greater for his so being WHEN Domitius was besieg'd in Corfinium and the Place brought to great extremity he pressed his servant so earnestly to Poyson him that at last he was prevail'd upon to give him a Potion which it seems was an innocent Opiate and Domitius out-liv'd it Caesar took the Town and gave Domitius his Life but it was his Servant that gave it him first THERE was another Town besieg'd and when it was upon the last pinch two Servants made their escape and went over to the Enemy Upon the Romans entring the Town and in the heat of the Soldiers fury these two Fellows ran directly home took their Mistress out of her house and drave her before them telling every body how barbarously she had us'd them formerly and that they would now have their Revenge when they had her without the Gates they kept her close till the danger was over by which means they gave their Mistress her Life and she gave them their Freedom This was not the Action of a Servile Mind to do so Glorious a thing under an appearance of so great a Villany for if they had not pass'd for Deserters and Parricides they could not have gain'd their End WITH one Instance more and that a very brave one I shall conclude this Chapter IN the Civil Wars of Rome a Party coming to search for a Person of Quality that was proscrib'd a Servant put on his Masters Cloths and deliver'd himself up to the Soldiers as the Master of the House he was taken into Custody and put to death without discovering the Mistake What could be more glorious than for a Servant to dye for his Master in that Age when there were not many Servants that would not betray their Masters So generous a tenderness in a Publick Cruelty So invincible a Faith in a General Corruption What could be more glorious I say than so exalted a Virtue as rather to chuse death for the Reward of his Fidelity than the greatest advantages he might otherwise have had for the violation of it CHAP. IV. It is the Intention not the Matter that makes the Benefit THE Good will of the Benefactor is the Fountain of all Benefits nay it is the Benefit it self or at least the Stamp that makes it valuable and current Some there are I know that take the Matter for the Benefit and taxe the Obligation by weight and measure When any thing is given them they presently cast it up What may such a House be worth Such an Office Such an Estate As if that were the Benefit which is only the Sign and Mark of it For the Obligation rests in the Mind not in the Matter And all those Advantages which we see handle or hold in actual possession by the Courtesie of another are but several Modes or Wayes of Explaining and putting the Good Will in Execution There needs no great subtilty to prove that both Benefits and Injuries receive their value from the Intention when even Brutes themselves are able to decide this Question Tread upon a Dog by chance or put him to pain upon the dressing of a Wound the one he passes by as an Accident and the other in his fashion he acknowledges as a Kindness but offer to strike at him though you do him no hurt at all he flies yet in the face of you even for the Mischief that you barely meant him IT is further to be observ'd that all Benefits are good and like the distributions of Providence made up of Wisdom and Bounty whereas the Gift it self is neither good nor bad but may indifferently be apply'd either to the one or to the other The Benefit is Immortal the Gift Perishable For the Benefit it self continues when we have no longer either the Use or the Matter of it He that is dead was alive He that has lost his Eyes did see and whatsoever is done cannot be rendred undone My Friend for Instance is taken by Pyrates I redeem him and after that he falls into other Pyrates hands his Obligation to me is the same still as if he had preserv'd his Freedom And so if I save a Man from any one Misfortune and he falls into another if I give him a Sum of Money which is afterward taken away by Thieves it comes to the same Case Fortune may deprive us of the Matter of a Benefit but the Benefit it self remains inviolable If the Benefit resided in the Matter that which is good for one Man would be so for another whereas many times the very same thing given to several Persons works contrary effects even to the difference of Life or Death and that which is one bodies Cure proves another bodies Poison Beside that the Timeing of it alters the value and a Crust of Bread upon a pinch is a greater Present than an Imperial Crown What is more Familiar than in a Battel to shoot at an Enemy and kill a Friend Or in stead of a Friend to save an Enemy But yet this disappointment in the Event does not at all operate upon the Intention What if a Man cures me of a Wen with a stroke that was design'd to cut off my head Or with a Malicious blow upon my Stomach breaks an Imposthume or What if he save my Life with a Draught that was prepar'd to Poyson me The Providence of the Issue does not at all discharge the Obliquity of the Intent And the same Reason holds good even in Religion it self It is not the Incense or the Offering that is acceptable to God but the Purity and Devotion of the Worshipper Neither is the bare Will without Action sufficient that is where we have the Means of Acting for in that Case it signifies as little to wish well without well doing as to do good without willing it There must be Effect as well as Intention to make me owe a Benefit but to will against it does wholly discharge it In fine the Conscience alone is the Judge both of Benefits and Injuries IT does not follow now because the Benefit rests in the Good Will that therefore the Good Will should be alwayes a Benefit for if it be not accompany'd with Government and Discretion those Offices which we call Benefits are but the Works of Passion or of Chance and many times the greatest of all Injuries One Man does me good by Mistake another Ignorantly a third upon force but none of these Cases do I take to be an Obligation for they were neither directed to me nor was there any kindness of Intention We do not thank the Seas for the Advantages we receive by Navigation or the Rivers for supplying us with Fish and flowing of our Grounds we do not thank the Trees either for their Fruits or Shades or the Winds for a fair Gale And What 's the difference betwixt a reasonable Creature that does not know and an Inanimate that cannot A good Horse saves one Man's Life a good Sute of Armes Another's and a Man perhaps
Contrary that it is the greater because the good will cannot be chang'd 'T is one thing to say That a Man could not but do me this or that Civility because he was forc'd to 't and another thing That he could not quit the good Will of doing it In the former Case I am a Debtor to him that impos'd the force in the other to himself An Unchangeable good Will is an indispensable Obligation and to say that Nature cannot go out of her Course does not discharge us of what we owe to Providence Shall he be said to Will that may change his Mind the next moment And Shall we question the Will of the Almighty whose Nature admits no change Must the Stars quit their Stations and fall foul one upon another Must the Sun stand still in the middle of his Course and Heaven and Earth drop into a Confusion Must a devouring Fire seize upon the Universe the Harmony of the Creation be dissolv'd and the whole Frame of Nature swallow'd up in a dark Abysse and Will nothing less than this serve to convince the VVorld of their audacious and impertinent Follies It is not to say that These Heavenly Bodies are not made for us for in part they are so and we are the better for their Virtues and Motions whether we will or no though undoubtedly the Principal Cause is the unalterable Law of God Providence is not mov'd by any thing from without but the Divine VVill is an Everlasting Law an Immutable Decree and the Impossibility of Variation proceeds from God's purpose of persevering for he never repents of his first Counsels It is not with our Heavenly as with our Earthly Father God thought of us and provided for us before he made us for unto him all future events are present Man was not the VVork of Chance his Mind carries him above the flight of Fortune and naturally aspires to the Contemplation of Heaven and Divine Mysteries How desperate a Phrensy is it now to undervalue nay to contemn and to disclaim these Divine Blessings without which we were utterly incapable of enjoying any other CHAP. IX An Honest Man cannot be Out-done in Courtesie IT passes in the World for a Generous and a Magnificent saying that ' T is a shame for a Man to be out-done in Courtesie And it 's worth the while to examine both the Truth of it and the Mistake First there can be no shame in a Virtuous Emulation and Secondly there can be no Victory without crossing the Cudgels and yielding the Cause One Man may have the Advantages of Strength of Meanes of Fortune and this will undoubtedly operate upon the Events of good Purposes but yet without any diminution to the Virtue The good Will may be the same in Both and yet One may have the Heels of the Other For it is not in a good Office as in a Course where he wins the Plate that comes first to the Post And even there also Chance has many times a great hand in the Success Where the Contest is about Benefits and that the One has not only a Good Will but Matter to work upon and a Power to put that Good Intent in Execution And the Other has barely a Good Will without either the Meanes or the Occasion of a Requital if he does but affectionately wish it and endeavour it the latter is no more Overcome in Courtesie than he is in Courage that dies with his Sword in his Hand and his Face to the Enemy and without Shrinking maintains his Station For where Fortune is Partial 'T is enough that the Good Will is Equal There are two Errors in this Proposition First to imply that a good Man may be Overcome and then to imagine that any thing Shameful can befall him The Spartans prohibited all those Exercises where the Victory was declar'd by the Confession of the Contendent The 300 Fabii were never said to be Conquer'd but Slain nor Regulus to be Overcome though he was taken Prisoner by the Carthaginians The Mind may stand firm under the greatest Malice and Iniquity of Fortune and yet the Giver and the Receiver continue upon equal Termes As we reckon it a drawn Battel when two Combatants are parted though the One has lost more Blood than the Other He that knowes how to Owe a Courtesie and heartily wishes that he could Requite it is Invincible So that every Man may be as Grateful as he pleases 'T is Your Happiness to Give 't is My Fortune that I can only Receive What advantage now has your Chance over my Virtue But there are some Men that have Philosophiz'd themselves almost out of the sense of Humane Affections as Diogenes that walk'd Naked and Unconcern'd through the middle of Alexanders Treasures and was as well in other Mens Opinions as in his Own even above Alexander himself who at that time had the whole World at his Feet for there was more that the One scorn'd to Take than that the Other had in his Power to Give And it is a greater Generosity for a Beggar to Refuse Money than for a Prince to Bestow it This is a remarkable Instance of an immoveable Mind and there 's hardly any contending with it but a Man is never the less valiant for being worsted by an Invulnerable Enemy nor the Fire one jote the weaker for not consuming an Incombustible Body nor a Sword ever a whit the worse for not cleaving a Rock that is impenetrable neither is a Grateful Mind overcome for want of an Answerable Fortune No matter for the Inequality of the things Given and Received so long as in point of good Affection the two Parties stand upon the same Level 'T is no Shame not to overtake a man if we follow him as fast as we can That Tumor of a Man the Vainglorious Alexander was us'd to make his Boast that never any man went beyond him in Benefits and yet he liv'd to see a poor fellow in a Tub to whom there was nothing that he could Give and from whom there was nothing that he could take away NOR is it always necessary for a poor Man to fly to the Sanctuary of an Invincible Mind to quit scores with the Bounties of a Plentiful Fortune but it does often fall out that the Returns which he cannot make in kind are more than supply'd in dignity and value Archelaus a King of Macedon invited Socrates to his Palace but he excus'd himself as unwilling to Receive greater Benefits than he was able to Requite This perhaps was not Pride in Socrates but Craft for he was afraid of being forc'd to accept of something which possibly might have been unworthy of him beside that he was a Man of Liberty and loth to make himself a voluntary Slave The truth of it is that Archelaus had more need of Socrates than Socrates of Archelaus for he wanted a Man to teach him the Art of Life and Death and the Skill of Government to Read the Book of
fall under Natural Philosophy Arguments under Rational and Actions under Moral Moral Philosophy is again divided into Matter of Iustice which arises from the Estimation of Things and of Men and into Affections and Actions and a failing in any one of these disorders all the rest For What does it profit us to know the true value of things if we be transported by our Passions or to Master our Appetites without understanding the when the what the how and other Circumstances of our Proceedings For it is one thing to Know the Rate and Dignity of things and another to know the little Nicks and Springs of Acting Natural Philosophy is Conversant about things Corporeal and Incorporeal the disquisition of Causes and Effects and the Contemplation of the Cause of Causes Rational Philosophy is divided into Logick and Rhetorick the One looks after Words Sense and Order the Other Treats barely of Words and the Significations of them Socrates places all Philosophy in Moralls and Wisdome in the distinguishing of Good and Evil. It is the Art and Law of Life and it Teaches us what to do in all Cases and like good Markes-men to hit the White at any distance The force of it is incredible for it gives us in the weakness of a Man the security of a Spirit In Sickness it is as good as a Remedy to us for whatsoever eases the Mind is profitable also to the Body The Physitian may prescribe Dyet and Exercise and accommodate his Rule and Medicine to the Disease but 't is Philosophy that must bring us to a Contempt of Death which is the Remedy of all Diseases In Poverty it gives us Riches or such a State of Mind as makes them superfluous to us It armes us against all Difficulties One Man is prest with Death another with Poverty some with Envy others are offended at Providence and unsatisfied with the Condition of Mankind But Philosophy prompts us to relieve the Prisoner the Infirm the Necessitous the Condemn'd to shew the Ignorant their Errors and rectify their Affections It makes us inspect and govern our Manners it rouzes us where we are faint and drouzy it binds up what is loose and humbles in us that which is Contumacious It delivers the Mind from the Bondage of the Body and raises it up to the Contemplation of its Divine Original Honors Monuments and all the works of Vanity and Ambition are demolished and Destroyed by Time but the Reputation of Wisdome is venerable to Posterity and those that were envy'd or neglected in their Lives are ador'd in their Memories and exempted from the very Laws of Created Nature which has set bounds to all other things The very shadow of Glory carries a Man of Honor upon all dangers to the Contempt of Fire and Sword and it were a shame if Right Reason should not inspire as generous Resolutions into a Man of Virtue NEITHER is Philosophy only profitable to the Publick but one Wise Man helps another even in the Exercise of their Virtues and the One has need of the Other both for Conversation and Counsel for they Kindle a mutual Emulation in good Offices We are not so perfect yet but that many new things remain still to be found out which will give us the reciprocal Advantages of Instructing one another For as one Wicked Man is Contagious to another and the more Vices are mingled the worse it is so is it on the Contrary with Good Men and their Virtues As Men of Letters are the most useful and excellent of Friends so are they the best of Subjects as being better Judges of the Blessings they enjoy under a well-order'd Government and of what they owe to the Magistrate for their Freedome and Protection They are Men of Sobriety and Learning and free from Boasting and Insolence they reprove the Vice without Reproaching the Person for they have learn'd to be Wise without either Pomp or Envy That which we see in high Mountains we find in Philosophers they seem taller near hand then at a distance They are rais'd above other Men but their greatness is substantial Nor do they stand upon the Tiptoe that they may seem higher than they are but content with their own stature they reckon themselves tall enough when Fortune cannot reach them Their Laws are short and yet comprehensive too for they bind all IT is the Bounty of Nature that we live but of Philosophy that we live well which is in truth a greater Benefit than Life it self Not but that Philosophy is also the Gift of Heaven so far as to the Faculty but not to the Science for that must be the business of Industry No Man is born Wise but Wisdom and Virtue require a Tutor though we can easily learn to be Vicious without a Master It is Philosophy that gives us a Veneration for God a Charity for our Neighbor that teaches us our Duty to Heaven and exhorts us to an Agreement one with another It unmasks things that are terrible to us asswages our Lusts refutes our Errors restrains our Luxury Reproves our Avarice and Works strangely upon Tender Natures I could never hear Attalus sayes Seneca upon the Vices of the Age and the Errors of Life without a compassion for Mankind and in his discourses upon Poverty there was something me thought that was more than Humane More than we use saies he is more than we need and only a Burthen to the Bearer That saying of his put me out of countenance at the superfluities of my own fortune And so in his Invectives against vain pleasures he did at such a rate advance the felicities of a Sober Table a Pure Mind and a Chast Body that a man could not hear him without a Love for Continence and Moderation Upon these Lectures of his I deny'd my self for a while after certain delicacies that I had formerly used but in a short time I fell to them again though so sparingly that the Proportion came little short of a Total Abstinence NOW to shew you saies our Author how much earnester my entrance upon Philosophy was than my Progress My Tutor Sotion gave me a wonderful kindness for Pythagoras and after him for Sextius The former forbare shedding of Bloud upon his Metempsychosis and put men in fear of it least they should offer violence to the souls of some of their departed friends or relations Whether sayes he there be a Transmigration or not if it be true there 's no hurt in 't if false there 's frugality and nothing's gotten by Cruelty neither but the cozening a Wolfe perhaps or a Vulture of a Supper Now Sextius abstain'd upon another Account which was that he would not have men inur'd to hardness of heart by the Laceration and tormenting of Living Creatures beside that Nature had sufficiently provided for the Sustenance of Mankind without Bloud This wrought so far upon me that I gave over eating of flesh and in one year made it not only easie to me but
them It is true that if I might have my Choice I would have Health and Strength And yet if I come to be visited with Pain or Sickness I will endeavour to emprove them to my Advantage by making a Righteous Judgment of them as I ought to do of all the Appointments of Providence So that as they are not Good in themselves neither are they Evil But matter of Exercise for our Virtues of Temperance on the One hand and of Resignation on the Other EPIST. VII Of Impertinent Studies and Impertinent Men. Philosophers the Best Companions HE that duely Considers the Business of Life and Death will find that he has little time to spare from That Study And yet how we trifle away our hours upon Impertinent Niceties and Cavils Will Platoe's Imaginary Idea's make me an Honest Man There 's neither Certainty in them nor Substance A Mouse is a Syllable but a Syllable does not eat Cheese Therefore a Mouse does not eat Cheese Oh! these Childish Follies Is it for This that we spend our Blood and our Good Humour and grow Grey in our Closets We are a jeasting when we should be helping the Miserable as well our Selves as Others There 's no Sporting with Men in Distress The Felicity of Mankind depends upon the Counsel of Philosophers Let us rather consider what Nature has made Superfluous and what Necessary how Easie our Conditions are and how Delicious That Life which is govern'd by Reason rather than Opinion There are Impertinent Studies as well as Impertinent Men. Didymus the Grammarian Wrote 4000 Books wherein he is much Concern'd to discover Where Homer was born Who was Aeneas's true Mother and whether Anacreon was the greater Whoremaster or Drunkard With other Fopperies that a Man would labor to Forget if he Knew them Is it not an Important Question which of the Two was First the Mallet or the Tongs Some people are extremly Inquisitive to know how many Oars Ulysses had Which was first Written the Illyads or the Odysses or if they were Both done by the same hand A Man is never a Jote the more Learned for this â—…uriosity but much the more Troublesome Am I ever the more Just the more Moderate Valiant or Liberal for knowing that Curius Dentatus was the First that carry'd Elephants in Triumph Teach me my Duty to Providence to my Neighbor and to my Self To Dispute with Socrates to Doubt with Carneades to set up my Rest with Epicurus to Master my Appetites with the Stoiques and to Renounce the World with the Cynick What a deal of Business there is First to make Homer a Philosopher and Secondly in what Classis to Range him One will have him to be a Stoique a Friend to Virtue and an Enemy to Pleasure preferring Honesty even to Immortality it self Another makes him an Epicurean One that loves his Quiet and to spend his Time in Good Company Some are Positive in it that he was a Peripatetique and Others that he was a Sceptique But it is Clear that in being all these things he was not any One of them These Divided Opinions do not at all hinder us from agreeing upon the Main that he was a Wise Man Let us therefore apply our selves to those things that made him so and e'en let the Rest alone It was a Pleasant Humor of Calvicius Saâ—…us a Rich Man and one that menag'd a very Good Fortune with a very Ill Grace He had neither Wit nor Memory but would fain pass for a Learned Man and so took several into his Family And whatsoever they knew he assum'd to Himself There are a sort of People that are never well but at Theatres Spectacles and Publick Places Men of Business but it is only in their Faces for they wander up and down without any Design like Pismires Eager and Empty and every thing they do is only as it happens This is an humor which a Man may call a kind of Restless Lazyness Others you shall have that are perpetually in Haste as if they were Crying Fire or running for a Midwife and all this Hurry perhaps only to Salute some body that had no mind to take Notice of them or some such Trivial Errant At Night when they come Home â—…ir'd and weary ask them Why they went out Where they have been and What they have done 't is a very Slender Accompt they are able to give you and yet the next day they take the same Iaunt over again This is a kind of Phantastical Industry a great deal of Pains taken to no purpose at all Twenty Visits made and no body at home they themselves least of all They that have this Vice are commonly Harkeners Tale-Bearers News-Mongers Meddlers in other Peoples Affairs and Curious after Secrets which a Man can neither safely Hear nor Report These Men of Idle Employment that run up and down eternally vexing Others and themselves too that thrust themselves into all Companies What do they get by 't One Man 's Asleep Another at Supper a Third in Company a Fourth in Haste a Fifth gives them the Slip and when their folly has gone the Round they close up the Day with Shame and Repentance Whereas Zeno Pythagoras Democritus Aristotle Theophrastus and all the Patrons of Philosophy and Virtue they are alwayes at Leisure and in Good Humor Familiar Profitable a Man never comes away empty handed from them but full of Comfort and Satisfaction They make all Past Ages Present to us or Us Their Contemporaries The Dorës of these Men are open Night and Day and in their Conversation there 's neither Danger Treachery nor Expence but we are the Wiser the Happier and the Richer for it How blessedly does a Man spend his time in this Company where we may advise in all the Difficulties of Life Here 's Counsel without Reproach and Praise without Flattery We cannot be the Chusers of our Own Parents but of our Friends we may and Adopt our Selves into these Noble Families This is the way of making Mortality in a Manner to be Immortal The time Past we make to be our Own by Remembrance the Present by Use and the Future by Providence and Foresight That only may properly be said to be the Long Life that draws all Ages into One and That a short one that Forgets the Past Neglects the Present and is Sollicitous for the Time to Come But it is not yet sufficient to know what Plato or Zeno said unless we make it all our Own by Habit and Practice and Emprove both the World and our Selves by an Example of Life Answerable to their Precepts EPIST. VIII Against Singularity of Manners and Behaviour IT is the Humor of many People to be Singular in their Dress and Manner of Life only to the End that they may be taken Notice of Their Cloths forsooth must be Course and Slovenly their Heads and Beards neglected their Lodgings upon the Ground and they live in Open Defiance against Mony What is all this upon the whole
Horrid the Spectacle of an Execution Strikes the Mind and works upon the Imagination Some People are strangely subject to Sweat to Tremble to Stammer their very Teeth will Chatter in their Heads and their Lips Quiver and especially in Publick Assemblies These are Natural Infirmities and it is not all the Resolution in the World that can ever Master them Some Redden when they are Angry Sylla was one of those and when the Blood Flush'd into his Face you might be sure he had Malice in his Heart Pompey on the other side that hardly ever spake in Publick without a Blush had a wonderful Sweetness of Nature and it did exceedingly well with him Your Comedians will represent Fear Sadness Anger and the like but when they come to a bashful Modesty though they 'll give you humbleness of Looks softness of Speech and down-Cast-Eyes to the very Life yet they can never come to express a Blush for it is a thing neither to be Commanded nor Hindred but it comes and goes of its own accord The Course of Nature is Smooth and Easie but when we come to Cross it we strive against the Stream It is not for one Man to Act another Mans Part. For Nature will quickly Return and take off the Mask There is a kind of Sacred Instinct that moves us Even the worst have a Sense of Virtue We are not so much Ignorant as Careless Whence comes it that Grazing Beasts distinguish Salutary Plants from Deadly A Chicken is afraid of a Kite and not of a Goose or a Peacock which is much Bigger A Bird of a Cat and not of a Dog This is Impulse and not Experiment The Cells of Bees and the Webs of Spiders are not to be imitated by Art but it is Nature that teaches them The Stage-Player has his Actions and Gestures in Readiness but This is only an Emprovement by Art of what Nature teaches them who is never at a Loss for the Use of her self We come into the World with This Knowledge and we have it by a Natural Institution which is no Other than a Natural Logick We brought the Seeds of Wisdom into the World with us but not Wisdom it self There is the Goodness of God and That of Man the One is Immortal the Other Mortal Nature perfects the One and Study the Other EPIST. XI We are Divided in our Selves and Confound Good and Evil. IT is no wonder that Men are Generally very much Unsatisfy'd with the World when there 's not One Man of a Thousand that agrees with himself and that 's the Root of our Misery only we are willing to Charge our Own Vices upon the Malignity of Fortune Either we are Puff'd up with Pride Wrack'd with Desires Dissolv'd in Pleasures or Blasted with Cares and which perfects our Unhappiness we are never Alone but in perpetual Conflict and Controversie with our Lusts. We are Startled at all Accidents We Boggle at our own Shadows and Fright one Another Lucretius sayes that we are as much afraid in the Light as Children in the Dark but I say That we are alltogether in Darkness without any Light at all and we run on blindfold without so much as Groping out our way Which Rashness in the Dark is the worst sort of Madness He that is in his way is in hope of coming to his Journeys End but Error is Endless Let every Man therefore Examine his Desires whether they be according to Rectify'd Nature or Not. That Mans Mind can never be Right whose Actions Disagree We must not Live by Chance for there can be no Virtue without Deliberation and Election And where we cannot be Certain let us follow that which is most Hopeful and Probable Faith Justice Piety Fortitude Prudence are Venerable and the Possessions only of Good Men but a Plentiful Estate a Brawny Arm and a Firm Body are Many times the Portion of the Wicked The Perfection of Humane Nature is that State which supports it self and so is out of the Fear of Falling It is a great weakness for a Man to value himself upon any thing wherein he shall be Out-done by Fools and Beasts We are to consider Health Strength Beauty and other Advantages of That Kind only as Adventitious Comforts We may preserve them with Care provided that we be alwayes ready to Quit them without Trouble There is a Pleasure in Wickedness as well as in Virtue and there are that take a Glory in it too wherefore our Forefathers prescrib'd us the Best Life and not the most Plentiful and allow'd us Pleasure for a Companion but not for a Guide We do many times take the Instruments of Happiness for the Happiness it self and rest upon those Matters that are but in the way to 't That Man only lives Compos'd who thinks of every thing that May Happen before he Feels it But this is not yet to advise either Neglect or Indifference For I would avoid any thing that may hurt me where I may honorably do it But yet I would consider the worst of things before-hand Examine the Hope and the Fear and where things are uncertain favor your self and believe That which you had rather should come to pass There are not many Men that know their own Minds but in the Very Instant of Willing any thing We are for One thing to Day another thing to Morrow So that we Live and Die without coming to any Resolution Still seeking That Elsewhere which we may give our Selves That is to say a Good Mind And in truth we do perswade our selves that in several Cases we do Desire the thing which effectually we do not Desire And all This for want of Laying down some Certain Principles to make the Judgment Inflexible and Steady When we do any Evil it is either for fear of a greater Evil or in Hope of such a Good as may more than Ballance that Evil. So that we are here Distracted betwixt the Duty of Finishing our Purpose and the Fear of Mischief and Danger This Infirmity must be discharg'd In the Pursuite of Pleasures we should take Notice that there are not only sensual but sad Pleasures also which Transport the Mind with Adoration though they do not Tickle the Senses and give us a Veneration for those Virtues that exercise themselves in Sweat and Blood All True Goods hold an Affinity and Friendship one with another and they are Equal but False Ones have in them much of Vanity they are large and Specious to the Eye but upon Examination they want weight Now though Virtues are all Alike they may yet be distinguish'd into Desirable and Admirable Virtues of Patience and of Delight But in the Matter of Common Accidents there is not any thing which is truely worthy either of our Joy or of our Fear For Reason is Immoveable and does not Serve but Command our Senses What is Pleasure but a Low and Brutish thing Glory is Vain and Volatile Poverty only hard to him that does not Resist it Superstition
Affront to the other As a Plate of broken Meat for the Purpose to a Rich Man were an Indignity which to a Poor Man is a Charity The Benefits of Princes and of Great Men are Honours Offices Moneys Profitable Commissions Countenance and Protection The Poor Man has nothing to Present but Good-Will Good Advice Faith Industry the Service and Hazard of his Person an early Apple peradventure or some other cheap Curiosity Equals indeed may correspond in Kind but whatsoever the Present be or to whomsoever we offer it this General Rule must be observ'd That we alwayes design the good and satisfaction of the Receiver and never grant any thing to his detriment 'T is not for a man to say I was overcome by Importunity for when the Fever is off we detest the man that was prevail'd upon to our destruction I will no more undoe a man with his Will then forbear saving him against it It is a Benefit in some Cases to Grant and in others to deny So that we are rather to consider the Advantage than the Desire of the Petitioner For we may in a Passion earnestly beg for and take it ill to be deny'd too that very thing which upon second thoughts we may come to curse as the occasion of a most Pernicious Bounty Never give any thing that shall turn to Mischief Infamy or Shame I will consider another Mans want or safety but so as not to forget my own Unless in the case of a very excellent Person and then I shall not much heed what becomes of my self There 's no giving of Water to a Man in a Fever or putting of a Sword into a Mad-Mans hand He that lends a Man Money to carry him to a Bawdy-house or a Weapon for his Revenge makes himself a Partaker of his Crime HE that would make an acceptable Present will pitch upon something that is desir'd sought for and hard to be found that which he sees no where else and which few have or at least not in that place or season something that may be alwayes in his Eye and mind him of the Benefactor If it be lasting and durable so much the better as Plate rather than Money Statues than Apparel for it will serve as a Monitor to mind the Receiver of the Obligation which the Presenter cannot so handsomely do However let it not be improper as Armes to a Woman Books to a Clown Toyes to a Philosopher I will not Give to any Man that which he cannot receive as if I threw a Ball to a man without hands but I will make a Return though he cannot receive it for my business is not to oblige him but to free my self Nor any thing that may reproach a man of his Vice or Infirmity as false Dice to a Cheat Spectacles to a man that 's blind Let it not be unseasonable neither as a furr'd Gown in Summer an Umbrella in Winter It enhances the value of the Present if it was never given to him by any body else nor by me to any other for that which we give to every body is wellcome to no body The Particularity does much but yet the same thing may receive a different Estimate from several Persons for there are wayes of marking and recommending it in such a manner that if the same good Office be done to twenty people every one of them shall reckon himself peculiarly oblig'd as a cunning Whore if she has a thousand Sweet-hearts will perswade every one of them that she loves him best But this is rather the Artifice of Conversation than the virtue of it THE Citizens of Megara sent Embassadors to Alexander in the Height of his Glory to offer him as a Complement the Freedom of their City Upon Alexander's smiling at the Proposal they told him That it was a Present which they had never made but to Hercules and Himself Whereupon Alexander treated them kindly and accepted of it not for the Presenters sakes but because they had joyn'd him with Hercules how unreasonably soever For Hercules Conquer'd nothing for himself but made it his business to vindicate and to protect the miserable without any private Interest or Design But this intemperate young man whose Virtue was nothing else but a successful Temerity was train'd up from his youth in the Trade of violence The Common Enemy of mankind as well of his Friends as of his Foes and one that valu'd himself upon being terrible to all Mortals never considering that the dullest of Creatures are as dangerous and as dreadful as the fiercest for the poyson of a Toad or the Tooth of a Snake will do a Mans business as soon as the paw of a Tiger CHAP. VII The Manner of Obliging THERE is not any Benefit so glorious in it self but it may yet be exceedingly sweetned and emprov'd by the Manner of conferring it The Virtue I know rests in the Intent the Profit in the Judicious application of the Matter but the Beauty and Ornament of an Obligation lies in the Manner of it and it is then Perfect when the dignity of the Office is accompany'd with all the Charmes and Delicacies of Humanity good Nature and Address and with Dispatch too for he that puts a Man off from time to time was never right at heart IN the first place whatsoever we give let us do it frankly A kind Benefactor makes a Man happy as soon as he can and as much as he can There should be no delay in a Benefit but the Modesty of the Receiver If we cannot foresee the Request let us however immediately grant it and by no means suffer the Repeating of it It is so grievous a thing to say I BEG the very word puts a Man out of Countenance and 't is a double Kindness to do the thing and save an honest man the Confusion of a Blush It comes too late that comes for the Asking for nothing costs us so dear as that which we purchase with our Prayers It is all we give even for Heaven it self and even there too where our Petitions are at the fayrest we chuse rather to present them in Secret Ejaculations than by word of Mouth That is the lasting and the acceptable Benefit that meets the Receiver half way The Rule is we are to Give as we would Receive chearfully quickly and without hesitation for there 's no Grace in a Benefit that sticks to the Fingers Nay if there should be occasion for delay let us however not seem to deliberate for demurring is next dore to denying and so long as we suspend so long are we unwilling It is a Court-humour to keep People upon the Tenters their Injuries are quick and sudden but their Benefits are slow Great Ministers love to wrack men with Attendance and account it an Ostentation of their Power to hold their Suitours in hand and to have many Witnesses of their Interest A Benefit should be made acceptable by all possible means even to the end that
which although conferr'd upon one Man may yet work upon others as a Sum of Money may be given to a poor Man for his own sake which in the Consequence proves the Relief of his whole Family but still the immediate Receiver is the Debtor for it for the Question is not To whom it comes afterward to be transferr'd but Who is the Principal and upon whom it was first bestow'd My Son's Life is as dear to me as my own and in saving him you preserve me too In this Case I will acknowledge my self Oblig'd to you that is to say in my Son's Name for in my own and in strictness I am not but I am content to make my self a Voluntary Debtor What if he had borrow'd Money My paying of it does not at all make it my Debt It would put me to the blush perhaps to have him taken in Bed with another Mans Wife but that does not make me an Adulterer 'T is a wonderful Delight and Satisfaction that I receive in his Safety but still this Good is not a Benefit A Man may be the better for an Animal a Plant a Stone but there must be a Will and Intention to make it an Obligation You save the Son without so much as knowing the Father Nay without so much as thinking of him and perhaps you would have done the same thing even if you had hated him But without any farther Altercation of Dialogue the Conclusion is this if you meant him the Kindness he is answerable for it and I may enjoy the fruit of it without being Oblig'd by 't But if it was done for My Sake then am I accomptable Or howsoever upon any Occasion I am ready to do you all the Kind Offices imaginable not as the Return of a Benefit but as the Earnest of a Friendship which you are not to challenge neither but to entertain as an Act of Honor and of Justice rather than of Gratitude If a Man find the Body of my dead Father in a Desart and give it Burial if he did it as to my Father I am beholden to him but if the Body was Unknown to him and that he would have done the same thing for any other Body I am no further concern'd in it than as a Piece of Publick Humanity THERE are moreover some Cases wherein an Unworthy Person may be oblig'd for the sake of others and the sottish Extract of an antient Nobility may be preferr'd before a better Man that is but of yesterdayes standing And it is but reasonable to pay a Reverence even to the Memory of eminent Virtues He that is not Illustrious in Himself may yet be reputed so in the Right of his Ancestors And there is a gratitude to be Entail'd upon the Off-spring of famous Progenitors Was it not for the Fathers sake that Ciâ—…ero the Son was made Consul And was it not the Eminence of one Pompey that rais'd and dignify'd the rest of his Family How came Caligula to be the Emperor of the World a Man so Cruel that he spilt Blood as greedily as if he were to drink it the Empire was not given to Himself but to his Father Germanicus A braver Man deserved that for him which he could never have challenged upon his own Merit What was it that preferr'd Fabius Persicus whose very Mouth was the Uncleanest part about him What was it but the 300 of that Family that so generously oppos'd the Enemy for the safety of the Common-wealth NAY Providence it self is gracious to the Wicked Posterity of an Honorable Race The Counsels of Heaven are guided by VVisdom Mercy and Justice Some Men are made Kings for their proper Virtues without any respect to their Predecessors Others for their Ancestors sakes whose Virtues though neglected in their Lives come to be afterward rewarded in their Issue And it is but Equity that our Gratitude should extend as far as the Influence of their Heroical Actions and Examples CHAP. XII The Benefactor must have no By-Ends WE come now to the main point of the Matter in Question that is to say Whether or no it be a thing desirable in it self the Giving and Receiving of Benefits There is a Sect of Philosophers that accompts nothing Valuable but what is Profitable and so makes all Virtue Mercenary An Unmanly Mistake to imagine that the Hope of Gain or Fear of Loss should make a Man either the more or the less Honest. As who should say What shall I Get by 't and I 'll be an honest Man Whereas on the Contrary Honesty is a thing in it self to be purchas'd at any rate It is not for a Body to say It will be a Charge a Hazzard I shall give Offence c. My Business is to do what I ought to do All other Considerations are forreign to the Office Whensoever my duty calls me 't is my part to attend without Scrupulizing upon Forms or Difficulties Shall I see an honest Man oppressed at the Barr and not assist him for fear of a Court-Faction Or not second him upon the High-way against Thieves for fear of a Broken-head And chuse rather to sit still the quiet Spectator of Fraud and Violence Why will Men be Just Temperate Generous Brave but because it carries along with it Fame and a good Conscience And for the same Reason and no other to apply it to the Subject in hand let a Man also be Bountiful The School of Epicurus I 'm sure will never swallow this Doctrine That Effeminate Tribe of Lazy and Voluptuous Philosophers They 'll tell you that Virtue is but the Servant and Vassail of Pleasure No says Epicurus I am not for Pleasure neither without Virtue But Why then for Pleasure say I before Virtue Not that the Stress of the Controversie lies upon the Order only for the Power of it as well as the Dignity is now under debate It is the Office of Virtue to Superintend to Lead and to Govern But the parts you have assign'd it are to Submit to Follow and to be under Command But this you 'll say is nothing to the purpose so long as both sides are agreed that there can be no Happiness without Virtue Take away That sayes Epicurus and I 'm as little a Friend to Pleasure as you The Pinch in short is this Whether Virtue it self be the Supreme Good or only the Cause of it It is not the inverting of the Order that will clear this Point though 't is a very preposterous Error to set that first which should be last It does not half so much offend me the Ranging of Pleasure before Virtue as the very Comparing of them and the bringing of two Opposites and profess'd Enemies into any sort of Competition The Drift of this Discourse is to support the Cause of Benefits and to prove that it is a Mean and Dishonourable thing to Give for any other End than for Giving-sake He that Gives for Gain Profit or any By-End destroyes the very
desperate Debtor and e'en let him alone in his Ingratitude without making him my Enemy for no Necessity shall ever make me spend time in wrangling with any Man upon that point ASSIDUITY of Obliging Strikes upon the Conscience as well as the Memory and pursues an Ungrateful Man till he becomes Grateful If one good Office will not do 't try a Second and then a Third No Man can be so thankless but either Shame Occasion or Example will at some time or other prevail upon him The very Beasts themselves even Lions and Tigers are gain'd by good usage beside that one Obligation does naturally draw on another and a Man would not willingly leave his own Work imperfect I have help'd him thus far and I 'll e'en go through with it now So that over and above the delight and the virtue of Obliging one good turn is a Shooing-horn to another This of all Hints is perhaps the most effectual as well as the most Generous IN some Cases it must be carry'd more home as in that of Iulius Caesar who as he was hearing of a Cause the Defendant finding himself pinch'd Sir sayes he Do not you remember a Strain you got in your Ancle when you Commanded in Spain and that a Soldier lent you his Cloak for a Cushion upon the top of a Craggy Rock under the shade of a little Tree in the heat of the day I remember it perfectly well sayes Caesar and that when I was ready to choke with Thirst an honest Fellow fetch'd me a draught of Water in his Helmet But that Man and that Helmet sayes the Soldier Does Caesar think that he could now know them again if he saw them The Man perchance I might sayes Caesar somewhat offended but not the Helmet but What 's this Story to my Business You are none of the Man Pardon me Sir sayes the Soldier I am that very Man but Caesar may well forget me for I have been Trepann'd since and lost an Eye at the Battel of Munda where that Helmet too had the honour to be cleft with a Spanish Blade Caesar took it as it was intended and it was an Honorable and a Prudent way of refreshing his Memory But this would not have gone down so well with Tiberius for when an Old Acquaintance of his began his Address to him with You Remember Caesar. No sayes Caesar cutting him short I do not Remember what I WAS. Now with him it was better to be Forgotten then Remembred for an Old Friend was as bad as an Informer It is a Common thing for Men to hate the Authors of their Preferment as the Witnesses of their Mean Original THERE are some People well enough dispos'd to be Grateful but they cannot hit upon 't without a Prompter they are a little like School-boyes that have Treacherous Memories 't is but helping them here and there with a word when they stick and they 'le go through with their Lesson they must be taught to be Thankful and 't is a fair step if we can but bring them to be willing and only offer at it Some Benefits we have neglected some we are not willing to remember He is is Ungrateful that Disownes an Obligation and so is he that Dissembles it or to his Power does not Requite it but the worst of all is he that forgets it Conscience or Occasion may revive the rest but here the very Memory of it is lost Those Eyes that cannot endure the light are weak but those are stark blind that cannot see it I do not love to hear People say Alass poor Man he has forgotten it As if that were the Excuse of Ingratitude which is the very cause of it For if he were not Ungrateful he would not be Forgetful and lay that out of the way which should be alwayes uppermost and in sight He that thinks as he ought to do of requiting a Benefit is in no danger of forgetting it There are indeed some Benefits so great that they can never slip the Memory but those which are less in value and more in number do commonly scape us We are apt enough to acknowledge That such a Man has been the Making of us so long as we are in possession of the advantage he has brought us but new Appetites deface old Kindnesses and we carry our Prospect forward to something more without considering what we have obtain'd already All that is past we give for lost so that we are only intent upon the future When a Benefit is once out of Sight or out of Use 't is buried IT is the Freak of many people they cannot do a good Office but they are presently boasting of it Drunk or Sober and about it goes into all Companies what wonderful things they have done for this Man and what for t'other A foolish and a dangerous vanity of a doubtful Friend to make a certain Enemy For these Reproches and Contempts will set every Bodies Tongue a Walking and People will conclude that these things would never be if there were not something very extraordinary in the Bottom on 't When it comes to that once there is not any Calumny but fastens more or less nor any falshood so incredible but in some part or other of it shall pass for a Truth Our great Mistake is this we are still inclin'd to make the most of what we Give and the least of what we Receive whereas we should do the clean contrary It might have been more but he had a great many to oblige It was as much as he could well spare he 'll make it up some other time c. Nay we should be so far from making publication of our Bounties as not to hear them so much as mention'd without sweetening the matter As Alass I owe him a great deal more than that comes to If it were in my Power to serve him I should be very glad on 't And this too not with the Figure of a Complement but with all Humanity and Truth There was a Man of Quality that in the Triumviral Proscription was sav'd by one of Caesars Friends who would be still twitting him with it who it was that preserv'd him and telling him over and over You had gone to Pot Friend but for me Pray'e sayes the Proscribed let me hear no more of this or e'en leave me as you found me I am thankful enough of my self to acknowledge That I owe you my life but 't is Death to have it rung in my Ears perpetually as a Reproach It looks as if you had only sav'd me to carry me about for a spectacle I would fain forget the Misfortune that I was once a Prisoner without being led in Triumph every day of my Life OH the Pride and Folly of a great Fortune that turns Benefits into Injuries That delights in Excesses and disgraces every thing it does Who would receive any thing from it upon these termes The higher it raises us the more sordid
it makes us Whatsoever it Gives it Corrupts What is there in it that should thus puff us up By what Magick is it that we are so transform'd that we do no longer know our selves Is it Impossible for greatness to be liberal without Insolence The Benefits that we receive from our Superiors are then wellcome when they come with an Open Hand and a clear Brow Without either contumely or State and so as to prevent our Necessities The Benefit is never the greater for the making of a bustle and a noise about it but the Benefactor is much the less for the Ostentation of his good deeds which makes that Odious to us which would be otherwise Delightful Tiberius had gotten a Trick when any Man had begg'd Money of him to refer him to the Senate where all the Petitioners were to deliver up the Names of their Creditors His End perhaps was to deter Men from Asking by exposing the Condition of their Fortunes to an Examination But it was however a Benefit turn'd into a Reprehension and he made a Reproach of a Bounty BUT 't is not enough yet to forbear the Casting of a Benefit in a Man's Teeth for there are some that will not allow it to be so much as challeng'd For an Ill Man say they will not make a Return though it be demanded and a Good Man will do it of himself And then the Asking of it seems to turn it into a Debt It is a kind of Injury to be too quick with the former for to call upon him too soon reproaches him as if he would not have done it otherwise Nor would I Recall a Benefit from any Man so as to force it but only to receive it If I let him quite alone I make my self guilty of his Ingratitude and undoe him for want of Plain-Dealing A Father Reclaimes a Disobedient Son A Wife Reclaimes a Dissolute Husband and one Friend excites the languishing Kindness of another How many Men are lost for want of being touch'd to the quick So long as I am not press'd I will rather desire a Favour than so much as mention a Requital but if my Country my Family or my Liberty be at Stake my Zeal and Indignation shall overrule my Modesty and the World shall then understand that I have done all I could not to stand in need of an Ungrateful Man And in conclusion the Necessity of receiving a Benefit shall overcome the shame of Recalling it Nor is it only allowable upon some Exigents to put the Receiver in Mind of a Good Turn but it is many times for the Common Advantage of both Parties CHAP. XIV How far to Oblige or Requite a Wicked Man THERE are some Benefits whereof a Wicked Man is wholly Incapable of which hereafter There are others which are Bestow'd upon him not for his own sake but for Secondary Reasons and of these we have spoken in part already There are moreover certain Common Offices of Humanity which are only allow'd him as he is a Man and without any regard either to Vice or Virtue To pass over the First Point the Second must be handled with Care and Distinction and not without some seeming Exceptions to the General Rule As first Here 's no Choice or Intention in the Case but 't is a good Office done him for some By-Interest or by Chance Secondly There 's no Iudgment in it neither for 't is to a Wicked Man But to shorten the Matter without these Circumstances it is not properly a Benefit or at least not to him for it looks another way I rescue a Friend from Thieves and the other 'scapes for Company I Discharge a Debt for a Friend and the other comes off too for they were both in a Bond. The Third is of a great Latitude and varies according to the degree of Generosity on the one side and of Wickedness on the other Some Benefactors will Supererogate and do more than they are bound to do And some Men are so lewd that 't is dangerous to do them any sort of Good no not so much as by way of Return or Requital IF the Benefactors Bounty must extend to the Bad as well as to the Good Put the Case that I promise a good Office to an Ungrateful Man We are first to distinguish as is said before betwixt a Common Benefit and a Personal betwixt what is given for Merit and what for Company Secondly Whether or no we know the Person to be Ungrateful and can reasonably conclude that his Vice is Incurable Thirdly A Consideration must be had of the Promise how far that may oblige us The two first Points are clear'd both in one We cannot justifie any particular Kindness for one that we conclude to be a hopelesly wicked Man So that the force of the Promise is the single Point in Question In the Promise of a good Office to a Wicked or Ungrateful Man I am to blame if I did it knowingly and I am to blame nevertheless if I did it otherwise but I must yet make it good under due Qualifications because I promis'd it that is to say Matters continuing in the same State for no Man is answerable for Accidents I 'll Sup at such a Place though it be cold I 'll rise at such an hour though I be sleepy but if it prove tempestuous or that I fall sick of a Feaver I 'll neither do the one nor the other I promise to second a Friend in a Quarrel or to plead his Cause and when I come into the Field or into the Court it proves to be against my Father or my Brother I promise to go a Journey with him but there 's no Travelling upon the Road for Robbing my Child is fallen sick or my Wife in Labour These Circumstances are sufficient to discharge me for a Promise against Law or Duty is void in its own Nature The Counsels of a Wise Man are Certain but Events are uncertain And yet if I have pass'd a rash Promise I will in some degree punish the Temerity of making it with the damage of keeping it Unless it turn very much to my shame or detriment and then I 'll be my own Confessor in the Point and rather be once guilty of Denying than alwayes of Giving It is not with a Benefit as with a Debt It is one thing to trust an ill Pay-Master and another thing to oblige an unworthy Person The one is an ill Man and the other only an ill Husband THERE was a Valiant Fellow in the Army that Philip of Macedon took particular Notice of and he gave him several considerable Marks of the Kindness he had for him This Soldier puts to Sea and was cast away upon a Coast where a Charitable Neighbour took him up half dead carry'd him to his House and there at his own Charge maintain'd and provided for him Thirty dayes till he was perfectly recover'd and after all furnish'd him over and above with a Viaticum at parting
brings us to our Place of Repose Or if a Man should happen to be out where the Inhabitants might set him Right again But on the Contrary the beaten Road is here the most dangerous and the People in stead of helping us misguide us Let us not therefore follow like Beasts but rather govern our selves by Reason then by Example It fares with us in Humane Life as in a Routed Army one stumbles first and then another falls upon him and so they follow one upon the Neck of another till the whole Field comes to be but one heap of Miscarriages And the mischief is That the Number of the Multitude carries it against Truth and Iustice so that we must leave the Croud if we would be Happy For the Question of a Happy Life is not to be decided by Vote Nay so far from it that Plurality of Voices is still an Argument of the Wrong the Common People find it easier to Believe then to Judge and content themselves with what is Usual never examining whether it be Good or no. By the Common People is intended the Man of Title as well as the Clouted Shooe for I do not distinguish them by the Eye but by the Mind which is the proper Judge of the Mind Worldly Felicity I know makes the head giddy but if ever a Man comes to himself again he will confess that whatsoever he has done he wishes undone and that the things he fear'd were better then those he pray'd for THE true Felicity of Life is to be free from Perturbations to understand our Duties toward God and Man to enjoy the Present without any anxious dependence upon the Future Not to amuse our selves with either Hopes or Fears but to rest satisfy'd with what we have which is abundantly sufficient for he that is so wants nothing The great Blessings of Mankind are within us and within our Reach but we shut our Eyes and like People in the dark we fall foul upon the very thing we search for without finding it Tranquillity is a certain equality of Mind which no condition of Fortune can either exalt or depress Nothing can make it less for it is the State of Humane Perfection It raises us as high as we can go and makes every Man his own Supporter whereas he that is born up by any thing else may fall He that Judges aright and perseveres in it enjoyes a perpetual Calm he takes a true prospect of things he observes an Order a Measure a Decorum in all his Actions He has a Benevolence in his Nature he squares his Life according to Reason and draws to himself Love and Admiration Without a Certain and an Unchangeable Judgment all the rest is but Fluctuation But he that alwayes Wills and Nills the same thing is undoubtedly in the Right Liberty and Serenity of Mind must necessarily ensue upon the mastering of those things which either allure or affright us when in stead of those flashy Pleasures which even at the best are both vain and hurtful together we shall find our selves possess'd of Joyes transporting and everlasting It must be a Sound Mind that makes a Happy Man there must be a Constancy in all Conditions a Care for the things of this World but without trouble and such an Indifferency for the Bounties of Fortune that either with them or without them we may live contentedly There must be neither Lamentation nor Quarrelling nor Sloth nor Fear for it makes a Discord in a Mans Life He that fears Serves The Joy of a Wise Man stands firm without Interruption In all Places at all Times and in all Conditions his thoughts are chearful and quiet As it never came in to him from without so it will never leave him but it is born within him and inseparable from him It is a sollicitous Life that is egg'd on with the hope of any thing though never so open and easie Nay though a Man should never suffer any sort of disappointment I do not speak this either as a Bar to the fair enjoyment of Lawful Pleasures or to the gentle Flatteries of Reasonable Expectations but on the contrary I would have Men to be alwayes in good Humour provided that it arises from their own Souls and be cherish'd in their own Breasts Other delights are trivial they may smooth the Brow but they do not fill and affect the heart True Ioy is a severe and sober Motion and they are miserably out that take Laughing for Rejoycing The seat of it is within and there is no Chearfulness like the Resolution of a Brave Mind that has Fortune under its Feet He that can look Death in the Face and bid it wellcome open his dore to Poverty and Bridle his Appetites this is the Man whom Providence has establish'd in the Possession of Inviolable Delights The Pleasures of the vulgar are ungrounded thin and superficial but the other are Solid and Eternal As the Body it self is rather a Necessary thing than a Great so the Comforts of it are but Temporary and Vain Beside that without extraordinary Moderation their End is only Pain and Repentance Whereas a Peaceful Conscience Honest Thoughts Virtuous Actions and an Indifference for Casual Events are Blessings without End Satiety or Measure This Consummated State of Felicity is only a Submission to the Dictate of Right Nature The Foundation of it is Wisdome and Virtue the Knowledge of what we ought to doe and the Conformity of the Will to that Knowledge CHAP. II. Humane Happiness is founded upon Wisdome and Virtue and first of Wisdome TAKING for granted That Humane Happiness is founded upon Wisdome and Virtue we shall Treat of these two Points in order as they lye And First of Wisdome not in the Latitude of its various Operations but only as it has a regard to Good Life and the Happiness of Mankind WISDOME is a Right Understanding a Faculty of discerning Good from Evil What is to to be chosen and what rejected A Judgment grounded upon the value of things and not the Common Opinion of them An Equality of Force and a Strength of Resolution It sets a Watch over our Words and Deeds It takes us up with the Contemplation of the Works of Nature and makes us Invincible by either Good or Evil Fortune It is Large and Spatious and requires a great deal of Room to Work in It ransacks Heaven and Earth It has for its Object things past and to come Transitory and Eternal It examines all the Circumstances of Time what it is when it began and how long it will continue And so for the Mind whence it came what it is when it begins how long it lasts whether or no it passes from one Form to another or serves only one and wanders when it leaves us where it abides in the State of Separation and what the Action of it what use it makes of its Liberty whether or no it retains the Memory of things past and comes to the Knowledge of
it self It is the Habit of a Perfect Mind and the Perfection of Humanity rais'd as high as Nature can carry it It differs from Philosophy as Avarice and Money the One desires and the Other is desir'd the one is the Effect and the Reward of the other To be Wise is the Use of Wisdom as Seeing is the Use of Eyes and Well-speaking the Use of Eloquence He that is perfectly Wise is perfectly Happy Nay the very beginning of Wisdome makes Life easie to us Neither is it enough to know this unless we print it in our Minds by daily Meditation and so bring a good Will to a good Habit. And we must Practise what we Preach For Philosophy is not a Subject for popular Ostentation nor does it rest in Words but in Things It is not an Entertainment taken up for delight or to give a Taste to our Leisures but it fashions the Mind governs our Actions tells us what we are to do and what not It sits at the Helme and guides us through all Hazzards Nay we cannot be safe without it for every hour gives us occasion to make use of it It Informs us in all the Duties of Life Piety to our Parents Faith to our Friends Charity to the Miserable Judgment in Counsel It gives us Peace by Fearing nothing and Riches by Coveting nothing THERE' 's no Condition of Life that excludes a Wise Man from discharging his Duty If his Fortune be good he tempers it if bad he masters it if he has an Estate he will exercise his Virtue in Plenty if none in Poverty if he cannot do it in his Country he will do it in Banishment if he has no command he will do the office of a common Soldier Some People have the skill of reclaiming the fiercest of Beasts they will make a Lyon Embrace his Keeper a Tyger Kiss him and an Elephant Kneel to him This is the Case of a Wise Man in the extremest Difficulties Let them be never so terrible in themselves when they come to him once they are perfectly tame They that ascribe the Invention of Tillage Architecture Navigation c. to Wise Men may perchance be in the right that they were invented by Wise Men but they were not invented by Wise Men as Wise Men For Wisdome does not teach our Fingers but our Minds Fiddling and Dancing Arms and Fortifications were the Works of Luxury and Discord but Wisdome instructs us in the wayes of Nature and in the Arts of Unity and Concord Not in the Instruments but in the Government of Life nor to make us live only but to live happily She teaches us what things are Good what Evil and what only appear so and to distinguish betwixt true Greatness and Tumour She Clears our Minds of Dross and Vanity she raises up our Thoughts to Heaven and carries them down to Hell She discourses the Nature of the Soul the Powers and Faculties of it the first Principles of things the Order of Providence she exalts us from things Corporal to Incorporeal and retrives the Truth of all She searches Nature gives Laws to Life and tells us That it is not enough to know God unless we Obey him She looks upon all Accidents as Acts of Providence sets a true Value upon things delivers us from false Opinions and Condemns All Pleasures that are attended with Repentance She allows nothing to be Good that will not be so for ever No Man to be Happy but he that needs no other Happiness then what he has within himself no Man to be Great or Powerful that is not Master of himself This is the Felicity of Humane Life a Felicity that can neither be corrupted noâ—… extinguish'd It enquires into the Nature of the Heavens the Influences of the Stars â—…ow far they operate upon our Minds and Bodies which thoughts though they do not form our Manners they do yet raise and dispose us for Glorious things IT is agreed upon at all Hands that Right Reason is the Perfection of Humane Nature and Wisdome only the Dictate of it The Greatness that arises from it is solid and unmoveable the Resolutions of Wisdome being Free Absolute and Constant whereas Folly is never long pleas'd with the same thing but still shifting of Counsels and Sick of it self There can be no Happiness without Constancy and Prudence for a Wise Man is to write without a Blot and what he likes once he approves for ever He admits of nothing that is either Evil or Slippery but Marches without Staggering or Stumbling and is never surpriz'd He lives alwayes True and Steady to himself and whatsoever befalls him this great Artificer of both Fortunes turns to Advantage He that demurs and hesitates is not yet compos'd but wheresoever Virtue interposes upon the Main there must be Concord and Consent in the Parts For all Virtues are in Agreement as well as all Vices are at Variance A Wise Man in what condition soever he is will be still Happy for he subjects all things to himself because he submits himself to Reason and governs his Actions by Counsel not by Passion He is not mov'd with the Utmost Violences of Fortune nor with the Extremities of Fire and Sword whereas a Fool is afraid of his own shadow and surpriz'd at ill Accidents as if they were all levell'd at him He does nothing unwillingly for whatever he finds necessary he makes it his Choice He propounds to himself the Certain Scope and end of Humane Life He followes that which conduces to 't and avoids that which hinders it He is content with his Lot whatever it be without wishing what he has not though of the two he had rather abound then want The great Business of his Life like that of Nature is perform'd without Tumult or Noise He neither fears danger nor provokes it But it is his Caution not any want of Courage for Captivity Wounds and Chains he only looks upon as false and Lymphatical Terrors He does not pretend to go through with whatever he Undertakes but to do that well which he does Arts are but the Servants Wisdome Commands and where the matter fails 't is none of the Workmans fault He is Cautelous in doubtful Cases in Prosperity temperate and resolute in Adversity Still making the best of every Condition and improving all Occasions to make them serviceable to his Fate Some Accidents there are which I confess may Affect him but not Overthrow him as Bodily Pains Loss of Children and Friends the Ruine and Desolation of a Mans Country One must be made of Stone or Iron not to be sensible of these Calamities and beside it were no Virtue to bear them if a Body did not feel them THERE are Three degrees of Proficients in the School of Wisdom The first are those that come within sight of it but not up to 't They have learn'd what they ought to do but they have not put their Knowledge in practise they are past the hazard of a
Relapse but they have still the grudgings of a Disease though they are out of the danger of it By a Disease I do understand an Obstinacy in Evil or an ill habit that makes us over-eager upon things which are either not much to be desir'd or not at all A Second sort are those that have subjected their Appetites for a season but are yet in fear of falling back A Third sort are those that are clear of many Vices but not of all They are not Covetous but perhaps they are Cholerick not Lustful but perchance Ambitious they are firm enough in some Cases but weak in others there are many that despise Death and yet shrink at Pain There are diversities in Wise Men but no Inequalities one is more Affable Another more Ready a Third a better Speaker but the Felicity of them all is equal It is in this as in Heavenly Bodies there is a certain State in Greatness IN Civil and Domestick Affairs a Wise Man may stand in need of Counsel as of a Physician an Advocate a Sollicitor but in greater matters the Blessing of Wise Men rests in the Joy they take in the Communication of their Virtues If there were nothing else in it a Man would apply himself to Wisdom because it states him in a perpetual Tranquillity of Mind CHAP. III. There can be no Happiness without Virtue VIRTUE is that Perfect Good which is the complement of a Happy Life the only Immortal thing that belongs to Mortality It is the Knowledge both of others and it self It is an Invincible Greatness of Mind not to be elevated or dejected with good or ill fortune It is Sociable and Gentle Free Steady and Fearless Content within it self full of inexhaustible delights and it is valued for it self One may be a good Physician a good Governor a good Grammarian without being a Good Man So that all things from without are only Accessoryes for the seat of it is a pure and holy Mind It consists in a Congruity of Actions which we can never expect so long as we are distracted by our Passions Not but that a Man may be allow'd to Change Colour and Countenance and suffer such Impressions as are properly a kind of Natural Force upon the Body and not under the dominion of the Mind But all this while I will have his Judgment firm and he shall act steadily and boldly without wavering betwixt the Motions of his Body and those of his Mind It is not a thing Indifferent I know whether a Man lies at Ease upon a Bed or in Torment upon a Wheel and yet the former may be the worse of the two if we suffer the latter with Honor and enjoy the other with Infamy It is not the Matter but the Virtue that makes the Action Good or Ill and He that is led in Triumph may be yet greater than his Conqueror When we come once to value our Flesh above our Honesty we are lost and yet I would not press upon dangers no not so much as upon Inconveniencies unless where the Man and the Brute come in competition And in such a Case rather then make a forfeiture of my Credit my Reason or my Faith I would run all Extremities They are great Blessings to have tender Parents Dutiful Children and to live under a Just and well-order'd Government Now Would it not trouble even a Virtuous Man to see his Children Butcher'd before his Eyes his Father made a Slave and his Country overrun by a Barbarous Enemy There is a great difference betwixt the simple Loss of a Blessing and the succeeding of a great Mischief into the place of it over and above The loss of Health is follow'd with Sickness and the loss of Sight with Blindness but this does not hold in the Loss of Friends and Children where there is rather something on the Contrary to supply that Loss that is to say Virtue which fills the Mind and takes away the desire of what we have not What Matters it whether the Water be stopt or no so long as the Fountain is safe Is a Man ever the wiser for a Multitude of Friends or the more foolish for the Loss of them So neither is he the Happier Nor the more Miserable Short Life Grief and Pain are Accessions that have no Effect at all upon Virtue It consists in the Action and not in the things we do In the Choice it self and not in the Subject matter of it It is not a despicable Body or Condition not Poverty Infamy or Scandal that can obscure the Glories of Virtue but a Man may see her through all oppositions and he that looks diligently into the State of a Wicked Man will see the Canker at his Heart through all the false and dazling splendors of Greatness and Fortune We shall then discover our Childishness in setting our hearts upon things trivial and contemptible and in the selling of our very Country and Parents for a Rattle And What 's the difference in effect betwixt Old Men and Children but that the One deales in Paintings and Statues and the Other in Babies so that we our selves are only the more Expensive Fools IF one could but see the Mind of a Good Man as it is Illustrated with Virtue the Beauty and the Majesty of it which is a Dignity not so much as to be thought of without Love and Veneration Would not a Man bless himself at the sight of such an Object as at the Encounter of some Supernatural Power A Power so Miraculous that it is a kind of Charm upon the Souls of those that are truly affected with it There is so wonderful a Grace and Authority in it that even the worst of Men approve it and set up for the Reputation of being accompted Virtuous themselves They covet the Fruit indeed and the Profit of Wickedness but they hate and are asham'd of the Imputation of it It is by an Impression of Nature that all Men have a Reverence for Virtue they Know it and they have a Respect for it though they do not Practice it Nay for the Countenance of their very Wickedness they miscall it Virtue Their Injuries they call Benefits and expect a Man should thank them for doing him a Mischief they cover their most Notorious Iniquities with a Pretext of Justice He that Robs upon the High-way had rather find his Booty than force it Ask any of them that live upon Rapine Fraud Oppression if they had not rather enjoy a Fortune Honestly gotten and their Consciences will not suffer them to deny it Men are Vitious only for the Profit of Villany for at the same time that they commit it they condemn it Nay so powerful is Virtue and so Gracious is Providence that every Man has a Light set up within him for a Guide which we do all of us both See and Acknowledge though we do not pursue it This is it that makes the Prisoner upon the Torture happier than the Executioner and
Sickness better than Health if we bear it without yielding or repining This is it that overcomes Ill Fortune and Moderates Good for it marches betwixt the One and the Other with an Equal contempt of Both. It turns like Fire all things into it self our Actions and our Friendships are tinctur'd with it and whatever it touches becomes Amiable That which is frail and Mortal rises and falls grows wasts and varies from it self but the State of things Divine is always the same And so is Virtue let the Matter be what it will It is never the worse for the difficulty of the Action nor the Better for the Easiness of it 'T is the same in a Rich Man as in a Poor in a Sickly Man as in a Sound in a Strong as in a Weak The Virtue of the Besieg'd is as great as that of the Besiegers There are some Virtues I confess which a good Man cannot be without and yet he had rather have no Occasion to employ them If there were any difference I should prefer the Virtues of Patience before those of Pleasure for it is braver to break through Difficulties than to temper our delights But though the Subject of Virtue may possibly be against Nature as to be burnt or wounded yet the virtue it self of an Invincible Patience is according to Nature We may seem perhaps to promise more than Humane Nature is able to perform but we speak with a respect to the Mind and not to the Body IF a Man does not Live up to his own Rules it is something yet to have Virtuous Meditations and Good Purposes even without Acting It is Generous the very Adventure of being Good and the bare proposal of an Eminent Course of Life though beyond the force of Humane Frailty to accomplish There is something of Honor yet in the Miscarriage Nay in the Naked Contemplation of it I would receive my own Death with as little trouble as I would hear of another Mans I would bear the same Mind whether I be Rich or Poor whether I get or lose in the World what I have I will not either sordidly spare or prodigally squander away and I will reckon upon Benefits well plac'd as the fairest part of my Possession Not valuing them by Number or Weight but by the Profit and Esteem of the Receiver accompting my self never the Poorer for that which I give to a Worthy Person What I do shall be done for Conscience not Ostentation I will Eat and Drink not to gratifie my Palate or only to fill and empty but to satisfie Nature I will be Chearful to my Friends Mild and Placable to my Enemies I will prevent an honest request if I can foresee it and I will grant it without asking I will look upon the whole World as my Country and upon the Gods both as the Witnesses and the Judges of my Words and Deeds I will live and dye with this Testimony that I lov'd good Studies and a good Conscience that I never invaded another Mans Liberty and that I preserv'd my own I will govern my Life and my Thoughts as if the whole World were to see the One and to read the other for What does it signifie to make any thing a secret to my Neighbour when to God who is the searcher of our hearts all our Privacies are open VIRTUE is divided into two Parts Contemplation and Action The one is deliver'd by Institution the other by Admonition One part of Virtue consists in Discipline the other in Exercise for we must first Learn and then Practice The sooner we begin to apply our selves to it and the more haste we make the longer shall we enjoy the Comforts of a rectify'd mind nay we have the Fruition of it in the very Act of Forming it but it is another sort of delight I must confess that arises from the Contemplation of a Soul which is advanc'd into the Possession of Wisdome and Virtue If it was so great a Comfort to us to pass from the Subjection of our Childhood into a State of Liberty and Business how much greater will it be when we come to cast off the Boyish Levity of our Minds and range our selves among the Philosophers We are past our Minority 't is true but not our Indiscretions and which is yet worse we have the Authority of Seniors and the Weaknesses of Children I might have said of Infants for every little thing frights the one and every trivial phancy the other Whoever studies this point well will find that many things are the less to be fear'd the more terrible they appear To think any thing Good that is not Honest were to reproche Providence for Good Men suffer many Inconveniencies But Virtue like the Sun goes on still with her work let the Air be never so cloudy and finishes her Course Extinguishing likewise all other Splendors and Oppositions Insomuch that Calamity is no more to a Virtuous Mind than a Shower into the Sea That which is Right is not to be valu'd by quantity number or time A Life of a day may be as honest as a Life of a hundred years but yet Virtue in one Man may have a larger Field to shew it self in than in another One Man perhaps may be in a Station to Administer unto Cities and Kingdoms to Contrive good Laws Create Friendships and do beneficial Offices to Mankind 't is another Man's Fortune to be streightned by Poverty or put out of the way by Banishment and yet the latter may be as virtuous as the former and may have as great a Mind as exact a Prudence as inviolable a Justice and as large a Knowledge of things both Divine and Humane without which a Man cannot be happy For virtue is open to all as well to Servants and Exiles as to Princes It is profitable to the World and to it Self at all Distances and in all Conditions and there is no difficulty can excuse a Man from the Exercise of it and it is only to be found in a Wise Man though there may be some faint resemblances of it in the common people The Stoicks hold all Virtues to be equall but yet there 's great variety in the Matter they have to work upon according as it is larger or narrower Illustrious or less Noble of more or less Extent as all good Men are equal that is to say as they are Good but yet one may be Young another Old one may be Rich another Poor one Eminent and Powerful another Unknown and Obscure There are many things which have little or no Grace in themselves and are yet made Glorious and Remarkable by virtue Nothing can be good which gives neither Greatness nor Security to the Mind but on the Contrary infects it with Insolence Arrogance and Tumor Nor does Virtue dwell upon the Tip of the Tongue but in the Temple of a Purify'd heart He that depends upon any other good becomes Covetous of Life and what belongs to 't which
exposes a Man to Appetites that are vast unlimited and intolerable Virtue is Free and Indefatigable and accompany'd with Concord and Gracefulness Whereas Pleasure is meane servile transitory tiresome and sickly and scarce out-lives the tasting of it It is the good of the Belly and not of the Man and only the Felicity of Brutes Who does not know that Fools enjoy their Pleasures and that there is great variety in the Entertainments of Wickedness Nay the Mind it self has its variety of Perverse Pleasures as well as the Body as Insolence Self-Conceipt Pride Garrulity Laziness and the Abusive Wit of turning every thing into Ridicule whereas Virtue Weighs all this and Corrects it It is the Knowledge both of others and of it self it is to be learn'd from it self and the very Will it self may be Taught which Will cannot be right unless the whole habit of the Mind be right from whence the Will comes It is by the Impulse of Virtue that we Love Virtue so that the very way to Virtue lies by Virtue which takes in also at a View the Laws of Humane Life NEITHER are we to value our selves upon a day or an hour or any one Action but upon the whole habit of the Mind Some Men do one thing bravely but not another they will shrink at Infamy and bear up against Poverty In this Case we commend the Fact and despise the Man The Soul is never in the right place till it be deliver'd from the Cares of Humane Affairs We must Labour and Climb the Hill if we will arrive at Virtue whose seat is upon the Top of it He that masters Avarice and is truely good stands firm against Ambition he looks upon his last hour not as a Punishment but as the Equity of a Common Fate He that Subdues his Carnal Lusts shall easily keep himself unteinted with any other So that Reason does not Encounter this or that Vice by it self but beats down all at a Blow What does he care for Ignominy that only values himself upon Conscience and not Opinion Socrates look'd a Scandalous Death in the Face with the same Constancy that he had before practis'd toward the Thirty Tyrants his Virtue consecrated the very Dungeon as Cato's Repulse was Cato's Honor and the reproach of the Government He that is wise will take delight even in an Ill opinion that is well gotten 't is Ostentation not Virtue when a Man will have his good Deeds publish'd and 't is not enough to be just where there is honour to be gotten but to continue so in defiance of Infamy and Danger BUT Virtue cannot lye hid for the time will come that shall raise it again even after it is bury'd and deliver it from the Malignity of the Age that oppress'd it Immortal Glory is the Shadow of it and keeps it Company whether we will or no but sometimes the Shadow goes before the Substance and otherwhiles it follows it and the later it comes the larger it is when even Envy it self shall have given way to 't It was a long time that Democritus was taken for a Madman and before Socrates had any Esteem in the World How long was it before Cato could be Understood Nay he was Affronted Contemn'd and Rejected and People never knew the value of him till they had lost him the Integrity and Courage of Rutilius had been forgotten but for his Sufferings I speak of those that Fortune has made Famous for their Persecutions and there are others also that the World never took notice of till they were Dead as Epicurus and Metrodorus that were almost wholly unknown even in the Place where they Liv'd Now as the Body is to be kept in upon the Downhill and forc'd Upwards So there are some Virtues that require the Rein and others the Spur. In Liberality Temperance Gentleness of Nature we are to check our selves for fear of falling but in Patience Resolution and Perseverance where we are to Mount the Hill we stand in need of Encouragement Upon this Division of the Matter I had rather steer the Smoother Course than pass through the Experiments of Sweat and Blood I know it is my Duty to be content in all Conditions but yet if it were at my Choice I would chuse the fairest When a Man comes once to stand in need of Fortune his Life is Anxious Suspicious Timorous Dependent upon every moment and in fear of all Accidents How can that Man Resign himself to God or bear his Lot whatever it be without Murmuring and chearfully submit to Providence that shrinks at every Motion of Pleasure or Pain It is Virtue alone that raises us above Griefs Hopes Fears and Chances and makes us not only Patient but willing as knowing that whatever we suffer is according to the Decree of Heaven He that is overcome with Pleasure so contemptible and weak an Enemy What will become of him when he comes to grapple with Dangers Necessities Torments Death and the Dissolution of Nature it self Wealth Honor and Favour may come upon a Man by Chance nay they may be cast upon him without so much as looking after them but Virtue is the work of Industry and Labour and certainly 't is worth the while to purchase that good which brings all others along with it A Good Man is Happy within himself and Independent upon Fortune Kind to his Friend Temperate to his Enemy Religiously Just Indefatigably Laborious and he discharges all Duties with a Constancy and Congruity of Actions CHAP. IV. Philosophy is the Guide of Life IF it be true that the Understanding and the Will are the two Eminent Faculties of the Reasonable Soul it follows necessarily that Wisdome and Virtue which are the best Improvement of those two Faculties must be the Perfection also of our Reasonable Being and consequently the Undenyable Foundation of a Happy Life There is not any Duty to which Providence has not annex'd a Blessing not any Institution of Heaven which even in this Life we may not be the better for not any temptation either of Fortune or of Appetite that is not subjected to our Reason nor any Passion or Affliction for which Virtue has not provided a Remedy So that it is our own fault if we either Fear or Hope for any thing which two Affections are the Root of all our Miseries From this General Prospect of the Foundation of our Tranquillity we shall pass by degrees to a particular Consideration of the meanes by which it may be procur'd and of the Impediments that obstruct it beginning with that Philosophy which principally regards our Manners and Instructs us in the Measures of a Virtuous and a Quiet Life PHILOSOPHY is divided into Moral Natural and Rational The First concerns our Manners the Second searches the Works of Nature and the Third furnishes us with Propriety of Words and Arguments and the faculty of distinguishing that we may not be impos'd upon with Tricks and Fallacies The Causes of things
a few Inches one of another but they are as near every where else too only we do not take so much notice of it What have we to do with Frivolous and Captious Questions and Impertinent Niceties Let us rather study how to deliver our selves from Sadness Fear and the burthen of all our Secret Lusts Let us pass over all our most Solemn Levities and make haste to a Good Life which is a thing that Presses us Shall a Man that goes for a Midwife stand gaping upon a Post to see what Play to day or when his house is on Fire stay the Curling of a Perriwig before he calls for help Our Houses are on fire our Country invaded our Goods taken away our Children in danger and I might add to these the Calamities of Earthquakes Shipwracks and what ever else is most terrible Is this a time for us now to be playing fast and loose with Idle Questions which are in effect but so many unprofitable Riddles Our Duty is The Cure of the Mind rather than the Delight on 't but we have onely the Words of Wisdom without the Works and turn Philosophy into a Pleasure that was given for a Remedy What can be more ridiculous then for a Man to neglect his Manners and Compose his Stile We are Sick and Ulcerous and must be Lanâ—…'d and Scarify'd and every Man has as much Business within himself as a Physitian in a Common Pestilence Misfortunes in fine cannot be avoided but they may be sweetened if not overcome and our Lives may be made happy by Philosophy CHAP. V. The Force of Precepts THERE seems to be so near an Affinity betwixt Wisdome Philosophy and Good Counsels that it is rather Matter of Curiosity then of Profit to divide them Philosophy being only a Limited Wisdom and Good Counsels a Communication of that Wisdom for the Good of Others as well as of our Selves and to Posterity as well as to the Present The Wisdom of the Antients as to the Government of Life was no more than certain Precepts what to do and what not and Men were much Better in that Simplicity for as they came to be more Learned they grew less Careful of being Good That plain and Open Virtue is now turn'd into a dark and Intricate Science and we are taught to Dispute rather than to Live So long as Wickedness was simple simple Remedies also were sufficient against it But now it has taken Root and spread we must make use of stronger THERE are some Dispositions that embrace Good things as soon as they hear them but they will still need quickening by Admonition and Precept We are Rash and Forward in some Cases and Dull in others and there is no Repressing of the One humor or Raising of the Other but by removing the Causes of them which are in one Word False Admiration and False Fear Every Man knows his Duty to his Country to his Friends to his Guests and yet when he is call'd upon to Draw his Sword for the One or to Labour for the Other he finds himself distracted betwixt his Apprehensions and his Delights He knows well enough the Injury he does his Wife in the keeping of a Wench and yet his Lust over-rules him So that 't is not enough to Give Good Advice unless we can Take away that which hinders the Benefit of it If a Man does what he Ought to do he 'll never do it Constantly or Equally without knowing Why he does it And if it be only Chance or Custome he that does well by Chance may do Ill so too And further A Precept may direct us what we Ought to do and yet fall short in the Manner of Doing it An Expensive Entertainment may in One Case be Extravagance or Gluttony and yet a Point of Honor and Discretion in Another Tiberius Caesar had a huge Mullet presented him which he sent to the Market to be sold And now sayes he my Masters to some Company with him you shall see that either Apicius or Octavius will be the Chapman for this Fish Octavius beat the Price and gave about 30 l. Sterling for 't Now there was a great difference betwixt Octavius that bought it for his Luxury and the Other that purchas'd it for a Compliment to Tiberius Precepts are idle if we be not first taught what Opinion we are to have of the Matter in Question Whether it be Poverty Riches Disgrace Sickness Banishment c. Let us therefore examine them one by one not what they are Call'd but what in Truth they Are. And so for the Virtues 'T is to no purpose to set a high esteem upon Prudence Fortitude Temperance Iustice if we do not first know what Virtue is whether One or More or if he that has One has All or how they differ PRECEPTS are of great Weight and a few Useful ones at hand do more toward a Happy Life than whole Volumes of Cautions that we know not where to find These Solitary Precepts should be our daily Meditation for they are the Rules by which we ought to square our Lives When they are contracted into Sentences they strike the Affections whereas Admonition is only blowing of the Coal it moves the vigour of the Mind and Excites Virtue We have the Thing already but we know not where it lies It is by Precepts that the Understanding is Nourish'd and Augmented the Offices of Prudence and Justice are Guided by them and they lead us to the Execution of our Duties A Precept deliver'd in Verse has a much greater Effect than in Prose and those very People that never think they have enough let them but hear a sharp Sentence against Avarice How will they clap and admire it and bid open Defyance to Money So soon as we find the Affections struck we must follow the Blow not wish Syllogisms or Quirks of Wit but with plain and weighty Reason and we must do it with Kindness too and Respect for there goes a Blessing along with Counsels and Discourses that are bent wholly upon the Good of the Hearer And those are still the most Efficacious that take Reason along with them and tell us as well why we are to do this or that as what we are to do For some Understandings are weak and need an Instructer to expound to them what is Good and what is Evil. It is a great Virtue to Love to Give and to follow Good Counsel if it does not Lead us to Honesty it does at least Prompt us to 't As several Parts make up but one Harmony and the most agreeable Musick arises from Discords so should a VVise Man gather many Arts many Precepts and the Examples of many Ages to enform his own Life Our Fore-Fathers have left us in Charge to avoid three things Hatred Envy and Contempt now it is hard to avoid Envy and not incurr Contempt for in taking too much Care not to usurp upon others we become many times lyable to be trampled
Submit to Bad He must stand upon his Guard against all Assaults He must stick to himself without any dependence upon other People VVhere the Mind is tinctur'd with Philosophy there 's no place for Grief Anxiety or Superfluous Vexations It is prepossess'd with Virtue to the neglect of Fortune which brings us to a degree of security not to be disturb'd 'T is easier to give Counsel than to take it and a Common thing for one Cholerick Man to condemn another VVe may be sometimes Earnest in Advising but not Violent or Tedious Few words with Gentleness and Efficacy are best the misery is that the Wise do not need Counsel and Fools will not take it A Good Man 't is true delights in it and it is a mark of Folly and Ill Nature to hate Reproof To a Friend I would be alwayes Frank and Plain and rather fail in the Success than be wanting in the Matter of Faith and Trust. There are some Precepts that serve in Common both to the Rich and Poor but they are too general as Cure your Avarice and the work is done It is one thing not to desire Mony and another thing not to understand how to use it In the Choice of the Persons we have to do withal we should see that they be worth our while In the Choice of our Business we are to consult Nature and follow our Inclinations He that gives sober Advice to a Witty Droll must look to have every thing turn'd into Ridicule As if you Philosophers sayes Marcellinus did not love your Whores and your Guts as well as other people and then he tells you of such and such that were taken in the Manner We are all sick I must confess and it is not for sick Men to play the Physitians but it is yet Lawful for a Man in an Hospital to discourse of the Common Condition and Distempers of the Place He that should pretend to teach a Mad Man how to Speak Walk and behave himself Were not he the Madder Man of the two He that directs the Pilot makes him move the Helme order the Sayls so or so and make the best of a scant Wind after this or that manner And so should we do in our Counsels Do not tell me what a Man should do in Health or Poverty but shew me the way to be either Sound or Rich. Teach me to Master my Vices For 't is to no purpose so long as I am under their Government to tell me what I must do when I am clear of it In Case of an Avarice a little eas'd a Luxury Moderated a Temerity Restrain'd a Sluggish Humor quicken'd Precepts will then help us forward and tutor us how to behave our selves It is the first and the main Tye of a Soldier his Military Oath which is an Engagement upon him both of Religion and Honor In like manner he that pretends to a Happy Life must first lay a Foundation of Virtue as a Bond upon him to Live and Dye true to that Cause We do not find Felicity in the Veins of the Earth where we dig for Gold nor in the Bottom of the Sea where we fish for Pearl but in a pure and untainted Mind which if it were not Holy were not fit to entertain the Deity He that would be truly Happy must think his own Lot best and so live with men as considering that God sees him and so speak to God as if Men heard him CHAP. VI. No Felicity like Peace of Conscience A GOOD Conscience is the Testimony of a Good Life and the Reward of it This is it that fortifies the Mind against Fortune when a Man has gotten the Mastery of his Passions plac'd his Treasure and his Security within himself Learn'd to be Content with his Condition and that Death is no Evil in it self but only the End of Man He that has dedicated his Mind to Virtue and to the Good of Humane Society whereof he is a Member has consummated all that is either Profitable or Necessary for him to Know or Do toward the Establishment of his Peace Every Man has a Judge and a Witness within himself of all the Good and Ill that he Does which inspires us with great Thoughts and Administers to us wholesome Counsels We have a Veneration for all the VVorks of Nature the Heads of Rivers and the Springs of Medicinal Waters the Horrors of Groves and of Caves strike us with an Impression of Religion and VVorship To see a Man Fearless in Dangers untainted with Lusts Happy in Adversity Compos'd in a Tumult and Laughing at all those things which are generally either Coveted or Fear'd all Men must acknowledge that this can be nothing else but a Beam of Divinity that Influences a Mortal Body And this it is that carries us to the Disquisition of things Divine and Humane VVhat the State of the VVorld was before the Distribution of the First Matter into Parts what Power it was that drew Order out of that Confusion and gave Laws both to the whole and to every Particle thereof VVhat that space is beyond the World and whence proceed the several operations of Nature Shall any Man see the Glory and Order of the Universe so many scatter'd Parts and Qualities wrought into one Mass such a Medly of things which are yet Distinguish'd the World enlighten'd and the Disorders of it so wonderfully Regulated and Shall he not consider the Author and Disposer of all This and whither we our selves shall go when our Souls shall be deliver'd from the Slavery of our Flesh The whole Creation we see conformes to the Dictate of Providence and follows God both as a Governor and as a Guide A Great a Good and a Right Mind is a kind of Divinity lodg'd in Flesh and may be the Blessing of a Slave as well as of a Prince it came from Heaven and 〈◊〉 Heaven it must return and it is a kind of Heavenly Felicity which a pure and virtuous Mind enjoyes in some Degree even upon Earth Whereas Temples of Honor are but empty Names which probably owe their Beginning either to Ambition or to Violence I am strangely transported with the thoughts of Eternity Nay with the Belief of it for I have a profound Veneration for the Opinions of Great Men especially when they promise things so much to My satisfaction for they do Promise them though they do not Prove them In the Question of the Immortality of the Soul it goes very far with me a General Consent to the Opinion of a Future Reward and Punishment which Meditation raises me to the Contempt of this Life in Hope of a Better But still though we know that we have a Soul yet What that Soul is How and from Whence we are utterly Ignorant This only we understand that all the Good and Ill we do is under the Dominion of the Mind that a Clear Conscience States us in an Inviolable Peace And that the greatest Blessing in Nature is that which
every honest Man may bestow upon himself The Body is but the Clog and Prisoner of the Mind tossed up and down and Persecuted with Punishments Violences and Diseases but the Mind it self is Sacred and Eternal and exempt from the Danger of all Actual Impressions PROVIDED that we look to our Consciences no matter for Opinion Let me Deserve Well though I Hear Ill. The Common People take Stomach and Audacity for the Marks of Magnanimity and Honor and if a Man be Soft and Modest they look upon him as an easie Fop but when they come once to observe the Dignity of his Mind in the Equality and Firmness of his Actions and that his External Quiet is founded upon an Internal Peace the very same People have him in Esteem and Admiration For there is no Man but Approves of Virtue though but few Pursue it we see where it is but we dare not venture to come at it And the Reason is we over-value that which we must quit to obtain it A good Conscience fears no Witnesses but a Guilty Conscience is sollicitous even in solitude If we do nothing but what is Honest let all the World know it but if otherwise What does it signifie to have no body else know it so long as I know it my self Miserable is he that slights that Witness Wickedness 't is true may scape the Law but not the Conscience For a Private Conviction is the First and the Greatest Punishment of Offenders so that Sin plagues it self and the Fear of Vengeance pursues even those that scape the stroke of it It were ill for Good Men that Iniquity may so easily evade the Law the Judge and the Execution if Nature had not set up Torments and Gibbets in the Consciences of Transgressors He that is Guilty lives in perpetual Terror and while he expects to be punish'd he punishes himself and whosoever Deserves it Expects it What if he be not Detected He is still in Apprehension yet that he may be so His sleeps are Painful and never Secure and he cannot speak of another Mans Wickedness without thinking of his own whereas a good Conscience is a Continual Feast Those are the only Certain and Profitable Delights which arise from the Conscience of a well-Acted Life No matter for Noise Abroad so long as we are Quiet Within but if our Passions be Seditious that 's enough to keep us Waking without any other Tumult It is not the Posture of the Body or the Composure of the Bed that will give rest to an Uneasie Mind There is an Impatient sloth that may be rouz'd by Action and the Vices of Lazyness must be Cur'd by Business True Happiness is not to be found in the Excesses of Wine or of Women nor in the Largest Prodigalities of Fortune What she has given me she may take away but she shall not Tear it from me and so long as it does not grow to me I can part with it without pain He that would perfectly know himself let him set aside his Mony his Fortune his Dignity and examine himself Naked without being put to learn from others the Knowledge of himself IT is dangerous for a Man too suddenly or too easily to believe himself Wherefore let us Examine Watch Observe and Inspect our own hearts for we our selves are our own greatest Flatterers We should every Night call our selves to an Accompt What Infirmity have I Master'd to day What Passion Oppos'd What Temptation resisted What Virtue Acquir'd Our Vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the Shrift Oh the Blessed sleep that follows such a Diary Oh the Tranquillity Liberty and Greatness of that Mind that is a Spy upon it Self and a private Censor of its own Manners It is my Custome sayes our Author every Night so soon as the Candle is out to run over all the VVords and Actions of the past day and I let nothing scape me for VVhy should I fear the Sight of my own Errors when I can Admonish and Forgive my self I was a little too hot in such a Dispute my Opinion might have been as well spar'd for it gave Offence and did no good at all The thing was true but all truths are not to be spoken at all times I would I had held my tongue for there 's no contending either with Fools or our Superiors I have done Ill but it shall be so no more If every Man would but thus look into himself it would be the better for us all What can be more Reasonable than this Daily Review of a Life that we cannot warrant for a Moment Our Fate is set and the first breath we draw is only the first Motion toward our last One Cause depends upon another and the Course of all things Publick and Private is but a long connexion of Providential Appointments There is a great variety in our Lives but all tends to the same Issue Nature may use her own Bodies as she pleases but a Good Man has this Consolation that nothing perishes which he can call his own 'T is a great Comfort that we are only condemn'd to the same Fate with the Universe the Heavens themselves are Mortal as well as our Bodies Nature has made us Passive and to Suffer is our Lot While we are in Flesh every Man has his Chain and his Clog only it is looser and lighter to one Man than to another and he is more at ease that takes it up and Carries it than he that Drags it We are Born to Lose and to Perish to Hope and to Fear to Vex our selves and others and there is no Antidote against a Common Calamity but Virtue For the Foundation of true Ioy is in the Conscience CHAP. VII A Good Man can never be Miserable nor a Wicked Man Happy THERE is not in the Scale of Nature a more Inseparable Connexion of Cause and Effect than in the Case of Happiness and Virtue Nor any thing that more naturally produces the One or more Necessarily presupposes the Other For What is it to be Happy but for a Man to content himself with his Lot in a Chearful and Quiet Resignation to the Appointments of God All the Actions of our Lives ought to be Govern'd with a respect to Good and Evil And it is only Reason that distinguishes by which Reason we are in such manner Influenc'd as if a Ray of the Divinity were dipt in a Mortal Body and that 's the Perfection of Mankind 'T is true we have not the Eyes of Eagles or the Sagacity of Hounds Nor if we had could we pretend to value our selves upon any thing which we have in Common with Brutes What are we the better for that which is Forreign to us and may be given and taken away As the Beams of the Sun irradiate the Earth and yet Remain where they were so is it in some proportion with a Holy Mind that Illustrates all our Actions and yet adheres to its Original Why
do we not as well commend a Horse for his glorious Trappings as a Man for his Pompous Additions How much a braver Creature is a Lyon which by Nature ought to be Fierce and Terrible How much braver I say in his Natural Horror than in his Chains so that every thing in its pure Nature pleases us best It is not Health Nobility Riches that can Justifie a Wicked Man nor is it the want of all these that can discredit a Good one That 's the Sovereign Blessing which makes the Possessor of it valuable without any thing else and him that wants it Contemptible though he had all the World besides 'T is not the Painting Gilding or Carving that makes a good Ship but if she be a Nimble Sayler Tight and Strong to endure the Seas that 's her Excellency 'T is the Edge and Temper of the Blade that makes a good Sword not the Richness of the Scabbard and so 't is not Mony or Possessions that make a Man Considerable but his Virtue IT is every Man's Duty to make himself Profitable to Mankind If he can to Many if not to Fewer If not so neither to his Neighbors but however to Himself There are Two Republicks a Great one which is Humane Nature and a Less which is the Place where we were Born Some serve Both at a time some only the Greater and some again only the Less The Greater may be serv'd in Privacy Solitude Contemplation and perchance that way better than any other but it was the Intent of Nature however that we should serve Both A Good Man may serve the Publick his Friend and Himself in any Station If he be not for the Sword let him take the Gown If the Bar does not agree with him let him try the Pulpit If he be Silenc'd Abroad let him give Counsel at Home and discharge the Part of a Faithful Friend and a Temperate Companion When he is no longer a Citizen he is yet a Man the whole World is his Country and Humane Nature never wants Matter to Work upon But if nothing will serve a Man in the Civil Government unless he be Prime Minister or in the Field but to Command in Chief 't is his own fault The Common Soldier where he cannot use his Hands sights with his very Looks his Example his Encouragement his Voice and stands his Ground even when he has lost his hands and does Service too with his very Clamor so that in any Condition whatsoever he still discharges the Duty of a Good Patriot Nay he that spends â—…his time well even in a Retiâ—…ement gives a great Example We may enlarge indeed or Contract according to the Circumstances of Time Place or Abilities but above all things we must be sure to keep our selves in Action For he that is slothful is dead even while he lives Was there ever any State so desperate as that of Athens under the Thirty Tyrants where it was Capital to be Honest and the Senate House was turn'd into a College of Hangmen never was any Government so wretched and so hopeless and yet Socrates at the same time Preach'd Temperance to the Tyrants and Courage to the Rest and afterward dy'd an Eminent Example of Faith and Resolution and a Sacrifice for the Common Good IT is not for a Wise Man to stand shifting and â—…encing with Fortune but to oppose her bare-fac'd for he is sufficiently convinc'd that she can do him no hurt She may take away his Servants Possessions Dignity assault his Boâ—… put out his Eyes cut off his Hands and strip him of all the External Comforts of Life But What does all this amount to more than the recalling of a Trust which he has receiv'd with Condition to deliver it up again upon Demand He looks upon himself as Precarious and only Lent to himself and yet he does not value himself ever the less because he is not his Own but takes such care as an Honest Man should do of a thing that is committed to him in Trust. Whensoever he that lent me my Self and what I have shall call for all back again 't is not a Loss but a Restitution and I must willingly deliver up what most undeservedly was bestow'd upon me And it will become me to return my Mind better than I receiv'd it DEMETRIUS upon the taking of Megara ask'd Stilpo the Philosopher what he had lost Nothing sayes he for I have all that I could call my own about me And yet the Enemy had then made himself the Master of his Patrimony his Children and his Country But these he lookt upon only as Adventitious Goods and under the Command of Fortune Now he that neither lost any thing nor fear'd any thing in a Publick Ruin but was safe and at Peace in the Middle of the Flames and in the Heat of a Military Intemperance and Fury What Violence or Provocation imaginable can put such a Man as This out of the Possession of himself Walls and Castles may be Min'd and Batter'd but there is no Art or Engine that can subvert a Steady Mind I have made my way sayes Stilpo through Fire and Blood what is become of my Children I know not but these are Transitory Blessings and Servants that are condemn'd to Change their Masters What was my Own Before is my Own Still Some have lost their Estates others their Dear-bought Mistresses their Commissions and Offices the Usurers have lost their Bonds and Securities but Demetrius for my Part I have sav'd All And do not imagine after all this either that Demetrius is a Conqueror or that Stilpo is overcome 't is only Thy Fortune has been too hard for Mine Alexander took Babilon Scipio took Carthage the Capitol was Burnt but there 's no Fire or Violence that can discompose a Generous Mind And let us not take this Character neither for a Chimaera for all Ages afford some though not many Instances of this Elevated Virtue A Good Man does his Duty let it be never so painful so hazardous or never so great a loss to him and it is not all the Money the Power and the Pleasure in the World no not any Force or Necessity that can make him Wicked He considers what he is to Do not what he is to Suffer and will keep on his Course though there should be nothing but Gibbets and Torments in the way As in this Instance of Stilpo who when he had lost his Country his Wife his Children the Town on Fire over his head and Himself scaping hardly and naked out of the Flames I have sav'd all my Goods sayes he my Iustice my Courage my Temperance my Prudence accompting nothing his Own or Valuable and shewing how much easier it was to overcome a Nation than one Wise Man It is a Certain Mark of a Brave Mind not to be mov'd by any Accidents The upper Region of the Ayr admits neither Clouds nor Tempests The Thunder Storms and Meteors are form'd Below and
Dangers whereas the Indulgence of a Fond Mother makes us weak and spiritless God loves us with a Masculine Love and turns us loose to Injuries and Indignities he takes delight to see a Brave and a Good Man Wrastling with Evil Fortune and yet keeping himself upon his Legs when the whole World is in disorder about him And Are not we our selves delighted to see a bold Fellow press with his Lance upon a Bore or Lyon And the Constancy and Resolution of the Action is the Grace and Dignity of the Spectacle No Man can be Happy that does not stand firm against all Contingences and say to himself in all Extremities I should have been content if it might have been so or so but since 't is otherwise determin'd God will provide better The more we struggle with our Necessities we draw the Knot the harder and the worse 't is with us And the more the Bird Flaps and Flutters in the Snare the surer she is Caught So that the best way is to submit and lie still under this double Consideration That the Proceedings of God are Unquestionable and his Decrees not to be resisted CHAP. IX Of Levity of Mind and other Impediments of a Happy Life NOW to Summ up what is already deliver'd we have shew'd what Happiness is and wherein it consists That it is founded upon Wisdom and Virtue for we must first know what we Ought to do and then Live according to that Knowledge We have also discours'd the Helps of Philosophy and Precepts toward a Happy Life The Blessing of a Good Conscience That a Good Man can never be Miserable nor a Wicked Man Happy nor any Man Unfortunate that chearfully submits to Providence We shall now Examine How it comes to pass that when the certain Way to Happiness lies so fair before us Men will yet steer their Course on the other side which as Manifestly leads to Ruine THERE are some that live without any Design at all and only pass in the World like Straws upon a River they do not Go but they are Carry'd Others only deliberate upon the Parts of Life and not upon the Whole which is a great Error for there 's no disposing of the Circumstances of it unless we first propound the main Scope How shall any Man take his Aim without a Mark or What wind will serve Him that is not yet resolv'd upon his Port We Live as it were by Chance and by Chance we are Govern'd Some there are that Torment themselves afresh with the Memory of what is Past Lord What did I endure Never was any Man in my Condition every body gave me over my very Heart was ready to break c. Others again Afflict themselves with the Apprehension of Evils to Come and very ridiculously Both For the One does not Now concern us and the Other not Yet Beside that there may be Remedies for Mischiefs likely to happen for they give us warning by Signs and Symptoms of their Approach Let him that would be Quiet take heed not to provoke Men that are in Power but live without giving Offence and if we cannot make all Great Men our Friends it will suffice to keep them from being our Enemies This is a thing we must avoid as a Mariner would do a Storm A Rash Seaman never considers what Wind blows or what Course he steers but runs at a Venture as if he would brave the Rocks and the Eddies whereas he that is Careful and Considerate informs himself beforehand where the Danger lies and what weather it is like to be He consults his Compass and keeps aloof from those places that are Infamous for Wrecks and Miscarriages So does a Wise Man in the common business of Life he keeps out of the Way from those that may do him hurt but it is a point of Prudence not to let them take notice that he does it on purpose for that which a Man shuns he tacitely condemns Let him have a care also of List'ners Newsmongers and Medlers in other Peoples Matters for their discourse is commonly of such things as are never Profitable and most commonly Dangerous either to be spoken or heard LEVITY of Mind is a great Hindrance of Repose and the very Change of Wickedness is an Addition to the Wickedness it self for it is Inconstancy added to Iniquity We relinquish the thing we sought and then we take it up again and so divide our Lives between our Lusts and our Repentances From one Appetite we pass to another not so much upon Choice as for Change and there is a Check of Conscience that casts a Damp upon all our Unlawful Pleasures which makes us lose the Day in expectation of the Night and the Night it self for fear of the Approaching Light Some people are never at quiet others are alwayes so and they are Both to blame For that which looks like Vivacity and Industry in the one is only a Restlessness and Agitation and that which passes in the other for Moderation and Reserve is but a Drouzy and an Unactive sloth Let Motion and Rest both take their turns according to the Order of Nature which made both the Day and the Night Some are perpetually shifting from one thing to another Others again make their whole Life but a kind of Uneasie sleep Some lie tossing and turning till very weariness bring them to Rest Others again I cannot so properly call Inconstant as Lazy there are many Proprieties and Diversities of Vice but it is one never failing effect of it to live Displeas'd We do all of us labour under Inordinate Desires we are either timorous and dare not venture or venturing we do not succeed or else we cast our selves upon uncertain Hopes where we are perpetually Sollicitous and in Suspence In this distraction we are apt to propose to our selves things dishonest and hard and when we have taken great pains to no purpose we come then to repent of our Undertakings We are afraid to go on and we can neither Master our Appetites nor obey them We live and die Restless and Irresolute and which is worst of all when we grow weary of the Publick and betake our selves to Solitude for Relief our Minds are Sick and Wallowing and the very House and Walls are troublesome to us we grow Impatient and asham'd of our selves and suppress our Inward vexation till it breaks our heart for want of vent This is it that makes us Sour and Morose Envious of others and dissatisfy'd with our selves till at last betwixt our Troubles for other Peoples Successes and the Despair of our Own we fall foul upon Fortune and the Times and get into a Corner perhaps where we sit brooding over our own Disquiets In these Dispositions there is a kind of pruriginous Phancy that makes some people take delight in Labour and Uneasiness like the Clawing of an Itch till the blood starts THIS is it that puts us upon rambling Voyages one while by Sea another while by
makes Poverty Grievous to us For it is a very small matter that does our Business and when we have provided against Cold Hunger and Thirst all the Rest is but Vanity and Excess And there 's no need of Expence upon Forreign Delicacies or the Artifices of the Kitchin What is he the worse for Poverty that despises these things Nay Is he not rather the better for it because he is not able to go to the Price of them For he is kept sound whether he will or no And that which a Man Cannot do looks many times as if he would not WHEN I look back into the Moderation of past Ages it makes me asham'd to Discourse as if Poverty had need of any Consolation For we are now come to that degree of Intemperance that a fair Patrimony is too little for a Meal Homer had but One Servant Plato Three and Zeno the Master of the Masculine Sect of Stoicks had none at all The Daughters of Scipio had their Portions out of the Common Treasury for their Father left them not worth a Penny How Happy were their Husbands that had the People of Rome for their Father-in-Law Shall any Man now Contemn Poverty after these Eminent Examples which are sufficient not only to Justifie but to Recommend it Upon Diogenes's only Servant's running away from him he was told where he was and perswaded to fetch him back again What sayes he can Manes live without Diogenes and not Diogenes without Manes And so let him go The Piety and Moderation of Scipio has made his Memory more Venerable than his Armes and more yet after he left his Country than while he defended it For matters were come to that pass that either Scipio must be Injurious to Rome or Rome to Scipio Course Bread and Water to a Temperate Man is as good as a Feast and the very Herbs of the Field yield a Nourishment to Man as well as to Beasts It was not by Choice Meats and Perfumes that our Forefathers recommended themselves but by Virtuous Actions and the Sweat of Honest Military and of Manly Labours WHILE Nature lay in Common and all her Benefits were promiscuously enjoy'd What could be happier than that state of Mankind when People liv'd without either Avarice or Envy What could be Richer then when there was not a Poor Man to be found in the World So soon as this Impartial Bounty of Providence came to be restrain'd by Covetousness and that Particulars appropriated That to themselves which was intended for All then did Poverty creep into the World when some Men by desiring more than came to their share lost their Title to the Rest. A loss never to be repair'd for though we may come Yet to get Much we once had All. The Fruits of the Earth were in those dayes divided among the Inhabitants of it without either Want or Excess So long as Men contented themselves with their Lot there was no Violence no Engrossing or Hiding of those Benefits for Particular Advantages which were appointed for the Community but every Man had as much Care for his Neighbor as for Himself No Arms or Bloodshed no War but with wilde Beasts But under the Protection of a Wood or a Cave they spent their dayes without Cares and their nights without Grones Their Innocence was their Security and their Protection There were as yet no Beds of State no Ornaments of Pearl or Embrodery nor any of those Remorses that attend them but the Heavens were their Canopy and the Glories of them their Spectacle The Motions of the Orbs the Courses of the Stars and the wonderful order of Providence was their Contemplation There was no fear of the House falling or the Russling of a Rat behind the Arras they had no Palaces then like Cities but they had open Ayr and Breathing-Room Crystal Fountains Refreshing Shades the Meadows drest up in their Native Beauty and such Cottages as were according to Nature and wherein they liv'd contentedly without fear either of Losing or of Falling These people liv'd without either Sollicitude or Fraud and yet I must call them rather Happy than Wise. That Men were generally better before they were corrupted then after I make no doubt and I am apt to believe that they were both Stronger and Hardier too but their Wits were not yet come to Maturity for Nature does not give Virtue and it is a kind of Art to become Good They had not as yet torn up the Bowels of the Earth for Gold Silver or Precious Stones and so far were they from killing any Man as we do for a Spectacle that they were not as yet come to it either in Fear or Anger nay they spar'd the very Fishes But after all This they were Innocent because they were Ignorant and there 's a great difference betwixt not Knowing how to offend and not being Willing to do it They had in that rude Life certain Images and Resemblances of Virtue but yet they fell short of Virtue it self which comes only by Institution Learning and Study as it is perfected by Practice It is indeed the End for which we were born but yet it did not come into the World with us and in the best of Men before they are instructed we find rather the Matter and the Seeds of Virtue than the Virtue it self It is the wonderful Benignity of Nature that has laid open to us all things that may do us Good and only hidden those things from us that may hurt us as if she durst not Trust us with Gold and Silver or with Iron which is the Instrument of War and Contention for the other It is we our selves that have drawn out of the Earth both the Causes and the Instruments of our Dangers And we are so vain as to set the highest esteem upon those things to which Nature has assign'd the lowest place What can be more Course and Rude in the Mine than these precious Metalls or more Slavish and Dirty than the People that Dig and Work them And yet they defile our Minds more than our Bodies and make the Possessor fouler than the Artificer of them Rich Men in fine are only the Greater Slaves Both the One and the Other wants a great deal HAPPY is that Man that Eats only for b Hunger and Drinks only for Thirst that stands upon his own Legs and lives by Reason not by Example and provides for Use and Necessity not for Ostentation and Pomp. Let us Curb our Appetites encourage Virtue and rather be beholden to our Selves for Riches than to Fortune who when a Man draws himself into a narrow compass has the least Mark at him Let my Bed be plain and Clean and my Cloths so too my Meat without much Expence or many Wayters and neither a burthen to my Purse nor to my Body nor to go out the same way it came in That which is too little for Luxury is abundantly enough for Nature The end of Eating and Drinking
is Satiety Now What matters it though One Eats and Drinks more and Another Less so long as the One is not a hungry nor the Other a thirst Epicurus that limits Pleasure to Nature as the Stoicks do Virtue is undoubtedly in the Right and those that Cite him to authorise their Voluptuousness do exceedingly mistake him and only seek a Good Authority for an Evil Cause For their Pleasures of Sloth Gluttony and Lust have no Affinity at all with his Precepts or Meaning 'T is true that at first sight his Philosophy seems Effeminate but he that looks nearer him will find him to be a very Brave Man only in a Womanish Dress 'T IS a Common Objection I know That these Philosophers do not Live at the rate that they Talk for they can flatter their Superiors Gather Estates and be as much concern'd at the Loss of Fortune or of Friends as other people As sensible of Reproches as Luxurious in their Eating and Drinking their Furniture their Houses as Magnificent in their Plate Servants and Officers as Profuse and Curious in their Gardens c. Well! And what of all This or if it were twenty times More 'T is some degree of Virtue for a Man to Condemn himself and if he cannot come up to the Best to be yet better than the Worst and if he cannot wholly Subdue his Appetites however to Check and Diminish them If I do not Live as I Preach take notice that I do not speak of my Self but of Virtue nor am I so much offended with Other Mens Vices as with my Own All this was objected to Plato Epicurus Zeno Nor is any Virtue so Sacred as to scape Malevolence The Cinique Demetrius was a great Instance of Severity and Mortification and one that Impos'd upon himself neither to Possess any thing nor so much as to Ask it and yet he had this Scom put upon him that his Profession was Poverty not Virtue Plato is blam'd for Asking Mony Aristotle for Receiving it Democritus for Neglecting it Epicurus for Consuming it How happy were we if we could but come to Imitate these Mens Vices for if we knew our Own Condition we should find work enough at Home But we are like People that are making Merry at a Play or a Tavern when our own houses are on fire and yet we know nothing on 't Nay Cato himself was said to be a Drunkard but Drunkenness it self shall sooner be prov'd to be no Crime than Cato Dishonest They that demolish Temples and overturn Altars shew their Good Will though they can do the Gods no hurt and so it fares with those that invade the Reputation of Great Men. If the Professors of Virtue be as the World calls them Avaritious Libidinous Ambitious What are they then that have a detestation for the very Name of it But Malicious Natures do not want Wit to abuse Honester Men than themselves It is the Practice of the Multitude to bark at Eminent Men as little Dogs do at Strangers for they look upon Other Mens Virtues as the Upbraiding of their Own Wickedness We should do well to commend those that are Good if not let us pass them Over but however let us spare our selves for beside the Blaspheming of Virtue our Rage is to no purpose But to return now to my Text. WE are ready enough to limit Others but loth to put Bounds and Restraint upon our selves though we know that many times a Greater Evil is Cur'd by a Less and the Mind that will not be brought to Virtue by Precept comes to it frequently by Necessity Let us try a little to Eate upon a Joynt-Stool to serve our selves to Live within Compass and accommodate our Cloths to the End they were made for Occasional Experiments of our Moderation give us the best Proof of our Firmness and Virtue A well-govern'd Appetite is a great part of Liberty and it is a Blessed Lot that since no Man can have all things that he would have we may all of us forbear desiring what we have not It is the Office of Temperance to Overrule us in our Pleasures Some she Rejects Others she Qualifies and Keeps within Bounds Oh! the Delights of Rest when a Man comes to be Weary and of Meat when he is heartily Hungry I have learn'd sayes our Author by one Journey how many things we have that are superfluous and how easily they may be spar'd for when we are without them upon Necessity we do not so much as feel the want of them This is the Second Blessed Day sayes he that my Friend and I have Travell'd together One Waggon carries our selves and our Servants My Mattress lies upon the Ground and I upon That Our Diet answerable to our Lodging and never without our Figs and our Table-Books The Muletier without Shooes and the Mules only prove themselves to be Alive by their walking In this Equipage I am not willing I perceive to own my self but as often as we happen into better Company I presently fall a blushing which shews that I am not yet confirm'd in those things which I Approve and Commend I am not yet come to Own my Frugality for he that 's Asham'd to be seen in a Mean Condition would be proud of a splendid one I value my self upon what Passengers think of me and Tacitely renounce my Principles whereas I should rather lift up my Voice to be heard by Mankind and tell them You are all Mad your Minds are set upon supersluities and you value no Man for his Virtues I came one Night weary home and threw my self upon the Bed with this Consideration about me There is nothing Ill that is Well Taken My Baker tells me he has no Bread but sayes he I may get some of your Tenants though I fear 't is not Good No matter said I for I 'll stay till it be Better that is to say till my stomach will be glad of worse It is Discretion sometimes to practice Temperance and wont our selves to a Little for there are many Difficulties both of Time and Place that may Force us upon it When we come to the Matter of Patrimony How strictly do we examine what every Man is Worth before wee 'll trust him with a Penny Such a Man we cry has a great Estate but it is shrewdly incumber'd a very Fair House but 't was built with borrow'd Money a Numerous Family but he does not keep Touch with his Creditors if his Debts were paid he would not be worth a Groat Why do we not take the same Course in other things and examine what every Man is worth 'T is not enough to have a Long Train of Attendants Vast Possessions or an Incredible Treasure in Money and Jewels a Man may be Poor for all this There 's only this difference at Best One Man borrows of the Usurer and the Other of Fortune What signifies the Carving or the Guilding of the Chariot Is the Master ever the better for 't WE
when all is drawn out to the Lees. He that takes away a Day from me takes away what he can never restore me But our Time is either Forc'd away from us or Stoln from us or Lost of which the last is the Foulest Miscarriage It is in Life as in a Journey a Book or a Companion brings us to our Lodging before we thought we were half-way Upon the whole Matter we consume our selves one upon another without any regard at all to our own Particular I do not speak of such as Live in Notorious Scandal but even they themselves whom the World pronounces happy are smother'd in their Felicities Servants to their Professions and Clients and drown'd in their Lusts. We are apt to Complain of the Haughtiness of Great Men when yet there is hardly any of them all so proud but that at some time or other a Man may yet have Access to him and perhaps a good Word or Look into the Bargain Why do we not rather Complain of Our selves for being of all others even to our Selves the most Deaf and Inaccessible COMPANY and Business are great Devourers of Time and Our Vices destroy our Lives as well as our Fortunes The Present is but a Moment and perpetually in Flux the Time past we call to mind when we please and it will abide the Examination and Inspection But the Busie Man has not Leisure to look Back or if he has 't is an Unpleasant thing to reflect upon a Life to be repented of Whereas the Conscience of a Good Life puts a Man into a secure and perpetual Possession of a Felicity never to be disturb'd or taken away But he that has led a wicked Life is afraid of his own Memory and in the Review of himself he finds only appetite Avarice or Ambition in stead of Virtue But still he that is not at Leisure many times to Live must when his Fate comes whether he will or no be at Leisure to Dye Alass What is Time to Eternity the Age of a Man to the Age of the World And how much of this Little do we spend in Fears Anxieties Tears Childhood nay we sleep away the one half How great a Part of it runs away in Luxury and Excess the Ranging of our Guests our Servants and our Dishes As if we were to Eate and Drink not for Satiety but Ambition The Nights may well seem short that are so dear bought and bestow'd upon Wine and Women The day is lost in Expectation of the Night and the Night in the Apprehension of the Morning There is a Terror in our very Pleasures and This vexatious Thought in the very height of them that They will not last alwayes which is a Canker in the delights even of the Greatest and the most Fortunate of Men. CHAP. XX. Happy is the Man that may chuse his own Business OH the Blessings of Privacy and Leisure the Wish of the Powerful and Eminent but the Privilege only of Inferiors For it is They alone that live to themselves Nay the very Thought and Hope of it is a Consolation even in the middle of all the Tumults and Hazards that attend Greatness It was Augustus his Prayer that he might live to Retire and deliver himself from Publick Business His Discourses were still pointing that way and the highest Felicity which this Mighty Prince had in Prospect was the devesting himself of that Illustrious State which how Glorious soever in shew had at the Bottom of it only Anxiety and Care But it is One thing to Retire for Pleasure and another thing for Virtue which must be Active even in that Retreat and give Proof of what it has learn'd for a Good and a Wise Man does in Privacy consult the well-being of Posterity Zeno and Chrysippus did greater things in their Studies than if they had led Armies born Offices or given Laws which in truth they did not to one City alone but to all Mankind their Quiet contributed more to the Common Benefit than the Sweat and Labour of other People That Retreat is not worth the while which does not afford a Man Greater and Nobler Work than Business There 's no slavish Attendance upon great Officers no Canvassing for Places no making of Parties no Disappointments in my Pretension to This Charge to that Regiment or to such or such a Title no Envy of any Mans Favour or Fortune but a Calm Enjoyment of the General Bounties of Providence in Company with a Good Conscience A Wise Man is never so Busie as in the Solitary Contemplation of God and the Works of Nature He withdraws himself to attend the Service of Future Ages and those Counsels which he finds salutary to himself he commits to Writing for the Good of After-times as we do the Receipts of Sovereign Antidotes or Balsams He that is well employ'd in his Study though he may seem to do nothing at all does the greatest things yet of all others in Affairs both Humane and Divine To supply a Friend with a Sum of Money or give my Voyce for an Office these are only Private and Particular Obligations but he that layes down Precepts for the governing of our Lives and the moderating of our Passions obliges Humane Nature not only in the Present but in all succeeding Generations HE that would be at quiet let him repair to his Philosophy a Study that has Credit with all sorts of Men. The Eloquence of the Bar or whatsoever else addresses to the People is never without Enemies but Philosophy minds its own Business and even the worst have an Esteem for 't There can never be such a Conspiracy against Virtue the World can never be so wicked but the very Name of a Philosopher shall still continue Venerable and Sacred And yet Philosophy it self must be handled Modestly and with Caution But what shall we say of Cato then for his medling in the Broyl of a Civil War and interposing himself in the Quarrel betwixt two enrag'd Princes He that when Rome was split into Two Factions betwixt Pompey and Caesar declar'd himself against Both. I speak this of Cato's last Part for in his Former time the Common Wealth was made unfit for a Wise Mans Administration All he could do then was but Bawling and Beating of the Ayre One while he was Lugg'd and Tumbled by the Rabble Spit upon and Drag'd out of the Forum and then again hurry'd out of the Senate-house to Prison There are some things which we propound Originally and others that fall in as Accessory to another Proposition If a Wise Man Retire 't is no matter whether he does it because the Common-wealth was wanting to Him or because He was wanting to It. But to what Republick shall a Man betake himself Not to Athens where Socrates was condemn'd and whence Aristotle fled for fear he should have beeen condemn'd too and where Virtue was oppress'd by Envy Not to Carthage where there was nothing but Tyranny Injustice Cruelty and Ingratitude
their Periods That which we call Death is but a Pause or Suspension and in truth a Progress to Life only our Thoughts look downward upon the Body and not Forward upon things to Come All things under the Sun are Mortal Cities Empires and the time will come when it shall be a Question Where they Were and perchance whether ever they had a Being or no. Some will be destroy'd by War Others by Luxury Fire Inundations Earthquakes Why should it trouble me then to Dye as a Fore-Runner of an Universal Dissolution A Great Mind Submits it self to God and suffers willingly what the Law of the Universe will otherwise bring to pass upon Necessity That good Old Man Bassus though with one Foot in the Grave How Chearful a Mind does he bear He lives in the View of Death and Contemplates his Own End with less Concern of Thought or Countenance than he would do Another Mans. It is a hard Lesson and we are a long time a Learning of it to receive our Death without Trouble especially in the Case of Bassus In Other Deaths there 's a Mixture of Hope A Disease may be Cur'd a Fire Quench'd a falling House either Prop'd or Avoided the Sea may Swallow a Man and throw him Up again A Pardon may Interpose betwixt the Axe and the Body but in the Case of Old Age there 's no Place for either Hope or Intercession Let us Live in our Bodies therefore as if we were only to Lodge in them This Night and to leave them To morrow It is the frequent Thought of Death that must fortifie us against the Necessity of it He that has Arm'd himself against Poverty may Perhaps come to Live in Plenty A Man may strengthen himself against Pain and yet live in a State of Health Against the Loss of Friends and never Lose any But he that fortifies himself against the Fear of Death shall most certainly have Occasion to employ that Virtue It is the Care of a Wise and a Good Man to look to his Manners and Actions and rather how well he Lives than how Long For to Dye Sooner or Later is not the Business but to Dye Well or Ill For Death brings us to Immortality CHAP. XXIII Against Immoderate Sorrow for the Death of Friends NEXT to the Encounter of Death in our Own Bodies the most sensible Calamity to an Honest Man is the Death of a Friend and we are not in truth without some Generous Instances of those that have preferr'd a Friends Life before their Own and yet this Affliction which by Nature is so Grievous to us is by Virtue and Providence made Familiar and Easie TO Lament the Death of a Friend is both Natural and Just A Sigh or a Tear I would allow to his Memory but no Profuse or Obstinate Sorrow Clamorous and Publick Lamentations are not so much the Effects of Grief as of Vain-Glory He that is sadder in Company than Alone shews rather the Ambition of his Sorrow than the Piety of it Nay and in the Violence of his Passion there fall out Twenty things that set him a Laughing At the long Run Time Cures All but it were better done by Moderation and Wisdome Some People do as good as set a watch upon themselves as if they were afraid that their Grief would make an Escape The Ostentation of Grief is many times more than the Grief it self When any Body is within Hearing what Grones and Outcryes when they are Alone and Private all is Hush and Quiet So soon as any body comes in they are at it again and down they throw themselves upon the Bed fall to wringing of their hands and wishing of themselves dead which they might better have done by themselves but their sorrow goes off with the Company We forsake Nature and run over to the Practises of the People that never were the Authors of any thing that is Good If Destiny were to be wrought upon by Tears I would allow you to spend your dayes and nights in Sadness and Mourning Tearing of your Hair and Beating of your Breasts but if Fate be Inexorable and Death will Keep what he has Taken Grief is to no Purpose And yet I would not Advise Insensibility and Hardness It were Inhumanity and not Virtue not to be mov'd at the separation of Familiar Friends and Relations Now in such Cases we cannot Command our selves we cannot forbear weeping and we Ought not to Forbear But let us not pass the Bounds of Affection and run into Imitation within These Limits it is some ease to the Mind A Wise Man gives Way to Tears in Some Cases and Cannot Avoid them in Others When one is struck with the Surprize of Ill Newes as the Death of a Friend or the like or upon the Last Embrace of an Acquaintance under the Hand of an Executioner he lies under a Natural Necessity of Weeping and Trembling In Another Case we may Indulge our Sorrows as upon the Memory of a Dead Friends Conversation or Kindness one may let fall Tears of Generosity and Joy We Favour the One and we are Overcome with the Other and This is Well but we are not upon any Termes to Force them They may flow of their Own accord without derogating from the Dignity of a Wise Man who at the same time both preserves his Gravity and Obeys Nature Nay there is a Certain Decorum even in Weeping for Excess of Sorrow is as Foolish as Profuse Laughter Why do we not as well Cry when our Trees that we took Pleasure in shed their Leaves as at the Loss of Other Satisfactions When the next Season repairs them either with the same again or Others in their Places We may accuse Fate but we cannot alter it for it is Hard and Inexorable and not to be Remov'd either with Reproches or Tears They may carry us to the Dead but never bring Them back again to Us. If Reason does not put an End to our Sorrows Fortune never will One is pinch'd with Poverty Another Sollicited with Ambition and Feares the very Wealth that he Coveted One is troubled for the Loss of Children Another for the Want of them So that we shall sooner want Tears than Matter for them let us therefore spare That for which we have so much Occasion I do confess that in the very Parting of Friends there is something of an Uneasyness and Trouble but it is rather Voluntary than Natural and it is Custome more than Sense that affects us We do rather Impose a Sorrow upon our selves than Submit to it as People Cry when they have Company and when no body looks on all 's well again To Mourn without Measure is Folly and not to Mourn at all is Insensibility The best Temper is betwixt Piety and Reason to be sensible but neither Transported nor Cast down He that can put a stop to his Tears and Pleasures when he will is safe It is an Equal Infelicity to be either too Soft or too
Hard. We are Overcome by the One and we are put to struggle with the Other There is a Certain Intemperance in That Sorrow that passes the Rules of Modesty and yet great Piety is in many Cases a Dispensation to good Manners The Loss of a Son or of a Friend cuts a Man to the Heart and there 's no opposing the first Violence of this Passion but when a Man comes once to deliver himself wholly up to Lamentations he is to understand that though some Tears Deserve Compassion Others are yet Ridiculous A Grief that 's Fresh finds Pity and Comfort but when 't is Inveterate 't is Laugh'd at for 't is either Counterfeit or Foolish Beside that to Weep excessively for the Dead is an Affront to the Living The most Justifyable Cause of Mourning is to see Good Men come to Ill Ends and Virtue Opprest by the Iniquity of Fortune But in This Case too they either suffer Resolutely and yield us Delight in their Courage and Example Or Meanly and so give us the less trouble for the Loss He that dies Chearfully Dryes up my Tears and he that dies Whiningly does not Deserve them I would bear the Death of Friends and Children with the same Constancy that I would expect my Own and no more Lament the One than Fear the Other He that bethinks himself how often Friends have been Parted will find more time lost among the Living than upon the Dead and the most Desperate Mourners are they that car'd least for their Friends when they were Living for they think to Redeem their Credits for want of Kindness to the Living by Extravagant Ravings after the Dead Some I know will have Grief to be only the Perverse Delight of a Restless Mind and Sorrows and Pleasures to be near Akin and there are I 'm Confident that find Joy even in their Tears But which is more Barbarous to be Insensible of Grief for the Death of a Friend or to Fish for Pleasure in Grief when a Son perhaps is burning or a Friend expiring To forget ones Friend to bury the Memory with the Body to Lament out of Measure is all Inhumane He that is Gone either would not have his Friend Tormented or does not know that he is so If he does not Feel it 't is Superfluous If he does 't is Unacceptable to him If Reason cannot prevail Reputation may for Immoderate Mourning lessens a Mans Character 'T is a shameful thing for a Wise Man to make the Wearyness of Grieving the Remedy of it In Time the most Stubborn Grief will leave us if in Prudence we do not leave That First BUT Do I Grieve for my Friends sake or for my Own Why should I afflict my self for the Loss of him that is either Happy or not at all in Being In the One Case 't is Envy and in the Other 't is Madness We are apt to say What would I give to see him again and to enjoy his Conversation I was never sad in his Company My Heart leap'd when ever I met him I want him where ever I go All that 's to be said is The Greater the Loss the Greater is the Virtue to Overcome it If Grieving will do no Good 't is an Idle thing to Grieve And if That which has befallen One Man remains to All it is as Unjust to Complain The whole World is upon the March toward the same Point Why do we not Cry for our selves that are to follow as well as for him that 's gone First Why do we not as well lament before hand for That which we know will be and cannot possibly but be He is not Gone but Sent before As there are many things that he has Lost so there are many things that he does not Fear as Anger Jealousie Envy c. Is he not more Happy in Desiring Nothing than Miserable in what he has lost We do not mourn for the Absent why then for the Dead who are effectually no Other We have Lost one Blessing But we have many Left And shall not all these Satisfactions Support us against One Sorrow THE Comfort of Having a Friend may be taken away but not That of having had one As there is a sharpness in some Fruits and a Bitterness in some Wines that pleases us so there is a mixture in the Remembrance of Friends where the Loss of their Company is sweeten'd again by the Contemplation of their Virtues In some Respects I have Lost what I had and in Others I retein still what I have Lost. 'T is an Ill Construction of Providence to reflect only upon my Friends being taken away without any Regard to the Benefit of his being once given me Let us therefore make the Best of our Friends while we have them for how long we shall keep them is Uncertain I have lost a Hopeful Son but How many Fathers have been deceiv'd in their Expectations And how many Noble Families have been destroy'd by Luxury and Riot He that Grieves for the loss of a Son What if he had lost a Friend And yet he that has lost a Friend has more Cause of Joy that he once had him than of Grief that he is taken away Shall a Man bury his Friendship with his Friend We are Ungrateful for that which is Past in hope of what 's to Come as if that which is to come would not quickly be Past too That which is past we are sure of We may receive Satisfaction 't is true both from the Future and what 's already Past the One by Expectation and the Other by Memory only the one may possibly not come to pass and it is Impossible to make the Other not to have Been BUT there 's no applying of Consolation to Fresh and Bleeding Sorrows the very Discourse Irritates the Grief and Inflames it 'T is like an Unseasonable Medicine in a Disease when the First Violence is Over it will be more Tractable and endure the Handling Those People whose Minds are weaken'd by long Felicity may be allow'd to Grone and Complain but it is otherwise with those that have led their dayes in Misfortunes A Long Course of Adversity has this Good in 't that though it vexes a Body a great while it comes to harden us at last As a Raw Solider shrinks at every Wound and dreads the Surgeon more than an Enemy whereas a Veteran sees his own Body cut and lam'd with as little Concern as if it were Anothers With the same Resolution should we stand the Shock and Cure of all Misfortunes we are never the better for our Experience if we have not yet learn'd to be Miserable And there 's no thought of Curing us by the Diversion of Sports and Entertainments we are apt to fall into Relapses wherefore we had better Overcome our Sorrow than Delude it CHAP. XXIV Consolations against Banishment and Bodily Pains IT is a Master-Piece to draw Good out of Evil and by the Help of Virtue to emprove
find that he can Stop and Turn at Pleasure 'T is a sign of Weakness and a kind of Stumbling for a Man to Run when he Intends only to Walk and it behoves us to have the same Command of our Minds that we have of our Bodies Beside that the greatest punishment of an Injury is the Conscience of having done it and no Man suffers more than he that is turn'd over to the Pain of a Repentance How much better is it to Compose Injuries than to Revenge them For it does not only spend time but the Revenge of one Injury exposes us to more In fine as it is unreasonable to be Angry at a Crime it is as foolish to be Angry without one BUT May not an honest Man then be allow'd to be Angry at the Murther of his Father or the Ravishing of his Sister or Daughter before his Face No not at all I will defend my Parents and I will repay the Injuries that are done them but it is my Piety and not my Anger that moves me to it I will do my Duty without fear or confusion I will not Rage I will not Weep but discharge the Office of a good Man without forfeiting the dignity of a Man If my Father be assaulted I 'll endeavor to rescue him If he be kill'd I 'll do right to his Memory and all This not in any transport of Passion but in Honor and Conscience Neither is there any need of Anger where Reason does the same thing A Man may be Temperate and yet Vigorous and raise his Mind according to the Occasion more or less as a Stone is thrown according to the Discretion and Intent of the Caster How outrageous have I seen some People for the Loss of a Monky or a Spaniel and were it not a shame to have the same sense for a Friend that we have for a Puppy and to cry like Children as much for a Bauble as for the Ruine of our Country This is not an Effect of Reason but of Infirmity For a Man indeed to expose his Person for his Prince his Parents or his Friends out of a Sense of honesty and a Judgment of Duty it is without dispute a worthy and a Glorious Action but it must be done then with Sobriety Calmness and Resolution It is high time to convince the World of the Indignity and Uselessness of this Passion when it has the Authority and Recommendation of no less than Aristotle himself as an Affection very much conducing to all heroick Actions that require Heat and Vigour Now to shew on the other side that it is not in any Case Profitable we shall lay open the Obstinate and Unbridled Madness of it A Wickedness neither sensible of Infamy nor of Glory without either Modesty or Fear and if it passes once from Anger into a harden'd Hatred it is Incurable It is either stronger than Reason or it is weaker If stronger there is no contending with it if weaker Reason will do the business without it Some will have it that an Angry Man is Good Natur'd and Sincere whereas in truth he only layes himself open out of heedlessness and want of Caution If it were in it self Good the more of it the better but in this Case the more the worse and a Wise Man does his duty without the Ayd of any thing that is ill 'T is objected by some that those are the most Generous Creatures which are the most prone to Anger But first Reason in Man is Impetus in Beasts Secondly without Discipline it runs into Audaciousness and Temerity over and above that the same thing does not help all If Anger helps the Lyon 'T is Fear that saves the Stag Swiftness the Hawk and Flight the Pigeon but Man has God for his Example who is never Angry and not the Creatures And yet it is not amiss sometimes to counterfeit Anger as upon the Stage Nay upon the Bench and in the Pulpit where the Imitation of it is more effectual than the thing it self But it is a great error to take this Passion either for a Companion or for an Assistant to Virtue that makes a Man incapable of all those Necessary Counsels by which Virtue is to govern her self Those are false and Inauspicious Powers and Destructive of themselves which arise only from the Accession and fervour of a Disease Reason Judges according to right Anger will have every thing seem right whatever it does and when it has once pitcht upon a Mistake it is never to be convinc'd but prefers a Pertinacy even in the greatest Evil before the most necessary Repentance SOME People are of Opinion that Anger Enflames and Animates the Soldier that it is a Spur to bold and arduous Undertakings and that it were better to Moderate than wholly to suppress it for fear of dissolving the Spirit and force of the Mind To this I answer That Virtue does not need the help of Vice but where there is any Ardour of Mind Necessary we may rouze our selves and be more or less brisk and vigorous as there is occasion But all without Anger still 'T is a mistake to say that we may make use of Anger as a Common Soldier but not as a Commander for if it hears Reason and follows Ordeâ—…s it is not properly Anger and if it does Not it is Contumacious and Mutinous By this Argument a Man must be Angry to be Valiant Covetous to be Industrious Timorous to be Safe which makes our Reason confederate with our Affections And 't is all one whether Passion be Inconsiderate without Reason or Reason Ineffectual without Passion Since the one cannot be without the other 'T is true the less the Passion the less is the Mischief for a little Passion is the smaller Evil. Nay so far is it from being of Use or Advantage in the Field that 't is the Place of all others where 't is the most dangerous for the Actions of War are to be managed with Order and Caution not Precipitation and Phancy Whereas Anger is heedless and heady and the Virtue only of Barbarous Nations which though their Bodies were much stronger and more harden'd were still worsted by the Moderation and Discipline of the Romanes There is not upon the Face of the Earth a Bolder or a more Indefatigable Nation than the Germans not a Braver upon a Charge nor a Hardyer against Colds and Heats their only Delight and Exercise is in Armes to the Utter neglect of all things else and yet upon the Encounter they are broken and destroy'd through their own Undisciplin'd Temerity even by the most effeminate of Men. The Huntsman is not Angry with the wild Bore when he either pursues or receives him a good Sword-man watches his Opportunity and keeps himself upon his Guard whereas passion layes a Man open nay it is one of the prime Lessons in a Fencing-School to learn not to be Angry If Fabius had been Cholerick Rome had been lost and before he Conquer'd
needlesly disquiet our Minds we are offended with our Servants our Masters our Princes our Clyents 'T is but a little Patience and we shall be all of us Equal so that there 's no need either of Ambushes or of Combats Our Wrath cannot go beyond Death and Death will most undoubtedly come whether we be peevish or quiet 'T is time lost to take pains to do that which will infallibly be done without us But suppose that we would only have our Enemy Banish'd Disgrac'd or Damag'd let his punishment be more or less it is yet too long either for him to be inhumanely tormented or for us our selves to be most barbarously pleas'd with it It holds in Anger as in Mourning it must and will at last fall of it self let us look to it then betimes for when 't is once come to an ill habit we shall never want matter to feed it and 't is much better to overcome our Passions than to be overcome by them Some way or other either our Parents Children Servants Acquaintance or Strangers will be continually vexing us We are toss'd hither and thither by our Affections like a Feather in a Storm and by fresh provocations the Madness becomes perpetual Miserable Creatures That ever our Precious hours should be so ill employ'd How prone and eager are we in our Hatred and how backward in our Love were it not much better now to be making of Friendships pacifying of Enemies doing of good Offices both Publick and Private than to be still meditating of mischief and designing how to wound one Man in his Fame another in his Fortune a third in his Person the One being so Easie Innocent and Safe and the Other so Difficult Impious and Hazardous Nay take a Man in Chains and at the Foot of his Oppressor How many are there who even in this Case have maim'd themselves in the heat of their Violence upon others THIS Untractable Passion is much more easily kept out than Govern'd when it is once Admitted for the stronger will give Laws to the weaker and make Reason a slave to the Appetite It carries us headlong and in the Course of our Fury we have no more command of our Minds than we have of our Bodies down a Precipice when they are once in Motion there 's no stop till they come to the bottom Not but that it is Possible for a Man to be warm in Winter and not to sweat in Summer either by the Benefit of the Place or the hardyness of the Body And in like manner we may provide against Anger But certain it is that Virtue and Vice can never agree in the same Subject and one may be as well a Sick Man and a Sound at the same time as a Good Man and an Angry Beside if we will needs be quarrelsome it must be either with our Superior our Equal or Inferior To contend with our Superior is Folly and Madness with our Equals it is Doubtful and Dangerous and with our Inferiors 'tis Base Nor does any Man know but that he that is now our Enemy may come hereafter to be our Friend over and above the Reputation of Clemency and Good Nature And what can be more Honorable or Comfortable than to exchange a Feud for a Friendship The People of Rome never had more Faithful Allies than those that were at first their most obstinate Enemies Neither had the Roman Empire ever arriv'd at that height of Power if Providence had not mingled the Vanquish'd with the Conquerors There 's an end of the Contest when one side deserts it So that the paying of Anger with Benefits puts a period to the Controversie But however if it be our Fortune to Transgress let not our Anger descend to the Children Friends or Relations even of our bitterest Enemies the very Cruelty of Sylla was heightned by that Instance of Incapacitating the Issue of the Proscrib'd It is Inhumane to entail the hatred we have for the Father upon his Posterity A Good and a Wise Man is not to be an Enemy of Wicked Men but a Reprover of them and he is to look upon all the Drunkards the Lustful the Thankless Covetous and Ambitious that he meets with no otherwise than as a Physitian looks upon his Patients for he that will be Angry with Any Man must be displeas'd with All which were as ridiculous as to quarrel with a Body for stumbling in the Dark with one that 's deaf for not doing as you bid him Or with a Schoolboy for loving his Play better than his Book Democritus laugh'd and Heraclitus wept at the Folly and Wickedness of the World but we never Read of an Angry Philosopher THIS is undoubtedly the detestable of Vices even compar'd with the worst of them Avarice Scrapes and gathers together that which some Body may be the better for but Anger lashes out and no Man comes off gratis An Angry Master makes one Servant run away and another hang himself and his Choler causes him a much greater loss than he suffer'd in the Occasion of it 'T is the cause of Mourning to the Father and of Divorce to the Husband It makes the Magistrate Odious and gives the Candidate a Repulse And it is worse than Luxury too which only aimes at its proper pleasure whereas the other is bent upon another bodies pain The Malevolent and the Envious content themselves only to wish another Man Miserable but 't is the business of Anger to make him so and to wreak the Mischief it self not so much desiring the hurt of another as to inflict it Among the Powerful it breaks out into open War and into a Private one with the Common People but without Force or Armes It engages us in Treacheries perpetual Troubles and Contentions It alters the very Nature of a Man and punishes it self in the Persecution of others Humanity excites us to Love This to Hatred That to be beneficial to Others This to hurt them Beside that though it proceeds from too high a Conceipt of our selves it is yet in effect but a Narrow and Contemptible Affection especially when it meets with a Mind that is hard and impenetrable and returns the dart upon the head of him that casts it TO take a further view now of the miserable Consequences and Sanguinary Effects of this hideous distemper from hence come Slaughters and Poysons Wars and Desolation the Rasing and Burning of Cities the Unpeopling of Nations and the turning of Populous Countryes into Desarts Publick Massacres and Regicides Princes led in Triumph some Murther'd in their Bed-Chambers others Stabb'd in the Senate or Cut off in the Security of their Spectacles and Pleasures Some there are that take Anger for a Princely Quality as Darius who in his Expedition against the Scythians being besought by a Noble-Man that had Three Sons that he would vouchsafe to accept of two of them into his Service and leave the third at home for a Comfort to his Father I will do more
of the Way A Glorious Spectacle sayes Hannibal when he saw the Trenches flowing with Humane Blood and if the Rivers had run Blood too he would have lik'd it so much the better AMONG the famous and detestable Speeches that are committed to Memory I know none worse than that Impudent and Tyrannical Maxime Let them Hate me so they Fear me not considering that those that are kept in Obedience by Fear are both Malicious and Mercenary and only wait for an opportunity to change their Master Beside that whosoever is Terrible to Others is likewise afraid of Himself What is more ordinary than for a Tyrant to be destroy'd by his own Guards which is no more than the putting of those Crimes into Practice which they learned of their Masters How many Slaves have reveng'd themselves of their Cruel oppressors though they were sure to dye for 't but when it comes once to a Popular Tyranny whole Nations conspire against it For whosoever threatens All is in danger of All over and above that the Cruelty of a Prince encreases the number of his Enemies by destroying some of them for it entailes an hereditary hatred upon the Friends and Relations of those that are taken away And then it has this Misfortune that a Man must be wicked upon Necessity for there 's no going back So that he must betake himself to Armes and yet he lives in fear He can neither trust to the Faith of his Friends nor to the Piety of his Children he both dreads Death and wishes it and becomes a greater Terror to Himself than he is to his People Nay if there were nothing else to make Cruelty detestable it were enough that it passes all Bounds both of Custome and Humanity and is follow'd upon the Heel with Sword or Poyson A Private Malice indeed does not move whole Cities but that which extends to All is every Bodies Mark One Sick Person gives no great disturbance in a Family but when it comes to a Depopulating Plague all People fly from 't And why should a Prince expect any Man to be good whom he has taught to be wicked BUT What if it were Safe to be cruel Were it not still a sad thing the very State of such a Government A Government that beares the Image of a Taken City where there 's nothing but Sorrow Trouble and Confusion Men dare not so much as trust themselves with their Friends or with their Pleasures There is not any Entertainment so Innocent but it affords pretence of Crime and Danger People are betray'd at their Tables and in their Cups and drawn from the very Theatre to the Prison How horrid a Madness is it to be still Raging and Killing to have the ratling of Chains alwayes in our Ears Bloody Spectacles before our Eyes and to carry Terror and Dismay wherever we go If we had Lyons and Serpents to rule over us this would be the manner of Their Government saving that they agree better among themselves It passes for a Mark of Greatness to burn Cities and lay whole Kingdoms waste nor is it for the honor of a Prince to appoint This or That single Man to be kill'd unless they have whole Troops or sometimes Legions to work upon But it is not the Spoils of War and Bloody Trophyes that make a Prince Glorious but the Divine Power of preserving Unity and Peace Ruine without Distinction is more properly the business of a General Deluge or a Conflagration Neither does a Fierce and Inexorable Anger become the Supreme Magistrate Greatness of Mind is alwayes Meek and Humble but Cruelty is a Note and an Effect of Weakness and brings down a Governor to the Level of a Competitor OF Clemency THE Humanity and Excellence of this Virtue is confess'd at all hands as well by the Men of Pleasure and those that think every Man was made for himself as by the Stoicks that make Man a Sociable Creature and born for the Common Good of Mankind For it is of all Dispositions the most Peaceable and Quiet But before we enter any further upon the Discourse it would be first known what Clemency is that we may distinguish it from Pitty which is a Weakness though many times mistaken for a Virtue And the next thing will be to bring the Mind to the Habit and Exercise of it CLEMENCY is a favourable Disposition of the Mind in the Matter of inflicting Punishment Or A Moderation that remits somewhat of the Penalty Incurr'd As Pardon is the Total Remission of a deserv'd Punishment We must be Careful not to confound Clemency with Pitty for as Religion worships God and Superstition Profanes that worship so should we distinguish betwixt Clemency and Pitty Practising the One and Avoiding the Other For Pitty proceeds from a Narrowness of Mind that respects rather the Fortune than the Cause It is a kind of Moral Sickness contracted from other Peoples Misfortunes Such another weakness as Laughing or Yawning for Company or as That of Sick Eyes that cannot look upon others that are Blear'd without dropping Themselves I 'll give a Shipwrack'd-Man a Plank a Lodging to a Stranger or a Piece of Mony to him that wants it I will dry up the Tears of my Friend yet I will not weep with him but treat him with Constancy and Humanity as one Man ought to treat Another IT is objected by some that Clemency is an Insignificant Virtue and that only the Bad are the Better for 't for the Good have no need on 't But in the first place as Physick is in Use only among the Sick and yet in Honor with the Sound so the Innocent have a Reverence for Clemency though Criminals are properly the Object of it And then again a Man may be Innocent and yet have Occasion for it too for by the Accidents of Fortune or the Condition of Times Virtue it self may come to be in danger Consider the most Populous City or Nation what a solitude would it be if none should be left there but those that could Stand the Test of a Severe Justice We should have neither Judges nor Accusers none either to Grant a Pardon or to Ask it More or less we are all Sinners and he that has best purg'd his Conscience was brought by Errors to Repentance And it is farther Profitable to Mankind for many Delinquents come to be Converted There is a Tenderness to be us'd even toward our Slaves and those that we have bought with our Mony How much more then to Free and to Honest Men that are rather under our Protection than Dominion Not that I would have it so General neither as not to distinguish betwixt the Good and the Bad for that would Introduce a Confusion and give a kind of encouragement to Wickedness It must therefore have a respect to the Quality of the Offender and separate the Curable from the Desperate for it is an equal Cruelty to pardon All and to pardon None Where the Matter is
How Miserable is that Man in Himself who when he has employ'd his Power in Rapines and Cruelty upon Others is yet more Unhappy in himself He stands in Fear both of his Domesticks and of Strangers the Faith of his Friends and the Piety of his Children and flies to Actual Violence to secure him from the Violence he Fears When he comes to look about him and to consider what he Has done what he Must and what he is About to do what with the Wickedness and with the Torments of his Conscience many times he Fears Death Oftner he wishes for 't and lives more Odious to himself than to his Subjects whereas on the Contrary he that takes a Care of the Publick though of One Part more perhaps than of Another yet there is not Any Part of it but he looks upon as Part of Himself His Mind is Tender and Gentle and even where Punishment is Necessary and Profitable he comes to it Unwillingly and without any Rancor or Enmity in his heart Let the Authority in fine be what it will Clemency becomes it and the Greater the Power the greater is the Glory of it It is a truly Royal Virtue for a Prince to deliver his People from Other Mens Anger and not to Oppress them with his Own The End SENECA'S MORALS The Third and Last Part. Digested into XXVIII EPISTLES By ROGER L'ESTRANGE LONDON Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Henry Brome at the Gun in S t Pauls Church-yard MDCLXXVIII THE Contents Epist. I. CErtain General Directions for the Government of the Voice as in speaking Soft or Loud Quick or Slow The Speech is the Index of the Mind Pag. 1. Epist. II. Of Stiles Compositions and the Choice of Words That 's the Best way of Writing and Speaking which is Free and Natural Advice concerning Reading p. 6. Epist. III. Against all sorts of Affectation in Discourse Phantastical Studies Impertinent and Unprofitable Subtilties Mans Business is Virtue not Words p. 16. Epist. IV. Business and want of Newes are no Excuse among Friends for not Writing Wise Men are the better for one another How far Wisdom may be advanc'd by Precept p. 26. Epist. V. Seneca gives an Accompt of Himself his Studies and of his Inclinations With many Excellent Reflections upon the Duties and the Errors of Humane Life p. 37. Epist. VI. The Blessings of a Virtuous Retirement How we come to the Knowledge of Virtue A Distinction betwixt Good and Honest. A Wise Man Contents himself with his Lot p. 49. Epist. VII Of Impertinent Studies and Impertinent Men. Philosophers the Best Companions p. 60. Epist. VIII Against Singularity of Manners and Behaviour p. 67. Epist. IX The Blessings of a Vigorous Mind in a Decay'd Body With some Pertinent Reflections of Seneca upon his Own Age. p. 72. Epist. X. Custome is a Great Matter either in Good or Ill. We should check our Passions Betimes Involuntary Motions are Invincible p. 78. Epist. XI We are Divided in our Selves and Confound Good and Evil. p. 84. Epist. XII We are mov'd at the Novelty of things for want of Understanding the Reason of them p. 92. Epist. XIII Every Man is the Artisicer of his Own Fortune Of Justice and Injustice p. 97. Epist. XIV Of Trust in Friendship Prayer and Bodily Exercise p. 102. Epist. XV. The Danger of Flattery and in what Cases a Man may be allow'd to Commend Himself p. 108. Epist. XVI A General Dissolution of Manners With a Censure of Corrupt Magistrates p. 114. Epist. XVII The Original of All Men is the Same And Virtue is the Only Nobility There is a Tenderness due to Servants p. 121. Epist. XVIII We are Juster to Men than to God Of Life and Death Of Good and Evil. p. 127. Epist. XIX Of True Courage p. 137. Epist. XX. 'T is Never too Late to Learn The Advantages of a Private Life and the Slavery of a Publick The Ends of Punishment p. 143. Epist. XXI The Two Blessings of Life are a Sound Body and a Quiet Mind The Extravagance of the Roman Luxury The Moderation and Simplicity of Former Times p. 152. Epist. XXII Man is Compounded of Soul and Body And has Naturally a Civil War within Himself The Difference betwixt a Life of Virtue and a Life of Pleasure p. 161. Epist. XXIII We abuse Gods Blessings and turn them into Mischiefs Meditations upon the Horrors of Earthquakes and Consolations against them Death is the same thing which way soever it comes Only we are more mov'd by Accidents that we are not us'd to p. 167. Epist. XXIV A Discourse of Gods Providence in the Misfortunes of Good Men in this World and in the Prosperity of the Wicked p. 178. Epist. XXV A Wise and a Good Man is Proof against all Accidents Of Fate p. 189. Epist. XXVI All things are Produced out of Cause and Matter Of Providence A Brave Man is a Match for Fortune p. 197. Epist. XXVII Some Traditions of the Antients concerning Thunder and Lightning with the Authors Contemplations Thereupon p. 204. Epist. XXVIII A Contemplation of Heaven and Heavenly Things Of God and of the Soul p. 211. Epistles EPIST. I. Certain General Directions for the Government of the Voice as in speaking Soft or Loud Quick or Slow The Speech is the Index of the Mind YOu say well that in Speaking the very Ordering of the Voice to say nothing of the Actions Countenances and other Circumstances that accompany it is a Consideration worthy of a Wise Man There are that prescribe Certain Modes of Rising and Falling Nay if you will be govern'd by Them you shall not speak a word move a step or eat a Bit but by a Rule And these perhaps are too Critical Do not understand me yet as if I made no Difference betwixt entring upon a Discourse Loud or Soft for the Affections do Naturally Rise by Degrees and in all Disputes or Pleadings whether Publick or Private a Man should properly Begin with Modesty and Temper and so Advance by little and little if need be into Clamor and Vociferation And as the Voice Rises by Degrees let it fall so too not Snapping off upon a sudden but Abating as upon Moderation The other is Unmannerly and Rude He that has a Precipitate speech is commonly violent in his Manners Beside that there is in it much of Vanity and Emptyness and no Man takes satisfaction in a Flux of Words without Choice where the Noise is more than the Value Fabian was a Man Eminent both for his Life and Learning and no less for his Eloquence His Speech was rather Easie and Sliding than Quick Which he accompted to be not only Lyable to many Errors but to a Suspicion of Immodesty Nay let a Man have Words never so much at Will he will no more speak Fast than he will Run for fear his Tongue should go before his Wit The Speech of a Philosopher should be like his Life Compos'd without Pressing or Stumbling which is fitter for a Mountebank than a
about Words I would not have him negligent neither But let him speak with Assurance and without Affectation If we can let our Discourses be Powerful but however let them be Clear I like a Composition that is Nervous and Strong but yet I would have it Sweet and Gracious withal There are many things I know that please well enough in the Delivery and yet will hardly abide the Test of an Examination But That Eloquence is Mischievous that diverts a Man from Things to Words and little better than a Prostitution of Letters For What signifies the Pomp of Words or the Jumbling of Syllables to the making up of a Wise Man Tully's Composition indeed is equal his Numbers are Harmonious Free and Gentle And yet he takes a Care not to make any forfeiture of his Gravity Fabian is a Great Man in being Second to Cicero Pollio is a Great Man too though a step below him and so is Livy likewise though he comes after the other Three But several Subjects require several Excellencies An Orator should be Sharp the Tragedian Great and the Comedian Pleasant When a Man Declaimes against Vice let him be Bitter against Dangers Bold against Fortune Proud against Ambition Reproachful Let him Chide Luxury Defame Lust An Impotency of Mind must be Broken In these Cases Words are the least part of an Honest Mans Business In the Matter of Composition I would Write as I Speak with Ease and Freedom for it is more Friendly as well as more Natural And so much my Inclination that if I could make my mind visible to you I would neither Speak nor Write it If I put my Thoughts in good Sense the Matter of Ornament I shall leave to the Orators There are some things that a Man may Write even as he Travels Others that require Privacy and Leisure But however it is good in Writing as in other Cases to leave the best Bit for the last A Philosopher has no more to do than to speak properly and in words that express his Meaning And this may be done without Tossing of the Hands Stamping or any Violent Agitation of the Body without either the Vanity of the Theatre on the one hand or an Insipid Heaviness on the other I would have his Speech as plain and single as his Life for he is then as good as his Word when both Hearing him and Seeing him we find him to be the same Person And yet if a Man can be Eloquent without more pains than the thing 's worth let him use his Faculty Provided that he value himself upon the Matter More than upon the Words and apply himself rather to the Understanding than to the Phansy for this is a business of Virtue not a Tryal of Wit Who is there that would not rather have a Healing than a Rhetorical Physitian But for esteeming any Man purely upon the score of his Rhetorick I would as soon chuse a Pilot for a good head of Hair In the matter of Reading I would fix upon some Particular Authors and make them my own He that is every where is no where but like a Man that spends his Life in Travel he has many Hosts but few Friends Which is the very Condition of him that skips from one Book to Another The Variety does but distract his Head and for want of Digesting it turns to Corruption in stead of Nourishment 'T is a good Argument of a Well Compos'd Mind when a Man loves Home and to keep Company with Himself VVhereas a Rambling Head is a Certain Sign of a Sickly Humor Many Books and many Acquaintances bring a Man to a Levity of Disposition and a Liking of Change What is the Body the better for Meat that will not stay with it Nor is there any thing more Hurtful in the Case of Diseases or Wounds than the frequent shifting of Physick or Plaisters Of Authors be sure to make Choice of the Best and as I said before to stick Close to them and though you may take up Others by the By reserve some Select Ones however for your Study and Retreat In your Reading you will every day meet with Consolation and Support against Poverty Death and Other Calamities Incident to Humane Life Extract what you like and then single out some Particular from the rest for That dayes Meditation Reading does not only Feed and Entertain the Understanding but when a Man is doz'd with One Study he relieves himself with Another But still Reading and Writing are to be taken up by Turns So long as the Meat lies whole upon the Stomach it is a Burthen to us but upon the Concoction it passes into Strength and Blood And so it fares with our Studies so long as they lye whole they pass only into the Memory without affecting the Understanding But upon Meditation they become our Own and Supply us with Strength and Virtue The Bee that wanders and Sips from every Flower disposes what she has Gather'd into her Cells EPIST. III. Against all sorts of Affectation in Discourse Phantastical Studies Impertinent and Unprofitable Subtilties Mans Business is Virtue not Words THere are many men and some of great Sence too that lose both the Profit and the Reputation of good Thoughts by the Uncouth manner of Expressing them They love to talk in mystery and take it for a marque of wisdome not to be Understood They are so fond of making themselves Publique that they will rather be Ridiculous than not taken Notice of When the Mind grows Squeamish and comes to a Loathing of things that are Common as if they were Sordid That Sickness betrays it self in our way of Speaking too for we must have New Words New Compositions and it passes for an Ornament to borrow from other Tongues where we may be better furnished in our Own One Man Prizes himself upon being Concise and talking in Parables Another runs himself out in Words and that which He takes only for Copious renders him to Others both Ridiculous and Tedious Others there are that Like the Error well enough but cannot come Up to 't But take this for a Rule Wheresoever the Speech is Corrupted so is the Mind Some are only for Words Antiquated and long since out of Date Others only for that which is Popular and Course and they are Both in the Wrong for the One takes too Little Care and the Other too Much. Some are for a Rough broken Stile as if it were a thing Unmanly to please the Ear Others are too Nice upon the Matter of Number and make it rather Singing than Speaking Some affect not to be understood till the end of the Period and hardly then neither 'T is not good a Stile that is either too Bold or too Florid the One wants Modesty and the Other Effect Some are too Starch'd and Formal Others take a Pride in being Rugged and if they chance to let fall any thing that is Smooth they 'll transpose and mangle it on purpose only to maim the Period
Condition Upon these Thoughts I betake my self to my Philosophy and then methinks I am not well unless I put my self into some Publick Employment Not for the Honor or the Profit of it but only to place my self in a Station where I may be serviceable to my Country and to my Friends But when I come on the other side to consider the Uneasiness the Abuses and the Loss of Time that attends Publick Affairs I get me home again as fast as I can and take up a Resolution of spending the Remainder of my dayes within the Privacy of my own Walls How great a madness is it to set our hearts upon Trifles especially to the neglect of the most serious Offices of our Lives and the most important End of our Being How Miserable as well as Short is their Life that Compass with great Labor what they Possess with Greater and Hold with Anxiety what they Acquire with Trouble But we are govern'd in all things by Opinion and every thing is to us as we Believe it What is Poverty but a Privative and not intended of what a Man Has but of that which he has Not The great Subject of Humane Calamities is Mony Take all the Rest together as Death Sickness Fear Desire Pain Labor and those which proceed from Mony exceed them all 'T is a Wonderful Folly that of Tumblers Rope-Dancers Divers and what pains they take and what hazards they run for an Inconsiderable Gain And yet we have not Patience for the Thousandth Part of that trouble though it would put us into the Possession of an everlasting Quiet Epicurus for Experiment sake confin'd himself to a narrower Allowance than that of the Severest Prisons to the most Capital Offenders and found himself at Ease too in a stricter Diet than any Man in the Worst Condition needs to Fear This was to prevent Fortune and to Frustrate the Worst which she can do We should never know any thing to be Superfluous but by the Want of it How many things do we provide only because Others have them and for fashion sake Caligula offer'd Demetrius 5000 Crowns who rejected them with a Smile as who should say It was so little it did him no honor the refusing of it Nothing less sayes he than the Offer of his whole Empire could have been a Temptation to have try'd the Firmness of my Virtue By this Contempt of Riches is intended only the Fearless Possession of them And the way to attain That is to perswade our selves that we may live Happily without them How many of those things which Reason formerly told us were Superfluous and Mimical do we now find to be so by Experience But we are misled by the Counterfeit of Good on the One hand and the Suspicion of Evil on the Other Not that Riches are an Efficient Cause of Mischief but they are a Precedent Cause by way of Irritation and Attraction For they have so near a Resemblance of Good that most People take them to be Good Nay Virtue it self is also a Precedent Cause of Evil as many are Envy'd for their Wisdom or for their Justice Which does not arise from the thing it self but from the Irreprovable power of Virtue that forces all Men to Admire and to Love it That is not Good that is More Advantageous to us but That which is Only so EPIST. VI. The Blessings of a Virtuous Retirement How we come to the Knowledge of Virtue A Distinction betwixt Good and Honest. A Wise Man Contents himself with his Lot THere is no Opportunity of Enquiring Where you are What you do and What Company you keep that scapes me And I am well enough pleas'd that I can hear nothing concerning you for it shews that you live Retir'd Not but that I durst trust you with the wide World too But however it is not easie such a General Conversation Nor is it absolutely safe neither for though it could not Corrupt you it would yet Hinder you Now wheresoever you are know that I am with you and you are so to Live as if I both heard and saw you Your Letters are really Blessings to me and the sense of your Emprovements relieves me even under the Consideration of my own decay Remember that as I am Old so are you Mortal Be true to your Self and Examine your self whether you be of the same Mind to day that you were yesterday for That 's a Sign of Perfect Wisdom And yet give me leave to tell you that though Change of Mind be a Token of Imperfection it is the Business of my Age to Unwill One day that which I Will'd Another And let me recommend it to your Practice too in many Cases for the Abatement of our Appetites and of our Errors is the best Entertainment of Mankind It is for Young Men to Gather Knowledge and for Old Men to Use it And assure your self that no Man gives a fairer Accompt of his time than he that makes it his daily Study to make himself Better If you be in Health and think it worth your while to become the Master of your Self it is my Desire and my Advice that you apply your self to Wisdom with your whole Heart and judge of your Emprovement not by what you Speak or by what you Write but by the firmness of your Mind and the Government of your Passions What Extremities have some Men endur'd in Sieges even for the Ambition and Interest of other People And Shall not a Man venture the Crossing of an Intemperate Lust for the Conquest of himself You do very well to betake your self to a Private Life and better yet in keeping of that Privacy Private For otherwise your Retreat would look like Ostentation The greatest Actions of our Lives are those that we do in a Recess from Business Beside that there are some Governments and Employments that a Man would not have any thing to do withall And then it is to be consider'd that Publick Offices and Commissions are commonly bought with our Mony Whereas the great Blessings of Leisure and Privacy cost us Nothing Contemplation is undoubtedly the best Entertainment of Peace and only a Shorter Cut to Heaven it Self Over and above that Business makes us Troublesome to Others and unquiet to our Selves For the End of One Appetite or Design is the Beginning of Another To say nothing of the Expence of Time in Vexatious Attendances and the Danger of Competitors Such a Man perhaps has more Friends at Court than I have a larger Train a Fairer Estate more profitable Offices and more Illustrious Titles But What do I care to be overcome by Men in Some Cases so long as Fortune is overcome by Me in All These Considerations should have been Earlyer for 't is too late in the Article of Death to Project the Happiness of Life And yet there is no Age better Adapted to Virtue than that which comes by many Experiments and long Sufferings to the Knowledge of it For our Lusts
are then weak and our Judgment Strong And Wisdom is the Effect of Time Some are of Opinion That we come to the Knowledge of Virtue by Chance which were an Indignity Others by Observation and by Comparing Matters of Fact one with another The Understanding by a kind of Analogy approving This or That for Good and Honest. These are two Points which Others make wholly Different but the Stoicks only Divide them Some will have every thing to be Good that is Beneficial to us As Mony Wine and so Lower to the meanest things we use And they reckon That to be Honest where there is a Reasonable Discharge of a Common Duty As Reverence to a Parent Tenderness to a Friend the Exposing of our Selves for our Country and the Regulating of our Lives according to Moderation and Prudence The Stoicks reckon them to be Two but so as to make those Two yet out of One. They will have nothing to be Good but what is Honest nor any thing to be Honest but that which is Good So that in some sort they are Mix'd and Inseparable There are some things that are neither Good nor Bad as War Embassy Jurisdiction but these in the Laudable Administration of them do of Doubtful become Good which Good is only a Consequent upon Honesty But honesty is Good in it self and the Other flows from it There are some Actions that seem to us Matter of Benignity Humanity Generosity Resolution which we are apt to admire as Perfect And yet upon farther Examination we find that Great Vices were concealed under the Resemblances of Eminent Virtues Glorious Actions are the Images of Virtue but yet many things seem to be Good that are Evil and Evil that are Good And the Skill is to Distinguish betwixt things that are so much Alike in Shew and so Disagreeing in Effect We are led to the Understanding of Virtue by the Congruity we find in such and such Actions to Nature and Right Reason By the Order Grace and Constancy of them and by a Certain Majesty and Greatness that surpasses all other things From hence proceeds a Happy Life To which nothing comes Amiss but on the Contrary every thing succeeds to our very Wish There is no wrangling with Fortune No being out of Humor for Accidents whatsoever befalls me is my Lot and whether in Appearance it be Good or Bad it is Gods Pleasure and it is my Duty to bear it When a Man has once gotten a Habit of Virtue all his Actions are Equal He is constantly One and the Same Man and he does Well not only upon Counsel but out of Custome too Shall I tell you now in a Word the Sum of Human Duty Patience where we are to Suffer and Prudence in the things we Do. It is a frequent Complaint in the World that the things we Enjoy are but Few Transitory and Uncertain So Ungrateful a Construction do we make of the Divine Bounty Hence it is that we are neither willing to Dye nor Contented to Live betwixt the Fear of the One and the Detestation of the Other Hence it is that we are perpetually shifting of Counsels and still craving of More because that which we call Felicity is not able to Fill us And what 's the Reason But that we are not yet come to that Immense and Insuperable Good which leaves us nothing farther to desire In that Blessed Estate we feel no want we are abundantly pleas'd with what we Have and what we have Not we do not Regard So that every thing is Great because it is Sufficient If we quit this Hold there will be no place for the Offices of Faith and Piety In the Discharge whereof we must both Suffer many things that the World calls Evil and part with many things which are commonly accompted Good True Joy is Everlasting Pleasures are False and Fugitive It is a great Encouragement to well-doing that when we are once in the Possession of Virtue it is our own for ever While I speak This to you I prescribe to my self what I Write I Read and Reduce all my Meditations to the Ordering of my own Manners There is nothing so Mean and Ordinary but it is Illustrated by Virtue and Externals are of no more Use to it than the Light of a Candle to the Glory of the Sun It is often Objected to me that I Advise People to quit the World to Retire and Content themselves with a good Conscience But What becomes of your Precepts then say they that enjoyn us to Dy in Action To whom I must answer That I am never more in Action than when I am alone in my Study where I have only Lock'd up my self in Private to attend the Business of the Publick I do not Lose so much as One Day nay and part of the night too I borrow for my Book When my Eyes will serve me no longer I fall Asleep and till Then I Work I have Retir'd my Self not only from Men but from Business also And my Own in the First Place to attend the Service of Posterity In hope that what I Now Write may in some Measure be Profitable to Future Generations But it is no New thing I know to Calumniate Virtue and Good Men for Sick Eyes will not endure the Light but like Birds of Night they fly from it into their Holes Why does such a Man talk so much of his Philosophy and yet live in Magnificence Of Contemning Riches Life Health and yet Cherish and Maintain them with the greatest Care Imaginable Banishment he sayes is but an Idle Name and yet he can grow old within his own Walls He puts no difference betwixt a Long Life and a short and yet he Spins out his Own as far as it will go The thing is This He does not Contemn Temporary Blessings so as to Refuse or Drive them away but if they Come they are Welcome if not he 'll never break his heart for the want of them He takes them into his House not into his Soul and he makes use of them only as Matter for his Virtue to work upon There is no doubt but a Wise Man may shew himself better in Riches than in Poverty That is to say his Temperance his Liberality his Magnificence Providence and Prudence will be more Conspicuous He will be a Wise Man still if he should want a Leg or an Arme but yet he had rather be Perfect He is pleas'd with Wealth as he would be at Sea with a Fair Wind or with the Glance of the warm Sun in a Frosty Morning So that the things which we call Indifferent are not yet without their Value And some greater than Others But with this Difference betwixt the Philosophers and the Common People Riches are the Servants of the One and the Masters of the Other From the One if they Depart they carry away nothing but Themselves but from the Other they take away the very Heart and Peace of the Possessor along with
Matter but an Ambitious Vanity that has crept in at the Back Dore A Wise Man will keep himself Clear of all these Fooleries without disturbing Publick Customs or making himself a Gazing Stock to the People But Will This Secure him think you I can no more warrant it than that a Temperate Man shall have his Health But it is very Probable that it may A Philosopher has enough to do to stand right in the World let him be never so modest And his out-side shall be still like That of Other people let them be never So Unlike within His Garments shall be neither Rich nor Sordid No matter for Arms Motto's and other Curiosities upon his Plate But he shall not yet make it a Matter of Conscience to have no Plate at all He that likes an Earthen Vessel as well as a Silver has not a greater Mind then he that uses Plate and reckons it as Dirt. It is our Duty to Live Better than the Common-People but not in Opposition to them as if Philosophy were a Faction for by so Doing in stead of Reforming and gaining upon them we drive them away and when they find it unreasonable to Imitate us in All things they will follow us in Nothing Our Business must be to live according to Nature and to own the Sense of Outward things with other people Not to Torment the Body and with Exclamations against that which is Sweet and Cleanly to Delight in Nastiness and To use not only a Course but a Sluttish and Offensive Diet. Wisdom Preaches Temperance not Mortification and a Man may be a very Good Husband without being a Sloven He that Stears a Middle Course betwixt Virtue and Popularity That is to say betwixt Good Manners and Discretion shall gain both Approbation and Reverence But What if a Man Governs himself in his Cloths in his Diet in his Exercises as he ought to do It is not that his Garments his Meat and Drink or his Walking are things Simply Good but it is the Tenor of a Mans Life and the Conformity of it to Right Nature and Reason Philosophy obliges us to Humanity Society and the Ordinary Use of External things It is not a thing to please the People with or to entertain an Idle Hour but a Study for the Forming of the Mind and the Guidance of Humane Life And a Wise Man should also Live as he Discourses and in all Points be like himself And in the first place set a Value upon himself before he can pretend to become Valuable to Others As well our Good Deeds as our Evil come home to us at last He that is Charitable makes others so by his Example and finds the Comfort of That Charity when he wants it himself He that is Cruel seldom finds Mercy 'T is a hard Matter for a Man to be both Popular and Virtuous for he must be Like the People that would oblige them and the Kindness of Dishonest Men is not to be acquir'd by Honest Means He Lives by Reason not by Custome He shuns the very Conversation of the Intemperate and Ambitious He knows the Danger of Great Examples of Wickedness and that Publick Errors impose upon the World under the Authority of Presidents For they take for Granted that they are never out of the way so long as they keep the Road. We are beset with Dangers and therefore a Wise Man should have his Virtues in Continual Readiness to Encounter them Whether Poverty Loss of Friends Pain Sickness or the like He still maintains his Post Whereas a Fool is Surpriz'd at every thing and afraid of his Very Succors Either he makes no Resistance at all or else he does it by Halves He will neither take Advice from Others nor look to himself He reckons upon Philosophy as a thing not worth his time and if he can but get the Reputation of a Good Man among the Common People he takes no farther Care but Accompts that he has done his Duty EPIST. IX The Blessings of a Vigorous Mind in a Decay'd Body with some Pertinent Reflections of Seneca upon his Own Age. WHen I call Claranus my School-fellow I need not say any thing more of his Age having told you that He and I were Cotemporaries You would not Imagine how Green and Vigorous his Mind is and the perpetual Conflict that it has with his Body They were Naturally Ill-match'd unless to shew that a Generous Spirit may â—…e lodg'd under any shape He has Surmounted all Difficulties and from the Contempt of Himself is advanc'd to the Contempt of All things else When I consider him well methinks his Body appears to me as fair as his Mind If Nature could have brought the Soul Naked into the World perhaps she would have done it But yet she does a greater thing in Exalting that Soul above all Impediments of the Flesh. It is a great Happiness to preserve the Force of the Mind in the Decay of the Body and to see the Loss of Appetite More than Requited with the Love of Virtue But whether I Owe This Comfort to my Age or to Wisdome is the Question And whether if I Could any longer I Would not still do the same things over again which I Ought not to do If Age had no other Pleasure than This that it neither Cares for any thing nor stands in need of any thing it were a Great one to me to have left all my painful and troublesome Lusts Behind me But ' T is uneasie you 'll say to be alwayes in Fear of Death As if That Apprehension did not Concern a Young Man as well as an Old Or that Death only call'd us according to our Years I am however beholden to my Old Age that has now confin'd me to my Bed and put me out of Condition of doing those things any longer which I should not do The Less my Mind has to do with my Body the Better And if Age puts an end to my Desires and does the Business of Virtue there can be no Cause of Complaint nor can there be any Gentler End than to melt away in a kind of Dissolution Where Fire meets with Opposition and Matter to work upon it is Furious and Rages but where it finds no Fewel as in Old Age it goes out quietly for want of Nourishment Nor is the Body the Setled Habitation of the Mind but a Temporary Lodging which we are to leave whensoever the Master of the House pleases Neither does the Soul when it has left the Body any more Care what becomes of the Carkass and the several parts of it than a Man does for the shavings of his Beard under the hand of the Barber There is not any thing that Exposes a Man to more Vexation and Reproach than the overmuch Love of the Body For Sence neither looks Forward nor Backward but only upon the Present Nor does it judge of Good or Evil or Foresee Consequences which give a Connexion to the Order and Series of
is a Frantick Error that Fears where it should Love and Rudely Invades where it should Reverentially Worship Death it self is no Evil at all but the Common Benefit and Right of Nature There is a great Difference betwixt those things which are Good in Common Opinion and those which are so in Truth and Effect The Former have the Name of Good things but not the Propriety They may Befall us but they do not Stick to us And they may be taken away without either Pain to us or Diminution We may Use them but not Trust in them For they are Only Deposited and they must and will Forsake us The only Treasure is That which Fortune has no Power over And the Greater it is the Less Envy it carries along with it Let our Vices Die before us and let us Discharge our Selves of our Dear-bought Pleasures that hurt us as well Past as to Come for they are follow'd with Repentance as well as our Sins There 's neither Substance in them nor Truth for a Man can never be weary of Truth but there 's a Satiety in Error The Former is alwayes the same but the Latter is Various and if a Man looks near it he may see through it Beside that the Possessions of a Wise Man are Maintain'd with Ease He has no need of Embassadors Armies and Castles but like God himself he does his Business without either Noise or Tumult Nay there is something so Venerable and Sacred in Virtue that if we do but meet with any thing like it the very Counterfeit Pleases us By the help of Philosophy the Soul gives the slip to the Body and Refreshes itself in Heaven Pleasures at best are Short-Liv'd but the Delights of Virtue are Secure and Perpetual Only we must Watch Labor and attend it our selves For 't is a Business not to be done by a Deputy Nor is it properly a Virtue to be a little better than the Worst Will any Man boast of his Eyes because they tell him that the Sun shines Neither is he presently a Good Man that thinks Ill of the Bad. For Wicked Men do That too and 't is perhaps the Greatest punishment of Sin the Displeasure that it gives to the Author of it The saddest Case of all is when we become Enamour'd of our Ruine and make Wickedness our Study When Vice has got a Reputation and when the Dissolute have lost the Only Good thing they had in their Excesses the Shame of Offending And yet the Lewedest part of our Corruptions is in Private which if any body had look'd on we should never have Committed Wherefore let us bear in our Minds the Idea of some great Person for whom we have an Awful Respect and his Authority will even Consecrate the very Secrets of our Souls and make us not only mend our Manners and purifie our very Thoughts but in good time render us Exemplary to Others and Venerable to our Selves If Scipio or Laelius were but in our Eye we should not dare to Transgress Why do we not make our selves then such persons as in whose Presence we dare not offend EPIST. XII We are Moved at the Novelty of things for want of Understanding the Reason of them THe whole Subject of Natural Philosophy falls under these Three Heads the Heavens the Air and the Earth The First Treats of the Nature of the Stars their Form and Magnitude The Substance of the Heavens whether Solid or not and whether they move of Themselves or be moved by any thing Else whether the Stars be Below them or fixed in their Orbs In what manner the Sun divides the Seasons of the Year and the like The Second Part Enquires into the Reason of things betwixt the Heavens and the Earth as Clouds Rain Snow Thunder and whatsoever the Air either Does or Suffers The Third handles matters that have a regard to the Earth as the difference of Soils Minerals Metalls Plants Groves c. But these are Considerations wholly forreign to our Purpose in the Nature of them though they may be of very Proper and Pertinent Application There is not any Man so Brutal and so Groveling upon the Earth but his Soul is rouz'd and carry'd up to higher Matters and Thoughts upon the Appearance of any New Light from Heaven What can be more worthy of Admiration than the Sun and the Stars in their Courses and Glory And yet so long as Nature goes on in her Ordinary way there 's no body takes Notice of them But when any thing falls out beyond Expectation and Custome what a Gazing Pointing and Questioning is there presently about it The People gather together and are at their Wits End not so much at the Importance of the Matter as at the Novelty Every Meteor sets People agog to know the Meaning of it and what it Portends and whether it be a Star or a Prodigy So that it is worth the while to enquire into the Nature and Philosophy of these Lights though not the business of this Place that by discovering the Reason we may overcome the Apprehension of them There are many things which we know to Be and yet we know nothing at all of what they Are. Is it not the Mind that Moves us and Restreins us But What that Ruling Power is we do no more understand than Where it is One will have it to be a Spirit Another will have it to be a Divine Power Some only a Subtile Ayr Others an Incorporeal Being and some again will have it to be only Blood and Heat Nay so far is the Mind from a Perfect understanding of Other things that it is still in search of it Self It is not long since we came to find out the Causes of Eclipses And farther Experience will bring more things to Light which are as yet in the Dark But one Age is not sufficient for so many Discoveries It must be the Work of Successions and Posterity and the time will come when we shall wonder that Mankind should be so long Ignorant of things that lay so open and so easie to be made Known Truth is offer'd to all But we must yet content our selves with what 's already found and leave some Truths to be retriv'd by After Ages The Exact truth of things is only known to God but it is yet Lawful for us to Enquire and to Conjecture though not with too much Confidence Nor yet alltogether without Hope In the First place however let us Learn things Necessary and if we have any time to spare we may apply it to Superfluities Why do we trouble our selves about things which Possibly May Happen and peradventure Not Let us rather provide against those Dangers that Watch us and lie in wait for us To suffer Shipwrack or to be Crush'd with the Ruin of a House these are great Misfortunes but they Seldom Happen The Deadly and the hourly danger that threatens Humane Life is from One Man to Another Other Calamities do Commonly give us Some Warning
Friendship in the mutual Communication of our most Secret Cares and Counsels But yet we are so to govern our selves that even an Enemy should not turn our Actions to Reproach For an Honest Man lives not to the World but to his own Conscience There is a Certain Softness of Nature and Spirit that Steals upon a Man and like Wine or Love â—…raws all things from him No Man will either Conceal or Tell all that he Hears But he that tells the Thing will hardly conceal the Author So that it passes from One to Another and That which was at first a Secret does presently become a Rumor For This and for many other Reasons we should set a Watch upon our Lips and attend the more useful and necessary Work of Contemplation The First Petition that we are to make to God Allmighty is for a Good Conscience The Second for Health of Mind and Then of Body There are some things which we directly wish for as Joy Peace and the like Some that we Pray for only in Case of Necessity as Patience in Pain or Sickness c. Others that Concern our External Behaviour as Modesty of Countenance Decency of Motion and such a Demeanor as may become a Prudent Man Many things may be Commodious that is to say they may be of more Use than Trouble and yet not Simply Good Some things we have for Exercise others for Instruction and Delight These things belong to us only as we are Men but not as we are Good Men. Some things serve to Correct and Regulate our Manners Others to Enquire into the Nature and Original of them How shall we know what a Man is to do if we do not search into his Nature and find out what is best for him and what he is to Avoid and what to Pursue Humanity not only keeps us from being Proud and Covetous but it makes us Affable and Gentle in our Words Actions and Affections We have no Precepts from the Liberal Arts neither for This nor for Sincerity Integrity of Manners Modesty Frugality no nor for Clemency it self That makes us as Tender of Anothers Blood as of our Own and distinguishes Men in Society from Beasts of Prey Some People are ever Complaining of the Iniquity of the Times But let no Man depend upon the Goodness of his Cause but rather upon the Firmness of his Courage there may be Force or Bribery I would hope the Best but prepare for the Worst What if I have serv'd an Ungrateful Interest and suffer'd wrongfully An Honest Man is more Troubled for the Injustice of a Severe Sentence than for the Cruelty of it and that his Country has done an Ill thing rather than that he himself suffers it If he be Banish'd the shame is not His but the Authors of it He Tempers his Delights and his Afflictions and sayes to himself That if our Joyes cannot be Long neither will our Sorrows He is Patient in his Own Misfortunes without Envy at the Advantages of his Neighbor His Virtue is Bolder in the Opposition of Ill things than Tyranny it self can be in the Imposing of them This is rather to tell you what you do already than what you should do Goe on as you have begun and make haste to be Perfect But take notice that the Mind is to be now and then Unbent a Glass of Wine a Journey a Mouthful of Fresh Ayr relieves it But then there 's a Difference betwixt a Remission and a Dissolution Without Exercise a Dull Tumor Invades us and it is Remarkable that Men of Brawny Armes and Broad Shoulders have commonly Weak Souls Some Exercises are short and Gentle and set the Body Right Presently But whatever we do let us return quickly to the Mind for That must not lie Idle A little Labor serves it and it works in all Seasons in Summer Winter Old Age Nothing hinders it And to make it more Valuable it is every day better than Other Not that I would have you perpetually Poring upon a Book neither but allow your self seasonable Respites and to 't again A Couch or a Walk does your Body Good without Interrupting your Study For you may Discourse Dictate Read Hear at the same time Now though the Exercises be Laudable and Healthful yet the Masters of them are for the most part of Lewd Example They divide their Lives betwixt the Tavern and the Hot-house and a Swingeing Debauch is a good dayes work with them But how apt we are to set Bounds to Others and none to our Selves and to Observe their Warts when our own Bodies are Cover'd with Ulcers What is more Ordinary than for People to Reverence and Detest the Fortunate at the same time even for Doing those things which they themselves would do if they Could There might be some Hope of our Amendment if we would but Confess our Faults as a Man must be awake that tells his Dream There are some Diseases which are absolutely Hopeless and past Cure but they may yet be Palliated and Philosophy if it cannot help in One Case it may in Another To a Man in a Fever a Gentle Remission is a Degree of Health and it is something if a Man be not perfectly sound to be yet more Curable But we are loth to be at the Pains of Attending our Own business We lead the Life in the World that some Lazy People do in a Market that stand gaping about them without either Buying or Selling. We slip our Opportunities and if they be not catch'd in the very Nick they are Irrecoverably Lost. EPIST. XV. The Danger of Flattery and in what Cases a Man may be allow'd to Commend himself DEmetrius was wont to say That Knavery was the Ready way to Riches and that the Casting off of Virtue was the First Step to Thriving in the World Study but the Art of Flattery which is now adayes so acceptable that a Moderate Commendation passes for a Libel Study That Art I say and you shall do your Business without Running any Risque upon the Seas or any hazards of Merchandizing Husbandry or Suits at Law There is not one Man of a Million that is Proof against an Artificial Flatterer but something or other will Stick if we do but give him the Hearing Nay we like him well enough though we shake him off and the Quarrel is easily Reconcil'd We seem to Oppose him but we do not shut the Dore against him or if we do it is but as a Mistriss will do some time upon her Servant She would be well enough content to be Hinder'd and take it much better yet to have it broke open Beside that a Man lies Commonly most Open where he is attack'd How shamefully are Great Men Fawn'd upon by their Slaves and inur'd to Fulsome Praises When the Only business of those that call themselves Friends is to try who can most Dextrously deceive his Master For want of knowing their own Strength they believe themselves as Great as their Parasites
Represent them And venture upon Broyles and Wars to their Irreparable Destruction They break Alliances and Transport themselves into Passions which for want of Better Counsels hurry them on to Blood and Confusion They pursue every wild Imagination as a Certainty and think it a greater Disgrace to be Bent than to be Broken They set up their Rest upon the Perpetuity of a Tottering Fortune till they come at last to see the Ruin of themselves and their Possessions and too late to Understand that their Misfortunes and their Flatteries were of the same Date There is a Sparing and a Crafty Flattery that looks like Plain-Dealing But all Flatteries are words of Course and he that Receives them will give them Nay let it be never so shameless a Man takes all to himself though his very Conscience gives him the Lye Cruelty shall be Translated Mercy Extortion and Oppression shall be called Liberality Lust and Gluttony to the Highest Degree in the World shall be magnify'd for Temperance Now What hope is there of his Changing for the Better that values himself for the best of Men already The stroke of an Arrow Convinc'd Alexander that he was not the Son of Iupiter but a Mortal Man And thus upon the Experiment of Humane Frailty should every Man say to himself Am not I sad sometimes and tortur'd betwixt Hope and Fear Do I not Hanker after Vain Pleasures He that is not yet satisfy'd is not so good as he should be The words of Flatterers and Parasites seldome Die in the Hearing and when they have gain'd admittance they grow more and more upon you and shortly they 'll tell you that Virtue Philosophy and Iustice are but Empty Sounds Let every Man Live while he may and make the best of the Present And not Govern himself at a rate as if he were to keep a Diary for his Father What Madness is it to enrich a Man's Heir and starve Himself And to turn a Friend into an Enemy For his Joy will be proportion'd to what you leave him Never trouble your self for these superfluous Censors of other Mens Lives and Enemies of their Own These Pedagogues of Mankind are not worth your Care These are the People that draw us from our Parents and Country our Friends and other Necessary Duties I would neither be deceiv'd my self nor Deceive Others but if a Man cannot Live without it let him Commend himself and say thus I have Apply'd my Self to Liberal Studies though both the Poverty of my Condition and my own Reason might rather have put me upon the Making of my Fortune I have given Proof that all Minds are Capable of Goodness and I have Illustrated the Obscurity of my Family by the Eminency of my Virtue I have preserv'd my Faith in All Extremities and I have ventur'd my Life for 't I have never Spoken one Word contrary to my Conscience and I have been more Sollicitous for my Friend than for my Self I never made any Base submissions to any Man and I have never done any thing Unworthy of a Resolute and of an Honest Man My Mind is rais'd so much above all Dangers that I have Master'd all Hazards and I bless my self in the Providence which gave me that Experiment of my Virtue For it was not fit methought that so great a Glory should come Cheap Nay I did not so much as deliberate whether Good Faith should suffer for Mee or I for it I stood my Ground without laying violent hands upon my Self to scape the Rage of the Powerful though under Caligula I saw Cruelties to such a Degree that to be kill'd outright was accompted a Mercy And yet I persisted in my Honesty to shew that I was ready to do more than Dye for 't My Mind was never Corrupted with Gifts and when the humor of Avarice was at the I never laid my hand upon any Unlawful Gain I have been Temperate in my Diet Modest in my Discourse Courteous and Affable to my Inferiors And I have ever paid a Respect and Reverence to my Betters After all what I have said is either True or False If True I have Commended my self before a Great Witness my own Conscience If False I am Ridiculous without any Witness at all Let every Man retire into himself For the Old the Young Men Women and Children they are all Wicked Not every One only or a Few But there is a General Conspiracy in Evil. We should therefore Fly the World withdraw into our Selves and in some sort avoid even our selves too EPIST. XVI A General Dissolution of Manners With a Censure of Corrupt Magistrates THe Corruption of the Present Times is the General Complaint of all Times It ever has been so and it ever will be so Not considering that the Wickedness of the World is alwayes the same as to the Degree of it though it may Change Places perhaps and vary a little in the Matter One while Whoring is in Fashion Another while Gluttony To day Excess in Apparel and more care of the Body than of the Mind To morrow comes up the Humor of Scoffing and after That perchance a Vein of Drinking when he shall be accompted the Bravest Man that makes himself the veriest Beast This Prostitute Looseness of Manners makes way for Sedition and Cruelty Under Tiberius the Plague of your Delatores or Enformers was worse than any Civil War It was an Age wherein the Words of Men in their Cups the most Innocent Railleries and Ingenious Freedoms of Conversation were made Capital When it was Dangerous to be Honest and only Profitable to be Vitious And not only Ill Things but Vice it self was both Commended and Prefer'd For all Insolencies when they come to be Exemplary they pretend to be Lawful Authority in Sin is an Incentive to it And it is at least an Excuse if not a Warrant to Transgress after Great Example Beside that we are prone enough to do Amiss even of our Selves without either a Leader or a Companion But it is a Malevolent sort of Comfort that which Men take in the Number of the Wicked The worst of all is This that whereas in Other Cases the People are Asham'd of their Errors in That of Life they are Delighted with them and so become Incurable The Pilot takes no pleasure in Running upon a Rock nor the Physitian in the Death of his Patient nor the Advocate in the Loss of his Clients Cause But on the other side the Criminal Rejoyces in his Uncleanness in his Ambition and in his Theft and never troubles himself for the Fault but for the Miscarriage He makes Infamy the Reward of Lewdness and values himself upon his Excellency in Ill-doing The Question is who shall be most Impious we have every day Worse Appetites and Less Shame Sobriety and Conscience are become Foolish and Scandalous things and it is half the Relish of our Lusts that they are committed in the Face of the Sun Innocency is not only Rare but Lost And
of Nature are the most precious Treasures What has any Man to desire more than to keep himself from Cold Hunger and Thirst It is not the Quantity but the Opinion that Governs in this Case That can never be Little which is Enough Nor does any Man accompt That to be Much which is too Little The Benefits of Fortune are so far Comfortable to us as we enjoy them without losing the Possession of our selves Let us Purge our Minds and follow Nature we shall otherwise be still either Fearing or Craving and Slaves to Accidents Not that there is any Pleasure in Poverty but it is a great Felicity for a Man to bring his Mind to be contented even in That State which Fortune it self cannot make worse Methinks our Quarrels with Ambition and Profitable Employments are somewhat like those we have with our Mistresses we do not Hate them but Wrangle with them In a word betwixt those things which are Sought and Coveted and yet Complain'd of and those things which we have Lost and pretend that we cannot live without our Misfortunes are purely Voluntary and we are Servants not so much by Necessity as by Choice No Man can be Happy that is not Free and Fearless And no Man can be so but he that by Philosophy has got the better of Fortune In what Place soever we are we shall find our selves beset with the Miseries of Humane Nature Some Without us that either Encompass us Deceive us or Force us Others Within us that eat up our very Hearts in the Middle of Solitude And it is not yet as we imagine that Fortune has Long Armes She meddles with no body that does not first lay hold upon Her We should keep a Distance therefore and withdraw into the Knowledge of Nature and of our Selves We Understand the Original of things the Order of the World the Circulation of the Seasons the Courses of the Stars and that the whole Frame of the Universe only the Earth excepted is but a Perpetual Motion We know the Causes of Day and Night of Light and of Darkness but it is at a distance Let us direct our Thoughts then to That Place where we shall see all nearer Hand And it is not This Hope neither that makes a Wise Man Resolute at the Point of Death because Death lies in his way to Heaven For the Soul of a Wise Man is there before-hand Nay if there were nothing after Death to be either Expected or Fear'd he would yet leave this World with as great a Mind though he were to pass into a State of Annihilation He that reckons every hour his Last a Day or an Age is all one to him Fate is doing our Work while we Sleep Death steales upon us Insensibly and the more Insensibly because it passes under the name of Life From Childhood we grow up without perceiving it to Old Age and this Encrease of our Life duely consider'd is a Diminution of it We take Death to be Before us but it is Behind us and has already swallow'd up all that is past Wherefore make use of the Present and trust nothing to the Morrow for Delay is just so much time lost We catch hold of Hopes and Flatteries of a little longer Life as Drowning Men do upon Thorns or Straws that either Hurt us or Deceive us You will ask perhaps what I do my Self that Preach at this Rate Truely I do like some ill Husbands that spend their Estates and yet keep their Accompts I run out but yet I can tell which way it goes And I have the Fate of Ill Husbands too another way for every Body Pitties me and no Body Helps me The Soul is never in the Right place so long as it fears to quit the Body Why should a Man trouble himself to extend Life which at Best is a kind of Punishment And at Longest amounts to very little more than Nothing He is Ungrateful that takes the Period of Pleasure for an Injury and he is Foolish that knows no Good but the Present Nay there are some Courses of Life which a Man ought to quit though with Life it self As the Trade of Killing Others in stead of Learning to Dye Himself Life it self is neither Good nor Evil but only a Place for Good and Evil. It is a kind of Trage-Comedy Let it be well Acted and no matter whether it be Long or Short We are apt to be missed by the Appearances of things and when they come to us recommended in Good Terms and by Great Example they will impose many times upon very Wise Men. The Mind is never Right but when it is at peace within it self and Independent upon any thing from Abroad The Soul is in Heaven even while it is in the Flesh if it be purg'd of Natural Corruptions and taken up with Divine Thoughts And whether any body sees us or takes notice of us it matters not Virtue will of it self break forth though never so much pains be taken to suppress it And it is all one whether it be known or no But After Ages however will do us Right when we are Dead and Insensible of the Veneration they allow us He that is wise will compute the Conditions of Humanity and contract the Subject both of his Joyes and Fears And it is time well spent so to Abate of the One that he may likewise Diminish the Other By this Practice he will come to understand how short how uncertain and how safe many of those things are which we are wont to Fear When I see a Splendid House or a glittering Train I look upon it as I do upon Courts which are only the Schools of Avarice and Ambition and they are at best but a Pompe which is more for Shew than Possession Beside that Great Goods are seldome Long-liv'd and That is the Fairest Felicity which is of the shortest Growth EPIST. XIX Of True Courage FOrtitude is properly the Contempt of all Hazards according to Reason though it be commonly and promiscuously used also for a Contempt of all Hazards even Without or Against Rea-Reason Which is rather a Daring and a Brutal Fierceness than an Honorable Courage A Brave Man fears Nothing more than the Weakness of being affected with Popular Glory His Eyes are not Dazled either with Gold or Steel he tramples upon all the Terrors and Glories of Fortune he looks upon himself as a Citizen and Soldier of the World and in despite of all Accidents and Oppositions he maintains his Station He does not only Suffer but Court the most Perilous Occasions of Virtue and those Adventures which are most Terrible to Others for he values himself upon Experiment and is more Ambitious of being reputed Good than Happy Mucius Lost his hand with more Honor than he could have Preserv'd it He was a greater Conqueror Without it than he could have been With it For with the very Stump of it he overcame two Kings Tarquin and Porsenna Rutilia follow'd Cotta into
Banishment she stay'd and she return'd with him too and soon after she Lost him without so much as shedding a Tear a Great Instance of her Courage in his Banishment and of her Prudence in his Death This sayes Epicurus is the Last and the Blessed'st day of my Life when he was ready to Expire in an extreme torment of the Stone It is never said of the 300 Fabii that they were Overcome but that they were Slain Nor of Regulus that he was Vanquish'd by the Carthaginians but that he was Taken The Spartans prohibited all Exercises where the Victory was declar'd by the Voice and Submission of him that was worsted When Phaeton begg'd of Phoebus the Government of the Chariot of the Sun for one day the Poet makes him so far from being Discouraged by his Fathers telling him of the Danger of the Undertaking and how he himself had much adoe to keep his Seat for Fear when he look'd down from the Meridian that it prov'd a Spur to his Importunity That 's the thing sayes Phaeton that I would be at to stand Firm in That difficulty where Phoebus himself Trembles Security is the Caution of Narrow Minds But as Fire tries Gold so does Difficulty and Hazard try Virtuous Men. Not but that he may be as Valiant that Watches upon the Tower as he that fights upon his Knees only the One has had the good Fortune of an Occasion for the Proof of his Resolution As some Creatures are Cruel Others Crafty and some Timorous so Man is endu'd with a Glorious and an Excellent Spirit that prompts him not so much to regard a Safe Life as an Honest. Providence has made him the Master of this Lower World and he reckons it his Duty to Sacrifice his Own Particular to the Advantage of the Whole And yet there is a vast Difference even in the same Action done by a Brave Person and by a Stupid as the Death of Cato was Honorable but that of Brutus was Shameful Nor is it Death it self that we recommend for Glorious but it is a glorious thing to Dye as we Ought Neither is it Poverty Banishment or Pain that we commend but the Man that behaves himself Bravely under those Afflictions How were the Gladiators Contemn'd that call'd for Quarter And those on the other side Favour'd that Despis'd it Many a Man saves his Life by not fearing to Lose it and Many a Man Loses his Life for being over-sollicitous to save it We are many times afraid of Dying by One thing and we come to Dye by Another As for Example we are Threatned by an Enemy and we Dye by a Pleurisie The Fear of Death enlarges all other things that we Fear To Bear it with Constancy we should Compute that whether our Lives be long or short it comes all to a Point Some Hours we lose What if they were Dayes Months Years What matters it if I never Arrive at that which I must certainly Part with when I have it Life is but one Point of Flying Time and that which is to come is no more Mine than that which is Past. And we have this for our Comfort too that whosoever now Fears Death will some time or other come to Wish it If Death be Troublesome or Terrible the Fault is in us and not in Death it self It is as great a Madness for a Man to Fear that which he is not to Feel as that which he is not to Suffer The Difference lies in the Manner of Dying and not in the Issue of Death it Self 'T is a more Inglorious Death to be Smother'd with Perfumes than to be torn to pieces with Pincers Provided my Mind be not Sick I shall not much heed my Body I am Prepar'd for my last Hour without tormenting my self when it will come It is betwixt the Stoicks and other Philosophers as betwixt Men and Women They are Both Equally Necessary for Society only the one is Born for Government and the other for Subjection Other Sects deal with their Disciples as Plausible Physitians do with their Patients they Flatter and Humor them whereas the Stoicks go a Bolder way to work and consider rather their Profit than their Pleasure EPIST. XX. 'T is never too Late to Learn The Advantages of a Private Life and the Slavery of a Publick The Ends of Punishment LEt no Man presume to advise Others that has not first given Good Counsel to himself And he may Then pretend to help his Neighbor It is in short as hard a matter to Give Good Counsel as to Take it Let it however be agreed betwixt the Two Parties that the One designs to Confer a Benefit and the Other to Receive it Some People Scorn to be Taught Others are Asham'd of it as they would be of going to School when they are Old But it is never too late to Learn what it is alwayes Necessary to Know And it is no Shame to Learn so long as we are Ignorant that is to say so long as we Live When any thing is Amiss in our Bodies or Estates we have Recourse presently to the Physitian or the Lawyer for Help And why not to the Philosopher in the Disorders of our Mind No Man Lives but he that applyes himself to Wisdom for he takes into his own Life the Supplement of all Past Ages 'T is a Fair Step toward Happiness and Virtue to Delight in the Conversation of Good and of Wise Men And where That cannot be had the next point is to keep no Company at all Solitude affords Business enough and the Entertainment is Comfortable and Easie. Whereas Publick Offices are Vexatious and Restless There 's a great Difference betwixt a Life of Leisure and of Lazyness When People will Express their Envy of a Man in a Happy Condition they 'll say He lives at his Ease When in truth the Man is Dead Alive There is a Long Life and there is a Long Death The Former when we enjoy the Benefits of a Right Mind and the Other when the Senses are Extinguish'd and the Body Dead before-hand He that makes me the Master of my Own Time and places me in a State of Freedom layes a great Obligation upon me As a Merchant that has a Considerable Fortune Aboard is more sensible of the Blessing of a Fair Wind and a Safe Passage than he that has only Ballast or some Course Commodity in the Vessel So That Man that employes his Privacy upon Thoughts Divine and Precious is more sensible of the Comfort of that Freedom than he that bends his Meditations an Ill way For he considers all the Benefits of his Exemption from Common Duties he enjoyes himself with Infinite Delight and makes his Gratitude Answerable to his Obligations He is the best of Subjects and the Happiest of Men and he lives to Nature and to himself Most Men are to Themselves the worst Company they can keep If they be Good Quiet and Temperate they are as good Alone as in Company But if
or Disswaded as they saw Occasion Their Prudence Provided for their Peoâ—…le their Courage Kept them Safe from Dangers their Bounty both Supply'd and Adorn'd their Subjects It was a Duty Then to Command not a Government No Man in those Dayes had either a Mind to do an Injury or a Cause for 't He that commanded well was Well Obey'd And the worst Menace the Governors could then make to the Disobedient was to Forsake them But with the corruption of Times Tyranny crept in and the World began to have Need of Laws and those Laws were made by Wise Men too as Solon and Licurgus who Learn'd their Trade in the School of Pythagoras EPIST. XXII Man is Compounded of Soul and Body And has Naturally a Civil War within Himself The Difference betwixt a Life of Virtue and a Life of Pleasure THere is not so Disproportionate a Mixture in any Creature as that is in Man of Soul and Body There is Intemperance joyn'd with Divinity Folly with Severity Sloth with Activity and Uncleanness with Purity But a Good Sword is never the worse for an Ill Scabbard We are mov'd more by Imaginary Fears than Truths for Truth has a Certainty and Foundation but in the other we are expos'd to the License and Conjecture of a Distracted Mind and our Enemies are not more Imperious than our Pleasures We set our Hearts upon Transitory things as if they Themselves were Everlasting or Wee on the other side to Possess them for Ever Why do we not rather advance our Thoughts to things that are Eternal and contemplate the Heavenly Original of all Beings Why do we not by the Divinity of Reason triumph over the weaknesses of Flesh and Blood It is by Providence that the World is preserv'd and not from any Virtue in the Matter of it for the World is as Mortal as we are Only the Allmighty Wisdome carries it safe through all the Motions of Corruption And so by Prudence Humane Life it self may be prolong'd if we will but stint our selves in those Pleasures that bring the greater part of us untimely to our End Our Passions are nothing else but Certain Disallowable Motions of the Mind Sudden and Eager which by Frequency and Neglect turn to a Disease as a Distillation brings us first to a Cough and then to a Pthisique We are carry'd Up to the Heavens and Down again into the Deep by Turns so long as we are govern'd by our Affections and not by Virtue Passion and Reason are a kind of Civil War within us and as the one or the other has Dominion we are either Good or Bad. So that it should be our Care that the worst Mixture may not prevaile And they are link'd like the Chain of Causes and Effects one to another Betwixt violent Passions and a Fluctuation or Wambling of the Mind there is such a Difference as betwixt the Agitation of a Storm and the Nauseous Sickness of a Calm And they have all of them their Symptomes too as well as our Bodily Distempers They that are troubled with the Falling Sickness know when the Fit is a Coming by the Cold of the Extremeâ—… Parts the Dazling of the Eye the failing of the Memory the Trembling of the Nerves and the Giddiness of the Head So that every Man knows his own Disease and should provide against it Anger Love Sadness Fear may be read in the Countenance And so may the Virtues too Fortitude makes the Eye Vigorous Prudence makes it Intent Reverence shews it self in Modesty Joy in Serenity and Truth in Openness and Simplicity There are Sown the Seeds of Divine things in Mortal Bodies If the Mind be well Cultivated the Fruit answers the Original and if not all runs into Weeds We are all of us Sick of Curable Diseases and it costs us more to be Miserable than would make us perfectly Happy Consider the Peaceable State of Clemency and the Turbulence of Anger the Softness and Quiet of Modesty and the Restlessness of Lust. How Cheap and easie to us is the Service of Virtue and how Dear we pay for our Vices The Sovereign Good of Man is a Mind that Subjects all things to it self and is it self subject to Nothing His Pleasures are Modest Severe and Reserv'd and rather the Sawce or the Diversion of Life than the Entertainment of it It may be some Question whether such a Man goes to Heaven or Heaven comes to Him For a Good Man is Influenc'd by God himself and has a kind of Divinity within him What if one Good Man Lives in Pleasure and Plenty and another in Want and Misery 't is no Virtue to contemn Superfluities but Necessities And they are both of them Equally Good though under several Circumstances and in Different Stations Cato the Censor wag'd War with the Manners of Rome Scipio with the Enemies Nay bating the very Conscience of Virtue Who is there that upon Sober Thoughts would not be an Honest Man even for the Reputation of it Virtue you shall find in the Temple in the Field or upon the Walls cover'd with Dust and Blood in the Defence of the Publick Pleasures you shall find Sneaking in the Stews Sweating-Houses Powder'd and Painted c. Not that Pleasures are wholly to be Disclaim'd but to be used with Moderation and to be made Subservient to Virtue Good Manners allwayes please us but VVickedness is Restless and perpetually Changing not for the Better but for Variety VVe are torn to pieces betwixt Hopes and Fears by which Means Providence which is the greatest Blessing of Heaven is turn'd into a Mischief VVild Beasts when they see their Dangers fly from them and when they have scap'd them they are Quiet but wretched Man is equally tormented both with things Past and to Come For the Memory brings back the Anxiety of our Past Fears and our Fore-sight Anticipates the Future VVhereas the Present makes no Man Miserable If we Fear all things that are Possible we live without any Bounds to our Miseries EPIST. XXIII We abuse Gods Blessings and turn them into Mischiefs Meditations upon the Horrors of Earthquakes and Consolations against them Death is the same thing which way soever it comes Only we are more mov'd by Accidents that we are not us'd to THere is nothing so Profitable but it may be Perverted to our Injury Without the Use of the Winds how should we do for Commerce Beside that they keep the Ayr Sweet and Healthful and bring seasonable Rains upon the Earth It was never the Intent of Providence that they should be Employ'd for War and Devastation and yet that 's a great Part of the Use we make of them pursuing one Hazard through another We expose our selves to Tempests and to Death without so much as the Hope of a Sepulchre And all this might be Born too if we only ran these Risques in order to Peace But when we have scap'd so many Rocks and Flats Thunder and Storms What 's the Fruit of all our Labor
Temple or approach the Altar we compose our Looks and our Actions to all the Decencies of Humility and Respect How much more then does it concern us when we treat of Heavenly things To deal candidly and not to let one Syllable pass our Lips that may Savor of Confidence Rashness or Ignorance Truth lies deep and must be fetch'd up at Leisure How many Mysteries are there which God hath placed our of our â—…ight and which are only to be reach'd by Thought and Contemplation The Notions of the Divinity are Profound and Obscure or else perhaps we see them without understanding them But the Divine Majesty is only Accessible to the Mind What This is without which Nothing is we are not able to Determine And when we have guessed at some Sparks of it the greatest part lies yet conceal'd from us How many Creatures have we now in this Age that never were known to us before And How many more will the next Age know more than we do And many yet will be still reserv'd for Aâ—…ter times The very Rites of Religion are at this day a Secret and unknown to many People Nay the very thing that we most eagerly pursue we are not yet arriv'd at That is to say a Perfection in Wickedness Vice is still upon the Emprovement Luxury Immodesty and a Prostitute Dissolution of Manners finds still new Matter to work upon Our Men are grown Effeminate in their Habits in their Motions and in their Ornaments even to the Degree of Whorishness There 's no body minds Philosophy but for want of a Comedy perhaps or in foul weather when there is nothing else to be done Postscript BEfore I take my Last Leave of Seneca I will here discharge my Conscience as if I were upon my Last Leave with the Whole VVorld I have been so Iust both to the Reader and to the Author that I have neither Left out any thing in the Original which I thought the One might be the Better for nor Added any thing of my Own to make the Other Fare the Worse I have done in This Volume of Epistles as a good Husband does with his Cold Meat They are only a Hache made up of the Fragments that remain'd of the Two Former Parts which I could not well dispose of into any Other Form or so Properly Publish under any Other Title Let me not yet be understood to Impose This Piece upon the Publick as an Abstract of Seneca's Epistles any more than I did the Other for the Abstracts of his Benefits and Happy Life It is in works of This Nature as it is in Cordial Waters we Taste all the Ingredients without being able to Separate This from That but still we find the Virtue of every Plant in every Drop To return to my Allegory Books and Dishes have This Common Fate there was never any One of Either of them that pleas'd All Palates And in Truth it is a Thing as little to be Wish'd for as Expected For an Universal Applause is at least Two Thirds of a Scandal So that though I deliver up these Papers to the Press I Invite no Man to the Reading of them And whosoever Reads and Repents it is his Own Fault To Conclude as I made this Composition Principally for my Self so it agrees exceedingly Well with My Constitution and yet if any Man has a Mind to take part with me he has Free Leave and Welcome But let him Carry This Consideration along with him That He 's a very Unmannerly Guest that presses upon another Bodies Table and then Quarrels with his Dinner The End Divin Instit. Lib. 1. Cap. 4. Cap. 7. Lib. 2. Cap. 2. Lib. 3. Cap. 15. Lib. 5. Cap. 9. Lib. 6. Cap. 17. Lib. 6. Cap. 14. Lib. 6. Cap. 25. De Civ Del. Lib. 6. Cap. 10. De Irâ Lib 3. Ep. 96. Annal. Lib. 15. Cap. 14. a Benefits Necessary Profitable and Delightful b Benefits Absolute and Vulgar a How far a Son may Oblige a Father b A Servant may oblige his Master a All Benefits are good b The Good Will must be accompanyed with Iudgment a The Choice of the Person is a Main Point a A Benefit is a Common Tye betwixt Giver and Receiver b A Benefit must be suited to the Condition of the Receiver c An Acceptable Present d Let the Present be singular a Give Frankly b Give Chearfully c Accompany Good Deeds with good Words d Some Favours in Publick others in Private a We value the Thing the Labour or Attendance b A â—…eresit follâ—…w'd with an Iniury c The Case of a Conditional Redemption d Obligations Common and Personal e Oblâ—…gations upon Necessity a A Wise Friend is the Noblest of Presents a An unworthy Person may be oblig'd for the sake of those that are more worthy b Providence it self is gracious to the Wicked Posterity of an Honorable Race a Give only for Giving sake b The Epicureans deny a Providence the Stoicks assert it c God and Nature are one and the same Power d The Divine Bounty expects no Return e All Men detest Ingratitude and love the contrary a Diverse sorts of Ingratitude b Perseverance in Obliging c In some cases a Man may be minded of a Benefit d Some People would be Grateful if they had a Prompter e There must be no upbraiding of Benefits f Some Bounties are bestowed with Insolence g In what Case a Man may be reminded of a Benefit a How to oblige an Ungrateful Man b The Case of an Obligation from one that afterwards betrayes his Country c Providence is gracious even to the Wicked d A Wicked Man is Incapable of a Benefit a Obligations must be follow'd without Upbraiding or Repining b We must persevere in doing good c There should be no delay in the doing of a Benefit a The Receiver has the harder Game to Play b A Benefit refus'd for the Person c A Pythagorean Scruple d A forced Benefit e Keep a Grateful Mind f We should be chearful but not Importune in the Returning of Benefits g There must be no Pride either in the conferring or in the Receiving of Benefits a We must be grateful in despite of all Oppositions b Gratitude is an Obvious a Cheap and an easie Virtue c 'T is one thing to be Grateful for a Benefit and another thing to return it f A Man may be over-Grateful as well as over-righteous a We must not do an ill thing that good may come of it a We are all Ungrateful b Causes of Ingratitude c Not to return Good for Good is Inhumane but Evil for Good is Diabolical d There are Ungrateful Governments as well as Ungrateful Men. a There neither is nor can be any Law against Ingratitude a a a True Happiness a a a Wisdome What it is b A Wise Man does his duty in all Conditions c c c Right Reason is the Perfection of Humane
Nature d d d Three degrees of Proficients in Wisdome e e e A Wise Man in some Cases may need Counsel a a a The dignity of Virtue b b b The Good Will is accepted for the Deed. c c c Virtue is divided into Contemplation and Action d d d A Virtuous Life must be all of a Piece e e e Virtue can never be suppressed a a a Philosophy is Moral Natural and Rational b One Wise Man teaches another b Philosophy teaches us to live well e e e Youth is apt to take good Impressions f f f The Liberal Sciences are matter rather of Curiosity than Virtue g g g 'T is not for the Dignity of a Philosopher to be curious about words a a a The best of us are yet the better for Admonition and Precept b b b The Power of Precepts and Sentences c c c Good Counsel is the best Service we can do to Mankind d d d Three Points to be amin'd in all our Undertakings e e e Propose nothing but what is Hopeful and Honest. a a a Every mans Conscience is his Iudge b Let every Man Examine himself a A Good Man makes himself profitable to Mankind b b b The Injuries of Fortune do not affect the Mind c A Generous Instance of a Constant Mind a a a How comes it that Good Men are Afflicted in this World and Wicked Men Prosper b b b Providence draws Good out of Evil. c Calamity is the Tryal of Virtue d d d Accidents are neither Good nor Evil. e e e Nothing that is properly Evil can befall a Good Man a a a Impediments of Happiness b b b Levity of Mind is a great Hindrance of our Repose b Change of Place does no good without Change of Mind c c c Constancy of Mind secures us in all Difficulties d d d The less we have to do with the World the Better a a a An Instance of the uncertainty of Humane Affairs in the Burning of Lyons b b b That which we call our Own is but lent us c c c Fortune spares neither Great nor Small a a a The Excesses of Luxury are Painful and Dangerous b b b If Sensuality were Happiness Beasts were Happier than Men. c c c We have as many Diseases as Dishes d d d Drunkenness is a Voluntary Madness c c c The Folly and Vanity of Luxury f f f A Voluptuous Person cannot be a Good Man a a a Avarice punishes it self b b b Money does â—…ll c c c Avarice makes us Ill-natur'd as well as Miserable d d d The Cares and Crimes that attend Ambition c c c Miserable are those People that the World Accompts Great and Happy a a a Our Miseries are Endless if we fear all Possibilities b b b Prepare for the worst c c c The things most to be Fear'd are Want Sickness and the Violences of Men in Power a a a Let every Man make the best of his Lot b b b Our very Prayers many times are Curses c c c We are vain and wicked and will not Believe it a a a The moderation of past Ages b b b The State of Innocence c c c A Temperate Life is a Happy Life c Let Philosophers Live as they Teach d d d T is good to Practice Frugality in Plenty e e e The Moderation and Bravery of Fabricius a a a A Wise Man is above Injuries b b b A Great Mind neither Asks any thing nor wants any thing c c c Cato's Constancy d d d The greatest Evil in Adversity is the Submitting to it e e e Let no Man be Surpriz'd with what he is Born to f f f The Works of Fortune are neither Good nor Evil. g Virtue is most Glorious in Extremities h h h Virtue is Invincible a a a Avoid even Dissolute places as well as loose Companions b b b Practical Philosophers are the best Company c The more Company the more Danger a a a Every Man is not a Friend that makes us a Visit. b b b The Choice of a Friend c c c There must be no Reserves in Friendship d d d A Generous Friendship e The Loss of a Friend is hardly to be Repair'd f f f No Man can be Happy to whom Life is Irksome or Death Terrible g g g We take more care of our Fortunes than of our Lives h Time Present Past and to come i i i We can call nothing our Own but our Time k k k Company and Business are great Devourers of Time a a a Philosophy is a quiet Study b b b Liberty is to be Purchasâ—…d at any Rate c Several People withdraw for several Ends. d d d Some Men retire to be talk'd of e Philosophy requires Privacy and Freedome a a a 'T is a Folly to Fear Death b b b The Fear of Death is Easily overcome c c c He that Despises Death Fears nothing d d d All Men must Dye c c c To what end should we Covet Life f To Dye is to Obey Nature g g g 'T is Childish to Dye Lamenting a What God has made Necessary Man should comply with Chearfully a a a Sorrow within Bounds is allowable b b b Sorrow is in some Cases Allowable and Inevitable in others c c c We Grieve more for Our Own Sakes than for Our Friends d d d A Friend may be taken away but not the Comfort of the Friendship e There 's no Dealing with the First Transports of Sorrow a a a Banishment is but Change of Place in which sence All People and Nations have been Banish'd b b b Pain only affects the Body but not the Mind a a a Poverty is only Troublesome in Opinion b b b Mediocrity is the Best State of Fortune a a a Anger Desrib'd What it is b b b It is against Nature c c c Several sorts of Anger d d d The first Motion of Anger a a a Pisistratus Master'd his Anger b b b The Gentleness of Augustus c c c The Moderation of Antigonus d d d A Predominant Fear Masters Anger e e e An Instance of Anger supprest in Harpagus f f f The Moderation of Philip of Macedon g g g All Creatures are made more Terrible by Anger a a a Anger is Insociable b b b It is Unprofitable b And in no Case Allowable c c c It is more mischievous in War than in Peace d d d He that 's Angry at Publick Wickedness shall never be at Peace e e e Iustice is Calm and Temperate f f f Correction is necessary but within Bounds a Anger blows up all in a Moment b b b Anger is Loss of Time as well as of Peace c Anger may be better kept out than Govern'd d Anger the most Detestable of all Vices e The Miserable Effects of Anger f f f The Cruelty of Marius g g g A Barbarous Severity of Piso a a a The Subject of our Aâ—…ger is not worth the while b b b We are Angry for Trifles c The Blasphemous Extravagance of Caius Caesar. d A Ridiculous Extravagance of Cyrus a a a Pardon all where there 's either sign of Repentance or Hope of Amendment b b b The same conceipt makes us Merry in Private and angry in Publick c Some Ieasts will never be forgiven a a a Patience softens Wrath. b b b Several wayes of diverting Anger c c c Those Injuries go nearest us that we have neither Deserv'd nor Expected a a a Make the best of every thing b b b Whoever does an Injury is liable to suffer one c c c Let no Man condemn another without making it his own Case d d d Some things cannot hurt us and others will not c c c A Stoical Error a a a The Cruelty of the Roman Spectacles c c c Barbarous Cruelties d He that Threatens All Feares all c A Tyrannical Government is a Perpetual State of War a Clemency Defin'd a Clemency is Profitable for all b b b Clemency does well in Private Persons but 't is more Beneficial in Princes c c c Mercy is the Interest both of Prince and People d d d The blessed Reflections of a Merciful Prince e e e Upon the well-being of the Prince depends the Safety of the People The Prince that is Gracious is Belov'd f f f Where Punishment is Necessary let it be Moderate g g g The Ends of Punishment h h h A famous Instance of Augustus's Clemency i i i Augustus's Moderation to his Enemies k k k A Merciful Iudgment of Augustus