is no less restrained whether it be in sluggish flat demeanures which are accounted good only because they are thought to have no hurt in them or in servile complyance which seemeth to be so loving as if it loved all and so it doth alike and hated none It contradicteth not nor admonisheth nor disliketh Only to keep its own quiet set a compaâ—â— quite contrary and it is not altered but as this may admit of some cunning as well as the complaisance of some courtiers we shall waive it as not intending to speak of things artificial Our Good Nature towards its proper objects is rational without studying free without impulse and keen and active of its own vigour § § I. The first respect wherein we shall consider it is in its love of company whether ordinary or adventitious 1. With its confidents it is an hearts ease to communicate the only pleasure of the soul being in diffusion and the only grief to be pent up in solitude and in silence Retirement is an extinguisher to its flames and obscurity gives it night without either sleep or rest Hence Philosophers have professed to an excellent art of contemplation to make the soul converse with it self as with another that a man might be nunquam minus sola quà m cùm maximè sola as the Emperor and Philosopher professed of himself And as Divines teach us of communion with the blessed Trinity to recompence the want of external communications knowing that a mans mind will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feed upon his heart prey upon his spirits if it have not some object wherewithall to entertain its spirituall appetite Nor is it an easy death to be thus stifled but 't is sensibly the sweetest life to impart our alacrity unto others that can requite it to tosse the ball of free discourse to them that can take it on the racket and return it 〈◊〉 breaâ— a jest where it may be sure to be well retorted This is to revive while we droop to grow while we wast and to thrive while we play To live our own lives and a part of theirs to enjoy our own joyes multiplied with reflections and enjoy others by inter-changing to receive innumerable quantity of spirits out of others breasts and to dis-spirit none but to live one life of sense another life of reason and another life in the common light of our acquaintance 2. Which makes the same disposition as covetous to Ampliate this same number out of every incident conversation As it is an indecency to intrude into strange company without occasion for fear of interfering in any businesses or interpealing privacy So it is an inhumanity to have an aversation or a niceness of accosting for I may disturb their apprehensions with somewhat that is amiss in them or me Either weakness through disuse or a certain pride in prejudging of the company What hath hesitancy or suspition to do amongst the freer spirits Or curiosity of knowing before we venture Since there are as many forms of receding without offence as there are of fair access and the same rule of civility subservient to them both Though women have not all the latitude that men may use yet hardly any but children are restrained for want of discretion Nay a greater pleasure is conceived oftentimes in the company of strangers then of our familiars either through variety or exciting of the spirits to accommodate our selves unto them to gain their good opinion or to learn by them Therefore are men brought up abroad in Schooles or Courts or Camps or foreign Countreys that they may gain an universal humanity which is to enlarge their Capacity and advance the common rudiments of Good Nature but our discourse is not of such as are highly accomplished or utterly rude of breeding In the first Nature not being so discernible by reason of its alloy nor in the second because it lies invelopped in the Ore Wherefore a Good Disposition will meet those ends with as bounteous an humor as its measure of natural or acquired good parts can afford it and avoid all impediments that encumber or with hold it Which is not done by strained endeavour The presence of what we love will move alacrity in us and in them from whose presence we conceive it Whereas a desultory humor or exultancy brought from abroad into an unconcerned company moves disdain 'T is fit we should be modest in conversation and not come puffed up with our own hopes or fortunes which a mind well-govern'd would conceal despising others but applying our selves to accommodation first by civility which is prompt and ready to such a temper that esteemeth none inferiour to it self and is ready to justifie and assert to another all the honour that it finds in him which we have shew'd before of our Good Nature as 't is void of pride and then by courtesie which is no less natural unto him who also esteems himself equal in the rectitude of his mind unto the best and noblest By which means silence soon is broken and complacency loosed whether it be in serious argument or in pleasant entertainment Once most sure it is that nothing agrees less then taciturnity Should we be studying to be wise when we should use our wisdom Should we be studying to excell where if we did excell ' t were ' fit we should suspend the use to make our selves equal Are we afraid to expose our selves What account what state do we make of our precious selves while we make so little of our company Do we affect to be honoured and not to be beloved Or do we think that to give occasion of suspicion by a sullen silence will be the best way to procure it Though Cato was a wise man repleat with solid vertue yet for this reason he became oftentimes unacceptable and once in particular when he came to visit Pompey that noble Captain did him all honor double that he might be the more soon and fairly rid of that severity which as Great as he was he feared and hated while he complemented Deprive us of loquacity and it is no matter what Government we live under a Tyranny is a good as a Royal Monarchy 'T is no matter what minds we wear about us Ignorance is as good as wit Who will carry gold in his pocket if it be a shame to shew it I admire not just at this point that the Ancient Philosophers complain of contempt while I remember what Masters they were of this Cynical Dogma of Taciturnity an intollerable thing amongst men I had rather hear a fool prate or a dog bark then see a barbed Master sit silent But if the argument be serious the soft composure of minds and expressions that follow of mutual apprehensions have a singular power to attract and oblige acquaintance A thing which the vertuous Epaminondas valued so highly That he thought the day lost if he went in publick and did not gain a new friend Besides that the thing bears
excellent way of Charity to give for the love of God rather then for the love of our selves and our own quiet or any man and his relief but I do not think in Religion that they can be dis-joyned or distinguished As to say I give out of Charity not because I campassionate my Brother but because I am so commanded but I am commanded to have compassion if Nature do not give it me and so to exhibit I do not think that to give out of Good Nature is so much as a Moral vertue but a good disposition that by reason may be directed to any height or perfection whatsover but without it that neither will not reason can produce an Act of Charity So that still to advance reason or Religion is not to derogate from the simplicity of Nature which when Divines lay so low in corruption and imbecillity I suppose they mean in another sense then I intend § VIII I reckon not much what entertainment I have made but I am now ready to serve up the disette with a few sprinklings yet remaining under the notion of humanity with its adjuncts and embellishments knowing that the banquet is oftentimes more valuable then the whole meal 1. And first it is the part of humanity to refrain all disgusts to restrain all incommodities and to aid against the incursion of any evils in our common life Therefore it doth not cherish in it self any private humour of diet or repose or singular mode of carriage to be allow'd or yielded to it by any other it affecteth not usurpation of precedences or accommodations but is contented with such part as time and occasion and the persons present do freely and readily afford to it nor to fill any place with it self through vain glory and self commendation or assume all the talk or take upon it self to censure persons or judge of things nor admits of jeers or abuses or suffers the dead or the absent to be traduced or the simple to be too much disparaged It questions not the merit or the quality which any one pretends to though it discern an incomportment it makes no semblance of it it will not expose any one unless it be to detect some malice it helpeth good constructions being tender of others fame as it is of its own and desireth to have others so it taketh notice of distinctions being a sign of rudeness to come a second time into the Company of any Noble Person and not to know who he is it yieldeth honor to men of spirit and of vertuous acquirements though modest and to their arrogance too sometimes For in Ben Johnson's company they say that an absolute domination ruled with the pleasure of his subjects Further though a Good Nature do avoid oftentation for its own part yet is it not impatient of anothers impertinence or idle commendations of himself but rather sollicitous and concern'd for him how he will come off it is apt to bear a part of shame for him if he be impudent or with him if he be sensible as it often happens when he doth not find that applause that he expected I know not how it happens to ingenious spirits such as have real wit and real courage to be bashful when dunces and droans are confident is it a vertue or a weakness in them Only this we may observe as there is a laughter that sheweth no complacency so there is a blushing that argues sometimes a conscious guilt and no goodness sometimes a purpose of revenge And how do you think does blushing become a Blackmoor But where this passion doth express a sense or doubt thought it be but a misprision of any indecency or unhandsome faltring or miscarrying I cannot say it is it self a vertue but a token of it nor a weakness but a kind of remission such as is an ample satisfaction of it self for any small fault and a tacit promise of amendment for he that hath blushed for his mis-adventure ha's stopt all anger and has his pardon without asking which is some relief to such an one as knows That apologies are not to be made without reason neither are as other Compliments but intrench so much upon the Quality or discretion of the Author I should say more that it is an excellent token when blushes do not put out of countenance for then a vertuous confidence is seen under it which will soon recover and overcome it and then these foolish blushes do not misbecome but add a singular grace and lustre to a young face especially and to the other sex for who sees a Lady Blush and take it up handsomely can hardly escape to be enamour'd It is a sign of vertue which is more alluring then the fairest skin and neatest features in the world But still it is to be regarded how this suffusion is recollected for if the shamefulness proceed from ignorance or imbecillity it rather paints then lightens if it happen to a sullen nature it dejects and stains it they cannot presently resume their confidence and reduce it with a glory as our Good Nature can and can do no otherwise To restrain incommodities it behooves us also to bear our own infirmities and inconveniences and as much as possibly to conceal them that we may not disturb our friends or neighbours or impede the alacrity of our company Sick persons do retire and they that visit them come on purpose to condole and sympathize with them only they that have the Plague love to spread their infection and many that have the Itch and of this latter sort are the Querulous company that are ever complaining or finding fault with one or other being either old or crazy or prejudiced or otherwise distempered Nescio an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem Humanity requires us to take sometimes a part of others inconveniences upon our selves to alieviate them to personate another man sometimes to save a mischief that is coming towards him to bear a part of anothers blame when we are innocent and to conceal his to save anger or divert punishment for a Good Nature is averse to all punishment and inclin'd to all lenity It was a speech taken well from Nero and promising a better reign when a table was brought to him to be signed for the death of a malefactor he took the style saying of his own motion O quà m mallem nescisse literas O how I had rather that I could not write And as Tacitus has left the History he became worst the soonest that we ever read of any Nay it is but humanity sometimes to run voluntarily into danger to prevent a greater or a publick jeopardy And some one man has taken strangely upon himself A soldier of the Great Caesar took a pile into his own body to cover his Commander Curtius mounted and arm'd at all points leaped into a gulph to divert an ill Omen The two Decii devoted their lives for two victories Tribune with 400. soldiers took a mortal station to
one courser by a single definition But the Huntsman first must appoint the grounds to us And they are thus ample 1. That Nature hath not been so much restrained unto any man as to allow him no good qualities A fool may be kind and charitable A slave obsequious and loving to his Master A deformed man ingenious Thersites did not want somewhat in him to recommend him to some mans phancy that could distinguish Neither Aesop nor the Priest whom the Queen descended to salute as he lay in sleeping Nay we see sometimes an ill-favour'd lout as he seems to others eyes to be graced with the bed and favour of a beauteous Lady whom likelier persons have sought and have been repulsed Not to speak of the most vicious whose evil parts may be but the corruptions of their excellent endowments misemployed the most contemptible have somewhat in them to bear them up against neglect A curr that is unprofitable hath exquisite wayes of fawning and insinuating with his Master to save his skin or fill his belly so that he may fare better than the Talbot As we likewise see an empty droll better feasted then a Grave Philosopher but they are not so much to be envyed for what they have as to be pityed for what they want 2. That Nature hath not given all good parts to any one man Onc ne furent a tous toutes graces don nées for if she had her prodigality upon that one would cause that all the rest that she hath bestowed on others should be in vain He while he were as a God amongst men would be insupportable in the World while all accumulation of honours and regards were devolv'd on him a general Ebbe would leave the other fishes to perish on the dry shoar and this Leviathan would scarce be covered in the middle of the waters But she hath rather so provided that somewhat there should be in one to recompence the defect of another and somewhat elsewhere to counter-balance men that are excellent that the World might not be too narrow to contain them 3. That a crooked maimed or infirm body are to be allowed for their imperfections in so many grains extraordinary whatsoever vertue you require in them for whatever noble instincts may be in them the soul cannot act without its organs but when it is about to issue it is distorted They cannot choose but be affected as they â—el within themselves when they are about to shew their courtesy somewhat indiscernable may pain and incommode them as an aking tooth may interrupt one if it be no more in the midst of his discourse and then if you wonder to see the debonnaire on a suddain to become tachy and unsociable while he perceives and strives to correct it he may falter upon some other passion or disease and make it worse by his endeavour of amending To these it may be some fair quality may want a seat of action or the faculty be sunk in the rubbish and ruine of a member 4. That there are divers other affections of the body that 〈◊〉 an influence upon the soul. A ean one preyeth on the sweet and oyly humours and so consumes the fewel of its own contentment A little body is soon agitated as if the spirits wanted room to expatiate and 't is receiv'd almost among the vulgar that little heads are testy But if there be excess of dimensions it makes the whole unactive and the parts unwieldy Besides though you see nothing but a body well-disposed the parts within may be inordinate The veins and arteries may be strait and subject to obstructions so that transpiration is not free nor the course of the bloud and spirits open to the extremities of the body whereby it cannot feel its self in an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good estate and habit of complexion Neither is it possible for some to obtain so good a temper who are born with evi humours as we bring with us for the most part some familiar maladies like evil Geniuses attending on us all our life Either thin and fluid humors or gross and tough or fair and fiery spirits or sharp and subtle as if they were the rennet of Cold and melancholy 5. Lastly That therefore the agreement of body and mind must be considered and then the field may be discreetly beaten for our prise There is a kind of Physiognomy that discovers a good Nature wherein any ordinary man may have some insight The beggar spyeth where to be importunate The cheat where to follow The hector where to brave or to beware 〈◊〉 Courtier where to allure but some aspects there are agreeable unto every one liking where none conceiveth a suddain prejudice or hateth at the first sight or envyeth their good estate or affecteth to do them any hurt for their owe sakes but findeth that humanity in them which all the World respecteth Such is that most part that presenteth a clear and even skin a ruddy countenance a constitution full and sound that is neither apt to thrive not abate and a mine of air and behaviour neither flow nor vehement but strong and sweet and such as sheweth a promptness to intension and remission as occasion serveth A body free from uneven parts especially uneven eye-brows prominent lips or an eminent Romane nose If any other parts be unequal one cannot therefore exclude that party from having any good parts within him but we cannot lightly take him for the copy of our Character But there is nothing more regardable than the habit of the eyes which if they bear that full and steddy look that importeth Confidence and admit those repercussions that enkindle bashfulness and emit those casts and glances that are significant of gentle passions they do undoubtedly evince the tokens of a likely person § II. But to leave it unto women to be pleased in the outside of a man and to allow them what they affect in this case to be the competenter Judges Let us pass to the habits of the mind and then to be sure whatsoever we discover to be good in one is good in another and indifferent to both our Sexes I take it once for granted that a Good Nature enjoyes a constant sweetness within it self while it is endued abundantly with a free course of blood and spirits circling in its breast and filling it with love of life both in it self and others and delighting most in interchanging of vivacity 1. And first That it doth not owe its cheerfulness to any foreign cause but only to its native vigour and source of anhelation And whom doth it not revive to see alacrity in another without apparent cause Especially when there is no insolence or affected motion to be discovered Who would not wish and earn for such an acquaintance and think himself happy to have a part in one that is indeed happy of himself To see his action observe his countenance note the harmony of his heart and tongue and hear
why may you not so do at this present and save your self the hazards and the travels It is the treating of designs that removeth present happiness making us to go out of our selves and not to rest in what we are which the truly happy only do as the only means of their happiness A Good Nature is indifferently born to all mankind and to all estates and can never want either complacency in the first or contentment in the later It exacteth conversation to the utmost of its fortune and excepts against none for it hath no picque to make it eager against any It esteemeth no better of its own person or endowments or fortunes then anothers The beautiful despiseth not the crooked the strong doth not violate the weak nor the witty abuse the simple the rich and honorable do not scorn the company of the mean Nor an high mind grasp at other acquisitions than what ly open to its own right and title For of these things that are injoyed in common it reputeth that as good are they that want them as they that have them and as happy they that are without them The Prince and the subject have the same Bread and Wine the same fish and fowl the same cloth and silk the same commodities and refreshments in reality in common to them The rest is but imagination the King thinks the private man more happy and the private man thinks the King But they both know their incommodities apart that no one man hath any reason to contemn another Nor is it the least restraint from pride of a free and ingenuous spirit the magnanimity that it has within it self For as he doth not undervalue so neither doth he prefer any other before himself whom he values only by his own right intentions acquiescing in what he is and not affecting to be any thing that is another He neither covets to detract nor to depend nor to have any others otherwise affected towards him then he is towards them For he is as continent in himself and holds himself as happy as him that he sees to be more wise or more strong or more allied or befriended then himself He cannot therefore be discomposed with envy or emulation which are the tormentors of a proud spirit For envy is a sharp humour that mantles the face with wrinkles and fennowes the complexion while it seeks no less to procure the dissolution of the subject then of the object whereas a good temper loves values the worth that is in another respects his quality covets to support it and desires to communicate with it in the common benefits of vicinity Emulation is more hainous raising a sedition in the common-wealth of vertue and turning the fairest Machines of wit and courage against the seat of aequanimity for it propagates envy scatters the contagion into many hearts and seeks to turn the balance to the contingency of force and violence No matter what succeedeth so that which stands in the way of its undue aspiring be demolished Such furious spirits do not only molest the world with their actions but bear a sway in civil companies by their passions till they are out of breath and then those clear and even carriages that were wont to oblige and conquer men more manfully will be ready to evince them But some one may be instant with me here If it be to debase my self being noble to be Good Natured is it not better to be proud If it be to stay my advancement being capable of obtaining it is it not better to be ambitious If it do not admit of Politick and Martial vertues whereby the world is governed were it not better to unlearn it then to study to be deceived with a vain name Since assuredly whatsoever makes men excellent cannot be a vice howsoever it is termed and whatsoever doth restrain them cannot be of vertue howsoever it is styled Be it so I do not suppose that all Heroick actions are the Acts of Good Nature but only that a Good Nature is the aptest subject of all Magnanimons vertues and a kind of stock and fewel to them but not to their contraries If a man be noble it prompts and supplies him with an high and generous mind far above the vulgar but it faileth him in elation or vain glory or impotent domineering which only make men great in their own conceits and less in other mens If he tend to advancement the same incenseth him by all the means that are fair and vertuous for it is but sloth and degeneration not to seek to mend his fortune but to ambition his preferment with servility or fraud or cunning his nature starts back with abhorrency and reclaims him Interdum in praesens tempus plus profici dolo quam virtute that craft though it seem to profit finds a great abatement at the foot of the account if it do not bring us back to begin again or bring us into great intanglements for by one miscarriage more hath been lost then accrued by many Acts of vertue The like in Politick and military devoirs it boils under publick spirits and makes the love of ones countrey like the love of Immortality but it fails if we begin to affect the Tyranny to subvert the liberty to enslave the people or exterminate the Nobility Only here it strikes and suffers violence Happy was the Roman Common-wealth while it had Camillus Cincinnatus and such other Modest and invincible spirits upon all emergences to deliver it and immediately to deliver up their supream Authority But after one ill exmaple as Tacitus speaks in another case of the Military election of an Emperour when the mystery of Usurping was discovered and the power of the Senate found to be waved by C. Marius a person of base Original and a barbarous mind it was not possible to restore or support it from farther lapses 2. Good Nature is void of interest and design Can'st thou love for love and make that the reward As the roundest mouthed of our Comaedians has plac'd the words for me But there is an end of all things and an action or affection cannot be the end of itself for it must be needs to obtain the fruition of somewhat beyond itself How can this be Yet to love for anothers love may import some valuable consideration for it cannot want effects and services but to love and delight in the acts thereof when one knows the object to be insolvent or ingrateful is not this a paradox of Good Nature But what Can the Sun forbear to shine because it raiseth stench from the dunghil Or the Spring to flow because the stream is dam'd Or the earth to yield its fruit because the husbandman permits it to rot upon the ground To have a'kind and liberal disposition is so natural to a gentle breast that it cannot be abstracted or in sense or reason And that although there be that pay them with their own coin receiving all as
freely as it comes as if the Good Nature only did it to ease it self and were obliged to its percipients But such a Nature soon becomes Master of its second acts and is not therefore foolish because it is simple Though it take a pleasure in its first acts or emanations yet it can improve it in its second without any foreign interest He knows his goodness does as much consist in the object as the subject and that it cannot be compleat if the object be not capable that is if it be ungrateful For it doth not derogate from goodness to delight in the proper consequents of its acts as in love and commendation but rather that it self is argument to commend it for Contemners of same are commonly despisers of vertue To strew ones bounty as a way to lucre or a step to ambition these indeed are the trains of the Masquers which the Nobler Spirits value with that contempt that it deserveth But if veniality be professed and it be in an honest Candidation we may then come in not upon the score of Good Nature but of liberality and Magnificence which are but superstructions To advance yet a little farther the most discreet and prudent acts of a free spirit may be ill requited and yet it is not so weak as to repent them As if one should argue I have found benefit by the free-heartedness of such a person and yet I have no particular obligation to him for he did not intend particular kindness unto me What do we think would it be a plausible Compliment coming from the open house of a noble person to tell him you had made your self welcome and to bid him thank himself Or being beset with theeves or Ruffians and by some liberal hand rescued to take your Congee and bid him thank his own generosity he would have done no less for any other Indeed those offices that humanity doth exact I am bound to do to the ungrateful but in others reason will not justifie a profusion howsoever a Good Nature is never discouraged or diverted by disappointments § IV. Hitherto in generals by the clearing of which it remains that a Good Nature is most Amicable under which I entend to order all the subordinate affections of my subject comprising Amity and Humanity And First I find Amity devided to my hand by an excellent writer into four kinds viz. Natural Conjugal Social and Hospital which are apt to comprise the sum of my discourse on the first head though otherwise one might be styled so more aptly than the rest 1. Natural affection descends upon children like weights from a pulley with invincible springs of revolution ever labouring to advance them and never resting in any measure of benevolence All its benefits are solid all its passions are unfeigned all its actions to the utmost What bounds or limits can circumscribe a thing that is indefinite according to the goodness of the Relatives If we consider it at divers seasons Hope and longing earnes towards their tender years expectation looks wistfully towards their growing endeavours alwayes ready to promote their well doing Joy in their prosperity Anxiety in their doubtful state Sollicitude for their recovery and grief for their miscarriages And none of these indifferent What delight may be conceived in their presence can only be estimated by the grief of parting and tediousness of absence and exultancy at their return The Roman Dames have dyed in embraces on their sons necks returned from the fatal jourâ— of Cannae and Thrasymenus And the Graecian Matrons for joy of their sons victories in a Pythian or Olympian game If these affections be not strong the Parent is unnatural i. e. as vitious in this kind as can be for he cannot do more he cannot hate his issue No man ever hated his own flesh Yet this affection worketh diversly according to the quality of the breasts wherein it is somented whereby we may see what tyranny opinion may sometimes exercise over nature Brutus the first of the Roman Consuls was accounted no ill man Yet when his 2 sons were convicted of conspiracy against the Common-wealth he sate over them as his place required and when all the eyes of the people were bent upon him to see how he would behave himself he commanded them to be executed eminente animo patrio inter publicae paene ministerium his publick spirit overbare his private He was able to keep his countenance unaltered And this was commended in him not as inhumane but as somewhat more then humane But when Torquains Manlius put his son to death for a prosperous fight without authority the Youth of Rome disdained his triumph and hated to go out to meet him styling thenceforward severe commands Manliana Imperia Yet he had publick reason and is not yet acquitted to posterity For the laws of Nature seem to be greater then any laws of discipline nay then the laws of the Common-wealth It is not exacted in our law for a Wife or a son to impeach a Husband or a Father nor are condemned if they be receivers of his stollen goods because they could not do less than obey his command and conceal his trespass which the law doth not imagine that a Wife or a Son ought to judge 〈◊〉 to suspect although indeed it be evident that they know it But the temper of Zaleucus is most admired who having made a law to exoculate those that were taken in adultery and his Son being first taken he put out one of his sons eyes and another of his own So at once appearing a most indulgent Father and an upright Judge which I shall rather leave for a subject of declamation then examine here 2. Such is love descending The retribution is not expected to be so ample Persolui gratia non protest nes malo Patri The filial is rather duty though such as implyeth love and honour It is insinuated to us from the first stretchings of our arms and hands for succour with the first stammerings of our tongues and earliest exertions of our reasons Sence and experience trill it down gently to the bottoms of our hearts and custom and education combine with Nature to augment and cherish it Though we suffer many things in our childishness which we take in evil part yet flesh and bloud is a faithful Monitor to reduce us to submission And that indelible obligation to refresh our obedience In the midst of a disgust the misadventure of a parent will bring the child into concern and every ligament of its heart will ake at his jeopardy for every nerve in its body is a cord of affection that binds to him that gave them When Craesus's son who was born tongue-tyed saw his Father like to be smitteâ—â— a Battel he cryed save the King and dyed by â—…at endeavour But if there be a true aversion from thence a real longing for the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut sit divus modo non sit vivus
a singular pleasure and satisfaction in it self inasmuch as the soul sees it self by the light of those collisions which else would not know how to guess at the notions that it has of it self or the things without it Such company is a Mirror to ourselves whereby we know when we want trimming and wherein we want accomplishing Or if the entertainment of our time and coversation be only to refresh and divert one another the most homilitical of all vertues is facetiousness which has a way to gain ones heart to delight ones eye and ear to quippe without distast to insinuate with sweetness and to make the Droll most beloved and desired for it is indeed a most Gentile Quality and such as Princes have found whereby to remit their Majesty for their use and pleasure and to resume it without any Observation But Satyrical wit hath too much malice in it and can hardly be ingenuous without aspersion or fail to touch some person more picquantly then another which is contrary to the humour of our Good nature that avoideth all impediments of fruition in Society 1. And First in avoideth Melancholy as it is a minding considering of our selves more then others and instead of rendring us able to contribute delight to the company doth rather call them to succour and relieve us and is apt to make us the subject of their notice And what can they note in it but imbecility and want of spirits Or sloth and want of resolution For a good man will bear at least his own infirmities as much as can be that he may be ready to aid another if need require Or if they be such as he cannor cover or dissemble he will not come abroad with them Affectûs uti corporis vulner a sunt celanda When the Gracious Pyrocles was most frankly entertained at the house of Honest Kalander while they were at Table a letter comes to him that his son Clitophon was taken Prisoner if it were no worse by the Savage Helots When he riseth from the Table and is two or three dayes sequestred in his chamber with rending pangs and dolors for his only son his guest could learn nothing not from his servants of the cause of so much absence And this you 'l say was noble but it might be easily done in lesser cases 2. Secondly it avoideth anger and exception Though Homer introduce his Gods and Heroes brawling in their feasts and publick councels and the Antient Romans as appeareth in their Orators and Historians though I never read of any duels among them upon these occasions were wont to applaud themselves and reproach their adversaries both in their Comitia and their Senate yet our modern manners seem utterly to disallow it The Italian will continue his fair carriage while he has retained Bravo's to revenge his conceived malice The French after some short Broüilleric will recollect his jollity and send a challenge to your lodging The Spaniard will call you no worse then Senor at the rapiers drawing So much we must approve as carries the shadow of vertue along with it and saves embroilments in civil conversation For the rest a Good Nature is not subject to exception is not lightly impelled unto anger but easily reduced unto satisfaction and is never transported to revenge 1. Not exceptious for the causes of that are incompatible unto this It is not of a saint and wearish temper having a sound mind in a sound body the one of which however is able to correct some imbecillity in the other It hath never been out of love or use of conversation whereby what liberty it hath wont to take to it self it hath still allowed to another Ingenious persons have a power over one another without usurpation It is not shady or retired fancying it self to be unintelligible and grieving when it is discovered for it desireth nothing more then to be rightly understood and if it find otherwise is glad of an occasion to vindicate itself without alteration It hath no prejudice against any person or profession or condition neither thinks itself to ly so much at open guard as to be obnoxious to every pass of wit or censure or is so tender as to be lightly hurt by them And to blow away a little dust or to put by a ruder chocque in play or exercise is but a sport of Candour In a word being void of pride it is not pricked about punctilioes that such an one saluted another and passed him by That another observed not his right of precedency That a third descanted upon his words Or that the company did not treat him with such respects or caresses as he might have expected from them for he is more magnanimous and knows there can be no violence upon mens minds but that in their own free actions they ought to do according to their discretions though it be to do amiss since the strictness of equity is hard to be had even from law and honor we do not live as Tully saies among men absolute but such as are tanquā simulachra virtutum moving statues or apparitions of vertues 2. Not lightly impelled unto anger Because it valueth not it self higher then another nor preferreth its own apprehension Opiniastreté is commonly the boutefeu of anger both in those that are lightly angry and lightly pacified if they be humoured and in those that are slow to anger but tenacious and almost implacable Which latter is tyrannical in some Natures but with some difference has been observed in persons of highest vertue M. Livius Salinator after he had borne the Consulat was brought to judgement by the Tribunes of the people and unjustly cast and censured which he took so hainously that he absented himself from the City and all publick meetings Eight years after the Consuls bring him back to Rome but he came in old cloathes hair and beard neglected importing in his habit and countenance a signal memory of his disgrace The Censors compel him to be shaved and to lay aside his obsolete weeds and come into the Senate where he sate long without a word speaking till the cause of one of his Kinsmen forced him to arise and therby mov'd the Senate and all the Roman people with consideration of the indignity wherewithal they had disobliged such a man whose head hand they had so long wanted while Annibal had been at their gates and A sdrubal was now entred with another Army no less formidable then the other They unanimously choose him Consul only he himself stands our accusing the levity of the City in choosing him that was not yet acquitted of their condemnation After much submission and entreaty of the Common-wealth he is contented to hold and to be reconciled first to his collegue Cl. Nero with whom before he had had contention but not without great difficulty because he thought the iniquity of his fortune did not set him on even terms in the action Then to go out and archieve
his Province which was to meet Asdrubal while his Collegue went to oppose Annibal and to impeach their conjuction But as he was about to go when Fabius Cunctator advised with him how he would wage that war He answered that as soon as ever he should see his enemy he would engage him But why in such haste replied Fabius Aut ex hoste egregiam gloriam inquit aut ex civibus victis gaudium meritum certò eisi non honestum capiam Notwithstanding he acted in entire correspendency with his Collegue and they returned both in Triumph But when afterwards this Magistracy was expired aed they were both chosen Censors Nero who before was the more placable discovered now his Malignity rather was the greater for he degraded Livius his Collegue because he had been condemned by the people and in revenge Livius did the same to him for false testimony and reconcilement and withal left all the Tribes but one which had no part in his censure in arriere because they had condemned him unjustly and after made him Consul and Censor Itaque ibi foedum certamen inquinandi famam alterius cum suae famae damno factum est On the other side when there had been most publick sharp and inveterate enmities competitions between M. Aemylius Lepidus and M. Fulvius Nobilior when they were both chosen Censors and reconciled by Authority of Senate and people they continued so unanimous in it that although their actions were divers between themselves and disagreeable to the liking of the people they could not afterwards be dis-jointed though the people would have been as glad to have made them appease one another as ever they were to have reconciled them These great persons who have much reasons and reality in them are the more excusable if they do not remit of the heigth of their spirits without as good reason to return to a good will as they had to turn from it And yet many times their mistake obstinacy may be such as may render the task very difficult to give them satisfaction The misprision of Madam de Bar the only Sister of Henry le grand about the Duke of Sully's traversing of her marriage with the Comte of Soissons proved dangerous and a long time unpracticable unto that favourite of the King her Brother to recover her good graces And the Cardinal of Richelieu pin'd and languished and yet failed in his endeavour of appeasing the displeasure of the Q. Mother of France who had raised him and afterwards in hatred of him retired and dyed at Cologue There were great interests compounded in these passions and the persons great If therefore they were bound to make account of themselves and peradventure did exceed in it in the same act making too little of these others whom before they had honoured What wonder if the indignation bare high and their own tempers suffer'd violence In simple Nature it not just to make our selves the standard of another mans worth or his approving of himself to our judgements and apprehensions to be the exact quadrat of the rectitude of his actions or as he pleaseth or displeaseth us so to set him by or to set by him for we may value our selves as we are valued by others but we may not value others as they value us to respect them just to that degree and no otherwise although it be in effect the more frequent use and practise Besides the same impulsives that are ordinary are not a Good Nature For what is a sense of incivility or contempt to one that is void of pride Or how weak to one that is so full of goodness that he rather accounteth the same to have been but a negligence or omission or inadvertency Or in fine how null and void to one that doth not more take upon him to be Judge of the Action then the party obnoxious whom he presumeth to have judged outherwise 3. Wherefore it is easie to be pacified having such arguments ready and being apt to coin more such out of the same mint for it cannot retain its anger without pain though it have not had satisfaction It cannot so highly resent opposition since it knowes none escape it It cannot stick precisely to its own rules or apprehensions knowing that other men have others either in the general or as to their particulars no less convenient It knows that no man serves to all turns but to be used as far as he is proper more not to be expected from him That allowance is to be given to mens defects and to some mens wilful humors which are not any just cause of anger although impertinent or troublesome It hateth the acts as rude and the effects of anger it dreads as brutish sometimes it cannot but remit its anger to occasion if the person be removed or the like accident not probable to fall again in the same manner In effect it considers that all men cannot be obliged by it self that hath its common failings and restraints of fortune And therefore having not expected overmuch it hath not been much disappointed nor cannot be much angry In a word it will do any thing to satisfy or be satisfied rather than to quarter such a souldier long as yields no quiet where he is billeted but drinks up all the oyl and wine of cheerfulness But I shall either Tautologize or anticipate For I shall come again to border upon this argument hereafter Yet it remaineth That the best disposition may be moved to a just anger being quick and sensible as any other and the more rational by the better temper Anger is a power given by nature not a vice in it self to repel evils or obstacles of good and the exerting of its acts doth more discover what a man really is then any other passion Never any man was so innocent to whom some cause of anger has not been administred whose just and reasonable designs have not been opposed whose person hath not been affronted whose rights have not been usurped whose name hath not been maliciously traduced It is but reason that these move anger until the cause of anger be removed our rights be vindicated our obstacles be removed our opposites give way and those that abused us be brought to a sense and acknowledgement 4. But what difference is there in this act and passion in a good man and a wicked Where malice is the first beginning moves towards revenge and knows no moderation in its progress it intends to do as much mischief as it can for the time with more respect to the anger then the cause of it And it commonly does so agitate and discompose the countenance and the violent motions of the body as renders it ungrateful and odious to spectators even unconcerned Whereas a generous anger is becoming to many persons such is the incension while it is opposed such is the remission when way is made to it Such is the motion of mind and body as sheweth force
redeem the rest of the Army out of straits We see besides when there is a fire every unconcerned person will adventure himself to extinguish it when violence is done to an innocent every one will concern himself to rescue when a man is in danger of being drowned a stranger will venture in to save him So that Humanity and Good Nature are not only in sleight and superficial points but extend to realities On the contrary an ill Nature though it be strong or wealthy or well accommodated cannot find in its heart to be helpful or compassionate or commucative with another but if it be in misery it hateth all that are more happy and wisheth it were but able to involve them in the same state with it self Medea the fairest copy that we have of an ill nature in the Latine Tragedian And if thou perish it delights To draw with it Sicilian nights Or with its death to conjure the dissolution of the Universe with the prayer of Nero Let earth and fire when I must dy Be mixt and temper'd with the skie Or as Perseus the last King of Macedon when he was taken captive by the Romans trained from a Sanctuary cursed those Gods that had not afforded him protection Which makes me think of what an admirable temper that ignoble vertue patience is compounded while it is either not at all regarded or noted only by superficial animadverters as a mark of abjection or a poor spirit it signifies an excellent aequanimity an invincible fortitude a certain prudence and a singular piece and proportion of good humors which neither taxeth fate nor providence nor repineth at seeming inequalities while it sees its inferiors preferred its fortunes dissipated its merits undervalued its friends disheartened while nothing in the world seems to favour it it is not curdled or turned but saves it self with salt and reserves it self for the fresh water what were all the arguments of Philosophy concerning vanity indifferency metriopathy if they had not this subject What were all valour or hardiness or skill of enterprizing if there were not patience to endure incommodities and expect the best seasons In fine what end would there be of injuries if there were not this Good Natur'd quality to bound and determine them Either to subside in oblivion or a voluntary sequestration of revengeful thoughts When we read that Wine and Women and Truth are strongest why was not time thought upon which conquers and preys on all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet patience bows the fangs of time and brings about that victory by culling seasons out of it which neither force nor fortune could complete at once compatible but to a Good Nature and an high Spirit if it be not maliciously mistaken a stupidity suppose or a rest after weariness or a manicle of pure force and necessity are no more then brutish Lastly as an aid against incursion of evil accidents humanity is never out of one office or an other either to procure Amities or prevent enmities or reconcile breaches or to clear some mens reputations or to cover some mens disgraces or palliate others just designs that they may gain effect it being most essential to a Good Nature to be loyal and trusty and as secret as its discretion serves to be It delights in speaking praises and in relating any mans goods fortune without any glance of envy or detraction Nay it is not much concerned with the success of an enemy or repineth at anothers gain obtained to its own prejudice if not unjustly For it seeks its own interest with a most indifferent industry in respect of passion though a most intense in respect of action because it moves only in a streight line and will rather waive it s own advantage then interfere with another that seeks it in the same way In fine a Good Nature is entirely so just that a dog or an horse or an old tree fare the better for it § § II. It is the part of Humanity to ampliate all favours to extend all bounties to share and not exempt it self from common lot and fortune To begin with affability which is an exhibiting of ones own person to ordinary use and accommodation to confer and to converse among men without exception it hath ever been in such honor amongst all civil Nations and in such restraint amongst the barbarous as argues it to be an excellent point of humanity though nothing seem more natural and familiar The life and institution of King Cyrus was form'd to this kind of liberality insomuch that if any of his friends were disjoyned from him at the Table he would not fall too with any cheer till he had sent somewhat of his own service to each of them Alexander was free and open to all his soldiers Mithridates could call whole regiments by their names and Caesar was so conversant amongst his men that every one was ambitious to be known to him and by him to be call'd upon by name gave each man invincible resolution M. Antonius who alone of all the Emperors in the judgment of the Historian did apply the study of Philosophers not to terms of speech or knowledge of opinions but to use and practice in his life did demean himself so civilly and agreeably unto all men that he gave his hand freely to all that came to him and suffered not his Guards to prohibit any one On the other side the Kings and Emperors of the Barbarous Nations have used from ancient times hitherto to keep themselves at a great distance from the people rarely to be seen never to be spoken to but by some few of their favourites As at this day the Russian the Mogul and the Grand Seignior a thing that renders them as odious as contemptible to our European manners which exact from our greatest Persons one time or other the greatest affability Much more of meaner subjects to be easie of access ready of speech and speedy of dispatch And to this it may seem that curtesie properly doth belong giving and receiving all kind of favour in comportment wherein it is a shame to be vanquished and a glory to contend in condescention Every Complimenter knows this but he turns his back and laughs and this that is not seen makes the compliment as the vulgar count it the other is but obligation and ought to be sincere And it implies two things first that a man does not esteem himself better then another saving his quality if there be any diffrence And secondly that he is sensible of any favour and does not take a kindness as I have heard the French to tax the humor of us English for an obligation which also implies two things farther first that a courteous person gently weighs the tendency of a fair address and secondly that he answers it with reality according to import If it be an excuse he takes it in good part and is not difficult if it be a tender he receives it with