Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	word_n	wretched_a	year_n	13	3	4.9681	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02320	The letters of Mounsieur de Balzac. Translated into English, according to the last edition. By W.T. Esq; Epistolarum liber unus. English	Balzac, Jean-Louis Guez, seigneur de, 1597-1654.; Tyrwhit, William.	1634 (1634)	STC 12452; ESTC S103512	145,059	448

thinkes we should haue more noble designes since his onely vertue deserueth to be followed and to cause a presse wheresoeuer it passeth In truth the seruice we yeeld to so great a person ought to hold the ranke of the chiefe recompences we are to expect vet after this there followeth another seldome fayling any of good parts yea or those who haue but patience If thou beest of the one or other sort of such men remember this maxime and doe not as those honest persons who thinke they doe good seruice to the State when they betray their Masters Beasts themselues are capeable of acknowledgement and that Italian had some small shew of Reason who called those Diuels who cured Agues good Angels Yet truely it is no lesse then to be ouer mannerly to goe so farre nor would I thanke Gods enemies for those gracious fauours I indeede receiue from him onely But as touching the rest of worldly affaires there is no question but wee are to reflect vpon the nearest occasions Fortune affoordeth vs and those who seeke after more remote meanes shall in conclusion finde from one degree to another that it is to Hugh Capete to whom they are obliged I was affraid lest I should have left my fingers vpon this paper and haue disenabled my selfe for euer writing more Letters after this had I any longer continued my discourse I tell thee no lye Hydaspe this is the third Winter wee haue had this yeare and the greatest irregularity I euer obserued in Nature For Gods loue inquire the cause of Father Ioseph and intreate him from me if your selfe be not acquainted with him that he would be pleased to imploy the credit he hath in Heauen to cause the returne of warmer weather BALZAC The 25. of Ianuary 1624. To the Seigneur de la Roche from Balzac LETTER V. SIR I Cannot conceiue your meaning when you speake of my friendship as of a fauour or predestination or in being so prodigall of your complements and commendations There was sufficient in the Letter you lately sent to bereaue me of speech and to make me flye to the Indies were I forced to frame you a punctuall answer But since you are vsually victorious be pleased I beseech you to permit your courtesie to worke the same effects as doth your courage and suffer me to yeeld vnto you in this occasion as I would doe in those of Rochell or Mountuban I onely intreate you henceforward to loue me with lesse ostentation and luster then you haue done hitherto and since it is not in my power to hinder you from hauing me in estimation let me at the least intreate you to carry the matter so as though you had committed some sinne that is without calling witnesse or confirming the fact otherwise doubtlesse the world will suppose your affection to be iniurious to your iudgement and I much feare lest I should be blamed for blinding you and for being more wicked then the late Warre which was contented onely to make diuers of our friends blinkards Truely that so compleate a person whose acquaintance you commend vnto me not finding me sutable to the pourtraite you shewed him may well say you are not onely satisfied in being singly seduced but seeke to raise Heresies out of your errours and a contagion out of your crazy constitution This being so I see not how I can better make good either mine owne reputation or your report then by voluntarily banishing my selfe from the place where you are and not by my presence to ouerthrow all the Honour you haue hither to acquired for me If therefore you will not appeare a deceiuer nor declare your selfe my aduersary leaue me I pray you to my retirednesse where I study onely to maintaine health and take no other paines then to procure my owne repose nor haue any conference but with my selfe Your most humble seruant BALZAC The 10. of Aprill 1623. To Mounsieur de Bois Robert from Balzac LETTER VI. SInce the dead neuer returne but they affright vs I was perswaded I should doe you no small pleasure nor a little oblige you in forbearing to appeare so much as on Paper before you suffering you purely to enioy your accustomed pleasures without the mixture of any thing that might be distastefull vnto you But since at this present you come to disturbe the quiet of Church-yards and to finde out a man in affecting whose memory you might well be satisfied I am forced to tell you that the party you so highly esteeme is wholy remaining beyond the Alpes and how this is onely his Ghost lately returned into France I breake all the Looking glasses I meete with I blunder the water of all Riuers I crosse I auoid the sight of all Paynters in any place where I come lest they shew me the patterne of my pale visage Yet if in the crazy case wherein I am J were any way capeable of consolation I beseech you to be assured I should take it as proceeding from the good successe of your affaires nor would I desire of my disease any long respite then what were requisite to reioyce with you But truely it is an enemy who knowes not how to admit of conditions of peace or truce and I am so happy as not to be suffered to quit my paines to resume them The meate I here eate for sustenance is to me as pleasing as poyson and I endure life out of pennance whereas you in the place where you liue spend the remainder of the Golden age refusing nothing to your sences you lawfully may allow them Though the Queenes Court be so chaste as it were easier to drinke drunk of a fountaine then to take any dishonest pleasures thene and that to gaine admittance it is requisite to be first purified at the Porters lodge yet are you allowed euen there to haue pleasing temptations and going elsewhere to seeke out more solide contentments But as for me in the case I am I make no difference at all betweene louely creatures and well limmed pictures and the misery I endure hauing bereaued me of action my wretched vertue is as much constrayned as the sobriety of the poore is necessary In all this I adde not one word to the bare truth and if the Counte of Pountgibaut had his pardon to let you know how it is with me he would tell you that I am more withered then the last yeares Roses and how all the Ingeniers in an Army were no more then sufficient to remoue me But my discourse will be more pleasing if I speake of that Head which deserueth to fill a Diadem then in continuing this wretched complaint When at the first I saw concurrent in him so much valour and so great beauty I neither tooke him for man nor Woman but after hauing recollected my selfe J supposed him to be the Amazonian Queene and doubtlesle in the worlds infancy it was to such faces onely whereto all people yeelded willing obedience none quitting their seruice euery mans

enables them not to write many bookes I might enlarge my selfe vpon this subiect and discouer diuers secrets vnto you the world is not yet acquainted with But I haue neither time nor paper left saue onely to tell you that J am Sir Your most humble seruant BALZAC Another Letter from Balzac to the same man LETTER IX IVnderstand some haue taxed me for saying in my last Letter vnto you the spirits of Angels since Angels being all Spirits it seemed vnto them to be two inseperable tearmes But to let such men see how ill grounded their Obiection is and I suppose our iudgements will herein agree it may please them to remember that we call Angels Spirits to distinguish them from bodies being a farre different signification from what the word Spirit importeth when we take it for that part of the soule which vnderstandeth reasoneth and imagineth and which causeth so different effects in the soule of a foole and that of a discreete person Questionlesse euen among Angels themselues there may be a difference found betweene the spirits of some and other some of them to wit in the faculty of Ratiotination and Comprehension Since those of the last order are not illuminated but by meanes of them of the precedent rankes and so of the rest euen to the first which haue a farre more sublime intelligence then the inferiour Orders which as no man how smally soeuer seene in the Metaphisiques will doubt of come as farre short of the vnderstanding the first Order is indued with as they doe of their degree We are therefore to admit of this difference and say that an Angell is doubtlesse a Spirit to wit he is not a Body but withall that an Angell hath moreouer a spirit namely this faculty of knowing and conceiuing either lesser or more large according to the priuiledge of his Order So as if a Spirit hath no other signification then a simple and incomposed substance this inequality were not to be found among the Angels being equally simple and farre from all composition and mixture When then I say it was a wrong done to Angels to call any other Spirits diuine saue onely theirs I take the word Spirit in its second signification and thereby seperate it from the Angell and distinguish the simple substance and nature Angellicall from that faculty of the Soule tearmed the vnderstanding But that one may not say the spirit of Angels because they are all spirit is a reason very reproueable and whereto there wanteth nothing but verity to make it no vntruth for that besides the spirit or vnderstanding affoording to Angels so eminent a knowledge of diuine things they are likewise indued with will causing them to loue what they know and with memory dayly adding something to their naturall intellect But admitting I should yeeld to whatsoeuer these my reprehendors would haue and that I limit the word Spirit within the bounds of its first signification I should still haue the better of it For in truth our ordinary manner of conception cannot possibly represent Angels without bodies yea and the Church it selfe affoordeth them so faire beautifull and perfect ones that from thence the best Poets ordinarily picke their Comparisons to pourtraite the rarest beauties Besides if in holy Writ mention be often made of the Spirit of God euen before he assumed our corporall substance and in a sence which could not be vnderstood of the third person in Trinity why may not I as iustly speake of the spirits of Angels being in comparison of Gods Spirit no better then earth and materiall and which approacheth not by many degrees vnto the simplicity and purity of this maiesteriall cause being as the Mother to all the rest You see here that howsoeuer it is very dangerous to study by halfe parts or to vnderstand some small matter more then those who neuer were at Schoole yet is it out of such men as these that Nouellists and superstitious persons are raised yea and all the rest who haue reason enough to doubt but not science sufficiently to determine rightly BALZAC To Mounsieur de Bois Robert from Balzac LETTER X. SIR YOu haue anticipated what I intended to say and haue not left for me in all Rhetoricke either complement or commendations to returne you This is to force ingratitude by excesse of obligation and to reduce me to the necessity of being indebted vnto you after I be dead In truth it were necessary I had the power to promise you felicity and Paradise in requitall of the vowes and sacrifices you offer vnto me and that I were in case to be your aduocate instead of being thus put to a stand to answer you It may be you haue a minde in such sort to disguise me to my selfe as I shall not hereafter know who I am but be forced to forget my owne name by causing me to imagine I am not the same man I was yesterday Proceede at your pleasure to deceiue me in this sort for I am resolued not to contest with you in this kind to the worlds end nor to arme my selfe against an enemy who onely throwes Roses at my head I should be very glad all my life would passe in such pleasing Dreames and that I might neuer awake for feare of knowing the truth to my preiudice But for the attayning this happinesse it is necessary I doe quite contrary to your aduice and neuer quit my Countrey-house where none comes to enter into comparisons or contest with me for the aduantage I haue ouer bruite beasts or my Lackeyes I agree with you that it is the Court-voice which either approueth or condemneth all and that out of its light things though neuer so perfect haue no appearance But I know not whether it were my best to make that my owne case since I feare lest my presence there will rather preiudice my reputation and your iudgement then make good your position Vpon the matter if there be any tollerable parts in me they appeare so little outwardly as I had neede haue my breast opened to discouer them And in conclusion you will finde it a sufficient obligation for me to haue you thinke my soule is more eloquent then my discourse and that the better part of my vertue is concealed Yet since my promise is past I must resolue for Paris though it prooue as strange a place vnto mee as if I were out of the World or as though they should chase raw Courtiers thence as they doe corrupt States-men To tell you plainely how the case stands J am none of those who study the slightest actions of their liues and who vse Art in all they doe or doe not I cannot light vpon that accent wherewith they authorise their follies nor make of euery meane matter a mystery by whispering it in the eare And lesse doe I know how to palliate my faults or make shew of an honest man if really I be not so Now though I could make my selfe capable of these Arts yet