Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	justice_n	prudence_n	temperance_n	1,847	5	10.3903	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87174	A panegyrick of the most renowned and serene Princess Christina, by the grace of God, Queene of Swedland, Goths and Vandals. / Written originally in French, by the learned pen of Mr. de Harst, and now translated into English by W.L. Gent.	De Harst, Mr.	1656 (1656)	Wing H923; Thomason E1704_2; ESTC R209441	28,793	97

above all things admire those compleat and learned Letters which she is so generous as to write to Persons eminent by their fortunes and vertues May not one say of her with more reason then of Chrysostome That a stream of gold flowes from her tongue and her mouth and that she takes a speciall care to polish that gold and adorn it with a pleasing lustre We may say this and without mentioning here those who have rejoyced in so pretious a benefit and been possessours of so admirable a treasure we may maintain with astonishment that she alone can comprehend whole Volumes in a few Lines and contract great Bookes into small Papers Her words are so pure so exact and so delicious her sentences so choise and so ponderous her expressions so full of familiarity and freedome and all the flowers of Rhetorick so curiously dispersed through them all that it may with the same confidence be said of her as of Saint Ambrose That the hony sucking Bees were her Nurses for she is enrich'd both with understanding and discourse and hath an Eloquence sweeter then the treasures of Hybla Her Secretaries in effect are rather Officers in shew then of necessity She her selfe composeth the most difficult and the most important Dispatches and when she would explain her selfe in commanding termes and a style full of Majesty or when she would apply the characters of her favour and use expressions civill and obliging she never usurps borrowed thoughts nor picks words out of anothers fancy her owne ingenuity presents her with variety of excellent matter that may either allure affections by courtesie or compell them by violence And truly if there is a place where Learning is disintangled and methodicall where Eloquence is orderly disposed and vigorous where Zeal is pleasing and powerfull where the Graces are instructive and edifying we may securely say it is in this great Queen She cannot content her selfe only with the depth and solidity of her opinion but she addes also the dignity of expression and the magnificence of wordes She gives a splendor and acutenesse to her sentences a smoothnesse and lustre to her periods and the mixtures which she makes of things profitable and suitable is so just and tempered so to the purpose that she seemes only to please and divert when she speaks with soveraignty and command There is as much of greatnesse as Majesty in all her actions but this Greatnesse is polished and well managed and this Majesty is pleasing and full of charmes I do not here intend to give you an Analysis nor to comprise as 't were in an inventory all the vertues of this glorious Princesse and though I should be so daring as to take it in hand yet my endeavours could never be successefull for in the performing of such an enterprise the eloquence of Greece and Rome would finde an apparent impossibility since the powerfull Genius of Demosthenes and the flowery Rhetorick of Crassus never possessed any terme or figure which could represent what that age was never blest with But if those great Oratours whose perswading tongues did in their times entise away hearts commit violence upon the will and make soules Prisoners by the ear could never arrive at any but shallow expressions and thoughts altogether unfit to set forth our Princesse What censure will you passe upon my temerity who have undertaken that of which I acknowledge them to have been uncapable I to whom age hath denyed the experience of those great men I who have never approached the Sanctuary of Kings I to whom Nature hath refused all those Graces which are necessary to this illustrious Matter And I who in literature have had but a common and ordinary education Yet I dare say and my Vanity hath a very plausible foundation that of all those mouthes which have had the happinesse to praise our Queen I am he who will bear her Elogy the highest and approach neerest to a compleat description I know well Gentlemen that your attention is awakened and that you long to understand the effect of my boasting promises which seem to you to be no lesse a paradox than the saying of an antient Philosopher of Greece who vaunted That he could drink up all the Water in the Sea But I will not hold you any longer in suspence I will not make you linger any more in expectation of a thing which I perceive you wish for with so much ardency Yet if you think that when I intend to speak worthily of Christina I ought to produce large Elogies of her beauty you very much deceive your selves if you imagine that I must praise her prudence you are still wide from my aime or if you think that I must make long Commentaries upon her vertues you do not at all comprehend the excellency of her merit See see after what manner it is that I ought to speak worthily of her When you meet with any deserving person who shall discourse to you of the Vertues and the Graces who shall make an illustrious comparison of the beauties of the Body with those of the Soule and who in fine shall introduce Justice Temperance Prudence and greatnesse of Courage in an elevation so high as was never yet attain'd by any say onely one word and that shall be of greater efficacy then whatsoever we have yet expressed say onely That our Queen enjoyes all these fair vertues in a degree more eminent and more illustrious then he hath yet spoken of But proceed no farther take not to your self the liberty to say that which you believe should be added to make the Elogy more compleat and more accomplish't for if there should come a third that should say to you Our Princess exceeds whatsoever you say This last is he that would merit the Palm When you perceive any of those famous Orators who to render the vices odious indeavour by plausible Invectives and eloquent Declamations to represent to you how disgraceful they are in their nature how deplorable in the use and how dangerous in the issue say that our Queen hath not one of all these Defects and you shall comprise more in that apt Negation then if you had called to your aid all the precepts of the most knowing Rhetorick Let us content our selves therefore to acknowledge the extent of that which rejects all measures let us rest satisfied with the admiration of that which we cannot comprehend let us follow her onely by the view since no swiftness can overtake her let us see her at a distance and contracted since we cannot approach so neer to her as to behold her in all her Dimensions What man is there that is not transported with amazement and admiration to this Maiden Queen who in the first flower of her youth was the general astonishment of the Universe who is mounted upon a Throne whose Majesty the greatest Princes cannot paralell who bears sway over the most Martial Nation of the whole World who alone carries the burden of her

as well by the strength of the mind as the courage of the hand The third drawes a reputation from all things And the last crowns the endeavours of all the rest Our Queene enjoyes them all but not after that rate as they are possess 't by the world's greatest Princes who preserve them only as servants to their passions They make their Cruelty to passe currently for the effects of Justice they imagine their breach of faith and subtilties to be a weighty argument of Prudence their pride and disdaine to be the materials of a true Glory and lastly their infamous Superstition and shamefull Idolatry to constitute the exactest and best ordered Piety But our Christina is ignorant of these adulterate vertues and counterfeit vices Disguise and Dissimulation are the two evils which she principally hates and derides and yet when those appeare in another she hath so great a reach that she can unvaile and unmaske their darknesse In this manner she hath reclaimed those faire though stragling vertues which had beene long banish't from the Courts of Kings and Princes and which at last have attain'd an Asylum under the protection of this adorable Queene who hath extended her welcomes to relieve those amiable prostrates This is she who is the true Pole of the Christian world whereon the whole Catalogue of beauties are displayed it is she that hath such an attractive vertue as can allure to her obedience the most stubborne and rebellious soules if they be but once touch't with that divine Load stone That Justice which is only morall is to say truth nothing else but an authoriz'd opinion it is a cruell and unmercifull Tradition it is a lawful offendor and in the scrupulous observation of Mine and Thine suffers with unrelenting thoughts the dearest persons to be despis●d and ruin'd But that of our Queene is of another constitution it is an upright an all-seeing and a gentle Justice but yet a Justice that was alwayes absolutely perfect And we can resolutely say she is so just as to shake off all her choicest Inclinations rather then to doe the least wrong to the meanest of her Subjects and if this vertue which is the foundation of all the rest findes at any time any resistance to hinder the carrying on of its resolutions it is only her Clemency that enclines her pardon to reach some notorious Malefactor In a word all her actions are so curiously cemented to the high severity of Justice and the calme sweetnesse of Mercy that a thousand happy results spring from these two Vertues and make her equally feared and loved by her people That prudence which the world breathes and the Kings of the earth put in practice is usually no other then an instructed and disciplin'd Malice it is nothing but a vertue tempered with flegme and managed with artificiall motions But that of Christina is so purified as well within as without that it expels all Forgery and Deceit and knowes not what is mean't by being captious or doubleminded One may relye upon her word with more assurance then upon the oathes of others Her Lights cannot be false being derived from so much Nobleness and an Originall so pure and cleare they cannot be erronious being sprung from so much Justice and aiming at a conclusion so right and so honourable She with her owne person is assisting to all her Councels she is throughly instructed in all her affaires and understands them so admirably that there is not a person can taxe her proceedings nor can any one reproach her that by any neglect or slacknesse she hath with-held any thing for base ends or that she ever sought to secure her actions by an artificiall prudence And though she alone supports the burden of her estate yet her ingenuity is so quick and piercing that she is not at all entangled in the greatnesse of her imployments her vast Genius which might governe the whole world and her able Prudence to which all the kings of the earth might confidently and with great assurance deliver up the conduct of their whole Estates findes not any thing in the largnesse of her dominions that can be altogether her imployment What is there then that can be compared to the situation of a soule and the ability of a wit that can dive into the bottom of all things for prudence hath given her a looke beyond others hath fix't her in a seate that over-awes fortune and is of such force that we may well say Agamemnon had reason in his ordinary wishes to desire rather ten men as circumspect as Nestor then as valiant as Achilles for in effect that petty Prince of a poore Iland having attaine'd the favour and guifts of the prudent Minerva was the principall author of the surprizing one of the greatest Citties that the world ever knew The love of glory suites well with those vertues which are in heroique persons it breathes spirit into their actions and spurs them forward to performe great things for no other consideration then That they doe them This is that only vertue which is not at all mercenary and scornes to demand any thing for recompence of service done to the Republick unlesse the glory to have served her freely and without reward Those glorious Romans whom History makes us as'twere to see to this day were all possessed by this humour when they enterpriz'd those famous actions of which yet the very memory affrights us They would attempt bring to passe things that were apparently impossible and whose only mention would strike terrour into the greatest Princes of our age Ancient men would appeare in the Armies they 'd seeke out a multitude of Combats so to draw on the occasion of a battel and among a thousand dangers they 'd still labour how to be imploy'd in the greatest But why doe you thinke they hunted after so many perils and Combats would you have me tell you the reason It was to obtaine a Triumph to behold their Statues fix't in the publick view and to purchase to themselves a new and honourable Name But yet this Statue served for no more then an unprofitable Marble and this name augmented not their fortunes but only in the addition of three or four Syllables After the same manner were those Recompences that were bestowed upon the Illyrians Macedonians Numantines Achaians Africans and many others who for these things only have willingly beene prodigall both of their paines and blood to promote the credit of their Countries But our Queene limits her glory by a conclusion farre more illustrious Vanity swels not her soule but Generosity only makes her the performer of so many noble actions It is not at all to get a fresh addition of Titles or procure her self a new name for she can not pitch upon a choice more faire or more famous then her owne but it is for the only reputation To have done nobly There never appear'd a glory comparable to her's The envious and the mistrustfull would make