these diuersities of estates and charges CHAP. XLV Of commanding and obeying THese as hath beene sayd are the two foundations of all humane societie and the diuersitie of estates and professions They are Relatiues they do mutually respect ingender and conserue one the other and are alike required in all assemblies and communities but are yet subiect to a naturall kinde of enuie and an euerlasting contestation complaint and obtrectation The popular estate make the Souereigne of woorse condition than a Carter The Monarchie placeth him aboue God himselfe In commanding is the honour the difficultie these two commonly go together the goodnesse the sufficiencie all qualities of greatnesse Command that is to say sufficiencie courage authority is from heauen and of God imperium non nisi diuino fato datur omnis potestas a Deo est And therefore Plato was wont to say That God did not appoint and establish men that is to say men of a common sort and sufficiencie and purely humane to rule others but such as by some diuine touch singular vertue and gift of heauen do excell others and therefore they are called Heroes In obeying is vtilitie procliuitie necessitie in such sort that for the preseruation of the weale publike it is more necessarie than well to command and the deniall of obedience or not to obey as men should is farre more dangerous than for a Prince not to command as he should Euen as in mariage though the husband and the wife be equally obliged to loialtie and fidelitie and haue both bound themselues by promise in the same words the same ceremonies and solemnities yet notwithstanding the inconueniences are incomparably farre greater in the fact of adulterie in the wife than the husband euen so though command and obedience are equally required in euery state and companie yet the inconueniences of disobedience in subiects are farre more dangerous than of ill gouernment in a Commander Many States haue a long time continued and prospered too vnder the command of wicked Princes and Magistrates the subiects obeying and accommodating themselues to their gouernment and therefore a wise man being once asked why the Common-wealth of Sparta was so flourishing and whether it were because their Kings commanded well Nay rather saith he because the Citizens obey well For if the subiects once refuse to obey and shake off their yoke the state must necessarily fall to the ground CHAP. XLVI Of Mariage NOtwithstanding the state of marriage be the first more ancient and most important and as it were the foundation and fountaine of humane societie whence arise families and from them Common-weales Prima societas in coniugio est quod principium vrbis seminarium Reipublicae yet it hath been contemned and defamed by many great personages who haue iudged it vnwoorthy men of heart and spirit and haue framed many obiections against it First they account the band and obligation thereof vniust 2 Obiections against mariage a hard and ouerstreight captiuitie insomuch that by marriage a man is bound and enthralled to the cares and humours of another And if it fall out that hee haue mistaken in his choice and haue met with a hard bargaine more bone than flesh his life is euer afterwards most miserable What iniquitie and iniustice can there be greater than for one houres follie a fault committed without malice and by meere ouersight yea many times to obey the aduice of another a man should be bound to an euerlasting torment It were better for him to put the halter about his necke and to cast himselfe into the sea his head downward to end his miserable life than to liue alwayes in the paines of hell and to suffer without intermission on his side the tempest of iealousie of malice of rage of madnesse of brutish obstinacie and other miserable conditions and therefore one sticks not to say That he that inuented this knot and tie of marriage had found a goodly and beautifull meanes to be reuenged of man a trap or gin to intangle beasts and afterwards to make them languish at a little fire Another saith That to marrie a wise man to a foole or a foole to a wise man is to binde the liuing to the dead which was the cruellest death inuented by Tyrants to make the liuing to languish and die by the companie of the dead Secondly they say that mariage is a corruption and adulterating of good and rare spirits insomuch that the flatteries and smooth speaches of the partie beloued the affection towards children the care of houshold affaires and aduancement of their famelies do lessen dissolue and mollifie the vigour and strength of the most liuely and generous spirit that is witnesse Samson Salomon Marc. Antony And therefore howsoeuer the matter goe we had not neede to marry But those that haue more flesh than spirit strong in bodie and weake in minde tie them to the flesh and giue them the charge of small and base matters such as they are capable of But such as are weake of body haue their spirits great strong and puistant is it not then a pitie to binde them to the flesh and to mariage as men doe beasts in a stable We see that beasts the more noble they are the stronger and fitter for seruice as horses and dogs the more are they kept asunder from the companie and acquaintance of the other sex and it is the maner to put beasts of least esteeme at randon together So likewise such men and women as are ordeined to the most venerable and holiest vocation and which ought to be as the creame and marrow of Christianitie Church-men and religigious are though not by any warrant from the word of God excluded from mariage And the reason is because mariage hindreth and auerteth those beautifull and great eleuations of the soule the contemplation of things high celestiall and diuine which is incompatible with the troubles and molestations of domesticall affaires for which cause the Apostle preferreth the solitarie continent life before mariage Vtilitie may well hold with mariage but honestie is on the other side Againe it troubleth beautifull and holy enterprises as Saint Austin reporteth that hauing determined with some other his friends among whom there were some maried to retire themselues from the citie and the company of men the better to attend to the studie of wisdome and vertue their purpose was quickly broken and altered by the wiues of those that were maried And another wiseman did not doubt to say that if men could liue without women they should be visited and accompaned by Angels Moreouer mariage is a hindrance to such as delight in trauell and to see strange countries whether to learne to make themselues wise or to teach others to be wise and to publish that to others which they know To conclude mariage doth not only corrupt and deiect good and great spirits but it robbeth the weale-publicke of many beautifull and great things which cannot manifest themselues remaining in
Source Entrance into the bodie Residence therein Seat Sufficiencie to exercise her functions the End and Separation from the bodie It is first very hard to define or truly to say what the soule 1 The Definition verie difficult is as generally all other formes because they are things relatiue which subsist not of themselues but are parts of a whole and this is the reason why there is such and so great diuersity of definitions of them whereof there is not any receiued without contradiction Aristotle hath confuted twelue that were before him and could hardly make good his owne It is easie to say what it is not That it is not Fire Aire 2 Easie to say what it is not Water Nor the temperature of the foure Elements or qualities or humors which is alwaies changeable without which a creature is and liues and besides that this is an accident the Soule a substance Againe Mettals and things inanimate haue likewise a temperature of the foure Elements and first qualities Neither is it blood for there are many things animate and liuing without blood and many creatures die without the shedding of a drop of blood Nor the beginning and cause of motion for diuers things inanimate mooue as the adamant moues the iron amber or iet straw medicins and roots of trees being cut and dried draw and moue Neither is it the act or life or Enargie or perfection for that word Entelechia is diuersly taken and interpreted of a liuing body for all this is but the effect or action of the Soule and not the Soule it selfe as to liue to see to vnderstand is the action of the Soule And it would likewise follow that the Soule should be an accident not a substance and could not subsist without that bodie whereof it is the act and perfection no more than the couer of an house may be without the house and a relatiue without his correlatiue To be briefe it is to say what the soule doth and is to another not what it is in it selfe But to say what the Soule is is very difficult A man may 3 Hard to say what it is simply say that it is an essentiall quickning forme which giueth to the plant the vegetatiue or growing life to a beast a sensible life which comprehendeth the vegetatiue to a man an intellectuall life which comprehendeth the other two as in numbers the greater conteines the lesse and in figures the Pentagone conteines the Tetragone this the Trigone I call it the intellectiue soule rather than the reasonable which is comprehended in the intellectiue as the lesse in the great for the reasonable in some sense and measure according to the opinion of the greatest Philosophers and experience it selfe is likewise in beasts but not the intellectiue as being more high Sicut equus mulus in quibus non est intellectus The Soule then is not the beginning or source that word doth properly belong to the soueraigne first author but an inward cause of life motion sense vnderstanding It moueth the body it selfe is not moued as contrarily the body is moued and moueth not at al it moueth I say the body not it selfe for nothing but God moueth it selfe and whatsoeuer moueth it selfe is eternall and Lord of it selfe and in that it mooueth the bodie it hath it not of it selfe but from an higher cause Concerning the nature and essence of the Soule I meane a humane Soule for the Soule of a beast is without all doubt 4 The nature and essence of the soule corporall materiall bred and borne with the matter and with it corruptible there is a question of greater importance than it seemeth for some affirme it to be corporall some incorporall and this is very agreeable to reason if a man be not opinatiue That it is corporall see what the grounds are Spirits and Diuels good and ill which are wholly separated from all matter are corporall according to the opinion of all Philosophers and our greatest Diuines Tertulltan Origen S. In homil l. de spir l 3. de lib. arb Hom. de Epith. Basil Gregorie Augustine Damascene how much more the Soule of man which hath societie and is vnited to a matter Their resolution is that whatsoeuer is created being compared vnto God is grosse corporall materiall and only God is incorporall that euery spirit is a bodie and hath a bodily nature Next vnto authoritie almost vniuersall the reason is irrefragable Whatsoeuer is included in this finite world is finite limited both in vertue and substance bounded with a superficies inclosed and circumscribed in a place which are the true and naturall conditions of a bodie for there is nothing but a bodie which hath a superficiall part and is barred and fastened in a place God only is wholly infinite incorporall the ordinarie distinctions circumscriptiuè definitiuè effectiuè are but verball and in nothing either helpe or hurt the cause for it alwayes stands good that spirits are in such sort in a place that at the selfe same time that they are in a place they can not be elswhere and they are not in a place either infinite or very great or very little but equall to their limited and finited substance and superficies And if it were not so spirits could not change their place nor ascend or descend as the Scripture affirmeth that they doe and so they should be immooueable indiuisible indifferently in all Now if it appeare that they change their place the change conuicteth that they are mooueable diuisible subiect vnto time and to the succession thereof required in the motion and passage from one place to another which are all the qualities of a bodie But because many simple men vnder this word corporall do imagine visible palpable and thinke not that the pure aire or fire without the flame or coale are bodies haue therefore likewise affirmed That spirits both separated and humane are not corporall as in trueth they are not in that sense for they are of an inuisible substance whether airie as the greatest part of Philosophers and Diuines affirm or celestiall as some Hebrewes and Arabiques teach calling by the selfe same name both the heauen and the spirit an essence proper to immortalitie or whether if they will haue it so of a substance more subtile and delicate yet they are alwayes corporall since limited by place mooueable subiect to motion and to times Finally if they were not corporall they should not be passible and capable of suffering as they are the humane receiueth from his bodie pleasure and displeasure sorrow and delight in his turne as the bodie from the spirit and his passions many good qualities many bad vertues vices affections which are all accidents and all as well the spirits separated and Diuels as humane are subiect to punishment and torments They are therefore corporall for there is nothing passible that is not corporall and it is only proper vnto bodies to be subiect
matrix and roote in that beautie goodnes profit of the thing honored which comes to light and is produced this is as hath beene said the rumor of a beautifull or honorable action Coeli enarrant gloriam dei pleni sunt coeli terra gloria tua for whatsoeuer valour worth and perfection the thing haue in it selfe and inwardly if it produce nothing that is excellent it is altogether vncapable of honor and is as if it were not at all from thence it entreth into the spirit and vnderstanding where it takes life and is formed into a good hautie and great opinion finally sallying foorth from thence and being caried by the word verball or written it returnes by reflexion and as it were dissolueth and endeth in the name of the authour of this beautifull worke where it had the beginning as the Sunne in the place from whence it departed and then it beares the name of honor praise glorie and renowme But the question is what those actions are to which honor is due Some thinke that it is generally due to those that performe their dutie in that which belongs to their profession although it be neither famous nor profitable as he that vpon a Stage playes the part of a seruant well is no lesse commended than he that presenteth the person of a King and he that cannot worke in statues of gold cannot want those of leather or earth wherein he may as well shew the perfection of his arte All cannot employ themselues neither are they called to the managing of great affaires but the commendation is to do that well that he hath to do This is too much to lessen and vilifie honor which is not a common and ordinarie ghest for all persons and all iust and lawfull actions Euery chaste woman euery honest man is not honorable The wisest men require also thereunto two or three things the one is difficultie labor or danger the other is publick vtilitie and this is the reason why it is properly due to those that administer and well acquit themselues of great charges that be the actions as priuatly and generally good and profitable as they will they shall haue approbation and sufficient renowme which those that know them and the safetie and protection of the lawes but not honour which is publike and hath more dignitie fame and splendor Some adde vnto these a third and that is that it be not an action of obligation but of supererogation The desire of honour and glorie and the approbation of 4 Desire of honor chap. 20. another is a vitious violent powerfull passion whereof we haue spoken in the passion of ambition but very profitable to the weale-publike to conteine men in their dutie to awaken and inflame them to honourable actions a testimonie of weaknesse and humane insufficiencie which for want of good money vseth light and false coine Now in what and how Lib. 3. in the vertue of Temperancie far-foorth is it excusable and when not commendable and that honour is not the recompense of vertue shall be sayd heerafter The marks of honour are very diuers but the better and more beautifull are they that are without profit and gaine 5 Marks of honour and are such as a man may not straine and applie to the vitious and such as by some base office haue serued the weale-publike These are the better and more esteemed they are in themselues more vaine that haue nothing of woorth in them but the simple marke of men of honour and vertue as almost in all policies crownes lawrell garlands oake a certaine forme of accoutrements the prerogatiue of some surname precedencie in assemblies orders of Knighthood And it falleth out sometimes that it is a greater honour not to haue these marks of honour hauing deserued them than to haue them It is more honourable vnto me said Cato that euery man should aske me why I haue not a statue erected in the Market-place than they should aske why I haue it CHAP. LXI Science SCience to say the trueth is a beautifull ornament a very profitable instrument to him that knowes well how to vse it but in what ranke to place it or how to prise it all are not of one opinion and therin they commit two contrary faults some by esteeming it too much some too little Some make that account of it that they preferre it before all other things and thinke that it is a souereigne good some kinde and ray of Diuinitie seeking it with greedinesse charge and great labour others contemne it and despise those that professe it the mediocritie betwixt both is the more iust and most assured For my part I place it farre beneath honestie sanctitie See lib. 3. cap. 14. wisdome vertue yea beneath dexteritie in affaires and yet I dare to range it with dignitie naturall nobilitie militarie valour and I thinke they may very well dispute of the precedencie and if I were called to speake my opinion I should make it to march either side by side with them or incontinently after As sciences are different in their subiects and matters in the apprentiship and acquisition so are they in their vtilitie honestie necessitie as also in their gaine and glorie some are Theoricks and in speculation only others are practike and in action againe some are Reals occupied in the knowledge of things that are without vs whether they be naturall or supernaturall other are particular which teach the tongues to speake and to reason Now without all doubt those sciences that haue most honestie vtilitie necessitie and least glorie vanitie mercenarie gaine are farre to be preferred before others And therefore the practike are absolutely the better which respect the good of man teaching him to liue well to die well to command well to obey well and therefore they are diligently to be studied by him that endeuoureth to be wise whereof this worke is a briefe and summarie that is to say Morall Science Oeconomicall Politicall After these is Naturall which serueth to the knowledge of whatsoeuer is in the world fit for our vse as likewise to admire the greatnesse goodnesse wisdome power of the chiefe workmaster All other knowledges are vaine and are to be studied cursorily as appendents vnto these because they are no wayes beneficiall to the life of man and helpe not to make vs honest men And therefore it is a losse and a follie to employ therein so much time so much cost so much labour as we doe It is true that they serue to heape vp crownes and to win reputation with the people but it is in policies that are not wholly sound goods CHAP. LXII Of riches and pouertie THese are the two sources and elements of all discords 1 The causes of troubles troubles and commotions that are in the world for the excessiue riches of some do stirre them vp to pride to delicacies pleasures disdaine of the poore to enterprise and attempt the extreame pouertie of
made asport and play game of shame want sicknesse griefes tortures death They did not only contemne patiently endure and vanquish all asperities and difficulties but they fought them they tooke pleasure and delight in them and all to keepe their vertue in breath and in action which made them not only firme constant graue and seuere as Cato and the Stoickes but cheerefull merry wanton and if a man may so say foole-hardy too By the comparison of these three together it seemeth to some who vnderstand not the height and value of the third that the second which we call vertue by reason of the difficulties dangers endeuours thereof carrieth the honour and that as Metellus said to doe euill is an idle and a base thing to doe good where there is neither paine nor danger is a common thing and too easie but to doe good where there is danger and paine is the part of an honest man and of vertue it is the mot of that diuine Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to speake in truth that which it is besides that difficultie as elswhere hath beene said is no true not iust and lawfull cause why a thing should be the more esteemed it is certaine that in the like thing the natural is more worth than the acquired that it is far more noble more excellent and diuine to worke by nature than by Art easily equally vniformedly than painfully vnequally with doubt and danger God is good after the first maner that is the naturall and essentiall goodnesse we dare not call him vertuous nor the Angels and spirits fortunate they are called good But because vertue maketh a greater clamor and stirre and worketh with greater vehemencie than goodnesse it is more admired and esteemed of the vulgar sort who are but foolish iudges but wrongfully For these great exalters and extravagant productions which seeme to be all zeale and fire are no part of the play and do not in any sore appertaine to true honesty they are rather maladies and furious entrances faire distant from that wisdome we here require which is sweet equal vniforme Thus much be spoken in grosse of honestie for the parts thereof and the duties shall be handled in the third booken especiallie in the vertue of Iustice I will heere adde a word or two according to promise to rebate and blunt the point of detraction and to stay the plaints of those that dislike that I attribute so much to nature although it be God as hath been said and this booke speaketh not but of the naturall and humane as if that were all and there were nothing else to be required Wherefore besides all that hath been said there remaineth yet one thing to make this worke complete and perfect and that is the grace of God whereby this honestie goodnes vertue hath life is brought forth in his due tune and receiueth it last and perfect portraict it is eleuated christned crowned that is to say accepted verified approued by God and made after a sort worthie it due reward Honestie is like to a good Organist who toucheth well and truly according to arte the grace and spirit of God is the blast and wind which expresseth the touch giueth life and maketh the instrument to speake and to make a pleasant melodie Now this good consisteth not in long discourse precepts and instructions neither is it attained by our owne proper act and labour it is a free gift from aboue whereof it taketh the name Grace but we must desire it aske implore it both humblie and ardentlie O God vouchsafe of thy infinit goodnesse to looke vpon me with the eye of thy clemencie to accept to like of my desire mine essaye my little worke which comes originallie from thee by that obligation and instruction which thou hast giuen me in the law of nature which thou hast planted in me to the end it may returne vnto thee and that thou mayest end that thou hast begun that so thou mayest be both my α and ω Sprinckle me with thy grace keepe me and account me thine and so forth The better to obteine it that is to say to incline God vnto vs is this Art 14. honestie as hath been said in the Preface whither that I may not iterate it I resend the reader the matter being well prepared is the fitter for the 〈◊〉 the grace it is not contrarie neither doth it enforce or destroy nature but sweetly it releeueth and perfecteth it so that it must not oppose it selfe therevnto as to it contrarie but put it on as a crowne They are both of God they must not therefore be confounded euery one hath his iurisdiction his action apart The organist and he that worketh at the bellowes are two so are honestie and grace the action good in it selfe naturally rhorhlly humainly and that by grace made acceptable That may well be without this and hath his worth as in those philosophers great men in times past admirable in nature and in all kind of morall vertue and is likewise found in misbeleeuers or Infidels but this cannot be without that no more than the couering the crowne and perfection can be without the entire bodie The player or organist may in euery point exercise his arte without the bellowes-blower and so likewise honestie without grace It is true that this cannot be but aes sonans and cymbulum tinniens but this requireth that â— wherein I see many to mistake themselues very grossely who neuer haue any taste or do euer conceiue the image of true honestle and continue puffed vp with a perswasion of grace which they thinke to practise to attract to attaine by certaine easie idle meanes after the maner of the Pharisies where with they rest contented not troubling themselues any further for the true honestie promotiper saltum Masters without apprentiship Doctours and nobles in parchment Now I see many of these kind of people in the would but very few such as Aristides Bhocion Cato Regulus Socrates Scipio Epaminondas that is to say professors of an exact true and solid morall vertue and philosophicall probitie That complaint and reproch so frequent of the soueraigne Doctor of the truth against hypocriticall Pharifies will alwaies haue place for such people will neuer be wanting no not amongst the Censors and refourcers of the world Now hauing spoken much of honestie we must likewise in a word or two touch the contrarie the reunto Wickednes iâ—s against nature it is foule deformed and vnprofitable it offendeth euery good iudgement fit breedeth a 17 The description of wickednes hatred of it selfe being well knowen whereupon some haue said that it was bred and brought forth by idlenesse and ignorance Againe wickednes ingendreth offence and repentance in the soule which like an vlcer in the flesh eateth and fretteth it malice and mischiefe buildeth vp torments against it selfe malitia ipsa maximam partem veneni sui bibit malum consilium consultori possimum like
are weary with liuing or for priuate causes loath to liue any longer Neither is it sufficient that the cause be great and iust but that it be necessarie and remedilesse and that all maner of meanes to preserue life be first put in practise For precipitation and anticipated despaire is very vitious as in Brutus and Cassius who killing themselues before the time and occasion lost the reliques of the Romane libertie whereof they were protectors A man saith Cleomenes must manage his life and make vse thereof to the vttermost for to take it away a man neuer wants time it is a remedie which he hath alwaies in his owne hands but the state of things may change and grow better Ioseph and diuers others haue to their great benefit practised this counsell things that seeme altogether desperate do many times change and haue a happie successe aliquis carnifici suo superstes fuit Multa dies variusque labor mutabilis aeui Retulit in melius A man must carie himselfe in his place and calling as a defendant against him that assaileth him cum moderamine inculpatae tutelae he must trie all maner of meanes before he come to this extremitie Secondly and without doubt it is farre better and more commendable to suffer and to continue constant and firme to the end than fearefullie cowardlie to flie or die but forasmuch as it is a gift not giuen vnto all no more than continencie is non omnes capiunt verbum istud vnde melius nubere quam vri the question is whether an insupportable and remedilesse euill hapning which may vtterlie vndoe and turne topsy-turuie our whole resolution and driue vs into despaire despite and murmuring against God it be more expedient or a lesse euill for a man couragiouslie to deliuer himselfe hauing his senses sound and setled than by standing to it for feare of failing in his dutie expose himselfe to the danger of sinking and being vtterly lost It is not a lesse euill to quit the place than to be obstinate and perish to flie than to be taken It is true that it seemeth by all humane and philosoph call reason to be practised as hath been said by so many famous people of all countries and climats But Christianitie doth no way approue it nor alloweth therein any dispensation Finally it is a great point of wisdome to learne to know the point and period to chuse a fit houre to die Euery man hath his time and season to die some preuent it others prolong it there is weakenesse and valour in them both but there is required discretion How many men haue suruiued their glorie and by a desire to lengthen their life but a little haue darkened it againe and liued to helpe bury their owne honour And that which lastly sticketh by them hath no relish or feeling of what is past but continueth like an old filthie clout sowed to the hemme of a rich and beautifull ornament There is a time to gather fruit from the tree which if it hang too long it rotteth and growes worse and worse and the losse is as great too if it bee gathered too soone Many saints and holy men haue fled from death because they are yet profitable to the church and weale-publike though in respect of their owne particular they could be content to die It is an act of charitie to desire to liue for the benefit of an other Si populo tuo sum necessarius non recuso laborem Death hath diuers formes some more easie than other and 21 Formes of deaths diuers taketh diuers qualities according to the fantasie of euery one Among those that are naturall they that proceed from weaknesse and a numnesse of the members are the sweetest and the easiest among those that are violent the best is the shortest the least premeditated Some desire to make an exemplarie and demonstratiue death of constancie and sufficiencie this is to consider another thing and to seeke their owne reputation but this is vanitie for this is no act of societie but of one only person who hath enough to doe with himselfe to minister to himselfe inward comfort and hath no neede to trouble himselfe with what belongeth to another especially all the interest hee hath in his reputation ceasing with his death That is the best death which is well recollected in it selfe quiet solitarie and attendeth wholly to that which at that time is fittest That great assistance of parents friends bringeth a thousand discommodities it oppresseth and smoothereth him that is dying one tormenteth his eares another his eies another his mouth their cries and complaints if they be true stifle the heart if fained afflict and torment it Many great personages haue sought to die farre from their friends to auoide this inconuenience accounting it a childish thing and a foolish humour to be willing by their miseries to moue sorrow and compassion in their friends wee commend constancie to suffer bad fortune wee accuse and hate it in our friends and when it is our owne case it is not sufficient that they suffer with vs but they must afflict themselues too A wise man that is sicke should content himselfe with the setled countenance of his assistants CHAP. XII To maintaine himselfe in true tranquillitie of spirit the fruit and crowne of wisedome and the conclusion of this booke THe tranquillitie of the spirit is the souereigne good of man This is that great and rich treasure which the wisest seeke by sea and by land on foote and a horsebacke all our care should tend thereunto it is the fruit of all our labors and studies the crowne of wisdome But lest a man should mistake himselfe heerein you must know that this tranquillitie is not a retrait or vacation from all affaires a delightfull solitarinesse and corporally pleasant or a profound carelesnesse of all things if it were so many women idle dissolute and voluptuous persons would at their pleasure enioy as great a good as the wisest can aspire vnto with all their studie Neither multitude nor scarsitie of businesse doth any thing heerein It is a beautifull sweete equall iust firme and pleasant estate of the soule which neither businesse nor idlenesse nor good accidents nor ill nor time can any way trouble alter mend or depresse Vera tranquillitas non concuti The meanes to attaine thereunto to get and preserue it are the points that I haue handled in this second booke whereof this is a briefe collection They consist in freeing and disfurnishing of a man from all lets and impediments and furnishing him with those things that entertaine and preserue it The things that doe most hinder and trouble the rest and tranquillitie of the spirit are common and vulgar opinions which for the most part are erroneous and secondly desires and passions which ingender in vs a kinde of delicacy and difficulty which are the cause that a man is neuer content and these are kindled and stirred in him by those
they faile and performe not their taske to saue themselues from the rigour of the punishment they haue recourse to base vnlawfull remedies lies false excuses teares of despite flights triuentings all worse than the fault they haue committed Dum id rescitum iri credit tantisper cauet Terent. Si sperat fore clam rursum ad ingenium redit Ille quem beneficio adiungas ex animo facit Studet par referre praesens absensque idem erit My will is that they be handled freely and liberally vsing therein reason and sweet and milde perswasions which ingender in their hearts the affections of honour and of shame The first will serue them as a spurre to what is good the second as a bridle to checke and withdraw them from euill There is something I know not what that is seruile and base in rigor and constraint the enemy to honour and true liberty We must clean contrary fat their hearts with ingenuity liberty loue vertue and honour Pudore liberalitate liberos retinere Terent. Satius esse credo quà m metu Hoc patrium est potius consuefacere filium Sua sponte recte facere quà m alieno metu Hoc pater ac dominus interest hoc qui nequit Fate atur se nescire imperare liberis Blowes are for beasts that vnderstand not reason iniuries and brawles are for slaues He that is once accustomed thereunto is mard for euer But reason the beautie of action the desire of honesty and honour the approbation of all men cheerefulnesse and comfort of heart and the detestation of their contraries as brutishnesse basenesse dishonour reproch and the improbation of all men these are the armes the spurs and the bridles of children well borne and such as a man would make honestmen This is that which a man should alwaies sound in their eares and if these means cannot preuaile all other of rigour and roughnesse shall neuer do good That which cannot be done with reason wisdome endeuour shall neuer be done by force and if happily it be done yet it is to small purpose But these other meanes cannot be vnprofitable if they be imploied in time before the goodnesse of nature be spent and spilt But yet for all this let no man thinke that I approoue that loose and flattering indulgence and sottish feare to giue children cause of discontent and sorrow which is another extremity as bad as the former This were like the Iuie to kill and make barren the tree which it embraceth or the ape that killeth hir yoong with culling them or like those that feare to hold him vp by the haire of the head that is in danger of drowning for feare of hurting him and so suffer him to perish Against this vice the wise Hebrew spake much Youth must be held in obedience and discipline not Eccles 30. bodily like beasts and madmen but spirituall humane liberall according to reason We come now to the particular and more expresse aduisements of this instruction The first head of them is as wee 13 Particular aduisements touching the minde haue said to exercise sharpen and forme the mind Whereupon there are diuers precepts but the first principall and fundamentall of all others which respecteth the end of instruction and which I most desire to inculcate because it is least embraced and followed and euery man runneth after the contrary which is a common and ordinarie errour is to haue much more and the chiefe and principall care to exercise to husband and manure to vse the proper good and much lesse to get and to endeuour the attainment of that which is strange to striue and study more for wisdome than for science and arte rather well to forme the iudgement and by consequence the will and the conscience than to fill the memorie and to inflame the imagination These are the three mistresse parts of a reasonable soule But the first is the iudgement as before hath beene discoursed to which place I resend the Reader Now the custome of the world is quite contrarie which runneth wholly after arte science and what L. 1. ca. 7. is acquired Parents to the end they may make their children wise are at great charge and their children take great paines Vt omnium rerum sic literarum intemperantiâ laboramus and Tacit. many times all is lost But to make them wise honest apt and dexterious which is a matter of small charge or labour they take no care at all What greater folly can there be in the world than more to admire science that which is acquired memorie than wisdome than nature Now all commit not this fault with one and the same minde some simplie caried by custome thinke that wisdome and science are not things different or at leastwise that they march alwaier together and that it is necessarie a man haue the one to attaine the other these kinde of men deserue to be taught others goe out of malice and they thinke they know well enough what they doe and at what price soeuer it be they will haue arte and science For this is a meane in these daies in the occidentall parts of Europe to get fame reputation riches These kinde of people make of science an arte and merchandise science mercenarie pedanticall base and mechanicall They buie science to sell it againe Let vs leaue these merchants as vncureable Contrariwise I cannot heere but blame the opinion and fashion of some of our gentlemen of Fraunce for in other nations this fault is not so apparent who haue knowledge or arte in such disdaine contempt that they do lesse esteeme of an honest man only for this because he hath studied they discarde it as a thing that seemeth in some sort to impeach their nobilitie Wherein they shew themselues what they are ill borne woorse aduised and truely ignorant of vertue and honour which they likewise bewray in their cariage their idlenesse their impertinencies their insufficiencie in their insolencies vanities and barbarities To teach others and to discouer the fault of all this we must make good two things The one that science and wisdome 14 A comparison of science and wisdome are things verie different and that wisdome is more woorth than all the science or arte of the world as heauen exceedes the price of the earth gold of iron the other that they are not onely different but that they seldome or neuer goe together that they commonly hinder one another he that hath much knowledge or arte is seldome wise and he that is wise hath not much knowledge Some exceptions there are heerein but they are verie rare and of great rich and happie spirits Some there haue beene in times past but in these daies there are no more to be found The better to performe this we must first know what science and wisdome is Science is a great heape or accumulation 15 The definition of science and wisdome and prouision of the good of another that
giuing vp of a mans Soule and the rauishing of his will as hath beene shewed before To be briefe the visage is the throne of beautie and loue the seat of laughter and kissing two things very proper and agreeable vnto man the true and most significant symboles of amitie and good discretion Finally it is apt for all alterations to declare the inward motions and passions of the soule as Ioy Heauinesse Loue Hatred Enuie Malice Shame choler Iealousie so forth It is as the hand of a diall which noteth the houres and moments of time the wheeles and motions themselues being hid within And as the aire which receiueth all the colours changes of the time sheweth what the weather is so saith one the aire of a mans countenance Corpus animum tegit detegit in facie legitur homo The beauty of the face consisteth in a large square well 6 A description of the beautie of the face extended and cleere front eye-browes well ranged thin and subtile the eye well diuided cheerefull sparkling as for the colour I leaue it doubtfull the nose leane the mouth little the lips coraline the chinne short and dimpled the cheekes somewhat rising and in the middle the pleasant gelasin the eares round and well compact the whole countenance with a liuely tincture white and vermilion Neuerthelesse this description of Beauty is not generally receiued the opinions of Beauty are different according to the diuersity of nations With the Indians the greatest Beautie consisteth in that which we account the greatest deformitie that is in a tawny colour thicke and swollen lips a flat and large nose teeth spotted with blacke or red great eares and hanging a little low forehead dugs great and pendant to the end they may giue their little ones sucke ouer their shoulders and to attaine to this forme of beautie they vse all maner of arte But not to wander so farre in Spaine the chiefest beautie is leane and neatly compt in Italie fat corpulent and solid the soft and delicate and flattering please the one the strong vigorous fierce and commanding the other The Beauty of the body especially the visage should in 7 The beautie of the soule and body all reason demonstrate and witnesse the beauty of the soule which is a qualitie and rule of opinions and iudgements with a certaine stedfastnesse and constancie for there is nothing that hath a truer resemblance than the conformity and relation of the body to the spirit and when this is not wee must needs thinke that there is some accident that hath interrupted the ordinary course as it comes to passe and wee often times see it for the milke of the Nurse the first institution conuersation bring great alterations to the originall nature of the soule whether in good or euill Socrates confessed that the deformitie of his bodie did iustly accuse the naturall deformitie of his soule but that by industrie and institution he had corrected that of the soule This outward countenance is a weake and dangerous suretie but they that belie their owne physiognomie are rather to be punished than others because they falsifie and betray that good promise that Nature hath planted in their front and deceiue the world CHAP. VI. Of the vestments of the Bodie THere is great likelihood that the custome or fashion of Nakednesse is naturall going naked as yet continued in a great part of the world was the first and originall amongst men and that of couering and adorning the bodie with garments was artificiall and inuented to helpe and inlarge nature as they which by artificiall light goe about to increase the light of the day for Nature hauing sufficiently prouided for all other creatures a couering it is not to be beleeued that she hath handled man worse than the rest and left him only indigent and in such a state that he could not helpe himselfe without forren succours and therefore those reproches that are made against Nature as a stepmother are vniust If men from the beginning had beene clothed it is not likely that they would euer haue disrobed themselues and gone naked both in regard of their health which could not but be much offended with that change and shame it selfe and neuerthelesse it is done and obserued amongst many nations Neither can it be alledged that we clothe our selues either to couer our nakednesse or priuy parts or to defend vs against colde for these are the two reasons pretended for against heat there is no appearance of reason because Nature hath not taught vs that there is any thing in our nakednesse that we should be ashamed of it is we that by our owne fault and fale haue tolde it our selues Quis indicauit tibi quod nudus esses nisi quod ex ligno quod praeceperam tibi ne comederes comedisti and Nature hath already sufficiently hid them put them farre from our eies and couered them And therefore it is lesse needfull to couer those parts only as some doe in those countreys where they goe all naked and ordinarily are not couered for why should he that is the lord of all other creatures not daring to shew himselfe naked vnto the world hide himselfe vnder the spoiles of another nay adorne himselfe As for colde and other particular and locall necessities wee know that vnder the selfe same aire the selfe same heauen one goes naked another apparelled and we haue all the most delicate part vncouered and therefore a wandring person being asked How he could go so naked in Winter answered That our faces are alwayes naked and he was all face Yea many great personages haue euer gone with their heads vncouered Massinissa Caesar Hanibal Seuerus and many nations there are which go to the warres and fight all naked and the counsell that Plato giueth for the continuance of health is neuer to couer either head or feet And Varro sayth That when it was first ordained that men should vncouer their heads in the presence of the gods and of the magistrate that it was rather for healths sake and to harden themselues against the iniuries of the times than for reuerence Lastly the inuention of couers and houses against the iniuries of heauen and men is more ancient more naturall more vniuersall than of garments and common with many creatures but an industrious search for victuall more naturall than either Of the vse of garmens and aliment heereafter Lib. 3. c. 43. CHAP. VII Of the Soule in generall BEholde here a matter of all others most difficult handled The Preface and discoursed by the wisest of all Nations especially Egyptians Greeks Arabians and Latines by our latter Writers more shallowly as all other Philosophy but with great diuersitie of opinions according to the diuersitie of Nations Religions Professions without any certaine accord or resolution The generall knowledge and discourse thereof may be referred to these ten points The Definition Essence or Nature Faculties and Actions Vnitie or Pluralitie
fortresse and makes himselfe master of the place and imploieth his spirit in good or ill witnesse the wife of King Agamemnon who was conteined in her dutie of chastitie by the sound of a Harpe and Dauid by the selfe same meane chased away the euill spirit from Saul and restored him to health and that skilfull player on the Flute that sweetned the voice of that great Oratour Gracchus To be briefe Science Trueth and Vertue haue no other entrance into the Soule but by the Eare Christianitie it selfe teacheth that faith and saluation commeth by Hearing and that the Sight doth rather hurt than helpe thereunto that faith is the beliefe of those things that are not seene which beliefe is acquired by hearing and it calleth such as are apprentices or nouices therein Auditors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 catechised Let me adde this one word that the Hearing giueth succour and comfort in darknesse and to such as are asleepe that by the sound they may be awaked and so prouide for their preseruation For all these reasons haue the wisest so much commended Hearing the pure and virgin gardian from all corruption for the health of the inward man as for the safetie of a Citie the gates and walles are garded that the enemie enter not Speech is peculiarly giuen vnto man an excellent present and very necessary in regard of him from whom it proceedeth 3 The force authoritie of Speech it is the interpreter and image of the soule animi index speculum the messenger of the heart the gate by which all that is within issueth foorth and committeth itselfe to the view all things come foorth of darknesse and secret corners into the light and the spirit itselfe makes it selfe visible and therefore an ancient Philosopher said once to a child Speake that I may see thee that is to say the inside of thee As vessels are knowen whether they be broken or whole full or emptie by the sound and mettals by the touch so man by his speech Of all the visible parts of the body which shew themselues outward that which is neerest the heart is the tongue by the root thereof so that which comes neerest vnto our thought is our speech for from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh In regard of him which receiueth it it is a powerfull master an imperious commander which entreth the fortresse possesseth it selfe of the possessor stirreth him vp animateth exasperateth appeaseth him maketh him sad merrie imprinteth in him whatsoeuer passion it handleth and feedeth the Soule of the hearer and makes it pliable to euery sense it makes him blush waxpale laugh crie tremble for feare mad with choler to leape for ioy and pierceth him thorow with passion In regard of all Speech is the hand of the spirit wherewith as the bodie by his it taketh and giueth it asketh counsell and succour and giueth it It is the great Intermedler and Huckster by it we trafficke Merx a Mercurio peace is handled affaires are managed Sciences and the goods of the spirit are distributed it is the band and cement of humane society so that it be vnderstood For saith one a man were better to be in the companie of a dog that he knoweth than in the companie of a man whose language he knoweth not vt externus alieno non sit hominis vice To be briefe it is the instrument of whatsoeuer is good or ill vita mors in manibus linguae there is nothing better Of a good euill tongue nothing worse than the tongue The tongue of a wise man is the doore of a royall Cabinet which is no sooner opened but incontinently a thousand diuersities present themselues to the eie euery one more beautifull than other come from the Indies Peru Arabia So a wise man produceth and rangeth them in good order sentences and Aphorismes of Philosophie similitudes examples histories wise sayings drawen from all the mines and treasuries olde and new qui profert de thesauro suo noua vetera which serue for a rule of good maners of policie and all the parts both of life and of death which being applied in their times and to good purpose bring with it great delight great beautie and vtilitie mala aurea in lectis argenteis verba in tempore suo The mouth of a wicked man is a stincking and contagious pit a slanderous Prouerb tongue murdereth the honour of another it is a sea and Vniuersitie of euils woorse than fetters fire poison death hell Vniuersitas iniquitatis malum inquietum venenum mortiferum ignis incendens omnia mors illius nequissima vtilis potius infernus quà m illa Now these two Hearing and Speach answer and are accommodated the one to the other there is a great alliance betwixt 4 The correspondency of Hearing and Speach them the one is nothing without the other as also by nature in one and the same subiect the one is not without the other They are the two great gates by which the soule doth trafficke and hath her intelligence By these two the soules are powred the one into the other as vessels when the mouth of the one is applied to the enterie of the other So that if these two gates be shut as in those that are deafe and dumbe the spirit remaineth solitary and miserable Hearing is the gate to enter by it the spirit receiueth all things from without and conceiueth as the female Speech is the gate to goe foorth by it the spirit acteth and bringeth foorth as the male From the communication of these two as from the stroke of two flints or irons together there comes foorth the sacred fire of truth for they rubbing and polishing the one the other they shake off their rust and purifie and cleanse themselues and all maner of knowledge comes to perfection But Hearing is the first for there can nothing come foorth of the soule but that which first entered and therefore he that by nature is altogether deafe is likewise dumbe It is necessary that first the spirit be furnished with moueables and vtinseles by the sense of Hearing to the end it may by speach distribute them so that the good and ill of the tongue and almost of the whole man dependeth vpon the eare He that heares well speakes well and he that heares ill speakes ill Of the vse and gouernment of the tongue heereafter Lib. 3. Chap. 43. CHAP. XII Of the other faculties Imaginatiue Memoratiue Appetitiue THE fantasticke or imaginatiue facultie hauing recollected and withdrawne the kindes and images apprehended by the senses retaineth and reserueth them in such sort that the obiects being absent and far distant yea a man sleeping and his senses being bound and shut vp it presenteth them to the spirit and thought Phantasmata idola seu imagines dicuntur and doth almost worke that within in the vnderstanding which the obiect doth without in the sense The memoratiue faculty is the Gardian and Register of
are very different and contrary it is cleere as drie and moist as for the imagination it seemth not to be so contrary from the others because heat is not incompatible with drouth and moisture and yet notwithstanding experience sheweth that they that excell in imagination are sicke in vnderstanding and memorie and held for fooles and madde men but the reason thereof is because the great heat that serueth the imagination consumeth both the moisture which serueth the memorie and the subtilitie of the spirits and figures which should be in that drinesse which serueth the vnderstanding and so it is contrary and destroyeth the other two By that which hath beene spoken it appeareth that there 5 Three only temperatures are but three principall temperatures which serue and cause the reasonable Soule to worke and distinguish the spirits that is to say Heat Drinesse Moisture Colde is not actiue nor serueth to any purpose but to hinder all the motions and functions of the Soule and when we finde in some authors that Colde serueth the vnderstanding and that they that haue colde braines as Melancholike men and the Southerne are wise and ingenious there Colde is taken not simply but for a great moderation of heat for there is nothing more contrary to the vnderstanding and to wisdome than great heat which contrariwise serueth the imagination According to the three temperatures there are three faculties of the reasonable Soule but as the temperatures so the faculties receiue diuers degrees subdiuisions and distinctions There are three principall offices and differences of vnderstanding 6 Subdiuision of the faculties to Infer to Distinguish to Chase these Sciences which appertaine to the vnderstanding are Schoole-Diuinitie the Theorike of Physicke Logicke Philosophie naturall and morall There are three kindes of differences of memorie easily to receiue and lose the figures easily to receiue and hardly to lose hardly to receiue and easily to lose The Sciences of the memory are Grammar the Theorike of the Law Positiue Diuinitie Cosmographie Arithmeticke Of the imagination there are many differences and a farre greater number than either of the memorie or vnderstanding to it doe properly appertaine Inuentions Merry-conceits and Iests Tricks of subtilty Fictions and Lies Figures and comparisons Neatnesse Elegancie Gentilitie because to it appertaine Poetrie Eloquence Musicke and generally whatsoeuer consisteth in Figure Correspondencie Harmonie and Proportion Hereby it appeareth that the viuacitie subtiltie promptitude and that which the common sort call wit belongs to a 7 The proprietie of the faculties and their order hot imagination soliditie maturitie veritie to a drie vnderstanding The imagination is actiue and stirring it is it that vndertaketh all and sets all the rest a worke the vnderstanding is dull and cloudie the memorie is purely passiue and see how The imagination first gathereth the kinds and figures of things both present by the seruice of the fiue senses and absent by the benefit of the common sense afterwards it presenteth them if it will to the vnderstanding which considereth of them examineth ruminateth and iudgeth afterwards it puts them to the safe custodie of the memorie as a Scriuener to his booke to the end he may againe if need shall require draw them forth which men commonly call Reminiscentia Remembrance or els if it will it commits them to the memorie before it presents them to the vnderstanding for to recollect represent to the vnderstanding commit vnto memorie and to draw them foorth againe are all works of the imagination so that to it are referred the common Sense the Fantasie the Remembrance and they are not powers separated from it as some would haue it to the end they may make more than three faculties of the reasonable Soule The common sort of people who neuer iudge aright doe 8 Their comparison in dignitie more esteeme of memorie and delight more in it than in the other two because they haue much vse of counting and it makes greater shew and stirre in the world and they thinke that to haue a good memorie is to be wise esteeming more of Science than of Wisdome but yet of the three it is the least being such as may be euen in fooles themselues for very seldome is an excellent memorie ioyned with vnderstanding and wisdome because their temperatures are contrary From this error of the common people comes that ill course which euery where we see in the instruction of our youth who are alwayes taught to learne by heart so they terme it that which they reade in their books to the end they may afterwards See of this lib. 3. c. 14. be able to repeat it and so they fill and charge the memorie with the good of another and take no care to awaken and direct the vnderstanding and to forme the iudgement whereby he may be made able to make vse of his owne proper good and his naturall faculties which may make him wise and apt to all things so that wee see that the greatest scholars that haue all Aristotle and Cicero in their heads are the veriest sots and most vnskilfull in publike affaires and the world is gouerned by those that know nothing It is the opinion of all the wisest that the vnderstanding is the first the most excellent and principall piece of harnesse if that speed well all goes well and a man is wise and contrariwise if that miscarrie all goes acrosse In the second place is the imagination the memorie is the last All these differences it may be will be better vnderstood 9 An image of the three faculties of the Soule by this similitude which is a picture or imitation of the reasonable Soule In euery Court of iustice there are three orders or degrees the highest are the Iudges with whom there is little stirre but great action for without the mouing or stirring of themselues they iudge decide order determine of all things this is the image of iudgement the highest part of the Soule The second are the Aduocates and Procters in whom there is great stirre and much adoe without action for it lies not in their power to dispatch or order any thing only they hatch and prepare the businesse this is the picture of the imagination an vndertaking vnquiet facultie which neuer resteth no not in the profoundest sleepe and it makes a noise in the braine like a pot that seetheth but neuer setleth The third and last degree is the Scribe or Register of the Court with whom there is no stirre nor action but pure passion as the Gardian or Custos of all things and this representeth the memorie The action of the reasonable Soule is the knowledge and 10 The action of the reasonable Soule vnderstanding of all things The Spirit of man is capable of vnderstanding all things visible muisible vniuersall particular sensible insensible intellectus est omnia but it selfe either it vnderstands not at all as some are of opinion witnesse so great and almost infinite
diuersitie of opinions thereof as wee haue seene before by those doubts and obiections that haue alwayes crossed it or very darkly imperfectly and indirectly by reflexion of the knowledge of things vpon themselues by which it perceiueth and knoweth that it vnderstandeth and hath power and facultie to vnderstand this is the maner whereby the spirit knowes it selfe The first soueraigne Spirit GOD doth first know himselfe and afterwards in himselfe all things the latter Spirit Man quite contrarie all other things rather than himselfe and is in them as the eye in a glasse how then should it act or worke in it selfe without meane and by a strait line But the question is concerning the meane whereby it 11 The meane whereby it worketh knoweth and vnderstandeth things The common receiued opinion that came from Aristotle himselfe is that the Spirit knoweth and vnderstandeth by the helpe and seruice of the Senses that it is of it selfe as a white emptie paper that nothing commeth to the vnderstanding which doth not first passe the Senses Nil est in intellectu quod non fuerit prius in sensu But this opinion is false first because as all the wisest haue affirmed and hath beene before touched the seeds of all sciences and vertues are naturally dispersed and insinuated into our spirits so that they may be rich and merry with their owne and though they want that tillage that is fit yet then they sufficiently abound Besides it is iniurious both to God and Nature for this were to make the state of the reasonable Soule worse than that of other things than that of the vegetatiue and sensitiue which of themselues are wise enough to exercise their functions as hath beene sayd for beasts without the discipline of the senses know many things the vniuersals by the particulars by the fight of one man they know all men and are taught to auoid the danger of things hurtfull and to seeke and to follow after that which is fit for them and their little ones And it were a thing shamefull and absurd that this so high and so diuine a facultie should begge it good of things so vile and corruptible as the senses which do apprehend only the simple accidents and not the formes natures essence of things much lesse things vniuersall the secrets of Nature and all things insensible Againe if the Soule were made wise by the aide of the senses it would follow that they that haue their senses most perfect and quicke should be most wittie most wise whereas many times we see the cleane contrary that their spirits are more dull and more vnapt and that many haue of purpose depriued themselues of the vse of some of them to the end the soule might better and more freely execute it owne affaires And if any man shall obiect that the soule being wise by nature and without the helpe of the senses all men must necessarilie be wise and alwayes vnderstand and reason alike which being so how commeth it about that there are so many dull pates in the world and that they that vnderstand exercise their functions more weakly at one time than at another the vegetatiue soule farre more strongly in youth the reasonable soule more weakly than in olde age and in a certaine state of health or sicknesse than at another time I may answer that the argument is not good for as touching the first that is That all men must be wise I say that the facultie and vertue of vnderstanding is not giuen alike vnto all but with great inequalitie and therefore it is a saying as ancient as honorable euen of the wisest that the acting vnderstanding was giuen but to few and this inequalitie proueth that Science comes not of sense for as it hath been sayd they that excell others in their senses come short of others in their vnderstanding and Science Touching the second The reason why a man doth not exercise his functions alwayes after one maner is because the instruments whereby the Soule must necessarily worke can not alwayes be disposed as they should and if they be for some speciall kinde of faculties or functions yet not for others The temperature of the braine by which the Soule worketh is diuers and changeable being hot and moist in youth it is good for the vegetatiue naught for the reasonable and contrarily being colde and drie in olde age it is good for the reasonable ill for the vegetatiue The braine by a hot and burning maladie being heated and purified is more fit for inuention and diuination vnfit for maturitie and soundnesse of iudgement and wisdome By that which hath beene spoken let no man thinke that I affirme that the spirit hath no seruice from the senses which I confesse to be great especially in the beginning in the discouerie and inuention of things but I say in the defence of the honor of the spirit that it is false that it dependeth vpon the senses and that we can not know any thing vnderstand reason discourse without the sense for contrariwise all knowledge comes from it and the senses can do nothing without it The Spirit in this vnderstanding facultie proceedeth diuersly and by order It vnderstandeth at the first instant simply and directly a Lion to be a Lion afterwards by consequents that hee is strong for seeing the effects of his strength it concludeth that he is strong By diuision or negatiue it vnderstandeth a Hare to be fearefull for seeing it flie and hide it selfe it concludeth that a Hare is not strong because fearefull It knoweth some by similitude others by a collection of many things together CHAP. XIIII Of the humane Spirit the parts functions qualities reason inuention veritie thereof THis humane Spirit and Oeconomie of this great and high intellectuall part of the soule is a depth of obscuritie full of creeks and hidden corners a confused and inuolued labyrinth and bottomlesse pit consisting of many parts faculties actions diuers motions hauing many names doubts and difficulties The first office thereof is simply to receiue and apprehend the images and kindes of things which is a kinde of passion and impression of the Soule occasioned by the obiects and the presence of them this is imagination and apprehension The force and power thereof to feed to handle to stirre to concoct to digest the things receiued by the imagination this is reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The action and office or exercise of this force and power which is to assemble conioyne separate diuide the things receiued and to adde likewise others this is discourse reasoning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The subtile facilitie and cheerefull readinesse to doe all these things and to penetrate into them is called Spirit Ingenium and therefore to be ingenious sharpe subtile piercing is all one The repetition and action of ruminating reconcocting trying by the whetstone of reason and reworking of it to frame a resolution more solide this is iudgement The effect in
the end of the vnderstanding this is knowledge intelligence resolution The action that followeth this knowledge and resolution which is to extend it selfe to put forward and to aduance the thing knowen this is will Intellectus extensus promotus Wherefore all these things Vnderstanding Imagination Reason Discourse Spirit Iudgement Intelligence Will are one and the same Essence but all diuers in force vertue and action for a man may be excellent in one of them and weake in another and many times he that excelleth in Spirit and subtiltie may be weake in iudgement and soliditie I let no man to sing and set forth the praises and greatnesse 2 The generall description commendation of the Spirit of the Spirit of man the capacitie viuacitie quickenesse thereof let it be called the image of the liuing God a taste of the immortall substance a streame of the Diuinitie a celestiall ray whereunto God hath giuen reason as an animated sterne to moue it by rule and measure and that it is an instrument of a compleat harmonie that by it there is a kinde of kindred betwixt God and man and that he might often remember him he hath turned the root towards the heauens to the end he should alwayes looke towards the place of his natiuitie to be briefe that there is nothing great vpon the earth but man nothing great in man but his spirit if a man ascend to it he ascendeth aboue the heauens These are all pleasing and plausible words whereof the Schooles do ring But I desire that after all this we come to sound and to study 3 The dispraise how to know this spirit for wee shall finde after all this that it is both to it selfe and to another a dangerous instrument a ferret that is to be feared a little trouble-feast a tedious and importune parasite and which as a Iugler plaier at fast and loose vnder the shadow of some gentle motion subtile and smiling forgeth inuenteth and causeth all the mischiefs of the world the truth is without it there are none There is farre greater diuersitie of spirits than of bodies 4 Diuersitie of distinctions of the spirit See hereof more Chap. 39. so is there likewise a larger field to enter into more parts and more formes or fashions to be spoken of we may make three classes or formes wherof each one hath many degrees The first which is the lowest are those weake base and almost brutish spirits neere neighbours to beasts themselues whether by reason of the first temper that is to say of the seede and temperature of the braine either too cold or too moist as amongst other creatures fishes are the lowest or by reason that they haue not been in some sort remoued and reviewed but suffered to rust and grow dull and stupid Of these wee make no great account as being vnfit to be ordered and setled into any certaine and constant societie because both for their owne particular they cannot possibly endure it and it were necessary they should alwaies be vnder the tuition of another this is the common and base people qui vigilans stertit mortua cui vita est prope iam viuo atque videnti which vnderstands not iudgeth not it selfe The second which is the highest are those great and rare spirits rather diuels than ordinary men spirits well borne strong and vigorous Of these kinde of people there was neuer age yet could tell how to build a common-weale The third which is the middle are all those indifferent spirits whereof there are infinite degrees of these almost is the whole world composed Of this distinction and others heereafter more at large But we are to touch more particularly the conditions and nature of this spirit as hard to be knowne as a countenance 5 The particular description Agent perpetuall to be counterfeited to the life which is alwaies in motion First therefore it is a perpetuall agent for the spirit cannot be without action but rather then it will it forgeth false and phantasticall subiects in earnest deceiuing it selfe euen to it owne discredit As idle and vnmannured grounds if they be fat and fertile abound with a thousand kinds of wilde and vn profitable hearbs vntill they be sowed with other seeds and women alone without the company of men bring foorth sometimes great abundance of vnformed indigested lumps of flesh so the Spirit if it be not busied about some certaine obiect it runnes riot into a world of imaginations and there is no folly nor vanity that it produceth not and if it haue not a setled limit it wandreth and loseth it selfe For to be euery where is to be no where Motion and agitation is the true life and grace of the Spirit but yet it must proceed from elsewhere than from it selfe If it be solitary and wanteth a subiect to worke on it creepeth along and languisheth but yet it must not be enforced For too great a contention and intention of the Spirit ouer bent and strained deceiueth and troubleth the Spirit It is likewise vniuersall it medleth and mingleth it selfe with all it hath no limited subiect or iurisdiction There is 6 Vniuersall not any thing wherewith it plaieth not his part as well to vaine subiects and of no account as high and weighty as well to those we can vnderstand as those we vnderstand not For to know that we cannot vnderstand or pierce into the marrow or pith of a thing but that we must sticke in the bone and barke thereof is an excellent signe of iudgement for science yea truth it selfe may lodge nere vs without iudgement and iudgement without them yea to know our owne ignorance is a faire testimony of iudgement Thirdly it is prompt and speedy running in a moment 7 prompt and sudden from the one end of the world to the other without stay or rest stirring it selfe and penetrating through euery thing Nobilis inquieta mens homini data est nunquam se tenet spargitur vaga quiet is impatiens nouitate rerum laetissima Non mirum ex illo caelesti spiritu descendit caelestium autem naturasemper in motuest This great speed and quicknesse this agility this twinkling of the eie as it is admirable and one of the greatest wonders that are in the spirit so it is a thing very dangerous a great disposition and propension vnto folly and madnesse as presently you shall heare By reason of these three conditions of the spirit that is a perpetuall agent without repose vniuersall prompt and sudden it hath beene accounted immortall and to haue in it selfe some marke and sparkle of diuinitie The action of the Spirit is alwayes to search ferret contriue 8 The action of the Spirit without intermission like one famished for want of knowledge to enquire and seeke and therefore Homer calles men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no end of our inquisitions the pursuites of the spirit of man are without limits without
forme the food thereof is double ambiguitie it is a perpetuall motion without rest without bound The world is a schoole of inquisition agitation and hunting is it proper dish to take or to faile of the pray is another thing But it worketh and pursueth it enterprices rashly and irregularly without order and without measure it is a wandring 9 It worketh rashly instrument mooueable diuersly turning it is an instrument of leade and of wax it boweth and straitneth applieth it selfe to all more supple and facill than the water the aire flexibilis omni humore obsequentior vt spiritus qui omni materia facilior vt tenuior it is the shoo of Theramenes fit for all The cunning is to finde where it is for it goes alwayes athwart and crosse as wel with a lie as with a truth it sporteth it selfe and findeth a seeming reason for euery thing for it maketh that 10 Reason hath diuers faces which is impious vniust abominable in one place pietie iustice and honour in another neither can we name any law or custome or condition that is either generally receiued of all or reiected the marriage of those that are neere of blood the murther of infants parents is condemned in one place lawfull in another Plato refused an embrodered and perfumed robe offered him by Dionysius saying that he was a man and therefore would not adorne himselfe like a woman Aristippus accepted of that robe saying the outward acoutrement can not corrupt a chaste minde Diogenes washing his colewarts and seeing Aristippus passe by sayd vnto him If thou knewest how to liue with colewarts thou wouldest neuer follow the Court of a Tyrant Aristippus answered him If thou knewest how to liue with Kings thou wouldest neuer wash colewarts One perswaded Solon to cease from the bewailing the death of his sonnes because his teares did neither profit nor helpe him Yea therefore sayth he are my teares iust and I haue reason to weepe The wife of Socrates redoubled her griefe because the Iudges put her husband to death vniustly What saith he wouldest thou rather I were iustly condemned There is no good sayth a wise man but that to the losse whereof a man is alwayes prepared In aequo enim est dolor amissae rei timor amittendae Quite contrary faith another we embrace and locke vp that good a great deale the more carefully which we see lesse sure and alwaies feare will be taken from vs. A Cynique Philosopher demanded of Antigonus the King a dram of siluer That sayth he is no gift fit for a King Why then giue me a talent sayth the Philosopher And that saith the King is no gift fit for a Cynique One sayd of a King of Sparta that was gentle and debonaire Hee is a good man euen to the wicked How should hee be good vnto the wicked saith another if he be not wicked with the wicked So that we see that the reason of man hath many visages it is a two-edged sword a staffe with two pikes Ogni medaglia ha il suo riuerso There is no reason but hath a contrary reason sayth the soundest and surest Philosopher Now this volubilitie and flexibilitie proceedeth from many causes from the perpetuall alteration and motion of the bodie which is neuer twice in a mans life in one and the same estate from the obiects which are infinite the aire it selfe and the serenitie of the heauen Tales sunt hominum mentes quali pater ipse Iuppiter auctiferas lustrauit lampide terras and all outward things inwardly from those shakings and tremblings which the Soule giues vnto it selfe by the agitation and stirreth vp by the passions thereof insomuch that it beholdeth things with diuers countenances for whatsoeuer is in the world hath diuers lustures diuers considerations Epictetus sayd it was a pot with two hands He might better haue sayd with many The reason heereof is because it entangleth it selfe in it 12 The reason of this intanglement owne worke like the Silke-worme for as it thinketh to note from farre I know not what appearance of light and imaginarie truth and flies vnto it there are many difficulties that crosse the way new sents that inebriate and bring it forth of the way The end at which it aimeth is twofold the one more common and naturall which is Trueth which it searcheth and 13 The end is verity which it can neither attaine nor finde pursueth for there is no desire more naturall than to know the trueth we assay all the meanes we can to attaine vnto it but in the end all our endeuours come short for Truth is not an ordinarie bootie or thing that will suffer it selfe to be gotten and handled much lesse to be possessed by any humane Spirit It lodgeth within the bosom of God that is her chamber Reade before Chap. 9. her retiring place Man knoweth not vnderstandeth not any thing aright in puritie and in trueth as he ought appearances doe alwayes compasse him on euery side which are as well in those things that are false as true We are borne to search the truth but to possesse it belongeth to a higher and greater power Truth is not his that thrusts himselfe into it but his that runnes the fairest course towards the marke When it falles out that he hits vpon a trueth it is by chance and hazzard he knowes not how to holde it to possesse it to distinguish it from a lie Errours are receiued into our soule by the selfe same way and conduit that the truth is the spirit hath no meanes either to distinguish or to chuse and as well may he play the sot that telles a trueth as a lie The meanes that it vseth for the discouerie of the truth are reason and experience both of them very weake vncertaine diuers wauering The greatest argument of truth is the generall consent of the world now the number of fooles doth farre exceed the number of the wise and therefore how should that generall consent be agreed vpon but by corruption and an applause giuen without iudgement and knowledge of the cause and by the imitation of some one that first began the dance The other end lesse naturall but more ambitious is Inuention 14 The second end Inuention vnto which it tendeth as to the highest point of honor to the end it may raise it selfe and preuaile the more this is that which is in so high account that it seemeth to be an image of the Diuinitie From the sufficiencie of this inuention haue proceeded all those works which haue rauished the whole world with admiration which if they be such as are for the publike benefit they haue deified their Authours Those works that shew rather finenesse of wit than bring profit with them are painting caruing Architecture the art Perspectiue as the vine of Zeuxis the Venus of Apelles the image of Memnon the horse of Aâ—â—ain the woodden pigeon of Architas the cow of Myron the flie and
the eagle of Montroyall the spheare of Sapor King of the Persians and that of Archimides with his other engins Now art and inuention The praise of inuention seeme not onely to imitate Nature but to excell it and that not only in the indiuiduum or particular for there is not any bodie either of man or beast so vniuersally well made as by art may be shewed but also many things are done by art which are not done by nature I meane besides those compositions and mixtures which are the true diet and proper subiect of art those distillations of waters and oiles made of simples which Nature frameth not But in all this there is no such cause of admiration as we thinke and to speake properly and truly there is no inuention but that which God reuealeth for such as we account and call so are but obseruations of naturall things arguments and conclusions drawen from them as Painting and the art Opticke from shadowes Sun-dials from the shadowes of trees the grauing of seales from precious stones By all this that hath before beene spoken it is easie to see 15 The Spirit very dangerous how rash and dangerous the spirit of man is especially if it be quicke and vigorous for being so industrious so free and vniuersall making it motions so irregularly vsing it libertie so boldly in all things not tying it selfe to any thing it easily shaketh the common opinions and all those rules whereby it should be bridled and restrained as an vniust tyranny it will vndertake to examine all things to iudge the greatest part of things plausibly receiued in the world to be ridiculous and absurd and finding for all an appearance of reason will defend it selfe against all whereby it is to be feared that it wandreth out of the way and loseth it selfe and we can not but see that they that haue any extraordinary viuacity and rare excellency as they that are in the highest roofe of that middle Classis before spoken of are for the most part lawlesse both in opinions and maners There are very few of whose guide and conduct a man may trust and in the libertie of whose iudgements a man may wade without temeritie beyond the common opinion It is a miracle to finde a great and liuely spirit well ruled and gouerned it is a dangerous sword which a man knowes not well how to guide for from whence come all those disorders reuolts heresies and troubles in the world but for this Magni errores non nisi ex magnis ingenijs nihil sapientiae o diosius acumine nimio Doubtlesse that man liues a better time and a longer life is more happie and farre more fit for the gouernment of a Common-wealth sayth Thucydides that hath an indifferent spirit or somewhat beneath a mediocritie than he that hath a spirit so eleuated and transcendent that it serues not for any thing but the torment of himselfe and others From the firmest friendships do spring the greatest enmities and from the soundest health the deadliest maladies and euen so from the rarest and quickest agitation of our soules the most desperate resolutions and disorderly frensies Wisdome and follie are neere neighbors there is but a halfe turne betwixt the one and the other which we may easily see in the actions of madde men Philosophie teacheth that Melancholy is proper to them both Whereof is framed the finest follie but of the finest wit And therefore sayth Aristotle there is no great spirit without some mixture of follie And Plato telleth vs that in vaine a temperate and sound spirit knocketh at the doore of Poetrie And in this sense it is that the wisest and best Poets doe loue sometimes to play the foole and to leape out of the hindges Insanire iucundum est dulce desipere in loco non potest grande sublime quidquam nisi mota mens quamdiu apud se est And this is the cause why man hath good reason to keepe it within narrow bounds to bridle and binde it with Religions 16 It must be bridled why Lawes Customes Sciences Precepts Threatnings Promises mortall and immortall which notwithstanding yet we see that by a lawlesse kinde of libertie it freeth it selfe and escapeth all these so vnruly is it by nature so fierce so opinatiue and therefore it is to be led by art since by force it can not Natura contumax est animus humanus in contrarium atque arduum nitens sequiturque faciliùs quam ducitur vt generosi Seneca nobiles equi melius facili fraeno reguntur It is a surer way gently to tutor it and to lay it asleepe than to suffer it to wander at it owne pleasure for if it be not well and orderly gouerned as they of the highest classis which before we spake of or weake and soft and pliant as those of the lower ranke it will lose it selfe in the libertie of it owne iudgement and therefore it is necessary that it be by some meanes or other held backe as hauing more need of lead than wings of a bridle than of a spurre which the great Lawyers and Founders of States did especially regard as well knowing that people of an indifferent spirit liued in more quiet and content than the ouer-quicke and ingenious There haue been more troubles and seditions in ten yeeres in the only citie of Florence than in fiue hundred yeeres in the countreys of the Heluetians and the Retians And to say the trueth men of a common sufficiencie are more honest better citizens more pliant and willing to submit themselues to the yoke of the lawes their superiours reason it selfe than those quicke and cleere sighted men that can not keepe themselues within their owne skinnes The finest wits are not the wisest men The Spirit hath it maladies defects tares or refuse as well 17 The defect of the spirit as the body and much more more dangerous and more incurable but that wee may the better know them we must distinguish them Some are accidentall and which come from Accidentall proceeding from three causes elsewhere and those arise from three causes the disposition of the bodie for it is manifest that the bodily maladie which alter the temperature thereof do likewise alter the spirit and iudgement or from the ill composition of the substance of 1. The body the braine and organs of the reasonable Soule whether it be by reason of their first formation as in those that haue their heads ill made either too round or too long or too little or by accident of some blow or wound The second is the vniuersall contagion of vulgar and erroneous opinions in the 2. The world world wherewith the Spirit being preoccupated tainted and ouercome or which is worse made drunken and manacled with certain fantasticall opinions it euer afterwards followeth iudgeth according to them without regard either of farther enquiry or recoiling backe from which dangerous deluge all spirits haue not
force and strength to defend themselues The third much more neere is the maladie and corruption 3. The passions of the will and the force of the passions this is a world turned topsie turuy the wil is made to follow the vnderstanding as a guide and lampe vnto it but being corrupted and seased on by the force of the passions or rather by the fall of our first father Adam doth likewise perhaps corrupt the vnderstanding and so from hence come the greatest part of our erroneous iudgements Enuie Malice Hatred Loue Feare make vs to respect to iudge to take things others than they are quite otherwise than we ought from whence commeth that common crie Iudge without passion From hence it is that the beautifull and generous actions of another man are obscured by vile and base misconstructions that vaine and wicked causes occasions are feined This is a great vice and a proofe of a malignant nature and sicke iudgement in which there is neither great subtiltie nor sufficiencie but malice enough This proceedeth either from the enuy they beare to the glorie of another man or because they iudge of others according to themselues or because they haue their taste altered and their sight so troubled that they cannot discerne the cleere splendour of vertue in it natiue purity From this selfe same cause and source it commeth that we make the vertues and vices of another man to preuaile so much and extend them farther than we ought that from particularities wee draw consequents and generall conclusions if he be a friend all sits well about him his vices shall be vertues if he be an enemie or of a contrary faction there is nothing good in him insomuch that we shame our owne iudgement to smooth vp our owne passions But this rests not heere but goeth yet farther for the greatest part of those impieties heresies errours in our faith and religion if we looke well into it is sprung from our wicked and corrupt willes from a violent and voluptuous Exod. 31. 2. Paral. 15. 3. Reg. 15. August lib. 2. De ciuitate Dei passion which afterwards draweth vnto it the vnderstanding it selfe Sedit populus manducare bibere c. quod vult non quod est credit qui cupit errare in such sort that what was done in the beginning with some scruple and doubt hath beene afterwards held and maintained for a veritie and reuelation from heauen that which was onely in the sensualitie hath taken place in the highest part of the vnderstanding that which was nothing els but a passion and a pleasure hath beene made a religious matter and an article of faith so strong and dangerous is the contagion of the faculties of the Soule amongst themselues These are the three outward causes of the faults and miscariages of the Spirit iudgement and vnderstanding of man The body especially the head sicke or wounded or ill fashioned The world with the anticipated opinions and suppositions thereof The ill estate of the other faculties of the reasonable Soule which are all inferiour vnto it The first are pitifull and some of them to be cured some not the second are excusable and pardonable the third are accusable and punishable for suffring such a disorder so neere them as this is those that should obey the law to take vpon them to giue the law There are other defects of the Spirit which are more naturall vnto it and in it The greatest and the root of all the rest 18 Naturall is pride and presumption the first and originall fault of all the world the plague of all spirits and the cause of all euils by which a man is only content with himselfe will not giue place to another disdaineth his counsels reposeth himselfe in his owne opinions takes vpon him to iudge and condemne others yea euen that which he vnderstands not It is truly said that the best and happiest distribution that God euer made is of iudgement because euery man is content with his owne and thinkes he hath inough Now this malady proceedeth from the ignorance of our selues We neuer vnderstand sufficiently and truly the weaknesse of our spirit but the greatest disease of the spirit is ignorance not of Arts and Sciences and what is included in the writings of others but of it selfe for which cause this first booke hath beene written CHAP. XV. Of Memory MEmory is many times taken by the vulgar sort for the sense and vnderstanding but not so truly and properly for both by reason as hath beene said and by experience the excellency of the one is ordinarily accompanied with the weaknesse of the other and to say the truth it is a faculty very profitable for the world but yet comes far short of the vnderstanding and of all the parts of the Soule is the more delicate and most fraile The excellency thereof is not very requisite but to three sorts of people Merchants or men of Trade great talkers for the storehouse of the memory is more full and furnished than that of inuention for hee that wants it comes short and must be faine to frame his speech out of the forge of his owne inuention and liars mendacem oportet esse memorem From the want of memory proceed these commodities to lie seldome to talke little to forget offences An indifferent memory sufficeth for all CHAP. XVI Of the imagination and opinion THe imagination is a thing very strong and powerfull it is it that makes all the stirre all the clarter yea the perturbation of the world proceeds from it as we haue sayd before it is either the onely or at least the most actiue and stirring The effects of the imagination maruellous facultie of the Soule The effects thereof are maruellous and strange it worketh not only in it owne proper bodie and Soule but in that of another man yea it produceth contrary effects it makes a man blush wax pale tremble dote to wauer these are the least and the best it takes away the power and vse of the ingendring parts yea when there is most need of them and is the cause why men are more sharpe and austere not only towards themselues but others witnesse those ties and bands whereof the world is full which are for the most part impressions of the apprehension and of feare And contrariwise without endeuor without obiect euen in sleepe it satisfieth the amorous desires yea changeth the sex witnesse Lucius Cossitius whom Pliny affirmeth to haue seene to be changed from a woman to a man the day of his mariag and diuers the like it marketh sometimes ignominiously yea it killeth and makes abortiue the fruit within the wombe it takes away a mans speech and giues it to him that neuer had it as to the sonne of Croesus it taketh away motion sense respiration Thus we see how it worketh in the bodie Touching the Soule it makes a man to lose his vnderstanding his knowledge iudgement it turnes him
veines swollen the tongue stammering the teeth gnashing the voice loud and hoarse the speech imperfect and to be briefe it puts the whole body into a fire and a feuer Some haue broken their veines supprest their vrine whereby present death hath ensued What then can the estate of the spirit be within when it causeth so great a disorder without Choler at the first blow driueth away and banisheth reason and iudgement to the end it may wholly possesse the place afterwards it filles all with fire and smoake and darknesse and noise like vnto him that puts the master out of the house and then sets fire and burnes himselfe aliue within or like vnto a ship that hath neither sterne nor Pilot nor sailes nor oares which commits it fortune to the mercie of the waues windes and tempest in the middest of a furious sea The effects thereof are great many times miserable and lamentable Choler first enforceth vs to iniustice for it is kindled 4 The effects and sharpned by a iust opposition and by the knowledge that a man hath of the little reason he hath to be angry Hee that is moued to anger vpon a false occasion if a man yeeld him any good reason why he should not be angry he is presently more incensed euen against the truth and innocency it selfe Pertinaciores nos facit iniquitas irae quasi argumentū sit iustè irascendigrauiter irasci The example of Piso is very notable and prooues this true who excelling otherwise in vertue the history is very well knowen being mooued to choler did vniustly put three to death and by a subtile accusation caused them to be found guilty only because they acquited one as vnguilty whom hee by his former sentence had condemned It is likewise sharpned by silence and cold replie as gathering thereby that it proceedeth out of a contempt both of him and his choler which is proper vnto women who many times are angrie to the end they may stirre vp that passion in another and increase their choler euen to fury when they see that a man vouchsafeth not to nourish that humour in them by chiding with them So that Choler sheweth it selfe to bee more sauage than a beast since neither by defence or excuse nor by silence and patience without defence it will not bee woon nor pacified The iniustice thereof is likewise in this that it wil be both a iudge and a party that it will that all take part with it and growes to defiance with as many as will seeme to contradict it Secondly forasmuch as it is inconsiderate and heady it casteth vs headlong into great mischiefs and sometimes euen into those which most flie and doe wish and would willingly procure another man dat poenas dum exigit or farre worse This passion is fitly compared to great ruines which burst themselues in pieces vpon that which they fall it pursueth with such violence the ill of another that it heeds not the auoiding of it owne It intrappeth and intangleth vs makes vs to speake and to do things shamefull vncomely vnworthy our selues Lastly it carrieth vs so beyond our selues that it makes vs to doe things scandalous dangerous and irreuocable murders poisonings treasons whereby follow great and too late repentances witnesse Alexander the great after he had slaine Clytus and therefore Pythagoras was wont to say that the end of Choler was the beginning of repentance This passion feedes vpon it selfe flattereth and tickleth it selfe with a perswasion that it hath reason that it is iust excusing it selfe vpon the malice and indiscretion of another but the iniustice of another cannot make that iust nor the losse that wee receiue by another make that profitable vnto vs it is too rash and inconsiderat to do any thing that is good it would cure an euill with an euill for to yeeld the correction of an offence to Choler is to correct a vice by it selfe Reason which should haue the command ouer vs needs no such officers as of their owne heads execute lawes not attending her ordinance she would haue all things done according to nature by measure and therefore violence doth no way befit it But what shall vertue see the insolencie of vice and not be angry with it shall the libertie therof be so bridled as not to dare to bee moued against the wicked vertue desires no indecent libertie it needes not turne it owne strength against it selfe nor that the wickednesse of another should trouble it a wise man must as well beare the vices of a wicked man without choler as his prosperitie without enuie Hee must endure the indiscretions of rash and inconsiderate men with the selfe same patience that Physitians do the iniuries of mad men There is no greater wisedome nor more profitable in the world than to endure the follie of another for otherwise by not suffering it with patience we make it our owne That which hath heeretofore beene spoken touching Choler may likewise be spoken of these passions following hatred enuie reuenge which are made or formed Cholers Particular aduisements and remedies against this euill are Lib. 3. cap. 31. CHAP. XXVI Hatred HAtred is a strange passion which strangely and without reason troubleth vs and to say the truth what is there in the world that tormenteth vs more By this passion we put our selues into the power of him that we hate to afflict and vex vs the sight of him mooueth our senses the remembrance stirreth our spirits both waking and sleeping yea we neuer present him to our memories but with despight and gnashing of teeth which puts vs besides our selues and teares our owne hearts whereby we suffer in our selues the punishment of that euill we wish vnto another He which hateth is the patient he that is hated the agent contrary to the sound of the words the hater is in torment the hated in ease But what do we hate Men or their matters and affaires Doubtlesse wee hate nothing that wee should for if there be any thing to be hated in this world it is hate it selfe and such like passions contrary to that which should command in vs. Particular considerations and remedies against this euill are Lib. 3. cap. 32. CHAP. XXVII Enuie ENuie is cousen-germaine to Hatred a miserable passion and outragious beast which in torment excelleth hell it selfe It is a desire of that good that another possesseth which gnaweth our heart and turneth the good of another man to our owne hurt But how should it torment vs since it is as well against that which is ill as that which is good Whilest an enuious man looketh obliquely vpon the goods of another man he loseth what is good in himselfe or at leastwise takes no delight in it Particular aduisements and remedies against this euill are Lib. 3. cap. 33. CHAP. XXVIII Iealousie IEalousie is a passion like almost both in nature and effect 1 What it is vnto Enuie but that it seemeth that Enuie considereth not what is
good but in as much as it is in the possession of another man and that we desire it for our selues and Iealousie concerneth our owne proper good whereof wee feare another doth partake Iealousie is a weake maladie of the soule absurd vaine 2 The weaknes thereof terrible and tyrannicall it insinuateth it selfe vnder the title of amitie but after it hath gotten possession vpon the selfe-same foundation of loue and good will it buildeth an euerlasting hate Vertue health merit reputation are the incendiaries of this rage or rather the fewell vnto this furie It is likewise the Gaule that corrupteth all the Hony of 3 The venim thereof our life it is commonly mingled with the sweetest and pleasantst actions which it maketh so sharpe and sower as nothing more it changeth loue into hate respect into disdaine assurance into diffidence it ingendreth a pernitious curiosity and desire in a man to cleere himselfe of that euill which being past remedie by too much stirring stinketh the more For what doth he but publish put out of all doubt bring into the light sound with a trumpet his owne shame and miserie and the dishonour of his owne children Particular considerations and remedies against this euill are Lib. 3. cap. 35. CHAP. XXIX Reuenge THe desire of Reuenge is first a cowardly and effeminate 1 A cowardly passion passion proceeding from a base weake and abiect mind which experience telleth vs to be true for we commonly see the weakest mindes the most malicious and reuengefull as women and children The valiant and generous mind doth little feele this passion but contemneth and disdaineth it either because the iniurie toucheth him not or because he that offereth the iniurie is not worthy his reuenge as not daining so farre to debase himselfe indignus Caesaris ira The haile thunder and tempests and those fearefull motions that are in the aire doe neither trouble nor touch the superior celestiall bodies but only the weake and inferior and euen so the indiscretions and childish brawles of fooles wound not great and high minds All the great men of the world Alexander Caesar Epaminondas Scipio haue been so farre from reuenge that quite contrarie they haue done good vnto their enemies Secondly it is a boiling and biting passion and like a 2 Biting worme it gnaweth the hearts of those that are infected with it it molesteth them by day and by night keepes them awaked It is likewise full of iniustice for it tormenteth the innocent 3 Vniust and addeth affliction It is to make the party offending to feele that euill and punishment which the desire of reuenge giueth to a mans heart and the partie offended goes to lay on the burthen as if he had not already hurt enough by the iniurie receiued in such sort that many times and ordinarily whilest he tormenteth himselfe to seeke meanes of reuenge he that hath committed the offence laughs and makes himselfe merrie with it But it is also farre more vniust in the meanes of the execution which many times is wrought by treasons and villanous practises Lastly the execution is not only painfull but dangerous 4 Dangerous too for experience telleth vs that he that seeks to be reuenged doth not that which he would and what his blow intendeth but commonly that which he would not comes to passe and thinking to put out the eye of his enemy he putteth out both his owne The feare of iustice tormenteth him and the care to hide him those that loue him Againe to kill and to make an end of his enemy is not reuenge but meere crueltie which proceedeth from cowardlinesse 5 To kill is not to reuenge and feare To be reuenged is to beat his enemie to make him stoope not to kill him for by killing hee feeles not the power of his wrath which is the end of reuenge And this is the reason why a man cares not to be reuenged vpon a dogge or a beast because he can no way taste or conceit his reuenge In true reuenge there must be a kinde of pleasure and delight in the reuenger and he vpon whom he is reuenged must feele the weight of his displeasure suffer paine repent him of the cause which being kild he cannot do yea he is rather freed thereby from all miserie and contrariwise he that is the reuenger endureth many times that torment feare which he wished to his enemie To kill then is a token of cowardlinesse and feare lest his enemie feeling the force of his reuenge should liue to requite him with the like which though it make an end of the quarrell yet it woundeth his reputation it is a tricke of precaution and not of courage and is the way to proceed safely but not honorably Qui occidit longe non vlciscitur nec gloriam assequitur Particular aduisements and remedies against this euill are Lib. 3. cap. 34. CHAP. XXX Crueltie CRueltie is a villanous and detestable vice and against nature and therefore it is likewise called Inhumanitie It proceedeth from weaknesse omnis ex infirmitate feritas est and it is the daughter of cowardlinesse for a valourous man doth alwayes exercise his strength against a resisting enemie whom he hath no sooner at his mercie but he is satisfied Romana virtus parcere subiectis debellare superbos Forasmuch therefore as cowardly weaknesse can not be of this ranke to the end it may yet get the name of valour it makes blood and massacres the proofe thereof Murders in victories are commonly executed by common people and the officers of the baggage Tyrants are bloody because they feare not knowing how to secure themselues but by rooting out those that may offend them and therefore they exercise their crueltie against all euen women too because they feare all cuncta ferit dum cuncta timet Cowardlie dogges bite and teare with their teeth within the house the skinnes of those wild beasts which in the open field they durst not looke vpon What makes ciuill warres so cruell but that tie wherewith the common people are led and linked who like dogs that are backt by their master backe one another The Emperour Mauritius being tolde that one Phocas a souldier should kill him enquired what he was and of what nature and condition and being tolde by his sonne in law Philip that he was a base cowward Why then saith he no maruell if he be a murderer and cruell It proceedeth likewise from the inward malignitie of the soule which feedeth and delighteth it selfe with the hurt of another Monsters like Caligula CHAP. XXXI Sadnesse or Heauinesse of heart SAdnesse is a languishing feeblenesse of the spirit and a 1 The description kinde of discouragement ingendered by the opinion that we haue of the greatnesse of those euils that afflict vs. It is a dangerous enemie to our rest which presently weakeneth and quelleth our soules if we take not good heede and taketh from vs the vse of reason and discourse and
and by another voice he knoweth he is not Againe they haue their intelligence with vs. In the warres 7. Mutuall intelligence in the middest of the fight Elephants Dogs Horses vnderstand with vs they frame their motions according to the occasion they pursue they make their stand they retire nay they haue their pay and diuide the booty with vs as it hath been practised in the new conquests of the Indies And these are those things that are common to all and alike Let vs now come to those differences and aduantages that 4 Differences and aduantages the one hath ouer the other Man is singular and excellent in some things aboue other creatures and in others beasts haue the superiority to the end that all things might thereby bee knit and enchained together in this generall policy of the world and of nature The certaine aduantages or excellencies of man are those great faculties of the soule the subtilitie viuacitie Of man sufficiency of the spirit to inuent to iudge to chuse speech to demand and to offer aid and succour the hand to execute that the spirit hath inuented either of it selfe or learned from another The forme also of the body the great diuersity of the motions of the members whereby his body doth him better seruice The certaine aduantages that beasts haue ouer men and 5 Of Beasts generall such as are past all doubt are either general or particular The generall are health and strength of body farre more perfect constant strong in them among whom there are no blind deafe lame mute diseased defectiue and ill born as amongst men The Sereno hurts them nor they are not subiect to rheumes frō whence proceed almost all other diseases from which man though he couer his head with a hat and a house too can hardly defend himselfe Moderation in diet and other actions innocency safety peace and tranquillity of life a plaine and entire liberty without shame feare or ceremony in things naturall and lawfull for it is onely man that hath cause to hide himselfe in his actions and whose faults and imperfections offend others Exemption from so many vices and disorders superstition ambition auarice enuie yea mightie dreames trouble not them as they doe men nor so many thoughts and fantasies The particular aduantages are the pure high healthfull pleasant habitation and abode of Particular birds in the aire Their sufficiencie in some arts as the swallow and other birds in building the Spider in spinning and weauing diuers beasts in Physicke and the Nightingale in Musicke Maruellous effects and properties not to be imitated no not imagined as the propertie of the fish Remora to stay the greatest vessels of the sea as we reade of the chiefe galley of Marcus Antonius and the selfe same of Caligula of the Torpedo or Crampe-fish to benum and dead the members of another though farre distant and not touching him of the Hedgehog to foresee the windes of the Chameleon to change his colours Prognostications as of birds in their passages from countrey to countrey according to the diuersitie of the seasons of all beasts that are dammes in knowing which of their yoong is the best for some happe falling out of defending them from danger or conueying them to their nests they alwayes begin with that they know and foresee to be the best In all these things man is farre their inferior and in some of them he hath no skill at all A man may adde vnto this if hee will the length of their liues which in some beasts doth seuen or eight times exceed the longest terme of the life of man Those aduantages that man pretendeth to haue aboue beasts but are yet disputable and perhaps as well in beasts 6 Disputable aduantages as men are many First the reasonable faculties discourse reasoning discipline iudgement prudence There are heere 1 Reason two things to be spoken the one of the veritie of the thing it selfe It is a great question whether beasts be depriued of all these spiritual faculties The opinion that they are not depriued but haue them is the more true and the more authentike It is defended by many great Philosophers especially by Democritus Anaxagoras the Stoicks Galen Porphyry Plutarch and mainteined by this reason The composition of the braine which is that part which the soule makes vse of and whereby it reasoneth is all alike as the same in beasts and men confirmed by experience Beasts from particulars conclude generals by the sight of one only man they know all men they know how to ioyne and diuide and distinguish the good from the ill for the safegard of their liues libertie and little ones Yea we reade and see if we would but marke and consider it many things done by beasts that doe farre excell the sufficiencie subtiltie and all the wit and cunning of the common sort of men some of those that are best woorth the noting I will note vnto you The Fox being to passe ouer a riuer that is frozen with ice applieth his eare vnto the ice to finde whether he can heare any noise and that the water doe runne vnder it that thereby he may resolue either to go forward or to retire backe of whom the Thrasians haue learned the same cunning being to passe their frozen riuers A Dogge to the end hee may know which way of three either his master or that beast he hunteth is gone hauing assured himselfe by senting them that he hath not passed by two of them because he findes not the trace without the setting of his nose to the ground or farther trauersing he runneth mainly into the third The Mule of the Philosopher Thales crossing a riuer with a sacke of salt on his backe and being plunged into the deepe with his burthen his salt dissolued in the water and made his burthen the lighter which the Mule falling into the deepe by chance hauing found being afterwards loaden with wooll vsed the same remedie and sunke the more Plutarch reporteth that he saw a Dog in a ship casting stones into a pipe of oile to make the oile to mount that hee might the better come at it As much is reported of the Crowes of Barbarie who by that meanes raise the water when it is too low that they may drinke So likewise Elephants gather stones and sticks and cast them into that ditch whereinto their companion is fallen to helpe him to get out The Oxen of the Kings gardens of Suze being taught to go in a wheele a iust hundred turnes to draw water to water the gardens they would neuer exceed that iust number and were neuer deceiued in their account All these thnigs how can they be done without discourse and reason addition and diuision To say they know not this were to denie that we see they doe What should we thinke of that dexteritie that is in the Elephant in plucking those darts and iauelins foorth of his bodie with little or
no paine at all of the Dogge that Plutarch speaketh of which in a publike play vpon a scaffold counterfeited death drawing towards his end trembling afterwards growing stiffe and suffering himselfe to be caried foorth by little and little comming to himselfe and lifting vp his head counterfeited a new resurrection of so many apish imitations and strange tricks that the dogs of Players and Iuglers doe of the policies and inuentions wherewith beasts defend themselues against the assaults we make vpon them of the husbandrie and great prouidence of the Ant in laying abroad his graine to drie lest it take moisture and so corrupt in nipping the ends thereof that it grow not of the policie of the Bee where there is such diuersitie of offices and charges so firmly established To beat downe all this some doe maliciously attribute these things to a naturall seruile and forced inclination as if 7 An opposition of the naturall instinct beasts did performe their actions by a naturall necessitie like things inanimate as the stone falleth downward the fire mounteth vpward But besides that that can not be nor enter into our imagination for there must be a numbring of the parts comparison discourse by addition and diuision and consequents they likewise know not what this naturall inclination and instinct is they be words which they abuse to small purpose that they may not be deafe and mute altogether Againe this saying is retorted against them for it is beyond all comparison more noble honourable and resembleth more the Diuinitie to worke by nature than by art and apprentiship to be led and directed by the hand of God than by our owne regularly to act by a naturall and ineuitable condition than regularly by a rash and casuall libertie By this obiection of the naturall instinct they would likewise depriue them of instruction and discipline both actiue and passiue but experience giues them the lie for they doe both receiue it witnesse the Pie the Parret the Black-bird the Dogge the Horsse as hath beene said and they giue it witnesse the Nightingale and aboue all other the Elephant which excelleth all other beasts in docilitie and all kinde of discipline and sufficiencie As for this facultie of the spirit whereof man doth so much glorie which is to spiritualize things corporall and absent robbing them of all accidents to the end it might conceiue them after it owne maner nam intellectum est in intelligente ad modum intelligentis beasts themselues do the like The Horse accustomed to the warres sleeping in his stable trembleth and groaneth as if he were in the middest of the fight conceiueth the sound of the drumme the trumpet yea an armie it selfe The Hare in her sleepe panting lifteth vp her scut shaking her legs conceiueth a spirituall Hare Dogs that are kept for gard in their sleepe do snarre and sometimes barke outright imagining a stranger to be come To conclude this first point we must confesse that beasts doe reason haue the vse of discourse and iudgement but more weakly and imperfectly than man they are inferiour vnto men in this not because they haue no part therein at all they are inferiour vnto men as amongst men some are inferiour vnto others and euen so amongst beasts there is such a difference but yet there is a greater difference betweene men for as shall be said heereafter there is a greater distance betweene a man and a man than a man and a beast But for all this we must not heereby inferre a kinde of equalitie or paritie betwixt a beast and a man though as Aristotle sayth there are some men so weake and blockish that they differ from a beast only in figure and that the soule of a beast is immortall as that of a man or the soule of a man mortall as that of a beast for these are but malicious illations For besides that in this reasoning facultie man hath a verie great aduantage aboue beasts so hath the other faculties more high and wholly spirituall whereby he is sayd to be like vnto God himselfe and is capable of immortalitie wherein beasts haue no part and are signified by that vnderstanding which is more than a simple discourse Nolite fieri sicut equus mulus in quibus non est intellectus The other point which we are to speake of in this matter is that this preheminence and aduantage of vnderstanding and other spirituall faculties that man pretendeth is sold him at a deare rate and brings with it more hurt than good for it is the principall source of all those euils that oppresse him of vices passions maladies irresolution trouble despaire which beasts want by the want of this great aduantage witnesse the Hogge of Pyrrho which did eat his meat peaceably in the shippe in the middest of a great tempest when all the men were almost dead for feare It seemeth that these great parts of the soule haue beene denied vnto beasts or at leastwise lessened and giuen them more feeble for their great good and quiet and bestowed vpon man for his torment for it is long of them that he toileth and trauelleth tormenteth himselfe with what is past and that which is to come yea he imagineth apprehendeth and feareth those euils that are not nor euer shall be Beasts apprehend nothing that is ill vntill they feele it and being escaped they are presently in securitie and at peace So that we see that man is most miserable euen in that wherin he thought himselfe most happy whereby it seemeth that it had beene better for man not to haue beene indued and adorned with all those beautifull and celestiall armes since he turneth them against himselfe euen to his owne destruction And to say the trueth we see those that are most stupid and feeble of spirit liue at best content and feele not their euill accidents in so high a degree as those that are more spirituall Another aduantage that man pretendeth aboue beasts is a signorie and power of commanding which he thinketh hee 10 2. Signorie and command hath ouer beasts but besides that it is an aduantage that men themselues haue and exercise the one ouer the other this is not true For where is this command of man this obedience of the beasts It is a monster that was neuer seen yea men do more feare beasts than beasts them It is true that man hath a great preheminence ouer beasts vt praesit piscibus maris volatilibus coeli bestijs terrae And this by reason of his beautifull Gen. 1. and vpright forme of his wisdome and the prerogatiue of his spirit but not that hee should either command or they obey There is likewise another aduantage neere neighbour to 11. 3. Libertie this pretended by man which is a plaine libertie reproching beasts with their seruitude captiuitie subiection but this is to small purpose There is farre greater reason why man should reproch man witnesse those slaues not only made by force and
such as descend from them but also those that are voluntarie who either sell for money their libertie or giue it out of the lightnesse of their hearts or for some commoditie as the ancient fensers solde outright women to their mistresses souldiers to their captaines Now there is none of all this in beasts they neuer serue one another nor yeeld themselues to any seruitude either actiue or passiue either to serue or to be serued and are in euery thing more free than men And as man goeth to the chase taketh killeth eateth the beasts so is he taken killed eaten by them in his turne and more honourably too by maine strength not by wit and art as man doth and not only by them is he killed but by his companion by another man a thing base and dishonorable Beasts assemble not themselues in troops to go to kill to destroy to ransacke to inthrall another troope of their kinde as men do The fourth and greatest aduantage pretended by man is in vertue but of morall it is disputable I meane morall materially 12 4. Vertue by the outward action for formallie the moralitie good or euill vertue and vice can not be in a beast Kinde acknowledgement officious amitie fidelitie magnanimitie and many other vertues which consist in societie and conuersation are more liuely more expresse and constant than can be in the common sort of people Hircanus the dogge of Lysimachus continued vpon the bed of his dead master refusing all kinde of sustenance and afterwards cast himselfe into that fire wherein his master was burnt and there died with him The selfe same did another belonging to one Pyrrhus That dogge of wise Hesiodus discouered the murther of his master Another in like sort in the presence of King Pyrrhus and his whole armie Another which neuer ceased as Plutarch affirmeth going from citie to citie vntill that sacrilegious Robber of the Temple of Athens was apprehended and brought to iudgements That historie is famous of the lion that was host and nurse to Androdus the slaue and his Physitian which would not touch him being cast out vnto him which Appion affirmeth to haue seene at Rome An Elephant hauing in choler killed his gouernour repenting himselfe of it refused any longer to eat drinke or liue Contrariwise there is not a creature in the world more vniust vnthankfull traiterous perfidious lying and deceitfull than man Againe forasmuch as vertue consisteth in the moderation of our appetites and the bridling of our pleasures beasts are much more moderate therein than wee and doe better containe themselues within the limits of nature For they are not only not touched with vnnaturall superfluous and artificiall passions and desires which are all vitious and infinite as men who for the most part are plunged in them but also in the naturall as eating and drinking the acquaintance betwixt the male and the female they are farre more moderate and staied But that we may see which is the more vertuous or vitious a man or a beast and in good earnest to shame a man more than a beast let vs take the vertue most proper and agreeable vnto man that is as the word it selfe importeth humanity as the most strange and contrary vice is cruelty Now heerin beasts Humanity Cruelty haue aduantage enough euen to make men blush for shame They neuer assaile and seldome offend those of their kind maior serpentum ferarumque concordia quà m hominum They neuer fight but for great and iust causes as the defence and preseruation of their liues liberty and their little ones and that they doe with their naturall and open armes by their only force and valour and that one to one as in single combates and not in troupes nor by designements Their combates are short and soone ended vntill one of them be either wounded or yeeldeth and the combate ended the quarrell hatred and choler is likewise at an end But man hath no quarrell but against man for not only light vaine and friuolous causes but many times vniust with artificiall and traiterous armes by deceits and wicked meanes in troupe and assembly gathered by assignement and lastly his wars are long and neuer ended but with death and when he is able no longer to hurt yet the hatred and choler endureth The conclusion of this comparison is that vntruely and 12 The conclusion of this second consideration vainly doth man glorifie himselfe aboue beasts For if man haue in him something more than they as especially the viuacity of the spirit and vnderstanding and those great faculties of the soule so likewise in exchange is hee subiect to a thousand euils from which the beasts are freed inconstancie irresolution superstition a painfull care of things to come ambition auarice enuie curiositie detraction lying and a world of disordered appetites discontentments emulations This spirit wherewith man maketh himselfe so mery brings him a thousand inconueniences and then most when it is most stirred and enforced For it doth not only hurt the body trouble breake and weaken the bodily forces and functions but also it hurts and hindereth it selfe What casteth man into follie and madnesse but the sharpenesse agility and proper force of the spirit The most subtile follies and excellent lunacies proceede from the rarest and quickest agitations of the spirit as from greatest amities spring greatest enmities and from soundest healths mortall maladies Melancholie men saith Plato as they are more capeable of knowledge and wisedome so likewise of folly And hee that well marketh it shall finde that in those eleuations and salies of a free soule there is some mixture of folly for to say the truth these things are neere neighbours Touching a simple life and such as is according to nature beasts do farre exceede men they liue more freely securely 13 An exhortation moderately contentedly And that man is wise that considereth heereof and benefiteth himselfe by making them an instruction vnto himselfe which doing he frameth himselfe to innocencie simplicitie libertie and that naturall sweetnesse which shineth in beasts and is wholly altered and corrupteth in vs by our artificiall inuentions and vnbridled licentiousnesse abusing that wherein we say we excell them which is the spirit and iudgement And therefore God doth many times send vs to schoole to birds beasts themselues to the kite the grashopper the swallow the turtle the ant the ox the asse and diuers others Lastly we must remember that there is a kind of commerce betwixt beasts vs a certain relation mutuall obligation whereof there is no other reason but that they belong to one the same master and are of the same family that we are It is an vnworthy thing to tyrannise ouer them we owe iustice vnto men and pitie and gentlenesse to such other creatures as are capeable thereof The third Consideration of Man which is by his life CHAP. XXXV The estimation breuitie description of the life of man and the parts thereof IT is a
and hinder one the other Miserie and Pride Vanitie and Presumption See then how strange and monstrous a patch-coat man is Forasmuch as man is composed of two diuers parts the soule and the body it is a matter of difficulty well to describe him entire in his perfection and declining state Some refer vnto the body whatsoeuer ill can be spoken of man they make him an excellent creature and in regard of his spirit extoll him aboue all other creatures but on the other side whatsoeuer is ill either in man or in the whole world is forged and proceedeth from this spirit of man and in it there is farre more vanity inconstancy misery presumption than in the body wherein there is little matter of reproch in respect of the spirit and therefore Democritus calleth it a world of hidden miseries and Plutarch prooueth it in a booke written of that subiect Now let vs consider man more according to the life than heeretofore we haue done and pinch him where it itcheth not referring all to these fiue points vanity weaknesse inconstancy misery and presumption which are his more naturall and vniuersall qualities but the two latter touch him more neerely Againe there are some things common to many of these fiue which a man knowes not to which to attribute it and especially imbecillity and misery CHAP. XXXVI 1. Vanity VAnity is the most essentiall and proper quality of humane nature There is nothing so much in man bee it malice infelicity inconstancy irresolution and of all these there is alwaies abundance as base feeblenesse sottishnesse and ridiculous vanity And therefore Democritus met better with it with a kind of disdaine of humane condition mocking and laughing at it than Heraclitus that wept and tormented himselfe whereby he gaue some testimony that he made some account thereof and Diogenes who scorned it than Timon that hater and flier of the company of men Pindarus hath expressed it more to the life than any other by the two vainest things in the world calling it the dreame of ashadow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is that that hath wrought in the wisest so great a contempt of man that hearing of some great designment and honourable enterprise and iudging it such were wont neuerthelesse to say that the world was not worthy a mans labour and paines so answered Statilius to Brutus talking with him about the conspiracie against Caesar and that a wise man should doe nothing but for himselfe for it is not reason that wise men and wisedome should put themselues in danger for fooles This vanitie is shewed and expressed many waies and after 2 Thoughts a diuers maner first in our thoughts and priuate imaginations which are many times more than vaine friuolous and ridiculous wherein neuerthelesse we spend much time and yet perceiue it not Wee enter into them we dwell in them and we come foorth againe insensibly which is a double vanitie and a great forgetfulnesse of our selues One walking in a hall considereth how he may frame his paces after a certaine fashion vpon the boords of the floure another discourseth in his minde with much time and great attention how he should carry himselfe if he were a king a Pope or some other thing that he is assured can neuer come to passe and so hee feedeth himselfe with winde yea lesse than winde that that neither is nor euer shall be Another dreameth how he shall compose his body his countenances his gestures his speech after an affected fashion and pleaseth himselfe therein as with a thing that wonderfully becomes him and that euery man should take delight in But what a vanitie and sottish weakenesse in our desires is this that brings forth beliefs and hopes farre more vaine And all this falleth out not only when we haue nothing to doe when we are swallowed vp with idlenesse but many times in the midst of our most necessarie affaires so naturall and powerfull is vanitie that it robbeth and plucketh out of our hands the truth soliditie and substance of things and fills vs with winde yea with nothing Another more sottish vanitie is a troublesome care of what shall heere fall out when we are dead We extend our desires 3 Care for times to come and affections beyond our selues and our being wee would prouide that some thing should bee done vnto vs when wee know not what is done vnto vs owe desire to be praised after our death what greater vanitie It is not ambition as it seemeth a man may thinke it for that is the desire of a sensible and perceptible honor if this praise of our selues when we are gone might any way profit either our children our parents or our friends that suruiue vs it were well there were some benefit though not to our selues but to desire that as a good which shall no way touch vs nor benefit others is a meere vanitie like that of those who feare their wiues will marrie after their departure and therefore they desire them with great passion to continue vnmarried and binde them by their willes so to do leauing vnto them a great part of their goods vpon that condition This is vanitie and many times iniustice It was contrariwise a commendable thing in those great men in times past which dying exhorted their wiues to marry speedily for the better increase of the Commonwealth Others ordeine that for the loue of them and for their sakes a friend keepe such and such a thing or that he do this or that vnto their dead bodies which rather sheweth their vanitie than doth any good to soule or bodie See heere another vanitie we liue not but by relation vnto another we take not so much care what we are in our selues in effect and truth as what we are in the publike knowledge of men in such sort that we do many times deceiue and depriue our selues of our owne goods and commodities and torment our selues to frame our outward appearances to the common opinion This is true not onely in outward things and such as belong to the bodie and the expense and charge of our meanes but also in the goods of the spirit which seeme vnto vs to be without fruit if others enioy them not and they be not produced to the view and approbation of strangers Our vanity is not only in our simple thoughts desires and discourses but it likewise troubleth shaketh and tormenteth 5 Agitations of the spirit both soule and bodie Many times men trouble and torment themselues more for light occasions and matters of no moment than for the greatest and most important affaires that are Our soule is many times troubled with small fantasies dreames shadowes fooleries without bodie without subiect it is intangled and molested with choler hatred sorow ioy building castles in Spaine The remembrance of a farewell of some particular grace or action afflicteth vs more than a whole discourse of a matter of greater importance The sound of names and certaine words
of man Doubtlesse our actions doe many times so contradict one the other in so strange a maner that it seemes impossible they should all come foorth of one and the same shop we alter and we feele it not we escape as it were from our selues and we rob our selues ipsi nobis furto subducimur We goe after the inclinations of our appetite and as the wind of occasions carieth vs not according to reason at nil potest esse aequabile quod non a certa ratione proficiscatur Our spirits also and our humours are changed with the change of time Life is an vnequall motion irregular of many fashions In the end wee stirre and trouble our selues by the instabilitie of our behauiour Nemo non quotidiè consilium mutat votum modò vxorem vult modò amicam modò regnare vult modò non est eo officiosior seruus nunc pecuniam spargit nunc rapit modò frugi videtur grauis modò prodigus vanus mutamus subinde personam Quod petijt spernit repetit quod nuper omisit Aestuat vitae disconuenit ordine toto Man is a creature of all others the most hard to be sounded and knowen for he is the most double and artificiall couert and counterfeit and there are in him so many cabinets and blind corners from whence he comes forth sometimes a man sometimes a satyre so many breathing holes from whence hee breathes sometimes heat sometimes colde and from whence comes foorth so much smoake all his carriage and motion is a perpetuall race of errours in the morning to be borne in the euening to die sometimes in the racke sometimes at libertie sometimes a god sometimes a flie hee laughs and weeps for one and the same thing he is content and discontent hee will and hee will not and in the end he knowes not what he will now he is filled with ioy and gladnesse that he can not stay within his owne skinne and presently he falleth out with himselfe nay dares not trust himselfe modò amore nostri modò taedio laboramus CHAP. XXXIX 4. Miserie BEhold heere the maine and principall line and liniament of the picture of man he is as hath beene sayd vaine 1 Miserie proper vnto man feeble fraile inconstant in good in felicitie in pleasure but strong constant and hardned in miserie he is miserie it selfe quicke and incarnate and this is in a word to expresse humanitie for in man is all miserie and without him there is not any in the world It is the propertie of man to be miserable only man and all man is alwayes miserable Homo natus de muliere breui viuens tempore repletur multis miserijs Hee that will take vpon him to represent vnto vs all the parts of humane miserie had need to discouer his whole life his substance his entrance his continuance his end I do not therefore vndertake this businesse it were a worke without end and besides it is a common subiect handled by all but I will heere only quote certaine points which are not common nor taken for miseries either because they are not felt or sufficientlie considered of although they be such as presse man most if he knew how to iudge of them The first point and proofe of the miserie of man is his 2 In his beginning and his end birth his entrance into the world is shamefull vile base contemptible his departure his death ruine glorious and honorable whereby it seemeth that he is a monster and against nature since there is shame in making him honor in destroying him Nostri nosmet poenitet pudet Heerof a word or two The action of planting and making man is shamefull and all the parts thereof the congredients the preparations the instruments and whatsoeuer serues thereunto is called and accounted shamefull and there is nothing more vncleane in the whole nature of man The action of destroying and killing him honourable and that which serues thereunto glorious we gild it we inrich it we adorne our selues with it we carrie it by our sides in our hands vpon our shoulders We disdaine to go to the birth of man euery man runnes to see him die whether it be in his bed or in some publike place or in the field When we goe about to make a man we hide our selues we put out the candle we do it by stealth It is a glorie and a pompe to vnmake a man to kill him wee light the candles to see him die wee execute him at high noone wee sound a trumpet we enter the combat and we slaughter him when the sunne is at highest There is but one way to beget to make a man a thousand and a thousand meanes inuentions arts to destroy him There is no reward honour or recompence assigned to those that know how to increase to preserue humane nature all honours greatnesse riches dignities empires triumphs trophes are appointed for those that know how to afflict trouble destroy it The two principall men of the world Alexander and Caesar haue vnmade haue slaine ech of them as Plinie reporteth more than a million of men but they made none left none behinde them And in ancient times for pleasure onely and pastime to delight the eyes of the people there were publike slaughters and massacres of men made Homo sacra res per iocum lusum Seneca Tertull. de Spectac occiditur satis spectaculi in homine mors est innocentes in ludum veniunt vt publicae voluptatis hostiae fiant There are some nations that curse their birth blesse their death How monstrous a creature is this that is made a horror vnto himselfe None of all this is in any other creature no not in the whole world besides The second point and testimonie of the miserie of man is the diminishing of his pleasures euen those small and slight ones that appertaine vnto him for of such as are great and sound he is not capable as hath beene shewed in his weakenesse and the impairing of the number and sweetnesse of them If it be so that he doe it not for Gods cause what a monster is this that is an enemie vnto himselfe robbes and betrayes himselfe to whom his pleasures are a burthen and a crosse There be some that flie from health ioy comfort as from an euill thing O miseri quorum gaudia crimen habent We are not ingenious but to our owne hurt it is the true diet of the force of the spirit But there is yet that which is worse the spirit of man is not only a diminisher of his ioy a trouble-feast an enemy to his 4 Forging of euils small naturall and iust pleasures as I meane to proue but also a forger of those that are euill it faineth feareth flieth abhorreth as great mischiefs things that are not any way euill in themselues and in trueth which beasts themselues feare not but that by his owne proper discourse and imagination they are
fained to be such as not to be aduanced in honour greatnes riches as cuckoldship sterility death for to say the truth there is nothing but griefe it selfe that is euill and which is felt And though some wise men seem to feare these things yet it is not for their owne sakes but because of that griefe which sometimes doth accompany them afterwards for many times it is a fore-runner of death and sometimes followeth the losse of goods of credit of honour But take from these things grief the rest is nothing but fantasie which hath no other lodging but in the head of man which quits it selfe of other businesse to be miserable and imagineth within it owne bounds false euils besides the true employing and extending his miserie in stead of lessening and contracting it Beasts feele not these euils but are exempted from them because nature iudgeth them not to be such As for sorrow which is the only true euill man is wholly borne thereunto and it is his naturall propertie The Mexicanes 5 He is borne to sorrow thus salute their infants comming forth of the wombe of their mother Infant thou art come into the world to suffer endure suffer and hold thy peace That sorrow is naturall vnto man and contrariwise pleasure but a stranger it appeareth by these three reasons All the parts of man are capable of sorrow very few of delight The parts capable of pleasure can not receiue more than one or two sorts but all can receiue the greatest number of griefs all different heat colde pricking rubbing trampling fleaing beating boiling languishing extension oppression relaxation and infinite others which haue no proper name to omit those of the soule in such sort that man is better able to suffer them than to expresse them Man hath no long continuance in pleasure for that of the bodie is like a fire of straw and if it should continue it would bring with it much enuie and displeasure but sorrowes are more permanent and haue not their certaine seasons as pleasures haue Againe the empire and command of sorrow is farre more great more vniuersall more powerfull more durable and in a word more naturall than that of pleasure To these three a man may adde other three Sorrow and griefe is more frequent and falles out often Pleasure is rare Euil comes easily of it selfe without seeking Pleasure neuer comes willingly it must be sought after and many times we pay more for it than it is woorth Pleasure is neuer pure but alwayes distempered and mingled with some bitternesse and there is alwayes some thing wanting but sorrow and griefe is many times entire and pure After all this the worst of our market and that which doth euidently shew the miserie of our condition is that the greatest pleasures touch vs not so neere as the lightest griefs Segnius homines bona quà m mala sentiunt we feele not so much our soundest health as the least maladie that is pung it in cute vix summa violatum plagula corpus quando valere nil quenquam monet It is not enough that man be indeede and by nature miserable 6 By memorie and anticipation and besides true and substantiall euills he faine forge false and fantasticall as hath beene saide but hee must likewise extend and lengthen them and cause both the true and false to endure and to liue longer than they can so amarous is he of iniserie which he doth diuers waies First by the remembrance of what is past and the anticipation of what is to come so that we cannot faile to be miserable since that those things which are principally good in vs and whereof wee glorie most are instruments of miserie futuro torquemur praeterito mult a bona nostra nobis nocent timoris tormentum memoria reducit prouidentia anticipat nemo praesentibus tantùm miser est It is not enough to be miserable but wee must encrease it by a continual expectation before it come nay seeke it and prouoke it to come like those that kill themselues with the feare of death that is to say either by curiositie or imbecillitie and vaine apprehension to preoccupate euils and inconueniences and to attend them with so much paine ado euen those which peraduenture will neuer come neere vs These kinde of people will be miserable before their time and double miserable both by a reall sense or feeling of their miserie and by a long premeditation therof which many times is a hundred times worse than the euils themselues Minùs afficit sensus fatigatio quà m cogitatio The essence or being of miserie endureth not long but the minde of man must lengthen and extend it and entertaine it before hand Plùs dolet quà m necesse est qui antè dolet quà m necesse est Quaedam magis quaedam antequam debeant quaedam cùm omninò non debeant nos torquent Aut augemus dolorem aut fugimus aut praecipimus Beasts do well defend themselues from this follie and miserie and are much bound to thanke nature that they want that spirit that memorie that prouidence that man hath Caesar said well that the best death was that which was least premeditated And to say the truth the preparation before death hath beene to many a greater torment than the execution it selfe My meaning is not here to speake of that vertuous and philosophicall premeditation which is that temper whereby the soule is made inuincible is fortified to the proofe against all assaults and accidents whereof we shall speake heerafter but Lib. 2. ca 7. of that fearefull and sometimes false and vaine apprehension of euils that may come which afflicteth and darkeneth as it were with smoke all the beauty and serenity of the soule troubleth all the rest and ioy thereof insomuch that it were better to suffer it selfe to be wholly surprised It is more easie and more naturall not to thinke thereof at all But let vs leaue this anticipation of euill for simply euery care and painfull thought bleating after things to come by hope desire feare is a very great misery For besides that we haue not any power ouer that which is to come much lesse ouer what is past and so it is vanity as it hath been said there doth stil remain vnto vs that euill and dammage Calamitosus est animus futuri anxius which robbeth our vnderstanding and taketh from vs the peaceable comfort of our present good and will not suffer vs to settle and content our selues therein But this is not yet enough For to the end man may neuer want matter of misery yea that he may alwaies haue his 7 By vnquiet search full he neuer ceaseth searching and seeking with great study the causes and aliments of misery He thrusteth himselfe into businesse euen with ioy of heart euen such as when they are offered vnto him he should turne his backe towards them and either out of a miserable disquiet of mind or to the end
Now this popular facilitie though it be in truth weakenesse and imbecillitie yet it is not without presumption For so lightly to beleeue and hold for truth and certaintie that which we know not or to enquire of the causes reasons consequents and not of the truth it selfe is to enterprise to presume too much For from what other cause proceeds this If you shall answere from a supposition that it is true why this is nothing a man handleth and stirreth the foundations and effects of a thousand things which neuer were whereby both pro and contra are false How many fables false and supposed miracles visions reuelations are there receiued in the world that neuer were And why should a man beleeue a miracle a thing neither humane nor naturall when he is able by naturall and humane meanes to confute and confound the truth thereof Truth and lying haue like visages like cariage relish gate and we behold them with one and the same eye it a sunt finitima falsa veris vt in praecipitem locum non debeat se sapiens committere A man ought not to beleeue that of a man which is not humane except he be warranted by supernaturall and superhumane approbation which is only God who is only to be beleeued in that he saith only because he saith it The other contrary vice is an audacious temeritie to condemne and reiect as false all things that are not easily vnderstood and that please not the palat It is the propertie of those that haue a good opinion of themselues which play the parts of men of dexteritie and vnderstanding especially heretikes Sophists Pedanties for they finding in themselues some speciall point of the spirit and that they see a little more cleerely than the common sort they assume vnto themselues law and authoritie to decide and determine all things This vice is farre greater and more base than the former for it is an enraged folly to thinke to know as much as possiblie is to be knowne the iurisdiction and limits of nature the capacitie of the power and will of God to frame vnto himselfe and his sufficiencie the truth and falshood of things which must needs be in so certaine and assured resolution and definition of them for see their ordinarie language that is false impossible absurd and how many things are there which at one time we haue reiected with laughter as impossible which we haue been constrained afterwards to confesse and approue yea and others too more strange than they And on the other side how many things haue wee receiued as articles of our faith that haue afterwards prooued vanities and lies The second degree of presumption which followeth and commonly proceedeth from the former is certainly and obstinatelie 2 To affirme and condemne to affirme or disprooue that which he hath lightly beleeued or misbeleeued So that it addeth vnto the first obstinacie in opinion and so the presumption increaseth This facilitie to beleeue with time is confirmed and degenerateth into an obstinacie inuincible and vncapable of amendment yea a man proceeds so farre in this obstinacie that he defends those things that he knowes and vnderstands least Maiorem fidem homines adhibent ijs quae non intelligunt cupiditate humani ingenij lubentius obscura creduntur he speaks of all things with resolution Now affirmation and opinatiue obstinacie are signes of negligence and ignorance accompanied with follie and arrogancie The third degree which followeth these two and which 8 3. To perswade is the height of presumption is to perswade others to receiue as canonicall whatsoeuer he beleeueth yea imperiously to impose a beleefe as it were by obligation and inhibition to doubt What tyranny is this Whosoeuer beleeueth a thing thinks it a worke of charitie to perswade another to beleeue the same and that he may the better do it he feareth not to adde of his owne inuention so much as he seeth necessarie for his purpose to supplie that want and vnwillingnes which he thinks to be in the conceit of another of that he tels There is nothing vnto which men are commonly more prone than to giue way to their owne opinions Nemo sibi tantùm errat sed alijs erroris causa author est Where the ordinarie meane wanteth there a man addeth commandement force fire sword This vice is proper vnto dogmatists and such as will gouerne and giue lawes vnto the world Now to attaine to the end heereof and to captiuate the beliefs of men vnto themselues they vse two meanes First they bring in certain generall and fundamentall propositions which they call principles and presuppositions wherof they say we must neither doubt nor dispute vpon which they afterwards build whatsoeuer they please and leade the world at their pleasure which is a mockerie whereby the world is replenished with errours and lies And to say the trueth if a man should examine these principles he should finde as great or greater vntrueths and weaknesses in them than in all that which they would haue to depend vpon them and as great an appearance of trueth in propositions quite contrarie There haue Copernicus Paracelsus beene some in our time that haue changed and quite altered the principles and rules of our Ancients and best Professors in Astronomie Phisicke Geometrie in nature and the motion of the windes Euery humane proposition hath as much authoritie as another if reason make not the difference Trueth dependeth not vpon the authoritie and testimonie of man there are no principles in man if Diuinitie haue not reuealed them all the rest is but a dreame and smoake Now these great masters will that whatsoeuer they say should be beleeued and receiued and that euery man should trust them without iudging or examining what they teach which is a tyrannicall iustice God onely as hath beene sayd is to be beleeued in all that he saith because he saith it Qui a semetipso loquitur mendax est The other meane is by supposition of some miraculous thing done new and celestiall reuelation and apparition which hath beene cunningly practised by Law-makers Generals in the field or priuate Captaines The perswasion taken from the subiect it selfe possesseth the simpler sort but at the first it is so tender and fraile that the least offence mistaking or imprudencie that shall happen vndoeth all for it is a great maruell how from so vaine beginnings and friuolous causes there should arise the most famous impressions Now this first impression being once gotten doth woonderfully grow and increase in such sort that it fasteneth euen vpon the most expert and skilfull by reason of the multitude of beleeuers witnesses yeeres wherewith a man suffereth himselfe to be carried if he see not well into it and be not well prepared against it for then it is to small purpose to spurne against it or to enquire farther into it but simply to beleeue it The greatest and most powerfull meane to perswade and the best touch-stone of
the line thirtie on that that is to say all that part which is betwixt the two tropicks or somewhat more where are the hot and Southerne countries Africke and Aethiope in the middle betwixt the East and the West Arabia Calicut the Moluques Ianes Taprobana towards the Orient Peru and the great Seas towards the Occident The other middle part hath thirtie degrees beyond the Tropicks both on this side the line and on that towards the Poles where are the middle and temperate regions all Europe with the Mediterrane Sea in the middle betwixt the East and West all Asia both the lesse and the greater which is towards the East with China Iapan and America towards the West The third which is the thirtie degrees which are next to the two Poles on both sides which are the cold and Icie countries the Septentrionall people Tartary Muscony Estotilan Magelan which is not yet throughly discouered Following this generall partition of the world the natures of men are likewise different in euery thing body soule religion 3 Their natures maners as wee may see in this little Table For the  Northerne people are Middle are Southerne are 1 In their Bodies High and great phlegmaticke sanguin white and yellow sociable the voyce strong the skin soft and hairie great eaters and drinkers puissant Indifferent and temperate in all those things as neuters or partakers a little of those two extremities participating most of that region to which they are nearest neighbours Little melancholicke cold and dry blacke Solitary the voyce shrill the skin hard with little haire and curled abstinent feeble 2 Spirit Heauy obtuse stupid sottish facill light inconstant Ingenious wise subtile opinatiue 3 Religion Little religious and deuout Superstitious contemplatiue 4 Manners Warriers valiant painfull chast free from iealousie cruell and inhumane No warriers idle vnchast iealous cruell and inhumane All these differences are easily prooued As for those of the bodie they are knowne by the eye and if there be any exceptions 4 The proofes of these differences of the Body they are rare and proceed from the mixture of the people or from the winds the waters and particular situation of the place whereby a mountaine is a notable difference in the selfe-same degree yea the selfe-same countrie and citie They of the higher part of the citie of Athens were of a quite contrary humor as Plutarke affirmeth to those that dwelt about the gate of Pyreus and they that dwell in the North side of a mountaine differ as much from those that dwell on the South side as they do both differ from those in the valley As for the differences of the spirit we know that mechanicall 2 The spirit and manuall artes belong to the North where men are made for labour Speculatiue sciences came from the South Caesar and other ancients of those times called the Aegyptians ingenious and subtile Moyses is said to be instructed in their wisdome and Philosophie came from thence into Greece Greatnesse began rather with them because of their spirit and subtiltie The gards of Princes yea in the Southerne partes are Northerne men as hauing more strength and lesse subtiltie and malice So likewise the Southerne people are indued with great vertues and subiect to great vices as it is said of Hannibal The Northerne haue goodnes and simplicitie The lesser and middle sciences as policies lawes and eloquence are in the middle nations wherein the greatest Empires and policies haue flourished As touching the third point religions haue come from the South Egypt Arabia Chaldea more superstition in 3 Religion Africke than the whole world besides witnesse their vowes so frequent their temples so magnificent The Northerne people saith Caesar haue little care of religion being whollie giuen to the warres and to hunting As for manners and first touching warres it is certaine that the greatest armies artes military instruments and inuentions 4 Manners haue come from the North. The Scythians Gothes Vandals Huns Tartarians Turks Germanes haue beaten and conquered all other nations and ransaked the whole world and therefore it is a common saying that all euill comes from the North. Single combats came from them The Northerne people adore a sword fastned in the earth saith Solinus To other nations they are inuincible yea to the Romans who hauing conquered the rest of the world were vtterly destroyed by them They grow weake and languish with the Southerne winds and going towards the South as the Southerne men comming into the North redouble their forces By reason of their warlike fiercenes they will not endure to be commanded by authority they loue their libertie at leastwise electiue commanders Touching chastitie and iealousie in the North saith Tacitus one woman to one man yea one woman sufficeth many men saith Caesar There is no iealousie saith Munster where men and women bathe themselues together with strangers In the South Polygamie is altogether receiued All Africke adoreth Venus saith Solinus The Southerns die with iealousie and therefore they keepe Eunuches as gardians to their wiues which their great Lords haue in great number as they haue stables of horses Touching crueltie the two extreames are alike cruell but the causes are diuers as we shall see anon when we come to speake of the causes Those tortures of the wheele and staking of men aliue came from the North The inhumanities of the Moscouites and Tartars are too well knowne The Almanes saith Tacitus punish not their offenders by lawe but cruelly murther them as enemies The Southerns flea their offenders aliue and their desire of reuenge is so great that they become furious if they be not glutted therewith In the middle regions they are mercifull and humane The Romans punished their greatest offenders with banishment The Greeks vsed to put their offenders to death with a sweet drugge made of a kinde of Hemlocke which they gaue them to drinke And Cicero saith that humanitie and courtesie were the conditions of Asia minor and from thence deriued to the rest of the world The cause of all these corporall and spirituall differences is the inequalitie and difference of the inward naturall heate 5 The cause of the aforesaid differences which is in those countries and peoples that is to say strong and vehement in the Northerns by reason of the great outward cold which incloseth and driueth the heate into the inward parts as caues and deepe places are hot in winter so mens stomacks ventres hieme culidiores Weake and feeble is the Southerns the inward heate being dispersed and drawne into the outward parts by the vehemencie of the outward heate as in Sommer vaults and places vnder the earth are cold Meane and temperate in the middle regions From this diuersitie I say and inequalitie of naturall heat proceed these differences not only corporall which are easie to note but also spirituall for the Southerns by reason of their cold temperature are melancholike and therefore staied constant
touch of this follie shall neuer attaine vnto wisdome Faith modestie a hartie and serious acknowledgment of that little that we haue is a great testimonie of a good and sound iudgement of a right will and is an excellent disposition vnto wisdome CHAP. II. A vniuersall and plaine libertie of spirit both in iudgement and will the second disposition to Wisdome THe other disposition vnto Wisdome which followeth the first which doth quit vs from this outward and inward captiuitie and confusion popular and passionate is a plaine entire generous and lord-like libertie of the mind which is two-fold that is to say of iudgement and will The first of iudgement consisteth in the consideration iudgement examination of all things and in not tying himselfe 1 The first part libertie of iudgemēt to any one but remaining free in himselfe vniuersall readie and open for all And this is the highest point the proper law and true priuiledge of a wise and actiue man But few they are that will vnderstand it and acknowledge it fewer that practise it as they should and this is the reason why we must heere establish it against such as are incapable of wisdome And first to auoid all miscountings we explaine the words giue the sense There are heere three things which maintaine cause and conserue one the other that is to iudge of all things not to be maried or bound to any to continue open and readie for all When I say to iudge my meaning is not to resolue affirme determine this were contrarie to the second which is not to bind our selues to any thing but it is to examine and weigh the reasons and counter-reasons on all parts the weight and merit of them and thereby worke out the truth So likewise not to bind our selues to any thing is not to settle our selues and to remaine short of that we should bleating in the aire and to cease our indeuors and to proceed in our necessarie actions and deliberations For I will that in all outward and common actions of our life and in whatsoeuer is ordinarily vsed a man should agree and accommodate himselfe to the common sort for our rule extendeth not it selfe to that which is outward and to the action but to that which is within the thought and secret and inward iudgement yea and therein likewise I consent that a man settle and applie himselfe to that which seemeth most agreeable to the truth most honest and profitable but yet that it be without determination resolution affirmation or condemnation of contrarie or diuers iudgements old or new but alwaies to hold himselfe readie to entertaine better if it appeare yea not to be offended if another shall contest with him against that which he thinketh better but rather desire to heare what may be said for this is the meane to exercise the first which is to iudge and alwaies to enter into the search of the truth These three I say doe maintaine and conserue one the other for he that iudgeth well and without passion of all things findeth in euery thing appearances of reason which hinder his resolution whereby he feareth to settle his iudgement and so remaineth vndetermined indifferent and vniuersall whereas contrariwise he that resolueth iudgeth no more but setleth and resteth himselfe vpon that which he holdeth and so makes himselfe a partaker and a particular To the former fooles simple and weake people are contrarie to the second obstinate opinatiue affirmers to the third both of them which are particulars but all three are practised by the wise modest discreet and temperate searcher of the truth and true Philosophie It remaineth for the explication of this our proposition that I let you know that by all things and some thing for it is said to iudge of all things not to be assured of any we vnderstand not those diuine verities which haue bin reuealed vnto vs which we are to receiue simplie with all humilitie and submission and without all controuersie and discussion submit our selues and captiuate our minds thereunto captiuantes intellectum ad obsequium fidei but we vnderstand heereby all other things without exception This simple explication would be sufficient perhaps to perswade an indifferent spirit to receiue this rule of wisdome but I see and perceiue a sort of people glorious resolute affirmatiue which would rule the world and command it as it were with a rod and as others in former times haue sworne to certaine principles and maried themselues to certaine opinions so they would that all others should do the like whereby they oppose themselues to this noble libertie of the spirit It shall be necessarie therefore to establish it more amplie and by order to confirme and handle these three points and members thereof The first is to iudge of all It is the propertie of a wise and 2 The first to iudge of all spirituall man saith one of the first and wisest of the world Spiritualis omnia dijudicat à nemine iudicatur The true office of man his most proper and naturall exercise his worthiest profession is to iudge Why is he a man discoursing reasoning vnderstanding Why hath he a spirit to build as they say castles in the aire and to feede himselfe with fooleries and vanities as the greatest part of the world doth Quis vnquam oculos tenebrarum causâ habuit No doubtlesse but to vnderstand to iudge of all things and therefore he is called the gouernour the superintendent the keeper of nature of the world of the works of God To go about to depriue him of this right is to make him no more a man but a beast to do it singularly excellently is the part of a wise man If not to iudge hurts the simple and proper nature of man what shall it doe in a wise man who is as farre aboue the common sort of men as a common man is aboue beasts It is then strange that so many men I speake not of idiots and the weaker sort who haue not the facultie and meane to exercise it who either are or make shew of vnderstanding and sufficiencie depriue themselues willinglie of this right and authoritie so naturall so iust and excellent who without the examining or iudging of any thing receiue and approue whatsoeuer is presented either because it hath a faire semblance appearance or because it is in authoritie credit and practise yea they thinke that it is not lawfull to examin or doubt of any thing in such sort do they debase and degrade themselues they are forward and glorious in other things but in this they are fearefull and submisse though it do iustly appertaine vnto them and with so much reason Since there are a thousand lies for one truth a thousand opinions of one and the same thing and but one that is true why should not I examin with the instrument of reason which is the better the truer the more reasonable honest and profitable Is it possible that amongst
so many lawes customes opinions different maners and contrary to ours as there are in the world there are none good but ours Hath all the world besides beene mistaken Who dares to say so and who doubteth but others say as much of ours and that he that thus condemneth others if he had been there borne and brought vp would thinke them better and prefer them before those he now accounteth the only good and all because he hath been accustomed vnto them To conclude to him that shall be so foole-hardy to say it I doe answere that this rule shall at the least be good for all others to the end that they iudging and examining all may finde ours to be the better Go to then the wise man shall iudge of all nothing shall escape him which he bringeth not to the barre and to the ballance It is to play the part of prophane men and beasts to suffer themselues to be lead like oxen I will that men liue and speake and do as others and the common sort do but not that they iudge like the common sort but iudge them What can a wise man or a holie man haue aboue a prophane if he must haue his spirit his mind his principall and heroicall part a slaue to the vulgar sort The publicke and common should content it selfe if a man conforme himselfe thereunto in all apparent things what hath it to do with our inside our thoughts and iudgements They shall gouerne as long as they will my hand my tongue but not my spirit for that by their leaue hath another master It is a hard thing to bridle the libertie of the spirit and if a man would do it it is the greatest tyrannie that may be a wise man will take heed thereof actiuely and passiuely will maintaine himselfe in his libertie and not trouble that of other men Now a wise man enioying this his right to iudge and examin all things it many times comes to passe that the iudgement 3 The effect of this first treatise A wise man one within another without and the hand the mind and the bodie contradict one another and that he will carie himselfe outwardlie after one maner and iudge inwardlie after another will play one part before the world and another in his mind which he must do to preserue equitie and iustice in all That generall saying vniuersus mundus exercet histrioniam should properly and truly be vnderstood of a wise man who is another man within than he outwardly shewes If he were without such as he is within he should not be accounted of but in all things offend the world If he were within such as without he should be no more a wise man he should iudge amisse be corrupted in his mind He must do and carie himselfe outwardly for publike reuerence and so as he offend no man according to the law custome and ceremonie of the countrey and inwardly iudge of the truth as it is according to the vniuersall reason whereby it many times comes to passe that he condemneth that which outwardly he doth Sapiens faciet quae non probabit vt ad maiora transitum inueniat nec relinquet bonos more 's sed tempori aptabit omnia quae imperiti faciunt luxuriosi faciet sed non eodem modo nec eodem proposito multa sapientes faciunt quâ homines sunt non quâ sapientes He will carie himselfe in things and actions as Cicero in words who said I leaue the vse or custome of speach to the people and obserue the true science and knowledge of words Loquendum extrà viuendum vt multi sapiendum vt pauci Some few examples heereof and first of things of lesse moment In all humilitie I take off my hat and keepe my head vncouered before my superior for so doth the custome of my countrey require but yet I will not leaue to iudge that the custome of the East is farre better to salute and do reuerence by laying the hand vpon the brest without vncouering the head to the preiudice of our health and other inconueniences Contrariwise if I were in the East I would take my repast sitting vpon the earth or leaning on the elbow or halfe lying looking vpon the table side-wayes as they do there and as our Sauiour with his Apostles did vse to do recumbentibus discumbentibus and yet I would not cease to iudge that the maner of sitting vpright at table our faces towards it as the custome is heere is more honest more fit and commodious These examples are of small weight and there are a thousand the like let vs take another of better importance I will and I yeeld my consent that the dead be interred and left to the mercie of the wormes of rottennesse and stench because it is now the common custome almost euery-where but yet I will not cease to iudge that the ancient manner of burning them and gathering their ashes together is more noble and more neate to commit and commend them to the fire the excellentest element enemie to putrefaction and stench neighbour to heauen it selfe a signe of immortalitie a shadow of the diuinitie and whereof the vse is proper and peculiar vnto man rather than to the earth which is the ordure lees dregs of the elements the sinke of the world the mother of corruption and to the wormes which is the extreamest ignominie and horror and so to couple and handle alike a man and a beast Religion it selfe teacheth and commandeth to dispose after this maner of all things as of the Paschall lamb which might not be eaten and where popery beareth sway the consecrated host and diuers the like why then should not the like respect be had of our bodies What can a man do that is more dishonorable to the bodie than to cast it into the earth there to corrupt It seemeth to me to be the vttermost punishment that can be inflicted vpon infamous persons and heinous offenders and that the carcasies of honest and honorable men should be handled with better respect Doubtlesse of all the maners in disposing of dead bodies which may be reduced to fiue that is to commit them to the foure elements and the bowels of wild beasts the vilest and basest and most shamefull is to interre them the most noble and honorable to burne them Again I will and consent that this my Wise man in things naturall be modest that he hide and couer those parts and actions that are called shamefull dishonorable and he that should do otherwise I would detest and thinke hardlie of him because it is almost the custome of the whole world but yet I will neuerthelesse that he iudge that simplie in themselues and according to nature they are no more shamefull than the nose or the mouth to drinke and to eate Nature that is God hauing made nothing shamefull but it is for another cause not from nature that is to say from the enemie of nature which is
visible world as in the figure of a small point and there reade that generall and constant varietie in all things so many humours iudgements beleefes customes lawes so many alterations of states changes of fortune so many victories and conquests buried and forgotten so many pomps and greatnesses vanished as if they had neuer been Heereby a man may learne to know himselfe to admire nothing to thinke nothing new or strange to settle and resolue himselfe in all things For the better attaining of this vniuersall spirit this generall indifferencie we are to consider these foure or fiue points The great inequalitie and difference of men in their nature forme composition whereof we haue spoken The great diuersitie of lawes customes maners religions opinions whereof we will speake heereafter The diuers opinions reasons sayings of Philosophers touching the vnitie and pluralitie the eternitie and temporalitie the beginning and end the durance and continuance the ages estates changes and interchangeable courses of the world and the parts thereof The Egyptian priests told Herodotus that since their first King which was aboue eleuen thousand yeares before the picture and statue of whom and of all that succeeded him they shewed him drawne to the life the Sun had changed his course four times The Chaldeans in the time of Diodorus as he saith Cicero had a register of seuen hundred thousand yeares Plato saith they of the citie of Sais had memorials in writing of eight thousand yeares and that the citie of Athens was built a thousand yeares before the said citie of Sais Zoroaster Plinie and others haue affirmed that Socrates liued six thousand yeares before the time of Plato Some haue said that the world hath been from all eternitie mortall and growing and being againe by interchangeable courses Others and the more noble Philosophers haue held the world for a god made by another god greater than it or as Plato auerreth and others argue from the motions thereof that it is a creature composed of a bodie and of a soule which soule lodging in the centre thereof disperseth and spreadeth it selfe by musicall numbers into the circumference and parts thereof the heauen the starres composed of bodies and of a soule mortall by reason of their composition immortall by the decree and determination of the Creator Plato saith that the world changeth countenance in all respects that the heauen the starres the sunne change and quite alter by turnes their motions in such sort that that which was first is last the East is made the West and according to the ancient and most authenticall opinion and of the more famous spirits worthie the greatnes of God and founded vpon reason there are many worlds in so much that there is nothing one and only in this world all kinds are multiplied in number whereby it seemeth not to haue semblance of truth that God hath made this only worke without companion and that all is concluded in this one indiuiduum at the least diuinitie saith that God could make many and infinite worlds for if he could make no more but this one visible his power should be finite because the world is such By that which we haue learned of the discouerie of the new world the East and West Indies we see first that all our ancient writers haue beene deceiued thinking to haue found the measure of the habitable earth and to haue comprehended the whole Cosmographie except some scattered Ilands doubting of the Antipodes for now behold another world almost such as ours is and that all vpon firme land inhabited peopled politiquely gouerned distinguished by realmes and Empires beautified with cities that excell in beautie greatnesse opulencie all those of Asia Africa Europe many thousand yeares ago And who doubteth but that in time heereafter there will be discouered diuers others If Ptolemy and other our ancient Writers haue been heeretofore deceiued why should not he be likewise deceiued that affirmeth that all is alreadie found and discouered Say it he that will I will beleeue him as I list Secondly we see that the Zones which were thought inhabitable by reason of their excessiue heate and cold are habitable Thirdly that in these new countries almost all things which we so much esteeme of heere and hold that they were first reuealed and sent from heauen were commonly beleeued and obserued from whence they came I will not say who dares determine it Yea many of them were in vse a thousand yeares before we heard any tidings of them both in the matter of religion as the beleefe of one only man the father of vs all of the vniuersall deluge of one God who sometimes liued in the forme of a man vndefiled and holy of the day of iudgement the resurrection of the dead circumcision like to that of the Iewes and Mahumet And in the matter of policie as that the elder sonne should succeed in the inheritance that he that is exalted to a dignitie loseth his owne name takes a new tyrannicall subsidies armories tumblers musicall instruments all sorts of sports Artillerie Printing From all these discourses we may easily draw these conclusions That this great bodie which we call the world is not that which we thinke and iudge it to be That neither in the whole nor parts thereof it is alwaies the same but in perpetuall flux and reflux That there is nothing said held beleeued at one time and in one place which is not likewise said held beleeued in another yea and contradicted reprooued condemned else-where the spirit of man being capable of all things the world alwaies tumbling sometime the same sometimes diuers That all things are setled and comprehended in this course and reuolution of nature subiect to increase changing ending to the mutation of times places climats heauens aires countries And from these conclusions we learne to marie our selues to sweare to nothing to admire to trouble our selues at nothing but whatsoeuer shall happen whatsoeuer men talke of and trouble themselues about to resolue vpon this point that it is the course of the world that it is nature that worketh these things but yet wisely to prouide that nothing hurt vs by our own weaknes and deiection of mind Enough is said of this perfect libertie of iudgement established by these three parts to iudge of all to iudge nothing to be vniuersall wherein I haue the rather insisted because I know that it pleaseth not the palat of the world it is an enemie to pedanterie as well as wisdome but yet it is a faire floure or ornament of wisdome which preserueth vs from two contrarie rocks whereon the vulgar sort do commonly lose themselues that is to say from being headie opinatiue shamefull gainsayers repenters mutable and a man maintaineth himselfe in a sweet peaceable and assured modestie and great libertie of spirit noble and magnificall vniuersalitie This is that great qualitie and sufficiencie of Socrates the Coricaeus of the wise by the confession of all of whom it is said
after another the younger doth alwayes build vpon the more ancient and next precedent 5 The latter are built vpon the former which from the toppe to the bottome it doth not wholly disproue condemn for then it could not be heard or take footing but it only accuseth it either of imperfection or of the end and that therfore it commeth to succeed it and to perfect it and so by little and little ouerthroweth it and inricheth it selfe with the spoiles therof as the Iudaicall which hath retained many things of the Gentile Egyptian religion the elder the Hebrewes not being easily purified of their customes the Christian built vpon the verities and promises of the Iudaicall the Turkish vpon them both retaining almost all the verities of Christ Iesus except the first and principall which is his Diuinity so that if a man will leape from Iudaisme to Mahumatisme he must passe by Christianity and such there haue beene among the Mahumatists as haue exposed themselues to torments to maintaine the trueth of Christian religion as a Christian would do to maintaine the truth of the Old Testament But yet the elder and more ancient doe wholly condemne the yonger and holde them for capitall enemies All religions haue this in them that they are strange and 6 All are strange to nature horrible to the common sense for they propose and are built and composed of parts whereof some seeme to the iudgement of man base vnworthy and vnbefitting wherewith the spirit of man somwhat strong and vigorous iesteth and sporteth it selfe others too high bright wonderfull and mysticall where he can know nothing wherewith it is offended Now the spirit of man is not capable but of indifferent things it contemneth and disdaineth the small it is astonished and confounded with the great and therefore it is no maruell if it be hardly perswaded at the first onset to receiue all religion where there is nothing indifferent and common and therefore must be drawen thereunto by some occasion for if it be strong it disdaineth and laugheth at it if it be feeble and superstitious it is astonished and scandalized praedicamus Iesum crucifixum Iudaeis scandalum gentib us stultitiam Whereof it comes to passe that there are so many mis-beleeuers and irreligious persons because they consult and hearken too much to their owne iudgements thinking to examine and iudge of the affaires of religion according to their owne capacitie and to handle it with their owne proper and naturall instruments We must be simple obedient and debonaire if we will be fit to receiue religion to beleeue and liue vnder the law by reuerence and obedience to subiect our iudgement and to suffer our selues to be led and conducted by publike authoritie Captiuantes intellectum ad obsequium fidei But it was required so to proceed otherwise religion should not be respected and had in admiration as it ought now it is necessarie that it be receiued and sworne to as well authenticallie and reuerentlie as difficultlie If it were such as were whollie pleasing to the palat and nature of man without strangenes it would be thought more easily yet lesse reuerently receiued Now the religions and beliefs being such as hath been said strange vnto the common sense very farre exceeding all the 7 Why they are not to be gottē by humane means reach and vnderstanding of man they must not nor cannot be gotten nor setled in vs by naturall and humane meanes for then among so many great minds as there haue been rare and excellent some had attained thereunto but it must needs be that they be giuen vs by extraordinarie and heauenlie reuelation gotten and receiued by diuine inspiration and as sent from heauen In this maner likewise all do affirme that they hold their religion and beleeue it not from men or any other creature but from God But to say the truth and not to flatter or disguise this is 8 And yet they are gotten by humane meanes nothing they are whatsoeuer some say held by humane hands and meanes which is true in euery respect in false religions being nothing but prayers and humane or diabolicall inuentions the true as they haue another iurisdiction so are they both receiued and held by another hand neuerthelesse we must distinguish As touching the receiuing of them the first and generall publication and installation of them hath beene domino cooperante sermonem confirmante sequentes signis diuine and wonderfull the particular is done by humane hands and meanes the nation countrie place giues the religion and that a man professeth which is in force in that place and among those persons where he is borne and where he liueth He is circumcised baptised a Iew a Christian before he knowes that he is a man for religion is not of our choyce or election but man without his knowledge is made a Iew or a Christian because he is borne in Iudaisme or Christianitie and if he had been borne elsewhere among the Gentiles or Mahumetans he had beene likewise a Gentile or a Mahumetan As touching the obseruation the true and good professors thereof besides the outward profession which is common to all yea to misbeleeuers they attribute to the gift of God the testimonie of the Holy Ghost within but this is a thing not common nor ordinarie what faire colour soeuer they giue it witnes the liues and maners of men so ill agreeing with their beleefe who for humane occasions and those very light goe against the tenor of their religion If they were held planted with a diuine hand nothing in the world could shake vs such a tye would not be so easily broken If it had any touch or ray of diuinitie it would appeare in all it would produce wonderfull effects that could not be hid as Truth it selfe hath said If you haue but as much faith as a mustard seed you should remoue mountaines But what proportion or agreement is there betwixt the perswasion of the immortalitie of the soule and a future reward so glorious and blessed or so inglorious and accursed and the life that a man leadeth The only apprehension of those things that a man saith he doth firmely beleeue wil take his senses from him The only apprehension and feare to die by iustice and in publike place or by some other shamefull and dishonorable action hath made many to lose their senses and cast them into strange trances and what is that in respect of the worth of that which religion teacheth vs is to come But is it possible in truth to beleeue to hope for that immortalitie so happie and yet to feare death a necessarie passage thereunto to feare and apprehend that infernall punishment and liue as we do These are things as incompatible as fire and water They say they beleeue it they make themselues beleeue they beleeue it and they will make others beleeue it too but it is nothing neither do they know what it is to beleeue For
and pourtraites as lesser lights thereunto But before we enter thereinto let me heere say in generall and by way of preface that of so many diuers religions and maners of seruing God which are or may be in the world they seeme to be the most noble and to haue greatest appearance of truth which without great externall and corporall seruice draw the soule into itselfe and raise it by pure contemplation to admire and adore the greatnesse and infinite maiestie of the first cause of all things and the essence of essences without any great declaration or determination thereof or prescription of his seruice but acknowledging it indefinitly to be goodnes perfection and infinitnes whollie incomprehensible not to be known as the Pythagoreans and most famous Philosophers do teach This is to approch vnto the religion of the angels and to put in practise that word of the sonne of God to adore in spirit and truth for God accounteth such worshippers the best There are others on the other side and in another extremitie who will haue a visible Deitie capable by the senses which base and grosse error hath mocked almost all the world euen Israel in the desert in framing to themselues a molten calfe And of these they that haue chosen the sunne for their god seeme to haue more reason than the rest because of the greatnes beautie and resplendent and vnknowne vertue thereof euen such as enforce the whole world to the admiration and reuerence of itselfe The eye seeth nothing that is like vnto it or that approcheth neere vnto it in the whole vniuerse it is one sunne and without companion Christianitie as in the middle tempereth the sensible and outward with the insensible and inward seruing God with spirit and body and accommodating itselfe to great and little whereby it is better established and more durable But euen in that too as there is a diuersitie and degrees of soules of sufficiencie and capacitie of diuine grace so is there a difference in the maner of seruing of God the more high perfect incline more to the first maner more spirituall and contemplatiue and lesse externall the lesse and imperfect quasi sub paedagogo remaine in the other and do participate of the outward and vulgar deformities Religion consisteth in the knowledge of God and of our selues for it is a relatiue action betweene both the office 15 Diuers descriptions of religion thereof is to extoll God to the vttermost of our power and to beate downe man as low as low may be as if he were vtterly lost and afterwards to furnish himselfe with meanes to rise againe to make him feele his misery his nothing to the end he may put his whole confidence in God alone The office of religion is to ioyne vs to the author and principall cause of all our good to reunite and fasten man to his first cause as to his roote wherein so long as he continueth firme and setled he preserueth himselfe in his owne perfection and contrariwise when he is separated he instantly fainteth and languisheth The end and effect of religion is faithfullie to yeeld all the honor and glorie vnto God and all the benefit vnto man All good things may be reduced to these two The profit which is an amendment and an essentiall and inward good is due vnto poore wretched and in all points miserable man the glory which is an outward ornament is due vnto God alone who is the perfection and fulnes of all good whereunto nothing can be added Gloria in excelsis Deo in terra pax hominibus Thus much being first knowen our instruction to pietie is 18 An instruction to pietie 1. To know God first to learn to know God for from the knowledge of things proceedeth that honor we do vnto them First then we must beleeue that he is that he hath created the world by his power goodnesse wisdome and that by it he gouerneth it that his prouidence watcheth ouer all things yea the least that are that whatsoeuer he sendeth vs is for our good and that whatsoeuer is euill proceedeth from our selues If we account those fortunes euill that he sendeth vs we blaspheme his holy name because naturally we honour those that do vs good and hate those that hurt vs. We must then resolue to obey him and to take all in good part which commeth from his hand to commit and submit our selues vnto him Secondly we must honour him and the most excellent 19 2. To honor him and deuoutest way to doe it is first to mount vp our spirits from all carnall earthly and corruptible imagination and by the chastest highest and holiest conceits exercise our selues in the contemplation of the Diuinitie and after that we haue adorned it with all the most magnificall and excellent names and praises that our spirit can imagine that we acknowledge that we haue presented nothing vnto it woorthy it selfe but that the fault is in our weaknesle and imbecillitie which can conceiue nothing more high God is the last endeuour and highest pitch of our imagination euery man amplifying the Ideaa according to his owne capacitie and to speake better God is infinitly aboue all our last and highest endeuours and imaginations of perfection Againe we must serue him with our heart and spirit it is 20 3. To serue him in spirit the seruice answerable to his nature Deus spiritus est si Deus est animus sit tibi pura mente colendus It is that which he requireth that which pleaseth him Pater tales quaer is adoratores The most acceptable sacrifice vnto his Maiestie is a pure free and humble heart Sacrificium Deo spiritus An innocent soule an innocent life Optimus animus pulcherrimus Seneca Lactan. Merc. Trism Dei cultus religiosissimus cultus imitari vnicus Dei cultus non esse malum A wise man is a true sacrifice of the great God his spirit is his temple his soule is his image his affections are his offerings his greatest and most solemne sacrifice is to imitate him to serue and implore him for it is the part of those that are great to giue of those that are poore to aske Beatius dare quà m accipere Neuerthelesse we are not to contemne and disdaine the 21 4. To serue him with our bodies outward and publike seruice which must be as an assistant to the other by obseruing the ceremonies or chnances and customes with moderation without vanity without ambition or hypocrisie without auarice alwaies with this thought That God wil be serued in spirit and That that which is outwardly done is rather for our selues than for God for humane vnitie and edification than for diuine veritie quae potius ad moremquam ad rempertinent Our vowes and prayers vnto God should be all subiect 22 5. To pray vnto him vnto his will we should neither desire nor aske any thing but as he hath ordeined hauing alwayes for our bridle
For he that in all things shall direct and carrie himselfe after one and the same fashion would quickly marre all play the foole and make himselfe ridiculous Now this twofold knowledge of the persons and affaires is no easie matter so much is man disguised and counterfeited but the way to attaine thereunto is to consider them attentiuely and aduisedly reuoluing them many times in our mindes and that without passion Wee must likewise learne to esteeme of things according to their true worth giuing vnto them that price and place 2 Estimation of things which appertaineth vnto them which is the true office of wisedome and sufficiencie This is a high point of philosophie but the better to attaine thereunto we must take heede of passion and the iudgement of the vulgar sort There are Not according to the vulgar iudgement six or seuen things which mooue and leade vulgar spirits and make them to esteeme of things by false ensignes whereof wise men will take heed which are noueltie raritie strangenesse difficultie Art inuention absence and priuation or deniall and aboue all report shew and prouision They esteeme not of things if they be not polished by Art and science if they be not pointed and paâ—nted out The simple and naturall of what value soeuer they be they attend not they escape and droppe away insensibly or at least are accounted plaine base and foolish a great testimonie of humane vanitie and imbecillitie which is paied with winde with false and counterfeit mony in steede of currant from whence it is that a man preferreth Art before nature that which is studied and difficult before that which is easie vehement motions and impulsions before complexion constitution habit the extraordinary before the ordinary ostentation pompe before true and secret veritie another mans and that which is strange which is borrowed before that which is proper and naturall And what greater follie can there bee than all this Now the rule of the wise is not to suffer themselues by all this to be caught and carried but to measure and iudge But according to the wise and esteeme of things first by their true naturall and essentiall value which is many times inward and secret and then by their profit and commoditie the rest is but deceit or mockerie This is a matter of difficultie all things being so disguised and sophisticated many times the false and wicked being more plausible than the true and good And Aristotle saith that there are many falshoods which are more probable and haue a better outward appearance than verities But as it is difficult so is it excellent and diuine Si separaueris pretiosum Difficult Excellent Nâ—cessary â—eneca a vili quasi os meum eris And necessarie before all workes quà m necessarium pretiarebus imponere for to small purpose doth a man endeuour to know the precepts of a good life if first he know not in what ranke to place things riches health beauty nobility science and so foorth with 〈…〉 their contraries This precedency preheminence of things is a high and excellent knowledge and yet difficult especially when many present themselues for plurality hindreth and heerein men are neuer of one accord The particular tastes and iudgements of men are diuers and it is fit and commodious it should be so to the end that all runne not together after one and the same thing and so bee a let or hindrance to another For example let vs take the eight principall heads of Eight principall heads of goods spirituall and corporall all goods spirituall and corporall foure of each kind that is to say Honesty Health Wisedome Beauty Ability or Aptnesse Nobility Science Riches We do heere take the words according to the common sense and vse wisdome for a prudent and discreet maner of life and carriage with and towards all Abilitie for sufficiency in affaires Science for the knowledge of things acquired out of bookes the other are cleare enough Now touching the ranging of these eight how many diuers opinions are there I haue told my owne and I haue mingled and in such sort enterlaced them together that after and next vnto a spirituall there is a corporall corrospondent therunto to the end we may couple the soule and the body together Health is in the body that which honestie is in the soule the health of the soule is the honestie of the body mens sana in corpore sano Beauty is as wisedome the measure proportion and comelinesse of the body and wisedome a spirituall beauty Nobility is a great aptnesse and disposition to vertue Sciences are the riches of the spirit Others do range these parts otherwise some place all the spirituall first before they come to the first corporall and the least of the spirit aboue the greatest of the bodie some place them apart and all diuersly euery one aboundeth in his owne sense After and from this sufficiencie and part of prudence to know well how to esteeme of things doth spring and arise 3 Choice and election of things another that is to know well how to choose where not only the conscience but also the sufficiencie and prudence is likewise many times shewed There are choices very easie as of a difficultie of a vice of that which is honest and that which is commodious of dutie and of profit for the preheminence of the one is so great aboue the other that when they come to encounter honestie alwaies winneth the field except it may be some exception very rare and with great circumstance and in publike affaires only as shall be said heereafter in the vertue of Prudence but there are other choices farre more hard and troublesome as when a man is caught or driuen into a narrow streit betweene two vices as was that Doctor Origen either to become an Idolater or to prostitute hunselfe to the carnall pleasure of a base impure Aethiopian The rule is that when a man findeth himselfe in any doubt or perplexitie touching the choice of those things that are not euill he must choose that part that hath most honestie and iustice in it for though it fall out otherwise than well yet it shall be alwaies some comfort and glorie to a man to haue chosen the better and besides a man knoweth not if he had chosen the contrarie part what would haue hapned or whether he had escaped his destinie when a man doubteth which is the better and shortest way hee must take the streitest And in those things that are euill whereof there is neuer any choice a man must auoid the more base and vniust this is a rule of conscience and belongeth to honestie But to know which is the more honest iust and profitable which the more dishonest vniust and vnprofitable it is many times very difficult and belongeth to prudence and sufficiencie It seemeth that in such like streits and extremities the surer and better way is to follow nature and to iudge
make vse of them by taking counsell of them at due times and houres not attending the euent and execution and losing the time whilest he harkneth to them and this must he do with iudgement not suffering himselfe to be caried ouer-loosely by their counsels as that simple Emperour Claudius was and with mildnesse without roughnesse being more reasonable as that wise Marc. Antonius was woont to say to follow the counsell of a good number of friends than such as are constrained to bend vnto his will And making vse of them do it with an indifferent authoritie neither rewarding them with presents for their good counsell lest by the hope of the like presents he draw such as are wicked vnto him nor vse them ouer-roughlie for their bad counsels for he shall hardlie find any Curtius to giue him counsell if there be danger in giuing it and againe many times bad counsell hath a better successe than good by the prouident care and direction of the soueraigne And such as giue good counsell that is to say happie and certaine are not therefore alwaies the best and most faithfull seruitours nor for their libertie of speech neither which hee should rather agree vnto looking into such as are fearefull and flatterers with a warie eye For miserable is that prince with whom men hide or disguise the truth cuius aures ita formatae Tacit. sunt vt aspera quae vtilia nil nisi iucundum laesurum accipiant And lastly he must conceale his owne iudgement and resolution secrecie being the soule of counsell nulla meliora Veget. consilia quà m quae ignorauerit aduersarius antequam fierent As touching officers which are in the next place and who 19 Of Officers serue the Prince and state in some charge hee must make choice of honest men of good and honest families It is to be thought that such as serue the Prince are the best sort of people and it is not fit that base people should be neere him and commaund others except they raise themselues by some great and singular vertue which may supplie the want of Nobilitie but by no meanes let them be infamous double dangerous and men of some odious condition So likewise they should be men of vnderstanding and employed according to their natures For some are fit for the affaires of the warre others for peace Some are of opinion that it is best to choose men of a sweet cariage and indifferent vertue for these excellent surpassing spirits that keepe themselues alwaies vpon the point and will pardon nothing are not commonly fit for affaires vt pares negotijs neque supra sint recti non erecti After counsell we place treasure a great puissant meane This is the sinewes the feet the hands of the state There is 20 The fiâ—â— head of pâ—â—uision Treasure no sword so sharp and penetrable as that of siluer nor master so imperious nor orator that winneth the hearts and willes of men or conquer Castles and Cities as riches And therefore a Prince must prouide that his treasurie neuer faile neuer be dried vp This science consisteth in three points to lay the foundation of them to imploy them well to haue alwaies areseruation Exchequer knowledge in three points and to lay vp some good part thereof for all needs and occasions that may happen In all these three a Prince must auoid two things iniustice and base nigardlines in preseruing right towards all and honor for himselfe Touching the first which is to lay the foundation and to increase the treasurie there are diuers meanes and the sources 21 1 To lay the foundation are diuers which are not all perpetuall nor alike assured that is to say the demaine and publike reuenue of the state which must be managed and vsed without the alienating of it in any sort forasmuch as by nature it is sacred and inalienable Conquests made vpon the enemie which must be profitablie employed and not prodigallie dissipated as the ancient Romans were woont to doe carying to the Exchequer very great summes and the treasuries of conquered cities and countries as Liuy reporteth of Camillus Flaminius Paulus Emillius of the Scipioes Lucullus Caesar and afterwards receiuing from those conquered countries whether from their naturall countries left behind them or from colonies sent thither a certaine annuall reuenue Presents gratuities pensions free donations tributes of friends allies and subiects by testaments by donations amongst the liuing as the lawyers tearme it or otherwise The entrance comming and going and passages of merchandize into docks hauens riuers as well vpon strangers as subiects a meanes iust lawfull ancient generall and very commodious with these conditions Not to permit the trafficke and transportation of things necessarie for life that the subiects may be furnished nor of raw vnwrought wares to the end the subiect may be set on worke and gaine the profit of his owne labours But to permit the trafficke of things wrought and dressed and the bringing in of such wares as are rawe and not of such as are wrought and in all things to charge the stranger much more than the subiect For a great forraine imposition increaseth the treasure comforteth the subiect to moderate neuerthelesse the imposts vpon those things that are brought in necessarie for life These foure meanes are not only permitted but iust lawfull and honest The fift which is hardly honest is the trafficke which the soueraigne 5 Antoninus Pius Seuerus August vseth by his factors and is practised in diuers maners more or lesse base but the vilest and most pernitious is of honors estates offices benefices There is a meane that commeth neere to trafficke and therefore may be placed in this ranke which is not very dishonest and hath beene practised by very great and wise princes which is to imploy the coine of the treasure or exchequer to some small profit as fiue in the hundred and to take good securitie for it either gages or some other sound and sufficient assurance This hath a three-fold vse it increaseth the treasure giueth meanes to particular men to traffick and to make gaine and which is best of all it saueth the publike treasure from the pawes of our theeuing courtiers the importunate demaunds and flatteries of fauorites and the ouer-great facilitie of the prince And for this only cause some princes haue lent their publike treasure without any profit or interest but only vpoÌ„ paine of a double forfeiture for not paiment at the day The sixt and last is in the lones and subsidies of subiects whereunto he must not come but vnwillinglie and then when other meanes do faile and necessitie presseth the state For in this case it is iust according to that rule That all is iust that is necessarie But it is requisit that these conditions be added after this first of necessitie To leuy by way of lone for this way will yeeld most siluer because of the hope men haue
or refusing company but cheerefully to goe on with or without companie as either our owne or anothers need do require but yet not so to shut vp our selues and to settle and establish our pleasure as some that are halfe lost being alone A man must haue within himselfe wherwith to entertaine content himselfe in sinu suo gaudere He that hath woon this point pleaseth himselfe in all places and in all things He must cary a countenance conformable to the company and the affaires that are in hand and present themselues and accommodate himselfe vnto another be sad if need be but inwardly to keep himselfe one and the same this is the meditation and consideration which is the nourishment and life of the spirit cuius viuere est cogitare Now for the benefit of nature there is not any businesse which we do more often continue longer that is more easie more naturall and more our owne than to meditate and to entertaine our thoughts But this meditation is not in all after one maner but very diuers according to the diuersity of spirits In some it is weake in others strong in some it is languishing idlenesse a vacancy and want of other businesse But the greater spirits make it their principall vacation and most serious study whereby they are neuer more busied nor lesse alone as it is said of Scipio than when they are alone and quitting themselues of affaires in imitation of God himselfe who liueth and feedeth himselfe with his eternall thoughts and meditations It is the businesse of the goddes saith Aristotle from whence doth spring both their 3 To know and culture himselfe and our blessednesse Now this solitary imployment and this cheerefull entertainment of a mans selfe must not be in vanity much lesse in any thing that is vitious but in study and profound knowledge and afterwards in the diligent culture of himselfe This is the price agreed the principall first and plainest trauell of euerie man Hee must alwaies watch taste sound himselfe neuer abandon but be alwaies neere and keepe himselfe to himselfe and finding that manie things go not well whether by reason of vice and defect of nature or the contagion of another or other casuall accident that troubleth him hee must quietlie and sweetlie correct them and prouide for them He must reason with himselfe correct and recall himselfe couragiouslie and not suffer himselfe to be caried away either with disdaine or carelesnesse He must likewise in auoiding all idlenesse which doth but 4 To keepe himselfe in exercise rust and marre both the soule and body keepe himselfe alwaies in breath in office and exercise but yet not ouer bent violent and painfull but aboue all honest vertuous and serious And that he may the better do it he must quit himselfe of other businesse and propose vnto himselfe such designments as may delight him conferring with honest men and good bookes dispensing his time well and well ordering his houres and not liue tumultuouslie and by chaunce and hazard Again he must well husband and make profit of all things 5 To make vse of all things that are presented vnto him done said and make them an instruction vnto him applie them vnto himselfe without any shew or semblance thereof And to particularise a little more we know that the duty of man towards himselfe consisteth in three points according 6 To gouerne his spirit that is his iudgement to his three parts to rule and gouerne his spirit his body his goods Touching his spirit the first and principall whereunto especially do belong these generall aduisements which we are to deliuer we know that all the motions thereof are reduced to two to thinke and to desire the vnderstanding and the will whereunto do answer science and vertue the two ornaments of the spirit Touching the former which is the vnderstanding he must preserue it from two things in some sort contrarie and extreame that is sottishnesse and follie that is to say from vanities and childish follies on the one side this is to bastardise and to lose it it was not made to play the nouice or baboun non ad iocum lusum genitus sed ad seueritatem potius and from phantasticall absurd and extrauagant opinions on the other side this is to pollute and debase it It must be fed and entertained with things profitable and serious and furnished and indued with sound sweet and naturall opinions and so much care must not be taken to eleuate and mount it to extend it beyond the reach as to rule and order it For order and continencie is the effect of wisdome and which giueth price to the soule and aboue all to be free from presumption and obstinacie in opinion vices very familiar with those that haue any extraordinarie force and vigor of spirit and rather to continue in doubt and suspence especiallie in things that are doubtfull and capable of oppositions and reasons on both parts not easily digested and determined It is an excellent thing and the securest way well to know how to doubt and to be ignorant and the most noble philosophers haue not beene ashamed to make profession thereof yea it is the principall fruit and effect of science Touching the will it must in all things be gouerned and submit it selfe to the rule of reason which is the office of vertue and not vnto fleeting inconstant opinion which is commonly false and much lesse vnto passion These are the three that moue and gouerne our soules But yet this is the difference that a wise man ruleth and rangeth himselfe according to nature and reason regardeth his duty holdeth for apocryphall and suspects whatsoeuer dependeth vpon opinion or passion and therfore he liueth in peace passeth away his life cheerefully and pleasingly is not subiect to repentance recantations changes because whatsoeuer falleth out he could neither do nor choose better and therfore he is neuer kindled nor stirred for reason is alwaies peaceable The foole that suffereth himselfe to bee led by these two doth nothing but wander and warre with himselfe and neuer resteth He is alwaies readuising changing mending repenting and is neuer contented which to say the truth belongeth to a wise man who hath reason and vertue to make himselfe such a one Nulla placidior quies nisi quam ratio composuit An honest man must gouerne and respect himselfe and feare his reason and his conscience which is his bonus genius his good spirit in such sort that hee cannot without shame stumble in their presence rarum est vt satis se quisque vereatur As touching the bodie we owe thereunto assistance and conduct or direction It is follie to goe about to separate and sunder these two principall parts the one from the other but contrarily it is fit and necessarie they be vnited and ioyned together Nature hath giuen vs a bodie as a necessarie instrument to life and it is fit that the spirit as the principall should
and moderne haue beene and are gouerned very wisely both in peace and warre without science Rome the first fiue hundred yeares wherein it florished in vertue and Wisdome without science valour was without knowledge and so soone as it began to be learned it began to corrupt to trouble and ruinate it selfe by ciuill warres The most beautifull policie that euer was the Lacedemonian built by Lycurgus from whence haue sprung the greatest personages of the world made no profession of learning and yet it was the schoole of vertue and wisdome and was euer victorious ouer Athens the most learned citie of the world the schoole of all science the habitation of the Muses the store-house of Philosophers All those great and florishing realmes of the east and west Indies haue stood for many ages together without learning without the knowledge of bookes or writings In these dayes they learne many things by the good leaue and assistance of their new masters at the expence of their owne libertie yea their vices and their subtilties too whereof in former times they neuer heard speach That great and it may be the greatest and most florishing state and Empire which is at this day in the world is that of that great Lord who like the Lion of the whole earth makes himselfe to be feared of all the Princes and Monarks of the world and euen in this state there is not any profession of science nor schoole nor permission or allowance to reade or teach publicklie no not in matters of religion What guideth gouerneth and maketh this state to prosper thus It is wisdome it is prudence But come wee to those states wherein learning and sciences are in credit Who do gouerne them Doubtlesse not the learned Let vs take for example this our realme wherein learning and knowledge haue greater honor than in all the world besides and which seemeth to haue succeeded Greece it selfe The principall officers of this crowne the Constable Marshall Admirall the Secretaries of the state who dispatch all affaires are commonlie men altogether illiterate And doubtlesse many great Lawyers founders and Princes haue banished science as the poyson and pestilence of a Common-wealth Licinius Valentinian Mahomet Lycurgus And thus wee see what wisdome is without science Let vs now see what science is without wisdome which is not hard to doe Let vs looke a little into those that Science without wisdome make profession of learning that come from Schooles and Vniuersities and haue their heads full of Aristotle Cicero Bartolus Are there any people in the world more vntoward more sottish more vnfit for all things From hence commeth that prouerb that when a man would describe a foole or an vntowardlie person hee calleth him Clerke Pedante And to expresse a thing ill done it is the maner to say It is Clearklike done It should seeme that learning doth intoxicate and as it were hammer a mans braines and makes him to turne sotte and foole as king Agrippa said to S. Paul Multae Act. 26. te literae ad insaniam adducunt There are diuers men that had they neuer beene trained vp in schooles and colleges they had beene farre more wise and their brethren that haue neuer applied themselues to learning haue prooued the wiser men Vt melius fuisset non didicisse nam post quam docti prodierunt boni desunt Come to the practise chuse me one of these learned schollers bring him to the common counsell of a citie or any publike assemblie wherein the affaires of the state are consulted of or matter of policie or houshold husbandrie you neuer saw a man more astonished he waxeth pale blusheth cougheth and at last knowes not what to say And if he chance to speake he entreth into a long discourse of definitions and diuisions of Aristotle ergo potlead Marke in the selfe-same counsell a merchant a burgesse that neuer heard speake of Aristotle he will yeeld a better reason giue a sounder iudgement and more to purpose than these scholasticall doctors Now it is not enough to haue said that wisdome and learning seldome concurre and meete together vnlesse we seeke 20 The reason of this separation the reason and cause thereof not doubting thereby but sufficiently to content and to satisfie those that mislike what I haue said or thinke me perhaps an enemie to erudition and learning The question thereof is from whence it commeth that learning and wisdome doe seldome encounter and meete together in one and the same man And there is great reason why we should mooue this question for it is a strange thing and against reason that a man the more learned he is should not be the more wise learning and knowledge being a proper meanes and instrument vnto wisdome Behold therefore two men the one a student the other none he that hath studied is in some sort bound to be farre the wiser of the two because he hath all that the other hath that is nature reason iudgement spirit and besides these the counsels discourses iudgements of all the greatest men of the world by reading their books Is there not then great reason he should be much more wise more dexterious more honest than the other since that with these proper and naturall meanes he attaineth so manie extraordinarie on euerie side For as one saith well the naturall good cohering and concurring with the accidentall frameth an excellent composition and yet neuerthelesse we see the contrarie as hath beene said Now the true reason and answer to all this is the euill and sinister maner of studie and ill instruction They learne our 21 An answer of bookes and schooles excellent knowledge but with ill to ill discipline meanes and as bad successe Whereby it comes to passe that all their studie profiteth them nothing at all but they remaine indigent and poore in the midst of their plentie and riches and like Tantalus die for hunger in the midst of their dainties the reason is because whilest they pore vpon their bookes they respect nothing so much as to stuffe and furnish their memories with that which they read and vnderstand and presently they thinke themselues wise like him that put his bread into his pocket and not into his belly when his pocket was full died for hunger And so with a memory fully stuffed they continue fooles Student non sibi vitae sed alijs scholae They prepare themselues to be reporters Cicero hath said it Aristotle Plato hath left it in writing c. but they for their parts know nothing These men commit a double fault the one in that they apply not that which they learne to themselues that so they may forme themselues vnto vertue wisdome resolution by which meanes their knowledge is vnprofitable vnto them the other is that during all that time which with great paines and charge they employ to the heaping together and pocketing vp for another without any profit to themselues whatsoeuer
the armes of fortune It is a matter of lesse difficultie to resist fortune by assailing it than by defending our selues against it For then we haue leasure to arme our selues we take our aduantages we prouide for a retrait whereas when it assaulteth vs it surpriseth vs vnawares and handleth vs at her owne pleasure We must then whilest we assaile fortune learne to defend our selues giue vnto our selues false alarums by proposing vnto vs the dangers that other great personages haue past call to mind that some haue auoided the greatest because they were not astonished at them others haue beene ouerthrowne by the least for want of resolution CHAP. XXIX Against Sorrow THe remedies against sorrow set downe before as the most tedious hurtfull and vniust passion are twofold some are direct or streight others oblique I call those direct which Philosophie teacheth which concerne the confronting and disdaining of euils accounting them not euils or at least wise very small and light though they be great and grieuous and that they are not woorthie the least motion or alteration of our mindes and that to be sorrie for them or to complaine of them is a thing very vniust and ill befitting a man so teach the Stoicks Peripateticks and Plantonists This maner of preseruing a man from sorrow and melancholike passion is as rare as it is excellent and belongs to spirits of the first ranke There is likewise another kinde of Philosophicall remedy although it be not of so good a stampe which is easie and much more in vse and it is oblique this is by diuerting a mans minde and thought to things pleasant delightfull or at least indifferent from that that procureth our sorrow which is to deale cunningly to decline and auoid an euill to change the obiect It is a remedie very common and which is vsed almost in all euils if a man marke it as well of the body as of the minde Physitians when they cannot purge a rheume they turne it into some other part lesse dangerous Such as passe by steepe and precipitate deepes and downfals that haue need of launcings searingirons or fire shut their eies and turne their faces another way Valiant men in warre doe neuer taste nor consider of death their mindes being caried away by the desire of victorie In so much that diuers haue suffered death gladly yea haue procured it and beene their owne executioners either for the future glorie of their name as many Greekes and Romans or for the hope of another life as Martyrs the disciples of Hegesias and others after the reading of Plato his booke to Antiochus de morte contemnenda or to auoid the miseries of this life and for other reasons All these are they not diuersions Few there are that consider euils in themselues that relish them as Socrates did his death and Flauius condemned by Nero to die by the hands of Niger And therefore in sinister accidents misaduentures and in all outward euils we must diuert our thoughts and turne them another way The vulgar sort can giue this aduice Thinke not of it Such as haue the charge of those that are any way afflicted should for their comfort furnish affrighted spirits with other obiects Abducendus est animus ad alia studia solicitudines curas negotia loci denique mutatione saepe curandus est CHAP. XXX Against mercy and compassion THere is a two-fold mercie the one good and vertuous which is in God and in his saints which is in will and in effect to succour the afflicted not afflicting themselues or diminishing any thing that concerneth honor or equitie the other is a kind of feminine passionate pitie which proceedeth from too great a tendernesse and weaknesse of the minde whereof hath beene spoken before in the aboue-named passion Againe this wisdome teacheth vs to succour the afflicted but not to yeeld and to suffer with him So is God said to be mercifull as the Physitian to his patient the aduocate to his client affoordeth all diligence and industrie but yet taketh not their euils and affaires to the heart so doth a wise man not entertaining any griefe or darkning his spirit with the smoke thereof God commandeth vs to aid and to haue a care of the poore to defend their cause and in another place he forbids vs to pitie the poore in iudgement CHAP. XXXI Against Choler THe remedies are many and diuers wherewith the minde must before hand be armed and defended like those that feare to be besieged for afterwards it is too late They may be reduced to three heads The first is to cut off the way and to stop all the passages vnto choler It is an easier matter to 1 The first head withstand it and to stay the passage thereof in the beginning than when it hath seased vpon a man to cary himselfe well and orderly He must therfore quit himselfe from all the causes and occasions of choler which heertofore haue been produced in the description thereof that is to say 1. weaknesse and tendernesse 2. maladie of the minde in hardning it selfe against whatsoeuer may happen 3. too great delicatenesse the loue of certaine things do accustome a man to facilitie and simplicitie the mother of peace and quietnes Adomnia compositi simus quae bona paratiora sint nobis meliora grauiora it is the generall doctrine of the wise King Cotys hauing receiued for a present many beautifull and rich vessels yet fraile and easie to be broken brake them all to the end he might not be stirred to choler and furie when they should happen to be broken This was a distrust in himselfe and a base kinde of feare that prouoked him thereunto 4. Curiositie according to the example of Caesar who being a conquerour and hauing recouered the letters writings and memorials of his enemies burnt thē all before he saw them 5. Lightnes of beliefe 6. and aboue all an opinion of being contemned and wronged by another which he must chase from him as vnworthie a man of spirit for though it seeme to be a glorious thing and to proceed from too high an esteeme of himselfe which neuerthelesse is a great vice yet it commeth of basenesse and imbecillitie For he that thinketh himselfe to be contemned by another is in some sense his inferior iudgeth himselfe or feares that in truth he is so or is so reputed and distrusteth himselfe Nemo non eo à quo se contemptum iudicat minor est A man must therefore thinke that it proceedeth rather from any thing than contempt that is sottishnesse indiscretion want of good maners If this supposed contempt proceed from his friends it is too great familiaritie If from his subiects or seruants knowing that their master hath power to chasten them it is not to be belieued that they had any such thought If from base and inferior people our honor or dignitie or indignitie is not in the power of such people indignus Caesaris ira Agathocles
This is to aske counsell when it is too late Sera in fundo parsimonia it is to play the good husband when there is nothing left but bare walles to make his market when the faire is ended It is a good thing for a man not to accustome himselfe to a delicate diet lest when he shall happen to be depriued therof his bodie grow out of order and his spirit languish and faint and contrarily to vse himselfe to a grosser kinde of sustenance both because they make a man more strong and healthfull and because they are more easily gotten CHAP. XL. Ofriot and excesse in apparell and ornaments and of frugalitie IT hath beene said before that garments are not naturall nor necessarie to a man but artificiall inuented and vsed onely by him in the world Now inasmuch as they are artificiall for it is the maner of things artificiall to varie and multiplie without end and measure simplicitie being a friend vnto nature they are extended and multiplied into so many inuentions for to what other end are there so many occupations and traffiques in the world but for the couering and decking of our bodies dissolutions and corruptions insomuch that it is no more an excuse and couering of our defects and necessities but a nest of all maner of vices vexillum superbiae nidus luxuriae the subiect of riot and quarrels for from hence did first begin the proprietie of things mine and thine and in the greatest communities or fellowships that are apparell is alwaies proper which is signified by this word disrobe It is a vice very familiar and proper vnto women I meane excesse in apparell a true testimonie of their weaknesse being glad to winne credit and commendations by these small and slender accidents because they know themselues to be too weake and vnable to purchase credit and reputation by better meanes for such as are vertuous care least for such vanities By the lawes of the Lacedemonians it was not permitted to any to weare garments of rich and costly colours but to common women That was their part as vertue and honour belonged vnto others Now the true and lawfull vse of apparrell is to couer our selues against winde and weather and the rigour of the aire and should neuer be vsed to other end and therefore as they should not be excessiue nor sumptuous so should they not be too base and beggerly Nec affectatae sordes nec exquisitae munditiae Caligula was as a laughing stocke to all that beheld him by reason of the dissolute fashion of his apparell Augustus was commended for his modestie CHAP. XLI Carnall pleasure Chastitie Continencie COntinencie is a thing verie difficult and must haue a carefull and a painfull guard It is no easie matter wholly 1 See the chap. 24. to resist nature which in this is most strong and most ardent And this is the greatest commendation that it hath that there is difficultie in it as for the rest it is without action and without fruite it is a priuation a not doing paine without profit and therefore sterilitie is signified by virginitie I speake heere of simple continencie and onely in it selfe which is a thing altogether barren vnprofitable and hardly commendable no more than not to play the glutton not to be drunken and not of Christian continencie which to make it a vertue hath two things in it a deliberate purpose alwaies to keepe it and that it be for Gods cause Non hoc in virginibus August praedicamus quòd sint virgines sed quòd deo dicatae witnesse the Vestalles and the fiue foolish virgins shut out of doores and therefore it is a common errour and a vanitie to call continent women honest women and honorable as if it were a vertue and there were an honor due vnto him that doth no euill doth nothing against his dutie Why should not continent men in like sort haue the title of honestie and honour There is more reason for it because there is more difficultie they are more hot more hardie they haue more occasions better meanes So vnlikely is it that honour should be due vnto him that doth no euill that it is not due vnto him that doth good but onely as hath beene said to him that is profitable to the Lib. 1. ca. 60. weale-publike and where there is labour difficultie danger And how many continent persons are there stuft with other vices or at least that are not touched with vaine-glory and presumption whereby tickling themselues with a good opinion of themselues they are readie to iudge and condemne others And by experience wee see in many women how dearly they sell it vnto their husbands for dislodging the diuell from that place where they rowe and establishing the point of honor as in it proper throne they make it to mount more high and to appeare in the head to make him belieue that it is not any lower elsewhere If neuerthelesse this flattering word honor serue to make them more carefull of their dutie I care not much if I allow of it Vanitie it selfe serues for some vse and simple incontinencie and sole in it selfe is none of the greatest faults no more than others that are purely corporall and which nature committeth in hir actions either by excesse or defect without malice That which discrediteth it and makes it more dangerous is that it is almost neuer alone but is commonlie accompanied and followed with other greater faults infected with the wicked and base circumstances of prohibited persons times places practised by wicked meanes lies impostures subornations treasons besides the losse of time distractions of those functions from whence it proceedeth by great and grieuous scandals And because this is a violent passion and likewise deceitfull 3 An aduisement we must arme our selues against it and be wary in descrying the baits thereof and the more it flattereth vs the more distrust it for it would willinglie embrace vs to strangle vs it pampereth vs with honie to glut vs with gall and therefore let vs consider as much that the beautie of another is a thing that is without vs and that as soone it turneth to our euill as our good that it is but a flower that passeth a small thing and almost nothing but the colour of a body and acknowledging in beautie the delicate hand of nature we must prise it as the sunne and moone for the excellencie that is in it and comming to the fruition thereof by all honest meanes alwaies remember that the immoderate vse of this pleasure consumeth the body effeminateth the soule weakneth the spirit and that many by giuing themselues ouermuch thereunto haue lost some their life some their fortune some their spirit and contrarily that there is greater pleasure and glory in vanquishing pleasure than in possessing it that the continencie of Alexander and of Scipio hath beene more highlie commended than the beautifull countenances of those yong damsels that they tooke captiues There are many
kinds and degrees of continencie and incontinencie The coniugall is that which importeth more than all the rest which is most requisit and necessarie both for the publike and particular good and therefore should be by all in greatest account It must be kept and retained within the chaste breast of that partie whom the destinies haue giuen for our companion He that doth otherwise doth not only violate his owne bodie making it a vessell of ordure by all lawes the lawe of God which commaundeth chastitie of Nature which forbiddeth that to be common which is proper to one and imposeth vpon a man faith and constancie of Countries which haue brought in mariages of families transferring vniustlie the labour of another to a stranger and lastly Iustice it selfe bringing in vncertainties iealousies and brawles amongst kindred depriuing children of the loue of their parents and parents of the pietie and dutie of their children CHAP. XLII Of Glory and Ambition AMbition the desire of glory and honor wherof we haue alreadie spoken is not altogether and in all respects to be condemned First it is very profitable to the weale-publike as the world goeth for it is it from whence the greatest of our honorable actions doth arise that hartneth men to dangerous attempts as we may see by the greatest part of our ancient heroicall men who haue not all been lead by a philosophicall spirit as Socrates Phocion Aristides Epaminondas Cato and Scipio by the only true and liuely image of vertue for many yea the greatest number haue beene stirred thereunto by the spirit of Themistocles Alexander Caesar and although these honorable atchieuments and glorious exploits haue not beene with their authors and actors true works of vertue but ambition neuerthelesse their effects haue beene very beneficiall to the publike state Besides this consideration according to the opinion of the wisest it is excusable and allowable in two cases the one in good and profitable things but which are inferior vnto vertue and common both to the good and to the euill as artes and sciences Honos alit artes inconduntur omnes ad studia gloria inuentions industrie military valour The other in continuing the good will and opinion of another The wise doe teach not to rule our actions by the opinion of another except it be for the auoiding of such inconueniences as may happen by their contempt of the approbation and iudgement of another But that a man should be vertuous and doe good for glorie as if that were the salarie and recompence thereof is a false and vaine opinion Much were the state of vertue to be pitied if she should fetch hir commendations and prise from the opinion of another this coine were but counterfelt and this pay too base for vertue She is too noble to begge such recompence A man must settle his soule and in such sort compose his actions that the brightnesse of honor dazell not his reason and strengthen his minde with braue resolutions which serue him as barriers against the assaults of ambition Hee must therefore perswade himselfe that vertue seeketh not a more ample and more rich theater to shew it selfe than hir owne conscience The higher the Sunne is the lesser shadowe doth it make The greater the vertue is the lesse glorie doth it seeke Glory is truely compared to a shadowe which followeth those that flie it and flieth those that follow it Againe hee must neuer forget that man commeth into this world as to a Comedy where hee chooseth not the part that he is to play but onely bethinks himselfe how to play that part well that is giuen vnto him or as a banquet wherein a man feeds vpon that that is before him not reaching to the farre side of the table or snatching the dishes from the master of the feast If a man commit a charge vnto vs which we are capable of let vs accept of it modestlie and exercise it sincerelie making account that God hath placed vs there to stand sentinell to the end that others may rest in safetie vnder our care Let vs seeke no other recompence of our trauell than our owne conscience to witnesse our well doing and desire that the witnesse be rather of credit in the court of our fellow-citizens than in the front of our publike actions To be short let vs hold it for a maxime that the fruit of our honorable actions is to haue acted them Vertue cannot finde without it selfe a recompence worthie it selfe To refuse and contemne greatnes is not so great a miracle it is an attempt of no difficultie He that loues himselfe and iudgeth soundlie is content with an indifferent fortune Magistracies very actiue and passiue are painfull and are not desired but by feeble and sicke spirits Otanes one of the seauen that had title to the soueraigntie of Persia gaue ouer vnto his companions his right vpon condition that he and his might liue in that Empire free from all subiection and magistracie except that which the ancient lawes did impose being impatient to commaund and to be commaunded Diocletian renounced the Empire Celestinus the Popedome CHAP. XLIII Of Temperancie in speech and of Eloquence THis is a great point of wisdome Hee that ruleth his tongue well in a word is wise qui in verbo non offendit hic perfect us est The reason heereof is because the tongue is all the world in it is both good and euill life and death as hath beene said before Let vs now see what aduice is to be giuen to rule it well The first rule is that speech be sober and seldome To know how to be silent is a great aduantage to speake well 1 Rules of speeach and he that knowes not well how to do the one knowes not the other To speake well and much is not the worke of one man and the best men are they that speake least saith a wise man They that abound in words are barraine in good speech and good actions like those trees that are full of leaues and yeeld little fruit much chaffe and little corne The Lacedemonians great professors of vertue and valour did likewise professe silence and were enemies to much speech And therefore hath it euer beene commendable to be sparing in speech to keepe a bridle at the mouth Pone domine custodiam ori meo And in the law of Moyses that vessell that had not his couering fastned to it was vncleane By speech a man is knowne and discerned The wise man hath his tongue in his heart the foole his heart in his tongue The second that it be true The vse of speech is to assist the truth and to carrie the torch before it to make it appeare and contrarilie to discouer and reiect lying Insomuch that speech is the instrument whereby wee communicate our willes and our thoughts It had need be true and faithfull since that our vnderstanding is directed by the onely meanes of speech He that falsifieth it betrayeth publike societie
to accidents Now the Soule hath a great number of vertues and faculties as many almost as the body hath members There are 3 The faculties and actions of the Soule some in plants more in beasts most in man to know to liue to feele to mooue to desire to allure to assemble to retaine to concoct to digest to nourish to grow to reiect to see to heare to taste to smell to speake to breath to ingender to thinke to reason to contemplate to consent dissent to remember iudge all which are no parts of the Soule for so it should be diuisible and should consist vpon accidents but they are her naturall qualities The actions come after and follow the faculties and so there are three degrees according to the doctrine of great S. Denys followed of all that is we must consider in spirituall creatures three things Essence Facultie Operation By the latter which is the action we know the facultie and by it the essence The actions may be hindred and wholly cease without any preiudice at all vnto the soule and her faculties as the Science and facultie of Painting remaineth entire in the Painter although his hands be bound and so be made vnable to paint But if the faculties themselues perish the Soule must needs be gone no otherwise then Fire is no longer fire hauing lost the facultie of warming The essence and nature of the Soule being after a sort explicated The vnitie of the soule one of the busiest questions that belongeth vnto the Soule offereth it selfe to our consideration that is whether there be in a creature especially in man one soule or manie Touching which point there are diuers opinions but may be reduced into three Some of the Greekes and almost all the Arabiques imitating them haue thought not onely in euery particular man but generally in all men that there was but one immortall Soule The Egyptians for the most part held an opinion quite contrarie that there was a pluralitie of soules in euery creature all diuers and distinct two in euerie beast and three in man two mortal the vegetatiue sensible and the third intellectiue immortall The third opinion as the meane betwixt the two former and most followed being held by many of all nations is that there is but one Soule in euery creature not more In euery of these opinions there is some difficultie I leaue the first as being already sufficiently confuted and reiected The pluralitie of soules in euerie creature and man on the one side seemeth verie strange and absurd in Philosophie for that were to giue many formes to one and the same thing and to say that there are many substances and subiects in one two beasts in one three men in one on the other side it giueth credit and helpeth much our beleefe touching the immortalitie of the intellectuall Soule for there being three soules there can follow no inconuenience that two of them should die and the third continue immortall The vnitie of the Soule seemeth to resist the immortalitie thereof for how can one and the same indiuisible be in a mortall part and an immortall as neuerthelesse Aristotle would haue it Doubtlesse it seemeth that of necessitie the Soule must be either altogether mortall or altogether immortall which are two very foule absurdities The first abolisheth all religion and sound Philosophy the second maketh beasts likewise immortall Neuerthelesse it seemes to be more true that there is but one Soule in euery creature for the pluralitie and diuersitie of faculties instruments actions neither derogateth any thing at all nor multiplieth in any thing this vnitie no more than the diuersitie of riuers the vnitie of one spring or fountaine nor the diuersitie of effects in the Sunne to heat to enlighten to melt to drie to whiten to make blacke do dissipate the vnitie and simplicitie of the Sunne for should they there would be a great number of soules in one man and Sunnes in one world Neither doth this essentiall vnitie of the Soule any thing hinder the immortalitie of the humane Soule in her essence notwithstanding the vegetatiue and sensitiue faculties which are but accidents die that is to say cannot be exercised without the body the Soule not hauing a subiect or instrument whereby to doe it but the third intellectuall Soule is alwaies well because for it there is no need of the bodie though whilest it is within it it make vse thereof to exercise it selfe insomuch that if it did returne vnto the bodie it were onely againe to exercise hir vegetatiue and sensitiue faculties as we see in those that are raised vnto life to liue heere below not in those that are raised to liue elsewhere for such bodies need not to liue by the exercise of such faculties Euen as there is no want or decay in the Sunne but it continueth in it selfe wholly the same though during a whole ecclips it neither shine nor warme nor performe his other effects in those places that are subiect vnto it Hauing shewed the vnitie of the soule in euery subiect let The source of the soule vs see from whence it commeth and how it entreth into the body The originall beginning of soules is not held to be the same of all I meane of humane soules for the vegetatiue and sensitiue of Plants and Beasts is by the opinion of all altogether materiall and in the seed for which cause it is likewise mortall But concerning the Soule of man there are foure celebrated opinions According to the first which is of the Stoicks held by Philo Iudeus and afterward by the Maniches Priscilianists and others it is transferred and brought foorth as a part or parcell of the substance of God who inspireth it into the bodie alleaging to their best aduantage the words of Moyses Inspirauit in faciem eius spiraculum vitae The second opinion held by Tertullian Apollinaris the Luciferians and other Christians affirmeth that the Soule proceedeth and is deriued from the soules of our parents with the seed as the Soule of a beast The third opinion which is that of the Pythagorians and Platonists held by many Rabins and Doctors of the Iewes and afterwards by Origen and other Doctors teacheth that the soules of men haue beene from the beginning all created of God made of nothing and reserued in heauen afterwards to be sent into the lower parts as need should require and that the bodies of men are formed and disposed to receiue them and from hence did spring the opinion of those that thought that the soules of men heere below were either well or ill handled and lodged in bodies either sound or sicke according to that life which they had led aboue in heauen before they were incorporate And truely the master of Wisdome himselfe sheweth that the Soule of the two was the elder and before the bodie Eram puer bonam indolem sortitus imo bonus cum essem corpus incontaminatum reperi The fourth opinion receiued and