is their love to the Court This moved his Highnesse of late to declare his gracious pleasure to our Gentry that all persons of ranke and quality should retire from the Citty and returne to their Countrey where they might bestowe that on Hospitality which the liberty of the time too much besotted with fashion and forraine imitation useth to disgorge on vanity Their ancient Predecessours whose chiefest glory it was to releeve the hungrie refresh the thirstie and give quiet repose to the weary are but accounted by these sweet-sented Humorists for men of rusticke condition meere home-spun fellowes whose rurall life might seeme to derogate from the true worth of a Gentleman whose onely humour is to be phantastically humorous O the misery of errour how farre hath vanity carried you astray ye generous spirits that you should esteeme noble bountie which consists not so much in Bravery as Hospitality boorish Rusticitie How much are you deluded by apish formalitie as if the only qualitie of a Gentleman were novell complement or as if there were no good in man besides some outlandish congie or salute Alas Gentlemen is this all that can be expected at your hands Must your Countrey which bred you your friends who love you the poore whose prayers or curses will attend you be all deprived of their hopes in you No rather returne to your Houses where you may best expresse your Bountie by entertaining into your bosome that which perchance hath beene long time estranged from you Charitie For beleeve it as assuredly yee shall finde it that your sumptuous Banquetting your midnight revelling your unseasonable rioting your phantasticke attiring your formall courting shall witnesse against you in the day of revenge For behold the Lord commandeth and he will smite the great house with breacheâ— and the little house with clefts Returne therefore before the evill day come distribute to the Necessitie of the Saints become good Dispensers of what you have received that yee may gaine your selves grace in the high Court of Heaven But as for yee that put farre away the evill day and approach to the Seat of iniquitie Ye that sing to the sound of the Viâ—ll and invent your selves instruments of Musicke yee shall goe captive with the first that goe captive O miserie that Man with so beauteous an Image adorned with such exquisite ornaments of Art and Nature accomplished to so high a ranke above others advanced should delude himselfe so with the shade of vanitie as to become forgetfull of his chiefest glory But experience I doubt not will unseale those eyes which lightnesse and folly have blinded till which happie discovery of Youthfull errour I leave them and returne to my former Discourse You may perceive now how requisite Bountie is for a Gentleman being an especiall marke as I observed before whereby we may discerne him Amongst sundrie other Blessings conferred by God on Solomon this was not one of the least in that he gave him a large heart Not onely abundance of substance and treasure to possesse but a large heart to dispose Indeed this is a rare vertue worldlings there are who possesse much but they enjoy little becomming subject to that which they should command The difference betwixt the poore wanting and rich not using is by these two expressed the one Carendo the other Non fruendo Of which two the greater misery is the latter for he slaves himselfe to the unworthiest Servitude being a Servant to obey where he should be a Master to command To conclude this point in a word if wee ought to shew such contempt to all earthly substance as hardly to entertaine it much lesse affect it let us make it a benefit let us shew humanitie in it by making choice of the poore on whom we may bestow it This which we waste in rioting might save many from famishing let us bestow therefore lesse of our own backs that we may cloth them lesse of our owne bellies that we may feed them lesse of our owne palats that we may refresh them For that 's the best and noblest bountie when our Liberalitie is on such bestowed by whom there is no hope that it should be required THe third and last marke whereby a true generous Disposition is distinguished is Fortitude or sloutnesse being indeed the argument of a prepared or composed minde which is not to be dismayed or disturbed by any sharpe or adverse thing how crosse or contrary soever it come Excellently is this Fortitude defined by the Stoicks terming it a vertue which standeth ever in defence of equitie not doing but repelling an injurie Those Heires of true Honour who are possest of this vertue dare oppose themselves to all occurrents in defence of reputation preferring death before servitude and dishonour If at any time as many times such immerited censures occurre they die for vertues cause they meet death with a cheerefull countenance they put not on a childish feare like that Bandite in Genoa who condemned to die and carried to the place of execution trembled so exceedingly that he had two men to support him all the way and yet he shivered extremely Or as Maldonatuâ—â— relates how he heard of those which saw a strongman at Paris condemned to death to sweat bloud for very feare proving out of Aristotle that this effect may bee naturall But these whose generous spirits scorne such basenesse never saw that enterprise which they durst not attempt nor that death which could amate them where Honour grounded on Vertue without which there is no true Honour moved them either to attempt or suffer But now to wipe off certaine aspersions laid on valour or fortitude wee are not to admit of all daring Spirits to be men of this ranke For such whose Ambition excites them to attempt unlawfull things as to depose those whom they ought to serve or lay violent hand on those whom loyall fidelitie bids them obey opposing themselves to all dangers to obtaine their purpose are not to be termed valiant or resolute but seditious and dissolute For unlesse the enterprise be honest which they take in hand be their Spirits never so resolute or their minds prepared it is rashnesse but not valour having their actions ever suted by dishonour Sometimes likewise the enterprize may be good and honest the cause for which they encounter with danger vertuous the Agents in their enterprize couragious yet the issue taste more of despaire than valour Example hereof wee have in the Macchabees in the death of Razis one of the Elders of Ierusalem a lover of the City and a man of very good report which for his love was called a Father of the Iewes One who did offer to spend his body and life with all constancie for the religion of the Iewes yet being ready to be taken on every side through the fury of Nicanor who so eagerly assaulted and hotly pursued him he fell on his Sword yea when his bloud was utterly
scarce any State which hath not felt where civill warres have menaced no lesse danger to the State than forraine powers private factions than open hostilitie In some likewise so deepe impression hath Ambition wrought as the Envie which they conceive at others greatnesse deprives them of all rest This appeared in Themistocles who walked in the Night-time in the open street because he could not sleepe The cause whereof when some men did enquire hee answered that the triumph of Miltiades would not suffer him to take his rest The like height of Ambition shewed Alexander weeping bitterly to see his father win so fast before him fearing nothing should remaine for him to conquer Now how naturally Youth is affected to this illimited motion may be observed even in usuall games where Youth rather than hee will endure the foile exposeth himselfe to all encounters It is glory which he aimes at and before he lose it he will hazard himselfe for it His Prize is his praise hee values nothing more than to get him a name which may brute his renowne and gaine him respect with his Dearest His disquiet for what is Ambition but a Distraction of the mind is to affect that best which doth afflict him most Augustus had broken sleepes and used to send for some to passe the Night away in telling tales or holding him with talke See the misery of Ambitious spirits whose ends are without end limiting their desires to no other period than sole soveraigntie Their ayrie thoughts like Icarus wings are ever mounting till the Sunne which they threatned dissolve them Inferiour taskes they as much sleight as Eagles doe Flies they love not to stoope to basenesse when many times lowest fortunes entertaine them with no lesse discontent than despaire can force them to And in their lowest ebbe when Hope forsakes them and their neerest like Tiberius friends shrinke from them and no comfort remaines save expectance and sufferance of all extremities you shall heare them upraid Prince or State relating with much vain-glory what dangers they have undergone for them Instance whereof even in these latter times might be produced as in that Ambitious French-man the brave Byron who seeing no way but one burst out into these violent extremes I have received three thirtie wounds of my body to preserve it for him and for my reward he takes my head from my shoulders He now quencheth the torch in my bloud after hee hath used it This is the condition of high spirits whose aimes were transcendent to close up their tragicall Scene with a vain-glorious boast of what they have done little considering how their Countrie might lawfully exact and expect as much as was in them to performe and they still debrours to her because they had their being from her Yet see though sometimes they stand upon termes of resolution desiring to die standing when the sentence of death is pronounced and all future hope extinguished they will be as that great French-man was Supple as a glove presenting their heads as willingly to the sword as Agis did his unto the halter It is strange to note how these men walke in clouds imagining themselves most secure when imminencie of perill assures them nothing lesse The reason whereof may seeme to be this they flatter themselves in their vanitie as Pygmalion with his Image or Narcissus with his Shadow reposing more confidence in their owne valour and the aide which Themistocles or Pausanias-like they contract abroad linking and uniting themselves with forraine powers than on all the information of friends or the perswasions of a loyall and uncorrupted heart But these as that Heroick Prince noted must bow or breake be their persons never so hopefull or directions behovefull to the State they must be curbed or the State endangered Their properties is ever to swim in troubled waters nor can they endure to be mated Though their aimes bee to perpetuate their greatnesse yet those Beasts which are bred about the River Hypanis and live but one day may oft-times compare with them for continuance whence the Poet saith excellently out of his owne observation Much have I seene yet seldome seene I have Ambition goe gray-headed to his grave There is nothing which the Ambitious man hates so much as a corrivall he hopes to possesse all and without a sharer But so indirect are his plots and so insuccessive their end as hee findes to his great griefe that the promise of securitie had no firme foundation to ground on nor his attempts that issue they expected Now Gentlemen you whose better parts aime at more glorious ends so consine your desires to an equall meane that mounting too high bring you not to an irreparable fall Wee are borne indeed as that divine Father saith to be Eagles and not Iayes to fly aloft and not to seek our food on the ground but our Eagle-eyes are to be fixed on the Sunne of righteousnesse not on temporall preferments We are to soare to the Tower from whence commeth our helpe For it is not lifting up a mans selfe God likes but lifting up of the spirit in prayer Here are wings for flying without feare of falling for other aymes they are but as feathers in the aire they delude us howsoever they seeme to secure us But I heare some young Gentleman object that it is a brave thing to be observed in the eye of the world to have our persons admired our selves in publike resorts noted yea our Names dispersed Indeed I grant He who consists on nothing more than showes Thinkes it is brave to heare Loe there be goes But such whose solid understandings have instructed them in higher studies as much disvalue popular opinion or the Corckie conceits of the vulgar as true Nobilitie scornes to converse with any thing unworthy it selfe Their greatnesse hath correspondence with goodnesse for esteeme of the world as in respect of their owne worth they deserve it so in contempt of all outward glory they disvalue it Come then yee nobly affected Gentlemen would yee be heires of honour and highly reputed by the Highest Resemble the Nature of the Highest who humbled himselfe in the forme of man to restore miserable man vilifying himselfe to make man like himselfe It is not beleeve it to shine in grace or esteeme of the Court which can innoble you this glory is like glasse bright but brittle and Courtiers saith one are like Counters which sometime in account goe for a thousand pound and presently before the Count bee past but for a single pennie It is more glory to be in the Courts of the Lord to purchase esteeme with him whose judgement never erres and whose countenance never alters It is reported by Comines in his French Annals that Charles whom he then served was of this disposition that he would make assay of the greatest matters revolving in his mind how he might compasse them yea perchance saith he assayes farre above
the strength of man See the picture of an Ambitious spirit loving ever to be interessed in affaires of greatest difficultie Caemelion-like on subtill ayre he feeds And vies in colours with the checkerd meeds Let no such conceits transport you lest repentance finde you It is safer chusing the Middle-path than by walking or tracing uncouth wayes to stray in your journey More have fallen by presumption than distrust of their owne strength And reason good for such who dare not relie on themselves give way to others direction whereas too much confidence or selfe-opinionate boldnesse will rather chuse to erre and consequently to fall than submit themselves to others judgement Of this opinion seemed Velleius the Epicurean to bee of whom it is said that in confidence of himselfe he was so farre from feare as hee seemed not to doubt of any thing A modest or shamefast feare becomes Youth better which indeed ever attends the best or affablest natures Such will attempt nothing without advice nor assay ought without direction so as their wayes are secured from many perills which attend on inconsiderate Youth My conclusion of this point shal be in a word that neither the rich man is to glory in his riches the wise man in his wisdome nor the strong man in his strength for should man consider the weaknesse and many infirmities whereto he is hourely subject hee would finde innumerable things to move him to sorrowing but few or none to glory in Againe if he should reflect to the consideration of his Dissolution which that it shall bee is most certain but when it shall be most uncertaine he would be forced to stand upon his guard with that continuall feare as there would be no emptie place left in him for pride This day one proud as prouder none May lye in earth ere day be gone What confidence is there to be reposed in so weake a foundation where to remaine ever is impossible but quickly to remove most probable Then to use Petrarchs words be not afraid though the house the Bodie be shaken so the Soule the guest of the Body fare well for weakning of the one addeth for most part strength to the other And so I come to the last passion or perturbation incident to Youth REvenge is an intended resolve arising from a conceived distaste either justly or unjustly grounded This Revenge is ever violent'st in hot blouds who stand so much upon termes of reputation as rather than they will pocket up the least indignitie they willingly oppose themselves to extremest hazard Now this unbounded fury may seeme to have a two-fold relation either as it is proper and personall or popular and impersonall Revenge proper or personall ariseth from a peculiar distaste or offence done or offered to our own person which indeed hath ever the deepest impression Which may be instanced in Menelaus and Paris where the honour of a Nuptiall bed the Law of Hospitalitie the prosessed league of Amitie were joyntly infringed Or in Antonie and Octavius whose intestine hate grew to that height as Antonies Angell was afraid of Octavius Angell Which hatred as it was fed and increased by Fulvia so was it allayed and tempered by Octavia though in the end it grew irreconciliable ending in bloud as it begun with lust Revenge popular or impersonall proceedeth extrinsecally as from factions in families or some ancient grudge hereditarily descending betwixt House and House or Nation and Nation When Annibal was a childe and at his fathers commandement he was brought into the place where he made sacrifice and laying his hand upon the Altar swore that so soone as he had any rule in the Common-wealth he would bee a prosessed enemie to the Romans Whence may be observed how the conceit of an injury or offence received worketh such impression in that State or Kingdome where the injury is offered as Hate lives and survives the life of many ages crying out with those incensed Greekes The time will come when mightie Troy must fall Where Priams race must be extinguish'd all But wee are principally to discourse of the former Branch to wit of proper or personall Revenge wherein wee shall observe sundry Occurrents right worthy our serious consideration That terme as I said before usually called Reputation hath brought much generous bloud to effusion especially amongst such Qui magis sunt soliciti vani nominis quà m propriae salutis Prizing vain-glory above safetie esteeme of valour above securitie of person And amongst these may I truly ranke our Martial Duellists who many times upon a Taverne quarrell are brought to shed their dearest bloud which might have beene imployed better in defence of their Countrey or resistance of proud Infidels And what is it which moves them to these extremes but as they seeme to pretend their Reputation is engaged their opinion in the eye of the world called in question if they should sit downe with such apparent disgrace But shall I answer them The opinion of their valour indeed is brought in question but by whom not by men of equall temper or maturer judgement who measure their censures not by the Last of rash opinion but just consideration For these cannot imagine how Reputation should be brought in question by any indiscreet crime uttered over a pot whereof perchance the Speaker is ignorant at least what it meant But of these distempered Roisters whose only judgement consists in taking offence and valour in making a flourish of these I have seene One in the folly of my Youth but could not rightly observe till my riper age whose braving condition having some young Gooselin to worke on would have made you confident of his valour instancing what dangerous exploits hee had attempted and atchieved what single fields hee had pitched and how bravely he came off yet on my conscience the Battell of the Pygâ—â—ies might have equall'd his both for truth and resolution Yet I have noted such as these to be the Bellowes which blow the fire of all uncivill quarrells suggesting to young Gentlemen whose want of experience makes them too credolous matter of Revenge by aggravating each circumstance to enrage their hot bloud the more Some others there are of this band which I have like wise observed and they are taken for grave Censors or Moderators if any difference occurre amongst Young Gentlemen And these have beene Men in their time at least accounted so but now their fortunes falling to an ebbe having drawne out their time in expence above their meanes they are enforced and well it were if Misery forced them not to worse to erect a Scence whereto the Roarers make recourse as to their Rendevous And hereto also resorts the raw and unseasoned Youth whose late-fallen patrimonie makes him purchase acquaintance at what rate soever glorying much to be esteemed one of the fraternity And he must now keep his Quarter maintaine his prodigall rout with what his Parcimonious father long carked for
said hee Whereat as one wondring at the folly of the young Gentleman Away away Sir I pray you quickly and fly hence before our Physician returne home for if he find you here as one that is maddest man alive hee will throw you into his Pit there to be cured with others that have lost their wits and more then all others for hee will set you chin-deepe in the water Inferring hence that the use or exercise of Hawking is the greatest folly unlesse sometimes used by such as are of good estate and for Recreation sake Neither is this pleasure or Recreation herein taxed but the excessive and immoderate expence which many are at in maintaining this pleasure Who as they should be wary in the expence of their coine so much more circumspect in their expence of time So as in a word I could wish young Gentlemen never to be so taken with this pleasure as to lay aside the dispatch of more serious occasions for a flight of feathers in the Ayre The Physician saith that it is the best exercise which is ad ruborem non ad sudorem refreshing the spirits and stirring up the blood a little but not putting a man into any great sweat for hee that makes his Recreation a toyle makes himselfe likewise Pleasures thrall Refresh your spirits stirre up your blood and enable your bodies by moderate exercise but avoid mixing of distemper with your pleasure for that were not to refresh but depresse the spirits not to stirre up but stop the course of blood not to enable but enfeeble the body And so I descend to the next branch treating of Recreations best sorting with the quality of a Gentleman TO propose what Recreations may please best I cannot because I know not how to stand affected but I shall as neere as I may recount what especiall Recreations best sort and sute with your quality Of all those which I have formerly touched and treated there is none but may be approved and entertained with an equall indifferencie being as I have said tempered and moderated with discretion But some there are I have not touched which may be so much the more admired forasmuch as they are by our young Gentlemen usually affected yea and as especiall Ornaments to grace and accomplish them generally esteemed as Fencing and Dancing the one to accommodate him for the Court the other for the Campe. Of which two Recreations to give my opinion freely there is required a knowledge but respectively to such I meane as onely intend to Court or Gallant it for these shall have occasion to make use of their knowledge in the one to grace and beautifie them in the other to shield and defend them Yet in neither of these would I have them to imitate their masters for so may they turne Cowards and so shew themselves true Fencers Or in their Dancing use those mimicke tricks which our apish professants use but with a reserved grace to come off bravely and sprightly rather then with an affected curiosity You shall see some of these come forth so punctually as if they were made up in a fute of Wainscot treading the ground as if they were foundred Others you shall see so supple and pliable in their joynts as you would take them to be some Tumblers but what are these but Iacke-an-Apes in gay clothes But others there are and these onely praise-worthy who with a gracefull presence gaine them respect For in exercises of this kind sure I am those onely deserve most commendation which are performed with least affectation Now I have heard of some who could doe all this shew an excellent grace in their carriage expresse themselves rare proficients in all School-tricks being so much admired as who but they yet observe the cloze and they spoile all with an English trick they cannot leave it when it is well It is said of Apelles that hee found fault with Protogenes in that hee could not hold his hands from his Table and right so fares it with these young Cavalieroes when they have shewne all that may be shewne to give content striving to shew one tricke above Ela they halt in the conclusion For Fence-play I have knowne some puffed up with a presumption of skill to have beene too apt in giving offence so as of professors of worth they became practisers of wrong But see their unhappinesse â— this conceit or over-weening opinion of their surpassing skill brings them many times to an unexpected end by exposing themselves to inevitable dangers And this they doe either for vaine glory being ambitious after fame or else out of a quarrelling disposition being no lesse apt to conceive or apprehend the smallest occasion of offence then to prosecute revenge upon occasion offered For the first the bravest and noblest spirits have beene affected to it I meane Ambition but their ends were more glorious As Themistocles Who walked in the night time in the open street because hee could not sleepe the cause whereof when some men did enquire hee answered that the triumph of Miltiades would not suffer him to take his rest The like might be observed in Alexander Who sighed that his Father should winne so much and leave him so little to winne So as it is said that hee wept hearing that there was another world saying He had not yet wonne one World But with these it fareth many times as it did with Marius who not contented with the glory hee got in the Cimbrian warres by seeking to augment it did extenuate it Yet are these more noble in their aimes then such whose Ambition it is to commit all impieties onely to gaine them a perpetuall infamy As Pausanias who killed Philip of Macedon onely for fame or vaine glory so did Herostratus burne the Temple of Diana to get him a name by an infamous act For the latter sort being such as are given to quarrels I have ever noted their gaines to be small in all their adventures For what are these but such as value blood at a low rate they pretend how their reputation stands engaged they cannot put up such disgraces but with touch of cowardise and what a blemish were it for ones reputation to be brought in question upon termes so neere concerning them and not seeke revenge where the wide world would take notice of their disgrace pointing at them in the streets and saying There goe such and such who were most grosly baffled preferring their blood before their honour their safety before their reputation O Gentlemen how many of your ranke and quality have perished by standing upon these termes how many and those of the choycest and selected'st ranke have exposed themselves to extremest danger whereby they might gaine themselves the stile of valiant how many even upon trifling occasions have gone into the field and in their heat of blood have fallen Sure I am their deare Countrey hath felt their losse to whom in all due respect they should have
Deity All other Objects are vanity They may play upon your fantasie and so delude you but being weakely grounded on piety they can never suffice you Taske your selves then privately lest privacy become your enemy As mans extremity is Gods opportunity so the Divels opportunity is mans security Let not a minute bee mis-spended lest security become your attendant Bee it in the exercise of your Needle or any other manuall employment attemper that labour with some sweet meditation tending to Gods honour Chuse rather with Penelope to weave and unweave than to give Idlenesse the least leave Wanton Wooers are time-wasters They make you idolize your selves and consequently hazzardize the state of your soules Let not their Lip-salve so annoynt you as it make you forgetfull of him that made you Bee you in your Chambers or private Closets bee you retired from the eyes of men thinke how the eyes of God are on you Doe not say the walls encompasse mee darkenesse o're-shadowes mee the Curtaine of night secures me these be the words of an Adulteresse Therefore doe nothing privately which you would not doe publikely There is no retire from the eyes of God I have heard of some who for want of more amorous or attractive Objects abroad have furnished their private Chambers with wanton pictures Aretine tables Sibariticke stories These were no objects for Christian eyes they convey too inordinate an heat from the eye to the heart The history of Christ is a peece of portraiture that will suite your Chambers best Eye no object which may estrange you from thought of your Maker Make every day your Ephemerides Let your morning initiate your purposes for the day the day second what your morning purposed the Evening examine your mornings purpose your dayes purchase And so I descend to the next branch how you are to behave your selves in publike which should be by so much more punctuall for as much as the world is more Stoicall WOmen in sundry Countryes when they goe into any publike concourse or presse of people use to weare vayles to imply that secret inscreened beauty which best becomes a Woman Bash-full modesty Which habit our owne Nation now in latter yeares hath observed which howsoever the intention of the wearer appeare deserves approvement because it expresseth in it selfe Modest shamefastnesse a Womans chiefest Ornament I second his opinion who held it for divers maine respects a custome very irregular an undecent that Women should frequent places of publike resort as Stage-playes Wakes solemne Feasts and the like It is Occasion that depraves us Company that corrupts us Hence it was that some flourishing States having eyed the inconveniences which arise from the usuall resort of Women to Enterludes and other publike Solemnities published an expresse inhibition against such free and frequent meetings Had Hippodamia never wandred shee had prov'd an Hypemnestra and had never wantoned Had Dinah never roaved shee had prov'd a Diana and had never beene ravished Yet farre bee it from me to bee so regularly strict or Laconically severe as to exclude Women from all publike societies Meetings they may have and improve them by a Civill and Morall use of them to their benefit They may chat and converse with a modest freedome so they doe not gossip it For these Shee-Elpenors and Feminine Epicures who surfet our their time in an unwomanly excesse wee exclude them the pale of our Common-weale Bee they of what state soever they are staines to their Sexe for ever Especially such who carouse it in deepe healths rejoyce at the colour of the wine till it sparkle in their veines inflame their bloods and lay open a breach to the frailty of their Sexe For prevention whereof wee reade that kinsmen kissed their kinswomen to know whether they drunke wine or no and if they had to bee punished by death or banished into some Iland Plutarch saith that if the Matrons had any necessity to drinke wine either because they were sicke or weake the Senate was to give them licence and not then in Rome neither but out of the City Macrobius saith that there were two Senators in Rome chiding and the one called the others wife an Adulteresse and the other his wife a Drunkard and it was judged that to bee a drunkard was more infamy Truth is they might joyne hands as mates of one society for I have seldome seene any one subject to Ebriety preserve long untainted the honour of their chastity Now for publike Employments I know all are not borne to bee Deborahs to beare virile spirits in feminine bodies Yet in chusing the better part you may fit and accommodate your persons to publike affaires well sorting and suting with your ranke and quality Claudia and Priscilla were nobly descended yet they publikely resorted where they might bee religiously instructed and no lesse publikely instructed others in those principles wherein they were informed It is said of the Vestall Virgins that they first learned what to doe secondly they did what they had learned thirdly they instructed others to doe that which they had both done and learned For this the rich Saban Queene left her owne Region to heare the Wisdome of King Salomon Surely howsoever some no lesse properly than pregnantly have emblematiz'd Woman by a Snaile because shee still carries her house about her as is the property of a good House-keeper yet in my judgement wherein I ingenuously submit to others censure a modest and well Behaved Woman may by her frequent or resort to publike places conferre no lesse benefit to such as observe her behaviour than occasion of profit to her private family where shee is Over-seer I have seene some in these places of publike repaire expresse such a well-seeming State without Apish formality as every action deserved imitation of such as were in their Company Their Conceits were sweetly tempered without lightnesse their jests savory yet without saltnesse their discourse free without nicenesse their answers milde without tartnesse their smile pleasing mixt with bashfulnesse their pace gracefull without too much activenesse their whole posture delightfull with a seemely carelesnesse These are such mirrors of modesty patternes of piety as they would not for a world transgresse the bounds of Civility These are Matrons in their houses Models in publike places Words spoken in season are like apples of gold with pictures of silver So opportunately are their words delivered so seasonably uttered with such unaffected eloquence expressed wheresoever this sweet and well-tempered discretion is seated Whereas others there be whose indiscretion makes discovery of an Ocean of words but a drop of reason They speake much but expresse little their conceits are ever ballased with harshnesse their jests foisted in with too much dulnesse their discourse trimmed up with too much neatnesse their answers leavened with too much sowrenesse their lookes promising too much lightnesse or unsociable perversenesse their pace either too quicke or too slow in dispatch of busines their whole posturean indisposed
gone he tooke out his owne bowels with both his hands and threw them upon the people calling upon the Lord of life and spirit that he would restore them againe unto him And thus he died Whence Augustine that devout Father and most excellent light of the Church concludeth that this was done magnè non benè more resolutely than rightly for hee was not to lay violent hand upon himselfe though there were no hope of safetie but imminent danger in respect of the furious and bloudy enemie Now this Fortitude whereof wee here discourse as it is grounded upon a just foundation so it never ends in basenesse or rashnesse in Basenesse as in not daring in Rashnesse as in too inconsiderately attempting It is so farre from any act of Despaire as it hopes so long as it breathes for to despaire is to entertaine the extremest act of feare which is farre from her condition Now to discourse of the aime or end whereto all her actions are directed it is not any peculiar interest which moves true resolution so much as publike good For such whose aimes are glorious are ever conversant in redressing wrongs ministring comfort both by advice and assistance to such whose weaknesse hath felt the power of greatnesse For as in every good man there is naturally implanted a desire of goodnesse so in every valiant man there is a native desire to gaine honour by redressing injuries yea admit to honour were to accrue unto him by endevouring to right or releeve such as are distressed yet for vertues sake which is a sufficient reward to her selfe he undertakes the taske For Charitie being a good and a gracious effect of the Soule whereby mans heart hath no fancie to esteeme value or prize any thing in this wide world beside or before the care and studie of God so inflameth a well-disposed man as his desire is only to doe good whereby he might in so doing glorifie God the beginner and accomplisher of all good Now there are many motives to excite men to valour as may be collected from Histories properly and profitably tending to this purpose But the usuallest motive is Anger being indeed the Whetstone of Fortitude Or the Princes presence as wee reade of the Macedonians who being once overcome in battell by their enemies thought the only remedie to animate their Souldiers was to carry Philip being then a childe in a cradle to the field thereby stirring up the zeale of loyall and faithfull Subjects to defend their innocent Prince and this Whetstone so sharpned their swords that indeed they won the battell Or the renowne of Ancestors as the people of Tangia in America alwayes in their warres carried the bones reliques of their memorable predecessors to encourage their Souldiers with the memory of them to avoid and eschew all timiditie So Tacitus reports how the Germans inflame their spirits to resolution valour by singing the memorable acts of Hercules Or the sound of warlike alarmes as the Nairians in India stirre up their people to battell by hanging at the pummels of their swords certaine plates to make a noise to animate incense them to warre So Alexander the great hearing Antigenida that excellent Trumpetter sound his trumpet to battell was stirred up in such sort to fight that his very friends were not secure from blowes which stood about him Or the passionate effects of Musicke as S. Basil recounteth one Timothie to be so excellent in Musicke that if he used a sharpe and severe harmony he stirred up men to anger and presently by changing his note to a more remisse and effeminate straine he moved them to peace both which effects he once produced in Alexander the great at a banquet Or Conceit of the Generalls discipline and magnanimity As may appeare by the victorious Swede his late prosperous attempts and numerous conquests whose martiall discipline and personall valour hath no doubt begot in his Souldiers an emulation of honour Or opinion of the enemies crueltie as in the yeere 1562. appeared in Agria a City in Hungaria engirt with long siege by Mahomet Bassa with an Army of Turkes amounting to threescore thousand and battered with sixtie Cannons in the Citie were only two thousand Hungarians who with incredible valour repelled thirteene most terrible assaults resolved to endure famine or any extremitie soever rather than yeeld to their truculent and insatiable desires Wherefore they never came to parley of truce but to answer their Enemies fury with Cannons and Calivers At last when the Bassa had offered them many favours they hung over the wall a Coffin covered with blacke betwixt two speares signifying thereby that in that Citie they would be buried So the Turkes despaired of successe and the Hungarians to their eternall glory and renowne prevailed preserving themselves and their Citie whose libertie they defended from the Turks slaverie And hence I might take occasion to advance with due deserved praise the glorious memory of such whose resolution hath had no other ayme than defence of the Truth against those profest foes of Christendome who have alreadie taken possession of the Holy Land making the Keepers of that Sacred Sepulchre the most blessed Monument that ere was erected on Earth to pay them tribute whose high-swelling pride is growne to that height as their Empire seemes to labour with her owne greatnesse O what tender Christian eye can behold these wofull distractions in Christendome and abstaine from teares To see Christian armed against Christian while the common foe of Christians laughs at these divisions taking advantage of the time to enlarge his Dominions O who can endure to see Pagans and Infidels plant where the blessed feet of our Saviour once trod To heare Mahomet called upon where Christ once taught To have them usurpe and prophane those Temples where he once preached To reare them Altars for their false Prophets where those true Prophets of God once prophesied To see Mahomets Oratorie erected where the Iewish Temple was once seated To behold his Palace in the Cathedrall Church of SAN SOPHIA now become his Seraglia where stood once the High-Altar or Communion-Table and Patriarchall Throne now made and so used as a Turkish Moschie with uncleane hands polluted by unbeleeving hearts possessed alas for sorrow that Soveraigntie should so much blind or desire of command beare so much sway that Christ Enemie should get advantage by our discord O thrice happie and may it be soone so happie were the state of Christendom if all civill and unnaturall broiles for unnaturall it is for Christian to shed Christians bloud were appeased and ended that they with one consent might assaile this common Enemie marching even to Constantinople once the glorious seat of a victorious Emperour crying with one voice Downe with it Downe with it even to the ground And easily might this be atchieved if Christendom would joyne minde with might that this Vncircumcised Philistine might bee discomfited till which time