Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A32693
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The Ephesian and Cimmerian matrons two notable examples of the power of love & wit.
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Charleton, Walter, 1619-1707.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing C3670; ESTC R13658
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71,025
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204
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body he bethought himself what to say that might conduce to the mitigation of her violent sorrow And though he were no Philosopher nor Orator his head not being altogether so well furnished with arguments of consolation as his Scrip and Bottle had been with Provision yet he had so competent a share of the light of Nature which as many wise men hold shineth alwaies clearest in the darkness of necessity and sudden occasions as directed him bluntly to tell her That albeit moderate humiliation of the body and contristation of spirit upon the decease of dear friends and relations were not to be disallowed as being the effects of that love and â—espect we bore them in our lives and pregnant testimonies of natural affection without which Man degenerateth into the savageness of beasts yet an intemperate sorrow and afflicting our selves beyond measure was not only unreasonable but also unnatural unreasonable in that it doth as little avail to the good or benefit of the dead as to the recalling them to life again they being in a state which admits of no commerce with or concernment for the survivors Unnatural in that it impaireth the health of the body and beclouds the brightness of the understanding both which are the chiefest treasures of our lives and every man is bound by the Law of Nature to endeavour their preservation as much as in him lies He added That if she had suffered her passion to transport her to any such extravagance as an intent to destroy â—er self as she had seemed to intimate both by her expressions and deportment in that place which of it self appeared a fit Scene whereon to act such a Tragedy she ought with the soonest to retract it For the greatest crime man could commit was Murder and of all Murders the most detestable was self-Homicide which the Creator did so abominate as that he Had engraven upon our very Nature the Law of self-preservation as if on purpose to prevent it And should Heaven be so mercifull as to forgive it which was dangerous to presume yet certainly the Ghost of her Husband would not since if he loved her while alive he could not be pleased with any violence she should offer to her self but would rather abhor the society of so great a Criminal among the Shades at least if Souls departed hence have any sense or cognizance of the actions of Mortals upon Earth The pious Matron hearing this could not refrain from interrupting her counsellor but replied That she must acknowledge the truth and weight of his discourses but yet and then she sighed she had lost such a Jewel of a Husband as never woman lost And therefore if her grief were violent and invincible she deserved rather pity and excuse than reprehension and condemnation both from gods and men And more she would have said but that a fresh flood of tears running down her cheeks robbed her lips of the freedom of their motion The Souldier seeing this and fearing a relapse had immediate recourse to the Antidote of the Bottle of whose cordial juice he had so admirable experience and without more ado he holds up her head with one hand while with the other he drencheth her with a round dose of the remaning liquor And she had no sooner felt the warmth and vigour of it in her stomach but the fountains of her tears were instantly sealed up her forehead smoothed and all her face reduced to its native sweetness Nay more this last draught wrought so divinely that her mind also seemed perfectly restored to its antient mildness and tranquility and she became the most affable compleasant and chearfull creature in the world indeed as if a new Soul had been infused into her This great change considered who can but fall into a rapture in thinking of the virtue of Wine or forbear to repeat father Sancho's prayer that Providence would never suffer him to want good store of that celestial Nectar But our argument is yet sad and it imports us to be more serious For Here some witty Disciple of Epicurus arresting us in the middle of our Narration may take advantage to disparage the excellency and immortallity of that noble essence the reasonable Soul of man and from the example of the soveraign operation of the Wine upon this deplorable Lady thus argue against it If our inclinations and wills be so neerly dependent upon the humours and temperament of our bodies as to be in a manner the pure and natural consequents or results from them and that our humours and temperament be so easily and soon variable according to the various qualities of meats and drinks received into our stomachs both which seem verified in the instance of this Ephesian Woman who by the generous quality of the Wine and nutritive juice of the Meat was as it were in a moment altered in her whole frame of a highly discontented and desperate wretch becomming a quiet tractable and good humour'd creature quitting her morosity and contumacy in a murderous resolution for frank affability yieldingness and alacrity Why should not men believe with his Master Epicurus that the Soul is nothing else but a certain composition or contexture of subtle Atoms in such manner figured and disposed and natively endowed with such activity as to animate the body and actuate all the members and organs of it or with Galen that the Soul is but the Harmony of Elements concurring in the composition of the body at first and in the same tenour continued afterward during life by supplies of the most subtle and refined parts of our nourishment Especially if they reflect upon the admirable effects of Wine which hath the power to alter not only the temperamâ—nt of the body but even that of the mind also subduing the most refractory and unbridled of all our passions and raising up others as violent in their room in a word so forcibly turning the needle of our affections and inclinations from one extreme to another and hurring them from point to point round the whole Compass as if it were it self a soul at least as it if had the soveraignty over the best of souls Now if any such weak and prevaricating Epicurean shall cast this stumbling-block in our way though we are loth to leave the Lady now she is in so goâ—d a humour yet the honour we owe to that divine substance which he endeavours thus vilely to abase obligeth us to digress a while and vouchsafe him a short refutation Let him know therefore that every individual man hath two distinct Souls the one Rational or Intellectual and Incorruptible as being of divine Original the breath of the Creator The other only Sensitive produced from the wombs of Elements common also to brute Animals and therefore capable of dissolution This latter Soul or more properly Spirit is the common Vinculum Cement or Tye betwixt the celestial and incorporeal nature of the reasonable Soul and the terrestriall and corporeal nature of the Body It is
his own and the first Donative of Heaven Other things are the gifts of Fortune which we can no more give than the light of the Sun or the common aer nay which we have scarcely right enough to appropriate to our selves Whoever loves then comes neere to the Divine Nature as placing his chief delight in doing good in making another happy Hence it is that as Men of youthful and strong Bodies are naturally desirouâ— to beget issue of their Loins so those of great and vigorous abilities of Mind feel in themselves a certain noble ardor that incites them to beget children of their understanding a praegnancy of the Brain and most chaste Lust of propagating virtue which is commonly named Platonique Love Wherefore Love is in this respect at least so far from proceeding from want as Mr. Hobs derives it that on the contrary it is the effect of wealth and abundance Nor ought we longer to complain of Nature as close-handed and niggardly in her Gifts to Mankind since she hath been so indulgent and bountiful in instituting this ingenious commerce whereby every one both communicates himself and receives another for by Love we do not sell but exchange ourselves yea transferrs into his own treasury whatever is excellent and divine in another being adopted heir to anothers riches he becomes more accomplished by endowment and in another supplies his own defects This Munificence of Love in communicating whatever it thinks good and delectable is evident even in the delight of sensual Fruition which being a pleasure consisting in a conjunction not only of two Persons of different sexes but also of two different Appetites in each Person viz. to please and to be pleased and the former of these two Appetites being an Affection of the Mind consisting in the Imagination of power to please it necessarily follows that each pâ—rty becomes so much the more joy'd or pleased in himself by how much the more able he finds him to please or cause joy in the other So that they rival each other in the Communication of delight The same may be said also of Platonique Love or generous Charity the delight whereof consisting likewise in the exercise of ones power or ability to enrich the understanding of another and impraegnate his Mind with the seeds of Virtue the Socrates must be so much the more delighted in his own Mind by how much the more he finds the Alcibiades better'd by his inâ—tructions Here 's all the difference the delight of sensual Love depending partly upon the powers of the Body is therefore furious short of duration and subject to decay the Platonique depending solely upon the Mind whose powers are perpetual is therefore calme of one equal tenour and everlasting Here finding my boat unexpectedly brought upon the blessed coast of the New Atlantis or terrestrial Paradice FRIENDSHIP where the aer is perpetually clear and serene the sea pacific and the land spontaneously fertil a place wherein nothing is found but Consolations whose King Altabin is a wise man whose peaceful inhabitants are rich in their contempt of all pecuniary Commerce within themselves where the Tirzan or true Father of the Vine Love composes all differences and extinguishâ—â— all animosities and where the Sons and Daughters of Bensalem live in perfect amity and concord being come I say to this happy Port give me leave my dear Friend here to cast anchor and end my voyage I had designed to sail farther to discover what that wonderful something in Love is which we observe to be more powerful than all Calamites more august than Honour more splendid than Riches more delightful than Pleasures more sovereign than Empire more venerable than Autority more charming than Beauty more illustrious than Wisdom that for which we contemn and trample upon all those glorious things so much either feared or adored by the world yea for which alone we do not contemn but esteem and worship them that which so fully pleaseth alone that even the vilest things please for the sake thereof which enjoye's this privilege of Majesty that nothing can turn to its dishonour which is above the reach of Infamy and can honest even vice it self But perceiving the Needle of my Cogitations no less than that of my Affections to fix it self on that point of the Compass wherein you and I seek for Happiness in this life our constant Friendship I confess my Mind is so intirely taken up with the ravishing Contemplation thereof that I cannot at present divert it to prosecute what I intended to speak concerning several other admirable and stupendious effects of this Heroick Passion whereof I have here drawn no perfect Picture but only a rude Scetch or rather a few gross and confused lines by way of supplement to Your more artificial Representation of it in your Ephesian Matron Let us therefore now if you please goe ashoar and repose our selves in the newly mention'd Island of Bensalem where though we be not advanced to the honour of being Fellows or Brethren of Salomons House yet we may be well received into the House of strangers reserving what remains untouched of our Argument for another divertisement and in the mean time with our dearly beloved Don Geffrey Beseeching every Lady bright of hewe And every gentil woman what she be Albeit that our Matrons were untrue That for that gÃlte ye be not wroth with me Ye may in other Bokes their gilte se. And gladder I would write if that ye leste Penelopes truth and faith of good Alceste Ne saie I nat this all only for these men But most for women that betraied be Through fals folke God yeve hem sorowe That with great witte and subtiltie amen Betraien you and this meveth me To speke and in effect you all I praie Bethe ware of men and herkeneth what I say But God forbid but a woman can Ben as true and loving as a man For it is deintie to us men to â—inde A man that can in love be trewe and kind Thus endeth now my tale and God us sende Taling enough unto our lives ende ¶ FINIS Some Books printed for Henry Herringman at the Anchor in the Lower walk of the New-Exchange Folio's Dr. William Howel's History of the World Pietro Della-Vals Travels Astrea a Romance 1 2 and 3 volume Clelia a Romance 5th volume Dom Iohn de Castro Grand Scipio a Romance Iames Howels History of Venice Bishop Andrews second volume of Sermons Sir Robert Howard's four Plays Wall-Flower a Romance Mrs. Phillips Poems Mr. Abraham Cowley's Works Ben. Iohnson's second volume Quarto's Charleton's Natural History His Immortality of the soul. His History of Stonehenge His Character of the King Boyle's Essaies in Latine and English Parthenissa a Romance in Five Tomes Blunt's Art of making Devices A Discourse of Schools and School-masters Fisher's Ironiodia Gratulatoria Civil Right of Tithes Octavo's large Boyl's style of Scripture His Seraphick Love His History of Colours His Reflections Bergerac's Leâ—ters Humane Industry Humane Soul Sir Robert Howard's Poems Sir Thomas Higgons Poems Buscon or the Witty-Spaniard Rats Rym'd to death Yelverton's Christian Religion Characters on the Passions All Horace in English Carter's Heraldry Grand difference between France and Spain Sucklings Poems and Remains Pastor fido English Sir Toby Mathews Letters Court of Rome De-Laines French Grammer Evelin of Imployment Dryden's Annus Mirabilis Quevedo's Visions Wallers Poems Denhams Poems Donns Poems Crashaws Poems Judgements of God against Atheisme and Prophaneness Fleckno's Loves Dominion The Ephesian Matron Cimmerian Matron to which is added the Misteries and Miracles of Love Octavo's small Bishop King's Poems Game at Chess-Play Davenant's Declamations Flecknoes Diarum Honest Ghost Horace his Odes and Epodes Kellison on the 51 Psalm Method of Reason des Câ—rtes Musarum Delitiâ— Pantagruel's Prognostication Heroick Education Lo. Castlemains Account of Candiâ— Carew's Poems Sir Will. Davenant's Madagascar Sir Will. Dâ—venants Gondibert Large Twelves Rawleighs Ghost Gregory Nazianzen's Orations in English Bishop Kings Psalms Mazarines and Oliver Cromwels Design to surprise Ostend Small Twelves Amourus Fantasme a Play Enchanted Lovers a Play Balsacs Converson of the Roman PLAYES Folio and Quarto Adventures of Five hours Mustapha Henry the Fifth Just Italian Unfortunate Lovers Love and Honour Albovine King of the Lombards Cruel Brotheâ—s Cruelty of the Spaniards in Pâ—râ— History of Sir Francis Drake Siege of Rhodes first and second Parts Nuptial of Pelius and Thetis The Widow a Comedy Love in a Tub. Rival Ladies a Comedy Indian Emperour Amâ—zone Queen Pompey the Great Maiden Queen The Usurper a Tragedy Cutter of Colemanstreet The Carnival a Comedy Mayor of Queenborough Tarugo's Wiles or the Coffee-house Duke of Lerma Villain a Tragedy Dryden's Essay of Poesie Duel of the Staggs