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	son_n	word_n	22,511	5	4.8766	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58059	Judgment on Alexander and Cæsar and also on Seneca, Plutarch, and Petronius / translated out of the French.	Rapin, René, 1621-1687.; Dancer, John, fl. 1660-1675.	1672 (1672)	Wing R263; ESTC R21235	18,139	78

arbitrum non Sapientiae CHAP. II. IT 's not to be doubted that Petronius designs to describe the debauches of Nero and that that Prince was the principal object of his Satyricon But to know if the persons which he introduces are true or feigned if he give us Characters according to his own fancy or else describes the proper Nature of certain people is a thing very hard and which in reason we cannot assure our selves of I believe for my part that there is no one person in Petronius that can generally agree with Nero. Under Trimalchio he apparently derides his ridiculous Magnificence and the extravagancy of his Pleasures Eumolphus represents to us the foolish passion he had for the Theater Sub nominibus exoletorum faeminarumque novitate cujusque stupri Flagitia Principis perscripsit And by an agreeable disposition of different imagined persons he touches divers impertinencies of the Emperors and the ordinary disorder of his life It may be said that Petronius is very contrary to himself to blame the sumptuousness of a Feast and the delicacy and softness of other pleasures he that was so diligent and ingenious an Inquisitor after voluptuousness Dum nihil amoenum molle affluentia puta nisi quod ei Petronius approvavisset For to speak truth though that Prince was in his own nature sufficiently corrupt yet according to Plutarchs judgment the complaisance of this Courtier contributed very much to throw him into all manner of Luxury and Profuseness In this as well as in most things of History we must regard the difference of times Before that Nero gave himself over to this strange kind of looseness there was no person in the world so agreeable to him as Petronius insomuch that every thing passed for gross and dull that had not his approbation This Court was like a School of pleasure or Inquisition of voluptuousness where every thing was fitted to the delicacy of so exquisite a palat I believe likewise that the politeness of our Author became pernicious to the publick and that he was one of the principal causes of the ruin of several considerable persons who made a particular profession of Wisdom and Virtue He was continually preaching Liberality to that Emperor who was already a Prodigal softness to one given over to sensuality what ever had but an appearance of Austerity seem'd to him fond and ridiculous If my conjectures be right Traseas had his turn Helvidius his and whoever had merit without the art to please was troublesome at his own cost In this sort of life Nero grew every day more and more corrupt and as the delicacy of the pleasure began to yeild to the disorder of the debauch he fell into extravagancies beyond all bounds and into an utter disorder of mind 'T was then that Tigellinus jealous of the parts and favour of Petronius and those advantages he had over him in the skill of contriving pleasures endeavoured to ruin him Quasi adversus aemulam Scientiae voluptatem potiorem Nor was it any difficult matter for him to do for the Emperor absolutely given over as he was could not suffer so curious a witness of his infamies he was less tormented with remorse for his Crimes than with a secret shame which his gross debauches threw upon him when he remembred the sweetness and delicacy of his former delights Petronius on his side was not without his disgusts and I am of the mind that in the time of those concealed discontents he composed that ingenious Satyricon which we unhappily have but imperfect We may see in Tacitus the occasion of his disgrace and how soon after Piso's Conspiracy the Friendship of Scevinus was the pretence of his fall CHAP. III. PEtronius is through his whole writings to be admired for the purity of his style and the excellency of his conception but that which most of all surprizes me is the great facility wherewith he does ingeniously give us all sorts of Characters Terence is possibly the Author of Antiquity which dives best into the nature of persons Yet I can find this to say against him that he is too much confin'd and all his talent is bounded in putting fit words into the mouths of servants and old men a covetous father a debauched son a slave or a kind of Pick-pocket behold at once the utmost extent of Terence his capacity expect not from him either the gallantry or passion or conceptions or discourse of an honest man Petronius with an universal spirit finds the genius of all sorts of professions and forms as he pleases a thousand different natures if he introduces a Declamer he manages so well his air and his stile that you would say he had Declamed all his life Nothing in the world can better express the disorders of a debauched life than the quarrels of Encolpius and Acyltor about the matter of Giton Does not Quartilla represent admirably those prostituted women Quarum sic acceusa libido ut saepius peterent viros quam peterentur Does not the marriage of little Giton and the innocent Pannichris give us the perfect image of an accomplished unchastity All that a Fop could do ridiculously at a magnificent Banquet a counterfeit gallant and an impertinent you have represented to the life at the feast of Trimalchio Eumolphus shews us Nero's folly on the Theater and his vanity to recite his own works and you may observe in passing over so many curious verses of which he makes a debaucht use that an excellent Poet is ordinarily no very honest man And by the by as Encolpion representing Eumolphus for a Poet dogril and maker of fantastick verses yet forbears not to find in his Physiognomy something of Great you may perceive he observes judiciously not to ruin those Idea's he had given us That distemper he has to compose out of due season even in vicinia mortis his volubility to tell his compositions in all places answer to his ridiculous aim Et ego inquit Poeta sum ut spero non humillimi spiritus si modo aliquid Coronis credendum est quas etiam ad imperitos graves deferre solet His knowledg general enough his extraordinary actions his expedients in misfortunes his constancy to help his companions in Lycas his ship that pleasant Court of searchers for successions which he brings together in Crotona have still and accord with those things which Encolpius had promised Senex Canus Exercitati vultus qui videbatur magnum aliquid promittere There is nothing so natural as the personating of Crisis all our Confidants come not neer it and without speaking of her first conversation with Polienos that which she says of her Mistress upon the affront which she had received with an inimitable quickness and propriety Verum enim fatendum est ex qua hora accipit injuriam apud se non est Whoever has read Juvenal knows very well impotentiam Matronarum and their wicked humour Si quando vir aut familiaris infelicius