of linking themselves to their bodies and to their reality They imbrace Probability because they have painted and embellish'd it after their mode But they reject the Truth because it 's none of their invention and that it hath its foundation in itself These Gentlemen fancie That everywhere there is Subtility and Design and that all the Actions of Man are premeditated Nothing presents it self to sight whereof they seek not the mystical and allegorical sense These subtile Interpreters of other mens thoughts never stop at the letter And when two Princes with all their strength and with all the power of their States assault one the other it 's believ'd they hold Intelligence to cozen the rest of the Princes They make Judgments very like those sportful ones which were made at Athens That the death of King Philip was not to be believ'd and that he had expresly caused himself to be kill'd to entrap the Athenians By this â—ll encounter we may perceive how far a perverse subtility will go and what the spirit of Greece is and of these Speculatives But there have been Speculators in all Countries there have ever been Alchymists and Bellows blowers who have distill'd humane things who have given more liberty then they ought to their conjectures and suspitions Because Jurius Brutus counterfeited the Fool they have misdoubted all other Fools They fancied that all Changelings imitated Brutus That apparent Simplicity was a hidden Artifice That those who knew nothing dissembled their Knowledge That the silence of those who said nothing was a cover for dangerous thoughts It was the opinion which a Roman Prince had of a certain weak-witted man of his time whom the Pages hiss'd and whom no body esteem'd but himself The History relates That he apprehended his secret vertues and that the universal scorn of the Court and five and twenty years Impertinencies in deeds or words before the face of all the world could never secure him from that man From the same Principle of False subtilitie those Visions spring which our Man finds to be so ingenious and which to me seem so ridiculous which the Doctors admire and I cannot endure At this passage Aristippus addressing his speech to the two Gentlemen who heard him Do you think says he that like these subtile Doctors Hannibal would not have taken Rome for fear it would no longer be profitable to Carthage and lest thereby he should have been oblig'd to finish that War which he had a minde to perpetuate Did Augustus in your opinion choose Tiberius for his Successor that his loss might thereby be regretted and thereby to seek glory after his death by the comparison of a life so much different from his Do you believe that the Counsel which was found amongst his Memorials to place good men in the Empire was an effect of his envy against Posterity Was he afraid that some after-time another man should be a greater Lord then he and the Commander of more Subjects Is it credible that the same Augustus made Love only out of Maxims of State and courted the Ladies of Rome but only to learn their Husbands secrets Is there any likelihood that his soul should move only according to rule and compass That all his actions were ballanc'd and that all his vices were studied In my conceit this is to make the World more subtile then it is 'T is to interpret Princes as some Grammarians explain Homer who find what is not in him and accuse him for a Philosopher and a Physitian in some places where he only is a forger of tales and a composer of songs Let 's sometimes content ourselvs with the literal sense Let 's not seek a Sacrament under every syllable and under every point Let 's not be so indulgent to our own minds nor so curious in searching into another man's We need not go so far to seek the Truth nor take things so high We need not relate to hidden causes and the Counsels of the past Age present Successes or which happen'd by Chance or which a slight Occasion hath brought to pass The Stoicks who would not that the leaf of a tree should move without the particular order of Providence nor that a wise man should lift up his finger without the leave of Philosophy judg'd not more advantagiously of God and of that Person who was nearest God then these Refiners presume of a Man who is often less then a mean one who hath but a quarter or half a share of the Reasonable who all his life never thought of being wise nor of drawing near God There is no Mean whereby to ajust their Opinions to our common capacity They cannot descend to us In the judgment which they make of Men they cannot presuppose a humane infirmity that is to say a Principle of errors and of saults A disease born with us from which nor Alexander nor Caesar were exempt A defect which draws after it so many other defects in the persons of the most perfect in the conduct of the wise and if you please even in that of Solomon himself Great Events are not always produced by great Causes The Springs are hid and the Machines appear and when the Springs are discovered we are astonish'd to see them so small and so weak we are ashamed of the high opinion we had of them A jealousie of love betwixt particular persons hath been the cause of a general War Names given or taken by chance The Green and Red at the Games of the Circus have made parties and factions which have torne in pieces the Empire The Motto or the body of a Device the fashion of a 〈◊〉 very the relation of a Domestick a Taâ—e told at the Kings going to bed is in appearance nothing and yet this Nothing hath been the beginning of Tragedies wherein so much blood hath been shed and so many heads made slie It 's but a Cloud which passeth and a stain in some corner of the Air which vanisheth rather then abides And yet it 's this light Vapor it 's this almost imperceptible Cloud which raiseth those fatal Tempests which States are sensible of and which shake the very foundations of the Earth Yet some foermerly have imagin'd that it was their Masters Interests which enflam'd all the World when it was only their Servants Passions I doubt not but the King of Persia made most specious pretences to justifie his Arms when he came into Greece and but that his Manifests told wonders of his intentions He wanted neither Pretences nor Right He forgot not that the great King came only to chastise the petty Tyrants and that he offer'd the People a rich and plentiful liberty in stead of a poor and barren servitude He falsified his design several ways and yet swore perhaps that this design was immediately inspir'd him from the immortal Gods and that the Sun was the primary Author of it Not withstanding some Manifests which he dispersed abroad and some color of Justice and of Religion
Millan to our last Kings and had Demosthenes been of their Councel he would have counselled them to have refused the Present for fear of doing wrong to the Rights they had to the Dutchy He would rather have kept his just pretentions and have consolated himself with the hopes of the future then to have enjoyed the advantage of the present and to have accepted the possession of a second Crown upon such terms as he did believe were not worthy of the first In the wicked world wherein we live when they execute Justice on us do we fancy it an act of Grace Let 's not be avaritious of terms and of appearances so as the essential part remain Let them carry away some Pictures and Weathercocks so as they leave us the Walls and the Roof Let them call it a Present a Favor an Alms if they please when the piece is ours we may easily give it a fairer name and that which may please us better Let us with honor have those Islands which belong to us but let us have them at any rate Let us rather applaud our selves for a little wrong we have suffered then complain to posterity of a great injustice inflicted on us It were better not have a good and piercing sight in the discussion of ones Rights lest we should therein discover but too much Justice it were better not to be so able in a mans own business lest a man should be thereby over-perswaded This so subtil and delicate a sence of the injuries which we have received is no very convenient thing when the reparation we require is concerned So high an opinion of the merit of the cause with difficulty submits it self to the Judgement and Decision of another All this serves onely to render that impossible which we haue a design to do to amuse a man in a place out of which he ought to go as soon as possible these are not means to act these are hindrances of action these are not means to level the difficulties of a course they are stones which lye before the end of it They are in effect elevated qualities which commonly accompany Nobleness of heart and Generosity But they commonly do more hurt then good At least they are not for every days use and those who are weak cannot use them profitably against those who are more strong I know not how they understand it But methinks a Treaty cannot be more unhappily concluded or have a more sad success for the one of the parties then when after along Negotiation after an infinite many words thrown in the wind and writings which must be cast into the fire it 's obliged To appeal to another Age and must bring home again all its Reason and all its Honor It were far better to quit some of this Reason and of this Honor Why not consent to an accommodation which were reasonable in consideration of what 's profitable and which will be no ways dishonest in the necessity of times whereto Generosity it self and Nobleness of heart ought to accommodate themselves LEt us not be blinded therefore with the Reputation of the Wisdom of the Grecians let neither the one nor the other of the Orators of Athens perswade us the Country the Antiquity the merit of those which have fail'd instead to justifie their faults renders them only the more visible and the more remarkable Let 's once in our lives make use of the liberty of our Judgement which ought not always to be subalternate to that of the Grecians and Romans it 's a cause of consolation for our poor humanity to seeâ— that even in Hero's there hath been somewhat of the Man How much good it doth me an excellent man formerly told me to see that Hero's have fled that wise men have committed follies that that great Orator made use of an ill term that so great a Polititian hath delivered an ill opinion These examples of weakness and infirmity were the spectacles and pass-times which sometimes were the divertisements of this excellent Man who derided Demosthenes and his ridiculous point of Honor but he mocked Cleon far more with his extravagant Probity This Man having been called to the Government of the Republick would signalize his coming to his Place by I know not what kinde of good which was new and strange the next day after his promotion he sent to desire his friends to come to him where being come and every one with the hopes of sharing with him in his good fortune he entertained them with a Discourse which was unexpected to them all and had almost made them all fall to the ground He told them That he had assembled them in his house to drive them thence and to declare unto them that truly as a private man he had been their friend but being become Magistrate he thought himself obliged to renounce their Friendship He thought this Declaration was an original of Vertue an act of heroick Probity the fairest thing which could have been done at Athens since the foundation of the Town since Theseus his time to that of Cleon He did believe that a States-man was a publick Enemy and that for the first essay of his â—igor he was to dispatch himself of all his inclinations and of all his friendships That he was to break all the bonds of Nature and of Society I have seen some of these counterfeit Just men on this side and beyond the mountains I have seen some who to make their integrity admired and to oblige the world to say that Favour could work nothing on them take up a strangers interest against one of his Kindred or against a friend although the reason was on his Friends or Kinsmans side They have been ravished at the loss of a cause which was recommended to them by their Nephew or Cousen German and the worst office which could be done a good business was such a recommendation When divers Competitors pretended to one and the same Office they demanded it for one they knew not and not for him whom they judged worthy of it I protest again that I do not enlarge the business I am not an Exaggerator like him who related nothing but Prodigies to Your Highness and had seen nothing of what he spake I give you an account my Lord from my own experience and I could name those I speak of I have seen some who were so afraid of favouring any body that they disapproved that they blamed that they condemned all the world and most commonly without knowing wherefore In them it was rather extravagancy then cruelty rather intemperance of tongue and choler which exhaled it self then premeditate malice or a design of harming any man conceived in the Mind and digested by time and by discourse They would have called Julius Caesar a DRUNKARD although an hour before they had said of him THAT A SOBER MAM HAD NEWLY RUINED THE REPUBLICK Your Highness hath heard of that Counsellor who commonly gave his opinion to the death
with these our lines which you shall give him For the Picture it self which you promised him it s another story It 's not at all in my Cabinet as you fancy it 's still in the Painters Idea and consequently it will be difficult for you to make good your promise Such Pieces require leisure and meditation An old Artist as I am having some honor to lose and being obliged to have a care to preserve the good opinion which men have of him he ought to respect the judgment of the publick and not to abuse those favors which he hath received Althongh I will paint no more I have far less mind to daub FINIS A TABLE of the most remarkable things in ARISTIPPVS A. ACtion It 's easie to deceive ones self in the judgement which men make of actions since those who perform them are first deceived Page 42 Agrippa Augustus his Minister of State 143. Alcibiades the vivacity of his mind 69 70 Ambition being not well regulated causeth the loss of great persons 156 A famous Artisan whom Alexanders history mentions 55 56 B. BArbarossa kept intelligence with Andreas Doria 77 Birague a Cardinal his remarkable baseness 152 C. CAto an austere Commonwealths-man but out of fashion who could not fit himself to the manner of his times 98 99. A verse of Virgil well applied 100 Cicero was valiant and couragious at least in the Senate 67 Citizens are seldom so now 67 68 A brave Citizen ought to be like Cicero ibid. Cleon Governor of the Commonwealth of Athens mocked for his extravagant probity 108 Comines his astonishment and surprise 145 Conference VVhat natural knowledge soever we have and what light soever comes from above we are not to scorn a scrutiny of reason and the greater light of truth which is gained by Conference 2 3 4 The Conquest of Greece proposed by a petit Prince of Italy 56 Of Counsel it 's the great element of a civil life nor less necessary then fire or water 2 3 Counsellors There are some who out of a peevish and fantastick humor commonly think on death and commonly sleep on the Flower-de-Luces 110. Such Counsellors are not to be called before Princes 110 111 Court Tricks and deceits used therein 78 c. He who takes and gives counsel is not esteemed less wise 9 10 D. DEliberation How that is to be understood which the Romans said that we ought to deliberate with occasion and in the presence of affairs 54 Demosthenes appeared too punctilious in the Council of Athens about that small Island which was in contest betwixt the Athenians and King Philip 104 105 Andrew Doria kept intelligence with Barbarossa although a good servant to the Emperor Charles 5. 77 E. EQuivoques which were pleasant of a Gâ—â—â—mans to what learning was unknown P 29 30. Events Yhe greatest are not always produced from great Causes 39 An Ecclesiastick Italian his good and very exprest sally preaching before a Prince of that Country 133 134 F. FAvor is a Daughter which often kills her own Mother 130 Favourites described 113 114. How they introduce and raise themselves in Court and how by little and little they possess themselves of the Princes mind 116. What tricks and slights they use altogether to subject 〈◊〉 Prince that they may reign themselves apparently 125. Of he unhappy captivity Princes are reduced unto by their Favourites 126 127. There can be no 〈◊〉 more unhappy then the life of such a Prince who suffers himself after that manner to be governed by his Favourites 129. A Prince in such a condition is civilly dead and 〈◊〉 as it were deposed himself it 's his 〈◊〉 only which is made use of in publick 130. An example of a King of Castile who duâ—st 〈◊〉 even go to walk nor so much as put on a new Suit without his Favorites leave 131. Of the unhappy condition a Prince or State is reduced unto when a Favourite himself obeys a Mistris when Love governs the Politicks ib. A good lesson for Kings and Princes touching the choyce and raising up of their Favorites and Ministers 134 135. Favorites Kings can hardly live without Favorites 17. It were a tyranny to hinder Kings from having them 18. It 's no crime to have a Confident ibid. In Heaven there are benevolent Aspects and favorable inclinations rather towards one then towards another ibid. The Son of God even in this world hath had his Favorites 19. Of the prudence and discretion a Prince ought to have in the choice of his Favorites and Ministers of State 20. Princes often deceive themselves in the choyce they make raising persons of no worth without vertue without knowledge and without experience to the Government and Administration of Affairs of State 20 21. Some fair thoughts touching those Grandies who are onely remarkable from their Grandure 21 22. Concerning the cause of this new favor and of the birth of this evil Authority 22 23. This favor is none of vertues Creature nor so much as the Vertues of the blood 24 25. These new men grown great deceive themselves if they perswade themselves that God is obliged to send them his spirit of governing well and to invalidate the Princes election by the sudden illumination of his Ministers 27. To govern well instruction and experience are necessary 20 21. The good opinion which an ignorant Favorite haeth of himself casts him into continual danger of losing himself and of losing the Country 28 29. Friendship without it felicity is imperfect and defective Vertue is weak and impotent 1 Friends are the most profitable and most desirable of all outward goods 1 2. Fortune and its productions are extravagant and ridiculous 22 Fortune is esteemed Mistris of Events and Arbitrator of Battels 65. This blind power hath no admittance nor power in Politick Assemblies Ibid. Fortune will have those she favors trust in her 61 G. GIlberti Bishop of Verona and Datary to Pope Clement 7. appeared too punctilious speaking about reconciling the Kingdom of Bohemia with the Church 104 Great men remarkable onely for their greatness 21. Like those high barren mountains which produce neither herb nor plant 21 22. Of God That there is none but he who is plenarily content in himself 2 I. Jealousie of love betwixt particular persons hath been cause of a great war 39 Ignorance is very dangerous in a person who hath the government and administration of Affairs of State 21. Bold Ignorance hath often precided in the conduct of humane things 26 Of Interest It always overbears both honor and reason 63. A man too much tied to his own interest is not capable of the government and administration of the State 62 Joseph the Patriarck a great Minister of State wonderfully honored by his Mr. Pharoah 15 16 Italy breeds excellent Cheats 84 85 Judgments which are quickest want clearness in their own interests 3 4 Justice when it 's too severe is not always best sometimes it 's even pernicious and hurtful 101
companions He communicated many secrets of the future during the agitation of his approaching death and amongst the disquiets of his last thoughts Besides this he witnessed more tenderness for one of the three then for the two others S. John without difficulty calls himself the Beloved and the Favorite of his Master He every-where glorifies himself of that favor And methinks he used it with liberty enough whenas he slept in the bosom of so great and dreadful a Master Consider him but in the Picture of the Holy Supper and see how he carelesly rests his head on a place whereto the Seraphins conveigh their looks with devotion Since the Author and Consummator therefore of Vertue as well as of Faith hath had his Inclinations and his Friendships and would not always command Nature A Prince ought not fear to love after an Example of such Authority which yields him a full permission And by the principles of a more wise Philosophy then was that of Zeno or of Chrysippus he may be sensible without being call'd Intemperate The motions of his Soul need only be just and well regulated Let him do good but let him observe a proportion and measure in the distribution of the good he doth Let him not presently thrust into his Council those whose conversation was grateful to him We ought to make a difference betwixt persons which delight us and those which are profitable to us betwixt the recreations of the Mind and the necessities of a State And if he take not an especial care in the examen of the different Subjects he imployes he will make Equivokes for which his Age will suffer and which will be reproch'd him by the Ages to come Courtiers are the Matter and the â—â—ince is the Artist who can easily â—ender this matter fairer but not better â—en it is He can add unto it colours â—nd shape in the outside but cannot give 〈◊〉 any interior goodness He may make 〈◊〉 Idol and a false God of it but he can â—either make a Spirit of it nor an able â—an Even in Christendom such Idols are to â—e seen There have been always unworthy persons happy Monkies have â—een caressed in Kings Cabinets and apâ—arell'd in cloth of gold In Egypt there â—ave been Beasts seen on the Altars Every where there have been Defects and Vices â—â—dor'd What I am about to tell Your Highness I have learn'd from You and 〈◊〉 find it worthy of the spirit of Marcus Intonius the Philosopher There is an Auâ—hority which is blind and dumb which neither knows nor understands which appears only and which dazles which is pure reâ—â—n'd Authority without any mixture of â—ertue or of Reason There are Grandees who are only remarkable by their Greatâ—ess and their Greatness is all without â—hem and altogether separate from their perâ—ons These Great ones my Lord make me â—emember certain fruitless Mountains which â— formerly saw travelling about the world which produce neither herb nor plant They touch Heaven and serve the Earth for no use Their sterility makes their height accursed These after the same manner are not less unprofitable then they are great and I look upon them asâ— the vain Monsters of the power and magnificence of Kings like the Colosses which they have raised and the Pyramids which they have built They are the burdens and hinderances of their Kingdoms which weigh down all the parts of the State They are superfluities which occupy more room then necessary things This is to be understood considering them in a weakness which is innocent and before they have added the injury of their Actions to the unworthiness of their Persons These are the fair works of Fortune these are the slights and extravagancies of this Goddess who is without eyes and without judgment to whom Rome hath given so many Names and dedicated so many Altars You have heard of some hypocondriacal Queens who have faln in love with a Dwarf a Moor even a Bull and a Horse Fortune is much of the same humor of these giddy-brain'd Princesses she commonly selects the most ill-favored and the most ill-shap'd when the Pretorship is in question she preferrs Vatinius his Kings-evil before the Vertue of Cato And that we may say nothing that 's worse she practiseth Profuseness nor doth she pay Debâ—s But we speak of a phantasm when we â—peak of Fortune The force of the Stars â—nd the necessity of Destiny are also other phantasms which the opinions of men form after which I have no mind to run Let us seek some more apparent cause of this faâ—â—or which seems to have no cause And as bear as we can let us observe the birth of this same perverse Authority What we seek is it not a transport of Passion which without reasoning escapes from the animal part and stops at the first pleasing object and at the first satisfaction of the Will Is it not a sport and a fancy of Power â—n exercise and an employment of Royalty which takes a pleasure to do strange things To astonish the world by Prodigies To change the fate of the little and miserable To paint and guild the dust Is it not on the contrary a serious and deliberate error a cheat to true fidelity done to ones self by ones self help'd by the imposture of Appearance which sometimes disguiseth men in such a manner that they are to be known by none but God It 's certain that most commonly they wear such doubtful marks and what appears of them is so false that he alone who hath made them knows their true value But the Effect which we take so much pains to draw from the obscurity of the Causes should it not be a Present made by Occasion For it 's she who commonly offers Servants to Princes She obligeth them to take what comes to hand and what comes in sight Their impatience being unable to suffer delay and their softness being an enemy to all manner of trouble to spare themselves the tediousness of enquiry and the difficulties of choice they set to work the nearest Instruments and retain as it were by custom those whom they took but by chance To conclude This Favor which raiseth it self to this height without any foundation should it not rather be an effect of self-love and a complaconcie which no man refufeth to his own opinions Should it not be our honor which we conceive engag'd in the perfection of our work Should it not be a leven of that natural pride hid in the minds of men which particularly swells the hearts of Kings when the maintaining of a fault which they have committed is in question that so they might not confess that they can erre Whatsoever this Favor is it 's none of Vertues creatures not so much as of the vertue of Blood Merit hath no share in it not even the merit of the Race The freed men by Claudius the Servants of Constantine's Children the Governors of those of Theodosius the â—usebius's and the Eutropius's are
They easily comfort themselves for the shipwrack of the State so as there be but a Skiff in which they may but gain the shore and secure their own family We should very much deceive our selves if we took them for those violent Zealots who would be Anathema's for their Brethren and who earnestly desire to be blotted out of the Book of life so as those of their own Nation were pardon'd Yet a man cannot absolutely say that they have ill designs against the State and that they desire its ruine They reserve only to themselves their first and most tender affections Excepting their own Interest I believe their Masters would be very dear unto them But the mischief is that they are never without their Interest no more then from themselves They find it wheresoever they cast their eyes Their particular Profit presents it self every where as his own shape did to that Antient sick person who perpetually had it before him They cannot divide themselves from Business to look on it with the least freedom of Judgment They cannot extract out of their soul their Reason simple and pure without mixing it with their passions So that although they discover a Conspiracie which is hatching yet they oppose it not for seat of offending the Conspirators and to leave their Children such powerful Enemies They have not courage enough to utter a bold Truth if it be never so little dangerous in respect of the establishment of their fortune although most important to their Masters service A wretched and miserable Prudence They consider not that a Spy who gives advice is not more mischievous then a Sentinel who says nothing And that they are as well the cause of the Princes loss by their silence as the others by their treachery They consider not that leaving him to that danger whence they could withdraw him they do no less contribute to his ruine then those who drive and precipitate him into it They perceive not that Infidelity doâ—â— no hurt which Weakness is not as capable to perform This being so my Lord Is it not of them the Spirit of God would speak in chap. 22. of the Revelation when it placeth the Timerous in the number of Poisoners and Assassinates and other execrable men when it condemns them all to the second death to that death which is so strange and terrible to that lake burning with fire and brimstone I know not the true intention of the Holy Ghost and will not assure you that they are comprised under that rigorous sentence But yet I very well perceive that they are the last and the worst of all Cowards and that it is not so shameful to flie in a Battel as to give a timerous Counsel For at the least if we fall into misfortune in war a man may excuse himself either from the disadvantage of the Place or from the number of the Enemies or lay the fault on his own Men and as Dust the Wind and the Sun merit the glories of the Victorious so also are they guilty of the loss of the Vanquish'd At worst a man justifies himself by accusing Fortune which in all Ages hath been esteemed the Mistress of Event and the Soveraign Arbiter of Battells It is not so with Politick Assemblies whereinto this blind Power is not admited where the Mind acts freely and without constraint where Prudence quietly exerciseth its operations and finds none of those obstacles and impediments which oppose themselves to the effects of valor For which cause all the excuses of Soldiers and of Captains have no place amongst Counsellors and Ministers A wise man cannot warrant success but he ought to answer for his Intentions and for his Advice There 's therefore no baseness like to that which begins at our Chamber and removes not simply by the approaches and presence of Danger but which cannot endure the onely imagination of it but which shakes at the least mention made of it And to speak truth It must needs proceed from the entire annihilation of that liberty which is born with Man and from the last corruption of that Principle of Generosity and of that sense of Honor which we all have since it 's the cause we even deny to own or to consent to the Truth seeing in that condition a Man is not so much as capable of the proposition of a difficult Good There is no way left to obtain so much from them as to set a good face on it even in a place of security to do so much as declare themselves without danger for the good of their Country to dispute their Rights in a chair and serve but for its tongue A strange thing They would rather accept of Servitude under the title of Peace then to resolve on a Defence which were to be effected with the arms and the blood of other Men We may also observe some Men who expect till ill Fortune be arriv'd that they may be astonish'd at it They have a bold spirit although they have a timorous soul These Men speak high when there is Time and Ground enough betwixt them and the Danger Cicero was after this manner couragious Never did the least word escape him which was not worthy of the Greatness of the Commonwealth He at least was valiant in the Senate and he methinks protests in some of his Letters That had he been invited to the Feast of the Ides of March he should have had nothing left Such a Citizen is not fit to fight a Duel He would not willingly in his doublet engage himself amongst Musket-shot He takes more care then other Men for the preservation of his life because he esteems it worth more then theirs and that it 's nothing unhandsom to fear the loss of a thing so precious He fears Death or to speak more civilly Nature fears it in him but he fears neither Envy nor Hatred but he equally despiseth the threats of Great men and the murmure of the People If his Forces are not sufficient to throw down Tyranny he makes use of his voice and of his breath to stir up others to the recovery of their liberty He at least calls Men to Arms as loud as he can and contradicts Ill if he cannot resist it All his opinions flie high for the Greatness and Glory of his Master He professeth enmity with all the enemies of the State Disgrace and Poverty are nothing grievous when he suffers them for a good cause And Death it self if it surprise him not and gives him but time to consider iâ— well he at last resolves to receive it like an honest man and puts on valor out of necessity By a long and serious meditation he forms to himself an acquired Courage which is no less staid then the natural Our Prudent persons arrive not at this height Besides Death they admit of so many other kinds of extremity that they still meet with some one or other which stops them the very first step they make rewards Good They despair
precide with a Soveraign Authority and gives him a Jurisdiction over Just and Happy People Secretosque Pios his dantem jura Catonem And as a Poet who is a friend of ours hath translated it Aux Justes assemblez Caton donne des Loix And thus in English The blest withdrawn where Cato gives the Laws To take the thing according to the letter was to offend the Family of the Caesars nor could their Enemy be beatified but that their Cause must be condemned But in my opinion Virgil and the Caesars herein understood one the other doubtless he had discovered to Augustus the secret of his fiction which in appearance praiseth and which in effect mocks him which shews us that Cato's vertue was of the other world and not of this Virgil would quaintly and in a figured manner express that Cato was to go seek Citizens which were all good and vertuous That he must make himself an express People to be worthy of him That Cato could not find a place unless in a Society which was not to be found on earth There in effect it is where the Cato's must go to practice their Paradoxes and vent their generous Maxims we do not live here in that Country we live not in the Country of Idea's and of Perfection where Souls are discharged of their Bodies are cured of their Passions are purged from the rest of their humane Infirmities Who ever say a Republick composed of Philosphers much less of Stoicks only It 's long since the World hath lost its innocency we are in the corruption of Ages in Natures declension All is weak all is sick in the Assemblies of Men if therefore you would govern happily if with success you would labor for the good of the State accommodate your self with the defects and imperfections of your matter dispatch your self of this incommodious vertue which our Age is not capable of support what you cannot reform dissemble those faults which are not to be corrected meddle not with those Evils which discover the impotency of the Remedies which decry Medicine and renders Physitians ridiculous Respect those fatal Diseases which are sent from high wherein something is to be remarked which is strange and unknown When the finger of God appears it must needs make the hand of man afraid In good time if you can satisfie the honor and dignity of the Crown yet do not lose the Crown to preserve its honor and dignity Do not so tie your selves to what 's savagely rigorously and philosophically honest that you cannot quit your selves of it lest necessity should exact from you what 's more humanely more sweetly and more popularly honest Consider that Reason is less pressing in Policy then in Morality that its extent is incomparably more large and more free when it intends to make People happy then when we are onely concerned to make particular persons good There are Maxims which are not just in their own nature yet which their use justifies There are filthy Remedies and yet they are Remedies These salutiferous compositions are made with Humane Blood with Ordure and other vile things But health is still fairer then these things are vile poison it self sometimes heals and in such a case neither is poison an evil Be not my Masters too honest nor too just Cato's Contend not the prize of your bodies against this guilty person who hath an Army to defend himself from your Sergeants Of a Mutineer make him not desperate In the name of God force not this new Caesar to pass the Rubicon to make himself Master of his Country to speak these remarkable words looking on the slain men of a Battel which he won These men willed their own mishap After having done great things I had had Commissioners appointed over me had I not made use of my Souldiers I had been condemned had not my innocency been armed I was threatned with chains and with prison I had been delivered to the Barbarians had not my Cause been as strong as it was good It 's a Monster I must confess it It 's a moral Prodigy to see a Citizen impose Laws over a Town to see a Subject treat with his Prince yet such like Prodigies cannot often be expâ—ated but by dissimulation and by indulgence When such kind of Monsters cannot be subdued we must endeavor to tame them Were it but to grant an armed Victor a justification of what was past to make him lay down his arms why should you opiniaster your self further as to force him take an Abolition Insist not on the punctilioes of forms and words give him as full and advantagious an Acknowledgement as he can desire let himself dictate it and do you write it let it be written in gilt Paper and altogether perfumed with his praises I have elsewhere read with some manner of indignation a Letter of John Matthew Giberti Bishop of Verona and Pope Clement the Seventh his Datary it 's addrest to his Masters Nuncio with the King of Hungary And by this Letter he witnesseth That the Pope extremely desires the reconciliation of the Kingdom of Bohemia with the holy See but that he this Datary foresaw a very great impediment which might combate this extreme desire of his Holiness it was that it did not become the Grandeure Dignity of the Church to sue to Kings or Kingdoms And that in a business of so great reputation order was not to be overthrown nor the fitness of things to be violated That for that purpose it were fit to finde out some means to oblige the Bohemians first of all to begin this practice and make the advance of it that presenting themselves to Cardinal Campegno who was Legate in Germany they should be received with open arms but not presenting themselves the Legate could not move towards them nor the Judge sollicite the parties That what they demand ought to be granted but that they were not to be offered what they did not demand Is it not true that this man was a great Husband of the point of Honor This ridiculous nicety displeaseth me in this procedure of John Matthew Giberti who otherwise was an excellent man I am not onely angry but vexed that our Demosthenes should be of the number of these men I could wish it had been some other body who had said in the Council of Athens on the subject of a little Isle neighboring with Samothracia which was in contest betwixt the Athenians and King Philip If the King will restore you the Isle and that the Treaty import the word Surrender I would advise you to take it but not if he pretends to give it you and if he should call the restitution of what he hath usurped over you a Benefit You may by this believe how such Great Persons have amuzed themselves on trifles and that this man prised the vanity of a word more then the solidity of the thing If the Emperor Charls would have made a present of the Dutchy of