from Heaven yea from God himself and very highly doth Seneca extoll it as a part of the Divine Spirit infused into Man For this is that most excellent faculty of understanding and judging vvhich is no less the perfection of the Soul than the Soul it self is the perfection of the Man The Greeks call it the Mind and so the Latines or else the Mind of the Soul For that you be not mistaken the vvhole Soul is not right Reason but that only therein vvhich is simple Uniform unmixed sever'd from all Lees and Dreggs and in a vvord that vvhich is in it of sublime and coelestial For the Soul it self howsoever it is lamentably corrupted and infected vvith the stain of the Body and the contagion of the Senses doth yet invvardly retain some certain Footsteps of its Original and there are in it very clearly discernible some sparkling remainders of that first and purer fire Hence are those stings of Conscience even in the vvorst and most profligate Persons Hence are those invvard scourges and gnawings and hence is that approbation of a better Life vvhich is frequently extorted from them though not vvithout a reluctancy in themselves For that sound and holyer part vvithin us may possibly for a time be suppressed oppressed it cannot And that burning Flame may be cover'd but cannot be extinguished For those little Fires do alwayes shine forth and sparkle out to enlighten us amongst these shades cleanse us from these stains guide us in our vvandrings and to shew us the vvay to Constancy and Virtue As the Heliotrope and some other Flowers do by a natural instinct bend towards the Sun So doth Reason turn it self to God and the Original of its self Firm and immoveable in vvhat is good one and the same in its Censures ever desiring or flying one and the same thing the very source and Fountain of right Councel and sound Judgement To obey this is no less than to command and to be subject here is to svvay the Scepter of the Universe Who ever hearkens unto this hath already subjugated the rebellious desires and motions of the Mind And he shall never be wildred in the Labyrinths of this Life vvho remits himself to the guideance of this Theseian Clevv God himself by this his Image comes unto us nay vvhich is yet more into us But that baser and unsounder part I mean Opinion it owes its Original to the Body that is to say to Earth and therefore savours nothing besides it For the Body howsoever it is immoveable and senseless of it self yet it derives both Life and Motion from the Soul and on the other side presents to the Soul the Images of things through the Windowes of the senses Thus there is a kind of Communion and Society Cemented betwixt the Soul and the Body but such a communion as if vve attend the Event proves unfortunate to the Soul For through this it is that the Soul by almost insensible degrees is led from the Nobler place of its residence becomes addicted to and is mingled vvith the Senses and from this impure mixture is the birth of Opinion vvhich is no other than a vain shaddow and resemblance of Reason The true seat of it is Sense the Parent Earth and therefore abject and base as it is it advances not it self it aspires not nor so much as regards any thing that is lofty and AEtherial It is ever vain uncertain deceitfull ill-advising and as perversly judging and that vvhich it chiefly aimes at is at once to deprive the Soul of Constancy and Truth It languishes for this thing to day and on the Morrow despises it this it approves and this it condemnes nothing vvith judgement but gratifying the Body and indulging the Senses in every thing As the Eye makes but a false measure of those things vvhich it beholds through some Cloud or in the Water So doth the Mind but perversly judge of vvhat it beholds through the misty Mediums of Opinion This if you consider vvell is to Man the Mother of his Evils and this is the Author of that confused and perturbed Life vvithin us That cares do disquiet us it is from hence that the Passions do distract us it is from hence and if Vices do Reign over us it is also from hence And therefore as those vvho are resolv'd to abolish Tyranny in any City do first of all demolish the Castle So if vve are Serious in the prosecution of a good Mind vve must subvert this Citadel of Opinions For vve shall fluctuate vvith them for ever Anxious Plaintfull Discompos'd and never as vve ought assigning vvhat is equall either to God or Man As a void and empty Ship is tossed in the Sea vvith every wind So vvill that Vagrant Mind of ours be vvhich the vveight and as it vvere the ballast of Reason hath not established CHAP. VI. The praise of Constancy and a serious exhortation to pursue it LEvity therefore Lipsius as you see is the Comrade of Opinion and the property of it is alvvayes to change and to repent But the associate of Reason is Constancy to the putting on of vvhich I do very seriously exhort you To vvhat purpose is it to have recourse unto things vain and external This is that only Helena vvhich can present you vvith that true and rich Nepenthe in vvhich you may drown the memory of all your Cares and Griefs which if once you have tasted and taken down proof against every chance in the same equal tenour and not vvavering after the manner of a ballance you may challenge to your self that great and God-like property of Immoveable Have you not observed in the Scutcheons and Impresses of some of the Princes of this Age that high and envy'd Motto NEITHER BY HOPE NOR FEAR It shall be yours vvho being truly a King and truly free shall be a subject unto God alone exempt from the bondage both of Affections and Fortune As there are some certain Rivers which are said to pass through the middle of Seas and yet preserve themselves intire so you shall travel through surrounding tumults in such a manner as not to contract any saltness from this Sea of sorrowes Do you fall Constancy will lift you up Do you stagger It vvill support you Shall you hasten to some Pond or Halter It vvill solace and reduce you from the very Portalls of Death Do you only deliver and raise up your self Steere the course of your Ship unto this Haven where Peace and Security dwell In vvhich there is a Refuge and a Sanctuary from troubles and perplexities Whereunto assuredly if you are once arriv'd should your Country not only totter but fall into ruines your self should stand unshaken When Storms and Tempests and Thunder-bolts fall about you yet then you shall cry out vvith as true as loud a Voice In midst of all these VVaves I stand Secure as if upon the Land CHAP. VII VVhat it is and how manifold that opposes Constancy they are external
rather to endeavour a change of that than of the place and to strive not so much to be else where as to be another You long now to see the fruitfull Austria the Loyal and Stout Vienna that King of Rivers the Danubius and those other rare and strange things vvhich Men so delightfully listen to the Relations of But hovv much better were it for you if you had the same Ardour and eagerness after Wisdome If you vvould foot it in those fertil Fields if you would search out the springs of Humane perturbations in fine if you vvould erect such Bulvvarks and Forts as might render you impregnable to all the storms and assaults of such desires as are Illegitimate For these are the grand Remedies for your Disease and every thing besides are but as Lint and Lavatory Your departure vvill nothing help you It vvill be small advantage to you that you have Escap'd to many Graecian Cities and Through squadrons of arm'd Ships get safe to Land You vvill find an Enemy vvithin your self and Claying his hand on my brest in that so private an apartment What matter is it how peaceable those places are to which you shall arrive So long as you carry a War along vvith you Or how quiet When troubles not only surround you but are got vvithin you For this disagreeing Mind of ours vvill ever be piquering vvith it self Desiring and flying hoping and desparing And as those flying Cowards do most of all expose themselves to danger that discover their unarmed Backs to their Enemies So those Errants and Fresh-vvater Souldiers also do vvho as yet did never maintain a fight vvith their Affections but alwayes fled before them But thou Young Man if thou vvilt hearken unto me shalt stand and fortifie thy self against this Enemie of Grief For above all things it is constancy you stand in need off and there are some vvho have commenced Conquerours by fighting but not a single Person by flying CHAP. IV. The Definitions of Constancy Patience Right Reason and Opinion The difference betwixt Obstinacy and Constancy and betwixt Patience and Stupidity SOmewhat rais'd vvith this Discourse of Langius there is much of Noble and Gallant said I in these Advices of yours And now am I endeavouring to raise up my self and stand But to as little purpose as persons that attempt the same thing in their sleeps For not to dissemble Langius I tumble back into my former Seat and as vvell publick as private Cares stick fast in my perplexed Mind Drive from me if it is possible these Vultures vvhich are continually pecking and take from me these Ligatures of Anxiety vvith vvhich I feel my self bound unto this Caucasus I shall doubtless take them away reply'd he and as another Hercules set at liberty this Prometheus Do you only attend and consider I did before invite you to Constancy Lipsius and it is in that I have placed the Hope and Sanctuary of all your Safety This therefore in the first place is to be understood by us Now by Constancy I here understand AN UPRIGHT UNMOVED STRENGTH OF THE MIND NEITHER ELEVATED NOR DEPRESS'D BY EXTERNAL OR ACCIDENTAL OCCURRENCES I said a STRENGTH and I thereby understand such a firmness as is begot in the Mind not by Opinion but by Judgement and right Reason For above all things I would exclude from hence Pervicaciousness or vvhether I may better call it Pertinaciousness vvhich it self is the strength of an Obedient Mind but such only as is engender'd by the vvind of Pride and vain Glory and is but in one part of it only For those Pervicacious Persons though they are not swollen as they are easily to be depress'd Yet a light matter doth lift them up Not unlike unto a bladder vvhich being fill'd vvith vvind vvill not sink vvithout difficulty but appears aloft and bounds upon the Water of its own accord Such is the flatulent hardness of these Men vvhich as I said arises from Pride and too high an estimate of self and by consequence from Opinion But the true Mother of Constancy is Patience and lowliness of the Mind vvhich I define A VOLUNTARY AND COMPLAINTLESSE ENDURANCE OF ALL THOSE THINGS WHATSOEVER THEY BE THAT FALL OUT TO OR FALL UPON A MAN FROM ELSEWHERE Which being taken up upon the actount of right Reason is that only Root from vvhence the height of this excellent Oak-like strength doth vvear it self For here also it is requisite that you should be heedfull lest Opinion should impose upon you vvhich frequently in the room of Patience doth subrogate a kind of abject and stupid temper of the Mind a very Vice and vvhich arises from too low an estimate of our selves As for Virtue she ever marches in the middle path and is cautiously heedfull lest there should be any thing of Excess or Defect in any of her Actions For still she directs her self by the Ballance of right Reason and hath that alone for the rule and square of her Test. Now this right Reason is nothing else but A TRUE APPREHENSION AND JUDGEMENT OF HUMANE AND DIVINE MATTERS AS FARR AS THEY APPERTAIN TO US Contrary hereunto is Opinion vvhich is A FUTILE AND FALLACIOUS JUDGEMENT CONCERNING THE SAME THINGS CHAP. V. The Originals of Reason and Opinion The Power and Effects of each That leads to Constancy this to Levity BUt forasmuch as from this double spring I mean of Reason and Opinion doth arise not only the strength or vveakness of the Mind But also every of those things for vvhich vve are accounted praise-worthy or reproveable amongst Men I suppose I shall not do amiss if I go about a little more copiously to Discourse of the Original and Nature of them both For as Wools must have a previous tincture and preparation by some other juices before they are capable of receiving as they should that last and more excellent colour they are intended for After the same manner Lipsius your Mind is to be prepared by a preceding Discourse before I shall be able as I vvould to dye it in the last purple of Constancy There are therefore as you vvell know two parts in Man Soul and Body the one more Noble as resembling Spirit and Office the other is more Base as it respects the earth These two are joyn'd together yet vvith a kind of disagreeing Concord nor do they easily accord vvith one another especially in those matters wherein Soveraignty or subserviency is concern'd For both have a desire to sway but that especially that ought not Earth strives to advance it self above its own fire and Clodds are ambitious to get above the Clouds From hence are those broils and troubles in a Man and as it vvere a continual fight betwixt two parties that are alvvayes Skirmishing vvith each other The chief Leaders and as it vvere Generalls unto these are Reason and Opinion The one is for the Soul and Warres therein the other is for the Body and in the Body it fights Reason derives its Pedigree
limits and bounds And amongst the latter methinks I see King Tarquine in that then ancient Rome diverting himself in his Gardens and smiting off the heads of the Poppyes Cato the Censour applying himself to this study and vvriting Books vvith all seriousness about these matters Lucullus retiring to his Gardens after all his Asiatique Triumphs Sylla having lay'd down his Dictatorship doth here more contentedly grow old and Dioclesian the Emperour preferres his Sallads and Lettuce at Salona before the imperial purple and all the Scepters of the Universe Nor have the Vulgar receded from the Judgement of their superiours but even amongst them the honester sort and such as vvere free from ambition vvere generally this way addicted For certainly there is a kind of secret impulse that vvith us is born the hidden Causes of which I cannot easily explicate which thrusts into this innocent and ingenuous delight not only us vvho bend that vvay but even those serious and severe persons who both resist and deride it And as none do behold the Heavens and those eternal Fires without a secret kind of horror and Religion so neither do any take a view of the Sacred Treasures of the Earth and the beautiful Ornaments of this lower World without a silent kind of Gust and Titillation of delight Enquire but of your Mind and Soul and it will confess it self not only to be surpriz'd but even fed with such a prospect Ask your Eyes and Senses and they will acknowledge that they do not any where more willingly repose themselves Look round about I beseech you for a while and observe the several troops of Flowers together vvith the manner of their growth Behold how this uncupps and that unsheathes and this other swells it self out of the rich inclosure of it's Gemm-like Bud. See how suddenly the one expires and the other shoots out to succeed it to conclude observe in any one kind of them the Beauty Forme and Appearance a thousand vvayes divers and the same What Mind is there so rigid that in such entertainments as these vvill not vvithdraw and melt it self into soft and pleasing Meditations Let the curious Eye dwell awhile upon those Orient and dazeling Colours Behold this native Purple this Blood this Ivory this Snow this Flame this Gold and such diversity of Colours as a skilful Pencil may possibly emulate but can never be able to express To conclude vvhat exhaling Odors vvhat subtile and piercing Spirit and I know not what part of the Heavenly Air breathed from above So that our Tribe of Poets seem not in vain to have feign'd that most Flowers are born of the Blood and juice of the Immortal Gods O thou true Fountain of dissolved pleasure O thou happy Seat of Venus and the Graces May I ever pass my dayes and repose my self in these your shades may it be lawful for me thus remote from popular tumults vvith a cheerful yet unsatisfy'd Eye to wander amongst the Plants and Flowers of the known and unknown World busying my self now vvith tâ—e Rise of this and than vvith the Set of that and vvith a vvandring kind of deceit here to lose the memory of all my cares and sorrows CHAP. III. Against some curious People who abuse their Gardens to Vanity and Sloth Their proper use That they are places fit for wise and learned Men and that VVisdom it self is bred and cherished there WHen I had spoken this somevvhat earnestly and vvith a kind of Ardour both in voice and countenance Langius looking mildly upon me Certainly said he Lipsius you are enamour'd of this florid and purple Nymph and I am solicitous lest you should love her immodestly For you praise Gardens but yet so as to admire only those things vvhich are vain and external vvhile you omit to speak of the true and lawful Pleasures of them You greedily behold the colours and repose in the beds and enquire after Flowers from the known and unknown World But for vvhat purpose I pray Is it to assure me that you also are one of that newly sprung up Sect of curious and idle persons vvho have converted the most excellent and simple delight into the instrument of a couple of Vices Vanity and Sloth For to this end have they their Gardens vvith an ambitious curiosity they search after a few forraign Plants and Flowers and vvhen they have them they cherish and attend them vvith the same anxiety and passion as a Mother doth her Son These are they vvhose Letters vvander into Thrace Greece India for some little parcel of seed a Clove or off-set of a Flower Who more passionately lament the vvithering of some new fashioned Slipps than the Death of an old try'd Friend Does any Man laugh at that Roman who put on mourning for the Death of his Lamprey After the same manner bewail they the Funerals of their Flowers Now if any of these Candidates of Florae have got any thing more new or rare O how he boasts it How do his Corrivals emulate and envy him Some of vvhom return no less pensive to their Houses than Sylla or Marcellus vvhen they vvere rejected in their suit for the Pretorship What shall I call this but a merry kind of madness Not unlike to that of children turning pale and quarrelling for their Topps and Counters Understand also how these men imploy themselves in their Gardens they sit they vvalk round about they gape and sleep and nothing else as if they intended them not as places of retirement but as Sepulchres of Sloth A prophane Generation and such as I may justly exclude from the Orgyes of the true and sacred Garden vvhich I know to be consecrate to modest pleasure not to Vanity to ease but not at all to Sloth Should I be of so feeble a temper that the gain or loss of a poor Flower should either exalt or depress me No I esteem things at their just rates and setting aside the meretricious advantage of Novelty I know they are but Plants I know they are but Flowers that is short-liv'd and transitory things of vvhich the Prince of Poets hath pertinently spoken When the soft VVestern winds abroad do flye Some Flowers they make to spring and others dye I do not then despise these elegancies and delights as you see but herein I differ from these delicate Hortensii that as I get such things as these vvithout anxiety so I keep and so I lose them Nor am I so stupid or rather so dead that I should cloyster up and as it vvere bury my self in these Garden shades For even in these retirements I find business and my Mind doth here meet vvith something vvhich it may performe vvithout action I am never less alone than vvhen alone said one nor ever less at leisure than when so An excellent saying and vvhich I dare affirm had its birth in such Gardens as these vvhich are intended for the Mind not the Body to recreate that not to dissolve and soften this and
for a safe retreat both from Company and Cares Is company troublesome Here you shall be vvith your self Have employments exhausted your Spirits Here they shall be repayr'd vvhere the Mind shall be refresh'd vvith its proper food of quiet and vvhere from this purer air you shall have as it were the inspiration of a new life If you look therefore upon the ancient Sages they dwelt in Gardens or upon the more learned and improved Spirits of our times they delight in Gardens And in those for the most part are those divine pieces compos'd vvhich are the wonder of Mankind and vvhich no Age or successions of time shall ever abolish To this green Lycaeum do we stand indebted for so many Lectures upon Nature To this shady Academy vve owe those discourses about manners and from the apartments of these Gardens are those abundant springs of Wisdom diffus'd vvhich we drink of and vvhich vvith their fertill inundations have enrich'd the World For the Mind doth raise and advance it self to higher and greater things vvhen free and at large it beholds its own Heaven then vvhen 't is cloyster'd up within the Prison of a House or City Here O ye Poets frame an everlasting and immortal Verse here let the learned meditate and write here O ye Philosophers dispute of Tranquility of Constancy of Life and Death See Lipsius the true end and use of Gardens it is rest secession meditation reading vvriting and yet all these by way of recreation only and divertisement As Painters vvho by long poring have vvearied and dimm'd their sight call it off to certain glasses and green objects thereby to quicken and refresh it so do vve the Mind when it either straggles or is tyred And why should I conceal my Custome from you Do you see that Arbour set out vvith Topiary vvork 'T is the place I have consecrated to the Muses It is my School of Wisdom There I either satisfie my Mind with serious and retir'd reading or improve it vvith the Seeds of profitable Meditation And as arms are lay'd up in a Magazene So do I from them store up precepts in my Mind vvhich are alwayes ready by me against every battery and impression of Fortune As oft as I enter there I forthwith command all base and servile cares to absent themselves and asmuch as I may vvith an elevated Mind I despise the studies of the prophane vulgar and this great vanity in the affairs of Men. Yes I seem to my self to be wholly divested of humanity and to be transported into Heaven it self in the fiery Chariot of Wisdome Do you think it there troubles me what the French or Spaniard are designing Who keeps or loses the Scepter of Belgia That the Tyrant of Asia now threatens us by Land or by Sea Or to conclude VVhat Plots that King is forging in his brains That in the North and frozen Climate raigns none of all these I vvill assure you Securely fortify'd against all that is external I retreat within my self free from all sorts of cares except this one how I may subject this broken and subdued Mind of mine to Right Reason and to God And all other humane things to my Mind that vvhensoever that fatal day shall come that must put a period to my Life I may receive it vvith a compos'd and unsadded countenance and may so depart out of this life not as he that is forc'd into exile but as one that is set at liberty These are my musings in my Gardens Lipsius and these the fruits which so long as I am my self I shall not vvillingly exchange for all the Persian and the Indian treasures CHAP. IV. An exhortation to VVisdom thereby a Man may attain to Constancy An admonition to Youth to conjoyn the more serious studies of Philosophy to the more pleasant and liberal ones LAngius had finish'd and I confess seriously that this last generous and constant speech of his had cast me into some amazement vvhich vvhen I had recovered O happy Man said I both in your business and retirements O that more than humane life vvhich I have met with in a Man Would to God I vvere able in any Measure to imitate and to creep along after these footsteps though it vvere at a considerable distance Langius as reprehending me imitate sayes he Yes excell You have right here not only to follow but to lead the vvay For in this Path of Constancy and Vertue Lipsius vve have made but a small a very small progress As yet vve are not comparable to the more Heroick and excellent Persons though possibly a little more assured than the utterly enfeebled and debauched sort But you vvhose Youthfull inclinations are Generous and Lofty prepare your self and agreeable to my instructions assay that path which doth directly lead to firmness and Constancy The vvay I speak of is Wisdom whose smooth and even path I beseech and advise you no longer to decline Hath learning and the Nine Goddesses hitherto delighted you I approve it For I know the Mind ought first to be subacted and prepar'd with this more pleasing and external knowledge as being before unfit to have divine Seeds intrusted vvith it But vvithall I approve not that you should so farr dote upon this as to make it both the beginning and end of your studies These are to be our rudiments but not our vvork our vvay but not our Goale In a feast I suppose you vvould not feed only upon Quelk-choses or Junkets but would gratifie your stomach vvith something that is more solid In this publick banquet of Learning why do you not the same Why add you not the firmer food of Philosophy to those delicious Viands of Oratours and Poets For mistake me not I vvould not that the one should be deserted but that the other should be superadded and that those looser and by themselves more fluid Nymphs should be tempered and mixed vvith this as I may call it severer Bacchus Penelope's Suitors in Homer are justly laughed at vvho deserting the Mistress fell to courting the Maids Take heed you do not the same that despising the great and excellent Princess you should remain enamour'd of her handmaids It is a desirable purchase to attain the praise of a learned Man that of a vvise Man is beyond it but that of a good Man surpasses all Hereafter let us aim at these and by all our labours endeavour not only to know but to be vvise and do How vaine's that knowledge where No VVisdome doth appear sayes that old and true Verse How many are there in this our Assembly of the Muses vvho dishonour both themselves and the very name of Learning Some in that they are even covered with the black spots of detestable impieties and the most because they are vain light Meteours only and of no worthy designment Do they learn languages Yes but languages alone Do they understand the Greek and Latine Authors Yet they do but understand them and as Anacharsis faid vvell