the diversities wherewith they are moved I plainely perceive we lend nothing vnto devotion but the offices that flatter our passions There is no hostilitie so excellent as that which is absolutly Christian Our zeale worketh wonders when ever it secondeth our inclination toward hatred crueltie ambition avarice detraction or rebellion Towards goodnes benignitie or temperance it goeth but slowly and against the haire except miraculously some rare complexion leade him vnto it it neither runnes nor flieth to it Our religion was ordained to root out vices but it shrowdeth fostreth and provoketh them As commonly wee say We must not make a foole of God Did wee believe in him I say not through faith but with a simple beliefe yea I speake it to our confusion did we but believe and know him as wee doe another storie or as one of our companions we should then love him aboue all other things by reason of the infinite goodnes and vnspeakable beauty that is and shines in him Had he but the same place in our affections that riches pleasures glory and our friends have The best of vs doth not so much feare to wrong him as he doth to injurie his neighbour his kinsman or his maister Is there so simple a minde who on the one side having before him the obiect of one of our vicious pleasures and on the other to his full viewe perfect knowledge and assured perswasion the state of an immortall glorie that would enter into contention of one for the other And if we often refuse it through meere contempt for what drawes vsto blaspheming vnlesse it be at all adventures the desire itselfe of the offence The Philosopher Antisthenes when he was initiated in the mysteries of Orpheus the priest saying vnto him that such as vowed themselves to that religion should after death receive eternall and perfect felicities replied if thou believe-it why dost thou not die thy self Diogenes more roughly as his manner was and further from our purpose answered the priest who perswaded him to be one of his order that so he might come vnto and attaine the happinesse of the other world Wilt thou have me believe that those famous men Agesilaus and Epaminondas shall be miserable and that thou who art but an asse and dost nothing of any worth shalt be happy because thou art a Priest Did we but receive these large promises of everlasting blessednes with like authoritie as we do a philosophicall discourse we should not then have death in that horror as we have Non iamse moriens dissolvi conquereretur Sed magis ire foras vestemque relinquere vt anâ—uis Gauderet praelonga senex aut cornua cervus He would not now complaine to be dissolved dying But rather more rejoice that now he is forth-flying Or as a Snake his coate out-worne Or as old Harts doth cast his horne I will be dissolved should we say and be with Iesus Christ. The forcible power of Platoes discourse of the immortality of the soule provoked diverse of his Schollers vnto death that so they might more speedily enjoy the hopes he told them of All which is a most evident token that we receive our religion but according to our fashion and by our owne hands and no otherwise than other religions are received We are placed in the country where it was in vse where we regard hir antiquity or the authority of those who have maintained hir where we feare the menaces wherewith she threatneth all mis-beleevers or follow hir promises The considerations ought to be applied and employed to our beleefe but as Subsidiaries they be humane bondes Another Country other Testimonies equall promises alike menaces mighe semblably imprint a cleane contrary religion in vs weare christians by the same title as we are either Perigordins or Germans And as Plato saith There are â—ew so confirmed in Atheisme but some great danger will bring vnto the knowledge of Gods divine power The parte doth not touch or concernea good Christian It is for mortall and worldly religions to be received by a humane convoy What faith is that like to be which cowardice of heart doth plant and weaknesse establish in vs A goodly faith that believes that which it beleeveth onely because it wanteth the courage not to beleeve the same A vicious passion as that of inconstancie and astonishment is can it possibly ground any regular production in our mindes or soules They establish saith he by the reason of their judgement that whatsoever is reported of hell or of after-comming paines is but a fiction but the occasions to make triall of it offering it selfe at what time age or sickenes doth sommon them to death the errour of the same through the horrour of their future condition doth then replenish them with an other kinde of beleefe And because such impressions make mens hearts fearefull hee by his lawes inhibiteth all instruction of such threats and the perswasion that any evill may come vnto man from the Gods except for his greater good and for a medicinable effect whensoever he falleth into-it The report of Bion that being infected with the Athiesmes of Theodorus he had for along time made but a mockerie of religious men but when death did once seize vpon him he yeelded vnto the extreamest superstions As if the Gods would either be remooved or come againe according to Bions businesse Plato and these examples conclude that wee are brought to beleeve in God either by reason or by compulsion Atheisme being a proposition as vnnaturall and monstrous as it is harde and vneasie to be established in any mans minde how insolent and vnruly soever hee may be Many have beene seene to have conceived either through vanitie or fiercenesse strange and seld-knowne opinions as if they would become reformers of the world by affecting a profession onely in countenaunce who though they be sufficiently foolish yet are they not powerfull enough to ground or settle it in their consciences Yet will not such leave to list-vp their joyned hands to heaven give them but a sâ—occado on their breast and when feare shall have supprest or sickenesse vanquished this licentious fervour of a wavering minde then will they suffer themselves gently to be reclaimed and discreetly to be perswaded to give credite vnto true beliefe and publike examples A decree seriously digested is one thing and these shallow and superficiall impressions another which bred by the dissolutnesse of a loose spirit do rashly and vncertainely floate vp and downe the fantasie of a man Oh men most braine-sicke and miserable that endevour to be worse than they can The errour of Paganisme and the ignorance of our sacred trueth was the cause of this great soules-fall but onely great in worldly greatnes also in this next abuse which is that children and olde men are found to be more susceptible or capable of religion as if it were bredde and had her credite from our imbecilitie The bond which should binde our iudgement tie our
IOANNES FLORIVS AVGVSTAE ANNAE ANGL SCOT FRANC ET HIB REGINAE PRAELECTOR LING ITALICAE CHI SI CONTENTA GODE AET 58. A.D. 1611 In virtute suâ contentus nobilis arte Italus ore Anglus pectore vterque opere Floret adhuc et adhuc florebit floreat vltra FLORIVS hâc specie floridus optat amans Gul Hole sculp Tam foelix vtinam ESSAYES WRITTEN IN French By MICHAEL Lord of Montaigne Knight of the Order of S. Michael Gentleman of the French Kings Chamber DONE INTO ENGLISH according to the last French edition by IOHN FLORIO Reader of the Jtalian tongue vnto the Soueraigne Maiestie of ANNA Queene of England Scotland France and Ireland c. And one of the Gentlemen of hir Royall Priuie chamber LONDON Printed by MELCH BRADVVOOD for EDVVARD BLOVNT and WILLIAM BARRET TO THE MOST ROYAL AND RENOVMED MAIESTIE of the High-borne Princesse ANNA of DENMARKE by the Grace of God QVEENE of England Scotland France and Ireland c. Imperiall and Incomparable Maiestie SEeing with me all of me is in your Royall possession and whatsoeuer pieces of mine haue heeretofore vnder other starres passed the publike view come now of right to be vnder the predomination of a Power that both contain's all their perfections and hath influences of a more sublime nature I could not but also take in this part wherof time had worn-out the edition which the world hath long since had of mine and lay it at your Sacred feet as a memoriall of my deuoted dutie and to shew that where I am I must be all I am and can not stand dispersed in my obseruance being wholly and therein happy Your sacred MAIESTIES most humble and loyall seruant IOHN FLORIO ALL' AVGVSTA MAESTA DI ANNA Seren. ma REGINA d' Inghilterra di Scotia di Francia d' Irlanda c. C He si può dir di VOI somma REGINA Che non sia detto delle più lodate Di Magnanimità Virtù Beltate Incomparabile Sopra-diuina Anzi che stile tanto si raffina Che non sia vinto dalla Maestate L' Altezza la Chiarezza la Bontate Alla qual ' ogni cuor di-cuor s' inchina La qual di tutti honori'l specchio mostra La qual ' il pregio Sour a tutte tiene ANNA l' anello della Gioia nostra La nostra sicurtà la nostra spene VIEN DALL ' ECCELSO LA GRANDEZZA vostra Dalla GRANDEZZA vostra'l nostro bene Il Candido TO THE READER ENough if not too much hath been sayd of this Translation If the faults found euen by my selfe in the first impression be now by the Printer corrected as he was directed the worke is much amended If not know that through mine attendance on hir Maiestie I could not intend-it and blame not Neptune for thy second shipwracke Let me conclude with this worthie mans daughter of alliance Que t'en semble donc lecteur Still resolute IOHN FLORIO To my deare brother and friend M. IOHN FLORIO one of the Gentlemen of hir Maiesties most Royall Priuie Chamber BOoks like superfluous humors bred with ease So stuffe the world as it becomes opprest With taking more than it can well digest And now are turnd to be a great disease For by this ouer charging we confound The appetite of skill they had before There be'ng no end of words nor any bound Set to conceit the Ocean without shore As if man laboured with himselfe to be As infinite in writing as intents And draw his manifold vncertaintie In any shape that passion represents That these innumerable images And figures of opinion and discourse Draw'n out in leaves may be the witnesses Of our defects much rather than our force And this proud frame of our presumption This Babel of our skill this Towre of wit Seemes only checkt with the confusion Of our mistakings that dissolueth it And well may make vs of our knowledge doubt Seeing what vncertainties wee build vpon To be as weake within booke as without Or els that truth hath other shapes then one But yet although wee labor with this store And with the presse of writings seeme opprest And have to many bookes yet want wee more Feeling great dearth and scarsenesse of the bell Which cast in choiser shapes haue bin produc'd To giue the best proportions to the minde Of our confusion and haue introduc'd The likeliest images frailtie can finde And wherein most the skill-desiring soule Takes her delight the best of all delight And where her motions evenest come to rowle About this doubtfull center of the right Which to discouer this great Potentate This Prince Montaigne if he be not more Hath more aduentur'd of his owne estate Then euer man did of himselfe before And hath made such bolde sallies out vpon Custome the mightie tyrant of the earth In whose Seraglio of subiection Wee all seeme bred-vp from our tender birth As I admire his powres and out of loue Here at his gate do stand and glad I stand So neere to him whom I do so much loue T'applaude his happie setling in our land And safe transpassage by his studious care Who both of him and vs doth merit much Having as sumptuously as he is rare Plac'd him in the best lodging of our speach And made him now as free as if borne here And as well ours as theirs who may be proud That he is theirs though he be euery where To haue the franchise of his worth allow'd It be'ing the proportion of a happie Pen Not to b'invassal'd to one Monarchie But dwell with all the better world of men Whose spirits all are of one communitie Whom neither Ocean Desarts Rockes nor Sands Can keepe from th'intertraffique of the minde But that it vents her treasure in all lands And doth a most secure commercement finde Wrap Excellencie vp neuer so much In Hierogliphicques Ciphers Caracters And let her speake neuer so strange a speach Her Genius yet finds apt discipherers And neuer was she borne to dye obscure But guided by the starres of her owne grace Makes her owne fortune and is ever sure In mans best hold to hold the strongest place And let the Critick say the worst he can He cannot say but that Montaigne yet Yeeldes most rich pieces and extracts of man Though in a troubled frame confus'dly set Which yet h 'is blest that he hath euer seene And therefore as a guest in gratefulnesse For the great good the house yeelds him within Might spare to taxe th'vnapt conuayances But this breath hurts not for both worke and frame Whilst England English speakes is of that store And that choyse stuffe as that without the same The richest librarie can be but poore And they vnblest who letters doe professe And have him not whose owne fate beates their want With more sound blowes then Alcibiades Did his Pedante that did Homer want By SAM DANIEL one of the Gentlemen extraordinarie of her Maiesties most royall priuie Chamber Concerning the honor of bookes SInce Honor
bastard and vulgar sort are vnworthy of Philosophie When we see a man ill shod if he chaunce to be a Shoomaker wee say it is no wonder for commonly none goes worse shod then they Even so it seemes that experience doth often shew vs a Phisitian lesse healthy a Divine lesse reformed and most commonly a Wiseman lesse sufficient then an other Aristo Chius had heeretofore reason to say that Philosophers did much hurt to their auditors forasmuch as the greatest number of minds are not apt to profit by such instructions which if they take not a good they will follow a bad course 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristippi acerbos ex Zenonis schola exire They proceed licentious out of the Schoole of Aristippus but bitter out of the Schoole of Zeno. In that excellent institution which Zenophon giveth the Persians wee find that as other Nations teach their children Letters so they taught theirs vertue Plato said the eldest borne sonne in their royall succession was thus taught As soone as he was borne he was delivered not to women but to such Eunuches as by reason of their vertue were in chiefest authoritie about the King Their speciall charge was first to shapen his limmes and bodie goodly and healthy and at seaven yeares of age they instructed and inured him to sit on horsebacke and to ride a hunting when he came to the age of fourteene they delivered him into the hands of foure men that is to say the wisest the justest the most temperate and the most valiant of all the nation The first taught him religion the second to be ever vpright and true the third to become Master of his owne desires and the fourth to feare nothing It is a thing worthy great consideration that in that excellent and as I may terme it matchlesse pollicie of Lycurgus and in truth by reason of her perfection monstrous yet notwithstanding so carefull for the education of children as of her principall charge and even in the Muses bosome and resting-place there is so little mention made of learning as if that generous youth disdaining all other yokes but of vertue ought onely be furnished in liew of tutors of learning with masters of volour of justice of wisedome and of temperance An example which Plato hath imitated in his Lawes The manner of their discipline was to propound questions vnto them teaching the judgement of men and of their actions and if by way of reason or discourse they condemned or praised either this man or that deede they must be told the trueth and best by which meanes at once they sharpned their wits and learned the right Afâ—â—ages in Zenophon calleth Cyrus to an accompt of his last lesson It is saith he that a great lad in our Schoole having a little coate gave it to one of his fellowes that was of lesser stature than himselfe and tooke his coate from him which was too big for him our Master having made me judge of that difference I judged that things must be left in the state they were in and that both seemed to be better fitted as they were whereupon he shewed me I had done ill because I had not onely considered the comelinesse where I should chiefly have respected justice which required that none should be forced in any thing which properly belonged to him and said he was whiâ—t for it as we are in our countrie-townes when we have forgotten the first preterperfect tense or Aâ—ristâ—e of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Regent might long enough make me a prolixe and cunning Oration in genere demonstrativo in the oratorie kind of praise or dispraise before ever hee should perswade me his Schoole is worth that They have gone about to make the way shorter and since Sciences even when they are right taken can teach vs nothing but wisedome honestie integritie and resolution they have at first sight attempted to put their children to the proper of effects and instruct them not by heare-say but by assay of action lively modelling and framing them not onely by precepts and wordes but principally by examples and works that it might not be a Science in their mind but rather his complexion and habitude not a purchase but a naturall inheritance To this purpose when Agesilaus was demaunded what his opinion was children should learne answered What they should doe being men It is no marvell if such an institution have produced so admirable effects Some say that in other Cities of Greece they went to seeke for Rhetoricians for Painters and for Musicians whereas in Lâ—â—â—dâ—mâ—â— they fought for Law-givers for Magistrates and Generals of a 〈…〉 s In A44Spanâ—â—s men learn'd to say well but heere to doe well there to resolve a sophisticall argument and to confound the imposture and amphibologie of words captiously enterlaced together heere to shake off the allurements of voluptuousnesse and with an vndanted courage to contemne the threats of fortune and reject the menaces of death those busied and laboured themselves about idle wordes these after martiall things there the tongue was ever in continuall exercise of speaking heere the minde in an vncessant practise of well-doing And therefore was it not strange if Antipater requiring fiftie of their children for hostages they answered cleane contrarie to that we would doe that they would rather deliver him twice so many men so much did they value and esteeme the losse of their countries education When Agesilauâ— invâ—tâ—â—h Xenophon to send his children to Sparta there to be brought vp it is not because they should learne Rhetorike or Logike but as himselfe saith to the end they may learne the worthiest and best science that may bee â—â—o wit the knowledge how to obey and the skill how to commaund It is a sport to see Socrates after his blunt manner to mocke Hippias who reporteth vnto him what great summes of money he had gained especially in certaine little Cities and small townes of Sicily by keeping schoole and teaching letters and that at Sparta he could not get a shilling That they were but Idiots and foolish people who can neither measure nor esteeme nor make no accompt of Grammer or of Rythmes and who onely ammuse themselves to know the succession of Kings the establishing and declination of estates and such like trash of flim-flam tales Which done Socrates forcing him particularly to allow the excellencie of their forme of publike government the happinesse and vertue of their private life remits vnto him to guesse the conclusion of the vnprofitablenesse of his artes Examples teach vs both in this martiall policie and in all such like that the studie of sciences doth more weaken and esteminate mens minds then corroborate and adapt them to warre The mightiest yea the best setled estate that is now in the world is that of the Turkes a nation equally instructed to the esteeme of armes and disesteeme of letters I find Rome to have beene most valiant when it was least learned The most warlike nations
that the knowledge I seeke in them is there so scatteringly and loosely handled that whosoever readeth them is not tied to plod long vpon them whereof I am vncapable And so are Plutarkes little workes and Senecaes Epistles which are the best and most profitable partes of their writings It is no great matter to draw mee to them and I leave them where I list For they succeed not and depend not one of another Both jumpe and suite together in most true and profitable opinions And fortune brought them both into the world in one age Both were Tutors vnto two Roman Emperours Both were strangers and came from farre Countries both rich and mighty in the common-wealth and in credite with their masters Their instruction is the prime and creame of Philosophie and presented with a plaine vnaffected and pertinent fashion Plutarke is more vniforme and constant Seneca more waving and diverse This doth labour force and extend himselfe to arme and strengthen vertue against weaknesse feare and vitious desires the other seemeth nothing so much to feare their force or attempt and in a maner scorneth to hasten or change his pace about them and to put himselfe vpon his guarde Plutarkes opinions are Platonicall gentle and accommodable vnto civill societie Senacaes Stoicall and Epicurian further from common vse but in my conceit more proper particular and more solide It appeareth in Seneca that he somewhat inclineth and yeeldeth to the tyrannie of the Emperors which were in his daies for I verily beleeve it is with a forced judgement he condemneth the cause of those noblie-minded murtherers of Caesar Plutarke is every where free and open-hearted Seneca full-fraught with points and sallies Plutarke stuft with matters The former doth moove and enflame you more the latter content please and pay you better This doth guide you the other drive you on As for Cicero of all his works those that treat of Philosophie namely morall are they which best serve my turne and square with my intent But boldly to confesse the trueth For Since the bars of impudencie were broken downe all curbing is taken away his maner of writing seemeth verie tedious vnto me as doth all such-like stuffe For his prefaces definitions divisions and Etymologies consume the greatest part of his Works whatsoever quicke wittie and pithie conceit is in him is surcharged and confounded by those his long and far-fetcht preambles If I bestow but one houre in reading him which is much for me and let me call to minde what substance or juice I have drawne from him for the most part I find nothing but winde ostentation in him for he is not yet come to the arguments which make for his purpose and reasons that properly concerne the knot or pith I seek-after These Logicall and Aristotelian ordinances are not availfull for me who onely endevour to become more wise and sufficient and not more wittie or eloquent I would have one begin with the last point I vnderstand sufficiently what death and voluptuousnesse are let not a man busie himselfe to anatomize them At the first reading of a Booke I seeke for good and solide reasons that may instruct me how to sustaine their assaults It is nether gramaticall subtilties nor logicall quiddities nor the wittie contexture of choise words or arguments and syllogismes that will serve my turne I like those discourses that give the first charge to the strongest part of the doubt his are but flourishes and languish every where They are good for Schooles at the barre or for Orators and Preachers where we may slumber and though we wake a quarter of an houre after we may find and trace him soone enough Such a maner of speech is fit for those Iudges that a man would corrupt by hooke or crooke by right or wrong or for children and the common people vnto whom a man must tell all and see what the event will be I would not have a man go about and labour by circumlocutions to induce and win me to attention and that as our Herolds or Criers do they shall ring out their words Now heare me now listen or â—oâ—yes The Romanes in their Religion were wont to say Hoc age which in ours we say Sursum corda There are so many lost words for me I come readie prepared from my house I need no allurement nor sawce my stomacke is good enough to digest raw meat And whereas with these preparatives and flourishes or preambles they thinke to sharpen my taste or stir my stomacke they cloy and make it wallowish Shall the priviledge of times excuse me from this sacrilegious boldnesse to deeme Platoes Dialogismes to be as languishing by over-filling and stuffing his matter And to bewaile the time that a man who had so many thousands of things to vtter spends about so many so long so vaine and idle interloquutions and preparatives My ignorance shall better excuse me in that I see nothing in the beautie of his language I generally enquire after Bookes that vse sciences and not after such as institute them The two first and Plinie with others of their ranke have no Hoc age in them they will have to doe with men that have forewarned themselves or if they have it is a materiall and substantiall Hoc age and that hath his bodie apart I likewise love to read the Epistles and ad Atticum not onely because they containe a most ample instruction of the Historie and affaires of his times but much more because in them I descrie his private humours For as I have said elsewhere I am wonderfull curious to discover and know the minde the soule the genuine disposition and naturall judgement of my Authors A man ought to judge their sufficiencie and not their customes nor them by the shew of their writings Which they set forth on this worlds Theatre I have sorrowed a thousand times that ever we lost the booke that Brutus writ of Virtue Oh it is a goodly thing to learne the Theorike of such as vnderstand the practise well But forsomuch as the Sermon is one thing and the Preacher an other I love as much to see Brutus in Plutarke as in himselfe I would rather make choise to know certainly what talke he had in his Tent with some of his familiar friends the night fore-going the battell then the speach he made the morrow after to his Armie and what he did in his chamber or closet then what in the Senate or market place As for Cicero I am of the common judgement that besides learning there was no exquisite excellencie in him He was a good Citizen of an honest-gentle nature as are commonly fat and burly men for so was he But to speake truely of him full of ambitious vanitie and remisse nicenesse And I know not well how to excuse him in that he deemed his Poesie worthy to be published It is no great imperfection to make bad verses but it is an imperfection in him that he never perceived
faileth in establishing them And to shew that many things may be and have beene whereof our discourse can never ground the nature and the causes He proposeth and setteth downe before them certaine knowen and vndoubted experiments wherein man confesseth to see nothing which he doth as all things else with a curious and ingenious serch More must be done and they must be taught that to convince the weakenesse of their reason we neede not goe far to cull out rare examples And that it is so defective and blinde as there is no facility so cleare that is cleare enough vnto hir that easie and vneasie is all one to hir that all subjects equally and Nature in Generall disavoweth hir jurisdiction and inter position What preacheth truth vnto vs when it biddeth vs flie and shun worldly Philosophy when it so often telleth vs that all our wisdome is but folly before God that of all vanities man is the greatest that man who presumeth of his knowledge doth not yet know what knowledge is and that man who is nothing if he but thinke to be something seduceth and deceiveth himselfe These sentences of the Holy Ghost doe so lively and manifestly expresse what I would maintaine as I should neede no other proofe against such as with all submission and obeysance would yeeld to his authority But these will needes be whipt to their owne Cost and cannot abide their reason to be combated but by it selfe Let vs now but consider man alone without other help armed but with his owne weapons and vnprovided of the grace and knowledge of God which is all his honour all his strength and all the ground of his being Let vs see what hold-fast or free-hold he hath in this gorgeous and goodly equipage Let him with the vtmost power of his discourse make me vnderstand vpon what foundation he hath built those great advantages and ods he supposeth to have over other creatures Who hath perswaded him that this admirable mooving of heavens-vaults that the eternal light of these lampes so fiercely rowling over his head that the horror-moving and continuall motion of this infinite vaste Ocean were established and continue so many ages for his commoditie and service Is it possible to imagine any thing so ridiculous as this miserable and wretched creature which is not so much as maister of himselfe exposed and subject to â—ffences of all things and yet dareth call himselfe Maister and Emperour of this Vniverse In whose power it is not to know the least part of it much lesse to command the same And the priviledge which he so fondly challengeth to be the onely absolute creature in this huge worlds-frame perfectly able to know the absolute beautie and severall partes thereof and that he is only of power to yeeld the great Architect thereof due thankes for it and to keepe account both of the receipts and layings out of the world Who hath sealed him this patent Let him shew vs his letters of priviledge for so noble and so great a charge Have they beene granted onely in favour of the wise Then concerne they but a few Are the foolish and wicked worthy of so extraordinary a favour Who being the worst part of the world should they be preferred before the rest Shall we beleeve him Quorum igitur causa quis dixeriâ— effectum esse mundum Eorum scilicet animantium quaeratione â—tuntur Hisunt dij homines quibus profectò nihil est melius For whose cause then shall a man say that the world was made In sooth for those creatures sake which have the vse of reason Those are Gods and men then whom assuredly nothing is better We shall never sufficiently baffle the impudency of this conjoyning But silly wretch what hath he in him worthy such an advantage To consider the incorruptible life of the celestial bodies their beauty greatnesse and agitation continued with so just and regular a course cum suspicimus magni coelestia mundi Templa super stellisque micantibus Aethera fixum Et venit in mentem Lune Solisque viarum When we of this great world the heavenly-temples see Above vs and the skies with shine-starres fixt to be And marke in our discourse Of Sunne and Moone the course To consider the power and domination these bodies have not onely vpon our lives and condition of our fortune Facta etâ—nim vitas hominum suspendit ab astris For on the stars he doth suspend Of men the deedes the lives and end But also over our dispositions and inclinations our discourses and wils which they rule provoke and moove at the pleasure of their influences as our reason findes and teacheth vs. speculat â—que longé â—â—prendi tacit is dominantia legibus astra Et totum alterna mundum ratione mâ—veri Fatorúmque vices cersis discernâ—re signis By speculation it from far discern's How star's by secret lawes do guide our sterns And this whole world is moov'd by entercourse And by sure signes of fates to know the course Seeing that not a man alone nor a King only But Monarchies and Empires yea and all this world below is mooved at the shaking of one of the least heavenly motions Quantaque quà m par vifaciant discrimina motus Tantum est hoc regnum quod regibus imper at ipsis How little motions make how different affection So great this kingdome is that hath Kings in subjection If our vertue vices sufficiency and knowledge and the same discourse we make of the power of the starres and the comparison betweene them and vs commeth as our reason judgeth by their meane and through their favour furit alter amore Et pontuâ—s tranare potest vertere Troiam Alteriussors est scribendis legibus apta Ecce patrem nati perimunt nat òsâ— parentes Mutuáque armati coeunt in vulner a fratres Non nostrum hoc bellum est coguntur tanta movâ—re Inque suas fâ—rri poenas lacer and áque membra Hoc quoque fatale est sic ipsum expendere fatum One with love madded his love to enjoy Can crosse the seas and over-turne all Troy Anothers lot is to set lawes severe Loesonnes kill fathers fathers sonnes destroy Brothers for mutuall wounds their armes doe beare Such war is not our owne forc't are we to it Drawne to our owne paines our owne limbes to teare Fates so t' observe t' is fatall we must doe it If we hold that portion of reason which we have from the distribution of heaven how can she make vs equall vnto it How can she submit his essence and conditions vnto our knowledge Whatsoever we behold in those huge bodies doth affright vs Quae molitio quae ferramentâ— qui victes quae machinae qui ministri tant i operis fuerunt What workemanship What yron-braces What maine beames what engines What Masons and Carpenters were to so great a worke Why doe we then deprive them of soule of life and of discourse Have we
that which Anthistenes said that a man must provide himselfe either of wit to vnderstand or of a halter to hange himselfe And that which Chrysippus alleaged vpon the speech of the Poet Tyrtaeus De lavertu ou de mort approcher Or vertue to approch Or else let death incroch And Crates said that love was cured with hunger i◠not by time and in him that liked not these two meanes by the halter That Sextius to whom Seneca and Plutarke give so much commendation having given over all things else and betaken himselfe to the study of Philosophy seeing the progresse of his studies so tedious and slow purposed to cast himselfe into the Sea Ranne vnto death for want of knowledge Reade here what the law saith vpon this subject If peradventure any great inconvenience happen which cannot be remedied the haven is not farre-off and by swimming may a man save himselfe out of his body as out of a leaking boate for it is feare to die and not desire to live which keepes a foole joyned to his body As life through simplicity becommeth more pleasant So as I erewhile began to say becommeth-it more innocent and better The simple and the ignorant saith S. Paul raise themselves vp to heaven and take possession of it whereas we withall the knowledge we have plunge our selves downe to the pit of hell I rely neither vpon Valentinianus a professed enemy to knowledge and learning nor vpon Licinius both Roman Emperours who named them the venime and plague of all politike estates Nor on Mahomet who as I have heard doth vtterly interdict all maner of learning to his subjects But the example of that great Lycurgus and his authority ought to beare chiefe sway and thereverence of that divine Lacedemonian policy so great so admirable and so long time florishing in all vertue and felicity without any institution or exercise at all of letters Those who returne from that new world which of late hath beene discovered by the Spaniards can witnesse vnto vs how those nations being without Magistrates or law live much more regularly and formally then we who have amongst vs more Officers and lawes then men of other professions or actions Di cit atorie piene di libelli D'essamine di carte diprocure Hanno le mani e'lseno granfastelli Di chiose di consigli di letture Per cui le faculi â de'poverelli Non sono mai ne le citt à sicure Hanno dietre dinanzi d'ambo i lati Notai procuratori advocati Their hands and bosoms with writs and citations With papers libels proxjes full they beare And bundels great of strict examinations Of glosses counsels readings here and there Whereby in townes poore men of occupations Possesse not their small goods secure from feare Before behind on each sides Aduocates Proctors and Notaries hold vp debates It was that which a Roman Senatour said that their predecessors had their breath stinking of garlike and their stomake perfumed with a good conscience and contrary the men of his times outwardly smelt of nothing but sweet odours but inwardly they stunke of all vices Which in mine opinion is as much to say they had much Knowledge and Sufficiency but great want of honesty In civility ignorance simplicity and rudnesse are commonly joyned with innocency Curiosity subtilty and knowledge are ever followed with malice Humility feare obedience and honesty which are the principall instruments for the preservation of humane society require a single docile soule and which presumeth little of hir selfe Christians have a peculiar knowledge how curiosity is in a man a naturall and originall infirmity The care to encrease in wisedome and knowledge was the first overthrow of man-kinde It is the way whereby man hath headlong cast himselfe downe into eternall damnation Pride is his losse and corruption It is pride that misleadeth him from common waies that makes him to embrace all newfangles and rather chuse to be chiefe of a stragling troupe and in the path of perdition and be regent of some erronious sect and a teacher of falsehood then a disciple in the schoole of truth and suffer himselfe to be led and directed by the hand of others in the ready beaten high way It is happily that which the ancient Greeke proverbe implieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superstion obaieth pride as a father Oh overweening how much doest thou hinder vs Socrates being advertised that the God of wisedome had attributed the name of wise vnto him was thereat much astonished and diligently searching and rouzing vp himself ransaking the very secrets of his hart found no foundation or ground for this divine sentence He knew some that were as just as temperate as valiant and as wise as he and more eloquent more faire and more profitable to their country In fine he resolved that he was distinguished from others and reputed wise only because he did not so esteeme himselfe And that his God deemed the opinion of science and wisedome a singular sottishnes in man and that his best doctrine was the doctrine of ignorance and simplicitie his greatest wisedome The sacred writ pronounceth them to be miserable in this world that esteeme themselves Dust and ashes saith he what is there in thee thou shouldest so much glory of And in an other place God hath made man like vnto a shadowe of which who shall judge when the light being gone it shall vanish away Man is a thing of nothing So far are our faculties from conceiving that high Deitie that of our Creators works those beare his marke best and are most his owne which we vnderstand least It is an occasion to induce Christians to beleeve when they chance to meet with any incredible thing that it is so much the more according vnto reason by how much more it is against humane reason If it were according vnto reason it were no more a wonder and were it to be matched it were no more singular Melius scitur Deus nesoiendo God is better knowen by our not knowing him Saith S. Augustine And Tacitus Sanctius est ac reverentius de actis deorum credere quà m scire It is a course of more holinesse and neverence to hold beliefe then to have knowledge of Gods actions And Plato deemes it to be a vice of impiety over-curiously to enquire after God after the world and after the first causes of things Atque illum quidem parentem huius vniversit atis invenire difficile quum iam inveneris indicare in vulgus nesas Both it is difficult to finde out the father of this vniverse and when you have found him it is vnlawful to reveale him to the vulgar saith Cicero We easily pronounce puissance truth and justice they be words importing some great matter but that thing we neither see nor conceive We say that God feareth that God will be angry and that God loveth Immortalia mortali sermone notante◠Who with tearmes
of mortality Note things of immortality They be all agitations and motions which according to our forme can have no place in God nor we imagine them according to his It only belongs to God to know himselfe and interpret his owne workes and in our tongues he doth it improperly to descend and come downe to vs that are and lie groveling on the ground How can wisdome which is the choise betweene good and evill beseeme him seeing no evill doth touch him How reason and intelligence which we vse to come from obscure to apparant things seeing there is no obscure thing in God Iustice which distributeth vnto every man what belongs vnto him created for the society and conversation of man how is she in God How temperance which is the moderation of corporall sensualities which have no place at all in his God-head Fortitude patiently to endure sorrowes and labours and dangers appertaineth a little vnto him these three things no way approaching him having no accesse vnto him And therefore Aristotle holdes him to be equally exempted from vertue and from vice Neque gratiâ neque irâ teneri potest quòd quae talia essent imbecilla essent omnia Nor can he be possessed with favor and anger for all that is so is but weake The participation which we have of the knowledge of truth whatsoever she is it is not by our owne strength we have gotten it God hath sufficiently taught it vs in that he hath made choise of the simple common and ignorant to teach vs his wonderfull secrets Our faith hath not been purchased by vs it is a gift proceeding from the liberality of others It is not by our discourse or vnderstanding that we have received our religion it is by a forraine authority and commandement The weaknesse of our judgement helpes vs more than our strength to compasse the same and our blindnesse more then our cleare-sighted eies It is more by the meanes of our ignorance then of our skill that we are wise in heavenly knowledge It is no marvell if our natural and terrestriall meanes cannot conceive the supernaturall or apprehend the celestial knowledge Let vs adde nothing of our owne vnto it but obedience and subjection For as it is written I will confound the wisdome of the wise and destroy the vnderstanding of the prudent where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made the wisdome of this world foolishnesse For seeing the world by wisedome knew not God in the wisedome of God it hath pleased him by the vanity of preaching to save them that beleeve Yet must I see at last whether it be in mans power to finde what he seekes for and if this long search wherein he hath continued so many ages hath enriched him with any new strength or solid truth I am perswaded if he speake in conscience he will confesse that all the benefit he hath gotten by so tedious a pursute hath been that he hath learned to know his owne weaknesse That ignorance which in vs was naturall we have with long study confirmed and averred It hath happened vnto those that are truely learned as it hapneth vnto eares of Corne which as long as they are empty grow and raise their head aloft vpright and stout but if they once become full and bigge with ripe Corne they begin to humble and droope downeward So men having tried and â—ounded all and in all this Chaos and huge heape of learning and provision of so infinite different things and found nothing that is substanciall firme and steadie but all vanitie have renounced their presumption and too late knowen their naturall condition It is that which Velleius vpbraides Cotta and Cicero withall that they have learnt of Philo to have learned nothing Pherecydes one of the seaven wise writing to Thales even as he was yeelding vp the Ghost I have saith he appoynted my friends as soone as I shal be layed in my grave to bring thee all my writings If they please thee and the other Sages publish them If not conceale them They containe no certaintie nor doe they any whit satisfie mee My profession is not to know the truth nor to attain it I rather open then discover things The wisest that ever was being demanded what he knew answered he knew that he knew nothing He verified what some say that the greatest part of what we know is the least part of what we know not that is that that which we thinke to know is but a parcel yea and a small particle of our ignorance We know things in a dreame saith Plato and we are ignorant of them in truth Omnes penè veteres nihil cognosci nihil percipi nihil sciri posse dixerunt angustos sensus imbecilles animos brevia curricula vitae Almost all the ancients affirmed nothing may be knowen nothing perceived nothing vnderstood that our senses are narrow our mindes are weake and the race of our life is short Cicero himselfe who ought all he had vnto learning Valerius saith that in his age he began to disesteeme letters And whil'st he practised them it was without bond to any speciall body following what seemed probable vnto him now in the one and now in the other Sect ever holding himselfe vnder the Academies doubtfulnesse Dicendum est sed it a vt nihil affirmem quaeram omnia dubitans plerumque mihi diffideâ—s Speake I must but so as I avouch nothing question all things for the most part in doubt and distrust of my selfe I should have too much adoe if I would consider man after his owne fashion and in grose which I might doe by his owne rule who is wont to judge of truth not by the weight or value of voices but by the number But leave we the common people Qui vigilans stertit Who snoare while they are awake Mortua cui vita est propè iam vivo atque videnti Whose life is dead while yet they see And in a maner living be Who feeleth not himselfe who judgeth not himselfe who leaves the greatest part of his naturall parts idle I will take man even in his highest estate Let vs consider him in this small number of excellent and choise men who having naturally beene endowed with a peculiar and exquisite wit have also fostred and sharpened the same with care with study and with arte and have brought and strained vnto the highest pitch of wisdome it may possibly reach vnto They have fitted their soule vnto all senses and squared the same to all byases they have strengthned and vnder-propped it with all forraine helpes that might any way fit or steade hir and have enriched and adorned hir with whatsoever they have beene able to borrow either within or without the world for hir availe It is in them that the extreame height of humane Nature doth lodge They have reformed the world with policies and lawes They have instructed the
hands nor in any mortall man which one of his Sectaries hath thus imitated Vt potero explicabo nec tamen vt Pythius Apollo certa vt sint fixa quae dixero sed vt homunculus probabilia coniectur â sequens As I can I will explaine them yet not as Apollo giving oracles that all should bee certaine and sette donwe that I say but as a meane man who followes likelihoode by his coniecture And that vpon the discourse of the contempt of death a naturall and popular discourse Elsewhere he hath translated it vpon Platoes very words Si fortè de Deorum naturâ ortuque mundi disserentes minus quod habemus in animo consequimur haud erit mirum Aequum est enim meminisse me qui disseram hominem esse vos qui iudicetis vt si probabilia dicentur nihil vltrà requiratis It will be no marvell if arguing of the nature of Gods and originall of the world we scarsely reach to that which in our minde we comprehend for it is meet we remember that both I am a man who am to argue and you who are to iudge so as you seeke no further if I speake but things likely Aristotle ordinarily hoardeth vs vp a number of other opinions and other beliefes that so he may compare his vnto it and make vs see how farre he hath gone further and how neere he comes vnto true-likelyhood For truth is not iudged by authoritie nor by others testimonie And therefore did Epicurus religiously avoyde to aleadge any in his compositions He is the Prince of Dogmatists and yet we learne of him that to know much breedes an occasion to doubt more He is often seene seriously to shelter himselfe vnder so inextricable obscuritie that his meaning cannot be perceived In effect it is a Pyrrhonisme vnder a resolving forme Listen to Ciceroes protestation who doth declare vs others fantasies by his owne Qui requirunt quid de quaque re ipsi sentiamus curiosiùs id faciunt quà m necesse est Haec in philosophiâ ratio contra omnia disserendi nullámque rem apertè iudicandi profecta à Socrate repetita ab Arcesila confirmata à Carneade vsque ad nostram viget aetatem Hi sumus qui omnibus veris falsa quaedam adiuncta esse dicamus tantâ similitudine vt in ijs nulla insit certè iudicandi assentiendi nota They that would know what we conceit of every thing vse more curiosity than needes This course in Philosophy to dispute against all things to iudge expresly of nothing derived from Socrates renewed by Arcesilas confirmed by Carneades is in force till our time we are those that aver some falshood entermixt with every trueth and that with such likenesse as there is no set note in those things for any assuredly to give iudgement or assent Why hath not Aristotle alone but the greatest number of Philosophers affected difficulty vnlesse it be to make the vanity of the subject to prevaile and to ammuse the curiosity of our minde seeking to feede it by gnawing so raw and bare a bone Clytomachus affirmed that he could never vnderstand by the writings of Carneades what opinion he was of Why hath Epicurus interdicted facility vnto his Sectaries And wherefore hath Heraclitus beene surnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a darke misty clowded fellow Difficulty is a coine that wisemen make vse of as juglers doe with passe and repasse because they will not display the vanity of their arte and wherewith humane foolishnesse is easily apaide Clarus ob obscurum linguam magis interinanes Omnia enim stolidi magis admirantur amântque Inversis quae sub verbis latitantia cernunt For his darke speech much prais'd but of th'vnwise For fooles doe all still more admire and prize That vnder words turn'd topsie-turvie lies Cicero reproveth some of his friends because they were wont to bestow more time about Astrology Law Logike and Geometry then such Artes could deserve and diverted them from the devoirs of their life more profitable and more honest The Cyrenaike Philosophers equally contemned naturall Philosophy and Logicke Zeno in the beginning of his bookes of the Common-wealth declared all the liberall Sciences to be vnprofitable Chrysippus said that which Plato and Aristotle had written of Logike they had written the same in jest and for exercise sake and could not beleeve that ever they spake in good earnest of so vaine and idle a subject Plutarke saith the same of the Metaphysikes Epicurus would have said it of Rethorike of Gramar of Poesie of the Mathematikes and except natural Philosophy of all other sciences And Socrates of all but of the Arte of civill manners and life Whatsoever he was demanded of any man he would ever first enquire of him to give an accompt of his life both present and past which he would seriously examine and judge of Deeming all other apprentiships as subsequents and of supererogation in regard of that Parum mihi placeant eae literaequae advirtutem doctoribus nihil profuerunt That learning pleaseth me but a little which nothing profiteth the teachers of it vnto vertue Most of the Artes have thus beene contemned by knowledge it selfe For they thought it not amisse to exercise their mindes in matters wherein was no profitable solidity As for the rest some have judged Plato a Dogmatist others a Doubter some a Dogmatist in one thing and some a Doubter in another Socrates the fore-man of his Dialogues doth ever aske and propose his disputation yet never concluding nor ever satisfying and saith he hath no other Science but that of opposing Their author Homer hath equally grounded the foundations of all Sects of Philosophy there by to shew how indifferent he was which way we went Some say that of Plato arose ten diverse Sects And as I thinke never was instruction wavering and nothing avouching if his be not Socrates was wont to say that when Midwives begin once to put in practise the trade to make other women bring forth children themselves become barren That he by the title of wise which the gods had conferred vpon him had also in his man-like and mentall love shaken off the faculty of begetting Being well pleased to afford all helpe and savor to such as were engendrers to open their nature to suple their passages to ease the issue of their child-bearing to judge thereof to baptise the same to foster it to strengthen it to swath it and to circumcise it exercising and handling his instrument at the perrill and fortune of others So i◠it with most Authors of this third kinde as the ancients have well noted by the writings of Anaxagoras Democritus Parmenides Xenophanes and others They have a maner of writing doubtfull both in substance and intent rather enquiring then instructing albeit heere and there they enterlace their stile with dogmaticall cadences And is not that as well seene in Seneca and in Plutarke How much doe they speake sometimes of
best Bees wax melteth by the Sun And handled into many formes doth â—â—n And is made aptly fit For vse by vsing it As much will the second doe for the thrid which is a cause that difficultie doth not make me despaire much lesse my vnabilitie for it is but mine owne Man is as well capable of all things as of some And if as Theophrastus saith he avow the ignorance of the first causes and beginnings let him hardly quit all the rest of his knowledge If his foundation faile him his discourse is overthrowne The dispute hath no other scope and to enquire no other end but the principles If this end stay not his course he casteth himselfe into an infinite irresolution Non potest aliud alio magis minúsque comprehendi quoniam omnium rerum vna est definitio comprehendendi One thing can neither more nor lesse be comprehended then another since of all things there is one definition of comprehending Now is it likely that if the soule knew any thing she first knew her selfe and if she knew any without and besides her selfe it must be her vaile and body before any thing else If even at this day the Gods of Physicke are seene to wrangle about our Anatomie Mulciber in Troiam pro Troia stabat Apollo Apollo stoode for Troy Vulcan Troy to destroy When shall we expect that they will be agreed We are neerer vnto our selves then is whitenesse vnto snow or weight vnto a stone If man know not himselfe how can he know his functions and forces It is not by fortune that some true notice doth not lodge with vs but by hazard And forasmuch as by the same way fashion and conduct errours are received into our soule she hath not wherewithall to distinguish them nor whereby to chuse the truth from falshood The Academikes received some inclination of judgement and found it over raw to say it was no more likely snow should be white then blacke and that we should be no more assured of the moving of a stone which goeth from our hand then of that of the eight Spheare And to avoide this difficulty and strangenesse which in trueth can not but hardly lodge in our imagination how beit they establish that we were no way capable of knowledge and that truth is engulfed in the deepest Abysses where mans sight can no way enter yet avowed they somethings to be more likely and possible then others and received this faculty in their judgement that they might rather encline to one apparance then to an other They allowed hir this propension interdicting hir all resolution The Pyrrhonians advise is more hardy and therewithall more likely For this Academicall inclination and this propension rather to one then another proposition what else is it then a reacknowledging of some apparant truth in this than in that If our vnderstanding be capable of the forme of the lineaments of the behaviour and face of truth it might as well see it all compleate as but halfe growing and imperfect For this apparance of verisimilitude which makes them rather take the left then the right hand doe you augment it this one ounce of likelyhood which turnes the ballance doe you multiply it by a hundred nay by a thousand ounces it will in the end come to passe that the ballance will absolutely resolve and conclude one choise and perfect truth But how do they suffer themselves to be made tractable by likelyhood if they know not truth How know they the semblance of that wherof they vnderstand not the essence Either we are able to judge absolutely or absolutly we cannot If our intellectual and sensible faculties are without ground or footing if they but hull vp and downe and drive with the wind for nothing suffer we our judgement to be caried away to any part of their operation what apparance soever it seemeth to present vs with And the surest and most happy situation of our vnderstanding should be that where without any tottering or agitation it might maintaine it selfe setled vpright and inflexible Inter visa vera aut falsa ad animi assensum â—hilâ—nterest There is no difference betwixt true and false visions concerning the minds assent That things lodge not in vs in their proper forme and essence and make not their entrance into vs of their owne power and authority we see it most evidently For if it were so we should receive them all alike wine would be such in a sicke mans mouth as in a healthy mans He whose fingers are chopt through cold and stiffe or benummed with frost should finde the same hardnesse in the wood or iron he might handle which another doth Then strange subjects yeeld vnto our mercy and lodge with vs according to our pleasure Now if on our part we receive any thing without alteration if mans hold-fasts were capable and suficiently powerfull by our proper meanes to seize on truth those meanes being common to all this truth would successively remove it selfe from one to an other And of so many things as are in the world at least one should be found that by an vniversall consent should be believed of all But that no proposition is feene which is not controversied and debated amongst vs or that may not be declareth plainly that our judgment doth not absolutely and cleerely seize on that which it seizeth for my judgement cannot make my fellowes judgement to receive the same which is a signe that I have seized vpon it by some other meane then by a naturall power in me or other men Leave we aparte this infinite confusion of opinions which is seene amongst Phylosophers themselves and this vniversall and perpetuall disputation in and concerning the knowledge of things For it is most truly presupposed that men I meane the wisest the best borne yea and the most sufficient do never agree no not so much that heaven is over our heads For they who doubt of all doe also doubt of this and such as affirme that we cannot conceive any thing say we have not conceived whether heaven be over our heads which two opinions are in number without any comparison the most forcible Besides this diversity and infinite division by reason of the trouble which our owne judgement layeth vpon our selves and the vncertainty which every man findes in himselfe it may manifestly be perceived that this situation is very vncertaine and vnstaid How diversly judge we of things How often change we our fantasies What I hold and believe this day I believe and hold with all my beleefe all my implements springs and motions embrace and claspe this opinion and to the vtmost of their power warrant the same I could not possibly embrace any verity nor with more assurance keepe it then I doe this I am wholy and absolutely given to it but hath it not been my fortune not once but a hundred nay a thousand times nay dayly to have embraced some other thing with the very same instruments
and condition which vpon better advise I have afterward judged false A man should at least become wise at his owne cost and learne by others harmes If vnder this colour I have often found my selfe deceived if my Touch-stone be commonly found false and my ballance vn-even and vnjust What assurance may I more take of it at this time then at others Is it not folly in me to suffer my selfe so often to be beguiled and couzened by one guide Neverthelesse let fortune remoove vs five hundered times from our place let hir doe nothing but vncessantly empty and fill as in a vessell other and other opinions in our minde the present and last is alwaies supposed certaine and infallible For this must a man leave goods honour life state health and all posterior res illa reperta Perdit immutat sensus ad pristina quaeque The later thing destroies all found before And altars sense at all things lik't of yore Whatsoever is tould vs and what ever we learne we should ever remember it is man who delivereth and man that receiveth It is a mortall hand that presents it and a mortall hand that receives it Onely things which come to vs from heaven have right and authority of perswasion and markes of truth Which we neither see with our eyes nor receive by our meanes this scred and great image would be of no force in so wretched a Mansion except God prepare it to that vse and purpose vnlesse God by his particular grace and supernaturall favor reforme and strengthen the same Our fraile-defective condition ought at least make vs demaene our selves more moderately and more circumspectly in our changes We should remember that whatsoever we receive in our vnderstanding we often receive false things and that it is by the same instruments which many times contradict and deceive themselves And no marvell if they contradict themselves being so easie to encline and vpon very slight occasions subject to waver and turne Certaine it is that our apprehension our judgement and our soules faculties in generall doe suffer according to the bodies motions and alterations which are continuall Have we not our spirits more vigilant our memorie more ready and our discourses more lively in time of health then in sickenesse Doth not joy and blithnesse make vs receive the subjects that present themselves vnto our soule with another kind of countenance then lowring vexation and drooping melancholy doth Doe you imagine that Catullus or Saphoes verses delight and please an old covetous Chuff-penny wretch as they doe a lusty and vigorous yong-man Cleomenes the sonne of Anaxandridas being sicke his friends reproved him saying he had new strange humors and vnvsuall fantasies It is not vnlikely answered he for I am not the man I was wont to be in time of health But being other so are my fantasies and my humors In the rabble case-canvasing of our plea-cours this by-word Gaudeat de bonafortuna Let him ioy in his good fortune Is much in vse and is spoken of criminall offendors who happen to meete with judges in some milde temper or well-pleased moode For it is most certaine that in times of condemnation the judges doome or sentence is some times perceived to be more sharpe mercilesse and forward and at other times more tractable facile and enclined to shadow or excuse an offence according as he is well or ill pleased in minde A man that commeth out of his house troubled with the paine of the goute vexed with jelousie or angry that his servant hath robbed him and whose mind is overcome with griefe and plunged with vexation and distracted with anger there is not question to be made but his judgement is at that instant much distempred and much transported that way That venerable Senate of the Areopagites was wont to iudge and sentence by night for feare the sight of the suters â—ight corrupt iustice The ayre it'selfe and the clearenes of the firmament doth forebode vs some change and alteration of weather as saith that Greeke verse in Cicero Tales sunt hominum mentes quali pater ipse Iupiter auctifer a lustravit lampade terras Such are mens mindes as with increasefull light Our father Iove survayes the world in sight It is not onely fevers drinkes and great accidents that over-whelme our judgment The least things in the world wil turne it topsiturvie And although we feele it not it is not to bee doubted if a continual ague may in the end suppresse our minde a tertiani will also according to hir measure and proportion breed some alteration in it If an Apoplexie doth altogether stupifie and extinguish the sight of our vnderstanding it is not to be doubted but a cold and rhume will likewise dazle the same And by consequence hardly shall a man in all his life finde one houre wherein our judgement may alwaies be found in his right byase our body being subiect to so many continuall alterations and stuft with so divers sortes of ginnes and motions that giving credit to Phisitions it is very hard to finde one in perfect plight and that doth not alwaies mistake his marke and shute wide As for the rest this disease is not so easily discovered except it be altogether extreame and remedilesse forasmuch as reason marcheth ever crooked halting and broken-hipt and with falsehood as with truth And therefore it is very hard to discover hir mistaking and disorder I alwaies call reason that apparance or shew of discourses which every man deviseth or forgeth in himselfe That reason of whose condition there may be a hundred one contrary to another about one selfe same subject It is an instrument of Lead and Wax stretching pliable and that may be fitted to all byases and squared to all measures There remaines nothing but the skil and sufficiency to know how to turne and winde the same How well soever a judge meaneth and what good minde so ever he beareth if diligent eare be not given vnto him to which few ammuse themselves his inclination vnto friendship vnto kindred vnto beauty and vnto revenge and not onely matters of so weighty consequence but this innated and casuall instinct which makes vs to favour one thing more then another and encline to one man more then to another and which without any leave of reason giveth vs the choise in two like subjects or some shadow of like vanity may insensibly insinuate in his judgement the commendation and applause or disfavour and disallowance of a cause and give the ballance a twitch I that nearest prie into my selfe and who have mine eyes vncessantly fixt vpon me as one that hath much else to doe else where quis sub arctâ— Rex gelidae metuatur orae Quid Tyridatem terreat vnicè Securus Onely secure who in cold coast Vnder the North-pole rules the rost And there is feard or what would fright And Tyridates put to flight dare very hardly report the vanity and weaknesse I feele in my selfe
voutsafe to reade him over and curiously to search all the infoldings and lustres of his words but a man shall make him say what he pleaseth as the Sibilles There are so many means of interpretation that it is hard be it flat-long side-long or edge-long but an ingenious and pregnant wit shall in all subjects meete with some aire that will fit his turne Therefore is a clowdy darke and ambiguous stile found in so frequent and ancient custome That the Author may gaine to draw allure and busie posterity to himself which not only the sufficiency but the casuall favour of the matter may gaine as much or more As for other matters let him be it either through foolishnesse or subtiltie shew himself somewhat obscure and divers it is no matter care not he for that A number of spirits sifting and tossing him-over wil find and expresse sundrie formes either according or collaterally or contrary to his own al which shall do him credite He shal see himselfe enriched by the means of his Disciples as the Grammer Schoole Maisters It is that which hath made many things of nothing to passe very currant that hath brought divers bookes in credite and charged with all sorts of matter that any hath but desired one selfe same thing admitting a thousand and a thousand and as many severall images and divers considerations as it best pleaseth vs. Is it possible that ever Homer meant all that which some make him to have meant And that he prostrated himselfe to so many and so severall shapes as Divines Lawyers Captains Philosophers all sort of people else which how diversly and contrary soever it be they treate of sciences do notwithstanding wholy relie vpon him refer them-selves vnto him as a Generall Maister for all offices workes sciences tradesmen an vniversall counsellor in all enterprises whosoever hath had need of Oracles or Predictions would apply them to himselfe hath found them in him for his purpose A notable man a good friend of mine would make one marvel to heare what strange far-fetcht conceites and admirable affinities in favor of our religion he maketh to derive from him And can hardly be drawne from this opinion but that such was Homers intent meaning yet is Homer so familiar vnto him as I thinke no man of our age is better acquainted with him And what he findes in favor of religion many ancient learned men have found in favor of theirs See how Plato is tossed and turned over every man endevoring to apply him to his purpose giveth him what construction he list He is wrested inserted to all new-fangled opinions that the world receiveth or alloweth of and according to the different course of subjects is made to be repugnant vnto himselfe Every one according to his sense makes him to dâ—â—avowe the customes that were lawfull in his daies in asmuch as they are vnlawfull in these times All which is very lively and strongly maintained according as the wit and learning of the interpreter is strong and quicke Vpon the ground which Heraclitus had and that sentence of his that all things had those shapes in them which men found in them And Democritus out of the very same drew a cleane contrarie conclusion id est that subiects had nothing at all in them of that which we found in them And forasmuch as honny was sweete to one man and bitter to another hee argued that honny was neither sweete nor bitter The Pyrrhonians would say they know not whether it be sweete or bitter or both or neither For they ever gaine the highest point of doubting The Cyrenaicks held that nothing was perceptible outwardly and onely that was perceivable which by the inward touch or feeling touched or concerned vs as griefe and sensualitie distinguishing neither tune nor collours but onely certaine affections that came to vs of them and that man had no other seate of his judgement Protagoras deemed that to be true to all men which to all men seemeth so The Epicurians place all judgement in the senses and in the notice of things and in voluptuousnes Platoes minde was that the judgement of truth and truth it selfe drawne from opinions and senses belonged to the spirit and to cogitation This discourse hath drawne me to the consideration of the senses wherein consisteth the greatest foundation and triall of our ignorance Whatsoever is knowne is without all peradventure knowne by the facultie of the knower For since the judgment commeth from the operation of him that judgeth reason requireth that he perfourme and act this operation by his meanes and will and not by others compulsion As it would follow if we knewe things by the force and according to the law of their essence Now all knowledge is addressed into vs by the senses they are our maisters via quâ munit a fidei Proxima fert humanum in pectus templáque mentis Whereby a way for credit lead's well-linde Into mans breast and temple of his minde Science begins by them in them is resolved After all wee should knowe no more than a stone vnles we know that there is sound smell light savor measure weight softnes hardnes sharpnes colour smoothnes breadth and depth Behold here the platforme of all the frame and principles of the building of all our knowledge And according to some science is nothing else but what is knowne by the senses Whosoever can force me to contradict my senses hath me fast by the throate and can not make me recoyle one foote backward The senses are the beginning and end of humane knowledge Invenies primis ab sensibus esse creatam Notitiam veri neque sensus posse refelli Quid maiore fide porrò quà m sensus haberi Debet You shall finde knowledge of the truth at first was bred From our first senses nor can senses be misse-led What then our senses should With vs more credit hold Attribute as litle as may be vnto them yet must this ever be granted them that all our instruction is addressed by their means intermission Cicero saith that Chrysippus having assaid to abate the power of his senses and of their vertue presented contrarie arguments vnto him selfe and so vehement oppositions that he could not satisfie himselfe Whereupon Carâ—eades who defended the contrarie part boasted that he vsed the verie same weapons and words of Chrysippus to combate against him and therefore cried out vpon him Oh miserable man thine owne strength hath foyled thee There is no greater absurditie in our judgement then to maintaine that fire heateth not that light shineth not that in yron there is neither weight nor firmenesse which are notices our senses bring vnto vs Nor beliefe or science in man that may be compared vnto that in certaintie The first consideration I have vpon the senses subject is that I make a question whether man be provided of all naturall senses or no. I see divers creatures that live an entire
poetae confugiunt ad Deum cùm explicare argumenti exitum non pâ—ssunt As Poets that write Tragedies have recourse to some God when they cannot vnfold the end of their argument Since men by reason of their insufficiencie cannot well pay themselves with good lawfull coyne let them also employ false mony This meane hath beene practised by all the law-givers And there is no common-wealth where there is not some mixture either of ceremonious vanitie or of false opinion which as a restraint serveth to keepe the people in awe and dutie It is therefore that most of them have such fabulous grounds and trifling beginnings and enriched with supernaturall mysteries It is that which hath given credite vnto adulterate and vnlawful religions and hath induced men of vnderstanding to favour and countenance them And therefore did Numa and Sertorius to make their men have a beter beliefe feede them with this foppery the one that the Nimph Egeria the other that his white Hinde brought him all the counsel she tooke from the Gods And the same authoritie which Numa gave his Lawes vnder the title of this Goddesses patronage Zoroastres Law giver to the Bactrians and Persians gave it to his vnder the name of the God Oromâ—zis Trismegistus of the Aegyptians of Mercurie Zamolzis of the Scithians of Vesta Charondas of the Chalcid onians of Saturne Minos of the Candiots of Iupiter Lycurgus of the Lacedemonians of Apollo Dracon and Solon of the Athenians of Minerva And every common wealth hath a God to her chief all others falsly but that truly which Moses instituted for the people of Iewry desceded from Aegypt The Bedoins religion as saith the Lord of Iovinuile held among other things that his soule which among them al died for his Prince went directly into another more happy body much fairer and stronger than the first by means wherof they much more willingly hazarded their live for his sake In ferrum mens pronavirâ—â— animaque capaces Mortis ignavum est rediturae parcerevitae Those men sword minded can death entertaine Thinke base to spare the life that turnes againe Loe-heere although very vaine a most needefull doctrine and profitable beliefe Everie Nation hath store of such examples in itselfe But this subject would require a severall discourse Yet to say a word more concerning my former purpose I doe not counsell Ladies any longer to call their duty honour vt enim consuetudo loquitur id solum dicitur honestum quod est populari famâ gloriosum For as custome speakes that onely is called honest which is glorious by popular report Their duty is the marke their honour but the barke of it Nor doe I perswade them to give vs this excuse of their refusall in payment for I suppose their intentions their desire and their will which are parts wherein honor can see nothing forasmuch as nothing appeareth outwardly there are vet more ordred then the effects Quae quia non liceat non facit illa facit She doth it though she doe it not Because she may not doe 't God wot The offence both toward God and in conscience would be as great to desire it as to effect the same Besides they are in themselves actions secret and hid it might easily be they would steale some one from others knowledge whence honor dependeth had they no other respect to their duty and affection which they beare vnto chastity in regard of it selfe Each honorable person chuseth rather to loose his honour then to forgoe his conscience The seuenteenth Chapter Of Presumption THere is another kinde of glorie which is an over-good opinion we conceive of our worth It is an inconsiderate affection wherewith wee cherish our selves which presents-vs vnto our selves other then wee are As an amorous passion addeth beauties and lendeth graces to the subject it embraceth and maketh such as are therewith possessed with a troubled conceite and distracted Iudgement to deeme what they love and finde what they affect to bee other and seeme more perfect then in trueth it is Yet would I not have a man for feare of offending in that point to misacknowledge himselfe nor thinke to bee lesse then hee is A true Iudgement should wholy and in every respect maintaine his right It is reason that as in other things so in this subject hee see what truth presenteh vnto him If hee be Caesar let him hardly deeme himselfe the greatest Captaine of the world We are nought but ceremonie ceremonie doth transport vs and wee leave the substance of things wee hold-fast by the boughs and leave the trunke or body We have taught Ladies to blush onely by hearing that named which they nothing feare to doe Wee dare not call our members by their proper names and feare not to employ them in all kinde of dissolutenesse Ceremonie forbids vs by words to expresse lawfull and naturall things and we believe it Reason willeth vs to doe no bad or vnlawfull things and no man giveth credite vnto it Heare I find my selfe entangled in the lawes of Ceremonie for it neither allowes a man to speake ill or good of himselfe Therefore will wee leave her at this time Those whom Fortune whether wee shall name her good or bad hath made to passe their life in some eminent or conspicuous degree may by their publike actions witnesse what they are but those whom she never emploied but in base things and of whom no man shall ever speake except themselves doe it they are excusable if they dare speake of themselves to such as have interest in their acquaintance after the example of Lucilius Ille velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim Credebat libris neque si malè cesser at vsquam Decurreâ—s aliâ— neque si benè quo fit vt omnis Votivâ pateat veluti descripta tabellâ Vita sâ—nis He trusted to his booke as to his trusty friend His secrets nor did he to other refuge bend How ever well or ill with him his fortune went Hence is it all the life is seene the old man spent As it were in a Table noted Which were vnto some God devoted This man committed his actions and imaginations to his paper and as he felt so he pourtraied himselfe Nec id Rutiliâ— Scauro citra fidem aut obâ—rectationifuit Nor was that without credit or any imputation to Rutilius or Scaurus I remember then that even from my tenderest infancy some noted in me a kind of I know not what fashion in carrying of my body and gestures witnessing a certaine vaine and foolish fiercenesse This I will first say of it that it is not inconvenient to have conditions so peculiar and propensions so incorporated in vs that we have no meane to feele or way to know them And of such naturall inclinations vnknowne to vs and without our consent the body doth easily retaine some signe or impression It was an affectation witting of his beauty which made Alexander to bend his head
to ingenuitie and ever to speake truth and what I thinke both by complexion and by intention leaving the successe thereof vnto fortune Aristippus said that the chiefest commoditie her reaped by Philosophie was that he spake freely and sincerely to all men Memory is an instrument of great service and without which judgement will hardly discharge his duty whereof I have great want What a man will propose vnto me he must doe it by peece-meales For to answer to a discourse that hath many heads lieth not in my power I cannot receive a charge except I have my writing tables about me and if I must remember a discourse of any consequence be it of any length I am driven to this vile and miserable necessitie to learne every word I must speake by rote otherwise I should never doe it well or assuredly for feare my memory should in my greatest need faile me which is very hard vnto me for I must have three houres to learne three verses Moreover in any long discourse the libertie or authoritie to remoove the order to change a word vncessantly altering the matter makes it more difficult to bee confirmed in the authors memory And the more I distrust it the more it troubleth me It serveth me better by chance and I must carelesly sollicite her for if I vrge her she is astonished and if it once beginne to waver the more I sound her the more entangled and intricate shee proveth She will wait vpon me when she list not when I please And what I feele in my memorie I feele in many other parts of mine I eschew commandement duty and compulsion What I doe easily and naturally if I resolve to doe it by expresse and prescribed appointment I can then doe it no more Even in my body those parts that have some liberty and more particular jurisdiction doe sometimes refuse to obey me if at any time I appoint and enjoine them to doe me some necessary services This forced and tyrannicall preordinance doth reject them and they either for spight or feare shrinke and are quailed Being once in a place where it is reputed a barbarous discourtesie not to pledge those that drinke to you where although I were vsed with all liberty in favour of certaine Ladies that were in companie according to the fashion of the countrey I would needs play the good fellow But it made vs all mery for the threats and preparation that I should force my selfe beyond my naturall custome did in such sort stop and stuffe my throat that I was not able to swallow one drop and was barr'd of drinking all the repast I found my selfe glutted and full of drinke by the overmuch swilling that my imagination had fore-conceived This effect is more apparant in those whose imagination is more vehement and strong yet it is naturall and there is no man but shall sometimes have a feeling of it An excellent Archer being condemned to death was offered to have his life saved if he would but shew any notable triall of his profession refused to make proofe of it fearing lest the contention of his will should make him to misse-direct his hand and that in lieu of saving his life hee might also lose the reputation he had gotten in shooting in a bow A man whose thoughts are busie about other matters shall very neere within an inch keepe and alwaies hit one selfe same number and measure of paces in a place where he walketh but if heedily hee endevour to measure and count them he shall finde that what he did by nature and chance he cannot doe it so exactly by desseigne My Library which for a countrey Library may passe for a very faire one is seated in a corner of my house if any thing come into my minde that either I must goe seeke or write in it for feare I should forget it in crossing of my Court I must desire some other body to remember the same for me If speaking I embolden my selfe never so little to digresse from my Discourse I doe ever loose it which makes mee to keepe my selfe in my speech forced neere and close Those that serve me I must ever call them either by their office or countrey for I finde it very hard to remember names Well may I say it hath three sillables that it's sound is harsh or that it beginneth or endeth with such a letter And should I live long I doubt not but I might forget mine own name as some others have done heretofore Messala Corvinus lived two yeeres without any memory at all which is also reported of George Trapezoncius And for mine owne interest I doe often ruminate what manner of life theirs was and whether wanting that part I shall have sufficient to maintaine myselfe in any good sort which looking neere vnto I feare that this defect if it be perfect shall loose all the functions of my soule Plenus rimarum sum hâc atque illâc perfluo I am so full of holes I can not holde I runne out ev'ry way when tales are tolde It hath often befallen me to forget the word which but three houres before I had either given or received of another and to forget where I had layed my purse let Cicero say what he list I helpe my selfe to loose what I perticularly locke vp Memoria certè non modè Philosophiam sed omnis vitae vsum omnésque artes vna maximè continet Assuredly memorie alone of all other things compriseth not onely Philosophy but the vse of our whole life and all the sciences Memorie is the receptacle and case of knowledge Mine being so weake I have no great cause to complaine if I know but little I know the names of Artes in Generall and what they treate of but nothing further I turne and tosse over bookes but do not studie them what of them remaines in me is a thing which I no longer acknowledge to be any bodies else Onely by that hath my judgement profited and the discourses and imaginations wherewith it is instructed and trained vp The Authours the place the words and other circumstances I sodainely forget and am so excellent in forgetting that as much as any thing else I forget mine owne writings and compositions Yea mine owne sayings are every hand-while alleaged against my selfe when God wot I perceive it not He that would know of me whence or from whom the verses or examples which here I have hudled vp are taken should greatly put me to my shifts I could hardly tell it him Yet have I not begged them but at famous and very well knowen gates which though they were rich in themselves did never please me vnlesse they also came from rich and honourable hands and that authority concurre with reason It is no great marvell if my booke follow the fortune of other bookes and my memory forgoe or forget as well what I write as what I reade and what I give as well as what I receive Besides the defect of
the graces is that of sense and vnderstanding for there is no man but is contented with the share she hath allotted him I i◠not reason He who should see beyond that should see further then his sight I perswade my selfe to have good and sound opinions but who is not so perswaded of his owne One of the best trials I have of it is the small esteeme I make of my selfe for had they not been well assured they would easily have suffered themselves to be deceived by the affection I beare vnto my selfe singular as he who brings it almost all vnto my selfe and that spill but a little besides All that which others distribute thereof vnto an infinite number of friends and acquaintances to their glorie and greatnesse I referre to the repose of my spirite and to my selfe What else-where escapes of it is not properly by the appointment of my discourse mihi nempe valere vivere doctus Well learn'd in what concerneth me To live and how in health to be As for my opinions I finde them infinitely bold aend constant to condemne mine insufficiencie And to say truth it is a subject where about I exercise my judgement as much as about any other The world lookes ever for eright I turne my sight inward there I fix it there I ammuse it Every man lookes before him selfe I looke within my selfe I have no businesse but with my selfe I vncessantly consider controle and taste my selfe other men goe ever else-where if they thinke well on it they go ever foreward nemo in sese tentat descendere No man attempteth this Essay Into himselfe to finde the way as for me I roule me into my selfe This capacitie of sifting out the truth what and howsoever it be in me and this free humour I have not very easily to subject my beliefe Iowe especially vnto my selfe for the most constant and generall imaginations I have are those which as one would say were borne with me They are naturall vnto me and wholy mine I produced them raw and simple of a hardy and strong production but somewhat troubled and vnperfect which I have since established and fortified by the authoritie of others and by the sound examples of ancients with whom I have found my selfe conformable in judgement Those have assured me of my hold-fast of them and have given me both the enjoying and possession thereof more absolute and more cleare The commendation which every man seekes after for a vivacitie and promptitude of wit I chalenge the same by the order of a notable and farre sounding action or of some particular sufficiencie I pretend it by the order correspondency and tranquilitie of opinions and customes Omnlno si quidquam est decorum nihil est profectò magis quam aequabilitas vniversae vitae tum singularum actionum quam conservare non possis si aliorum naturam imitans omittas tuam Clearely if any thing bee decent for a man nothing is more than an even carriage and equabilitie of his whole life and every action therein which you cannot vphold if following the nature of others you let passe your owne Behold here then how far forth I finde my selfe guilty of that first part I said to be in the vice of presumption Concerning the second which consisteth in not esteeming sufficiently of others I wot not whether I can so well excuse my selfe for whatsoeuer it cost mee I intend to speake what is of it It may be the continuall commerce I have with ancient humours and the Idea of those rich mindes of former ages doth bring me out of liking and distaste both of others and of my selfe or that in truth we live in an age which produceth things but meane and indifferent So it is that I know nothing worthy any great admiration Also I know not many men so familiarly as I should to be able to judge of them and those with whom the quality of my condition doth ordinarily make me conversant are for the most part such as have little care for the manuring of the soule and to whom nothing is proposed for chiefe felicitie but honour and for absolute perfection but valour Whatsoever I see or beauteous or worthy in any other man I willingly commend and regard yea and I often endeare my selfe with what I thinke of it and allow my selfe to lie so farre forth For I cannot invent a false subject I willingly witnesse with my friends what I finde praise-worthy in them And of an inch of valour I willingly make an inch and a halfe but to lend them qualities they have not I cannot and openly to defend their imperfections I may not yea bee they mine enemies I shall sincerely give them their due in witnessing their worth or honour My affection may change my judgement never And I confound not my quarrell with other circumstances that are impertinent and belong not vnto it And I am so jealous of the liberty of my judgement that for what passion so ever I can hardly quit it I wrong my selfe more in lying than him of whom I lie This commendable and generous custome of the Persian nation is much noted They spake very honourably and iustly of their mortall enemies and with those with whom they were at deadly fude and warre so farre foorth as the merit of their vertue deserved I know divers men who have sundry noble and worthy parts some wit some courage some dexteritie some conscience some a readinesse in speech some one Science and some another but of a great man in generall and that hath so many excellent parts together or but one in such a degree of excellencie as hee may thereby bee admired or but compared to those of former ages whom we honour my fortune hath not permitted me to see one And the greatest I ever knew living I meane of naturall parts of the minde and the best borne was Stephanus de la Boitie Verily it was a compleat minde and who set a good face and shewed a faire countenance vpon all matters A minde after the old stampe and which had fortune therewith beene pleased would no doubt have brought forth wondrous effects having by skill and study added very much to his rich naturall gifts But I know not how it comes to passe and surely it doth so there is as much vanitie and weakenesse of vnderstanding found in those that professe to have most sufficiencie that will entermeddle with learned vacations and with the charges that depend of bookes than in any sort of people whether it be because there is more required and expected at their hands and common faults cannot be excused in them or that the selfe-opinion of knowledge emboldeneth them the more to produce and discover themselves over-forward whereby they loose and betray themselves As an Artificer doeth more manifest his sottishnesse in a rich piece of worke which he hath in hand if foolishly and against the rules of his trade he seeke to apply it and
to ground and establish their narration in the greatnesse of their deedes as on a just and solid ground-worke So are the Iornall bookes of Alexander the great the Commentaries which Augustus Cato Brutus Silla and divers others had left of their gests greatly to be desired Such mens Images are both beloved and studied be they either in Brasse or Stone This admonition is most true but it concerneth mee very little Non recitâ— cuiquam nisi amicis idque rogatus Non vbivis coráâ—ve quibuslibet In medio qui Scripta fore recitant sunt multi quique lauantes My writings I reade not but to my friends to any Nor each-where nor to all nor but desir'd yet many In Market-place read theirs In Bathes in Barbers-chaires I erect not here a statue to be set vp in the Market-place of a towne or in a Church or in any other publike place Non equidem hoc studeo bullatis vt mihi nugis Pagina turgescat I studie not my written leaves should grow Big-swolne with bubled toyes which vaine breth's blow Secreti loquimur We speake alone Or one to one It is for the corner of a Library or to ammuse a neighbour a kinsman or a friend of mine withall who by this image may happily take pleasure to renew acquaintance and to reconverse with me Others have beene emboldned to speake of themselves because they have found worthy and rich subject in themselves I contrariwise because I have found mine so barren and so shallow that it cannot admit suspition of ostentation I willingly judge of other mens actions of mine by reason of their nullity I give small cause to judge I finde not so much good in my selfe but I may speake of it without blushing Oh what contentment were it vnto mee to heare some body that would relate the custome the visage the countenance the most vsuall words and the fortunes of my ancestors Oh how attentively would I listen vnto it Verily it were an argument of a bad nature to seeme to despise the very pictures of our friends and predecessors the fashion of their garments and armes I keepe the writing the manuall seale and a peculiar sword And I reserve still in my cabinet certaine long switches or wands which my father was wont to carry in his hand Paterna vestis annulus tanto charior est posteris quanto erga parentes maior affectus The fathers garment and his ring is so much more esteemed of his successors as their affection is greater towards their progenitors Notwithstanding if my posteritie be of another minde I shall have wherewith to be avenged for they cannot make so little accoumpt of me as then I shall doe of them All the commerce I have in this with the worlde is that I borrow the instruments of their writing as more speedy and more easie in requitall whereof I may peradventure hinder the melting of some piece of butter in the market or a Grocer from selling an ounce of pepper Ne toga cordyllis ne penula desit olivis Least Fish-fry should a fit gowne want Least cloakes should be for Olives scant Et laxas scombris saepe dabo tunicas To long-tail'd Mackrels often I Will side-wide paper cotes apply And if it happen no man read me have I lost my time to have entertained my selfe so many idle houres about so pleasing and profitable thoughts In framing this pourtraite by my selfe I have so often beene faine to frizle and trimme me that so I might the better extract my selfe that the patterne is thereby confirmed and in some sort formed Drawing my selfe for others I have drawne my selfe with purer and better colours then were my first I have no more made my booke then my booke hath made me A booke consubstantiall to his Author Of a peculiar and fit occupation A member of my life Not of an occupation and end strange and forraine as all other bookes Have I mis-spent my time to have taken an account of my selfe so continually and so curiously For those who onely run themselves over by fantazy and by speech for som houre examine not themselves so primely and exactly nor enter they into themselves as he doth who makes his study his worke and occupation of it Who with all his might and with all his credit engageth himselfe to a register of continuance The most delicious pleasures though inwardly disgested shun to leave any trace of themselves and avoide the sight not onely of the people but of any other How often hath this businesse diverted me from tedious and yrksome cogitations And all frivolous ones must be deemed tedious and yrkesome Nature hath endowed vs with a large faculty to entertaine our selves a part and often calleth vs vnto it To teach vs that partly we owe our selves vnto society but in the better part vnto our selves To the end I may in some order and project marshall my fantasie even to dote and keepe it from loosing and straggling in the aire there is nothing so good as to give it a body and register so many idle imaginations as present themselves vnto it I listen to my humors and harken to my conceits because I must enroule them How often being grieved at some action which civility and reason forbad me to withstand openly have I disgorged my selfe vpon them here not without an intent of publike instruction And yet these Poeticall rods Zon dessus l'oeil zon sur le groin Zon sur le dos du Sagoin are also better imprinted vpon paper than vpon the quicke flesh What if I lend mine eares somewhat more attentively vnto bookes sith I but watch if I can filch somthing from them wherewith to enammell and vphold mine I never studied to make a booke Yet have I somewhat studied because I had already made it if to nibble or pinch by the head or feet now one Author and then another be in any sort to study but nothing at all to forme my opinions Yea being long since formed to assist to second and to serve them But whom shal we believe speaking of himselfe in this corrupted age since there are few or none whom we may beleeve speaking of others where there is lesse interest to lie The first part of cumstoms corruption is the banishment of truth For as Pindarus said to be sincerely true is the beginning of a great vertue and the first article Plato requireth in the Governor of his Common-wealth Now-adaies that is not the truth which is true but that which is perswaded to others As we call mony not onely that which is true and good but also the false so it be currant Our Nation is long since taxed with this vice For Salvianus Massiliensis who lived in the time of Valentinian the Emperour saith that amongst French-men to lie and forsweare is no vice but a manner of speach He that would endeare this Testimonie might say it is now rather deemed a vertue among them Men frame and
Of the pleasures and goods we have there is none exempted from some mixture of evill and incommoditie medio de fonte leporum Surgit amori aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat From middle spring of sweetes some bitter spings Which in the very flower smartly stings Our exceeding voluptuousnesse hath some aire of groning and wailing Would you not say it dieth with anguïsh Yea when we forge it's image in hir excellency we decke it with Epithers of sickish and dolorous qualities languor effeminacy weaknesse fainting and Morbidezza a great testimony of their consanguinity and consubstantiality Excessive joy hath more severity then jolity Extreame and full content more settlednesse then cheerefulnesse Ipsa faelicitas se nisi temperat premit Felicitie it selfe vnlesse it temper it selfe distempers vs. Ease consumeth vs. It is that which on old Greeke verse saith of such a sense The Gods sell vs all the goods they give vs that is to say they give vs not one pure and perfect and which we buy not with the price of some evill Travell and pleasure most vnlike in nature are notwithstanding followed toget her by a kinde of I wot not what naturall conjunction of Socrates saith that some God attempted to huddle vp together and confound sorrow and voluptuousnesse but being vnable to effect it he bethought himselfe to couple them together at least by the taile Metrodorus said that in sadnesse there is some aloy of pleasure I know not whether he meant any thing else but I imagine that for one to enure himselfe to melancholy there is some kind of purpose of consent and mutuall delight I meane besides ambition which may also be joyned vnto it There is some shadow of delicacy and quaintnesse which smileth and fawneth vpon vs even in the lap of melancholy Are there not some complexions that of it make their nourishment est quaedam flere voluptas It is some pleasure yet With teares our cheekes to wet And one Attalus in Seneca saith the remembrance of our last friends is as pleasing to vs as bitternesse in wine that is over old Minister veteris puer falerni Ingere mâ— calices amariores Sir boy my servitor of good old wine Bring me my cup thereof bitter but fine and as of sweetly-sower apples Nature discovereth this confusion vnto vs Painters are of opinion that the motions and wrinkles in the face which serve to weepe serve also to laugh Verely before one or other be determined to expresse which behold the pictures successe you are in doubt toward which one enclineth And the extreamity of laughing entermingles it selfe with teares Nullum sine auctor amento malum est There is no evill without some obligation When I imagine man fraught with all the commodities may be wished let vs suppose all his severall members were for ever possessed with a pleasure like vnto that of generation even in the highest point that may be I finde him to sinke vnder the burthen of his ease and perceive him altogether vnable to beare so pure so constant and so vniversall a sensuality Truely he flies when he is even vpon the nicke and naturally hastneth to escape it as from a step whereon he cannot stay or containe himselfe and feareth to sinke into it When I religiously confesse my selfe vnto my selfe I finde the best good I have hath some vicioustaint And I feare that Plato in his purest vertue I that am as sincere and loyall an esteemer thereof and of the vertues of such a stampe as any other can possibly be if he had neerely listned vnto it and sure he listned very neere he would therein have heard some harsh tune of humane mixture but an obscure tune and onely sensible vnto himselfe Man all in all is but a botching and party-coloured worke The very Lawes of Iustice cannot subsist without seme commixture of Iniustice And Plato saith They vndertake to out off Hidraes heades that pretend to remoove all incommodities and inconveniences from the Lawes Omne magnum exemplum habet aliquid eximquo quod contrasingulos vtilitate publicârependitur Every great example hoth some touch of iniustice which is requited by the common good against particulars saith Tacitus It is likewise true that for the vse of life and service of publike societie there may be excesse in the purity and perspicuity of our spirits This piercing brightnesse hath overmuch subtility and curiosity They should be made heavy and dull to make them the more obedient to example and practise and they must be thickned and obscured to proportion them to this shady and terrestriall life Therefore are vulgar and lesse-wire-drawnewits found to be more fit and happy in the conduct of affaires And the exquisite and high-raised opinions of Philosophy vnapt and vnfit to exercise This sharp vivacity of the spirit and this supple and restlesse volubility troubleth our negotiations Humane enterprises should be managed more grosely and superficially and have a good and great part of them left for the rights of fortune Affaires neede not be sifted so nicely and so profoundly A man looseth himselfe about the considerations of so many contrary lusters and diverse formes Volntantibus res inter se pugnantes obtorpuerant animi Their mindes were â—st oâ—ished while they revolved things so different It is that which our elders report of Simonides because his imagination concerning the question Hyeron the King had made vnto him which the better to answer he had diverse dates allowed him to thinke of it presented sundry subtill and sharpe considerations vnto him doubting which might be the likeliest he altogether dispaired of the truth Whosoever searcheth all the circumstances and embraceth all the consequences therof hindereth his election A meane engine doth equally conduct and sufficeth for the executions of great and little weights It is commonly seene that the best husbands and the thristiest are those who cannot tell how they are so and that these cunning Arethmeticians doe seldome thrive by it I know a notable pratler and an excellent blazoner of all sorts of husbandry and thrift who hath most pitteously let ten thousand pound sterline a yeare passe from him I know another who saith he consulteth better then any man of his counsell and there cannot be a properer man to see vnto or of more sufficiency notwithstanding when he commeth to any execution his owne servants finde he is farre otherwise This I say without mentioning or accounting his ill lucke The one and twentieth Chapter Against idlenesse or doing nothing THe Emperour Vespasian lying sicke of the disease whereof he died omitted not to endevour to vnderstand the state of the Empire and lying in his bed vnceâ—â—antly dispatched many affaires of great consequence and his Phisitians chiding him as of a thing hurtfull to his health he answered That an Emperour should die standing vpright Loe heere a notable saying fitting my humour and worthy a great Prince Adrian the Emperour vsed the same afterward
all eyes are fixed alwayes to shew himselfe in a good temper but that the chiefest point consisted in providing inwardly and for himselfe and that in mine opinion it was noe discreete parte inwardly to fret which to maintaine that marke and formall outward apparance I feared hee did Choller is incorporated by concealing and smothering the same as Diogenes saide to Demosthenes who fearing to be seene in a Taverne withdrew himselfe into the same The more thou recoylest backe the further thou goest into it I woulde rather perswade a man though somewhat out of season to give his boy a whirret on the eaâ—e then to dissemble this wise sterne or severe countenance to vex and fret his minde And I woulde rather make shew of my passions then smother them to my cost which being vented and exprest become more languishing and weake Better it is to let it's pointe worke outwardly then bend it against our selves Omnia vitia in aperto leviora sunt tunc perniciosissimae quum simulata sanitate subsidunt All vices are then lesse perillous when they lie open to bee seene but then most pernicious when they lurke vnder counterfeited soundnesse I ever warne those of my houshold who by their offices-authoritie may sometimes have occasion to be angry first to husband their anger then not to employ it vpon every slight cause for that empeacheth the effect and worth of it Rash and ordinary brawling is converted to a custome and that 's the reason each man contemnes it That which you employ against a servant for any theeving is not perceiâ—ed because it is the same he hath sundry times sâ—ene you vse against him if hee have not washt a glasse well oâ— misplaced a stoole Secondly that they be not angry in vaine but ever have regard their châ—ding come to his eares with whom they are offended for commonly some will brawle before hee come in their presence and chide a good while after he is gone secum petulans amentia ceâ— tat Madnesse makes with it selfe a fray Which fondly doth the wanton play and wreake their anger against his shadow and make the storme fall where no man is either chastised or interressed but with the rumour of their voice and sometimes with such as cannot doe withall I likewise blame those who being angry will brave and mutime when the partie with whome they are offended is not by These Rodomantados must be employed on such as feare them Mugitus veluti cùm prima in praelia taurus Terrificos â—iet atque ir asci in cornua tentat Arborts obnixus trunco ventósque lacâ—ssit Ictibus sparsa ad pugnam proludit arena As when a furious Bull to his first combate mooves His terror-breeding lowes his horne to anger prooves Striving against a trees trunke and the winde with strokes His preface made to fight with scaâ—tered sand provokes When I chance to be angry it is in the earnestâ—st manner that may be but yet as briefly and as secretly as is possible I loose my selfe in hastinesse and violence but not in trouble So that let me spend all maner of injurious wordes at random and without all heede and never respect to place my points pertinently and where they may doe most hurt For commonly I employ nothing but my tongue My boyes scape better cheape in great matters then in small trifles Slight occasions surprise me and the michiefe is that after you are once falne into the pit it is no matter who thrusts you in you never cease till you come to the bottome The fall presseth hasteneth mooveth and furthereth it selfe In great occasions I am pleased that they are so just that every body expects a reasonable anger to insue I glorify my selfe to deceive their expectation Against these I bandy and prepare my selfe they make me summon vp my wits and threaten to carry me very farre if I would follow them I easily keepe my selfe from falling into them and if I stay for them I am stronge enough to reject the impulsion of this passion what violent cause soever it hath But if it seize vpon and once preoccupate me what vaine cause soever it hath it doth cleane transport me I condition thus with those that may contest with me when you perceve me to be first angry be it right or wrong let me hold-on my course I will do the like to you when ever it shall come to my lot The rage is not engendred but by the concurrencie of cholers which are easily produced one of another and are not borne at one instant Let vs allow every man his course so shall we ever be in peace Oh profitable prescription but of an hard execution I shall some time seeme to be angry for the order and direction of my house without any just emotion Accoding as my age yeeldeth my humours more sharpe or peevish so doe I endevour to oppose my selfe against them and if I can I will hereafter enforce my selfe to be lesse froward and not so teasty As I shall have more excuse and inclination to be so although I have heretofore beene in their number that are least A word more to conclude this Chapter Aristotle saith Choller doth sometimes serve as armes vnto Vertue and Valour It is very likely notwithstanding such as gainesay him answer pleasantly it is a weapon of a new fashion and strange vse For we moove other weapons but this mooveth vs our hand doth not guide it but it directeth our hand it holdeth vs and we hold not it The two and thirtieth Chapter A defence of Seneca and Plutarke THe familiarity I have with these two men and the ayde they affoord me in my olde age and my Booke meerely framed of their spoiles bindeth me to wed and maintaine their honour As for Seneca amongest a thousand petty-Pamphlets those of the pretended reformed religion have published for the defence of their cause which now and then proceede from a good hand and which pitty it is it should not be employed in more serious and better subjects I have heeretofore seene one who to prolong and fill vp the similitude he would finde betweene the governement of our vnfortunate late king Charles the ninth and that of Nero compareth the whilom lord Cardinall of Lorenâ— vnto Seneca their fortunes to have beene both chiefe men in the governement of their Princes and therewithall their manners their conditions and their demeanours wherein in mine opinion hee doth the saide lorde Cardinall great honour for although I bee one of those that highly respect his spirite his woorth his eloquence his zeale toward his religion and the service of his King and his good fortune to have beene borne in an age wherein hee was so new so rare and there withall so necessarie for the common-wealth to have a Cleargie-man of such dignitie and nobilitie sufficient and capable of so weightie a charge yet to confesse the truth I esteeme not his capacitie such nor his vertue so
obscuritie procured him Smyrna Rhodos Colophon Salamis Chios Argos Athenae Rhodes Salamis Colophon Chios Argos Smyrna with Athens The other is Alexander the great For who shall consider his age wherein hee beganne his enterprises the small meanes he had to ground so glorious a desseigne vpon the authoritie he attained unto in his infancie amongst the greatest Commaunders and most experienced Captaines in the world by whom he was followed the extraordinarie favour wherwith fortune embraced him and seconded so many of his haughtie-dangerous exploites which I may in a manner call rash or fond-hardie Impellens quicquid sibi summapetenti Obstaret gaudensque viam fecisse ruina While he shot at the high'st all that might stay He for'st and joy de with ruine to make way That eminent greatnesse to have at the age of thirtie yeares passed victorious through all the habitable earth and but with halfe the life of a man to have attained the vtmost endevour of humane nature so that you cannot imagine his continuance lawfull and the lasting of his increase in fortune and progresse in vertue even vnto a just terme of age but you must suppose something above man to have caused so many Royal branches to â—ssue from out the loines of his Souldiers leaving the world after his death to be shared betweene foure succesâ—ours onely Captaines of his Armie whose succeeders have so long time since continued and descendents maintained that large possession So infinite rare and excellent vertues that were in him as justice temperance liberalitie integritie in words love toward his and humanitie toward the conquered For in truth his maners seeme to admit no just cause of reproach indeed some of his particular rare and extraordinary actions may in some fort be taxed For it is impossible to conduct so great and direct so violent motions with the strict rules of justice Such men ought to be judged in grose by the mistris end of their actions The ruine of Thebes the murther of Menander and of Ephestions Phisitian the maslacre of so many Persian prisoners at once of a troupe of Indian Souldiers not without some prejudice vnto his word and promise and of the Cosseyans and their little children are escapes somewhat hard to be excused For concerning Clitus the fault was expiated beyond it's merite and that action as much as any other witnesseth the integritie and cheerefulnes of his complexion and that it was a complexion in it selfe excellently formed to goodnesse And it was wittily saide of one that he had vertues by nature and vices by accident Concerning the point that he was somewhat to lavish a boaster and over-impatient to heare himselfe ill-spoken-of and touching those mangers armes and bits which He caused to be scattered in India respecting his age and the prosperitie of his fortune they are in my conceit pardonable in him He that shall also consider his many military vertues as diligence foresight patience discipline policie magnanimitie resolution and good fortune wherein though Haâ—â—balls authority had not taught it vs he hath been the first and chief of men the rare beauties matchlesse features and incomparable conditions of his person beyond all comparison and wonder-breeding his carriage demeanor and venerable behaviour in a face so yoong so vermâ—ill and heart-enflaming Qualis vbi Occani perfusus Lucifer vnda Quenâ— Venus ante alios astrorum diligit ignes Extulit os sacrum caelo tenebrá squere solvit As when the day starre washt in Ocean-streames Which Venus most of all the starres esteemes Shewes sacred ligh tshakes darkenesse-off with beames The excellencie of his wit knowledge and capacitie the continuance and greatnesse of his glorie vnspotted vntainted pure and free from all blame or envie insomuch as long aftet his death it was religiously beleived of many that the medalls or brooches representing his person brought good lucke vnto such as wore or had them about them And that more Kings and Princes have written his gestes and actions then any other historians of what qualitie soever have registred the gests or collected the actions of any other King or Prince that ever was And that even at this day the Mahometists who contemne all other histories by speciall priviledge allow receive and onely honour his All which premises duely considered together hee shall confesse I have had good reason to preferre him before Caesar himselfe who alone might have made me doubt of my choise And it must needes bee granted that in his exploites there was more of his owne but more of fortunes in Alexanders atchievements They have both had many things mutually alike and Caesar happily some greater They were two quicke and devouring fires or two swift and surrounding streames able to ravage the world by sundrie wayes Et velut immissi diversis partibus ignes Arentem in silvam virgulta sonantia lauro Aut vbi decursu rapido de montibus altis Dant sonitum spumosi amnes in aequora currunt Quisque suum populatus iter As when on divers sides fire is applied To crackling bay-shrubs or to woods Sunne dried Or as when foaming streames from mountaines hie With downe-fall swift resound and to sea flie Each-one doth havocâ—e-out his way thereby But grant Caesars ambition were more moderate it is so vnhappy in that it met with this vile subject of the subversion of his countrie and vniversall empairing of the world that all parts imparcially collected and put together in the balance I must necessarily bend to Alexanders side The third and in my judgement most excellent man is Epaminondas Of glorie he hath not so much as some and is farre short of diverse which well considered is no substantiall part of the thing of resolution and true valour not of that which is set-on by ambition but of that which wisedome and reason may settle in a well disposed minde hee had as much as may be imagined or wished for Hee hath in mine opinion made as great triall of his vertues as ever did Alexander or Caesar for although his exploites of warre bee not so frequent and so high-raised yet being throughly considered they are as weightie as resolute as constant yea and as authenticall a testimonie of hardines and militarie sufficiencie as any mans else The Graecians without any contradiction affoorded him the honour to entitle him the chiefe and first man among themselves and to be the first and chiefe man of Greece is without all question to bee chiefe and first man of the world Touching his knowledge and worth this ancient judgement doth yet remaine amongst vs that never was man who know so much nor never man that spake lesse then he For he was by Sect a Pythagorian and what he spake no man ever spake better An excellent and most perswasive Orator was hee And concerning his manners and conscience therein hee farre outwent all that ever medled with managing affaires For in this one part which ought especially to bee noted
and of a sound vnderstanding What will the end bee one goeth Eastward and another Westward They loose the principall and stray it in the throng of incidents At the end of an houres wrangling they wot not what they seeke for one is high another low and another wide Some take holde of a word some of a similitude Some forget what was obiected against them so much are they engaged in the pursuite and thinke to follow themselues and not you Some finding themselues weake-backt feare all refuse all and at the very entrance mingle the subiect and confound the purpose or in the heate of the disputation mutine to holde their peace altogether through a spightfull ignorance affecting a proud kinde of contempt or a foolish modesty auoydiug of contention Prouided that one strike and hit hee careth not how open hee lie Another compteth his wordes and wayeth them for reasons Another employeth no thing but the aduantage of his voyce and winde Here one concludeth against himselfe here another wearieth you with idle prefaces and friuolous digressions Another armeth himselfe afore hand with iniuries and seekes after a Dutch quarrell to rid himselfe of the society and shake off the conference of a spirite that presseth and ouer beareth his This last hath no insight at all in reason but still beleagreth you with the dialecticall or logicall close of his clavsâ— and ties you to the rule of his arte or forme of his skill Now who doth not enter into distrust of sciences and is not in doubt whether in any necessity of life hee may reape solid fruite of them if hee consider the vse wee haue of them Nihil sanantibus literis Since learning doth not cure Who hath learnt any wit or vnderstanding in Logique Where are her faire promises Nec admelius viâ—endum nec ad commodius disserendum Nether to liue better or to dispute fitter Shall a man heare more brabling or confusion in the tittle-tatle of fish wiâ—es or scoulding sluts then in the publike disputations of men of this profession I had rather my childe should learne to speake in a Taverne then in the schooles of well-speaking Arte. Take you a maister of artes and conferre with him why doth hee not make vs perceive his artificiall exceliencie and by the admiration of his reasons-constancie or with the beauty of his quaint order and grace of his method ravish silly women and bleare ignorant men as wee are Why doth hee not sway winde and perswade vs as he list Why should one so advantageous in matter and conduct entermixe injuries indiscretion and chollericke rage with his fence Let him pull-of his two-faced hoode his gowne and his latine let him not fill our eares with meerely beleeved Aristotle you will discover and take him for one of vs and worse if worse my bee Mee thinkes this implication and entangling of speech wherewith they doe so much importune vs may fitly bee compared vnto juglers play of fast and loose their nimblenesse combates and forceth our sences but it nothing shaketh our beliefe Take away their jugling what they doe is but base common and slight Though they bee more wittie and nimble spirited they are not the lesse foolish simple and vnapt I love wit and honour wisedome as much as them that have it And being rightly vsed it is the noblest the most forcible yea and richest purchase men can make But in such of which kinde the number is infinite that vpon it establish their fundamentall sufficiency and worth that from their wit refer themselves to their memory sub aliena vmbra latentes reposing them vnder another mans protection and can do nothing but by the booke if I may be bold to say so I hate the same a little more then sottishnes In my country and in my daies learning and bookishnes doth much mend purses but minds nothing at all If it chance to finde them empty light and dry it filleth it over-burthens and swelleth them a raw and indigested masse if thinne it doth easily purifie clarifie extenuate and subtilize them even vnto exinanition or evacuation It is a thing of aquality very neare indifferent a most profitable accessory or ornament vnto a well borne minde but pernicious and hurtfully domagable vnto any other Or rather a thing of most precious vse that wil not basely be gotten nor vilie possessed In some hands a royal scepter in other some a rude mattocke But let vs proceed What greater or more glorious victory can you expect then teach your enemy that he cannot withstand you When you gaine the advantage of your proposition it is Truth that winneth when you get the advantage of the order and conduct it is you that winne I am of opinion that both in Plato and in Xenophon Socrates disputeth more in favour of the disputers then in grace of the disputation and more to instruct Euthydemus and Protagoras with the knowledge of their impertinency then with the impertinency of their arte He takes hold of the first matter as he who hath a more profitable end then to cleare it that is to cleare the spirits he vndertaketh to manage and to exercise Agitation stirring and hunting is properly belonging to our subject or drift we are not excusable to conduct the same ill and impertinently but to misse the game and faile in taking that 's another matter For wee are borne to quest and seeke after trueth to possesse it belongs to a greater power It is not as Democritus said hidden in the deepes of abisse but rather elevated in infinite height of diuine knowledge The world is but a Schoole of inquisition The matter is not who shall put in but who shall runne the fairest courses As well may hee play the foole that speaketh truely as hee that speaketh falsely for wee are vpon the manner and not vppon the matter of speaking My humour is to haue as great aregarde to the forme as to the substance as much respect to the Aduocate as to the cause as Alcibiades appointed wee should doe And I day lie ammuse my selfe to reade in authors without care of their learning therein seeking their manner not their subiect Euen as I pursue the communication of some famous wit not that hee should teach mee but that I may know him and knowing him if he deserue it I may imitate him Every one may speake truely but to speake orderly methodically wisely and sufficiently few can doe it So falsehood proceeding of ignorance doth not offend mee ineptnesse and trifling doth I haue broken-off diuers bargaines that would haue beene very commodious vnto me by the impertinencie of their contestation with whome I did bargaine I am not mooued once a yeare with the faults or ouersights of those over whom I have power but touching the point of the sottishinesse and foolishnesse of their allegations excuses and defences rude and brutish wee are every day ready to goe by the eares They neyther vnderstand what is said nor wherefore and even
continued a good while amongst those thorny bushes contesting and striving about my ransome which they racked so high that it appeared well I was not much knowen of them They had long contestation among themselves for my life and to say truth there were many circumstances threatned me of the danger I was in Tunc animis opus Aenea tunc pectore firme Of courage then indeed Then of stout brest is need I ever stood vpon the title and priviledge of the truce and proclamation made in the Kings name but that availed not I was content to quit them whatever they had taken from me which was not to be despised without promising other ransome After wee had debated the matter to and fro the space of two or three houres and that no excuses could serve they set me vpon a lame jade which they knew could never escape them and committed the particular keeping of my person to fifteene or twenty harque-busiers and dispersed my people to others of their crew commaunding we should all divers wayes bee carried prisoners and my selfe being gone two or threescore paces from them Iam prâ—ce Pollucis iam Castor is implorata Pollux and Castors aide When I had humbly praide behold a sodain vnexpected alteration took them I saw their Captaine comming towards me with a cheerfull countenance much milder speeches then before carefully trudging vp and downe through all the troups to find out my goods againe which as he found all scattred he forced every man to restore them vnto me and even my boxe came to my handes againe To conclude the most precious jewell they presented me was my liberty as for my other things I cared not greatly at that time What the true cause of so vnlockt for a change and so sodaine an alteration was without any apparent impulsion and of so wonderfull repentance at such a time in such an opportunity and such an enterprise fore-meditated consulted and effected without controlement and which through custome and the impiety of times was now become lawfull for at the first brunt I plainely confessed and genuinly told them what side I was of where my way lay and whither I was riding I verily know not yet nor can I give any reason for it The chiefest amongst them vnmasked himselfe told mee his name and repeated diverse times vnto me that I should acknowledge my deliverance to my countenance to my boldnesse and constancy of speech and be beholding to them for it insomuch as they made me vnworthy of such a misfortune and demanded assurance of me for the like curtesie It may be that the inscrutable goodnesse of God would vse this vaine instrument for my preservation For the next morrow it also shielded mee from worse mischiefe or amboscadoes whereof themselves gently forewarned me The last is yet living able to report the whole succese himselfe the other was slaine not long since If my countenance had not answered for me if the ingenuity of mine inward intent might not plainely have beene disciphered in mine eyes and voice surely I could never have continued so long without quarrells or offences with this indiscreete liberty to speake freely be it right or wrong what ever commeth to my minde and rashly to judge of things This fashion may in some sort and that with reason seeme vncivill and ill accomodated in our customary manners but outragious or malicious I could never meete with any would so judge it or that was ever distasted at my liberty if he received the same from my mouth Words reported againe have as another sound so another sense And to say true I hate no body And am so remisse to offend or slow to wrong any that for the service of reason itselfe I cannot doe it And if occasions have at any time vrged me in criminall condemnations to doe as others I have rather beene content to be amearced then to appeare Vt magis peccari nolim quà m satis animi ad vindicanda peccata habeam So as I had rather men should not offend then that I should have courage enough to punish their offences Some report that Aristotle beeing vpbraided by some of his friends that hee had beene over mercifull toward a wicked man I have indeede quoth he beene mercifull toward the man but not toward his wickednesse Ordinary judgements are exasperated vnto punishment by the horror of the crime And that enmildens me The horror of the first murther makes me feare a second And the vglinesse of one cruelty induceth me to detest all maner of imitation of it To me that am but a plaine fellow and see no higher then a steeple may that concerne which was reported of Charillus King of Sparta He cannot be good since he is not bad to the wicked Or thus for Plutarke presents it two wayes as he doth a thousand other things diversly and contrary Hee must needes be good since he is so to the wicked Even as in lawfull actions it grieves me to take any paines about them when it is with such as are therewith displeased So to say truth in vnlawfull I make no great conscience to employ my selfe or take paines about them being with such as consent vnto them The thirteenth Chapter Of Experience THere is no desire more naturall then that of knowledge We attempt all meanes that may bring vs vnto it When reason failes vs we employ experience Per varios vsus artem experientia fecit Exemplo monstr ante viam By diverse proofes experience arte hath bred Whilst one by one the way examples led Which is a meane by much more weake and vile But trueth is of so great consequence that wee ought not disdaine any induction that may bring vs vnto it Reason hath so many shapes that wee knowe not which to take holde of Experience hath as many The consequence wee seeke to draw from the conference of events is vnsure because they are ever dissemblable No quality is so vniversall in this surface of things as variety and diversity The Greekes the Latines and wee vse for the most expresse examples of similitude that of egs Some have neverthelesse beene found especially one in Delphos that knew markes of difference betweene egges and neuer tooke one for another And having diverse Hennes could rightly judge which had laid the egge dissimilitude doth of it selfe insinuate into our workes no arte can come neere vnto similitude Neither Perozet nor any other carde-maker can so industriously smoothe or whiten the backeside of his cardes but some cunning gamster will distinguish them onely by seeing some other player handle or shuffle them Resemblance doth not so much make one as difference maketh another Nature hath bound herselfe to make nothing that may not be dissemblable Yet doth not the opinion of that man greatly please mee that supposed by the multitude of lawes to curbe the authority of judges in entting out their morsells He perceived not that there is as much liberty and
office otherwise it should lose both effect and grace And is a part which cannot indifferently belong to all For truth it selfe hath not the priviledge to bee employed at all times and in every kinde Bee her vse never so noble it hath his circumscriptions and limites It often commeth to passe the world standing as it doth that truth is whispered into Princes eares not onely without fruit but hurtfully and therewithall vnjustly And no man shall make me beleeve but that an hallowed admonition may be viciously applied and abusively employed and that the interest of the substance should not sometimes yeeld to the interest of the forme For such a purpose and mystery I would have an vnrepining man and one contented with his owne fortune Quod sit esse velit nihilque malit Willing to be as him you see Or rather nothing else to bee and borne of meane degree Forsomuch as on the one side hee should not have cause to feare lively and neerely to touch his maisters heart therby not to lose the course of his preferment And on the other side being of a low condition hee should have more easie communication with all sorts of people Which I would have in one man alone for to empart the priviledge of such liberty and familiarity vnto many would beget an hurtful irreverence Yea and of that man I would above all things require trusty and assured silence A King is not to bee credited when for his glory hee boasteth of his constancy in attending his enemies encounter if for his good amendment and profit hee cannot endure the liberty of his friends words which have no other working power then to pinch his learning the rest of their effect remaining in his owne hands Now there is not any condition of men that hath more neede of true sincerly-free and open-hearted advertisements then Princes They vndergoe a publike life and must applaude the opinion of so many spectators that if they be once enured to have that concealed from them which diverteth them from their course they at vnawares and insensibly finde themselves deepely engaged in the hatred and detestation of their subjects many times for occasions which had they beene forewarned and in time gently reformed they might no doubt have eschewed to no interest or prejudice of their private delights Favorites doe commonly respect themselves more then their masters And surely it toucheth their free-hold forsomuch as iâ—good truth the greatest part of true friendshipâ—-offices are towards their soveragne in a crabbed and dangerous Essay So that there is not onely required much affection and liberty but also an vndanted courage To conclude all this galâ—emafrie which I huddle-vp here is but a register of my lives-Essayes which in regard of the internall health are sufficiently exemplare to take the instruction against the haire But concerning bodily health no man is able to bring more profitable experience then my selfe who present the same pure sincere and in no sorte corrupted or altred either by arte or selfe-will'd opinion Experience in her owne precinct may justly be compared to Phisicke vnto which reason giveth place Tiberius was wont to say that whatsoever had lived twenty yeares should be able to answere himselfe of all such things as were either wholesome or hurtfull for him and know howe to live and order his body without Phisicke Which hee peradventure had learned of Socrates who industriously advising his disciples as a study of chiefe consequence to study their health told them moreover that it was very hard if a man of vnderstanding heedefully observing his exercises his eating and drinking should not better then any Phisition discerne and distinguish such things as were either good or bad or indifferent for him Yet doth Physicke make open profession alwayes to have experience for the touch-stone of her operation And Plato had reason to say that to be a good Physition it were requisite that he who should vndertake that profession had past through all such diseases as hee will adventure to cure and knowen or felt all the accidents and cricumstances hee is to iudge of It is reason themselves should first have the pox if they will know how to cure them in others I should surely trust such a one better then any else Others but guide vs as one who sitting in his chaire paints seas rockes shelves and havens vpon a boarde and makes the modell of a tale ship to saile in all safety But put him to it in earnest he knowes not what to doe nor where to beginne They make even such a description of our infimities as doth a towne-crier who crieth a lost horse or dog and describeth his haire his stature his eares with other markes and tokens but bring either vnto him he knowes him not Oh God that physicke would one day affoord mesome good and preceptible helpe how earnestly would I exclaime Tandem efficaci do manus scientâ—â— I yeeld I yeeld at length To knowledge of chiefe strength The Artes that promise to keepe our body and minde in good health promise much vnto vs but therewith there is none performeth lesse what they promise And in our dayes such as make profession of these Artes amongst vs doe lesse then all others shew their effects The most may be said of them is that they sell medicinable drugs but that they are Physitians no man can truly say it I have lived long enough to yeeld an accoont of the vsage that hath brough mee to this day If any bee disposed to taste of it as his taster I have given him an assay Loe here some articles digested as memory shall store me with them I have no fashion but hath varied according to accidents I onely register those I have most beene acquainted with and hetherto possesse me most My forme of life is ever alike both in sickenesse and in health one same bed the same houres the same meate the same drinke doth serve me I adde nothing to them but the moderation of more or lesse according to my strength or appetite My health is to keepe my accustomed state free from care and trouble I see that sickenesse doth on the one side in some sort divert me from it and if I beleeve Physitians they on the other side will turne mee from it So that both by fortune and by arte I am cleane out of my right bias I beleeve nothing more certainely then this that I cannot be offended by the vse of things which I have so long accustomed It is in the hands of cuctome to give our life what forme it pleaseth in that it can do all in all It is the drinke of Circes diversifieth our nature as she thinkes good How many nations neere bordering vpon vs imagine the feare of the sereine or night-calme to be but a jest which sâ—o apparantly doth blast and hurt vs and whereof our Mariners our watermen and our countriemen make but a laughing-stocke You make a Germane sicke if you lay him
impatient of labour could hardly beare armour on their backes Divers Nations as they did in former times so yet at this day are seene to goe to the warres without any thing about them or if they had it was of no defence but were all naked and bare Tegmina queis capitum raptus de subere cortex Whose caske to cover all their head Was made of barke from Corke-tree flea'd Alexander the most daring and hazardous Captain that ever was did very seldome arme himselfe And those which amongst vs neglect them doe not thereby much empaire their reputation If any man chance to be slaine for want of an armour there are as many more that miscary with the over-heavy burthen of their armes and by them are engaged and by a counterbuffe are brused or otherwise defeated For in truth to see the vnweildy weight of our and their thicknesse it seemeth we but endevour to defend our selves and we are rather charged then covered by them We have enough to doe to endure the burthen of them and are so engived and shackled in them as if we were to fight but with the shocke or brunt of our armes And as if we were as much bound to defend them as they to shield vs. Cornelius Facitus doth pleasantly quip and jest at the men of war of our ancient Gaules so armed only to maintaine themselves as they that have no meane either to offend or to be offended or to raise themselves being overthrowne Lucullus seeing certaine Median men at armes which were in the front of Tigranes Army heavily and vnweildely armed as in an yron-prison apprehended thereby an opinion that he might easily defeat them and began to charge them first and got the victory And now that our Muskettiers are in such credite I thinke we shall haue some invention found to immure vs vp that so we may be warranted from them and to traine vs to the warres in Skonces and Bastions as those which our fathers caused to be carried by Elephants A humour farre different from that of Scipio the yoonger who sharply reprooved his souldiers because they had scattered certaine Calthrops vnder the water alongst a dike by which those of the Towne that he besieged might sally out vpon him saying that those which assailed should resolve to enterprise and not to feare And had some reason to feare that this provision might secure and lull their vigilancy asleepe to guard themselves Moreover he said to a yoong man that shewed him a faire shield he had Indeed good youth it is a faire one but a Roman souldier ought to have more confidence in his right hand than in his left It is onely custome that makes the burthen of our armes intolerable vnto vs. L'usbergâ— in dosso haveano l'elmo intesta Due di quells guerrier de i quali io canto Ne notte o di depo ch'entrarâ— inquesta Stanza gl' havean mâ—â— messi da cantâ— Che facile â portar come la vesta Eralor perche in vso l'havean tanto Cuirasse on backe did those two warriors beare And caske on head of whom I make report Nor day nor night after they entred there Had they them laide aside from their support They could with ease them as a garment weare For long time had they vsde them in such sort The Emperour Caracalla in leading of his Army was ever wont to march a foot armed at all assaies The Roman footmen caried not their morions sword and target only as for other armes saith Cicero they were so accustomed to weare them continually that they hindered them no more then their limbs Arma enim membra militis esse dicunt for they say armor and weapon are a soldiers limbs But there withal such victuals as they should need for a fortnight and a certaine number of stakes to make their rampards or palisadoes with so much as weighed threescore pound weight And Marius his souldiers thus loden marching in battel-array were taught to march five leagues in five houres yea six if need required Their military discipline was much more laborsome then ours So did it produce far different effects Scipto the yonger reforming his army in Spaine appointed his souldiers to eate no meate but standing and nothing sodden or rosted It is worth the remembrance how a Lacedemonian souldier being in an expedition of warre was much noted and blamed because hee was once seene to seeke for shelter vnder a house They were so hardened to enduree all manner of labour and toyle that it was counted a reprechfull infamy for a souldier to be seene vnder any other roofe then that of heavens-vault in what weather soever Were we to doe so we should never leade our men far Marcellinus a man well trained in the Roman wars doth curiously observe the manner which the Parthians vsed to arme themselves and noteth it so much the more by how much it was far different from the Romans They had saith he certaine armes so curiously enter-wrought as they seemed to be made like feathers which nothing hindered the stirring of their bodies and yet so strong that our darts hitting them did rather rebound or glance by then hurt them they be the scales our ancestors were so much wont to vse In another place they had saith he their horses stiffe and strong couered with thicke hides and themselves armed from head to foote with massie yron plates so artificially contrived that where the joynts are there they furthered the motion and helped the stirring A man would have said they had been men made of yron For they had peeces so handsomly fitted and so lively representing the forme and parts of the face that there was no way to wound them but at certaine little holes before their eyes which served to give them some light and by certaine chinckes about their nostrils by which they hardly drew breath Flexilis inductis hamatur lamina membris Horribilis visu credas simulacr a moveri Ferrea cognatoque viros spirare metallo Par Vestitus equis ferrata fronte minantur Ferratósque mevent securs vulneris armos The bending plate is hook't on limbes ore-spread Fearefull to sight steele images seem'd ledde And men to breath in mettall with them bredde Like furniture for horse with steeled head They threat and safe from wound With barr'd limbs tread the ground Loc-heere a description much resembling the equipage of a compleat French-manat armes with all his bardes Plutarke reporteth that Demetrius caused two Armours to be made each one weighing six score pounds the one for himselfe the other for Alcinus the chiefe man of war that was next to him whereas all common Armours weighed but threescore The tenth Chapter Of Bookes I Make no doubt but it shall often be fall me to speake of things which are better and with more truth handled by such as are their crafts-masters Here is simply an Essay of my naturall faculties and no whit of those I have acquired And he
that shall tax me with ignorance shall have no great victory at my hands for hardly could I give others reason for my discourses that give none vnto my selfe and am not well satisfied with them He that shall make serch after knowledge let him seeke it where it is there is nothing I professe lesse These are but my fantasies by which I endevour not to make things knowen but myselfe They may haply one day be knowen vnto me or have bin at other times according as fortune hath brought me where they were declared or manifested But I remember them no more And if I be a man of some reading yet I am a man of no remembring I conceive no certainty except it bee to give notice how farre the knowledge I have of it dooth now reach Let no man busie himselfe about the matters but on the fashion I give them Let that which I borrow be survaid and then tell me whether I have made good choice of ornaments to beautifie and set foorth the invention which ever comes from mee For I make others to relate not after mine owne fantasie but as it best falleth out what I can not so well expresse either through vnskill of language or want of judgement I number not my borrowings but I weigh them And if I would have made their number to prevaile I would have had twice as many They are all or almost all of so famous and ancient names that me thinks they sufficiently name themselves without mee If in reasons comparisons and arguments I transplant any into my soile or confound them with mine owne I purposely conceale the Authour thereby to bridle the rashnesse of these hastie censures that are so headlong cast vpon all manner of compositions namely yoong writings of men yet living and in vulgare that admitte all the worlde to talke of them and which seemeth to convince the conception and publike designe alike I will have them to give Plutarch a bobbe vpon mine owne lippes and vex themselves in wronging Seneca in mee My weakenesse must be hidden vnder such great credites I will love him that shall trace or vnfeather me I meane through clearenesse of judgement and by the onely distinction of the force and beautie of my Discourses For my selfe who for want of memorie am ever to seeke how to trie and refine them by the knowledge of their country knowe perfectly by measuring mine owne strength that my soyle is no way capable of some over-pretious flowers that therin I find set and that all the fruites of my encrease could not make it amendes This am I bound to answer-for if I hinder my selfe if there be either vanitie or fault in my Discourses that I perceive not or am not able to discerne if they be shewed me For many faults doe often escape our eyes but the infirmitie of judgement consisteth in not being able to perceive them when another discovereth them vnto vs. Knowledge and truth may be in vs without judgement and we may have judgement without them Yea the acknowledgement of ignorance is one of the best and surest testimonies of judgement that I can finde I have no other Sergeant of band to marshall my rapsodies than fortune And looke how my humours or conceites present them-selves so I shuffle them vp Sometimes they prease out thicke and thee-folde and other times they come out languishing one by one I will have my naturall and ordinarie pace seene as loose and as shuffling as it is As I am so I goe on plodding And besides these are matters that a man may not be ignorant of and rashly and casually to speake of them I would wish to have a more perfect vnderstanding of things but I will not purchase it so deare as it cost My intention is to passe the remainder of my life quietly and not laboriously in rest and not in care There is nothing I will trouble or vex my selfe about no not for Science it selfe what esteeme soever it be-of I doe not search and tosse over Books but for an honester recreation to please and pastime to delight my selfe or if I studie I onely endevour to find out the knowledge that teacheth or handleth the knowledge of my selfe and which may instruct me how to die well and how to live well Has meus ad metas sudet oportet equus My horse must sweating runne That this goale may be wonne If in reading I fortune to meete with any difficult points I fret not my selfe about them but after I have giuen them a charge or two I leave them as I found them Should I earnestly plod vpon them I should loose both time and my selfe for I have a skipping wit What I see not at the first view I shall lesse see it if I opinionate my selfe vpon it I doe nothing without blithnesse and an over obstinate continuation and plodding contention doth dazle dul and weary the same My sight is thereby confounded and diminished I must therefore withdraw-it and at fittes goe to it againe Even as to judge well of the lustre of scarlet we are taught to cast our eyes ouer it in running it over by divers glances sodaine glimpses and reiterated reprisings If one booke seeme tedious vnto me I take another which I follow not with any earnestnes except it be at such houres as I am idle or that I am wearie with doing nothing I am not greatly affected to new books because ancient Authors are in my judgement more full and pithie nor am I much addicted to Greeke books forasmuch as my vnderstanding can well rid his worke with a childish and apprentise intelligence Amongst moderne bookes meerly pleasant I esteeme Bocace his Decameron Rabelais and the kisses of Iohn the second if they may be placed vnder this title worth the paines-taking to reade them As for Amadis and such like trash of writings they had never the credit so much as to allure my youth to delight in them This I will say more either boldly or rashly that this old and heavie-pased mind of mine will no more be pleased with Aristotle or tickled with good Ovid his facilitie and quaint inventions which heretofore have so ravished me they can now adaies scarcely entertaine me I speake my minde freely of all things yea of such as peradventure exceede my sufficiencie and that no-way I hold to be of my jurisdiction What my conceit is of them is also to manifest the proportion of my insight and not the measure of things If at any time I find my selfe distasted of Platoes Axiochus as of a forceles worke due regarde had to such an Author my judgement doth nothing beleeve it selfe It is not so fond-hardy or selfe-conceited as it durst dare to oppose it selfe against the authority of so many other famous ancient judgements which he reputeth his regents and maisters and with whome hee had rather erre He chafeth with and condemneth himselfe either to rely on the superficiall sense being vnable to pierce into