poyson'd the gates were strictlier kept and no man was any more permitted to enter into the house whereat Demetrius much perplext and troubled and having no other way to relieve his friend went to the Magistrate and accused himselfe for one of those who broke into Anubis Temple Upon which confession he was presently carryed to the prison and brought to Antiphilus and with much petition obtained of the Keeper that he might be chained next to him in the same â—ives Here then was a rare expression of friendship to dispise his owne miseries and though he were himselfe sicke yet he tooke care that the other might sleep quietly and undisturbed Thus lessen'd they their misfortunes by communion Till not long after an Accident happen'd which did almost put a period to their sufferings For one of the prisoners having I know not from whence got a file and made most of the other prisoners of the conspiracy filed asunder a chain to which they were fasten'd by a row of shackles and let them all loose They having easily slaine their Keepers being but few issued forth in Tumults and presently dispersed themselves severall wayes as they safeliest might though many of them were afterwards taken Demetrius and Antiphilus remain'd and stay'd Syrus ready to follow the rest Next morning the Prefect of Aegypt knowing what had happen'd sent pursuers after them and sending for those who were with Demetrius releast them of their shackles much praysing them that they onely refused to make an escape They were not at all pleased with their manner of dismission Demetrius therefore proclam'd both himselfe friend much injured if being taken for malefactors they should be thought worthy of pitty or praise or releasement because they did not breake prison To conclude therefore they compelld the Judge more exactly to reexamini the business who finding them innocent with great praises of both and admiration of Demetrius acquitted them And as a recompence for the punishment and shackles which they unjustly suffer'd he gave them large gifts ten thousand drachmes to Antiphilus and twice so many to Demetrius Antiphilus is now in Aegypt But Demetrius bestowing his twenty thousand Drachmes on his friend went into India to the Brachmans saying onely thus much to Antiphilus at his departure that he hop't he was excusable if he then left him and that he needed not mony as long as he was of a composition to be content with a little nor that hee any farther wanted a friend whose affaires were so well accomplish't These were Graecian Friends Toxaris And here had you not in the beginning noted us for high talkers I could repeat to you the many excellent Orations spoken by Demetrius at his Arraignment where he made no defence for himselfe but spent teares and supplications for Antiphilus and tooke the whole offence upon himself till Syrus urged by scourging acquitted both These few examples of many famous and constant friends as they first offer'd themselves to my remembrance have I reported to you 'T is now time that finishing my Narration you should begin yours whom it will concerne to produce Scythians not of inferiour but of much more eminent example if you intend your right hand shall not be cut off Be constant to your selfe therefore For 't will show most ridiculous in you having so like a Sophister extoll'd Orestes and Pylades to show your selfe a bad Oratour for your Country Toxaris You do well Mnesippus to invite me to speake and not to show your selfe afraid that vanquisht by my narrations your tongue shall be cut out I begin then not like you with Trappings of speech a thing unusuall to Scythians since the realities of my stories shall be more eloquent then the Historian Nor are you to expect from me stories like yours who have magnified a man for wedding a deformed woman without a portion Another for giving two Talents in Marriage with his friends daughter a third for casting himselfe voluntarily into shackles knowing he was shortly after to be releast All which are slight passages and have nothing high or manly in them I will recount to you slaughters warres and deaths undergone for Friends whereby you shall perceive how childish your undertakings are compared to ours Yet it is not without cause that you admire your own small adventures since living in a firme establisht peace you want those Heroick opportunities by which friendships are to be tryed As you cannot judge in a calme of the Abilities of a Pilot which are best discovered in a storme Whereas we have continuall warres and do either invade others or are invaded our selves or joyning battle do fight for pastures or prey Hence stand we most in need of good friends whose Armes become unconquer'd and impregnable from the strictnesse of our friendships First then let mee tell you that the Ceremonies by which wee initiate friends are not like yours perform'd in Bowles and Potations or with our equals or neighbours but when we see a man valiant and able for great Actions wee all presently affect him and the same course which you take to win your wives do we take to beget friends We court them much and omit no application which may defeat us of their friendship or render us despised And when choice is made of a friend articles are next entred into and a solemne oath taken that they shall mutually live and if need be die for one another Next having open'd a veine in our hand we receive the blood in a cup in which wee dippe the points of our swords then both drinke nor can any thing afterwards divide us These leagues at most consist of three wee account of him who is a friend to more as we do of common adulterate wives and never thinke his a firme lasting friendship which is divided among many I will begin then with the late Deeds of Dandamis This Dandamis seeing his friend Amizocas taken prisoner in a skirmish with the Sarmatians But first I will take my oath as we agreed in the beginning By this Ayre and Sagar I will report no untruths Mnesippus of our Scythian friendships Mnesipp I might very well spare your oath Toxaris if you sweare by none of the Gods Toxaris Why Do not you take the Winde and Sagar for Gods or know you not that to Mortalls nothing is greater then life and death wee sweare by those two as often as we sweare by the Winde the cause of Life and a Sagar the cause of Death Mnesipp If this be a good reason you may have many such Gods as your Sagar as a Dart Speare and Poyson and a Rope for death is a various and numerous Deity and is by endlesse wayes attained Toxaris See what a caviller and wrangler you are thus to trouble and divert my discourse who all the while you spoke kept silence Mnesipp You deservedly chide mee Toxaris Hereafter therefore I will not interrupt you Proceed therefore in your story you shall have mee as silent as if
Midas Hovv much gold do I misse Sardanapalus And I hovv much pleasure Menippus So this I like vveep on I le joyne vvith you and sing the old sentence Know thy selfe A fit dittie to be mingled vvith your mournings A Dialogue between Pluto and Mercury Pluto DO you know old Eucrates the usurer who has not one child but five thousand Gapers after his estate Mercury The Sicyonian you mean what of him Pluto Let him live Mercury ninety yeers more to the ninety he hath lived allready and longer if it be possible But fetch hither his flatterers young Charinus and Damon and the rest Mercury That would shew very preposterous Pluto Rather very just For why do they pray so earnestly for his death but that they may enjoy his estate But that which is yet most base is that at that very time when they wish his Death they grossely observe and Court him And when he is sick all men know what they desire yet they vow sacrifices for his recovery In a word they have severall wayes of flattery Wherefore let him be immortall and let them die first and loose their gapings Mercury Well being such knaves their punishment shall be ridiculous But methinks he lures them on pretty handsomly and feeds them with hopes allwaies dissembling as if he were about to die when he is much lustier then his Flatterers They in the mean time dividing the inheritance among them are fed vvith the Image of a Phantastick happinesse Pluto Let him therefore like Iolaus cast off his old age and grovv young again But let them in the midd'st of their hopes be snatch avvay as it vvere in a golden dream and like evill men die evill deaths Mercury Enough Pluto I vvill send them to you one after another I think they are seaven Pluto Call forth their souls Mercury and let him send them every one hither before him but let him of an old man become a youth A Dialogue between Terpsion and Pluto Terpsion IS this Justice Pluto that I should die who am but thirty yeers old and that Thucritus who is almost an hundred should live Pluto Great Justice Terpsion For though he lives yet he wishes none of his friends dead whereas you all the time you lived laid nets for his estate Terpsion Was 't not fit being an old man and no longer able to use his riches he should die and leave them to those that are younger Pluto You make new lawes Terpsion that when a man can no longer use his riches with pleasure he ought to die Fate and Nature decree otherwise Terpsion I accuse them therefore of disorder For the businesse ought to run in this succession The most aged to die first then those who are next in years And not to be inverted or he to live who is decrepit hath but three teeth left scarce sees is supported by four servants distills at nose hath eyes filled with rheume hath lost all sense of pleasure and is laught at by boyes as a living sepulchre and the most beautifull and lustiest young men to die This is to make rivers run backwards At least 't were fit we knew the date of old mens lives that they might not cousen us as they do But now the old Proverb is brought to passe the Cart leads the Oxe Pluto These things are wiselier carried Terpsion then you are aware of For what ailes you that you yawne after other mens fortunes and enslave your selves to childlesse old men you do therefore but make your selves ridiculous and they bury you first which to many is metter of great pleasure for just as you pray'd for their deaths so much delight is it to others to have you die first For you have introduced a new Art to make love to old women and old men especially to those who have no children neglecting those that have whilest many of those who are courted by you well acquainted with your aimes if they chance to have children pretend to hate them that they may have observers At length those who had for a long time wasted themselves in gifts are shut out of the will and the sonne as there is good reason enjoyes all the rest cheated of their hopes gnash their teeth Terpsion You speak truth Thucritus hath almost quite eaten my estate still making me believe he would die And as often as I came to visit him he would groan and sob inwardly and counterfeit a noise like an abortive chick in the shell wherefore by how much the neerer I thought him to his grave so many gifts the more did I send him least his other flatterers should exceed me in presents many nights have my cares taken my sleep from me numbring and disposing my fortunes And indeed care and watching were the causes of my death whilest he having swallowed my bait assisted at my funerall and went before my beer laughing Pluto Maist thou live eternally Thucritus to grow rich and laugh at such men And maist thou not die till thou have sent hither all thy flatterers before thee Terpsion It would be a pleasure to me too Pluto if Chariades should die before Thucritus Pluto Take comfort Terpsion Phido Melantus and all the rest shall die before him of their Cares Terpsion This I like Live eternally Thucritus A Dialogue between Zenophantes and Callidemides Zenoph BUt how died you Callidemides you know I being Dinias parasite did over-eat my selfe and was choak't with a surfet you stood by when I died Callid I did Zenophantes I died unexpectedly you know old Ptaeodorus Zenoph You mean the rich Usurer who hath no child whose house you alwaies frequented Callid I alwaies observ'd him and flatter'd my selfe with his death but when I saw my expectation prolonged and that he began to be older then Tython I contrived a compendious way to gain his estate For having bought poyson I dealt with his Butler that when Ptaeodorus next call'd for drink and he usually drinks deeply he should steal it into the bowle having it ready and give it him which if he did I swore to make him a freeman Zenoph And what happen'd For me thinks you are about to tell a strange story Callid We went to bath our selves where his Boy held two cuppes one for Ptaeodorus which held the poyson the other for me But mistaking I know not how he gave the poyson to me and the sound cup to Ptaeodorus who presently drunk it off when at the instant I fell down dead and excused his funerall with my own Why do you smile Zenophantes you do not well to laugh at your friend Zenoph You have suffer'd things to he laught at Callidemides But how lookt the old man at your fall Callid First he was frighted with the Accident But being inform'd I believe how things were he laught at what the Butler had done Zenoph You did ill to make such short contrivances for a thing which would in ordinary course much safelier have happen'd had you made lesse hast A Dialogue
venerable to his Macedonians but it followes not that therefore he should be preferred before a valiant and Warlike Captain who still went more by Counsell then Fortune Minos He hath made a generous speech for himselfe and not to be expected from a Lybian What say you to this Alexander Alexander 'T is fit Minos I should make no reply to such a bold fellow since fame can sufficiently instruct thee how great a Prince I was and how great a Thiefe he Yet consider how farre I excell him who began my Atchievements with my youth when succeeding in a troubled and distracted State I tooke revenge of my Fathers Murtherers Afterwards striking a terrour into all Greece by my conquest of Thebes they chose me their Generall nor was I content to straighten my selfe within the Kingdome of Macedonia left me by my Father but projected the victory of all the world Thinking it poor not to raigne over the Universe with a small Army I entred into Asia and in a great battle wonne Lydia Ionia and Phrygia And conquering all as I march't I came to Issus where Darius with an Army consisting of Myriads expected me After this Minos you may remember how many thousand shades I sent you in one day The Ferry-man saies his Boat was not sufficient but that he was faine to joyne boards together and waft them over upon planks And this I did still exposing my selfe first to danger and offering my selfe to wounds And that I may not recount to you what I did at Tyre and in the fields of Arbela I went as farre as India and made the Ocean the period of my empire tooke their Elephants and brought away Porus Captive Passing over Tanais in a great horse fight I vanquish't the Scythians a people not to be contemned Rewarded my followers and revenged my selfe of my foes If men thought me a God they are to be pardoned being perswaded from the greatnesse of my Actions After all I died a King Whereas Hanniball died Banish't in the Court of Prusias the Bythinian A fit death for so deceitfull and perjured a fellow For I forbeare to tell how he overcame the Italians not by valour but by cousenage perfidiousnesse and stratagems There being nothing just or cleare in all that enterprize But whereas he objects to me my Luxury he forgets what he did at Capua where he had his Mistresses and like an admired souldier voluptuously squander'd away the opportunities of warre Had not I out of my contempt of the Westerne parts turned my march to the east what great matter had I atchieved Have taken Italy perchance without bloud or have subdued Lybia to the utmost coasts of Africk These were Countries below my Conquests being already terrified by my fame and acknowledging me for their Lord. I have said give sentence Minos And let these few Atchievements pick't out of many suffice Scipio Stay Minos till you have heard me too Minos What are you Brave Sir or from whence come you Scipio I am the Romane Scipio who overthrew Carthage and in many great Battles subdued Lybia Minos What would you say more Scipio Marry that I am inferiour to Alexander but greater then Hanniball who conquered and pursued him and compelled him to a dishonorable flight He is therefore very impudent to compare himselfe with Alexander with whom I who vanquisht him presume not to rank my selfe in comparison Minos Afore Iove thou speakest rightly Scipio wherefore I pronounce Alexander to be first next to him you Scipio and if you please let Hanniball be third since he is not utterly to be despised A Dialogue between Diogenes and Alexander Diogenes HOw now Alexander are you dead too like all us Alexander You see I am Diogenes nor is it strange being a mortall man I should die Diogenes Did Iupiter Ammon lye then when he said you were his Son or were you in earnest the Son of Phillip Alexander Of Philip it seems had I been descended of Iupiter I had been Immortall Diogenes But there went a report of your Mother Olympia that a Dragon should couple with her and be seen in her Chamber and that from thence she should conceive and bring forth you and that Philip was deceived to think himself your Father Alexander I have heard such a Report but now I see that neither my Mother nor the Priests of Iupiter are to be credited Diogenes Yet their lye stood you Alexander in good stead in your Enterprises for many were struck with an opinion of your Divinity But tell me pray to whom have you left your great Empire Alexander I know not Diogenes I had no more leisure to dispose it then just at my Death to give my Ring to Perdiccas But why laugh you Diogenes Diogenes How can I choose Have you forgot what the Grecians did when at your entrance into your Kingdome they flatter'd and chose you their Prince and General against the Barbarians and how some placed you among the twelve Gods built Temples and Sacrificed to you as the Son of the Dragon But tell me where have the Macedonians buried you Alexander I have lain these three dayes at Babylon But Ptolemy my Armour bearer hath promis'd as soon as the Tumults now on foot will give him leisure to carry me into Aegypt and bury me there that I may become one of the Aegyptian Gods Diogenes Shall I not laugh Alexander when I see you play the fool in Hell and hope to be made some Anubis or Osiris Throw off your Ambition Divine Sir for 't is not possible for any who have once past over the Infernal Lake and entred the mouth of the Cave to return neither is Aeacus invigilant or Cerberus to be contemn'd I would therefore gladly learn of you how you bear the remembrance of the felicity you left above your Guards and Squires and Peers your Treasures and Countries which adored you Babylon also and Bactria besides your Elephants Honour and Glory when you were carried in Triumphs your head bound about with a white Coronet and your self clothed with Purple doe you not relent at the memory of these things why weepest thou Fool did not your wise Master Aristotle teach you not to account any of the gifts of Fortune stable Alexander Call you him Wise who was the basest of Flatterers there 's none knows so much of Aristotle as â— what suits he made and what letters he wrot to me and how he abused my Ambition to Learning soothing and extolling me sometimes for my Beauty as if it been a piece of the highest Good sometimes for my Actions and Treasure maintaining that Riches were Good that he might I believe with the lesse shame refuse them He was a Jugler Diogenes and Cheater All that I gained by his wisdome is to grieve for those things you mentioned as for the greatest goods Diogenes He teach you a cure for your sorrovv Since there grovvs no Hellebore here drink as great a draught of Lethe as you can and you vvill never
stroke and had died first Though I had died as a Tyrant yet I had left a revenger whereas now I die not only without a sonne but without one to kill me Having thus said he stabbed himself trembling and unable to thrust home having a desire but not strength enough for the attempt How many punishments were here how many wounds how many deaths how many slaughters how many Garlands due To Conclude then you have all seen the sonne prostrated and slaine no small or easy atchievement You have seen the father fallen on his sonne and mingling blouds together Both the triumph of my sword and made one sacrifice to your Liberty and my Conquest You have seen my sword lying betwixt them and approving it selfe worthy of me its master and witnessing how faithfully it dispatcht my businesse which had been lesse from my hand and increast its glory from the strangenesse Lastly I am he who have removed the Tyranny though the carriage and progresse of the atchievement like so many parts in a Tragedy were divided among many The chiefest part â— acted the next the Son the third the Father my Sword was Engine and Servant to us all The Dis-inherited Son The Argument A Dis-inherited Son learnt Physick and caring his Father of a Phrenzy after he was given over by other Physitians was restored to favour Afterwards being commanded to cure his Step-Mother of the like Phrenzy and refusing he is dis-inherited the second time He defends himself THat which my Father hath now done O ye Judges is neither new nor strange nor is this the first time he hath been carried away by his displeasure but hath heretofore made use of this Law and is practised in his proceedings against me at this Tribunall All that is new in my present Misfortune is that having committed noe offence fit to be brought into Accusation I am in danger to be punisht for my Art because it cannot in all things obey his impossible commands Then which what can be more unreasonable For he requires that my Skill should be as great as his Injunctions and that I should work Cures not as my Profession is able but as he is pleased to impose I could therefore wish there were not only Receipts in Physick to recover people distracted but those also who are without cause inclined to passion that so I might cure my Father of one disease more who being perfectly freed from one Distraction is carried by his anger into another And to make my câ—se the more deplorable he is recovered to every body else only against me who recover'd him he still retains his fury You see how I am rewarded for my Cure who am cast off by him and made a Stranger to his Family the second time As if he had only restored me for a while that to my greater infamy he might often banish me his house To those cures which fall within the compasse of my skill I expect not to be commanded who voluntarily and unsent for wrought his recovery but where the Malady carries despair with it I would not willingly be an undertaker Of all others I have good reason not to attempt the cure of this woman considering what I am likely to suffer from my Father if I miscarry who for not daring to adventure upon her am dis-inherited I cannot therefore O ye Judges but bewaile my Step-Mother in the case she is in for she was a vertuous woman next my Father who suffers in her Madnesse but especially my self who am thought disobedient because I cannot effect what I am required both for the greatnesse of the disease and the smallnesse of my skill To be dis-inherited then for not undertaking a cure which I am not able to effect I hold most unjust and desire you to judge from these present proceedings upon what grounds I was cast off heretofore Though I doubt not but for the clearing of them my Behaviour and life have long since been my Defence To those things whereof I am now accused I will answer as well as I can having first briefly acquainted you with the state of my case At that time when my Father ceas'd not to proclaime me for a stubborn rebellious disobedient Son the disgrace of my Parents and infamy of my house I thought it best not to make only a short Defence but leaving his house thought my best remedy and appeal would be to my future carriage and life when it should appear how free I was form his aspersions and in what honest studies I imployed my self and what vertuous company I kept For I then foresaw and had it in my suspicion that my Father being of no very sound mind would at some time or other without my desert grow furious and hatch false accusations against me And some there were who construed those proceedings as the beginning of his Distraction and judged his causelesse hatred of me his froward carriage his meditated railings hard censures clamorous fits of anger and extreme inclination to Choller as so many threats and forerunning darts of an approaching Phrenzy Wherefore I thought it would concern me to learn Physick with all speed and thereupon went to Travell and acquainting my self with the most approved Physitians of other Countries with much labour and diligent study I learned the Art At my return I find my Father plainly distracted and given over by other Physitians who do not sound or make any exact judgment of diseases I therefore as it became a pious Son neither remembred my Abdication nor staid to be sent for having indeed nothing personall to lay to his charge since his ill dealings with me were not his own but the faults of his disease Offering therefore my self as I said unsent for I proceeded not presently to his cure which had been to depart form my usuall practice and from the lawes of our Profession by which we are taught first to examine whither the disease be cureable or incureable and exceed the limits of our Art And then if it be undertakeable we apply remedies and imploy our whole studies about the recovery of the Patient But if we find the Malady too strong and not to be conquer'd we forbear to prescribe at all but observe their ancient Rule who were the Inventors and Fathers of the Art who forbid us to medle with overgrowne diseases Finding therefore my Father nor past hope nor his distemper past cure having first weighed all circumstances I undertook him and confidently gave him Physick Many of the standers by suspecting my prescription spake in disparagement of the cure and were ready to call me into question my Step-Mother also was present fearfull and distrustfull not of hate to me but care to him whom she perfectly knew so ill disposed having long converst and been a witnesse to his Distemper yet I not at all discouraged knowing his Symptomes did not lye and that my Art could not deceive me at fit times stole a cure into him Though some who were my
alone to encounter them My best course is since they enforce mee to run away to the fencing schoole and leave you here in the Skirmish Samippus By no meanes You have in part vanquish't them I as you see am to enter combate with the King who challengeth mee and to refuse him were dishonourable Lycinus By Iupiter you will presently be wounded by him For 't is very Princely to receive wounds in a Duell for a Kingdome Samippus You say true I have received a slight wound but in no open place of my body which shall hereafter betray any deform'd scarre But do you see how upon reencounter I have with one thrust of my speare pierced both him and his horse Next cutting off his head and taking off his Crowne how I am saluted King and publiquely adored From the Barbarians I expect adoration over whom I will rule by the Graecian Lawes and be stiled one Emperour of both Afterwards imagine how many Citties I will build to my name how many I will demolish and take by force if they contemne my Government But my chiefe persecution shall fall on rich Cydias who being my neighbour dispossest mee of my field and by degrees encroacht upon my borders Lycinus Finish your warres Samippus 't is now time after such great Conquests to celebrate your victories at Babylon with a feast For your Empire I believe hath extended beyond your furlong and that Timolaus take his turne and wish what he please Samippus But how like you my wishes Lycinus Lycinus As much more laborious most admired Prince and troublesome then Adimantus wishes since hee desired only a life of pleasure and to entertaine his friendes with two Talent Gobletts But you were hurt in a Duel and were cast into feares and anxietyes night and day And were not only surrounded with Affrightments from your enemyes but with a thousand Domesticke Treasons Besides the envy hatred and flatteryes of those with whom you convers't Among whom you had not a true friend but all their affections were dissembled and acted out of hope or feare The fruition of your very dreames was not pleasant Only you had Glory purple garments embroyder'd with Gold a white fillett about your head and a guard to goe before you The rest is toyle insupportable joyn'd with much anguish For you are to entertaine Embassadours from the enemy or to sit in judicature or to publish Edicts to your Subjects Then some Nation rebels or some Forrayne invasions are made upon your Empire So that your feares and suspicions are perpetuall And you appeare happier to all men then to your selfe Can that condition be noble wherein you feele the same sicknesse as peasants doe nor doth a feaver distinguish you as a King nor death feare your Guards but making what accesses to you it pleaseth carries you away lamenting without any reverence to your Crowne Whilest you falling from your height and snatcht from your Throne and going the common way of men and made equall to the vulgar by being lost among the heard of the departed leave behind you upon earth onely a high Tombe or exalted Pillar or Pyramide rising in equall angles as so many late and insensible honours The Statues and Temples which flattering Citties raise to you your great name also perish all by degrees and dye neglected Or if they be of any long continuance what fruition can they afford to one sencelesse of them You see then what feares perplexities and toyles befall you alive and what shall befall you after death 'T is now your turne to wish Timolaus see you aske discreetlyer then these two as it becomes a prudent man and one acquainted with affaires Timolaus Judge you then Lycinus what is faulty in my wish and what to be corrected I desire not gold or Treasure or sacks of Coyne or Kingdomes and Warres and Affrights of Empire which you deservedly rejected For all these things are unstable and fraught with Treasons and carry with them more trouble then delight But I would aske of Mercury certaine Rings of those severall vertues The first should keepe mee in a firme consistency and health of body invulnerable also and free from distempers The next should make the wearer invisible like that of Gyges I would have another which should instill into mee the strength of ten thousand men and enable mee single to carry a weight scarce to be lifted by an Army I would have another Ring which should enable mee to fly aloft from the ground I would also charme as many as I pleased asleep Doores also at my approach should voluntarily open the lockes flie backe and the bolts fall off and this to be performed with one Ring But above all I would have one more powerfull then the rest which worne should make mee amiable to handsome Boyes Women and whole Nations and should so enamour and enflame them and make mee so desirable as to be their discourse Women impatient of their desires should hang themselves and boyes grow madde and account him happy on whom I vouchsafe to looke And they whom I neglected should pine away with griefe Briefly It should render mee more beautifull then Hyacinthus or Hylas or the Chian Phaon And thus would I be not for a short time or according to the measure of the life of man but a thousand yeares renewing my youth after youth and still returning to the age of seventeene and casting off my decayes like serpents In this state I will lacke nothing Whatsoever others possesse shall be mine by my power to open doores lay the Keepers asleepe and enter invisible If there be any thing in the Easterne or Northerne parts of the World of strange and unusuall spectacle or if there be any thing pretious or pleasant to be eaten or drunke I would without sending for them my selfe fly thither and enjoy them to a satiety And because a Griffin is a winged beast and the Phoenix a fowle to be seene in India and no where else I would behold them there I would also discover the head of Nilus and the uninhabited parts of the earth and the Antipodes if there be any such who inhabit the adverse Hemisphaere of the world Next I would know the nature of the Starres of the Moone and Sun himselfe being praesecur'd from their fires But my greatest delight should be in the same day to report at Babylon who vanquisht at Olympia And if perhaps I dine in Syria to suppe in Italy Then if I had an enemy to take an invisible revenge of him and dash out his braines with a stone On the contrary to bestow secret courtesies on my friends and showre gold on them in their sleepes If there were a proud man or a rich disdainfull Tyrant I would take him up some twenty furlongs and then precipitate him Then without controule might I converse with faire boyes and make invisible approaches by laying all asleepe but they onely What a spectacle wee it to hoyer aloft in the Ayre above