have in their fortunes Nay some there are who after their death bequeath and commit the same aucthority over them and their goods vnto their wives with full power and law to dispose of them at their pleasure And my selfe have knowen a Gentleman a chiefe officer of our crowne that by right and hope of succession had he lived vnto it was to inherite above fifty thousand crownes a yeere good land who at the age of more then fifty yeeres fell into such necessity and want and was run so farre in debt that he had nothing left him and as it is supposed died for very neede whilest his mother in hir extreame decrepitude enjoyed all his lands and possessed all his goods by vertue of his fathers will and testament who had lived very neere foure-score yeares A thing in my conceite no way to be commended but rather blamed Therefore doe I thinke that a man but little advantaged or bettered in estate who is able to liue of himselfe and is out of debt especially if he have children and goeth about to marry a wife that must have a great joynter out of his lands assuredly there is no other debt that brings more ruine vnto houses then that My predecessours have commonly followed this counsell and so have I and all have found good by it But those that disswade vs from marrying of riche wives lest they might proove over disdainefull and peevish or lesse tractable and loving are also deceived to make vs neglect and for-goe a reall commoditie for so frivolous a conjecture To an vnreasonable women it is all one cost to hir whether they passe vnder one reason or vnder another They love to be where they are most wronged Injustice doeth allure them as the honour of their vertuous actions enticeth the good And by how much richer they are so much more milde and gentle are they as more willingly and gloriously chast by how much fairer they are Some colour of reason there is men should leave the administration of their goods and affaires vnto mothers whilst their children are not of competent age or fit according to the lawes to manage the charge of them And il hath their father brought them vp if he cannot hope these comming to yeares of discretion they shal have no more wit reason and sufficiencie then his wife considering the weaknesse of their sexe Yet truly were it as much against nature so to order things that mothers must wholy depend of their childrens descretion They ought largely and competently to be provided wherewith to maintaine their estate according to the quality of their house and age because neede and want is much more vnseemely and hard to be indured in women than in men And children rather then mothers ought to be charged therewith In generall my opinion is that the best distribution of goods is when we die to distribute them according to the custome of the Country The Lawes have better thought vpon them then we And better it is to let them erre in their election then for vs rashly to hazard to faile in ours They are not properly our owne since without vs and by a civill prescription they are appointed to certaine successours And albeit we have some further liberty I thinke it should be a great and most apparant cause to induce vs to take from one and barre him from that which Fortune hath allotted him and the common Lawes and Iustice hath called him vnto And that against reason wee abuse this liberty by suting the same vnto our priuate humours and frivolous fantasies My fortune hath beene good inasmuch as yet it never presented mee with any occasions that might tempt or divert my affections from the common and lawfull ordinance I see some towards whom it is but labour lost carefully to endevour to doe any good offices A word il taken defaceth the merite of tenne yeeres Happy he that at this last passage is ready to sooth and applaud their will The next action transporteth him not the best and most frequent offices but the freshest and present worke the deede They are people that play with their wils and testaments as with apples and rods to gratifie or chastize every action of those who pretend any interest therevnto It is a matter of over-long pursute and of exceeding consequence at every instance to be thus dilated and wherein the wiser sort establish themselves once for all chiefely respecting reason and publike observance We somewhat over-much take these masculine substitutions to hart and propose a ridiculous eternity vnto our names We also over-weight such vaine future conjectures which infant-spirits give-vs It might peradventure have beene deemed injustice to displace me from out my rancke because I was the dullest the slowest the vnwillingest and most leaden-pated to learne my lesson o any good that ever was not onely of all my brethren but of all the children in my Countrie were the lesson concerning any exercise of the minde or body It is follie to trie anie extraordinarie conclusions vpon the trust of their divinations wherein we are so often deceived If this rule may be contradicted and the destinies corrected in the choise they have made of our heires with so much more apparance may it be done in consideration of some remarkable and enormous corporall deformitie a constant and incorrigible vice and according to vs great esteemers of beautie a matter of important prejudice The pleasant dialogue of Plato the law-giver with his citizens will much honor this passage Why then say they perceiving their ende to approch shall we not dispose of that which is our owne to whom and according as we please Oh Gods what cruelty is this That it shall not be lawfull for vs to give or bequeath more or lesse according to our fantasies to such as have served vs and taken paines with vs in our sickenesses in our age and in our busines To whom the Law-giver answereth in this manner my frends saith he who doubtles shall shortly die it is a hard matter for you both to know your selves and what is yours according to the Delphike in scription As for me who am the maker of your lawes I am of opinion that neither your selves are your owne nor that which you enjoy And both you and your goods past and to come belong to your familie and moreover both your families and your goods are the common wealths Wherfore least any flatterer either in your age or in time of sickenes or any other passion should vnadvisedly induce you to make any vnlawfull convayance or vnjust will and testament I will looke to you and keepe you from-it But having an especiall respect both to the vniversall interest of your Citie and particular state of your houses I will establish lawes and by reason make you perceive and confesse that a particular commoditie ought to yeelde to a publike benefit Followe that course meerely whereto humaine necessitie doth call you To me it belongeth who have no
it selfe or penetrates more deepely then doth licentiousnesse Our Armies have no other bond to tie them or other ciment to fasten them then what commeth from strangers It is now a hard matter to frame a body of a compleate constant well-ordred and coherent Army of Frenchmen Oh what shame is it We have no other discipline then what borrowed or auxiliar Souldiers shew vs. As for vs wee are ledâ—on by our owne discretion and not by the commaunders each man followeth his owne humour and hath more to doe within then without It is the commaundement should follow court and yeeld vnto hee onely ought to obey all the rest is free and loose I am pleased to see what remisnesse and pusilanimitie is in ambition and by what steps of abjection and servitude it must arrive vnto it's end But I am displeased to see some debonaire and well-meaning mindes yea such as are capable of iustice dayly corrupted about the managing and commanding of this many-headed confusion Long suffrance begets custome custâ—me consent and imitation We had too-too many infected and ill-borne mindes without corrupting the good the sound and the generous So that if we continue any time it will prove a difficult matter to finde out a man vnto whose skill and sufficiencie the health or recovery of this state may bee committed in trust if fortune shall happily be pleased to restore it vs againe Hunc saltem everso invenâ—m succurrere scclo Ne prohibete Forbid not yet this youth at least To aide this age more then opprest What is become of that antient precept That Souldiers ought more to feare their Generall than their enemie And of that wonderfull examplelesse example That the Romane army having vpon occasion enclosed within her trenches and round-beset an apple-orchard so obedient was shee to her Captaines that the next morning it rose and marched away without entring the same or touching one apple although they were full-ripe and very delicious So that when the owner came he found the full number of his apples I should bee glad that our Youths in steade of the time they employ about lesse profitable peregrinations and lesse honourable apprentishippes would bestow one moyty in seeing and observing the warres that happen on the sea vnder some good Captaine or excellent Commaunder of Malta the other moyty in learning and surveying the discipline of the Turkish armies For it hath many differences and advantages over ours This ensueth that heere our Souldiers become more licentious in expeditions there they proove more circumspect and fearefully wary For small offences and petty larcenies which in times of peace are in the common people punished with whipping or bastonadoes in times of warre are capitall crimes For an egge taken by a Turke without paying hee is by their law to have the full number of fifty stripes with a cudgell For every other thing how sleight soever not necessary for mans feeding even for very trifles they are either thrust through with a sharpe stake which they call Empaling or presently beheaded I have beene amazed reading the story of Selim the cruellest Conqueror that ever was to see at what time hee subdued the Country of Aegypt the beauteous-goodly gardines round about the Citty of Damasco all open and in a conquered Country his maine armie lying encamped round about those gardines were left vntouched and vnspoyled by the handes of his Souldiers onely because they were commaunded to spoyle nothing and â—ad not the watch-word of pillage But is there any malady in a Common-weale that deserveth to bee combated by so mortall drugge No saide Favonius not so much as the vsurpation of the tyrannicall possession of a Common-wealth Plato likewise is not willing one should offer violence to the quiet repose of his-Countrys no not to reforme or cure the same and alloweth not that reformation which disturbeth or hazardeth the whole estate and which is purchased with the blood and ruine of the Cittizens Establishing the office of an honest man in these causes to leaue all there But onely to pray God to lend his extraordinary assisting hand vnto it And seemeth to be offended with Dyon his great friend to have therein proceeded somewhat otherwise I was a Platonist on that side before ever I knew there had beene a Plato in the world And if such a man ought absolutely be banished our commerce and refused our societie hee who for the sincerity of his conscience deserved by meane of divine favour athwart the publique darkenesse and through the generall ignorance of the world wherein hee lived so farre to enter and so deepely to penetrate into chaistian light I doe not thinke that it befitteth vs to be instructed by a Pagan Oh what impiety is it to expect from God no succour simply his and without our co-operation I often doubt whether amongst so many men that meddle with such a matter any hath beene found of so weake an vnderstanding that hath earnestly beene perswaded he proceeded toward reformation by the vtmost of deformations that hee drew toward his salvation by the most expresse causes that wee have of vndoubted damnation that ouerthrowing policy disgracing magistrates abusing lawes vnder whose tuition God hath placed him filling brotherly mindes and loving hearts with malice hatred and murther calling the Divels and furies to his helpe he may bring assistance to the most sacred mildnesse and justice of divine Law Ambition avarice cruelty and revenge have not sufficient proppes and natural impetuousity let vs allure and stirre them vppe by the glorious title of justice and devotion There can no worse estate of things bee imagined than where wickednesse commeth to bee lawfull And with the Magistrates leave to take the cloake of vertue Nihil in speciem fallacius quà m prava religio vbi deorum numen praetenditur sceleribus There is nothing more deceiptfull to shew than corrupt religion when the power of Heaven is made a pretence and cloake for wickednesse The extreame kinde of injustice according to Plato is that that which is vnjust should be held for just The common people suffered therein greatly then not only present losses vndique totis Vsque adeo turbatur agris Such revell and tumultuous rout In all the country round about But also succeeding dommages The living were faine to suffer so did such as then were scarse borne They were robbed and pilled and by consequence so was I even of hope spoiling and depriving them of al they had to provide their living for many yeares to come Quae nequeunt secum ferre aut abducere perdunt Et cremat insontes turba scelesta casas Muris nulla fides squallent popularibus agri They wretch-lesse spoyle and spill what draw or drive they may not Guilty rogues to set fire on guilt-lesse houses stay not In wals no trust the field By spoile growes waste and wilde Besides these mischiefes I endured some others I incurred the inconveniences that moderation bringeth in such diseases I was shaven
him Christian religion hath all the markes of extreame justice profit but none more apparant then the exact commendation of obedience due vnto magistrates and manutention of policies what wonderfull example hath divine wisedome left vs which to establish the well-fare of humane kinde and to conduct this glorious victorie of hers against death and sinne would not do it but at the mercy of our politik order and hath submitted the progresse of it and the conduct of so high and worthie effect to the blindnesse and injustice of our observations and customes suffering the innocentbloud of so many her favored elect to runne and allowing a long losse of yeares for the ripening of this inestimable fruit There is much difference betweene the cause of him that followeth the formes and lawes of his countrie and him that vndertaketh to governe and change them The first alleageth for his excuse simplicitie obedience and example whatsoever he doth cannot be malice at the most it is but ill lucke Quis est enim quem non moue at clarissimis monument is testata consignataque antiquita For who is he whom antiquitie will not move being witnessed signed with former monuments Besides that which Isocrates saith that defect hath more part in moderation then hath excesse The other is in much worse case For he that medleth with chusing and changing vsurpeth the authoritie of judging and must resolve himselfe to see the fault of what he hunteth for and the good of what he bringeth in This so vulgar consideration hath confirmed me in my state and restrained my youth that was more rash from burthening my shoulders with so filthie a burthen as to make my selfe respondent of so important a science And in this to dare what in sound judgement I durst not in the easiest of those wherein I had beene instructed and wherein the rashnes of judging is of no prejudice Seeming most impious to me to goe about to submit publike constitutions and vnmoveable observances to the instabilitie of a private fantasie private reason is but a private jurisdiction and to vndertake that on devine-lawes which no policie would tolerate in civill law Wherein although mans reason have much more commerce yet are they soverainly judges of their judges and their extreame sufficiencie serveth to expound custome and extend the vse that of them is received and not to divert and innovate the same If at any time devine providence hath gone beyond the rules to which it hath necessary constrained vs it is not to give vs a dispensation from them They are blowes of lier divine hand which we ought not imitate but admire as extraordinarie examples markes of an expresse and particular avowing of the severall kinds of wonders which for a testimonie of hir omnipotencie it offereth vs beyond our orders and forces which it is follie and impictie to goe about to represent and which we ought not follow but contemplate with admiration and meditate with astonishment Acts of hir personage and not of ours Coâ—ta protesteth very opportunely Quum de religione agitur T. Coruncanum P. Seipionem P. Scaeuolam Pontifices maximos non Zenonem aut Cleanthem aut Chrysippum sequor When we talke of religion I follow Titus Coruncanus Publius Scipio P. Scaeuola and the professors of religion not Zeno Cleanthes or Chrysippus May God know it in our present quarell wherein are a hundred articles yea great and deepe articles to be removed and altered although many there are who may boast to have exactly survaid the reasons and foundations of one and other faction It is a number if it be a number that should have no great meane to trouble vs. But whither goeth all this other throng Vnder what colours doth it quarter it selfe It followeth of theirs as of other weake and ill applied medicines the humors that it would have purged in vs it hath enflamed exasperated and sharpned by hir conflict and still do remaine in our bodies It could not by reason of hir weaknesse purge vs but hath rather weakned vs so that we cannot now voide it and by her operation we reap nothing but long continuall and intestine griefes and aches yet is it that fortune ever reserving hir authoritie above our discourses doth somtimes present vs the vrgent necessitie that lawes must needes yeeld hir some place And when a man resisteth the increase of an innovation brought in by violence to keepe himselfe each-where and altogether in rule and bridle against those that have the keyes of fields to whom all things are lawfull that may in any sort advance their desseigne that have not law nor order but to follow their advantage it is a dangerous obligation and prejudiciall inequalitie Aditum nocendi perfido praestat fides Trust in th'vntrustie may To hurt make open way For so much as the ordinarie discipline of an estate that hath his perfect health doth not provide for these extraordinarie accidents it presupposeth a bodie holding it selfe in his principall members and offices and a common consent to observe and obey it Lawfull proceeding is a cold dull heauie and forced proceeding and is not like to hold out against a licentious and vnbridled proceeding It is yet as all men know a reproch to those two great personages Octavius and Cato in their civill warres the one of Scilla the other of Caesar because they rather suffered their countrie to incur all extremities then by hir lawes to aide hir or to innovate any thing For truely in these last necessities where nothing is left to take hould by it were peradventure better to shrug the shoulders stoope the head and somewhat yeeld to the strooke then beyond possibilitie to make head and resist and be nothing the better and give violence occasion to trample all vnder-foote and better were it to force the lawes to desire but what they may since they may not what they would So did he that ordained them to sleep foure and twentie houres And he who for a time removed one day from the Calender And another who of the moneth of Iune made a second May. The Lacedemonians themselues so strict obseruers of their countries ordinances being vrged by their Lawes which precisely forbad and inhibited to chuse one man twice to be their Admirall and on the other side their affaires necessarily requiring that Lysander should once more take that charge vpon him they created one Aracus Admirall but instituted Lysander superintendent of all maritine causes And with the same sutteltie one of their Ambassadors being sent to the Athenians for to obtaine the change of some ordinance Pericles alleadging that it was expresly forbid to remove the table wherein a law had once beene set downe perswaded him but to turne it for that was not forbidden It is that whereof Plutarke commendeth Philopaemen who being borne to commaund could not onely commaund according to the lawes but the lawes themselues whensoever publike necessitie required it The three and twentieth Chapter
thou breake it if thou canst not otherwise vntie the same There is no man so base minded that loveth not rather to fall once then ever to remaine in feare of falling I should have deemed this counsel agreeing with the Stoickes â—udenes But it is more strange it should be borrowed of Epicurus who to that purpose writeth this consonant vnto Idomeneus Yet thinke I to have noted some such like thing amongst our owne people but with christian moderation Saint Hilarie Bishop of Poitiers a famous enemie of the Arrian heresie being in Syria was advertised that Abra his onely daughter whom hee had left athome with her mother was by the greatest Lords of the countrie solicited and sued vnto for marriage as a damosell very well brought vp faire rich and in the prime of her age he writ vnto her as we see that she should remoove her affections from all the pleasures and advantages might be presented her for in his voyage he had found a greater and worthier match or husband of far higher power and magnificence who should present and endowe hir with roabes and jewels of vnvaluable price His purpose was to make hir loose the appetite and vse of worldly pleasures and wholie to wed hir vnto God To which deeming his daughters death the shortest and most assured way he never ceased by vowes prayers and orisons humbly to beseech God to take her out of this world and to call her to his mercie as it came to passe for â—â—ee deceased soone after his returne whereof he shewed manifest tokens of singular gladnesse This man seemeth to endeere himselfe above others in that at first â—ight he addresseth himselfe to this meane which they never embrace but subsidiarily and sithence it is towards his onely daughter But I will omit the successe of this storie although it be not to my purpose Saint Hilaries wife having vnderstood by him how her daughters death succeeded with his intent and will and how much more happy it was for hir to be dislodged from out this world then still to abide therein conceived so lively an apprehension of the eternall and heavenly blessednesse that with importunate instancie she solicited her husband to do as much for her And God at their earnest entreatie and joynt-joynt-common prayers having soone after taken her vnto himselfe it was a death embraced with singular and mutuall contentment to both The three and thirtieth Chapter That fortune is oftentimes met withall in pursuite of reason THe inconstancie of Fortunes diverse wavering is the cause shee should present vs with all sortes of visages Is there any action of justice more manifest then this Caesar Borâ—â—â— Duke of Valâ—ntinoâ—s having resolved to poison Adrian Cardinall of Cornetto with whom Pope Alexander the â—â—xt his father and he were to sup that night in Vaticane sent certaine bottles of empoysoned wine before and gave his Butler great charge to have a special care of it The Pope comming thither before his sonne and calling for some drinke the butler supposing the Wine had been so carefully commended vnto him for the goodnesse of it immediately presented some vnto the Pope who whilest he was drinking his sonne came in and never imagining his bottles had beene toucht tooke the cup and pledged his father so that the Pope died presently and the sonne after he had long time beene tormented with sicknesse recovered to another woorse fortune It somtimes seemeth that when we least think on her shee is pleased to sporte with vs. The Lord of Estree the guidon to the Lord of Vandâ—sme and the Lord of Liques Lieutenant to the Duke of Ascot both servants to the Lord of Founguesellâ—s sister albeit of contrarie factions as it happneth among neighboring bordurers the Lord of Liques got her to wife But even vpon his wedding day and which is woorse before his going to bed the bridegroome desiring to breake a staffe in favour of his new Bride and Mistris went out to skirmish neere to Saint Omer where the Lord of Estree being the stronger tooke him prisoner and to endeare his advantage the Lady her selfe was faine Coniâ—gis antâ—â—â—actanâ—vi dimittere collum Quà m veniens vna atque altera rursus hyems Noctibus in longis auidum saturasset amorem Her new feeres necke for'st was she to forgoe Ere winters one and two returning sloe In long nights had ful-fil'd Her love so eager wil'd in courtesie to sue vnto him for the deliverie of his prisoner which he granted the French Nobilitie never refusing Ladies any kindnesse Seemeth she not to be a right artist Constantine the sonne of Hâ—len â—ounded the Empire of Constantinople and so many ages after Constantinâ— the sonne of Hâ—len ended the same She is sometimes pleased to envie our miracles we hold an opinion that King Clovis besieging Aâ—goulesme the wals by a divine favour â—eâ—l of themselves And Bouchet borroweth of some author that King Robert beleagring a Citie and having secretly stolne away from the siege to Orleans there to solemnize the feasts of Saint Aignan as he was in his earnest devotion vpon a certaine passage of the Masse the walles of the towne besieged without any batterie fell flat to the ground She did altogether contrarie in our warres of Millane For Captaine Rensâ— beleagring the Citie of Eronna for vs and having caused a forcible mine to be wrought vnder a great curtine of the walles by force whereof it being violently flowne vp from out the ground did notwithstanding whole and vnbroken fall so right into his foundation againe that the besieged found no inconvenience at all by it She sometimes playeth the Phisitian Iason Therius being vtterly forsaken of all Phisitians by reason of an impostume he had'm his breast and desirous to be rid of it though it were by death as one of the forlorne hope rusht into a battel amongst the thickest throâ—g of his enemies where he was so rightly wounded acrosse the bodie that his impostume brake and he was cured Did shee not exceed the Painter Protogenes in the skill of his trade who having perfected the image of a wearie and panting dog and in all parts over-tired to his content but being vnable as he desired hvely to represent the drivel or slaver of his mouth vexed against his owne worke took his spunge and moist as it was with divers colours thrâ—â—â—t at the picture with purpose to blot and deface all hee had done fortune did so fitly and rightly carrie the same toward the dogs chaps that there it perfectly finished what his arte could never attaine vnto Doth she not sometimes addresse and correct our counsels Isahell Queene of England being to repasse from Zeland into her kingdome with an armie in favour of her sonne against her husband had vtterly beene cast away had she come vnto the Port intended being there expected by her enemies But fortune against her will brought her to another place where shee safely landed And that ancient fellow who hurling a stone
Virtutis Heerto himselfe the Romane Generall The Graecian the Barbarian rouz'd and rais'd Heâ—re hence drew cause of perils travailes all So more then to be good thirst to be prais'd The seven and fortieth Chapter Of the vncertaintiâ— of our iudgement IT is even as that verse saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of words on either side A large doale they divide There is law sufficient to speake every where both pro and contra As for example Vinse Hannibal non seppe vsar'poi Ben la vittâ—riosa sua ventura Hanniball conquer'd but he knew not after To vse well his victorious good fortune He that shall take this part and with our men go about to make that over-sight prevaile that we did not lately pursue our fortune at Montcontour Or he that shall accuse the King of Spaine who could not vse the advantage he had against-vs at Saint Quintin may say this fault to have proceeded from a mind drunken with his good fortune and from a courage ful-gorged with the beginning of good lucke looseth the taste how to encrease-it being already hindred from digesting what he hath conceived of-it He hath his hands full and can not take hold any more Vnworthie that ever fortune should cast so great a good into his lap For what profit hath he of-â—t if notwithstanding he give his enemie leasure and meanes to recover himselfe What hope may one have that he will once more adventure to charge these re-enforced and re-united forces and new armed with despite and vengeance that durst-not or knew-not how to pursue them being dismaied and put to rout Dum fortuna calet dum conficit omnia terror While fortune is at height in heat And terror worketh all by great But to conclude what can he expect better then what he hath lately lost It is not as at Fence where the number of venies given gets the victorie So long as the enemie is on foote a man is newly to begin It is no victorie except it end the warre In that conflict where Caesar had the worse neer â—he Citie of Oricum he reprochfully said vnto Pompeis Souldiers That he had vtterly been overthrowne had their Captaine knowne how to conquer and paide him home after another fashion when it came to his turne But why may not a man also hold the contrarie That â—t is the effect of an insatiate and rash-headlong minde not to know how to limit or periode his covetousnesse That it is an abusing of Gods favours to go about to make them loose the measure he hath prescribed them and that a-new to cast himselfe into danger after the victory is once â—ore to remit the same vnto the mercie of fortune That one of the chiefest policies in militarie profession is not to drive his enemie vnto dispaire Sillâ— and Marius in the sociall warre having discomfited the Marsians seeing one squadron of them yet on foote which through dispaire like furious beasts were desperately comming vpon them could not be induced to stay or make head against them If the fervor of Monsieur de Foix had not drewne-him over rashly and moodily to pursue the straglers of the victorie at Raveâ—na he had not blemished the same with his vntimely death yet did the fresh-bleeding memory of his example serve to preserve the Lord of Aâ—gusen from the like inconvenience at Serisoles It is dangerous to assaile a man whom you have bereaved of all other meanes to escape or shift for himselfe but by his weapons for necessitie is a violent school-mistris and which teacheth strange lessons Gravissimi sunt mâ—rsuâ— irritatae necessicatis No biting so grievous as that of necessitie provoked and enraged Vincuur haud gratis ingula qui provâ—â—at hostâ—m For nought you over-come him not Who bids his foe come cut his throat And that is the reason why 〈◊〉 empeached the King of Lacedemoâ— who came from gaining of a victory against the Mantinaeans from going to charge a thousand Argians that were escaped whole from the discomâ—ture but rather to let them passe with al libertie lest he should come to make triall of provoked despited vertue through and by ill fortune Clodomire king of Aquitaine after his victorie pursuing Gondemar king of Bâ—rgundie vanquished and running away forced him to make a stand and make head againe but his vnadvised wilfulnesse deprived him of the fruit of the victorie for he dyed in the action Likewise he that should chuse whether it were best to keep his souldiers richly and sumptuously armed or only for necessitie should seeme to yeeld in favour of the first whereof was Sertorious Philopoemen Brutus Caesar and others vrging that it is ever a spur to â—â—â—â—â— and glorie for a souldier to see himself gorgiously attired and richly armed an occasion to yeeld himselfe more obstinate to sight having the care to save his armes as his goods and inheritance A reason saith Xenophon why the Asiatikes carried with them when they went to warres their wives and Concubines with all their jewels and chiefest wealth And might also encline to the other side which is that a man should rather remoove from his souldier all care to preserve himselfe than to encrease-it vnto him for by that meanes he shall doubly feare to hazard or engage himselfe seeing these rich spoiles do rather encrease an earnest desire of victorie in the enemie and it hath been observed that the said respect hath sometimes wonderfully encouraged the Romans against the Samnites Antiochus shewing the Armie he prepared against them gorgeously accountred with all pompe and statelinesse vnto Hanniball and demanding of him whether the Romanes would be contented with-it yea verily answered the other they will be verie well pleased with-it They must needs be so were they never so covetous Licurgus forbad his Souldiers not only all maner of sumptuousnesse in their equipage but also to vncase or strip their enemies when they overcame them willing as he said that frugalitie povertie should shine with the rest of the battell Both at sieges and else-where where occasion brings vs neere the enemie we freely give our souldiers libertie to brave to disdaine and injurie him with all maner of reproaches And not without apparance of reason for it is no small matter to take from them all hope of grace and composition in presenting vnto them that there is no way left to expect-it from-him whom they have so egregiously outraged and that there is no remedy left but from victorie Yet had Vitelluis but bad successe in that for having to deale with Otho weaker in his Souldiers valour and oflong disaccustomed from warre and effeminated through the delights and pleasures of the Citie himselfe in the end set them so on fire with his reproachsull and injurious words vpbrayding them with their pusilanimitie and faint-hartednesse and with the regret of their Ladies banquettings and sensualities which they had left at Rome that he put them into hart againe which no perswasions or
more affectionate vnto him by how much nearer they should see the danger That having so many Cities Townes Houlds Castles and Barres for his securitie he might at all times according to apportunitie and advantage appoint and give law vnto the fight And if he were pleased to temporize whilest he tooke his ease kept his forces whole and maintained himselfe in safety he might see his enemie consume waste himselfe by the difficulties which daily must necessarily assault environ and combate-him as he who should be engaged in an enemie-countrie and foe-land Where he should have nothing nor meet with any thing either before or behind him or of any side that did not offer him continuall warre no way nor meanes to refresh to ease or give his armie elbow-roome if any sicknesse or contagion should come amongst his men nor shelter to lodge his hurt and maymed Souldiers where neither monie munition nor victuals might come vnto him but at the swords point where he should never have leasure to take any rest or breath where he should have no knowledge of places passages woods foords rivers or countrie that might defend him from ambuscados or surprises And if he should vnfortunately chance to loose a battell no hope to save or meanes to re-unite the reliques of his forces And there want not examples to strengthen both sides Scipio found-it better for him to invade his enemies countrie of Affrica then to defend his owne and fight with him in Italie where he was wherein he had good successe But contrariwise Hanniball in the same warre wrought his owne overthrow by leaving the conquest of a forraine countrie for to go and defend his owne The Athenians having left the enemie in their owne land for to passe into Sicilie had verie ill successe and were much contraried by fortune whereas Agathocles King of Siracusa prospered and was favoured by her what time he passed into Affrica and left the warre on soote in his owne countrie And we are accustomed to say with some shew of reason that especially in matters of warre the events depend for the greatest part on fortune which seldome will yeeld or never subject her-selfe vnto our discourse or wisedome as say these ensuing verses Et malè consultis pretium est prudentia fallax Nec fortuna probat causas sequitúrque merentes Sed vaga per cunctos nullo discrimine fertur Scilicet est aliud quod nos cogátque regátque Maius in proprias ducat mortalia leges T is best for ill-advis'd wisedome may faile Fortune proves not the cause that should prevaile But here and there without respect doth saile A higher power forsooth vs over-drawes And mortall states guides with immortall lawes But if it be well taken it seemeth that our counsels and deliberations doe as much depend of her and that fortune doth also engage our discourses and consultations in her trouble and vncertaintie We reason rashly and discourse at randon saith Timeus in Plato For even as we so have our discourses great participation with the temeritie of hazard The eight and fortieth Chapter Of Steedes called in French Destriers BEhold I am now become a Gramarian I who never learn't tongue but by way of roat and that yet know knot what either Adjective Conjunctive or Ablative meaneth As far as I remember I have sometimes heard-say that the Romanes had certaine horses which they called Funales or Dextrarios which on the right hand were led-by as spare horses to take them fresh at any time of need And thence it commeth that we call horses of service Destriers And our ancient Romanes doe ordinarily say to Adexter in steed of to accompanie They also called Desultorios equos certaine horses that were so taught that mainly-running with all the speede they had joyning sides to one another without either bridle or saddle the Roman gentlemen armed at all assayes in the middest of their running-race would cast and recast themselves from one to an other horse The Numidian men at armes were wont to have a second spare-horse led by hand that in the greatest furie of the battell they might shift and change horse Quibus desultorum in modum binos trahentibus equos inter acerrimam soepe pugnam in recentem equum ex fesso armatis transultare mos erat Tanta velocitas ipsis támque docile equorum genus Whose maner was as if they had been vaulters leading two horses with them in armour to leap from their tired horse to the freshone even in the hottest of the fight So great agilitie was in themselves and so apt to be taught was the race of their horses There are many horses found that are taught to helpe their master to run vpon any man shall offer to draw a naked sword vpon them furiously to leap vpon any man both with feete to strike and with teeth to bite that shall affront them but that for the most part they rather hurt their friends then their enemies Considering also that if they once be grapled you can not easilie take them-off and you must needs stand to the mercie of their combat Artibius Generall of the Persian armie had verie ill lucke to be mounted vpon a horse fashioned in this schoole at what time he sought man to man against Onesilus King of Salamis for he was the cause of his death by reason the shield-bearer or squire of Onesilus cut him with a faulchon betweene the two shoulders even as he was leaping vpon his master And if that which the Italians report be true that in the battell of Fornovo King Charles his horse with kicking winching and flying rid both his master and himselfe from the enemies that encompast-him to dismount or kill him and without that he had beene lost He committed himselfe to a great hazard and scap't a narrow scowring The Mammalukes boast that they have the nimblest and readiest horses of any men at armes in the world That both by nature they are instructed to discerne and by custome taught to distinguish their enemie on whom they must leap and wince with feet and bite with teeth according to the voice their master speaketh or rider giveth them And are likewise taught to take vp from the ground lances darts or any other weapons with their mouths and as he commandeth to present them to their rider It is said of Casar and of Pompey the Great that amongst their many other excellent qualities they were also most cunning and perfect horsemen and namely of Caesar that in his youth being mounted vpon a horse and without any bridle he made him run a full cariere make a sodaine stop and with his hands behind his backe performe what ever can be expected of an excellent readie horse And even as nature was pleased to make both him and Alexander two matchlesse miracles in militarie profession so would you say she hath also endevoured yea enforced herselfe to arme them extraordinarily For all men know that Alexanders horse called
that the knowledge I seeke in them is there so scatteringly and loosely handled that whosoever readeth them is not tied to plod long vpon them whereof I am vncapable And so are Plutarkes little workes and Senecaes Epistles which are the best and most profitable partes of their writings It is no great matter to draw mee to them and I leave them where I list For they succeed not and depend not one of another Both jumpe and suite together in most true and profitable opinions And fortune brought them both into the world in one age Both were Tutors vnto two Roman Emperours Both were strangers and came from farre Countries both rich and mighty in the common-wealth and in credite with their masters Their instruction is the prime and creame of Philosophie and presented with a plaine vnaffected and pertinent fashion Plutarke is more vniforme and constant Seneca more waving and diverse This doth labour force and extend himselfe to arme and strengthen vertue against weaknesse feare and vitious desires the other seemeth nothing so much to feare their force or attempt and in a maner scorneth to hasten or change his pace about them and to put himselfe vpon his guarde Plutarkes opinions are Platonicall gentle and accommodable vnto civill societie Senacaes Stoicall and Epicurian further from common vse but in my conceit more proper particular and more solide It appeareth in Seneca that he somewhat inclineth and yeeldeth to the tyrannie of the Emperors which were in his daies for I verily beleeve it is with a forced judgement he condemneth the cause of those noblie-minded murtherers of Caesar Plutarke is every where free and open-hearted Seneca full-fraught with points and sallies Plutarke stuft with matters The former doth moove and enflame you more the latter content please and pay you better This doth guide you the other drive you on As for Cicero of all his works those that treat of Philosophie namely morall are they which best serve my turne and square with my intent But boldly to confesse the trueth For Since the bars of impudencie were broken downe all curbing is taken away his maner of writing seemeth verie tedious vnto me as doth all such-like stuffe For his prefaces definitions divisions and Etymologies consume the greatest part of his Works whatsoever quicke wittie and pithie conceit is in him is surcharged and confounded by those his long and far-fetcht preambles If I bestow but one houre in reading him which is much for me and let me call to minde what substance or juice I have drawne from him for the most part I find nothing but winde ostentation in him for he is not yet come to the arguments which make for his purpose and reasons that properly concerne the knot or pith I seek-after These Logicall and Aristotelian ordinances are not availfull for me who onely endevour to become more wise and sufficient and not more wittie or eloquent I would have one begin with the last point I vnderstand sufficiently what death and voluptuousnesse are let not a man busie himselfe to anatomize them At the first reading of a Booke I seeke for good and solide reasons that may instruct me how to sustaine their assaults It is nether gramaticall subtilties nor logicall quiddities nor the wittie contexture of choise words or arguments and syllogismes that will serve my turne I like those discourses that give the first charge to the strongest part of the doubt his are but flourishes and languish every where They are good for Schooles at the barre or for Orators and Preachers where we may slumber and though we wake a quarter of an houre after we may find and trace him soone enough Such a maner of speech is fit for those Iudges that a man would corrupt by hooke or crooke by right or wrong or for children and the common people vnto whom a man must tell all and see what the event will be I would not have a man go about and labour by circumlocutions to induce and win me to attention and that as our Herolds or Criers do they shall ring out their words Now heare me now listen or â—oâ—yes The Romanes in their Religion were wont to say Hoc age which in ours we say Sursum corda There are so many lost words for me I come readie prepared from my house I need no allurement nor sawce my stomacke is good enough to digest raw meat And whereas with these preparatives and flourishes or preambles they thinke to sharpen my taste or stir my stomacke they cloy and make it wallowish Shall the priviledge of times excuse me from this sacrilegious boldnesse to deeme Platoes Dialogismes to be as languishing by over-filling and stuffing his matter And to bewaile the time that a man who had so many thousands of things to vtter spends about so many so long so vaine and idle interloquutions and preparatives My ignorance shall better excuse me in that I see nothing in the beautie of his language I generally enquire after Bookes that vse sciences and not after such as institute them The two first and Plinie with others of their ranke have no Hoc age in them they will have to doe with men that have forewarned themselves or if they have it is a materiall and substantiall Hoc age and that hath his bodie apart I likewise love to read the Epistles and ad Atticum not onely because they containe a most ample instruction of the Historie and affaires of his times but much more because in them I descrie his private humours For as I have said elsewhere I am wonderfull curious to discover and know the minde the soule the genuine disposition and naturall judgement of my Authors A man ought to judge their sufficiencie and not their customes nor them by the shew of their writings Which they set forth on this worlds Theatre I have sorrowed a thousand times that ever we lost the booke that Brutus writ of Virtue Oh it is a goodly thing to learne the Theorike of such as vnderstand the practise well But forsomuch as the Sermon is one thing and the Preacher an other I love as much to see Brutus in Plutarke as in himselfe I would rather make choise to know certainly what talke he had in his Tent with some of his familiar friends the night fore-going the battell then the speach he made the morrow after to his Armie and what he did in his chamber or closet then what in the Senate or market place As for Cicero I am of the common judgement that besides learning there was no exquisite excellencie in him He was a good Citizen of an honest-gentle nature as are commonly fat and burly men for so was he But to speake truely of him full of ambitious vanitie and remisse nicenesse And I know not well how to excuse him in that he deemed his Poesie worthy to be published It is no great imperfection to make bad verses but it is an imperfection in him that he never perceived
one face and sometimes of another for such as looke neere vnto it Those who reconcile Lawyers ought first to have reconciled them every one vnto himselfe Plato hath in my seeming loved this manner of Philosophying Dialogue wise in good earnest that therby he might more decently place in sundry moutâ—es the diversity and variation of his owne conceites Diversly to treat of matters is as good and better as to treate them conformably that is to say more copiously and more profitably Let vs take example by our selves Definite sentences make the last period of dogmaticall and resolving speech yet see we that those which our Parlaments present vnto our people as the most exemplare and fittest to nourish in them the reverence they owe vnto this dignitie especialy by reason of the sufficiencie of those persons which exercise the same taking their glory not by the conclusion which to them is dayly and is common to al judges as much as the debating of diverse and agitations of contrary reasonings of law causes will admit And the largest scope for reprehensions of some Philosophers against others draweth contradictions and diversities with it wherein every one of them findeth himselfe so entangled either by intent to shew the wavering of mans minde aboue all matters or ignorantly forced by the volubilitie and incomprehensiblenesse of all matters What meaneth this burdon In a slippery and gliding place let vs suspend our beliefe For as Euripides saith Les oeuures de Dieu en diverses Facons nous donnent des traverses Gods workes doe travers our imaginations And crosse our workes in divers different fashions Like vnto that which Empedocles was wont often to scatter amongst his bookes as moved by a divine furie and forced by truth No no we feele nothing we see nothing all things are hid from vs There is not one that we may establish how and what it is But returning to this holy word Cogitationes mortalium timidae incertae adinventiones nostrae providentiae The thoughts of mortal men are feareful our devices and foresights are vncertaine It must not be thought strange if men disparing of the goale have yet taken pleasure in the chase of it studie being in it selfe a pleasing occupation yea so pleasing that amid sensualities the Stoikes forbid also that which comes from the exercise of the minde and require a bridle to it and finde intemperance in over much knowledge Democritus having at his table eaten some figges that tasted of honny began presently in his minde to seeke out whence this vnusuall sweetnes in them might proceede and to be resolved rose from the board to view the place where those figges had beene gathered His maide servant noting this alteration in her master smilingly saide vnto him that hee should no more busie himselfe about it the reason was she had laide them in a vessell where honny had beene whereat he seemed to be wroth in that shee had deprived him of the occasion of his intended search and robbed his curiositie of matter to worke vpon Away quoth he vnto her thou hast much offended mee yet will I not omit to finde out the cause as if it were naturally so Who perhaps would not have missed to finde some likely or true reason for a false and supposed effect This storie of a famous and great Philosopher dooth evidently represent vnto vs this studious passion which so dooth ammuse vs in pursuite of things of whose obtaining wee dispaire Plutarke reporteth a like example of one who would not bee resolved of what hee doubted because hee would not loose the pleasure hee had in seeking it As another that would not have his Phisitian remove the thirst hee felt in his ague because hee would not loose the pleasure he tooke in quenching the same with drinking Sâ—tius est supervacua discere quà m nihil It is better to learne more then wee neede then nothing at all Even as in all feeding pleasure is alwayes alone and single and all wee take that is pleasant is not ever nourishing and wholesome So likewise what our minde drawes from learning leaveth not to be voluptuous although it neither nourish nor be wholesome Note what their saying is The consideration of nature is a foode proper for our mindes it raiseth and puffeth vs vp it makes vs by the comparison of heavenly and high things to disdaine base and low matters the search of hidden and great causes is very pleasant yea vnto him that attaines nought but thereverence and feare to iudge of them These are the very words of their profession The vaine image of this crazed curiositie is more manifestly seene in this other example which they for honour-sake have so often in their mouths Eudoxus wished and praid to the Gods that he might once view the Sunne neere at hand to comprehend his forme his greatnesse and his beautie on condition he might immediately be burnt and consumed by it Thus with the price of his owne life would he attaine a Science whereof both vse and possession shall therewith bee taken from him and for so sudden and fleeting knowledge loose and forgoe all the knowledges he either now hath or ever hereafter may have I can not easily be perswaded that Epicurus Plato or Pithagoras have sold vs their Atomes their Ideas and their Numbers for ready payment They were overwise to establish their articles of faith vpon things so vncertaine and disputable But in this obscuritie and ignorance of the world each of these notable men hath endevoured to bring some kinde of shew or image of light and have busied their mindes about inventions that might at least have a pleasing and wilâ—e apparance provided notwithstanding it were false it might be maintained against contrary oppositions Vnicuiquae ista pro ingento finguntur non ex Scientiae vâ— These things are conceited by every man as his wit serves not as his knowledge stretches and reaches An ancient Philosopher being blamed for professing that Philosophie whereof in his judgement hee made no esteeme answered that that was true Philosophizing They have gone about to consider all to ballance all and have found that it was an occupation fitting the naturall curiositie which is in vs. Some things they have written for the behoofe of common societie as their religions And for this consideration was it reasonable that they would not throughly vnfold common opinions that so they might not breede trouble in the obedience of lawes and customes of their countries Plato treateth this mysterie in a very manifest kinde of sport For where he writeth according to himselfe he prescribeth nothing for certaintie When he institutes a Law giuer he borroweth a very swaying and avouching kinde of stile Wherein he boldly entermingleth his most fantasticall opinions as profitable to perswade the common sorte as ridiculous to perswade himselfe Knowing how apt we are to receive all impressions and chiefly the most wicked and enormous And therefore is he very carefull
complaine for the Graecians might not I say that Camillus is much lesse comparable vnto Themistocles the Gracchi to Agis and Cleomenes and Numa to Lycurgus But it is follie at one glance to judge of things with so many and diverse faces When Plutarke compares them he doth not for all that equall them Who could more eloquently and with more conscience note their differences Doth he compare the victories the exploites of armes the power of the armies conducted by Pompey and his triumphs vnto those of Agesilaus I doe not believe saith he that Xenophon himselfe were he living though it were granted him to write his pleasure for the advantage of Agesilaus durst ever dare to admit any comparison betweene them Seemeth he to equall Lysander to Sylla There is no comparison saith he neither in number of victories nor in hazard of battels betweene them for Lysander onely obtained two sea-battels c. This is no derogation from the Romanes If he have but simply presented them vntothe Graecians what ever disparitie may be betweene them he hath not in any sort wronged them And Plutarke doth not directly counterpoise them In some there is none perferred before others He compareth the parts and the circumstances one after another and severally judgeth of them If therefore any would goe about to convince him of favour hee should narrowly sift out some particular judgement or in generall and plaine termes say he hath missed in sorting such a Graecian to such a Romane forasmuch as there are other more sortable and correspondent and might better be compared as having more reference one vnto another The three and thirtieth Chapter The History of Spurina PHilosophy thinketh she hath not ill employed hir meanes having yeelded the soveraine rule of our minde and the authoritie to restraine our appetites vnto reason Amongest which those who judge there is none more violent than those which love begetteth have this for their opinion that they holde both of body and soule and man is wholy possessed with them so that health it selfe depended of them and phisike is sometimes constrained to serve them insteede of a Pandership But contrariwise a man might also say that the commixture of the body doth bring abatement and weakenesse vnto them because such desires are subject to sacietie and capable of materiall remedies Many who have endevored to free and exempt their mindes from the continuall alarumes which this appetite did assaile them with have vsed incisions yea and cut-off the mooving turbulent and vnruly parts Others have alayed the force and fervency of them by frequent applications of cold things as snow and vineger The haire-cloths which our forefathers vsed to weare for this purpose wherof some made shirts and some waste-bands or girdles to torment their reignes A Prince told me not long since that being very yoong and waiting in the Court of King Francis the first vpon a solemne feastival day when all the Court endevored to be in their best clothes a humor possessed him to putte-on a shirt of haire-cloth which he yet keepeth and had beene his fathers but what devotion soever possessed him he could not possibly endure vntill night to put it off againe and was sick a long time after protesting he thought no youthly heat could be so violent but the vse of this receipt would coole and alay of which he perhappes never assayed the strongest For experience sheweth vs that such emotion doth often maintaine it selfe vnderbase rude and slovenly cloathes and haire-cloathes doe not ever make those poore that weare them Zenocrates proceeded more rigorously for his Disciples to make triall of his continencie having convayed that beauteous and famous curtizan Lais naked into his bed saving the weapons of hir beauty wanton alurements and amorous or love-procuring pocions feeling that maugre all Philosophicall discourses and strict rules his skittish body beganne to mutinie he caused those members to be burned which had listened to that rebellion Whereas the passions that are in the minde as ambition covetousnesse and others trouble reason much more for it can have no ayde but from it's owne meanes nor are those appetites capable of sacietie but rather sharpened by enjoying and augmented by possession The example alone of Iulius Caesar may suffice to shew vs the disparitie of these appetites for neuer was man more given to amorous delights The curious and exact care he had of his body is an authenticall witnesse of it forsomuch as hee vsed the most lascivious meanes that then were in vse as to have the haires of his body smeered and perfumed all over with an extreame and labored curiositie being of himselfe a goodly personage white of a tall and comely stature of a cheerfull and seemly countenance his face full and round and his eies browne lively if at least Suetonius may be believed For the statues which nowadayes are to be seene of him in Rome answer not altogether this portraiture wee speake of Besides his wiues which he changed foure times without reckoning the bies or Amours in his youth with Nicomedes King of Bythinia hee had the Maiden-head of that so farre and highly-renowmed Queene of Aegypt Cleopatra witnesse yong Caesarion whom he begotte of hir He also made love vnto Eâ—noâ— Queene of Mauritania and at Rome to Posthumia wife vnto Servius Sulpitius to Lolio wife to â—abinius to Tertulla of Crassus yea vnto Mutia wife to great Pompey which as Historians say was the cause hir Husband was divorced from her Which thing Plutarke confesseth not to have knowne And the Curious both father and sonne twitted Pompey in the teeth at what time he tooke Caesars Daughter to wife that he made himselfe Sonne in law to one who had made him Cuckold and himselfe was wont to call Aegystus Besides all this number he entertained Servilia the sister of Catâ— and mother to Marcus Brutus whence as divers hold proceeded that great affection he ever bare to Marcus Brutus for his Mother bare him at such a time as it was not vnlikely he might be borne of him Thus as me seemeth have I good reason to deeme him a man extreamelie addicted to all amorous licenciousnesse and of a wanton-lascivious complexion But the oother passion of ambition wherewith he was infinitely infected and much tainted when he came once to withstand the same it made him presently to give ground And touching this point when I call Mahomet to remembrance I meane him that subdued Constantinople and who brought the final extermination of the name of Graecians I know not where these two passions are more equall ballanced equally an indefatigable letcher and a never-tired souldier But when in his life they seeme to strive and concurre one with another the mutinous heate doeth ever gourmandize the amorous flame And the latter although out of naturall season did never attaine to a ful and absolute authority but when he perceived himselfe to be so aged that he was vtterly vnable longer to vndergoe the burthen of
wholly ingage themselves into them may carry such an order and temper as the storme without offending them may glide over their head Had wee not reason to hope as much of the deceased Bishop of Orleans Lord of Moruillters And I know some who at this present worthilie bestirre themselues in so even a fashion or pleasing a manner that they are likely to continue on foote whatsoeuer iniurious alteration or fall the heavens may prepare against vs. I holde it onely fit for Kings to hee angry with Kings And mocke at those rash spirits who from the brauerie of their harts offer themselues to so vnproportionate quarrels For one vndertaketh not a particular quarrell against a Prince in marching against him openly and couragiously for his honour and according to his dutie If hee love not such a man hee doth better at least hee esteemeth him And the cause of lawes especially and defence of the auncient state hath ever found this priviledge that such as for their owne interest disturbe the same excuse if they honour not their defendors But wee ought not terme duty as now a dayes we do a sower rigour and intestine crabbednesse proceeding of priuate interest and passion nor courage a treacherous and malicious proceeding Their disposition to frowardnesse and mischiefe they entitle zeale That 's not the cause doth heate them t' is their owne interest They kindle a warre not because it is just but because it is warre Why may not a man beare himselfe betweene enemies featly and faithfully Doe it if not altogether with an equall for it may admit different measure at least with a sober affection which may not so much engage you to the one that hee looke for all at your hands Content your selfe with a moderate proportion of their fauour and to glide in troubled waters without fishing in them Th' other manner of offering ones vttermost endeuours to both sides implyeth lesse diseration then conscience What knowes hee to whom you betray another as much your friend as hmselfe but you will doe the like for him when his turne shall come Hee takes you for a villaine that whilst hee heares you and gathers out of you and makes his best vse of your disloyaltie For double fellowes are onely beneficiall in what they bring but we must looke they carry away as little as may be I carry nothing to the one which I may not hauing opportunity say vnto the other the accent only changed a little and report either but indifferent or knowne or common things Noe benefit can induce mee to lye vnto them what is entrusted to my silence I conceale religiously but take as little in trust as I can Princes secrets are a troublesome charge to such as haue nought to doe with them I euer by my good will capitulate with them that they trust mee with very little but let them assuredly trust what I disclose vnto them I alwayes knew more then I wold An open speach opens the way to another and drawes all out euen as Wiue and Loue. Philippides in my minde answered king Lysiâ—â—achus wisely when hee demaunded of him what of his wealth or state hee shoulde empare vnto him Which and what you please quoth hee so it be not your secrets I see euery one mutinie if another conceale the deapth or misterie of the affaires from him wherein he pleaseth to employ him or haue but purloyned any circumstance from him For my part I am content one tell me no more of his businesse then hee will haue mee knowe or deale in nor desire I that my knowledge exceede or straine my word If I must needes bee the instrument of cozinage it shall at least bee with safety of my conscience I will not be esteemed a seruant nor so affectionate nor yet so faithfull that I bee iudged fit to betray any man Who is vnfaithfull to himselfe may bee excused if hee be faithlesse to his Maister But Princes entertaine not men by halfes and despise bounded and condicionall seruice What remedy I freely tell them my limits for a slaue â— must not bee but vnto reason which yet I cannot compasse And they are to blame to exact from a free man the like subiection vnto their seruice and the same obligation which they may from those they haue made and bought and whose fortune dependeth particularly and expresly on theirs The lawes haue deliuered mee from much trouble they haue chosen mee aside to followe and appointed mee a maister to obey all other superioritie and duty ought to bee relatiue vnto that and bee restrained Yet may it not bee concluded that if my affection should otherwise transport mee I would presently afforde my helping hand vnto it Will and desires are a law to themselues actions are to receiue it of publike institutions All these proceedings of mine are some what dissonant from our formes They should produce noe great effects nor holde out long among vs. Innocencie it selfe could not in these times nor negotiate without dissimulation nor trafficke without lying Neither are publike functions of my dyet what my profession requires thereto I furnish in the most priuate manner I can Being a childe I was plunged into them vp to the eares and had good successe but I got loose in good time I have often since shunned medling with them seldome accepted and neuer required euer holding my backe toward ambition but if not rowers who goe forward as it were backeward Yet so as I am lesse beholding to my resolution then to my good fortune that I was not wholly embarked in them For there are courses lesle against my taste and more comfortable to my carriage by which if heere tofore it had called mee to the seruice of the common-wealth and my aduancement vnto credit in the world I know that in following the same I had exceeded the reason of my couceite Those which commonly say against my prosession that what I terme liberty simplicity and plainenesse in my behauiour is arte cunning and subtilty and rather discretion then goodnesse industry then nature good wit then good hap doe mee more honour then shame But truely they make my cunning ouercunning And whosoeuer hath traced mee and nearely looked into my humoures lie loose a good wager if hee confesse not that there is noe rule in their schoole could a midde such crooked pathes and diuerse windings square and raport this naturall motion and maintaine an apparance of liberty and licence so equall and inflexible and that all their attention and wit is not of power to bring them to it The way to trueth is but one and simple that of particular profit and benefit of affaires a man hath in charge double vneven and accidentall I haue often seene these counterset 〈…〉 artificiall liberties in practise but most commonly without successe They sauour of Aesopes Asse who in emulation of the dogge layde his two fore-feete very jocondly vpon his maisters shoulders but looke how many blandishments the pretty dogge
and permission of the Senate with mony purchased their libertie at the hands of L. Sylla The matter comming in question againe the Senate condemned them to bee fineable and taxed as before and the mony they had employed for their ransome should bee deemed as lost and forfetted Ciuill warres doe often produce such enormous examples That we punish priuate men for somuch as they have beleeved vs when wee were other then now wee are And one same magistrate doth laie the penaltie of his change on such as cannot do withall The Schoolemaster whippeth his scholler for his docilitie and the guide streeketh the blind man he leadeth A horrible image of justice Some rules in Philosophie are both false and fainte The example proposed vnto vs of respecting priuate vtilitie before faith giuen hath not sufficient power by the circumstance they adde vnto it Theeves have taken you and on your oath to pay them a certaine sum of money haue set you at libertie againe They erre that say an honest man is quit of his worde and faith without paying beeing out of them handes There is noe such matter What feare and danger hath once forced mee to will and consent vnto I am bound to will and performe boing out of danger and feare And although it have but forced my tongue and not my will yet am I bound to make my worde good and keepe my promise For my part when it hath sometimes vnaduisedly ouer-runne my thought yet haue I made a conscience to disavowe the same Otherwise wee should by degrees come to abolish all the right a third man taketh and may challenge of our promises Quasi verò forti viro vis possit adhiberi As though any force could be vsed vpon a valiant man T' is onely lawfull for our priuate interest to excuse the breache of promise if wee have rashlie promised things in them selves wicked and vnjust For the right of vertue ought to over-rule the right of our bonde I have heretofore placed Fpaminondas in the first ranke of excellent men and now recant it not Vnto what high pitch raised hee the consideration of his particular dutie who never slew man hee had vanquished who for that vnvaluable good of restoring his countrie hir libertie made it a matter of conscience to murther a Tyrant or his complices without a due and formal course of lawe and who judged him a bad man how good a cittizen soever that amongest his enemies and in the furie of a battle spared not his friend or his hoste Loc here a minde of a riche composition Hee matched vnto the most violent and rude actions of men goodnesse and courtesie yea and the most choise and delicate that may bee found in the schoole of Philosophie This so high-raised courage so swelling and so obstinate against sorow death and povertie was it nature or arte made it relent even to the vtmost straine of exceedeng tendernesse and debonaretie of complexion Being cloathed in the dreadfull liuerie of steele and blood hee goeth on crushing and brusing a nation inuincible to all others but to himselfe yet mildely relenteth in the midst of a combat or confusion when hee meets with his host or with his friend Verily this man was deservedly fit to command in warre which in the extremest furie of his innated rage made him to feele the sting of courtesie and remorse of gentlenesse then when all enflamed it foamed with furie and burned with murder T' is a miracle to be able to joine any shew of justice with such actions But it only belongeth to the vnmatched courage of Epaminondas in that confused plight to joine mildnesse and facilitie of the most gentle behaviour that ever was vnto them yea and pure innocencie it selfe And whereas one told the Mamertins that statutes were of no force against armed men another to the Tribune of the people that the time of justice and warre were two a third that the confused noise of warre and clang of armes hindred him from vnderstanding the sober voice of the lawes This man was not so much as empeached from conceiving the milde sound of civilitie and kindnesse Borrowed hee of his enemies the custome of sacrificing to the Muses when hee went to the warres to qualifie by their sweetnesse and mildnesse that martiall furie and hostile surlinesse Let vs not feare after so great a master to hold that some things are vnlawfull even against our fellest enemies that publike interest ought not to challenge all of all against private interest Manente memoria etiam in dissidio publicorum foederum privati iuris Some memorie of private right continuing euen in disagreement of publike contracts nulla potentia vires Praestandi ne quid peccet amicus habet No power hath so great might To make friends still goe right And that all things be not lawfull to an honest man for the service of his King the generall cause and defence of the lawes Non enim patria praestat omnibus officijs ipsi conducit pios habere cives in parentes For our countrey is not above all other duties it is good for the countrey to have her inhabitants vse pietie toward their parents T' is an instruction befitting the times wee need not harden our courages with these plates of iron and steele it sufficeth our shoulders be armed with them it is enough to dippe our pens in inke too much to die them in blood If it be greatnesse of courage and th' effect of a rare and singular vertue to neglect friendship despise private respects and bonds ones word and kindred for the common good and obedience of the Magistrate it is verily able to excuse vs from it if we but allege that it is a greatnesse vnable to lodge in the greatnesse of Epaminondas his courage I abhorre the enraged admonitions of this other vnruly spirit dum tela micant non vos pietatis imago Vlla nec aduersa conspect◠fronte parentes Commoveant vult us gladio turbante verendos While swords are brandisht let no shew of grace Once moove you nor your parents face to face But with your swords disturbe their reverend grace Let vs bereave wicked bloodie and traiterous dispositions of this pretext of reason leave wee that impious and exorbitant iustice and adhere vnto more humane imitations Oh what may time and example bring to passe In an encounter of the civill warres against Cinna one of Pompeyes souldiers having vnwittingly slaine his brother who was on the other side through shame and sorrow presently killed himselfe And some yeeres after in another civill warre of the said people a souldier boldly demanded a reward of his Captaines for killing his owne brother Falsly doe wee argue honour and the beautie of an action by it's profit and conclude as ill to thinke every one is bound vnto it and that it is honest if it be commodious Omnia non pariter rerum sunt omnibus apta All things alike to all
bottome of their matrix Now my law-giver should also have considered that peradventure it were a more chaste and commodiously fruitfull vse betimes to give them a knowledge and taste of the quicke then according to the liberty and heat of their fantasie suffer them to ghesse and imagine the same In lieu of true essentiall parts they by desire surmise and by hopesubstitute others three times as extravagant And one of my acquaintance was spoiled by making open shew of his in place where yet it was not convenient to put them in possession of their more serious vse What harme cause not those huge draughts or pictures which wanton youth with chalke or coales draw in each passage wall or staires of our great houses whence a cruell contempt of our naturall store is bred in them Who knoweth whether Plato ordaining amongst other well-instituted Common-wealths that men and women old and yoong should in their exercises or Gymnastickes present themselves naked one to the sight of another aimed at that or no The Indian women who daily without interdiction view their men all over have at least wherewith to asswage and coole the sense of their seeing And whatsoever the women of that great kingdome of Pegu say who from their waste downward have nothing to cover themselves but a single cloth slit before and that so straight that what nice modestie or ceremonious decencie soever they seeme to affect one may plainly at each step see what God hath sent them that it is an invention or shift devised to draw men vnto them and with-draw them from other men or boies to which vnnaturall brutish sinne that nation is wholly addicted it might be said they lose more then they get and that a full hunger is more vehement then â—ne which hath beene glutted be it but by the eies And Livia said that to an honest woman a naked man is no more then an Image The Lacedemonian women more virgin-wives then are our maidens saw every day the yoong men of their citie naked at their exercises themselves nothing precise to hide their thighes in walking esteeming themselves saith Plato sufficiently cloathed with their vertue without vardingall But those of whom S. Augustine speaketh have attributed much to nakednesse who made a question whether women at the last day of judgement should rise againe in their proper sex and not rather in ours lest even then they tempt vs in that holy state In summe we lure and every way flesh them we vncessantly enflame and encite their imagination and then we cry out but oh but oh the belly Let vs confesse the truth there are few amongst vs that feare not more the shame they may have by their wives offences then by their owne vices or that cares not more oh wondrous charity for his wives then his own conscience or that had not rather be a theefe and church-robber and have his wife a murderer and an heretike then not more chaste then himselfe Oh impious estimation of vices Both wee and they are capable of a thousand more hurtfull and vnnaturall corruptions then is lust or lasciviousnesse But we frame vices and waigh sinnes not according to their nature but according to our interest whereby they take so many different vnequall formes The severity of our lawes makes womens inclination to that vice more violent and faulty then it 's condition beareth and engageth it to worse proceedings then is their cause They will readily offer rather to follow the practise of law and plead at the barre for a fee or goe to the warres for reputation then in the midst of idlenesse and deliciousnesse be tied to keepe so hard a Sentinell so dangerous a watch See they not plainly how there is neither Merchant Lawyer Souldier or Church-man but will leave his accounts forsake his client quit his glory and neglect his function to follow this other businesse And the burden bearing porter souterly cobler and toilefull labourer all harassed all besmeared and all bemoiled through travell labour and trudging will forget all to please himselfe with this pleasing sport Num tu quae tenuit dives Achaemenes Aut pinguis Phrygiae Mygdonias opes Permutare velis crine Liciniae Plenas aut Arabum domos Dum fragrantia detorquet ad osâ—ula Ceruicem aut facili saeuitianegat Quae poscente magis gaâ—deat eripi Interdum rapere occupet Would you exchange for your faire mistresse haire All that the rich Achaemenes did hold Or all that fertill Phrygias soile doth beare Or all th' Arabians store of spice and gold Whilst she to fragrant kisses turnes her head Or with a courteous coinesse them denies Which more then he that speeds she would have sped And which sometimes to snatch she formost hies I wot not whether Caesars exploits or Alexanders atchivements exceed in hardinesse the resolution of a beautious yoong woman trained after our manner in the open view and vncontrolled conversation of the world sollicited and battered by so many contrary examples exposed to a thousand assaults and continuall pursuits and yet still holding her selfe good and vnvanquished There is no point of doing more thornie nor more active then this of not doing I finde it easier to beare all ones life a combersome armour on his backe then a maiden-head And the vow of virginitie is the noblest of all vowes because the hardest Diaboli virtus in lumbis est The divels master-point lies in our loines saith S. Ierome Surely we haue reâ—igned the most difficult and vigorous devoire of mankinde vnto women and quit them the glory of it which might stead them as a singular motive to opinionate themselves therein and serve them as a worthy subiect to brave vs and trample vnder feet that vaine preheminence of valour and vertue wee pretend over them They shall finde if they but heed it that they shall thereby not only be highly regarded but also more beloved A gallant vndaunted spirit leaveth not his pursuits for a bare refusall so it bee a refusall of chastitie and not of choise Wee may sweare threaten and wailingly complaine we lie for we love them the better There is no enticing lure to wisdome and secret modestie so it be not rude churlish and froward It is blockishnesse and basenesse to be obstinately wilfull against hatred and contempt But against a vertuous and constant resolution matched with an acknowledging minde it is the exercise of a noble and generous minde They may accept of our service vnto a certaine measure and make vs honestly perceive how they disdaine vs not for the law which enioineth them to abhorre vs because we adore them and hate vs forsomuch as we love them is doubtlesse very cruell were it but for it's difficultie Why may they not listen to our offers and not gaine-say our requests so long as they containe themselves within the bounds of modestie Wherefore should we imagine they inwardly affect a freer meaning A Queene of our time said wittily that to
they be liberall Therefore is it but of small commendation in respect of other royall vertues And the only as said the tyrant Dionyfius that agreed and squared well with tyrannie it selfe I would rather teach him the verse of the ancient labourer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not whole sackes but by the hand A man should sow his seed i' the land That whosoever will reape any commoditie by it must sow with his hand and not powre out of the sacke that corne must be discreetly scattered and not lavishly dispersed And that being to give or to say better to pay and restore to such a multitude of people according as they have deserved he ought to be a loyall faithfull and advised distributer thereof If the liberalitie of a Prince be without heedy discretion and measure I would rather have him covetous and sparing Princely vertue seemeth to consist most in iustice And of all parts of justice that doth best and most belong to Kings which accompanieth liberalitie For they have it particularly reserved to their charge whereas all other justice they happily exercise the same by the intermission of others Immoderate bountie is a weake meane to acquire them good will for it reiecteth more people then it obtaineth Quo in plures vsus sis minus in multos vti possis Quid autem est stultius quà m quod libenter facias curare vt id diutius facere non possis The more you have vsed it to many the lesse may you vse it to many more And what is more fond then what you willingly would doe to provide you can no longer doe it And if it be emploied without respect of merit it shameth him that receiveth the same and is received without grace Some Tyrants have beene sacrificed to the peoples hatred by the very hands of those whom they had rashly preferred and wrongfully advanced such kinde of men meaning to assure the possession of goods vnlawfully and indirectly gotten if they shew to hold in contempt and hatred him from whom they held them and in that combine themselves vnto the vulgar iudgement and common opinion The subiects of a Prince rashly excessive in his gifts become impudently excessive in begging they adhere not vnto reason but vnto example Verily we have often iust cause to blush for our impudencie We are over-paid according to justice when the recompence equalleth our service for doe we not owe a kinde of naturall dutie to our Princes If he beare our charge he doth over-much it sufficeth if hee assist it the over-plus is called a benefit which cannot be exacted for the very name of liberalitie implieth libertie After our fashion we have never done what is received is no more reckoned of only future liberalitie is loved Wherefore the more a Prince doth exhaust himselfe in giving the more friends he impoverisheth How should he satisfie intemperate desires which increase according as they are replenished Who so hath his mind on taking hath it no more on what he hath taken Covetousnesse hath nothing so proper as to be vngratefull The example of Cyrus shall not ill fit this place for the behoofe of our kings of these daies as a touch-stone to know whether their gifts be well or ill emploied and make them perceive how much more happilie that Emperour did wound and oppresse them then they doe Whereby they are afterward forced to exact and borrow of their vnknowen subiects and rather of such as they have wronged and aggrieved then of those they have enriched and done good vnto and receive no aids where any thing is gratitude except the name Craesus vpbraâ—ded him with his lavish bountie and calculated what his treasure would amount vnto if he were more sparing and close-handed A desire surprised him to iustifie his liberalitie and dispatching letters over all parts of his dominions to such great men of his estate whom hee had particularly advanced intreated every one to assist him with as much money as they could for an vrgent necessitie of his and presently to send it him by declaration when all these count-bookes or notes were brought him each of his friends supposing that it sufficed not to offer him no more then they had received of his bounteous liberalitie but adding much of their owne vnto it it was found that the said summe amounted vnto much more then the niggardly sparing of Croesus Whereupon Cyrus said I am no lesse greedy of riches then other Princes but am rather a better husband of them You see with what small venture I have purchased the vnvaluable treasure of so many friends and how much more faithfull treasurers they are to mee then mercenarie men would be without obligation and without affection and my exchequer or treasurie better placed then in paltery coafers by which I draw vpon mee the hate the envie and the contempt of other Princes The ancient Emperours were wont to draw some excuse for the superfluitie of their sports and publike shewes for so much as their authoritie did in some sort depend at least in apparance from the will of the Roman people which from all ages was accustomed to be flattered by such kindes of spectables and excesse But they were particular-ones who had bred this custome to gratifie their con-citizens and fellowes especially with their purse by such profusion and magnificence It was cleane altered when the masters and chiefe rulers came once to imitate the same Pecuniarum translatio à iustis dominis ad alienos non debet liberalis videri The passing of money from right owners to strangers should not seeme liberalitie Philip because his sonne endevoured by gifts to purchase the good will of the Macedonians by a letter seemed to be displeased and chid him in this manner What Wouldest thou have thy subiects to account thee for their purse-bearer and not repute thee for their King Wilt thou frequent and practise them Then doe it with the benefits of thy vertue not with those of thy coafers Yet was it a goodly thing to cause a great quantity of great trees all branchie and greene to be farre brought and planted in plots yeelding nothing but drie gravell representing a wilde shady forest divided in due seemely proportion And the first day to put into the same a thousand Estriges a thousand Stagges a thousand wilde Boares and a thousand Buckes yeelding them over to be hunted and killed by the common people the next morrow in the presence of all the assembly to cause a hundred great Lions a hundred Leopards and three hundred huge Beares to be baited and tugg'd in peeces and for the third day in bloodie manner and good earnest to make three hundred couple of Gladiators or Fencers to combat and murder one another as did the Emperour Probus It was also a goodly shew to see those wondrous huge Amphitheaters all enchased with rich marble on the out side curiously wrought with carved statues and all the inner side glittering with precious and
waight which in nature are somthing els then nothing And who wadeth not so far into them to auoide the vice of superstition falleth happily into the blame of wilfulnesse The contradictions then of judgements doe neither offend nor moove but awaken and exercise me Wee commonly shunne correction whereas we should rather seeke and present our selves vnto it chiefly when it commeth by the way of conference and not of regency At every opposition wee consider not whether it be iust but be it right or wrong how we may avoide it In steede of reaching our armes we stretch forth our clawes vnto it I should endure to be rudely handled and checked by my friends though they should call me foole coxcombe or say I raved I love a man that doth stoutly expresse himselfe amongst honest and worthy men and whose wordes answer his thoughts We should fortifie and harden our hearing against the tendernesse of the cerimonious sound of wordes I love a friendly society and a virile and constant familiarity An amitie which in the earnestnesse and vigor of it's commerce flattereth it selfe as love in bitings and bloody scratchings It is not sufficiently generous or vigorous except it bee contentious and quarelous If she be civilised and a skilfull artiste if it feare a shocke or free encounter and have hir starting hoales or forced by-wayes Neque enim disputari sine reprehersione potest Disputation cannot be held without reprehension When I am impugned or contraried then is mine attention and not mine anger stirred vp I advance my selfe toward him that doth gainesay and instruct me The cause of truth ought to be the common cause both to one and other What can he answer The passion of choller hath already wounded his iudgement trouble before reason hath seazed vpon it It were both profitable and necessary that the determining of our disputations might be decided by way of wagers and that there were a materiall marke of our losses that we might better remember and make more accoumpt of it and that my boy might say vnto me Sir if you call to minde your contestation your ignorance and your selfe-wilfulnesse at severall times cost you a hundred crownes the last yeare I feast I cherrish and I embrace truth where and in whom soever I finde it and willingly and merily yeeld my selfe vnto hir as soone as I see but hir approach though it bee a farre-off I lay downe my weapons and yeeld my selfe vanquished And alwayes provided one persist not or proceede therein with an over imperious stiffnesse or commanding surlinesse I am well pleased to be reprooved And I often accomodate my selfe vnto my accusers more by reason of civilitie then by occasion of amendment loving by the facilitie of yeelding to gratifie and foster their liberty to teach or advertise mee It is notwithstanding no easie matter to draw men of my times vnto it They have not the courage to correct because they want the hart to endure correction And ever speake with dissimulation in presence one of another I take so great a pleasure to bee judged and knowne that it is indifferent to me in whether of the two formes I be so Mine owne imagination doth so often contradict and condemne it selfe that if another doe it all is one vnto me especially seeing I give his reprehension no other aucthoritie then I list But I shall breake a straw or fall at ods with him that keepes himselfe so alost as I know some that will fret and chafe if their opinions be not believed and who take it as an iniury yea and fall out with their best friends if they will not follow it And that Socrates ever smiling made a collection of such contradictions as were opposed to his discourse one might say his force was cause of it and that the advantage being assuredly to fall on his side he tooke them as a subject of a new victory Neverthelesse we see on the contrary that nothing doth so nicely yeeld our sence vnto it as the opinion of preheminence and disdaine of the adversary And that by reason it rather befits the weakest to accept of oppositions in good part which restore and repaire him Verily I seeke more the conversation of such as curbe me then of those that feare me It is an vnsavory and hurtfull pleasure to have to doe with men who admire and give vs place Antisthenes commanded his children never to bee boholding vnto or thanke any that should command them I feele my selfe more lustie and cranke for the victory I gaine over my selfe when in the heate or fury of the combate I perceive to bend and fall vnder the power of my adversaries reason then I am pleased with the victory I obtaine of him by his weakenesse To conclude I receave all blowes and allow all attaints given directly how weake soever but am very impacient at such as are strucken at randan and without order I care but little for the matter and with me opinions are all one and the victory of the subject in a manner in different I shall quietly contest a whole day if the conduct of the controvesie be followed with order and decorum It is not force nor subtiltie that I so much require as forme and order The forme and order dayly seene in the altercations of Shepheards or contentions of shop-prentise-boyes but never amongst vs If they part or give one another over it is with incivility and so doe we But their wrangling their brawling and impacience cannot make them to forgoe or forget their theame Their discourse holdes on his course If they prevent one another if they stay not for at least they vnderstand one another A man doth ever answere sufficiently well for mee if hee answere what I say But when the disputation is confounded and orderlesse I quit the matter and betake me to the forme with spight and indiscretion and embrace a kinde of debating teasty headlong malicious and imperious whereat I afterward blush It is impossible to treate quietly and dispute orderly with a foole My judgement is not onely corrupted vnder the hand of so imperious a maister but my conscience also Our disputations ought to be forbidden and punished as other verball crimes What vice raise they not and heape vp together beeing ever swayed and commaunded by choller First wee enter into enmity with the reasons and then with the men Wee learne not to dispute except it be to contradict and every man contradicting and being contradicted it commonly followeth that the fruit of disputing is to loose and to disanull the trueth So Plato in his common wealth forbiddeth foolish vnapt and base-minded spirits to vndertake that exercise To what purpose goe you about to quest or enquire that which is with him who hath neither good pace nor proceeding of woorth No man wrongs the subject when he quits the same for want of meanes to treat or mannage it I meane not a scholasticall and artist meane but intend a naturall meane
not much acquainted Of mighty men and much lesse tainted Princes give mee sufficiently if they take nothing from me and doe me much good if they doe me no hurt it is all I require of them Oh how much am I beholding to God forsomuch as it hath pleased him that whatsoever I enioy I have immediately received the same from his grace that he hath particularly reserved all my debt vnto himselfe I most instantly beseech his sacred mercy that I may never owe any man so much as one essentiall God-a-mercie Oh thrise fortunate libertie that hath brought me so farre May it end successefully I endevour to have no manner of need of any man In me omnis spes est mihi All my hope for all my helpe is my selfe It is a thing that every man may effect in himselfe but they more easily whom God hath protected and sheltred from naturall and vrgent necessities Indeed it is both lamentable and dangerous to depend of others Our selves which is the safest and most lawfull refuge are not very sure vnder our selves I have nothing that is mine owne but my selfe yet is the possession thereof partly defective and borrowed I manure my selfe both in courage which is the stronger and also in fortune that if all things else should forsake me I might finde something wherewith to please and satisfie my selfe Eleus Hippias did not onely store himselfe with learning that in time of need hee might ioifully withdraw himselfe amongst the Muses and be sequestred from all other company nor onely with the knowledge of Philosophie to teach his minde to be contented with her and when his chance should so dispose of him manfully to passe over such incommodities as exteriorlie might come vnto him But moreover he was so curious in learning to dresse his meat to notte his haire to make his clothes breeches and shoes that as much as could possibly be he might wholly relie trust to himselfe be freed from all sorraine helpe A man doth more freely and more blithely enioy borrowed goods when it is not a bounden iovissance and constrained through neede and that a man hath in his will the power and in his fortune the meanes to live without them I know my selfe well But it is very hard for mee to imagine any liberalitie of another body so pure towards me or suppose any hospitalitie so free so hartie and genuine as would not seeme affected tyrranicall disgraced and attended on by reproach if so were that necessitie had forced and tied me vnto it As to give is an ambicious qualitie and of prerogative so is taking a qualitie of submission Witnes the injurious and pickthanke refusall that Baiazeth made of the presents which Themir had sent him And those which in the behalfe of Soliman the Emperor were sent to the Emperour of Calicut did so vex him at the hart that hee did not onely vtterly reject and scornfully refuse them saying that neither himselfe nor his predecessors before him were accustomed to take any thing and that their office was rather to give but besides he caused the Ambassadors to that end sent vnto him to be cast into a deepe dungeon When Thetis saith Aristotle flattereth Iupiter when the Lacedemonians flatter the Athenians they doe not thereby intend to put them in minde of the good they have done them which is ever hatefull but of the benefits they have received of them Those I see familiarly to employ and make vse of all men to begge and borrow of all men and engage themselves to all men would doubtlesse never doe it knew they as I doe or tasted they as I have done the sweete content of a pure and vndepending libertie and if therewithall as a wiseman ought they did duly ponder what it is for a man to engage himselfe into such an obligation or libertie depriving bond It may happily be paide sometimes But it can never be vtterly dissolved It is a cruell bondage to him that loveth throughly and by all meanes to have the free scope of his libertie Such as are best and most acquainted with mee know whether ever they saw any man living lesse soliciting lesse craving lesse inportuning or lesse begging then I am or that lesse employeth or chargeth others which if I be and that beyond all moderne example it is no great wonder sithence so many parts of my humours or manners contribute thereunto As a naturall kinde of stubbornesse an impatience to be denied a contraction of my desires and desseignes and an insufficiencie or vntowardlinesse in all manner of affaires but aboue all my most fauoured qualities lethall sloathfulnesse and a genuine liberty By all which meanes I have framed an habite mortally to hate to be behoulding to any creature els or to depend of other then vnto and of my selfe True it is that before I employ the beneficence or liberalitie of an other in any light or waighty occasion small or vrgent neede soever I doe to the vtmost power employ all that ever I am able to auoide and forbeare it My friends doe strangelie importune and molest me when they solicite and vrge mee to entreate a third man And I deeme it a matter of no lesse charge and imputation to disingage him that is endebted vnto mee by making vse of him then to engage my selfe vnto him that oweth mee nothing Both which conditions being removed let them not looke for any combersome negotious and carefull matter at my hands for I have denounced open warre vnto all manner of carke and care I am commodiously easie and ready in times of any bodies necessitie And I have also more avoyded to receave then sought to giue which as Aristotle saith is also more facile My fortune hath afforded me small meanes to benefit others and that little she hath bestowed on me the same hath shee also meanely and indifferently placed Had shee made mee to bee so borne that I might have kept some ranke amongst men I would then have beene ambicious in procuring to bee beloved but never to bee feared or admired Shall I expresse it more insolentlie I would have had as much regarde vnto pleasing as vnto profiting Cyrus doth most wiselye and by the mouth of an excellent Captaine and also a better Philosopher esteeme his bountie and prise his good deedes farre beyonde his valour and aboue his warlike conquests And Scipio the elder wheresoever hee seeketh to prevaile and set forth himselfe rateth his debonairitie and valueth his humanitie above his courage and beyond his victories and hath ever this glorious saying in his mouth That hee hath left his enemies as much cause to love him as his friends I will therefore say that if a man must thus owe any thing it ought to bee vnder a more lawfull title then that whereof I speake to which the law of this miserable warre dooth engage me and not of so great a debt as that of my totall preservation and whole estate which dooth vnreparablie over-whelme
and as they doe with such as they find neere vnto a murthered body so they should bee compelled to give an account of this mischance to their vtter vndooing having neither friends nor mony to defend their innocency What should I have said vnto them It is most certaine that this Office of humanity had brought them to much trouble How many innocent and guilt-lesse men have wee seene punished I say without the Iudges fault and how many more that were never discovered This hath hapned in my time Certaine men are condemned to death for a murther committed the sentence if not pronounced at least concluded and determined This done The Iudges are advertised by the Officers of a sub-alternall Court not far-off that they have certaine prisoners in hold that have directly confessed the foresaid murther and thereof bring most evident markes and tokens The question and consultation is now in the former Court whether for all this they might interrupt or should deferre the execution of the sentence pronounced against the first They consider the novelty of the example and consequence thereof and how to reconcile the judgement They conclude that the condemnation hath passed according vnto Law and therefore the Iudges are not subject to repentance To be short these miserable Wretches are consecrated to the prescriptions of the Law Philip or some other provided for such an inconvenience in this manner He had by an irrevocable sentence condemned one to pay another a round summe of money for a fine A while after the truth being discovered it was found he had wrongfully condemned him On one side was the right of the cause on the other the right of judiciary formes He is in some sort to satisfie both parties suffering the sentence to stand in full power and with his owne purse recompenced the interest of the condemned But hee was to deale with a reparable accident my poore slaves were hanged irreparably How many condemnations have I seene more criminall than the crime it selfe All this put me in minde of those auncient opinions That Hee who will doe right in grosse must needes doe wrong by retaile and iniustly in small things that will come to doe iustice in great matters That humane iustice is framed according to the modell of physicke according to which whatsoever is profitable is also just and honest And of that the Stoickes hold that Nature her selfe in most of her workes proceedeth against iustice And of that which the Cyreniaques hold that there is nothing just of it selfe That customes and lawes frame justice And the Theodorians who in a wise man allow as just all manner of theft sacriledge and paillardise so he thinke it profitable for him There is no remedy I am in that case as Alcibiades was and if I can otherwise chuse will never put my selfe vnto a man that shall determine of my head or consent that my honour or life shall depend on the industry or care of mine atturney more then mine innocency I could willingly adventure my selfe and stand to that Law that should as well recompence me for a good deed as punish me for a mis-deede and where I might have a just cause to hope as reason to feare Indemnitie is no sufficient coyne for him who doeth better than not to trespasse Our Law presents vs but one of hir hands and that is her left hand Whosoever goes to Law doth in the end but loose by it In China the policy arts and government of which kingdome having neither knowledge or commerce with ours exceed our examples in divers partes of excellency and whose Histories teach me how much more ample and diverse the World is than either we or our forefathers could ever enter into The Officers appointed by the Prince to visite the state of his Provinces as they punish such as abuse their charge so with great liberality they reward such as have vprightly and honestly behaved themselves in them or have done any thing more then ordinary and besides the necessity of their duty There all present themselves not onely to warrant themselves but also to get something Not simply to be paid but liberally to be rewarded No judge hath yet God be thanked spoken to me as a judge in any cause whatsoever either mine or another mans criminall or civill No prison did ever receive me no not so much as for recreation to walke in The very imagination of one maketh the sight of their outside seeme irkesome and loathsome to mee I am so besotted vnto liberty that should any man forbidde me the accesse vnto any one corner of the Indiaes I should in some sort live much discontented And so long as I shall finde land or open ayre elsewhere I shall never lurke in any place where I must hide my selfe Oh God how hardly could I endure the miserable condition of so many men confined and immured in some corners of this kingdome barred from entring the chiefest Citties from accesse into Courts from conuersing with men and interdicted the vse of common wayes onely because they have offended our lawes If those vnder which I live should but threaten my fingers end I would presently goe finde out some others wheresoever it were All my small wisedome in these civill and tumultuous warres wherein we now live doth wholly employ it selfe that they may not interrupt my liberty to goe and come where ever I list Lawes are now maintained in credit not because they are essentially just but because they are lawes It is the mysticall foundation of their authority they have none other which availes them much They are often made by fooles More often by men who in hatred of equality have want of equity But ever by men who are vaine and irresolute Authours There is nothing so grossely and largely offending nor so ordinarily wronging as the Lawes Whosoever obeyeth them because they are just obeyes them not justly the way as he ought Our French Lawes doe in some sort by their irregularity and deformity lend an helping hand vnto the disorder and corruption that is seene in their dispensation and execution Their behest is so confused and their commaund so inconstant that it in some sort excuseth both the disobedience and the vice of the interpretation of the administration and of the observation Whatsoever then the fruit is wee may have of Experience the same which we draw from forraine examples will hardly stead our institution much if we reape so small profit from that wee have of our selves which is most familiar vnto vs and truely sufficient to instruct vs of what wee want I study my selfe more than any other subject It is my supernaturall Metaphisike it is my naturall Philosophy Qua Deus hanc mundi temperet arte domum Qua venit exoriens qua deficit vnde coact is Cornibus in plenum menstrua luna redit Vnde salo superant venti quid flamine captâ—t Eurus in nubes vnde perennis aequa Sit ventura dies