Philosopher which can be invented for to punish him is To let let him live For you shall see saith he That by little and little the vehement Fire of Love will gain so much on him as it hath already begun that the pain which he will endure will be so great that it cannot be conceiv'd and imagin'd for he shall find such Emotions within his Soul that he shall burn and consume in this Flame as doth the Fly in a Candle so that his life shall be no more life but a real Death and that more cruel than if passed through the hands of all the Tyrants and Hangmen in the World I have been somewhat tedious in treating on this Subject but indeed the thing requires it being the entire Corruption and ruin of the most part of the Youth of our Age for when they have never so little wetted their feet in the delights of this World it is the hardest thing in nature for them to retrieve themselves Youth Liberty and Riches being the greatest Pimps and Bawds in the World CHAP. XII Of the Misery of Old Age. AND then when we should sing a Requiem from all our Troubles cometh upon us Old Age with its infirmities and then our sorrows are renewed and grown young again and we must then pay a rigorous Interest for all the faults and excesses of our Youth the Heart that is miserable sad and heavy by the gloomy reflections of a mis-spent Life the Spirit that is languishing the Breath that is stinking and loathsom the Face so furrowed and wrinkled and generally the Body so curbed that it seemeth to be some lump of Lead or Iron rather than a Man the Nose hath lost its faculty of smelling the Eyes of seeing the Hair falls off the Teeth falls out of the Head by stink and rottenness in short he resembleth some dry Anatomy or the picture of death rather than the Man he was and this is only of the Body but alas the mind of aged people is as much out of order or rather more for they are then continually disposed to anger hard to be appeased light of belief and long a forgetting injuries praise the Ancients and former Ages and despise and contemn the Modern are sad languishing malancholy covetous hard and suspicious In brief 't is the retreat and rendezvouz of all the Vices and incommodiousness of our nature which being considered by the Emperour Augustus he was wont to say That when men had lived fifty years they ought to dye and desire to be killed for asmuch as to that time they felt none of the grievances of old Age which is unavoidably past over in sorrow and misery and in insupportable pains and sickness death of Children loss of Goods Law Suits paying Debts and an infinite of other troubles which it were better with eyes shut wait for at the Sepulchre than to experiment them with open eyes in this frail and sorrowful life Which the Prophet apprehending cried out unto the Lord saying Withdraw not thy self from me when I am in years nor for sake me when assailed with old age CHAP. XIII Of DEATH AFTER Man hath groaned and sighed under the insupportable burden and heavy weight of his miserable Life he is forced to live always in the fearful expectation of the division of the Soul and Body which is for the most part accompanied with inconceivable and inexpresible torments Which St. Austin considering and bewailing breaks out into this querulous Lamentation O Lord God saith he how miserable a creature is man who after having sustained so many vexatious evils yet must endure the terrible assaults of Death which oftentimes cometh so violently that it burns and tares all in pieces and hath more ways to destroy us than can be related or thought of Sometimes oppressing by Feavers sometimes by Hunger sometimes by Thirst sometimes by Fire another by Water one with the Sword another with Poyson some are torn in pieces with the teeth of Wild-Beasts some are made meat for Fishes some of Worms and yet nevertheless man knoweth not the end and when he thinketh himself permanent and lasting he falleth and perisheth What an affrightful Spectacle is it to behold a man on his bed of Sickness pressed with the agonies of Death what trembling what horror what alteration and change in all the bands of Nature the Feet become cold and benum'd the Face waxeth pale the Eyes hollow the Lips and Mouth draw themselves inward the Pulse diminisheth the Tongue grows black the Teeth shut and press one against another the Breath fails and a cold sweat appeareth over the whole Body which is a certain sign and demonstration that Nature is overcome and vanished And when it comes to the sorrowful departure of the Soul from its ancient Habitation all the vessels and ligaments of Nature are broken then the Hellish Host as so many Vultures surround the Sick-mans Bed for there is no invention or subtilty which they practise not to induce us to settle our thoughts and hopes on our good Living on false Opinions and destructive Presumptions or else setting before us such an infinite number of our sins and offences with such horrid aggravations that the consideration of them might drive us into rage and despair and blasphemous defiances of Heavenly Justice then 's the hour then 's the moment then 's the point in the which the Devil with all the powers of darkness attacks us and that so much the more fiercely because he well knows then we shall escape out of his claws or for ever remain in them And so now when our bodies lye inanimate and sensless and an eternal night of darkness sits brooding on our Forheads Where are all our officious friends and attendants who in our life-time did so honour and reverence us and were so passionately disirous of our company Do they not all forsake us and abhor and detest the sight of us do they not all leave us to the cold earth to be made a prey to Worms and Serpents and thus it is with all men thus fares it with his Holiness his Majesty his Grace his Excellency his Honour and his Worship too they all receive the same usage with the poorest mortal that grovels on the earth And what will it then signifie to them that they have been esteemed for their Birth for their Riches for their Beauty or for their Wit or for any thing else save Virtue and true Goodness For as for all other things they are passed away as a Shadow and as an Arrow drawn from a Bow and as the smoak scattered with the wind or as a Ship that passeth ever the waves of the water which when it is gone the trace thereof cannot be found or as a Bird which flyeth through the air there being no sign left of her way which she hath made but the light air being beaten with the stroke of her wings and parted with the violent noise and motion of them she flyeth through and
Sin of whom was punished by his Children who were so irregular that one of them violated his own natural Sister Tamar and conspired the death of his own Father and drove him out of his Kingdom For the Rule of the ancient Philosophers has always proved true that man committeth many faults in this world the punishment of which God reserveth in the other but this sin of not well Educating our Children he usually punisheth in this for the Father in begetting his Sons gives them nothing but mortality and weakness but by good Education Fame and everlasting Renown We will conclude then that if the Children have been in great peril and misery oftentimes by the corrupt milk of their Nurses yet nevertheless the danger is double in respect of them who ought to instruct them for as much as that the nutriment of the body is of far less consequence than that of the mind But seeing that we have not as yet mentioned Plato who hath Divinely Philosophiz'd on Human Calamities and so lively represented the miseries of this life that many of his Disciples reading his Books have cast themselves down headlong from the tops of Rocks and Mountains into Rivers that so cutting the thread of their Calamitous life they might have the enjoyments of the next This great Philosopher Plato in a Dialogue that he hath made concerning Death and contempt of this life introduceth Socrates who deduceth by an admirable Eloquence the miseries and frailties of Human condition as followeth Knowest thou not saith He that Human life is nothing but a peregrination which the wise perform and pass in joy singing with gladness when that by necessity they approach unto the end of it Dost thou not well know that man consisteth of spirit which is enclosed in his body as in a Tabernacle which Nature has bestowed upon him not without great vexation and though she does bequeath some small benefits to us yet are they nevertheless hid and of a short durance and consumed in sorrow and trouble by reason of which the soul resenting the dolour cometh to desire the Coelestial Habitation and wisheth for the Fruition of heavenly pleasures Consider that the going out of this world is no other thing than a mutation and exchange of evil for good and what evil saith He and misery doth not man endure from his birth to his Sepulchre What kind of sorrow is there that he hath not experienced be it of heat of cold of torments in his body as also of his mind What other messenger or more certain forerunner can he have of his misery than his tears sighings and groanings But after he hath born so many evils and come to the 7th year of his age he must have Guardians and Tutors for his instruction in Learning moreover growing and coming into his youth he had need of Correctors who with rigor must observe his actions to tame and accustom him to labour CHAP. V. Of the Misery attending the state of Manhood HIS youth being past over hair begins to cover his chin and then he grows man and then is the time that he entreth into greater anxiety and vexation of spirit he must then frequent publick places keep up a conversation in company if he be of a Noble and Illustrious Extraction he is forced to undertake a thousand warlike stratagems and enterprises and expose himself to an infinite of perils and hazard his life and spill his blood that he may dye in the bed of honour or else he shall be looked on as of a cowardly mean and dastardly spirit If he be of a low condition and ordinary Fortune and be called to the exercise of mechanick Arts that hindreth him not from enduring a thousand vexations infinite labour and travel as well of body as mind he must work night and day must sweat blood and water for to get that which is necessary for the maintenance and suppor of his life and what labour or diligence soever he useth he can scarcely procure himself that which is necessary It is not therefore without cause that Marc. Aurel. considering the miserable condition of Human life was accustomed to say I thought in my self whether there could be found any State any Age any Land any Kingdom in which there could be found a man who durst vaunt that he never tasted in his life what was adverse Fortune this would be such a monster that both the living and dead would have desire to see him and then he concludes in the end I have found my reckoning saith he that he that was yesterday rich is to day poor he that was yesterday whole is to day sick he that laugh'd yesterday to day I saw cry he that I saw yesterday in prosperity I saw to day in adversity he that I saw yesterday amongst the living I see him now amongst the dead CHAP. IV. Mans Misery more particularly considered and first of the miserable life of Mariners REturn we then to our Subject deducing things in particular and who is he among men who hath betaken himself to any State or Trade and way of living that has not at last complained and been weary of it And that this may more evidently appear consider we the principal states in particular Begin we then at them who swim on the water and who gain their livings on the Sea and in how many perils are they night and day What is their habitation but a nasty and stinking prison the same is their diet What are their garments but as it were a Sponge of water They are always as vagabonds and in continual exile without any rest agitated by the Winds Rain Hail Snow at the mercy of Pyrats and Rovers Rocks and Tempests in continual hazard of being intomb'd in the bellies of fishes Wherefore Byas that Sage Grecian Philosopher knew not whether he should reckon these sort of people amongst the Terrestrial creatures or Aquatils and doubted whether he ought to number them amongst the living or the dead And another called Anacharsis said That they were no farther distant from the dead than the breadth of two or three fingers as much as the timber contained in thickness upon which they swam CHAP. VII Of the Misery attending the life of Husbandmen AND if the manner of living of Mariners seemeth terrible to us what greater sweetness think we to find in Agriculture and Rustical labour which at first look seemeth sweet happy quiet simple and innocent and that which many Patriarchs and Prophets have chosen as that in which there was the least of fraud and cousenage and that for which many Roman Emperours have forsaken their Palaces Theatres and other Pompous and Resplendant Edifices that they may retire themselves into the fields and cultivate their Lands with their hands and enjoy that innocent pleasure which they imagined might be found in a Country life but to them who would consider every thing more exactly it will appear that these Roses are not without their thorns and
good and favourable Looks and kind reception from them whom they love you shall see them gay jocund and airy in so much that you 'l think they are changed into some other shape Sometimes they love private and solitary places that they may talk alone reason design and dispute with themselves Sometimes you 'l see them pass five or six times in a day through the same street to espy and watch that they may have a favourable look from them whom they Love and the poor Varlets have their Skins broken with running their Arms wearied and aking with serubbing rubbing dressing and adorning their Master and if there happens to them any sparks of Jealousie then they mount up to the highest degree of fury and are then in inexpressible peril and danger there being no sensible part about them which is not ulcerated becoming rash bold and ventursom there being no Art Invention or Machine which they produce not becoming Lycanthropes and running up and down in the Nights like howling Wolves and although the Malady be of it self fantastical enough yet according to the humour which it meets withal it worketh strange and wonderful effects For if the Lover be poor there shall be no office of Humanity which he employeth not even to the sacrificing and cutting himself in pieces if need be If he be Rich His Purse as say the Greeks is tied and fastned by a hair If he be Covetous he becometh immediately prodigal and open-handed which moved Plautus to say That Love must be the first Invention of the Wallet If the Person affected be a man of Letters and has any measure of Spirit and Fancy you shall then see him feigning a Sea of Tears a Lake of Miseries redoubling his Cryes accusing the Heavens anatomizing his Heart freezing the Summer burning the Winter adoring idolizing admiring feigning of Paradises forging of Hells making himself a Sisiphus Tantalus Titius and if it happen that he would extol that which he loves then her Hair is nothing but fine Gold her Eye-lids Arches and Vaults of Ivory her Eyes stars her Looks Lightning her Mouth Coral her Teeth Eastern Pearls her Breath Balm Amber and Musk her Throat Snow her Breasts Alabaster and generally all the rest of her Body is nothing else but the prodigality and Treasure of Heaven and of Nature who had reserved her as a choice Vessel wherein she would pour in those eminent and incomparable perfections for which he loves and adores her and thus this cruel Malady of Love torments those who are therewith affected and yet nevertheless there is so many People Nations and Provinces troubled with these furious assaults that were there an Army to be raised of all the Lovers which are in the World there 's no Emperour Monarch or Potentate whatsoever but would tremble at the sight of so many fools in a Company and this Pestilent evil by custom and habit hath gained and prevailed so far on mankind that there cannot be found any Remedy although that many Greek and Arabian Physicians have employed all their most excellent Medicines to deliver them from their Martyrdom Samocrasius Cigidus and Ovid have written many great Tomes and Volumes of the remedy of Love in which they shew Remedies for others but the mischief on it is that they could not find any for themselves they all three dying pursued and destroyed not for the hurt or ill which they did at Rome but for the Amours which they invented at Capua The Emperour Marc. Aurelius knowing that Faustina his wife was enamoured with a Fencer and that so ardently that she was ready to die and pine away for the love of him assembled together a great number of Learned men in all Faculties and Sciences for to advise with and counsel him how he might put out that Fire wherewith his Wife was enflamed but after many consultations some Empericks counselled him That he should cause him on whom she so much doted to be killed and the blood of him to be secretly given her to drink which was speedily executed This indeed was a great Remedy for her affection was cooled but yet was it not of so great efficacy as writeth Capitolin but that Anton. Com. whom they begot afterwards was bloody and cruel and more resembled the Fencer than his Father and conversed ordinarily with those sort of people and delighted more in their than in any other Company so that the passion of the Mother seemed to be translated into the Child But yet is all this but little in respect of what I have read in many Histories the matter coming to that pass that when this foolish Frenzy seizeth and taketh hold on our spirits it maketh us brutish and sensless as is evidently and manifestly shown in a Youth of one of the richest Families in Athens and well known by all the Inhabitants of that City who having oftentimes contemplated an excellently well-made Statue of Marble which was fixed in a publick place in Athens He was so exceedingly taken with it that he could not part from the sight of it as if it had been endued with Life and motion and was so greatly affected that when he was out of the sight of it he cryed and lamented with so great passion that 't would have moved the most harden'd to pity and in the end this passion gained so much upon him that he was reduced to such extremity that he desired the Senate to sell it him at what prize they pleased that he might carry it about with him and have it at home and all places wherever he went Which they would not agree to because it was belonging to the Publick and that their power extended not so far At which being much troubled He caused a Crown of Gold with other rich and sumptuous Ornaments to be made and went towards the Statue putting the Crown on its Head and adorning it with rich Vestments and then began to contemplate and adore it with such obstinacy and pertinaciousness that the Vulgar being scandalized with his foolish and ridiculous Amours he was at last deterred by the Magistrates from coming near it At vvhich he vvas so grievously cast down and troubled that at the end he killed himself For the operations of this passion is so great that since it hath made entrance into the hearts of Men it vvalketh incurable through all the vital and sensible parts of the Body and being in full possession of us causeth an infinite of trouble and sorrow and that so sharply that it many times puts an end and period to our lives vvhich the great Philosopher A Pollonice Thiance confirmed to the King of Babylon vvho vvith importunate Entreaties desired him that he would tell him vvhich vvas the most cruel and painful of all Torments which could be invented by all the secrets of Philosophy that therewith he might punish and chastise a young Gentleman vvhom he had found in Bed vvith a beautiful Damosel whom he affected The greatest Torment saith the