Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	life_n	see_v	9,818	5	3.5124	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54647	The epistles of Phalaris translated into English from the original Greek by S. Whately ... ; to which is added Sir W. Temple's Character of the epistles of Phalaris ; together with an appendix of some other epistles lately discovered in a French ms.	Phalaris, Tyrant of Agrigentum, 6th cent. B.C.; Whately, Stephen.; Temple, William, Sir, 1628-1699.	1699 (1699)	Wing P1961; ESTC R36673	106,737	246

those whom he had reason to suspect and who were ever hatching Treason against him In the mean while the People who only mind the effects without enquiring after the Cause call his Justice Cruelty as if the punishment of Malefactors was not rather an Action of Clemency since it preserves the Innocent and secures the Lives of Honest men But the aversion people have to ill Princes makes 'em even often hate the Good such as Greece has seen several that have governed with all manner of Equity and Justice Thus it is not by his severity that a man ought to judge of a good or a bad Governor but by the reason he has to be severe otherwise you your selves would be unjust in punishing the Impious and Sacrilegious You see how much time Legislators employ in speaking of Penalties and Punishments as if the rest were nothing without this Now if they are necessary to any 't is without doubt to them who have none about them but treacherous Friends or private Enemies and command people which only obey by force For Rebellion is like a Hydra one of whose Heads are no sooner cut off than that there arises several in its place unless you put fire to 't after the example of Iolas for the gaining the Victory In a word when you have once begun to exercise severity you must continue it if you mean not to be undone But nought but necessity can drive a man to that extremity and I do not believe there 's any Prince so barbarous as to take delight in hearing Clamours Bawlings and Invectives rather than Blessings and Praises How often have we seen ours weep and groan in the punishment of Offenders and deplore his condition because he was constrained to suffer every day what he made them suffer once and to be all his life long under continual apprehensions of Death For otherwise he is so far from desiring to destroy the Innocent that he would rather be his own destruction by suffering Criminals to live Besides it 's no less painful to a Noble Spirit to do ill than to suffer it and I know not whether it be better to dye tho unjustly than to be every day in pain for our own defence and security however I believe every man would rather preserve his own life than those of his Enemies especially when he cannot preserve them but to his own ruine and against himself Yet Phalaris has preserved several after having manifestly convicted them I call to witness Acanthus Timocrates and Leogoras whom he loved when he might have destroyed them But if you would know our Prince you must not enquire about him of those whom he is constrained to be harsh withal but of others that he uses with all manner of humaniy For there are people all along the Coast who give him notice of those who arrive that he may receive them according to their merit and the Sages of Greece have not disdained to come and see him and Court his Friendship Witness Pythagoras who now abides with him having as much esteem for his Virtue as he had heard Blame and Clamours of his Cruelty and he is fill'd with compassion to see him constrain'd to exercise justice so severely Do ye think a man that uses Strangers so well takes delight in oppressing his own Citizens without any reason This is what we had to represent to you for his justification As to what concerns his Offering you are to know how Perillus like you only knowing him by hear-sayes imagining he could not render him a more acceptable piece of service than by inventing some new sort of punishment and as he was an excellent Artisan he made a Copper Bull of admirable contrivance so as that the Prince cryed out as soon as he saw it that it was an Offering worthy of Apollo But Perillus in reply said if you knew for what purpose I made it you would talk at another rate Shut up a Malefactor in it and put fire to it and thou wilt hear him Bellow like a Bull which is the only thing it wants to imitate Nature to perfection Upon these words the Prince having in abhorrence so detestable an Invention made Perillus himself to be put into the Bull to make a tryal of the truth and causing him again to be taken out alive that so he might not pollute by his Death an Offering which he meant to Consecrate to the Gods he destin'd it to Apollo and caused this History to be engraven thereupon Wherefore receive this Present Sacred Sirs and set it in the most conspicuous Place of the Temple for a Monument of the Piety and Justice of our Prince He will make still more presents if Apollo preserves him long and delivers him as has done from the ambushes of his Enemies but the greatest kindness he can do him is to exempt him henceforward from seeing so many executions and punishments This Right Reverend we had to tell you on his behalf and on our own which we assert for truth Now if Subjects be allowed to intercede for their Prince we conjure you most Holy Fathers by virtue of an Alliance for we as well as you are originally of the Dorians not to displease a Soveraign who Courts your Friendship since he has given you diverse testimonies thereof as well in publick as in particular wherefore receive this Offering and Consecrating it to Apollo make Vows for Him and for Us since you cannot refuse it without doing an injury to Phalaris and your God A Continuation Of the former DISCOURSE In an Oration of one of Apollo's Priests to the rest to perswade them not to refuse Phalaris his Present THough I have neither Friendship nor Alliance with Phalaris and with the Agrigentines nor any private reason to embrace their Interests I do not think my Brethren we can refuse their oblation which is a Master-piece of Art and the pledge of a Princes Piety and Justice as well in its Consecration as in the punishment of the Delinquent Wherefore I fancy on this occasion a longer deliberation would be Criminal and that it 's no less a Crime to refuse the offerings which are made to the Gods than to take away those they hold already in possession For my own part who in the Quality of a Priest and Citizen of Delphos partake in the Glory of Apollo and his Temple I hold we neither ought nor can hinder the token of zeal and acknowledgment of any Person without exposing our selves to Calumny and making it blurr'd about that we mean to render our selves Arbiters of the Consciences of Men. In a word if we reject this offering no body will ever make any more For who would expose himself to a refusal or run the risque of passing for Impious in giving testimonies of his Piety Ye will wholly Condemn Phalaris of the Crimes whereof he is accused if you send back his Present Never theless ye know we are yet altogether unacquainted with them and there 's

told them of the Death of those men you ought also to have told them how Vnjustly they were put to death that so acquainting them with the Vnreasonableness of my Proceedings you might more effectually have Engaged them against me But if they Suffered for such Causes which you are ashamed to speak of I cannot see how their Sufferings can be a Just cause of War against me Ep. 125. To Lacritus V. Ep. 10. 133. AS they who are possessed of a Prize the thoughts of losing which they cannot bear ought not to run the Risk of it So I were unwilling to have exposed you to any Hazardous Adventures But since you have been able to force my Fears to give way to your Valour you think your Work half done already and may the Event answer your Expectation and make you as Successful in Executing the Design upon which you are sent as you were Forward in Undertaking it In the mean time your Assurance cannot Rebate my Fears which during your Absence encrease still more and more upon me and till I see you Safe in my arms the only Relief I have against them is to hear often of your Safety abroad Remember therefore the charge I gave you when I sent you thither That whatever became of the Country you should be sure to take care of not losing me Lacritus whom I value far above many Provinces Cities Kingdoms nay Heaven knows above my own Soul Ep. 126. To Lacritus REmember Lacritus your own Promise and my Nakedness You are not ignorant how few Friends I have left me That my Letters betray such a Fearfulness in me is not my being under any Apprehensions from the power of the Multitude that 's too well Broken to give me any Jealousies nor from the weakness of my Allies I am able of my self to Cope with all my Enemies but 't is you Lacritus that keep me in a Fright Your daring boldness in the Field and your too Martial Inclinations I am afraid lest now you are once Entered I shall never be able to call you in again lest you should Affect the Glory of being a Warriour and be Dissatisfyed with me if I suffer you not to have your share in all and every Action But remember that you are Mine and but trusted out for a while to your own Keeping and that you promised me to bring yourself safe home Let me beg you therefore not to do any thing unbecoming your Honour for that 's impossible but to Reserve your self for Greater Services and expect more Glorious occasions of signalizing your valour And though you should now upon my Request Rebate somewhat of your Vigour I 'll take care to supply you with Opportunities of Exerting your whole self Ep. 127. To Epistratus BAffle not my patience with your Obstinacy nor constrain me after having thrice pardoned you now at last to proceed to Severity Make it not a matter Indiffereut to you whether Phalaris be Merciful or Cruel a Forgiving or a Revengeful man with them who will not suffer him to be the Former he must be the Latter Ep. 128. To Ariphaetes REckon not up those who have been consumed in my Bull by the Tale of their Heads but by the Quality of their Actions And then you will find the Number of their Crimes to exceed the Number of their Persons Or how many soever they were you see I have been able to Master them all But as for your own part as you are a young man let me advise you not to take upon yourself Concerns more proper for Graver heads That those who set themselves in Opposition against me procure their own Ruin I have proved by Instances sufficient I know you also to be one of them that are so Impatient of Subjection and desirous of Change and therefore would gladly see the world rid of me But let me seriously warn you to forbear not I assure you that I think my self in any danger from your hands such a pretty Smock-fac'd Creature was not made for a Destroyer of Tyrants but because I would not have you add your self to the number of those that have been put into my Bull and encrease against me the unjust Accusation of Cruelty But if you will not hearken to me you may expect to be speedily called to an Account as for other things so particularly for your having despised the Advice I now give you Ep. 129. To Timolaus NEver to commit a Mistake is the priviledge of God alone by past Mistakes to be taught more Wisdom for the future the common Lot of men But he that hath both played the fool and smarted for his Folly and yet grows never the Wiser what shall we say of him but that he is a Lost creature Doubly Unhappy therefore to bring the matter home is that man the Example of whose Rashness proves a warning to others but whos 's own Sufferings can do no good upon Himself Ep 130. To Phaedimus T Is now the Third time that you have been accused of Evil Practices against me and yet I will not Believe though the Charge comes still closer and closer upon you every time than other But what I am desirous you should prove toward me and what I am sure in Justice you ought to be such were I willing to suppose you And therefore I the more readily admitted the matters alledged against you to pass for False because I was unwilling to have had them Proved true But at the same time this let me tell you That how much soever I favoured your cause yet I look upon your escape as a kind of Miracle for he that is often brought to the Bar and still comes off with a Not Guilty seems more beholding to his Fortune than to his Innocence Give me not occasion therefore to hate your Person or your Fortune nor tempt me to Interpret her Indulgency's to you as Partialities against my self And withal consider how unreasonable a thing it is not only by your perpetual requiting Kindness with Injuries not to Correspond to to the good Intentions I bear you nor suffer them to take effect for I must not see a Good nature endlesly Triumphed over by Insolence but also that even Interest it self should not be able to bind you to your good behaviour nor oblige you tho contrary to the Bent of your Nature to put on at least a Shew of Common Humanity towards the person that Studies nothing more than how he may serve you Ep. 131. To Philodemus V. Ep. 135 142 143. 'T Is plain Philodemus you are a very Honest man and mean well But as when I deposited the five Talents in your name I never expected to see them again as being in greater fear then of losing you than my money so you are strangely mistaken in me if you imagin 't was upon any other consideration than that of a mutual Friendship that I offered up all those Vows and Sacrifices for your safe Return and

't is ourselves we Lament the Tears we shed at the Funerals of them that go before us being but bestowed upon our Own so soon after to follow This Nicocles is what we are all Born to When we receive the Gift of Life we receive the Sentence of Death a Sentence so Impartially executed upon all that none have cause of Complaint For the Tyranny of Fate is not more Irresistible than it is Impartial Neither can Force withstand nor Art elude nor Intreaty Avert the Stroak All Tyrant as I am yet Fate is still a greater Tyrant than Phalaris Lawless Cruel Inexorable or whatever else the World may say of me her Cruelty surpasses Mine I am called an Absolute Soveraign but how Improperly so called that fatal Hour will prove when all my Castles Guards and Arms shall be in vain Or could I be that Absolute Soveraign which no man can not for my own sake would I wish it to rescue myself out of the hands of Fate I am one whom many think nor can I contradict it unworthy to take out even my Appointed time but that I might be able to save such men from Dying who let them live never so Long yet dye too Soon But since we lye at her Disposal not she at ours we must submit with Patience Cease therefore Nicocles your unmeasurable Grief not only as being a thing vain in itself but for fear of disquieting the Ghost of your Wife to whom if the Spirits of the Departed know what 's done by them they leave behind your Lamentations cannot but create Disturbance She who in her life made it her only business to study your Satisfaction and whose only Pleasure it was to see you Pleased must even after death be grieved to see you grieved nay doubly Grieved not only at your Loss in being deprived of such a Wife but at her Own also in being taken away from such an Husband Since therefore you are neither the First nor the Only person that hath felt the like Misfortune bear a Common calamity with the Spirit of a man The various Incidents of my Fortune have Familiarized me to the thoughts of Death the common Fate of kind and the daily Spectacles of Mortality ought to do the like with you Our Concernments cannot alter the Law of Nature and the less a man Resents the Miseries of life the more doth he Enjoy the Blessings of it Ep. 145. To Stesichorus I Have sent you a Quantity of Oyl not for your own use mistake me not but for your Grand-Son the Business he is now upon requiring such a Supply and he himself deserving all Encouragement Nor would I have the Publick Exercises he is to Exhibit fall any whit short of those of Agesilaus or if they do it shall be no fault of mine The Money which you would not accept of at my hands when you were present with me yourself if you refuse now that I have sent it after you I will certainly accuse you to the Syracusians of holding Secret Correspondence with Phalaris and being in a Plot against the State and then bring your self off if you can Not Politicks Stesichorus but Poetry is your Talent Keep to That therefore and those Studies which have so Advanced you above the rest of Mankind and wherein you may excel without a Rival still pursue But meddle not with such Affairs wherein how successful soever you should prove the worst of Men may be your Equals Ep. 146. To Stesichorus NOt a word of me Stesichorus I beseech you either in your Odes or any where else I am lost to Fame and Silence is the greatest Honour you can do me In every thing else use your own pleasure and freely pursue the Inclinations of your Nature and the Inspirations of your Muse. But whatever you do meddle not with the Affairs of State and for that let my Example be your warning whose very Successes have been my greatest Misfortune and who upon the self same Account for which the world envies me as an Happy man find my self most Miserable Or if you think it may be justly so with me who by Usurping to myself a Lawless power deservedly suffer the Punishment of my own Presumption but that you pursuing so different a Course and studying only the welfare of your Country and the Common Liberty have no reason to expect the like Difficulties lay me aside and consider yourself Stesichorus yourself Stesichorus and be taught by your own Example Never did man put himself upon serving his Country with a purer Intention and more Disinterested affections And yet consider Stesichorus what you have gotten by all your pains and how much worse it had been with you had you met with an Enemy unlike my self Though indeed had a man Wind and Tyde on his side and sailed with never so full a Gale yet it would not be his Wisdom to make too bold with his Fortune By the same methods by which you neither a Tyrant over your Country nor hated by all the world as I am gained the Applauses of the Multitude and made yourself at least you thought so many Friends did you make Me your Enemy and by the same method had I been in your place a Patriot instead of a Tyrant might I have met with the same successes and been as much the Himeraeans Darling And yet consider how ill your Country hath requited all the services you perform'd and the hazards you ran upon her Account and how much better it is with the hated Tyrant than with the applauded Patriot Would you see the Man that receives the Blessings of his Country and feels not her Displeasures nor ever finds himself so ungratefully used as you have been by those whom he most strives to serve you will find 't is He that will never have any thing to do with the Publick but wisely keeps himself to himself and minds only his own business nor takes any other Business for his own but how to enjoy himself Ep. 147. To Stesichorus V. Ep. 22 73. VAlue not Stesichorus what Eubulus and Ariphantus have told me concerning you nor let their pretending themselves to have been put upon that Bloody design by you and your Poems give you the least disturbance How narrowly I escaped their hands at Himera you yourself know but since I have escaped them their naming your Verse as the Motive of so desperate an Undertaking ought to be rather a matter of Rejoycing to you than the Contrary And that both upon your own Account and upon mine upon your own their very Accusation proving what a Command those Poems with which the Sacred Muses inspire you have over the very Hearts and Souls of Men upon mine my Deliverance if that be a thing worth your Regard proving me to be placed above the Power of my Enemies If Stesichorus his Lyre can put men upon Destroying Tyrants the Lyre in his hands is a more dreadful Instrument than the Trumpet