Demolish'd but the Deity still remaines untouch'd EPIST. XXVII Some Traditions of the Antients concerning Thunder and Lightning with the Authors Contemplations Thereupon THere is no question but that Providence has given to Mortals the Tokens or Fore-runners of things to Come and by those meanes laid open in some measure the Decrees of Fate Only we take Notice of some things without giving any heed to Others There is not any thing done according to the Course of Nature which is not either the Cause or the Sign of something that follows So that wheresoever there is Order there is place for Prediction But there is no judgement to be given upon Accidents Now though it is a very hard matter to arrive at the Fore-Knowledge of things to come and to predict particularly what shall hereafter fall out Upon a Certain Knowledge of the Power and Influences of the Stars It is yet unquestionable that they have a Power though we cannot expresly say what it is In the Subject of Thunder there are several Opinions as to the significations of it The Stoicks hold that because the Cloud is Broken therefore the Bolt is shot according to Common Speech Others Conjecture that the Cloud is broken to that very End that it may discharge the Thunder-Bolt referring all in such sort to God as if the signification did not arise from the thing done but as if the thing it self were done for the signification sake But whether the signification goes before or follows it comes all to the same Point There are Three sorts of Lightning the First is so pure and subtile that it pierces through whatsoever it Encounters The Second Shatters and Breaks every thing to pieces the Other Burns either by Blasting Consuming Inflaming or Discolouring and the like Some Lightnings are Monitory Some are Mâ—…nacing and others they Phansy to be Promising They Allot to Iupiter Three Sorts the First is only Monitory and Gentle which he casts of his own Accord The Second they make to be an Act of Counsel as being done by the Vote and Advice of Twelve Gods This they say does many times some Good but not without some Mischief too As the Destruction of One Man may prove the Caution of another The Third is the Result of a Council of the Superior Deities from whence proceed great Mischiefs both Publick and Private Now this is a great Folly to Imagine that Iupiter would wreak his Displeasure upon Pillars Trees nay upon Temples themselves and yet let the Sacrilegious go Free To strike Sheep and Consume Altars and all this upon a Consultation of the Gods as if he wanted either Skill or Justice to Govern his own Affairs by himself either in Sparing the Guilty oâ—… in Destroying the Innocent Now What should be the Mistery of all this The Wisdom of our Forefathers found it necessary to keep Wicked People in Awe by the Apprehension of a Superior Power And to Fright them into their good Behaviour by the Fear of an Armed and an Avenging Justice over their Heads But How comes it that the Lightning which comes from Iupiter himself should be said to be harmless and That which he casts upon Counsel and Advice to be so Dangerous and Mortal The Moral of it is This. That all Kings should after Iupiters Example do all Good by themselves And when Severity is Necessary permit That to be done by Others Beside that as Crimes are Unequal so also should be the Punishments Neither did they believe That Iupiter to be the Thunderer whose Image was worship'd in the Capitol and in other Places but intended it of the Maker and Governor of the Universe by what Name soever we shall call him Now in truth Iupiter does not Immediately cast the Lightning himself but leaves Nature to her Ordinary Method of Operation so that what he does not Immediately by himself he does yet Cause to be done For whatsoever Nature does God does There may be something gather'd out of all things that are either said or done that a Man may be the better for And he does a greater thing that Masters the Fear of Thunder than he that discovers the Reason of it We are Surrounded and Beset with Ill Accidents and since we cannot avoid the stroke of them let us prepare our selves honestly to bear them But How must that be By the Contempt of Death we do also Contemn all things in the way to it as Wounds Shipwracks the Fury of Wild Beasts or any other violence whatsoeever which at the worst can but part the Soul and the Body And we have this for our Comfort though our Lives are at the Mercy of Fortune she has yet no power over the Dead How many are there that call for Death in the Distress of their Hearts even for the very Fear of it And this Unadvised Desire of Death does in Common affect both the best and the worst of Men only with this Difference the Former Despise Life and the other are Weary of it 'T is a Nauseous thing to serve the Body and to be so many years a doing so many Beastly things over and over It is well if in our Lives we can please Others but whatever we do in our Deaths let us be sure to please our selves Death is a thing which no Care can avoid no Felicity can Tame it no Power Overcome it Other things are Disposed of by Chance and Fortune but Death treats all Men alike The Prosperous must Dye as well as the Unfortunate and methinks the very Despair of overcoming our Fate should inspire us with Courage to Encounter it For there is no Resolution so Obstinate as that which arises from Necessity It makes a Coward as bold as Iulius Caesar though upon different Principles We are all of us reserv'd for Death and as Nature brings forth One Generation she Calls back Another The whole Dispute is about the Time but no body doubts about the Thing it self EPIST. XXVIII A Contemplation of Heaven and Heavenly Things Of God and of the Soul THere is a great Difference betwixt Philosophy and other Arts and a greater yet betwixt That Philosophy it self which is of Divine Contemplation and That which has a regard to things here Below It is much Higher and Braver It takes a Larger Scope and being unsatisfy'd with what it sees it aspires to the Knowledge of something that is Greater and Fairer and which Nature has placed out of our Ken. The One only teaches us what is to be done upon Earth the Other reveales to us That which Actually is done in Heaven The One discusses our Errors and holds the Light to us by which we distinguish in the Ambiguities of Life the Other Surmounts that Darkness which we are wrapt up in and carries us up to the Fountain of Light it self And then it is that we are in a special manner to acknowledge the Infinite Grace and Bounty of the Nature of things when we see it not only where it is Publick
in the Vices of his Mind We must discharge all Impediments and make way for Philosophy as a Study Inconsistent with Common Business To all other things we must deny our selves openly and frankly When we are Sick we refuse Visits keep our selves Close and lay aside all Publick Cares and shall we not do as much when we Philosophize Business is the Drudgery of the World and only fit for Slaves but Contemplation is the Work of Wise Men. Not but that Solitude and Company may be allow'd to take their Turns the One Creates in us the Love of Mankind the Other That of our selves Solitude Relieves us when we are Sick of Company and Conversation when we are weary of being Alone So that the One Cures the Other There is no Man in fine so miserable as he that is at a Loss how to spend his Time He is Restless in his Thoughts unsteady in his Counsels Dissatisfy'd with the Present Sollicitous for the Future whereas he that prudently computes his Hours and his Business does not only fortifie himself against the Common Accidents of Life but Improves the most Rigorous Dispensations of Providence to his Comfort and stands Firm under all the Tryals of Humane Weakness CHAP. XXI The Contempt of Death makes all the Miseries of Life Easy to us IT is a hard Task to Master the Natural Desire of Life by a Philosophical Contempt of Death and to convince the World that there is no hurt in 't and crush an Opinion that was brought up with us from our Cradles What help What Encouragement What shall we say to Humane Frailty to carry it Fearless through the Fury of Flames and upon the Points of Swords What Rhetorick shall we use to bear down the Universal Consent of People to so dangerous an Error The Captious and Superfine Subtilties of the Schools will never do the Work They speak many sharp things but utterly unnecessary and void of Effect The Truth of it is there is but one Chain that holds all the World in Bondage and that 's the Love of Life It is not that I propound the making of Death so Indifferent to us as it is whether a Mans Hairs be Even or Odd For what with Self-Love and an Implanted Desire in every thing of Preserving it self and a long Acquaintance betwixt the Soul and Body Friends may be loth to part and Death may carry an Appearance of Evil though in truth it is it self no Evil at all Beside that we are to go to a strange Place in the Dark and under great Uncertainties of our Future State So that People Dye in Terror because they do not know whither they are to goe and they are apt to Phancy the worst of what they do not understand and these Thoughts indeed are enough to startle a Man of great Resolutionâ—… without a wonderful Support from Above And moreover our Natural Scruples and Infirmities are assisted by the Wits and Phancies of all Ages in their Infamous and Horrid Descriptions of another World Nay taking it for granted that there will be a Reward and Punishment they are yet more affraid of an Annihilation than of Hell it self BUT What is it we fear Oh! 'T is a terrible thing to Dye But is it not better Once to Suffer it than always to Fear it the Earth it self suffers both With me and Before me How many Islands are swallow'd up in the Sea How many Towns do we Sail over Nay How many Nations are wholly Lost either by Inundations or Earthquakes And Shall I be afraid of my little Body Why should I that am sure to Dye and that all other things are Mortal be fearful of coming to my last Gasp my Self It is the Fear of Death that makes us Base and troubles and destroys the Life that we would preserve That Aggravates all Circumstances and makes them Formidable We depend but upon a Flying Moment Dye we must but When VVhat 's that to us It is the Law of Nature the Tribute of Mortals and the Remedy of all Evils 'T is only the Disguise that affrights us as Children that are Terrify'd with a Visor Take away the Instruments of Death the Fire the Axe the Guards the Executioners the VVhips and the VVracks take away the Pomp I say and the Circumstances that accompany it and Death is no more than what my Slave yesterday Contemn'd The Pain is nothing to a Fit of the Stone if it be Tolerable it is not Great and if Intolerable it cannot last long There is nothing that Nature has made Necessary which is more Easie than Death VVe are longer a coming into the VVorld than going out of it and there is not any Minute of our Lives wherein we may not Reasonably Expect it Nay 't is but a Moments VVork the parting of the Soul and Body VVhat a shame is it then to stand in Fear of any thing so Long that is done so Soon NOR is it any great matter to overcome this Fear For we have Examples as well of the meanest of Men as of the greatest that have done it There was a Fellow to be expos'd upon the Theatre who in disdain thrust a Stick down his Own Throat and Chok'd himself And another on the same Occasion pretending to nod upon the Chariot as if he were asleep cast his head betwixt the Spokes of the Wheel and kept his Seat till his Neck was broken Caligula upon a dispute with Canius Iulus do not flatter your self sayes he for I have given Order to put you to Death And I thank your most Gracious Majesty for it sayes Canius giving to understand perhaps that under his Government Death was a Mercy For he knew that Caligula seldome fail'd of being as good as his Word in that Case He was at Play when the Officer carry'd him away to his Execution and beckoning to the Centurion Pray sayes he will you bear me Witness when I am dead and gone that I had the better of the Game He was a Man exceedingly belov'd and lamented And for a Farewell after he had Preach'd Moderation to his Friends You sayes he are here disputing about the Immortality of the Soul and I am now a going to learn the Truth of it If I discover any thing upon that Poynt you shall hear on 't Nay the most Timorous of Creatures when they see there 's no escaping they oppose themselves to all Dangers the Despair gives them Courage and the Necessity overcomes the Fear Socrates was Thirty dayes in Prison after his Sentence and had time enough to have Starv'd himself and so to have prevented the Poyson but he gave the World the Blessing of his Life as long as he could and took that Fatal Draught in the Meditation and Contempt of Death Marcellinus in a Deliberation upon Death call'd several of his Friends about him One was Fearful and Advis'd what he himself would have done in the Case Another gave the Counsel which he thought Marcellinus would like
best but a Friend of his that was a Stoick and a stout Man reason'd the Matter to him after this manner Marcellinus do not trouble your self as if it were such a mighty business that you have now in hand 't is Nothing to Live all your Servants do it nay your very Beasts too but to Dy Honestly and Resolutely that 's a great point Consider with your self there 's nothing pleasant in Life but what you have tasted already and that which is to Come is but the same over again And how many Men are there in the World that rather chuse to Dye than to suffer the Nauseous Tediousness of the Repetition Upon which discourse he fasted himself to Death It was the Custome of Pacuvius to Solemnize in a kind of Pagentry every day his own Funerals When he had Swill'd and Gourmandiz'd to a Luxurious and Beastly Excess he was carry'd away from Supper to Bed with this Song and Acclamation He has Liv'd he has Liv'd That which he did in Lewdness would become us to do in Sobriety and Prudence If it shall please God to add another Day to our Lives let us thankfully receive it but however it is our Happiest and Securest Course so to compose our selves to Night that we may have no Anxious Dependence upon to Morrow He that can say I have Liv'd this Day makes the next clear again DEATH is the worst that either the Severity of Laws or the Cruelty of Tyrants can impose upon us and it is the Utmost extent of the Dominion of Fortune He that is fortify'd against That must consequently be Superior to all other Difficulties that are but in the Way to 't Nay and in some Occasions it requires more Courage to Live than to Dye He that is not prepar'd for Death shall be perpetually troubled as well with vain Apprehensions as with real Dangers It is not Death it self that is Dreadful but the Fear of it that goes before it When the Mind is under a Consternation there is no State of Life that can please us for we do not so much endeavour to Avoid Mischiefs as to Run away from them and the greatest slaughter is upon a flying Enemy Had not a Man better breathe out his Last once for all than lye Agonizing in pains Consuming by Inches losing of his Blood by Drops and yet how many are there that are ready to betray their Country and their Friends and to prostitute their very Wives and Daughters to preserve a Miserable Carkass Madmen and Children have no apprehension of Death and it were a shame that our Reason should not do as much toward our security as their Folly But the great matter is to Dye Considerately and Chearfully upon the Foundation of Virtue For Life in it self is Irksome and only Eating and Drinking and Feeling in a Circle HOW many are there that betwixt the Apprehensions of Death and the Miseries of Life are at their Wits End what to do with themselves wherefore let us fortifie our selves against those Calamities from which the Prince is no more exempt than the Beggar Pompey the Great had his head taken off by a Boy and an Eunuch young Ptolomy and Photinus Caligula commanded the Tribune Daecimus to kill Lepidus and another Tribune Chaereas did as much for Caligula Never was any Man so Great but he was as Liable to suffer Mischief as he was Able to do it Has not a Thief or an Enemy your Thâ—…ote at his Mercy Nay and the meanest of Servants has the Power of Life and Death over his Master for whosoever contemns his own Life may be the Master of Another bodies You will find in Story that the Displeasure of Servants has been as Fatal as that of Tyrants And what matters it the Power of him we Fear when the thing we Fear is in every Bodies Power Suppose I fall into the hands of an Enemy and the Conqueror Condemns me to be led in Triumph It is but carrying me thither whither I should have gone without him that is to say toward Death whither I have been marching ever since I was born It is the Fear of our Last hour that disquiets all the Rest. By the Justice of all Constitutions Mankind is condemn'd to a Capital Punishment Now how despicable would that Man appear who being Sentenc'd to Death in Common with the whole World should only Petition that he might be the last Man brought to the Block Some Men are particularly afraid of Thunder and yet extremely careless of Other and of greater Dangers as if That were all they have to Fear Will not a Sword a Stone a Feaver do the work as well Suppose the Bolt should hit us it were yet braver to Dye with a Stroke than with the Bare Apprehension of it Beside the Vanity of Imagining that Heaven and Earth should be put into such a Disorder only for the Death of one Man A Good and a Brave Man is not mov'd with Lightening Tempests or Earthquakes but perhaps he would voluntarily plunge himself into that Gulph where otherwise he should only fall the cutting of a Corn or the swallowing of a Fly is enough to dispatch a Man and 't is no matter how great That is that brings me to my Death so long as Death it self is but Little Life is a small matter but 't is a matter of Importance to Contemn it Nature that Begot us expells us and a better and a safer Place is provided for us And what is Death but a Ceasing to be what we were before we are kindled and put out to Cease to Be and not to Begin to Be is the same thing We Dye daily and while we are growing our Life decreases every moment that passes takes away part of it All that 's past is Lost Nay we divide with Death the very Instant that we Live As the last Sand in the Glass does not Measure the Hour but finishes it so the Last moment that we Live does not make up Death but concludes There are some that Pray more earnestly for Death than we do for Life but it is better to receive it chearfully when it Comes than to hasten it before the time BUT What is it that we would live any longer for Not for our Pleasures for those we have tasted over and over even to Satiety so that there 's no point of Luxury that 's New to us But a Man would be loth to leave his Country and his Friends behind him That is to say he would have them go First for that 's the least part of his Care Well! But I would fain live to do more Good and discharge my self in the Offices of Life As if to Dye were not the Duty of every Man that Lives We are loth to Leave our possessions and no Man Swims well with his Luggage We are all of us equally Fearful of Death and Ignorant of Life But What can be more shameful than to be Sollicitous upon the Brink of
Business of This World should be Forgotten or my Memory traduc'd What 's all this to me I have done my Duty Undoubtedly That which puts an End to all Other Evils cannot be a very great Evil it Self and yet it is no Easie thing for Flesh and Blood to despise Life What if Death comes If it does not stay with us why should we Fear it One Hangs himself for a Mistress Another Leaps the Garret Window to avoid a Cholerick Master a Third runs away and Stabs himself rather than he will be brought back again We see the Force even of our Infirmities and shall we not then do greater things for the Love of Virtue To suffer Death is but the Law of Nature and it is a great Comfort that it can be done but Once In the very Convulsions of it we have This Consolation that our Pain is near an end and that it frees us from all the Miseries of Life What it is we Know not and it were Rash to Condemn what we do not Understand But this we Presume either that we shall pass out of This into a Better Life where we shall Live with Tranquillity and Splendor in Diviner Mansions or else return to our First Principles free from the Sense of any Inconvenience There 's Nothing Immortal nor Many things Lasting but by Diverse wayes every thing comes to an End What an Arrogance is it then when the World it self stands Condemn'd to a Dissolution that Man alone should expect to live for Ever It is Unjust not to allow unto the Giver the Power of disposing of his Own Bounty and a Folly only to value the Present Death is as much a Debt as Mony and Life is but a Journey towards it Some dispatch it Sooner others Later but we must All have the same Period The Thunder-Bolt is undoubtedly Just that draws even from those that are stuck with it a Veneration A Great Soul takes no Delight in Staying with the Body it considers whence it Came and Knows whither it is to Go. The day will come that shall separate this Mixture of Soul and Body of Divine and Humane My Body I will leave where I found it My Soul I will restore to Heaven which would have been There already but for the Clog that keeps it down And beside How many Men have been the worse for longer Living that might have dy'd with Reputation if they had been sooner taken away How many Disappointments of Hopeful Youths that have prov'd Dissolute Men Over and above the Ruines Shipwracks Torments Prisons that attend Long Life A Blessing so deceiptful that if a Child were in Condition to Judge of it and at Liberty to Refuse it he would not take it WHAT Providence has made Necessary Humane Prudence should comply with Chearfully As there is a Necessity of Death so that Necessity is Equal and Invincible No Man has cause of Complaint for that which Every Man must suffer as well as himself When we should dye we Will not and when we would not we must But our Fate is Fixt and Unavoidable is the Decree Why do we then stand Trembling when the Time comes Why do we not as well lament that we did not Live a Thousand years agoe as that we shall not be alive a Thou sand years hence 'T is but travelling the Great Road and to the Place whither we must All go at Last 'T is but submitting to the Law of Nature and to That Lot which the whole World has suffer'd that is gone Before us and so must They too that are to Come After us Nay how many Thousands when our Time comes will Expire in the same Moment with us He that will not Follow shall be drawn by Force And Is it not much better now to do That willingly which we shall otherwise be made to do in spite of our Hearts The Sons of Mortal Parents must expect a Mortal Posterity Death is the End of Great and Small We are Born Helpless and expos'd to the Injuries of all Creatures and of all Weathers The very Necessaries of Life are Deadly to us We meet with our Fate in our Dishes in our Cups and in the very Ayr we Breathe Nay our very Birth is Inauspicious for we come into the World Weeping and in the Middle of our Designs while we are meditating great Matters and stretching of our Thoughts to After Ages Death cuts us off and our longest Date is only the Revolution of a few years One Man Dyes at the Table Another goes away in his Sleep a Third in his Mistress's Armes a Fourth is Stabb'd Another is Stung with an Adder or Crush'd with the Fall of a Horse We have several wayes to our End but the End it self which is Death is still the same Whether we dye by a Sword by a Halter by a Potion or by a Disease 't is all but Death A Child dies in the Swadling Clouts and an Old Man at a Hundred they are Both Mortal alike though the One goes sooner than the Other All that lies betwixt the Cradle and the Grave is Uncertain If we compute the Troubles the Life even of a Child is Long if the Swiftness of the Passage That of an Old Man is short The whole is slippery and Deceiptful and only Death Certain and yet all People Complain of That which never Deceiv'd any Man Senecio rais'd himself from a small Beginning to a Vast Fortune being very well skill'd in the Faculties both of Getting and of Keeping and either of them was sufficient for the doing of his Business He was a Man Infinitely Careful both of his Patrimony and of his Body He gave me a Mornings Visit sayes our Author and after that Visit he went away and spent the rest of the day with a Friend of his that was desperately Sick At Night he was Merry at Supper and seiz'd immediately after with a Squincy which dispatch'd him in a few hours This Man that had Mony at Use in all Places and in the very Course and Height of his Prosperity was thus Cut off How Foolish a thing is it then for a Man to flatter himself with Long Hopes and to Pretend to Dispose of the Future Nay the very Present slips through our Fingers and there is not that moment which we can call our Own How vain a thing is it for us to enter upon Projects and to say to our selves Well! I 'll go Build Purchase Discharge such Offices Settle my Affairs and then Retire We are all of us Born to the same Casualties All equally Frail and Uncertain of To morrow At the very Altar where we Pray for Life we Learn to Dy by seeing the Sacrifices Kill'd before us But there 's no Need of a Wound or Searching the Heart for 't when the Noose of a Cord or Smothering of a Pillow will do the Work All things have their Seasons they Begin they Encrease and they Dye The Heavens and the Earth grow Old and are appointed
of Nature are the most precious Treasures What has any Man to desire more than to keep himself from Cold Hunger and Thirst It is not the Quantity but the Opinion that Governs in this Case That can never be Little which is Enough Nor does any Man accompt That to be Much which is too Little The Benefits of Fortune are so far Comfortable to us as we enjoy them without losing the Possession of our selves Let us Purge our Minds and follow Nature we shall otherwise be still either Fearing or Craving and Slaves to Accidents Not that there is any Pleasure in Poverty but it is a great Felicity for a Man to bring his Mind to be contented even in That State which Fortune it self cannot make worse Methinks our Quarrels with Ambition and Profitable Employments are somewhat like those we have with our Mistresses we do not Hate them but Wrangle with them In a word betwixt those things which are Sought and Coveted and yet Complain'd of and those things which we have Lost and pretend that we cannot live without our Misfortunes are purely Voluntary and we are Servants not so much by Necessity as by Choice No Man can be Happy that is not Free and Fearless And no Man can be so but he that by Philosophy has got the better of Fortune In what Place soever we are we shall find our selves beset with the Miseries of Humane Nature Some Without us that either Encompass us Deceive us or Force us Others Within us that eat up our very Hearts in the Middle of Solitude And it is not yet as we imagine that Fortune has Long Armes She meddles with no body that does not first lay hold upon Her We should keep a Distance therefore and withdraw into the Knowledge of Nature and of our Selves We Understand the Original of things the Order of the World the Circulation of the Seasons the Courses of the Stars and that the whole Frame of the Universe only the Earth excepted is but a Perpetual Motion We know the Causes of Day and Night of Light and of Darkness but it is at a distance Let us direct our Thoughts then to That Place where we shall see all nearer Hand And it is not This Hope neither that makes a Wise Man Resolute at the Point of Death because Death lies in his way to Heaven For the Soul of a Wise Man is there before-hand Nay if there were nothing after Death to be either Expected or Fear'd he would yet leave this World with as great a Mind though he were to pass into a State of Annihilation He that reckons every hour his Last a Day or an Age is all one to him Fate is doing our Work while we Sleep Death steales upon us Insensibly and the more Insensibly because it passes under the name of Life From Childhood we grow up without perceiving it to Old Age and this Encrease of our Life duely consider'd is a Diminution of it We take Death to be Before us but it is Behind us and has already swallow'd up all that is past Wherefore make use of the Present and trust nothing to the Morrow for Delay is just so much time lost We catch hold of Hopes and Flatteries of a little longer Life as Drowning Men do upon Thorns or Straws that either Hurt us or Deceive us You will ask perhaps what I do my Self that Preach at this Rate Truely I do like some ill Husbands that spend their Estates and yet keep their Accompts I run out but yet I can tell which way it goes And I have the Fate of Ill Husbands too another way for every Body Pitties me and no Body Helps me The Soul is never in the Right place so long as it fears to quit the Body Why should a Man trouble himself to extend Life which at Best is a kind of Punishment And at Longest amounts to very little more than Nothing He is Ungrateful that takes the Period of Pleasure for an Injury and he is Foolish that knows no Good but the Present Nay there are some Courses of Life which a Man ought to quit though with Life it self As the Trade of Killing Others in stead of Learning to Dye Himself Life it self is neither Good nor Evil but only a Place for Good and Evil. It is a kind of Trage-Comedy Let it be well Acted and no matter whether it be Long or Short We are apt to be missed by the Appearances of things and when they come to us recommended in Good Terms and by Great Example they will impose many times upon very Wise Men. The Mind is never Right but when it is at peace within it self and Independent upon any thing from Abroad The Soul is in Heaven even while it is in the Flesh if it be purg'd of Natural Corruptions and taken up with Divine Thoughts And whether any body sees us or takes notice of us it matters not Virtue will of it self break forth though never so much pains be taken to suppress it And it is all one whether it be known or no But After Ages however will do us Right when we are Dead and Insensible of the Veneration they allow us He that is wise will compute the Conditions of Humanity and contract the Subject both of his Joyes and Fears And it is time well spent so to Abate of the One that he may likewise Diminish the Other By this Practice he will come to understand how short how uncertain and how safe many of those things are which we are wont to Fear When I see a Splendid House or a glittering Train I look upon it as I do upon Courts which are only the Schools of Avarice and Ambition and they are at best but a Pompe which is more for Shew than Possession Beside that Great Goods are seldome Long-liv'd and That is the Fairest Felicity which is of the shortest Growth EPIST. XIX Of True Courage FOrtitude is properly the Contempt of all Hazards according to Reason though it be commonly and promiscuously used also for a Contempt of all Hazards even Without or Against Rea-Reason Which is rather a Daring and a Brutal Fierceness than an Honorable Courage A Brave Man fears Nothing more than the Weakness of being affected with Popular Glory His Eyes are not Dazled either with Gold or Steel he tramples upon all the Terrors and Glories of Fortune he looks upon himself as a Citizen and Soldier of the World and in despite of all Accidents and Oppositions he maintains his Station He does not only Suffer but Court the most Perilous Occasions of Virtue and those Adventures which are most Terrible to Others for he values himself upon Experiment and is more Ambitious of being reputed Good than Happy Mucius Lost his hand with more Honor than he could have Preserv'd it He was a greater Conqueror Without it than he could have been With it For with the very Stump of it he overcame two Kings Tarquin and Porsenna Rutilia follow'd Cotta into
greater for his so being WHEN Domitius was besieg'd in Corfinium and the Place brought to great extremity he pressed his servant so earnestly to Poyson him that at last he was prevail'd upon to give him a Potion which it seems was an innocent Opiate and Domitius out-liv'd it Caesar took the Town and gave Domitius his Life but it was his Servant that gave it him first THERE was another Town besieg'd and when it was upon the last pinch two Servants made their escape and went over to the Enemy Upon the Romans entring the Town and in the heat of the Soldiers fury these two Fellows ran directly home took their Mistress out of her house and drave her before them telling every body how barbarously she had us'd them formerly and that they would now have their Revenge when they had her without the Gates they kept her close till the danger was over by which means they gave their Mistress her Life and she gave them their Freedom This was not the Action of a Servile Mind to do so Glorious a thing under an appearance of so great a Villany for if they had not pass'd for Deserters and Parricides they could not have gain'd their End WITH one Instance more and that a very brave one I shall conclude this Chapter IN the Civil Wars of Rome a Party coming to search for a Person of Quality that was proscrib'd a Servant put on his Masters Cloths and deliver'd himself up to the Soldiers as the Master of the House he was taken into Custody and put to death without discovering the Mistake What could be more glorious than for a Servant to dye for his Master in that Age when there were not many Servants that would not betray their Masters So generous a tenderness in a Publick Cruelty So invincible a Faith in a General Corruption What could be more glorious I say than so exalted a Virtue as rather to chuse death for the Reward of his Fidelity than the greatest advantages he might otherwise have had for the violation of it CHAP. IV. It is the Intention not the Matter that makes the Benefit THE Good will of the Benefactor is the Fountain of all Benefits nay it is the Benefit it self or at least the Stamp that makes it valuable and current Some there are I know that take the Matter for the Benefit and taxe the Obligation by weight and measure When any thing is given them they presently cast it up What may such a House be worth Such an Office Such an Estate As if that were the Benefit which is only the Sign and Mark of it For the Obligation rests in the Mind not in the Matter And all those Advantages which we see handle or hold in actual possession by the Courtesie of another are but several Modes or Wayes of Explaining and putting the Good Will in Execution There needs no great subtilty to prove that both Benefits and Injuries receive their value from the Intention when even Brutes themselves are able to decide this Question Tread upon a Dog by chance or put him to pain upon the dressing of a Wound the one he passes by as an Accident and the other in his fashion he acknowledges as a Kindness but offer to strike at him though you do him no hurt at all he flies yet in the face of you even for the Mischief that you barely meant him IT is further to be observ'd that all Benefits are good and like the distributions of Providence made up of Wisdom and Bounty whereas the Gift it self is neither good nor bad but may indifferently be apply'd either to the one or to the other The Benefit is Immortal the Gift Perishable For the Benefit it self continues when we have no longer either the Use or the Matter of it He that is dead was alive He that has lost his Eyes did see and whatsoever is done cannot be rendred undone My Friend for Instance is taken by Pyrates I redeem him and after that he falls into other Pyrates hands his Obligation to me is the same still as if he had preserv'd his Freedom And so if I save a Man from any one Misfortune and he falls into another if I give him a Sum of Money which is afterward taken away by Thieves it comes to the same Case Fortune may deprive us of the Matter of a Benefit but the Benefit it self remains inviolable If the Benefit resided in the Matter that which is good for one Man would be so for another whereas many times the very same thing given to several Persons works contrary effects even to the difference of Life or Death and that which is one bodies Cure proves another bodies Poison Beside that the Timeing of it alters the value and a Crust of Bread upon a pinch is a greater Present than an Imperial Crown What is more Familiar than in a Battel to shoot at an Enemy and kill a Friend Or in stead of a Friend to save an Enemy But yet this disappointment in the Event does not at all operate upon the Intention What if a Man cures me of a Wen with a stroke that was design'd to cut off my head Or with a Malicious blow upon my Stomach breaks an Imposthume or What if he save my Life with a Draught that was prepar'd to Poyson me The Providence of the Issue does not at all discharge the Obliquity of the Intent And the same Reason holds good even in Religion it self It is not the Incense or the Offering that is acceptable to God but the Purity and Devotion of the Worshipper Neither is the bare Will without Action sufficient that is where we have the Means of Acting for in that Case it signifies as little to wish well without well doing as to do good without willing it There must be Effect as well as Intention to make me owe a Benefit but to will against it does wholly discharge it In fine the Conscience alone is the Judge both of Benefits and Injuries IT does not follow now because the Benefit rests in the Good Will that therefore the Good Will should be alwayes a Benefit for if it be not accompany'd with Government and Discretion those Offices which we call Benefits are but the Works of Passion or of Chance and many times the greatest of all Injuries One Man does me good by Mistake another Ignorantly a third upon force but none of these Cases do I take to be an Obligation for they were neither directed to me nor was there any kindness of Intention We do not thank the Seas for the Advantages we receive by Navigation or the Rivers for supplying us with Fish and flowing of our Grounds we do not thank the Trees either for their Fruits or Shades or the Winds for a fair Gale And What 's the difference betwixt a reasonable Creature that does not know and an Inanimate that cannot A good Horse saves one Man's Life a good Sute of Armes Another's and a Man perhaps
stand the Test. One Man is Forsaken for Fear or Profit Another is Betray'd 'T is a Negotiation not a Friendship that has an Eye to Advantages only through the Corruption of Times that which was formerly a Friendship is now become a Design upon a Booty Alter your Testament and you lose your Friend But my End of Friendship is to have One dearer to me than my Self and for the saving of whose Life I would chearfully lay down my Own taking this along with me that only Wise Men can be Friends Others are but Companions and that there 's a great Difference also betwixt Love and Friendship The One may sometime do us Hurt the Other alwayes does us Good for One Friend is Helpful to Another in all Cases as well in Prosperity as Affliction We receive Comfort even at a Distance from those we Love but then it is Light and Faint whereas Presence and Conversation touches us to the Quick especially if we find the Man we Love to be such a person as we wish IT is Usual with Princes to Reproach the Living by Commending the Dead and to Praise those People for speaking Truth from whom there is no longer any Danger of Hearing it This was Augustus his Case He was forc'd to banish his daughter Iulia for her Common and Prostituted Impudence and still upon Fresh Informations he was often heard to say If Agrippa or Mecaenas had been now alive this would never have been But yet where the Fault lay may be a Question for perchance it was his Own that had rather complain for the Want of them than seek for Others as Good The Roman Losses by War and by Fire Augustus could quickly Supply and Repair but for the Loss of Two Friends he lamented his whole Life after Xerxes a Vain and a Foolish Prince when he made War upon Greece One told him 'T would never come to a Battel Another That he would find only empty Cities and Countryes for they would not so much as stand the very Fame of his Coming Others sooth'd him in the Opinion of his Prodigious Numbers and they all concurr'd to puff him up to his destruction Only Demaratus advis'd him not to depend too much upon his Numbers for he would rather find them a Burthen to him than an advantage And that 300 Men in the Streights of the Mountains would be sufficient to give a Check to his whole Army and that such an Accident would Undoubtedly turn his vast Numbers to his Confusion It fell out afterward as he foretold and he had Thanks for his Fidelity A Miserable Prince that among so many Thousand Subjects had but One Servant to tell him the Truth CHAP. XIX He that would be happy must take an Accompt of his Time IN the distribution of Humane Life we find that a great part of it passes away in Evil-doing A Greater yet in doing just Nothing at all and effectually the whole in doing things beside our business Some hours we bestow upon Ceremony and Servile Attendances Some upon our Pleasures and the Remainder runs at Waste What a deal of Time is it that we spend in Hopes and Fears Love and Revenge in Balls Treats making of Interests Suing for Offices Solliciting of Causes and Slavish Flatteries The shortness of Life I know is the Common Complaint both of Fools and Philosophers as if the Time we have were not sufficient for our duties But 't is with our Lives as with our Estates a good Husband makes a Little go a great way whereas let the Revenue of a Prince fall into the Hands of a Prodigal 't is gone in a moment So that the Time allotted us if it were well employ'd were abundantly enough to answer all the Ends and Purposes of Mankind But we squander it away in Avarice Drink Sleep Luxury Ambition fawning Addresses Envy Rambling Voyages Impertinent Studies Change of Counsels and the like and when our Portion is spent we find the want of it though we gave no heed to it in the Passage In so much that we have rather Made our Life Short than found it so You shall have some People perpetually playing with their Fingers Whistling Humming and Talking to themselves and Others consume their dayes in the Composing Hearing or Reciting of Songs and Lampoons How many precious Mornings do we spend in Consultation with Barbers Taylors and Tire-Women Patching and Painting betwixt the Comb and the Glass A Counsel must be call'd upon every Hair we cut and one Curle amiss is as much as a Bodies Life is worth The truth is we are more sollicitous about our Dress than our Manners and about the Order of our Perriwigs than that of the Government At this rate let us but discount out of a Life of a Hundred years that Time which has been spent upon Popular Negotiations frivolous Amours Domestick Brawls Sauntrings up and down to no purpose Diseases that we have brought upon our selves and this large extent of Life will not amount perhaps to the Minority of another Man It is a Long Being but perchance a Short Life And what 's the Reason of all this we Live as if we should never Dye and without any thought of Humane Frailty when yet the very Moment we bestow upon this Man or Thing may peradventure be our last But the greatest Loss of Time is Delay and Expectation which depends upon the Future We let go the Present which we have in our own Power we look Forward to that which depends upon Fortune and so quit a Certainty for an Uncertainty We should do by Time as we do by a Torrent make Use of it while we may have it for it will not last alwayes THE Calamities of Humane Nature may be Divided into the Fear of Death and the Miseries and Errors of Life And it is the great Work of Mankind to Master the One and to Rectifie the Other And so to Live as neither to make Life Irksome to us nor Death Terrible It should be our Care before we are Old to Live Well and when we are so to Die well that we may expect our End without Sadness For it is the Duty of Life to prepare our selves for Death and there is not an hour we Live that does not Mind us of our Mortality Time Runs on and all things have their Fate though it lies in the Dark The Period is Certain to Nature but What am I the better for it if it be not so to me We propound Travels Armes Adventures without ever considering that Death lies in the way Our Term is set and none of us Know how Near it is but we are all of us Agreed that the Decree is Unchangable Why should we wonder to have That befall us to Day which might have happen'd to us any Minute since we were Born Let us therefore Live as if every Moment were to be our Last and set our Accompts Right every day that passes over our Heads We are not Ready for Death
Security If Death be at Any time to be Fear'd it is Allwayes to be Fear'd but the way never to Fear it is to be often thinking of it To what end is it to put off for a little while that which we cannot avoid He that Dyes does but follow him that is Dead Why are we then so long afraid of that which is so little a while a doing How miserable are those People that spend their Lives in the Dismal Apprehensions of Death For they are beset on all hands and every Minute in Dread of a surprize We must therefore look about us as if we were in an Enemies Country and Consider our Last hour not as the Punishment but as the Law of Nature The Fear of it is a Continual Palpitation of the Heart and he that overcomes That Terror shall never be troubled with any Other Life is a Navigation we are perpetually wallowing and dashing one against another Sometimes we suffer Shipwrack but we are Alwayes in Danger and in Expectation of it And what is it when it comes but either the End of a Journey or a Passage It is as great a Folly to Fear Death as to Fear Old Age. Nay as to Fear Life it self for he that would not Dye ought not to Live since Death is the Condition of Life Beside that it is a Madness to Fear a thing that is Certain for where there is no Doubt there is no place for Fear WE are still chiding of Fate and even those that exact the most Rigorous Justice betwixt Man and Man are yet themselves Unjust to Providence Why was such a One taken away in the Prime of his Years As if it were the Number of years that makes Death easie to us and not the Temper of the Mind He that would Live a little Longer to Day would be as loth to Dye a Hundred year Hence But which is more Reasonable for Us to obey Nature or for Nature to obey us Go we must at Last and no Matter how soon 'T is the Work of Fate to make us Live Long but 't is the Business of Virtue to make a short Life sufficient Life is to be measur'd by Action not by Time a Man may Dye Old at Thirty and Young at Fourscore Nay the One Lives after Death and the Other Perish'd before he Dy'd I look upon Age among the Effects of Chance How Long I shall Live is in the Power of Others but it is in my Own how Well The largest space of Time is to live till a Man is Wise. He that Dyes of Old Age does no more than go to Bed when he is weary Death is the Test of Life and it is that only which discovers what we are and distinguishes betwixt Ostentation and Virtue A Man may Dispute Cite Great Authorities Talk Learnedly Huff it out and yet be Rotten at Heart But let us Soberly attend our Business and since it is Uncertain When or Where we shall Dye let us look for Death in all Places and at all Times We can never Study that Point too much which we can never come to Experiment whether we know it or no. It is a Blessed thing to dispatch the Business of Life before we Dye and then to Expect Death in the Possession of a Happy Life He 's the Great Man that is willing to Dye when his Life is pleasant to him An Honest Life is not a Greater Good than an Honest Death How many Brave young Men by an Instinct of Nature are carry'd on to Great Actions and even to the Contempt of all Hazards 'T IS Childish to go out of the World Groning and Wailing as we came into 't Our Bodies must be thrown away as the Secondine that wraps up the Infant the other being only the Covering of the Soul We shall then discover the Secrets of Nature the Darkness shall be Discuss'd and our Souls Irradiated with Light and Glory A Glory without a Shadow a Glory that shall surround us and from whence we shall look down and see Day and Night beneath us If we cannot lift up our Eyes toward the Lamp of Heaven without dazling What shall we do when we come to behold the Divine Light in its Illustrious Original That Death which we so much dread and decline is not a Determination but the Intermission of a Life which will return again All those things that are the very Cause of Life are the way to Death We Fear it as we do Fame but it is a great Folly to Fear Words Some People are so impatient of Life that they are still wishing for Death but he that wishes to dye does not desire it Let us rather wait Gods Pleasure and Pray for Health and Life If we have a Mind to Live Why do we wish to dye If we have a Mind to dye we may do it without talking of it Men are a great deal more Resolute in the Article of Death it self than they are about the Circumstances of it For it gives a Man Courage to Consider that his Fate is Inevitable the slow Approches of death are the most Troublesome to us as we see many a Gladiator who upon his wounds will direct his Adversaries weapon to his very Heart though but Timorous perhaps in the Combat There are some that have not the Heart either to Live or Dy and that 's a Sad Case But this we are sure of The Fear of Death is a Continual Slavery as the Contempt of it is Certain Liberty CHAP. XXII Consolations against Death from the Providence and the Necessity of it THIS Life is only a Prelude to Eternity where we are to expect Another Original and Another State of Things We have no Prospect of Heaven Here but at a Distance Let us therefore expect our Last and Decretory Hour with Courage The Last I say to our Bodies but not to our Minds Our Luggage we must leave behind us and return as Naked Out of the World as we came Into 't The day which we fear as our Last is but the Birth-day of our Eternity and it is the only way to 't So that what we Fear as a Rock proves to be but a Port In many Cases to be Desir'd Never to be Refus'd and he that Dyes Young has only made a Quick Voyage on 't Some are Becalm'd Others cut it away before the Wind and we Live just as we Saile First we run our Childhood out of sight our Youth next and then our Middle Age After That follows Old Age and brings us to the Common End of Mankind It is a great Providence that we have more wayes Out of the World than we have Into 't Our Security stands upon a Point the very Article of Death It draws a great many Blessings into a very Narrow Compass And although the Fruit of it does not seem to extend to the Defunct yet the Difficulty of it is more than ballanc'd by the Contemplation of the Future Nay suppose that all the
their Periods That which we call Death is but a Pause or Suspension and in truth a Progress to Life only our Thoughts look downward upon the Body and not Forward upon things to Come All things under the Sun are Mortal Cities Empires and the time will come when it shall be a Question Where they Were and perchance whether ever they had a Being or no. Some will be destroy'd by War Others by Luxury Fire Inundations Earthquakes Why should it trouble me then to Dye as a Fore-Runner of an Universal Dissolution A Great Mind Submits it self to God and suffers willingly what the Law of the Universe will otherwise bring to pass upon Necessity That good Old Man Bassus though with one Foot in the Grave How Chearful a Mind does he bear He lives in the View of Death and Contemplates his Own End with less Concern of Thought or Countenance than he would do Another Mans. It is a hard Lesson and we are a long time a Learning of it to receive our Death without Trouble especially in the Case of Bassus In Other Deaths there 's a Mixture of Hope A Disease may be Cur'd a Fire Quench'd a falling House either Prop'd or Avoided the Sea may Swallow a Man and throw him Up again A Pardon may Interpose betwixt the Axe and the Body but in the Case of Old Age there 's no Place for either Hope or Intercession Let us Live in our Bodies therefore as if we were only to Lodge in them This Night and to leave them To morrow It is the frequent Thought of Death that must fortifie us against the Necessity of it He that has Arm'd himself against Poverty may Perhaps come to Live in Plenty A Man may strengthen himself against Pain and yet live in a State of Health Against the Loss of Friends and never Lose any But he that fortifies himself against the Fear of Death shall most certainly have Occasion to employ that Virtue It is the Care of a Wise and a Good Man to look to his Manners and Actions and rather how well he Lives than how Long For to Dye Sooner or Later is not the Business but to Dye Well or Ill For Death brings us to Immortality CHAP. XXIII Against Immoderate Sorrow for the Death of Friends NEXT to the Encounter of Death in our Own Bodies the most sensible Calamity to an Honest Man is the Death of a Friend and we are not in truth without some Generous Instances of those that have preferr'd a Friends Life before their Own and yet this Affliction which by Nature is so Grievous to us is by Virtue and Providence made Familiar and Easie TO Lament the Death of a Friend is both Natural and Just A Sigh or a Tear I would allow to his Memory but no Profuse or Obstinate Sorrow Clamorous and Publick Lamentations are not so much the Effects of Grief as of Vain-Glory He that is sadder in Company than Alone shews rather the Ambition of his Sorrow than the Piety of it Nay and in the Violence of his Passion there fall out Twenty things that set him a Laughing At the long Run Time Cures All but it were better done by Moderation and Wisdome Some People do as good as set a watch upon themselves as if they were afraid that their Grief would make an Escape The Ostentation of Grief is many times more than the Grief it self When any Body is within Hearing what Grones and Outcryes when they are Alone and Private all is Hush and Quiet So soon as any body comes in they are at it again and down they throw themselves upon the Bed fall to wringing of their hands and wishing of themselves dead which they might better have done by themselves but their sorrow goes off with the Company We forsake Nature and run over to the Practises of the People that never were the Authors of any thing that is Good If Destiny were to be wrought upon by Tears I would allow you to spend your dayes and nights in Sadness and Mourning Tearing of your Hair and Beating of your Breasts but if Fate be Inexorable and Death will Keep what he has Taken Grief is to no Purpose And yet I would not Advise Insensibility and Hardness It were Inhumanity and not Virtue not to be mov'd at the separation of Familiar Friends and Relations Now in such Cases we cannot Command our selves we cannot forbear weeping and we Ought not to Forbear But let us not pass the Bounds of Affection and run into Imitation within These Limits it is some ease to the Mind A Wise Man gives Way to Tears in Some Cases and Cannot Avoid them in Others When one is struck with the Surprize of Ill Newes as the Death of a Friend or the like or upon the Last Embrace of an Acquaintance under the Hand of an Executioner he lies under a Natural Necessity of Weeping and Trembling In Another Case we may Indulge our Sorrows as upon the Memory of a Dead Friends Conversation or Kindness one may let fall Tears of Generosity and Joy We Favour the One and we are Overcome with the Other and This is Well but we are not upon any Termes to Force them They may flow of their Own accord without derogating from the Dignity of a Wise Man who at the same time both preserves his Gravity and Obeys Nature Nay there is a Certain Decorum even in Weeping for Excess of Sorrow is as Foolish as Profuse Laughter Why do we not as well Cry when our Trees that we took Pleasure in shed their Leaves as at the Loss of Other Satisfactions When the next Season repairs them either with the same again or Others in their Places We may accuse Fate but we cannot alter it for it is Hard and Inexorable and not to be Remov'd either with Reproches or Tears They may carry us to the Dead but never bring Them back again to Us. If Reason does not put an End to our Sorrows Fortune never will One is pinch'd with Poverty Another Sollicited with Ambition and Feares the very Wealth that he Coveted One is troubled for the Loss of Children Another for the Want of them So that we shall sooner want Tears than Matter for them let us therefore spare That for which we have so much Occasion I do confess that in the very Parting of Friends there is something of an Uneasyness and Trouble but it is rather Voluntary than Natural and it is Custome more than Sense that affects us We do rather Impose a Sorrow upon our selves than Submit to it as People Cry when they have Company and when no body looks on all 's well again To Mourn without Measure is Folly and not to Mourn at all is Insensibility The best Temper is betwixt Piety and Reason to be sensible but neither Transported nor Cast down He that can put a stop to his Tears and Pleasures when he will is safe It is an Equal Infelicity to be either too Soft or too
Hard. We are Overcome by the One and we are put to struggle with the Other There is a Certain Intemperance in That Sorrow that passes the Rules of Modesty and yet great Piety is in many Cases a Dispensation to good Manners The Loss of a Son or of a Friend cuts a Man to the Heart and there 's no opposing the first Violence of this Passion but when a Man comes once to deliver himself wholly up to Lamentations he is to understand that though some Tears Deserve Compassion Others are yet Ridiculous A Grief that 's Fresh finds Pity and Comfort but when 't is Inveterate 't is Laugh'd at for 't is either Counterfeit or Foolish Beside that to Weep excessively for the Dead is an Affront to the Living The most Justifyable Cause of Mourning is to see Good Men come to Ill Ends and Virtue Opprest by the Iniquity of Fortune But in This Case too they either suffer Resolutely and yield us Delight in their Courage and Example Or Meanly and so give us the less trouble for the Loss He that dies Chearfully Dryes up my Tears and he that dies Whiningly does not Deserve them I would bear the Death of Friends and Children with the same Constancy that I would expect my Own and no more Lament the One than Fear the Other He that bethinks himself how often Friends have been Parted will find more time lost among the Living than upon the Dead and the most Desperate Mourners are they that car'd least for their Friends when they were Living for they think to Redeem their Credits for want of Kindness to the Living by Extravagant Ravings after the Dead Some I know will have Grief to be only the Perverse Delight of a Restless Mind and Sorrows and Pleasures to be near Akin and there are I 'm Confident that find Joy even in their Tears But which is more Barbarous to be Insensible of Grief for the Death of a Friend or to Fish for Pleasure in Grief when a Son perhaps is burning or a Friend expiring To forget ones Friend to bury the Memory with the Body to Lament out of Measure is all Inhumane He that is Gone either would not have his Friend Tormented or does not know that he is so If he does not Feel it 't is Superfluous If he does 't is Unacceptable to him If Reason cannot prevail Reputation may for Immoderate Mourning lessens a Mans Character 'T is a shameful thing for a Wise Man to make the Wearyness of Grieving the Remedy of it In Time the most Stubborn Grief will leave us if in Prudence we do not leave That First BUT Do I Grieve for my Friends sake or for my Own Why should I afflict my self for the Loss of him that is either Happy or not at all in Being In the One Case 't is Envy and in the Other 't is Madness We are apt to say What would I give to see him again and to enjoy his Conversation I was never sad in his Company My Heart leap'd when ever I met him I want him where ever I go All that 's to be said is The Greater the Loss the Greater is the Virtue to Overcome it If Grieving will do no Good 't is an Idle thing to Grieve And if That which has befallen One Man remains to All it is as Unjust to Complain The whole World is upon the March toward the same Point Why do we not Cry for our selves that are to follow as well as for him that 's gone First Why do we not as well lament before hand for That which we know will be and cannot possibly but be He is not Gone but Sent before As there are many things that he has Lost so there are many things that he does not Fear as Anger Jealousie Envy c. Is he not more Happy in Desiring Nothing than Miserable in what he has lost We do not mourn for the Absent why then for the Dead who are effectually no Other We have Lost one Blessing But we have many Left And shall not all these Satisfactions Support us against One Sorrow THE Comfort of Having a Friend may be taken away but not That of having had one As there is a sharpness in some Fruits and a Bitterness in some Wines that pleases us so there is a mixture in the Remembrance of Friends where the Loss of their Company is sweeten'd again by the Contemplation of their Virtues In some Respects I have Lost what I had and in Others I retein still what I have Lost. 'T is an Ill Construction of Providence to reflect only upon my Friends being taken away without any Regard to the Benefit of his being once given me Let us therefore make the Best of our Friends while we have them for how long we shall keep them is Uncertain I have lost a Hopeful Son but How many Fathers have been deceiv'd in their Expectations And how many Noble Families have been destroy'd by Luxury and Riot He that Grieves for the loss of a Son What if he had lost a Friend And yet he that has lost a Friend has more Cause of Joy that he once had him than of Grief that he is taken away Shall a Man bury his Friendship with his Friend We are Ungrateful for that which is Past in hope of what 's to Come as if that which is to come would not quickly be Past too That which is past we are sure of We may receive Satisfaction 't is true both from the Future and what 's already Past the One by Expectation and the Other by Memory only the one may possibly not come to pass and it is Impossible to make the Other not to have Been BUT there 's no applying of Consolation to Fresh and Bleeding Sorrows the very Discourse Irritates the Grief and Inflames it 'T is like an Unseasonable Medicine in a Disease when the First Violence is Over it will be more Tractable and endure the Handling Those People whose Minds are weaken'd by long Felicity may be allow'd to Grone and Complain but it is otherwise with those that have led their dayes in Misfortunes A Long Course of Adversity has this Good in 't that though it vexes a Body a great while it comes to harden us at last As a Raw Solider shrinks at every Wound and dreads the Surgeon more than an Enemy whereas a Veteran sees his own Body cut and lam'd with as little Concern as if it were Anothers With the same Resolution should we stand the Shock and Cure of all Misfortunes we are never the better for our Experience if we have not yet learn'd to be Miserable And there 's no thought of Curing us by the Diversion of Sports and Entertainments we are apt to fall into Relapses wherefore we had better Overcome our Sorrow than Delude it CHAP. XXIV Consolations against Banishment and Bodily Pains IT is a Master-Piece to draw Good out of Evil and by the Help of Virtue to emprove
to forbear and when that would not do forbad him his Roofe After this Asimius Pollio gave him entertainment and he was so well belov'd in the City that every Mans House was open to him Those things that he had written in the honor of Augustus he recited and burnt and publickly profess'd himself Caesar's Enemy Augustus for all this never fell out with any Man that receiv'd him only once he told Pollio that he had taken a Snake into his Bosome And as Pollio was about to excuse himself No sayes Caesar interrupting him make your best of him and offering to cast him off at that very moment if Caesar pleas'd Do you think sayes Caesar that I will ever contribute to the parting of you that made you Friends for Pollio was angry with him before and only entertain'd him now because Caesar had discarded him The Moderation of Antigonus was remarkable some of his Soldiers werè railing at him one night where there was but a Hanging betwixt them Antigonus over-heard them and putting it gently aside Soldiers sayes he stand a little farther off for fear the King should hear you And we are to consider not only violent examples but moderate where there wanted neither Cause of displeasure nor power of Revenge As in the case of Antigonus who the same night hearing his Soldiers Cursing him for bringing them into so foul a way he went to them and without telling them who he was help'd them out of it Now sayes he you may be allow'd to Curse him that brought you into the Mire provided you Bless him that took you out of it IT was a notable Story that of Vedius Pallio upon his Inviting of Augustus to Supper One of his Boyes happen'd to break a Glass and his Master in a Rage commanded him to be thrown into a Pond to feed his Lampreys This Action of his might be taken for Luxury though in truth it was Cruelty The Boy was seiz'd but brake loose and threw himself at Augustus his feet only desiring that he might not dye that Death Caesar in abhorrence of the Barbarity presently order'd all the rest of the Glasses to be broken the Boy to be releas'd and the Pond to be fill'd up that there might be no farther Occasion for an Inhumanity of that Nature This was an Authority well employ'd Shall the breaking of a Glass cost a Man his Life Nothing but a predominant fear could ever have master'd this Cholerick and Sanguinary disposition This Man deserv'd to dye a Thousand Deaths either for eating Humane Flesh at Second hand in his Lampreys or for keeping of his Fish to be so fed IT is written of Praexaspes a Favorite of Cambyses's who was much given to Wine that he took the Freedome to tell his Prince of his hard Drinking and to lay before him the Scandal and the Inconvenience of his Excesses and how that in those Distempers he had not the Command of himself Now sayes Cambyses to shew you your mistake you shall see me drink deeper then ever I did and yet keep the use of my Eyes and of my Hands as well as if I were sober Upon this he drank to a higher pitch than ordinary and order'd Praexaspes his Son to go out and stand on the other side of the Threshold with his left Arm over his head And now sayes he if I have a good aim have at the heart of him He shot and upon cutting up the Young Man they found indeed that the Arrow had struck him through the middle of the heart What do you think now says Cambyses Is my hand steady or no Apollo himself sayes Praexaspes could not have out-done it It may be a Question now which was the greater Impiety the Murther it self or the Commendation of it for him to take the heart of his Son while it was yet Reaking and Panting under the Wound for an Occasion of Flattery Why was there not another Experiment made upon the Father to try if Cambyses could not yet have mended his shot This was a most unmanly Violation of Hospitality but the Approbation of the Fact was still worse than the Crime it self This Example of Praexaspes proves sufficiently that a Man may repress his Anger for he return'd not one ill word no not so much as a Complaint but he paid dear for his good Counsel He had been wiser perhaps if he had let the King alone in his Cups for he had better have drunk Wine than Blood 'T is a dangerous Office to give Good Advice to Intemperate Princes ANOTHER Instance of Anger suppress'd we have in Harpagus who was commanded to expose Cyrus upon a Mountain but the Child was preserv'd which when Astyages came afterward to understand he invited Harpagus to a Dish of Meat and when he had eaten his fill he told him it was a piece of his Son and Ask'd him how he lik'd the seasoning Whatever pleases your Majesty sayes Harpagus must please me and he made no more words on 't It is most Certain that we might govern our Anger if we would for the same thing that Galls us at home gives us no offence at all abroad and what 's the Reason of it but that we are Patient in the one place and Froward in the other IT was a strong provocation that which was given to Philip of Macedon the Father of Alexander The Athenians sent their Embassadors to him and they were receiv'd with this Complement Tell me Gentlemen sayes Philip What is there that I can do to oblige the Athenians Demochares one of the Embassadors told him That they would take it for a great Obligation if he would be pleas'd to hang himsef This Insolence gave an Indignation to the By-standers but Philip bad them not to meddle with him but e'en to let that foul-mouth'd Fellow go as he came And for you the rest of the Embassadors sayes he Pray'e tell the Athenians that it is worse to speak such things than to hear and forgive them This wonderful Patience under Contumelies was a great means of Philips Security CHAP. IV. It is a short madness and a deformed Vice HE was much in the right whoever it was that first call'd Anger a short Madness for they have both of them the same Symptomes And there is so wonderful a resemblance betwixt the Transports of Choler and those of Phrensy that 't is a hard matter to know the One from the Other A Bold Fierce and Threatning Countenance as pale as Ashes and in the same Moment as red as Blood a Glaring Eye a Wrinkled Brow Violent Motions the Hands Restless and perpetually in Action Wringing and Menacing Snapping of the Joynts Stamping with the Feet the Hair Staring Trembling Lips a Forc'd and Squeaking Voice the Speech False and Broken Deep and Frequent Sighs and Ghostly Looks the Veines swell the Heart pants the Knees knock with a hundred dismal Accidents that are Common to both Distempers Neither is Anger a bare Resemblance
only the want of Success has Kept us from being Criminals This very thing methinks should make us more favourable to Delinquents and to forgive not only our selves but the Gods too of whom we seem to have harder thoughts in taking that to be a Particular Evil directed to us that befalls us only by the Common Law of Mortality In fine no Man living can Absolve himself to his Conscience though to the World perhaps he may 'T is true that we are also Condemn'd to Pains and Diseases and to Death too which is no more than the quitting of a Soul house But Why should any Man complain of Bondage that wheresoever he looks has his way open to Liberty That Precipice that Sea that River that Well there 's Freedome in the bottom of it It hangs upon every Crooked Bow and not only a Mans Throte or his Heart but every vein in his Body opens a Passage to 't TO Conclude where my Proper Virtue fails me I will have recourse to Examples and say to my self Am I greater than Philip or Augustus who both of them put up greater Reproches Many have pardon'd their Enemies and shall not I forgive a neglect a little freedome of the Tongue Nay the Patience but of a Second Thought does the business for though the first shock be violent take it in parts and 't is subdu'd And to wind up all in one word The great Lesson of Mandkin as well in this as in all other Cases is to do as he would be done by CHAP. XII Of Cruelty THERE is so near an Affinity betwixt Anger and Cruelty that many People confound them as if Cruelty were only the Execution of Anger in the Payment of a Revenge which holds in some Cases but not in others There are a sort of Men that take delight in the spilling of Humane blood and in the Death of those that never did them any Injury nor were ever so much as suspected for it As Apollodorus Phalaris Sinis Procrustes and others that burnt Men alive whom we cannot so properly call Angry as Brutal For Anger does necessarily presuppose an Injury either Done or Conceiv'd or Fear'd but the other takes Pleasure in Tormenting without so much as pretending any Provocation to 't and kills merely for killing sake The Original of this Cruelty perhaps was Anger which by frequent Exercise and Custome has lost all sence of Humanity and Mercy and they that are thus affected are so far from the Countenance and Appearance of Men in Anger that they will Laugh Rejoyce and Entertain themselves with the most horrid Spectacles as Racks Iails Gibbets several sorts of Chains and Punishments Dilaceration of Members Stigmatizings and Wild Beasts with other exquisite Inventions of Torture And yet at last the Cruelty it self is more Horrid and Odious than the Means by which it works It is a Bestial madness to Love Mischief beside that 't is Womanish to Rage and Tear a Generous Beast will scorn to do 't when he has any thing at his Mercy It is a Vice for Wolves and Tigers and no less Abominable to the World than Dangerous to it self THE Romans had their Morning and their Meridian Spectacles In the Former they had their Combats of Men with Wild Beasts and in the Latter the Men fought One with Another I went sayes our Author the other day to the Meridian Spectacles in hope of Meeting somewhat of Mirth and Diversion to sweeten the humors of those that had been entertain'd with Blood in the Morning But it prov'd otherwise for compar'd with this Inhumanity the former was a Mercy The whole business was only Murther upon Murther the Combatants fought Naked and every Blow was a Wound They do not contend for Victory but for Death and he that kills one Man is to be kill'd by another By Wounds they are forc'd upon Wounds which they Take and Give upon their bare Breasts Burn that Rogue they cry What Is he afraid of his Flesh Do but see how sneakingly that Rascal dies Look to your selves my Masters and consider on 't Who knows but this may come to be your own Case Wicked Examples seldome fail of Coming home at last to the Authors To destroy a Single Man may be Dangerous but to Murther whole Nations is only a more Glorious Wickedness Private Avarice and Rigour are Condemn'd But Oppression when it comes to be Authoriz'd by an Act of State and to be publickly Commanded though particularly Forbidden becomes a Point of Dignity and Honor. What a shame is it for Men to Enterworry one another when yet the fiercest even of Beasts are at peace with those of their own kind This Brutal Fury puts Philosophy it self to a stand The Drunkard the Glutton the Covetous may be reduc'd Nay and the mischief of it is that no Vice keeps it self within its proper Bounds Luxury runs into Avarice and when the Reverence of Virtue is extinguish'd Men will stick at nothing that carryes profit along with it Mans Blood is shed in Wantonness his Death is a Spectacle for Entertainment and his Grones are Musick When Alexander deliver'd up Lysimachus to a Lyon how glad would he have been to have had Nails and Teeth to have devour'd him himself It would have too much derogated he thought from the dignity of his Wrath to have appointed a Man for the Execution of his Friend Private Cruelties 't is true cannot do much Mischief but in Princes they are a War against Mankind C. CAESAR would commonly for Exercise and Pleasure put Senators and Roman Knights to the Torture and Whip several of them like Slaves or put them to Death with the most accurate Torments merely for the satisfaction of his Cruelty That Caesar that wish'd the People of Rome had but one Neck that he might cut it off at one Blow It was the Employment the Study and the Joy of his Life He would not so much as give the Expiring leave to Grone but caus'd their Mouthes to be stopt with Spunges or for want of them with Rags of their own Cloths that they might not breathe out so much as their last Agonies at Liberty Or perhaps least the tormented should speak something which the Tormentor had no mind to hear Nay he was so Impatient of Delay that he would frequently rise from Supper to have Men kill'd by Torch-light as if his Life and Death had depended upon their dispatch before the next morning To say Nothing how many Fathers were put to death by him in the same night with their Sons which was a kind of Mercy in the prevention of their Mourning And was not Sylla's Cruelty prodigious too which was only stopt for want of Enemies He caused 7000 Citizens of Rome to be slaughter'd at once and some of the Senators being startled at their Cryes that were heard into the Senate-house Let us mind our business sayes Sylla This is nothing but a few Mutineers that I have Order'd to be sent out
are brought up only to Carve others to Season and all to serve the Turns of Pomp and Luxury Is it not a Barbarous Custome to make it almost Capital for a Servant only to Cough Sneeze Sigh or but wag his Lips while he is in waiting and to keep him the whole Night Mute and Fasting Yet so it comes to pass that they that dare not speak Before their Masters will not forbear talking Of them and those on the other side that were allow'd a modest Freedom of Speech in their Masters Entertainments were most obstinately silent upon the Torture rather than they would betray them But we live as if a Servant were not made of the same Materials with his Master or to Breath the same Ayr or to Live and Dye under the Same Conditions It is worthy of Observation that the most Imperious Masters over their own Servants are at the same time the most Abject Slaves to the Servants of other Masters I will not distinguish a Servant by his Office but by his Manners The One is the work of Fortune the Other of Virtue But we look only to his Quality and not to his Merit Why should not a Brave Action rather Dignify the Condition of a Servant than the Condition of a Servant Lessen a Brave Action I would not value a Man for his Cloaths or Degree any more than I would do a Horse for his Trappings What if he be a Servant shew me any Man that is not so to his Lusts his Avarice his Ambition his Palate to his Quean nay to other Mens Servants and we are all of us Servants to Fear Insolent we are many of us at Home Servile and Despised Abroad and none are more Liable to be trampled upon than those that have gotten a habit of Giving Affronts by Suffering them What matters it how many Masters we have When 't is but One Slavery And whosoever Contemns That is perfectly Free let his Masters be never so Many That Man is only Free not whom Fortune has a Little Power over but over whom she has none at all Which State of Liberty is an Inestimable Good when we desire Nothing that is either Superfluous or Vitious They are Asses that are made for Burthen and not the Nobler sort of Horses In the Civil Wars betwixt Caesar and Pompey the Question was not who should be Slaves or Free but who should be Master Ambition is the same thing in Private that it is in Publick and the Duties are Effectually the same betwixt the Master of a Kingdom and the Master of a Family As I would treat some Servants kindly Because they are Worthy and Others to make them so so on the Other side I would have a Servant to Reverence his Master and rather to Love him than Fear him Some there are that think this too little for a Master though it is all that we pay even to God himself The Body of a servant may be bought and sold but his Mind is Free EPIST. XVIII We are Iuster to Men than to God Of Life and Death of Good and Evil. IT is without Dispute that the Loss of a Friend is one of the greatest Tryals of Humane Frailty and no Man is so much exalted above the sense of that Calamity as not to be affected with it And yet if a Man bears it Bravely they cry he has no Sense of Piety or Good Nature in him if he sink under it they call him Effeminate so that he lies both wayes under a Reproach But What 's the Ground of your Trouble I beseech you but that he might have Liv'd Longer in respect of his years and in effect that he ought to have done so in regard of his Usefulness to the World I cannot but wonder to see that a Person so Just and so Temperate in all his Dealings with Men and in Business should so exceedingly forget himself in This Point But you have in Excuse of this Error the Failings of the whole VVorld with you for Company For even those that are the most scrupulously Consciencious toward Men are yet Unthankful and Injurious to Providence It is not the Number of Dayes that makes a Life Long but the Full Employment of them upon the main End and Purpose of Life which is the Perfecting of the Mind in making a Man the Absolute Master of Himself Ireckon the Matter of Age among External things the main point is to Live and Die with Honor. Every Man that Lives is upon the way and must go through with his Journy without stopping till he comes at the End And wheresoever it ends if it ends well it is a Perfect Life There is an Invincible Fate that attends all Mortals and one Generation is condemn'd to tread upon the Heels of another Take away from Life the Power of Death and 't is a slavery As Caligula was passing upon the way an Old man that was a Prisoner and with a Beard down to his Girdle made it his request to Caesar that he might be put to death Why sayes Caesar to him are you not dead already So that you see Some Desire it as well as others Fear it And why not When it is one of the Duties of Life to Dye And it is one of the Comforts of it too For the Living are under the Power of Fortune but she has no Dominion at all over the Dead How can Life be Pleasant to any Man that is not prepar'd to part with it Or what Loss can be easier to us than that which can never be Miss'd or Desir'd again I was brought by a Defluxion into a hopeless Consumption and I had it many times in my Thought to Deliver my self from a Miserable Life by a Violent Death But the Tenderness I had for an Aged and Indulgent Father held my hand for thought I to my self it will be very hard for my Father to be without me though I could most willingly part with my self In the Case of a Particular Disease a Physitian may propound a Remedy but the onely Remedy for all Diseases is the Contempt of Death Though I know too that it is the business of a Long Life to Learn That Lesson Oh! The Happiness of distinguishing Good from Evil in the Works of Providence But in stead of raising our Thoughts to the Contemplation of Divine Matters and enquiring into the Original the State and the Appointed Issue of Created Nature we are digging of the Earth and serving of our Avarice Neglecting all the good things that are so frankly offer'd us How great a Folly and Madness is it for Men that are Dying and in the hands of Death already to extend their Hopes and to carry their Ambition and Desires to the Grave Unsatisfy'd For whosoever is tainted with those Hydroptick Appetites can never have enough either of Mony or Power It is a Remarkable thing that among those that place their Happiness in Sense they are the most miserable that seem to be happiest The Riches
Banishment she stay'd and she return'd with him too and soon after she Lost him without so much as shedding a Tear a Great Instance of her Courage in his Banishment and of her Prudence in his Death This sayes Epicurus is the Last and the Blessed'st day of my Life when he was ready to Expire in an extreme torment of the Stone It is never said of the 300 Fabii that they were Overcome but that they were Slain Nor of Regulus that he was Vanquish'd by the Carthaginians but that he was Taken The Spartans prohibited all Exercises where the Victory was declar'd by the Voice and Submission of him that was worsted When Phaeton begg'd of Phoebus the Government of the Chariot of the Sun for one day the Poet makes him so far from being Discouraged by his Fathers telling him of the Danger of the Undertaking and how he himself had much adoe to keep his Seat for Fear when he look'd down from the Meridian that it prov'd a Spur to his Importunity That 's the thing sayes Phaeton that I would be at to stand Firm in That difficulty where Phoebus himself Trembles Security is the Caution of Narrow Minds But as Fire tries Gold so does Difficulty and Hazard try Virtuous Men. Not but that he may be as Valiant that Watches upon the Tower as he that fights upon his Knees only the One has had the good Fortune of an Occasion for the Proof of his Resolution As some Creatures are Cruel Others Crafty and some Timorous so Man is endu'd with a Glorious and an Excellent Spirit that prompts him not so much to regard a Safe Life as an Honest. Providence has made him the Master of this Lower World and he reckons it his Duty to Sacrifice his Own Particular to the Advantage of the Whole And yet there is a vast Difference even in the same Action done by a Brave Person and by a Stupid as the Death of Cato was Honorable but that of Brutus was Shameful Nor is it Death it self that we recommend for Glorious but it is a glorious thing to Dye as we Ought Neither is it Poverty Banishment or Pain that we commend but the Man that behaves himself Bravely under those Afflictions How were the Gladiators Contemn'd that call'd for Quarter And those on the other side Favour'd that Despis'd it Many a Man saves his Life by not fearing to Lose it and Many a Man Loses his Life for being over-sollicitous to save it We are many times afraid of Dying by One thing and we come to Dye by Another As for Example we are Threatned by an Enemy and we Dye by a Pleurisie The Fear of Death enlarges all other things that we Fear To Bear it with Constancy we should Compute that whether our Lives be long or short it comes all to a Point Some Hours we lose What if they were Dayes Months Years What matters it if I never Arrive at that which I must certainly Part with when I have it Life is but one Point of Flying Time and that which is to come is no more Mine than that which is Past. And we have this for our Comfort too that whosoever now Fears Death will some time or other come to Wish it If Death be Troublesome or Terrible the Fault is in us and not in Death it self It is as great a Madness for a Man to Fear that which he is not to Feel as that which he is not to Suffer The Difference lies in the Manner of Dying and not in the Issue of Death it Self 'T is a more Inglorious Death to be Smother'd with Perfumes than to be torn to pieces with Pincers Provided my Mind be not Sick I shall not much heed my Body I am Prepar'd for my last Hour without tormenting my self when it will come It is betwixt the Stoicks and other Philosophers as betwixt Men and Women They are Both Equally Necessary for Society only the one is Born for Government and the other for Subjection Other Sects deal with their Disciples as Plausible Physitians do with their Patients they Flatter and Humor them whereas the Stoicks go a Bolder way to work and consider rather their Profit than their Pleasure EPIST. XX. 'T is never too Late to Learn The Advantages of a Private Life and the Slavery of a Publick The Ends of Punishment LEt no Man presume to advise Others that has not first given Good Counsel to himself And he may Then pretend to help his Neighbor It is in short as hard a matter to Give Good Counsel as to Take it Let it however be agreed betwixt the Two Parties that the One designs to Confer a Benefit and the Other to Receive it Some People Scorn to be Taught Others are Asham'd of it as they would be of going to School when they are Old But it is never too late to Learn what it is alwayes Necessary to Know And it is no Shame to Learn so long as we are Ignorant that is to say so long as we Live When any thing is Amiss in our Bodies or Estates we have Recourse presently to the Physitian or the Lawyer for Help And why not to the Philosopher in the Disorders of our Mind No Man Lives but he that applyes himself to Wisdom for he takes into his own Life the Supplement of all Past Ages 'T is a Fair Step toward Happiness and Virtue to Delight in the Conversation of Good and of Wise Men And where That cannot be had the next point is to keep no Company at all Solitude affords Business enough and the Entertainment is Comfortable and Easie. Whereas Publick Offices are Vexatious and Restless There 's a great Difference betwixt a Life of Leisure and of Lazyness When People will Express their Envy of a Man in a Happy Condition they 'll say He lives at his Ease When in truth the Man is Dead Alive There is a Long Life and there is a Long Death The Former when we enjoy the Benefits of a Right Mind and the Other when the Senses are Extinguish'd and the Body Dead before-hand He that makes me the Master of my Own Time and places me in a State of Freedom layes a great Obligation upon me As a Merchant that has a Considerable Fortune Aboard is more sensible of the Blessing of a Fair Wind and a Safe Passage than he that has only Ballast or some Course Commodity in the Vessel So That Man that employes his Privacy upon Thoughts Divine and Precious is more sensible of the Comfort of that Freedom than he that bends his Meditations an Ill way For he considers all the Benefits of his Exemption from Common Duties he enjoyes himself with Infinite Delight and makes his Gratitude Answerable to his Obligations He is the best of Subjects and the Happiest of Men and he lives to Nature and to himself Most Men are to Themselves the worst Company they can keep If they be Good Quiet and Temperate they are as good Alone as in Company But if
which we can either Give or Receive are of very little Conducement to a Happy Life Those things which the Common People gape after are Transitory and Vain Whereas Happiness is Permanent Nor is it to be Estimated by Number Measure or Parts For it is Full and Perfect I do not speak as if I my self were arriv'd at that Blessed State of Repose But it is something yet to be on the Mending hand It is with me as with a Man that 's Creeping out of a Disease he Feels yet some Grudgings of it he is every Foot Examining of his Pulse and suspects every Touch or Heat to be a Relick of his Feaver Just at That rate am I jealous of my self The best Remedy that I know in this Case is to go on with Confidence and not to be missed by the Errors of Other People It is with our Manners as with our Healths 't is a Degree of Virtue the Abatement of Vice as it is a Degree of Health the Abatement of a Fit Some Place their Happiness in Wealth Some in the Liberty of the Body and Others in the Pleasures of the Sense and Palate But What are Mettals Tasts Sounds or Colours to the Mind of a Reasonable Creature He that sets his Heart upon Riches the very Fear of Poverty will be grievous to him He that 's Ambitious shall be gall'd with Envy at any Man that gets before him For in that Case he that is not First is Last I do not speak against Riches neither For if they hurt a Man 't is his Own Folly They may be indeed the Cause of Mischief as they are a Temptation to those that do it In stead of Courage they may Inspire us with Arrogance and in stead of Greatness of Mind with Insolence which is in truth but the Counterfeit of Magnanimity What is it to be a Prisoner and in Chains It is no more than that Condition to which many Princes have been Reduc'd and out of which Many Men have been Advanc'd to the Authority of Princes 'T is not to say I have no Master In time you may have one Might not Hecuba Croesus and the Mother of Darius have said as much And where 's the Happyness of Luxury either when a Man divides his Life betwixt the Kitchin and the Stews betwixt an Anxious Conscience and a Nauseous Stomach Caligula who was born to shew the World what mischief might be done by a Concurrence of Great Wickedness and a Great Fortune Spent near 10 000 l. Sterling upon a Supper The Works and Inventions of it are Prodigious not only in the Counterfeiting of Nature but even in Surpassing it The Romans had their Brooks even in their Parlors and found their Dinners under their Tables The Mullet was reckon'd stale unless it dy'd in the Hand of the Guest And they had their Glasses to put them into that they might the better observe all the Changes and Motions of them in the Last Agony betwixt Life and Death So that they fed their Eyes before their Bodies Look how it Reddens sayes one there 's no Vermilion like it Take notice of these Veins and that same grey brightness upon the Head of it And now he is at 's Last Gasp See how Pale he turns and all of a Colour These people would not have given themselves half this trouble with a Dying Friend Nay they would leave a Father or a Brother at his Last Hour to entertain themselves with the Barbarous Spectacle of an expiring Fish And that which enhances the Esteem of every thing is the Price of it Insomuch that Water it self which ought to be Gratuitous is expos'd to Sale in their Conservatories of Ice and Snow Nay we are troubled that we cannot buy Breath Light and that we have the Ayr it self Gratis As if our Condition were Evil because Nature has left something to us in Common But Luxury contrives wayes to set a Price upon the most Necessary and Communicable Benefits in Nature Even those Benefits which are Free to Birds and Beasts as well as to Men and serve Indifferently for the Use of the most Sluggish Creatures But How comes it that Fountain Water is not Cold enough to Serve us unless it be bound up into Ice So long as the Stomach is Sound Nature discharges her Functions without Trouble But when the Blood comes to be enflam'd with Excess of Wine or Meats Simple Water is not Cold Enough to Allay that Heat and we are forc'd to make use of Remedies which Remedies themselves are Vices We heap Suppers upon Dinners and Dinners upon Suppers without Intermission Good God! How easie is it to quench a Sound and an Honest Thirst But when the Palate is grown Callous we Taste nothing and that which we take for Thirst is only the Rage of a Feaver Hippocrates deliver'd it as an Aphorisme that Women were never Ball'd nor Gouty but in one Singular Case Women have not alter'd their Natures since but they have Chang'd the Course of their Lives for by taking the Liberties of Men they partake as well of their Diseases as of their Wickedness They sit up as much Drink as much nay in their very Appetites they are Masculine too they have lost the Advantages of their Sex by their Vices Our Ancestors when they were Free liv'd either in Caves or in Arbours But Slavery came in with â—…ildings and with Marble I would have him that comes into my House take more Notice of the Master then of the Furniture The Golden Age was before Architecture Arts came in with Luxury and we do not hear of any Philosopher that was either a Locksmith or a Painter Who was the Wiser Man think you he that Invented a Saw or the Other who upon seeing a Boy drink Water out of the Hollow of his Hand Brake his Pitcher with this Check to himself What a Fool am I to trouble my self with Superfluities Carving is one Mans Trade Cooking is Anothers Only he is more miserable that teaches it for Pleasure than he that learns it for Necessity It was Luxury not Philosophy that Invented Fish-Pools as well as Palaces Where in Case of Foul weather at Sea they might have Fishes to supply their Gluttony in Harbor We do not only Pamper our Lusts but Provoke them As if we were to Learn the very Art of Voluptuousness What was it but Avarice that Originally brake the Union of Society and Prov'd the cause of Poverty even to those that were the most Wealthy Every Man Possess'd All till the World came to Appropriate Possessions to themselves In the First Age Nature was both a Law and a Guide and the Best Govern'd Which was but according to Nature too The largest and the strongest Bull leads the Heard the Goodliest Elephant and among Men too in the Blessed times of Innocence the Best was Uppermost They chose Governors for their Manners who neither Acted any Violence nor suffer'd any They Protected the Weak against the Mighty and Perswaded
and Terrour It is only War and to Burn and Ravage as if the Earth were not large enough for the Scene of our Destruction Whereas we might live and dye at Ease if we had a mind to 't and draw out our Lives in Security Why do we Press our own Dangers then and Provoke our Fates What do we look for Only Death which is to be Found every where It will find us in our Beds in our Chambers But wheresoever it finds us let it find us Innocent What a Madness is it to pursue Mischieves to fall foul upon those we do not know to be Angry without a Cause to Over-run whatsoever is in our way and like Beasts to kill what we have no Quarrel to Nay worse than Beasts We run great Hazards only to bring us to Greater We force our way to Gold without any regard either to God or Man But in all this without any Cause of Complaint we abuse the Benefits of God and turn them all into Mischiefs VVe dig for Gold we Leave the Light and Abandon the Courses of a better Nature VVe Descend where we find a new Position of Things Hideous Caves Hollow and Hanging Rocks Horrid Rivers a Deep and Perpetual Darkness and not without the Apprehensions even of Hell it self How Little now and how Inconsiderable are those things that Men venture for with the Price of their Lives But to pass from those Hazards that we may avoid to others which we cannot As in the Case of Earthquakes In what Condition can any Man be Safe when the VVorld it self is shaken and the only thing that passes for fixed and Unmoveable in the Universe Trembles and Deceivâ—… us VVhither shall we fly for security if wheresoever we are the Danger be still under our Feet Upon the Cracking of a House every Man takes himself to his heels and leaves all to save himself But VVhat Retreat is there where that which should Support us Fails us when the Foundation not only of Cities but even of the VVorld it self Opens and VVavers VVhat Help or what Comfort where Fear it self can never carry us off An Enemy may be Kept at a Distance with a VVall A Castle may put a stop to an Army a Port may Protect us from the Fury of a Tempest Fire it self does not follow him that runs away from 't A Vault may Defend us against Thunder and we may quit the Place in a Pestilence There is some Remedy in all these Evils Or however no Man ever knew a Whole Nation destroy'd with Lightning A Plague may Unpeople a Town but it will not Carry it away There is no Evil of such an Extent so Inevitable so Greedy and so Publickly Calamitous as an Earthquake For it does not only Devour Houses Families or Single Towns but Ruines Whole Countreys and Nations Either Overturning or Swallowing them up without so much as leaving any Footstep or Mark of what they were Some People have a greater Horror for this Death than for any Other To be taken away alive out of the Number of the Living as if all Mortals by what Means soever were not to come to the same End Nature has Eminently this Justice that when we are all dead we are all Alike And 't is not a Pin Matter whether I be Crush'd to Pieces by one Stone or by a whole Mountain whether I perish by the Fall of a House or under the Burthen of the whole Earth Whether I be swallow'd up alone or with a Thousand more for Company What does it signifie to me the Noise and the Discourse that is made about my Death when Death is every where and in all Cases the same We should therefore Arme our selves against that blow that can neither be Avoided nor Foreseen And it is not the Forswearing of those Places that we find Infested with Earthquakes that will do our Business for there is no Place that can be warranted against them What if the Earth be not yet mov'd It is still Movable for the whole Body of it lies under the Same Law and expos'd to Danger only some part at One time and some at Another As it is in great Cities where all the houses are subject to Ruin though they do not all Fall Together So in the Body of the Earth now This Part Failes and then That Tyre was Formerly Subject to Earthquakes In Asia Twelve Cities were swallow'd up in a Night Achaia and Macedonia have had their Turns and now Campagnia The Fate goes Round and Strikes at last where it has a great while passed by It falls out oftner 't is true in some Places than in Others But no Place is totally Free and Exempt And it is not only Men but Cities Coasts nay the Shores and the very Sea it self that suffer under the Dominion of Fate And yet we are so vain as to Promise our selves some sort of Assurance in the Goods of Fortune Never considering that the very Ground we stand upon is Unstable And it is not the Frailty of this or that Place but the Quality of every Spot of it For not one Inch of it is so compacted as not to admit many causes of its Resolution And though the Bulk of the Earth remain Entire the Parts of it may yet be broken There is not any thing which can promise to it self a Lasting quiet And it is no small Comfort to us the Certainty of our Fate For it is a Folly to Fear where there is no Remedy He that troubles himself sooner than he needs grieves more also than is Necessary For the same weakness that makes him Anticipate his Misery makes him Enlarge it too The Wise fortify themselves by Reason and Fools by Despair That saying which was apply'd to a Conquer'd Party under Fire and Sword might have been spoken to all Mankind That Man is in some Sense out of Danger that is out of Hope He that would Fear nothing should Consider that if he fears Any thing he must fear Every thing Our very Meat and Drink Sleeping and Waking without Measure are Hurtful to us Our Bodies are Nice and Weak and a Small Matter does their Work That Man has too high an Opinion of himself that is only afraid of Thunder and of Earth-quakes If he were Conscious of his own Infirmities he would as much fear the being Choak'd with his own Phlegme What do we see in our Selves that Heaven and Earth should joyn in a Distemper to Procure our Dissolution when the Ripping of a Hang-nail is sufficient to Dispatch us We are Afraid of Inundations from the Sea when a Glass of Wine if it goes the wrong way is Enough to Suffocate us It is a great Comfort in Death the very Mortality it self We creep under Ground for fear of Thunder we dread the sudden Concussions of the Earth and the Rages of the Sea when yet we carry Death in our Own Veines and it is at hand in all Places and at all Times There is nothing so