the Roman power had purchased since her ambition gave place to her avarice Notwithstanding all this this Philosopher found a cure for his malady where it was thought he should have increas'd it he grew to know the vanity of riches in the midst of their triumph for reflecting upon all that he had seen and finding that thosâ— things were no less useless than deceitful he generously despised them this pomâ— saith he could endure but some few hours one afternoon hath seen the beginning and the end thereof and though the Chariot that carried all this treasure marcht but softly they were quickly gone what likelâ—hood is then that that which could not entertain us one whole day should possess uâ— all our life-time and that we should suffeâ— long punishment for a thing which is noâ— able to give a long contentment Thus diâ— this Philosopher learn Virtue where others reaped nothing but Vanity and as oft as any object presented it self before his eyes the appearance whereof might deceive him he would say What dost thou admire O my soul that which thou seest is a triumphant pomp where we see things but are not suffer'd to possess them and where whilst we are therewithal delighted they pass away and vanish If riches not being a real good cannot be the object of our hope whatsoever else the world promiseth us cannot satisfie it since they are not far enough off For this Passion looks far into what is to come she neglects present things and longs after what is absent and builds her felicity upon a happiness which is not as yet come It seems she would teach us that the world is not her resting place and that all those contentments which smooth our Senses and which charm our eyes or ears are not those which she seeks after She raiseth her self up to Heaven and pretending to Eternity she thinks not that absent which is closed up in the un-intermitted course of Time she by a generosity which cannot sufficiently be praised doth undervalue all those greatnesses of which imagination may form an Idea and aspires only to that supream happiness which eye hath not seen neither ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man Those then injure her who force her to fasten her self to all that we esteem good and to languish for Objects which have not any one of those conditions that hers ought to have For to boot that her object ought to be absent it must be difficult and such as may cause trouble to those that will seek after it This Epithete will cause an error to arise in most minds and men finding difficulties in the pursuit of such things as they wish for will imagine that they deserve to be hoped for the Covetous man who crosseth the Seas who goes to discover unknown Lands and to seek out new maladies under new Climates will perswade himself that riches are very well worth the wishing since they are so hard to come by the Ambitious man who enjoys not one hour of content and who finds a thousand real Hells in the imaginary Paradise which he frames unto himself will think that Honour is the only object of Hope But Philosophy pretends to fix difficulty to greatness she confounds the name of difficult with that of noble and generous she blames all those that labour after an infamous good and who forgetting the nobleness of their birth have desires only after such things as are despicable Hope is too couragious to value smoak or dirt and she pities all those mean Souls which take such might pains to compass riches or honours 'T is true they cause trouble enough to those who seek after them but they are not the more to be wished for for their difficulty the pain which they are accompanied with makes them not the more glorious they resemble the punishment of the guilty which cease not to be infamous though severe In fine all that the most part of men desire is not Hopes end because it is for the most part impossible For though this passion be bold yet is she wise she measures her strength and though she engage her self in glorious enterprizes she will have some assurance of success she aspires only to what she may obtain and she quits the pursuit as soon as she finds they surpass her power she loves to be esteemed Reserved rather than Rash and to confess her impotency rather than to shew her vanity Notwithstanding all those that hope exceed these bounds and bereaving this Passion of her natural wisdom they raise their desires beyond their merits and do oft-times labour after things equally unjust and impossible a slave in Irons promiseth himself liberty a guilty person under the Hangmans hand hopes yet for pardon a man that is banisht from the Court pretends yet to government and you shall hardly find any so miserable who do not indiscreetly feed themselves with some imaginary happiness they perswade themselves that the heavens will do miracles for their sakes and that they will change the order of the Universe to fulfil their desires But of all these mad mad men there are none more to be pitied than old men who seeing death already pourtray'd in their faces do yet promise unto themselves a long life they lose every day the use of some part of their body they see not but by art they hear not without difficulty they walk not without pain and in every thing that they do they have new proofs of their weakness yet they hope to live and because our forefathers lived many ages they believe that in having a care of themselves they may fence themselves against death and after so many sins that they have committed taste a favour which hath not been granted save to such as had not as yet lost all Innocence A man must renounce his judgment to conceive so irrational a thought and not know the grievances which do inseparably accompany old age for all sorts of death are mingled with some hope a Feaver leaves us after a certain number of Fits their heats lessen as they increased the Sea throws on shore those whom it had swallowed up and a storm hurles ships into the Haven and a Souldier struck with pity gives life to his conquer'd Enemy but he whom old age leads to death hath no more reason to hope he is incapable of pardon and Kings who prolong the lives of such as are condemn'd cannot do the like to old men their death is with less pain but it is more certain and as they ought not to fear death so they ought not to hope for life But we have sufficiently consider'd the outrages done unto Hope let us see the good offices that may be done unto her employing her according to her own inclinations and our need The THIRD DISCOURSE Of the good use of Hope CHristian Religion is wholly built upon Hope and as she neglects present happiness we must not wonder if she
in the gaining of their liberty they haveneither taken Prisoner nor made slave a man reads all their actions with delight and in all the course of their harmless life one meets not with any objects of horrour They are born for the worlds good they have laboured for the quiet of all men there is not any Nation that malignes their happiness nor which rejoyceth at their death What honour can a Conqueror hope for who owes all his greatness to his Injustice who is only famous for being criminal and of whom no mention would have been made in History had he not slain Men burnt Towns ruined Provinces and dispeopled whole Kingdoms Those who have only warred with their Passions enjoy a much more real good and these innocent Conquerors receive more glorious Praises from us We raise them above all Monarchs and if they have lived in the Church we place them in Heaven when they are dead we take their actions for examples to our selves we borrow their weapons to fight with the enemies which they have vanquished we read their lives as Conquerors do those of the Caesars we conform our selves to their virtue and we observe the good Maximes which they have held the innocent Wiles that they have practised and the high designs which they have undertaken that we may obtain like famous Victories Their most-assured Maximes were not to trust their own strength to implore aid from Heaven and to hope for more from Grace than from Nature If thou wilt overcome saith Saint Augustine presume not upon thy self but give the honour of the victory to him from whom thou expectest the Crown Their more ordinary wills were to prevent their Passions to take from them their strength that they might take their courage from them to set upon them in their birth and not to expect till age had made them stronger Their most memorable enterprizes were to over-run their Enemies grounds to consider their countenance to mark their designs and to cut off all Objects that could make them move These means would succeed happily unto us if we would make use of them and we shall not want assistance since all the Moral Virtues are so many faithful Allies who fight for our liberty and which furnish us with Weapons to subdue our Passions The THIRD DISCOURSE That there is no more miserable Slave than he who suffers himself to be guided by his Passions LIberty is so pleasing and servitude so irksom as a man may say without fear of exaggeration that as the one is the chiefest of all that is good the other is the chiefest of all that is bad the people have fought for the preservation of the one and to defend themselves from the other nature seems to have perswaded them 't is better to die in liberty than live in servitude Our Ancestors were so tender in this point as they could not endure the Roman Authority They were the last that subjected themselves thereunto and the first that freed themselves from it Had not the Heavens made Iulius Caesar of purpose to conquer them they had never been slaves to Rome but yet they had this of consolation in their missfortune that under the conduct of that great Prince ' they revenged themselves of the Republique that had opposed them and made her suffer servitude which had made them lose their liberty Though this evil be so tedious and the good it deprives us of so pleasing it is not comparable to that which the tyranny of Passions causeth in us And it must be granted that of as many slaves as are in the world there is none more unhappy than those who obey such cruel Masters For the rest are free in their noblest part 't is only their bodies which groan under the irons and which feels the rigour of slavery their wills are not constrained when they are commanded any thing that contradicts their honour or which offends their Conscience they may defend themselves from it by a noble refusal and buy their liberty with the loss of their life But these are slaves even in the bottom of their souls they cannot dispose either of their thoughts or their desires they lose in this infamous servitude that which Captives preserve in Prisons and that which Tyrants cannot rob their enemies of The others may quit their Masters and leaving their Houses or their Territories go into places of freedom where they may breath the air of liberty But these though they change Countreys change not condition they are slaves under Crowns they serve their Passions whilst they command their Subjects and whithersoever they go they drag their chains after them and carry their Masters with them The others long after liberty and employ their credit to obtain it If this fail them misery opens their understanding and necessity which is the mother of Invention furnisheth them with means to free themselves but these wretches have so far lost theirs as they have not so much as retained the desire thereof They love their servitude they kiss their Irons and being strangely blinded they fear the end of their imprisonment and dread their deliverance The others have but one Master and amongst so many mischiefs which afflict them they hope to sweeten their captivity by gaining the favor of him who commands them they promise unto themselves that by their assiduous service they may regain their liberty they flatter themselves in the thought thereof and think that a slave who hath but one man to content cannot be always unhappy But these have as many masters to serve as Passions to satisfie the end of one servitude is the beginning of another and when they think they have escaped a surly government they fall under an insolent tyranny for their change is never advantageous to them the last Master is always more cruel than the former Oft times they command all together and as their designes do not agree they divide these unhappy slaves and force them to serve their wills and to tear out their bowels to obey rather contrary than differing Orders Sometimes ambition Love unite their flames to devour them fear and hope set jointly upon them sorrow and delight are reconciled together to afflict them and one may say that every Master is a Hangman which torments them and that every order they receive is a new punishment unto them They have not one quiet hour their Passions persecute them day night And these revengeful furies change all the delights of these miserable men into cruel torments What more deplorable thing can there be than to see Alexander possest by his ambition and see him lose his judgment to satisfie this irregular Passion For can one think he was indued with Reason who began his exploits by the ruine of Greece and who more unjust than the Persians silenced the Town of Athens made that of Lacedemon serve and ruinated the Country which to no purpose had taught him Philosophy This very fury
even upon death that they may be serviceable to Patience and Fortitude what virtues would not become weak were they abandoned by Passions how oft hath the fear of infamy infused courage into souldiers who were seeking how shamefully to run away how oft hath shamefastness preserved Chastity and kept both maids and married women within their duty when avarice and wantonness hath endeavoured to corrupt them how oft hath indignation encouraged Judges against the guilty who were made insolent in their misdemeanor by the protection of great ones Let the Stoicks then confess that virtues owe their welfare to Passions and let them not tell us any more that they are too generous to implore aid from their slaves But let us tell them they are too full of acknowledgment to despise such faithful friends and that they will never make a difficulty in accepting them for their allies when ever they will assail the common enemy Vice I had rather follow Aristotles opinion than Seneca's and rather govern Passions than destroy them This man out of an excessive pride will not have Virtue to stand in need of any thing and that the wise man who is thereof possest way be happy even contrary to the will of God himself he will have his happiness to be so firmly grounded that the Heavens cannot overturn it and to judge by his words it seems that insolency and impiety are the first requisite dispositions for the acquiring of wisdom the other on the contrary acknowledgeth his weakness useth such help as nature hath afforded him and knowing very well that he is composed of a Soul and Body he endeavoureth to employ them both in the exercise of virtue He confesseth we cannot undertake any thing of generous unless chafed by choler and that we faint and droop when we are not irritated But as he very well knows likewise that this Passion hath need of a bridle to hold it back he ranks it under Reason and makes not use thereof as of a General but as of a private Souldier Let us use our Passions thus let us teach the Stoicks that nature hath made nothing in vain and that since she hath endued us with fears and hopes she intends we shall make use of them to acquire Virtue and fight against Vice The FOURTH DISCOURSE That Passions are the seeds of Vice IT were to flatter Passions and deceive men if after having shewed the good they are capable of doing we should not shew the evil they can do our draught would be partial if having drawn their perfections we should not likewise set forth their defaults But that we may not be mistaken in so important a Subject and whereupon our happiness seemeth to depend we must know that Passions are neither good nor bad and that to speak properly these two qualities are only found in the superior power which governs them As that is only free it is only good or evil and as it is the Original of merit it is also the Spring-head either of wickedness or goodness But as the Sun spreads forth his light in the world and enlightens solid bodies though it penetrate them not So doth the will dispence abroad wickedness and goodness amongst the Passions and though she do not communicate them fully unto them yet giveth she them a slight tincture thereof which is sufficient to make them either innocent or criminal For if we examine the qualities that they have received from nature and if we consider them in that estate which pleads the use of the will we must acknowledge that they are as well the seeds of vice as of virtue and that those two contraries are so confused in them as they are hardly to be discerned They have an Inclination to good and thus they hold with virtue They are easily seduced soon moved and thus they resemble vice For we are now no longer in that happy estate of innocency where the Passions expected their orders only from Reason and where they never raised themselves till they had obtained leave they are become disloyal and no longer acknowledging the voice of their Soveraign they obey that first that commands them and take part assoon with a Tyrant as with their legitimate Prince This error whereinto they often fall obligeth us to confess that they are not much less inclinable to vice than to virtue and that if we may hope for great advantages by them we ought also to fear notable mischiefs from them For the same desires which raise us up to Heaven fasten us to the earth that which nature hath given us to set us at liberty casts us in prison and claps Bolts upon us The same hope which flatters us abuseth us and that which ought to sweeten our past misfortunes procureth us new ones the same choler which bringeth the couragious to the combate animates the faint-hearted to revenge and what is generous in war becomes cruel in peace In fine Passions are not farther distant from vices than they are from virtue as in the confusion of the Chaos fire was mingled with water so is evil mingled with good in the affections of the soul and from those fatal Mines Iron is as well drawn out as Gold man ought therefore to keep himself always upon his guard and knowing that he carrieth about in his bosom both life and death it behoveth him to be as circumspect in his comportments as those who handle poyson or who walk upon the edge of a Precipice But that which makes the danger the greater is that when these unruly Passions have brought forth a vice they put themselves in arms to defend it and serve it with more courage than do the innocent Passions obey virtue They are servants which are more cruel than are their Masters Officers which are more furious than the Tyrants that set them on work and they commit more of outrage upon Virtue than doth Vice it self All wars are occasioned by these insolent Affections and he who shall banish love and hatred from off the earth will find neither Murder nor Adultery there They furnish the subject of all Tragedies and though men accuse Poets of Fictions they have committed more Errors than the others have invented But they are never more prejudicial than when they meet in the person of a Prince and when they abuse Soveraign power to exercise their fury for then whole States groan under their tyranny the people are opprest by their violence and all parts confess that neither the Plague nor the Sword are so pernicious as are Passions when they have got the supream power An unlawful love put all Greece in Arms and the flames thereof reduced the goodliest City of all Asia to Ashes Jealousie between Caesar and Pompey was the loss of the lives of more than a million of men the world was divided in their quarrel their ambition put arms into the hands of all people their unjust war was the ruine of their Country and the loss of
their hatred they leave it as an inheritance to their Children they oblige them to eternal enmity and make imprecations against them if they be ever reconciled to their enemies In fine this Passion is immortal and as it resides in the bottom of the soul it accompanieth her whithersoever she goeth doth not forgo her no not when she is loosened from the Body This it is which the Poets who are the most excellent Painters of our affections would represent unto us in the persons of Eteocles and Polynices who continued their hatred after death and who went to end the combat in Hell which they begun on earth this Passion lived in their bodies deprived of Sense it passed by a secret contagion into their funeral Pile and waged war in the flames which were to consume them But I wonder not that this Passion is so opinionated since it is so daring and I think it not strange that it continues after death since it hath made men resolute to lose their lives for love of revenge and that it makes them find some contentment in death provided they see their enemies accompany them therein For Hatred ceases to be true when it becomes discreet and we may say a man is not wholly possessed therewithal when to spare his own bloud he dares not shed the bloud of his adversary When he hath given himself over to the tyranny thereof he thinks he can never purchase the pleasures of revenge at too dear a rate And propose whatever punishment you list unto him he is well-pleased therewithal provided his Passion may be satisfied Atreus wisheth to be overwhelmed under the ruine of his Palace provided it fall upon his brothers head and so cruel a death seems pleasing to him so as he be therein accompanied by Theistes In short Hatred is very puissant since all torments are endured to give it satisfaction and it useth strange tyranny upon such as it possesseth since there is no fault which they are not ready to commit in obedience to it If the proprieties of Hatred be thus strange the effects thereof are no less fatal For as Love is the cause of all generous and gallant actions Hatred is the rise of all base and tragical actions And those who are advised by so bad a Counsellor are capable of all the evil that can be imagined Murder and Paricide are the ordinary effects of this unnatural Passion 'T was this that made us see in the day-break of the world that a man might die in the flower of his age and that one brother was not secure in the company of another 'T was this that found out weapons to dispeople the world to ruinate Gods goodliest workmanship 'T was this that making man forget the sweetnes of his nature taught him to mingle poyson in drinks to shed humane bloud at Banquets to kill under pretence of hospitality 't was this that first instituted that fatal art which teacheth us how to murder with method how to kill men handsomly and which forceth us to approve of Paricide if it be done according to the laws of the world 'T was this in fine and not avarice which tore up the bosom of the earth and which sought within the bowels thereof for that cruel Metal wherewith it exerciseth its fury And to describe in a few words all the evils it is cause of it will suffice to say that Anger is her first Master-piece Envy her Counsellor Despair her Officer and that after having pronounced bloudy sentences as Judge it self puts them in execution as Hangman 'T is true that hatred never comes to these extremities till it grow unruly but this unruliness is almost natural thereunto and unless Reason and Grace labour jointly how to moderate this Passion it easily becomes excessive The fierceness thereof is oft-times augmented by resistance like an impetuous torrent it overthrows all the banks which oppose its fury and when it 's forbidden any thing it believes it may lawfully do all things therefore the remedy which is ordained for Love is no less necessary for Hatred and to heal an evil which becomes incurable by time early withstandings must be made lest gaining strength it grow furious and be the death of its Physitian for having been negligent in its cure The FIFTH DISCOURSE Of the bad use of Hatred THough the greatest part of effects produced by Hatred may pass for disorders and that after having described the nature thereof it may seem unprofitable to observe the ill use that may be made of it yet that I may not fail in the laws that I have prescribed unto my self I will employ all this discourse in discovering the injustice thereof and I will make it appear to all the world that of as many Aversions as molest our quiet there is hardly any one that is rational For as all creatures are the workmanship of God and bear in their Foreheads the Character of him that produced them they have qualities which render them lovely and goodness which is the principal object of Love is so natural unto them as it is not to be separated from the Essence to cease to be good they must cease to be and as long as they have a subsistance in nature we are obliged to confess that there remains some tincture of goodness in them which cannot be taken from them without an absolute annihilation Thus God gave them his approbation when they were first made he made their Panegyrick after they were created and to oblige us to make much of them he hath taught us by his own mouth that they were exceeding good so as the Belief of their goodness is an Article of Faith in our Religion whatsoever opposition they may have to our humors or our inclinations we ought to believe that they have nothing of evil in them and that their very qualities which hurt us have their imployments and their use Poysons are serviceable for Physick and there are certain maladies which are not to be cured but by prepared poyson Monsters which seem to be errors of nature or ordained by Providence which cannot do amiss they do not only contribute by their ugliness to heighten the beauty of other creatures but are presages which advertise us of our misfortunes and which invite us to bewail our sins the very Devils themselves have lost nothing of their natural Advantages and the malice of their Will hath not been able to destroy the goodness of their essence and though they are compleated in evil they cease not to possess all the good which purely appertains unto their nature they have yet that beauty which they did Idolatrize they enjoy all their lights which they received at the first moment of their creation they have yet that vigor which makes a part of their being and were they not restrained by the power of God they would form thunder raise storms spread abroad contagions confound all the Elements 't is true that these their advantages
reside in the inferior part of the Soul and cannot discourse they only consider their object and by a blind impetuosity they either draw near unto it or keep far from it they do not mark so much as the Circumstances which accompany it and not comparing the difficulties with their strengths they engage themselves indiscreetly in a war or shamefully run away their judgment is so ready as it is almost precipitate for after having listned to what the senses say they advise with their inclination and not expecting orders from Reason they bear away the whole man and enforce him to follow their motions Hence it comes that he oft-times repents him of his designs condemns what he formerly approved and cannot end what he had begun But of all Passions none is more unfortunate than Audacity for she betakes her self to powerful enemies and she grapples with Pain and Death Fighting is her ordinary exercise and she oft-times bathes her self in tears or bloud she is always encompassed with dangers and on what side soever she turns she sees nothing but ghastly images and fearful apparitions this mean while she borrows no aid nor takes no counsel save only of Hope and the same that hurries her into danger is she that counsels her she who sets her on work is she who puts weapons into her hands and who under vain promises engageth her in extream difficulties she also often sees the greatest part of her designs prove abortive and reaps nothing of all her useless endeavours but sorrow for having followed evil counsel oft-times she discourageth her self and seeing that her undertakings do exceed her strength she suffers her self to be astonished by Fear beat down by Despair and consumed by Sadness for these Passions do almost always succeed her and experience teacheth us that those who at the beginning of a fight have been more couragious than men have at the end thereof been found more fearful than Woman The fewel of Boldness soon takes fire but it is as soon extinguished and as the fury of waves turns into foam the violence of the Audacious turns into Fearfulness and for all the confidence they shewed in their designs all that remains unto them is Weaknesses as full of shame as of guilt 'T is true that Choler sometimes sides with Boldness and furnisheth it with new forces when the danger hath made it lose its own but this assistance is not always sure the souldier that engages himself in battel upon her weak succours is in as great danger of losing the victory as he who puts his hope in Despair and is no more assured of conquest than he that fights only because he cannot retire Desperate men have been seen to die with their weapons in their hands and if sometimes they have revenged their deaths they have not always preserv'd their lives Bold men have also often been seen who for being cholerick have not more luckily evaded the danger whereinto they had precipitated themselves Cholers forces are as well limited as are those of Boldness and unless the one and the otherâ— of them be guided by Prudence they oughtâ— not to expect any thing but dreadful consequences that which hath happened upon one occasion will not happen upon many others and the Heavens are not obliged to give the same success to all rash enterprizes Alexanders example ought not to serve for a rule to all Conquerors he lived not long enough to be certainly imitated the fortune which followed him in his youth would peradventure have forsaken him in his age his rashness would not always have been so fortunate and if he had begun his conquest in Europe he might not perhaps have carried them so far as Asia the birth of Rome would have staid the course of his victories and she that shut up Pyrrhus in his dominions would have driven him back into Macedonia For my part I am of Seneca's opinion believe that this Prince had more courage than wisdom and more rashness than courage in effect his fortune did oftner preserve him than his valour and if the Heavens had not made choice of him to punish the pride of the Persians he had been stopt in the first battel he would not take those advantages which the greatest Commanders do commonly make use of when their forces are not equal to those of their enemy he would not set upon Darius his army whilst favoured by the night but with a piece of rashness which deserved more blame than it hath received praises he would tarry till it were day and have thâ— Sun for witness of his victory he thoughâ— he should have stoln a victory if he shoulâ— have won it by night and though Parmenâ— advised him to prefer his Souldiers safetâ— before the glory of Arms he contemneâ— that advice and to shew that he owed aâ— his advantages to Fortune he rejected aâ— the Maxims of Prudence I do also firmlâ— believe that his confidence hath been thâ— undoing of as many Princes as have imitated him and that his guidance is more fatal to Conquerors than rocks and tempesâ— unto Mariners I know very well that Caesae adventur'd much and that he could not undertake the ruine of the Roman Common wealth without having conceived a greaâ— good opinion of his good Fortune whicâ— he was able to guide by Wrath and Virtue and we are bound to acknowledge that 〈◊〉 Victories were no less the workmanship oâ— his Wisdom than of his Fortune he sheweâ— no Audacity but upon such occasions wherâ— advice was useless and he boasted not oâ— his good Fortune but to conjure down thâ— tempests and put confidence in his Pilot Iâ— fine he made use of Hope in all his enterprizes he submitted it to Prudence and taught all Commanders that to be valiant a man must be more wise than rash The THIRD DISCOURSE Of the good use of Audacity or Boldness THough Passions be more faulty than iâ—â—ocent and that by reason of the irregularity of our nature they lean more to Vice than Virtue yet with a little help a man may make them virtuous their inclinations are good but their judgments precipitate they always seek for good and withstand evil but this is most commonly with a little too much ardency they imitate such Orators as defend a good Cause with bad Reasons or are like those unfortunate Innocents who when tortured and wanting perseverance confess faults which they never committed for in effect they become guilty through want of Patience and grow vicious by not being able to endure the absence of Good nor presence of Evil. Did not Hope pursue Honours which she cannot compass never would she bring the Ambitious to Despair and did not Boldness engage her self to fight against mischiefs which she cannoâ— overcome she would never be accused oâ— Rashness but the fault is not without remedy for if she will listen to Reason iâ— after having calmed the fury of her first motion she will suffer her self to be
that the high enterprizes of Princes were no less the effects of this Passion than of Virtue he believed that all the disorders of our soul which contributed to Voluptuousness were not to be tamed but by Choler and that the concupiscible appetite would pervert Reason were it not withstood by the Irascible one would think to hear him speak that all great men are Cholerick that this Passion is not only the mark of a good Nature but of an excellent Courage and that a mans mind can conceive nothing of Generous if it be not a little irritated I believe with him that this resentment of our soul may be profitably employed in the service of Virtue when it is moderated by Reason and Grace but certainly it stands in more need of their guidance than do the rest and as it is extreamly violent so causeth it great disorders if it be not carefully suppress'd for let it have what inclination it pleaseth to Good it is too sudden to be regulated and though it seem to love Justice and Reason yet is yet too furious to be just or reasonable we should be undon were Choler as opinionated as it is sudden the earth would be but one desart if Passion were as lasting as it is hot Nature could not better shew her care she hath of our preservation than in giving narrow bounds to the wildest of our Passions and since the love she beareth us hath obliged her to make Monsters barren and to allot but short lives to the most furious Beasts she was bound to affix brevity to Choler and to allow a short term of time to so dangerous a Passion nor doth her short time of duration keep her from causing much mischief she employs to her utmost those moments which Nature hath given her and in a few hours commits many outrages for to boot that she troubles the minds of men that she changes their colour that she seems to play with their bloud making it sometimes withdraw it self to the Heart sometimes disperse it self over the Face that she sets the Eyes on fire and she fills the mouth with Threats and that she arms the Hands of as many as she meets withal she produceth much more strange effects in the world she hath since its birth changed the face thereof a thousand times there is no Province wherein she hath not committed some spoils nor is there any Kingdom which doth not bewail her violence those ruines which have formerly been the foundations of some goodly City are the remainders of Choler those Monarchies that whilome gave Laws to all the earth and which we know only by Story complain not so much of Fortune as of Choler those great Princes whose pride is reduced to ashes sigh in their graves and accuse only Choler for the loss of their Lives and ruine of their States some of them have been assassinated in their Beds others like Sacrifices offer'd up at the Altars some have unfortunately ended their days in the midst of their Armies when all their souldiers that environed them could not defend them from death others have lost their lives in their Thrones the Majesty that shines in the faces of Kings not being able to frighten their Murderers some have seen their own Children make attempts upon their persons others have seen their Bloud shed by the hands of their Slaves but not complaining of the Paricides they complain only of Choler and forgetting all their particular disasters they only condemn this Passion which is the plentiful and the unfortunate Spring-head thereof And certainly they have reason for their complaining since of all the disorders of our soul there is none more savage nor more irrational than this I know not why Aristotle imagined it was serviceable to reason and that it always moved as she did unless it be that it had a design to teach us that this Passion being more Ambitiouâ— than the rest would seem Rational in heâ— Excess and by an execrable attempt oblige Reason her Soveraign to defend heâ— Slaves injustice for she always seeks Excu ses for her faults though she shed humanâ— bloud though she offer up Innocents in sac crifice beat down whole Towns and burâ— their Inhabitants under their ruines shâ— will be thought to be Rational she some times knows well enough the vanity of heâ— resentments yet she without reason perseveres in them lest men should think she had no reason to begin Her injustice makes heâ— opinionated she grows hot upon design she will have her Excess to be an argumenâ— of her Injustice and all the world to imagine that she hath punished her enemieâ— justly because she hath punished them severely See then what she borrows of Reason and how much more insolent she is in other Passions which are blind in their unâ— ruliness and only offend their Soveraignâ— because they know not his Authority buâ— this Passion doth impudently abuse her and by a fearful tyranny employes her Soveraign to excuse her faults after having made use of her to commit them I therefore think Seneca had great reason to say that she is more faulty than the vices themselves and that she commits injustice whereof they are not guilty Avarice heapeth goods together and Choler dissipateth them the former only hurts her self and obligeth her heirs that are to succeed her but the latter hurts all the world and as if she were a publick contagion she puts divisions in Families divorceth Marriages and engageth Kingdoms in War Uncleanness seeks a shameful delight but such as only hurts the parties in fault Choler seeks an unjust one which is prejudicial to Innocents Envy as malicious as she is contents her self in wishing ill unto another she leaves the execution thereof to Fortune and remits to her the accomplishing of her desire but Choler is so impatient she cannot attend this blind Power but preventing the rigour thereof she takes delight in making men miserable In fine she is the cause of all evils and there is no fault committed wherein she hath not a hand there is nothing more obnoxious than Duels 't is Choler that entertains them there is nothing more cruel than Murder 't is Choler that adviseth to it there is nothing more fatal than war 't is Choler that causeth it when she reigns in a soul she stifles all other Passions and is so absolute in her tyranny as she turns Love into Hatred and Pity into Fury for there have been Lovers who in the height of their Choler have buried the same Dagger in their own bosoms which they had just before plunged in their Mistresses bosom committing two real murders to revenge one imaginary injury Avaritious men have been seen to betray their own inclinations to content their Choler throwing all their riches into the water or into the fire to obey the impetuosity thereof Ambitious have been known who have refused proffer'd Honours trampled Diadems under foot because Choler which wholly possess'd their
But howsoever all Philosophers agree that the Soul cannot be happy in a miserable body and that she cannot endue it with life without sharing in the miseries thereof if her noblest part be touched with Joy while the body languisheth with pain that which inanimates it must be sensible thereof to pay interests for the services she gets thence she must be miserable for company Even the Soul of Jesus Christ thrice-happy as it was failed not to be afflicted and a miracle was done in the order of Glory that the society might not be broken which Nature hath put between the Soul and the Body it is then agreed upon that these two parts that compose man cannot be separated in their suffering and that the torment of the one must of necessity be the others punishment they love too well to forsake one another in their afflictions and unless the violence of pain break the chains wherewith they are linked together their miseries must be common I should moreover think that the condition of the Soul is more deplorable than that of the Body for besides that to make her subject to sufferings be to injure her worth and that it is a piece of Injustice to force her to feel evils from which by Nature she is exempted she sentenceth her self to new sufferings and the love which she beareth to her Body obligeth her to resent with sorrow the pains which it endureth she together with it is sensible thereof seeing that she is the Original of Sense and as if this torment were not sufficient she draws another upon her self by compassion and afflicts her self with the Thought of all that which really torments it she makes much of its maladies after she hath shared in the suffering of them she grows sad with the conceit of them and of a single grief makes double Martyrdom true it is that this Faculty hath so much commerce with the Senses as she cannot resent their evils without communicating her pains unto them her trouble disquieteth them and as the sufferings of the Body are cause of the like in the Soul by a Law as just as necessary the pain of the Soul produceth the like of the Body This feeling is in my Opinion true Sadness which is nothing else but a dislike which is formed in the inferior part of the Soul by the fight of Objects which are displeasing to her Very strange are the effects of so Melancholick a Passion for when she is but in a mean she makes them eloquent without Rhetorick she teacheth them Figurative speeches to exaggerate their Discontents and to hear them speak the greatest pains seem to be less than what they suffer but when she is Extream by a clean contrary effect she astonisheth the Spirit she interdicts the use of the Senses she dries up Tears stifles Sighes and making men stupid she affords Poets the liberty of feigning that she changeth them into Rocks when she is of long continuance she frees us from the earth and raiseth us up to Heaven for it is very hard for a man in misery to covet life when it is full of pain and Sorrow and when the Soul hath great conflicts for a Body which doth continualy exercise her patience All men are not so poorly spirited as was that Favorite of Augustus who did so much covet life that Torments could not make him forgo the desire thereof who gloried in his Verses that he would have loved Life amidst Tortures that he would have been a Votary for the prolonging of it upon the Rack and that the cruellest sufferings that might be would have seemed swift to him so as he might therein have found Life I well believe that excess of pain would have made him be of another mind and that he would have confess'd that to die quickly is better than to live long in pain or had he persisted in his first Opinion we should be bound to confess that poorly-spirited men are more wilful than are those that are couragious and that the desire of Glory makes not so great impression in us as the desire of life But to return to my Subject when Grief is violent it loosneth the soul from the Body and causeth the death of the man for Sadness and Joy have this of resemblance in their difference that both of them attempt upon our lives when they are in extreams The heart dilates it self by Joy it opens it self to receive the good which is offer'd tastes it with such excess of pleasure as it faints under the weight thereof and meets with death in the midst of its Happiness It shuts it self up by Sorrow claps to the door upon the evil that besiegeth it and very improvidently delivers it self into the hands of a Domestick enemy to free it self from one that is a stranger for its Violence causeth its anguish and the care he takes to defend it self augments its pain and hastens its death Oft-times also its negligence makes it miserable it suffers it self to be surpriz'd by Sorrow for not having foreseen it and being no longer in a condition to defend it self when Sorrow arriveth it is forced to give way thereunto In fine Sadness makes us weep when it hath seized on our heart it wageth war with our Eyes it evaporateth by Sighes it glides down by Tears and weakens it self in the production thereof for a man that weeps easeth himself and comforts himself whilst he complains he finds somewhat of delight in his lamentations and if they be signs of his sufferings they are likewise the cure thereof As Choler dischargeth it self by Railing Sorrow being more innocent drops away by Tears and abandons the Heart when it gets up into the Face Having seen its effects it remains that we consider what use may be made thereof and in what conditions it may become Innocent or Offensive The FIFTH DISCOURSE Of the bad use of Pain and Sorrow THose who believe that Delight is Virtues most dangerous Enemy will never think that Sorrow can side with Vice and we shall have much ado to perswade them that there be some Sadnesses which are faulty yet we see but few of them that are innocent and most of those that draw tears from us are either unjust or unreasonable for man is become so esseminate that every thing hurts him Sin hath made him so wretched that he numbers the privation of pleasures amongst his pains and thinks he hath just cause to afflict himself when he possesseth not all that he desires the number of his evils is encreased by his abjectedness and he that in the first ages knew no other pain but Sickness and Death now vexeth himself for Disgrace and Poverty The witness of his Conscience is not sufficient for his Virtue and if he have not applause on Earth joyned to the approbation of Heaven he imagineth himself to be infamous the riches of Nature do not satisfie his Desires and though he have all things
the Theatre where two so violent motions were formed should enjoy Peace amidst War In fine Fear and Audacity ended their differences in thy Person thou didst suffer these two affections to possess thy Heart without dividing it whilst thou wert in thine Agony in the Garden thou gavest confidence to thine Apostles and when the thought of death made such havock in thy Soul thou didst encourage Martyrs to the Combat thou preparest Crowns for their Victories and procuring them strength by thy weaknesses thou ordainest them to be the Champions of thy Church Militant But whatever help they received from thy Grace their Victories were never like thine they found more obedience in the World than in themselves and have confessed it cost them less to overcome wild Beasts than to vanquish their own Passions Famous Martyrs have been known who having overcome Lyons could not quell their own choler and have suffered themselves to be born away with Impatience after they had endured Tortures Their Combats were not always followed with good Success they were oft-times in one and the same day both Conquered and Conquerors They gave way to Voluptuousness after they had triumphed over Grief and having had courage enough to be Martyrs they wanted resolution to be continent How often have they wisht for Death that they might be freed from these domestick enemies and to that end sighed and made vows When thy Providence gave them over to their own weakness they despaired of their Salvation finding no support save in thy Goodness they begun all their wrestlings by Prayer and professed that to overcome their Passions they must be animated by thy Spirit and assisted by thy Power Thou art the sole Conqueror that wert never worsted in this War thy Affections never betrayd thy Reason and thy power hath been as absolute in thy Person as in thy Kingdom These Passions of our Soul changed nature in thine by the use thou madest of them they became Virtues Thou conceivedst no love which did not turn it self into Charity thou didst excite no Choler that was not just indignation and thou feltest no pity but it was transformed into Mercy All that in our Nature is Humane was Divine in thine and the unconfused Mixture of two Natures whereof thou art composed made thy passions to be rather Miracles than Virtues Thy Anger served as an Officer to thy Fathers Iustice thy Compassion was the Interpreter of His Mercy and thy Love an earnest of His Good will How happy was that distressed man that drew tears from thine eyes how rich was that poor one whose wants thou didst bewail how puissant was the oppressed whose interests thou maintainedst how innocent was that Offender whose Conversion was wrought by thy Tears and how glorious was the infamous Sinner to whom thou witnessedst thy Love by thy Complaints and Sighs Heaven had a regard to all the motions of thy Soul the eternal Father never denied any thing to thy Tears and his Thunder-bolts never failed to fall upon their heads on whom thy just Anger called for punishment Thy Passions were the Organs of thy Divinity thy Sighs were no less powerful than thy Words and without using either Prayers or Vows the Desires were sufficient to make known thy Will What Admiration did these Motions of thy Soul cause in the Seraphim with what astonishment were those pure Intelligences strucken when they considered that God taking our nature upon him took part of her feelings and no part of her weaknesses That he wept with the wretched without interessing his happiness That he was Angry at those that were injured without troubling his Quiet That with the needy he formed desires without loss of his Abundance And that with Lovers he felt the flames of Love without enduring their Disturbances What a miracle was it to see that Anger should be kindled in thy Soul without trouble thereunto That Pity should wound thy Heart without weakning it That it should be enflamed with Love yet not consumed That it should be eaten up with Sorrow yet not disquieted What can I do less in honour of so many Wonders than to consecrate our Passions unto thee What less submission can I make to thy adored Power than loudly to avouch that there is none but thou who can teach us the use of these Motions And that it appertains only to thy Wisdom to change our Anger into Indignation our Pity into Mercy and our Love into Charity Indeed it is thou alone who canst rule our passions thou art he only who workest our good out of our Evil and of Poysons composest Antidotes Thou knowest men by their Inclinations thou seest without studying them the motions of their hearts and making benefit thereof dost wisely conduct them to thy end Thou employest Fear to take off a covetous man from those perishable Riches which possess him thou makest a holy use of Despair to withdraw from the World a Courtier whose youth had been mis-imployed in the service of some Prince thou makest an admirable use of Disdain to extinguish there with a lovers flames who is enslave by a proud beauty thou employest Choler to disabuse a Souldier whom a dissembling General feeds with vain hopes thou makest excellent use of Grief to cure a sick man who sought for his Souls happiness in his Bodies health and lost the remembrance of Heaven by being to strongly fastened to the Earth In fine thou makest Chains of all our Passions to unite our Wills to thine thou minglest Grace with Nature and makest Angels by the same disorders as they would have been made Devils Sin is the Theatre of thy Power as well as Nothing thou makest thy greatest Works issue out of two Subjects whereof the one is Barren the other Rebellious Out of Nothing thou drawest Existence and out of Sin thou extractest Grace thou findest every thing in its contrary and by an effectual violence which can proceed only from an infinite Power thou compellest Nothing to produce men and sin to make Saints But after these two Miracles which are thy Master-pieces we see not any thing more wonderful than the use which thou art able to make of our Passions for the changing of our Wills thou makest that serve thy designes which did serve thine enemies thou savest men by those Weaknesses which would have been their undoing and bestowing on them a little Divine Love thou turnest all their Passions into Virtues For when once Charity begins to reign in their souls they fear nothing but sin they wish for nothing but Grace Thou art the end of their Desires as thou art the object of their Love They change Condition without changing Nature though they have Passions they commit no more Offences and losing neither Hope nor Despair neither Audacity nor Fear neither Love nor Hatred they are free from all the mischiefs which accompany these Passions when they are Faulty But certainly if thy Mercy appear in well husbanding the inclinations of thy Friends to their
made him over-run the world commit spoiles throughout all Asia penetrate the Indies pass the Seas be angry with Nature which by the limits thereof did bound his conquests and force him to end his designes where the Sun finisheth his course Who is not affected with pity to see Pompey who drunk with love of a false greatness undertakes civil and foreign Wars Sometimes he passes into Spain to oppress Sertorius sometimes scoures the Seas to free them from Pyrats sometimes he flies into Asia to fight with Mithridates He ransacks all the Provinces of that great part of the world makes himself Enemies where he finds none After so many Fights and Victories 't is he alone that thinks himself not great enough and though men give him that name he thinks he deserves it not unless Iulius Caesar confess it Who hath not compassion for this man who was not so much the Slave as Martyr of Ambition For he prostituted his honour to get power he became slave to his Army that he might be Master of the Senate he vowed the destruction of his Countrey to revenge himself of his Son in Law Seeing no other State against which he could exercise his cruelty he employed it against the Republick and would merit the name of Patricide that he might obtain that of Soveraign He never had any motions save those that Ambition gave him If he pardoned his Enemies 't was but only out of vain-glory and if he bewailed the death of Cato and Pompey it was perhaps for that the honour of his Victory was lessened All his thoughts were ambitious When he saw the Image of Alexander he wept not save only for that he had not yet shed bloud enough Whatsoever offered it self to his Eyes awakened his Passions and Objects which would have taught others modesty inspired him with Pride and Insolency Briefly Caesar commanded over his Army and ambition commanded over Caesar she had such â—ower over him as the foretelling of his death did not make him change his Deâ—ign and doubtlesly he would have anâ—wered for himself to the Soothsayers as Agrippina answered for her Son to the Astrologers Let him kill me provided he may reign If servitude be so irksom in ambition 't is much more shameful in obscenity It must be confest That a man who is possest by this infamous Passion hath neither Reason nor Liberty and that being inslaved to Love he is no more Master of himself Did not Cleopatra govern Mark Anthony might not this Princess boast her self to have revenged Egypt upon Italy and to have subjected the Roman Empire by putting him under her Laws who governed it This unfortunate man lived only at the pleasure of this stranger he did nothing but by her motions and never did slave labour so much to win the good will of his Master as this effeminate Prince to win the like of his proud Mistress He gave all his Charges by her directions and the best part of the Roman Empire groaned under the government of a woman He durst not overcome in the batel of Actium and rather chose to forgo his Army than his Love He was the first Commander that abandoned his Souldiers and who would not make use of their courage to defeat his Enemy but what could one expect from a man who had no more any heart and who far enough from fighting could not so much as live if parted from Cleopatra In brief read the story of all the great ones and you will find their Passions have enflamed them and that in the height of their fortune they have made use of all the punishments that tyranny could invent to afflict those that she oppresseth Therefore ought all men to make use of Reason and Grace to shun the fury of these insolent Masters every one ought to resolve in his particular rather to lose his life than his liberty and to prefer a glorious death before a shameful servitude But without coming to these extreams in this Combat a will to overcome is sufficient to be victorious for God hath permitted that our good fortune depend upon our Will together with his Grace and that our Passions should have no further power over us than we shall give them since in effect experience teacheth us that they beat us not but by our own weapons and that they make us not their slaves but by our own consent The THIRD DISCOURSE That to govern Passions a man must moderate them THough Passions be ordained for the service of virtue and that there is not any one of them the use whereof may not be advantageous to us we must notwithstanding confess that we need dexterity to govern them and that in the state whereinto sin hath reduced our Nature they cannot be useful to us unless moderated that unhappy Forefather oâ— ours who made us to inherit his fault hath not left us so pure a being as he had wheâ— he received it from God The body and soul suffer pain and as they were both guilty so are they both punished The understanding hath its errors the will her irregular inclinations the memory her weakness The body which is the Channeâ— through which Original sin passeth into the soul hath its misery and though it be the less faulty yet is it the more unfortunate all that is in it is out of order the senses are seduced by Objects these help to abuse Imagination which excites disorders in the inferior part of the soul and raiseth Passions so as they are no longer in that obedience wherein Original Justice kept them and though they be subject to the Empire of Reason yet they so mutinie as they are not to be brought within the compass of their duty but by force or cunning They are born to obey the understanding but they easily forget their condition and the commerce which they hold with the senses is the cause why they oft-times prefer their advises at the commandments of the will They raise themselves up with such might as their natural motions are for the most part violent They are horses which have more of fury than of force They are seas which are oftner troubled than calm In fine they are parts of our selves which cannot serve the understanding till it hath allaied or tamed them This ought not to seem strange 〈…〉 that know what spoil sin hath 〈…〉 nature and the very Philosopher 〈…〉 fess that virtue is an art which 〈…〉 learn'd will not find it unjust that the Passions be not obedient unless governed by Reason To execute so great a design a man must imitate nature and art and consider what means they use to finish their work Nature which doth all by the Elements and who of these four bodies composeth all others never employs them till she hath tempered their qualities As they cannot suffer together and that their natural antipathy engages them to fight this wise Mother by allaing their aversions appeaseth their differences and never unites them 'till she hath
the liberty thereof the world doth yet bemoan this disaster the spoils of this shipwrack are yet seen and the States of Europe are but so many pieces which did compose the Body of that puissant Republique Ambition when confounded with virtue is guilty of more murders than Revenge and Choler though this passion pretend to be generous she is always stained with blood whatsoever delight she takes in pardoning her greatness is grounded upon the ruine of her enemies she is cause of more deaths than she procureth pardons and she is the loss of more innocents than safety of those that are guilty She astonisheth all the world when she is seen in the person of an Alexander And it seems Nature produced him to no other end than to teach us what ambition can do when assisted by fortune He ruined all Princes who would defend their own States he treated those as Enemies who refused to be his Subjects he could not permit an equal in any place through which he passed He complained of the Seas that stopt the current of his victories and wisht for a new world that he might conquer it If his vain-glory caused so many disorders his Choler committed no less ransack and if by the one he revenged himself of his Enemies he rid his hands of his Friends by the other the least suspitions encouraged these passions to revenge one indiscreet word provoked it an honest freedom set it a going and his Choler grew to be so nice as there was as much danger in doing well as in saying ill As he was possessed by all these violences so did he obey them he dipped his hands in the bloud of his Favourites he took upon him the office of a Hangman and that he might taste all the pleasures of revenge he himself would be the Minister thereof and with his own hands kill him who had saved his life But amongst all the cruelties whereunto his Choler oft did perswade him I know none more infamous than that which he exercised upon Innocent Calisthenes his condition was a Sanctuary to him and professing Phylosophy it seemed he ought not fear the fury of Alexander the very fault for which he was condemed was glorious and had it happened in the time of true Religion it would have passed for an eminent virtue for he defended the cause of his gods and was of opinion that Temples could not be built to his Prince without provoking the gods against him he guided himself so dexterously in so ticklish a business as that whilst he preserved the honour of Heaven he flattered Alexanders humour and by an admirable piece of cunning he accorded flattery with piety for if the reasons which Quintus Curtius alledgeth be true he represented unto the Macedonians that since men could not dispose of Crowns they ought not to dispose of Altars that since they made not Kings they ought not go about to make Gods and that when humane vanity would attribute unto it self that power she could not make use thereof till after the death of such as she would Deisie that to receive adoration from men one must keep far from any commerce with them lose his life to purchase a divinity That Alexander was yet necessary to them and that he ought not to mount into the Heavens till he had conquered all the Earth This short Oâ—aâ—ion was able to have obliged the most ambitious of mankind yet did it offend the vain-glory of this Prince and so far provoked his Choler as not many days after he caused this Philosopher to be put to death not allowing him liberty to defend himself This Murder drew upon him the hatred of all Greece and as Parmenio's death had exasperated all the Souldiers this of Calisthenes did much more all the Orators and these men who revenge themselves with their Tongue have spoke so oft of this excess as it is yet dishonour to him that did commit it All the praises that can be given to his gallant actions are darkned by the murder of Calisthenes And that I may make use of Seneca's eloquent words this irregular proceeding is Alexander's everlasting fault which neither his Fortune nor his Valour will ever be able to blot out For if a man shall say he defeated the Persians in three pitcht Battels another will say he slew Calisthenes If men put a valuation upon him for having overcome Darius the most puissant Monarch of the world they will blame him for having killed Calisthenes If men praise him for having carried the Bounds of his Empire to the utmost parts of the East they will add he was guilty of the death of Calisthenes If finally to end his Panegyrick a man shall say he hath stained the glory of as many Princes as preceded him another will reply his fault is greater than his valour and that all his actions of memory are sullied by Calisthenes his Blood This example ought to instruct and teach all Princes that if irregular Passions are maladies in private men they are Plagues and contagious diseases in publick Personages and that if well guided by Reason they may become glorious virtues they may by the tyranny of our senses degenerate into most infamous vices The THIRD DISCOURSE That there are no Passions which may not be changed into Virtues VVE have said in our former discourses that Passions are the seeds of Virtues that by having a care of husbanding them well their effects were very advantageous to us But proceeding on further my intention is in this discourse to teach Christians the secret how they may change them into Virtues and to take from them whatsoever they have of savage or monstrous This Metamorphosis is certainly very hard but not impossible and if we advise with nature she will furnish us with inventions for this wise Mother is continually working of strange alterations Her power never appears to be greater than when she alters the Elements or Metals and when she takes from them their former qualities that she may give them others more excellent and more noble But she observes therein an admirable method which well deserves consideration for though she be all-powerful and that holding the place of God she may act as a Soveraign and do what she pleaseth with the Elements or Metals yet doth she never use violence and she seemeth rather to accommodate her self to their interests than to her own inclinations she observeth their sympathies and worketh no alteration which is not agreeable unto them Thus we see she ratifies air to change it into fire and conduceth water to turn it into earth thus we observe she purifies silver to give it the tincture of Gold and labours whole ages to finish without violence this useful Metamorphosis Now as Morality is an imitation of Nature her chief care ought to be employed in observing the proprieties of our Passions and in converting them into virtues which are not contrary unto them for he that would go about to
make us faulty or miserable one might see them make love in their Writings fight in Fables and one might observe in them all the chief affections of those that had invented them Philosophers not able to endure so unjust gods formed more rational Deities and proposed unto the people the Idols of their own minds every one figured out unto himself a god according to his own inclinations and gave him what advantages may be imagined Some placed him in idleness and that they might not trouble his rest berest him of the knowledge or government of our affairs some made him so good as that he suffered all faults to go unpunisht and dealt as favourably with the guilty as with the innocent others made him so rigorous as it seemed he had created man only to destroy him and that he found no contentment but in the death of his Subjects this disorder hath passed from Religion into State-government and according to the ages wherein men have lived they have framed unto themselves divers Ideas of Kings personages and have placed in their Princes such perfections only as they were acquainted withal for in the beginning of the world when people preferred the body before the soul they chose such Kings as were of an extraordinary stature and who were as strong as Giants Nay it seemed that God would apply himself to this humor when he gave Saul unto the Israelites for the Scripture sayes He was higher by the head than all his subjects and when the Poets describe unto us their Heroes they never fail in giving them this advantage but when time had taught us that our good resided not in the body men begun to consider the mind of such men as they would make their Kings and cast their eyes upon such as had most of government in them or most of courage they observed their inclinations and knowing what power their inclinations have over their wills they esteemed them no less than Virtues But Opinions do so differ upon this Subject as a man may say that every Politician fancies unto himself a Prince according to his humour and indues him with that Passion which is most agreeable unto himself Some have wished that their Prince had no Passion at all and that being the Image of God he should be raised above the Creatures he should see all the motions of the earth without any alteration oâ— spirit but we know very well that his being in a higher condition than his subjects makes him not be of another nature and that since he is not exempt from the Diseases of the Body he cannot defend himself against the passions of the soul. Others have been of opinion that he ought to have aâ— passions that like unto the Sun and constellations he should be in a perpetual motion and employ all his care and all his thoughts upon the welfare of his State Some have thought that the desire of glory was the most lawful Passion in a King and that since Fortune had endued him with all the goods she could confer upon him he should only labour how to atchieve honour That virtue was only preserved by this desire and that he who valued not reputation could not love Justice that a Prince ought not to endeavour the eternizing of his memory by the pomp of glorious Buildings but by the gallantry of his actions that setting all other things at nought he should only study how to leave a happy memory of his reign after his death That nothing could more further him in this generous design than an insatiable desire of Glory that Riches were the goods of particular men but that glory was the humor of Kings and that he might well hazard all other things to compass it Others less glorious but more rational have thought that fear ought to reign in the soul of Princes and that as their wisdom exceeded their valour the apprehension of danger should in them also surpass the desire of glory for to boot that their fortune is exposed to a thousand mischiefs that the greater it is it runs the greater danger that it is the more brittle by how much the more glorious they are bound to prevent accidents by their watchfulness to withstand storms by their Constancy and to forgo their own happiness to share in the misery of their Subjects All these opinions are upheld by examples for there have been some Kings who have known so well how to moderate their passions as they seemed not to have any they have not been troubled at ill Successes and they would receive the news of a Defeat with the same countenance as the tidings of Victory The quiet of their mind was not altered by the divers functions they were obliged unto they punished faults with the same easiness as they rewarded Virtue and whatever alteration befell their States you should find none in them they seemed to be raised to so high a pitch of perfection as one might say in the weakness of man they had the assurance of a God There have been others whose government hath been no less happy and who have yet been of a quite different disposition for as their Empire was no less dear unto them than were their own bodies no alteration could happen therein which might not be read in their faces good success put them in good humor they were afflicted at unhappy accidents they were touched to the quick even with evils that threatned them from afar off and every thing that befel their State made so strong an impression in them as they seemed to live in two bodies and that having two lives to lose they had two deaths to fear I dare not blame this their restlesness since it was occasioned by an extream love and a body must be unjust to condemn a Prince that makes himself miserable for no other cause but that he may make his Subjects happy Augustus Caesar was of this humor and though he had endeavoured to compass so much constancy as not to be troubled at any thing yet could he not hear of any good or bad success which befel his Common-wealth without witnessing his resentment thereof by his word and actions Varrus his defeat cost him tears and this accident which he was not prepared for made him say such things as I do rather impute to his affection than to his weakness since upon other occasions he had given so good proof of his Courage Their number is great who have laboured after glory and who have had no other Passion but how to acquire honour Nothing seemed difficult unto them which bear with it the face of glory insomuch as by an inevitable misfortune they neglected virtue when in obscurity and put a valuation upon a glorious vice According to their Tenets it was as lawful to overthrow a State as to found one to oppress a Republick as to defend it and to undertake a War against Allies as well as against Enemies They run after glory
yet all these troubles are the hunters pleasures and their passion to this Exercise makes them term that a pastime which Reason would term a punishment There is nothing of delight in war the very name thereof is odious were it not accompanied with injustice disorder and fear it would notwithstanding have horrors enough to astonish all men death makes her self be there seen in a thousand different shapes there is no exercise in war wherein the danger doth not exceed the glory and it never furnisheth souldiers with any actions which are not as bloudy as glorious yet those that love it make it their delight they esteem all the deformities thereof beauties and by an inclination which proceeds rather from their love than from their humour they find delight in dangers and taste the pleasantness of peace in the tumults of war This it is which made St. Augustine say That Lovers troubles are never troublesom and that they never find pain in serving what they love or if they do they cherish it But we shall never make an end if we would observe all the proprieties of Love I therefore pass on to the effects thereof which being so many pictures of Love will represent unto us its nature and will discover unto us what it is able to do The first of its miracles is that which we call Extasie for it frees the Soul from the Body which she inanimates that she may join to the Object which she loveth it parts us from our selves by a pleasing violence and what the holy Scripture attributes to the Spirit of God befals this miraculous division so as a lover is never at home with himself if you will find him you must seek him in the person that he adores He will have people know that contrary to the Laws of wisdom he is always without himself and that he hath forsaken all care of his own preservation since he became a slave to love The Saints draw their glory from this extasie and truth it self which speaks by their mouths obligeth them to confess that they live more in Jesus Christ than in themselves Now as a man must die to himself to live in another death accompanieth this life and as well sacred as prophane lovers cannot love unless they be bound to die 'T is true that this death is advantageous to them since it procures unto them a life wherewithal they are better pleased than with that which they have lost for they live again in those that they love by a miracle of love they like the Phenix take life again from their ashes and recover life in the very bosom of death He who doth not conceive this truth cannot understand those words by which S. Paul teacheth us that we are dead unto our selves and alive in Jesus Christ. This effect produceth another which is not much less admirable for as lovers have no other life than what they borrow from their love it infallibly falls out that they transform themselves thereinto and that ceasing to be what they were they begin to be that which they love they change condition as well as nature and by a wonder which would surpass all belief were it not usual they become like unto that which they cherish 'T is true that this power shines much more gloriously in divine than in prophane Love for though Kings abase themselves in loving their Subjects and that they forgo their greatness as soon as they engage themselves in friendship yet do they not raise those up into their Throne whom they love Jealousie which is inseparable from Royalty will not suffer them to give their Crown away to him who possesseth their heart But if they should arrive at this excess the Maxim would only be true in them and their Subjects could not change conditions by the force of their love for the love of greatness makes not a Soveraign nor is a man the more accommodated though he love riches the desire of health did never yet cure a sick man we have not found that the bare Passion to know hath made men wise But divine Love hath so much power as it raseth us up above our selves by a strange Metamorphosis it makes us be that which it makes us love It renders the guilty innocent it makes slaves children changeth Demons into Angels and that we may not diminish the virtue thereof whilst we think to heighten it let it suffice to say that of men it makes Gods It doth not therefore become us to complain of our misery and to accuse our Creator for not having equalled our condition to that of Angels for though those pure spirits have great advantages over us and that we hope for no other good than that which they possess yet are we happy enough since we are permitted to love God and that we are made to hope that our nature being by love transformed into his nature we shall lose what we have of mortal and perishable to acquire what is incorruptible and eternal This is the Consolation of divine Lovers and this is the only means how to aspire without blame to that happiness which Lucifer could not do but with impiety I cannot end this Discourse without justly reproaching those that whilst they may love God engage their affections on the earth or on earthly things and deprive themselves of that immense felicity which divine love promiseth them for in loving of the creatures they cannot share in their perfections without doing the like in their defaults after having laboured much they oft-times change an obscure and peaceable condition into a more glorious but a more dangerous one So there is always hazard in the love of the creatures and the advantage that may be drawn from thence is never so pure but that it is mingled with somewhat of misfortune For whatsoever passion we have for the creature we are not sure the creature hath the like for us yet this miraculous change which passeth for the principal effect of love is made in this mutual affection and in this correspondency of friendship But we run not these hazzards in consecrating our love to God his perfections are not accompanied with faults and we know it cannot be disadvantageous to us to make a change with him Our love is never without this acknowledgment since it is rather the effect than the cause of his and that we love not him till he hath first loved us He is so just as he never denies our affection the recompense which it deserves he is not like those misbelieving Mistresses who amongst the numbers of their Lovers prefer him who is best behaved before him that loveth best in the commerce which we hold with him we are sure that he that hath most charity shall have most glory and that in his Kingdom the most faithful lover shall be always the most honoured The SECOND DISCOURSE Of the Badness of Love SInce there is nothing so sacred but meets with some
sacrilegious person which doth prophane it we must not wonder if Love which is the holiest Passion of our Soul meet with impious persons which corrupt it and who contrary to its own inclination make it serve their designs for love seeks only the Summum bonum she is not without some sort of violence made to love her own particular good which is but the shadow of what she desires to abuse it therefore sin must disorder nature and turn natural love into self-love making the Spring-head of good the original of all our evil For during the state of innocency men had no love save only for good and nature was so well temper'd with grace as that all her inclinations were holy In this happy condition charity and self love were the same thing and a man feared not to injure his neighbour by loving himself but since his disobedience his love changed Nature he who looked upon another mans advantage and his own with the same Eye began to separate them and forgetting what he ought to God he made a god of himself He confounded all the Laws of Innoceney and as if he alone had been in the world he forsook the sweets of Society he took a resolution to rule his affections by his own interests and to love no longer any thing but what was useful and pleasing unto him This mischief like poyson disperst it self throughout the whole fabrick of Nature and Reason cannot defend her self against it without the assistance of Grace The gallantest actions lost their lustre by this irregularity Philosophy by all her precepts could not reform a disorder which was rather in the bottom of Nature than in the Will She put some of her might to fight against this Monster and spying a glimering of light amidst the darkness with which she was blinded she confessed that man did not belong so much to himself as to his Country and that he ought endeavour more the glory of the State than the good of his own family She thought that the love of our neighbour should be formed upon the love of our selves and believed that in willing us to treat them as our selves she had corrected all the abuse of Humane Nature But this malady lying not only in the Understanding her advice was not sufficient to cure it so as she was enforced to confess that there was none could reform man but he that made him Thus shall we find no remedy for our misfortunes but by the assistance of Grace and our desires have had no freedom save since Jesus Christ came into the world to banish self-love from out our souls for his coming had no other motive nor his Doctrine any other end than the ruine of this dreadful Monster He setteth upon it throughout all his Maxims and hardly doth any word proceed from his divine mouth which gives it not a mortal wound He protests he would admit of no Disciples who have not changed their selflove into an holy aversion and that he will not suffer any Subject in his Kingdom who are not ready to lose their lives for the glory of their Soveraign He condemns the excess of riches and the love of honour only for that they nourish this inordinate Passion and he obligeth us to love our enemies only to teach us to hate our selves Mortification and Humility which are the ground-works of his doctrine tend only to destroy this inordinate affection which we bear unto our Souls or our Bodies In fine he hath appointed us charity only to overthrow self-love and he died upon the Cross only to make his enemy die which is the cause of all our quarrels and divisions We ought also to confess that this evil includes all others and that there is no disorder in the world which doth not acknowledge this for its original and I am of opinion that a man cannot only not make a good Christian of one that doth too excessively love himself but I hold that according to the laws of Policy and Morality one cannot make a good man nor a good Statesman of such a man for Justice it absolutely necessary in all manner of conditions and this Virtue cannot subsist with self-love Justice will have a man endued with Reason to prefer the inclinations of the soul before those of the body and that he preserve all the rights of authority to the Soveraign Self-love which leans always towards the flesh will have the slave to govern his Master and that the Body command over the Soul Justice will have a good man not to wish for any thing which exceeds his merit or his birth and she instructeth him that to be happy and innocent he must prescribe bounds to his designs Self-love commands us to follow our own inclinations and to govern our desires only according to our Vanity it flatters our Ambition and to insinuate it self into us it gives us leave to do what we please Justice will have a good Statesman prefer the publick interest before that of his own house that he be ready to lose his wealth and to sacrifice his own person for the preservation of his Country she perswades him that there is no death more glorious than that which is suffered for the defence of a mans Country and that the Horatii and Scaevola's are famous in the Roman History only for having sacrificed themselves to the Glory of their Common-wealth though there be nothing more natural to a man than to love his Children some men have been found whom Justice hath made to lose this affection to preserve the like of good Statesmen who solicited by this Virtue have butcherd those whose fathers they were teaching by so rigorous an example that the love to a mans Country ought to exceed the love to his own flesh and blood A State cannot be happy wherein there 〈◊〉 any doubts made of these Maxims as oft 〈◊〉 the publick interest shall give way unto thâ—â— particular it shall always be near ruine anâ— shall have no less trouble to defend it selâ— against its subjects than against its enemies Self-love this mean while makes a man labour only for his own pleasure or glory 〈◊〉 makes this the end of all his actions anâ— doth so bind man up within himself as 〈◊〉 suffereth him not to consider the publick if he do his Country any service it is in order to his own particular good and wheâ— he seems most busie for the good of thâ— State he wisheth the slavery thereof 〈◊〉 conspires its ruine Marius Scilla do witness these truths Pompey and Caesar haâ—â— made us see how dangerous such Statesmen are who love themselves better than thâ— Common-wealth and who so they maâ— preserve their own power fear not to 〈◊〉 press their Countries liberty In Religion this unjust Passion is 〈◊〉 more fatal and Piety can never agree wiâ—â— Self-love For there is no man that understands any thing who will not affirm thâ— to be godly a man must submit himself 〈◊〉
the will of God That with like submissiâ— we ought to receive punishments and rewards at his hands that we must adore the thunder wherewith he smiteth us and have as great respect unto his Justice as to his Mercy that we must be cruel to our selves to be obedient to him That it iâ— Piety to â—mmolate the innocent to him when he demands them and that as there is no creature which owes not his being to his Power there is none who is not bound to lose it for his Glory Then what man is he who will submit to these truths if he be a slave to self-love and how shall he be faithful to God if he be in love with himself I conclude then that this inordinate affection is the undoing of Families the ruine of States and the loss of Religion that to live in the world a man must denounce war to this common enemy of Society and that imitating the elements which force their inclinations to exclude a vacuum we must use violence upon our desires to overcome a Passion so pernicious to Nature and Grace From this Spring-head of mischief flow three rivers which drown the whole world and which cause a deluge from the which it is very hard to save ones self for from this inordinate love arise three other loves which poyson all souls and which banish all Virtue from the earth The first is the love of Beauty which we term Incontinencie The second is the love of Riches which we call Avarice The third is the love of Glory which we call Ambition These three capital enemies of mans welfare and quiet corrupt all that belongs to him and render him guilty in his soul in his body and in his goods It is hard to say which of these three monsters is hardest to overcome for to boot with their natural forces they have Auxiliaries which they draw from our inclinations or from our habits and which make them so redoubted that they are not to be overcome without a miracle To consider them notwithstanding in themselves Ambition is the most haughty and the strongest Voluptuousness the most mild and soft and Avarice the basest and most opinionated These are fought against by divers means and all Morality is busied in furnishing us with reasons to defend our selves against them The Vanity of Honour hath cured some that have been thereof ambitious For when they come to know that they laboured after a good which happened not to them till after death and that from so many dangerous actions they could only expect to have their sepulchers adorn'd or some commendation in History they have ceased to covet an Idol which rewardeth ill the slaves that serve it and that for a little applause which it promiseth them obligeth them many times to shed their own bloud or that of their neighbour The infamy of the voluptuous the mischiefs which accompany them the displeasures which follow them and the shame which never forsakes them have oft-times cured men to whom sin had left a little reason Age may likewise be a cure for this it is a disorder in nature to find a lascivious old man and it is no less strange to see love under gray hairs than to see those mountains whose heads are covered with snow and whose bowels are full of flames The misery of riches the pain that is taken in accumulating them the care in preserving them the evils which they cause to their owners the ease which they afford to content unjust desires and the sorrow caused by their loss are considerations strong enough to make those contemn them who are not as yet become slaves thereunto But when they shall exercise their tyranny upon the spirits I esteem their malady incurable Age which cures other Passions encreaseth this Covetous men never love riches more than when they are near losing them and as love is then most sensible when it apprehends the absence of the party beloved Avarice is most violent when it apprehendeth the loss of its wealth But without medling with another mans work I shall content my self with saying that to preserve a mans self from all these evils he must endeavour to forgo self-love For as natural love causeth all the passions inordinate love causeth all the Vices and whosoever shall be vigilant in the weakning of this Passion by repentance and charity shall find himself happily freed from Avarice Ambition and Incontinency But to arrive at this high degree of happiness we must remember that in whatsoever condition Providence hath placed us we are not for our selves but for the publick and that we must not love our selves to the prejudice of our Soveraign We are in nature a portion of the Universe in civil life a part of the State in Religion we are the Members of Jesus Christ. In all these conditions self-love must be sacrificed to universal love In nature we must die to give place to those that follow us In the State we must contribute our goods and our bloud for the defence of our Prince and in Religion we must kill the old Adam that Jesus Christ may live in us The THIRD DISCOURSE Of the good Vse of Love MOrality considers not so much the goodness of things as the good use of them she neglects natural perfections and puts a valuation only upon their rational employment Metals are indifferent to her nor doth she consider them otherwise than earth whose colour the Sun hath changed But she blames the abuse and commends the good husbanding thereof she is troubled when wicked men abuse them to oppress the innocent to corrupt Judges to violate the Laws and to seduce Women She is well pleased when good men make use thereof to nourish the poor cloath the naked to set Captives at liberty and to succour the miserable There is nothing more glorious than the vivacity wherewithal Nature hath endued men nobly endued 'T is the key which opens unto them the Treasury of Science be it either to acquire them or to distribute them to others 't is that which is acceptable to all companies and 't is a quality which is as soon beloved as seen Yet doth not Morality esteem it otherwise than as it is well husbanded and S. Augustine who acknowledged it for a Grace confesseth it hath been pernicious to him by reason of his ill employment thereof and because he had entertained it amongst his errors Love without all question is the holiest of all our Passions and the greatest advantage which we have received from Nature since by the means thereof we may fasten our selves to good things and make our souls perfect in the love thereof 'T is the spirit of Life the Cement of the whole world an innocent piece of art by which we change condition not changing Nature and we transform our selves into the party whom we love 'T is the truest and purest of all pleasures 't is a shadow of that happiness which the blessed
enjoy Earth would be Hell if Love were vanisht thence and it would be a great piece of rigour in God if he should permit us to see handsom things and forbid us to love them But that we may the better govern this Passion we must learn of Morality what Laws to prescribe unto it and what liberty we must allow it There are three objects of our Love God Man and Creatures deprived of Reason Some Philosophers have doubted whether we could love the first or no they were perswaded his greatness did rather require our adoration than our love but though this be a religious opinion and that it merits the greater esteem since it proceeds from the prophane we cannot deny but that we were endued with love to unite us to God for to boot with our thorough sense of this inclination to boot that it is imprinted by Nature in the very ground-work of our wills and that uninstructed by our Parents or our Teachers we labour after the Summumbonum Reason teacheth us that he is the Abyss of all perfections and the Center of all love so as a man need not fear committing any excess in loving him with all his might He is so good as he cannot be loved so much as he ought to be and let a man do his utmost he is obliged to confess that the goodness of God doth far exceed the greatness of mans Love Such Souls as are elevated and approach nearer unto him complain of their coolness and wish that all the parts of their Bodies were turned into Tongues to praise him or into Hearts to love him They are troubled that since his greatness is so well known his goodness is no more loved and that having so many subjects he hath no more that love him We must not then prescribe any bounds to this Passion when it hath respect unto God but every one ought to make it his sole desire and to wish that his heart were dilated that he might infinitely love him who is infinitely lovely but we must take great heed not to rob him of what doth so justly belong unto him and we must remember that though his goodness should not force his duty from us we should be bound to render it unto him in order to our own interest For our love is never content but when it rests in God It fears infidelity in the creatures is never so assured of them but that there remains some rational doubts and though it should have such proofs of their good will as that it were constrained to banish all suspition yet would it fear lest death might take from it what good fortue hath given in one or other of these just apprehensions it could not shun being miserable But it knows very well that God is immutable that he never forsaketh us till we have forsaken him it knows that God is eternal and that death being no less distant from him than change his affection cannot end but through our infidelity 'T is true there are carnal souls who complain that he is invisible and who cannot resolve to give up their hearts to a Divinity which doth not content their eyes But all things are full of him his greatness is poured out in all the parts of the Universe every Creature is an Image of his perfections he seems to have made these pictures only to make himself be thereby known and loved and if he should not have used this piece of skill we need only consult with our own Reason to know what he is Error cannot corrupt her and in the souls of Pagans she hath verified Oracles Those very men who offered Incense unto Idols knew very well that there was but one God when Nature spake in their mouths she made them speak like Christians and they confess'd those truths for which they persecuted the Martyrs For as Tertullian observes their soul was naturally Christian when they were surprized with a danger they implored the succour of the true God and not that of their Iupiter when they took an oath they raised up their eyes towards heaven not towards the Capitol so as we must not complain that God is invisible but we must wish that he may be as much loved as he is known And moreover this complaint is no more to be admitted of since the mystery of the Incarnation where God became man that he might treat with men where he hath given sensible proofs of his presence and where clothing himself with our nature he hath suffered our eyes to behold his beauty our hands to touch his body and our ears to hear his voice Since that happy moment he is become our Allie and he who was our Soveraign is become our Brother to the end that this double quality might oblige us to love him with more ardor and might permit us to accost him with more freedom we cannot then fail in the use of that love which we owe unto him but by being either too much reserved or too unfaithful But the love we render to men may be defective in two manner of ways and we may abuse it either in loving them too much or not enough as shall be shewn in the pursuit of this Discourse Friendship is certainly one of the chief effects of Love and the harmlessest delight which men can take in Society Very Barbarians did reverence the Name thereof those who despise the Laws of Civility put an estimation upon the laws of friendship and cannot live within their Forrests without having some whom they trust who know their thoughts who rejoyce at their good fortune and who are afflicted when any ill besals them Thieves who intrench upon the publick liberty who make war in time of peace and who seem desirous to stifle that love which Nature hath placed in mankind cease not to bear respect to friendship they have a certain shadow of society amongst them they keep their word though with prejudice to their condition tortures cannot sometimes make them violate their Faith and they will rather lose their lives than betray their Companions In fine people subsist only by virtue hereof and who should banish friendship from off the earth must raze Towns and send men into Desarts She is more powerful than the Laws and who shall have well established her in Kingdoms need neither tortures nor punishments to contain the wicked within their duties But to be just she must have her bounds to be true she must be founded upon Piety those who will love one another must be united in faith and must have the same sense of Religion their friendship must be a study after Virtue and they must labour to become better by their mutual communication their souls should rather be mingled than united from this mixture a perfect community of all things must arise their goods must be no more divided and the words thine mine which cause whatever there is of division in the world must be totally
is the more delicate and the more dangerous For this Philosopher pleads always for the Soul against the Body all his gallant Maximes tend only to re-establish Reason in her Empire and to give her absolute power over the Passions He cannot endure that a Subject should become a Soveraign and pride which enlivens all his Doctrine furnisheth him with strong reasons to oppose voluptuousness He will have the Soul to treat her Body as her slave that she grant unto it nothing but things necessary and abridge it of all superfluities He will have her nourish the Body to the end that it may be serviceable to her He will have her love it only as a faithful servant that she employ it to execute her designes But he wills likewise when Reason shall require it she abandon it to the flames expose it to savage beasts and that she oblige it to undergo deaths as cruel as shameful All these are bold cogitations we must confess they proceed from a generously minded man and that he makes good use of the vanity of the Soul to overcome the delights of the Body but by curing one evil he causeth a greater by closing up a slight wound he opens a deeper by chasing self-love from the Body he drives it into the Soul and to prevent a man from becoming a beast he endeavours to make him a Devil these who side with this Philosopher are enforced to confess this Truth and if they who hold his Maximes would examine themselves well they will confess that they rather puffe up than heighten Courage and that they inspire the soul with more of vanity than strength But the Doctrine of Jesus Christ produceth a clean contrary effect for it subdues the body without making the soul insolent it sets at one and the same time both upon Pride and voluptuousness and whilst it ordains mortification to submit the senses to Reason it commands abnegation to subject the will unto God Therefore if it be lawful for me to explain the intentions of Jesus Christ and to serve him as an interpreter I believe that the Hatred which he requires from us should pass from the Body to the soul and that to be perfect it should extend it self to all the disorders that sin hath wrought in us for nature hath lost her purity and the two parts whereof we are composed are become equally criminal the inclinations of the soul are not more innocent than are those of the body the one and the other of them have their weaknesses let Philosophers say what they please they are both corrupted the understanding is clouded by darknesses ignorance is natural thereunto it learns with difficulty forgets easily though truth be its object it forgoes truth for falshood and is enforced to acknowledg by the mouth of the wisest man in the world that there are some errors which is easilier perswaded unto than to some truths Memory is not more happy though she pass for a miracle of Nature that she keeps deposited all the species she is trusted withal that she boasts to represent them without confusion and to be the enlivened treasure of all wise men yet since our disobedience she is become unfaithful by reason of a contagion which hath infected all the faculties of the Soul â—â—e fails us at our needs and furnishes us rather with unuseful than with necessary things the Will as most absolute is also most criminal for though it have so strong inclinations for the Summum bonum as that sin hath not been able to eface it yet she indifferently betakes her self to all objects that delight her not listning to the advice of Reason she follows the errors of opinion and is guided by the report which the senses make which are ignorant and unfaithful messengers so as man is bound to make war as well against his Soul as his Body and to extend his hatred to both the parts which go to his composition since they are equally corrupted and to obey Jesus Christ he must fight against the darkness of his understanding the weakness of his memory the wickedness of his will the error of his imagination the perfidiousness of his senses and the rebellion of all the parts of his Body These evil qualities which spoil the workmanship of God are the true objects of our aversion 't is the evil we may hate with innocence and with Justice punish 't is the enemy we are obliged to fight with and to overcome for to comprehend in few words the intentions of Jesus Christ and the obligation of Christians we must hate in our selves all those sins which disorder hath placed there and which grace could not suffer there we must destroy in our selves all that grace will have destroy'd but very well knowing that in this combat the victory is doubtful we must humbly intreat the Son of God who prepares Crowns for the Victor to endue us with Charity to the end that thereby self-love may be diminished in us and the detestation of our selves augmented THE SECOND BOOK OF Desire and Eschewing The FIRST DISCOURSE Of the Nature Proprieties and Effects of Desire AS Good is the only Object of Love it never changeth form but it obligeth this Passion to undertake new Customes she depends so absolutely upon it as she changeth names and offices as oft as it changeth condition when it is present and discovers unto her all its Beauties she swims in pleasure when it runs any hazard she is seized on by fear when it is assaulted by enemies she takes up arms and grows cholerick to defend it when it is parted from her she is afflicted and suffers her self to be over-born with grief when it is absent she consumes her self in wishes and chargeth her desires to go find out an object the far distance whereof causeth all her anxieties for Desire is nothing els but the motion of the soul towards a good which she already loveth but doth not as yet possess she extends her self that she may arrive at it she endevors to forsake her body and to separate her self from her self that she may join her self to what she seeks after she forgets her own delights that she may not think of any thing save her beloved object she forceth her self to overcome Nature and Fortune and in spite of them to render present the absent good which she desires By this Definition it is easie to observe the proprieties of Desire the first whereof is restlesness which will not suffer the soul which hath conceived it to taste any true contentment for this soul is in a violent condition she fights with the body which she inanimates that she may unite her self to an object which she loveth Nature detains her in the one and Love carries her to the other she is divided between these two powerful Soveraigns and she feels a torment little less rigorous than death Thus have we seen men who to free themselves thereof have
to abuse them and by irrational consequences which Philosophy cannot have taught them they conclude that they ought to be wicked because God is good and that we ought to offend him because he doth not punish his enemies had not these shameless sinners lost their judgment together with their Piety they would argue after another manner and say That since God is good man must be obedient that since he is prone to forgive man ought to have a care how to offend him and that since he loves the welfare of man man ought to love his Honour But certainly if they had not these just considerations Gods mercy should not maintain in them their foolish confidence for to boot that his Mercy agrees with his Justice and that the one doth not intrench upon the others rights he hath so temper'd his Promises with his Threats in the holy Scripture as they banish from out the soul of man both Despair and Presumption to assure those that despair he hath proposed Penitency unto them the gate whereof is open to all those that repent and to terrifie the presumptuous who through their delays despise his mercy he hath made the day of death uncertain and hath reduced them to a necessity of fearing a moment which as being unknown may surprize the whole world THE FOURTH TREATISE OF Audacity and Fear The FIRST DISCOURSE Of the Nature Proprieties and Effects of Audacity and Fear IF Virtues be the more to be valued by reason of the difficulties which accompany them if such as are most painful be most beautiful we must confess that among Passions Audacity ought to be esteemed the most glorious since it is the most difficult and that it undertakes to fight against whatsoever is most terrible in the world for though Hope be generous and that she be not pleased with what is good unless it be auster yet doth the beauty thereof invite her to seek after it and the charms thereof endue her with strength to overcome the difficulties which surround it but Audacity wants this assistance and considers an object which hath nothing in it of lovely she sets upon evil and coming in to the aid of Hope she denounceth war to her enemies and proposeth no other recompense in the combat but glory she is of the humour of Conquerors who leave all the booty to their Souldiers reserving only the honour to themselves For all those that describe her nature agree in this that she is a Passion of the Soul which goes in quest of dangers to grapple with them and overcome them she may therefore be termed a natural Fortitude and a disposition to that generous Virtue which triumphs in sorrow and in death as she undertakes nothing but what is difficult she is more severe than pleasing a certain severity may be seen in their countenances whom she inanimates which sufficiently shews that her delight lies in troubles and that she hath no other pastime than what she takes in overcoming Sorrows nothing comforts her but Glory nor doth any thing nourish her but Hope with this weak succour she assails all her enemies and gains almost as many victories as she fights battels But to afford this Discourse more light we must know that good and Evil are the two objects of all our Passions Love considers Good and employs Desire and Hope to obtain it sometimes the Good proves so hard to be come by that Love through Despair forgoes it thinking it a piece of wisdom to renounce a happiness which cannot be obtained Hatred detests Evil and to withstand an enemy which declares perpetual war with it she employs such Passions as hold of her Empire she makes use of Fear and of Eschewing to keep from it and sometimes she employs Boldness and Choler to fight with it and overcome it but as Despair would never forgo a difficult good did not Fear perswade that the difficulties which attend it cannot be overcome Audacity would never undertake to set upon a dreadful evil did not Hope promise her the victory so as these two Passions cease not to be of one mind though they have different objects though the one seek after what is good and the other provoke what is evil they both labour for the quiet of the mind and by several ways endeavour the same end The truth is the condition of the one is much more sweet than is that of the other for Hope hath only a respect to the good which she desires if sometimes she cast her eye upon the difficulties which surround it 't is rather out of necessity than inclination and if she hazard her self upon some danger 't is not so much out of glory as out of profit but boldness considers only what is evil and by a certain confidence which accompanies her in all her designs promiseth her self to overcome it by her own strength Hope doth easily engage her self and being as light as vain she undertakes all enterprizes which she judgeth to be glorious and feasible but she would thereby reap nothing but Confusion did not Audacity come in to her aid and by the greatness of that Courage which is natural to her happily execute that which her companion had rashly undertaken Hope resembles the Trumpets which sound the Charge but never enter into the scuffle Audacity contrariwise is of the nature of those Souldiers who are silent and keep all their forces to fight with the enemy Hope promiseth all things and gives nothing and abuseth men with fair words which are not always follow'd by good effects but Audacity promiseth nothing and performeth much she attempts even impossibilities to make good hopes promises and endeavours to overcome the difficulties which hinder the execution thereof In fine she is so generous that her designs though they be difficult cease not to be fortunate and she is so accustomed to overcome as the Poets to give some colour to her victories which she wins contrary to the Laws of war have feigned that she hath a Divinity which encourageth her and that her Deeds are rather Miraculous than Natural But to the end that these differing qualities may the more evidently appear I will add Examples to Reasons and make it known by certain remarkable Histories how much Daring is more considerable than Hope No Monarch was ever more powerful than Xerxes and his power never appeared more than when he framed the design of conquering Greece his Army was composed of two millions of men the field-room was too little to receive a Body of men the parts whereof were monstrous the earth groaned under the weight of the Engines which he caused to be carried about to battâ—r Towns which should resist him This dreadful number of Foot and Horse drained up rivers the hail of Arrows shot from so many hands darkned the Sun those who would flatter this Prince said that the Sea was not large enough to bear his shipping and that Greece was not great enough to quarter his Troops
guided by Wisdom she will alter her nature and of a simple Passion she will become a glorious Virtue Audacity and Fortitude consider the same object and their inclinations are so like as one may say that Fortitude is a rational Audacity and that Audacity is a natural Fortitude their enemies are common and they summon all their forces to fight with them they are agitated by the same motives and seek the same end For Fortitude according to her truest definition is a Science which teacheth us either to suffer or to beat back or to provoke injuries she constantly endures all the evils which Nature is subject to she will not be dispensed withal in general Rules and knowing that the necessity of death is a sentence pronounced against all men she never appeals from it with calmness of spirit she sees sickness approach the first remedy which she applies to cure them is to think that they arise from our constitution and that they make up a part of us contagion doth not astonish her be it either for that â—he looks upon it as a punishment of sin or that she considers it as an effect of Nature she accuseth not the stars of it and pretends not to be exempt from an evil which doth not pardon Princes with a noble neglect she beats back all such disasters as take all their strength from error and which do not offend our bodies but as they hurt our imagination she defends her self against Poverty by desiring only necessary things she despiseth Honours considering that they are oftner the recompense of Vice than of Virtue she laughs at Voluptuousness knowing that it is pleasing only in appearance and that under a specious name it hideth shameful and real pains she provokes sorrow to try her courage she seeks for calamity as an occasion to exercise her Virtue and if she had not tasted the disasters of life she would think her self ignorant of the better half of what she ought to know she hath rather a greediness than a desire after dangers and since the evil she undergoes contributes unto her glory she fore runs it thinking it a point of baseness to tarry expecting it In fine she hath overcome death in its most ghastly hue nor hath the cruelty of tyrants invented punishments over which Fortitude hath not triumphed Scoevola derided the flames and witnessed more constancy in seeing his hand burn than his enemies did in beholding it Regulus was an honour to the Rack whereon he died Socrates turn'd his Prison into a School his Executioners became his Disciples and the poyson which he swallowed made his innocence glorious Camillus suffer'd banishment calmly and Rome had remained captive had not this famons Exile restored unto her her liberty Cato slew himself and though he suffer'd himself to be overcome by impatience he may at least boast of having preserved his liberty But without making use of prophane examples where Virtue is always mingled with Vice we have no Martyr which hath not overcome some Tyrant in the severity of their sufferings given many proofs of their courage The Ignatii have provoked wild beasts and as if that Death had been a courtesie they sought after it with eagerness and endured it with pleasure the Laurences have vanquisht the flames and while their bodies distilled drop by drop upon the fire-brands their tongues reproached their Judges and gave praises to Jesus Christ the Clementâ— and Agathaes have wearied their Executioners their martyrdom endured thirty years the famousest Cities of the world have served for Theaters to their sufferings all the earth hath been water'd with their bloud and Heaven hath shewn a thousand miracles to prolong their lives and to make their Triumphs more famous But if Fortitude encouraged by Charity hath held out all these brunts and had the better of all these enemies Audacity may claim to a great share in the glory for it is she that maketh Martyrs and though Grace be more powerful than Nature yet doth she not despise the assistance thereof as the soul and body conspire together to practise Virtue Nature agrees with Grace to beat down sin Boldness is the ground work of all glorious actions and had not this noble Passion fill'd the heart of the first Christians Fortitude had not gotten such glorious victories they have so much of affinity between them as they cannot subsist asunder Fortitude languisheth without Audacity and Audacity without Fortitude is rash Virâ—â—e would be succor'd by Pasion Passiâ—â— guided by Virtue Audacity is the beginning of Fortitude and Fortitude is Auâ—â—cities perfection or to speak more â—early Audacity is an imperfect Virtue and Fortitude is an accomplisht Passion But to arrive at this perfection she must have three or four remarkable circumstances the first is that she be accompanied by Justice and Prudence for he that takes up arms to ruine his Countrey deserves not to be stiled Couragious his design dishonors his Passion and his Audacity becomes faulty for his not having chosen a lawful end Let Cataline take up arms let him encourage his souldiers to the battel by his examples let him be besmear'd with his own bloud mixt with that of his enemies let him die with his sword in his hand well advanced in the scuffle and let fury choler be seen in his visage even after death he shall never pass for a couragious man his Audacity was not discreet since trespassing against all the laws of Discretion he had undertaken so pernicious a design neither was it temperate since he won his souldiers good will only by satisfying their Avarice or Uncleanness of life it was not just because he had conspired against his Countrey and it was rather an obdurateness than a greatness of courage since to compass glory he committed Paricide The second is that the motive of Audacity be generous and that the daring man expose not his life upon a slight consideration for he very well knows his own worth and not born away with vain-glory he knows his life is precious he hath preserved it with much care and if he endanger it it must be for a subject that deserves it There is a great deal of difference between a valiant man and one that is desperate the latter seeks out death to free himself from misery but the other pursues it only to discharge his duty and content his inclination he will not then engage himself in danger to purchase a little honor he will not be guided by the example of the rash he values not those Maxims which are authorized by Folly and Indiscretion but he will go whithersoever the Trumpet summons him and will throw himself though single upon a Body of Horse if he have order so to do he will die a thousand times rather than forgo the station given him in charge and he will cover the place with his body which he is not able to defend with his sword The third is to try his own
strength before he set upon the enemy for Virtue is too rational to engage us in an impossibility she exacts nothing from us but what is in our power and she will have us in all our enterprizes to observe whether our means to be answerable to the end endeavoured There is nothing more glorious than conquest of the Holy Land and if the greatness of our Monarch might beincreas'd by wishes we would desire that to his other August Titles that of The Deliverer of the Land of Palestine might be added but he who should engage himself in that Design would be more rash than couragious if before putting to Sea he had not quieted all his own Dominions if he had not raised forces enough to fight with those of the Infidels and if he had not by his Intelligences caused an Insurrection in the Eastern parts thereby to work a powerful diversion To boot with all these conditions Christian Audacity ought to have two more the first is Humility which agrees very well with greatness of Courage since her enemy Vain-glory is always accompanied with Faint-heartedness The second is Hatred of our selves for he that hath not overcome his own inclination must not expect to overcome his delights and he who hath not warred against his own body is but ill prepar'd to denounce war against Sorrow Let us then use our strength against our selves that we may employ it to purpose against our enemies and let us vanquish Self-love if we will overcome the fear of death The FOURTH DISCOURSE Of the Nature Proprieties and Effects of Fear THere are some Passions whose Names belie their Natures and are nothing less inwardly than what they outwardly appear to be The name of Hope is pleasing but her humour is violent and she is cause of as much evil as she promiseth contentment the name of Despair is odious but her nature corresponds with Reason and we are obliged unto it when it makes us forgo the pursuit of a good which we cannot compass The name of Boldness is glorious we no sooner hear thereof but we conceive a greatness of courage which despiseth Pain and seeketh out Death but the inclination thereof is Savage and if it be not withheld by Wisdom it engageth us in dangers which cause much mischief to us and little glory The name of Fear is contemptible and errour hath so cried down this Passion as 't is taken for the mark of a Coward but her humor is wise and if she warn us of our misfortunes it is to free us from them For Nature seems to have given us two Passions to our Counsellors in the divers adventures of our life Hope and Fear the first is doubtless the more pleasing but the second is the more faithful the first flatters us to deceive us the second frightens us to secure us the first imitates those inteâ—essed Counsellors who in all their advices have respect rather to the Fortune than Person of their Prince and who by a dangerous flattery prefer his contentment before the welfare of his State the second resembles those faithful State-Ministers which discover a mischeif that they may cure it and who stick not to anger their King a little to purchase him a great deal of glory In fine the first is oft-times useless and the number of what is good being small enough she hath not many employments and if she undertakes any thing which belongs not to her she makes us lose our labour and our time the second is almost always busied and the number of evils being infinite she is never out of exercise she looks far into what is to come and seeks out the evil which may happen not to make us miserable before the time as she is unjustly accused but to secure our happiness and to disperse all the disasters which may bereave us of it For Fear is a natural Wisdom which oft-times frees us from danger by making us apprehensive thereof she spreads her self over all the actions of our life and is no less useful to Religion than to a Common-wealth if we will believe prophane Authors 't is she that made the gods and though there be some impiety in this Maxim a man may notwithstanding observe some shadow of Truth in it for 't is the fear of eternal punishment which perswaded men they were to appease the incensed gods 't is she that hath made Sacrifices builded Temples set up Altars and immolated Victimes 't is she that keeps the Just within their duties and which after a fault committed makes them lift up their hands to heaven and witness their sorrow for it Though men talk of generosity in Religion and boast that they are won rather by Promises than by Threats yet it must be confest that Fear hath sav'd more guilty people than Hope so is she termed in the holy Scripture the beginning of Wisdom that is to say the prop of Virtue the foundation of Piety Sin would grow insolent were it not supprest with this Passion all laws would be unuseful had not Nature imprinted Fear in the soul of offenders she is therein engraven in characters which Time cannot deface they apprehend the punishment of a secret sin and though they know the Judges can punish only such as they come to the knowledge of they tremble in the midst of their friends they awake affrighted and this faithful Minister of Gods Justice suffers them not to find assurance neither in Towns nor yet in Desarts 'T is a proof that Nature is not wholly corrupted since there remains in it horrour for sin and dread for the punishment thereof for let a sinner hide himself in what part he pleaseth he carries Fear about with him and this uncorruptible Passion teacheth him that there is a Divinity which sees our secret faults whilst we live and punisheth them when we are dead Often doth she convert Libertines and by an unconceiveable miracle she perswades them unto truths which they would not have believed lest they should be obliged to fear them she stings even the most opinionated and of as many as acknowledg Jesus Christ there are few that owe not their Love to their Fear they endeavour not to gain heaven save to free themselves from hell and they love Gods goodness only because they fear his Justice I very well know that this resentment is not pure and that a man who should stop at Fear would be in danger never to acquire Charity but it is much that she opens the gate of Salvation to Infidels and shews the way of Virtue unto sinners If she be profitable to Religion she is no less necessary to a Common-wealth which could not subsist by Recompenses if it did not terrifie the guilty with Punishments we â—â—ve not now in those innocent times wherein the people were united by friendship which renders the use of Laws bootâ—ess every one loved his Neighbor as himself and Love banished Injustice from off the
she is one of the most Taking yet must she give place to Pleasure and confess that Pleasure is a Sun whose presence defaces all her beuty for if she promiseth ought that is good this other giveth it us if the one hath Flowers the other bears Fruit and if the one content us in Word the other makes us happy in effect Delight is the period of all the motions of our soul and as Love is the beginning thereof Pleasure is the end it stoppeth the violence of our desires and forceth those fickle Passions to taste rest to which they seem to profess Enmity it sweetens Choler and takes from her that forward humour which accompanieth her in all her designs it pays Boldness for all her good services and is it self the recompense of those glorious labours which she hath undergone to compass it it drives away Fear and banishes all those vain terrors which disquiet us it kills Despair which seems to have conspired the death of it it banisheth Sadness at first sight and if it retain Tears and Sighs they are the spoils which publish the Victory and honour the Triumph thereof Love is content when after having tane so much pains it can rest in Pleasure of as many shapes as Love puts on this is that it most delights in and doth not forgo it to assume another without violence Love is unquiet when it Desires and its wishes are shamefull and true proofs of its indigency when it hopes it is not without Fear and those two keep it so faithful company as they never leave it but it costs them their life for Fear becomes Sadness when 't is destitute of Hope and Hope is changed into Despair when it is parted from Fear Love is not satisfied with Revenge and though Revenge be sweet yet it is accompanied with pain In Boldness it is cover'd with Sweat and Dirt Glory flatters it and threatning danger astonisheth it in Hatred it is tormented and the evil which it wisheth to its enemy is a Viper that lies gnawing upon it in Eschewing it wants strength and it shuns not him that pursues it save only because it cannot defend it self from him in Despair it is vanquish'd and yielding up its weapons to the Conquerour suffers it self to be led in Triumph in Sadness it is miserable and the remembrance of its fore-past happiness serves only to augment its present sorrow but in pleasure it is at once both Victorious Triumphant and Happy all its Races are stopt all its Desires are accomplish'd and all its designs at an end And surely we must not wonder if it be in so deep a Tranquillity since it enjoyes the happiness it sought for and is luckily arrived at the end of all its labours for Pleasure is nothing else but the enjoying of a pleasing Good which renders the soul content and which interdicts it the use of Desire as well as that of Sadness and Fear This definition excludes all such delights as spring only from Remembrance or from Hope and which make us happy only in that which we have been or hope to be Memory doth not always entertain us with our misfortunes though she be more faithful in retaining a Displeasure than a contentment busies her self oftner about things which offend us than about such as we are well pleased withall yet doth not she forbear to represent unto us past felicities and by a pleasing Remembrance thereof sweeten our present miseries to serve us she triumphs over the Laws of Time to favour us she recalls what is no more and seeks out in by-gon ages divertisments to recreate us but let her do her utmost endeavour she cannot beguile our soul nor give it true contentment in entertaining it only with a Falshood things that are past are but so many shadows and if they make any Impression in us it is rather of Sorrow than of Joy Good when far distant from us makes it self be desired but when past it makes it self to be bewailed its Presence ingenders our Happiness and its Absence causeth our Desires or our Regret Loss and Fruition of one and the same thing cannot be pleasing and let Memory use what cunning she can she cannot call to our minds a good which hath no more a being without awakening our Wishes and refreshing our Sorrows Hope is not much more favourable to us for though she fore-run our good fortune that she anticipate the birth thereof and that she feeds us with a contentment which is not yet happen'd though by an impatience which is advantageous to us she seeks out present felicities in Futurity and that precipitating the course of years she advanceth our Contentment yet a man need not be over-wise to observe that she deceives us and that she often makes us miserable out of a desire of making us too soon Happy she is found false in her Promises and after having long expected their effects all we reap thereby is Shame for having been too credulous and Sorrow for having grounded our happiness upon an uncertain good Solid pleasure requires the presence of its object and though in Morality the end hath so much power over our Wills yet can it not make them happy but by possession therefore is it that the Covetous and Ambitious who forgo a present good only to entertain themselves with a Future and who consider not so much what they have as what they want cannot be esteemed happy since in the very Fruition of honour or riches they are languishing and contrary to the nature of Pleasure they seek for what they have not and value not what they have By the same definition we exclude all those sensualities which spring from Indigence or which produce Sorrow for to boot that they are desired with so much Anxiety as doth exceed the Pleasure which they promise us they are such enemies to our quiet as it is impossible to taste thereof without becoming miserable and faulty they wound at once both the soul and the body they weaken the one and corrupt the other they are Remedies worse than the Evils which they would cure their disorder causeth always the like in our health and their excess is so pernicious thereunto that we must take them moderately if we intend to receive satisfaction thereby true Delight is never more pleasing than when in extreams the greater it is the more it doth ravish us and being agreeable to our nature it never makes us more happy than when it most abundantly communicateth it self but Sensualities are poysons which must be prepared if we will reap profit thereby and since the irregularity of Sin we had need of Grace to fence our selves against their disorder whatever Pleasure they promise us they have so great Affinity with Sorrow that their words and effects resemble each other they have their Groans and their Sighs as well as Sorrow when they are extream they dissolve into tears and to shew us that they are enemies