dishonest what is just and generally what to choise and what to refuse how we ought to beare our selves towards the gods and towards our parents what our demeanour should bee with our elders what regard we are to have of lawes what our cariage must be to strangers to superiours how we are to converse with our friends In what sort we ought to demeane our selves towards our children and wives and finally what behaviour it beseemeth us to snew unto our servants and familie For as much as our duetie is to worship and adore the gods to honour our parents to reverence our ancients to obey the lawes to give place unto our superiors and betters to love our friends to use our wives chastely and with moderation to be and affectionate to our children and not to be ouragious with our servants nor to tyrannize over them But the principall and chiefe of all is this not to shew our selves over joious and merrie in prosperitie nor yet exceeding heavie and sad in adversitie not in pleasures and delight dissolute nor in anger furious and transported or rather transformed into brutish beasts by choler And these I esteeme to be the foveraigne fruits that are to be gathered and gotten by Philosophie For to carrie a generous and noble heart in prosperitie is the part of a brave minded man to live without envie and malice is the signe of a good and tractible nature to overcom pleasures by the guidance of reason is the act of wise and sage men and to bridle and restraine choler is a mastry that every one cannot skill of But the height of perfection in my judgement those onely attaine unto who are able to joine and intermingle the politicke government of weale publike with the profession and studie of Philosophie For by this meanes I suppose they may enjoy two of the best things in the world to wit the profit of the common weale by managing State affaires and their owne good living so as they doc in tranquilitie and repose of mind by the meanes of Philosophie For whereas there be amongst men three sorts of life namely Active Contemplative and Voluptuous this last named being dissolute loose and thrall to pleasure is bruitish beastly base and vile The contemplative wanting the active is unprofitable and the active not participating with the speculation of Philosophie committeth many absurde conormities and wanteth ornaments to grace and beautifie it In which regard men must endevour and aslay as much as lieth in them both to deale in government of the State and also to give their mindes to the studie of Philosophie so farre foorth as they have time and publike affaires will permit Thus governed in times past noble Pericles thus ruled Archytas the Tarentine thus Dion the Syracusian and Epaminondas of Thebes swaied the State where they lived and both of them aswell the one as the other conversed familiarly with Plato As touching the Institution of children in good literature needlesse I suppose it is to write any more This onely will I adde unto the rest that hath beene said which I suppose to be expedient or rather necessarie namely that they make no small account of the workes and bookes of the ancient Sages and Philosophers but diligentlie collect and gather them together so as they do it after the maner of good husbandmen For as they doe make provision of such tooles as pertaine to Agriculture and husbandrie not onely to keepe them in their possession but also to use them accordingly so this reckoning ought to be made that the instruments and furniture of knowledge and learning bee good bookes if they be read and perused For from thence as from a fountaine they may be sure to maintaine the same And here we are not to forget the diligence that is to be imployed in the bodily exercise of children but to remember that they bee sent into the schooles of those masters who make profession of such feats there to be trained and exercised sufficiently aswell for the streight and decent grouth as for the abilitie and strength of their bodies For the fast knitting and strong complexion of the bodie in children is a good foundation to make them another day decent and personable old men And like as in time of a calme faire season they that are at sea ought to make provision of necessarie meanes to withstand foule weather and a tempest even so verie meete it is that tender age be furnishd with temperance sobrietie and continencie and even betimes reserve and lay up such voyage provision for the better sustenance of old age Howbeit in such order ought this labour and travell of children to be dispensed that their bodies be not exhaust and dried up and so by that meanes they themselves be overwearied and made either unmeet or unwilling to follow their booke afresh and take their learning For as Plato said very well Sleepe and lassitude be enemies to learning But why do I stand hereupon so much being in comparison so small a matter Proceed I will therefore and make haste to that which is of greatest importance and passeth all the rest that hath beene said before For this I say that youth ought to be trained to militarie feats namely in launcing darts and javelins in drawing a bow and shooting arrowes in chasing also and hunting wilde beasts Forasmuch as all the goods of those who are vanquished in fight be exposed as a prey and bootie to the conquerours neither are they fit for warfarre and to beare armes whose bodies having beene daintily brought up in the shade and within house are corpulent and of a soft and delicate constitution The leane and dry the raw bone soldiour fierce Who train'd hath beene in armes and warlike toile In field wholerankes of enemies will pierce And in the lists all his concurrents foile But what may some men say unto me Sir you have made promise to give us examples and precepts concerning the education of all children free borne and of honest parentage and now me thinkes you neglect the education of commoners and poore mens children and deliver no instructions but such as are for gentlemen and be sutable to the rich and wealthie onely To which objection it is no hard matter to make answere For mine owne part my desire especially is that this instruction of mine might serve all but in case there be some who for want of meanes cannot make that use and profit which I could wish let them lay the waight upon fortune and not blame him who hath given them his advise and counsell in these points And yet for poore men thus much will I say Let them endevour and straine themselves to the utmost of their power to bring up their children in the best manner and if they cannot reach unto that yet must they aime thereat and come as neere as their abilitie will give them leave I have beene willing to insert these points by the way into this present
well also to keepe from them such schoole-fellowes as be unhappie and given to doe shrowd turnes for such as they are enough to corrupt and marre the best natures in the world All these rules and lessons which hitherto I have delivered do concerne honestie vertue and profit but those that now remaine behinde pertaine rather to humanity and are more agreeable to mans nature For in no case would I have fathers to be verie hard sharpe and rigorous to their children but I could rather wish and desire that they winke at some faults of a yoong man yea and pardon the same when they espie them remembring that they themselves were sometimes yoong For like as Physitians mingling and tempering otherwhiles some sweetejuice or liquid with bitter drugs and medicines have devised that pleasure and delight should be the meanes and way to do their patients good Even so fathers ought to delay their eager reprehensions and cutting rebukes with kindnesse and clemencie one while letting the bridle loose and giving head a little to the youthfull desires of their children another while againe reigning them short and holding them in as hard but above all with patience gently to beare with their faults But if so be fathers cannot otherwise doe but be soone angrie then they must assoone have done and be quickly pacified For I had rather that a father should be hastie with his children so he be appeased anon then show to anger and as hard to be pleased againe For when a father is so hard harted that he will not be reconciled but carieth still in minde the offence that is done it is a great signe that he hateth his children And I hold it good that fathers somtime take not knowlege of their childrens faults and in this case make some use of hard hearing and dimme sight which old age ordinarily bringeth with it as if by reason of these infirmities they neither saw somewhat when they see well ynough nor heard that which they heare plainely We beare with the faults of friends what strange matter is it then to tolerate the imperfections of our owne children Many a time when our servants have overdrunke themselves surfeited therwith we search not too narrowly into them nor rebuke them sharply therefore keepe thy sonne one while short be franke another while and give him money to spend freely Thou hast beene highly offended and angrie with him once pardon him another time for it Hath he practised secretly with any one of thy houshold servants and beguiled thee Dissemble the matter and bridle thine yre Hath he beene at one of thy farmes met with a good yoke of oxen made money therof Commeth he in the morning to do his dutie and bid thee good morrow belching sowre and smelling strongly of wine which the day before he drunke at the taverne with companions like himselfe seeme to know nothing Senteth he of sweete perfumes and costly pomanders Hold thy peace and say nothing These are the means to tame and breake a wilde and coltish youth True it is that such as naturally be subject to wantonnesse or carnall lust and will not be reclaimed from it not give eare to those that rebuke them ought to have wives of their owne and to be yoked in marriage for surely this is the best and surest meanes to bridle those affections and to keepe them in order And when fathers are resolved upon this point what wives are they to seeke for them Surely those that are neither in blood much more noble nor in state farre wealthier than they For an old said saw it is and a wise Take a wife according to thy selfe As for those that wed women farre higher in degree or much wealthier than themselves I cannot say they be husbands unto their wives but rather slaves unto their wives goods I have yet a few short lessons to annexe unto those above rehearsed which when I have set downe I will conclude and knit up these precepts of mine Above all things fathers are to take heed that they neither commit any grosse fault nor omit any one part of their owne dutie to the end they may be as lively examples to their owne children who looking into their life as into a cleere mirrour may by the precedents by them given forbeare to do or speake any thing that is unseemely and dishonest For such fathers who reproove their children for those parts which they play themselves see not how under the name of their children they condemne their owne selves But surely all those generally who are ill livers have not the heart to rebuke so much as their owne servants much lesse dare they finde fault with their children And that which is woorst of all in living ill themselves they teach and counsell their servants and children to do the same For looke where old folke be shamelesse there must yoong people of necessitie be most graceles and impudent Endevour therfore we ought for the resormation of our children to do our selves all that our dutie requireth and heerein to imitate that noble Ladie Eurydice who being a Slavonian borne and most barbarous yet for the instruction of her owne children she tooke paines to learne good letters when she was well stept in yeeres And how kinde a mother she was to her children this Epigram which she her selfe made and dedicated to the Muses doth sufficiently testifie and declare This Cupid here of honest love a true Memoriall is Which whilom Dame Eurydice of Hierapolis To Muses nine did dedicate where by in soule and mind Conceiv'd she was in later daies and brought foorth fruit in kind For when her children were well growen good ancient Lady shee And carefull mother tooke the paines to learne the A. B. C. And in good letters did so far proceed that in the end She taught them those sage lessons which they might comprehend But now to conclude this Treatise To be able to observe and keepe all these precepts and rules together which I have before set downe is a thing haply that I may wish for rather than give advise and exhort unto Howbeit to affect and follow the greater part of them although it require a rare felicitie and singular diligence yet it is a thing that man by nature is capable of and may attaine unto HOW A YOONG MAN OVGHT TO HEARE POETS AND HOW HE MAY TAKE PROFIT BY READING POEMES The Summarie FOrasmuch as yoong students are ordinarily allured as with a baite by reading of poets in such sort as willingly they employ their time therein considering that Poësie hath I wot not what Sympathie with the first heats of this age therefore by good right this present discourse is placed next unto the former And albeit it to speake properly it pertaineth unto those onely who read ancient Poëts as well Greeke as Latin to take heede and beware how they take an impression of dangerous opinions in regard either of religion or manners yet a man may comprehend
so much as to bring him in some sort in grace and favour againe with their father and when he hath failed so far foorth in neglecting the opportunity of time or omitting some other businesse which hardly will afoord excuse they are to lay the fault and blame upon his very nature and disposition as being more meete and fitted for other matters And heereto accordeth well that speech of Agamemnon in Homer He faulted not through idlenesse nor yet for want of wit But lookt on me and did expect my motive unto it even so one good brother may excuse another and say He thought I should have done it and left this duetie for me to doe neither are fathers themselves strait laced but willingly enough to admit such translations and gentle inversions of names as these they can be content to beleeve their children when they terme the supine negligence of their brethren plaine simplicitie their stupiditie and blockishnesse upright dealing and a good conscience their quarrellous and 〈◊〉 nature a minde loth to be troden under-foot and utterly despised In this maner he that will proceed with an intent only to appease his fathers wrath shal gaine thus much morcover That not only his fathers choler will therby be much diminished toward his brother but his love also much more encreased unto himselfe howbeit afterwards when he hath thus made all well and satisfied his father to his good contentment then must he turne and addresse himselfe to his brother apart touch him to the quicke spare him never a whit but with all libertie of language tell him roundly of his fault and rebuke him for his trespasse for surely it is not good to use indulgencie and connivencie to a brother no more than to insult over him too much and tread him under foote if hee have done amisse for as this bewraieth a joy that one taketh at his fall so that implieth a guiltinesse with him in the same transgression but in this rebuke and reproofe such measure would be kept that it may testifie a care to do him good and yet a displeasure for his fault for commonly he that hath beene a most earnest advocate and affectionate intercessor for him to his father and mother will be his sharpest accuser afterwards when he hath beene alone by himselfe But put the case that abrother having not at all offended be blamed notwithstanding and accused to father and mother howsoever in other things it is the part of humanitie and dutifull kindnesse to susteine and beare all anger and froward displeasure of parents yet in this case the allegations and desenses of one brother in the justification of an other when he is innocent unjustly traduced and hardly used or wronged by his parents are not to be blamed but allowable and grounded upon honestie neither need a brother feare to heare that reproch in Sophocles Thou gracelesse imp so farre growen out of kinde As with thy Sire a counter plea to finde when frankly freely he speaketh in the behalfe of his brother seeming to be unjustly condemned and oppressed For surely by this manner of processe and pleading they that are convicted take more joy in being overthrowen than if they had gained the victorie and better hand Now after that a father is deceased it is well beseeming and fit that brethren should more affectionaly love than besore and sticke more close together for then presently their naturall love unto their father which is common to them all ought to appeere indifferently in mourning together and lamenting for his death then are they to reject and cast behimde them all suspicions surmized or buzzed into their heads by varlets servants all slanderous calumniations and false reports brought unto them by pick-thankes and carrie-tales on both sides who would gladly sow some diffension betweene them then are they to give eare unto that which fables doe report of the reciprocall love of Castor and Pollux and namely how it is said That Pollux killed one with his fist for rounding him in the eare and whispering a tale against his brother Castor Afterwards when they shall come to the parting of their patrimonie and fathers goods among them they ought not as it were to give defiance and denounce warre one against another as many there be who come prepared for that purpose readie to encounter singing this note O Alal Alala now hearken and come fight Who art of warre so fell the daughter right But that verie day of all others they ought to regard and observe most as being the time which to them is the beginning either of mortall warre and enmitie irreconcileable or else of perfect friendship and amitie perdurable at which instant they ought among themselves alone to divide their portions if it be possible if not then to do it in the presence of one indifferent and common friend betweene them who may be a witnes to their whole order and proceeding and so when after a loving and kinde maner and as becommeth honest and well disposed persons they have by casting lots gotten ech one that which is his right by which course as Plato said they ought to thinke that there is given and received that which is meet and agreeable for every one and so to hold themselves therwith contented this done I say they are to make account that the ordering mannaging and administration onely of the goods and heritage is parted and divided but the enjoying use and possession of all remaineth yet whole in common between them But those that in this partition and distribution of goods plucke one from another the nourses that gave them 〈◊〉 or such youths as were fostered and brought up together with them of 〈◊〉 and with whom alwaies they had lived and loved familiarly well may they pervaile so farre forth with eager pursuing their wilfulnesse as to go away with the gaine of a slave perhaps of greater price but in stead thereof they lose the greatest and most pretions things in all their patrimonie and inheritance and utterly betray the love of a brother and the considence that otherwise they might have had in him Some also we have knowen who upon a peevish wilfulnesse onely and a quarrellous humour and without any gaine at all have in the partition of their fathers goods carried themselves no better nor with greater modestie and respect than if it had bene some bootie or pillage gotten in war Such were Charicles and Antiochus of the citie Opus two brethren who ever as they met with a piece of silver plate made no more ado but cut it quite thorough the mids and if there came a garment into their hands in two pieces it went slit as neere as they could aime just in the middle and so they went either of them away with his part dividing as it were upon some tragicall curse and execration Their house and all the goods therein By edge of sword so sharpe and keen Others there be who make their boast and
to aske at my hands and not in such as be necessarie and requisite If it be so I say see that you be not like unto him that praiseth a pompe and solemne shew of plaies and games more than life indeed which standeth upon things necessary The procession and solemnitie of the Bacchanales which was exhibited in our countrey was woont in old time to be performed after a plaine and homely manner merily and with great joy You should have seene there one carying a little barrell of wine another a branch of a vine tree after him comes one drawing and plucking after him a goate then followeth another with a basket of dried figs and last of all one that bare in shew Phallus that is to say the resemblance of the genitall member of a man but now adaies all these ceremonies are despised neglected and in maner not at all to be seene such a traine there is of those that carie vessels of gold and silver so many sumptuous and costly robes such stately chariots richly set out are driven drawen with brave steeds most gallantly dight besides the pageants dumbe-shewes and maskes that they hide and obscure the auncient and true pompe according to the first institution and even so it is in riches the things that be necessarie and serve for use and profit are overwhelmed and covered with needlesse toies and superfluous vanities I assure you the most part of us be like unto young Telemachus who for want of knowledge and experience or rather indeed for default of judgement and discretion when hee beheld Nestors house furnished with beds tables hangings tapistrie apparell and well provided also of sweete and pleasant wines never reckoned the master of the house happie for having so good provision of such necessarie and profitable things but being in Menelaus his house and seeing there store of Ivorie gold and silver and the mettall Electrum he was ravished and in an ecstasie with admiration thereof and brake out in these words Like unto this the pallace all within I judge to be Of Jupiter that mightie god who dwels in azure skie How rich how faire how infinite are all things which I see My heart as I do them behold is ravish't woonder ouslie But Socrates or Diogenes would have said thus rather How many wretched things are here how needlesse all and vaine When I them view I laugh thereat of them I am not faine And what saiest thou foolish and vaine sot as thou art Where as thou shouldest have taken from thy verie wife her purple her jewels and gaudie ornaments to the end that shee might no more long for such superfluitie nor runne a nodding after forrein vanities farre fetcht and deere bought doest thou conrrariwise embellish and adorne thy house like a theatre scaffold and stage to make a goodly sight for those that come into the Shew-place Loe wherein lieth the felicitie and happines that riches bringeth making a trim shew before those who gaze upon them and to testifie and report to others what they have seene set this aside that they be not shewed to all the world there is nothing at all therein to reckon But it is not so with temperance with philosophie with the true knowledge of the gods so farre foorth as is meete and behoovefull to be knowen for these are the same still and all one although everie man attaine not thereto but all others be ignorant thereof This pietie I say and religion hath alwaies a great light of her owne and resplendant beames proper to it selfe wherewith it doth shine in the soule evermore accompanied with a certaine joy that never ceaseth to take contentment in her owne good within whether any one see it or no whether it bee unknowen to gods and men or no it skilleth not Of this kinde and nature is vertue indeed and trueth the beautie also of the Mathematicall sciences to wit Geometrie and Astrologie unto which who will thinke that the gorgeous trappings and capparisons the brooches collars and carkans of riches are any waies comparable which to say a truth are no better than jewels and ornaments good to trim yoong brides and set out maidens for to be seene and looked at For riches if no man doe regard behold and set their eies on them to say a trueth is a blinde thing of it selfe and sendeth no light at all nor raies from it for certainely say That a rich man dine and sup privately alone or with his wife and some inward and familiar friends he troubleth not himselfe about furnishing of his table with many services daintiedishes and festivall fare he stands not so much upon his golden cups and goblets but useth those things that be ordinarie which goe about everie daie and come next hand as well vessell as viands his wife sits by his side and beares him companie not decked and hung with jewels and spangles of gold not arraied in purple but in plaine attire and simply clad but when he makes a feast that is to say sets out a theater wherein the pompes and shewes are to meet and make a jangling noise together when the plaies are to be represented of his riches and the solemne traine therof to be brought in place then comes abroad his brave furniture indeed then he fetcheth out of the ship his faire chaufers and goodly pots then bringeth hee foorth his rich three-footed tables then come abroad the lampes candlesticks and branches of silver the lights are disposed in order about the cups the cup-bearers skinkers and tasters are changed all places are newly dight and covered all things are then stirred and remooved that saw no sunne long before the silver plate the golden vessels and those that be set and enriched with pretious stones to conclude now there is no shew els but of riches at such a time they confesse themselves and will be knowen wealthy But all this while whether a rich man suppe alone or make a feast temperance is away and true contentment OF THE NATVRALL LOVE OR KINDNES OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN The Summarie WIsely said one whosoever it was That to banish amitie and friendship from among men were as great hurt to the societie of mankinde as to deprive them of the light and heat of the Sunne which being verified and found true in the whole course of this life and in the maintenance of all estates not without great cause Nature hath cast and sprinkled the seed thereof in the generation and nourishment of a race and linage whereof she giveth evident testimonies in brute beasts the better to moove and incite us to our duety That we may see therefore this pretious seed and graine of amitie how it doth flower and fructifie in the world we must begin at the love and naturall kindnesse of fathers and mothers to their children for if this be well kept and mainteined there proceed from it an infinite number of contentments which do much asswage and ease the inconveniences
their children fall to gaming revelling masking and banquetting to drunkennesse wanton whooring love and such like misdemeanors So as in these regards this one Mot of Euenus in an Epigram of his deserveth to be praised and remembred See bow great paines all fathers undergo What daily griefes their chieldren put them to And yet for all this fathers cease not still to nourish and bring up children and such most of al who stand least in need of their children another day for a meere mockery it were and a ridiculous thing if a man should suppose that rich wealthy men do sacrifice unto the gods and make great joy at the nativitie and birth of their children because that one day they shall feede and susteine them in their old age and interre them after they be dead unlesse perhaps it may be said they rejoice thus and be so glad to have and bring up children for that otherwise they should leave none heires behind them as who would say it were so hard a matter to finde out and meet with those that would be willing to inherite the lands and goods of strangers Certes the sands of the sea the little motes in the sunne raised of dust the feathers of birds together with their variable notes be not so many in number as there be men that gape after heritages and be ready to succeed others in their livings Danaus who as they say was the father of 50. daughters if his fortune had beene to be childlesse I doubt not but he should have had more heires than so to have parted his goods and stare among them and those verily after another sort than the heires of his owne body For children yeeld their parents no thanks at all for being their inheritours neither in regard thereof do they any service dutie or honour unto them for why they expect and looke for the inheritance as a thing due and of right belonging unto them but contrariwise you heare how those strangers that hang and hunt about a man who hath no children much like to those in the comaedies singing this song O sir no wight shall do you any harme I will revenge your wrongs and quarrels ay Hold heare three-halfe-pence good to keepe you warme Purse it drinke it sing wo and care away As for that which Euripides saith These worldly goods procure men friends to chuse And credit most who then will them refuse It is not simply and generally true unlesse it be to those as have no children for such indeed are sure to be invited and feasted by the rich lords and rulers will make court and be serviceable to such for them great oratours and advocates will plead at the bar without fee and give their counsell gratis How mightie is a rich man with each one So long as his next heire is knowne to none where as you shall see many in the world who before time having a number of friends and honour enough and no sooner had a little childe borne unto them but they lost all their friends credit and reputation at once so that by this reckoning the having of children maketh nothing at all to the authoritie of their parents so that in regard thereof it is not that they doe so love their children but surely the cause of this their kindnesse and affection proceedeth altogether from nature and appeereth no lesse in mankind than in wilde beasts Howbeit otherwhiles this naturall love aswell as many other good qualities in men are blemished and obscured by occasion of vice that buddeth up afterwards like as we see wilde briers bushes and brambles to spring up and grow among good and kind seeds for otherwise we might as well collect and say that men love not themselves because many cut their owne throates or wilfully fall down headlong from steepe rocks and high places For Oedipus With bloudy hand his owne eie-lids did force And plucked out his eies upon remorce Hegesias disputing and discoursing upon a time of abstinence caused many of his auditours and scholars to pine themselves to death Such accidents of many sorts there be Permitted by the gods we daily see But al of them like as those other passions and maladies of the mind before named transport a man out of his owne nature and put him beside himselfe so as they testifie against themselves that this is true and that they do amisse heerein for if a sow having farrowed a little pigge devoure it when she hath done or a bitch chance to teare in peeces a puppie or whelpe of her own litter presently men are amazed at the sight thereof and woonderfully affrighted whereupon they sacrifice unto the gods certaine expiatorie sacrifices for to divert the sinister praesages thereof as taking it to a prodigious woonder as confessing thereby that it is a propertie given to all living creatures even by the instinct and institution of nature To love foster and cherrish the fruit of their owne bodies so farre is it from them to destroy the same And yet notwithstanding her corruption and depravation in this behalfe Like as in mines the gold although it be mixed with much clay and furred all over with earth shineth glittereth thorow the same and is to be seene afarre off even so nature amid the most depravate maners and corrupt passions that we have sheweth a certeine love and tender affection to little ones To conclude wheras the poore many times make no care at all to nourish and reare up their children it is for nothing els but because they feare left having not so good bringing up nor so civill education as they ought they should proove servile in behavior untaught unmanerly rude and void of all good parts and judging as they do povertie to be the extremity of all miseries that can befall to man their heart will not serve them to leave unto their children this hereditarie calamity as a most grievous and dangerous disease OF THE PLVRALITY OF FRIENDS The Summarie IN certeine discourses going before it appeareth what a benefit and good thing friendship is And now Plutarch addeth thereto a certaine correction very necessary in regard of our nature which is given alwaies to bend unto extremities and not able long to holde the golden-meane Like as therefore it bewraieth a miserable wretched and cursed mind to be desirous for to leade a life without acquaintance and familiarity with any person even so to make friends as they say hand over head and upon every occasion is peradventure unpossible but surely not expedient Our authour therefore willing to reforme this disordinate affection that is in many who because they would have a number of friends often-times have not one assured sheweth that it is farre better for a man to get one fast and faithfull friend than a great multitude of whom he can not make any certaine account propounding as aremedie for this covetous minde of entertaining such a plurality of friends the examples of those who are contented
hard hearing have no sense at all of musicke and are nothing mooved and affected therewith a great infortunitie this was of blind Tiresias that hee could not see his children and friends but much more unfortunate and unhappie were Athamas and Agave who seeing their children thought they saw lions and stags And no doubt when Hercules fell to be enraged and mad better it had beene and more expedient for him that he had not seene nor knowne his owne children than so to deale with those who were most deere unto him and whom he loved more than all the world besies as if they had beene his mortall enemies Thinke you not then that there is the same difference betweene the passions of Atheists and superstitious folke Atheists have no sight nor knowledge of the gods at all and the superstitious thinke there are gods though they be perswaded of them amisse Atheists neglect them altogether as if they were not but the superstitious esteeme that to bee terrible which is gracious amiable cruell and tyranlike which is kind and fatherlike hurtful and damageable unto us which is most carefull of our good and profit rough rigorous savage and fell of nature which is void of choler and without passion And hereupon it is that they beleeve-brasse founders cutters in stone imagers gravers and workers in waxe who shape represent unto them gods with bodies to the likenesse of mortall men for such they imagine them to be such they adorne adore and worship whiles in the meane time they despise philosophers and grave personages of State and government who do teach and shew that the majestie of God is accompanied with bountie magnanimitie love and carefull regard of our good So that as in the one sort we may perceive a certeine sencelesse stupiditie and want of beleife in those causes from whence proceed all goodness so in the other we may observe a distrustfull doubt and feare of those which cannot otherwise be than profitable and gracious In sum impietie and Atheisme is nothing else but a meere want of feeling and sense of a deitie or divine power for default of understanding and knowing the soveraigne good and superstition is a heape of divers passions suspecting and supposing that which is good by nature to bee bad for superstitious persons feare the gods and yet they have recourse unto them they flatter them and yet blaspheme and reproch them they pray unto them and yet complaine of them A common thing this is unto all men not to be alwaies fortunate whereas the gods are void of sicknesse not subject to old age neither taste they of labour or paine at any time and as Pindarus saith Escape they do the passage of the first Of roaring Acheron and live alway in mirth But the passions and affaires of men be intermedled with divers accidents and adventures which run as well one way as another Now consider with me first and formost the Atheist in those things which happen against his minde and learne his disposition and affection in such occurrences if in other respects he be a temperate and modest man beare he will his fortune patiently without saying a word seeke for aide he will and comfort by what meanes he can but if he be of nature violent and take his misfortune impatiently then he directeth and opposeth all his plaints and lamentations against fortune and casualtie then he crieth out that there is nothing in the world governed either by justice or with providence but that all the affaires of man run confusedly headlong to destruction but the fashion of the superstitious is otherwise for let there never so small an accident or mishap befal unto him he sits him downe sorrowing and thereto he multiplieth and addeth other great and greevous afflictions such as hardly be remooved he imagineth sundry frights feares suspicions and troublesome terrors giving himselfe to all kinde of wailing groaning and dolefull lamentation for he accuseth not any man fortune occasion or his owne selfe but he blameth God as the cause of all giving out in plaine termes that from thence it is that there falleth and runneth over him such a celestiall influence of all calamitie and misery contesting in this wise that an unhappie or unluckie man he is not but one hated of the gods woorthily punished and afflicted yea and suffring all deservedly by that divine power and providence now if the godlesse Atheist be sicke he discourseth with himselfe and calleth to minde his repletions and full feedings his surfeiting upon drinking wine his disorders in diet his immoderate travell paines taken yea and his unusuall and absurd change of aire from that which was familiar unto that which is strange and unnatuturall moreover if it chance that he have offended in any matter of government touching the State incurred disgrace and an evill opinion of the people and country wherein he liveth or beene falsly accused and slandered before the prince or sovereigne ruler he goeth no farther than to himselfe and those about him imputing the cause of all thereto and to nothing els and thus he reasoneth Where have I beene what good have I done and what have I not done Where have I slipt what dutie begun is left by me undone whereas the superstitious person will thinke and say that everie disease and infirmitie of his bodie all his losses the death of his children his evill successe and infortunitie in managing civill affaires of State and his repulses and disgraces are so many plagues inflicted upon him by the ire of the gods and the verie assaults of the divine justice insomuch as he dare not go about to seeke for helpe and succour nor avert his owne calamitie he will not presume to seeke for remedie nor oppose himselfe against the invasion of adverse fortune for feare forsooth lest hee might seeme to fight against the gods or to resist their power and will when they punish him thus when he lieth sicke in bed he driveth his physician out of the chamber when he is come to visit him when he is in sorrow he shutteth and locketh his doore upon the Philosopher that commeth to comfort him and give him good counsell Let me alone will he say and give me leave to suffer punishment as I have deserved wicked and profane creature that I am accursed hated of all the gods demi-gods and saints in heaven Whereas if a man who doth not beleeve nor is perswaded that there is a God be otherwise in exceeding griefe and sorrow it is an ordinarie thing with him to wipe away the teares as they gush out of his eies and trickle downe the cheekes to cause his haire to be cut and to take away his mourning weed As for a superstitious person how shoud one speake unto him or which way succour and helpe him without the doores he sits clad in sackloth or else girded about his loines with patched clothes and tattered rags oftentimes he will welter and wallow in the
to the saide harpe and by sweet exhortations as sometimes Thales did semblably the carpenter or ship-wright who maketh the helme to a ship or gally wil joy more when he shal know that the said helme shal serve to guide rule the admirals ship within which Themistocles shal fight against the Persians in the defence of the libertie and freedome of Greece or that of Pompeius with which in a navall battell at sea he defaited and vanquished the armie of the pirats What suppose you then will a philosopher thinke of his owne speech and doctrine when he shall come to discourse with himselfe that he who shall receive the same being a man of authoritie a prince or great lord shall thereby doe good unto the common-weale in ministring right and justice indifferently to everie man shall punish the wicked and advaunce those that bee good and vertuous I am verily perswaded for my part that a good and gentle ship-wright will more willingly make an helme when hee shall know that it must serve to rule the great shippe Argo renowmed throughout the world likewise a carpenter or wheele-wright will not with so good a will lay his hand to make a plough or a chariot as he would to frame those tables or boords in which he wist that Solon was to engrave his lawes And I assure you the discourses and reasons delivered by Philosophers if once they be well and surely imprinted in the hearts of great personages who have in their hands the government of States if they once get sure footing and take good root in them they become as forcible and effectuall as positive lawes Hereupon it was that Plato sailed into Sicilie in hope that the grave sentences and principles of his Philosophy would be as good as lawes and worke holesome and profitable effects in the affaires of Dionysius But hee found that Dionysius was like writing tables all rased and full of blurs and blots and that he could not leave off the tincture and deepe die of tyrannie being so surely set on and having by continuance of time entred and peareed deepe so that it could not be washed out whereas it behooved that those who are to make their profit by good advertisements and sage lessons should still be in motion and so continue AS TOVCHING A PRINCE OR RULER UNLEARNED The Summarie AS in the former discourse he sollicited Sages and Philosophers to joine themselves in acquaintance with Princes so in this he desireth one point whereof hee dareth not assure himselfe to compasse the same by reason of some difficulties therein observed For requiring in Princes thus much that they should be wel instructed for to be capable of good counsell he sheweth withall that it is a verie hard thing to bring them thereto and to range them in that order for certaine materiall and pertinent reasons which he setteth downe Neverthelesse he passeth on still and proceedeth farther prooving that the law and lively reason ought to command Kings and Princes and for to cause them to condescend thereto he declareth unto them that the thing which they wish for and desire so ar dently to procure namely to maintaine themselves in happie estate and to make their name immortall lieth in vertue then he pointeth out with his finger foure impeachments and hinderances that divert and turne away Princes from so just and necessarie a consideration Which done for to enrich this speech and treatise of his and the better yet to draw great personages to give eare unto reason he letteth them see and understand the difference betweene a good Prince and a tyrant also how dangerous a wicked Prince is concluding by the benefit which commeth by equitie and the hurt by injustice that right and justice ought to serve as a counterpoise against the greatnes and puissance of Princes AS TOVCHING A PRINCE or Ruler unlearned THE inhabitants of the citie Cyrene requested Plato on a time to leave unto them by writing certaine good lawes and withall to set them downe an order in the government of their State which he refused to do saying That it was a verie hard matter to give lawes unto the Cyrenians being so rich and wealthie as they were for there is nothing so proude and insolent so rough and intractable so savage and hard to be tamed as a man perswaded well of his fortunate estate This is the cause that it is no easie enterprise to give counsell unto princes and rulers and to advise them as touching their government For they be affraid to receive and admit reason as a master to commaund them for feare it should take away and abridge them of that which they esteeme to be the onely good of their grandence and puissance in case they were subjected once to their duety Which is the cause also that they cannot skill to heare the discourses of Theopompus King of Sparta who was the first that brought into that citie the Ephori and mingled their authoritie with the government of the Kings For when his wise reproched him for leaving unto his children the royall power dignitie lesse than he received it of his predecessors Nay mary quoth he but rather farre greater in that it shall be more firme and assured for in remitting and letting downe a little that which in absolute royaltie was over stiffe strait and rigorous hee avoided by that verie meanes all envie and perill And verily Theopompus deriving unto others from his owne authoritie as from a great river a little rill or riveret looke how much he gave unto the Ephort so much he cut off from himselfe but the reason and remonstrance of Philosophie being lodged as it were with the Prince himselfe for to assist him and preserve his person taking from his puissance as in a full plight and plethoricke constitution of the bodie that which is excessive and overmuch leaveth that behind which is sound and healthfull But the most part of Kings Princes and Soveraigne rulers who are not wise and of good understanding resemble unskilfull cutters in stone and imagers who are of opinion that the enormous and huge statues called Colosses which they cut will seeme more vast and mightie if they frame them stradling with their legs with their armes spread abroad and stretched foorth as also with their mouthes gaping wide open for even so these princes and rulers by their big commanding voice their grim and sterne visage fierce lookes and regard of their eie their odious behaviour and living apart without society of any other person weene and suppose to counterfeit a kinde of gravitie greatnes and majestie that is required in a mightie potentate but they differ nothing from the foresaid Colosses which without do represent the forme of some god or demi-god but all within are stuffed full of earth stone rubbish and lead this onely is the difference that the waight and heavines of those monstrous statues counterpoiseth and keepeth them standing in some sort upright stedfast and not
and advice of their wives yea to compose and pacifie all debates and braules with their neighbours and allies by the mediation of them and therefore in that composition and accord which they made with Anniball at what time as he passed through their citie among other articles this went for one That in case the Gaules complained of any wrongs done unto them by the Carthaginians the Carthaginian captains and governors which were in Spain should be the judges betweene them but contrariwise if the Carthaginians pretended that the Gaules had wronged them the Gaule dames should decide the quarrell THE WOMEN OF MELOS THe Melians purposing to seeke for another land to inhabit more large and fertile than their owne chose for the captaine and leader of that troupe or colonie which was sent forth a yoong gentleman of singular beautie named Nymphoeus but first they had consulted with the oracle where they received this answere That they should take the seas and saile and looke in what place soever they happened to leese their porters and cariers there they should rest and inhabit now it happened as the coasted along Caria and were set aland their ships were lost in a tempest and perished and then the inhabitats of the city Cryassa in Caria were it that they had pity of their necessitie or feared their hardinesse and valour requested them to make their abode with them and granted them a part of their territorie to holde and occupie but afterwards the Carians seeing that in a small time the Melians mightily increased and waxed great they complotted and laid ambushes for to murder them al at a certeine solemne feast and supper which they prepared for them but it fell out so that a yoong damosell of Caria named Cophene who secretly was in love and enamoured upon Nymphaeus abovesaid and could not endure that her love Nymphaeus should so treacherously be murdered discovered the said plot and intended desseigne of her countreymen now when the Cryassians came to call them to the feast abovesaid Nymphaeus made them this answere That the custome of the Greeks was not to go unto any great suppers or feasts unlesse they had their wives with them which when the Carians heard they said Bring your wives with you and spare not they shall be welcome thus when he had advertised his countreymen the Melians what had passed betweene him and the Carians he gave order that they should themselves come unarmed in their plaine apparell but every one of their wives should bring with them a skeing or dagger under their clothes and so ech of them sit close unto her husband now in the mids of supper when the signall was given to the Carians for to go in hand with the execution of their desseigne they Greeks knew thereby incontinently that the time was now come to execute this feat and then the women all at once opened their bosoms and their husbands caught the skeines aforesaid ran upon the barbarous Carians and massacred all in the place insomuch as not one of them escaped with life and thus being masters of the countrey they rased the city and built another which they called New Cryassa Cophene then was maried to Nymphaeus and woon much honour and favor which she right well had deserved for the great good service that she did but in my conceit the principall matter in this whole action and that which is most to be commended was the silence and secrecie of these dames that being so many as they were there was not one whose hart fainted in the execution of this enterprise nor perforce and for feare against her will failed in her dutie THE TUSCANE WOMEN THere were in times past certeine Tyrrhenians or Tuskanes who seized upon the isles of of Lemnos and Imbros yea and ravished certeine Athenian wives out of Brauron and begat children of them but afterwards the Athenians chased that generation out of the said isles as being mungrels and halfe Barbarians who fortuning to arrive at the cape or head of Taenarus did very good service under the Spartans in their wars against the Ilots and for this cause obteined their freedome and burgeosie in Sparta yea and were allowed to take wives and marrie among them onely they were not capable of any office of State or magistracie nor admitted into the counsell of the citie howbeit suspected they were in the end that they conspired and went about a change and alteration in the government whereupon the Spartans apprchended their bodies and cast them in prison where they kept them very straight as close prisoners to see if they could convince them by some proofes and undoubted evidence Meanwhile the wives of these prisoners came to the goales and by their earnest praiers and importunate sute wrought so with their keepers that they suffred them to have accesse unto their husbands onely to visit salute and speake unto them they were no sooner entred in but they advised and perswaded their husbands with all speed to put off their owne clothes and doe on their apparell and so to get away with their faces vailed and covered which presently was put in execution and themselves remained fast shut up in the said prison prepared and resolute to abide all the miseries and tortures that might be done unto them thus the goalers let out their husbands taking them to be their wives No sooner were they at libertie but immediately they went and seized the mountaine Taygeta and sollicited withall the Ilots to take armes and rebell which the men of Sparta much fearing sent unto them an herald with atrumpet by whose entercourse they agreed upon these articles of composition Inprimis to deliver them their wives Item to restore unto them their money and all their goods Item to furnish them with ships to passe upon the seas for to seeke their adventure and when they had found a commodious land in one place or other were provided of a citie to inhabit that they should be named and reputed kinsfolke to the Lacedaemonians and a colonie derived and discended from them The same did the Pelasgians who tooke for their captaines in this voiage Pollis Adelphus and Crataidas all three Lacedaemonians for when one part of them staied in the isle Melos the greater troupe under the conduct of Pollis arrived in Candie attending and expecting if those signes which had beene foretold them by the oracles would happen for answer was given them by oracle That whensoever they had lost their ankor and goddesse then they were at an end of their voiage and should build them a citie being come therefore unto the demie island Chersonesus and their ship lying at ankor in the harbour there hapned in the night a sudden feare and fright among them without any apparant cause such as they call Panique Frights wherewith being woonderfully troubled and scarred they went a shipboord without all order and in a tumultuous multuous maner leaving behinde them for haste the image of Diana