of discontentment nor directly and in open maner seemed to warre against him but privily practised and cunningly disposed all for first and formost she raised warre upon him out of Lybia by the meanes of a prince there named Anabus betweene whom and her there passed secret intelligence him shee sollicited and perswaded to invade his countrey and with a puissant armie to approch the citie Cyrene then she buzzed into Leanders head certeine surmizes and suspitions of disloialtie in his peeres his friends and captaines giving him to understand that their stood not to this warre but that they loved peace and quietnesse rather Which quoth she to say a truth as things now stand were better for you for the establishment of your roial state dominion in case you would rule in deed holde under and keepe in awe your subjects and citizens and for mine owne part I holde it good policie for you to make meanes for a treatie of peace which I will labour to effect and for that purpose bring you and Anabus together to an interview and parle if you thinke so good before that you grow to farther tearmes of hostilitie and open warre which may breed a mischiefe that afterwards will admit no cure nor remedie This motion she handled and followed with such dexteritie that Leander condescended thereto and shee her selfe in person went to conferre with the Lybian prince whom she requested that so soone as ever they were met together to treat of this pretended accord he should arrest the tyrant as his prisoner and to doe this feat she promised him great gifts and presents besides a good reward in money the Lybian soone accorded hereto now Leander made some doubt at first to go into this parle and staied a while but afterwards for the good respect that he had unto Aretaphila who promised in his behalfe that he should come to conference he set forward naked without armes and without his guards when he approched the place appointed for this interview and had a sight once of Anabus his heart misgave him againe and being much troubled and perplexed he would not go on but said he would stay for his guard howbeit Aretaphila who was there present partly encouraged him and in part rebuked and checked hin saying That he would be taken and reputed for a base minded coward and a disloiall person who made no account of his word if he should now flinch and start backe at the last when they were at point to meet she laied holde upon him plucked him forward by the hand and with great boldnesse and resolution haled him untill she had delivered him into the hands of the barbarous prince then immediatly was hee apprehended and his bodie attached by the Lybians who kept him bound as a prisoner and set a straight guard about him untill such time as the friends of Aretaphila with other citizens of Cirene were come to the campe and brought the money and gifts unto her which she had promised unto Anabus For so soone as it was knowen in the city that Leander was taken prisoner in sure hold a number also of the multitude ran forth to the place appointed of conference and so soone as they had set an eie on Aretaphila they went within a little of forgetting all their anger and malice which they bare unto the tyrant thinking that the revenge and exemplarie punishment of him was but accessarie and by-matter as being now wholly amused upon another thing and supposing the principall fruition of their libertie consisted in saluting and greeting her most kindly and with so great joy that the teares ran downe their cheeks insomuch as they were ready to kneele yea and cast themselves downe prostrate at her feet no lesse than before the sacred image and statue of a goddesse thus they flocked unto her by troups out of the citie one after another all day long insomuch as it was wel in the evening before they could advise with themselves to seize upon the person of Leander and hardly before darke night did they bring him with them into the citie Now after they were well satisfied with giving all maner of praises and doing what honour they could devise unto Aretaphila in the end they turned to consultation what was best to be done with the tyrants so they proceeded to burne Calbia quicke and as for Leander they put him in a leather poke and sowed it up close and then cast it into the sea Then ordeined and decreed it was that Aretaphila should have the charge and administration of the weale publicke with some other of the principall personages of the citie joined in commission with her but she as one who had plaied many and sundry parts alreadie upon the stage so well that shee had gotten the garland and crowne of victorie when shee saw that her countrey and citie was now fully free and at libertie immediatly betooke her selfe to her owne private house as it were cloistered up with women onely and would no more intermeddle in the affaires of State abroad but the rest of her life she passed in peace and repose with her kinsfolke and friends without setting her selfe to any businesse save onely to her wheele her web and such womens works CAMMA THere were in times past two most puissant Lords and Tetrarches of Galatia who also were in blood of kinne one to the other Sinatus and Synorix Sinatus had espoused a yoong virgin named Camma and made her his wife a ladie highly esteemed of as many as knew her as well for the beautie of her person as the floure of her age but admired much more in regard of her vertue and honestie for she had not onely a tender respect of her owne good name and honour carried an affectionate love and true heart unto her but also was wise magnanimous and passing well beloved of all her subjects and tenants in regard of her gentle nature and her debonair and bounteous disposition and that which made her better reputed and more renowmed was this that she was both a religious priestresse of Diana a goddesse whom the Galatians most devoutly honour and worship and also in every solemne procession and publicke sacrifice she would alwaies be seene abroad most sumptuously set out and stately adorned It fortuned so that Synorix was enamoured of this brave dame but being not able to bring about his purpose and to enjoy her neither by faire meanes nor foule perswade he or menance what he could so long as her husband lived the divell put in his head to commit a most heinous and detestable fact for he said waite for Sinatus and treacherously murthered him he staied not long after but he fell to wooing of Camma and courting herby way of marriage she made her abode within the temple at that time and tooke the infamous act committed by Synorix not piteously and as one cast downe and dejected therewith but with a slout heart and a stomacke mooved to anger
Gorgias also the Leontine was woont to say of a Tragedie That it was a kinde of deceit whereby he that deceived became more just than he who deceived not and he that was deceived wiser than another who was not deceived What is then to be done Shall we constraine our youth to goe aboord into the Brigantine or Barke of Epicurus to saile away and flie from Poetrie by plastring and stopping their eares with hard and strong waxe as Vlisses sometimes served those of Ithaca or rather by environing and defending their judgement with some discourse of true reason as with a defensative band about it to keepe and guard them that they be not caried away with the allurements of pleasure unto that which might hurt them Shall we reforme and preserve them For sure Lycurgus though he was The valiant sonne of stout Dryas shewed himselfe not wise nor well in his wits when he went throughout his whole realme and caused all the vines to be cut downe and destroied because he saw many of his subjects troubled in their braines and drunken with wine whereas he should rather have brought the nymphes which are the spring waters neerer and keepe in order that foolish furious and outragious god Bacchus as Plato saith with another goddesse that was wise and sober For the mingling of water with wine delaieth and taketh away the hurtfull force thereof but killeth not withall the holsome vertue that it hath Even so we ought not to cut off nor abolish Poetrie which is a part and member of the Muses and good literature But when as the straunge fables and Theatricall fictions therein by reason of the exceeding pleasure and singular delight that they yeeld in reading them do spred and swell unmeasurably readie to enter forcibly into out conceit so farre as to imprint therein some corrupt opinions then let us beware put foorth our hands before us keepe them backe and staie their course But where there is a Grace and Muse met togither that is to say delight conjoigned with some knowledge and learning where I say the attractive pleasure and sweetenesse of speech is not without some fruit nor void of utilitie there let us bring in withall the reason of Philosophie and make a good medly of pleasure and profit together For as the herbe Mandragoras growing neere unto a vine doth by infusion transmit her medicinable vertue into the wine that commeth of it and procureth in them that drinke afterwards thereof a more milde desire and inclination to sleepe soundly Even so a Poëme receiving reasons and arguments out of Philosophie and intermingling the same with fables and fictions maketh the learning and knowledge therein conteined to be right amiable unto yoong men and soone to be conceived Which being so they that would be learned and Philosophers indeed ought not to reject and condemne the works of Poetrie but rather search for Philosophie in the writings of Poëts or rather therein to practise Philosophie by using to seeke profit in pleasure and to love the same otherwise if they can finde no goodnesse therein to be displeased and discontented and to fall out therewith And truely this is the very beginning of knowledge and learning for according to the Poët Sophocles Lay well thy ground what ever thou intend For a good beginning makes an happie end First and formost therefore the yoong man whom we would induct and traine to the reading of Poësie ought to have nothing in his heart so well imprinted nor so readie at hand as this common saying Poets all to say a sooth Are Liers stout and speake untruth And verily as Poets sometimes lie wilfully so otherwhiles they do it against their wils wilfully and of purpose for that being desirous to tickle and please the eares a thing which most Readers desire and seeke after they thinke that simple and plaine veritie is more austere for that purpose then leasing For truth recounting a thing as it was done keepeth to it still and albeit the issue and the end thereof haply be unpleasant yet neverthelesse she goeth not aside but reporteth it outright whereas a tale or lie devised for delight quickly diverteth out of the way and soone turneth from a thing which greeveth unto that which is more delightsome For there is no song in time and metre no trope or figuratiue speech no lostie stile no metaphor so fitly borowed no harmonie no composition of words how smoothly soever they run that carieth the like grace and is either so attractive or retentive as a fabulous narration well couched artificially enterlaced and aptly delivered But as a picture drawen to the like the colour is more effectuall to moove affect our sense then the simple purtraying and first draught by reason of a certaine resemblance it hath to the personage of man or woman which deceiveth our judgement Even so in Poëmes a lie intermingled with some probabilitie and like lihood of a truth doth excite and stirre more yea and please better by farre than all the arte and studie that a man is able to employ either in composing excellent verses or enditing any polished prose without enterlarding fables and sictions Poëticall Whereupon it came to passe that Socrates who all his life time made great profession to be a desender and mainteiner of the truth being minded upon a time to take in hand Poetrie by occasion of certeine dreames and visions appeering unto him in his sleepe in the enterprise whereof finding himselfe to have no aptnesse nor grace at all in devising lies did into verse certaine fables of Aesope supposing verilie there could be no Poësie where there were no lies Many sacrifices we know to have beene celebrated without piping and dauncing But never was there knowen any Poetrie but it was grounded upon some vaine fables loud leasing The verses of Empedocles and Parmemdes the booke of Nicander entituled Thersara where he treateth of the biting and stinging of venemous serpents and of their remedies The morall sentences of Theognis are writings which borrow of Poetrie their lostinesse of stile and measure of syllables to beare them up mounted on high to avoid the base foote pace as it were of prose When as we read therefore in Poeticall compositions any strange and absurd thing as touching the Gods demy-gods or vertue spoken by some worthy personage of great renowne he that beleeveth such a speech and receiveth it as an undoubted truth wandereth in error and is corrupted in opinion but he that ever and anon remembreth and setteth before his cies the charmes and illusions that Poetrie ordinarily useth in the invention of lying fables and estsoones blesse himselfe and say thus thereto O queint device ô slie and crafiiegin more changeable than spotted Ounces skin Why jestest thou and yet thy browes doest knit deceiving me yet seem'st to teach me wit He I say shall never take harme nor admit into his understanding any evill impression but reprechend and reproove himselfe when he
arising and engendred in any one part of the soule by it selfe but spread over that which is the chiefe and principall to wit reason and understanding where of they be the inclinations assensions motions and in one word certaine operations which in the turning of an hand be apt to change and passe from one to another much like unto the sudden braids starts and runnings to and fro of little children which how violent soever they be and vehement yet by reason of their weaknesse are but slippery unstedfast and unconstant But these assertions and oppositions of theirs are checked and refuted by apparant evidence and common sense For what man is he that ever felt in himselfe a change of his lust and concupiscence into judgement and contrariwise an alteration of his judgement into lust neither doth the wanton lover cease to love when he doth reason with himselfe and conclude That such love is to be repressed and that he ought to strive and fight against it neither doth he then give over reasoning and judging when being overcome through weaknesse he yeeldeth himselfe prisoner and thrall to lust but like as when by advertisement of reason he doth resist in some sort a passion arising yet the same doth still tempt him so likewise when he is conquered and overcome therewith by the light of the same reason at that verie instant he seeth and knoweth that he sinneth and doth amisse so that neither by those perturbations is reason lost and abolished nor yet by reason is he freed and delivered from them but whiles he is tossed thus to and fro he remaineth a neuter in the mids or rather participating in common of them both As for those who are of opinion that one while the principall part of our soule is lust and concupiscence and then anon that it doth resist stand against the same are much like unto them who imagine say that the hunter the wild beast be not twaine but one bodie chaunging it selfe one while into the forme of an hunter and another time taking the shape of a savage beast For both they in a manifest and apparant matter should seeme to be blind and see nothing and also these beare witnesse and depose against their owne sense considering that they finde and seele in themselves really not a mutation or chaunge of one onely thing but a sensible strife and sight of two things together within them But heere they come upon us againe and object in this wise How commeth it to passe then say they that the power and facultie in man which doth deliberate and consult is not likewise double being oftentimes distracted carried and drawen to contrarie opinions as it is namely touching that which is profitable and expedient but is one still and the same True we must confesse that divided it seemeth to be But this comparison doth not hold neither is the event and effect alike for that part of our soule wherein prudence and reason is seated fighteth not with it selfe but using the helpe of one and the same facultie it handleth divers arguments or rather being but one power of discoursing it is emploied in sundry subjects and matters different which is the reason that there is no dolor and griefe at one end of those reasonings and discourses which are without passion neither are they that consult forced as it were to hold one of those contrarie parts against their minde and judgement unlesse peradventure it so fall out that some affection lie close to one part or other as if a man should secretly and under hand lay somewhat besides in one of the balances or skales against reason for to weigh it downe A thing I assure you that many times falleth out and then it is not reason that is poised against reason but either ambition emulation favour jealousie feare or some secret passion making semblance as if in shew of speeches two reasons were at varience and differed one from another As may appeere by these verses in Homer They thought it shame the combate to reject And yet for feare they durst not it accept Likewise in another Poët To suffer death it dolorous though with renowne it meete Death to avoide is cowardise but yet our life is sweete And verily in determining of controversies betweene man and man in their contracts and suits of law these passions comming betweene are they that make the longest delaies be the greatest enimies of expedition and dispatch like as in the counsels of kings and princes they that speake in favour of one partie and for to win grace doe not upon any reason of two sentences encline to the one but they accomodate themselves to their affectiō even against the regard of utility profit And this is the cause that in those States which be called Aristocraties that is to say governed by a Senate or Counsel of the greatest men the Magistrates who sit in judgemēt will not suffer Oratours Advocates at the Barre to moove affections in all their Pleas for in Truth let not the discourse of reason be impeached and hindered by some passion it will of it selfe tend directly to that which is good and just But in case there do arise a passion betweene to crosse the same then you shal see pleasure and displeasure to raise a combat and dissension to encounter that which by consultation would have beene judged and determined For otherwise how commeth it to passe that in Philosophicall discourses and disputations a man shall never see it otherwise but that without any dolor and griefe some are turned and drawen oftentimes by others into their opinions and subscribe thereto willingly Nay even Aristotle himselfe Democritus also and Chrysippus have beene knowen to retract and recant some points which before time they held and that without any trouble of mind without griefe and remorse but rather with pleasure and contentment of heart because in that speculative or contemplative part of the soule which is given to knowledge and learning onely there raigne no passions to make resistance insomuch as the brutish part being quiet and at repose loveth not curiously to entermedle in these and such like matters By which meanes it hapneth that the reason hath no sooner a sight of trueth but willingly it enclineth thereto and doth reject untruth and falsitie for that there lieth in it and in no other part else that power and facultie to beleeve and give assent one way as also to be perswaded for to alter opinion and goe another way Whereas contrariwise the counsels and deliberations of worldly affaires judgements also and arbitriments being for the most part full of passions make the way somewhat difficult for reason to passe and put her to much trouble For in these cases the sensuall and unreasonable part of the soule is ready to stay and stop her course yea and to fright her from going forward meeting her either with the object of pleasure or else casting in her way
or debarre shooting for that we may overshoot and misse the marke or to condemne hearing of musicke because a discord or jarre is offensive to the eare For like as in sounds musicke maketh an accord and harmonie not by taking away the loud and base notes And in our bodies Physicke procureth health not by destroying heat and cold but by a certaine temperature and mixture of them both in good proportion Even so it fareth in the soule of man wherein reason hath the predominance and victorie namely when by the power thereof the passions perturbations and motions are reduced into a kind of moderation and mediocritie For no doubt excessive sorrow and heavines immeasurable joy and gladnesse in the soule may be aptly compared to a swelling and inflammation in the body but neither joy nor sorrow simply in it selfe And therefore Homer in this wise sentence of his Aman of woorth doth never colour change Exce ssive feare in him is verie strange doth not abolish feare altogether but the extremitie thereof to the end that a man should not thinke that either valour is desperate follie or confidence audacious temeritie And therefore in pleasures and delights we ought likewise to cut off immoderate lust as also in taking punishment extreme hatred of malefactours He that can do so shall be reputed in the one not indolent but temperate and in the other not bitter and cruell but just and righteous Whereas let passions be rid cleane away if that were possible to be done our reason will be found in many things more dull and idle like as the pilot and master of a ship hath little to do if the winde be laid and no gale at all stirring And verily as it should seeme wise Law-makers seeing this well enough have with great policie given occasion in cities and common-wealths of Ambition and Emulation among citizens one with another and in the field against enemies devised to excite the courage of souldiours and to whet their ire and manhood by sound of trumpets fifes diums and other instruments For not onely in Poetrie as Plato saith verie well he that is inspired and as it were ravished with the divine instinct of the Muses wil make a rediculous foole of him who otherwise is an excellent Poët and his crafts-master as having learned the exquisite knowledge of the art but also in battels the heat of courage set on fire with a certaine divine inspiration is invincible and cannot be withstood This is that martiall furie which as Homer saith the gods do infuse or inspire rather into warlike men Thus having said he did in spire The Princes heart with might andire And againe One god or other surely doth him assist Else faring thus he never could persist As if to the discourse of reason they had adjoined passion as a pricke to incite and a chariot to set it forward Certes even these verie Stoicks with whom now we argue and who seeme to reject all passions we may see oftentimes how they stirre up yoong men with praises and as often rebuke them with sharpe admonitions and severe reprehensions Whereof there must needs ensue of the one part pleasure and of the other part displeasure For surely checkes and fault-findings strike a certaine repentance and shame of which two the former is comprised under sorrow and the latter under feare and these be the meanes that they use principally to chastice and correct withall Which was the reason that Diogenes upon a time when he heard Plato so highly praised and extolled And what great and woorthy matter quoth he finde you in that man who having been a Philosopher so long taught the precepts thereof hath not in all this time greeved and wounded the heart of any one person For surely the Mathematicall sciences a man cannot so properly call the eares or handles of Philosophie to use the words of Xenocrates as he may affirme that these affections of yoong men to wit bashfulnesse desire repentance pleasure and paine are their handles whereof reason and law together taking hold by a discreet apt and holesome touch bring a yoong man speedily and effectually into the right way And therefore the Lacedaemonian schoolemaster and governour of children said verie well when he professed that he would bring to passe that the child whom he tooke into his tuition should joy in honest things and grieve in those that were fould and dishonest Then which there cannot possibly be named a more woorthy or commendable end of the liberall education and bringing up of a yoong youth well descended OF VERTVE AND VICE The Summarie IN this little treatise adjoyned aptly unto the former the Author prooveth that outward and corruptible things be not they that set the soule in repose but reason well ruled and governed And after that he hath depainted the miserable estate of wicked and sinfull persons troubled and tormented with their passions both night and day he prooveth by proper and apt similitudes that philosophie together with the love of vertue bringeth true contentment and happinesse indeed unto a man OF VERTVE AND VICE IT seemeth and commonly it is thought that they be the garments which do heat a man and yet of themselves they neither doe heat nor bring any heat with them for take any of them apart by it selfe you shall finde it colde which is the reason that men being verie hote and in a fit of a fever love often to change their clothes for to coole and refresh their bodies But the trueth is this Looke what heat a man doth yeeld from himselfe the clothes or garments that cover the body do keepe in the same and unite close together and being thus included and held in suffer it not to evapotate breathe out and vanish away The same errour in the state of this life hath deceived many man who imagine that if they may dwell in stately and gorgeous great houses be attended upon with a number of servants retaine a sort of slaves and can gather together huge summes of golde and silver then they shall live in joy and pleasure wheteas in verie sooth the sweete and joifull life proceedeth not from any thing without But contrariwise when a man hath those goodly things about him it is himselfe that addeth a pleasure and grace unto them even from his owne nature and civill behaviour composed by morall vertue within him which is the very fountaine and lively spring of all good contentment For if the fire do alwaies burne out light More stately is the house and faire in sight Semblably riches are more acceptable glorie hath the better and more shining lustre yea and authoritie carieth the greater grace if the inward joy of the soule be joined therewith For surely men doe endure povertie exile and banishment out of their owne countries yea and beare the burden of olde age willingly and with more ease according as their maners be milde and the minde disposed to meeknesse And like as sweet odours
us unskilfull as we are and void of art a fantasticall knowledge grounded onely upon some light opinion and conjecture of our owne as if we were right cunning workemen and artisanes for it is not his part who is not studied in the arte of Physick to gesse at the reason and consideration that the physician or chirurgian had why he made incision no sooner in his patient but staied long ere he proceeded thereto or wherfore he bathed him not yesterday but to day semblably it is neither easie nor safe for a mortall man to speake otherwise of the gods than of those who knew well enough the due time and opportunitie to minister a meet and convenient medicine unto vice and sinne and exhibit punishment to every trespasse as an appropriate drouge or confection to cure and heale ech maladie notwithstanding that the same measure and quantitie be not common to all delinquents nor one onely time and the same is alwaies meet therefore Now that the physicke or medicine of the soule which is called Right and Justice is one of the greatest sciences that are Pindarus himselfe besides an infinit number of others beareth witnesse when he calleth the Lord and governour of the world to wit God a most excellent and perfect artificer as being the author and creatour of justice unto whom it appertaineth to define and determine when in what manner and how far foorth it is meet and reasonable to chastice and punish each offender Plato likewise saith That Minos the sonne of Jupiter was in this science the disciple of his father giving us heereby to understand that it is not possible for one to carie himselfe well in the execution of justice nor to judge a right of him that doth as he ought unlesse he have before learned that science and be throughly skilfull therein Furthermore the positive lawes which men have established seeme not alwaies to be grounded upon reason or to sound and accord in all respects with absolute equitie and justice but some of their ordinances be such as in outward appearance may be thought ridiculous and woorthy of mockerie as for example At Lacedaemon the high controllers called Ephori so soone as they be enstalled in their magistracie cause proclamation to be published by sound of trumpet that no man should weare mustaches or nourish the haire on their upper lips also that willingly every man should obey the lawes to the end that they might not be hard or grievous unto them The Romans also when they affranchise any slave and make him free cast upon their bodies a little small rodde or wande likewise when they draw their last wils or testaments institute some for their heires whom it pleaseth them but to others they leave their goods to sell a thing that carieth no sense nor reason with it But yet more absurd and unreasonable is that statute of Solons making wherein it was provided That what citizen soever in a civill sedition ranged not himselfe to a side nor tooke part with one or other faction should be noted with infamie and disabled for being capable of any honorable dignitie In one word a man may alledge an infinit number of absurdities besides contained in the civill lawes who neither knoweth the reason of the lawgiver that wrot them nor the cause why they were set downe If then it be so difficult to conceive and understand the reasons which have mooved men thus to doe is it any marvell that we are ignorant of the cause why God chastiseth one man sooner and another later howbeit this that I have said is not for any pretence of starting backe and running away but rather for to crave leave and pardon to the end that our speech having an eie thereto as unto an haven and place of refuge might be the more hardie with boldnesse to raunge foorth still in probabilities to the matter in doubt and question But I would have you to consider first that according to the saying of Plato God having set himselfe before the eies of the whole world as a perfect pattern and example of all goodnesse doth unto as many as can follow and imitate his divinitie infuse humane vertue which is in some sort conformable and like unto him for the generall nature of this universall world being at the first a confused and disordered Chaos obtained this principle and element for to change to the better and by some conformitie and participation of the Idea of divine vertue to become this beautifull frame of the world And even the verie same man saith moreover That nature hath raised our eie-sight on high and lightned the same that by the view and admiration of those celestiall bodies which moove in heaven our soule might learne to embrace and be accustomed to love that which is beautifull and in good order as also to be an enemie unto irregular and inordinate passions yea and to avoid doing of things rashly and at adventure which in truth is the very source of all vice and sinne for there is nothing in the world wherein a man may have a greater fruition of God than by the example and imitation of his good and decent qualities to become honest and vertuous wherefore if we perceive him to proceed slowly and in tract of time to lay his heavie hand upon the wicked and to punish them it is not for any doubt or feare that he should doe amisse or repent afterward if he chasticed them sooner but by waining us from all beastly violence hastinesse in our punishments to teach us not immediately to flie upon those who have offended us at what time as our bloud is most up and our choler set on a light fire When furious yre in hart so leapes and boiles That wit and reason beare no sway the whiles making haste as it were to satisfie some great hunger or quench exceeding thirst but by imitating his clemencie and his maner of prolonging and making delay to endevor for to execute justice in all order at good leisure and with most carefull regard taking to counsell Time which seldome or never is accompanied with repentance for as Socrates was wont to say Lesse harme and danger there is if a man meet with troubled and muddie water and intemperately take and drinke thereof than whiles his reason is confounded corrupt and full of choler and furious rage to be set altogether upon revenge and runne hastily vpon the punishment of another bodie even one who is of his owne kinde and nature before the same reason be setled againe clensed and fully purified For it is nothing so as Thucydides writeth That vengeance the neerer it is unto the offence the more it is in the owne kind but cleane contrary the farther off it is and longer delaied the better it apprehendeth and judgeth of that which is fit and decent For according as Melanthius saith When anger once dislodged hath the wit Foule worke it makes and outrage doth commit even so reason performeth
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
hapned againe unto Romulus just upon the very same day when hee was translated out of this life for they say that even at the very instant when the sunne entred into the ecclipse he also departed out of sight and was no more seene which fell out to be upon the day called Nonae Capratinae upon which day the Romans doe still at this present celebrate a solemne feast Now when these first founders were in this manner bred and borne after that the tyrant sought to make them away by good fortune it hapned that the minister to take them and execute the deed was neither a barbarous nor a mercilesse cruell slave but a gracious and pitifull servitour who would in no wise murder the silly babes but finding a convenient place upon the banke by the river side adjoyning hard to a faire greene meddow and shadowed with pretie trees growing low by the ground there he bestowed the infants neere unto a wilde sigge tree which they called afterwards Ruminalis for that a teat or pappe in Latin is called Ruma which done it chaunced that a bitch-woolfe having newly whelped her litter and feeling her pappes bestruct with milke and so stiffe by reason that her yoong ones were dead that they aked againe and were ready to burst seeking to be eased and to discharge her-selfe thereof came gently to these babes stooped downe and seemed to winde about them put unto them her teats desirous labouring to be delivered of her milk as if it had beene a second litter And then see the fortune of it a certeine bird consecrated to Mars which thereupon men name in Latine Picus Martius that is to say a Speght or Wood-pecker chaunced to approch neere and having alighted gently upon the tips of her toes fast by them softly opened with one of her clees the mouthes of these infants one after another she conveied into them certeine morsels minced small even of her owne food provision That this is true the said wilde fig tree at this day is named Ruminalis of the woolves teat called in Latine Ruma which she held unto the babes for to suckle them doth testifie And long time after the inhabitants about that place have observed this custome not to expose and cast foorth any thing that is bred and borne amongst them but to reare and nourish all in a venerable memoriall of this happe and resemblance of the accident which befell unto Romulus and his brother Remus Now that these two fondlings were nourished and brought up afterward in the citie of Gabii unknowen to all the world that they were the children of Sylvia and the nephewes or daughters children of Numitor the king may seeme to be a craftie theevish cast and deceitfull sophistrie proceeding from Fortune to the end that they shold not perish before they had done some woorthy exploit by reason of their noble birth but be discovered by their very deeds and effects shewing their vertue as a marke of their nobilitie And heere I call to minde a certeine speech which Themistocles a brave and wise captaine upon a time gave to some other captaines who after him and in a second place were in great name at Athens and much esteemed howbeit pretending to deserve more honour than he The morrow-mind quoth he quarrelled and contended upon a time with the feast or holi-day which went before it saying That she was full of labour and businesse and never had any rest whereas in her there was nothing but eating and drinking that which before hand had beene prepared and provided with great paine and travell unto whom the feast made this answer Certes true it is that thou saiest but if I had not bene where hadst thou bene Even so quoth Themistocles if I had not conducted the Medians warre what good would you have done now and where had your imploiment bene Semblably me thinks that Fortune saith the same unto the Vertue of Romulus Thy acts are famous and thy deeds renowmed thou hast shewed by them indeed that descended thou art from divine bloud and some heavenly race but thou seest againe how farre short thou art of me how long after me it was ere thou didst come in place for if I had not when time was shewed my selfe kinde gracious and courteous unto those poore infants but had forsaken and abandoned them silly wretches how could you have had any being and by what meanes should you have bene so gloriously seene in the world in case I say a female wilde beast even a shee-wolfe had not come in the way having her bigs swollen enflamed and aking with the plentie of milke flowing as it were a streame unto them seeking rather whom to feed than by whō she should be fed or if she had bene altogether savage indeed hunger-bitten these roiall houses these stately temples these magnificent theaters these faire galleries these goodly halles palaces and counsell-chambers had they not bene at this day the lodges cottages and stalles of shepherds and herdmen serving as slaves some lords of Alba and Tuscan or els some masters of the Latine nation The beginning in all things is chiefe and principall but especially in the foundation and building of a city and Fortune is she who is the authour of this beginning and foundation in saving and preserving the founder himselfe for well may Vertue make Romulus great but Fortune kept him untill he became great It is for certeine knowen and confessed that the reigne also of Numa Pompilius which continued long was guided and conducted by the favour of a marvellous Fortune for to say that the nymph Aegeria one of the Wood-Fairies called Dryades a wise and prudent goddesse was enamoured of him and that lying ordinarily by his side taught him how to establish governe and rule the weale-publicke peradventure is a meere fabulous tale considering that other persons who are recorded to have bene loved by goddesses and to have enjoied them in mariage as for example Peleus Anchises Orion Emathion had not for all that thorowout their life contentment and prosperitie without some trouble and adversitie but surely it seemeth that Numa in very trueth had good Fortune for his domesticall and familar companion and to reigne jointly with him which Fortune of his receiving the citie of Rome as in a boisterous and troublesome tempest or in a turbulent sea to wit in the enmitie envie and malice of all the neighbor-cities and nations bordering upon it and besides disquieted within it selfe and troubled with an infinit number of calamities and seditious factions quenched all those flames of anger and alaied all spightfull and malicious grudges as some boisterous and contrary windes And like as men say that the sea even in mid-winter receiveth the yong brood of the birds Halcyones after they be newly hatched and giveth them leave to be nourished and fed in great calme and tranquilitie even so Fortune spreading and drawing round about this people newly planted and as
drew forth his sword and when she had wounded Chrisippus as he slept she left the sword sticking in the wound thus was Laius suspected for the deed because of his sword but the youth being now halfe dead discharged and acquit him and revealed the whole truth of the matter whereupon Pelops caused the dead body to be enterred but Hippodamia he banished as Dositheus recordethin his booke Pelopidae Hebius Tolieix having espoused a wife named Nuceria had by her two children but of an infranchised bond woman he begat a son named Phemius Firmus a childe of excellent beauty whom he loved more deerely than the children by his lawfull wife Nuceria detesting this base son of his solicited her own children to murder him which when they having the feare of God before there eyes refused to do she enterprised to execute the deed her selfe And in truth she drew forth the sword of one of the squires of the body in the night season and with it gave him a deadly wound as he lay fast asleepe the foresaid squire was suspected and called in question for this act for that his sword was there found but the childe himselfe discovered the truth his father then commanded his body to be buried but his wife he banished as Dositheus recordeth in the third booke of the Italian Chronicles 34 Theseus being in very truth the naturall sonne of Neptune had a sonne by Hippolite a princesse of the Amazones whose name was Hippolytus but afterwards maried againe and brought into the house a stepmother named Phaedra the daughter of Minos who falling in love with her sonne-inlaw Hippolitus sent her nourse for to sollicite him but he giving no eare unto her left Athens and went to Troezen where he gave his minde to hunting But the wicked and unchaste woman seeing her selfe frustrate and disapointed of her will wrot shrewd letters unto her husband against this honest and chaste yong gentleman informing him of many lies and when she had so done strangled her selfe with an halter and so ended her daies Theseus giving credit unto her letters besought his father Neptune of the three requests whereof he had the choise this one namely to worke the death of Hippolytus Neptune to satisfie his mind sent out unto Hippolytus as he rode along the sea slde a monstrous bull who so affrighted his coatch horses that they overthrew Hippolytus and so he was crushed to death Comminius Super the Laurentine having a sonne by the nimph Aegeria named Comminius espoused afterwards Gidica and brought into his house a stepmother who became likewise amorous of her son-in law and when she saw that she could not speed of her desire she hanged her selfe and left behind her certaine letters devised against him containing many untruths Comminius the father having read these slanderous imputations within the said letters and beleeving that which his jealous head had once conceived called upon Neptune who presented unto Commintus his sonne as he rode in his chariot a hideous bull which set his steeds in such a fright that they fell a flinging and so haled the young man that they dismembred and killed him as Dositheus reporteth in the third booke of the Italian historie 35 When the pestilence raigned in Lacedaemon the oracle of Apollo delivered this answer That the mortalitie would cease in case they sacrificed yeerly a young virgin of noble blood Now whē it fortuned that the lot one yeere fell upō Helena so that she was led forth all prepared and set out readie to be killed there was an eagle came flying downe caught up the sword which lay there and caried it to cerraine droves of beasts where she laid it upon an heyfer whereupon ever after they forbare to sacrifice any more virgins as Aristodemus reporteth in the third Collect of fables The plague was sore in Falerij the contagion thereof being verie great there was given out an oracle That the said affliction would stay and give over if they sacrificed yeerly a yong maiden unto Juno and this superstition continuing alwaies still Valeria Luperca was by lot called to this sacrifice now when the sword was readie drawen there was an eagle came downe out of the aire and caried it away and upon the altar where the fire was burning laid a wand having at one end in maner of a little mallet as for the sword she laid upon a young heyfer feeding by the temple side which when the young damsell perceived after she had sacrificed the said heyfer and taken up the mallet she went from house to house and gentl knocking therewith all those that lay sicke raised them up and said to everie one Be whole and receive health whereupon it commeth that even at this day this mysterie is still performed and observed as Aristides hath reported in the 919. book of his Italian histories 36 Phylonome the daughter of Nyctimus and Arcadia hunted with Diana whom Mars disguised like a shepherd got with child She having brought foorth two twinnes for feare of her father threw them into the river Erymanthus but they by the providēce of the gods were caried downe the streame without harme or danger and at length the current of the water cast them upon an hollow oake growing up on the banke side whereas a she woolfe having newly kennelled had her den This woolfe turned out her whelps into the river and gave sucke unto the two twins above said which when a shepherd named Tyliphus once perceived and had a sight of he tooke up the little infants and caused them to be nourished as his owne children calling the one Lycastus and the other Parrhasius who successively reigned in the realme of Arcadia Amulius bearing himselfe insolently and violently like a tyrant to his brother Numitor first killed his sonne Aenitus as they were hunting then his daughter Sylvia he cloistred up as a religious nunne to serve Juno She conceived by Mars and when shee was delivered of two twins confessed the truth unto the tyrant who standing in feare of them caused them both to be cast into the river Tybris where they were carried downe the water unto one place whereas a shee woolfe had newly kennelled with her yoong ones and verily her owne whelps shee abandoned and cast into the river but the babes shee suckled Then Faustus the shepherd chauncing to espie them tooke them up and nourished as his owne calling the one Remus and the other Romulus and these were the founders of Rome citie according to Artstides the Milesian in his Italian histories 37 After the destruction of Troy Agamemnon together with Cassandra was murdred but Orestes who had beene reared and brought up with Strophius was revenged of those murderers of his father as Pyrander saith in his fourth booke of the Peloponnesian historie Fabius Fabricianus descended lineally from that great Fabius Maximus after he had wonne and sacked Tuxium the capitall citie of the Samnites sent unto Rome the image of Venus Victoresse which was so highly
decaied much and brought to poverty howbeit his minde a bated not so withall that he thought himselfe unworthy of the best fortune that might be Whereupon he sued unto this Gorgo a kinsewoman of his by way of mariage notwithstanding that for her goods and riches she was much sought unto wooed by many others and albeit he had divers great and wealthy competitors and corrivals yet he had wrought and gained all the guardians tutours and neerest kinsfolke of the damosell to serve his suit ********** Here there is a great defect and breach in the originall ********* Moreover those things which are named to be the causes that engender Love be not proper and peculiar to the one sex or to the other but common to them both For those images which from without perce and enter into amorous persons according to the Epicureans opinion running to and fro stirring and tickling the masse of the whole body gliding and flowing into the genetall seed by certaine other dispositions of the atomes it cannot be that they should so doe from yong boies and impossible altogether from women unlesse also these faire and sacred recordations we call and referre unto that divine true and celestiall beautie according to the Platoniques by the meanes of which rememorations as with wings the soule is mounted and carried up What should hinder then but that such recordations may passe as well from yong boies as damosels or women especially when as we see a good nature t hast and honest appeare iointly in the flower of favour and beauty like as according to Aristotle a straight and well fashioned shoe sheweth the good sorme and proportion of the foot which is as much to say as when under beautifull faces and in neat and faire bodies they who are skilfull in the knowledge and iudgement of such things perceive the cleare and evident traces of a sincere minde not corrupt nor counterfait For it is no reason that a voluptuous person being demanded this question For wanton Love how stands thy minde To male more or to female kinde and answering Both hands are right with me where 〈◊〉 is Neither of twaine to mee can come a misse Should seeme to have made fit and pertinent answere according to his owne carnall concupiscence and that an honest and generous person should not direct his affections to the beautiful and toward disposition of a youthes nature but to the naturall parts that make difference of sex Certes he that loveth horses and is skilfull in good horsmanship will love no lesse the generosity and swiftnesse of the horse Podergus then of Aetha the mare of Agamemnon And the huntsman taketh not pleasure onely to have good doggs and hounds of the male kinde but also keepeth the braches and bithes of Candie and Laconia And shall he who loveth the beauty and sweet favour of mankind not be indifferently affected both to the one sex and to the other but make a difference as in divers garments betweene the love of men and women And verily men say that beauty is the flower and blossome of vertue Now to say that the ferminine sex doth not flower at all nor shew any apparence and token of a good and towardly disposition to vertue were very absurd for Aeschylus went to the purpose when he wrote these verses Adamsell yoong if she have knowen and tasted man once carnally Her eie doth it bewray anon it sparkles fire suspiciously Go to then are there evident marks signes to be seene upon the visages of women to testifie a malapert bold wanton and corrupt nature and contrariwise shall there be no light shining in their faces to give testimony of their modestie and pudicitie Or rather shall there be divers demonstrative evidences in many of them but yet such as will not stirre up and provoke any person to love them Surely it is neither so nor so there is no trueth nor probabilitie in any of them both but every thing is common indifferently aswell in the one sex as the other as we have shewed ******************* Here also there is another want in the originall *********** O Dapbnaeus let us impugne and confute those reasons whereupon Zeuxippus 〈◊〉 discoursed supposing that Love is all one with concupiscence which is disordinate and leadeth the soule into all loosenesse and dissolution And yet do I not thinke that he is so perswaded indeed and of that beliefe but for that he hath heard often times odious persons and such as have no lovelinesse in them so to say of whom some holde under their hands and have at command poore silly women whom they have gotten for some petie dowries sake and whom together with their moneys they put to the managing of domesticall affaires and to make base vile and mechanicall accounts quarrelling and brawling with them every day and others againe having more minde and desire to get children than to love espoused wives like unto grashoppers which cast their seed upon squilles sea onions or such like herbs having discharged their lust in all the haste upon any body that first comes in their way and reaped the fruit onely that they sought for bid mariage farewell and make no farther account of their wedded wives or if they tary and stay with them still they regard them no more than their olde shoes making no count either to love them or to be loved reciprocally of them And verily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie to love and to be loved againe dearely which differ but in one letter from the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to conteine and holde together seeme unto me at the first sight directly to import and shew a mutuall benevolence by long time and acquaintance tempered with a kinde of necessity But looke what person soever love setleth upon in mariage so as he be inspired once therewith at the very first like as it is in Platoes Common-wealth he will not have these words in his mouth Mine and Thine for simply all goods are not common among all friends but those only who being 〈◊〉 apart in body conjoine and colliquate as it were perforce their soules together neither willing nor beleeving that they should be twaine but one and afterwards by true pudicity and reverence one unto the other whereof wedlocke hath most need As 〈◊〉 that which commeth from without carying with it more force of lawe than voluntary obsequence and reciprocall duty and that in regard of feare and shame A piece of worke that needs the guide Of many bits and helmes beside requireth alwaies to have ready at hand a carefull regard among those that are coupled in matrimonie whereas in true love there is so much continency modesty loyalty and faithfulnesse that although otherwhile it touch a wanton and lascivious minde yet it diverteth it from other lovers and by cutting off all malapert boldnesse by taking downe and debasing insolent pride and untaught stubburnesse
innumerable inclinations as it were with so many cords hath more agility than all the ingins or instruments in the world if a man hath the skill to manage and handle it with reason after it hath taken once a little motion that it may bend to that which conceived it for the beginnings of instincts and passions tend all to this intelligent and conceiving part which being stirred and shaken it draweth pulleth stretcheth and haleth the whole man Wherein we are given to understand what force and power hath the thing that is entred into the conceit and intelligence of the minde For bones are senselesse the sinewes and flesh full of humors and the whole masse of all these parts together heavie and ponderous lying still without some motions but so soone as the soule putteth somewhat into the understanding and that the same moveth the inclinations thereto it starteth up and riseth all at once and being stretched in all parts runneth a maine as if it had wings into action And so the maner of this moving direction and promptitude is not hard and much lesse impossible to comprehend whereby the soule hath no sooner understood any object but it draweth presently with it by instincts and inclinations the whole masse of the body For like as reason conceived and comprised without any voice moveth the understanding even so in mine opinion it is not such an hard matter but that a more divine intelligence and a soule more excellent should draw another inferior to it touching it from without like as one speech or reason may touch another and as light the reflection of light For we in trueth make our conceptions and cogitations knowen one to another as if we touched them in the darke by meanes of voice but the intelligences of Daemons having their light doe shine unto those who are capable thereof standing in need neither of nownes nor verbs which men use in speaking one to the other by which markes they see the images and resemblances of the conceptions and thoughts of the minde but the very intelligences cogitations indeed they know not unlesse they be such as have a singluar and divine light as we have already said and yet that which is performed by the ministery of the voice doth in some sort helpe and satisfie those who otherwise are incredulous For the aire being formed and stamped as it were by the impression of articulate sounds and become throughout all speech and voice carieth conception and intelligence into the minde of the hearer and therefore according to this similitude and reason what marvell is it if that also heater and therefore according to this similitude and reason what marvell is ti if that also which is conceived by these superior natures altereth the aire and if the aire being by reason of that quallity which it hath apt to receive impressions signifieth unto excellent men and such as have a rar and divine nature the speech of him who hath conceived ought in is minde For like as the stroks that light upon targuits or sheelds of brasse be heard a farre off when they proceed from the bottome in the mids within by reason of the resonance and rebound whereas the blowes that fall upon other sheelds are drowned and dispersed so as they be not heard at al even so the words or speeches of Daemous and spirits although they be carried and flie to the eares of all indifferently yet they resound to those onely who are of a settled and staied nature and whose soules are at quiet such as we call divine and celestiall men Now the vulgar sort have an opinion that some Daemon doth communicate a kinde of divinitie unto men in their sleepes but they thinke it strange and a miracle incredible if a man should say unto them that the gods doe move and affect them semblably when the be awake and have the full use of reason As if a man should thinke that a musician may play well upon his harpe or lute when all the strings be slacked and let downe but when the said instruments be set in tune and have their strings set up he cannot make any sound nor play well thereupon For they consider not the cause which is within them to wit their discord trouble and confusion whereof our familiar friend Socrates was exempt according as the oracle prophesied of him before which during his infancie was given unto his father for by it commanded he was to let him doe all that came into his minde and in no wise either to force or divert him but to suffer the instinct and nature of the child to have the reines at large by praying onely unto Jupiter Agoraeus that is to say eloquent and to the Muses for him and farther than so not to busie himselfe nor to take care for Socrates as if he had within him a guide and conductor of his life better than ten thousand masters and paedagogues Thus you see Philolaus what our opinion and judgement is as touching the Daemon or familiar spirit of Socrates both living and dead as who reject these voices sneesings and all such fooleries But what we have hard Timarchus of Chaeronea to discourse of this point I wot not well whether I were best to utter and relate the same for feare some would thinke that I loved to tell vaine tales Not so quoth Theocritus but I pray you be so good as to rehearse the same unto us For albeit fables doe not very well expresse the trueth yet in some sort they reach the same unto us For albeit fables doe not very well expresse the trueth yet in some sort they reach thereto But first tell us who this Timarchus was For I never knew the man And that may well be ô Simmias quoth Theocritus for he died when he was very yong and requested earnestly of Socrates to be buried nere unto Lamprocles Socrates his sonne who departed this life but few daies before being a deere friend of his and of the same age Now this yong gentleman being very desirous as he was of a generous disposition and had newly tasted the sweetnesse of Philosophy to know what was the nature and power of Socrates familiar spirit when he had imparted his mind and purpose unto me only and Cebes went downe into the cave or vault of Trophonius after the usuall sacrifices and accustomed complements due to that oracle performed where having remained two nights and one day insomuch as many men were out of all hope that ever he would come forth againe yea and his kinsfolke and frends bewailes the losse of him one morning betimes he issued forth very glad and jocand And after he had given thanks unto the god and adored him so soone as he was gotten through the presse of the multitude who expected his returne he recounted unto us many wonders strange to be heard and seene for he said that being descended into the place of the oracle he first met with much darknes
of the antecedent and the 〈◊〉 of the proceeding and finishing of things as also of the coherence and bringing together of both ends and extremes of the conference of one to another what habitude Correspondence or difference there is betweene and this is it whereof all demonstrations take their chiefe originall and beginning Now since it is so that all Philosophie whatsoever consisteth in the knowledge of the trueth and the light which cleereth the trueth is demonstration and the beginning of demonstration is the coherence and knitting of propositions together by good right that power which maketh and mainteineth this was dedicated and consecrated by the Sages and wise men unto this god who above all others loveth the trueth Againe this god is a Divinor and Prophet but the arte of Divining is as touching future things by the meanes of such as are either present or past For as nothing is done or made without cause so there is nothing foreknowen without a precedent reason but forasmuch as all that is dependeth and followeth upon that which hath beene and consequently all that shall be hath a stint and dependance of that which is by a certeine continuitie which proceedeth from the beginning to the end he who hath the skill to see into causes and by naturall reason how to compose and joine them together knoweth and is able to discourse What things are now what shall heereafter come As also what are past both all and some according as Homer saith who very well and wisely setteth in the first place the present then the future and that which is past For of the present dependeth all Syllogisme and reasoning and that by the vertue efficacie of a conjunction for that if this thing be such a thing went before and conversìm if this be that shall be For all the artificiall feat and skill of discourse and argument is the knowledge of consequence as hath beene said already but it is the sense that giveth anticipation unto the discourse of reason And therefore although haply it may seeme to stand little with decent honesty yet I will not be affraid to affirme that this reason properly is the Tripode or three footed table as one would say and Oracle of trueth namely when the disputer supposeth a consequence upon that which was premised and went before and then afterwards assuming that which is extant and subsistent commeth in the end to induce and inferre a finall conclusion of his demonstration Now if it be so that Apollo Pythius as the report goeth loveth musicke and be delighted in the singing of swans and sound of lute and harpe what marvell is it then if for the affection that he beareth unto logicke he likewise embrace and love that part of speech which he seeth Philosophers most willingly and oftenest to use Hercules before that he had loosed the bonds wherewith Prometheus was tied and having not as yet conferred and talked with Chiron and Atlans two great Sophisters and professours of disputation but being a yong man still and a plaine Boeotian abolished all logicke at first and scoffed at this little Mot E I but soone after seemed as if he would plucke away by force the three footed table of Apollo yea and contest with the god about the art of divining for that together with age and processe of time he proceeded so farre as that he became by that meanes a most skilfull prophet and as subtile and excellent a logician When Theon had made an end of this speech Eustrophus the Athenian as I take it directed his wordes unto us said See you not how valiantly Theon defendeth the art of logicke hath in maner gotten on the lions skin of Hercules It is not therfore decent that we who in one word referre all affaires all natures and principles joinctly together as well of divine as of humane things into number and making it the author master and ruler even of such matters as simply are most faire and precious should sitte still and say never a word but rather for our part offer the fruits of the Mathematicks unto god Apollo For we say and affirme that this letter E of it selfe neither in puissance nor in forme ne yet in name pronounciation hath any thing in it above other letters how be it we thinke that preferred it hath beene before all the rest in this regard that it is a charracter and marke of the number five which is in all things of greatest vertue and validity and is named Pemptas Whereupon our Sages and great clerks in times past when they would expresse the verbe to number used Pempazein as one would say to count and reckon by fives And verily Eustrophus in saying thus addressed his speech unto me not merily but in good earnest for that I was very affectionate and much addicted then unto the Mathematicks but yet so as in all things I observed and kept still the old rule To much of nothing as being a schollar of the Academie schoole I answered therefore that Eustrophus had solved passing well the difficulty of the question by this number For seeing it is so quoth I that number in generality is divided into even and odde Unity is in power and efficacy common to them both in such sort as being put unto the even it maketh it odde and likewise added to the odde causeth the same to be even Now the beginning and ground of even numbers is Two and of odde Three is the first of which being joined together is engēdred Five which by good right is highly honored as being the first compound of the first simple numbers where upon it is worthily named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Mariage because the even number hath some resemblance to the female and the odde a reference to the male For in the sections divisions of numbers into equal parts the even is altogether cleane parted and severed asunder leaving a certaine void space betweene the parts as a beginning of capacity apt to receive somewhat more contrariwise in the odde number if a man doe as much by it and cut it into two numbers there remaineth alwaies somewhat in the midst betweene fit for subdivision yea and generation of new numbers whereby it appeareth that more generative it is than the other And whensoever it commeth to be mixed with the other it carieth the preeminence and is master alwaies but never mastered For what mixture soever you make of them twaine you shal never come thereby to an even number but mix and compose them as often and in what maner you will there shall arise alwaies thereof an odde number And that which more is both the one and the other added to it selfe or compounded with it selfe sheweth the difference that is betweene them For never shall you see an even number joined with another that is even to produce an odde for it goeth not out of his proper nature as having not the power to
stumbling blocks of feare of paine of lusts and desires And verily the deciding and judgement of this disputation lieth in the sense which feeleth aswell the one as the other and is touched with them both For say that the one doth surmount and hath the victorie it doth not therefore defeit utterly and destroy the other but drawen it is thereto perforce and making resistance the while As for example the wanton and amorous person when he checketh and reprooveth himselfe therefore useth the discourse of reason against the said passion of his yet so as having them both actually subsisting together in the soule much like as if with his hand he repressed and kept downe the one part enflamed with an hot fit of passion and yet feeling within himselfe both parts and those actually in combat one against the other Contrariwise in those consultations disputes and inquisitions which are not passionate and wherein these motions of the brutish part have nothing to do such I meane as those be especially of the contemplative part of the soule if they be equall and so continue there ensueth no determinat judgement and resolution but a doubt remaineth as if it were a certaine pause or stay of the understanding not able to proceed farther but abiding in suspense betweene two contrarie opinions Now if it chance to encline unto one of them it is because the mightier hath overweighed the other annulled it yet so as it is not displeased or discontent no nor contesteth obstinately afterwards against the received opinion To be short to conclude all in one generall word where it seemeth that one discourse and reason is contrarie unto another it argueth not by and by a conceit of two divers subjects but one alone in sundrie apprehensions and imaginations Howbeit whensoever the brutish and sensuall part is in a conflict with reason and the same such that it can neither vanquish nor be vanquished without some sense of grievance then incontinently this battell divideth the soule in twaine so as the warre is evident and sensible And not onely by this fight a man may know how the source and beginning of these passions differeth from that fountaine of reason but no lesse also by the consequence that followeth thereupon For seeing that possible it is for a man to love one childe that is ingenuous and towardly disposed to vertue as also affect another as well who is ill given and dissolute considering also that one may use anger unjustly against his owne children or parents and another contrariwise justly in the defence of children or parents against enemies and tyrants Like as in the one there is perceived a manifest combat and resistance of passion against reason so in the other there may be seene as evident a yeelding and obeisance thereof suffering it selfe to be directed thereby yea and willingly running and offering her assistance and helping hand To illustrate this by a familiar example it hapneth otherwhiles that an honest man espouseth a wife according to the lawes with this intention onely to cherish and keepe her tenderly yea and to companie with her duly and according to the lawes of chastitie and honestie howbeit afterwards in tract of time and by long continuance and conversing together which hath bred in his heart the affection of love he perceiveth by discourse of reason and findeth in himselfe that he loveth her more deerely and entirely than he purposed at the first Semblably yoong scholars having met with gentle and kinde masters at the beginning follow and affect them in a kinde of zeale for the benefit onely that they reape by them Howbeit afterwards in processe of time they fall to love them and so in stead of familiar and daily disciples they become their lovers and are so called The same is usually to be seene in the behaviour and carriage of men toward good magistrates in cities neighbours also kinsfolke and allies For they begin acquaintance one with another after a civill sort onely by way of dutie or necessitie and use but afterwards by little and little ere they be aware they grow into an affectionate love of them namely when reason doth concurre perswading drawing unto it that part of the mind which is the seat of passions and affections As for that Poet whosoever he was that first wrate this sentence Two sorts there be of bashfulnes the one we cannot blame The other troubleth many an hower and doth decay the same Doth he not plainely shew that he hath found in himselfe by experience oftentimes that even this affection by meanes of lingring delay and putting off from time to time hath put him by the benefit of good opportunities and hindred the execution of many brave affaires Vnto these proofes and alle gations precedent the Stoikes being forced to yeeld in regard they be so cleere and evident yet for to make some way of evasion and escape they call shame bashfulnesse pleasure joy and feare warinesse or circumspection And I assure you no man could justly finde fault with these disguisements of odious things with honest termes if so be they would attribute unto these passions the said names when they be raunged under the rule of reason and give them their owne hatefull termes indeed when they strive with reason and violently make resistance But when convinced by the teares which they shed by trembling and quaking of their joints yea by chaunge of colour going and comming in stead of naming Dolour and Feare directly come in with I wot not what pretie devised termes of Morsures Contractions or Conturbations also when they would cloke and extenuate the imperfection of other passions by calling lust a promptitude or forwardnes to a thing it seemeth that by a flourish of fine words they devise shifts evasions and justifications not philosophicall but sophisticall And yet verily they themselves againe do terme those joies those promptitudes of the will and warie circumspections by the name of Eupathies i. good affections and not of Apathies that is to say Impassibilities wherein they use the words aright and as they ought For then is it truly called Eupathie i. a good affection when reason doth not utterly abolish the passion but guideth and ordereth the same well in such as be discreet and temperate But what befalleth unto vicious and dissolute persons Surely when they have set downe in their judgement and resolution to love father and mother as tenderly as one lover may another yet they are not able to performe so much Mary say that they determine to affect a courtisan or a flatterer presently they can finde in their hearts to love such most deerely Moreover if it were so that passion and judgement were both one it could not otherwise be so soone as one had determined that he ought to love or hate but that presently love or hate would follow thereupon But now it falleth out clean contrarie for that the passion as it accordeth well with some judgements and obeieth
so it repugneth with others and is obstinate and disobedient whereupon it is that themselves enforced thereto by the truth of the thing do affirme and pronounce that every judgement is not a passion but that onely which stirreth up and mooveth a strong and vehement appetite to a thing confessing thereby no doubt that one thing it is in us which judgeth and another thing that suffereth that is to say which receiveth passions like as that which moveth and that which is mooved be divers Certes even Chrysippus himselfe defininig in many places what is Patience and what is Continency doth avouch That they be habitudes apt and fit to obey and follow the choise of reason whereby he sheweth evidently that by the force of truth he was driven to confesse and avow That there is one thing in us which doth obey and yeeld and another which being obeied is yeelded unto and not obeied is resisted Furthermore as touching the Stoicks who hold That all sinnes and faults be equall neither wil this place nor the time now serve to argue against them whether in other points they swerve from the trueth howbeit thus much by the way I dare be bolde to say That in most things they will be found to repugne reason even against apparent and manifest evidence For according to their opinion euery passion or perturbation is a fault and whosoever grieve feare or lust do sinne but in those passions great difference there is seene according to more or lesse for who would ever be so grosse as to say that Dolons feare was equall to the feare of Ajax who as Homer writeth As he went out of field did turne and looke behinde full oft With knee before knee decently and so retired soft or compare the sorrow of King Alexander who would needs have killed himselfe for the death of Clytus to that of Plato for the death of Socrates For dolours and griefs encrease exceedingly when they grow upon occasion of that which hapneth besides all reason like as any accident which falleth out beyond our expectation is more grievous and breedeth greater anguish than that whereof areason may be rendered and which a man might suspect to follow As for example if he who ever expected to fee his sonne advanced to honour and living in great repuration among men should heare say that he were in prison and put to all maner of torture as Parmeno was advertised of his sonne Philotas And who will ever say that the anger of Nicocreon against Anaxarchus was to be compared with that of Magas against Philemon which arose upon the same occasion for that they both were spightfully reviled by them in reprochful termes for Nicocreon caused Anaxarchus to be braid in a morter with yron pestles whereas Magas commanded the Executioner to lay a sharpe naked sword upon the necke of Philémon and so to let him go without doing him any more harme And therefore it is that Plato named anger the sinewes of the soule giving us thereby to understand that they might be stretched by bitternesse and let slake by mildnesse But the Stoicks for to avoid and put backe these objections and such like denie that these stretchings and vehement fits of passions be according to judgement for that it may faile and erre many waies saying they be certaine pricks or stings contractions diffusions or dilatations which in proportion and according to reason may be greater or lesse Certes what variety there is in judgement it is plaine and evident For some there be that deeme povertie not to be ill others holde that it is very ill and there are againe who account it the worst thing in the world insomuch as to avoid it they could be content to throw themselves headlong from high rocks into the sea Also you shall have those who reckon death to be evill in that onely it depriveth us of the fruition of many good things others there be who thinke and say as much but it is in regard of the eternall torments horrible punishments that be under the ground in hell As for bodily health some love it no otherwise than a thing agreeable to nature and profitable withall others take it to be the soveraigne good in the world as without which they make no reckoning of riches of children Ne yet of crowne and regall dignitie Which men do match even with divinitie Nay they let not in the end to thinke and say That vertue it serveth in no stead and availeth nought unlesse it be accompanied with good health whereby it appeareth that as touching judgement some erre more some lesse But my meaning is not now to dispute against this evasion of theirs Thus much onely I purpose to take for mine advantage out of their owne confession in that themselves do grant That the brutish and sensuall part according to which they say that passions be greater and more violent is different from iudgement and howsoever they may seeme to contest and cavill about words and names they grant the substance and the thing it selfe in question joining with those who mainteine that the reasonlesse part of the soule which enterteineth passions is altogether different from that whcih is able to discourse reason and judge And verily Chrysppus in those books which he entituled Of Anomologie after he hed written and taught that angenis blinde and many times will not permit a man to see those things which be plaine and apparent and as often casteth a darke mist over that which he hath already perfectly learned and knowen proceedeth forward a little further For quoth he the passions which arise drive out and chase forth all discourse of reason and such things as were judged and determined otherwise against them urging it still by force unto contrary actions Then he useth the testimonie of Menander the Poet who in one place writeth thus by way of exclamation We worth the time wretch that I am How was my minde destraught In body mine where were my wits some folly sure me caught What time I fell to this For why thereof I made no choise Farre better things they were 〈◊〉 which had my former voice The same Chrysippus also going on still It being so quoth he that a reasonable creature is by nature borne and given to use reason in all things and to be governed thereby yet notwithstanding we reject and cast it behinde us being over-ruled by another more violent motion that carieth us away In which words what doth he else but confesse even that which hapneth upon the dissention betweene affection and reason For it were a meere ridiculous mockerie in deed as Plato saith to affirme that a man were better worse than himselfe or that he were able now to master himselfe anon ready to be mastered by himselfe and how were it possible that the same man should be better worse than himselfe and at once both master and servant unlesse every one were naturally in some sort double and had