour is plentifully and aboundantly furnished with great variety of sweet preseruatiues and sound and salubrious Antidotes both against your owne humane passions as also against the frownes and flatteries of the world But yet I could giue no satisfaction to my selfe before I had giuen this Booke the desired though not deserued honour to kisse your Lordships hands For the Transplantation thereof being mine my Duty and Seruice prompted mee that I must needes direct and consecrate it to your Honour as well by the right of a iust propriety as by the equity of a commanding obligation and therefore of a necessary consequence Againe your Honour louing Vertue and cherishing Philosophie so tenderly and deerely in your selfe I thought that others would be the sooner induced and drawne thereto by the powerfull influence of your Example and therefore that the Dignity and Lustre of your name would serue as a sure pasport to make this Booke passe current with the different affections pallates and censures of his Readers whom now it goes foorth to meete with In which regard I hold it more presumption in me toward your Honour then neglect towards them to make this your Epistle serue likewise for them as being equally resolued neither to court their fauours nor to feare their reprehensions And heere before I shut vp this my Epistle I beseech your Honour to bee pleased farther to vnderstand that in this Translation I haue sometimes borrowed from the letter to giue to the sense by adding voluptuousnesse to pleasure shewe to apparance and affliction to euill or the like A liberty which I hold tolerable in a modest Interpreter As also I haue sometimes added griefe to paine although according to the rules and grounds of Logicke I know that the last hath reference to the body and the first to the Soule But I did it purposely to make it speake the more significant and fuller English because your Honour knowes so well as no man better that as other Languages so English hath her peculiar Idioms and proper phrases and Accents which may but yet in my poore opinion and Iudgement ought not to be omitted or neglected I will no farther vsurpe on your Lordships patience but will leaue this Booke to his fortune and my selfe to your wonted Honourable fauour So wishing all encrease of Earthly happinesse and heauenly fefelicity to your Honour to your Honourable and most vertuous Countesse and to those sweet and Noble young Plants your Children I will liue and dye in the resolution euer to be found Your Honours humblest Seruant IOHN REYNOLDS A TABLE OF THE Discourses and Sections which are contained in this Booke The first Discourse Of Vanitie Section I. MAn diuerteth his eyâ—s from his condition not to know the deformity thereof and abandoneth them to follow his owne vaine imaginations pag. 1 Section II. The wisedome of man cannot free it selfe from Vanitie so naturall she is to it pag. 17 The second Discourse Of the Senses Section I. THe Soule and the Body are vnited together 〈…〉 strong â—â—inke that as the 〈…〉 by the meanes of the Soule so the Soule cannot moue towards externall things nor know them but by the meanes of the senses pag. 27 Section II. The different operation of the Senses concludes not that there are fiue no more then the different effects of the rayes of the Sunne that there are many Sunnes 32 Section III. Nature being icalous of secrets permits not the Senses to discouer the Essences of things nor that they can conuey any thing to our vnderstanding that is not changed and corrupted by them in the Passage 37 Section IV. Science or Knowledge is the marke and seale of the Diuinity but that which resides among vs here in Earth is nothing else but abuse trumpery and vanitie pag. 44 Section V. Man hauing some knowledge of himselfe although it be imperfect as also of those whom he frequents hee contemnes their Learning and esteemes none but that which is growne in forraigne Countries or which hee receiues from an vnknowne hand 68 The third Discourse Of Opinion Section I. TO cut off the Liberty of Iudgement is to bereaue the Sunne of her light and to depriue man of his fairest ornament pa. 79 Section II. All things wonderfully encrease and fortifie themselues through Opinion 88 Section III. Opinion very ill requiâ—es the greatnesse to hold her still in shew and esteeme and to giue all the world right to controle her actions 94 Section IV. The common people haue no more certaine nor cleare seeing guide then Opinion 99 Section V. Opinion as an ingenious Painter giues those things which enuiron vs such face figure as it pleaseth 102 Section VI. Opinion leaues nothing entire but its corruption and pardoneth not Vertue her selfe 107 The fourth Discourse Of Passions Section I. STormes arise not so many surges on the Sea as Passions engender tempests in the hearts of men 114 Section II. We may say of Loue that which the Romanes said of an Emperour that they knew not whether they receiued more good or euill of him 122 Section III. Ambition hath no mediocrity and feares not his burning if the fire of heauen or the thunder-bolt of Iupiter furnish him the first sparkles pa. 133. Section IV. Couetousnesse is only iust in that it rigorously punisheth those whom it mastereth and commandeth 141 Section V. Fortune hath not a more charming Lure or bayte then our owne hope 199 Section VI. Feare casts her selfe into the future time as into a darke and obscure place thereby with a small cause or subiect to giue vs the greater wonder and astonishment 156 Section VII Of all Passions there is no greater Enemie of Reason nor lesse capable of Councell then Choler 177 Section VIII Passions haue so
his first babling and pratling yeares are watred with nothing but with his teares His infancy full of astonishment and feare vnder the rod of his superiour His riper yeares discouer him by all the parts of his body and soule expose him to the inevitable snares of Loue to the dangerous blowes of fortune and to the stormes and fury of all sorts of Passions In his declining age as broken with so many cares calamities and labours hee flyes but with one wing and goes coasting along the riuer to land more easily possessed and tormented neuerthelesse with many vnprofitable and superfluous thoughts He is afflicted at the time present grieved at the past and in extreame care and trouble for that to come as if he now beganne to liue Hee perceiues not his age but by his gray haires and wrinkled forehead and most commonly hath nothing remaining to testifie that he hath liued so great a number of yeeres but an old withred age which enclines him to a generall distaste of all fruits that his weake stomach cannot digest which often imprints more wrinkles and furrowes in his minde then in his face His body bending and bowing which is no longer supported but by the ayde and assistance of others like an old building ruinous and vncouered in a thousand places which by little and little seemes to end and destroy itselfe Whiles his fugitiue soule which meets nothing else in this fraile Vessell but that which is either sowre or vinowed seekes by all meanes to breake her alliance and in the end retires being infinitly weary to haue so long conducted and supported so decrepit and heauy a burthen loden with all miseries as the sincke and receptacle of all griefes and euils which the influence of Heauen continually powreth downe vpon the face of Earth Nothing so weake and yet so proud Let vs heare him speake with what boldnesse doth he not praise his audacious front His heart is puffe vp and swelld with glory and many great bumbasted Words as if mounted on some Throne hee formes himselfe an imaginary Scepter for a marke of his Soueraigne greatnes Hee hath saith he the Dominion and Empire ouer all things created He commands all beasts The Sunne Heauen and Earth are but the ministers of his power But wretched and proud as thou art dost thou beleeue thou hast power to command where thou hast no right but in thy obedience Thy inclinations fortune and mis-fortune which droppe and destill on thy head through those celestiall pipes doe they not constraine thee with blowes and stripes to stoope and acknowledge their superintendency Bow downe bow downe thine eyes for it is farre more proper and conuenient for thee If not that after the custome of the Thracians thou wilt shoot arrowes against Heauen which will after returne and fall on thine owne head And if for the aduantages and priuiledges of the body thou wilt preferre thy selfe to all beasts vouchsafe onely to enter in comparison with a few of them in particular The courage of the Lyon the strength of the Elephant the swiftnesse of the Stagge and the particular qualities which are found in others will prooue thee farre inferiour to them Hauing thus walked thine eyes vpon the garden knots of this world now make a reflexion thereof in thy selfe and if thy iudgment retaine any ayre of health I know thou wilt say with me or rather with wise Solomon That man is nothing else but vanity without and within in what forme and posture of vice so euer thou contemplate him Then wee shall haue the assurance to say with the Philosophers That laughter is proper to man And proper indeed it is according to the rules of Democritus to laugh and mocke at his folly as at his Vanity That other Philosopher more pittifull then this testified by his weeping that hee had no other weapons then teares to defend the blowes and wipe the wounds of so miserable a condition as ours That if we enquire by what right he imposed on his companions the burthen of so seuere a law and so ponderous and pressing a yoke I finde that hee is no way excusable but in this that hee submitted himselfe to the same slauery and seruitude The equality of our euils herein doth some way extenuate and cut off the iust subiect of our complaints For he which sees himselfe fettered to the fortune of an iron chaine although thou haue inroled him among the number of thy slaues yet hee may neuerthelesse vaunt to see thee fight vnder the displayed Ensigne of the same misfortune not like himselfe tyed to an iron chaine but to one a little more honourable as it may be to a chaine of gold or peraduenture to a bracelet of haire which captiuates thy heart and liberty vnder the tempting lures of a young beauty or else by the linkes of thy Ambition which inseperably chaines thee to Fortune sith all sorts and degrees of liuing is but slauery that the Scepters of Princes are farre heauier in their hands then the crookes of innocent Shepheards That if no condition haue power to exempt and dispence thee from this slauery what shall wee accuse either the vice of a malicious nature which at thy birth powred into thy breast so many miseries or rather the defect of thy knowledge and iudgement which enwrapped thee in so obscure and thicke a cloude that this blindnesse makes thee euery moment stumble against the good which presents it selfe to thy eyes as against euill And that in this ignorance thou art as a Ship abandoned to the fury of the waues which the horrour of the night hath surprised in the middest of a storme and tempest wherein in the feare of shipwrack the surest places where his good fortune throwes him giues him no lesse astonishment and feare then the most dangerous places For the fauours of Nature should still put thee out of the suspition of her malignitie What hath shee not done to preuent and remedy the discontent which may arise in thy heart through an obiect so full of discontent shee hath hid from thine eyes and sight the most secret parts which giue the life and motion as the weakest and most subiect to corruption and the most vile because they resemble the inward part of the foulest beast of all And indeede shee hath giuen thee eyes to see abroad onely and to admire in the world as in a Temple the liuely images of the Diuinitie But as for those things which are without vs could she doe any thing better or more aduantagious to man for the cōsolation of so many afflictions and griefes which incessantly assaile him then the habit or custome thereof as a sweet potion which administreth sleepe and easeth that part whereunto it is applied to operate his effect with more facilitie and lesse contradiction This fauour in my opinion is not the least Present which she could giue him For a habitude of suffering afflictions dulleth the first edge and point thereof and
hardneth the body to the performance thereof And surely if the griefe which wee very often feele and endure had so much violence in the continuation as in the first excesse thereof the courage and strength of man would proue too weake so long to resist it The Irons which were clapp'd on the hands and feete of the Philosopher seem'd not so heauie to him the second day as the first and when they tooke them from him to make him swallow downe the poyson which was prepared for him that very day and time hee saw his consolation to spring and arise from his griefe and in the middest of his tortures and executioners the subiect of pleasure and ioy Consider then if there remaine any thing to thy pride wherewith it should swell and growe so great but Vanity and what weapons there are left thee to fight against thy misfortune but onely Patience which ought to make thee acknowledge that thou art indebted for thy slauery but onely to thy selfe because Nature hath assisted thee with her best power and that for the rest shee referres it hee to ordaine according to the rules of thy sufficiencie Or if thou wilt yet know the head spring and originall from whence arise so many discontents in our life it is because men feare as Mortalls and desire as Immortalls They binde the liuing to the dead Diuine with Humane They will ingraft the head of a God vpon the body of a Hogge so their desires which are deriued from this superiour part giues no end to their impatiencie Their feare in this soule and inferiour part giues lesse truce to their true torment and the one and the other draw for our misfortune an affliction and paine of that which is not because they labour for the future as for the present vpon the empty as vpon the full and vpon the inanitie as the substance Enterprises begun hold our mindes in suspence those which are desperate in sorrow as if some byas which we haue to manage and turne those things which present themselues to vs could not meete but with causes of affliction and misery and as if ambitious of our owne misfortune wee deuance and runne before to meete it and that it were impossible for vs to gather a Rose except by the prickle Also griefe hath more Art to make vs feele it then pleasure hath ioy to make vs tast it A little affliction presseth vs farre more then an extreame contentment and in reuoking to minde those things which time hath stolne from our eyes it seemes that our memory is better edged by the sharpnesse of those things which we haue felt then by the polishing of those things which haue but as it were rased our vnderstanding Our remembrance cannot keepe firme his foote slides and as soone failes him Our thoughts flye vpon things past and stop not but at that which she findes sharpe angry and difficult to digest so the time past which afflicts vs the present which troubleth vs and the future which denounceth warre to our desires or feares doth hinder vs from relishing any thing which is pure Homer who put two Tunnes at the entry of Iupiters doore of Good and Euill ought to haue said that the Good was reserued for the Gods and the other remained in partage to men or that Iupiter being a louer of that which was good as hee is the cause was too couetous in his expenses and with one hand was too prodigall in powring out Euils vpon mankind Good and Euill is in all things and euery where intermixed so confusedly and are so neere one to the other that it is not in our weake power to marke the difference thereof except by that place which doth neerest touch and concerne vs which is that of griefe and sorrow Which side so euer wee bend or encline it is still towards that of misery Consider the inconstancy and irresolution of thy desires It is not in thine owne power to stay firme and permanent in one condition and qualitie That if thy sensuall appetite could bee the Iudge and Arbitrator of her owne voluptuousnesse and that shee were left to doe what shee pleased I yet doubt that shee would still finde some thing to craue or desire For this hungry and insatiable desire which carrieth her to that which is not and the displeasing taste which is intermixt in the enioying thereof makes vs presently weary thereof Which is the reason why the Wiseman craued nothing of GOD but the effects of his diuine will requiring that which was truly proper and necessary for him But as our desires are wauing and different so our will is weake towards good or euill and cannot absolutely beare it selfe towards the one and the other without some bruse or hurt deriued from the croude and confusion of our owne proper desires We can difficultly agree with our selfe and none with a firme and an assured heart can suggest any wicked act but that his conscience repines and murmures within him Shee cannot consent vnto crime and thorowe so great a masse of flesh she discouereth and accuseth her selfe for want of witnesses Or if despight her power she cannot disclose it yet shee then secretly scratcheth and incessantly excruciateth her selfe Constancie and Vertue which the Philosopher would lodge in the heart of the Wise man as in a sacred Temple is it so firme that it will neuer shake No it is a Vanity to thinke so But as the world is but a perpetuall dance or brawle so shee goes from one dance to another a little more languishing And as in a sicke body the parts lesse offended with paine and the contagion of the disease are termed sound so among this great troope of men the least vitious are termed vertuous and wee terme that firme and constant which moues not with so much swiftnesse and leuity as the rest Qualities haue no title but in the comparison Those Boates which seeme so great on the Riuer of Seine are very little at Sea and that resplendant vertue of the antient Philosophers which diffuseth and darts forth so much brightnesse among vs doth owe this aduantage to mens folly and ignorance Shee will be found vitious if shee submit her selfe to be sounded and to suffer the last touch and triall because the diuine wisedome hath baptised ours with Vanity Weakenesse and Folly To giue it more Firmity shee hath neede of a foundation more solide then the heart of man For as the fixed starres in their disposition and scituation ought notwithstanding to obey the course motion of heauen so constancie doth alwayes wheele and waue about and despight her selfe is obliged to the motion and inconstancie of that whereunto it is tyed and fastned The wisest doth nothing else but goe astray in all his actions and if he strike vpon the point of constancie it is most commonly by indirect meanes and wayes Hee neuer aymes where he strikes Hee resembleth those Muskatieres who knowing their defect or fault take their ayme
irregularity but a degree of folly Leâ— vs seeke the confirmation of my speech in thâ— Schoole of the Philosophers Plato beleeued noâ— that a solide and sound Vnderstanding ought or should knocke at the gate of Poesie because the Poet saith he sitting on the chaire of the Muses furiously powres forth all which comes into his minde without tasting or digesting it It escaped from Homers tongue That it is gooâ— sometimes to be a foole Cato affirmes that thâ— best wits are those which haue most variety But Aristotle makes it cleare that a Wit which mounts it selfe into the supreamest degree of excellencie and rarity is indebted to his irregularity which issueth forth from his seat of Wisedome and is therefore of the iurisdiction of folly as if the soule had no surer signe of her perfect health then sicknesse It is a misfortune to owe his Wisedome to folly his glory to contempt and his reformation to Vice To sprinckle on vs Oracles and Prophesies according to the diuine Philosopher the soule must abandon her vsuall custome and pace and be surprised and forced by some heauenly raptures and rauishment thereby to steale as Prometheus did fire from heauen the secrets of the Diuinity That if hee whom antiquity beleeued to merrit the name of Wise aboue all other men hath refused it as vnworthy although Humane Nature enforced it selfe to produce him as a bright Sunne among the shining wits of his age by what right and iurisdiction must we attribute it to him Shall wee be Iudges of that whereof wee are incapable and shall our ignorance haue this reputation aboue his knowledge to be beleeued more true therein We are prodigall of that which we haue not and thinke to iudge more truly then he of those colours which we haue neuer seene and whereof himselfe alone hath had some knowledge though imperfect Is it not true that Socrates had more knowledge of his wisedome and of himselfe then all those vulgar people who with confused voyces and ill assured words would be wiser then him in this Art and Science of wisedom Socrates had too much freenesse in his soule to vse any counterfeiting disguise that if hee would attribute to his modesty the contempt which hee made of himselfe his wisedome and condition I will esteeme him guilty of no lesse vanity because there is no lesse errour and vice to conceale and couer the truth one way then another Let vs therefore stay at his free confession rather then to our owne rash iudgements and yet notwithstanding wee shall giue him no lesse praise and glory then antiquity hath done But let vs receiue this contentment that it be done in our sight and to our knowledge and that hee drawe vp Art and Science from the bottome of his ignorance and his greatest and iustest glory with so much reason and iustice to haue despised and contemned himselfe And from thence let vs deriue this consequence or Corollary That the power of man goes no farther then this point to cause to issue and streame foorth some riuolets of cleare water from the bottome of a deepe and dirty Well Hee still sauours of slime and dirt and if hee haue strength enough to dissemble it to our sences hee hath not sufficient art to disguise it to the truth Hee deemes himselfe powerfull through the vse and frequecie of his owne opinions He resounds aloude the wealth and treasure of his imagination and hath reason to prise and value them at so high a rate because all his riches is but a dreame his felicities but in outward shewe and appearance his prerogatiues but in discourse and hee himselfe is nothing else but vanity and lyes Chiron who refused the immortality which was offered him by the Gods had learnt in the Schoole of Nature the esteeme which he should make of so miserable and wretched a condition wherein there is nothing immortall but vexation and labour nor mortall but contentment Wee liue in sorrowes and afflictions or rather they liue by and in vs and for the defect of true causes we adde phantasticall bodies thereunto to afflict vs. And if we are reduced to this point to haue nothing without to paine vs wee yet make our selues enemies of our selues as if our peace and rest were but in contradiction and our tranquillity in perpetuall apprehension and feare But let vs proceede to examine the other springs and lockes of his nature thereby to discouer them to see whether wee shall finde more or lesse Vanity in him although notwithstanding we purposely conceale the greatest part thereof For if all were discouered it were to be feared that it being but Vanity it would all proue but winde which would carie away with it the subiect whereon wee are to entreate The end of the first Discourse The second Discourse Of the Sences SECTION I. The soule and the body are vnited together by so strong a linke that as the body cannot moue but by the meanes of the soule so the soule cannot moue towards externall things nor know them but by meanes of the sences RIuers doe not sufficiently discouer the nature of their head Springs and mens actions yeeld not knowledge enough of their Originall their perpetuall motion bereaues from our eyes through its violence the meanes how to know them and from our thoughts the meanes how to iudge of them It is the flight of a bird which leaues no trace in the ayre behinde him we must therefore follow him as he goes to know what hee is what is the principall marke whereby hee differeth from other creatures what are his priuiledges faculties and meanes whereby he receiues knowledge the ayde and assistance whereof besides the perpetuall trouble wherein it entertaines him fills him full of vaine glory and presumption In so doing wee shall see Reason in her castle how she establisheth her selfe with power and authority what is her beginning her progresse and her end how she findes not in vs any free common and naturall entrance but by the sences which are as the Sentinels of the soule disposed without to aduertise her of all that passeth and to furnish the principles and matter to establish this proud building wherein she afterwards sits as in her Throne of maiestie which I terme Science or the knowledge of things For if all things that are knowne may bee knowne onely according to the faculty of the knower wee must acknowledge that wee are solely bound to them for this knowledge because it doth necessarily begin and likewise end in them For by the meanes of the sences Imagination Memory and Opinion is framed and formed and from these imaginations being once placed in quietnesse and of memory and opinion reduced in order by iudgement is deriued the knowledge of things To passe on and proceede with more facility to this knowledge we say that the Sence is a faculty ioyned in a certaine proportion and harmony with its proper obiect as the Sight to colours Hearing to sounds Smelling to sents
I doe not wonder if the Epicuriens submit vs to the mercie of the senses with so much seuerity and tyrannie that they permit it to be more lawfull for vs to inuent all sorts of lyes and fictions then to accuse them of falshood Those Philosophers cannot chuse but establish excellent Arts and Sciences sith they are so religious in their principles and they well demonstrate by their Atomes the faith and sound beliefe which they want in their weake beginnings It is true that in the Spagerycall Art the more things are discharged from the grosse accidents and qualities which enuiron them the more they are made perfect and essentiall but it fares not with our Vnderstanding as with a Lymbecke because the labour of our minde doth in nothing touch the true being of the thing and the strongest stroake which hee can giue to apprehend it is this first communication of the Senses to the things which are neerest by their faculties relation harmony measure and true proportion which is betwixt them and their obiect by the interuention of Nature so as then when one of the Senses hath carried to Common Sense the figure of his obiect hee is so farre from being cleansed and purified by this Idea or that hee communcates more easily by the vertue of his being that he is much the further off it And as the sides of an Angle the more they are continued the more they are distant one from the other so the more those figures or Images are borne to the common sense and are purified to make them capable and worthy of our vnderstanding the more they estrange themselues from the obiect which they represent and consequently from his true being Our thoughts runne af-after obiects to embrace them but in vaine for they can ouertake nothing but shaddowes through the ayd and assistance of their weake imaginations It is a handfull of water which shee will retaine and hold and the more shee graspes fast her hand the swifter it runnes out But sith thoughts enioy nothing else of the thing then the Idâ—ea can we say that it is a subiect capable to containe him to possesse it yea in a being more certaine sure and purer then she is If wee say there is so small reason to measure a right line by a crooked one to know the true measure thereof and that a square cannot bee measured by an Orbe or circle although these lines and figures are of the same nature and differ not but accidentally is it possible that wee would so proudly measure and know the truth of things by so false an instrument and which hath so small resemblance to its true being It is to esteeme the shadowe aboue the light to giue more beliefe to dreames then watchings and more to prise and value apparance and shewe yea of not being then of the true being of the thing it selfe This faculty of sense which distills through all our body is descended from aboue and from our soule as the light of the Sunne which exposeth to our eyes the beauty but not the Essence of things that enuiron vs Sith Nature it selfe according to Plato is nothing else but abstruse and Enigmaticall Poesie as an ouer-vailed painting resplending with infinite variety of false lights thereby to giue vnto the apparence of our reasons and the weakenesse of our coniectures more cause to admire the sacred and powerfull hand of our diuine Painter God who in all the corners of the world and chiefely in man hath engrauen the Caracters and Images of his Diuinity SECTION IV. Science or knowledge is the marke and seale of the Diuinity but that which resides among vs here in Earth is nothing else but abuse trumperie and vanitie OVr Knowledge is but a Vanity his assurance hath no other foundation but doubt There is nothing more weake or fraile then his principles His beginnings are tender and childish we must leade them by the hand They had neede haue ayde and support from euery one of a firme and vndoubted beliefe for want of valable reasons If our faith did not maintaine them they could not subsist of themselues Also none will permit that they be examined or proued for the triall and quest will be of too dangerous a consequence But there can be no principles if the Diuinity haue not reuealed them and therefore there is no science or knowledge All contrary presupposition hath no lesse authority one then the other If reason make not the difference That which we will establish for reason it must needes be reason it selfe and not our owne opinion If it be lawfull for vs to enforme our selues of the Principles of Sciences yea of that which is held and maintained for the most certaine and true by the common consent of all Philosophers wee shall finde that by their false presuppositions they establish a knowledge of Truth For they will measure materiall things by immateriall although neuerthelesse they will haue the thing which measureth of the same nature with the thing measured As their numbers which are not measured but by numbers and their lines by lines But the point is the principle of their measure The point is nothing they haue therefore no point of a principle in their measure There is nothing so opposite and distant as being from not being How will they then by the not being of the point passe to the infallible and sure demonstration of the true Being of the body Can they giue any other assured foundation to the point the line and the superficies then their imagination Let them not therefore attempt to measure imaginary things sith they are of the same nature and that there is nothing more different then reall Being to imaginarie froÌ„ the line to the pearch and from the Angle to the Compasse Let the Surueyer of Lands make vse of his pearch to measure the earth but let not the Astrologer forme in his head or minde any imaginary pearches to measure heauen the distance of the planets or the extent of the Zodiacke Let our grosse sense be the test of true and false sith we haue none more sure It will ill become vs to play the wise men aboue our senses and vnderstanding Our wit can neither forme nor frame any thing beyond it which hath any foundation This is to vndertake too much They make vs confesse despight of our selues that they are the expert Masters therein and that we haue no right but in obedience not in counsaile If the Mathematicians will not that the point measure the line the line the superficies nor the superficies the body Why will they that this body framed in their imaginations by the weauing and connexion of the point the line and the superficies which is but imaginarie be capable to measure a body physicall and reall which admits nor knowes any point line or superficies It is to establish Principles with too much tyrannie not to giue leaue to examine them Sith the knowledge which results thereof
maske of outward shewe doth debosh and abandon himselfe to all sides so many new subiects so many contrary and different opinions as their Philosophers They agree not among themselues that fire is hot when there should bee none but the Pirrhoniens to make them rest doubtfull thereof and despight of their knowledge to affirme nothing certaine They suspect the senses as if they were halfe corrupted by the familiarity of those things which enuiron them And if we will condemne them according to the mercy of Sense wee shall finde that Beasts suffer the same iurisdiction that wee doe and that by the priuiledge of their sence wee cannot refuse them the liberty to leaue or chuse to take or refuse to absolue or condemne according to the quality of good or euill which presents its selfe to their imagination by the particular fauour and recommendation of their senses For they haue learnt in their Schoole that fire is hot and they know it as well as we who can yeeld no other reason and cannot passe beyond the knowledge of this cause aboue that which our experience and Sense hath taught vs. The Ape will beware and not approach too neere the fire except the fagot be small and vnbound because of the discourse he holds in himselfe to auoide the like disaster wherein he was formerly fallen But what haue we to say if they haue their sense and feeling more subtile then ours doeth it not thence follow they haue a purer knowledge a simpler resemblance and a more harmonious condition then we The Stagge hath his Hearing the Eagle her Sight the Dogge his Smelling the Ape his Tast and the Tortoise her Feeling more subtile then wee although of this last onely as of the most brutall some attribute vs the preheminency and thereby they finde the obiects more discouered and naked then we doe that which a hundred ensuing propositions doe but imaginarily discouer to vs this beast sees it with a simple and first innate knowledge and who can deny but that it is more noble and perfect in this kinde of beast then in vs If it bee true that those things which are most approaching and neerest to the trueth are the most worthie Is not the Eagle to bee esteemed and held a truer obseruer of the light and greatnesse of the Sunne then the sight of Man which flies and soares so low that the least obstacle astonisheth him and his owne proper weakenesse and imbecillity hindereth him That if for the conseruation of our owne good temper and the knowledge of Hearbes which are proper and necessary for the restoring of our health we will atribute the priuiledge and aduantage to our selues Let vs see of a Man and a Beast hurted which of the two will be soonest cured The Serpent among a thousand different Plants and Hearbes throwes himselfe on that which is proper to him and returnes to his Combat more couragious and generous then before whiles Man in his conference and consultation of Hearbes and of their properties and qualities runnes most incertainely after his remedy which many times prooues more preiudiciall and hurtfull to him then his wound or sickenesse When reason failes vs we then imploy experience and the conference of euents which most commonly produceth a bad consequence in regard they are still different and variable But this knowledge which causeth the Serpent without premeditation to take that which is proper for him either it is giuen and infused to him by Nature or it is done by a simple and primary apprehension which at first sight discouereth him the trueth of the obiect But howsoeuer it is farre more noble and absolute then ours which consisteth but onely of the Tast and comparison and conference of so many false things So beasts doe more certainely know obiects then men because they are led and conducted there to by the light of Nature which is still certaine and cleere-seeing and men by their owne which is but an obscure and glimmering light for the true knowledge or trueth it selfe is the tranquillity of the minde it is an infallible point which is expressed in one word as the perfectest knowledge which is attributed to superiour Intelligences proceedes of the first ray of the minde without reflection I meane without deuoluing or ratiotination for we neede no discourse but onely to approach the thing which is farre distant from vs or to approach our selues neerer to it If we haue our finger thereon there is nothing more vnprofitable then those intricate propositions then those lets and stops of discourse wherein our thoughts are frequently so entermixed and confused that we shall haue sooner done to teare then to vntie the webbe or knot thereof SECTION V. Man hauing some knowledge of himselfe although it bee imperfect as also of those whom he frequents he contemnes their Learning and esteemes none but that which is growne in forraigne Countries or which he receiues from an vnknowne hand THe nimblest Wits are accustomed to frame to themselues most conceptions but they are so weake as they can giue no blow to trueth and if we haue found it open and vncouered we will in such sort tie and fixe our selues there-to that the stormes and tempests which continually arise in vs by the trouble of our passions giue vs too weake iogges or thrusts to make vs forsake the possession thereof We should be still inseparably vnited and as the heauy body which is arriued to his Center is no longer waighty so our Soule arriued to her Center and vnited to her true obiect shall haue no more lightnes weaknesse or inconstancy but she is too farre estranged from it Those Arts and Sciences which the Poet said were giuen vs by the Gods are but the shadowes and Images of that which remaines in their brest we find none but weak ones like our selues all things goe with a trembling and an ill assured pace it seemes they are obliged by one the same law to follow one and the same pace and dance as we doe It seemes that our first Fathers haue enioyed it more pleasantly and with lesse contradiction then we our antient Philosophers who succeeded them haue seized it by a thorny place which hath sowne among them so many diuorces and quarrells that if wee beare any respect or reuerence to their writings it is as much for their antiquitie as for their merits Our Age hath seene many great and excellent wits which the farther distant they are from our sight the neerer they approach our praise and recommendation But because Learning is no longer prised and esteemed among vs it seemes that she is choaked and smothered betweene their hands it appeares to vs she hath no more fame and lustre but among strangers wee beleeue that hee in whom wee haue seene and obserued some faults can produce nothing but that which is defiled and vitious we value men as we doe Figures or Statues of stone which wee prise the more for their antiquity and behold
them more curiously and attentiuely then we would doe a Statue of Gold or Siluer which we our selues haue seene made although it were farre more inriched by the art and labour of an excellent workeman and this onely because we haue seene a deformed massie piece thereof whereon he hath began to labour Let him hencefoorth doe what he can he cannot remooue this thought from our minde where as the other hath neuer appeared to vs but in his lustre So those whom we haue seene to play the men like our selues their Oracles and Prophets haue not beene approoued or esteemed among vs as those antient Philosophers whom it seemes that we cannot otherwise imagine then with their eyes and thoughts tyed fast to the bosome of the Diuinity and in a perpetuall re-search of the dependance and vniting together of second causes to this first sacred spring and fountaine we haue neuer seene them in their bed table or family If one and the same Age had made them our time-fellowes I know not if the familiarity of their life had not distasted vs of the familiaritie of their wits That Medales are not prised but for their rust and age and that Man so weake and wretched he is deserues no honour or praise but of those to whom he is vnknowne if his memory be too recent and fresh if the fame of his vertues be as yet but in his Orient he aduanceth with much difficulty For as at the rising of the Sunne we see a great thicke fogge of grosse vapours which seemes to arise but onely purposely to ecclipse and darken his light vntill with a bold and resolute pace he trample vnder his feete the pride of this malignant fogge who is so ielous and enuious of his brightnesse But in the middest of his course hauing attained the point of our Zenith then he seemes to Triumph ouer his Enemies as antiently vnder the Image of Apollo he quelled the arrogancy of that infamous Serpent of the Earth So I say the fame and glory of all those Illustrious personages hath commonly found its death in its cradle and in her very birth is still found obscured yea almost defaced by the hot vapours of a thousand enuious Spirits vntill that after the tract of many yeeres it in the end remaines Victorious of their life and likewise prooues so of their callumnie And then ariued to the point of the Zenith their merits haue found no farther hinderance to oreshadowe their glory and the length of time hauing transported them from our sight hath then likewise transported and secured them from the darts of enuie and scandall If Truth were borne or resided in the tongue of our neighbour it should be vndervalued yea contemned whereas we receiue it as an Oracle from that of a Stranger I admire not if those of elder times were so ambiguous in their answeres for the difficulty and intricacie thereof brought them more admiration We haue too bad an opinion of our selues in this onely and too good in all other things If hee who by the iudgement hee makes of man in generall would yet vse him with more contempt so as it were equally we then should haue nothing to gaine-say prouided I say That a Stranger which comes not to vs but by his writings and by that which is best in him could not hope for more particular fauour and applause then another among vs. But because it seemes that the glory which wee giue and conferre to this last diminish our owne we will therefore giue it farre cheaper and for lesse interest to him whom wee haue not seene and hauing nothing to intermeddle or doe with him But for an end to all it is alwayes man who giues and man who receiues As long as Art aad learning is found in him it shall still be to him a reproach of incertainty and ignorance O that the life of man is farre different from his Writings yea from himselfe Our Pen rules and gouernes the thoughts which we commit to paper and inconstancie those which wee permit to runne vpon the waues of our imagination but whosoeuer could see them in grosse and in their ordinary demarch and pace shall finde little lesse cause to laugh at the vanity and inanity of one then the other and at the fantasie of a Philosopher then wee doe at the May-games of a childe For despight of the order and polishing which we vse in the dependance and connexion of our discourse wee cannot for the most part auoide or preuent that our reasons doe not contend and assaile one the other as well as their effects In this small and short discourse there are contradictions enough but it matters not Reason contradicts her selfe and my opinion can turne it selfe no way whatsoeuer that shee meete not with some of her owne party and who will maintaine her in the point of her reasons so much humane knowledge hath of auerse and different faces Wee incessantly turne round about obiects and we can neither seize nor apprehend them but by strange qualities and outward apparances But the apparance and the subiect it selfe are different things If then our iudgement stop onely to apparances or outward shewes hee iudgeth of some thing which is not the subiect What certaintie in this incertaintie What light amidst so much darknesse What truth I say can result or arriue to vs if the matter or subiect according to the opinion of Pythagoras be in perpetuall changes and reuolution If wee haue no participation of a true being If all humane nature be still in the midst betweene birth and death the time present betwixt the past and the future and if it be true that Reason receiues nothing but which is brought him from without by the meanes and interuention of the senses which cast great mists betweene the true and false and betweene the obiect and the thought She can very difficultly come to the knowledge of Truth a-thwart so many cloudes of lusts Loues feares and hopes and of an infinity of false formes which frequently arise from our body to ouer-vaile and shadow our minde and to trouble the power of our imagination That if our soule doe not estrange her selfe from the contagion of the body and from his fantasies and frenzies it is in vaine that she attempt to reason or consult so certainly without the assistance of particular grace or speciall priuiledge which may descend to him from aboue She ought to know that shee is shut vp and confined in our body as in a strange place True it is shee beares about her this diuine desire of knowledge but it is a coyne or money which doth nothing else but vnprofitably load and charge her because it hath no currant course in that Country where she is The senses vnderstand not her language so that vnder their pleasure and mercy shee is enforced and constrained to content her selfe with what portion it pleaseth them to giue her Her morsels are cut if shee thinke to escape this
and figure as it pleaseth HEe that can take off the maske of all our feares and apprehensions shall finde that they are vaine Idoles which we haue so clad and that affrighted with the apparell we haue giuen them and the lineaments which wee haue painted in their faces wee goe hide our selues and dare no more cast our eyes vpon this ghost who fills vs with wonder and astonishment at the sight of his fearefull posture If wee haue so much resolution and courage to affront him to take from him that which we haue giuen him and to deuest him of that which hee hath borrowed of our Opinions we shall finde that we are true children which formerly feared nothing but the maâ—â—e losse of Honour Exile Banishment and all that afflicteth vs except griefe which is deriued of Nature haue they any grounds or foundations but Opinion Honour wherewith wee are so passionately surprised and taken that Griefe Death and all that Nature hath depainted vs so fearefull and ghastly is nothing in comparison of this lose What brings she with her at her arriual but wind and smoake or what else doeth slee draw after her 〈◊〉 vs feele euery place and part of our 〈◊〉 to see what marke she hath 〈◊〉 vs what she hath tane and cariâ—d from vs we shall finde all that we had before to be whole and sound What is this Exile which wee so much feare if we transport and cary all our vertues with vs what losse what dammage can we be reproached of Bias being reduced and stript to his shirt and enforced and driuen from his Countrie by the Sacking and burning of his Citie did neuerthelesse vaunt to haue lost nothing because the goods which were stolen from him were subiect to Fortune He neuer held them but perishable and the which hee could lose without lamenting them and to vse but one word Fortune could neuer make a breach in his Vertue Doe wee not see the Sunne and Starres in all parts of the World and is not Vertue an excellent coine and money to purchase vs friendes euery where Man borne to see all things if he be lincked to the place of his birth through the dutie of an Office or Digâ—itie or the loue of his Parents doeth he no voluntarily banish himselfe from all the World to liue in one place of his Countrie anâ— hee whom Fortune will driue from his home â—he consents thereto 〈…〉 in his will whom finde you who deserue to 〈◊〉 most Lamented either he who wedding himselfe to a particular passion exiles himselfe from all the World to inclose and shut himselfe in some smaller Island or he who banisheth himselfe from this little Island to giue himselfe to all the other parts of the Earth If we are taken away from our bed we are so tender and delicate that we can no more repose our selues The Bird cannot stay contentedly in his Cage though neuer so well vsed as holding no greater enemie then constraint and man no greater friende then slauery If you expell him his house you put him out of content and countenance So cowardly and vncouragious is he that he wondereth at his owne wit vndertakes and triumpheth ouer all whiles Cordes and Fetters euery where inseperably binde and chaine him to slauery and hee were happie if this affliction flying from his eyes might bee insensible to him But hee hath now as little right and power ouer his minde as his body all is a like engaged he liues not hee thinkes not hee mooues nor shakes not but vpon Credit his Soule bound and constrained vnder other mens opinions makes her selfe slaue and captiue to their authoriâ—ie Should not Beasts haue reason hauing so well knowne how to conserue that which Nature hath giuen to euery one of them in particular to mocke man who onely for a piece of bread hath either lost or engaged the fauours whereof Nature had giuen him the preheminencie and predominancie aboue all other Creatures but when he lookes a little about him I assure my selfe that hee shall yet finde Tyrants who after they haue stripped him to his shirt as a Thiefe doeth a Merchant in a Wood who ties him to a Tree for feare that hee reueale him after I say they haue hood-winked his eyes they haue so subtilly fettered him to his passions that hee euery where drawes after him his owne chaine without knowing it Vanitie and Opinion haue reduced him to the same estate wherein you see him they are still at his elbowes and for feare that he doe not reknow himselfe they neuer lose sight of him One makes him beleeue he is a God on Earth the other presents him the Vowes and Prayers of the multitude the Honour and esteeme of all the World as wee doe to a Childe Castles of Gold and Siluer or some other ridiculous thing to make him endure more patiently a phlebotomising And yet hee is not in so bad an Estate that hee should despaire of his health but he treates and parlies with them too much If hee receiue any good and wholesome instruction it is as soone corrupted by their too frequent familiaritie at least if that which hee could not doe by meere force hee would yet endeuour to performe by the addresse and dexteritie of his body If he could not vanquish and ouerthrow them by high wrestling he would yet finde meanes to auoide and escape them the ioynt promise and condition which hee hath passed them may bee disolued when hee desires it for two chiefe and principall reasons the one the violence which he may alleadge to the contrary the other to haue subiected them to a thing which of its nature cannot bee of this condition so that any tie or aduantage which they may haue ouer vs wee shall yet reserue meanes enough to saue our selues if wee haue the intent and designe thereto SECTION VI. Opinion leaues nothing entire but its corruption and pardoneth not Vertue her selfe IT is not reasonable to make our Enemie stronger then hee is let vs not giue vnto things any other face nor lend them any other body but that which Trueth and Nature haue giuen them we shall then finde that all that which we tearme Good or Euill will come and prostitute themselues to our feete and yeeld to our mercy to receiue of vs such condition and qualitie as wee please We will conuert to our behoofe and profit all that falles into our hands and will order and manage it so that all that which is round about vs shall not touch vs but by the best place Fortune hath no power to furnish any other thing then matter and it resteth in our Iudgement to giue it what forme it pleaseth All things differ but by that and if they borrowed not those displeasing formes of our Opinion Wisedome would bee in reputation and Glory and Fortune would languish as beaten downe to the feete of a triumphant Vertue whosoeuer can manage it to his aduantage it will bee the part
of a well-refined and polished Wit But let vs proceed to that which toucheth and concernes vs more neerely and let vs enforce our selues to pull out this Thorne which incessantly trauerseth and troubleth our repose and giues vs so many disturbances It is that which we call paine which by the inequalitie of her sence and feeling sufficiently witnesseth that wee foment and cherish it beyond her worth and naturall being and that at the very entrance of our Euills and Afflictions it remaines in vs to giue them what composition we please Some haue beene more afflicted at the feare of paine then of paine it selfe and more tormented at its absence then presence All things are proportioned if the afflictions which assaile vs bee violent they are not lasting nor permanent and difficultlie can wee feele it because the suddainenesse takes away the sence thereof if it bee moderate it is the easier to bee supported if Pouertie Griefe Death bee such as they are figured and depainted vs why then did Socrates laugh at Pouertie mocke at Griefe and contemne Death were the senses of his body insensible No but he iudged otherwise thereof then we doe hee lodged them in himselfe according to their iust esteeme and valew and not as we doe who know them not but by the fearefull markes and countenance of those who haue approoued and experienced them and who had prepared such faint courages to withstand them that it was easie enough for Death and Griefe to make themselues victoriously felt and feared The feare of some who are carried to their execution hath it not made them in a manner to meete with death halfe way the sight of the preparatiues of death doe as it were make death flie into his brest and depriue him of his sense and life before hee haue felt any of the torments that are prepared for him Hee who on the Scaffold attended the blow of the Sword to cut off his Head being but touched with a wet Table-napkin his very apprehension and feare made him to deuance Death and so died immediately And then let vs take assurance from such spies to know whence it is but farre was that Philosopher from this vniust and base feare who at the very point and instant that the Executioner was to giue him the blow of Death being demanded by one of his friendes whereon hee thought answered that hee imployed all the powers of his minde to consider how his Soule would separate her selfe from his body If many like him had beene sent to know and affront Death it may bee they would depaint him to vs not so obscure as Sleepe and Slumber Death did not much preiudice him he would silently treate and reason with himselfe till the end and till the very last-gaspe and period of his life he would manage the vnderstanding which Nature had giuen him so wee iudge of all things either by the semblances or euents of things which of themselues haue nothing sure or certaine Our Imaginations thoughts and manners may well bee corrupted sith this contagion hath not excused nor spared Vertue her selfe which could not comport her selfe so well passing through our hands but that shee felt our corruption Wee more willingly embrace her for the glory which shee drawes after her as her shadow then for her selfe The Markes and Armes whereby shee makes her selfe seene knowne yea desired doe they not sufficiently declare and testifie that they are the fruites of our opinion whosoeuer should see her alone by her selfe all naked and without Artifice although indeede this bee her richesâ— dresse and attire I know not if hee would desire or loue her A Soule must be wonderfully powerfull not to affect and cherish her but because she is amiable and makes as little esteeme of contempt as of glory for if wee performe any vertuous action it is rather for the content which wee hope for to sow and spread our name in many mouthes then for our owne satisfaction So wee are pleasing to the World we care not what we are within our selues the World is extreamely obliged and bound to vs to affect and cherish her more then we do our selues some are seene in the front of a Battaile who feele themselues more animated and egged on by their owne Vanitie then by their courage in the execution of a generous exploite so as it seemes that in these our times there is nothing so cleane or pure but this Vice hath thereunto added and applied her rust Also it is very difficult how so euer wee resolue so to vnwinde and free our selues from popular opinions that wee still remaine not some where engaged Vlisses had to defend himselfe but against the charming voyce of the Syrenes but it was not against the voyce of the People That which wee ought to feare comes not from one Rocke but from all the corners of the World A voyce neuerthelesse of so small importance and consequence that it can neither eleuate nor deiect the merits of a wise man no more then shadowes being great or little doe diminish the true proportion and greatnesse of the body at least because a wise man cannot wholly disingage and exempt himselfe from this presse and croude of people let him leaue his body his goods his legges among them for it matters not much prouided that he retire his minde wholly to himselfe and that as the Sunne despight his dayly motion leaues not to obserue and follow a particular way and course contrary to his first mooueable So a wise man in the course of worldly affaires although hee bee tyed to the custome and dependance of popular opinions vnder the conduct of Reason yet hee findes and followes a particular way whereby to entertaine himselfe in a perpetuall health and tranquillitie of minde The end of the third Discourse The fourth Discourse Of Passions SECTION I. Stormes raise not so many surges on the Sea as Passions engender tempests in the hearts of men HIppocrates saith There is no worse or more dangerous sicknesse then that which disfigureth a mans face But I say that those which at one and the same time disfigure the beauty both of his body and soule are yet by many degrees farre worse There is no passion which ariseth in man that leaues not on his face some visible signe of his agitation but the soule within altogether confused beares more singular and remarkable markes Shee sometimes loseth the knowledge of her selfe in misknowing her own proper misery Or if shee flatter her selfe so farre as to think to know it shee holdes it for a good signe or signe of health and so coloureth her most dangerous sicknesse with the title of a recouery thereof Choler with her passeth for valour and cowardise for wisedome and thâ—s she palliates and couereth her proper vices with the cloake of Vertue This defect proceedes for that our vices touch vs too neerely and that the eye of our reason disturb'd by the power of our passions hath not the requisite
and necessary distance for the vse of her functions If the soule see any thing through so thicke a cloude it is contrary to that which it is and chiefely when it is touched with the opinion of euill because those sorts and degrees encrease and demonstrate him those things which threaten him of a fearefull greatnesse Among passions some are framed by a dilation of bloud and spirits which bend oâ—e all the body as choler Others by the contraction of the same spirits which assemble and shut themselues vp neere to the heart as feare but the place where they are in action is that which wee terme sensitiue appetite which Philosophers diuide into irascible and concupiscible this contents himselfe simply to seeke those things which are conuenient to him but that enforceth himselfe to vanquish the obstacles wee meete withall which impugne or oppose our inclinations neuerthelesse it is very likely that that proceedes from one and the same power And indeede if the concupiscible finde no hinderance shee continueth her way towards the obiect which she seekes If shee finde any let or obstacle shee becomes Irascible which is to say she enforceth her selfe to surmount it as the water of a fountaine which glides slowly and softly on the grauell if it be stopped by any thing it meetes it then swells and growes great and in the end ouerfloweth and vanquisheth her obstacle All things naturally oppose themselues against their contraries not neuerthelesse that shee is any other when shee shields or defends her selfe then shee is in her vsuall countenance The reason which they alledge to the contrary is that nothing beates it selfe But these two powers contradict one the other at one and the same time it must then needes be that they are two different things I say that this combat proceedes not from this party but from a higher that is from imagination who touched with a contrary obiect contests and fights against this inferiour party But not that this quarell ariseth in the sensitiue appetite betweene these two powers For not being able to comprehend the thing in its simplicity wee are constrained to multiply and diuide it as we doe of the minde which wee diuide into Imagination Vnderstanding and Memory or of the sensitiue appetite in Irascible and Concupiscible It seemes that hereby wee keepe the thing more strictly shut vp but it is of the Essence of things as of the definitions We cannot cut off any member from this without vitiating and corrupting it Wee cannot diuide that without ruining the Science which we seeke Shee is one and all simple but our grosse sight which cannot perceiue her so lightly apparelled runnes to his effects and stayes there as to the first cause Like vnto those Pagans who not able to comprehend one onely God diuided his powers which our Theologians terme attributes into so many different Diuinities and stayed to consecrate riuers and to baptize them according to their different operations So we farre easier comprehend two contrary powers then one which produceth two different effects Wee difficultly beleeue that the Sunne hardneth and softneth at one time if experience had not taught it vs. I say then that this power which dwells in the sensitiue appetite is one shee desires she seekes her obiect thereby to content her selfe If she be hindred shee is bent and incensed against the obstacle to force it If shee ouercome it she walkes after her vsuall accustomed pace without any violence The soule is the principle of life one in all and by all In one part shee seeth in another shee imagineth in another shee vnderstands and in another she retaines according to the disposition of the organ where she agitateth But euen as the Heauens are not subiect to the alterations of sublunary things and doe not moue but to oblige the body by a perpetuall liberality So the soule which of her selfe is not subiect to the alteration of mortall things ought to lend her motion as principle of life to all the body thereby to oblige it but not to interest and ingage her selfe so that shee can no longer retaine her selfe and that forgetting her selfe she suffer her selfe to be led and caried away by the violent streame of her passions which after by little and little estrangeth her from her selfe False opinion giues them birth but wee must not so much consider the place from whence they part and issue as the soule of him on whom they fall The winds which raise small cocklings vpon our riuers and who throwe furrowes on the serenities of their christalline faces can raise whole mountaines of waues and waters on the Sea and ingender impetuous stormes and tempests The soule of the Philosopher is tranquile and quiet in his course and wisedome who is neere him dissipateth the waues before they haue the power or leasure to lay hold of him or to stirre vp others by their violence And the soule of the ignorant man is a Sea of inconstancie which is shaked and tossed with euery winde and is neuer surely firme wherein because hee cannot quiet and appease the stormes in their first emotions they swell and growe infinitely violent and implacable The Philosophers are yet doubtfull of the nature of the windes and from whence they are deriued and proceede But those who stirre vp in our soule such furious stormes and tempests are but too easie to be knowne we feele them borne within vs. They at first embrace but in the end strangle vs. Men are not onely polluted but poysoned by their vices That if ciuillity and ceremonie the bastard daughters of naturall wisedome preuent that they doe not commonly resplend and appeare before people when they are retired in their family they delight to nourish and cherish their passions They withdrawe themselues from the sight of men to hide their defects and imperfections as if their houses were purposely giuen them to act and perpetrate sinnes closely and with more liberty and licentiousnesse then abroad And it is not by the exteriour face that you must iudge of him with whom you speake in the streete or whom you see in the middest of his ceremonies This is nothing but false painting and true artificiall dissembling you shall finde him cleane contrary in his house It is no more him his soule and his face haue changed posture and countenance But if they will conceale vs the manner of their life they should at least diminish and cut off their passions It may be it is for this reason that Ariston said That the windes which are most to be feared are those which discouer vs they expose them to the eyes of the most ignorant and onely ours will remaine darkned and much eclipsed in this trouble Xerxes caused the Sea to be whipped and sent a challenge to Mount Athos and Caligula dared Iupiter to the combat and while these their impertinencies and fooleries exposed them to the laughter of the vulgar people those generous spirits remained hoodwink'd and blinded
by their owne passions But what as long as we languish in our vices we know them not None but hee that is awaked can recount his dreames for in sleepe we perceiue not their abuse and deceit The euills of the soule are obscured in their thicknesse Hee that is most sicke feeles it least And although according to Marsilius Ficinus that passions are indifferent to good and euill to vice and vertue neuerthelesse the noblest of them accuseth vs of imperfection because they neuer obserue rule or measure There are other wayes passages to ariue to Vertue It is too dangerous to walke or vsurpe on vice for it is then to bee feared lest wee fall into it The soule bred in the shadowe which hath not as yet tempted hazards and repulsed the assaults of fortune must essay all other wayes but that For one that Ambition hath cast into Vertue it hath precipitated a million to vice It is still safer and better for vs couragiously to quarell with her then to trust her except it be in the same manner that we would trust our Enemie But because all passions are weake and tender in their beginning the safest way to secure vs from their corruption is to strangle them in their cradle and make that the first point of their birth doe in the same moment and instant see their last ruine and destruction and consequently the end of their Essence or Being SECTION II. We may say of loue that which the Romanes said of an Emperour that they knew not whether they receiued more good or euill of him WE are taught that there is neuer lesse found to speake then when the subiect whereon wee will discourse is better knowne of himselfe then all which can bee alleadged to proue and confirme it It is the same in the cause and subiect of Loue which of it selfe giues such cleare maximes and instructions that all the reasons which wee can contribute to the cleering doeth but onely serue to the obscuring thereof and nature within vs hath giuen vs such pertinent lessons that all words and discourse will finde themselues confounded when they vndertake to discouer the secret of this Art and Science His first flames strike such an excesse or fits that they cannot be knowne by the motion or beating of our pulse and his dartes flie and slide into our heart with so much craft and subtiltie that reason can neither obserue nor finde out the way pathe or steppes thereof She nourisheth with her heat and giues the first motion to all our interiour motions as the first principle of humane passions because all the violent motions which man can feele are either for his defence and conseruation and this is the loue of himselfe or for the encrease of his owne Content and this is the Loue of Vnion without himselfe and these are the two greatest wheeles of Nature who haue the charge to mooue the rest of our passions and who obey at the first command of Loue according to the necessitie of the Law which they haue thus established among them But we shall know her better by her effects then by her selfe If we thinke to hold her any where she escapes from vs and transformes her selfe into so many shapes and fashions that we can obserue nothing in her but mutation and change It is reported that Mercury by the commandement of Iupiter once vndertooke to make a Gowne for Diana that she might be no more dishonoured in going naked among the Gods and especially against the Lawes of her shame-fastnesse and chastitie but seeing that incessantly she either encreased or diminished and that she was neuer at one and the same stay he despaired of being able to effect it The inequalitie of mens affections and Inconstancie so naturall to Loue may serue for the same excuse to him that will vndertake to define it and to prescribe a Roabe oâ— Vestment fit for her humour what inconuenience will there be to permit her to goe naked Sith none is of a more shame-full face then this Goddesse and that she is neuer richer then in her pouertie nor prouder in her apparell then in her simple nakednesse at least if wee will beleeue the Poets For feare therefore that the fresh and louely sight of so many beauties doe not dazell our eyes we must put our eyes before them not behold them fixedly diuert our sight from their charmes or enforce our selues to couer them and to hide them from the ragges of any description Loue is a desire of Beautie say the Philosophers which by reason dislodgeth the Soule from the body to liue elsewhere and to agitate in others a passion which not onely altereth mans nature but wholly reuerseth and ouerthrowes it because the Soule of him that loues is more in the subiect where she loues then where she animates and resides Iudge what order and measure she can obserue in her deportments and carriage sith that bound and constrained vnder the authoritie of others she neither mooues nor stirres but vpon credit and by the leaue of others Man in his other passions is not tormented but with one at a time but in this of Loue he conuokes and assembles all the others who at their very enterance lose their names as small Brookes which ingrosse the brest and bosome of greater Riuers moreouer he yet addes those of others which he loueth and weddes with as much or more affection then his owne I esteeme that it is therefore for this reason that some of the Ancients beleeued that Iupiter himselfe could not be enamored and wise at one time Agesilaus tells vs that Wisedome and Loue are incompatible because that by the conference of things past iudgeth of euents to come and this considereth nothing but the present and takes no other councell but from his owne fury and blindnesse His obiect which he tearmeth Beautie consisteth in a concurrence harmony and decency of many parts linked conioyned in one the same subiect That point which stings and tickleth our heart and by his ready and violent motion inflames our senses to seeke it is tearmed desire the which if it inflame his obiect with the like desire as one Torch which lightens another this concurrence caused by the resemblance is called reciprocall Loue Sympathie or according to Astrologers inclination or participation of the same Planets and Influences as it hapneth to those whose very first sight is so fatall that at that same instant they lose the one to the other and both their hearts and libertie by the meeting and enterchainging of visuall raies which vnite confound and lose themselues in one and the same end and concurrence The will of the one doeth diue and plunge it selfe into that of the other and no longer reserues any thing of his owne particular or proper wee can no more perceiue the threades or seames whereby they are conioyned and sowed so close together It is not in Loue as it is in Musique which is composed of
in confusion and then the function and organes of the spirits are changed and consequently their effect which is the sense and feeling thereof Which is seene by those who fall into a trance or swooning They feele nothing lesse then paine in those parts which with farre more reason should betide them because the force and power of the spirits dispierced throwe all the body is in one instant assembled and gathered together in this place whereas contrariwise Death hapneth and comes to vs by the extinguishing of the spirits who by their extreame weakenesse cannot furnish power enough to moue the wheeles and organes of our feeling and as without paine they haue abandoned the remotest parts and members they faile in them without any perceiuing thereof The body depriued of Knowledge and therefore ignorant of his losses supports it without any paine or griefe So that if there be any paine or bitternesse in this seperation it should be in the soule who touched with the remembrance of fore-past pleasures which she hath enioyed and tasted in her commerce and traffique with the body shee cannot depart or estrange her selfe without paine and lamentation But I affirme and say that paine hath no power but ore the Body and that the Soule being wholly simple pure and spirituall is exempt of its iurisdiction and it hath no hold or power ouer her That if the knowledge which she hath bee capable to giue him any sense or feeling of paine it should bee for his good But there is nothing which the Soule embraceth with more passion nor desireth so eagerly then her rest and tranquillity I meane the enioyance and possession of her obiect for then chiefely when she is detained in the prison of the body she findes nothing pleasing in this strange Countrie which can content her appetite Iudge then if she gâ—ieue to depart and dislodge from the body and whether a Prisoner detained by the Turkes when we take off the chaines from his hands and feete pay his Ransome to reconduct him into his natiue country so restore him to the free possession of his goods and liberty haue any great cause to afflict himselfe for this separation I confesse you will answere me that I no more feare Death for its paine sith there is none so sharpe which we will not willingly endure and suffer and which is not entermixed with some sweetnesse if we flaâ—ter our selues with the hope of a remedy But who is he who ought not to apprehend the losse of goods which are common to the one and the other to the minde and the body which being diuided and separated their sweet enioyance can no more be recouered I say that if this losse be a griefe or euill this euill ought to concurre and meet either in the enioying thereof or then when you possesse and enioy it no longer As for the present should you not iniustly complaine because you enioy it quietly and that you attribute the good which they bring vs to the possessing of them But it is no euill no more then when you enioy them not because the euill is the feeling which we haue of a thing that afflicts vs but Death depriues vs of all sense and feeling and therefore of this paine and affliction that if you afflict your selfe because death depriues you of the remembrance thereof by the same reason euery night before you sleepe you ought to bewaile and lament it and to take your farewell because you goe to lose the memory thereof Those who haue iudged most sollidly and pertinently of Death and who haue most curiously depainted it at Nature and Life haue compared it to sleepe But if we will aske the opinion of Trophonius and Agamedes they will teach vs what is the most Soueraigne of our Riches and contents because after they had built and consecrated a stately Temple to the honour of Apollo they besought him in requitall that he would eternally grant them the best thing and it was answered them by the Oracle that their demand should be satisfied within three dayes but before the expiration thereof they both died He who is in the worst estate and condition beginnes to hope when he hath no more to feare whereof he is not presently afflicted Man being then so miserable in his life hath he not reason to aime and aspire to some better thing To feare Death saith Socrates is the part of a Wise man because all the World ignores it in not knowing whether it be our good or our euill But what should we not feare if we feare that which cowardise her selfe hath sought for her retraite and shelter and for the speediest and most soueraigne remedy of all afflictions and miseries The Egyptians had still in their Bankets the Image of Death neuerthelesse it was not feare who had the charge to represent them this picture but it was Constancy and Vertue who had that commission and who would not permit that in the middest of their Delights and Ioyes they should be interrupted by any vnexpected accident But if Death then befell them that he should be of their company that the ceremony might not be troubled in regard they kept him his place and dish and briefely that the ioy of the company mought not be disturbed for because they neither knew the certaine place or time where they should attend Death they therefore attended him in all times and places Aristotle tells vs that there is no feare but of doubtfull things it is then in vaine for vs to apprehend it or that our feare prepares him such base and cowardly courages in regard there is nothing more ceâ—taine then Death How many are there found who suruiue their glory and whose languishing life hath not serued but for a Tombe to bury their reputation It was said by a Philosopher that the sweete pleasures of life was but a slauery if the libertie to die were to be said so why then should we feare that which the wisest of the World held the surest harbour and sanctuary of our tranquillity It now rests that we fight against the feare of paine which serues but to afflict vs with a present griefe of that which it may be will nâ—uer befall vs or at least farre otherwise then we feare The Painter Parhasius exposed his Slaues to the Racke thereby the more naturally to represent the feigned tortures of Prometheus We are Slaues to feare who of an imaginary euill delights to cast on vs the gall and bitternesse of a thousand true vexations and afflictions For how often haue we shaked and trembled with feare at those things which haue produced vs no greater damage then the bare apprehension thereof Haue we euer feared or expected any thing with extreame impatiency but that we haue still found it altered and changed with the beliefe and hope thereof Hath not paine many sharpe points and throes of it selfe without it be any way needfull for our feare to edge or sharpen them As farre distant
opinion that by times he defend Reason to obay him Or if we beleeue that it is some times necessary because as a Philosopher said it giues weapons to Valour I answere that Vice produceth nothing which is Vertuous although it seeme to shoote foorth some false buds or twigges which beares I know not what deceitfull image or representation thereof It is no good fat when through sicknesse we become puffed vp and corpulent It is neither courage nor vallour when through Choler we rush vpon our Enemies Vertue neuer makes vse of so weake a Champion as Choler It is a weapon which commands vs and which we manage but at his pleasure and as dangerous towards our selues as towards those whom it will offend It is true Choler hath power and predominancy ouer all men that there are many people who haue not yet approoued the stings of ambition who know not the name of Couetousnesse and yet there are none who haue not felt the effect of Choler All the World is naturally subiect to Loue yea none can iustly deny the trueth hereof and yet we haue not seene a World of people mad wiâ—h the Loue of one Woman as we haue seene possessed with this passion of Choler But it followes not that we cannot auoide it we goe more often and more swiftly towards Choler then she doeth towards vs. We seeke the occasions thereof insteed of eschewing and flying them in imitation of Caesar who hauing recouered all the writings letters and memories of his Enemies he caused them to be throwne into the fire without seeing them thereby to preuent and shorten the way of Choler and Reuenge and it is also reported of him That hee neuer forgate any thing but iniuries receiued a defect and imperfection of memory worthy of so great a Prince It appertaines to none but to those great courages to contemne iniuries In the highest Region of the ayre there is no thunder Saturne the greatest of the Gods walkes so frest and the more the quality and condition of men are eleuated the more slow they should bee to follow this passion because they haue more meanes to offend and to adde and giue to the nourishing of this inraged fury the blood and ruine of those whom they threaten If a Childe or a Foole offend thee in the Streete with iniurious words thou wilt auoide him with disdaine they are too much below thee to be able to offend thee So know that if the Vertue and greatnesse of thy Courage could as much lift thee aboue common people as aboue these innocent persons that thou shouldest finde as little iniury from the one as from the other the reuenge which thou seekest is a confession of griefe for a wrong If he had not offended thee thou hadst not needed this remedy a remedy worse then the wrong it selfe because it befalls vs for not being able to endure anothers folly we very often make it our owne None can offend vs despight of our selues an iniury offered vs is either true or false If true why should we be offended to heare or vnderstand a thing as it is If it be false are we not satisfied because the iniury then returnes and retortes vpon our Enemy through the vice of his life His designe is to offend thee so he hath then neede of thee to execute his resolution and for what art thou indebted to him to obey his will If the iniury offend and anger thee it is that which he desireth and then thou makest no more difference of thine Enemy then of thy Friend because thy will is that of either of them As words are but winde so know that the lye or iniury which offends thee in point of Honour is but vanitie Courage is to be esteemed and prised but it is either God thy Prince or Countrey which must dispose thereof vpon good occasions iniuries receiue no sharper answeres then contempt A Philosâ—pher demanding of an old Courtier how so rare a thing as age could ripen and subsist in Court made answere in receiuing iniuries and thanking those who proffer them The best reuenge which we câ—n taâ—e of our Enemie is to reape profit by his inâ—uries We haue some times neede of Enemies because discouering our imperfections by their iniuries we afterwards râ—forme and remedy them Reprehension also is some times necessary to preuent hinder that this Vice augment not but as one affirmes he who practiseth it must neither be Hungry nor Thirâ—ty let him beware that he adde not Reuenge to Choler for then he shall doe nothing worth any thing no more then doeth that Phisitian who being angry with his sicke patient neuer administereth him Phisique but in Choler But me thinkes the best way to flye and abandon it is to consider that it doeth more endamage vs then those whom we would offend It suckes the greatest part of our owne proper gall and so poysoneth vs for we cannot expell our breath but after the proportion we attract and draw it in for we draw it in before we first breathe and powre it forth on others and our Choler vomiteth out nothing on our Enemy before it haue first corrupted our owne stomach by its too great indigestion SECTION VIII Passions haue so deformed a Countenance that albeit they are the Daughters of Nature yet we cannot loue them and behold them at onâ— time PAssions are to the minde as diseases to the body and as the body is reputed sicke if any part or member thereof be afflicted or pained so the soule caÌ„not be said to be healthfull and sound as long as she feeles the distemper of any passions whereof some are sodainly enflamed and haue no mediocrity as Choler and others by little and little are nourished in our vaines and bowells vntill the poyson thereof being spread and fortified is become strong enough to ingender a vniuersall emotion as the very thought that we shall be pained or afflicted by small degrees appales and daunts our courage and comes to surprise our Soule with languishing griefe and sorrow A vice more dangerous then the first because Choler is a clappe of Thunder yea a Thunder-bolt which with one blow breakes the branches of a Tree whereas Sorrow as a Worme stickes to the roote thereof by little and little consumes its naturall heate and quite withers and dries it vp that in an instant disturbes the tranquillity of our Soule but is soone appeased this pierceth to the bottome remooues the very dregges and dirt thereof and hauing lifted it vp aboue it selfe is not quieted but by a long tract of time A base weake and effeminate passion which condemnes it selfe and forbids the pleasing familiarity of his deerest friendes who fearing to be surprised as an adulterate woman in her vitious Countenance she constraines her selfe to flie and steale away from her selfe as well as from other mens eyes but yet in what place soeuer she thinkes to saue her selfe she still goes augmenting of her paine and flattering of her
misfortune and the fairest fruites which she is capable to produce are Sighes Teares and Groanes the irreproachfull witnesses of the small courage of those who foment and cherish them But if it violently proceede from the good which we see others possesse then we tearme it Enuie A most infamous passion which being not able to offend others seeks to annoy and destroy himselfe and busking euery where seekes onely his owne tortures in other mens contentments Those who are eminent and sublime in Vertue seeme to haue their reputation exempt from the assaults and blowes of Enuie because commonly it ingendereth not but among equalls and those which by the same competition and concurrence aime at the same ends Iniust in their designes and onely iust in that they are sufficient for their owne proper vexation and to tie themselues to their owne torments Or if it happen that we are melancholly to see another participate of our goods then it is no more Sorrow but Ielousie which proceedes from the diffidence of himselfe and of his owne merits or from the defect of that which hee loues as Inconstancy or Leuitie whereof our heart secretly accuseth him or from the vertue or excellent parts which we see and obserue in our riuall Among all other passions it is she alone to whom most things serue for Phisique but least for remedie She screwes and insinuates her selfe vnder the title of good will and affection and yet on the foundation thereof she buildes her chiefest hatred And if any one contrariwise pretend that it is a signe of Loue I say that like as a fâ—auer in the body is a signe of life but yet of distempered corrupted life that so Iealousie may be a testimony of Loue but yet it is of an imperfect defâ—ctiue Loue for that which we suspect either is or is not If it be not we offeÌ„d that which we loue if it be is it not properly to ruine affection But is there a greater folly then to be eager in the knowledge of our owne shame and misery when there is no Phisique which doeth not augment and inflame it Bâ—t he who is curious in his owne damage informes himselfe thereof and hauing discouered it findes no remedie but which is a thousand times worse then his griefe and vexation me thinkes the sight of his passions is sufficient to make him detest them they haue deformity enough in them to exasperate our anger and hatred against them They are the seditious and factious persons of our Soule and the professed Enemies of our pâ—ace and tranquillity It is true that we may throw them to the ground and trample on them by the assistance addresse and subtilty of Vertue but doe what we can they will seeme anew to reuiue and re-enforce themselues as Antaeus the son of the Earth the blow of their fall makes them glance and rebound against vs and if they cannot wholly support and raise themselues they will yet enforce themselues to fight with vs on their knees The end of the fourth Discourse The fift Discourse Of Felicitie SECTION I. Euery thing naturally tends to its repose onely Man strayes from his Felicitie or if hee approach it he stayes at the branches insteede of embracing the truncke or body of the tree IN interiour diseases there is not much lesse art to know them then to cure them but especially then when their poyson hauing surprised the most secret and hidden parts is stollen from our sight yea and from the sense and feeling of him who harboureth it in his brest the most apparant and truest signe of curing such diseases is to expell the paine and to awaken in the patient his sleepie or benummed parts to the end that the feeling which he findes thereof make him assume the strength and courage to practise the remedies the which we haue already formerly done It remaines now that thou lend a strong hand to the remedies thereby to pull and roote vp these virulent humours Thinke not that thesâ— diseases are of the number and quality of those who are inchanted and which are cured with bare words The Phisitian and sicke patient doe neither aduance nor performe any good by discourse or words if they adde not effects thereto If occasion require we must vse Irons and fire to extirpe this plant there is such a distance from the Estate wherein this contagion hath reduced vs to that point which we seeke and desire that the changing of one to the other cannot bee performed with lesse violence To approoue any other way is to attempt an impossibility and herein to want courage is to dispaire of the cure and remedy of his disease Neuerthelesse we will attempt the most pleasing remedies and make vse of Irons and fire but in the greatest extreamities I conceiue and apprehend that some one will say to me thou wilt make me forsake my hold and so abandon a good in effect although it be some what sharpe and bitter to follow this felicity which thou proposest which it may be is a good in shew which in its selfe hath no other body but contempt nor soule but vntrueth and lies Hath any one discouered it out of the Empire of Fortune and what else is it but the fulnesse and the loade-stone of his fauours which attracts the eyes of all the World as the white and leuell of our desires and the center of our affections But that which we terme felicity without which there is nothing found but is false and imaginary No no I will not snatch out of your hands that which you affect and cherish so deerely nor bereaue your eyes of these obiects whose lustre vnites and ties them to it I will not cut off your pensions nor reuenewes and least of all diminish your credit and authority But by the increase and surplus of a 〈◊〉 good I will adde to that heape this soueraigne contentment which is not of their nâ—ture and grouth if we will beleeue 〈◊〉 disturbance which we meet with in the 〈◊〉 of their affluence This faire Goddesse Vertue whose 〈…〉 is beloued and honoured of all the World yea of her proper Enemies ought to lead and conduct vs by the hand in this passage and to put vs in possession of that felicity whereof we affect and cherish but the shadowes It is she which beares the key of the Treasury which hauing vnshut and opened we may all thrust in our hands for it is inexhaustible Our affections shall finde the inioyance of their desires and our insatiable thirst of loue shall finde wherewithall to quench this violent fire who in enioying the goods of Fortune did but the more enflame it Wee shall haue so much the more accesse and familiarity as our Nature doth sweetly encline vs. Doe I say that shee constraines vs with some degree of violence The desire which wee feele in our heart is it any other thing but a sparke of felicity which would ioyne as to his element and the place of
his Origine For where the defect is found vnited and linked to power there necessarily is formed desire But Man is knowne to want many things chiefely Vertue which is a perfect habitude Hee then desires it but this desire tendes to something which may bee truly purchased and obtained and where being ariued he findes his tranquillity or otherwise this his desire were in vaine So not finding it in the goods of Fortune but in Vertue it followes that there is another felicity besides that which is propos'd vs by Fortune Imperfection supposeth the diminution of any perfect thing because the nature of things hath not deriued its power and vigour from a defectiue and imperfect Nature but from a most compleat and full one It followes then that there is a point of Nobility from whence they haue degenerated and especially in the act of our soueraigne good from whence through errour and opinion man hath beene diuerted as from his obiect to follow a stranger the which because hee of himselfe cannot wholy appease our desire sufficiently demonstates and testifies by this imperfect beatitude that he is either the part the shadowe or the Image of some accomplished thing which is felicity But the part presupposeth the whole and the shadowe or image must necessarily haue relation to the body Wherefore of this imperfect happinesse wee may drawe a necessary consequence of the soueraigne good and indeede the wit of man in whatsoeuer extasie hee can be retaines in it selfe I know not what seede thereof But as the reeling Drunkard although hee cannot finde the way home doth not for all lose his desire to returne to his owne house So man being drunke with the delights and pleasures of the world doth not yet omit to desire this felicity which is proposed him by nature although by their enchantments hee no more knowâ—s what way to obserue and follow Mens actions although they are deriued of the vertues vices troubles of the soule and of other affections doe yet all tend to felicity but all mâ—n are not so happy to obtaine it This felicity is either actiue or contemplatiue This last haâ—h some thing more noble and yet more imperfect then the other His designe is more generous and noble but his execution is more imperfect yea it is more noble in that it seemes that by her man is made like vnto the Diuine nature In the actiue we shall finde some thing as strength and wisedome wherein we haue some common resemblance to beasts more imperfect in his execution First she depends of the actiue and according to the saying of Plato hath neede that all the troubles of the soule be appeased and dissipated because they very much disturbe conâ—emplation and yet she cannot passe without the goods of the body and of fortune which ought to be prepared to her by this when she wants nothing whereof shee ought to be furnished and assisted to aduance her with more ease and facility To what degree can shee ascend Perfection cannot bee bought or purchased in this world because of the obstacles which befall vs by the meanes of the body and the senses who by throwing too darke and thicke cloudes betweene the true and false hinder the soule that shee cannot enioy a perfect fâ—licity in the contemplation of truth Contrariwise the actiue who employes not her selfe but to correct those troubles which fall into the Soule by animating some when they withdrawe vs from our dutie and in stopping others when they make vs passe the bounds of reason ariues at last to the end of his enterprise and makes vs enioy in effect that good which shee proposeth her selfe Shee may easily leaue and omit contemplation which is somewhat lesse necessarie then the goods of the body Sciences or learning haue their vices and defects as Pride Vanity and Presumption which cannot be corrected but by the ayde of this Many haue beene happy without learning and Socrates for the regard thereof was not by the Oracle reputed the wisest man of the world but for the conduction and ordering of his manners Neuerthelesse as one good added to another makes it the greater so the contemplatiue brings some profit aduantage to the actiue felicity although neuerthelesse she seeme rather to offend then serue her For she beares with her a I know not what trouble to enquire and know which sells vs many light and triuiall shewes of contentments in regard of continuall sweat and labour and in the end discouereth vs the vanity of her pretences For all Learning which wee can purchase is not perfect but by reason of his obiect which is God or the Essence of things wherein he is if rather they be not in him as in their Soueraigne Head spring and fountaine But by those wayes and meanes which wee possesse it shee cannot bee but extreamely weake and imperfect being ore-vayled and obscured with an infinite number of shadowes and cloudes because it is not things and their Essences which conioyne themselues to our soule no more then bodies are seene in the Christall of Looking-glasses but onely their formes and representations So in steed of truth she receiues nothing but the resemblances and shadowes thereof as wee haue formerly obserued in the Tract of the senses And neuerthelesse shee wheeles and runnes round about obiects and proffereth vs her hands to stop and arrest the shadowes of our visions in steed of the body and the thing itselfe So that wee must not wonder if Learning cannot content or satisfie our desires and therefore serues but to disturbe vs because her formes and resemblances giue vs no essentiall nor solid thing but onely fill vs with I know not what ayrie emptie and superficiall which doth rather anger then appease vs Which absolutely contradicts our actiue felicity which is nothing else but a perfect tranquillity of the minde in the moderate vse of goods which shee enioyeth The vulgar and common sort of men assigne this felicity to bee in pleasures and voluptuousnesse imagining that the greatest part of those who are constituted in authoritie liue after that manner beleeuing that all euill is in griefe and affliction and they are not farre wide of the truth herein because all our actions still ayme at delight and pleasure which commonly accompanieth felicity as her shadow But this approaching end is not the last so that this imperfection sufficiently giues the lye to their beliefe and opinion The errors of others growe according to the proportion of their greatnesse for it seemes that the more Man is eleuated in fortune that thereby he either augments his faults or else makes them appeare the greater The Oeconomicall or Domesticall Man proposeth himselfe nothing but wealth and riches but it is a life too full of trouble and agitation the Enemie of reâ—â— and tranquillity and therefore of felicity Those who are dignified aboue the people hold that they are risen to that honour which the politique life seemes to propose for her end but there
the height and sublimity of the same flight to select and make choyse of vigorous and masculine reasons in comparison of those which wee commonly vse and employ for our consolation which are as weake lame and feeble as our courage It some times falls out that the same reasons issuing from our mouth or pen as from theirs but not from our hearts and from the very bottome of our breasts Wee present them all rawe and as the boyling or bubling of a Fountaine renders his water without tasting or digesting it so wee onely preferre these words without knowing their price or value Our too rawe and indigested stomack cannot consume this meat and draw its nutriment thence Wee discourse in the same manner language and tearmes as they doe but yet wee thinke differently Our words are but as the rinds and barkes of our conceptions it is not enough that the report thereof come to our eares but the sense must also passe to our vnderstanding wee must cleaue them in sunder to gather the iuyce and Sugar of them and to discouer that which they haue in them of secret and hidden But our Morall vertue diminisheth that which is of the honour of her dignity shee hath sooner done to stoope and descend downe to vs then to lift our selues vp to her And then familiarizing and accommodating her selfe with our imperfections she perâ—mits vs to shed some teares Shee weepes with vs and fauoureth our plaints and mournings in their first and most furious violence vntill by little and little shee can diuert the eyes of our thoughts vpon some other remote obiect and so exhale and dissipate in the contemplation of contrary things the power of the spirits of our blood which were assembled conspired together about our heart to surmount and vanquish all sorts of consolations and so to permit onely the enterance of griefes torments bitter thoughts sharpe and cruell remembrings and other Officers of comfortlesse sorrow and affliction So this power being diuided is thereby so weakened that the first obiect being capable to enflame touch our thoughts to the quicke hee easily takes possession of the place and banisheth this importunate Tyrant from the seate and Empire which he had violently vsurped This remedy as the most sweet and pleasing is the most generall and vniuersall physicke which shee employes in the cure of violent'st passions All diseases of the minde are not cured but either by diuersion or by the equall sharing and diuision of our imagination in whose power resides all that they participate of sharpe or bitter because shee assembles and linkes together all the spirits of the soule which are perfectly purified and refined in the admirable nets which lye vnder the ventricle or posteriour part of the braine to marke him out the greatnesse of his euill or disease which it augments and encreaseth by this labour and paine as fire doth by the aboundance and affluence of wood And if this imagination can be diuided by the force and strength of a contrary obiect shee thereby makes her selfe weake and feeble in her functions and contrariwise in the ease or paine the good or euill which wee may feele The minde is a power which communicates her selfe wholly to the subiect to which shee is fixed tyed From whence it comes that we many times see her equally tormented at obiects of small value as at those things of farre greater consequence The good which enuironeth vs is not considerable to him in comparison of a little euill which at present presseth and afflicteth him And not being able to surprise this sorrowfull matter before hee haue let gone all the others hee then vnites and fastens yea glewes himselfe thereunto vntill he become drunke with this griefe And as the Horseleach still suckes out all the bad bloud vntill hee burst So the minde suckes and drawes hence all that is bitter vntill this poyson hauing engendred a kinde of an Impostume in our heart doth in the end burst therewith and frees her selfe thereof by our teares which distill and descend from our eyes If the rayes of the Sunne are fully receiued in the bottome of a burning Looking-glasse they there vnite in their centre and their power straying and defusing before they are recollected and assembled in this point doe so linke and fortifie themselues that they burne and destroy that which so sweetly they had formerly cherish'd and nourished Right so if the minde assemble all her powers and her intellectuall rayes in the force and strength of imagination as in the Christall of a Looking-glasse it destroyeth the tranquillity which it reuiued before by her benigne and gratious influences the which she generally owes to all the members of the body and whereof she cannot wholly dispose to the seruice of the one without the domage and preiudice of the others As it visibly befalls those who newly feele some griefe or anxiety or to those who dispose and addict themselues to things which require a strong imagination as Poesie Painting or Perspectiue Wee must then without giuing time or leasure to our minde to taste the poyson of this passion dispierce the rayes of this imagination by the alluring Charmes of a contrary obiect Hee who dies in the heat of a Combat with his weapons in his hands hath apprehended feared nothing lesse then death for glory is the point of honour choler and reuenge do equally preoccupate his thoughts and surpasse his imaginations so as there remaines in him no place to feare death And those who haue attempted to plant the Crosse among Infidells and cyment and water it with their blood thereby to make Christianity to encrease and fructifie they being possessed of this holy zeale hath not the force and power of their loue surmounted in them the feare of death Shall I say that the power of so liuely and so ardent an imagination by his extreame violence can likewise destroy the common function of the senses and hereby pull away the weapons out of the hands of griefe and paine because the senses make not their operations but by the helpe of the spirits which are dispierced in the muscles and arteries and generally throughout all the body which may be attracted by a suddaine motion to this superiour part and place of imagination so that the members remaine without this interiour operation and therefore without griefe or paine the which Celsus reports of a Priest but how truly I know not whose soule being rauished in an extasie left his body for a certaine time without respiration or any sense or feeling But as our letting blood and phlebotomizing is the onely remedy in these and the like suddaine accidents because hereby they attract the spirits to their region and duty So in strong imaginations be it that they proceede from extreame griefe or paine which takes vp all our senses in the contemplation of his misery or the deformity of his obiect which makes vs shake and tremble and stupifies and dulls our
raine hayle winde and lightning but if the thunder come to fall thereon it then teares its branches and thunder-claps our trauelling Pilgrime So Philosophie armes vs against contempt pouertie banishment and the other defects and vices of opinion and defends and sheltereth vs from the violent windes of passions But if sicknes and paine which is the thunder of Fortune fall vpon vs it teares all that it meetes withall breakes downe our weake baricadoes and defences and makes vs feele the points and edges of his indignation And yet the Thunder of heauen spared the sacred tree of Apollo but that of fortune without any respect to vertue that euer sacred and soueraine tree of thâ— Gods insolently breakes and teares it in peeces as triumphing in the losse and ruine thereof So that if the vertue of man could diuert and turne away this thunder from his head as she doth other iniuries of fortune I beleeue with reason that she might pretend the name and title of perfect and compleat felicity But likewise wee must not indifferently tearme all that to bee griefe and paine which afflicts vs Let vs therefore endeuour yea enforce our selues to restraine and keepe it within the surest bounds and limits that we can Let vs see what it is and if mans felicity may agree and sympathize with it according to the opinion of the Stoicks which for my part I beleeue not SECTION IV. As it belongs to none but to the minde to iudge of true or false so our sense ought to be the onely Iudge either of pleasure or paine ALL things should be considered absolutely and simply in their proper Essence and Being or relatiuely as regarding our selues Absolutely in their Being as the Earth the Sea the Sunne and the Starres which Essence or Being is equally spread and diffused euery where It is this truth which is not knowne in his Essence but onely of God and therefore where the point of humane wisedome in vaine striues to assaile it Or relatiuely in regard of our selues and then this reflexion engageth either our body or our minde If the body it is tearmed good or euill and there is none but our senses which haue right to iudge of a Knowledge which is infused to them and so much and so long conioyned that the harmony of the temperaments is not molested or troubled by any false agreement If the minde then it is tearmed true or false whereof the one caries the figure of good and the other of euill which is that which wee tearme ratiocination which from vniuersall propositions inferres and drawes particular consequences and composeth of this collection reduced in order by iudgement the Science or Knowledge of things But the minde and the body ioyning together in a community in those things which they had of each other in particular The minde secures the body and promiseth to prouide him a Sentinell to conserue and watch against the surprises of his Enemie which is paine or affliction by the meane of her care and fore-sight conditionally that shee may participate of the enioyance of those profits and pleasures which proceede from her But this agreement and harmony lasteth not long for the minde abuseth her selfe and this abuse is conuerted into tyrannie for of a companion that formerly she was she now becomes Master and violating the lawes of society shee vsurpes vpon the iurisdiction of the senses beleeuing that this vsurpation giues her an absolute right and full power to iudge of the quality of good or bad without consulting or taking counsell of the senses and then as shee will iudge that to be either good or bad which is not so will she doe of griefe or pleasure which was not of the same nature and in the end disposing soueraignly of all she is ariued to this height and point to beleeue that those pleasures which were fallen to the lot and share of the senses were obliged to content and satisfie her insatiable appetite without informing her selfe if they had worthily acquited themselues of their charge and functions which was to appease the hunger and desire of our senses The which desire because it is limited within the extent of its obiect is easily exchanged and conuerted into tranquillity and a peaceable enioying thereof In the meane time the minde playes the auerse and difficult still murmures and repines against it and entertaines man in this perturbation and perplexitie which you see He is become more amorous and affectionate to other mens children then to his owne and this bastard affection of his serues him as a paire of staires whereby by little and little he descends to the misunderstanding of himselfe and then being buried in the darknesse of obliuion he leaues in prey the inheritance which he had promised to giue to this community and renounced his owne which was lawfull which is the meditation or knowledge of true or false for as much as in the body of man the soule may bee capable to foment and cherish the goods or pleasures of her companion And farther if their profits or pleasures were of the same quality and nature when by any misfortune the portion of the one or other were ruined there would yet in the other lot and portion remaine enough to nourish and content them both As the Philosopher who liuing by the sweat and labour of his owne hands vaunted that thereby he was yet able to maintaine and nourish another like himselfe But the foode and nutriment of the one is not that of the other for all that which they haue truly in Commons betwixt them is the harmony which should make this musicke to be composed of spirituall and corporall things wherein if either the one or the other mutinie or rebell then expect no farther harmony or agreement for it is nothing else but confusion But the senses being conducted by the infused and cleare-sighted light of nature are better gouerned in their Common-wealth The one hath enterprised nothing against the other It neuer happens that the eye vndertakes to heare or the eare to see if it bee not abusiuely spoken But since they haue elected this inconstant mind to gouerne them as their head or Chieftain they haue reaped and receiued nothing but shame and confusion The eye findes nothing to be absolutely faire but that which raritie or opinion pleaseth to recommend to vs to be so So the Rose and Gilliflower are nothing in comparison of a flower which growes in the Indies or forraigne Countries But this Tyrant aduanceth yet farther for he puts them to the racke and makes them pay deerely for the errour of this their foolish indiscretion For the senses dare not embrace that which they prise and affect dearest without her free consent and permission If any ticklish desire giue them a contrary motion to that of reason then the minde lifts vp her hand and staffe and vseth them so vnkindly and vnworthily that there is no seruitude or slauery so rigorous They may well passe without
her and without the fruit of this meditation which makes it so commendable A pretious Iewell indeed it is but farre more necessary to this little Common-weale for ornament and decencie then for absolute necessity For that which is in this manner necessary is vniuersall and equall as the heart is necessary to the life of man Reason is a faculty which although it haue her roote in the soule yet she cannot perfect her selfe without the assistance and concurrence of well disposed organes for the most accomplished is but errour iudge therefore what the most imperfect are it is but an accident whose defect changeth nothing the substance of Man Plato was no more a man then a common Porter was An inequality which sufficiently testifies that of absolute necessity it is not necessary to man But at last The Senses growe rebellious and mutinous and will proclaime their triumphes or Holliday in that which concernes their charge or duty of the minde because the minde so powerfully and soueraignly vsurpes vpon their iurisdiction and from this sedition as from the head spring or fountaine of all euills flowes the disorder and confusion which we finde in all things Arts and Learning are endomaged and damnified by the corruption of the senses which hauing no more right to iudge of good or euill will yet intermeddle to knowe true or false as is seene in those who denie Infinity because their grosse senses who would intrude themselues to bee parties in this difference can neuer agree with that which they cannot comprehend Or as those who denie the life or immortality of the Soule because they haue demaunded counsell of the senses which cannot approue of things so difficult and hard of disgestion and so seldome controuerted or proposed For the eye hath not seene nor the eare heard spoken of these discourses neither can Tast Smelling or Feeling giue any testimonies thereof To make them therefore know this Soule it must be as Cicero speakes of the Gods to the Epicurians not a body but as a body that it had not veines Arteries or bloud but as it were veines arteries and bloud that shee was and that shee was not that it had not a humane figure but as a humane figure not being able to represent the soule vnto vs no more then Painters who represent Angels vnder humane shapes and figures If Beasts could figure themselues out a God they would make him of their owne form and shape not beleeuing as an antient Philosopher affirmed that there is any fairer or better shaped then their owne And these men doe the same of the Soulâ— which they cannot otherwise comprehend or conceiue then vnder that of a body whose members possesse some place hauing her dimensions length breadth and depth vnder the very image and figure of man then which they beleeue there is no nobler or else they otherwise beleeue there is none at all or at least that it must be corporall So if it be corporall it must needes bee corruptible as indeede they themselues are wholly composed both of body and corruption And this is the preiudice which the Senses bring to those who haue caused it to bee beleeued in the iudgement which they should make of true or false But as the minde being farre more busie in motion and of a larger latitude and extent then the Senses hath caused a more apparant sensible and vniuersall disorder so shee will not allowe for good but onely that which is pleasing and delightfull to her She hath put new guards ouer all the goods of Nature and will not without her permission and consent that it should bee lawfull for vs to enioy any of them And yet neuerthelesse among those things which we hold and tearme good wee may easily obserue and remarke those that she hath charged corrupted Those goods which carie the marke and seale of Nature imprinted on their fore-heads doe content vs and satisfie and appease by their enioyance the burning desire which hath so violently caused vs to re-search and seeke them And contrariwise the others doe but encrease this feruent desire or thirst which the opinion and vice of our minde hath enkindled in vs The goods which are of his owne inuention doe neither appertaine to the minde or the body For they are neuters and indifferent The minde as it were commitâ—ing adultery with the body hath engendered them as so many Monsters which participate some thing both of the one and the other Of the minde the estimation price and value Of the body that which they containe in them of materiall and terrestriall That which they haue in them of more naturall or of speciall and indiuiduall difference doth not properly belong either to the one or the other It is reported That Mules who are a third different sort of beasts which two former haue propagated are incapable to engender So those goods or priuiledges of Nature which deriue their Being from such different Natures doe neuer of themselues engender any good either to the minde or the body They are instruments whereof we indifferently make vse either to good or euill and which for the most part serue onely to foment our vices and passions But as these good things are neuters and indifferent so the euill which likewise proceedes of his Artifice ought not to haue greater priuiledges and therefore the effect which they produce in vs which we tearme griefe or paine cannot be tearmed so but very wrongfully and abusiuely As imprisonment banishment losse of honours Pouerty offends neither the body nor the minde but is the chaine which onely presseth either the one or the other If the mind complaine it is too blame for it belongs to him onely to knowe true or false If he say that riches are good and pouerty euill the senses will giue him the lye thereto for they complaine not at least if they doe they doe it vniustly If our minde had made this proposition to wit That the oare or matter of gold resembles that of earth or that the difference proceedes not from the mixture of qualities and accidents wee must not appeale therein to our senses Or if the Eye would contradict this proposition because the colour of earth differs from that of gold hee should not bee receiued or beleeued as Iudge If our feeling would adde in his own behalfe that hee findes the one hard the other soft the one smooth and the other harsh and impollished yet it were false and it may be shewed them that it belongs onely to them to iudge of good or euill and not of true or false Wee must not then by the same reason tearme that good or euill but which onely the Senses will so please to doe or as true or false that which it shall please the minde to ordaine So then there is nothing which will beare the name and quality of paine but the contrary obiect to the inclination of our feeling thereof as long as it is present with him and
doth still sensibly and extreamely afflict him therewith So that which is mediocrity can be supported and endured by the constancie of our vertue without astonishing or mouing her and yet neuerthelesse not without offering some outrage and violence to our felicity But sith she exceedes the powers of patience there is no courage so ambitious but will be strucken and beaten downe to the ground by the thunder of Fortune whereof I no way feare the threatnings but the blowes and happy is he that can preuent and hinder that his feare deuance not the effect thereof SECTION V. Although wee graunt that Mans felicity consists in Vertue which is not absolutely true yet I affirme against the Stoickes that felicity is incompatible with griefe and paine THe noyse of weapons as one reporteth hindreth the voyce of Lawes but I beleeue with Zenos Scholler that the noyse of weapons and assaults of paine should more iustly hinder vs from vnderstanding the precepts of Philosophie This Philosopher being besieged by the sharpe points of griefe and paine seeing that it was more perswasiue to make him confesse that it was euill then the power of all his Stoicall reasons were to the contrary He ingeniously confessed that it was an euill because all his long study and time which hee had employed in Philosophie could not secure him from the torment and lesse againe from the trouble and impatiencie which griefe and paine brought him A Sect so rigorous that as one of them said It will neither rebate nor diminish any thing of the felicity of a Wise man although he were in Phalaris his Bull For felicity consists in vertue and this vertue is the vse of perfect reason which wee carie to goodnesse This reason conserues it selfe whole and found in the middes of rackes torments and afflictions and consequently this felicity I contrariwise say that so perfect a felicity is imaginary and although it were true and reall that necessarily it is changed by griefe and paine For the first head heereof I say That nature hath imprinted in all creatures a desire to compasse their owne ends whereunto being arriued they seeme to feele the true perfection of their being from which being estranged and separated they suffer if wee may say so some paine in their insensibility The simple bodies ariue more easily hereunto hauing nothing in them which contradicts this desire The compounded as they enclose and shut vp many contrary qualities they cannot attaine to this perfection because their desires and obiects being different and contrary one cannot enioy his tranquillity but with the preiudice of the others but if it fall out that they are dissolued and diuided by the fire then euery one retires to that part where his desire calls him But among the compounded there is none more multiplied then man because it seemes that nature would assemble in him as in a small compendium or Epitome all that which is generally defused in all sublunarie bodies and farâ—e the more because the soule being conioyned with it she hath brought her desire with her which tending to an infinite obiect giues her selfe but small rest and yet lesse to him of whom she hath the gouernment and conduction Therefore man being composed of so many contrary things hee nourisheth a discord and perpetuall ciuill warre within him and it is as it were impossible for him to appease it because the remedy of the one is the poyson of the other Heauen is the center of light things and Earth of those which are ponderous and heauie that as the compound of these two still obayes the predominate quality in such sort that hee cannot ariue to his centre without offering violence to the least So besides the contrary inclination of all the compounds which slide into the structure and fabrique of man wee must chiefely obserue and remarke these two Of the party Inferiour and Superiour Sensitiue and Reasonable who incessanâ—ly oppose and contradict each other and whereof the one cannot be in hiâ— perfect peace and tranquillity except the other bee farre remote and distant from his because their obiects being contrary and distant one from the other at one time they cannot be in diuers places nor much lesse in one and the same place without quarels and dissention for which cause and reason man cannot hope for perfect felicity in his life sith it ought to bee tearm'd of an vniuersall repose and tranquillity If an Enemie set fire to all the foure corners of a Citie and batter it with an intent to ruine and take it can we beleeue it is in peace because the Gouernour thereof is in a place of assurance and security So the minde being farre distant from the assaults and blowes of Fortune is not a good consequence of tranquillity and perfect felicity it will remaine then imperfect as man himselfe remaines imperfect and he should not be man if he had but one of these parties and priuiledges wherefore we may affirme that the vse of this perfect reason should not be this perfect felicity if it ioyne not with her the repose and tranquillity of her companion the body which should haue the better part in felicity because it is he true touchstone of good and euill as we haue formerly shewed In the second place I say That put the cause that felicity consists in the vse of perfect reason and that shee cannot long sympathize and agree with paine because all the faculties of the Soule in generall suffer according to the motions and alterations of the body So Reason is a materiall and corporall effect which hath her roote in the soule and which cannot perfect her selfe but by the benefit of the organes and the temperate concurrence of the refined spirits of the bloud which if they are of too great a number or quantity then they subuert embroyle yea confound themselues and become brutish and beastly as you see they doe by excesse of wine or sleepe And if there bee any defect they degenerate into capriciousnes or weakenesse of braine and ratiocination But aboue all she depends of the good disposition of the organes the minde being more liuely and actiue in health then sicknes A sweet and cleare ayre and a faire day doth cleare and consolidate the iudgement sharpens our wit dispelleth melancholly makes our reason more masculine and vigorous and in a word makes vs ciuiller and honester men Reason is engendered and growes with our body their powers are brought vp together and wee know that its infancie vigour maturity age and decrepitude doe commonly follow the age and temper of the body And what then if this body bee afflicted with griefe or paine shall shee not feele it What shall wee say of those whose excesse and violence of paine caries them to swooning and convulsions which proceedes and happens because the spirits of bloud being changed by this violence doe diuert themselues from their ordinary course and put themselues into disorder and confusion in the organ so that
they hinder their regular function There is no point of wisedome so pure which can hinder this trouble or secure it selfe from it because it cannot resist the power of sleepe But perfect reason subsisteth nor but by this well-gouerned function of the spirits for that ceasing shee also ceaseth But O yee Stoickes what will be your felicity in torments If your reason forsake you and play false company with you what will then become of this Vertue which no longer knowes her selfe is this it which she had promised you Whiles the Enemie sackes you and Fortune teares and dragges you by the haire shee will abandon you at neede and dares not shewe her selfe but when your Enemies are retired and vanished And yet then shee returnes so weake and trembling that it seemes shee hath felt the very same blowes which our body hath What shall we say of those from whom shee hauing beene but once absent shee neuer had the assurance to returne againe Lucretius a great Poet and Philosopher by a loue potion too sharpe for the palate of Vertue gaue him occasion to dislodge and to abandon the place to folly Faire Felicity how your fauours are difficult to purchase and easie to lose Will you so permit that leuity command and dispose you to the preiudice of that fortitude and constancie whereof you make profession you say that you are a daughter of Heauen and can you therefore suffer the affront and disgrace of this daughter of Earth I meane Fortune that she dragge you Captiue and proudly triumph of your spoyles At least if this Stoicall Vertue could ingender a degree of leaprosie in our sense and feeling shee hereby might make head and oppose against Fortune but shee is so farre from it as she sharpens it and makes it more sensible to the Arrowes that she shoots at vs And to shewe more clearely and apparantly how this poyson of paine and griefe runnes into the superiour party which wee tearme reasonable and so infects it with its contagion wee must knowe that the contrary qualities which concurre and meete in the compound would neuer subsist together if they were not attoned and agreed by a third party who participating both of the one and the other doth thereby entertaine them and appease their enmity and contention And Nature could neuer haue sowed or tyed to man two such contrary peeces without the ayde and assistance of a third which are the purest and most subtillest spirits of the bloud which hold fast and tye themselues to the abundance and affluence thereof by the grossest part which is in them and to the soule by that which is purest in it and which holds fast and stayes in this prison of the body So that prouided that this third be not offended Man still maintaines himselfe He can liue without reason as the Sunne can doe towards vs and in our Hemispheare without enlightning vs with his rayes and beames whiles hee is eclipsed with so blacke and thicke a cloude that it cannot pierce forth to our eyes because reason is as the eye of the soule which shines not forth openly and brightly to vs if it meete with any obstacle or interposition If the legges or armes of a man be wounded or cut off he may yet support himselfe and liue But when this third is excessiuely endomaged and that hee hath forsaken the match then the body being too corpulent and massiue hauing no more hold-fast of the soule is constrained to forsake and abandon her This third therefore serues as an Interpreter both to the one and the other Hee giues the body to vnderstand the will of the soule and to the Soule the appetites and desires of the senses All that generally befalls man is diuided by this third which sends to the one and the other their part and portion If paine afflict the body it spreads and runnes through all the spirits to the very soule as by a sulphurous match lighted at both ends and at the same instant sets fire euery where as well in the superiour as the inferiour part where she offends and outrageth both the senses and reason Thus paine hauing then past and entered into reason it there troubleth the repose and changeth the felicity of the Stoick So that the voyce of that Philosopher who cryed out O Paine I will not say that thou art sharpe or euill is not a sufficient testimony of his victory ouer it It is a Souldier which hee hath taken in the middest of the conflict and combat but yet hee dragges our Philosopher as his prisoner after him A Captiue who spets iniuries in her Masters face is yet no lesse his Slaue Hee who willingly obeyes not is more rigorously handled and the Wise man who armes himselfe against a violent paine or griefe hath not so cheape a bargaine as our selues because it is still ill done of vs to incense an enemie who hath in his hands the power and meanes to offend vs. To put this Constancie as she is depainted by them into a mans hands to oppose and fight against this strong Enemie it is to put Hercules his Club into the hands of a Pigmee The Weapons and Armour wherewith they loade our weake shoulders doe beat vs down and kill vs with their weight It belongs to none but to Socrates to weare this Corslet or to manage or play with the weapons of Achilles and to accustome our selues to it we must vigorously assayle and assault Fortune neuer to make truce with her to prouoke and dare her to the Combat with a firme footing and resolution with the sweat on our front to sup dust into our mouth to make vs drunke with her wounds by little and little to fortifie our stomack as another Pill of Methridatum against the poyson of vnlooked for accidents which may corrupt our health I meane the peace and tranquillity of our felicity SECTION VI. Mans life is a harmonie composed of so many different tones that it is very difficult for Vertue to hold and keepe them still in tune I Finde that the Poets doe exceedingly sing and paint forth the praises and beauty of Venus That commonly they lend Arrowes to this young Cupid which are sharper then those he caries about him in his quiuer and that their true naturall beauty is nothing in comparison of those they borrow from this strange painting and false decoration But it seemes to mee that Philosophers doe no lesse by their wisedome for she haâ—h not so much beauty or excellencie naked as by those ornaments and attires wherewith the Stoikes embellish and adorne her and I know not if the Gods enuie not the condition of men for the price of the like recompence This Vertue as it is painted out by Seneca haâ—h such enchanted lures and graces that if this Image could heat it selfe in our breast and receiue life in our armes by the fauour of Minerua as heretofore the Statue of Pigmalion did by the 〈◊〉 of Venus I beleeue that the