if we have in admiration good and vertuous men not onely in their prosperitie but also like as amorous folke are well enough pleased with the lisping or stammering tongue yea and do like the pale colour of these whom for the flower of their youth and beautie they love and thinke it beseemeth them as we reade of Ladie Panthea who by her teares and sad silence all heavie afflicted and blubbered as she was for the dolor and sorrow that she tooke for the death of her husband seized Araspes so as hee was enamoured upon her in their adversitie so as we neither start backe for feare nor dread the banishment of Aristides the imprisonment of Anaxagoras the povertie of Socrates or the condemnation of Phocion but repute their vertue desireable lovely and amiable even with all these calamities and runne directly toward her for to kisse and embrace her by our imitation having alwaies in our mouth at everie one of these crosse accidents this notable speech of Euripides Oh how each thing doth well become Such generous hearts both all and some For we are never to feare or doubt that any good or honest thing shall ever be able to avert from vertue this heavenly inspiration and divine instinct of affection which not onely is not grieved and troubled at those things which seeme unto men most full of miserie and calamitie but also admireth desireth to imitate thē Hereupon also it followeth by good consequence that they who have once received so deepe an impression in their hearts take this course with themselves That when they begin any enterprise or enter into the admininstration of government or when any sinister accident is presented unto thē they set before their eies the examples of those who either presentlyl are or hereto fore have bene worthy persons discoursing in this maner What is it that Plato would have done in this cafe what would have Epaminondas said to this how would Lycurgus or Agesilaus have behaved themselves herein After this sort I say will they labour to frame compose reforme and adorne their manners as it were before a mirrour or looking-glasse to wit in correcting any unseemly speech that they have let fall or repressing any passion that hath risen in them They that have learned the names of the demi-gods called Idaei Dactyly know how to use them as counter-charmes or preservatives against sudden frights pronouncing the same one after another readily and ceremoniously but the remembrance and thinking upon great and worthy men represented suddenly unto those who are in the way of perfection and taking holde of them in all passions and perplexions which shall encounter them holdeth them up and keepeth them upright that they can not fall and therefore this also may go for one argument and token of proceeding in vertue Over and besides not to be so much troubled with any occurrent nor to blush exceedingly for shame as before-time nor to seeke to hide or otherwise to alter our countenance or any thing els about us upon the sudden comming in place of a great or sage personage unexpected but to persist resolute to go directly toward him with bare and open face are tokens that a man feeleth his conscience setled and assured Thus Alexander the great seeing a messenger running toward him apace with a pleasant and smiling countenance and stretching foorth his hand afarre off to him How now good fellow quoth hee what good newes canst thou bring me more unlesse it be tidings that Homer is risen againe esteeming in trueth that his woorthy acts and noble deedes already atchieved wanted nothing els nor could be made greater than they were but onely by being consecrated unto immortalitie by the writings of some noble spirit even so a yoong man that groweth better and better every day and hath reformed his maners loving nothing more than to make himselfe knowen what he is unto men of worth and honour to shew unto them his whole house and the order thereof his table his wife and children his studies and intents to acquaint them with his sayings and writings insomuch as other-whiles he is grieved in his heart to thinke and remember either that his father naturall that begat him or his master that taught him are departed out of this life for that they be not alive to see in what good estate he is in and to joy thereat neither would he wish or pray to the gods for any thing so much as that they might revive and come againe above ground for to be spectators and eie-witnesses of his life and all his actions Contrariwise those that have neglected themselves and not endevoured to do wel but are corrupt in their maners can not without feare and trembling abide to see those that belong unto them no nor so much as to dreame of them Adde moreover if you please unto that which hath beene already said thus much also for a good token of progresse in vertue When a man thinketh no sinne or trespasse small but is very carefull and wary to avoid and shunne them all For like as they who despaire ever to be rich make no account at all of saving a little expense for thus they thinke That the sparing of a small matter can adde no great thing unto their stocke to heape it up but contrariwise hope when a man sees that he wanteth but a little of the marke which he shooteth at causeth that the neerer he commeth thereto his covetousnesse is the more even so it is in those matters that perteine to vertue he who giveth not place much nor proceedeth to these speeches Well and what shall we have after this Be it so now It will be better againe for it another time and such like but alwaies taketh heed to himselfe in every thing and whensoever vice insinuating it selfe into the least sinne and fault that is seemeth to pretend and suggest some colourable excuses for to crave pardon is much discontented and displeased he I say giveth hereby good evidence and proofe that he hath a house within cleane and neat and that he would not endure the least impuritie and ordure in the world to defile the same For as Aeschylus saith an opinion conceived once that nothing that we have is great and to be esteemed and reckoned of causeth us to be carelesse and negligent in small matters They that make a palaisado a rampier or rough mud wall care not much to put into their worke any wood that commeth next hand neither is it greatly materiall to take thereto any rubbish or stone that they can meet with or first commeth into their eie yea and if it were a pillar fallen from a monument or sepulchre semblably doe wicked and leawd folke who gather thrumble heape up together all sorts of gaine all actions that be in their way it makes no matter what but such as profit in vertue who are alredy planted and whose golden foundation of a good life is laid as it
regard wisely sayd the Poët Euripides When as the ground is not well laid at first for our natiuity With parents fault men will upbraid both us and our posterity A goodly treasure then have they who are well and honestly borne when in the confidence and assurance thereof they may be bold to beare their heads aloft and speake their minds frankly wheresoever they come and verily they of all others are to make the greatest account of this blessing who wish to have faire issue of their bodies lawfully begotten Certes a thing it is that ordinarily daunteth and casteth downe the heart of a man when he is privie to the basenesse of his birth and knoweth some defect blemish and imperfection by his parents Most truly therefore and to the purpose right fitly spake the same Poët The privitie to fathers vice or mothers fault reprochable Will him debase who otherwise is hautie stout and commendable Whereas contrariwise they that are knowen to be the children of noble and worthy parents beare themselves highly and are full of stomacke and generositie In which conceit and loftie spirit it is reported that Diaphantus the sonne of Themistocles was woont to say and that in the hearing of many That whatsoeuer pleased him the same also the people of Athens thought well of for that which I would have done quoth he my mother likewise sayth Yea unto it what my mothers minde stands to Themistocles my father will not gainsay it and looke what likes Themistocles the Athenians all are well contented therewith Where by the way the magnanimitie and brave mind of the Lacedaemoninas is highly to be praised who condemned their king Archidamus in a great fine of money for that he could finde in his heart to espouse a wife of little stature alledging therewith a good reason Because say they his meaning is to get not a breed of Kings but Kinglins or divers Kings to reigne over us Well upon this first advertisement concerning children there dependeth another which they who wrote before us of the like argument forgat not to set downe and what is that namely That they who for procreation of children will come neere unto women ought to meddle with them either upon empty stomacks and before they have drunke any wine at all or at leastwise after they have taken their wine in measure and soberly for such will proove commonly wine-bibbers and drunkards who were engendred when their fathers were drunken according to that which Diogenes sayd upon a time unto a youth whom he saw beside himselfe and farre overseene with drinke My ladde quoth he thy father gat thee when he was drunke And thus much may suffice for the generation of children As touching their nourture and education whereof now I am to discourse That which we are woont generally to say of all Arts and Sciences the same we may be bolde to pronounce of vertue to wit that to the accomplishment thereof and to make a man perfectly vertuous three things ought to concurre Nature Reason and Vsage By reason I understand doctrine and precepts by usage exercise and practise The first beginnings we have from nature progresse and proceeding come by teaching and instruction exercise and practise is performed by diligence And all three together bring foorth the height of perfection If any one of these faile it cannot otherwise be but that vertue also should have her defect and be maimed For nature without learning is blind Doctrine wanting the gift of nature is defectuous and exercise void of the other twaine imperfect And verily it fareth in this case much like as in Husbandrie and tillage of the earth For first and formest requisite it is that the ground be good Secondly that the Husbandman be skilfull and in the third place that the seed be cleane and well chosen Semblaby Nature resembleth the soile the Master who teacheth representeth the labouring Husbandman and last of all the rules precepts admonitions and examples are compared to the seede All these good meanes I dare with confidence avouch met together and inspired their power into the mindes of these woorthy personages who throughout the world are so renowmed Pythagor as I meane Socrates Plato and all the rest who have attained to a memorable name and immortall glorie Blessed then is that man and entirely beloved of the gods whose hap it is by their favor and grace to be furnished with all three Now if any one be of this opinion that those who are not endued with the gift of naturall wit and yet have the helpes of true instruction and diligent exercise to the attaining of vertue cannot by this meanes recover and repaire the foresaid defect Know he that he is much deceived and to say more truely quite out of the way for as idlenesse and negligence doth marre and corrupt the goodnesse of nature so the industrie and diligence of good erudition supplieth the defect and correcteth the default thereof Idle and slothfull persons we see are not able to compasse the things that be easie whereas contrariwise by studie and travell the greatest difficulties are atchieved Moreover of what efficacie and execution diligence and labour is a man may easily know by sundrie effects that are daily observed For we do evidently perceive that drops of water falling upon the hard rocke doe eate the same hollow yron and brasse we see to weare and consume onely by continuall handling The fellies in chariot wheeles which by labour are bended and curbed will not returne and be reduced againe do what you can to their former streightnesse Like as it is impossible by any device to set streight the crooked staves that Stage-players goe withall And evident it is that whatsoever against nature is by force and labour chaunged and redressed becometh much better and more sure than those things that continue in their ownekinde But are these the things onely wherein appeareth the power of studie and diligence No verily For there are an infinite number of other experiments which proove the same most cleerely Is there a peece of ground naturally good Let it lie neglected it becommeth wilde and barrain Yea and the more rich and fertill that it is of it selfe the more waste and fruitlesse it prooveth for want of tillage and husbandry Contrariwise you shall see another plot hard rough and more stonie than it should be which by good ordering and the carefull hand of the husbandman soone bringeth foorth faire and goodly fruit Againe what trees are there which will not twine grow crooked and proove fruitlesse if good heed be not taken unto them Whereas if due regard be had and that carefulnes employed about them which becommeth they beare fruit and yeeld the same ripe in due season Is there any body so sound and able but by neglect riot delicacie and an evill habit or custome it will grow dull feeble and unlostie yea and fall into a misliking and consumption On the other side what complexion is there so
feareth Neptune and standeth in dread least he shake cleaue and open the earth and so discover hell he will rebuke also himselfe when he is offended and angrie with for Apollo the principal man of all the Greekes of whom Thetu complaineth thus in the Poet Aesohylus as touching Achilles her sonne Himselfe did sing and say al good of me himselfe also at wedding present was Yet for all this himselfe and none but be hath slaine and done to death my sonne alas He will like wise represse the treares of Achilles now departed and of Agamemnon being in hell who in their desire to revive and for the love of this life stretch foorth their impotent and seeble hands And if it chaunce at any time that he be troubled with passions and surprised with their enchantments and sorcerie he will not sticke nor feare to say thus unto himselfe Make hast and speed without delay Recover soone the light of day Beare well in minde what thou seest heere And all report to thy bed feere Homer spake this in mirth and pleasantly fitting indeed the discourse wherein he describeth hell as being in regard of the fiction a tale fit for the eares of women and none els These be the fables that Poets do feigne voluntarily But more in number there are which they neither devisenor counterfeit but as they are perswaded and do beleeve themselves so they would beare us in hand and infect us with the same untruthes as namely when Homer writeth thus of Iupiter Two lots then of long sleeping death he did in balance put One for Achilles hardy knight and one for Hector stout But when he pis'd it just mids behold str Hectors death Weigh'd downward unto bell beneath Then Phoebus slopt his breath To this fiction Aeschylus the Poët hath aptly fitted one entire Tragedie which he intituled Psychostasia that is to say the weighing of Soules or ghosts in balance Wherein he deviseth to stand at these skales of Iupiter Thetu of the one side and Aurora of the other praying each of them for their sonnes as they fight But there is not a man who seeth not cleerely that this it but a made tale and meere fable devised by Homer either to content and delight the Reader or to bring him into some great admiration and astonishment Likewise in this place T' is Iupiter that mooveth warre He is the cause that men do jarre As also this of another Poët When God above some house will overthrow He makes debate twixt mort all men below These and such like speeches are delivered by Poëts according to the very conceit and beliese which they have whereby the errour and ignorance which themselves are in as touching the nature of the gods they derive and communicate unto us Semblably the strange wonders and marvels of Hell The descriptions by them made which they depaint unto us by fearefull and terrible termes representing unto us the fantasticall apprehensions and imaginations of burning and flaming rivers of hideous places and horrible torments there are not many men but wot well ynough that therein be tales and lies good store no otherwise than in meates and viands you shall finde mixed otherwhiles hurtfull poyson or medicinable drugs For neither Homer nor Pindarus nor Sophocles have written thus of Hell beleeving certainely that there were any such things there From whence the dormant rivers dead of blacke and shady night Cast up huge mists and clouds full darke that overwhelme the light Likewise The Ocean coast they sailed still along Fast by the clifs of Leucas rocke among As also Here boyling waves of gulfe so deepe do swell Where lies the way and downfall into hell And as many of them as bewailed and lamented for death as a most piteous and woful thing or feared want of sepulture as a miserable and wretched case uttered their plaints and griefes in these and such like words Forsake me not unburied so Nor unbewailed when you go Semblably And then the soule from body flew and as to hell she went She did her death her losseof strength and youthfull yeeres lament Likewise Doe not me kill before my time for why to see this light Is sweet sorce me not under earth where nothing is but night These are the voices I say of passionate persons captivate before to error and false opinions And therefore they touch us more neerely and trouble us so much the rather when they finde us likewise possessed of such passions and feeblenes of spirit from whence they proceed In which regard we ought to be prepared betimes and provided alwaies before hand to encounter and withstand such illusions having this sentence readily evermore resounding in our cares as it were from a trunke or pipe That Poetrie is fabulous and maketh smal reckoning of Truth As for the truth indeed of these things it is exceeding hard to be conceived comprehended even by those who travell in no other businesse but to search out the knowledge and understanding of the thing as they themselves do confesse And for this purpose these verses of Empedocles would be alwaies readie at hand who saith that the depth of such things as these No eie of man is able to perceive No care to heare nor spirit to conceive Like as these also of Xenophanes Never was man nor ever will be Able to sound the veritie Of those things which of God I write Or of the world I do endite And I assure you The very words of Socrates in Plato imply no lesse who protesteth and bindeth it with an oath that he cannot attaine to the knowledge of these matters And this will be a good motive to induce yoong men to give lesse credit unto Poëts as touching their certaine knowledge in these points wherein they perceive the Philosophers themselves so doubtfull and perplexed yea and therewith so much troubled Also the better shall we stay the mind of a yoong man cause him to be more warie if at his first entrance into the reading of Poëts we describe Poetrie unto him giving him to understand that it is an art of Imitation a science correspondent every way to the seat of painting and not onely must he be acquainted with the hearing of that vulgar speech so common in every mans mouth that Poësie is a speaking picture and picture a dumbe Poësie but also we ought to teach him that when we behold a Lizard or an Ape wel painted or the face of Thersites lively drawen we take pleasure therein praise the same wonderfully not for any beautie in the one or in the other but because they are so naturally counterfeited For that which is soule of it selfe ilfavored in the owne nature cannot be made faire seemly but the skil of resembling a thing wel be the same faire or be it foule is alwaies commended wheras contrariwise he that takes in hand to purtray an ilfavoured bodie and makes thereof a faire beautifull image shall exhibite a
sheweth that the apprentissage of that which is of small consequence in this world witnesseth enough that a man ought to be trained from day to day to the knowledge of things that are beseeming and worthy his person Afterwards he declareth that as much travel should be emploied to make him comprehend such things as be far distant from the capacity and excellencie of his spirit In which discourse he taxeth covertly those vaine and giddy heads who as they say runne after their owne shadow whereas they should stay and rest upon that which is firme and permanent THAT VERTUE MAY BE taught and learned WE dispute of vertue and put in question whether Prudence Iustice Loialtie and Honestie may be taught or no And do we admire then the works of Oratours Sailers and Shipmasters Architects Husbandmen and an infinite number of other such which be extant Whereas of good men we have nothing but their bare and simple names as if they were Hippo-Centaures Gyants or Cyclopes and mervaile we that of vertuous actions which be entier perfect and unblameable none can be found ne yet any maners so composed according to dutie but that they be tainted with some passions and vicious perturbations yea and if it happen that nature of her selfe bring foorth some good and honest actions the same straightwaies are darkened corrupted and in a maner marred by certeine strange mixtures of contrarie matters that creepe into them like as when among good corne there grow up weeds and wilde bushes that choke the same or when some kinde and gentle fruit is cleane altered by savage nourishment Men learne to sing to daunce to read and write to till the ground and to ride horses they learne likewise to shew themselves to do on their apparell decently they are taught to wait at cup and trencher to give drinke at the table to season and dresse meate and none of all this can they skill to performe and do handsomely if they be not trained thereto and yet shall that for which these and such like qualities they learne to wit good life and honest conversation be reckoned a meere casuall thing comming by chance and fortune and which can neither be taught nor learned Oh good sirs what a thing is this In saying That vertue cannot be taught we denie withall that it is or hath any being For if it be true that the learning of it is the generation and breeding thereof certes he that hindereth the one disanulleth the other and in denying that it may be taught we graunt that no such thing there is at all And yet as Plato saith for the necke of a Lute not made in proportion to the rest of the bodie there was never knowen one brother go to warre with another nor a friend to quarrell with his friend ne yet two neighbour cities to fall out and mainteine deadly feud to the interchangeable working and suffring of those miseries and calamities which follow open warre Neither can any man come forth and say that by occasion of an accent as for example whether the word Telchines should be pronounced with the accent over the second syllable of no there arose sedition and dissention in any city or debate in a house betweene man and wife about the warpe and woufe of any webbe Howbeit never man yet would take in hand to weare a peece of cloth nor handle a booke nor play upon the lute or harpe unlesse he had learned before for albeit he were not like to susteine any great losse and notall dammage thereby yet he would feare to be mocked and laughed to scorne for his labor in which case as Heraclitus saith it were better for a man to conceale his owne ignorance and may such an one thinke then that he could order a house well rule a wife and behave himselfe as it becommeth in mariage beare migistracie or governe a common weale as he ought being never bound and brought up to it Diogenes espying upon a time a boy eating greedily and unmanerly gave his master or Tutour a good cuffe on the eare and good reason he had so to do as imputing the fault rather to him who had not taught than to the boy who had not learned better manners And is it so indeed ought they of necessitie who would be manerly at the table both in putting hand to a dish of meat and taking the cup with a good grace or as Aristophanes saith At board not feeding greedily Nor laughing much undecently Nor crossing feet full wantonly to be taught even from their infancie And is it possible that the same should know to behave themselves in wedlocke how to manage the affaires of State how to converse among men how to beare office without touch and blame unlesse they have learned first how to cary themselves one toward another Aristippus answered upon a time when one said unto him And are you sit every where I should quoth he laughing merily cast away the fare for feriage which I pay unto the mariner if I were every where And why might not a man say likewise If children be not the better for their teaching the salarie is lost which men bestow upon their Masters and Teachers But wee see that they taking them into their governance presently from their nources like as they did forme their limmes and joints featly with their hands do prepare and frame their maners accordingly set them in the right way to vertue And to this purpose answered very wisely a Laconian Schoole-master to one who demanded of him what good he did to the childe of whom he had the charge Mary quoth he I make him to take joy and pleasure in those things that be honest And to say a trueth these teachers and governours instruct children to holde up their heads straight as they go in the street and not to beare it forward also not to dip into sauce but with one finger not to take bread or fish but with twaine to rubbe or scratch after this or that maner and thus and thus to trusse and holde up their clothes What shall we say then to him who would make us beleeve that the Art of Physicke professeth to scoure the morphew or heale a whit-flaw but not to cure a pleurisie fever or the phrensie And what differeth he from them who holde that there be schooles and rules to teach petties and little children how to be manerly and demeane themselves in small matters but as for great important and absolute things it must be nothing els but use and custome or els meere chance and fortune that doth effect them For like as he were ridiculous and worthy to be laughed at who should say that no man ought to lay hand upon the oare for to row but he that hath beene prentise to it but sit at the sterne and guide the helme he may who was never taught it euen so he who mainteineth that in some inferiour arts there is required apprentisage but for the
not proceed so farre in displeasing him that thereby he breake or undo the knot of friendship he ought I say to use a sharpe rebuke as a Physician doth some bitter or tart medicine to save or peserve the life of his patient And a good friend is to play the part of a Musician who to bring his instrument into tune and so to keepe it setteth up these strings and letteth downe those and so ought a friend to exchange profit with pleasure and use one with another as occasion serveth observing still this rule often times to be pleasing unto his friend but alwaies profitable whereas the flatterer being used evermore to sing one note and to play upon the same string that is to say To please and in all his words and deeds to aime at nothing els but the contentment of him whom he flattereth can not skill either in act to resist or in speech to reproove and offend him but goeth on still in following his humor according alwaies with him in one tune and keeping the same note just with him Now as Xenophon writeth of king Agesilaus that he was well apaied to be commended of them who he knew would also blame him if there were cause so we are to thinke well of friendship when it is pleasant delightsome and cheereful if otherwhiles also it can displease and crosse againe but to have in suspition the conversation and acquaintance of such as never doe or say any thing but that which is pleasing continually keeping one course without change never rubbing where the gall is nor touching the sore without reproofe and contradiction We ought I say to have ready alwaies in remembrance the saying of an ancient Laconian who hearing king Charilaus so highly praised and extolled And how possibly quoth he can he be good who is neuer sharpe or severe unto the wicked The gad-flie as they say which useth to plague bulles and oxen setleth about their eares and so doth the tick deale by dogges after the same maner flatterers take holde of ambitious mens eares and possesse them with praises and being once set fast there hardly are they to be removed and chased away And here most needfull it is that our judgement be watchfull and observant and doe discerne whether these praises be attributed to the thing or the person wee shall perceive that the thing it selfe is praised if they commend men rather absent than in place also if they desire and affect that themselves which they do so like and approve in others again if they praise not us alone but all others for the semblable qualities likewise if they neither say nor do one thing now and another time the contrary But the principall thing of all other is this If we our selves know in our owne secret conscience that we neither repent nor be ashamed of that for which they so commend us ne yet wish in our hearts that we had said or done the contrary for the inward judgement of our mind and soule bearing witnesse against such praises and not admitting thereof is void of affections and passions wherby it neither can be touched nor corrupted and surprised by a flatterer Howbeit I know not how it commeth about that the most part of men can not abide nor receive the consolations which be ministred unto them in their adversities but rather take delight and comfort in those that weepe lament and mourne with them and yet the same men having offended or being delinquent in any duetie if one come and find fault or touch them to the quicke therefore do strike and imprint into their hearts remorse and repentance they take him for no better than an accuser and enemie contrariwise let one highly commend and magnifie that which they have done him they salute and embrace him they account their wel-willer and friend in deed Now whosoever they be that are ready to praise and extoll with applause and clapping of hands that which one hath done or said were it in earnest or in game such I say are dangerous and hurtfull for the present onely and in those things which are next hand but those who with their praises pierse as faire as to the maners within and with their flatteries proceed to corrupt their inward natures and dispositions I can liken unto those slaves or housholde servants who rob their masters not onely of that corne which is in the heape heth in the garners but also of the very seed for the inclination and towardnesse of a man are the seed that bring forth all his actions and the habitude of conditions and maners are the very source and head from whom runneth the course of our whole life which they pervert in giving to vices the names of vertues Thucydides in his storie writeth That during civill seditions and warres men transferred the accustomed significations of words unto other things for to justifie their deeds for desparate rashnesse without all reason was reputed valour and called Love-friend provident delay and remporizing was taken for decent cowardise Modestie and temperance was thought to be a cloke of effeminate unmanlinesse a prudent and wary circumspection in all things was held for a generall slouth and idlenesse According to which precedent we are to consider and observe in flatterers how they terme prodigalitie by the name of liberalitie cowardise is nothing with them but heedfull warinesse brainsicknesse they entitle promptitude quicknesse and celeritie base and mechanicall niggardise they account temperate frugalitie Is there one full of love and given to be amorous him they call good fellow a boun-companion a man of a kinde and good nature See they one hastie wrathfull and proud withall him they will have to be hardie valiant and magnanimous contrariwise one of a base minde and abject spirit they will grace with the attribute of fellow-like and full of humanity Much like to that which Plato hath written in one place That the amorous lover is a flatterer of those whom he loveth For if they be flat nosed like a shoing borne such they call lovely and gracious be they hawk-nosed like a griffin ôh that is a kingly sight say they those that be blacke of colour are manly white of complexion be Gods children And as for the terme Melichriis that is Hony-coloured it is alwaies verily a flattering word devised by a lover to mitigate and diminish the odiousnesse of a pale hue which he seemeth by that sweet name not to mislike but to take in the best part And verily if hee that is foule ill favoured be borne in hand that he is faire and beautifull or one of small lowe stature made beleeve that he is goodly tall he neither continueth long in this his error neither is the damage that he susteineth thereby greevous great nor unrecoverable but the praises which induce inure a man to beleeve That vice is vertue insomuch that he is nothing at all discontented in his sinne and greeved therefore
the only gift that the gods have given us freely even so may a man very wel say and with great reason unto those that are superstitious Seeing that the gods have bestowed upon us sleepe for the oblivion and repose of our miseries why makest thou it a very bel place of continuall and dolorous torment to thy poore soule which can not flie nor have recourse unto any other sleep but that which is troublesome unto thee Haraclitus was wont to say That men all the whiles they were awake enjoied the benefit of no other world but that which was common unto all but when they slept every one had a world by himselfe but surely the superstitious person hath not so much as any part of the common world for neither whiles hee is awake hath hee the true use of reason and wisdome nor when he sleepeth is he delivered from feare secured but one thing or other troubleth him still his reason is asleepe his feare is alwaies awake so that neither can he avoid his owne harme quite nor finde any meanes to put it by and turne it off Polycrates the tyrant was dread and terrible in Samos Periander in Corinth but no man feared either the one or the other who withdrew himselfe into any free city or popular State as for him who standeth in dread and feare of the imperiall power of the gods as of some rigorous and inexorable tyranny whither shall he retire withdraw himselfe whither shall he flie where shall he find a land where shal he meet with sea without a god into what secret part of the world poore man wilt thou betake thy selfe wherein thou maiest lie close and hidden and be assured that thou art without the puissance and reach of the gods There is a law that provideth for miserable slaves who being so hardly intreated by their masters are out of all hope that they shall be ensranchised and made free namely that they may demand to be solde againe and to change their master if haply they may by that meanes come by a better and more easie servitude under another but this superstition alloweth us not that libertie to change our gods for the better nay there is not a god to be found in the world whom a superstitious person doth not dread considering that he feareth the tutelar gods of his native countrey and the very gods protectors of his nativitie he quaketh even before those gods which are knowen to be saviours propitious and gracious he trembleth for feare when he thinketh of them at whose hands we crave riches abundance of goods concord peace and the happie successe of the best words and deeds that we have Now if these thinke that bondage is a great calamitie saying thus O heavie crosse and wofull miserie Man and woman to be in thrall-estate And namely if their slaverie Be under lords unfortunate how much more grievous thinke you is their servitude which they endure who can not flie who can not runne away and escape who can not change and turne to another Altars there be unto which bad servants may flie for succour many sanctuaries there be and priviledged churches for theeves and robbers from whence no man is so hardy as to plucke and pull them out Enemies after they are defeated and put to flight if in the very rout and chase they can take holde of some image of the gods or recover some temple and get it over their heads once are secured and assured of their lives whereas the superstitious person is most affrighted scared and put in feare by that wherein all others who be affraid of extreamest evils that can happen to man repose their hope and trust Never goe about to pull perforce a superstitious man out of sacred temples for in them he is most afflicted and tormented What needs many words In all men death is the end of life but it is not so in superstition for it extendeth and reacheth farther than the limits and utmost bounds thereof making feare longer than this life and adjoining unto death an imagination of immortall miseries and even then when there seemeth to be an end and cessation of all sorrowes travels be superstitious men perswaded that they must enter into others which be endlesse everlasting they dream of I wot not what deepe gates of a certein Pluto or infernall God of hell which open for to receive them of fierie rivers alwaies burning of hollow gulfs and flouds of Styx to gape for them of ugly and hideous darkenesse to overspread them full of sundry apparitions of gastly ghosts and sorrowfull spirits representing unto them grizlie and horrible shapes to see and as fearefull and lamentable voices to heare what should I speake of judges of tormentors of bottomlesse pits and gaping caves full of all sorts of torture and infinite miseries Thus unhappy and wretched superstition by fearing overmuch and without reason that which it imagineth to be nought never taketh heed how it submitteth it selfe to all miseries and for want of knowledge how to avoid this passionate trouble occasioned by the feare of the gods forgeth and deviseth to it selfe an expectation of inevitable evils even after death The impietie of an Atheist hath none of all this geere most true it is that his ignorance is unhappie and that a great calamitie and miserie it is unto the soule either to see amisse or wholly to be blinded in so great woorthy things as having of many eies the principall and cleerest of all to wit the knowledge of God extinct and put out but surely as I said before this passionate feare this ulcer and sore of conscience this trouble of spirit this servile abjection is not in his conceit these goe alwaies with the other who have such a superstitious opinion of the gods Plato saith that musicke was given unto men by the gods as a singular meanes to make them more modest and gracious yea and to bring them as it were into tune and cause them to be better conditioned and not for delight and pleasure nor to tickle the eares for falling out as it doth many times that for default and want of the Muses and Graces there is great confusion disorder in the periods and harmonies the accords and consonances of the minde which breaketh out other whiles outragiously by meanes of intemperance and negligence musicke is of that power that it setteth every thing againe in good order and their due place for according as the poet Pindarus saith To whatsoever from above God Iupiter doth cast no love To that the voice melodious Of Muses seemeth odious Insomuch as they fall into fits of rage therewith and be very fell angrie like as it is reported of tygers who if they heare the sound of drums or tabours round about them will grow furious and starke mad untill in the end they teare themselves in peeces so that there commeth lesse harme unto them who by reson of deafenesse or
yet clad themselves with their apparell of which they spolie them but first one is destroied than a second followeth after and is allured as a prey by the other And this is much like to a wilde fire which still consumeth and yet encreaseth alwaies by the utter decay and destruction of all that falleth into it and devoureth one thing after another And the usurer which maintaineth this fire blowing and kindling it with the ruine of so many people gaineth thereby no more fruit than this that after a certaine time he taketh his booke of accounts in hand and there readeth what a number of debters he hath bought out of house and home how many he had dispossessed of their land and living from whence he hath come and whither he hath gone in turning winding and heaping up his silver Now I would not that you should thus thinke of me that I speake al this upon any deadly war and enmitie that I have sworne against usurers For God be praised they neither horses mine Have driven away nor oxen ne yet kine But onely to shew unto them who are so ready to take up money upon usurie what a villanous shamefull and base thing there is in it and how this proceedeth from nothing else but extreame folly and timiditie of heart If thou have wherewith to weld the world never come into the usurers booke considering thou hast no need to borrow Hast thou not wherewith yet take not money up and pay not interest because thou shalt have no meanes to make paiment But let us consider the one and the other apart by it selfe Old Cato said unto a certaine aged man who behaved himselfe verie badly My friend quoth he considering that old age of it selfe hath so manie evils how commeth it to passe that you adde thereto moreover the reproch and shame of leawdnesse and misdemeanor even so may we say seeing that povertie of it selfe hath so many and so great miseries do not you over and above go and heape thereupon the troubles and anguishes that come of borrowing and being in debt neither take thou from penurie that onely good thing wherein it excelleth riches to wit the want of carking and pensive cares for otherwise thou shalt be subject unto the mockerie implied by this common proverbe A goat alone when beare unneth I may An oxe upon my shoulder you do lay Semblably you being not able to sustaine povertie alone do surcharge your selfe with an usuter a burden hardly supportable even for a rich and wealthie man How then would you have me to live haply some man will say And doest thou indeed aske this question having hands and feet of thine owne having the gift of speech voice and being a man unto whom it is given both to love and also to be loved as well to doe a pleasure as to receive a courtesie with thankesgiving Thou maist teach Grammar bring up yoong children be a porter or doore-keeper thou maist be a sailer or mariner thou maist row in a barge or galley for none of all these trades is more reprochfull odious or troublesome than to heare one say unto thee Pay me mine owne or discharge the debt that thou owest me Rutilius that rich Romane comming upon a time at Rome to Musonius the Philosopher said unto him thus in his eare Musonius Juptter surnamed Saviour whom you and such other Philosophers as you are make profession to imitate and follow taketh up no money at interest but Musonius smiling againe returned him this present answere No more doth he put foorth anie money for use Now this Rutilius who was an usurer reproched the other for taking money at interest which was a foolish arrogant humour of a Stoicke for what need hadst thou Rutilius to meddle with Jupiter Saviour and alledge his name considering that a man may report the selfe same by those very things which are familiar and apparent The swallowes are not in the usurers booke the pismiers pay not for use of money and yet to them hath not nature given either hands or reason or any art and mysterie whereas she hath indued man with such abundance of understanding and aptnesse to learne and practise that he can skill not onely to nourish himselfe but also to keepe horses hounds partridges hares and jaies why doest thou then disable and condemne thy selfe as if thou wert lesse docible and sensible than a jay more mute than a partridge more idle than a dogge in that thou canst make no meanes to have good of a man neither by double diligence by making court by observance and service nor by mainteining his quarrell and entring into combat in his defence seest thou not how the earth doth bring foorth many things and how the sea affoordeth as many for the use of man And verily as Crates saith I saw my selfe how Mycilus wooll did card And how with him his wife the rols did spin Thus during warre when times were extreame hard Both jointly wrought to keepe them from famin King Antigonus when he had not of a long time seene Cleanthes the Philosopher meeting him one day in Athens spake unto him and said How now Cleanthes doest thou grinde at the mill and turne the querne-stone still Yea sir quoth Cleanthes againe I grinde yet and I doe it for to earne my living howbeit for all that I give not over my profession of Philosophie O the admirable courage and high spirit of this man who comming from the mill with that verie hand which turned about the stone ground the meale and kneaded the dough wrote of the nature of the gods of the moone of the starres and the sunne But we do thinke all these to be base and servile works and yet verily because we would be free God wot we care not to thrust our selves into debt we pay for the use of money we faltter vile and base persons we give them presents we invite and feast them we yeeld as it were tribute under-hand unto them and this we do not in regard of povertie for no man useth to put forth his money into a poore mans hand but even upon a super fluity and riotous expense of our owne for if we could content our selves with those things that are necessarie for the life of man there would not be an usurer in the world no more than there are Centaures and monstrous Gorgones But excesse it is and deintinesse which hath ingendered usurers like as the same hath bred gold-smithes silver-smithes confectioners perfumers and diers of gallant colours We come not in debt to bakers and vinteners for our bread and wine but wee owe rather for the price and purchase of faire houses and lands for a great number and retinue of slaves of fine mules of trimme halles and dining chambers of rich tables and the costly furniture belonging thereto besides other foolish and excessive expenses which we often-times are at when we exhibit plaies and solemne pastimes into whole cities for to
gratifie and do pleasure unto the people and that upon a vaine ambition and desire of popular favour and many times wee receive no other fruit of all our cost and labour but ingratitude Now he that is once enwrapped in debt remaineth a debtour still all the daies of his life and he fareth like to an horse who after he hath once received the bit into his mouth changeth his rider eftsoones and is neuer unridden but one or other is alwaies on his backe No way and meanes there is to avoid from thence and to recover those faire pastures and pleasant medowes out of which those indebted persons are turned but they wander astray to and fro like to those cursed fiends and maligne spirits whom Empedocles writeth to have bene driven by the gods out of heaven For such the heavenly power first chas'd downe to the sea beneath The sea againe up to the earth did cast them by and by Then after wards the earth them did unto the beames bequeath Of restlesse sunne and they at last sent them to starrie sky Thus fall they into the hands of usurers or bankers one after another now of a Corinthian then of a Patrian and after of an Athenian so long untill when all of them have had a fling at him he become in the end wasted eaten out consumed with usurie upon usurie for like as he that is stepped into a quavemire must either at first get forth of it or els continue still there and not remove at all out of one place for he that striveth turneth and windeth every way not only doth wet and drench his bodie but mireth it all over and beraieth himselfe more than he was at first with filthy durt even so they that do nothing but change one banke for another making a transcript of their name out of one usurers booke into anothers loading their shoulders eftsoones with new and fresh usuries become alwaies overcharged more and more and they resemble for all the world those persons who are diseased with the cholericke passion or flux who will not admit of any perfect cure to purge it at once but continually taking away a certeine portion of the humor make roome for more more still to gather and ingender in the place for even so these are not willing to be ridde and cleansed at once but with dolour griefe and anguish pay usurie euery season and quarter of the yeere and no sooner have they discharged one but another distilleth and runneth downe after it which gathereth to an head and so by that meanes they are grieved with the heart-ache and paine of the head whereas it behooved that they should make quicke dispatch and give order to be cleere and free once for all for now I direct my speech unto those of the better sort who have wherewith above their fellowes and yet be nicer than they should be and those commonly come in with such like words and excuses as these How then would you have mee unfurnished of slaves and servants to live without fire without an house and abiding place which is all one as if hee that were in a dropsie and swollen as bigge as a tunne should say unto a physician What will you doe would you have me to be leane lanke spare bodied and emptie and why not or what shouldest not thou be contented to be so thou maiest recover thy health and be whole againe and even so may it be said unto thee Better it were for to be without slaves than to be a slave thy selfe and to remaine without heritage and possessions that thou maiest not be possesed by another Hearken a little to the talke that was betweene two geires or voltures as the tale goes when one of them disgorged so strongly that he said withall I thinke verily that I shall cast up my very bowels the other being by answered in this wise What harme wil come of thy vomiting so long as thou shalt not cast up thine owne entrails but those onely of some dead prey which we tare and devoured together but the other day semblably every one that is indebted selleth not his own land nor his owne house but indeed the usurers house land of whom he hath taken money for interest considering that by the law the debter hath made him lord of him and all Yea marie will he say anon but my father hath left me this peece of land for mine inheritance I wot well and beleeve it so hath thy father left unto thee freedome good name and reputation whereof thou oughtest to make much more account than of land and living He that begat thee made thy hand and thy foot and yet if it chance that one of them be mortified he will give a good fee or a reward to a chirurgian for to cut it off Ladie Calypso clad Ulysses with a vesture and robe senting sweet like baulme yeelding an odor of a body immortall which she presented unto him as a gift and memoriall of the love that she bare unto him and this he did weare for her sake but after that he suffred shipwracke and was readie to sinke being hardly able to flote above water by reason that the said robe was all drenched and so heavie that it held him downe he did it off and threw it away and then girding his naked brest underneath with a certeine broad fillet or swadling band he saved himselfe by swimming and recovered the bank now when he was past this danger and seemed to be landed he seemed to want neither raiment nor nutriment and what say you to this may not this be counted a verie tempest when as the usurer after a certeine time shall come to assaile the poore debtors and ay unto them Paie Which word once said therewith the clouds above He gathereth thicke and sea with waves doth moove For why the winds anon at once from east From south from west do blow and give no rest And what be these windes and waves even usuries upon usuries puffing blowing and rolling one after another and he that is overwhelmed therewith kept under with their heavy weight is not able to swim foorth and escape but in the end is driven downe and sinketh to the verie bottome where he is drowned and perished together with his friends who entred into bonds and became sureties and pledges for him Crates the philosopher of Thebes therefore did very well who being in daunger and debt to no man onely wearied with the cares and troubles of house-keeping and the pensive thoughts how to hold his owne left all and gave over his estate and patrimonie which amounted to the value of eight talents tooke himselfe to his bagge and wallet to his simple robe and cloke of course cloth and fled into the sanctuarie and liberties of Philosophie and povertie As for Anaxagoras he forsooke his faire lands and plenteous pastures but what need I to alledge these examples considering that Philoxenus the musician being sent
absurd to use certaine corrections of praises in this case as for example If one haply in our presence fall to praise us for being eloquent learned rich or in great reputation to pray him not to give such reports of us but rather for to commend us if we be good and bountiful hurtful to none and profitable to many for in so doing we seem not to confer praises upon our selves but to transfer them not to take pleasure in them that praise us but rather to be grieved and displeased that we are not praised for such things as we ought nor as we should as also to hide the woorse qualities under the better not so much willing and desirous to be praised as to teach how it is meet to praise for this manner of speech neither with stone nor bricke have I fortified and walled this citie but if you will needs know how I have fensed it you shall finde that I have furnished it with armor horses confederates and allies seemeth to come neere and tend unto such a rule yea and the saying of Pericles toucheth it neerer for when the hower of his death now approched and that he was to goe out of this world his kinsfolke and familiar friends weeping wailing and grieving thereat as good reason was called to minde and rehearsed the armies that hee had conducted the expeditions which hee had made his puissance that he had borne as also how many victories he had atchieved what Trophees he had erected what townes cities he had conquered and laid to the seignorie of the Athenians all which he now should leave behind him but he lifting up himselfe a little reproved and blamed them greatly for relating and alledging those praises which were common to manie and whereof some were more due to fortune than to vertue whiles they omitted and let passe the greatest and most beawtifull commendation of all others and that which truely and indeed properly belonged unto him namely that for his sake there was never any Athenian that put on blacke or wore a mourning gowne this example of his giveth both unto an oratour if he be praised for his singular eloquence meanes and occasion to transferre the praise unto his life and maners and also to a warrior generall captaine who is had in admiration for his martiall prowesse experience or fortunate successe in wars to stand rather upon his clemencie and justice and thereof freely to discourse And contrariwise againe when a man hath excessive praises heaped upon him as the manner commonly of many is by way of flatterie to give those commendations which moove envie meet it is to use such a speech as this With gods in heaven above I have no share To them therefore why dost thou me compare But if thou knowest me aright and takest me truely for such an one as I am praise these good parts in me that I am uncorrupt and not overtaken with gifts and briberie that I am sober and temperate that I am sensible reasonable full of equitie and humanitie For the nature of envie is willingly to yeeld unto him that refuseth the greater praises those that be lesse and more modest neither depriveth she of true commendation those who will not admit and receive false and vaine praises and therefore men thinke not much to honor those Kings and Princes who who are unwilling to be stiled gods or the children of gods but rather to be intituled either Philadelphi that is Kinde to brothers and sisters or Philometores that is Loving to their mothers or Euergetoi that is Benefactors or else Theophiles that is Deerely beloved of the gods which are goodly and beawtifull denominations meet for men and good princes like as againe those who hardly will endure them that either in writing or speaking attribute unto them the name of Sophi that is Sages or wise men can well abide to heare those who name them Philosophi that is Lovers of wisedome or such as say of them that they profit in the study of wisedome or give them such like attribute as is modest and not subject to envie whereas these ambitious Rhetoritians and vaine-glorious Sophisters who in their orations to shew their learning expect these and such like acclamations from their auditorie O divine and angel-like speech ô heavenly and magnifically spoken lose withall this commendation as to be said for to have delivered their minde modestly courteously and as becommeth civill men Certes like as they who be loth and take heed to offend and hurt them that are bleere-eied or otherwise given to the paine and inflamation of them do mingle among the gallant and lively colours some duskish shadowes even so some there be who in rehearsing their owne praises not altogether resplendent cleere without any mixture at all but intermedled with some imperfections defects and light faults among by that meanes discharge themselves of the heavie load of envie and hatred Thus Epireus in Homer giving out glorious words of his wrestling and buffet-fight vaunting bravely of his valour As if he would his teene and anger wreake Upon him and with fists his boanes all breake said withall Is 't not enough that herein I do vant For other skill in combat I do want But haply this man is woorthy to be mocked and laughed at who for to excuse his arrogant braverie of a wrestler and champion bewraied and confessed that otherwise he was but a fearefull coward whereas contrariwise that man is of judgement civil also and gracious besides who alledgeth against himselfe some oblivion or ignorance some ambitious spirit or els a desire to heare and learne the Sciences and other knowledge like as Ulysses when he said But lo my minde desirous was to hearken and give eare I will'd my mates me to unlose that I might go more neare And againe in another place Although much better it had beene yet would I not beleeve But see his person and then trie if gifts he would me give To be short all sorts of faults so they be not altogether dishonest and over-base if they be set unto praises rid them of all envie and hatred and many other there be who interposing a confession of povertie want of experience yea and beleeve me their base parentage among their praises cause them thereby to be lesse odious and envied Thus Agathocles as he sat drinking unto yoong men out of golde and silver plate right curiously wrought commanded other vessels of stone earth and potters worke to be set upon the table saying unto them Lo quoth he what it is to persevere in travell to take paines and adventure valiantly for wee in times past made those pots pointing to the earthen vessell but see now we make these shewing the plate of golde and silver and verily it seemed that Agathocles by reason of his base birth and povertie was brought up in some potters forge who afterward became the absolute monarch almost of all Sicilie Thus it appeareth what remedies may
might not presume to goe withall into any one whatsoever Considering therefore that the tribunall and judiciall seat of justice is the temple of Jupiter surnamed the Counsellor and Patron of cities of Themis also and Dice that is to say equitie and justice before ever thou set foote to mount up into it presently rid and cleere thy soule of all avarice and covetousnesse of monie as if it were iron and a very maladie full of rust and throw it farre from thee into the merchants hall into the shops of tradesmen occupiers banquers and usurers As for thy selfe flie from such pelfe shun it I say as far off as you can make this reckoning that whosoever enricheth himselfe by the managing of the common-weale is a church-robber committing sacrilege in the highest degree robbing temples stealing out of the sepulchers of the dead picking the coffers of his friends making himselfe rich by treachery treason false-witnes thinke him to be an untrusty and faithlesse counseller a perjured judge a corrupt magistrate and full of briberie in one word polluted and defiled with all wickednesse and not cleere of any sinne whatsoever that may be committed and therefore I shall not neede to speake more of this point As for ambition although it carrie with it a fairer shewe than avarice yet neverthelesse it bringeth after it a traine of mischiefes and plagues no lesse dangerous and pernitious unto the government of a common-wealth for accompanied it is ordinarily with audatious rashnesse more than it inasmuch as it useth not to breed in base mindes or in natures feeble and idle but principally in valiant active and vigorous spirits and the voice of the people who by their praises lift it up many times and drive it forward maketh the violence thereof more hard to be restrained managed and ruled Like as therefore Plato writeth that we ought to accustom yong boies even from their verie infancie to have this sentence resounding in their eares That it is not lawfull for them neither to carrie gold about their bodies as an outward ornament nor so much as to have it in their purses for that they have other golde as a proper coffer of their owne and the same incorporate in their hearts giving us to understand by these aenigmaticall and covert speeches as I take it the vertue derived from their auncestors by descent and continuation of their race even so wee may in some sort cure and remedie this desire of glorie by making remonstrance unto ambitious spirits that they have in themselves gold that cannot corrupt bee wasted or contaminated by envie no nor by Momus himselfe the reproover of the gods to wit Honour the which we alwaies encrease and augment the more we discourse consider meditate and thinke upon those things which have beene performed accomplished by us in the government of the common-weale and therefore they have no need of those other honours which are either cast in moldes by founders or cut and graven in brasse by mans hand considering that all such glorie commeth from without foorth and is rather in others than in them for whom they were made For the statue of a trumpeter which Polycletus made as also that other of an halbarder are commended in regard of the maker and not of those whom they do represent and for whose sake they were made Certes Cato at what time as the citie of Rome began to be well replenished with images and statues would not suffer any one to be made for himselfe saying That he had rather men would aske why there was no image set up for him than why it was For surely such things bring envie and the common people thinke themselves indebted stil beholden unto those upon whom they have not bestowed such vanities and contrariwise such as receive them at their hands are odious troublesom unto them as if they had sought to have the publike affaires of the State in their hands in hope to receive such a reward and salarie from them againe Like as therefore he that hath sailed without danger along the gulfe Syrtis if afterwards hee chaunce to bee cast away and drowned in the mouth of the haven hath done no such doughty deed nor performed any speciall matter of praise in his voyage and navigation even so hee that hath escaped the comon Treasurie and done well enough and saved himselfe from the publike revenewes customes and commodities of the State that is to say hath not defiled his hands either with robbing the citie-money or dealt underhand with the farmers and undertakers of the cities hands revenewes c. and then shall suffer himselfe to be overtaken and surprised with a desire to be a president and sit highest or to be the head man and chiefe in counsell of a citie is runne in deed upon an high rocke that reacheth up a loft but drenched hee is over the eares and as like to sinke as the rest neverthelesse In best case he is therefore who neither seeketh nor desireth any of these honours but rejecteth and refuseth them altogether Howbeit if peradventure it bee no easie matter to put backe a grace and favour or some token of love that the people otherwhiles desire to shew unto them who are entred into combat as it were in the field of government not in a game and maisterie for a silver prize or rich presents but in the game in deed which is holy and sacred yea and woorthie to be crowned it may suffice and content a man to have some honourable inscription or title in a tablet some publike act or decree some branch of lawrell or the olive like as Epymenides who received one branch of the sacred olive growing in the castle of Athens because he had cleansed and purified the citie and Anaxagoras refusing all other honours which the people would have ordained for him demaunded onely that upon the day of his death the children might have leave to play and not go to schoole all that day long The seven gallant Gentlemen of Persia who killed the Tyrants called Magi were honoured onely with this priviledge that both they and their posteritie might weare the Persian pointed Cap or Turbant bending forward on their heads for this was the signall which they were agreed upon among themselves when they went to execute the said enterprise Likewise the honor which Pittacus received did shew some modesty civilitie for when his citizens had permitted granted unto him to have and enjoy of those lands which he had conque red from the enemie as much as he would himselfe he stood contented with so much no more as lay within one fling or shot of the javelin which he launced himselfe And Cocles the Roman tooke so much ground onely as he in his owne person could eare with a plow in one day being as he was a lame and maimed man For a civill honour ought not to be in the nature of a salarie for a vertuous act
conceive and imagine in our selves what great pleasures vertues do yeeld unto those who effect any commendable action tending to the good of their countrey turning to the profit of the common-weale they tickle not they itch not neither do they after a stroking manner give contentment as do these sweete motions and gentle prickes of the flesh for such bring with them a certaine impatient itch an unconstant tickling mingled with a furious hear and inflammation but those pleasures which come from notable and praise-woorthie deeds such as they be whereof the ordinarie workman and author is he who governeth a common-weale aright and as it appertaineth unto him for to doe lift up and raise the soule to a greatnesse and haughtinesse of courage accompained with joy not with gilded plumes as Euripides saith but with celestiall wings as Plato was woont to say And that the truth hereof may the better appeere call to remembrance your selfe that which oftentimes you have heard concerning Epaminondas who being asked upon a time what was the greatest pleasure that ever he felt in all his life answered thus Marie even this quoth he that it was my fortune to win the field at the battell of Leuctres my father and mother both being yet living And Sylla the first time that he came to Rome after he had cleered Italy from civill and domesticall warres could not sleepe one winke nor lay his eies together a whole night for exceeding great joy and contentment wherewith his spirit was ravished as if it had beene with a mightie and violent wind and thus much he wrote of himselfe in his owne Commentaries I can therefore hold well with Xenophon in that hee saith That there is no sound or speech more delectable to a mans eare than the hearing of his owne praises and even so it must bee confessed That there is no spectacle no sight no report and memoriall no cogitation nor thought in the world that bringeth so great pleasure delectation to the mind as doth the contemplation and beholding of those good and laudable deeds which a man hath performed whiles he was employed in the administration of State and in bearing offices as being conspicuous eminent and publike places to be seene afarre off True it is moreover that the amiable grace and favour thereby gotten accompanying alwaies vertuous acts and bearing witnesse therto the commendation also of the people who strive a vie and contend who can give out greatest praise and speake most good the verie guide which leadeth the way of just and due benevolence doth adde a glosse and lustre as it were unto the joy proceeding from vertue for to polish and beautifie the same Neither ought a man by negligence to suffer for to fade and wither in old age the glorie of his good deeds like unto a cornet or garland of greene leaves which was woon at some games of prize but evermore to bring foorth some fresh and new demerites to stir up and awaken as a man would say the grace of the old deeds precedent and thereby to make the same both greater and also more permanent and durable For like as the carpenters and shipwrights who had the charge to maintaine the ship called the Gallion of Delos evermore made supply of new pieces of timber as anie of the olde began to decaie keeping it in continuall reparation by putting in one ribbe and planke for another and so preserved it alwaies entire and whole as it was the verie first daie when it was built even so a man is to doe by his reputation and credit And no harder matter is it for to maintaine glorie once up and on foote than to keepe a fire continually flaming which is once kindled by putting eftsoones fresh fewell under bee it never so little for to feede the same but if they bee once out and throughly quenched indeede then it is no small matter to set either the one or the other a burning againe And like as Lampas the rich merchant and shipmaster being demaunded how he got his goods Marie quoth he my greatest wealth I gained soone and with ease but my smaller estate with exceeding much paine and slowly even so it is no easie matter at the beginning to acquire reputation or to win credit and authoritie in the managing of civill affaires but to augment it after the foundation is laid or to preserve and uphold the same when it is once come to greatnes is not so hard for every litle thing the smallest meanes wil do it And so we see that a friend when he is onece had requireth not many great pleasures offices of kindnesse friendship for to be kept and continued a friend stil but petie tokens smal signes of curtesie passing continually from time to time betweene are sufficient to preserve mutuall love and amity Semblablie the good will and affection of the people their trust confidence which they have conceived towards a man although he be not able evermore to give largesses among them although he doe not alwaies defend and mainteine their causes nor sit continually in place of magistracie and office yet neverthelesse it holdeth still if he doe but shew himselfe onely to carie a good heart unto them not to cease for to take paines care for the common good nor refuse any service in that behalfe for even the very expeditions and voiages in warre have not alwaies battailes araunged nor fields fought and bloudie skirmishes ne yet besieging and beleaguing of cities but they afford betweene whiles festivall sacrifices parlies enterviewes some leasure also and time of rest to follow games disports and pastimes How then commeth it that an old man should be afraid to meddle in State affaires as if it were a charge unsupportable full of infinite and innumerable travels without any comfort and consolation at all considering that there be allowed at times varietie of plaies and games goodly sights and shewes solemne precessions and stately pompes publike doles and largesses daunces musicke and seasts and ever and anon the honorable service and worship of one god or other which are able to unknit the frownes and unbend the browes to dispatch and dissipate the cloudy cares and austeritie of the judges in court hall and of senatours also in counsell chamber yeelding unto them much more pleasure contentment in proportion to their travels and paines belonging to their place As for the greatest mischief which is most to be feared in such administrations of the common-weale to wit envy it setleth taketh least hold upon old age of any other for like as Heraclitus was wont to say That dogs do baie barke at those whom they know not even so envie assaileth him who beginneth to governe just at the dore as it were and the entrie of the tribunall and throne of estate seeking to impeach his accesse and passage thither but after it is accustomed and acquainted once with the glorie of a man and
than those dumbe beasts who enterteine no evill suspicions or surmises of the gods nor any opinions to torment them as touching that which shall befall unto them after death for they neither beleeve and know not so much as once think of any harme at all in such things Furthermore if in the opinion that they holde of the gods they had reserved and left a place for divine providence beleeving that thereby the world was governed they might have beene thought wise men as they are to have gone beyond brute beasts for the atteinting of a pleasant and joifull life in regard of their good hopes but seeing all their doctrine as touching the gods tendeth to this end namely to feare no god and otherwise to be fearelesse and carelesse altogether I am perswaded verily that this is more firmely setled in those having no sense and knowledge at all of God than in these who say they know God but have not learned to acknowledge him for a punishing God and one that can punish and doe harme for those are not delivered from superstition and why they never fell into it neither have they laied away that fearefull conceit and opinion of the gods and no marvell for they never had any such the same may be said as touching hell and the infernall spirits for neither the one nor the other have any hope to receive good from thence marie suspect feare and doubt what shall betide them after death those must needs lesse who have no fore-conceit at all of death than they in whom this perswasion is imprinted beforehand that death concerneth us not and yet thus farre forth it toucheth them in that they discourse dispute and consider thereupon whereas brute beasts are altogether freed from the thought and care of such things as doe nothing perteine unto them true it is that they shunne stroaks wounds and slaughter and thus much I say of death they feare which also even to these men is dreadfull and terrible Thus you see what good things wisdome by their owne saying hath furnished them withall but let us now take a sight and survey of those which they exclude themselves sro and are deprived of As touching those diffusions of the soule when it dilateth and spreadeth it selfe over the flesh and for the pleasure that the flesh feeleth if the same be small or meane there is no great matter therein nor that which is of any consequence to speake of but if they passe mediocritie then besides that they be vaine deceitfull and uncerteine they are found to be combersome and odious such as a man ought rather to tearme not spiritual joies and delights of the soule but rather sensuall and grosse pleasures of the bodie fawning flattering and smiling upon the soule to draw and entice her to the participation of such vanities as for such contentments of the minde which deserve indeed and are woorthy to be called joies and delights they be purified cleane from the contrarie they have no mixture at all of troublesome motions no sting that pricketh them nor repentance that followeth them but their pleasure is spirituall proper and naturall to the soule neither is the good therein borowed abroad and brought in from without nor absurd and void of reason but most agreeable and sorting thereto proceeding from that part of the mind which is given unto contemplation of the trueth and desirous of knowledge or at leastwise from that which applieth it selfe to doe and execute great and honourable things now the delights and joies aswell of the one as the other hee that went about to number and would straine and force himselfe to discourse how great and excellent they be he were never able to make an end but in briefe and few words to helpe our memorie a little as touching this point Histories minister an infinit number of goodly and notable examples which yeeld unto us a singular delight and recreation to passe the time away never breeding in us a tedious satietie but leaving alwaies the appetite that our soule hath to the trueth insatiable and desirous still of more pleasure and contentment in regard whereof untrueths and very lies therein delivered are not without their grace for even in fables and sictions poeticall although we give no credit unto them there is some effectuall force to delight and perswade for thinke I pray you with your selfe with what heat of delight and affection we reade the booke of Plato entituled Atlanticus or the last books of Homers Ilias consider also with what griefe of heart wee misse and want the residue of the tale behinde as if we were kept out of some beautifull temples or faire theaters shut fast against us for surely the knowledge of trueth in all things is so lovely and amiable that it seemeth our life and very being dependeth most upon knowledge and learning whereas the most unpleasant odious and horrible things in death be oblivion ignorance and darknesse which is the reason I assure you that all men in a maner sight and warre against those who would bereave the dead of all sense giving us thereby to understand that they do measure the whole life the being also and joy of man by the sense onely and knowledge of his minde in such sort that even those very things that are odious and offensive otherwise we heare other whiles with pleasure and often times it falleth out that though men be troubled with the thing they heare so as the water standeth in their eies and they be readie to weepe and crie out for griefe yet they desire those that relate the same to say on and speake all as for example Oedipus in Sophocles THE MESSENGER Alas my lord I see that now I shall Relate the thing which is the worst of all OEDIPUS Woe is me likewise to heare it I am prest There is no helpe say on and tell the rest But peradventure this may be a current and streame of intemperat pleasure and delight proceeding from a curiositie of the minde and will too forward to heare and know all things yea and to offer violence unto the judgement and discourse of reason howbeit when as a narration or historie conteining in it no hurtfull and offensive matter besides the subject argument which consisteth of brave adventures and worthy exploits is penned and couched in a sweet stile with a grace and powerfull force of eloquence such as is the historie of Herodotus as touching the Greeke affaires or of Xenophon concerning the Persian acts as also that which Homer with an heavenly spirit hath endited and delivered in his verses or Eudoxus in his peregrinations and description of the world or Aristotle in his treatise of the founding of cities and governments of State or Aristoxenus who hath left in writing the lives of famous and renowmed persons in such I say there is not onely much delight and contentment but also there ensueth thereupon no displeasure nor repentance And what man is he who
yet ready to wag and shake every way such a quiet and still season void of all busie affaires without warres without mortalitie without danger or feare of danger gave good meanes unto the citie of Rome to take root and set sure footing growing still in repose with all securitie and without any hinderance and impeachment whatsoever Much like therefore as a great carraque hulke or gallie is framed wrought and set together by many a knocke and stroke and that with great violence whiles it feeleth the blowes of sledges and hammers is pierced with spikes and great nailes cut with sawes axes and hatchets and when it is once made and finished by the shipwright ought to rest quiet and in repose for a competent time untill the braces be well setled and fastened and the joints firmly knit and compact for otherwise he that should stirre it and shoot it into the sea whiles yet the junctures and commissures be yet greene fresh loose and not well consolidate all would chinke cleave and open when it came to be never so little shaken and tossed by the boisterous billowes of the sea so that she would leake take in water thorowout even so the first prince authour and founder of the city of Rome having composed it of rusticall peisants and herdmen as it were of rough-hewen planks and posts of tough and stubburne oake had much adoe and tooke no small paines but engaged himselfe farre into sundry warres and exposed his person and estate to manifold and great dangers being of necessity enforced to encounter and fight with those who opposed themselves and withstood the nativitie as it were and foundation thereof before he could bring his worke to an end but the second king receiving the same at his hands gave it good time and leasure to gather strength and to confirme the growth and augmentation thereof by the favour of happie Fortune who affoorded him the meanes to enjoy great peace and long repose But if at that time some such as king Porsenna had come against it pitching his campe before it and leading a strong armie of Tuskans to give assault thereto whiles the walles were yet greene soft and ready to shake with every small thing or if some puissant prince and potentate or woorthy warriour from among the Marsians upon apostasie and revolt or els some Lucan for envie or upon a troublesome spirit and desire of contention a busi-headed person factious and quarelsome such an one as afterwards Mutius or stout Silon was surnamed the Bolde or last of all Telesinus with whom Sylla scuffled an found himselfe somewhat to do him I meane who as it were with one signall could make all Italie rise and take armes if one of these I say had come and given the alarme environing and assailing with sound of trumpets this Sage-like prince and philosopher Numa whiles he was at sacrifice or in his devotions and praiers to the gods surely the citie in that infancy of hers and first beginnings had never bene able to have held out and withstood so great a storme and tempest neither had it growen up as it did to so goodly a number of lustie and serviceable men whereas it seemeth that the long peace which continued under this king served in stead of a provision of furniture and all sorts of munition for innumerable warres ensuing and the people of Rome much like unto a champion who hath to fight a combat having bene exercised and enured at leasure in a peaceable time for the space of three and forty yeeres after the warres which they had fought under Romulus became strong enough and sufficient to make head against those that afterwards assailed them for it is for certeine recorded that during all that time there was neither pestilence nor famine no unkinde barrennesse of the earth nor unseasonable distemperature of Winter or Summer to afflict or trouble the city of Rome as if there had beene no humane providence but onely a divine Fortune which tooke the care and government of all those yeeres In those daies likewise it was that the two-leaved doores of the temple of Janus were shut up and locked fast those I meane which they call the gates of warre for that they were set open in the time of warre and kept shut when it was peace No sooner was king Numa dead but these gates were opened for the Albane warre which brake out suddenly and with great violence and so stood open still during an infinit number of other warres ensuing continually one after another thereupon but in processe of time namely about foure hundred and foure score yeres after they were shut againe when the first Punicke warre was ended and peace concluded with the Carthaginians even that yeere wherein C. Attilius and Titus Manlius were consuls After this they were set open by occasion of new warres which lasted untill the very time that Caesar Augustus wan that noble victorie under the Promontory Actium Then had the Romans a cessation or surcease of armes but the same continued not long for that the tumultuous stirres of the Biscains the Galatians and Germains comming all together troubled the peace And thus much may serve out of histories for testimonies in behalfe of the felicity and good Fortune of king Numa But the Kings also that raigned in Rome after him highlie honoured Fortune as the chiefe patronesse nourse and the prop or piller as Pindarus saith which supported and upheld the citie of Rome as we may judge by the reasons and arguments following There is at Rome I wot well the temple of Vertue highlie honored but founded it was and built of late daies even by Marcellus who forced and won the citie of Syracusa There was another also in the honor of reason understanding or good advice which they called by the name of Mentis but Aemilius Scaurus was the man who dedicated it about the time of the Cimbricke warres For that by this the learning the artes and pleasant eloquence of the Greekes were crept already into the citie but to wisdome there is not yet to this day so much as one temple or chappell neither to temperance not patience ne yet to magnanimitie wheras of Fortune there be many churches and temples verie auncient and those much frequented and to speake in one word celebrated with all kinds of honor as being founded and erected amid the noblest parts and most conspicuous places of the citie For there is the temple of Masculine Fortune called Fortuna virilis which was built by Martius Ancus the fourth king of Rome and by him so called for that he thought that Fortune availed as much as Fortitude to the obtaining of victorie As for the other entituled by the name of Fortune Feminine otherwise called Fortuna Muliebris everie man knoweth that they were the dames of the citie who dedicated it after they had averted and turned backe Martius Coriolanus who was come with a puisant power of enemies and presented himselfe
in one word that even the gods themselves doe shew by deeds and effects without voice or speech unto wise men what their will and pleasure is Then Lucius mildely and simply answered That the true cause indeed might peradventure lie hidden still and not be divulged howbeit there is nothing to hinder or let us but that we may render one reason or other which carieth with it some likelihood probability so Theon the grammarian began first to discourse upō that point saying it was very difficult to shew prove that Pythagoras was a Tuskan born but for certeine knowen it was that he had made his abode a long time in Aegypt conversed with the sages of that countrey where he approoved embraced and highly extolled manie of their religious ceremonies and namely that as touching beanes for Herodotus writeth that the Aegyptians neither sowe nor eat beanes no nor can abide so much as to looke upon them and as for fishes we are assured that their priests even at this day absteine from them and living as they doe chaste and unmaried they refuse salt likewise neither will they endure to eat it as a meat by it selfe nor any other viands wherein any sea salt commeth whereof divers men alledge divers sundry reasons but there is one true cause indeed that is the enmitie which they beare unto the sea as being a savage element a meere alien estranged frō us or to speak more truely a mortall enimie to mans nature for the gods are not nourished therewith as the Stoicks were of opinion that the staries were fed from thence but contrariwise that in it was lost the father and saviour of that countrey of Aegypt which they call the deflux or running out of Osiris and in lamenting his generation on the right hand and corruption on the left covertly they give us to understand the end and perdition of Nilus in the sea In which consideration they are of opinion that lawfull it is not once to drinke of the water as being not potable neither doe they thinke that any thing which it breedeth bringeth foorth or nourisheth is cleane and meet for man considering that the same hath not breath and respiration common with us nor food and pasture agreeable unto ours for that the very aire which nourisheth and mainteineth all other living creatures is pernicious and deadly unto them as if they were engendred first and lived afterward in this world against the course of nature and for no use at all and marvell we must not if for the hatred they beare unto the sea they hold the creatures therein as strangers and neither meet nor worthy to be intermingled with their bloud or vitall spirits seeing they will not deigne so much as to salute any pilots or mariners whensoever they meet with them because they get their living upon the sea Sylla commending this discourse added moreover as touching the Pythagoreans that when they sacrificed unto the gods they wuld especially tast of the primices or parcels of flesh which they hadkilled but never was there any fish that they sacrificed or offred unto the gods Now when they had finished their speech I came in with mine opinion As for those Aegyptians quoth I many men there be as well learned as ignorant who contradict them plead in the behalfe and defence of the sea recounting the manifold commodities thereof whereby our life is more plentifull pleasant and happie as touching the surcease as it were of the Pythagoreans and their forbearing to lay hand upon fishes because they are such strangers unto us it is a very absurd and ridiculous device or to say more truely it is a cruell and inhumane part and savoring much of a barbarous Cyclops seeing that to other living creatures they render a reward and recompence for their kinred cousenage and acquaintance by killing eating and consuming them as they doe and verily reported it is of Pythagoras that upon a time hee bought of the fishers a draught of fish and when he had so done commaunded that they should be all let out of the net into the sea againe surely this was not the act of a man who either hated or despised fishes as his enemies or strangers considering that finding them prisoners as he did he paid for their raunsome and redeemed their liberty as if they had bene his kinsfolke good friends and therefore the humanitie equitie and mildnesse of these men induceth us to thinke and imagine cleane contrary that it was rather for some exercise of justice or to keepe themselves in ure and custome thereof that they spared and pardoned those sea-creatures for that al others give men cause in some sort to hurt them whereas poore fishes offend us in no maner and say their nature and will were so disposed yet cannot they execute the same moreover conjecture we may and collect by the reports records and sacrifices of our auncients that they thought it an horrible abominable thing not onely to eat but also to kill any beast that doth no hurt or damage unto us but seeng in processe of time how much pestered they were with a number of beasts that grew upon them and overspred the face of the earth and withall being as it is said commaunded by the oracle of Apollo at Delphos to succour the fruits of the earth which were ready to perish they began then to kill them for sacrifice unto the gods yet in so doing they seemed to tremble and feare as troubled in minde calling this their action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to doe or perpetrate as if they did and committed some great deed in killing a creature having life and even still at this day they observe a ceremony with all religious precisenesse not to massacre any beast before it hath given a nod with the head after the libations and effusions of wine upon it in signe and token of consent so strict they were and wary to commit no unjust act Certes to say nothing of other beasts if all men had forborne to kill and eat no more but pullen and conies within short time they should not have beene able to have dwelt within their townes or cities nor enjoied any fruits of the earth therefore although necessitie at the first had brought in the use of eating flesh a very hard matter it were now in regard of pleasure to put down abolish the same whereas the whole kind of sea-creatures using neither the same aire and water with us nor comming neere unto our fruits but being as a man would saie comprised within another world having distinct bounds and limits of their owne which they cannot passe but immediatly it costeth them their life for punishment of their trespasse giveth unto our belly none occasion or pretence at all more or lesse to runne upon them so that the whole hunting catching and running after fish is a 〈◊〉 worke of gourmandise
commeth to passe that even with you All commeth to be but One unlesse you will use vaine words and void of sense speaking of voidnesse and fighting in vaine as with a shadow against those auncient Philosophers But these Atomes you will say are according to the opinion of Epicurus in number infinite and every thing that appereth unto us ariseth from them Beholde now what principles you put downe for generation to wit infinity and voidnesse whereof the one is without action impassible and bodilesse the other namely infinity disorderly void of reason incomprehensible dissolving and confounding it selfe for that by reason of multitude it cannot be circumscribed nor contained within limits But Permenides hath not abolished either fire or water or any rocke no nor the cites as Colotes saith inhabited as well in Europe as in Asia considering that he hath both instituted an orderly dispose digestion and also tempering the elements together to wit light and darke of them and by them absolutely finisheth all things visible in the world for written he hath at large of Earth of Heaven of Sunne Moone and starres as also spoken much of mans generation and being as he was a very ancient Philosopher he hath left nothing in Physiologie unsaid and whereof he hath not delivered both by word and writing his owne doctrine not borrowed else where passing over the repugnancie of other received principall opinions Moreover he of all others first and even before Socrates himselfe observed and understood that in nature there is one part subject to opinion and another subject to intelligence And as for that which is opinable inconstant it is and uncertaine wandring also and carried away with sundry passions and mutations apt to diminish and paire to increase also and growe yea and to be diversly affected and not ever after one sort disposed to the same in sense alike As for the intelligible part it is of another kinde For sound it is whole and not variable Constant and sure and ingenerable as he himselfe saith alwaies like to it selfe perdurable in the owne nature essence But Colotes like a 〈◊〉 cavilling at him catching at his words without regard of the matter not arguing against his reasons indeed but in words onely affirmeth flatly that Parmenides overthroweth all things in one word by supposing that All is One But he verily on the contrary side abolisheth neither the one nature nor the other but rendreth to ech of them that which is meet and apperteineth thereto For the intelligible part he rangeth in the Idea of One and of That which is saying that it is and hath being in regard of eternity and incorruption that it is one because it alwaies resembleth it selfe and receiveth no diversity As for that part which is Sensible he placeth it in the ranke of that which is uncerteine disorderly and ever mooving Of which two we may see the distinct judgement in the soule by these verses The one reteins to truth which is syncere Perswasive breeding science pure and cleere For it concerneth that which is intelligible and evermore alike and in the same sort The other rests on mens opinions vaine Which breed no true beleefe but uncertaine For that it is conversant in such things as receive al maner of changes passions mutabilities And verily how possibly he should admit and leave unto us sense and opinion and not withall allow that which is sensible and opinable a man is not able to shew But forasmuch as to that which is existent indeed it appertaineth to remaine in being and for that things sensible one while are and another while are not but passe continually from one being to another and alter their estate insomuch as they deserve rather some other name than this of being This speech as touching All that it should be one is not to take away the plurality of things sensible but to shew the difference betweene them and those that be intelligible which Plato in his treatise of Ideae minding to declare more plainly gave Colotes some advantage for to take holde of him And therefore me thinks it good reason to take before me all in one traine that also which he hath spoken against him But first let us consider the diligence together with the deepe and profound knowledge of this Philosopher Plato considering that Aristotle Xenocrates Theophrastus and all the Peripateticks have followed his doctrine For in what blinde corner of the world unhabitable wrot he his booke that you Colotes in heaping up together these criminations upon such personages should never light upon their works nor take in hand the books of Aristotle as touching the heaven and the soule nor those compositions of Theophrastus against the Naturalists nor that Zoroastres of Heraclitus one booke of Hell and infernall spirits another of Doubts and questions Naturall that also of Dicaearchus concerning the soule In all which books they are contradictory and repugnant in the maine and principall points of Naturall philosophy unto Plato And verily the prince of all other Peripateticks Strato accordeth not in many things with Aristotle and mainteineth opinions cleane contrary unto those of Plato as touching Motion Understanding the Soule and Generation And in conclusion he holdeth that the very world is not animall and whatsoever is naturall is consequent unto that which is casuall and according to fortune As for the Ideae for which Aristotle every where seemeth to course Plato and mooveth all maner of doubts concerning them in his Ethicks or morall discourses in his Physicks in his Exotericall dialogues he is thought of some to dispute and discourse with a more contentions and opinative spirit than became a Philosopher as if he propounded to himselfe for to convell and debase the Philosophy of Plato so farre was hee from following him What impudent and licentious rashnesse therefore is this that one having never knowen nor seene what these learned clerks had written and what their opinions were should coine and devise out of his owne fingers ends and falsly charge upon them those things which never came into their heads and in perswading himselfe that he reprooveth and refuteth others to bring in a proofe and evidence written with his owne hand for to argue and convince himselfe of ignorance or rash and audacious impudence saying that those who contradict Plato agree with him and they that repugne against him doe follow him But Plato quoth he hath written That horses are in vaine counted by us horses and men likewise And in what odde corner of Platoes works hath Colotes found this hidden As for us wee reade in all his books that horses be horses and men be men and that fire even by him is esteemed fire for hee holdeth every one of these things to be sensible and opinable and so he nameth them But this our trim man Colotes as though hee wanted never a jot of the highest pitch of sapience and knowledge presumeth forsooth and taketh it to be
Typhon but simply whatsoever in such things is out of measure extraordinary either in excesse or defect we ought to attribute it unto Typhon contrariwise all that is well disposed ordered good and profitable we must beleeve it to be the worke verily of Isis but the image example and reason of Osiris which if we honour and adore in this sort we shall not sinne or do amisse and that which more is we shall remoove and stay the unbeliefe and doubtfull scrupulosity of Eudoxus who asked the reason why Ceres had no charge and superintendance over Love matters but all that care lay upon Isis and why Bacchus could neither make the river Nilus to swell and overflow nor governe and rule the dead for if we should alledge one generall and common reason for all we deeme these gods to have beene ordeined for the portion and dispensation of good things and whatsoever in nature is good and beautifull it is by the grace and meanes of these deities whiles the one yeeldeth the first principles and the other receiveth and distributeth the same by which meanes we shall be able to satisfie the multitude and meet with those mechanicall and odious fellowes whether they delight in the change variety of the aire according to the seasons of the yere or in the procreation of fruits or in seednesse and tillings appropriating and applying therto what hath beene delivered of these gods wherein they take pleasure saying that Osiris is interred when the seed is covered in the ground that he reviveth and riseth againe to light when it beginneth to spurt And hereupon it is said that Isis when she perceiveth herselfe to be conceived and with childe hangeth about her necke a preservative the sixth day of the moneth 〈◊〉 and is delivered of Harpocrates about the Solstice of Winter being as yet unperfect and come to no maturity in the prime of the first flowers and buds which is the reason that they offer unto her the first fruits of Lentils new sprung and solemnize the feast and 〈◊〉 of her childbirth and lying in after the Aequinox of the Spring for when the vulgar sort heare this they rest therein take contentment and beleeve it straightwaies drawing a probability for beleefe out of ordinary things which are daily ready at hand And verily heerein there is no inconvenience if first and for most they make these gods common and not proper and peculiar unto the Aegyptians neither comprise Nilus onely and the land which Nilus watereth under these names nor in naming their Meeres Lakes and Lotes and the nativity of their gods deprive all other men of those great gods among whom there is neither Nilus nor Butus nor Memphis yet neverthelesse acknowledge and have in reverence the goddesse Isis and other gods about her of whom they have learned not long since to name some with the Aegyptian appellations but time out of minde they knew their vertue and power in regard whereof they have honoured and adored them Secondly which is a farre greater matter to the end they should take heed and be affraied lest ere they be aware they dissolve and dissipate these divine powers in rivers winds sowing plowing and other passions and alterations of the earth as they do who holde that Bacchus is wine Vulcan the flame of fire and Proserpina as Cleanthes said in one place the spirit that bloweth and pierceth thorow the fruits of the earth A Poet there was who writing of reapers and mowers said What time yoong men their hands to Ceres put And her with hooks and sithes by piecemeale cut And in no respect differ they from those who thinke the sailes cables cordage and anchor are the pilot or that the thred and yarne the warpe and woose be the weaver or that the goblet and potion cup the Ptisane or the Mede and honied water is the Physician But verily in so doing they imprint absurd and blasphemous opinions of the gods tending to Atheisme and impiety attributing the names of gods unto natures and things senselesse livelesse and corruptible which of necessity men use as the need them and can not chuse but marre and destroy the same For we must in no wise thinke that these very things be gods for nothing can be a god which hath no soule and is subject to man and under his hand but thereby we know that they be gods who give us them to use and for to be perdurable and sufficient not these in one place and those in another neither Barbarians nor Greeks neither Meridionall nor Septentrionall but like as the Sunne and Moone the heaven earth and sea are common unto all but yet in divers places called by sundry names even so of one and the same intelligence that ordereth the whole world of the same providence which dispenseth and governeth all of the ministeriall powers subordinate over all sundry honors and appellations according to the diversity of lawes have beene appointed And the priests and religious professed in such ceremonies use mysteries and sacraments some obscure others more plaine and evident to traine our understanding to the knowledge of the Deity howbeit not without perill and danger for that some missing the right way are fallen into superstition and others avoiding superstition as it were a bogge or quavemire have run before they could take heed upon the rocke of impiety And therefore it behoveth us in this case especially to be inducted by the direction of Philosophy which may guide us in these holy contemplations that we may woorthily and religiously thinke of every thing said and done to the end that it befall not unto us as unto Theodorus who said that the doctrine which he tendered and reached out with the right hand some of his scholars received and tooke with the left even so by taking in a wrong sense and otherwise than is meet and convenient that which the lawes have ordeined touching feasts and sacrifices we grosly offend For that all things ought to have a reference unto reason a man may see and know by themselves for celebrating a feast unto Mercurie the nineteenth day of the first moneth they eat hony and figges saying withall this Mot Sweet is the trueth As to that Phylactery or preservative which they faine Isis to weare when she is with childe by interpretation it signifieth A true voice As for Harpocrates we must not imagine him to be some yoong god and not come to ripe yeeres nor yet a man but that he is the superintendant and reformer of mens language as touching the gods being yet new unperfect and not distinct nor articulate which is the reason that he holdeth a seale-ring before his mouth as a signe and marke of taciturnity and silence Also in the moneth Mesori they present unto him certeine kindes of Pulse saying withall The tongue is Fortune The tongue is Daemon Now of all plants which Aegypt bringeth foorth they consecrate the Peach tree unto him especially because the sruit