Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	know_v	truth_n	5,230	5	5.7940	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31477	The innocent lady, or, The illustrious innocence being an excellent true history, and of modern times carried with handsome conceptions all along / written originally in French by the learned Father de Ceriziers of the Company of Jesus ; and now rendered into English by Sir William Lower, Knight.; Innocence reconnuë	Cerisiers, René de, 1609-1662.; Lower, William, Sir, 1600?-1662.	1654 (1654)	Wing C1679; ESTC R37539	69,822	175

thy admonitions if they had not been necessary nor thy motions if they had not been violent I am infinitely indebted unto thee for doing me this favour notwithstanding my obligation appears unto me yet greater if I consider that thou hast constrained me to be happy against my will framing to me in my solitude an image of Paradise where all felicities are necessary Whilest our Saint lost her self in the pure and innocent joyes of virtue Sifroy had neither repose nor contentment amongst the joyes of his house the night presented him nothing but black shaddows and sad phanotsmes The day cleared not but to make him observe the absence of Genevievia his spirit rouled continually sullen and melancholly thoughts often times he was seen to wander upon the brink of the river observing in the inconstancy of the floods the agitation of his spirit and then as if this humour had rendered him savage he rid himself of his servants to give more liberty to his sighes in the horrour of a wood being angry with his own shadow if the obscurity obliged it to follow him Who can figure to himself the despaire and fury whereinto he entered when his memory said unto him Thou hast killed Genevieva Thou hast massacred thy sonne thou hast taken away thy poor servants life whose pale shadows pursue thee incessantly Genevieva where are you where are you my dear girle where are you It was to be believed that if he had had Golo in this humour he had brought back the custom of sacrificing to ghosts but this perfidious man feigned very fitly a journey when he perceived the temper of his master changed if his misfortune had staid him in the Palatines house there had been an end of his life principally after the horrible and fearfull vision of Drogan I will not say that it was an illusion of his sick spirit for I know that God permits sometimes souls to come again for the good of some persons Examples make sufficient proofs of this truth which is passed even unto hell since that the rich man in the Gospel who was alwayes cloathed with the colour of fire demanded of the father of the faithfull to return unto the world to avert his brother from the punishments of the other life One night as the Palatine was laid to sleep he heard about midnight some one that walked with great paces into his chamber forthwith he drew the curtains of his bed and having perceived nothing at the glimmering of a little light that remained in the chimney he indeavoured to sleep but a quarter of an houre after the same noise began again insomuch that he perceived in the mid●st of his chamber a great man pale and gashly who trained after him a great bundle of chains with which he seemed to be tyed this horrible vision appearing in the obscurities of the night was capable to overthrow the spirits of a man less● hardy than Sifroy but being couragious and assured he asked him what he would have without witnessing much fear thinking it unworthy of him to tremble for shaddows who had not apprehended death it self Yet could he not forbid a cold sweat which diffused it self through all his body especially when he saw that this spirit made him signes to come to him which he did notwithstanding following him a thwart a low Court and from thence into a little garden where he no sooner was but it vanished away leaving the Count more astonished with his flight than if he had cōtinued him yet a company so little delightful The Moon aided much his fear for having shewd him until then where he was she withdrew all her light leaving him to seek amidst the darknesse the doore of his chamber Being laid again in his bed he began to imagine that he had this great man all of Ice at his sides who pressed him between his arms this made him call his servants who found him more pale than a dead man he dissembled notwithstanding his fear untill the morning Scarce began the day to break but he commanded his servants to open the Earth at the place where the spirit vanished they had not digged above two foot deep but they met with the bones of a dead man loaden with irons and chains There was a servant who told the Count that Monsieur the Intendant had caused the body of the unfortunate Drogan to be cast into this very place where they had found this carcasse Sifroy ordained that they should cause him to be interred and that Messes should be said for his repose Since this time there was no more noise heard in the Castle but the spirit of the Palatine served him for vision giving him all the horrible imaginations that men provoked with fury can figure to themselves It was then that he acknowledged his frights and his fears were the effects of his crime Nothing could divert him from his black and deep imaginations he had continually before his eyes the images of those three Innocents whom he believed to have destroyed These words were often heard to proceed from his mouth O Genevieva thou tormentest me his friends indeavoured to draw him from this melancholly but the hand of God pursued him in every place and the image of his crime never abandoned him The devils carry their hell wheresoever they go and a wicked person trains alwayes his executioner with him Sifroy had sinned through a sudden precipitation and God clean contrary in his proceedings would punish him with a slow and lingring pain to the end to make him feel how dangerous it was not to take counsel of reason upon the accidents that arrive unto us Whilst we amuse us in the horrours of the Count we lose the good discourse of Genevieva It was well forward in the seventh year of her solitude that the little Benoni began to have with the sense of his miseries the full and perfect use of reason His mother forgot nothing of all that which might serve to his instruction having not the means no more than the desire to leave him the goods of fortune she would not leave him unprovided of those with which poverty can make it self rich all her care was to teach him to know God the love and reverence which we ow unto him and that he was not like unto those beasts that played with him for asmuch as he had a soul which should never dye and that these animalls lived not but for a time Morning and evening before he reposed himself she made him kneel down before the Crosse and she never permitted him to suck his hind before he had prayed to God This little Infant shewed so much inclination unto good that his mother was transported with joy thereof He made her thousand petty questions which shewed enough the sweetnesse of his nature and the goodnesse of his wit This made sometimes the poore mother to weep considering that her son deserved well to be brought up in another School than amongst the beasts

sacred part of a Saint The miseries and languishments had not so consumed her body that there was not yet some remains of that former beautie which had made him to adore it this pierced the heart of the Palatine for having persecuted vertue in so fair a body So soon as the extasie and ravishment gave him the liberty to breath the first word he uttered was this Where is then my poore Infant Genevieva where is the miserable son of a father who hath been more unfortunate than wicked Then the Princesse who knew the true regret of her Husband and saw in his tears the image of his soul willing to render peace to his spirit used some of these sweet words with which she was wont to caresse him formerly My Lord blot out of your mind the remembrance of my miseries and of your error seeing we have no other power upon things pass'd but oblivion let us adde nothing to our evils through our disability to cure them God hath not reserved us hitherto but to enjoy the fruits of his mercy let us not refuse that which he presents unto us For me who seem to have the greatest interest in this I pardon with all my heart those who procured me evil and much more willingly those who have not done it me but by surprise Think not that I retain any resentment against you if you have hated a malefactresse I have never been the subject of your hate You have failed your fault is so much the more pardonable unto you as it hath been profitable unto me live satisfied then Genevieva lives and your son also Surely Sifroy had need of a great force to moderate so great a joy but this vertue was yet more necessary when he saw his little Benoni who brought his two hands full of roots to his mother I am no more able to represent the contentment of this father than a great painter who vailed the grief of of him who could not see a sacrifice to be made of his daughter Fancy to your self all the contentments that a father could have and say assuredly that Sifroy enjoyed them all how many sweet tears shed he in his bosome how many kisses imprinted he upon his mouth and upon his checks how many embraces and accolades think you that he gave him Love loseth nothing we need not doubt but he rendered him then all that which he owed him these seven years But what is become of all our Hunters Sifroy blew his Horn and called them all the wood resounded with his voice at last three or four of those that knew it betook themselves instantly to the place from whence it came O God what astonishment seised not their spirits to find their Master in this conjuncture to see a little child hanging on his neck a woman by his side and a hind amongst his dogs without any quarrell What admiration when they knew it was that Lady which they had so much lamented The Palm separated from her male withers and languishes insomuch that one would take it for a dry tree but so soon as she can embrace with her boughs him whom she seems to love her branches take a vigour which visibly makes them grow young again Genevieva who amongst the troubles of her sorrow and the necessities of her poverty had had time enough to lose her beauty took again so much grace at the sight of her dear Sifroy that resembling something that which she had been the servants had not much labour to know her They could not chuse but give tears to this first joy some were readily sent to the Castle to seek a Litter and cloths others giving all what they could of theirs to cloath the Countesse followed softly It was not without displeasure that Genevieva quitted so pleasing an abode at least he● words witnessed some regret Adiew said this good Princesse adiew sacred Grott who hast hid so long time my sorrows adiew trees who have defended me from the Sunne adiew amiable Brook which hast served me often with Nectar adiew little Birds who have kept me so good company adiew sweet animals who have been unto me so many servants mayest thou never serve for a retreat to thieves my dear grot Let not the heat of the Sun scorch these boughes let the venome of the serpents never empoison these waters let not birdlime nor gins deceive these birds nor the hunters ever hurt these innocent beasts One might say without much fixion that all the creatures witnessed the displeasure of this departure The den became more dark the water seemed to murmure more loud and run more swiftly then ordinary The Zephires sighed thereat and the Birds accompanied her even at the going forth of the wood denoting by the beating of their wings and the tone of their languishing songs the displeasure of this separation there was none but the Hinde which was without regret because she followed the Countess without ever moving from her Having gone a mile those who were sent to the Castle returned accompanied withall the Domesticks who could not say one sole word to their good Mistresse so absolutely had joy possessed them As they approached the house two fishermen advanced towards the Palatine and presented him a fish of a prodigious greatnesse but the marvel was that after having opened him they found in his garbage a ring which Sifroy knew to be that which Genevieva had cast into the river This new miracle caused a new admiration in all the assistance and chiefly in the spirit of the Count who could not praise enough the goodnesse of God that made the dumb to speak to declare the innocence of his wife This was not the first time that such like prodigies have happened A King of the Samians having cast an Emerauld into the sea six dayes after one brought him a fish which had it under his tongue no body can be ignorant of that which arrived to St. Morillus after seven years travel And to come neer unto the age of our Countesse it is certain that St. Arnoult grandfather to the great Charlemain recovered in a fish the ring which he had cast into the Moselle insomuch that this same river having rendred that of our Genevieva seemeth to have some sence and feeling of justice Admire you not the sweet goodness of heaven which discovers in the end an innocence which hate had laid hold on calumny sullied credulity convicted miseries afflicted and solitude obscured the space of seven years Observe if you please the changes of fortune or rather the effects of Gods providence Behold Genevieva in the delights of a Palace alas who is happy there stay behold her in the obscurity of a prison in the horrour of a desert and worse than all this in the necessity of all things and in the pain of a crime the onely conceit whereof is a cruell martyrdome to a Lady of honor all is lost a little patience I see her comming out of these vapours of calumny as

Princes of Brabant Scarce had this little creature seen the first rays of the light but her parents gave her a second birth which rendered her a daughter of heaven from whence she received the fair name of Genevieva It is not my design to describe the great vertues of this little Princess nor to make appear the graces wch she possessed even when her mouth was fasten'd to the sweetnes of the breast no one can see the height of her perfection and be ignorant of the foundations of her piety The father and mother called her ordinarily their Angel in which certainly they were not deceived for she had the purity and innocence of them one sole thing rendered her unlike unto those divine spirits which is that they thrust men forward unto good by secret and invisible motions and she carries them thereunto by examples which have no lesse of force than of sweetnesse The Angels have attractions against which one hath much pain to conserve his liberty and Genevieva possessed graces too charming not to be inevitable One could not hate her devotion at lesse rate than being insensible VVe must not imagine that the ordinariy amusements of infancy should possesse her thoughts nothing partaked in the care of her devotion but the diverse means to entertain it and to encrease it The sweetest pleasure that she relished was the love of retirement and of solitude this inclination built her a little hermitage in the corner of a garden where nature seemed to have favoured her designe making to grow there store of trees whose delightfull shades permitted not the sunne himself to see the mysteries of her devotion It was there that she erected little Altars of Mosse and boughs it was there that she spent the greatest part of the day from which so sweet entertainment the pastimes of those her sex and age could not divert her VVhen her mother remonstrated to her that it was time to have more serious thoughts she answered modestly that hers had the fairest and greatest of all the objects notwithstanding that all her designes were within obedience and that she should not so soon command her any thing as she would conform her self wholly thereunto but if she would permit her inclinations to make the choice of her condition she could not find any kind of life more desirable than that which had drawn so many great and illustrious persons into solitude and which of the half of the world had made a desart It is the place said she where Kings and Princes and Empresses are gone to seek the traces and steps of their Saviour It is the place where Saint Iohn conserved the Innocence of his manners it is the place where poore vertue retires it self finding more safety amongst the wild beasts than in the towns where it meets with the cruelty of salvage creatures 'T is in a word the place where I imagine a perfect repose and where I could find my contentment if you would permit me there to seek it It is not Madame that I am not disposed to follow all the motions of your will but surely since you leave me the liberty of my thoughts I should think to displease you as much in dissembling my sense as in having one contrary to yours which cannot be but reasonable Oh Genevieva you know not from whence this inclination comes to you and wherefore heaven hath given it you a day will come that you shall follow the example of that incomparable penitent to whom Egypt hath given name though you may not imitate her debauchees it will be then that you shall acknowledge the Providence of God which disposeth of us by those means secret and unknown to all other but unto himself and which leadeth men to the point of felicity by those wayes which would seem to cast them headlong into the pit or depth of misfortune God hath a custome to give us from the birth certain qualities which make our good fortunes and the order of our life Those children amongst the Lacedemonians that came forth from the womb of their mothers with a Lance in hand and those others to whom nature had imprinted a sword in the arm carried on them the presages of the event and the signes of their Horoscopes The great Archbishop of Millain when he was a little infant acted the Prelate blessing his companions and imposing hands on them as if he had already been that which after he was to be All those that observed the devotions of our little Virgin penetrated not into the designes of God and saw not that which appeared not long time after Let us leave those sleight Devotions to the knowledge of him who knows the value thereof and who recompenses the merit come we to those noble actions which carry more day and light and which marketh more visibly the care with wch heaven watcheth upon the salvation of men If I enterprise to describe the great perfections of this great Saint I think not my self more obliged to touch them all than those who will put themselves upon the water to take the river at his source Behold me then in the seventeenth year of our Genevieva but who can mark all the vertues of her soul and all the fair qualities of her body another pen but mine would say that nature had made the strokes of essay in all the other beauties of her Age to give in her an accomplished work of her power and industry and not to lye she seemed to be obliged thereto since it is not more unseemly to see a fair soul in an ill favoured body than to see a Diamond in the dirt or a Prince full of Majesty under the ruines of a Cottage and in the obscurities of a Prison That which I will say upon this subject is that she heeded not to encrease it nor to adde unto it these artifices by which deformity seems fair she had no other vermilion but that which an honest modesty set upon her cheeks no white but that of Innocence no scents but those of a good life she had also no ruines in her visage to repair with plaister no blacknesse to colour with white no stinks to cover with Musk and powder of Iris. All her graces were her own and not borrowed contrary to those maids who having not charms enough to make them loved have recourse unto the Shops of Merchants as unto naturall Magick to buy there what nature would not give them and to make themselves liked in spight of all her disfavours but surely as the clothes which are used here last not alwayes so this beauty loses it self and they observe with the swine the same difference which they see between the painted flowers and the naturall Although our Genevieva took so little care to conserve her graces and her perfections yet had she enough of them to make her self a great number of Idolaters if she would have contributed any thing to the misfortune of souls and discover that which Modesty

onely assistance which our little Innocent drew from the creatures during the space of seven years for the Countesse the earth furnished her with herbs and roots He that will consider that Genevieva was a Princesse brought up among the delights of a Court shall have no pain to imagine her troubles Was it not a spectacle worthy of compassion to see the wife of a Palatine in the want even of those things of which the most extream necessities have no need to see her Palace changed into a frightfull solitude her chamber into a fearfull den her Courtiers into wild beasts her musick into the howling of wolves her delicate meats into most bitter roots her repose into inquietude and her joyes into tears surely he must not be of flesh that can be insensible of so many misfortunes and if her vertue could have changed a man even to this degree her countenance would yet have found tears amongst so many evils seeing the rocks themselves seemed not to sweat but with her sufferings Oh who ever could have heard all the regrets which she made to the ecchoes of this wood would have said that all the trees complained thereof that the winds murmured thereat with despight and that all the birds had forgotten their Genius to learn to sigh her miserie If the evils of the poor Countesse touched sensibly her heart it cannot be spoke what torments those of her son caused her particularly when his Tongue came to be untied in the first plaintes of his grief and that this little innocent began to feele hee was unfortunate This pittifull mother locked him sometimes in her bosome to warm his little members all cold as Ice and then as she perceived the tremblings of Benoni pitty pressed her heart so strongly with grief that she drew from thence a thousand sobs and from her eyes infinite tears Oh my dear son said this lamenting mother oh my poore son my dear childe how soon beginnest thou to be miserable to see the child one would have said that it had the use of reason for at her sorrowfull words he put forth a cry so piercing that the heart of Genevieva remained sensibly wounded therewith one cannot say how many times grief and cold made her to sound My Reader I conjure thee before we pursue further the miseries of our deplorable Princesse to cast a little thy eyes through the world to observe the diversitie thereof Thou shalt see there an infinite number of women much meaner in innocence and quality who shine in gold and silk whilest Genevieva is pierced with cold covered onely with the shame of her nakednesse Thou shalt see there vice honoured virtue dispised impurity in credit subtlety praised vanity esteemed whilest a poore Lady suffers in the nook of a Wood for desiring to be innocent and to keep her faith to a person to whom heaven had engaged her O God how true is it that thy providence walketh in the depth which it behoveth not our spirit to sound and that thy counsels are precipices to all those who will search the profundity thereof Let us go no further to observe this truth then into the house of Sifroy though it be two years since we came thence Whilest Genevieva weeps let us withdraw us a little from her misery and enter into her husbands Castle We shal see that there is not a servant who is not con●ent not a lacquey that is not at his ease not a dog that hath not bread The Summer hath its pleasures the Winter hath its pass times The chase Viscites play and feasts bannish sorrow from this house Golo added all the artifices that he could to the medicine of time to cure the spirit of his Master It is true that he could not wholy take away the image of Genevieva's virtues from the soul of Sifroy her modesty her honesty her pitty her constancy her addresse her prudence her love were so many pleasing phantesmes which reproached him night and day for his credulity This poore man believed to have continually her shadow by his side and though his evill Intendant knew to remove subtlely those thoughts full of disquiets notwithstanding they made alwayes some impression in his spirit Behold an accident that ruined almost the whole fortune of Golo and discovered the reflection of his malice three years after the return of the Count and three ages of his wives misery As one day Sifroy looked over some papers in his Cabinet he lighted upon the note which the Countesse had conveyed therein Who can describe the regrets and sorrows that this bit of paper caused unto him his mouth uttered a thousand curses against Golo his tears watered the writing he beat his brest he tore his beard and haire all that which grief could command a man the Palatine did and surely he should have had a Tygers heart to read this Letter without regret Innocence conceived it and grief dictated it Adiew Sifroy I am going to die since you command it I never found any thing impossible in my obedience though I finde some injustice in your commandment I will notwithstanding believe that you contribute nothing to my ruine but the consent that you give thereunto I can also protest to you that all the cause I have given thereof is onely the resistance that I have made to remain wholy unto him who ought not to divide me with any other I passe willingly from a miserable life to a condition that may be worse upon the confidence I have that my innocence shall be one day out of suspition into which calumny hath cast it All the regret that I carry with me is to have brought an Infant into the world which must be the victime of cruelty and the innocent cause of my misfortune Notwithstanding I will not let this resentment hinder me to wish you a perfect felicity and to him who is the authour of my disaster a better fortune than that which he procureth me Adiew it is your unfortunate but innocent Genevieva The Intendant who was upon the watch judged that it was fit to let this storm break away and that prudence ought to withdraw him for a time from Sifroy when he believed that his choller was moderated he saw the Count again who failed not to give him sharp reproaches upon the evil judgement into which his malice had precipitated him But Golo wanted no cunning to deceive his master and to draw the thorn out of his heart Whatt Sir said this perfidious man to him do you repent to have taken away life from her who hath taken away your honour or do you doubt not to have done it justly if that be it your displeasure is reasonable but what cause have you to believe it were not your eyes witnesses of your misfortune your domesticks knew too well how equitable your action is to find it evil● all humane policy allows you that which you have done Will you be wiser than the Laws condemn that which reason