Contulit haud furto melior sed fortibus armis His Heart disdain'd to strike Orodes dead Or unseen basely wound him as he fled But gaining first his Front wheels round and there Bravely oppos'd himself to his Career And fighting Man to Man would let him see His Valour scorn'd both Odds and Policy CHAP. VII That the Intention is Judge of our Actions 'T is a Saying That Death discharges us of all our Obligations However I know some who have taken it in another Sence Henry the Seventh King of England articled with Don Philip Son to Maximilian the Emperour and Father to the Emperour Charles the Fifth when he had him upon English Ground that the said Philip should deliver up the Duke of Suffolk of the White Rose his mortal Enemy who was fled into the Low Countries into his Hands which Philip not knowing how to evade it accordingly promis'd to do but upon condition nevertheless that Henry should attempt nothing against the Life of the said Duke which during his own Life he perform'd but coming to die in his last Will commanded his Son to put him to Death immediately after his Decease And lately in the Tragedy that the Duke of Alva presented to us in the Persons of the two Counts Egmont and Horne at Brussels there were very remarkable Passages and one amongst the rest that the said Count Egmont upon the security of whose Word and Faith Count Horne had come and surrendred himself to the Duke of Alva earnestly entreated that he might first mount the Scaffold to the end that Death might disinage him from the Obligation he had pass'd to the other In which Case methinks Death did not acquit the former of his Promise and the second was satisfied in the good Intention of the other even though he had not died with him for we cannot be oblig'd beyond what we are able to perform by reason that the Effects and Intentions of what we promise are not at all in our Power and that indeed we are Masters of nothing but the Will in which by necessity all the Rules and whole Duty of Mankind is founded and establish'd And therefore Count â—gmont conceiving his Soul and will bound and indepted to his Promise although he had not the Power to make it good had doubtless been absolv'd of his Duty even though he had outliv'd the other but the King of England willfully and premeditately breaking his Faith was no more to be excus'd for deferring the Execution of his Infidelity till after his Death than Herodotus his Mason who having inviolably during the time of his Life kept the Secret of the treasure of the King of Aegypt his Master at his Death discover'd it to his Children I have taken notice of several in my time who convinc'd by their Consciences of unjustly detaining the Goods of another have endeavour'd to make amends by their Will and afther their Decease but they had as good do nothing as delude themselves both in taking so much time in so pressing an Affair and also in going about to repair an Injury with so little Demonstration of Resentment and Concern They owe over and above something of their own and by how much their Payment is more strict and incommodious to themselves by so much is their Restitution more perfect just and meritorious for Penitency requires Penance but they yet do worse than these who reserve the Declaration of a mortal Animofity against their Neighbour to the last Gasp having conceal'd it all the time of their Lives before wherein they declare to have little regard of their own Honour whilst they irritate the Party offended against their Memory and less to their Conscience not having the Power even out of Respect to Death it self to make their Malice die with them but extending the Life of their Hatred even beyond their own Unjust Judges who deferr Judgment to a time wherein they can have no Knowledge of the Cause For my part I shall take Care if I can that my Death discover nothing that my Life has not first openly manifested and publickly declar'd CHAP. VIII Of Idleness AS we see some Grounds that have long lain idle and untill'd when grown rank and fertile by rest to abound with and spend their Vertue in the Product of innumerable sorts of Weeds and wild Herbs that are unprofitable and of no wholesome use and that to make them perform their true Office we are to culvitate and prepare them for such Seeds as are proper for our Service And as we see Women that without the Knowledge of Men do sometimes of themselves bring forth inanimate and formless Lumps of Flesh but that to cause a natural and perfect Generation they are to be husbanded with another kind of Seed even so it is with Wits which if not applyed to some certain Study that may fix and restrain them run into a thousand Extravagancies and are eternally roving here and there in the inextricable Labyrinth of restless Imagination Aenâ—id l. 8. Sicut aquae tremulum labris ubi lumen ahenis Sole repercussum aut radiantis imagine Lunae Omnia pervolitat latè loca jamque sub auras Erigitur summique ferit laquearia tecti Like as the quivering Reflection Of Fountain Waters when the Morning Sun Darts on the Bason or the Moon 's pale Beam Gives Light and Colour to the Captive Stream Whips with fantastick motion round the place And Walls and Roof strikes with its trembling Rays In which wild and irregular Agitation there is no Folly nor idle Fancy they do not light upon Hor. de Arte Poetica velut aegri somnia vanae Finguntur species Like Sick mens Dreams that from a troubled Brain Phantasms create ridiculous and vain The Soul that has no establish'd Limit to circumscribe it loses it self as the Epigrammatist says Martial lib. 7. Epig. 72. Quisquis ubique habitat maxime nusquam habitat He that lives every where does no where live When I lately retir'd my self to my own House with a Resolution as much as possibly I could to avoid all manner of Concern in Affair and to spends in privacy and repose the little remainder of time I have to Live I fansi'd I could not more oblige my mind than to suffer it at full leisure to entertain and divert it self which I also now hop'd it might the better be entrusted to do as being by Time and Observation become more settled and mature but I find Lucan l. 4. variam semper dant otia mentem Even in the most retir'd Estate Leasure it self does various Thoughts create that quite contrary it is like a Horse that has broke from his Rider who voluntarily runs into a much more violent Career than any Horseman would put him to and creates me so many Chimaera's and fantastick Monsters one upon another without Order or Design that the better at leisure to contemplate their Strangeness and Absurdity I have begun to commit them to Writing hoping
Cause by an impulse from Heaven so that whole Armies and Nations have been struck with it Such a one was that which brought so wonderful a Desolation upon Carthage where nothing was to be heard but Voices and Outcries of Fear where the Inhabitants were seen to sally out of their Houses as to an Alarm and there to charge wound and kill one another as if they had been Enemies come to surprize their City All things were in strange Disorder and Fury till with Prayers and Sacrifices they had appeas'd their Gods and this is that they call a Panick Terror CHAP. XVIII That Men are not to judge of our Happiness till after Death Ouid. Met. l. 3. scilicet ultima semper Expectanda dies homini est dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet Mens last days still to be expected are E're we of them our Judgments do declare Nor can't of any one be rightly said That he is happy till he first be dead EVery one is acquainted with the Story of King Croesus to this purpose who being taken Prisoner by Cyrus and by him condemn'd to die as he was going to Execution cry'd out O Solon Solon which being presently reported to Cyrus and he sending to enquire of him what it meant Croesus gave him to understand that he now found the Advertisement Solon had formerly given him true to his Cost which was That men however Fortune may smile upon them could never be said to be happy till they had been seen to pass over the last day of their Lives by reason of the uncertainty and mutability of Humane things which upon very light and trivial occasions are subject to be totally chang'd into a quite contrary condition And therefore it was that Agesilâ—us made answer to one that was saying what a happy young man the King of Persâ—â— was to come so young to so mighty a Kingdom 'T is true said he but neither was Priam unhappy at his years In a short time of Kings of Macedon Successors to that mighty Alâ—xander were made Joyneâ—â— and Scriveners at Rome of a Tyrant of Sicily a Pedant at Corinth of a Conquerour of one half of the World and General of so many Armies a miserable Suppliant to the rascally Officers of a King of Aegypt So much the prolongation of five or Six Months of Life cost the Great and Noble Pâ—mpey and no longer 〈◊〉 than our Fathers daâ—s Ludovico Forza the tenth Duke of Millan whom all Italy had so long truckled under was seen to die a wretched Prisoner at Loches but not till he had lived ten Years in Captivity which was the worst part of his Fortune The fairest of all Queens Mary Qu. of Scots Widow to the greatest King in Europe did she not come to die by the hand of an Executioner Unworthy and barbarous Cruelty and a thousand more Examples there are of the same kind for it seems that as Storms and Tempests have a Malice to the proud and overtow'ring heights of our lofty Buildings there are also Spirits above that are envious of the Grandeurs here below Lucret. l. 5. Usque adeo res humanas vis abdita quaedam Obterit pulchros Fasces saevasque secures Proculcare ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur By which it does appear a Power unseen Rome's awful Fasces and her Axes keen Spurns under foot and plainly does despise Of humane Power the vain Formalities And it should seem also that Fortune sometimes lies in wait to surprize the last Hour of our Lives to shew the Power she has in a Moment to overthrow what she was so many Years in building making us cry out with Laberius Macrob. l. 2. c. 2. Nimirum hac die una plus vixi mihi quà m vivendum fuit I have livâ—d longer by this one day than I ought to have done And in this Sence this good Advice of Solon may reasonably be taken but he being a Philosopher with which sort of Men the Favours and Disgraces of Fortune stand for nothing either to the making a Man happy or unhappy and with home Grandeurs and Powers Accidents of Quality are upon the Matter indifferent I am apt to think that he had some farther Aim and that his meaning was that the very Felicity of Life it self which depends upon the Tranquility and Contentment of a well-descended Spirit and the Resolution and Assurance of a well-order'd Soul ought never to be attributed to any Man till he has first been seen to play the last and doubtless the hardest act of his Part because there may be Disguise and Dissimulation in all the rest where these fine Philosophical Discourses are only put on and where Accidents do not touch us to the Quick they give us leasure to maintain the same sober Gravity but in this last Scene of Death there is no more counterfeiting we must speak plain and must discover what there is of pure and clean in the bottom Lucret. l. 3. Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo Ejiciuntur eripitur persona manet res Then that at last Truth issues from the Heart The Vizor's gone we act our own true part Wherefore at this last all the other Actions of our Life ought to be tryed and sifted 'T is the Master-day 't is the day that is judge of all the rest 'T is the Day says one of the Ancients that ought to judge of all my foregoing Years To Death do I refer the Eisay of the Fruit of all my Studies We shall then see whether my Discourses came only from my Mouth or from my Heart I have seen many by their Death give a good or an ill Repute to their whole Life Scipio the Father-in-law of Pompey the great in dying well wip'd away the ill Opinion that till then every one had conceiv'd of him Epaminondas being ask'd which of the three he had in greatest esteem Chabrias Iphicrates or himself You must first see us die said he before that Question can be resolv'd and in truth he would infinitely wrong that great Man who would weigh him without the Honour and Grandeur of his End God Almighty has order'd all things as it has best pleas'd him But I have in my time seen three of the most execrable Persons that ever I knew in all manner of abominable living and the most infamous to boot who all dyed a very regular Death and in all Circumstances compos'd even to Perfection There are brave and fortunate Deaths I have seen Death cut the Thread of the Progress of a prodigious Advancement and in the height and Flower of its encrease of a certain Person with so glorious an end that in my Opinion his Ambitious and generous Designs had nothing in them so high and great as their Interruption and he arriv'd without compleating his course at the Place to which his Ambition pretended with greater Glory than he could himself either hope or desire and anticipated
here By thy sweet Conversation nourish'd were With thee when dying my good Fortune fled And in thy Grave my Soul was buried The Muses at thy Funerals I forsook And of thy Joy my leave forever took Dearer than Life am I so wretched then Never to see nor speak to thee agen Nor hear thy Voice now frozen up by Death Yet will I Love thee to my latest Breadth But let us hear a little Boy of Sixteen speak In this place I did once intend to have inserted those Memoirs upon that famous Edict of January But being I since find that they are already Printed and with a malicious design by some who make it their business to molest and endeavour to subvert the state of our Government not caring whether they mend and reform it or no and that they have confounded this Writing of his with others of their own Leven Apology for Estienne de Boetie I desisted from that purpose But that the Memory of the Father may not be interested nor suffer with such as could not come near hand to be acquainted with his Principles I here give them truly to understand that it was writ by him in his very green Years and that by way of Exercise only as a common Theme that has been tumbled and tost by a Thousand Writers I make no question but that he himself believ'd what he writ being so Consciencious that way that he would not so much as lye in jest and do moreover know that could it have been in his own Choice he had rather have been Born at Venice than at Soarlac and he had reason But he had another Maxim Soveraignly imprinted in his Soul very Religiously to Obey and submit to the Laws under which he was Born There never was a better Citizen more affectionate to his Country nor a greater Enemy to all the Commotions and Innovations of his time So that he would doubtless much rather have employ'd his Talent to the extinguishing of those Civil Flames than have added any Fewel to them For he had a Mind fashion'd to the Model of better Ages But in exchange of this Serious Piece I will present you with another of a more Gay and Frolick Air from the same Hand and Writ at the same Age. CHAP. XXVIII Nine and Twenty Sonnets of Estienne de la Boetie to Madam de Grammont Countess of Guisson MAdam I offer to your Ladiship nothing of mine either because it is already yours or because I find nothing in my Writings worthy of you But I have a great desire that these Verses into what part of the World soever they may travel may carry your Name in the Front for the Honour will accrue to them by having the great Corisanda de Andonis for their safe Conduct I conceive this present Madam so much the more proper for you both by reason there are few Ladies in France who are so good Judges of Poetry and make so good use of it as you do as also that there is none who can give it that Spirit and Life your Ladyship does by that incomparable Voice Nature has added to your other perfections you will find Madam that these Verses deserve your esteem and will I dare say concur with me in this that Gascony never yielded more invention finer Expression or that more evidence themselves to flow from a Masters hand And be not Jealous that you have but the remainder of what I Publisht some Years since under the Name of Monsieur de Foix your brave Kinsman for certainly these have something in them more spritely and luxuriant as being Writ in a greener Youth and enflam'd with the Noble Ardour that I will tell your Ladyship in your Ear. The other were Writ since when he was a Suitor in the honour of his Wife already â—elishing of I know not what Matrimonial Coldness And for my part I am of the same opinion with those who hold that Poesie appears no where so Gay as in a wanton and irregular Subject These Nine and Twenty Sonnets that were inserted here are since Printed with his other Works CHAP. XXIX Of Moderation AS if we had an infectious Touch we by our manner of handling corrupt things that in themselves are laudable and good We may grasp Vertue so hard till it become Vicious if we embrace it too streight and with too violent a desire Those who say there is never any excess in Vertue for as much as it is no Vertue when it once becomes excess only play upon words Horace l. 1. Epist 6. Insani sapiens nomen ferat aequus iniqui Ultra quam satis est virtutem si petat ipsam The Wise for Mad the Just for Unjust pass When more than needs ev'n Vertue they embrace This is a subtle consideration in Philosophy A Man may both be too much in Love with Vertue and be excessive in a just Action Holy Writ agrees with this Be not Wiser than you should but be soberly Wise * 'T is like he means Henry the 3d. of France I have known a great Man prejudice thè Opinion Men had of his Devotion by pretending to be devout beyond all Examples of others of his condition I Love temperate and moderate Natures An immoderate Zeal even to that which is good though it does not offend does astonish me and puts me to study what Name to give it Neither the Mother of Pausanias who was the first instructer of her Son's process and threw the first stone towards his Death Nor Posthumus the Dictator who put his Son to Death whom the Ardour of Youth had fortunately pusht upon the Enemy a little more advanc'd than the rest of his Squadron do appear to me so just as strange and I should neither advise nor like to follow so Savage a Vertue and that costs so dear The Archer that shoots over misses as well as he that falls short and 't is equally troublesome to my sight to look up at a great Light and to look down into a dark Abyss Callicles in Plato says That the extremity of Philosophy is hurtful and advises not to dive into it beyond the limits of Profit that taken moderately it is pleasant and useful but that in the end it renders a Man Brutish and Vicious A Contemner of Religion and the common Laws an Enemy to civil Conversation and all Humane Pleasures incapable of all Publick Administration unfit either to assist others or to relieve himself and a fit Object for all sorts of Injuries and Affronts without remedy or satisfaction He says true for in its Excess it enslaves our Natural Freedom and by an impertinent subtilty leads us out of the fair and beaten way that Nature has plain'd out for us The Love we bear to our Wives is very lawful and yet Theology thinks fit to curb and restrain it As I remember I have read in one place of St. Thomas of Aquin where he condemns Marriages within any of the forbidden degrees for this
of which St. Augustine gives a very great proof upon his Adversaries 'T is a Conflict that is more decided by strength of Memory than the force of Reason We are to content our selves with the Light it pleases the Sun to communicate to us by Virtue of his Rays and who will lift up his Eyes to take in a greater let him not think it strange if for the reward of his presumption he there lose his sight Sapien. Cap. 9. v. 13. Quis hominum potest scire consilium Dei aut quis poterit cogitare quid velit Dominus Who amongst Men can know the Counsil of God or Who can think what the Will of the Lord is CHAP. XXXII That we are to avoid Pleasures even at the expence of Life I Had long ago Observ'd most of the Opinions of the Ancients to concur in this That iâ— is happy to Die when there is more ill than good in Living and that to preserve Life to our own Torment and Inconvenience is contrary to the very Rules of Nature as these old Laws instruct us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Happy is Death whenever it shall come To him to whom to Live is troublesome Whom Life does persecute with restless Spite May Honourably bid the World good Night And infinitely better 't is to Die Than to prolong a Life of Misery But to push this Contempt of Death so far as to employ it to the removing our selves from the danger of Coveting Honours Riches Dignities and other Favours and Goods as we call them of Fortune as if Reason were not sufficient to perswade us to avoid them without adding this new Injunction I had never seen it either enjoin'd or practis'd till this passage of Seneca fell into my hands who advising Lucilius a Man of great Power and Authority about the Emperour to alter his Voluptuous and Magnificent way of Living and to retire himself from this Worldly Vanity and Ambition to some Solitary Quiet and Philosophical Life and the other alledging some Difficulties I am of Opinion says he either that thou leave that Life or Life it self I would indeed advise thee to the gentle way and to untie rather than to break the Knot thou hast undiscreetly Knit provâ—ded that if it be not otherwise to be unti'd then resolutely break it There is no man so great a Coward that had nor rather once fall than to be always falling I should have found this Counsel conformable enough to the Stoicâ—l Roughness But it appears the more strange for being borrowed from Epicurus who writes the same thing upon the like occasion to Idominius And I think I have Observ'd something like it but with Christian Moderation a mongst our own People St. Hilary Bishop of Poictiers that famous Enemy of the Arian Heresie being in Syria had intelligence thither sent him that Abra his only Daughter whom he left at home under the Eye and Tuition of her Mother was sought in Marriage by the greatest Noblemen of the Country as being a Virgin Vertuously brought up Fair Rich and in the Flower of her Age whereupon he writ to her as it appears upon Record that she should remove her Affection from all those Pleasures and Advantages were propos'd unto her for he had in his Travels found out a much greater and more worthy Fortune for her a Husband of much greater Power and Magnificence that would present her with Robes and Jewels of inestimable value wherein his design was to dispossess her of the Appetite and use of Worldly delights to join her wholly to God But the nearest and most certain way to this being as he conceiv'd the Death of his Daughter he never ceas'd by Vows Prayers and Oâ—aisons to Beg of the Almighty that he would please to call her out of this World and to take her to himself as accordingly it came to pass for soon after his return she Died at which he exprest a singular Joy This seems to out do the other forasmuch as the applies himself to this means at the first sight which they only take subsidiarily and besides it was towards his only Daughter But I will not omit the latter end of this Story though it be from my purpose St. Hilary's Wife having understood from him how the Death of their Daughter was brought about by his desires and design and how much happier she was to he remov'd out of this World than to have stay'd in it conceiv'd so Lively an Apprehension of the Eternal and Heavenly Beatitude that she Begg'd of her Husband with the extreamest Importunity to do as much for her and God at their joint Request shortly after calling her to him it was a Death embrac'd on both sides with singular Content CHAP. XXXIII That Fortune is oftentimes Observ'd to Act by the Rule of Reason THe Inconstancy and various Motions of Fortune may reasonably make us expect she should present us with all sorts of Faces Can there be a more express Act of Justice than this The Duke of Valentenois having resolv'd to Poison Adrian Cardinal of Cornetto with whom Pope Alexander the Sixth his Father and himself were to go to Supper in the Vatican he sent before a Bottle of Poisoned Wine and withal strict Order to the Butler to keep it very safe The Pope being come before his Son and calling for Drink the Butler supposing this Wine had not been so strictly recommended to his Care but only upon the account of its Excellency presented it presently to the Pope and the Duke himself coming in presently after and being confident they had not meddled with his Bottle took also his Cup so that the Father Died immediately upon the place and the Son after having been long tormented with Sickness was reserv'd to another and a worse Fortune Sometimes she seems to play upon us just in the nick of an Affair Monsieur d' Estree at that time Guidon to Monsieur de Vendosme and Monsieur de Liques Lieutenant to the Company of the Duke of Ascot being both pertenders to the Sieur de Foungueselles his Sister though of several Parties as it oft falls out amongst Frontier Neighbours the Sieur de Liques carried her but on the same Day he was Married and which was worse before he went to Bed to his Wife the Bridegroom having a mind to break a Lance in honour of his new Bride went out to Skirmish near to St. Omers where the Sieur d' Estree proving the stronger took him Prisoner and the more to illustrate his Victory the Lady her self was fain Catullus Conjugis ante coacta novi dimittere collum Quam veniens una atque altera rursus hyems Noctibus in longis avidum saturasset amorem Of her fair Arms the Amorous Ring to break Which clung so fast to her new Spouse's Neck E're of two Winters many a friendly Night Had sated her Loves greedy Appetite to request him of Courtesie to deliver up his
for themselves put to death their brave Captains newly return'd triumphant from a Naval Victory they had obtained over the Lacedaemonians near the Arginusian Isles the most bloody and obstinate Engagement that ever the Greeks fought at Sea for no other Reason but that they rather followed their Blow and pursued the Advantages prescribed them by the Rule of War than that they would stay to gather up and bury their Dead an Execution that is yet rendred more odious by the Behaviour of Diomedon who being one of the condemn'd and a Man of most eminent both politick and military Vertue after having heard their Sentence advancing to speak no Audience till then having been allowed instead of laying before them his own Innocency or the Impiety of so cruel an Arrest only express'd a Solicitude for his Judges Preservation beseeching the Gods to convert this Sentence to their own Good and praying that for neglecting to pay those Vows which he and his Companions had done which he also acquainted them with in Acknowledgment of so glorious a Success they might not pull down the Indignation of the Gods upon them and so without more Words went courageously to his Death But Fortune a few Years after punishing them in their kind made them see the Error of their Cruelty for Chabrias Captain-General of their Naval Forces having got the better of Pollis Admiral of Sparta about the Isle of Naxos totally lost the Fruits of his Success and Content with his Victory of very great Importance to their Affairs not to incur the danger of this Example and lose a few Bodies of his dead Friends that were floating in the Sea gave opportunity to a world of living Enemies to sail away in Safety who afterwards made them pay dear for this unseasonable Superstition Seneca Tr. Cher. 2. Quaeris quo jaceas post obitum loco Quo non natae jacent Dost ask where thou shalt lie when dead With those that never Being had This other restores the sense of Repose to a Body without a Soul Cicero Tusc l. 1. Neque sepulcrum quo recipiat habeat portum corporis Ubi remissa humana vita Corpus requiescat à malis Nor with a Tomb as with a Haven blest Where after Life the Corps in Peace may rest As nature demonstrates to us that several dead things retain yet an occult Sympathy and relation to Life Wine changes its flavour and complexion in Cellars according to the changes and seasons of the Vine from whence it came and the Flesh of Venison alters its condition and taste in the powd'ring-tub according to the seasons of the living Flesh of its kind as it is observed by the Curious CHAP. IV. That the Soul discharges her Passions upon false Object where the true are wanting A Gentleman of my Country who was very often tormented with the Gout being importun'd by his Physicians totally to reclaim his Appetite from all manner of salt Meats was wont presently to reply that he must needs have something to quarrel with in the extremity of his Fits and that he fansy'd that railing at and cursing one while the Bolognia Sawsages and another the dry'd Tongues and the Hamms was some mitigation to his pain And in good earnest as the Arm when it is advanced to strike if it fail of meeting with that upon which is was design'd to discharge the blow and spends it self in vain does offend the Striker himself and as also that to make a pleasant Prospect the Sight should not be lost and dilated in a vast extent of empty Air but have some Bounds to limit and circumscribe it at a reasonable distance Ventus ut amittit vires nisi robore densae Occurant Sylvae spatio diffusus inani As Winds do lose their strength unless withstood By some dark Grove of strong opposing wood So it appears that the Soul being transported and discompos'd turns its violence upon its self if not supply'd with something to oppose it and therefore always requires an Enemy as an object on which to discharge its Fury and Resentment Plutarch says very well of those who are delighted with little Dogs and Monkeys that the amorous part which is in us for want of a legitimate Object rather than lie idle does after that manner forge and create one frivolous and false as we see that the Soul in the exercise of its Passions inclines rather to deceive it self by creating a false and fantastical Subject even contrary to its own Belief than not to have something to work upon And after this manner Brute Beasts direct their Fury to fall upon the Stone or Weapon that has hurt them and with their Teeth even execute their Revenge upon themselves for the Injury they have receiv'd from another Claudian Pannonis haud aliter post ictum saevior Ursa Cui jaculum parva Lybs amentavit habena Se rotat in vulnus telumque irata receptum Impetit secum fugientem circuit Hastam So the fierce Bear made fiercer by the smart Of the bold Lybian's mortal guided Dart Turns round upon the Wound and the tough Spear Contorted o'er her Breast does flying bear What causes of the misadventures that befall us do we not invent what is it that we do not lay the fault to right or wrong that we may have something to quarrel with Those beautiful Tresses young Lady you may so liberally tear off are no way guilty nor is it the whiteness of those delicate Breasts you so unmercifully beat that with an unlucky Bullet has slain your beloved Brother quarrel with something else Livy Livy dec l. 5. speaking of the Roman Army in Spain says that for the loss of two Brothers who were both great Captains Flere omnes repente offensare capita that they all wept and tore their Hair 'T is the common practice of Affliction And the Philosopher Bion said pleasantly of the King who by handfulls pull'd his Hair off his Head for Sorrow Does this man think that Baldness is a Remedy for Grief Who has not seen peevish Gamesters worry the Cards with their Teeth and swallow whole Bales of Dice in revenge for the Loss of their Money Xerxes whip'd the Sea and writ a Challenge to Mount Athos Cyrus employ'd a whole Army several days at work to revenge himself of the River Gâ—idus for the Fright it had put him into in passing over and Caligula demolish'd a very beautiful Palace for the Pleasure his Mother had once enjoy'd there I remember there was a Story currant when I was a Boy That one of our Neighbouring Kings having receiv'd a Blow from the Hand of GOD swore he would be reveng'd and in order to it made Proclamation that for ten Years to come no one should pray to him or so much as mention him throughout his Dominions by which we are not so much to take measure of the Folly as the Vain-Glory of the Nation of which this Tale was told They are Vices that
be to man than what I have already design'd him If you had not Death to ease you of your Pains and Cares you would eternally curse me for having depriv'd you of the Benefit of Dying I have 't is true mixt a little Bitterness with it to the end that seeing of what Conveniency and Use it is you might not too greedily and indiscreetly seek and embrace it and that you might be so establish'd in this Moderation as neither to nauseate Life nor have an Antipathy for dying which I have decreed you shall once do I have temper'd the one and the other betwixt Pleasure and Pain and t was I that first taught Thales the most eminent of all your Sages that to Live and to Die were indifferent which made him very wisely answer him who ask'd him Why then did he not die because says he it is indifferent The Elements of Water Earth Fire and Air and the other Parts of this Creation of thine are no more the Instruments of thy Life than they are of thy Death Why dost thou fear thy last day it contributes no more to thy dissolution than every one of the rest The last Step is not the cause of lassitude it does but confess it Every Day travels towards Death the last only arrives at it These are the good Lessons our Mother Nature teaches I have often consider'd with my self whence it should proceed that in War the Image of Death whether we look upon it as to our own particular danger or that of another should without Comparison appear less dreadful than at home in our own Houses for if it were not so it would be an Army of whining Milk-sops and that being still in all Places the same there should be notwithstanding much more Assurance in Peasants and the meaner sort of People than others of better Quality and Education and I do verily believe that it is those terrible Ceremonies and Preparations wherewith we set it out that more terrifie us than the thing it self a new quite contrary way of living the Cries of Mothers Wives and Children the Visits of astonish'd and afflicted Friends the Attendance of pale and blubber'd Servants a dark Room set round with hurning Tapers our Beds environed with Physicians and Divines in sum nothing but Ghostliness and Horror round about us render it so formidable that a Man almost fansies himself dead and buried already Children are afraid even of those they love best and are best acquainted with when disguised in a Vizor and so are we the Vizor must be removed as well from Things as Persons which being taken away we shall find nothing underneath but the very same Death that a mean Servant or a poor Chamber-maid died a day or two ago without any manner of Apprehension or Concern Happy therefore is the Death that deprives us of the leisure to prepare things requisite for this unnecessary Pomp a Pomp that only renders that more terrible which ought not to be fear'd and that no Man upon Earth can possibly avoid CHAP. XX. Of the Force of imagination FOrtis imaginatio generat casum Axion Scholast A strong Imagination begets Accident say the School-men I am one of those who are most sensible of the Power of Imagination Every one is justled but some are overthrown by it It has a very great Impression upon me and I make it my Business to avoid wanting force to resist it I could live by the sole help of heathful and jolly Company The very sight of anothers Pain does materially work upon me and I naturally usurp the Sense of a third Person to share with him in his Torment A perpetual Cough in another tickles my Lungs and Throat I more unwillingly visit the sick I love and am by Duty interested to look after than those I care not for and from whom I have no expectation I take possession of the Disease I am concern'd at and lay it too much to heart and do not at all wonder that Fancy should distribute Fevers and sometimes kill such as allow too much Scope and are too willing to entertain it Simon Thomas was a great Physician of his time I remember that hapning one day at Tholouze to meet him at a rich old Fellows House who was troubled with naughty Lungs and discoursing with his Patient about the method of his Cure he told him that one thing which would be very conducing to it was to give me such Occasion to be pleased with his Company that I might come often to see him by which means and by fixing his Eyes upon the Freshness of my Complexion and his Imagination upon the Sprightliest and Vigour that glowed in my Youth and possessing all his Senses with the flourishing Age wherein I then was his Habit of Body might peradventure be amended but he forgot to say that mine at the same time might be made worse Gallus Vibius so long cudgell'd his Brains to find out the Essence and Motions of Folly till by the Inquisition in the end he went directly out of his Wits and to such a Degree that he could never after recover his Judgment and he might brag that he was become a Fool by too much Wisdom Some there are who thorough Fear prevent the Hangman like him whose Eyes being unbound to have his Pardon read to him was found stark dead upon the Scaffold by the Stroak of Imagination Imagination occasions Diseases and Death We start tremble turn pale and blush as we are variously mov'd by Imagination and being a-bed feel our Bodies agitated with its Power to that degree as even sometimes to Expire And boyling Youth when fast asleep grows so warm with Fancy as in a Dream to satisfie amorous Desires Lucret. l. 4. Ut quasi transactis saepe omnibus rebus profundant Fluminis ingentes fluctus vestemque cruentent Who fansie gulling Lyes his enflam'd Mind Lays his Loves Tribute there where not design'd Although it be no new thing to see Horns grown in a Night on the Fore-head of one that had none when he went to Bed notwithstanding what besell Cyppus a noble Roman is very râ—â—merable who having one day been a very deligâ—â—d Spectator of a Bull-baiting and having all the night dreamt that he had Horns on his Head did by the Force of Imagination really cause them to grow there Passion made the Son of Croesus to speak who was born dumb by that means supplying him with so necessary a Faculty which Nature had deny'd him And Antiochus sell into a Fever enflam'd with the Beauty of Stratonissa too deeply imprinted in his Soul Pliny pretends to have seen Lucius Cressitius who from a Woman was turn'd into a Man upon her very Wedding day Pontanus and others report the like Metamorphoses that in these latter days have hapned in Italy and through the vehement Desire of him and his Mother Ovid. Vota puer sâ—lvit quae foemina voverat Iphis. Iphis a Boy the Vow desray'd That he had
am I now of an Age to be Reproach'd that I go out of the World too soon And yet he was but Eight and Forty Years Old He thought that to be a mature and competent Age considering how few arrive unto it and such as soothing their Thoughts with I know not what course of Nature promise to themselves some Years beyond it could they be privileg'd from the infinite number of Accidents to which we are by natural subjection expos'd might have some Reason so to do What an Idle Conceit it is to expect to Die of a decay of Strength which is the last of effects of the extreamest Age and to propose to our selves no shorter lease of Life than that considering it is a kind of Death of all others the most rare and very hardly seen We call that only a Natural Death as if it were contrary to Nature â—o see a Man break his Neck with a Fall be Drown'd in Shipwrack at Sea or snatch'd away with a Pleurisie or the Plague and as if our ordinary condition of Life did not expose us to these Inconveniences Let us no more flatter our selves with these fine sounding Words We ought rather at a venture to call that Natural which is Common and Universal To Die of Old Age is a Death rare extraordinary and singular and therefore so much less Natural than the others 'T is the last and extreamest sort of Dying And the more remote the less to be hop'd for It is indeed the Boundary of Life beyond which we are not to pass Which the Law of Nature has pitch'd for a 〈◊〉 not to be exceeded But it is withal a Privilege she is rarely seen to give us to last till then 'T is a Lease she only Signs by particular favour and it may be to one only in the space of two or three Ages and then with a Pass to boot to carry him through all the Traverses and Difficulties she has strew'd in the way of this long Carreer And therefore my Opinion is that when once Forty Years Old we should consider it as an Age to which very few arrive For seeing that Men do not usually proceed so far it is a fign that we are pretty well advanc'd and since we have exceeded the ordinary Bounds which make the just measure of Life we ought not to expect to go much further having escap'd so many Precipices of Death whereinto we have seen so many other Men to fall we should acknowledge that so extraordinary a Fortune as that which has hitherto rescu'd us from those imminent Perils and 〈◊〉 us alive beyond the ordinary term of Living is not likely to continue long 'T is a fault in our very Laws to maintain this Errour That a Man is not capable of managing his own Estate till he be Five and Twenty Years Old whereas he will have much ado to manage his Life so long Augustus cut off Five Years from the Ancient Roman Standard and declar'd that Thirty Years Old was sufficient for a Judge Sâ—â—vius Tullius superseded the Knights of above Seven and Forty Years of Age from the Fatigues of War Augustus dismiss'd them at Forty Five Though methinks it seems a little unlikely that Men should be sent to the Fire-side till Five and Fifty or Sixty Years of Age. I should be of Opinion that both our Vacancy and Employment should be as far as possible extended for the Publick Good But I find the fault on the other side that they do not employ us Early enough This Emperour was arbiter of the whole World at Nineteen and yet would have a Man to be Thirty before he could be fit to bear Office in the Common-wealth For my part I believe our Souls are Adult at Twenty such as they are ever like to be and as capable then as ever A Soul that has not by that time given evident earnest of its Force and Vertue will never after come to proof Natural Parts and Excellencies produce that they have of Vigorous and Fine within that Term or never Of all the great Humane Actions I ever Heard or Read of of what sort soever I have Observ'd both in former Ages and 〈◊〉 own more perform'd before the Age of Thirty than after And oft times in the very Lives of the same Men. May I not confidently instance in those of Hannibal and his great concurrent Scipio The better half of their Lives they Liv'd upon the Glory they had acquir'd in their Youth great Men after 't is true in comparison of others but by no means in comparison of themselves As to my own particular I do certainly believe that since that Age both my Understanding and my Constitution have rather decay'd than improv'd and retir'd rather than advanc'd T is possible that with those who make the best use of their Time Knowledge and Experience may grow up and encrease with their Years but the Vivacity Quickness and Steadiness and other pieces of us of much greater Importance and much more Essentially our own Languish and Decay Lucret. l. 3. Ubi jam validis quassatum est aevi viribus Corpus obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus Claudicat ingenium delirat linguaque mensque When once the Body 's shaken by Time's Rage The Blood and Vigour Ebbing into Age The Judgment then Halts upon either Hip The Mind does Doat Tongue into Nonsense Trip. Sometimes the Body first submits to Age sometimes the Soul and I have seen enow who have got a Weakness in their Brains before either in their Hams or Stomach And by how much the more it is a Disease of no great pain to the infected Party and of obscure Symptoms so much greater the danger is And for this reason it is that I complain of our Laws not that they keep us too long to our Work but that they set us to work too late For the Frailty of Life consider'd and to how many Natural and Accidental Rubs it is Obnoxious and Expos'd Birth though Noble ought not to share so large a Vacancy and so tedious a course of Education The End of the First Book Books Printed for and Sold by MATTHEW GILLYFLOWER at the Spread-Eagle in Westminster-Hall FOLIO's CAbbala or Mysteries of State and Government In Letters of Illustrious Persons in the Reigns of Henry the VIII Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles The Third Edition with large Additions The Compleat Gard'ner or Directions for the right Ordering of Fruit-gardens and Kitchin-gardens with the Culture of Oranges and Melons Made English by John Evelyn Esq The compleat Horseman discovering the surest Marks of the Beauty Goodness Faults and Imperfections of Horses with the Signs and Causes of their Diseases the true Method both of their Preservation and Cure with the regular Use of Bleeding and Purging Also the Art of Shooing Breeding and Backing of Colts with a Supplement of Riding By the Sieur de Solleysell Querry to the French King Made English from the 8th Edition by Sir John Hope
Opinion espoused to the expence of Life 406 Opinion gives value to things 424 Opinion of Pain 434 Opinions concerning good and Evil. 401 Oracles ceased before the coming of Jesus Christ 57 Osorius Historian 407 Over study spoils good Humour 387 Ovid's Metamorphosis 272 P PAin the last Evil. 410 Pain principally fear'd in Death 412 Pain the worst accident of our being 413 Pain suffer'd with impatience 414 Pain of child bearing 417 Pain endured at the expence of Life Ibid. Pain endured with obstinacy 418 Pain voluntarily endured to get Credit 420 Painting 180 Palate Science 519 Parly's time dangerous 37 Part acted by the Author in a Play 274 Parthians perform all they have to do on Horseback 490 Passions of the Soul steal the Pleasure of external conveniences 448 Peasants and Philosophers 530 Pedants despised 193 Pedant's pleasant answer 260 Pedantry contemptible 191 Peers Ecclesiastical oblig'd to assist the King in War 438 Penitence requires Penance 41 People going always bare-foot 356 Perfumes Exotick 531 Person belov'd preferr'd to the Lover 292 Perturbations how far allowed by the Stoicks to their Philosophers 68 Phalarica what sort of Arms. 493 Philosophers despised 192 Philosophy consists in Practice 258 Philosophy and her Study 92 Philosophy what is according to Plato 227 Philosophy rules humane actions 239 Philosophy despised with Men of understanding 243. Philosophy instructs Infancy 248 Philosophy formatrix of Iudgment and Manners 252 Philosophy banish'd out of the Holy Schools 445 Philosophical Qualities in Youth 233 Pity reputed a vice amongst the Stoicks 3 Place not tenible by the rules of War 72 Place of honour amongst the Ancients 507 Plato true Philosopher 258 Plato Sirnam'd Divine 521 Plato's belief injurious to the Gods 537 Plays acted by Princes 275 Plays of Children 147 Pleasures of Matrimony 310 Pleasures wheedle and caress to Strangle 387 Plenty and Indigence depend upon Opinion 443 Pliny's Judgment 280 Plutarch's Lives 235 Plutarch's Elegy 236 Poesie and its effects 213 Poesie recommended to Youth 255 Poesie above Rules and Reason 364 Poesie of the Ancients 526 Poesie of several Sorâ—â— 530 Poesie Gay 307 Poets and Rhimers 263 Poets Lyricks 249 Poets in greater number than Judges of Poesie 363 Poetick Raptures 180 Politicks of Lypsius 218 Pompey pardons a whole City on the acount of Zeno's Vertue 6 Pompey's Head presented to Caesar 366 Pompey's engagement with Caesar 482 Poor in the midst of Riches 427 Possession what it is 428 Poverty to be fear'd 413 Poverty sought after 4â—4 Praises of great Men. 394 Praises rejected 437 Prayer dictated to us from the mouth of God how to be used by us 536 Prayers in Secret 548 Prayers vain 546 Prayers Religious reconciling of our Selves to God can't enter into an impure Soul Ibid. Prayers and Supplications overcome Men. 4 Preparation to Death Necessary 105 Presumption 279 Princes advantage as common with Men of mean condition 456 Princes ought to despise Silks and Gold 458 Prisoners how used by the Barbarians 328 Prisoners constant resolution 335 Production of all things 323 Profit of one Man a loss to another 142 Prognostications vain and superstitious 60 Prognostications abolish'd by Christian Religion 58 Prophets and Priests punished for their false Saying 327 Psalms of David indiscreet use of them Interdicted 540 Pyrrhus's Head presented to Antigonus 366 Pyrrhus's Ambition 456 Python's great Courage 5 Q QValities required in an Historian 321 Qualities misbecoming Merit and Condition 393 R RAshness in Judgment 277 Reading of History 235 Reason Human. 151 Recommendation from whence proceeds 526 Recreation fit for Youth 253 Regulus ' s Parsimony 522 Relicks of St. Hilary 28 Relicks of Gervase and Protasius Ibid. Religion Christian needs not the Authority of Events 340 Repartee of a French Gentleman 150 Repentance 539 Reproaches against the enemy allowed in a Seige 480 Reputation forsaken 436 Respects due to the Royalty not to the King 454 Resolution and Constancy 65 Revenge against inanimated Creatures 29 Revenge of a King against God Ibid. Revenge of Augustus against Neptunus 30 Revenge of Thraces against Heaven Ibid. Revenge desired 47 Rhetrick a Lying and deceitful Art 517 Rhetrick useless and pernicious 517 Rich Man who is that 424 Riches contempt 157 Riches Illuminated by Prudence 430 Riding good for the Stomach 490 Rivers obnoxious to changes 319 Romances 272 S SAbinus ' s Life 417 Sacrifices of Human Bodies 315 Sadles or Pads 496 Sallets according to their Seasons 519 Sancho King of Navarre Sirnamed Trembling 527 Savages 322 Savage ' s Policy 324 Sawces 519 Scanderbeg Prince of Epirus 2 Scaevola ' s Constancy 418 Scepter heavy Burthen 449 Schools and Classes 254 School-masters how ought to behave themselves in Teaching their Scholars 222 Science softens the Courage 211 Science of a marvellous use 220 Science Steril 388 Scipio's confidence to a Barbarian 184 Scipio's great Acts due in part to Laelius 438 Scythians declining a Battle 66 Secret faithfully kept 41 Self murther 314 Senses judge of Pain 411 Sentiments of Beasts free and natural 415 Servitude voluntary 284 Severity of the Colleges 254 Severity enemy to Education 253 Severus spoke best ex Tempore 56 Shame causes Death 12 Shrine of St. Stephen 281 Silence and Modesty 230 Silk ouâ— of Fashion in France 454 Sire what Title 527 Sirnames glorious amongst the Ancients 521 Sirname of Great to Princes 522 Slings 494 Smell Good and Bad. 532 Smell simple and natural 533 Snows storms in Armenia 358 Snow used to cool Wine 506 Society of bad Men unfortunate 372 Socrates his Daemon 64 Solicitude of Reputation and Glory 435 Solitude what is 376 Solitary Life preferr'd to a voluptuâ—s way of Living 343 Solitude has the best pretence in those that have employed their flourishing Age in the Worldâ— Service 380 Solitude sought after on the Account of Devotion 385 Solitude obnoxious to Miscarriages 391 Sorrow called by the Italians Malignity 8 Sorrow hurtful to Men. Ibid. Sorrow Silences Men. 9 Sorrow proceeding from Love can't be Represented 10 Sorrow strikes Men dumb and Dead 11 Sovereign 524 Soul has not Settled limits 43 Soul looking upon things several ways 370 Soul is where she is busied 374 Souls fit for solitude and Retirement 381 Soul variable into all sorts of Forms 415 Soul the sole cause of her Condition 433 Soul discovered in all Motion 512 Soul colours things as she pleases 313 Soul ought to be pure at Prayer time 537 Sounding from whence proceeds 125 Spanish Body 420 Speaking fine 267 Spectacles profitable to the Society 275 Speech fit for Pleaders 54 Speech fit for Preachers Ibid. Stoick ' s State 69 Stoick's did allow to feed upon Carcases 330 Stories 396 Stratagems in War contrary to the Eldest Senatorâ— Practice 31 Study excessive hinders the Action of the Mind 192 Study and its advantages 226 Subjection Real and Effectual 454 Submission mollifies the Heart 1 Subtilties of Logick abuse 249 Suit of Arms under a Religious habit 421 Surprizes in War 33 Suspicion breeds jealously 183 Sweetness of
and I wonder that the Author of the Search after Truth should spend his time upon them in a manner so unbecoming his Character He tells us after Balzac and some others that Montagne's Vanity and Pride are not sutable to an Author and Philosopher that it was ridiculous and useless to keep a Page having hardly 6000 Livres a year and more ridiculous still to have so often mentioned it in his Writings but I may answer that it was very common in his time for Gentlemen of noble extraction to keep a Page to shew their quality tho their Estate could hardly afford them to keep a Footman and that the 6000 Livres a year were then more than 20000 now adays It was likewise very much uncoming the gravity of our famous Searcher after Truth to rail at Montagne because he does not mention in his Essays that he kept a Clerk when he was Councellor in the Parliament of Bourdeaux for Montagne having exercised that noble employment but for a short time in his youth he had no occasion to mention it and who shall believe that he has concealed it out of Vanity he who in the opinion of Malbranche himself talks of his imperfections and vices with too great a freedom It is likewise very ungenerous and ungentleman like to take noâ—ice that he did not very well succeed in his Mayoralty of Bourdeaux The times he lived in were very troublesome and supposing he committed some Error which they say without any Proof what is that to the merit of his Book Balzac introduces a Gentleman speaking thus to an admirer of Montagne You may praise your Author if you will more than our Cicero but I cannot fancy that a man who governed all the World was not at least equal to a Person who did not know how to govern Bourdeaux This may very well pass for a jest but is it a rational way for confuting an Author to have recourse unto personal Reflections or some incidents relating to his private Person or Quality This is so mean that I cannot fancy Balzac could be guilty of it and I wholly impute it to those who have published after his Death some loose discourses on several Subjects which they have intitled his Entretiens Notwithstanding these objections Montagne always had and is like to have Admirers as long as Sense and Reason have any credit in the World Justus Lipsius calls him the French Thales and Mezeray the Christian Seneca and the incomparable Thuanus has made an Eulogy of him which being very short I shall transcribe it here Michel de Montagne Chevalier was born in Perigord in a Castle which had the name of his Family He was made Councellor in the Parliament of Bourdeaux with Stephen de la Boetie with whom he contracted so great a Friendship that that dear Friend was even after his Death the object of his respect and veneration Montagne was extraordinary Free and Sincere as Posterity will see by his Essays for so he has intitled that Immortal Monument of his Genius While he was at Venice he was elected Mayor of Bourdeaux which place was only bestowed upon persons of the first quality and even the Governors of the Province thought it was an honor for them The Mareschal de Matignon who commanded the Kings Forces in that Province during the troubles of the State had such an esteem for him that he communicated unto him the most important affairs and admitted him into his Council As I had a correspondence with him while I was in his Country and since at Court the conformity of our Studies and Inclinations united us most intimately He dyed at Montagne in the 60th year of his Age. This testimony of Thuanus is sufficient to justify the memory of our Author for no body will believe that a man of that integrity would have been so great a Friend with so vicious a man as Malbranche has represented Montagne I shall therefore conclude this discourse with a very remarkable circumstance mentioned by Thuanus in his own Life lib. 3. which shew that Montagne was beloved by the greatest Princes in his time and honored with their confidence While the States of the Kingdom says he were sitting at Blois Montagne and I were discoursing of the division between the King of Navarre and the Duke of Guise whereupon he told me that he knew the most secret thoughts of those Princes as having been employed to compose their differences and that he was perswaded that neither of 'em was of the Religion he professed That the King of Navarr would have willingly embrac'd the Religion of his Predecessors if he had not feared that his Party had abandoned him and that the Duke of Guise would have declared himself for the confession of Augsburg which the Cardinal of Lorrain his Unkle had inspired him with if he could have done it without any prejudice to his Interests I thought this circumstance was not unworthy of being placed here but I must beg the Readers pardon for having been so long which must be attributed to the respect I have for the Memory of that excellent author I designed to shew the reason why Montagne meets with a more favourable entertainment in England than in his Native Country but having been already too long I shall content my self to observe that an Author who talks freely of every thing is not suitable to the temper of a servile Nation who has lost all sence of Liberty Monsieur La Bruyere in his celebrated Book of the Characters or Manners of the Age gives another reason why some people condemn Montagne Two Writers says he meaning La Mothe Le Vayer and Malbranche have condemned Montagne I know that Author may be justly blamed in some things but neither of 'em will allow him to have any thing valuable One of 'em thinks too little to taste such an Author who thinks a great deal and the other thinks too subtilely to be pleased with what is natural This I believe is the general Character of Montagne's enemies ESSAYS OF Michael Seigneur de Montaigne The First BOOK CHAP. I. That Men by various Ways arrive at the same end THE most likely and most usual way in Practice of appeasing the Indignation of such as we have any way offended when we see them in Possession of the Power of Revenge and find that we absolutely lie at their Mercy Submission mollifies the Hearts of the offended is by Submission than which nothing more flatters the Glory of an Adversary to move them to Commiseration and Pity and yet Bravery Constancy and Resolution however quite contrary means have sometimes served to produce the same effect Edward the Black Prince of Wales the same who so long govern'd our Province of Guienne Edward the Black Prince a Person whose high Condition excellent Qualities and remarkable Fortune have in them a great deal of the most noble and most considerable Parts of Grandeur having through some Misdemeanours of theirs been highly incens'd
by his Fall the Name and power to which he aspir'd by perfecting his Career In the Judgment I make of another Man's Life I always observe how he carried himself at his Death and the principal Concern I have for my own is that I may die handsomly that is patiently and without noise CHAP. XIX That to study Philosophy is to learn to die CIcero says That to study Philosophy is nothing but to prepare a Man's self to die The reason of which is because Study and Contemplation do in some sort withdraw from us and deprive us of our Souls and employ it separately from the Body which is a kind of Learning to die and a resemblance of Death or else because all the Wisdom and reasoning in the World does in the end conclude in this Point to teach us not to fear to die And to say the Truth either our Reason does grosly abuse us or it ought to have no other Aim but our Contentment only nor to endeavour any thing but in Sum to make us live well and as the Holy Scripture says at our Ease All the Opinions of the World agree in this That Pleasure is our end though we make use of divers means to attain unto it they would otherwise be rejected at the first motion for who would give Ear to him that should propose Affliction and Misery for his end The Controversies and Disputes of the Philosophical Sects upon this Point are meerly verbal Transcurramus solertissimas nugas Let us skip over those learned and subtle Fooleries and Trifles Seneca Epist there is more in them of Opposition and Obstinacy than is consistent with so sacred a Profession but what kind of Person soever Man takes upon him to personate he over-mixes his own part with it and let the Philosophers all say what they will the main thing at which we all aim even in Virtue it self is Pleasure It pleases me to rattle in their Ears this Word which they so nauseate to hear and if it signifie some supream Pleasure and excessive Delight it is more due to the Assistance of Virtue than to any other Assistance whatever This Delight for being more gay more sinewy more robust and more manly is only to be more seriously voluptuous and we ought to give it the Name of Pleasure as that which is more benign gentle and natural and not that of Vigour from which we have deriv'd it the other more mean and sensual part of Pleasure if it could deserve this fair Name it ought to be upon the Account of Concurrence and not of Privilege I find it less exempt from Traverses and Inconveniences than Vertue it self and besides that the enjoyment is more momentary fluid and frail it has its Watchings Fasts and Labours even to Sweat and Blood and moreover has particular to it self so many several sorts of sharp and wounding Passions and so stupid a Satiety attending it as are equal to the severest Penance And we mistake to think that Difficulties should serve it for a Spur and a seasoning to its Sweetness as in Nature one Contrary is quickned by another and to say when we come to Vertue that like Consequences and Difficulties overwhelm and render it austere and inaccessible whereas much more aptly than in Voluptuousness they enable sharpen and heighten the Perfect and divine Pleasure they procure us He renders himself unworthy of it who will counterpoise his Expence with the Fruit and does neither understand the Blessing nor how to use it Those who Preach to us that the quest of it is craggy difficult and painful but the Fruition pleasant and grateful what do they mean by that but to tell us that it is always unpleasing The most perfect have been forc'd to content themselves to aspire unto it and to approach it only without ever possessing it But they are deceiv'd and do not take notice that of all the Pleasures we know the very Pursuit is pleasant The Attempt ever relishes of the quality of the thing to which it is directed for it is a good part of and consubstantial with the Effect The Felicity and Beatitude that glitters in Vertue shines throughout all her Apartments and Avenues even to the first Entry and utmost Pale and Limits Now of all the Benefits that Vertue confers upon us the Contempt of Death is one of the greatest as the means that accommodates Humane Life with a soft and easie Tranquillity and gives us a pure and pleasant Taste of Living without which all other pleasure would be extinct which is the Reason why all the Rules by which we are to live centre and concur in this own Article And altho they all in like manner with one consent endeavour to teach us also to despise Grief Poverty and the other Accidents to which humane Life by its own Nature and Constitution is subjected it is not nevertheless with the same Importunity as well by reason the fore-named Accidents are not of so great necessity the greater part of Mankind passing over their whole Lives without ever knowing what Poverty is and some without Sorrow or Sickness as Xenophilus the Musician who liv'd a hundred and six Years in a perfect and continual Health as also because at the worst Death can whenever we please cut short and put an end to all these Inconveniences But as to Death it is inevitable Horat. l. 2. Od. 3. Omnes eodem cogimur omnium Versatur Urna serius ocyus Sors exitura nos in aeternum Exilium impositura Cymbae We all are to one Voyage bound by turn Sooner or later all must to the Urn When Charon calls aboard we must not stay But to eternal Exile sail away And consequently if it frights us 't is a perpetual Torment and for which there is no Consolation nor Redress There is no way by which we can possibly avoid it it commands all Points of the Compass we may continually turn our Heads this way and that and pry about as in a suspected Country Cicero de finib l. 1. quae quasi saxum Tantalo semper impendet but it like Tantalâ—s his Stone hangs over us Our Courts of Justice often send back condemn'd Criminals to be executed upon the Place where the Fact was committed but carry them to all fine Houses by the way and prepare for them the best Entertainment you can Hor. l. 3. Od. 1. non Sicula Dapeâ— Dulcem elaborabunt saporem Non avium citharaeque cantus Somnum reducent the tasts of such as these Choicest Sicilian Dainties cannot please Nor yet of Birds or Harps the Harmonies Once charm asleep or close their watchful Eyes do you think they could relish it and that the fatal end of their Journey being continually before their Eyes would not alter and deprave their Palate from tasting these Regalio's Claud. Audit iter numeratque dies spatioque viarum Meâ—itur vitam torquetur peste futura He time and space computes by length of ways Sums up
the number of his few sad days And his sad thoughts full of his fatal doom Can dream of nothing but the blow to come The end of our Race is Death 't is the necessary Object of our aim which if it fright us how is it possible to advance a step without a Fit of an Ague The Remedy the Vulgar use is not to think on 't but from what brutish stupidity can they derive so gross a blindness They must bridle the Ass by the Tail Lucret. l. 4. Qui capite ipse suo instituit vestigia retro He who the order of his steps has laid To light and natural motion retrograde 't is no wonder if he be often trap'd in the Pitfall They use to fright People with the very mention of Death and many cross themselves as it were the name of the Devil and because the making a mans Will is in reference to dying not a man will be perswaded to take a Pen in hand to that purpose till the Physician has pass'd sentence upon him and totally given him over and then betwixt Grief and Terror God knows in how fit a condition of Understanding he is to do it The Romans by reason that this poor syllable Death was observ'd to be so harsh to the Ears of the People and the sound so ominous had found out a way to soften and spin it out by a Periphrasis and instead of pronouncing bluntly such a one is dead to say such a one has liv'd or such a one has ceas'd to live for provided there was any mention of Life in the Case though past it carried yet some sound of Consolation And from them it is that we have borrow'd our expression of the late Monsieur such and such a one Peradventure as the Saying is the term we have liv'd is worth our money The Author's birth I was born betwixt eleven and twelve a clock in the Forenoon the last of February 1533. according to our Computation beginning the Year the first of January and it is now but just fifteen days since I was compleat nine and thirty years old I make account to live at least as many more In the mean time to trouble a mans self with the thought of a thing so far of is a sensless Foolery But what Young and Old die after the very same manner and no one departs out of Life otherwise than if he had but just before enter'd into it neither is any so old and decrepid who has heard of Methusalem that does not think he has yet twenty years of Constitution good at least Fool that thou art who has assur'd unto thee the term of Life Thou dependâ—st upon Physicians Tales and Stories but rather consult Experience and the fragility of humane Nature for according to the common course of things 't is long since that thou liv'dst by extraordinary Favour Thou hast already out-li'vd the ordinary term of Life and that it is so reckon up thy Acquaintance how many more have died before they arriv'd at thy Age than have attain'd unto it and of those who have ennobled their Lives by their Renown take but an Account and I dare lay a Wager thou wilt find more who have dyed before than after five and thirty years of age It is full both of Reason and Piety too to take Example by the Humanity of Jesus Christ himself who ended his Life at three and thirty years The greatest man that ever was no more than a man Alexander died also at the same Age. How many several ways has Death to surprize us Hor. l. 2. Od. 13. Quid quisque vitet nunquam homini satis Cautum est in horas Man fain would shun but 't is not in his Power T'evade the dangers of each threatning hour To omit Fevers and Pleurisies who would ever have imagin'd that a Duke of Britanny should be press'd to death in a Crow'd as that Duke was at the entry of Pope Clement into Lyons Have we not seen one of our * Henry II. of France running against Montgomery 2. Philip the eldest son of Lewis the Gross the 40th King of France Kings kill'd at a Tilting and did not one of his Ancestors die by the justle of a Hog Aeschylus being threatned with the fall of a house was to much purpose so circumspect to avoid that danger when he was knock'd o' th' head by a Tortoise-shell falling out of an Eagles Talons in the Fields Another was choak'd with a Grape-stone an Emperour kill'd with the scratch of a Comb in combing his Head Aemilius Lepidus with a stumble at his own threshold and Aufidius with a justle against the door as he entred the Council Chamber And betwixt the very Thighs of Women Corâ—elius Gallus the Prator Tigillinus Captain of the Watch at Rome Ludovico Son of Guido de Gonzaga Marquis of Mantua and of worse example Speusippus a Platonick Philosopher and one of our Popes The poor Judge Bebiâ—â— whilst he repriv'd a Criminal for eight days only was himself condemn'd to death and his own day of Life was expir'd Whilst Caius Julius the Physician was anointing the Eyes of a Patient Death clos'd his own and if I may bring in an Example of my own Bloud A Brother of mine Captain St. Martin a young man of three and twenty years old who had already given sufficient testimomy of his Valour playing a match at Tennis receiv'd a blow of a Ball a little above his right Ear which though it was without any manner of sign of Wound or depression of the Skull and though he took no great notice of it nor so much as sate down to repose himself he nevertheless died within five or six hours after of an Apoplexy occasion'd by that blow Which so frequent and common Examples passing every day before our Eyes how is it possible a man should disingage himself from the thought of Death or avoid fansying that it has us every moment by the Collar What matter is it you will say which way it comes to pass provided a man does not terrifie himself with the expectation For my part I am of this mind that if a man could by any means avoid it though by creeping under a Calves skin I am one that should not be ashamed of the shift all I aim at is to pass my time pleasantly and without any great Reproach and the Recreations that most contribute to it I take hold of as to the rest as little glorious and exemplary as you would desire Hâ—raâ—e Epist 2 l. 2. praetulerim dâ—lirus inersque videri Dum mea dâ—lectant mâ—la me vel deni fallant Quà m sapere ringi A Fool or Coward let me censur'd be Whilst either Vice does please or cozen me Rather than be thought wise and â—eel the smart Of a perpetual aking anxious Heart But t is folly to think of doing any thing that way They go they come they gallop and dance and not a word of Death All
this is very fine but withall when it comes either to themselves their Wives their Children or Friends surprizing them at unawares and unprepar'd then what torment what outcries what madness and despair Did you ever see any thing so subdu'd so chang'd and so confounded A man must therefore make more early tryal of it and this brutish negligence could it possibly lodge in the Brain of any man of Sense which I think utterly impossible sells us its merchandise too dear Were it an Enemy that could be avoided I would then advise to borrow Arms even of Cowardize it self to that effect but seeing it is not and that it will catch you as well flying and playing the Poltron as standing to 't like a man of Honour Idem l. 3. Ode 2. Nempe fugacem persequitur virum Nec parcit imbellis juventae Poplitibus timidoque tergo No speed of â—oot prevents Death of his prize He cuts the Hamstrings of the man that flies Nor spares the tender Stripling 's back does start T' out-run the distance of his mortal Dart. And seeing that no temper of Arms is of proof to secure us Propert. l. 3. Eleg 17. altas 16. Ille licet ferro cautus se condat aere Mors tamen inclusum protrahet inde caput Shell thee with Steel or Brass advis'd by dread Death from the Cask will pull thy cautious Head let us learn bravely to stand our ground and fight him And to begin to deprive him of the greatest Advantage he has over us let us take a way quite contrary to the common course Let us disarm him of his Novelty and Strangeness let us converse and be familiar with him and have nothing so frequent in our thoughts as Death Let us upon occasions represent him in all his most dreadful shapes to our imagination at the stumbling of a Horse at the falling of a Tile at the lest prick with a Pin let us presently consider and say to our selves Well and what if it had been Death it self and thereupon let us encourage and fortifie our selves Let us evermore amidst our jollity and Feasting set the remembrance of our frail condition before our Eyes never suffering our selves to be so far transported with our Delight but that we have some intervals of reflecting upon and considering how many several ways this Jollity of ours tends to Death and with how many dangers it threatens it The Egyptians were wont to do after this manner who in the height of their Feasting aâ—d Mirth caus'd a dried Skeleton of a Man to be brought into the Room to serve for a Memento to their Guests Horat. l. 1. Epist 4. Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora. Think every day soon as the day is past Of thy Life's date that thou hast liv'd the last The next day's joyful Light thine Eyes shall see As unexpected will more welcome be Where Death waits for us in uncertain let us every where look for him The Premeditation of Death is the Premeditation of Liberty who has learnt to die has forgot to serve There is nothing of Evil in Life for him who rightly comprehends that Death is no Evil to know how to die delivers us from all Subjection and Constraint Paulus Aemilius answer'd him whom the miserable King of Macedon his Prisoner sent to entreat him that he would not lead him in his Triumph Let him make that Request to himself In truth in all things if Nature do not help a little it is very hard for Art and Industry to perform any thing to purpose I am in my own Nature not melancholy but thoughtful and there is nothing I have more continually entertain'd my self withall than the Imaginations of Death even in the gayest and most wanton time of my Age. Catullus Num. 69. Jucundum cum aetas florida ver ageret Of florid Age in the most pleasant Spring In the Company of Ladies and in the height of Mirth some have perhaps thought me possess'd with some jealousie or meditating upon the Uncertainty of some imagin'd Hope whilst I was entertaining my self with the Remembrance of some one surpriz'd a few days before with a burning Fever of which he died returning from an Entertainment like this with his Head full of idle Fancies of Love and Jollity as mine was then and that for ought I knew the same Destiny was attending me Lucret. l 3. J am fuerit nec post unquam revocare licebit But now he had a being amongst Men Now gone and ne'er to be recall'd agen Yet did noâ— this Thought wrinkle my Forehead any more than any other It is impossible but we must feel a sting in such Imaginations as these at first but with often revolving them in a Man's Mind and having them frequent in our Thoughts they at last become so familiar as to be no trouble at all otherwise I for my part should be in a perpetual Fright and Frenzy for never Man was so distrustful of his Life never Man so indifferents for its Duration Neither Health which I have hitherto ever enjoyed very strong and vigorous and very seldom interrupted does prolong nor Sickness contract my Hopes Methinks I scape every minute and it eternally runs in my Mind that what may be done to morrow may be done to day Hazards and Dangers do in truth little or nothing hasten our end and if we consider how many more remain and hang over our Heads besides the accident that immediately threatens us we shall find that the Sound and the Sick those that are abroad at Sea and those that sit by the Fire those who are engagâ—d in Battle and those who sit idle at home are the one as near it as the other Nemo altero fragilior est nemo in crastinum sui certior Senec. â—p 19. No man is more frail than another no more certain of the morrow For any thing I have to do before I die the longest leisure would appear too short were it but an Hours business I had to do A Friend of mine the other day turning over my Table-Book found in it a Memorandum of something I would have done after my Decease whereupon I told him as it was really true that though I was no more than a League 's distance only from my own House and merry and well yet when that thing came into my Head I made hast to write it down there because I was not certain to live till I came home As a man that am eternally brooding over my own thoughts and who confine them to my own particular Concerns I am upon the matter at all hours as well prepar'd as I am ever like to be and Death whenever he shall come can bring nothing along with him I did not expect long before We should always as near as we can be booted and spurr'd and ready to go and above all things to take care at that time to
have no business with any one but a man's self Hor. l. 2. Od. 16. Quid brevi fortes jaculamur aevo Multa Why cut'st thou out such mighty Work vain man Whose Life 's short date 's compriz'd in one poor span For we shall there find work enough to do without any need of Addition One complains more than of Death than he is thereby prevented of a glorious Victory another that he must die before he has married his Daughter or settled and provided for his Children a third seems only troubled that he must lose the society of his beloved Wife a fourth the conversation of his Son as the principal concerns of his Being For my part I am thanks be to God at this instant in such a condition that I am ready to dislodge whenever it shall please him without any manner of regret I disengage my self throughout from all Worldly Relations my leave is soon taken of all but my self Never did any one prepare to bid adieu to the World more absolutely and purely and to shake hands with all manner of Interest in it than I expect to do The deadest Deaths are the best Lucret. l. 3. miser O miser aiunt omnia ademit Una dies infesta mihi tot praemia vitae Wretch that I am they cry one fatal day So many joys of Life has snatch'd away And the Builder Aeneid l. 4. manent dit il opera interrupta minaeque Murorum ingentes aequataque machina Coelo Stupendious Piles say he neglected lie And Tow'rs whose Pinacles do pierce the Sky A man must design nothing that will require so much time to the finishing or at least with no such passionate desire to see it brought to Perfection We are born to action Ovid. Amor. lib. 2. Eleg. 10. Cum moriar medium solvar inter opus When Death shall come he me will doubtless find Doing of something that I had design'd I would always have a man to be doing and as much as in him lies to extend and spin out the Offices of life and then let Death take me planting Cabbages but without any careful thought of him and much less of my Garden 's not being finished I saw one die who at his last gasp seem'd to be concern'd at nothing so much as that Destiny was about to cut the thread of a Chronicle History he was then compiling when he was gone no farther than the fifteenth or sixteenth of our Kings Lucret. l. 3. Illud in his rebus non addunt nec tibi earum J am desiderium rerum superinsidet una They tell us not that dying we 've no more The same desires and thoughts that heretosore We are to discharge our selves from these vulgar and hurtful Humours and Concerns To this purpose it was that men first appointed the places of Sepulture and Dormitories of the dead near adjoyning to the Churches and in the most frequent places of the City to accustom says Lycurgus the common People Women and Children that they should not be startled at the sight of a dead Corps and to the end that the continual Objects of Bones Graves Monuments and Funeral Obsequies should put us in Mind of our frail condition Silius Itaâ—icus l. 11. Quinetiam exhilarare viris convivia caede Mos olim miscere epulis spectacula dira Certatum ferro saepe super ipsa cadentum Pocula respersis non parco sanguine mensis 'T was therefore that the Ancients at their Feasts With tragick Objects us'd to treat their Guests Making their Fencers with their utmost spite Skill Force and Fury in their presence fight Till streams of Blood of those at last must fall Dash'd o'er their Tables Dishes Cups and all And as the Egyptians after their Feasts were wont to present the Company with a great Image of Death by one that cry'd out to them Drink and be merry for such shalt thou be when thou art dead so it is my Custom to have Death not only in my Imagination but continually in my Mouth neither is there any thing of which I am so inquisitive and delight to inform my self as the manner of mens Deaths their Words Looks and Gestures nor any places in History I am so intent upon and it is manifest enough by my crowding in Examples of this kind that I have a particular fancy for that Subject If I were a Writer of Books I would compile a Register with a Comment of the various Deaths of men and it could not but be useful for who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live Dâ—cearchus made one to which he gave that Title but it was designâ—d for another and less profitable end Peradventure some one may object and say that the pain and terror of dying indeed does so infinitely exceed all manner of imagination that the best Fencer will be quite out of his Play when it comes to the Push but let them say what they will to premeditate is doubtless a very great Advantage and besides is it nothing to come so far at least without any visible Disturbance or Alteration But moreover Nature her self does assist and encourage us If the Death be sudden and violent we have not leisure to fear if otherwise I find that as I engage further in my Disease I naturally enter into a certain loathing and disdain of Life I find I have much more ado to digest this Resolution of dying when I am well in Health than when sick languishing of a Fever and by how much I have less to do with the Commodities of Life by reason I even begin to lose the use and Pleasure of them by so much I look upon Death with less Terror and Amazement which makes me hope that the further I remove from the first and the nearer I approach to the latter I shall sooner strike a bargain and with less Unwillingness exchange the one for the other And as I have experimented in other Occurrences that as Caesar says things often appear greater to us at distance than near at hand I have found that being well I have had Diseases in much greater Horror than when really afflicted with them The Vigour wherein I now am and the Jollity and Delight wherein I now live make the contrary Estatâ— appear in so great a disproportion to my present condition that by Imagination I magnifie and make those inconveniences twice greater than they are and apprehend them to be much more troublesome than I find them really to be when they lie the most heavy upon me and I hope to find Death the same Let us but observe in the ordinary changes and Declinations our Constitutions daily suffer how Nature deprives us of all sight and sense of our bodily decay What remains to an old man of the vigour of his Youth and better days Corn. Galli vel potius Maximian Eleg. 1. He is senibus vitae portio quanta manet Alas to men
of youthful Heat berest How small a Portion of Life is left Caesar to an old weather-beaten Souldier of his Guards who came to ask him leave that he might kill himself taking notice of his whither'd Body and decrepid motion pleasantly answer'd Thou fansiest then that thou art yet alive Should a man fall into the Aches and impotencies of Age from a spritely and vigorous Youth on the sudden I do not think Humanity capable of enduring such a change but Nature leading us by the hand an easie and as it were an insensible pace step by step conducts us to that miserable condition and by that means makes it familiar to us so that we perceive not nor are sensible of the stroak then when our Youth dies in us though it be really a harder Death than the final Dissolution of a languishing Body which is only the Death of old Age forasmuch as the Fall is not so great from an uneasie being to none at all as it is from a spritely and florid Being to one that is unweildy and Painful The Body when bow'd beyond its natural spring of Strength has less Force either to rise with or support a burthen and it is with the Soul the same and therefore it is that we are to raise her up firm and erect against the Power of this Adversary for as it is impossible she should ever be at rest or at Peace within her self whilst she stands in fear of it so if she once can assure her self she may boast which is a thing as it were above Humane Condition that it is impossible that Disquiet Anxiety or Fear or any other Disturbance should inhabit or have any Place in her Horat. l. 3. Od. 3. Non vultus instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida neque Auster Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus A Soul well settled is not to be shook With an incensed Tyrant's threatning Look Nor can loud Auster once that Heart dismay The ruffling Prince of stormy Adria Nor yet th' advanced hand of mighty Jove Though charg'd with Thunder such a Temper move She is then become Sovereign of all her Lusts and Passions Mistress of Necessity Shame Poverty and all the other Injuries of Fortune Let us therefore as many of us as can get this Advantage which is the true and sovereign Liberty here on Earth and that fortifies us wherewithal to defie Violence and Injustice and to contemn Prisons and Chains Horat. l. 1. Epist 16. in Manicis Compedibus saevo te sub custode tenebo Ipse Deus simul atque volam me solvet opinor Hoc sentit moriar mors ultima linea rerum est With rugged Chains I 'll load thy Hands and Feet And to a surly Keeper thee commit Why let him shew his worst of Cruelty God will I think for asking set me free Ay but he thinks I 'll die that Comfort brings For Death 's the utmost Line of Humane things Our very Religion it self has no surer humane Foundation than the Contempt of Death The contempt of Death a certain Foundation of Religion Not only the Argument of Reason invites us to it for why should we fear to lose a thing which being lost can never be miss'd or lamented but also seeing we are threatned by so many sorts of Death is it not infinitely worse eternally to fear them all than once to undergo one of them And what matter is it when it shall happen since it is once inevitable To him that told Socrates the thirty Tyrants have sentenc'd thee to Death and Nature them said he What a ridiculous thing it is to trouble and afflict our selves about taking the only Step that is to deliver us from all Misery and Trouble As our Birth brought us the Birth of all things so in our Death is the Death of all things included And therefore to lament and take on that we shall not be alive a hundred Years hence is the same Folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred Years ago Death is the beginning of another Life So did we weep and so much it cost us to enter into this and so did we put of our former Veil in entring into it Nothing can be grievous that is but once and is it reasonable so long to fear a thing that will so soon be dispatch'd Long Life and short are by Death made all one for there is no long nor short to things that are no more Aristotle tells us that there are certain little Beasts upon the Banks of the River Hypanis that never live above a day they which die at eight of the Clock in the Morning die in their Youth and those that die at five in the Evening in their extreamest Age Which of us would not laugh to see this Moment of Continuance put into the consideration of Weal or Woe The most and the least of ours in comparison of Eternity or yet to the Duration of Mountains Rivers Stars Trees and even of some Animals is no less ridiculous But Nature compels us to it Go out of this World says she as you enter'd into it the same Pass you made from Death to Life without Passion or Fear the same after the same manner repeat from Life to Death Your Death is a part of the Order of the Universe 't is a part of the Life of the World Lucret. l. 2. Inter se mortales mutua vivunt Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt Mortals amongst themselves by turns do live And Life's bright Torch to the next Runner give Alluding to the Athenian Games wherein those that run a Race carried Torches in their Hands and the Race being done deliver'd them into the Hands of those who were to run next 'T is the Condition of your Creation Death is a part of you and whilst you endeavour to evade it you avoid your selves This very Being of yours that you now enjoy is equally divided betwixt Life and Death The day of your Birth is one days advance towards the Grave Senec. Her fur chor 3. Prima quae vitam dedit hora carpsit The Hour that gave of Life the benefit Did also a whole Hour shorten it Manil. Ast 4. Nascentes morimur finisque ab origine pendet As we are born we die and our Life's end Upon our Life's beginning does depend All the whole time you live you purloin from Life and live at the expence of Life it self the perpetual work of our whole Life is but to lay the foundation of Death you are in Death whilst you live because you still are after Death when you are no more alive Or if you had rather have it so you are dead after Life but dying all the while you live and Death handles the dying much more rudely than the dead If you have made your profit of Life you have had enough of it go your way satisfied Lucret. l. 3. Cur non ut
is a Dead and Corporeal quality to be Active 't is an Exploit of fortune to make our Enemy stumble or to dazle him with the light of the Sun 't is a trick of Science and Art and that may happen in a mean base Fellow to be a good Fencer The Estimate and Valour of a Man consist in the Heart and in the Will there his true Honour Lives Valour is Stability not of Legs and Arms but of the Courage and the Soul it does not lie in the Valour of our Horse or our Arms but in our own He that falls obstinate in his Courage Si succiderit de genu pugnat Seneca Epist If his Legs fail him Fight upon his Knees He who for any danger of apparent Death abates nothing of his assurance who Dying does yet dart at his Enemy a fierce and disdainful Look is overcome not by us but by Fortune he is Kill'd not Conquer'd the most Valiant and sometimes the most Unfortunate There are also Defeats Triumphant to Emulation of Victories Neither durst those Four Sister-Victories the fairest the Sun ever beheld of Salamis Platea Mical and Sicily ever oppose all their united Glories to the single Glory of the Discomfiture of King Leonidas and his Army at the Pass of Thermopylae Who ever ran with a more glorious Desire and greater Ambition to the wining than the Captain Ischolaâ— to the certain loss of a Battel Who could have found out a more subtle Invention to secure his safety than he did to assure his Ruine He was set to defend a certain Pass of Peloponnesus against the Arcadians which considering the nature of the place and the inequality of Forces finding it utterly impossible for him to do and concluding that all who were presented to the Enemy must certainly be left upon the place and on the other side reputing it unworthy of his own Vertue and Magnanimity and of the Lacedaemonian name to fail in any part of his Duty he chose a mean betwixt these two Extreams after this manner The Youngest and most Active of his Men he would preserve for the Service and Defence of their Country and therefore sent them back and with the rest whose loss would be of less consideration he resolv'd to make good the Pass and with the Death of them to make the Enemy buy their Entry as dear as possibly he could as it also fell out for being presently Environ'd on all sides by the Aroadians after having made a great Slaughter of the Enemy he and his were all cut in pieces Is there any Trophy dedicated to the Conquerours which is not much more due to these who were overcome The part that true Conquering is to play lies in the Encounter not in the coming off and the Honour of Vertue consists in Fighting not in Subduing But to return to my Story these Prisoners are so far from discovering the least Weakness for all the Terrors can be represented to them that on the contrary during the two or three Months that they are kept they always appear with a chearful Countenance importune their Masters to make haste to bring them to the Test Defie Rail at them and Reproach them with Cowardize and the number of Battels they have lost against those of their Country I have a Song made by one of these Prisoners wherein he bids them come all and Dine upon him and welcome for they shall withall Eat their own Fathers and Grandfathers whose Flesh has serv'd to feed and nourish him Those Muscles says he this Flesh and these Veins are your own Poor silly Souls as you are you little think that the substance of your Ancestors Limbs is here yet but mind as you Eat and you will find in it the Taste of your own Flesh In which Song there is to be observ'd an Invention that does nothing relish of the Barbarian Those that paint these People Dying after this manner represent the Prisoner spitting in the faces of his Executioners and making at them a wry Mouth And 't is most certain that to the very last gasp they never cease to Brave and Defie them both in Word and Gesture In plain truth these Men are very Savage in comparison of us and of necessity they must either be absolutely so or else we are Savager for there is a vast difference betwixt their Manners and ours The Men there have several Wives and somuch the greater number by how much they have the greater Reputation and Valour and it is one very remarkable Vertue their Women have that the same Endeavour our Wives have to hinder and divert us from the Friendship and Familiarity of other Women those employ to promote their Husbands Desires and to procure them many Spouses for being above all things sollicitous of their Husbands Honour 't is their chiefest care to seek out and to bring in the most Companions they can forasmuch as it is a Testimony of their Husbands Vertue I know most of ours will cry out that 't is Monstrous whereas in truth it is not so but a truly Matrimonial Vertue though of the highest form In the Bible Sarah Leah and Rachel gave the most Beautiful of their Maids to their Husbands Livia preferred the Passion of Augustus to her own interest and the Wife of King Dejotarus of Stratonica did not only give up a fair young Maid that serv'd her to her Husband's Embraces but moreover carefully brought up the Children he had by her and assisted them in the Succession to their Father's Crown And that it may not be suppos'd that all this is done by a simple and servile Observation to their common Practice or by any Authoritative Impression of their Ancient Custom without Judgment or Examination and for having a Soul so stupid that it cannot contrive what else to do I must here give you some touches of their sufficiency in point of Understanding besides what I repeated to you before which was one of their Songs of War I have another and a Love Song that begins thus Stay Adder stay that by thy Pattern my Sister may draw the Fashion and work of a Noble Wreath that I may present to my Beloved by which means thy Beauty and the excellent Order of thy Scales shall for ever be preferr'd before all other Serpents Wherein the first Couplet Stay Adder c. makes the Burthen of the Song Now I have convers'd enough with Poetry to judge thus much that not only there is nothing of Barbarous in this Invention But moreover that it is perfectly Anacreontick to which their Language is soft of a pleasing Accent and something bordering upon the Greek Terminations Three of these People not foreseeing how dear their knowledge of the Corruptions of this part of the World would one Day cost their Happiness and Repose and that the effect of this Commerce would be their Ruine as I presuppose it is in a very fair way Miserable Men to suffer themselves to be deluded with desire of Novelty
Prisoner to her as he accordingly did the Gentlemen of France never denying any thing to Ladies Does she not seem to be an Artist here Constantine the Son of Hellen founded the Empire of Constantinople and so many Ages after Constantine the Son of Hellen put an end to it Sometimes she is pleas'd to Emulate our Miracles We are told that King Clouis Besieging Angolesme the Walls fell down of themselves by Divine Favour And Bouchet has it from some Author that King Robert having sat down before a City and being stole away from the Siege to go keep the Feast of St. Aignan at Orleans as he was in Devotion at a certain place of the Mass the Walls of the beleagured City without any manner of Violence fell down with a sudden Ruine But she did quite contrary in our Milan War for Captain Rense laying Siege to the City Verona and having carried a Mine under a great part of the Wall the Mine being sprung the Wall was lifted from its base but dropt down again nevertheless whole and entire and so exactly upon its foundation that the Besieged suffer'd no Inconvenience by that Attempt Sometimes she plays the Physician Jason Phereus being given over by the Physicians by reason of a desperate Imposthumation in his Breast having a mind to rid himself of his Pain by Death at least in a Battel threw himself desperately into the thickest of the Enemy where he was so fortunately wounded quite through the Body that the Imposthume brake and he was perfectly cur'd Did she not also excel the painter Protogenes in his Art Who having finish'd the Picture of a Dog quite tir'd and out of breath in all the other parts excellently well to his own liking but not being able to express as he would the slaver and foam that should come out of his Mouth vext and angry at his work he took his Spunge which by cleaning his Pencils had imbib'd several sorts of Colours and threw it in a rage against the Picture with an intent utterly to deface it when Fortune guiding the Spunge to hit just upon the Mouth of the Dog it there perform'd what all his Art was not able to do Does she not sometimes direct our Counsels and correct them Isabel Queen of England being to Sail from Zealand into her own Kingdom with an Army in favour of her Son against her Husband had been lost had she come into the Port she intended being there laid wait for by the Enemy but fortune against her will threw her into another Haven where she Landed in safety And he who throwing a Stone at a Dog hit and kill'd his Mother in Law had he not reason to pronounce this Verse Menander◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this I see Fortune does better aim than we Fortune has more Judgment than we Icetes had contracted with two Souldiers to Kill Timoleon at Adranon in Sicily These Villains took their time to do it when he was assisting at a Sacrifice who thrusting into the Crowd as they were making signs to one another that now was a fit time to do their business in steps a third who with a Sword takes one of them full drive over the Pate lays him dead upon the place and away he runs Which the other seeing and concluding himself discover'd and lost he runs to the Altar and begs for Mercy promising to discover the whole truth which as he was doing and laying open the whole Conspiracy behold the third Man who being Apprehended was as a Murtherer thrust and hal'd by the People through the Press towards Timoleon and other the most Eminent Persons of the Assembly before whom being brought he Cry'd out for Pardon pleading that he had justly Slain his Fathers Murtherer which he also proving upon the place by sufficient Witnesses which his good Fortune very opportunely supply'd him withal that his Father was really Kill'd in the City of the Leomins by that very Man on whom he had taken his Revenge he was presently Awarded Ten Attick * The old Attick Mine was 75 Drach Mines for having had the good Fortune by designing to revenge the Death of his Father to preserve the Life of the common Father of Sicily This Fortune in her Conduct surpasses all the Rules of Humane Prudence But to conclude is there not a direct Application of her Favour Bounty and Piety manifestly discover'd in this Action Ignatius the Father and Ignatius the Son being proscrib'd by the Triumvity of Rome resolv'd upon this generous Act of mutual kindness to fall by the hands of one another and by that means to frustrate and defeat the Cruelty of the Tyrants and accordingly with their Swords drawn ran full drive upon one another where Fortune so guided the points that they made two equally Mortal Wounds affording withal so much Honour to so brave a Friendship as to leave them just strength enough to draw out their Bloudy Swords that they might have liberty to embrace one another in this Dying Condition with so close and hearty an Embrace that the Executioners cut off both their Heads at once leaving the Bodies still fast link'd together in this Noble Knot and their Wounds joyn'd Mouth to Mouth affectionately sucking in the last Bloud and remainder of the Lives of one another CHAP. XXXIV Of one Defect in one Government MY Father who for a Man that had no other advantages than Experience only and his own Natural Parts was nevertheless of a very clear Judgment The project of an Office of Enquiry has formerly told me that he once had thoughts of endeavouring to introduce this Practice that there might be in every City a certain place assign'd to which such as stood in need of any thing might repair and have their Business enter'd by an Officer appointed for that purpose as for Example I enquire for a Chapman to Buy my Pearls I enquire for one that has Pearls to Sell Such a one wants Company to go to Paris such a one enquires for a Servant of such a Quality such a one for a Master such a one enquires for such an Artificer some for one thing some for another every one according to what he wants And doubtless these mutual Advertisements would be of no contemptible Advantage to the Publick Correspondency and Intelligence For there are ever more Conditions that hunt after one another and for want of knowing one anothers occasions leave Men in very great necessity I have heard to the great shame of the Age we Live in that in our very sight two most excellent Men for Learning Died so Poor that they had scarce Bread to put in their Mouths Lilius Gregorius Giraldus in Italy and Sebastianus Castalio in Germany And do believe there are a Thousand Men would have invited them into their Families with very advantageous Conditions or have reliev'd them where they were had they known their wants The World is not so generally Corrupted but that I know a Man
mistaken nor omitted without offence I find the same fault likewise with charging the fronts and Title Pages of the Books we commit to the Press with such a clutter of Titles CHAP. XL. That the Relish of Goods and Evils does in a great measure depend upon the opinion we have of them MEN says an ancient Greek Sentence are tormented with the Opinions they have of things and not by the things themselves It were a great Victory obtain'd for the relief of our miserable Humane Condition could this proposition be establish'd for certain and true throughout For if evils have no admission into us but by the judgment we our selves make of them it should seem that it is then in our own power to despise them or to turn them to good If things surrender themselves to our mercy why do we not convert and accommodate them to our advantage If what we call Evil and Torment is neither Evil nor Torment of it self but only that our Fancy gives it that Quality and makes it so it is in us to change and alter it and it being in our own choice if there be no constraint upon us we must certainly be very strange Fools to take Arms for that side which is most offensive to us and to give Sickness Want and Contempt a nauseous taste if it be in our power to give them a more grateful Relish and if Fortune simply provide the matter 't is for us to give it the form Now that which we call Evil is not so of it self or at least to that degree that we make it and that it depends upon us to give it another taste or complexion for all comes to one let us examine how that can be maintain'd If the original being of those things we fear had power to lodge themselves in us by their own authority it would then lodge it self alike and in like manner in all for Men are all of the same kind and saving in greater and less proportions are all provided with the same untensils and instruments to conceive and to judge but the diversity of opinions we have or those things does clearly evidence that they only enter us by composition One particular Person peradventure admits them in their true being but a thousand others give them a new and contrary being in them We hold Death Poverty and Grief for our principal Enemies but this Death which some repute the most dreadful of all dreadful things who does not know that others call it the only secure Harbour from the Storms and Tempests of Life The Soveraign good of Nature The sole Support of Liberty and the common and sudden Remedy of all Evils And as the one expect it with Fear and Trembling the other support it with greater Ease than Life That Blade complains of its facility Luc. l. 4. Mors utinam pavidos vitae subducere nolles Sed virtus te sola daret O Death I would thou wouldst the Coward spare That but the daring none might thee conferr But let us leave these Glorious Courages Theodorus answer'd Lysimachus who threatned to Kill him Thou wilt do a brave thing said he to arrive at the force of a Cantharides The greatest part of Philosophers are observ'd to have either purposely prevented or hastned and assisted their own Death How many ordinary people do we see led to Execution and that not to a simple Death but mixt with Shame and sometimes with grievous Torments appear with such assurance what through obstinacy or natural simplicity that a Man can discover no change from their ordinary condition Setling their Domestick Affairs recommending them to their Friends Singing Preaching and Diverting the People so much as sometimes to Sally into Jests and to Drink to their Companions as well as Socrates One that they were leading to the Gallows told them they must not carry him through such a Street lest a Merchant that liv'd there should arrest him by the way for an old Debt Another told the Hangman he must not touch his Neck for fear of making him Laugh he was so Ticklish Another answer'd his Confessor who promised him he should that day Sup with our Lord. Do you go then said he in my Room for I for my part keep fast to day Another having call'd for Drink and the Hangman having Dranâ— first said he would not Drink after him for fear of catching the Pox. Every body has heard the Tale of the Picard to whom being upon the Ladder they presented a Whore telling him as our I aw does sometimes permit that if he would Marry her they would save his Life he having a while considered her and perceiving that she Halted Come tye up tye up said he she limps And they tell another Story of the same kind of a fellow in Denmark who being condemn'd to lose his Head and the like condition being propos'd to him upon the Scaffold refus'd it by reason the Maid they offer'd him had hollow Cheeks and too sharp a Nose A Servant at Tholouse being accus'd of Heresie for the summ of his Belief referr'd himself to that of his Master a young Student Prisoner with him choosing rather to die than suffer himself to be persuaded that his Master could erre We read that of the Inhabitants of Arras when Lewis the eleventh took that City a great many let themselves be Hang'd rather than they would say God save the King And amongst that mean-soul'd race of Men the Buffoons there having been some who would not leave their Fooling at the very moment of Death He that the Hangman turn'd off the Ladder cry'd Launch the Galley an ordinary foolish saying of his and the other whom at the point of Death his Friends having laid upon a Pallet before the Fire the Physician asking him where his Pain lay betwixt the Bench and the Fire said he and the Priest to give him the extream Unction Groping for his Feet which his Pain had made him pull up to him you will find them said he at the end of my Legs To one that being present exhorted him to recommend himself to God why who goes thither said he and the other replying it will presently be your self if it be his good pleasure would I were sure to be there by to Morrow Night said he do but recommend your self to him said the other and you will soon be there I were best then said he to carry my recommendations my self In the Kingdom of Narsingua to this day the Wives of their Priests are buried alive with the Bodies of their Husbands all other Wives are burnt at their Husbands Funerals which also they do not only constantly but chearfully undergo At the death of their King his Wives and Concubines his Favourites all his Officers and Domestick servants which make up a great number of people present themselves so chearfully to the Fire where his Body is burnt that they seem to take it for a singular honour to accompany their Master in Death During
our late War of Milan where there hapned so many takings and re-takings of Towns the people impatient of so many various changes of Fortune took such a resolution to die that I have heard my Father say he there saw a List taken of five and twenty masters of Families that made themselves away in one weeks time An accident somewhat resembling that of the Zanthians who being besieg'd by Brutus precipitated themselves Men Women and Children into such a furious appetite of dying that nothing can be done to evade death they did not put in practice to avoid life insomuch that Brutus had much ado to save but a very small number Every opinion is of force enough to make it self to be espoused at the expence of life The first Article of that valiant Oath that Greece took and observâ—d in the Median War was that every one should sooner exchange life for death than their own Laws for those of Persia What a World of people do we see in the Wars betwixt the Turks and the Greeks rather embrace a cruel death than to uncircumcise themselves to admit of Baptism An example of which no sort of Religion is incapable The Kings of Castile having Banishâ—d the Iews out of their Dominions Iohn King of Portugal in consideration of eight Crowns a Head sold them a retirement into his for a certain limited time upon condition that the time prefixt coming to expire they should be gone and he to furnish them with Shipping to transport them into Africk The limited day came which once laps'd they were given to understand that such as were afterwards found in the Kingdom should reâ—aâ—n Slaves Vessels were very slenderly provided and those who embark'd in them were rudely and villainously used by the Seamen who besides other indignities kept them cruising upon the Sea one while forwards and another backwards till they had spent all their provisions and were constrain'd to buy of them at so dear rates and so long withal that they set them not on Shoar till they were all stript to their very Shirts The news of this inhumane usage being brought to those who remained behind the greater part of them resolved upon Slavery and some made a shew of changing Religion Emanuel the successor of Iohn being come to the Crown first set them at liberty and afterwards altering his mind order'd them to depart his Country assigning three Ports for their Passage Hoping says the Bishop Osorius no contemtible Latin Historian of these later times that the favour of the liberty he had given them having fâ—il'd of converting them to Christianity yet the difficulty of committing themselves to the mercy of the Mariners and of abandoning a Country they were now habituated to and were grown very rich in to go and expose themselves in strange and unknown Regions would certainly do it But finding himself deceiv'd in his expectation and that they were all resolv'd upon the Voyage he cut off two of the three Ports he had promised them to the end that the length and incommodity of the passage might reduce some or that he might have opportunity by crouding them all into one place the more conveniently to execute what he had designed which was to force all the Children under fourteen years of Age from the Arms of their Fathers and Mothers to transport them from their sight and conversation into a place where they might be instructed and brougâ—â— up in our Religion He says that this produc'd a most horrid Spectacle The natural affection betwixt the Parents and their Children and moreover their Zeal to their ancienâ— Belief contending against this violent Deâ—ree Fathers and Mothers were commonly seen making themselves away and by a yet much more Rigorous Example precipitating out of Love and Compassion their young Children into Wells and Pits to avoid the Severity of this Law As to the remainder of then the time that had been prefixâ—d being expird for want of means to transport them they again return'd into Slavery Some also turn'd Christians upon whose Faith as also that of their Posterity even to this Day which is a Hundred Years since few Portuguese can yet reâ—ie or believe them to be real Converts though Custom and length of time are much more powerful Counsellors in such Changes than all other Constraints whatever In the Town of Castlenau-Darry Fifty Hereticks Albeg â—is at one time suffer'd themselves to be Burnt alive in one Fire rather than they would renounce their Opinions Quoties nâ—â— modo ductores nostri dicit Cicero sed universi â—tiam exercitus ad non dubiam mortem concurrerut How oft have not only our Leaders but whole Armies run to a certain and apparent Death I have seen an intimate Friend of mine run headlong upon Death with a real affection and that was rooted in his heart by divers plausible Arguments which he would never permit me to dispossess him off upon the first Honourable occasion that offer'd it self to him to precipitate himself into it without any manner of visible reason with an obstinate and ardent desire of Dying We have several Examples of our own times of those even so much as to little Children who for fear of a Whipping or some such little thing have dispatch'd themselves And what shall we not fear says one of the Ancients to that purpose if we dread that which Cowardise it self has chosen for its refuge Should I here produce a tedious Catalogue of those of all Sexes and Conditions and of all sorts even in the most happy Ages who have either with great Constancy look'd Death in the Face or voluntarily sought it and sought it not only to avoid the Evils of this Life but some purely to avoid the Satiety of Living and others for the hope of a better Condition elsewhere I should never have done Nay the number is so infinite that in truth I should have a better Bargain on 't to reckon up those who have fear'd it This one therefore shall serve for all Pyrrho the Philosopher being one Day in a Boat in a very great Tempest shew'd to those he saw the most affrighted about him and encourag'd them by the Example of a Hog that was there nothing at all concern'd at the Storm Shall we then dare to say that this advantage of Reason of which we so much Boast and upon the account of which we think our selves Masters and Emperours over the rest of the Creatures was given us for a Torment To what end serves the Knowledge of things if it renders us more Unmanly If we lose the Tranquility and Repose we should enjoy without it And if it put us into a worse Condition than Pyrrho's Hog Shall we employ the Understanding that was conferr'd upon us for our greatest Good to our own Ruine Setting our selves against the design of Nature and the universal Order of things which intend that every one should make use of the Faculties Members and Means he has to his own best
Advantage But it may peradventure be Objected against me Your Rule is true enough as to what concerns Death But what will you say of Necessity What will you moreover say of Pain that Aristippus Hieronymus and almost all the Wise Men have reputed the worst of Evils And those who have deny d it by Word of Mouth did however confess it in Effects Possidonius being extreamly Tormented with a Sharp and painful Disease Pompeius came to Visit him excusing himself that he had taken so unseasonable a time to come to hear him discourse of Philosophy God forbid said Possidonius to him again that Pain should ever have the power to hinder me from talking and thereupon fell immediately upon a discourse of the Contempt of Pain But in the mean time his own Infirmity was playing its part and plagu'd him to the purpose to which he Cry'd out thou may'st work thy Will Pain and Torment me with all the power thou hast but thou shalt never make me say that thou art an Evil. This Story that they make such a Clutter withal what is there in it I fain would know to the Contempt of Pain It only Fights it with Words and in the mean time if the Shootings and Dolours he felt did not move him why did he interrupt his Discourse Why did he fancy he did so great a thing in forbearing to confess it an Evil All does not here consist in the Imagination our Fancies may work upon other things But this here is a certain Science that is playing its part of which our Senses themselves are judge Luc. l. 4. Qui nisi sunt veri ratio quoque falsa sit omnis Which if it be not here most true Reason it self must be false too Shall we perswade our Skins that the Jerks of a Whip tickle us Or our Taste that a Potion of Aloes is Graves Wine Pyrrho's Hog is here in the same Predicament with us he is not aâ—raid of Death 't is true but if you Beat him he will Cry out to some purpose Shall we force the general Law of Nature which in every Living Creature under Heaven is seen to Tremble under Pain The very Trees seem to Groan under the Blows they receive Death is only felt by Discourse forasmuch as it is the motion of an instant Ovid. Epist Ariad. Aut suit aut veniet nihil est praesentis in illa Morsque minus poenae quam mora mortis habet Death 's always past or coming on in this There never any thing of present is And the delays of Death more painful are Than Death it self and Dying is by far A Thousand Beasts a Thousand Men are sooner Dead than Threatned That also which we principally pretend to Fear in Death is Pain the ordinary fore-runner of it Yet if we may believe a Holy Father Malam mortem non facit nisi quod sequitur mortem Nothing makes Death Evil but what follows it And I should yet say more probably that neither that which goes before nor that which follows after are at all the appendants of Death We excuse our selves safely And I find by experience that it is rather the impatience of the Imagination of Death that makes us impatient of Pain and that we find it doubly grievous as it Threatens us with Death But reason accusing our Cowardice for fearing a thing so sudden so inevitable and so insensible we take the other as the more excusable pretence All ills that carry no other danger along with them but simply the Evils themselves we despise as things of no danger The Tooth-Ach or the Gout as painful as they are being yet not reputed Mortal who reckons them in the Catalogue of Diseases But let us presuppose that in Death we principally regard the Pain as also there is nothing to be fear'd in Poverty but the Miseries it brings along with it of Thrist Hunger Cold Heat Watching and the other Inconveniencies it makes us suffer yet still we have nothing to do with any thing but Pain I will grant and very willingly that it is the worst Accident of our Being for I am the Man upon Earth that the most Hates and avoids it considering that hitherto I thank God I have had so little Traffick with it but still it is in us if not to annihilate at least to lessen it by Patience and though the Body should Mutiny to Maintain the Soul nevertheless in a good Temper And were it not so who had ever given Reputation to Vertue Valour Force Magnanimity and Resolution where were their parts to be plaid if there were no pain to be Defi'd Seneca Avida est periculi virtus Vertue is greedy of danger Were there no lying upon the hard ground no enduring arm'd at all pieces the Meridional Heats no feeding upon the flesh of Horses and Asses no seeing a Man's self hack'd and hew'd to pieces no suffering a Bullet to be pull'd out from amongst the shatter'd Bones the stitching up cauterising and searching of Wounds by what means were the advantage we covet to have over the Vulgar to be acquir'd 'T is far from flying Evil and Pain what the Sages say that of Actions equally good a Man should most covet to perform that wherein there is greater Labour and Pain Non est enim hilaritate Cicero de fin l. 2. neck lascivia nec risu aut joco comite levitatis sed saepe etiam tristes firmitate constantia sunt beati For Men are not only happy by Mirth and Wantonness neither by Laughter and Jesting the Companion of Levity But oft-times the Graver and more Melancholick sort of Men reap Felicity from their Steadiness and Constancy And for this reason it has ever been impossible to perswade our Fore-fathers but that the Victories obtain'd by dint of Force and the hazard of War were still more Honourable than those perform'd in great Security by Stratagem or Practice Luc. lib. 9. Laetius est quoties magno sibi constat honestum A handsome Act more handsome does appear By how much more it cost the doer dear Besides this ought to be our comfort that naturally if the Pain be violent 't is but short and if long nothing violent Si gravis Cicero brevis si longus levis Thou wilt not feel it long if thou feel'st it too much it will either put an end to it self or to thee if thou canst not support it it will export thee Memineris maximos morte finiri Cloero de fin parvos multa habere intervalla requietis mediocrium nos esse dominos ut si tolerabiles sint feramus sin minus è vita quum ea non placeat tanquam è theatro exeamus Remember that great ones are terminated by Death that small have long Intermissions of Repose and that we are Masters of the moderate sort so that if tolerable we may bear them if not we can go out of Life as from a Theatre where the Entertainment
does not please us that which makes us suffer Pain with so much Impatience is the not being accustomed to repose our chiefest Contentment in the Soul that we do not enough relie upon her who is the sole and soveraign Mistress of our Condition The Body saving in greater or less proportion has but one and the same Bent and Biass whereas the Soul is variable into all sorts of forms and subjects to her self and to her own Empire all things whatsoever both the Senses of the Body and all other Accidents and therefore it is that we ought to study her to enquire into her and to rowse up all her powerful Faculties There is neither Reason Form nor Prescription that can any thing prevail against her Inclination and Choice of so many Thousands of Biasses that she has at her disposal let us give her one proper to our repose and conservation and then we shall not only be shelter'd and secur'd from all manner of Injury and Offence but moreover gratified and oblig'd if we will with Evils and Offences She makes her profit indifferently of all things Errour and Dreams serve her to good use as a Loyal matter to Lodge us in Safety and Contentment 'T is plain enough to be seen that 't is the sharpness of our Conceit that gives the Edge to our Pains and Pleasures Beasts that have no such thing leave to their Bodies their own free and natural Sentiments and consequently in every kind very near the same as appears by the resembling Application of their Motions If we would not disturb in our Members the Jurisdiction that appertains to them in this 't is to be believed it would be the better for us and that Nature has given them a just and moderate Temper both to Pleasure and Pain neither can it fail of being Just being Equal and Common But seeing we have Enfranchis'd our selves from these Rules to give our selves up to the rambling Liberty of our own Fancies let us at least help to encline them to the most agreeable side Plato fears our too vehemently engaging our selves with Grief and Pleasure forasmuch as these too much Knit and Ally the Soul to the Body whereas I rather quite contrary by reason it too much separates and disunites them As an Enemy is made more Fierce by our Flight so Pain grows Proud to see us Truckle under it She will surrender upon much better Terms to them who make Head against her A Man must oppose and stoutly set himself against it In retiring and giving ground we invite and pull upon our selves the Ruine that Threatens us As the Body is more firm in an Encounter the more stiffly and obstinately it applys it self to it so is it with the Soul But let us come to Examples which are the proper Commodity for Fellows of such feeble Reins as my self where we shall find that it is with Pain as with Stones that receive a more spritely or a more languishing Lustre according to the Foil they are set upon that it has no more room in us than we are pleas'd to allow it Tantum doluerunt Aug. de Civit Dei quantùm doloribus se inseruerunt They Griev'd so much the more by how much they set themselves to Grieve We are more sensible of one little touch of a Chirurgeon's Lancet than of Twenty Wounds with a Sword in the heat of Fight The Pains of Child-bearing said by the Physician and by God himself to be very great and which our Women keep so great a Clutter about there are whole Nations that make nothing of it To say nothing of the Lacedaemonian Women what alteration can you see in our Switzers Wives of the Guard saving as they trot after their Husbands you see them to Day with the Child hanging at their Backs that they carried yesterday in their Bellies And the counterfeit Gipsies we have amongst us go themselves to Wash their's so soon as they come into the World in the first River they meet Besides so many Where 's as Daily steal their Children out of their Womb as before they stole them in that fair and noble Wife of Sabinus a Patrician of Rome for anothers interest alone without help without crying out or so much as a Groan endur'd the Bearing of Two Twins a poor simple Boy of Lacedaemon having stole a Fox for they more fear the Shame of their Knavery in stealing than we do the Punishment of our Knavery and having got him under his Coat did rather endure the tearing out of his Bowels than he would discover his Theft And another Cursing at a Sacrifice suffer'd himself to be Burnt to the Bone by a Coal that fell into his Sleeve rather than disturb the Ceremony And there have been a great Number for a sole Trial of Vertue following their instruction who have at Seven Years old endur'd to be Whipt to Death without changing their Countenance And Cicero has seen them Fight in Parties with Fists Feet and Teeth till they have fainted and sunk down rather than confess themselves overcome Custom would never Conquer Nature for she is ever invincible but we have infected the Mind with Shadows Delights Wantonness Negligence and Sloath and with vain Opinions and corrupt Manners render'd it Effeminate and Mean Every one knows the Story of Scaevola that being slipt into the Enemies Camp to Kill their General and having miss'd his Blow to repair his fault by a more strange Invention and to deliver his Country he boldly confess'd to Porsenna who was the King he had a purpose to Kill not only his design but moreover added That there were then in his Camp a great Number of Romans his Complices in the Enterprize as good Men as he and to shew what a one he himself was having caus'd a Pan of Burning Coals to be brought he saw and endur'd his Arm to Broil and Roast till the King himself conceiving Horrour at the sight commanded the Pan to be taken away What would you say of him that would not vouchsafe to respite his Reading in a Book whilst he was under Incision And of the other that persisted to Mock and Laugh in Contempt of the Pains inflicted upon him so that the provok'd Cruelty of the Executioners that had him in handling and all the Inventions of Tortures redoubled upon him one after another spent in vain gave him the Bucklers But he was a Philosopher What! a Fencer of Caesar's Endur'd and Laughing all the while Cicero Tusc l. 2. his Wounds to be search'd Launc'd and laid open Quis mediocris gladiator ingemuit Quis vultum mutavit unquam Quis non modo stetit verum etiam decubuit turpiter Quis cum decubuisset ferrum recipere jussus collum contraxit What mean Fencer ever so much as gave a Groan Which of them ever so much as chang'd his Countenance Which of them standing or falling did either with Shame Which of them when he was down and commanded to receive the Blow of
the Sword ever shrunk in his Neck Let us bring in the Women too Who has not heard at Paris of her that caus'd her Face to be flea'd only for the fresher Complexion of a new Skin There are who have drawn good and sound Teeth to make their Voices more soft and sweet or to place them in better Order How many Examples of the contempt of Pain have we in that Sex What can they not do What do they fear to do for never so little hopes of an Addition to their Beauty Vellere queis cura est albos à stirpe capillos Tib. lib. 1. Eleg. 9. Et faciem dempta pelle referre novam Who pluck their Gray Hairs by the Roots and try An old Head Face with young Skin to supply I have seen some of them swallow Sand Ashes and do their utmost to destroy their Stomachs to get Pale Complexions To make a fine Spanish Boy what Racks will they not endure of Tweaking and Braceing till they have Noches in their sides cut into the very quick Flesh and sometimes to Death It is an ordinary thing with several Nations at this Day to hurt themselves in good earnest to gain credit to what they profess of which our King relates notable Examples of what he has seen in Poland and done towards himself But besides this which I know to have been imitated by some in France when I came from that famous Assembly of the Estates at Blois I had a little before seen a Maid in Picardy who to manifest the Ardour of her Promises as also her Constancy give her self with a Bodkin she wore in her Hair Four or Five good lusty Stabs into the Arm till the Bloud gush'd out to some purpose The Turks make themselves great Scars in Honour of their Mistresses and to the end they may the longer remain they presently clap Fire to the Wound where they hold it an uncredible time to stop the Bloud and form the Cicatrice People that have been Eye-witness of it have both Writ and Sworn it to me But for Ten Aspers there are there every day Fellows to be found that will give themselves a good deep slash in the Arms or Thighs I am willing though to have the Testimonies nearest to us when we have most need of them for Christendom does furnish us with enow And after the Example of our Blessed Guide there have been many who would bear the Cross We Learn by Testimony very worthy of belief that the King St. Lewis wore a Hair-shirt till in his old Age his Confessor gave him a Dispensation to leave it off and that every Friday he caus'd his Shoulders to be drubb'd by his Priest with Six small 's Chains of Iron which were always carried about amongst his Night Accoutrements for that purpose William our last Duke of Guienne the Father of this Eleanor who has Transmitted this Dutchy into the Houses of France and England continually for Ten or Twelve Years before he Died wore a Suit of Arms under a Religious Habit by way of Penance Fulkee Count of Anjou went as far as Ierusalem there to cause himself to be Whipt by Two of his Servants with a Rope about his Neck before the Sepulchre of our Lord But do we not moreover every Good Friday in several places see great numbers of Men and Women Beat and Whip themselves till they Lacerate and Cut the Flesh to the very Bones I have often seen this and without Enchantment when it was said there were some amongst them for they go disguis'd who for Money undertook by this means to save harmless the Religion of others by a contempt of Pain so much the greater as the Incentives of Devotion are more effectual than those of Avarice Q. Maximus Buried his Son when he was a Consul and M. â—ate his when Praetor Elect and L. Paulus both his within a few Days one after another with such a Countenance as express'd no manner of Grief I said once Merrily of a certain Person that he had disappointed the Divine Justice for the Violent Death of Three grown up Children of his being one Day sent him for a severe Scourge as it is to be suppos'd he was so far from being Afflicted at the Accident that he rather took it for a particular Grace and Favour of Heaven I do not follow these Monstrous Humours though I lost Two or Three at Nurse if not without Grief at least without Repining and yet there is hardly any Accident that pierces nearer to the quick I see a great many other occasions of Sorrow that should they happen to me I should hardly feel and have despis'd some when they have befallen me to which the World has give so Terrible a Figure that I should Blush to Boast of my Constancy Ex quo intelligitur non in Natura sed in opinione esse aegritudinem By which it is understood Cicero that the Grief is not in Nature but Opinion Opinion is a Powerful Party bold and without Measure who ever so greedily hunted after Security and Repose as Alexander and Caesar did after Disturbances and Difficulties Terez the Father of Sitalces was wont to say that when he had no Wars he fansied there was no difference betwixt him and his Groom Cato the Consul to secure some Cities of Spain from Revolt only interdicting the Inhabitants from wearing Arms a great many Kill'd themselves Ferox gens nullam vitam rati sine Armis esse A Fierce People who thought there was no Life without Arms. How many do we know who have forsaken the Calms and Sweetness of a Quiet Life at Home amongst their Acquaintance to seek out the Horrour of uninhabitable Desarts and having precipitated themselves into so Abject a Condition as to become the Scorn and Contempt of the World have hug'd themselves with the Conceit even to Affectation Cardinal Barromeus who Died lately at Milan in the midst of all the Jollity that the Air of Italy his Youth Birth and great Riches invited him to kept himself in so Austere a way of Living that the same Robe he wore in Summer serv'd him for Winter too Had only Straw for his Bed and his Hours of vacancy from the Affairs of his Employment he continually spent in Study upon his Knees having a little Bread and a Glass of Water set by his Book which was all the Provision of his Repast and all the time he spent in Eating I know some who consentingly have Acquir'd both Profit and Advancement from Cuckoldry of which the bare Name only affrights so many People If the Sight be not the most necessary of all our Senses 't is at least the most pleasant But the most pleasant and most useful of all our Members seem to be those of Generation and yet a great many have conceiv'd a Mortal Hatred against them only for this that they were too Amiable and have depriv'd themselves of them only for their Value As much thought lie of his Eyes
Meat and Cloaths seems to be quite contrary to the end design'd The true way would be to beget in men a contempt of Silks and Gold as vain frivolous and useless whereas we augment to them the Honours and enhance the value of such things which sure is a very improper way to create a disgust For to enact the none but Princes shall eat Turbes shall weaâ— Velvet or Gold-Lace and interdict these things to the people what is it but to bring them into a greater esteem and to set every one more agog to eat and wear them Lâ—â— Kings a Gods name leave of their Ensignâ— of Grandeur they have others enough besides those excesses are more excusable in any other than a Prince We may learn by the Example of several Nations better ways of exteriour distinction of quality which truly I conceive to be very requisite in a State enow without fostering up this corruption and manifest in convenience to this effect 'T is strange how suddenly and with how much ease custom in these indifferent things establishes it self and becomes authority We had scarce worn Cloath a year in compliance with the Court for the Mourning of Henry the Second but that Silks were already grown into such contempt with every one that a man so clad was presently Concluded a Citizen The Silks were divided betwixt the Physicians and Chirurgeons and though all other people almost went in the same habit there was notwithstanding in one thing or other sufficient distinction of the calling and conditions of men How suddenly do greasy Chamois Doublets become the fashion in our Armies whilst all neatness and riches of habit fall into contempt Let Kings but lead the dance and begin to leave off this expence and in a Month the business will be done throughout the Kingdom without an Edict we shall all follow It sould be rather proclaim'd on the contrary that no one should wear Scarlet or Goldsmiths work but Whores and Tumblers Zeleucus with the like invention reclaim'd the corrupted manners of the Locrians Whose Laws were That no free Woman should be allow'd any more than one Maid to follow her unless she was drunk nor was to stir out of the City by night wear Jewels of Gold about her or go in an Embroidered Robe unless she was a profest and publick Whore The Bravo's and Russians excepted no man was to wear a Gold Ring nor be seen in one of those effeminate Vests woven in the City of Miletum By which infamous exceptions he discreetly diverted his Citizens from Superfluities and pernicious pleasures and it was a project of great Utility to attract men by honour and Ambition to their Duty and Obedience Our Kings may do what they please in such external Reformations their own inclinations stand in this case for a Law Quicquid Principes faciunt Quinct Decla 4. praecipere videntur What Princes themselves do they seem to enjoyn others Whatever is done at Court passes for a rule through the rest of France Let the Courtiers but fall out with these abominable Breeches that discover so much of those parts should be concealed These great Bellied Doublets that make us look like I know not what and are so unfit to admit of Arms these long effeminate Locks of Hair This foolish Custom of Kissing what we present to our equals and our Hands in saluting them a ceremony in former times only due to Princes And that a Gentleman shall appear in place of respect without his Sword unbuttoned and untrust as though he came from the House of Office and that contrary to the custom of our Fore-fathers and the particular privilege of the Nobless of this Kingdom we shall stand a long time bare to them in what place soever and the same to a hundred others so many Tierces and Quarts of Kings we have got now a days and also other the like innovations and degenerate customs they will see them all presently Vanish'd and Cry'd down These are 't is true but superficial Errours but however of ill consequence and 't is enough to inform us that the whole Fabrick is Crazy and Tottering when we see the rough-cast of our Walls to cleave and split Plato in his Laws esteems nothing of more pestiferous consequence to his City than to give Young-Men the liberty of introducing any change in their Habits Gestures Dances Songs and Exercises from one form to another shifting from this to that Hunting after Novelties and applauding the Inventors by which means Manners are corrupted and the old Institutions come to be nauseated and despised In all things saving only in those that are evil a change is to be fear'd even the change of Seasons Winds Viands and Humours And no Laws are in their true credit but such to which God has given so long a continuance that no one knows their beginning or that there ever was any other CHAP. XLIV Of Sleep REason directs that we should always go the same way but not always the same pace And consequently though a wise-Man ought not so much to give the Reins to humane Passions as to let them deviate him from the right Path he may notwithstanding without prejudice to his Duty leave it to them to hasten or to slack his speed and not fix himself like a motionless and insensible Coloss Could Vertue it self put on Flesh and Blood I believe the Pulse would Beat faster going on to an Assault than in going to Dinner That is to say there is a necessity she should Heat and be mov'd upon this account I have taken notice as of an extraordinary thing of some great Men who in the highest Enterprises and greatest Dangers have detain'd themselves in so settled and serene a Calm as not at all to hinder their usual Gayety or break their Sleep Alexander the Great on the Day assigned for that furious Battle betwixt him and Darius slept so profoundly and so long in the Morning that Barmenio was forc'd to enter his Chamber and coming to his Bed-side to call him several times by his Name the time to go to Fight compelling him so to do The Emperour Otho having put on a resolution to Kill himself the same night after having settled his Domestick affairs divided his Money amongst his Servants and set a good edge upon a Sword he had made choice of for the purpose and now staying only to be satisfied whether all his friends were retir'd in safety he fell into so sound a sleep that the Gentlemen of he Chamber heard him Snore The death of this Emperour has in its circumstances parallelling that of the great Cato and particularly this before related For Cato being ready to dispatch himself whilst he only staid his hand in expectation of the return of a messenger he had sent to bring him news whether the Senators he had sent away were put out from the Port of Utica he fell into so found a sleep that they had him into the next Room and he whom he
both and all the forms of setting out a Table demonstrated in Copper Plates Now in the Press and will be suddenly publish'd Miscellanies viz. Advice to a Daughter The Character of a Trimmer The Anatomy of an Equivalent A Letter to a Dissenter Cautions for choice of Members to serve in Parliament A Rough Draught of a New Model at Sea All written by the late Noble Marquis of Hallifax The Royal Politician represented in an hundred Emblems written in Spanish by Don Diego Saavedra Knight of the Order of St. Jago Plenipotentiary Ambassador To the Cantons of Switzerland At the Imperial Diet at Ratisbon At the famous Treaty of Munster And of the Supreme Counsel of State for both the Indies Translated from the Original by Sir Ja. Astry Books Printed for RICHARD WELLINGTON at the Dolphin and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard The History of Polybius the Megalopolitan containing an Account of the Affairs of the whole World but chiefly of the Roman People In three Vol. Translated by Sir Henry Sheers and Mr. Dryden Familiar Letters written by John late Earl of Rochester to the Honourable Henry Savile Esq c. with Several Letters by his Grace the Duke of Buckingham and several Love-letters by the Ingenious Mr. Thomas Otway in Two Vol. price 5. Shillings Sir Thomas Pope-Blunt's Essays upon several Important Subjects Price 3 Shillings Mons Tauvry's Treatise of Medicaments in Two Vol. Printed at Paris 1699. Faithfully Translated into English by one of the College Physicians Price 5. Shillings FINIS A Compleat INDEX Of the most Remarkable Matters contained in this First Book A ABundance distastiful and disappointing 451 Acquaintance 301 Actions of former Ages 361 Actions that Men should not cover to perform 413 Actions Vertuous now unknown 360 Affectation unbecoming a Courtier 266 Affection of a Father towards his Children 212 Age and its last effects 551 Age fit for managing an Estate 553 Age dispensing the Knights from the fatigues of the War Ibid. Age of Adult Ibid. Age capable of great Actions 554 Agesilaus's Battel against the Boeotians 466 Albigeois burnt alive 408 Alcibiades's Constitution 257 Alexander the Son of Jupiter 446 Alexander's Cruelty 6 Alexander blam'd by Philip his Father for singing at a Feast 394 Alexander's deep Sleep 461 Alexander's Horse 489 Alexander's Sweat 531 Ambassadours may sometimes conceal from their Master what they think fit â—80 Ambassadours of Samos 2â—â— Ambassadours Employment not confin'd 81 Ambition Enemy to Society 37â— Ambition of Cicero and Pliny 39â— Ambition unworthy 390 Answer of the Duke of Florence his Fool. 355 Antigonus the Son of the Sun 446 Appetites of several Sorts 5â—â— Appetites of Men irresolute 525 Arcesilaus Gold and Silver Vessels 383 Aretine despised by Montaigne 521 Arms of Value inflame the Soldiers Courage 479 Arms of Value increase the Enemys resolution with 〈◊〉 hope of a Rich Spoil 4â—â— Army expecting an Enemy 484 Armies of the Turks support themselves cheap 497 Arses wipt with a Spunge 5â—â— Art of Physick despis'd 179 Atlantis Island 31â— B BArbarians who are those that are to be call'd to that Name 3â—â— Barbarians's Country their Buildings Beds c. 3â—5 Barbarians's Love towards their Wives and 〈◊〉 towards their Enemies 3â—6 Barbarians believing the Immortality of the Soul 327 Barbarians Priests and Prophets 〈◊〉 Barbarians Weapons 32â— Barbarians Obstinacy in their Battels Ibid. Barbarians noble War 331 Barbarian Kings power 338 Barbarians Love Song 337 Barbarians Language Ibid. Bâ—rbarity against Men's Lives 329 Bargaining hated by Mountaigne 425 Battle lost by Antonius 280 Battle of Botidaea obtain'd by the Greeks 361 Battle of Auroy 366 Battle of Dreux remarkable for several Accidents 465 Battle of St. Quentio 477 Battle fought on foot by Cavalry 491 Battle at Sea gain'd against the Turks 341 Baths used by the Ancients before Dinner 504 Bâ—wdy-houses of several sorts 152 Beyard Captain of greas Courage 21 Beauty sought after by Women to the contempt of Rain 419 Beds made use of to lie on at Meals 504 Beggars in Shirt in the depth of Winter 355 Behaviour 353 Believe 276 Betis's Silence and Obstinacy 7 Bodies perfumed 504 Bodies when young ought to be bent 256 Boâ—tians's voluntary servitude 236 Book employment painful 386 Borromaeus's austere way of Living 423 Bâ—ws carrying long Arrows 495 〈◊〉 handling a Halbert with the wriggling of his Neck 148. â—â—â—vity agreeable to Men of Vnderstanding 236 â—â—â—thers Name 287 Brotherly Love neglected Ibid. Brutes subject to the force of Imagination 137 Bucanan 269 Buffoons jesting an the very moment of Death 404 Buffoons to make Sport at Meals 506 Burial much recommended 25 C CAesar and Pompey good Horsemen 489 Caesar's Horse Ibid. Calisthenes how he lost the favour of Alexander 256 Cannibals marâ—y many Wives 336 Canon shot unavoidable 67 Canopy of State allow'd but in Palaces and Taverns 527 Care and foresight of the future 15 Cato the younger his Death 362 Cato a true Pattern of humane Vertue 363 Cato's Praise 364 Cato's sound Sleep 362 Cato's Parsimony 522 Cato his Age when he Kill'd himself 551 Ceremony used at the Interview of Princes 71 Ceremony of the Lacedaemonians at the Interment of their Kings 17 Chabrias lost the Fruits of a Victory to take care of the Dead bodies of his Friends 26 Change to be Fear'd 460 Chastity valued in Marriage 151 Chastity a true Vertue 161 Chearfulness Sign of Wisdom 244 Chess Idle and Childish Game 513 Children Whipt to Death 418 Children in France Pretty 251 Children spoil'd with Delicacy 254 Children ought not to be Suddenly awak'd from their Sleep 270 Chivalry amongst the Lacedaemonians 259 Chrysippus ' s Writings 215 Cicero's Eloquence 262 Cicero's affected Eloquence 397 Cloaths unknown to many Nations 354 Collation betwixt Meals 506 College of Guienne where Montaigne was sent at Six Years of Age. 271 Company of ill Men dangerous 373 Commotions how are to be appeas'd 186 Composers of Cento's 217 Compositions that Smell of Oil and Lamp 56 Confidence gains the Heart 185 Confidence of another Man's Vertue 432 Conspiracy against Augustus 175 Constancy of some Old Men Women and Children 315 Constancy in Affliction 377 Constitutions of several Sorts 255 Contempt of Riches 432 Continency of the Capuchins 359 Continency in Marriage 31â— Conversation 237 Conversing with Men. 230 Copulation of a Husband with his Wife already with Child forbidden 310 Correction of the Male Children design'd to the Fathers and to the Mothers that of the Females 155 Covetousness from whence proceeds 424 Counsel of Livia to Augustus concerning Cinna's Conspiracy 176 Counsels depend upon Fortune 487 Courage Reputation and Glory as magnificent in a Closet as a Camp 184 Courtesie and Manners 71 Cowardice how to be punish'd in a Soldier 74 Cowardice punish'd by Shame and Disgrace 75 Cowardice of Seigneur Franget how punish'd 7â— Creatures esteem'd by their proper Qualities 440 Cruelty's horrid Examples 315 Cruelty of the Portugueses 329 Cruelty of Dionysius the Tyrant 5 Cruelty of Nero towards his Mother 369 Cuckoldry