meats upon the boord set are Be merie man and make no spare No sooner are these words let flie But all at once they hout and crie The pots then walke one filles out wine Another bring a garland fine Of flowers full fresh his head to crowne And decks the cup whiles wine goes downe And then the minstrell Phoebus knight With faire greene branch of Laurell dight Sets out his rude and rustie throte And sings a filthie tunelesse note With that one thrusts the pipe him fro And sounds his wench and bed fello Do not thinke you the letters of Metrodorus resemble these vanities which he wrote unto his brother in these tearmes There is no need at all Timocrates neither ought a man to expose himselfe into danger for the safetie of Greece or to straine and busie his head to winne a coronet among them in testimonie of his wisedome but he is to eat and drinke wine merily so as the bodie may enjoy all pleasure and susteine no harme And againe in another place of the same letters he hath these words Oh how joifull was I and glad at heart ôh what contentment of spirit found I when I had learned once of Epicurus to make much of my bellie and to gratifie it as I ought For to say a trueth to you ô Timocrates that art a Naturalist The sovereigne good of a man lieth about the bellie In summe these men doe limit set out and circumscribe the greatnesse of humane pleasure within the compasse of the bellie as it were within center and circumserence but surely impossible it is that they should ever have their part of any great roial and magnificall joy such as indeed causeth magnanimitie and hautinesse of courage bringeth glorious honour abroad or tranquillitie of spirit at home who have made choise of a close and private life within doores never shewing themselves in the world nor medling with the publicke affaires of common weale a life I say sequestred from all offices of humanitie farre removed from any instinct of honour or desire to gratifie others thereby to deserve thanks or winne favour for the soule I may tell you is no base and small thing it is not vile and illiberall extending her desires onely to that which is good to bee eaten as doe these poulps or pourcuttle fishes which stretch their cleies as farre as to their meat and no farther for such appetites as these are most quickly cut off with satietie and filled in a moment but when the motions and desires of the minde tending to vertue and honestie to honour also and contentment of conscience upon vertuous deeds and well doing are once growen to their vigor and perfection they have not for their limit the length and tearme onely of mans life but surely the desire of honor and the affection to profit the societie of men comprehending all aeternitie striveth still to goe forward in such actions and beneficiall deeds as yeeld infinit pleasures that cannot be expressed which joies great personages and men of woorth can not shake off and avoid though they would for flie they from them what they can yet they environ them about on every side they are readie to meet them whersoever they goe when as by their beneficence and good deeds they have once refreshed and cheered many other for of such persons may well this verse be verified To towne when that he comes or there doth walk Men him behold as God and so doe talk For when a man hath so affected and disposed others that they are glad and leape for joy to see him that they have a longing desire to touch salute speak unto him who seeth not though otherwise he were blinde that he findeth great joies in himselfe and enjoieth most sweet contentiment this is the cause that such men are never wearie of well dooing nor thinke it a trouble to be emploied to the good of others for we shall evermore heare from their mouths these and such like speeches Thy father thee begat and brought to light That thou one day might'st profit many a wight Againe Let us not cease but shew a minde Of doing good to all manking What need I to speake heere of those that bee excellent men and good in the highest degree for if to any one of those who are not extremely wicked at the very point and instant of death he in whose hands lieth his life be he a god or some king should graunt one howres respit and permit him to employ himselfe at his owne choise either to execute some memorable act or else to take his pleasure for the while so that immediately after that howre past he should goe to his death How many thinke you would chuse rather during this small time to lie with that courtisane and famous strumpet Lais or drink liberally of good Ariusian wine than to kill the tyrant Archias for to deliver the citie of Thebes from tyrannicall servitude for mine owne part verily I suppose that there is not one for this I observe in those sword-fencers who fight at sharpe a combat to the uttrance such I meane as are not altogether brutish and savage but of the Greekish nation when they are to enter in place for to performe their devoir notwithstanding there be presented unto them many deintie dishes and costly cates chuse rather at this very time to recommend unto their friends their wives and children to manumise and enfranchise their slaves than to serve their bellies and content their sensuall appetites But admit that these bodily pleasures be great matters and highly to be accounted of the same are common also even to those that leade an active life and manage affaires of State For as the Poet saith Wine muscadell they drinke and likewise eat Fine manchet bread made of the whitest wheat They banket also and feast with their friends yea and much more merily in my conceit after they be returned from bloudie battels or other great exploits and important services like as Alexander Agesilaus Phocion also and Epaminondas were woont to do than these who are annointed against the fire or carried easily in their litters and yet such as they mocke and scorne those who indeed have the fruition of other greater and more deintie pleasures for what should a man speake of Epaminondas who being invited to a supper unto his friends house when he saw that the provision was greater and more sumptuous than his state might well beare would not stay and suppe with him but said thus unto his friend I thought you would have sacrificed un-the gods and not have beene a wastefull and prodigall spender and no marvell for king Alexander the Great refused to entertaine the exquisit cooks of Ada Queene of Caria saying That he had better about him of his owne to dresse his meat to wit for his dinner or breakfast early rising and travelling before day-light and for his supper a light and hungry dinner As for Philoxenus who wrot
after things that be unreadie and unsure made choise of saving his life by the surer way rather than by the juster meanes for he discovered unto Nero that which the man had whispered secretly unto him whereupon presently the partie was apprehended and carried away to the place of torture where by racking scortching and scourging he was urged miserable wretch to confesse and speake out that perforce which of himselfe he had revealed without any constraint at all Zeno the Philosopher fearing that whē his body was put to dolorous and horrible torments he should be forced even against his will to bewray and disclose some secret plot bit-off his tongue with his owne teeth and spit it in the Tyrants face Notable is the example of Leaena and the reward which she had for conteining and ruling her tongue is singular An harlot she was and verie familiar with Harmodius and Aristogiton by meanes of which inward acquaintance privie she was and partie as farre foorth as a woman might be to that conspiracie which they had complotted against the usurping tyrants of Athens and the hopes that they builded upon Drunke she had out of that faire cup of Love and thereby vowed never to reveale the secrets of god Cupid Now after that these two paramours and lovers of hers had failed of their enterprise and were put to death she was called into question and put to torture and therewith commaunded to declare the rest of the complices in that conspiracie who as yet were unknowen and not brought to light but so constant and resolute she was that she would not detect so much as one but endured all paines and extremities whatsoever whereby she shewed that those two yoong gentlemen had done nothing unfitting their persons and nobilitie in making choise to be enamoured of her In regard of which rare secrecie of hers the Athenians caused a Lionesse to be made of brasse without a tongue and the same in memoriall of her to be erected and set up at the verie gate and entrie of their Citadell giving posteritie to understand by the generosity of that beast what an undanuted and invincible heart she had and likewise of what taciturnitie and trust in keeping secrets by making it tonguelesse and to say a trueth never any word spoken served to so good stead as many concealed and held in have profited For why A man may one time or other utter that which he once kept in but being spoken it cannot possibly be recalled and unsaid for out it is gone alreadie and spread abroad sundrie waies And hereupon it is I suppose that we have men to teach us for to speake but we learne of the gods to hold our peace For in sacrifices religious mysteries and ceremonies of divine service we receive by tradition a custome to keepe silence And even so the Poët Homer feigned Ulysses Whose eloquence otherwise was so sweet to be of all men most silent and of sewest words his sonne likewise his wife and nourse whom you may heare thus speaking As soone shall stocke of sturdy oake it tell Or iron so strong as I will it reveale And Ulysses himselfe sitting by Penelope before he would be knowen unto her who he was Griev'd in his mind and pitted to behold His wife by teares to shew what heart did feele But all the while his eies he stiffe did hold Which stird no more than horne or sturdie steele so full was his tongue of patience and his lips of continence For why reason had all the parts of his bodie so obeisant and readie at command that it gave order to the eies not to shed teares to the tongue not to utter a word to the heart not to pant or tremble nor so much as to sob or sigh Thus unto reason obeisant was his heart Perswaded all to take in better part yea his reason had gotten the mastrie of those inward and secret motions which are voide and incapable of reason as having under her hand the verie blood and vitall spirits in all obeysance his people also and traine about him were for the most part of that disposition for what wanted this of constancy loyalty to their lord in the highest degree to suffer themselves to be pulled haled to be tugged tossed yea dashed against the hard ground under foote by the giant Cyclops rather than to utter one word against Ulysses or to bewray that logge of wood which was burnt at the one end an instrument made readie for to put out his onely eie that he had nay they endured rather to be eaten devoured raw by him thā to disclose any of Ulysses his secrets Pittacus therefore did not amisse who when the King of Egypt had sent unto him abeast for sacrifice and willed him withall to take out and lay apart the best and woorst piece thereof plucked out the tongue and sent it unto him as being the organ of many good things and no lesse instrument of the woorst that be in the world And Ladie Ino in Euripides speaking freely of herselfe saith that she knew the time When that she ought her tongue to hold And when to speake she might be hold For certeinly those who have had noble and princely bringing up in deed learne first to keepe silence and afterwards how to speake And therefore king Antigonus the great when his sonne upon a time asked him When they should dislodge and breake up the campe What sonne quoth hee art thou alone afraid that when the time comes thou shalt not heare the trumpet sound the remove Loe how he would not trust him with a word of secrecie unto whom he was to leave his kingdome in succession teaching him thereby that he also another day should in such cases be wary and spare his speech Olde Metellus likewise being asked such another secret as touching the armie and setting forward of some expedition If I wist quoth he that my shirt which is next my skinne knew this my inward intent and secret purpose I would put it off and fling it into the fire King Eumenes being advertised that Craterus was comming against him with his forces kept it to himselfe and would not acquaint any of his neerest friends therewith but made semblance and gave it out though untruly that it was Neoptolemus who had the leading of that power for him did his souldiours contemne and make no reckoning of whereas the glory and renowme of Craterus they had in admiration and loved his vertue and valour now when no man els but himselfe knew of Craterus his being in the field they gave him battell vanquished him slew him before they were aware neither tooke they knowledge of him before they found him dead on the ground See how by a stratageme of secrecie and silence the victorie was archieved onely by concealing so hardie and terrible an enemie insomuch as his very friends about him admired more his wisedome in keeping this secret from them than complained
this day Iolaus because they take him to have beene Hercules his derling in so much as upon his tombe the manner is of lovers to take a corporall oth and assurance of reciprocall Love Moreover it is reported of Apollo that being skilfull in Physicke he saved the life of Alcestis being desperatly sicke for to gratifie Admetus who as he loved her intirely being his wife so he was as tenderly beloved of him For the Poets doe fable that Apollo being inamoured for pure Love Did serve Admetus one whole yeere As one that his hir'd servant were And here it falleth out in some sort well that we have made mention of Alcestis for albeit women have ordinarily much dealing with Mars yet the ravishment and furious fits of Love driveth them otherwhiles to enterprise somewhat against their owne nature even to voluntarie death and if the 〈◊〉 fables are of any credit and may goe currant for trueth it is evident by such reports as goe of Alcestis of Protesilaus and Euridice the wife of Orpheus that Pluto obeieth no other god but onely Love nor doth what they command And verily howsoever in regard of all other gods as Sophocles saith He cannot skill of equity of favour and of grace But onely with him Iustice straight and rigour taketh place Yet he hath good respect and reverence to lovers and to them alone he is not implacable nor inflixible And therefore a good thing it is my friend I confesse to be received into the religious confraternity of the Eleusinian mysteries but I see that the votaries professed in Love are in the other world in better condition accepted with Pluto And this I say as one who neither am too forward in beleeving such fables of Poets nor yet so backward as to distrust and discredit them all for I assure you they speake well and by a certaine divine fortune and good hap they hit upon the trueth saying as they do that 〈◊〉 but lovers returne from hell unto this light againe but what way and how they wot not as wandring indeed and missing of the right path which plato of all men first by the meanes of philosophy found out and knew And yet among the Aegyptians fables there be certaine small slender and obscure shadowes of the truth dispersed here an there Howbeit they had need of an expert and well experienced hunter who by small tracts knoweth how to trace and finde out great matters And therefore let us passe them over And now that I have discoursed of the force and puissance of Love being so great as it appeareth I come now to examine and consider the bountie and liberality thereof to mankinde not whether it conferre many benefits upon them who are acquainted with it and make use thereof for notable they be and well knowen to all men but whether it bringeth more and greater commodity to those that are studious of it and be amorous For Euripides howsoever he were a great favourit of Love yet so it is that he promised and admired that in it which of all others is least namely when he said Love teacheth Musicke marke when you will Though one before thereof had no skill For he might as well have said that it maketh a man prudent and witty who before was dull and foolish yea valiant as hath 〈◊〉 said who before was a coward like as they that by putting into fire burning peeces of wood make them firme and straight where as they were before weake and tender Semblably every amorous person becommeth liberall and magnificent although he had beene aforetime a pinching snudge For this base avarice and micherie waxeth soft and melteth by love like as iron in the fire in such sort as men take more pleasure to give away and bestow upon those whom they love than they doe to take and receive of others For yee all know well how Anytus the sonne of Anthenion was inamoured upon Alcebiades and when he had invited certaine friends and guests of his unto a sumptuous and stately feast in his house Alcibiades came thither in a maske to make pastime and after he had taken with him one halfe of the silver cups that stood upon the boord before them went his waies which when the guests tooke not well but said that the youth had behaved himselfe vere proudly and malipertly toward him Not so quoth Anytus for he hath dealt very courteously with me in that when he might have gone away withall he left thus much behinde for me Zeuxippus taking ioy hereat O Hercules quoth he you want but a little of ridding quite out of my heart that hereditary hatred derived and received from our ancestors which I have taken against Anytus in the behalfe of Socrates and Philosophie in case he were so kinde and courteous in his love Be it so quoth my father but let us proceed Love is of this nature that it maketh men otherwise melancholicke austere and hard to be pleased or conversed withall to become more sociable gentle and pleasant for as ye know well enough More stately is that house in sight Wherein the fire burnes cleere and bright and even so a man is more lightsome and jocund when he is well warmed with the heat of love But the vulgar sort of men are in this point somewhat perversly affected and beside all reason for if they see a flashing celestiall light in an house by night they take it to be some divine apparition and woonder thereat but when they see a base vile abject mind suddenly replenished with courage libertie magnificence desire of honour with grace favour and liberality they are not forced to say as Telemachus did in Homer Certes some god I know full well Is now within and here doth dwell And is not this also quoth Daphnaeus tell me I pray you for the love of all the Graces an effect of some divine cause that a lover who regardeth not but despiseth in a maner all other things I say not his familiar friends onely his fellowes and domesticall acquaintance but the lawes also and magistrates kings and princes who is afraid of nothing admireth esteemeth and observeth nothing and is besides so hardy as to present himselfe before the flashing shot of piercing lightning so soone as ever he espieth his faire love Like to some cocke of cravain 〈◊〉 le ts fall Or hangs the wing and daunted is withall He droups I say his courage is cooled his heart is done and all his animositie quailed quite And heere it were not impertinent to the purpose to make mention of Sappho among the Muses The Romans write in their history that Cacus the sonne of Vulcane breathed and flashed flames of fire from his mouth And in trueth the words that Sappho uttereth be mixed with fire and by her verses testifieth the ardent and flaming heat of her heart Seeking for love some cure and remedy By pleasant sound of Muses melodie as Philoxenus writeth But Daphnaeus unlesse peradventure the
If hee were not a spie Yes marie quoth hee and come I am to spie out your inconsiderate folly ô Philip and want of forecast who being not urged nor compelled by any man are come thus farre to hazard in one hower the State of your kingdome and your owne life and to lay all upon the chance and cast of adie But some man peradventure will say This was a speech somewhat with the sharpest and too much biting Moreover another fit time and occasion there is of admonition when those whom we minde to reproove having beene reproched and taunted already by others for some faults which they committed are become submisse and cast downe to our hands Which opportunitie a wise and skilfull friend will not omit but make especial good use of namely by seeming in open place to check those that thus have standered them yea and to repulse and put backe such opprobrious imputations but privatly he will take his friend apart by himselfe and put him in minde to live more warily and give no such offence if for no other thing else yet because his enemies should not take vantage and beare themselves insolently against him For how shall they be able to open their mouthes against you what mis-word can they have to say unto you if you would leave these things and cast them behinde you for which you heare ill and are growen to some obloquie In this sort if the matter be handeled all the offence that was taken shall light upon the head of the first slanderer and the profit shall be attributed unto the other that gave the friendly advertisement and he shall goe away with all the thankes Some there be moreover who after a more cleanly and fine maner in speaking of others admonish their owne familiar friends for they will accuse strangers in their hearing for those faults which they know them to commit and by this meanes reclaime them from the same Thus Ammontus our master perceiving when he gave lecture in the after-noone that some of us his scholars had taken a larger dinner and eate more than was meet for students commanded a servant of his franchised to take up his owne some and to beate him and why so He cannot for sooth make his dinner quoth he but he must have some vineger to his meat And in saying so he cast his eie upon us in such sort that as many as were culpable tooke themselvesto be rebuked thought that he meant them Furthermore this good regard would be observed that we never use this fashion of free speech and reprooving our friend in the presence of many persons but we must remember that which befell unto Plato for when upon a time Socrates in a disputation held at the table inveighed somwhat too bitterly against against one of his familiars before them all had it not beene better quoth Plato to have told him of this privately but thus to shame him before all this companie But Socrates taking him presently therewith And you also might have done better to have saide this to my selfe when you had found me alone Pythagor as report gave such hard tearmes by way of reproose to one of his scholars and acquaintance in the hearing of many that the yoong man for very griefe of heart was weary of his life and hanged himselfe But never would Pythagor as after to his dying day reproove or admonish any man if another were in place And to say a truth as well the detection as the correction of a sinne ought to be secret and not in publike place like as the discoverie and cure also of some filthie and foule disease it must not I say be done in the veiw of the world as if some shew or pompe were to be exhibited unto the people with calling witnesses or spectators thereto For it is not the part of a friend but a tricke of some Sophister to seeke for glorie in other mens faults and affect outward shew and vaine ostentation in the presence of others much like to these Mount-bank Chirurgians who for to have the greater practise make shew of their cunning casts and operations of their art in publike Theatres with many gesticulations of their handy-worke Moreover besides that there should no infamie grow to him that is reprooved which in deed is not to be allowed in any cure or remedie there ought also to be some regard had of the nature of vice and sinne which for the most part of it selft is opinionative contentious stubborne and apt to stand to it and make meanes of defence For as Euripides saith We daily see not onely wanton love Doth presse the more when one doth it reprove But any vice whatsoever it be and everie imperfection if a man do reproove it in publike place before many and spare not at all putteth on the nature of impudence and turneth to be shamelesse like as therefore Plato giveth a precept that elder folke if they would imprint shame and grace in their yoong children ought themselves first to shew shamefast behavior among them even so the modest and bashfull libertie of speech which one friend useth doth strike also a great shame in another Also to come and approch by little and little unto one that offendeth and after a doubting maner with a kind of feare to touch him is the next way to undermine the vice that he is prone and given unto and the same whiles he can not choose but be modestly disposed who is so modestly and gently entreated And therefore it would be alwaies verie good in those reprehensions to observe what he did who in like case reprooving a friend Held head full close unto his eare That no man els but he might heare But lesse seemly and convenient it is for to discover the fault of the husband before his wife of a father in the presence of his sonnes of a lover before his love or of a schoolmaster in the hearing of his scholars that were enough to put them beside their right wits for anger and griefe when they shall see themselves checked and discredited before those of whom they desire to be best esteemed And verily of this mind I am hat it was not the wine so much that set king Alexander in such a chafe rage against Clitus whē he reproved him as for that he did it in the presence and hearing of so many Aristomenes also the master and tutor of king Ptolomaeus for that in the sight of an embassador he awaked him out of a sleepe willed him to give eare unto the embassage that was delivered ministred unto his evil-willers and the flatterers about the court great vantage who thereupon tooke occasion to seeme discontented in the kings behalfe and thus to say What if after so many travels that your Majestie doth undergo and your long watching for out sakes some sleep do overtake you otherwhiles our part it were to tell you of it privatly not thus rudely to
his life and the rivall of his honour and reputation will looke better to his waies and stand upon his owne guard he will I say sit fast and looke circumspectly about him to all matters ordering his life and behaviour in better sort for this is one of the properties of vice that when we have offended and trespassed we have more reverence and stand rather in awe of our enemies lest we be shamed by them than of our friends And therefore Scipio Nasica when some there were that both thought and gave out that the Romane estate was not setled and in safetie considering that the Carthaginians who were wont to make head against them and keepe them occupied were now vanquished and defeated the Athenians likewise subdued and brought under subjection Nay mary quoth he for it is cleane contrarie and even now are we in greatest danger being at this passe that we have left our selves none to feare none to reverence And hereto moreover accordeth well the answere that Diogenes made like a Philosopher and a man of State indeed One asked him how he should be revenged of his enemie Marie quoth he by being a vertuous and honest man thy selfe Men seeing the horses of their enemies highly accounted of or their hounds praised and commended do grieve thereat if they perceive also their land well tilled and husbanded or their gardens in good order fresh and flowring they fetch a sigh and sorrow for the matter What thinke you then will your enemie do how will he fare when you shall be seene a just man wise and prudent honest and sober in words well advised and commendable in deeds pure and cleane in diet neat and decent Reaping the fruit of wisdome and prudence Sowen in deepe furrow of heart and conscience From whence there spring and bud continually Counsels full sage with fruits abundantly Pindarus the Poet said That those who are vanquished and put to foile are so tongue-tied that they can not say a word howbeit this is not simply true nor holdeth in all but in such as perceive themselves overcome by their enemies in dilligence goodnesse magnanimity humanity bounty beneficence for these be the things as Demosthenes saith which stent the tongue close up the mouth stop the wind-pipes and the breath and in one word cause men to be silent and dumbe Resemble not leawd folke but them out-goe In vertuous deeds for this thou maist well doe Wouldest thou doe thine enemie who hateth thee a great displeasure in deed Never call him by way of reproch buggerer wanton lascivious ruffian scurrile scoffer or covetous micher but take order with thy selfe to be an honest man every way chaste continent true in deed and word courteous and just to all those that deale with thee but if thou be driven to let fall an opprobrious speech and to revile thine enemy then take thou great heed afterwards that thou come not neere in any wise to those vices which thou reprochest him with enter into thy selfe and examine thine owne conscience search all the corners thereof looke that there be not in thy soule some purrified matter and rotten corruption for feare lest thine owne vice within may hit thee home and requite thee againe with this verse out of the tragicall Poet Aleech he is others to cure Pestred himselfe with sores impure If thou chance to upbraid thine enemie with ignorance and call him unlearned take thou greater paines at thy booke love thou thy studie better and get more learning if thou wit him with cowardise and name him dastard stirre up the vigour of thine owne courage the rather and shew thy selfe a man so much the more hast thou given him the tearmes of beastly whoremaster or lascivious lecher wipe out of thy heart the least taint and spot that remaineth hldden therein of concupiscence and sensuallitie for nothing is there more shamefull or causeth greater griefe of heart than an opprobrious and reprochfull speech returned justly upon the author thereof And as it seemeth that the reverberation of a light doth more offence unto the seeble eies even so those reproches which are retorted and sent backe againe by the trueth upon a man that blased them before are more offensive for no lesse than the North-east winde Caecias doth gather unto it clouds so doth a bad life draw unto it opprobrious speeches which Plato knowing well enough whensoever he was present in place and saw other men do any unseemly or dishonest thing was woont to retire apart and say thus secretly unto himselfe Doe not I also labour other-while of this disease Moreover he that hath blamed and reproched the life of another if presently withall he would goe and examine his owne resorming the same accordingly redressing and amending all that he findes amisse untill he have brought it to a better state shall receive some profit by that reproving and reviling of his otherwise it may both seeme as it is no lesse indeed a vaine and unprofitable thing Commonly men cannot choose but laugh when they see either a bald-pate or a bunch-backe to taunt and scoffe at others for the same defects or deformities and so in trueth it were a ridiculous thing and a meere mockerie to blame or reproch another in that for which he may be mocked and reproched himselfe Thus Leo the Byzantine cut one home that was crumpt shoulderd and buncht-backt when he seemed to hit him in the teeth with his dimme and feeble eie-fight Doest thou twit me quoth he by any impersection of nature incident unto a man when as thy selfe art marked from heaven and cariest the divine vengeance upon thy backe Never then reproove thou an adulterer if thy selfe be an uncleane wanton with boies nor seeme thou to upbraid one with prodigalitie if thou be a covetous miser thy selfe Alcmaeon reviled Adrastus upon a time in this wise Thou A sister hast by parents twaine Whose hands her husband deare have slaine But what answered Adrastus He objected not unto him the crime of another but paieth him home with his owne after this maner But thou thy selfe hast murdered Thine owne kinde mother who thee bred In like sort when Domitius upon a time seemed to reproch Crassus saying Is it not true that when your lamprey was dead which was kept full deintily for you in a stew you wept therefore Crassus presently came upon him againe with this bitter reply And is it not true that you when you followed three wives of yours one after another to their funerall fire never shed teare for the matter It is not so requisit or necessarie iwis as the vulgar sort doe thinke that hee who checketh and rebuketh another should have a ready wit of his owne and a naturall gift in doing it or a loud and big voice or an audacious and bold face no but such an one he ought to be that cannot be noted and taxed with any vice for it should seeme that Apollo addressed this precept of his know thy selfe to
cost but if he wrought or practised any losle or displeasure unto them he would be his enemie When the Argives were entred into league and amitie with the Thebans those of Athens sent their ambassadours into Arcadie to assay if they could draw the Arcadians to side with them So these ambassadours began to charge and accuse unto them aswell the Argives as the Thebans insomuch as Callistratus the oratour who was their speaker upbraided both cities and hit them in the teeth with Orestes and Oedipus then Epaminondas who sat in this assembly of councell rose up and said We confesse indeed my masters that in times past there was in our citie one parricide who killed his owne father like as another in Argos who murdered his owne mother but when we had chased and banished them for committing these facts the Athenians received them both And when the Spartans had charged the Thebans with many great and grievous imputations Why my masters of Sparta quoth Epaminondas these Thebans if they have done nothing els yet thus much they have effected that you have forgotten your maner of short speech and using few words The Athenians had contracted alliance and amitie with Alexander the tyrant of Pheres in Thessalie a mortall enemie of the Thebans and who promised to the Athenians for to serve them flesh in the market at halfe an obolus a pound weight And wee quoth Epaminondas will furnish the Athenians with wood enough for nothing to roast and seethe the said flesh for if they begin busily to intermeddle more than we like of we will fell and cut downe all the trees growing in that countrey Knowing well enought that the Boeotians were lost for idlenesse he determined and advised to keepe them continually in exercise of armes now when the time approched for the election of governors and that they were minded to chuse him their Boeotarches that is to say the ruler of Boeotia Be well advised my masters quoth he what ye do whiles it lieth in your hands for if you elect me your captaine generall make this reckoning that to warre you shall He was wont to call the countrey of Boeotia because it lieth plaine and open the stage and scaffold of warre saying that it was impossible for the inhabitants to keepe and hold it so long as they had not one hand within their shield and the other on their sword Chabrias the captaine of the Athenians having put to foile and defaited some few Thebans about Corinth who for heat of fight had run disbanded and out of aray made a bravado for which exploit as if he had won some great field he caused a tropheae to be erected in memoriall of this victorie whereas Epaminondas scoffed and said That hee should not have set up a trophaeum there but rather an hecatesium that is to say the statue of Proserpina for that in times past it was an ordinary thing to set up the image of Proserpina in maner of a crosse at the first carrefour or meeting of crosse waies which was found nere unto the gate of a city When one brought him word that the Athenians had sent an armie into Peloponesus bravely set out and appointed with new armour Now surely quoth he Antigenidas wil weepe and sigh when he knoweth once that Tellis hath gotten him new flutes and pipes to play upon now this Tellis was a bad minstrell and Antigenidas an excellent musician He perceived upon a time that his esquire or shield-bearer had received a good piece of money for the ransome of a prisoner which was in his hands whereupon he said unto him Give me my shield but goe thou thy waies and buy thee a taverne or victualling house wherein thou maiest leade the rest of thy life for I see well that thou wilt no more expose thy selfe to the dangers of warre as before-time since thou art now become one of these rich and happie men of the world He was once demanded the question whom he reputed to be the best captaine himselfe Chabrias or Iphicrates his answere was It is hard to judge so long as we all be alive At his returne out of of the countrey of Laconia hee was judicially accused for a capitall crime together with other captaines joined in commission with him for holding their charge longer by foure moneths than the lawes allowed as for his companions and collegues above-said hee willed them to derive all the fault from themselves and lay it upon him as if he had forced them so to doe but in his owne defence he pleaded thus Albeit I can not deliver better words than I have performed deeds yet if I be compelled as I see I am to say somewhat for my selfe before the judges I request thus much at their handes that if they be determined to put me to death they would cōmand to be engraven upon the square columne or pillar of my sepulchre my condēnation and the cause therof to the end that all the Greekes might know how Epaminondas was condemned to die for that hee had forced the Thebans against willes to waste and burne the countrey of Laconia which in five hundred yeeres before had never bene forraied nor spoiled also that hee had repeopled the citie of Messene two hundred and thirtie yeeres after it had bene destroied and left desert by the Lacedemonians Item that he had reunited concorporated and brought into one league all the States and cities of Arcadie and last of all that he had recovered and restored unto the Greeks their libertie for all these acts have bene atchieved by us in this voiage the judges when they heard this speech of his rose from the bench and went out of the court laughing heartily neither would they so much as receive the voices or verdicts to be given up against him After the last battell that ever he sought wherin he was wounded to death being brought into his tent he called first for Diophantis and after him for Iolidas but when he heard that they were both slaine hee advised the Thebans to compound and grow to an agreement with their enemies as if they had not one captaine more that knew how to leade them to the warres and in trueth the event did verifie his words and bare witnesse with him that he knew his citizens best of any man PELOPIDAS joint captaine with Epaminondas in the charge of Baeotia when his friends found fault with his neglect in one thing right necessary to wit the gathering of a masse of money together Money indeed quoth he is necessary but for such an one as this Nicomedes here shewing a poore cripple maimed lame and impotent in hand and foot When he departed from Thebes upon a time to a battell his wife praied him to have a regard unto his owne safetie This is quoth he an advertisement fit for others as for a captaine who hath the place of command he is to be put in minde for to save those under his
vomit up all and leave nothing behinde if haply thou canst rid and purge thy heart of all the wicked venim wherewith thou seemest to swell Some time after when he was dead there arose variance betweene the allies of Sparta as touching certaine matters and for to know the truth and settle all causes among them Agesilaus went to Lysanders house for to search certaine papers that might give light and evidence to the thing in controversie and among other writings he chaunced to light upon an oration or pamphlet penned by him as touching policie the State wherein he seemed to perswade the Spartans to take the roialtie and regall dignitie from the houses of the Eurytionida and Agiadae and to bring it to a free election of the citizens that they might chuse for their kings out of all the citie those who were approoved and knowen for the woorthiest men and not to be obliged for to take and admit of necessitie one of Hercules line so as the crowne and regall state might be conferred as a reward and honour upon him who in vertue resembled Hercules most considering that it was by the meanes thereof that unto him were assigned the honors due unto the gods now was Agesilaus fully bent to have published this oration before al the citizens to the end that they might take knowledge how Lysander was another kind of man than he had beene taken for and withall to traduce those that were his friends and bring them into obloquie suspicion and trouble but by report Lacratidas the principall man and president of the Ephori fearing lest if this oration were once divulged openly read it might take effect and perswade that indeed which it pretended staied Agesilaus and kept him from doing so saying That he should not now rake Lysander out of his grave but rather enterre and burie the oration together with him so wittily and artificially composed it was and so effectuall to perswade Certaine gentlemen there were of the citie who during his lise were suters to his daughters in mariage but after his death when his estate was knowen to be but poore they desisted and cast them off whereupon the Ephori condemned them in great sines for that they made court unto them so long as they esteemed him wealthy but afterwards when they found by his poore estate that he was a righteous and just man they made no more reckoning of his daughters but disdained them NAMERTES being sent as embassadour into a forren countrey there chanced to be one of those parts who said unto him That he held and reputed him for an happie man because he had so many friends unto whom he replied and asked Whether he knew the true proofe whereby a man might be assured that he had many friends the other answered No but I pray you tell me Why then quoth he it is adversitie NICANDER when one brought him word that the Argives spake ill of him It makes no matter quoth he are they not sufficiently chastised and punished for railing upon good men One asked of him wherefore the Lacedaemonians wore their haire long of their heads suffred likewise their beards to grow side unto whom he answered Because a mans owne proper ornament is of all other the fairest and costeth least A certaine Athenian being in communication with him cast out this word All you Lacedaemonians Nicander love your ease well and are idle You say true indeed quoth he but we busie not our selves as you doe in every trifling matter PANTHOIDAS being sent in embassage into Asia was shewed by the people of those parts a certaine strong citie well fortified with high and goodly wals Now by the gods quoth he my friends this seemes to be a trim cloister to mue up women in In the schoole of Academie the philosophers discoursed and disputed as touching many good themes and after they had made an end they said unto him Now good sir ô Panthoidas how like you these discourses What should I thinke of them else quoth he but that they are goodly and honest in shew but surely profitable they are not nor edifie at all so long as your selves doe not live accordingly PAUSANIAS the sonne of Cleombrotus when the inhabitants of the isle Delos were at debate and pleaded for the proprietie of the said isle against the Athenians alleaging for themselves that by an old law time out of minde observed among them there might none of their women beare children within the said island nor any of their dead be buried there How then quoth he can this isle be yours if none of you were ever borne or buried there When certaine exiled persons from Athens sollicited him to leade his armie against the Athenians and for to provoke him rather thereto said That they were the onely men who hissed and whistled at the naming of him when he was declared victor in the solemnitie of the Olympick games But what thinke you quoth he will they doe when we have wrought them some shrewd turne since they sticke not to hisse at us being their benefactors Another asked of him wherefore the Lacedaemonians had enfranchized the poet Tyrteus their denizen Because quoth he we never would be thought to have a stranger or alien our leader and governour There was a very weak and feeble man of bodie who neverthelesse seemed very earnest and instant to make warre upon the enemies and to give them battell both on sea and land Will you quoth he strip your selfe out of your clothes that we may see what a goodly man of person you are to moove and perswade us for to fight Some there were who seeing the spoiles that were taken from the dead bodies of the Barbarians after they were slaine in the field marveiled much at their sumptuous and costly clothes It had been better quoth he that themselves had beene of more valour and their habilements of lesse valew After the victorie which the Greeks wan of the Persians before the citie Plateae he commaunded those about him to serve him up to the table that supper which the Persians had provided for themselves which being woonderfull excessive and superfluous Now Par-die quoth he the Persians are great gourmaunders and greedy gluttons having so great store of viands come hither among us for to eate up our browne bread and course bisket PAUSANIAS the sonne of Plistonax unto one who asked him why it was not lawfull in their countrey to alter any of their auncient statutes made this answer Because lawes ought to be mistresses of men and not men masters of the lawes Being exiled from Sparta and making his abode within the citie Tegea he highly praised the Lacedaemonians one of the standers by said unto him And why then staied not you at Sparta if there be so good men there why I say fled you from thence Because quoth he physicians doe not use to keepe where folke be sound and whole but where they are sicke and diseased
true and assuredremedies and in stead of leaving the heart afflicted amid humane thoughts and considerations raiseth and lifteth it up unto the justice wisedome and bountie of the true God and heavenly father it causeth it to see the estate of eternall life it assureth it of the soules immortalitie of the resurrection of the bodie points of learning wherein the Pagans were altogether ignorant and of the permanent and everlasting joies above in the kingdome of heaven Now albeit as this trueth of God revealed unto us in his sacred word hath instructed and resolved us sufficiently it will not be amisse and impertinent to learne of our authour and such others those things which themselves did not well and thorowly understand neither in life nor yet in death for that the foundation failed them and they missed the ground-worke indeed and in cleaving and leaning to I wot not what fortune and fatall destinie they caused man to rest and stay himselfe upon a vaine shadow of vertue and willed him in one word to seeke for consolation where there was nothing but desolation for happinesse in misery and for life in death As touching the argument and contents of this treatise adorned it is with notable reasons similitudes examples and testimonies the substance whereof is this That Apollonius unto whom it is addressed ought not to be over-pensive and heavie for the death of his sonne deceased in the flower of his age To move and perswade him thereto Plutarch after he had excused himselfe in that he wrote no sooner unto him and shewed that space of time comming betweene doth better prepare mens hearts which sorow and be in anguish to receive comfort he condemneth aswell blockish and senselesse folke as also those that be weaklings and over-tender in adversitie Which done he entreth into a generall review of the remedies which be appropriate to cure the miseries and afflictions of man namely that hee ought to holde a meane and to continue alwaies like himselfe to cast his eie and have regard upon the divers accidents of our life and in enjoying the blessings thereof to thinke upon future crosses and calamities to be armed with reason for to beare all changes to remember and carefully to thinke upon the estate of this mortall and transitorie life to consider the evils and miseries of the same to endure patiently that which can not be avoided and prevented with all the cares and lamentations that be and to compare our owne adversities with other mens Then he proceedeth unto the particular consolations of those who are heavie and sorowfull for the death of their children kinsfolke or friends to wit That there is no harme nor evill at all in death but rather that it is a good thing that the houre of it being uncertaine it is a comfort unto those whom it summoneth who no doubt would be cast downe and overthrowen with the apprehension of miseries to come in case they had any foresight thereof After this he proveth at large by three inductions and arguments of Socrates that there is not any evill in death which he confirmeth by divers examples and then returning into his consolations he mainteineth and holdeth That whosoever die yoong are most happie that the consideration of Gods providence ought to reteine and stay us that we are not to mourne and lament for the dead neither in regard of them nor of our selves that since over-long heavinesse and sorow maketh a man miserable it were very good for him to be rid and dispatched of that paine quickly Having finished this point he resolveth and assoileth certeine difficulties which are presented in these maters and then taking in hand his purpose againe he ruleth and reformeth the affections of the living toward them that are departed he reclaimeth them from persisting and continuing obstinately in bewailing their absence willing them rather to bewaile the case of those who are living and by many reasons doth prove and conclude that they who die betimes have one marvellous advantage over those that remaine alive in the world Then he teacheth a man to mainteine and cary himselfe as he ought in all affaires refuteth those who can abide no paine and trouble and knitting up all the premisses in few words he adjoineth certaine necessarie and profitable counsels in such accidents and before that he concludeth the whole treatise he describeth the felicity of those whom death cutteth off in the prime of their yeeres having a speciall regard herein to Apollonius the 〈◊〉 unto whom he writeth and assuring him by the recitall of the good parts and vertues which were in his sonne lately departed that he was without all question in that place of repose and rest which the Poets do imagine Upon which occasion he treateth of the immortalitie of the soule according to the doctrine of Plato and his followers which is the very end and closing up of all that had bene delivered before A CONSOLATORIE ORAtion sent unto Apollonius upon the death of his sonne IT is not newly come upon me now at this present and not before to pitie your case and lament in your behalfe ô Apollonius having heard long since as I did the heavy newes concerning the untimely death of your sonne a yoong gentleman singularly well beloved of us all as who in that youth and tender yeeres of his shewed rare examples of wise carriage staied and modest behaviour together with precise observance of those devout dueties and just offices which either perteined to the religious service of the gods or were respective to his parents and friends for even from that time have I condoled with you and had a fellow-feeling of your sorrow but for me to have come then and visited you immediatly upon his decease departure out of this world to present you with an exhortation to beare patiently and as becommeth a man that unfortunate accident had bene an unseemly part of mine and unconvenient considering how in that verie instant your minde and bodie both overcharged with the insupportable burden of so strange and unexpected a calamitie were brought low and much infeebled and my selfe besides must needs have moaned you felt part of your griefe and sorrowed with you for companie for even the best and most skilfull Physicians when they meet with violent rhewmes and catarrhes which suddenly surprise any part of the body doe not proceed at the first to a rough cure by purgative medicines but permit this rage and hot impression of inflamed humours to grow of it selfe to maturitie by application onely of supple oiles mild liniments and gentle fomentations But now that since your said misfortune some time which useth to ripen all things is passed betweene and given good opportunitie considering also that the present disposition and state of your person seemeth to require the helpe and comfort of your friends I thought it meet and requisit to impart unto you certeine reasons and discourses consolatorie if happily by that meanes I may ease
Pindarus also writeth as touching Agamedes Trophonius That after they had built the temple of Apollo in Delphos they demanded of that god their hire and reward who promised to pay them fully at the seven-nights end meane while he bade them be merie and make good cheere who did as he enjoined them so upon the seventh night following they tooke their sleepe but the next morning they were found dead in bed Moreover it is reported that when Pindarus himselfe gave order unto the commissioners that were sent from the State of Boeotia unto the oracle of Apollo for to demand what was best for man this answere was returned from the prophetisse That he who enjoined them that errand was not ignorant thereof in case the historie of Agamedes and Trophonius whereof he was author were true but if he were disposed to make further triall he should himselfe see shortly an evident proofe thereof Pindarus when he heard this answer began to thinke of death and to prepare himselfe to die and in trueth within a little while after changed his life The like narration is related of one Euthynous an Italian who was sonne to Elysius of Terinae for vertue wealth and reputation a principall man in that citie namely that he died suddenlie without any apparent cause that could be given thereof his father Elysius incontinently thereupon began to grow into some doubt as any other man besides would have done whether it might not be that he died of poison for that he was the onely childe he had and heire apparant to all his riches and not knowing otherwise how to sound the trueth hee sent out to a certeine oracle which used to give answere by the conjuration and calling forth of spirits or ghosts of men departed where after he had performed sacrifices and other ceremoniall devotions according as the law required he laied him downe to sleepe in the place where he dreamed and saw this vision There appeared unto him as he thought his owne father whom when he saw he discoursed unto him what had fortuned his sonne requesting and beseeching him to be assistant with him to finde out the trueth and the cause indeed of his so sudden death his father then should answere thus And even therefore am I come hither here therefore receive at this mans hands that certificate which I have brought unto thee for thereby shalt thou know all the cause of thy griefe and sorrow now the partie whom his father shewed and presented unto him was a yoong man that followed after him who for all the world in stature and yeeres resembled his sonne Euthynous who being demanded by him what he was made this answere I am the ghost or angell of your sonne and with that offered unto him a little scrowle or letter which when Elysius had unfolded he found written within it these three verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which may be done into English thus Elysius thou foolish man aske living Sages read Euthynous by fatall course of 〈◊〉 is dead For longer life would neither him nor parents stand in stead And thus much may suffice you both as touching the ancient histories written of this matter and also of the second point of the foresaid question But to come unto the third branch of Socrates his conjecture admit it were true that death is the utter abolition and destruction aswell of soule as body yet even so it cannot be reckoned simply ill for by that reckoning there should follow a privation of all sense and a generall deliverance from paine anxietie and angush and like as there commeth no good thereby even so no harme at all can ensue upon it forasmuch as good and evill have no being but in that thing onely which hath essence and subsislence and the same reason there is of the one as of the other so as in that which is not but utterly becommeth void anulled and taken quite out of the world there can not be imagined either the one or the other Now this is certeine that by this reason the dead returne to the same estate and condition wherein they were before their nativitie like as therefore when we were unborne we had no sense at all of good or evill no more shall we have after our departure out of this life and as those things which preceded our time nothing concerned us so whatsoever hapneth after our death shall touch us as little No paine feele they that out of world be gone To die and not be borne I holde all one For the same state and condition is after death which was before birth And do you thinke that there is any difference betweene Never to have bene and To cease from being surely they differ no more than either an house or a garment in respect of us and our use thereof after the one is ruined or fallen downe and the other all rent and torne from that benefit which we had by them before they were begun to be built or made and if you say there is no difference in them in these regards as little there is be you sure between our estate after death and our condition before our nativitie a very pretie and elegant speech therefore it was of Arcesilaus the philosopher when he said This death quoth he which every man tearmeth evill hath one peculiar propertie by it selfe of all other things that be accounted ill in that when it is present it never harmeth any man onely whiles it is absent and in expectance it hurteth folke And in very truth many men through their folly and weakenesse and upon certaine slanderous calumniations and false surmises conceived against death suffer themselves to die because sorsooth they would not die Very well therefore and aptly wrot the poet Epicharmus in these words That which was knit and joined fast Is loosed and dissolv'd at last Each thing returnes into the same Earth into earth from whence it came The spirit up to heaven anon Wherefore what harme heerein just none And as for that which Cresphontes in one place of Euripides speaking of Hercules said If under globe of earth with those he dwell Who being none have left laid once in grave A man of him might say and that right well That puissance and strength he none can have By altering it a little in the end you may thus inferre If under globe of earth with those he dwell Who being none have left laid once in grave A man of him might say and that right well That sense at all of paine he can none have A generous and noble saying also was that of the Lacedaemonians Now are we in our gallant prime Before as others had their time And after us shall others floure But we shall never see that houre As also this Now dead are they who never thought That life or death were simply ought But all their care was for to dy And live as they should
ceremonies for them as others are wont to do for the dead the reason is because they have no part of earth nor earthly ly affections neither doe they keepe about their tombs and sepulchres nor lay forth the dead corps abroad to be seene of men nor sit neere unto their bodies for our lawes and statutes doe not permit and suffer any mourning at all for those that so depart in their minoritie as being a custome not holy and religious for that wee are to thinke they passe into a better place and happier condition Which ordinances and customes since it is more dangerous not to give credit unto than beleeve let us carie and demeane our selves according as they command for outward order as for within all ought to be more pure wise and uncorrupt HOW IT COMMETH THAT THE DIVINE IUSTICE DEFERRETH OTHER-WHILES THE PUNISHMENT OF WICKED PERSONS The Summarie FOr asmuch as the order of all considerate justice importeth and requireth that goodmen should be mainteined and cherished but contrariwise wicked persons repressed and punished for their leud acts the Epicureans drunken into xicate with false supposals seeing in the conduct of this worlds affaires some that be honest and vertuous distressed and oppressed by divers devices and practises whereas others againe who be naught and vicious continue in repose without any chastisement at all for their misdemeanors would needs take from God the dispose and government of humane affaires holding and mainteining this point That all things roll and run at a venture and that there is no other cause of the good and evill accidents of this life but either fortune or els the will of man Now among other arguments which they have to confirme themselves in this unhappie and impious opinion the patience and long suffering of the divine justice is one of the principall concluding thereby very fondly that considering malefactors are thus supported and seene to escape all chastisement there is no Deitie or Godhead at all which regardeth men either to reward them for vertue or to punish and do vengeance for their iniquity and transgression Plutarch therefore having to deale in his time with such dangerous spirits confuteth them in this treatise which of all others is most excellent and deserveth to be read and 〈◊〉 over againe in these wretched daies wherein Epicurisme beareth up the head as high as at any time ever before True it is I confesse that Theologie and Divinitie is able to furnish us with reasons and answeres more firme and effectuall without comparison than all the Philosophie of Pagans whatsoever howbeit for all that there is here sufficient to be found as touching this point for to stoppe the mouthes of those who have any remnant of shame honestie or conscience behinde in them This present treatise may very well be divided into two principall parts in the former Epicurus being brought in to dispute against divine providence and so departing without stay for answere other Philosophers deliberate to be resolved of this point in his absence and before that they resute his objection two of them doe amplifie and exaggerate the same at large which done our outhour taketh the question in hand and by seven sorcible arguments or firme answeres refelleth the blasphemie of the Epicureans proving by sundry arguments enriched with similitudes sentences examples and notable histories that wicked persons never continue unpunished but that the vengeance of God accompanieth quickly and continually their misdeeds In the second part they debate a certeine question depending of the precedent objection to wit Wherefore children be chastised for the sinnes of their fathers and ancestors and there was a certeiue Philosopher named Timon who handled this matter taxing after an oblique maner the justice of God which Plutarch mainteineth and defendeth shewing by divers reasons that whatsoever Timon had alledged was meere false and that God did no injurie at all unto those children in withdrawing his grace and favour from them and chastising them so together with their parents finding them likewise culpable for their part But in this place our authour answereth not sufficiently and to the purpose as being ignorant of originall sinne and the universall corruption of Adams children which enwrappeth them all in the same condemnation although some are farther gone in sinfull life according as they be growen to more yeeres and so augment their punishment 〈◊〉 as we may well marvell at this that a poore Pagan hath so farre proceeded in this point of Theologie and Christians have so much greater occasion to looke unto themselves in the mids of this light which directeth them considering how this man could see so cleere in darkenesse which appeareth sufficiently in the end of this discourse where he intermedleeh certaine fables as touching the state of our soules after they be parted from the bodies HOW IT COMMETH THAT the divine justice deferreth otherwhiles the punishment of wicked persons AFter that Epicurus had made this speech ô Cynius and before that any one of us had answered him by that time that we were come to the end of the gallerie or walking place he went his way out of our sight and so departed and we woondering much at this strange fashion of the man stood still a pretie while in silence looking one upon another and so we betooke our selves to our walking againe as before then Patrocleas began first to moove speech and conference saying in this maner How now my masters if you thinke so good let us discusse this question and make answere in his absence to those reasons which he hath alledged aswell as if he were present in place hereupon Timon tooke occasion to speake and said Certes it were not well done ofus to let him escape so whithout revenge who hath left his dart sticking in us for captaine Brasidas as it appeareth in the Chronicles being wounded with the shot of a javelin drew it out of his bodie his owne selfe and therewith smote his enemie who had hurt him so as he killed him outright as for us we need not so greatly to be revenged of those who have let flie among us some rash foolish and false speeches for it will be sufficient to shake the same off and send them backe againe before our opinion take holde thereof And what was it I pray you quoth I of all that which he delivered that moved you most for the man handled many things confusedly together and nothing at all in good order but kept a prating and babling against the providence of God facing and inveighing most bitterly and in reprochfull tearmes as if he had bene in a fit of anger and rage Then Patrocleas That which he uttered as touching the long delay and slacknesse of divine justice in punishing the wicked in my conceit was a great objection and troubled me much and to say a truth their reasons and words which he delivered have imprinted in me a new opinion so as now I am become a novice and
than those dumbe beasts who enterteine no evill suspicions or surmises of the gods nor any opinions to torment them as touching that which shall befall unto them after death for they neither beleeve and know not so much as once think of any harme at all in such things Furthermore if in the opinion that they holde of the gods they had reserved and left a place for divine providence beleeving that thereby the world was governed they might have beene thought wise men as they are to have gone beyond brute beasts for the atteinting of a pleasant and joifull life in regard of their good hopes but seeing all their doctrine as touching the gods tendeth to this end namely to feare no god and otherwise to be fearelesse and carelesse altogether I am perswaded verily that this is more firmely setled in those having no sense and knowledge at all of God than in these who say they know God but have not learned to acknowledge him for a punishing God and one that can punish and doe harme for those are not delivered from superstition and why they never fell into it neither have they laied away that fearefull conceit and opinion of the gods and no marvell for they never had any such the same may be said as touching hell and the infernall spirits for neither the one nor the other have any hope to receive good from thence marie suspect feare and doubt what shall betide them after death those must needs lesse who have no fore-conceit at all of death than they in whom this perswasion is imprinted beforehand that death concerneth us not and yet thus farre forth it toucheth them in that they discourse dispute and consider thereupon whereas brute beasts are altogether freed from the thought and care of such things as doe nothing perteine unto them true it is that they shunne stroaks wounds and slaughter and thus much I say of death they feare which also even to these men is dreadfull and terrible Thus you see what good things wisdome by their owne saying hath furnished them withall but let us now take a sight and survey of those which they exclude themselves sro and are deprived of As touching those diffusions of the soule when it dilateth and spreadeth it selfe over the flesh and for the pleasure that the flesh feeleth if the same be small or meane there is no great matter therein nor that which is of any consequence to speake of but if they passe mediocritie then besides that they be vaine deceitfull and uncerteine they are found to be combersome and odious such as a man ought rather to tearme not spiritual joies and delights of the soule but rather sensuall and grosse pleasures of the bodie fawning flattering and smiling upon the soule to draw and entice her to the participation of such vanities as for such contentments of the minde which deserve indeed and are woorthy to be called joies and delights they be purified cleane from the contrarie they have no mixture at all of troublesome motions no sting that pricketh them nor repentance that followeth them but their pleasure is spirituall proper and naturall to the soule neither is the good therein borowed abroad and brought in from without nor absurd and void of reason but most agreeable and sorting thereto proceeding from that part of the mind which is given unto contemplation of the trueth and desirous of knowledge or at leastwise from that which applieth it selfe to doe and execute great and honourable things now the delights and joies aswell of the one as the other hee that went about to number and would straine and force himselfe to discourse how great and excellent they be he were never able to make an end but in briefe and few words to helpe our memorie a little as touching this point Histories minister an infinit number of goodly and notable examples which yeeld unto us a singular delight and recreation to passe the time away never breeding in us a tedious satietie but leaving alwaies the appetite that our soule hath to the trueth insatiable and desirous still of more pleasure and contentment in regard whereof untrueths and very lies therein delivered are not without their grace for even in fables and sictions poeticall although we give no credit unto them there is some effectuall force to delight and perswade for thinke I pray you with your selfe with what heat of delight and affection we reade the booke of Plato entituled Atlanticus or the last books of Homers Ilias consider also with what griefe of heart wee misse and want the residue of the tale behinde as if we were kept out of some beautifull temples or faire theaters shut fast against us for surely the knowledge of trueth in all things is so lovely and amiable that it seemeth our life and very being dependeth most upon knowledge and learning whereas the most unpleasant odious and horrible things in death be oblivion ignorance and darknesse which is the reason I assure you that all men in a maner sight and warre against those who would bereave the dead of all sense giving us thereby to understand that they do measure the whole life the being also and joy of man by the sense onely and knowledge of his minde in such sort that even those very things that are odious and offensive otherwise we heare other whiles with pleasure and often times it falleth out that though men be troubled with the thing they heare so as the water standeth in their eies and they be readie to weepe and crie out for griefe yet they desire those that relate the same to say on and speake all as for example Oedipus in Sophocles THE MESSENGER Alas my lord I see that now I shall Relate the thing which is the worst of all OEDIPUS Woe is me likewise to heare it I am prest There is no helpe say on and tell the rest But peradventure this may be a current and streame of intemperat pleasure and delight proceeding from a curiositie of the minde and will too forward to heare and know all things yea and to offer violence unto the judgement and discourse of reason howbeit when as a narration or historie conteining in it no hurtfull and offensive matter besides the subject argument which consisteth of brave adventures and worthy exploits is penned and couched in a sweet stile with a grace and powerfull force of eloquence such as is the historie of Herodotus as touching the Greeke affaires or of Xenophon concerning the Persian acts as also that which Homer with an heavenly spirit hath endited and delivered in his verses or Eudoxus in his peregrinations and description of the world or Aristotle in his treatise of the founding of cities and governments of State or Aristoxenus who hath left in writing the lives of famous and renowmed persons in such I say there is not onely much delight and contentment but also there ensueth thereupon no displeasure nor repentance And what man is he who
are enamored of learning could satisfie to the full his desire as touching the knowledge of the truth and the contemplation of the universall nature of this world for that indeed they see as it were through a darke cloud and a thick mist to wit by the organes and instruments of this body and have no other use of reason but as it is charged with the humors of the flesh weake also and troubled yea and woonderfully hindered therefore having an eie and regard alwaies upward endevoring to flie forth of the bodie as a bird that taketh her flight and mounteth up aloft that she may get into another lightsome place of greater capacitie they labour to make their soule light and to discharge her of all grosse passions and earthly affections such as be base and transitorie and that by the meanes of their studie in philosophie which they use for an exercise and meditation of death And verily for my part I esteeme death a good thing so perfect and consumate in regard of the soule which then shall live a life indeed sound and certaine that I suppose the life heere is not a subsistent and assured thing of it selfe but resembleth rather the vaine illusions of some dreames And if it be so as Epicurus saith That the remembrance and renewing acquaintance of a friend departed out of this life is every way a pleasant thing a man may even now consider and know sufficiently of what joie these Epicureans deprive themselves who imagine otherwhiles in their dreames that they reveive and enterteine yea and follow after to embrace the very shadowes visions apparitions and ghosts of their friends who are dead and yet they have neither understanding nor sense at all and meane while they disappoint themselves of the expectation to converse one day indeed with their deere father and tender mother and to see their beloved and honest wives and are destitute of all such hope of so amiable company and sweet societie as they have who are of the same opinion that Pythagoras Plato and Homer were as touching the nature of the soule Certes I am verily perswaded that Homer covertly and as it were by the way shewed what maner of affection theirs is in this point when he casteth and projecteth amidde the presse of those that were fighting the image of Aeneas as if he were dead indeed but presently after hee exhibiteth him marching alive safe and sound And when his friends saw him so vigorous And whole of limbs and with heart generous To battel prest whom earst they tooke for dead They leapt for joy and banished all dread leaving therefore the foresaid image and shew of him they raunged all about him Let us likewise seeing that reason prooveth sheweth unto us that a man may in very truth converse with those that are departed that lovers and friends may touch handle and keepe companie one with another having their perfect senses be of good cheere and shunne those who can not beleeve so much nor reject and cast behind all such fantasticall images and outward barks and rinds onely in which they do al their life time nothing else but grieve and lament in vaine Moreover they that thinke the end of this life to be the beginning of another that is better if they lived pleasantly in this world better contented they are to die for that they looke for to enjoy a better estate in another and is things went not to their mind heere yet are they not much discontented in regard of the hopes which they have of the future delights and pleasures behind and these worke in them such incredible joies and expectances that they put out and abolish all defects and offences whatsoever these drowne I say and overcome all discontentments otherwise of the minde which by that meanes beareth gently and endureth with patience what accidents soever befal in the way or rather in a short diverticle or turning of the way where as contrariwise to those who beleeve that our life heere is ended and dissolved in a certaine deprivation of all sense death because it bringeth no alteration of miseries is dolorous as well to them of the one fortune as the other but much more unto those who are happie in this present life than unto such as are miserable for that as it cutteth these short of all hope of better estate so from those it taketh away a certeintie of good which was their present joyfull life And like as many medicinable and purgative drougs which are neither good nor pleasant to the stomacke howbeit in some respect necessarie howsoever they case and cure the sicke doe great hurt and offend the bodies of such as be in health even so the doctrine of Epicurus unto those who are infortunate and live miserably in this world promiseth an issure out of their miseries and the same nothing happie to wit a finall end and totall dissolution of their soule And as for those who are prudent wife and live in abundance of al good things it impeacheth and hindreth altogether their alacritie contentment of spirit in bringing and turning them from an happie life to no life at all from a blessed estate to no estate or being whatsoever For first formost this is certeine That the very apprehension of the losse of goods afflicteth and vexeth a man as much as either an assured expectance or a present enjoying and fruition thereof rejoiceth his heart yet would they beare us in hand that the cogitation of this finall dissolution and perdition into nothing leaveth unto men a most assured and pleasant good to wit the refutation or putting by of a certaine fearefull doubt and suspicion of infinit and endlesse miseries and this say they doth the doctrine of Epicurus effect in abolishing the feare of death and teaching that the soule is utterly dissolved Now if this be a singular and most sweet content as they say it is to be delivered from the feare and expectation of calamities and miseries without end how can it otherwise be but irksome and grievous to be deprived of the hope of joies sempiternall and to lose that supreame and sovereigne felicitie Thus you see it is good neither for the nor the other but this Not-being is naturally an enemie and quite contrarie unto all that have Being And as for those whom the miserie of death seemeth to deliver from the miseries of life a poore and cold comfort they have God wot of that insensibility as if they had an evasion and escaped thereby and on the other side those who lived in all prosperitie and afterwards came of a sudden to change that state into nothing me thinks I see very plainly that these tarrie for a fearefull and terrible end of their race which thus shall cause their felicitie to cease for nature abhorreth not privation of sense as the beginning of another estate and being but is afraid of it because it is the privation of those good things which are
do daily yeeld and those conteine examples to incite and provoke men partly to the study of philosophie and in part to pietie religion devotion toward the gods some induce us to imitate generous magnanimous acts others ingender a fervent zeale to performe the works of bountie and humanitie which precedents he that can closely and with dexterity use as documents and instructions to those that be drinking with them so as they perceive him not shall discharge the time which they drinke of many vices and those not the least which are imputed unto it some there be who put leaves of burrage into their wine others besprinkle the floores and pavements of parlours and dining-chambers with water wherein they have infused or steeped the herbes vervain maiden-haire having an opinion that these devices procure some joy and mirth in the hearts of those who are at a feast and all to imitate ladie Helene who as Homer reporteth with certaine spices and drougues that she had medicined and charmed as it were the wine that her guests should drinke but they doe not perceive that this tale being fetched from as farre as Aegypt after a great way and and long circuit endeth at the last in honest discourses fitted and accommodated to time and place for that the said Helene recounteth unto them as they drunke with her at the table the travels of noble Ulysses and namely What things this valiant knight had done and what he had indured What wrongs also he wrought himselfe to which he was inured For this was that Nepenthes if I be not deceived a medicine which discusseth and charmeth al sorrow and paine even a discreet speech framed aptly and in season to the affections and occasions which are presented but men considerate well advised and of good judgement howsoever they may seeme to deale in philosophie yet they carrie their words and place them so that they are effectuall rather by a gentle way of perswasion than by force and violence of demonstration For thus you see how Plato also in the treatise called His banquet where hee discourseth of the finall end of humane actions of the soveraigne good of man and in one word treateth of God and heavenly matters like a divine and theologian doth not enforce and stretch the proofe of his demonstration nor bestrew and powder as it were with dust his adversarie according to his wonted manner otherwise to take surer hold that hee might not possibly struggle out of his hands but induceth and draweth on the hearers his guests by a weaker kinde of arguments and suppositions by pretie examples and pleasant sictions Moreover the very questions and mattes at such a time and place propounded not only their reasons ought to be somewhat easie the problemes and propsitions plaine and familiar the interrogations also and demaunds probable and carying a resemblance of truth and nothing darke or intricate lest they doe perstringe and dazzle their eies who are not quicke sighted suffocate such as are but weake spirited and in one word turne them cleane away who are but shallow witted and of a meane conceit For like as there is a custome allowable to remoove and stirre when a man will the guests at a feast by urging them either to daunce alone or in a ring but he that should force them to rise from the table for to put on armour and fight in complet harneis or to fling the barre or cast a sledge doth not onely make the feast unpleasant and nothing acceptable to his guests but also hurtfull unto them even so easie and light questions exercise mens spirits handsomely and with great fruite and commoditie but we must reject and banish all disputations of matters litigious intricate and snarled as Democritus saith to wit knottie questions hard to be undone such as both busie themselves who propose them and trouble those that heare them For thus it ought to be that as the wine is all one and common throughout the table so the questions propounded at a feast or banquet to be talked of should be intelligible unto all for otherwise they who broch matters so darke and mysticall were as unreasonable and should have as little regard of the common benefit of their company as the crane and fox in Aesops fables had one of the others good For the fox having invited the crane to dinner set before her a good messe of fattie broth of beanes and pease which he had powred upon a broad shallow stone vessell in such sort as the poore crane was made a foole and laughing-stocke by this meanes for that with her long and small bill she could get none of it up but it went still besides it was so thinne and glibbe withall the crane againe because she would be quit and meet with the fox bad him to dinner and presented unto him good victuals within a bottle that had a long and narrow necke at which she her-selfe could easily convey thrust her bill to the very bottome but Reinardwas not able to take out his part with her even so when learned men at a table plunge and drowne themselve as it were in subtile problemes and questions interlaced with logicke which the vulgar sort are not able for their lives to comprehend and conceive whiles they also againe for their part come in with their foolish songs and vaine ballads of Robin-hood and little John telling tales of a tubbe or of a roasted horse and such like enter into talke of their trafficke and merchandise of their markers and such mechanicall matters certes all the fruite and end of such an assemblie at a east is utterly lost and were injurie done to god Bacchus for like as when Phrynicus Aeschylus first brought a tragedie which at the beginning was a solemne song in the honour of Bacchus to fables and narrations patheticall arose this proverbe And what is all this I pray you to Bacchus even so it comes many times into my minde to say thus unto one that draweth by head and shoulders into a feast that sophisticall and masterfull syllogisme called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My good friend what is this to Bacchus Haply there is some one who singeth certain of these ordinarie songs at feasts called Scotia as a man would say oblique or crooked when the great standing cuppe of wine is set in the middes of the table before all the company and the chaplets of flowers divided dealt among the guests which that god Bacchus putteth upon our heads to signifie that hee giveth us all liberty but surely this is neither good nor honest ne yet beseeming that freedome which should bee at feastes howsoever some say that those sonners are not darkly composed as the word Scotia seemeth to implie which signifieth crooked but that they tooke the name because in old time the guests at first sung altogether with one voice and accord one song in the praise of Bacchus and afterwards every one in his
there is nothing more than that which is meet and be fitting the dignitie of each person moreover in giving that superioritie and preeminence to running fast and making most haste which is done unto vertue kinred magistracie and such other qualities in seeming to avoid the opinion of being odious or offensive to his bidden guests he draweth upon himself so much more trouble and heart-burning of others for he offendeth them in depriving everie one of that honour which he deserveth or is woont to have For mine owne part I doe not thinke if so hard a piece of worke to make this distinction as hee would have it to be for first and formost it is not ordinarie nor often seene that many men of like degree and dignitie are bidden to one and the same feast besides being as there are many honorable places a man of judgement and discretion hath good meanes to dispose of them accordingly among manie if there be occasion for one of them he may content in setting him highest and above the rest another he may please with a place in the middest to one he may doe the favour as to set him next unto himselfe another he may gratifie by placing him close to some friend or familiar of his or else fast by his master and teacher in this order I say he may satisfie many of them who seeme to be of better reputation in distributing the places also which are of more respect among them as for the rest I leave them meanes also for their contentment namely certeine gifts savors curtesies and kindnesses which may in some sort make amends for the want of some honorable place But say that their deserts and dignities be hard to be distinguished or the persons themselves not easie to be pleased marke what a device I have in such a case to serve the turne My father if he be present I take by the hand and set him in the most honourable place of all if not I do the same by my grand-sire my wives father or mine uncle by the fathers side or my colleague and companion in office or els my fellow-senatour and brother-alderman or some one of those who hath some speciall and inward prerogative above others of honour and account with the master of the feast himselfe that biddeth the guests taking this for a rule in the cases borowed out of the books of Homer which are presidents of dueties and shew what is beseeming every man to do and namely in that place where Achilles seeing Menelaus and Antilochus debating the matter very hotly about the second prize for horse-running and doubting how farre-forth their anger and contention might proceed would needs give the said prize in question to a third man pretending in word that he tooke pitie of Eumelus and that he was minded to doe him some honour but indeed and trueth it was to take away the ocasion of difference and quarrell betweene the other two As I was thus speaking Lamprias who was set close in an odde corner of the chamber upon a low pallet thundering out his words after his wonted maner demanded of the assistance or companie in this wise My masters pleaseth it you to give me leave for to reprove and rebuke a little this sottish judge here and when everie one made answer saying Good leave have you speake your mind freely spare him not And who can quoth he forbeare that philosopher who setteth out and disposeth of the places at a feast like as he would do in some theater namely according to birth and parentage wealth and rilches estate and authority in common wealth yea and as if he ordeined the seats and sitting places for to opine or give voice in that solemne assembly of the States of Greece called Amphictyones to the end that even at the very table where as wee are met to drinke wine and be merrie we should not be rid of ambition nor shake off the foolish desire of glory for surely the places at a feast ought not to be distributed so as respective to honour but rather to the ease and pleasure of the guests that are to sit in them neither is the dignity of ech one by himselfe in his degree to be regarded but rather the affection disposition and habitude of the minde one to another how they can sort and frame together like as our maner is to doe in some other things which are to meet in one common conjunction for a good architect or mason wil not I trow lay his first worke or forefront of the house with Atticke or Lacedaemonian marble before the Barbarian stone because the same is in some sort of a noble kinde and comming from the worthier place neither will a cunning painter dispose his richest and most costly colour in the principal place of his picture nor the carpenter or shipwright employ before all other timber in the stem of his ship either the pine tree wood of Pathmos in Peloponnesus or the cypresse of Candie but so they order and distribute their stone their colours and their timber that being 〈◊〉 and sitted well together one with another the common worke arising of them all may be more firme and strong faire and beautifull good and commodious And thus you see God himselfe whom our poet Pindarus calleth the best workeman and principall artisan doeth not place the fire alwaies aloft nor the earth below but according as the use of bodies compounded doth require like as Empedocles testifieth in these verses The oisters murets of the sea and shel-fish every one With massie coat the tortoise eke with crust as hard as stone And vaulted backe which arch-wise he aloft doth hollow reare Shew all that heavie earth they do above their bodies beare not in that place which nature ordeined for it in the first constitution and framing of the universall world but in that which the composition of a new worke requireth for disorder and confusion is bad enough in all things but when it commeth among men especially when they are drinking and eating together it sheweth her badnesse most of all by insolencie outrasges and other enormities that can not be numbred which to foresee and remedie is the part of a man industruous well seene in policie good order and harmonie And that is well said of you answered we but why envie you to this company that science of order proportion and harmonie and doe not communicate it unto us Surely there is no envie at all quoth he in the way in case ye will beleeve me and be ruled by me in that which I doe change and alter in the order of the seast like as you would be directed by Epaminondas if he should range a battell in good order which before was in disarray We all agreed and gave him leave so to do then he voiding first out of hall or dining-place all the boies and lackies cast his eie upon every one of us in the face and said Hearken and give
sacrifice invited to the feast and after we had performed all ceremonies and complements therto belonging and were set at the table some question there was moved first as touching the vocable it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it should signifie and afterwards of the words uttered unto the slave when he is driven out but most of all of that maladie so called and of the accidents and circumstances thereof As for the tearme Bulimos every man in maner was of opinion that it betokened a great and publike famine but especially we Greeks of Aeolia who in our dialect use the letter π for β for we commonly do not say Bulimos but Pulimos as if it were Polylimos or Polilimos that is to say a great famine or a generall famine thorowout the citie and it seemed unto us that 〈◊〉 was another thing different from it and namely by a sound argument which we had from the Chronicles penned by Metrodorus as touching the acts of Ionia wherein thus much he writeth That the Smyrneans who in old time were Aeolians use to sacrifice unto Bubrostis a blackebull as an holocaust or burnt offering which they cut into pieces with the hide and so burne it all together But forasmuch as all maner of hunger resembleth a maladie and principally this called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which commeth upon a man when his bodie is affected with some unkind and unnaturall indisposition it seemeth that by great reason as they oppose wealth to povertie so they set health against sicknesse like as the heaving and overturning of the stomacke a disease when as men are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tooke that name first upon occasion of those who are in a ship when they saile or row fal to be stomack sicke and are apt to cast but afterwards by custome of speech whosoever feele the like passion of the stomacke and a disposition to vomit are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to saie to be sea sicke even so the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the noune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taking the beginning as is before said there is come unto us and signifieth a dogs-appetite or extraordinary hunger And to this purpose wee all spake and made a contribution as it were of all our reasons to make out a common supper or collation but when we came to touch the cause of this disease the first doubt that arose among us was this that they should most be surprized with this maladie who travell in great snowes like as Brutus did of late daies who when he marched with his army from Dyrrhachium to Apollonia was in danger of his life by occasion of this infirmitie it was a time when the snowe lay very deepe in which march he went such a pace that none of those who had the carriage of victuals overtooke him or came neere unto him now when as he fainted so for feeblenesse of stomacke that he now swooned and was ready to give up the ghost the souldiers were forced to runne in haste unto the walles of the city and to call for a loafe of bread unto their very enemies warding and keeping the watch upon the walles which when they had presently gotten therewith they recovered Brutus whereupon afterwards when he was master of the towne hee grievously intreated all the inhabitants for the courtesie which he had received from thence This disease hapneth likewise to horses and asses especially when they have either figges or apples a load but that which of all the rest is most woonderfull there is no manner of food or sustenance in the world that in such a case so soone recovereth the strength not of men onely but of labouring beasts also as to give them bread so that if they eat a morsell thereof bee it never so little they will presently finde their feet and be able to walke Hereupon ensued silence for a while and then I knowing well enough how much the arguments of ancient writers are able to content and satisfie such as are but dull and slow of conceit but contrary wise unto those that be studious ripe of wit and diligent the same make an overture and give courage and heart to search and inquire further into the truth called to minde and delivered before them all a sentence out of Aristotle who affirmeth That the stronger the cold is without the more is the heat within our bodies and so consequently causeth the greater colliquation of the humours in the interior parts Now if these humours thus resolved take a course unto the legges they cause lassitudes and heavinesse if the rheume fall upon the principall fountaines and organs of motion and respiration it bringeth faintings and feeblenesse I had no sooner said but as it is wont in such cases to fall out some tooke in hand to oppugne these reasons and others againe to defend and mainteine the same and Soclarus for his part The words quoth he in the beginning of your speech were very well placed and the ground surely laid for in truth the bodies of those who walke in snow are evidently cold without and exceedingly closed fast and knit together but that the inward heat occasioned thereby should make such a colliquation of humors and that the same should possesse and seize upon the principall parts and instruments of respiration is a bold and rash conceit and I cannot see how it should stand Yet rather would I thinke that the heat being thus kept in and united together and so by that meanes fortified consumeth all the nourishment which being spent it cannot chuse but the said heat also must needs languish even as a fire without fewell and heereupon it is that such have an exceeding hunger upon them and when they have eaten never so little they come presently to themselves againe for that food is the maintenance of naturall heat Then Cleomenes the physician This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say hunger quoth hee in the compound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth nothing else but is crept into the composition of it I know not how without any reason at all like as in the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which betokeneth to devoure or swallow downe solid meat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to drinke hath no sense or congruitie at all no more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to bend downward or fall groveling hath any thing to doe in the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifieth to rise aloft or to hold up the head as birds doe in drinking for surely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seemeth not unto me to be any hunger as many have taken it but it is a passion of the stomacke which concurring indeed with hunger engendreth a fainting of the heart and an aptnesse to swoone and even as odors and smels doe fetch againe and helpe those that be in a swoone so bread doth remedie and recover those
out of the field saying Great Jupiter and other gods immortall now doe know Whose destiny it is to die upon his overthrow For he wist well enough that the covenants of combat were capitulated and accorded upon this condition and therefore it was that a little while after Hector saith God Jupiter aloft in heaven who sits upon his throne The covenants sworne hath not perform'd which were agreed and sworne For as yet the combat remained unatchived and unperfect neither had it a certaine and doubtlesse conclusion considering neither the one nor the other of the champions was slaine so that in mine opinion there is no contrarietie heere at all because the former articles and conditions were comprised in the second for no doubt he that killeth hath overcome but it followeth not that he who vanquisheth hath killed his enemie but to say a truth wee may well plead thus That Agamemnon did not reverse or anull the chalenge or defiance pronounced by Hector but explaned and declared it neither altered he it but added rather the principall point thereof setting downe expresly him for victour who killed his enemie for this indeed is a complet and absolute victory whereas all others have evasions pretended excuses and oppositions such as this of Menelaus who wounded not his enemie nor so much as pursued and followed after him like as therefore in such cases wherein there is an evident contradiction of lawes indeed the judges are wont to pronounce award and sentence according to that which is most expresly and 〈◊〉 set downe leaving that which is doubtfull and obscure even so in this present case now in question that covenant which hath an evident conclusion and admitteth no tergiversation at all we ought to esteeme more firme and effectuall furthermore that which is the chiefe and most principall point of all even he himselfe who is supposed to be the victour in that he retired not backe nor gave over seeking for him that fled but went up and downe to and fro among the troupes searching all about If haply of this gallant knight Sir Paris he might have a sight testified plainly that his victory was imperfect and of no validitie considering that his concurrent was escaped out of his hands which put him in minde of the words which himselfe a little before had said The houre of death to whether of us twaine Is come let him lie dead upon the plaine As for the rest see every one apart And that with speed you home in peace depart And therefore it stood him upon necessarily to seeke out Alexander to the end that having slaine him he might accomplish the entire execution of the combat and gaine the end thereof whereas neither killing him out of the way nor taking him prisoner without all right he demanded the prize of victorie for in very trueth he did not so much as vanquish him if we may gather presumptions and conjecturall arguments even out of his owne words complaining as he doth of Jupiter and lamenting to himselfe that he missed of his purpose in these words O Jupiter in heaven above no God there is againe More spightfull than thyselfe to me nor cruell to be plaine I made account and so gave out of Paris in this place Reveng'd to be for all his wrongs and working my disgrace But now my sword in hand is burst my javelin 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 With force of armes hath done no hurt nor wrought him any paine For himselfe confesseth that it was to no purpose that he pierced thorow his enemies shield and tooke away his armet that fell from his head unlesse he had wounded him therewith and slaine him outright THE FOURETEENTH QUETSION As touching the Muses and their number certeine points not after a vulgar and common maner handled THis discourse being thus finished we performed our oblations and libaments to the Muses and after we had sung an hymne to Apollo the leader and conductour of the Muses we chanted also to the found of the harpe as Eraton plaied there upon those verses which 〈◊〉 wrote concerning the generation and birth of the Muses when our song was ended Herodes the thetorician began his speech in this wise Listen lordings quoth he you that would distract and plucke from us Calliope they say forsooth that she converseth with kings and not with those who can skill of unfolding syllogismes or who propose difficult questions to such as speake big and are of magnificent speech 〈◊〉 those rather who do and effect great matters the works I meane which concerne orators politicians Statesmen and as for Clio of all the Muses she 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 the encomiasticall orations wherein are conteined the praises of other artizans for that in old time our ancestours called praises Clea and Polymneia enterteineth historie which is nothing els but the memoriall or remembrance of many antiquities and it is reported that in some places and namely in Chios they name all the Muses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say memories as for me I challenge also to my selfe some part of Euterpe if it be as 〈◊〉 saith that she it is who hath allotted unto her the gift to enterteine meetings and conferences with pleasure delectation and grace for an oratour is no lesse affable in familiar conversation than eloquent in pleading causes at the 〈◊〉 or in opining and delivering his minde in consultations at the counsell table considering that the art and profession of an oratour conteineth the facultie and feat to win good will do defend mainteine and justifie but principally and most of all we imploy our greatest skill in praising and dispraising which if we can order artificially and with dexteritie we are able to bring about and effect no small matters and contrariwise if we do unskilfully and without art we faile of the marke which we shoot at for this commendable title O God this man how acceptable Is he to all and venerable agreeth in my judgement to oratours rather than to any other persons who have the skill to speake well and to perswade a gift most requisit fit and beseeming those that are to converse with men Then Ammonius It were not well done of us quoth he ô Herodes if we should be offended and angry with you although you seeme to comprehend all the Muses together in your hand for that among friends all things are common and therefore it is that Jupiter hath begotten many Mufes that every man might draw abundance from them of all good things and make no spare for we have not all of us need of the skill in hunting of militarie science of the art of navigation nor of the mechanicall handicrafts of artizans but we all stand in need of learning and erudition As many as on fruits do feed Which for our use the earth doth breed And hereupon it is that Jupiter hath procreated one Minerva one Diana and one Vulcane but many Muses now that there should be nine of them in number
because the aire is not able to pierce and enter so low but as much as it can take holde of with the colde either in touching or approching neere unto it so much it frizeth and congealeth And this is the reason that Barbarians when they are to passe great rivers frozen over with ice send out foxes before the for if the ice be not thicke but superficiall the foxes hearing the noise of the water running underneath returne backe againe Some also that are disposed to fish do thaw and open the ice with casting hot water upon it and so let downe their lines at the hole for then will the fishes come to the bait and bite Thus it appeareth that the bottome of the river is not frozen although the upper face thereof stand all over with an ice and that so strong that the water thereby drawen and driven in so hard is able to crush and breake the boats and vessels within it according as they make credible relation unto us who now doe winter upon the river Donow with the emperour And yet without all these farre-fet examples the very experiments that we finde in our owne bodies doe testifie no lesse for after much bathing or sweating alwaies we are more colde and chill for that our bodies being then open and resolved we receive at the pores cold together with aire in more abundance The same befalleth unto water it selfe which both sooner cooleth and groweth also colder after it hath beene once made hot for then more subject it is to the injurie of the aire considering also that even they who fling and cast up scalding water into the aire do it for no other purpose but to mingle it with much aire The opinion then of him ô Phavorinus who assigneth the first cause of cold unto aire is founded upon such reasons and probabilities as these As for him who ascribeth it unto water he laieth his ground likewise upon such principles for in this maner writeth Empedocles Beholde the Sunne how bright alwaies and hot he is beside But 〈◊〉 is ever blacke and darke and colde on every side For in opposing cold to heat as blacknesse unto brightnesse he giveth us occasion to collect and inferre that as heat and brightnesse belong to one and the same substance even so cold and blacknesse to another Now that the blacke hew proceedeth not from aire but from water the very experience of our outward senses is able to proove for nothing waxeth blacke in the aire but every thing in the water Do but cast into the water and drench therein a locke of wooll or peece of cloth be it never so white you shal when you take it foorth againe see it looke blackish and so will it continue untill by heat the moisture be fully sucked up and dried or that by the presse or some waights it be squeized out Marke the earth when there falleth a showre of raine how every place whereupon the drops fall seemes blacke and all the rest beside retaineth the same colour that it had before And even water it selfe the deeper that it is the blacker hew it hath because there is morequantity of it but contrariwise what part soever thereof is neere unto aire the same by and by is lightsome and cheerefull to the eie Consider among other liquid substances how oile is most transparent as wherein there is most aire for proofe wherof see how light it is and this is it which causeth it to swim above all other liquors as being carried aloft by the meanes of aire And that which more is it maketh a calme in the sea when it is flung and sprinkled upon the waves not in regard of the slipery smoothnesse whereby the windes do glide over it and will take no hold according as Aristotle saith but for that the waves being beaten with any humor whatsoever will spred themselves and ly even and principally by the meanes of oile which hath this speciall and peculiar property above all other liquors that it maketh clere and giveth meanes to see in the bottome of the waters for that humidity openeth and cleaveth when aire comes in place and not onely yeeldeth a cleere light within the sea to Divers who fish-ebb in the night for spunges and plucke them from the rocks whereto they cleave but also in the deepest holes thereof when they spurt it out of their mouths the aire then is no blacker than the water but lesse colde for triall heerof looke but upon oile which of all liquors having most aire in it is nothing cold at all and if it frize at all it is but gently by reason that the aire incorporate within it will not suffer it to gather and congeale hard marke worke-men also and artisanes how they doe not dippe and keepe their needles buckles and claspes or other such things made of iron in water but in oile for feare left the excessive colde of the water would marre and spoile them quite I stand the more heereupon because I thinke it more meet to debate this disputation by such proofes rather than by the colours considering that snowe haile and ice are exceeding white and cleere and withall most colde contrariwise pitch is hotter than hony and yet you see it is more darke and duskish And heere I cannot chuse but woonder at those who would needs have the aire to be colde because forsooth it is darke as also that they consider not how others take and judge it hot because it is light for tenebrositie and darknesse be not so familiar and neere cousens unto colde as ponderositie and unweldinesse be proper thereto for many things there be altogether void of heat which notwithstanding are bright and cleere but there is no colde thing light and nimble or mounting upward for clouds the more they stand upon the nature of the aire the higher they are caried and flie aloft but no sooner resolve they into a liquid nature and substance but incontinently they fall and loose their lightnesse and agilitie no lesse than their heat when colde is engendred in them contrariwise when heat commeth in place they change their motion againe to the contrary and their substance mounteth upward so soone as it is converted into aire Neither is that supposition true as touching corruption for every thing that perisheth is not transmuted into the contrary but the trueth is all things are killed and die by their contrary for so fire being quenched by fire turneth into aire And to this purpose Aeschylus the poet said truely although tragically when hee called water the punishment of fire for these be his words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The water stay which fire doth stay And Homer in a certaine battell opposed Vulcane to the river and with Neptune matched Apollo not so much by way of fabulous fiction as by physicall and naturall reason and as for 〈◊〉 a wicked woman who meant cleane contrary to that which she said and shewed wrote elegantly in this wise The
they lacke Or many times the bottome of the sea and great rivers being full of mud doth by the reflexion of the Sunne-beames represent the like colour that the said mud hath Or is not more probable that the water toward the bottome is not pure and sincere but corrupted with an earthly qualitie as continually carying with it somewhat of that by which it runneth and wherewith it is stirred and the same setling once to the bottome causeth it to be more troubled and lesse transparent PLATONIQVE QVESTIONS The Summarie IN these gatherings Plutarch expoundeth the sense of divers hard places which are found in the disputations of Socrates conteined in the Dialogues of Plato his disciple but especially in Timaeus which may serve to allure yoong students to the reading of that great Philosopher who under the barke of words hath delivered grave and pleasant matters PLATONIQUE QUESTIONS 1 What is the reason that God other-whiles commanded Socrates to do the part of a Midwife in helping others to be delivered of child-birth but for had himselfe in any wise to procreate children according as it is written in a treatise entituled Theaetetus For we ought not to thinke that if he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cavill to 〈◊〉 or to speake ironically in this place he would have abused the name of God Besides in this selfe same treatise he attributeth many other high and magnificall speeches unto Socrates namely this among many others Certes quoth he there be many men right good sir who cary this minde to me-ward that they are disposed plainly to carpe and bite me in case at any time I seeme to rid them of any foolish opinion that they have neither thinke they that I do it of good will and meaning well unto them shewing themselves herein far short of this doctrine That no God beareth evill will to men no more verily do I this unto them upon any malice but surely I can not otherwise chuse neither doe I thinke it lawfull for me either to smoother up and pardon a lie or to dissemble and suppresse a trueth IS it for that he tearmeth his owne nature as being more judicious and inventive by the name of God like as Menander doth saying This minde this our intelligence In trueth is of divine essence And Heraclitus Mans nature we must needs confesse Is heavenly and a god doubtlesse Or rather in very trueth there was some divine and celestiall cause which suggested and inspired into Socrates this maner of philosophy whereby sifting as hee did continually and examining others he cured them of all swelling pride of vaine errour of presumptuous arrogancy likewise of being odious first to themselves and afterwards to those about them of their company for it fortuned about his time that a number of these sophisters swarmed over all Greece unto whom yong gentlemen resorting paying good summes of money for their salary were filled with a great weening and opinion of themselves with a vaine perswasion of their owne learning and zelous love to good letters spending their time in idle disputations and frivolous contentions without doing any thing in the world that was either good honest or profitable Socrates therefore who had a speciall gift by his maner of speech and discourse as it were by some purgative medicine to argue and convince was of greater authority and credit when he confuted others in that he never affirmed nor pronounced resolutely any thing of his owne yea and he pierced deeper into the soules and hearts of his hearers by how much he seemed to seeke out the trueth in common and never to favorize and mainteine any opinion of his owne for this begetting of a mans owne fansies mightily empeacheth the facultie and power to judge another for evermore the lover is blinded in the behalfe of that which he loveth and verily there is nothing in the world that loveth so much the owne as a man doth the opinions and reason whereof himselfe was the father for surely that distribution and partition among children which is commonly said to be most and equall is in this case of opinions and reasons most unjust for in the former every one must take his owne but in this hee ought to chuse the better yea though it were another mans and therefore once againe he that fathereth somewhat of his owne becommeth the worse judge of other mens And like as there was sometime a sophister or great learned man who said That the Elians would be the better umpires and judges of the sacred Olympick games in case there were never any Elian came in place to performe his prizes even so he that would be a good president to sit and determine of divers sentences and opinions no reason there is in the world that he should desire to have his owne sentence crowned no nor to be one of the parties contending and who in truth are to be judged by him The Grecian captaines after they had defaited the Barbarians being assembled in counsell to give their voices unto those whom they deemed woorthy of reward and honour for their prowesse judged themselves all to have done the best service and to be the most valorous warriours And of philosophers I assure you there is not one but he would doe as much unlesse it were Socrates and such as he who confesse that they neither have nor know ought of their owne for these in truth be they who onely shew themselves to be uncorrupt and competent judges of the truth and such as cannot be chalenged for like as the aire within our eares if it be not firme and steady nor cleere without any voice of the owne but full of singing sounds and ringing noises cannot exactly comprehend that which is said unto us even so that which is to judge of reasons in philosophie if it meet with any thing that resoundeth and keepeth an hammering within hardly will it be able to understand that which shall be delivered without foorth for the owne particular opinion which is domesticall and dwelleth at home of what matter soever it be that is treated of will alwaies be the philosopher that hitteth the marke and toucheth the truth best whereas all the rest shall be thought but to opine probably the trueth Moreover if it be true that a man is not able perfectly to comprise or know any thing by good right and reason then did God forbid him to cast forth these false conceptions as it were of untrue and unconstant opinions and forced him to reproove and detect those who ever had such for no small profit but right great commoditie comes by such a speech as is able to deliver men from the greatest evill that is even the spirit of error of illusion and vanitie in opinion So great a gift as God of spectall grace Gave never to Asclepius his race For the physicke of Socrates was not to heale the body but to clense and purifie the soule festestered inwardly and corrupt Contrariwise if it
the goat Amalthea by the head and that plentifull horne of abundance which the Stoicks talke of he is rich incontinently and yet beggeth his bread and victuals of others he is a king although for a peece of mony he teacheth how to resolve syllogismes he onely possesseth al things albeit he pay rent for his house buieth his meale and meat with the silver that many times he taketh up of the usurer or else craveth at their hands who have just nothing of their owne to give True it is indeed that Ulisses the king of Ithaca begged almes but it was because he would not be knowen counterfaiting all that he could To make himselfe a begger poore Like one that went from doore to doore whereas he that is come out of the Stoicks schoole crying aloud with open mouth I onely am a king I am rich and none but I is seene oftentimes at other mens doores standing with this note Give Hipponax a cloke his naked corps to folde For that I quake and shiver much for colde THE CONTRADICTIONS OF STOICK PHILOSOPHERS The Summarie PLutarch being of the Academique sect directly contrary to the Stoicks examineth in this treatise the opinons of those his adversaries and sheweth by proper 〈◊〉 out of their owne writings and namely of Chrysippus their principall doctor that there is nothing firme and certeine in all their doctrine perusing and sifting to this end the chiefe points of all the parts of philosophie not binding himselfe precisely to any speciall or der but proposing matters according as they come into his remembrance or were presented to his etes Moreover in the recitall of then repugnancics and contradictions he 〈◊〉 certeine expositions to aggravate the absurdity of this sect of his adversaries and to withdraw the reader from them which is a very proper and singular maner of declaming and disputing against inveterate errors and such as have a great name in the world for in shewing that those who are reputed most able and sufficient to teach and mainteine them know not what they say and do consound themselves is as much as to reproch every man who doth adhaere unto them with this imputation that his is deprived of common sense in receiving that for a certeine verity wherein their very 〈◊〉 are not well resolved or admitting that which they practise otherwise than they say THE CONTRADICTIONS of Stoicke philosophers FIrst above all things I would have to be seene a conformitie and accord betweene the opinions of men and their lives for it is not so necessary that the oratour according as Lysias saith and the law should sound the same note as requisite that the life of a philosopher should be conformable and consonant to his words and doctrine for the speech of a philosopher is a voluntary and particular law which hee imposeth upon himselfe if it beso as men esteeme that philosophie is as no doubt it is the profession of that which is serious grave and of weighty importance and not a gamesome sport or vaine and toyish pratling devised onely for to gaine glory Now we see that Zeno himselfe hath written much by way of disputation and discourse Cleanthes likewise and Chrysippus most of all concerning the politique government of common-wealth touching rule and obedience of judgement also and pleading at the barre and yet looke into all their lives throughout you shall not finde that ever any of them were captains and commanders neither law-givers nor senatours counsellers of State ne yet orators or advocates pleading judicially in court before the judges nay they were not so much as emploied in any warre bearing armes and performing mattiall service for the defence of their countries you shal not find I say that any of them was ever sent in embassage or bestowed any publicke largesse or donative to the people but remained all the time of their life and that was not short but very long in a strange and forren countrey feeding upon rest and repose as if they had tasted of the herbe Lotus in Homer and forgotten their native foile where they spent their time in writing books in holding discourses and in walking up and downe Heereby it manifestly appeereth that they lived rather according to the sayings and writings of other than answerable to that which themselves judge and confesse to be their duty having passed the whole course of their life in that quiet repose which Epicurus and Hieronymus so highly praise and recommend And verily to proove this to be a trueth Chrysippus himselfe in his fourth booke entituled Of Lives is of opinion and so hath put downe in writing that a scholasticall life to wit that of idle students differeth not from the life of voluptuous persons And to this purpose I thinke it not amisse to alledge the mans speech word for word They quoth he who thinke that this scholastical and idle life of students even from the first beginning is most of all beseeming and agreeable to philosophers in my conceit seeme much deceived weening as they do that they are to philosophize for their pastime or recreation and so to draw out in length the whole course of their life at their booke in their studies which is as much to say in plaine tearmes as to live at ease and in pleasure Neither is this opinion of theirs to be hidden and dissembled for many of them give out as much openly howsoever others and those not a few deliver the same more obscurely and yet where is he who grew old and aged more in this idle scholasticall life than Chrysippus Cleanthes Diogenes Zeno and Antipater who forsooke and abandoned even their native countries having no cause or occasion in the world to complaine of or to be discontent onely to this end that they might lead their lives more sweetly at their pleasure studying and disputing with ease and letting out their girdle slacke as they list themselves To approove this that I say Aristocreon the disciple of Chrysippus and one of his familiar friends having caused a statue of brasse to be erected for him set over it these elegant verses in maner of an epigram This image Aristocreon erected fresh and new For Chrysip Academicke knots who like an ax did hew Lo what maner of person was Chrysippus an aged man a philosopher one who praised the life of kings and of those who are conversant in weale publike and he who thought there was no difference betweene the idle scholasticall life and the voluptuous And yet others among them as many I meane as deale in state affaires are found to be more repugnant and contradictory to the resolutions of there owne sect for they beare rule as chiefe magistrates they are judges they be Senatours and set in counsell they ordaine and publish lawes they punnish malefactours they honour and reward those that doe well as if they were cities indeed wherein they governe and manage the state as if those were senatours counsellers and judges who yeerely
Logicall as touching speech Ethicall concerning maners and Physicall belonging to the nature of things of which that which is respective unto speech ought to precede and be ranged first secondly that which treateth of maners thirdly that which handleth naturall causes Now of these Physicks and naturall arguments the last is that which treateth of God and this is the reason that the precepts and traditions of divine matters and of religion they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say the very last and comming in the end Howbeit this treatise of the gods which by his saying ought to be set last himselfe in the very same booke rangeth above maners and setteth before all other morall questions For neither seemeth he to speake of the ends nor of justice nor of good and evill things nor of marriage nor of the nouriture and education of children 〈◊〉 yet of law nor of the government of the Common-wealth in any sort but as they who propose and publish decrees unto cities and States make some preamble before of good lucke or happie fortune so he useth the preface of Jupiter of Fatall destinie of Divine providence also that there being but one world the same doth consist and is mainteined by one mightie power Which points no man doth firmly beleeve nor can be resolutely perswaded in unlesse he wade deeply into the profoundest secrets and discourses of naturall Philosophie But hearken I beseech you a little to that which he saith of these matters in his third booke of the gods It is not possible quoth he to finde out any other fountaine and original beginning of justice than from Jupiter and common nature for from hence it must needs be that every such thing is derived if that we meane to discourse of good things and evill Againe in his Treatise of naturall positions there is no other way or at leastwise not a better of proceeding to the discourse of good things and bad nor of of vertues nor of sovereigne felicitie than from common nature and the administration of the world Moreover as he goeth forward in another place We are to annex and adjoine hereunto quoth he a treatise of good and evill things considering there is not a better beginning thereof nor yet a reference and relation more proper neither is the speculation and science of nature in any other respect requisit or necessarie to be learned but onely for to know the difference of good and evill And therefore according to Chrysippus this naturall science both goeth before and also followeth after morall things or to say a trueth at once in more expresse termes it were a strange and difficult inversion of order to holde that it is to be placed after them considering that without it it were impossible to comprehend any of the other and a very manifest repugnance it were to affirme that science naturall is the beginning of morall which treateth of good and evill and yet ordeine neverthelesse that it should be taught not before but after it Now if any man say unto me that Chrysippus in his booke entituled The use of speech hath written that he who first learneth Logicke I meane the knowledge and philosophie concerning words ought not altogether for to forbeare the learning of other parts but that he ought to take a taste of them according as he hath meanes thereto well may he speake a trueth but withall confirme he shall my accusation still of his fault for he fighteth with himselfe in ordering one while that a man should learne in the last place and after all the science that treateth of God as if that were the reason why it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Finall and another while teaching cleane contrarie that the same is to be learned even with the very first and at the beginning for then farewell all order for ever and welcome confusion if we must learne all things hudled together at all times But yet this is not the woorst for having set this downe for a reasolution That the doctrine as touching good things and evill ought to begin and proceed from the knowledge of God yet he will not have them who settle themselves and enter into the studie of morall philosophie to take their beginning there but that in learning this to catch somewhat of that by the way even as much as they have easie meanes to come by and afterwards to repasse from morall philosophy unto Theologie without which he saith there can bee neither entrance nor progresse in the knowledge of maners Moreover he saith that To dispute of one and the same question pro contra to and fro he disalloweth not simply and in generality but his advise is to use the same so warily and with such discretion as otherwhiles oratours doe in pleading when they alledge the reasons of their adversaries not to uphold and mainteine the same but onely for to refure and disproove that likelihood and probabilitie which they pretend For otherwise quoth he thus to doe is the maner of those Skepticks who be alwaies doubtfull and withhold their consent in every thing a meere shift that serveth their turne for whatsoever they hold but as for those who would worke and establish in mens hearts a certeine science according to which they might undoubtedly guide and conduct themselves they ought to sound and search the contrary and from point to point by stepmeale to direct their novices newly entred even from the beginning to the very end wherein there falleth out otherwhiles fit opportunity to make mention of contrary sentences and opinions for to refute and resolve that which might seeme to have apparence of trueth as the maner is in pleading before judges for these be the very words and proper tearmes that he useth Now what an absurd and impertinent a thing it is that philosophers should thinke they were to put downe the contrary opinions of other philosophers and not withall their reasons and arguments but onely as advocates pleading at the barre to disable and weaken their proofes and so to weary their adversaries as if disputation were onely to win the honour of victory and not to finde out a trueth we have elsewhere discoursed against him sufficiently But that himselfe not heere and there in his disputations but oftentimes and in many places hath confirmed with might and maine yea and with so great asseveration and contention contrary resolutions unto his owne opinions that it were a right hard matter for any man to discerne which of them he approoveth most they themselves in some sort doe say who admire the subtilty of the man and the vivacity of his spirit who also both thinke and sticke not to affirme that Carneades spake nothing of his owne invention but by the helpe and meanes of which arguments Chrysippus used to proove his owne assertions hee returned the same contrariwise upon himselfe to confute his precepts
and comprehend another that the rainebow which compasseth the other without forth yeeldeth dim colours and not sufficiently distinct expressed because the outward cloud being farther remote from our sight maketh not a strong and forcible reflexion And what needs there any more to be said considering that the very light of the Sunne returned and sent backe by the Moone 〈◊〉 all the heat and of his brightnesse there commeth unto us with much adoe but a small remnant and a portion very little and feeble Is it possible then that our sight running the same race there should any percell or residue thereof reach from the Moone backe againe to the Sunne For mine owne part I thinke not Consider also I beseech you quoth I even your owne selves that if our eiesight were affected and disposed alike by the water and by the Moone it could not otherwise be but that the Moone should represent unto us the images of the earth of trees of plants of men and of starres as well as water doth and all other kinds of mirrors Now if there be no such reflexion of our eie sight 〈◊〉 the Moone as to bring backe unto us those images either for the feeblenesse of it or the rugged innequallity of her superficies let us never require that it should leape backe as far as to the Sun Thus have we reported as much as our memory would carrie away whatsoever was there delivered Now is it time to desire Sylla or rather to require exact of him to make his narration for that admitted he was to here this discourse upon such a condition And therefore if you thinke so good let us give over walking and sitting downe here upon these seates make him a sedentarie audience All the companie liked well of this motion And when we had taken our places Theon thus began Certes I am desirous quoth he and none of you all more to heare what shall be said But before I would be very glad to understand somewhat of those who are said to dwell in the Moone not whether there be any persons there inhabiting but whether it be possible that any should inhabit there For if this cannot be then it were mere folly and beside all reason to say that the Moone is earth otherwise it would be thought to have beene created in vaine and to no end as bearing no fruits nor affoording no habitation no place for nativity no food or nourishment for any men or women in regard of which cause and for which ends we 〈◊〉 hold that this earth wherein we live as Plato saith was made and created even to be our nourse and keeper making the day and night distinct one from another For you see and know that of this matter many things have beene said aswell merily and by way of laughter as 〈◊〉 and in good earnest For of those who inhabit the Moone some are said to hang by the heads under it as if they were so many 〈◊〉 others contrariwise who dwell upon it are tied fast like a sort of 〈◊〉 and turned about with such a violence that they are in danger to be slung and shaken out And verily she moveth not after one single motion but three maner of waies whereupon the Poets call her other while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Trivia performing her course together according to length bredth and depth in the Zodiak Of which motions the first is called A direct revolution the second An oblique winding or wheeling in and out and the third the Mathematicians call I wote not how An inequalitie and yet they see that she hath no motion at all even and uniforme nor certeine in all her monthly circuits and reversions No marvell therefore considering the impetuositie of these motions if there fell a lion sometimes out of her into Peloponnesus nay rather we are to wonder why we see not every day a thousand sals of men women yea and as many beasts shaken out from thence and flung downe headlong with their heeles upward For it were a meere mockerie to dispute and stand upon their habitation there if they neither can breed nor abide there For considering that the 〈◊〉 and Troglodytes over whose heads the Sunne standeth directly one moment onely of the day in the time of the Solstices and then presently retireth hardly escape burning by reason of the excessive siccitie of the circumstant aire how possibly can the men in the Moone endure 12 Summers every yere when the Sunne once a moneth is just in their Zenith and setleth plumbe over head when she is at the full As for winds clouds and raines without which the plants of the earth can neither come up nor be preserved it passeth all imagination that there should be any there the aire is so subtile drie and hote especially seeing that even here beneath the highest mountaines doe admit or feele the hard and bitter Winters from yeere to yeere but the aire about them being pure and cleere and without any agitation whatsoever by reason of the subtilitie and lightnesse avoideth all that thicknesse and concretion which is among us unlesse haply we will say that like as Minerva instilled and dropped into Achilles mouth some Nectar and Ambrosia when he received no other food so the Moone who both is called and is indeed Minerva nourisheth men there bringeth foorth daily for them Ambrosia according as olde Pherecides was wont to say that the very gods also were sedde and nourished For as touching that Indian root which as Megasthenes saith certeine people of India who neither eat nor drinke nor have so much as mouthes whereupon they be called Astomi do burne and make to smoake with the odor and perfume whereof they live how can they come by any such there considering the Moone is never watered nor refreshed with raine When 〈◊〉 had thus said You have quoth I very properly and sweetly handled this point you have I say by this mery conceited jest laied smooth and even those bent and knit browes the austerity I meane of this whole discourse which hath given us heart and encouraged us to make answere for that if we faile and come short we looke not for streight examination nor feare any sharpe and grievous punishment For to say a trueth they who take most offence at these matters rejecting and discrediting the same are not so great adversaries unto those who are most perswaded thereof but such as will not after a milde and gentle sort consider that which is possible and probable First and formost therefore this I say that suppose there were no men at all inhabiting the Moone it doth not necessarily follow therefore that she was made for nothing and to no purpose for we see that even this earth here is not thorowout inhabited nor tilled in all parts nay there is but a little portion thereof habitable like unto certeine promontories or 〈◊〉 arising out of the deepe sea for to breed in gender and bring forth
passion who either upon pitie surprising them or joy presented unto them might immediately slide as it were and fall into a melodious and singing voice insomuch as their feasts were full of verses and love songs yea and their books and compositions amatorious and savoring of the like And when Euripides said Love makes men Poets market it when you will Although before in verse they had no skill He meaneth not that love putteth Poetrie or Musicke into a man in whom there was none before but wakeneth stirreth and enchafeth that which before was drowsie idle and cold Or else my good frend let us say that now a daies there is not an amorous person and one that skilleth of love but all love is extinct and perished because there is no man as Pindarus saith Who now in pleasant vaine Poeticall His songs and ditties doeth addresse Which just in rhime and meeter fall To praise his faire and sweet mistresse But this is untrue and absurd for many loves there be that stirre and moove a man though they meet not with such minds as naturally are disposed and forward to Musicke or Poetrie and well may these loves be without pipes without harpes violes lutes and stringed instruments and yet no lesse talkative nor ardent than those in old time Againe it were a shame and without all conscience to say that the Academie with all the quire and company of Socrates and Plato were void of amorous affection whose amatorious discourses are at this day extant to be read although they left no Poems behinde them And is it not all one to say that there was never any woman but Sappho in love nor had the gift of prophesie save onely Sibylla and Aristonice or such as published their vaticinations and prophesies in verse For vertue as Chaeremon was woont to say is mingled and tempered with the maners of those that drinke it And this Enthusiasme or spirit of prophesie like unto the ravishment of love maketh use of that sufficiencie and facultie which it findeth ready in the subject and mooveth ech one of them that are inspired therewith according to the measure of their naturall disposition and yet as we consider God and his providence we shall see that the change is ever to the better For the use of speech resembleth properly the permutation and woorth of money which is good and allowable so long as it is used and knowen being currant more or lesse and valued diversly as the times require Now the time was when the very marke and stampe as it were of our speech was currant and approoved in meeter verses songs and sonets Forasmuch as then all historie all doctrine of Philosophie all affection and to be briefe all matter that required a more grave and stately voice they brought to Poetry and Musicke For now onely few men hardly and with much a doe give eare and understand but then all indifferently heard yet and take great pleasure to heare those that sung The rurall ploughman with his hine The fowler with his nets and line as Pindarus saith but also most men for the great aptitude they had unto Poetrie when they would admonish and make remonstrances did it by the meanes of harpe lute and song withall if they ment to rebuke chastise exhort and incite they performed it by tales fables and proverbes Moreover their hymnes to the honour and praise of the gods their praiers and vowes their balads for joy of victory they made in meeter and musicall rhime some upon a dexterity of wit others by use and practise And therefore neither did Apollo envie this ornament and pleasant grace unto the skill of divination neither banished he from this three-footed table of the oracle the Muse so highly honored but rather brought it in and stirred it up as affecting and loving Poeticall wittes yea and himselfe ministred and infused certeine imaginations helping to put forward the loftie and learned kinde of language as being much prized and esteemed But afterwards as the life of men together with their fortunes and natures came to be changed thrist and utilitie which remooveth all superfluity tooke away the golden lusts and foretops of perukes the spangled coifes caules and attires it cast off the fine and deinty robes calld Xystides it clipped and cut away the bush of haire growing too long it unbuckled and unlaced the trim buskins acquainting men with good reason to glory in thriftinesse and frugalitie against superfluous and sumptuous delicacies yea and to honour simplicitie and modesty rather than vaine pompe and affected curiositie And even so the maner of mens speech changing also and laying aside all glorious shew the order of writing an historie therewithall presently came downe as one would say from the stately chariot of versification to prose and went a foot and by the meanes especially of this fashion of writing and speaking at liberty and not being tied to measures true stories come to be distinguished from lying fables and Philosophie embracing perspicuity of stile which was apt to teach and instruct rather than that which by tropes and figures amused and amased mens braines And then Apollo repressed Pythia that she should not any more call her fellow citizens Pyricaos that is to say burning fires nor the Spartanes Ophioboros that is to say devourers of serpents nor men Oreanas nor river Orempotas and so by cutting off from her prophesies verses and strange termes circumlocutions and obscuritie he taught and inured her to speake unto those who resorted to the oracles as lawes do talke with cities as kings devise and commune with their people and subjects and as scholars give eare unto their schoole-masters framing and applying his maner of speech and language so as it might be full of sense and perswasive grace for this lesson we ought to learne and know that as Sophocles saith God to the wise in heavenly things is ay a light some guide But fooles so briefely he doth teach that they goe alwaies wide And together with plainnesse and diluciditie beliefe was so turned and altered changing together with other things that beforetime whatsoever was not ordinary nor common but extravagant or obscurely and covertly spoken the vulgar sort drawing it into an opinion of some holinesse hidden underneath was astonied thereat and held it venerable but afterwards desirous to learne and understand things cleerely and easily and not with masks of disguised words they began to finde fault with Poesie wherein oracles were clad not onely for that it was contrary and repugnant to the easie intelligence of the truth as mingling the darknesse and shadow of obscurity with the sentence but also for that they had prophesies already in suspicion saying that metaphors aenigmaticall and covert words yea and the ambiguitles which Poetry useth were but shifts retracts and evasions to hide and cover all whensoever the events fell not out accordingly And many you may heare to report that there be certeine Poeticall persons practised in versifying
seeme that it is found what time as Nilus beginnes to flow and therefore the said fish by his appearing signifieth the rising and inundation of Nilus whereof they be exceeding joious holding him for a certeine and sure messenger But the priests absteme from all fishes ingenerall and whereas upon the ninth 〈◊〉 of the first moneth all other inhabitants of Aegypt seede upon a certeine broiled or rosted fish before their dores the priests in no wise taste thereof mary they burne fishes before the gates of their houses and two reasons they have the one holy fine and subtile which I will deliver hereafter as that which accordeth and agreeth very well to the sacred discourses as touching Osiris and Typhon the other plaine vulgar and common represented by the fish which is none of the viands that be necessary rare and exquisit according as Homer beareth witnesse when he brings not in the Phaeacians delicate men loving to feed daintily nor the Ithacesians Ilanders to eat fish at their feasts no nor the mates and fellow travellers with Ulysses during the time of their long navigation and voiage by sea before they were brought to extreame necessity To be briefe the very sea it selfe they thinke to be produced a part by fire without the bounds limits of nature as being no portion nor element of the world but a strange excrement a corrupt superfluity and unkinde maladie For nothing absurd and against reason nothing fabulous and superstitious as some untruly thinke was inserted or served as a sacred signe in their holy ceremonies but they were all markes grounded upon causes and reasons morall and the same profitable for this life or else not without some historicall or naturall elegancy As for example that which is said of the oinion for that Dictys the foster father of Isis fell into the river of Nilus and was there drowned as he was reaching at oinions and could not come by them it is a mere fable and carieth no sense or probability in the world but the trueth is this the priests of Isis hate the oinion and avoid it as a thing abominable because they have observed that it never groweth nor thriveth well to any bignesse but in the decrease and waine of the Moone Neither is it meet and fit for those who would lead an holy and sanctified life or for such as celebrate solemne feasts and holidaies because it provoketh thirst in the former and in the other causeth teares if they feed thereupon And for the same reason they take the sow to be a prophane and uncleane beast for that ordinarily she goeth a brimming and admitteth the bore when the Moone is past the full and looke how many drinke of her milke they breake out into a kinde of leprosie or drie skurfe all over their bodies As touching the tale which they inferre who once in their lives doe sacrifice a sow when the Moone is in the full and then eat her flesh namely that Typhon hunting and chasing the wilde swine at the full of the Moone chanced to light upon an arke or coffin of wood wherein was the body of Osiris which he dismembred and threwaway by peece meale all men admit not thereof supposing that it is a fable as many others be misheard and misunderstood But this for certaine is held that our ancients in old time so much hated and abhorred all excessive delicacy superfluous and costly delights and voluptuous pleasures that they said within the temple of the city of Thebes in Aegypt there stood a square columne or pillar wherein were engraven certaine curses and execrations against their king Minis who was the first that turned and averted the Aegyptians quite from their simple and frugal maner of life without mony without sumptuous fare chargeable delights It is said also that Technatis the father of Bocchoreus in an expedition or journey against the Arabians when it chaunced that his cariages were far behind and came not in due time to the place where he incamped was content to make his supper of whatsoever he could get so to take up with a very small and simple pittance yea and after supper to lie upon a course and homely pallet where he slept all night very soundly and never awoke whereupon he ever after loved sobrietie of life srugality cursed the foresaid king Minis which malediction of his being by the priests of that time approved he caused to be engraven upon the pillar abovesaid Now their kings were created either out of the order of their priests or else out of the degree of knights and warriors for that the one estate was honored and accounted noble for valour the other for wisdome and knowledge And looke whomsoever they chose from out of the order of knighthood presently after his election he was admitted unto the colledge of priests and unto him were disclosed and communicated the secrets of their Philosophy which under the vaile of fables and darke speeches couched and covered many mysteries through which the light of the trueth in some sort though dimly appeare And this themselves seeme to signifie and give us to understand by setting up ordinarily before the porches and gates of their temples certaine Sphinges meaning thereby that all their Theologie containeth under aenigmaticall and covert words the secrets of wisdome In the citie of Sais the image of Minerva which they take to be Isis had such an inscription over it as this I am all that which hath beene which is and which shall be and never any man yet was able to draw open my vaile Moreover many there be of opinion that the proper name of Jupiter in the Aegyptians language is 〈◊〉 of which we have in Greeke derived the word Ammon whereupon 〈◊〉 Jupiter Ammon but Manethos who was an Aegyptian himselfe of the citie of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by this word is signfied a thing hidden or occulation and 〈◊〉 the Abderite 〈◊〉 that the Aegyptians used this terme among themselves when they called one unto another for it was a vocative word and for that they imagined the prince and soveraigne of the gods to be the same that Pan that is to say an universall nature and therefore unseene hidden and unknowen they praied and be sought him for to disclose and make himselfe knowen unto them by calling him 〈◊〉 See then how the Aegyptians were very strict and precise in not profaning their wisdome nor publishing that learning of theirs which concerned the gods And this the greatest Sages and most learned clerkes of all Greece do testifie by name Solon Thales Plato Eudoxus Pythagoras as some let not to say Lycurgus himselfe who all travelled of a deliberate purpose into Aegypt for to confer with the priests of that country For it is constantly held that Eudoxus was the auditour of Chonupheus the priest of Memphis Solon of Sonchis the priest of 〈◊〉 Pythagoras of Oenupheus the priest of Heliopolis And verily this Pythagoras last named was highly
estate and degree which is meet for them and according to their nature These things and such like for all the world they say are reported of Typhon who upon envy and malice committed many outrages and having thus made a trouble and confusion in all things filled sea and land with wofull calamities and miseries but was punished for it in the end For Isis the wife and sister of Osiris in revenge plagued him in extinguishing and repressing his fury and rage and yet neglected not she the travels and paines of her owne which she endured her trudging also and wandring to and fro nor many other acts of great wisdome and prowesse suffered she to be buried in silence and oblivion but inserting the same among the most holy ceremonies of sacrifices as examples images memorials and resemblances of the accidents happing in those times she consecrated an ensignement instruction and consolation of piety and devout religion to godward as well for men as women afflicted with miseries By reason whereof she and her husband Osiris of good Daemons were transmuted for their vertue into gods like as afterwards were Hercules and Bacchus who in regard thereof and not without reason have honours decreed for them both of gods and also of Daemons intermingled together as those who in all places were puissant but most powerfull both upon and also under the earth For they say that Sarapis is nothing else but Pluto and Isis the same that Proserpina as Archemachus of Eubaea and Heraclitus of Pontus testisie and he thinketh that the oracle in the city Canobus is that of father Dis or Pluto King Ptolemaeus surnamed Soter that is to say saviour caused that huge statue or colosse of Pluto which was in the city Sinope to be be taken from thence not knowing nor having seene before of what forme and shape it was but onely that as he dreamed he thought that he saw Serapis commanding him withall speed possible to transport him into Alexandrta Now the king not knowing where this statue was nor where to finde it in this doubtfull perplexity related his vision aforesaid unto his friends about him and chanced to meet with one Sosibius a great traveller and a man who had bene in many places and he said that in the city of Sinope he had seene such a statue as the king described unto them Whereupon Ptolemaeus sent Soteles and Dionysius who in long time and with great travell and not without the especiall grace of the divine providence stole away the said colosse and brought it with them Now when it was come to Alexandria and there seene Timotheus the great Cosmographer and Antiquary and Manethon of the province Sebennitis guessed it by all conjectures to be the image of Pluto and namely by Cerberus the hel-dog and the dragon about him perswading the king that it could be the image of no other god but of Serapis For it came not from thence with that name but being brought into Alexandria it tooke the name Serapis by which the Aegyptians doe name Pluto And yet Heraclitus verily the Naturalist saith that Hades and Dronisis that is to say Pluto and Bacchus be the same And in trueth when they are disposed to play the fooles and be mad they are caried away to this opinion For they who suppose that Hades that is to say Pluto is said to be the body and as it were the sepulcher of the soule as if it seemed to be foolish and drunken all the while she is within it me thinkes they doe allegorize but very baldly And better it were yet to bring Osiris and Bacchus together yea and to reconcile Sarapis unto Osiris in saying that after he hath changed his nature he became to have this denomination And therefore this name Sarapis is common to all as they know very well who are professed in the sacted religion of Osiris For we ought not to give eare and credit to the bookes and writings of the Phrygians wherein we finde that there was one Charopos the daughter of Hercules and that of Isatacus a sonne of Hercules was engendred Typhon neither yet to make account of Phylarchus who writeth that Bacchus was the first who from the Indians drave two beeses whereof the one was named Apis and the other Osiris That Sarapis is the proper name of him who ruleth and embelisheth the universall world and is derived of the word Sairein which some say signifieth as much as to beautifie and adorne For these be absurd toies delivered by Phylarchus but more monstrous and senselesse are their absurdities who write that Sarapis is no god but that it is the coffin or sepulchet of Apis that is so called as also that there be certain two leaved brasen gates in Memphis bearing the names of Lethe Cocytus that is to say oblivion and wailing which being set open when they interre and bury Apis in the opening make a great sound and rude noise which is the cause that we lay hand upon every copper or brasen vessell when it resoundeth so to stay the noise thereof Yet is their more apparence of trueth and reason in their opinion who hold that it was derived of these verbes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to move as being that which moveth the whole frame of the world The priests for the most part hold that Sarapis is a word compounded of Osiris and Apis together giving this exposition withall and teaching us that we ought to beleeve Apis to be an elegant image of the soule of Osiris For mine owne part if Sarapis be an Aegyptian name I suppose rather 〈◊〉 it betokeneth joy and mirth And I ground my conjecture upon this that the Aegyptians ordinarily call the feast of joy and gladnesse termed among the Athenians Charmosyna by the name of Sairei For Plato himselfe saith that Hades which signifieth Pluto being the sonne of Aidos that is to say of shamefastnesse and reverence is a milde and gracious god to those who are toward him And very true it is that in the Aegyptians language many other proper names are significant and carry their reason with them as namely that infernall place under the earth into which they imagine the soules of the dead doe descend after they be departed they call Amenthes which terme is as much to say as taking and giving but whether this word be one of those which in old time came out of Greece and were transpotted thither we will consider and discusse better hereafter Now for this present let us prosecute that which remaineth of this opinion now in hand For Osiris and Isis of good Daemons were translated into the number of the gods And as for the puissance of Typhon oppressed and quelled howbeit panting as yet at the last gaspe and striving as it were with the pangs of death they have certaine ceremonies and sacrifices to pacify and appease Other feasts also there be againe on the contrary side wherein they
appeare many visions and fansies of all sorts in our sleeps otherwhiles againe we are free from all such illusions and rest in great quietnesse and tranquillitie We our selves know this Cleon here of Daulia who all his life time and many yeeres he lived never as he said himselfe dreamed nor saw any vision in his sleepe and of those in former times we have heard as much reported of Thrasymedes the Hoereian The cause whereof was the temperature of the bodie whereas contrariwise it is seene that the complexion of melancholicke persons is apt to dreame much and subject to many illusions in the night although it seemeth their dreames and visions be more regular and fall out truer than others for that such persons touching their imaginative faculty with one fansie or other it can not chuse but they meet with the truth otherwhiles much like as when a man shoots many shafts it goeth hard if he hit not the marke with one When as therefore the imaginative part and the propheticall faculty is well disposed and sutable with the temperature of the exhalation as it were with some medicinable potion then of necessitie there must be engendred within the bodies of Prophets an Enthusiasme or divine furie contrariwise when there is no such proportionate disposition there can be no propheticall inspiration or if there be it is fanaticall unseasonable violent and troublesome as we know how of late it befel to that Pythias or Prophetesse who is newly departed For there being many pilgrims and strangers come from forren parts to consult with the Oracle it is said that the host or beast to be sacrificed did endure the first libaments and liquors that were powred upon it never stirring there at nor once quetching for the matter but after that the Priests and Sacrificers powred still and never gave over to cast liquor on beyond all measure at length after great laving and drenching of it hardly and with much adoe it yeelded and trembled a little But what hapned hereupon to the Prophetesse or Pythias aforesaid Went she did indeed downe into the cave or hole against her will as they said and with no alacrity at all but incontinently when she was come up againe at the very first words and answers that she pronounced it was well knowen by the horsenesse of her voice that she could not endure the violence of possession being replenished with a maligne and mute spirit much like unto a ship caried away under full sailes with a blustering gale of wind Insomuch as in the end being exceedingly troubled and with a fearefull and hideous crie making haste to get out she flung herselfe downe and fell upon the earth so that not onely the foresaid pilgrims fled for feare but Nicander also the High-priest and other Sacrificers and religious ministers that were present Who notwithstanding afterwards taking heart unto them and entring againe into the place tooke her up lying still in an extasie besides herselfe and in very trueth she lived not many daies after And therefore it is that the said Pythias keepeth her bodie pure and cleane from the company of man and forbidden she is to converse or have commerce al her life time with any stranger Also before they come to the Oracle they observe certeine signes for that they thinke it is knowen unto the God when her bodie is prepared and disposed to receive without danger of her person this Enthusiasme For the force and vertue of this exhalation doth not move and incite all sorts of persons nor the same alwaies after one maner nor yet as much at one time as at another but giveth onely a beginning and setteth to as it were a match to kindle it as we have said before even unto those onely who are prepared and framed aforehand to suffer and receive this alteration Now this exhalation without all question is divine and celestiall howbeit for all that not such as may not faile and cease not incorruptible not subject to age and decay nor able to last and endure for ever and under it all things suffer violence which are betweene the earth and the moone according to our doctrine however others there be who affirme that those things also which are above are not able to resist it but being wearied an eternall and infinite time are quickely changed and renewed as one would say by a second birth regeneration But of these matters quoth I advise you I would and my selfe also estsoones to call to minde and consider often this discourse for that they be points exposed to many reprehensions and sundry objections may be alledged against them All which the time will not suffer us now to prosecute at large and therefore let us put them off unto another opportunity together with the doubts and questions which Philippus moved as touching Apollo and the Sunne WHAT SIGNIFIETH THIS WORD EI ENGRAVEN OVER THE DORE OF APOLLOES TEMPLE IN THE CITIE OF DELPHI The Summarie AMong infinite testimonies of the fury of maligne spirits and evill angels who having beene created at first good kept not their originall but fell from the degree and state of happinesse wherein continue by the grace and favour of God the good angels who minister and attend upon those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation and everlasting life these may bereckoned for the chiefe and principall that such reprobate spirits and accursed fiends endevour practise by all meanes possible to make themselves to be adored by men and fame would they be set in the throne of him who having imprisoned and tied them fast in a deepe dungeon with the chaine of darknesse reserveth them to the judgement of that great day of doome And so farre proceeded they in pride and presumption as to cause themselves to be stiled by the name of God yea and to be adorned with those titles which are due and apperteine unto the Aeternall their soveraigne judge Their devices and artificiall meanes to bring this about be woonderfull and of exceeding variety according as the infinit numbers of idols warming in all parts and so many strange and uncouth superstitions wherewith the world hath beene diffamed unto this present day doe testifie and give evident proofe But if there be any place in the whole earth wherein Satanhath actually hewed his furious rage against God and man it is Greece and above all in that renowmed temple of Delphi which was the common seat upon which this cursed enemy hath received the homages of an infinit number of people of all sorts and qualities under the colour and pretence of resolving their doubtfull questions Heere then especially presumed he and was so bold as to take upon him the name of God and for to reach thereto hath set out and garnished his Oracles with ambiguous speeches short and sententious intermingling some trueths among lies even as it pleased the just judge of the world to let the reines loose unto this notorious seducer and to give him
gratifieth them nothing at all nor deserveth any thanks and that which worse is because no man will beleeve that he giveth be it never so little for nothing he incurreth the suspicion and obloquie of being cautelous illiberall and simply naught But forasmuch as the gifts that be in the nature of silver gold and temporall goods be in regard of beautie and liberall courtesie farre inferiour to those which go in the kinde of good letters and proceed from learning it standeth well with honesty both to give such and also to demand the like of those who receive the same And therefore in sending presently unto you and for your sake unto those friends about you in those parts certeine discourses gathered together as touching the Temple and Oracle of Apollo Pythius as an offering of first fruits I confesse that I expect from you others againe both more in number and better in value considering that you live in a great city have more leasure and enjoy the benefit of more books and all sort of scholasticall conferences and learned exercises And verily it seemeth that our good and kinde Apollo doth indeed remedy ease and assoile the doubtfull difficulties ordinarily incident to this life of ours by giving answer unto those who repaire unto his Oracle but such as concerne matter of learning he putteth forth and proposeth himselfe unto that part of our minde which naturally is given to Philosophize and study wisedome imprinting therein a covetous desire to know and understand the trueth as may appeare by many other examples and namely in this petie mot EI consecrated in his temple For it is not like that it was by meere chance and adventure nor by a lotterie as it were of letters shuffled together that this word alone should have the preeminence with this god as to precede and goe before all others ne yet that it should have the honour to be consecrated unto God or 〈◊〉 in the temple as a thing of speciall regard for to be seene and beheld but it must needs be that either the first learned men who at the beginning had the charge of this temple knew some particular and exquisit propertie in this word or els used it as a device to symbolize some matter of singularity or covertly to signifie a thing of great consequence Having therefore many times before cleanly put by and avoided or passed over this question proposed in the schooles for to be discussed and discoursed upon of late I was surprized and set upon by mine owne children upon occasion that I was debating with certeine strangers as desirous to satisfie them whom being ready to depart out of the city of Delphi it was no part of civility either to deteine long or altogether to reject having so earnest a minde to heare me say somewhat When therefore as we were set about the temple I beganne partly to looke unto some things my selfe and partly to demand and enquire of them I was put in minde and admonished by the place and matters then handled of a former question which before-time when Nero passed thorow these parts I heard Ammonius to discourse and others besides in this very place and as touching a question of the same difficultie likewise propounded For consideting that this god Apollo is no lesse a Philosopher than a Prophet Ammonius then delivered that in regard thereof the surnames might very well be fitted and applied which were attributed unto him very rightly and with good reason shewing and declaring that he is Pythius a Questionist to those who begin to learne and enquire Delius and Phanaeus that is to say cleere and lightsome unto such as have the trueth a little shining and appearing unto them Ismenius that is to say skilfull and learned unto as many as have atteined unto knowledge already and Leschenorius as one would say Eloquent os Discoursing when they put their science in practise and make use thereof proceeding for to conferre dispute and discourse one with another And for that it apperteineth unto Philosophers to enquire admire and cast doubts by good right the most part of divine matters belonging to the gods are couched hidden under darke aenigmes and covert speeches and thereupon require that a man should demand why and whether as also to be instructed in the cause As for example about the maintenance of the immortall or eternall fire Why of all kinds of wood they burne the Firre only Also Wherefore they never make any perfume but of the Laurell Likewise What is the reason that in this temple there be no more but two images of two destinies or fatall sisters named Parcae whereas in all places els there be three of them Semblably What should be the cause that no woman whatsoever she be is permitted to have accesse unto this Oracle for counsell or resolution Againe What is the reason of that fabricke or three footed table and such other matters which invite allure and draw those who are not altogether witlesse void of sense and reason to aske to see and heare somewhat yea and to dispute about them what they should meane And to this purpose doe but marke and consider these inscriptions standing in the forefront of this Temple Know thy selfe and Nothing too much what a number of questions and learned disputations they have moved also what a multitude of goodly discourses have sprung proceeded from such writings as out of some seed or graine of corne And this will I say unto you that the matter now in question is no lesse fertile and plentifull than any one of the other When Ammonius had thus said my brother Lamprias began in this wise And yet quoth he the reason which we all have heard as touching this question is very plaine and short For reported it is that those ancient Sages or wise men who by some are named Sophisters were indeed of themselves no more than five to wit Chilon Thales Solon Bias and Pittacus But when first Cleobulus the tyrant of the Lindians and then Periander the tyrant likewise of Corinth who had neither of them any one jot of vertue or wisdome by the greatnesse of their power by the number of their friends and by many benefits and demerits whereby they obliged their adherents acquired forcibly this reputation in despite of all usurped the name of Sages and to this purpose caused to be spred sowen and divulged throughout all Greece certaine odde sentences and notable sayings as well as those of the others wherewith the former Sages above named were discontented Howbeit for all this these five wisemen would in no hand discover and convince their vanity nor yet openly contest and enter into termes of quarell with them about this reputation ne yet debate the matter against so mighty personages who had so great meanes of countenance in the world but being assembled upon a time in this place after conference together they consecrated and dedicated here the letter E which as it standeth fifth
that 〈◊〉 able to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must 〈◊〉 for peace 〈◊〉 * Some reade thus said unto Laevinus that Pyrrhus and not the Epuotes had over come the Romanes * Or named 〈◊〉 as some reade Balia a town 〈◊〉 Spaine * Captaines are to direct Souldiers to obey and exccute * or pounds * Great prosperitie is to be suspected to abate our pride therefore God doth delay it with some crosses z No man chastiseth wise men so much as themselves z Honour attends upon vertue and is the reward thereof b Selfe doe selfe have c It is good to lie off and temporize when enemies are 〈◊〉 d Enmities ought not to be immortall c An example of singular justice * or Camertes * The 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f Noting that by condition he was a slaue * Or gold g It is a 〈◊〉 to see the 〈◊〉 overthrow of such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 houses h A man of honour can not be too carefull for to quit him well in his calling and vocation * Or thus I have upon the 〈◊〉 come what 〈◊〉 of it * i. 20. 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 * i. 〈◊〉 * Or read thus it is either bald or a three according to some Greeke copies a b d e A good man rejoiceth no in the victory obteined in civill wars f Signifying that hee was 〈◊〉 his head out of temper g He that hath done the injarie is to make amends * or 〈◊〉 h High wals be a fortesse for women i A man ought to grieve more for 〈◊〉 sinne than for be ing exiled * or 〈◊〉 * or 〈◊〉 * A lover of your fellow citizens * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * Or prospe 〈◊〉 * Some reade thus Were compelled of necessitie to be captaines or kings 〈◊〉 of Spartanes and Lacontans whose names are not expressed * Otherwise thus We go forth to 〈◊〉 hons but hares we hunt in their harborroughs * 〈◊〉 Some interpret cleane countrary reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 to allure duty gently handle or adorne the 〈◊〉 These 〈◊〉 be unperfect and it seemeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in translating this first verse read it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * the due judgement * Called 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which some interpret Having a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which some interpret Having a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * That is to say Divine * Or Lesbius * Or Argeus * It seemeth that somewhat is here wanting * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the baike who would say the root of a barke but Phleos as Theophraslus reporteth is an herbe growing plenteously in the lake Orchomenus in Paeotia and therefore well enough knowen to Plutarch I take it to be Red-mace or Cats-taile * I see not how this that is included within these marks agreeth with this place or matter in hand I suppose therefore it is inserted heere without judgement taken out of some other booke * Or rather 〈◊〉 * To wit in 〈◊〉 both the one and the other * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which some 〈◊〉 the braines of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this bird 〈◊〉 so rare as that it is thought for a 〈◊〉 thing I see not how this propertie should be observed in the braines thereof * To Aius 〈◊〉 as som thinke to the goddesse 〈◊〉 as O others * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * All this is to be understood of Pompeius Magnus * Some were called in Latine Reges 〈◊〉 * Some thinke they were so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say by the 〈◊〉 for that they were plaine and easie * Or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Sacrisicers The Preface * Graid medium * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which soundeth all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hath a faire disserent sense reade according to the former it signisieth musicke after the later it betokeneth vomiting This equivocation in Greeke carrieth that grace with it which I can not so aptly expresse in English * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say naturall How ever it be you must understand it of wanton love which is neither naturall nor harmonicall For this Athencdorus was noted for incest with one of his daughters * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * That is to say if a fish be eaten in common it is not knowen how much one hath eaten of it more than his sellowes by the bones lying upon his trencher * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the sould others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is silence * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Latine 〈◊〉 seemeth to reade * Of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the head or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 drowfinesse * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 benummednesse * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wine * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the French translation * The Yewgh tree as I take it * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Sec 〈◊〉 in the end of his Symposium or banquet * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 as some interpret it * I suppose Homer used the words in a farre other sense by Moschions leave be it spoken who was a better physician than a grammarian as it should seeme * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wine * That is to say The 〈◊〉 killing * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to saie beanes * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it were not a stargeon it was some delicate fish * See the blindnesse and 〈◊〉 of there pagans who for want of the true light out of holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on still in duknesse caried with the wings onely of humane wit and 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some take it for parsley 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take it 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 and in truth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to both * For so he interpreteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Some take it for the Lariot * That is to say bunger and famine it seemeth by that which followeth that they put poverty also before Bulimos in opposition to health * p. for b. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Untrue * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some translate this place thus Swalloweth downe her rennet when she is taken reading the Greeke as it should seeme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I suppose neither of them both sound but
As for these things among you they be pleasures shewing withall that it is not the nature of tarts cakes and marchpanes nor of odors nor of love sports that you desire but tarts and marchpanes themselves sweet perfumes and women they be that you would have For the Grammarian who saith the force and strength of Hercules is Hercules denieth not thereby that Hercules is nor those who say that symphonies accords or opinations are bare prolations or pronunciations affirme not therewith all that there be no sounds nor voices nor opinions forasmuch as there be some who abolishing the soule and prudence seeme not to take away either to live or to be prudent And when Epicurus saith The nature of things that have being are the bodies and the void place of them doe we take his words as if he meant that nature were somwhat els than the things that be or that things being do shew their nature and nothing els even as for examples sake the nature of voidnesse he is wont to call voidnesse it selfe yea and I assure you the universall world it selfe the nature of all Now if a man should demaund of him How now Epicurus say you indeed that this is voidnesse that is the nature of voidnesse Yes verily will he answere againe but this communication of names the one for another is taken up and in use And in trueth that the law and custome warranteth this maner of speech I also avouch And what other thing I pray you hath Empedocles done than taught that nature is nought else but that which is bred and engendred nor death any thing but that which dieth But like as Poets otherwhiles by a trope or figurative speech representing as it were the image of things say thus Debate 〈◊〉 uprore and stomacke fell With deadly fude and malice there did dwell Even so the common sort of men doe use the termes of generation and corruption in things that are contracted together and dissolved And so farre was he from stirring or remooving those things that be or opposing himselfe against things of evident appearance that he would not so much as cast one word out of the accustomed use but so far forth as any figurative frawd might hurt or endammage things he rejected and tooke the same away rendring againe the usuall and ordinary signification to words as in these verses And when the light is mixed thus with aire in heavenly sky Some man is made or wilde beasts kinde or birds aloft that flie Or else the shrubs and this rightly is cleap'd their geneture But death when as dissolved is the foresaid fast joincture And yet I say my selfe that Colotes having alledged thus much knew not that Empedocles did not abolish men beasts shrubs or birds in as much as he saith that all these are composed and finished of the elements mixed together But teaching and shewing them how they were deceived who finde fault with naming this composition a certaine nature or life and the dissolution unhappy fortune and death to be avoided he annulled not the ordinary and usuall use of words in that behalfe For mine owne part I thinke verily that Empedocles doth not alter in these places the common maner of pronouncing and using the said words but as before it was related did really as of a different minde as touching the generation of things that had no being which some call nature Which he especially declareth in these verses Fooles as they be of small conceit for farre they cannot see Who hope that things which never were may once engendred be Or feare that those which are shall die and perish utterly For these verses are thundred out and do sound aloud in their hearing who have any eares at all that he doth not abolish generation absolutely but that alone which is of nothing nor yet corruption simply but that which is a totall destruction that is to say a reduction to nothing For unto a man who were not willing after such a savage rude and brutish maner but more gently to cavil the verses following after might give a collourable occasion to charge Empedocles with the contrary when he saith thus No man of sense and judgement sound would once conceive in minde That whiles we living here on earth both good and bad doe finde So long onely we being have yet this men life doe call And birth before or after death we nothing are at all Which words verily are not uttered by a man who denieth them their being who are borne and live but rather by him who thinketh that they who are not yet borne as also those that be alredy dead have their being And even so Colotes doth not altogether reproove him for this but he saith that according to his opinion we shall never be sicke nor wounded And how is it possible that he who saith that men before life and after life are accompanied with good and bad indifferently should not leave for them that be alive the power to suffer What be those then good Colotes who are accompanied with this immunity that they can neither be hurt nor diseased Even your selfe and such as you are who be altogether made of an Atome and voidnesse for by your owne saying neither the one nor the other hath any sense But no force For I here of no harme yet Mary here is the griefe that by this reason you have nothing in you to cause delight and pleasure seeing that an Atome is not capaple of such things as moove pleasure and voidnesse is unapt to be affected by them But for as much as Colotes for his part would needs immediatly after Democritus seeme to interre and bury Permenides for ever and my selfe in putting off a little and passing over the defence of Parmenides have betweene both taken in hand the maintenance of that which was delivered by Empedocles because me thought they did more properly adhere and hang to those first imputations let us now come againe to Parmenides And whereas Colotes chargeth him with setting abroad certaine shamefull sophistries yet hath the man thereby made friendship nothing lesse honourable nor voluptuousnesse and sensuallity more audacious and unbrideled He hath not bereft honesty of that attractive property to draw unto it selfe nor of the gift of being venerable of it selfe neither hath he troubled confounded the opinions as touching the gods And in saying that All is One I see not how he hath hindered our life For when Epicurus himselfe saith that All is infinite ingenerable and incorruptible that it cannot be augmented nor diminished he speaketh and disputeth of All as of some one thing And in the beginning of his treatise concerning this matter having delivered that the nature of All things being consisteth in small indivisible bodies which he termeth Atomes and in voidnesse hee made a division as it were of one thing into two parts whereof the one in trueth is not subsistent but termed by you impalpable void and bodilesse whereby it
commeth to passe that even with you All commeth to be but One unlesse you will use vaine words and void of sense speaking of voidnesse and fighting in vaine as with a shadow against those auncient Philosophers But these Atomes you will say are according to the opinion of Epicurus in number infinite and every thing that appereth unto us ariseth from them Beholde now what principles you put downe for generation to wit infinity and voidnesse whereof the one is without action impassible and bodilesse the other namely infinity disorderly void of reason incomprehensible dissolving and confounding it selfe for that by reason of multitude it cannot be circumscribed nor contained within limits But Permenides hath not abolished either fire or water or any rocke no nor the cites as Colotes saith inhabited as well in Europe as in Asia considering that he hath both instituted an orderly dispose digestion and also tempering the elements together to wit light and darke of them and by them absolutely finisheth all things visible in the world for written he hath at large of Earth of Heaven of Sunne Moone and starres as also spoken much of mans generation and being as he was a very ancient Philosopher he hath left nothing in Physiologie unsaid and whereof he hath not delivered both by word and writing his owne doctrine not borrowed else where passing over the repugnancie of other received principall opinions Moreover he of all others first and even before Socrates himselfe observed and understood that in nature there is one part subject to opinion and another subject to intelligence And as for that which is opinable inconstant it is and uncertaine wandring also and carried away with sundry passions and mutations apt to diminish and paire to increase also and growe yea and to be diversly affected and not ever after one sort disposed to the same in sense alike As for the intelligible part it is of another kinde For sound it is whole and not variable Constant and sure and ingenerable as he himselfe saith alwaies like to it selfe perdurable in the owne nature essence But Colotes like a 〈◊〉 cavilling at him catching at his words without regard of the matter not arguing against his reasons indeed but in words onely affirmeth flatly that Parmenides overthroweth all things in one word by supposing that All is One But he verily on the contrary side abolisheth neither the one nature nor the other but rendreth to ech of them that which is meet and apperteineth thereto For the intelligible part he rangeth in the Idea of One and of That which is saying that it is and hath being in regard of eternity and incorruption that it is one because it alwaies resembleth it selfe and receiveth no diversity As for that part which is Sensible he placeth it in the ranke of that which is uncerteine disorderly and ever mooving Of which two we may see the distinct judgement in the soule by these verses The one reteins to truth which is syncere Perswasive breeding science pure and cleere For it concerneth that which is intelligible and evermore alike and in the same sort The other rests on mens opinions vaine Which breed no true beleefe but uncertaine For that it is conversant in such things as receive al maner of changes passions mutabilities And verily how possibly he should admit and leave unto us sense and opinion and not withall allow that which is sensible and opinable a man is not able to shew But forasmuch as to that which is existent indeed it appertaineth to remaine in being and for that things sensible one while are and another while are not but passe continually from one being to another and alter their estate insomuch as they deserve rather some other name than this of being This speech as touching All that it should be one is not to take away the plurality of things sensible but to shew the difference betweene them and those that be intelligible which Plato in his treatise of Ideae minding to declare more plainly gave Colotes some advantage for to take holde of him And therefore me thinks it good reason to take before me all in one traine that also which he hath spoken against him But first let us consider the diligence together with the deepe and profound knowledge of this Philosopher Plato considering that Aristotle Xenocrates Theophrastus and all the Peripateticks have followed his doctrine For in what blinde corner of the world unhabitable wrot he his booke that you Colotes in heaping up together these criminations upon such personages should never light upon their works nor take in hand the books of Aristotle as touching the heaven and the soule nor those compositions of Theophrastus against the Naturalists nor that Zoroastres of Heraclitus one booke of Hell and infernall spirits another of Doubts and questions Naturall that also of Dicaearchus concerning the soule In all which books they are contradictory and repugnant in the maine and principall points of Naturall philosophy unto Plato And verily the prince of all other Peripateticks Strato accordeth not in many things with Aristotle and mainteineth opinions cleane contrary unto those of Plato as touching Motion Understanding the Soule and Generation And in conclusion he holdeth that the very world is not animall and whatsoever is naturall is consequent unto that which is casuall and according to fortune As for the Ideae for which Aristotle every where seemeth to course Plato and mooveth all maner of doubts concerning them in his Ethicks or morall discourses in his Physicks in his Exotericall dialogues he is thought of some to dispute and discourse with a more contentions and opinative spirit than became a Philosopher as if he propounded to himselfe for to convell and debase the Philosophy of Plato so farre was hee from following him What impudent and licentious rashnesse therefore is this that one having never knowen nor seene what these learned clerks had written and what their opinions were should coine and devise out of his owne fingers ends and falsly charge upon them those things which never came into their heads and in perswading himselfe that he reprooveth and refuteth others to bring in a proofe and evidence written with his owne hand for to argue and convince himselfe of ignorance or rash and audacious impudence saying that those who contradict Plato agree with him and they that repugne against him doe follow him But Plato quoth he hath written That horses are in vaine counted by us horses and men likewise And in what odde corner of Platoes works hath Colotes found this hidden As for us wee reade in all his books that horses be horses and men be men and that fire even by him is esteemed fire for hee holdeth every one of these things to be sensible and opinable and so he nameth them But this our trim man Colotes as though hee wanted never a jot of the highest pitch of sapience and knowledge presumeth forsooth and taketh it to be