feasts on the living What heinous crime hast thou committed that thou alone thouldst live amidst the corruption of rotten Carcases and inflict upon thy self that Punishment which the greatest Tyrants do on their worst Enemies i. e. join thy self alive to dead Bodies But thou O Nero in the mean time deservest Praises as great as the Universe which thou rulest who after a cowardly and ingrateful Revolt of thy Souldiers and their Reproaches more intolerable than their Crime didst deny to go quick into the Earth and wast content to rest under a little spot who hadst the possession of the whole globe It becomes thee who hast subdued the world under thy Feet to die standing and thou who didst contemn in thy looks and language the Bowels of thy dear Agrippina wouldst easily despise the viler Entrails of thy common Mother 'T is the Part of a Valiant and Heroick Spirit even against Fate it self to level at those who sit triumphantly out of the reach of darts in the Victorious Chariot and to fear no more deaths blunter darts than the keener steel of their Enemies Vain are the Terrours of that petulant Fate which in this only differs from a smooth Chameleon that the latter is supported by the Attraction of Air the former by the surreption of anothers breath There is no reason therefore Philostratus to spend seven years in a Tomb the better to overcome a momentary death The Destinies are Sisters and weak in Sex and infirm too and their Instruments are softer than the wool they spin what does a Distaff a Thread and Scissars affright thee These are the Toies not of Men but Women and are as harmless as the soft smooth Fingers by which they are managed Phisitians tell us that decayed Nature is repaired again in the space of seven years and that men are oftner clad with new Flesh than new Garments which if it be true we believe thou livedst Philostratus not that thou mightst die but that thou mightst retrieve thy Youth and that the whole bulk of thy Body like the Hairs and Nails of other men might be revived and flourish with new Life But beware lest whilst thou lurkest in this gloomy shade the Fates should think thee already dead and so shouldst lose the expected approach of the desired Destinies because already buried Seeing therefore Thou hast such an earnest desire to know death leave this dormitory and betake thy self to Mars's Field and there thou maist see the Souldiers brandishing a Sword and Death in the same hand which as swift as arrows peirces the breast of stout Champions and purpled with gore Victoriously triumphs over prostrate Captives Think and meditate on divine Brutus who with a careless Gallantry discoursed with Spectres as with his familiar Friends But if these Martial Camps more dreadful with Horrour than Throngs of Men do not please thee F to the mournful yet lascivious tents of Venus and there behold Virgins like Basilisks kill with the artillery of their Looks shooting from their eyes glances keener than the shafts of their Enemies For a deep furrow of a contracted Brow strikes a greater Terrour than thy Sepulcher and one tirannical Aversion of a disdainful Eye scatters Darkness as blind as the God of Love There you may hear fruitless groans equalling the Torments of a neglected Passion and such blustering sighs as if they would blow out those Flames which they so violently fan There you may see tears flow from a disconsolate Lover in such a deluge as if they would extinguish those fires which first caused them Behold the Heart and Entrails so scrocht and burnt that you would think their Breasts not so much the Fence or Guard as the Urn of their Bowels In these places that Fate which thou so desirest thou maist with the same labour both seek and enjoy and like buried Lamps maist find in the open air that death which thou couldst not obtain in thy closer grave This we think Philostratus to be a Prodigy greater than thy Life that whereas the names of others do still survive because they are in Tombs thine lives because thou wast a Sepulcher and that Immortality which others acquire by courting Fame thou hast puchas't by desiring death DECLAM XIX Whether Cimon did well who for the more sumptuous Interment of his Father sold both his Liberty and Himself too 'T Was wisely ordained by our Ancestors that as men whilst alive should be honoured with the Tribute of observance and respect so when dead should be attended with the Ceremonies of a decent Funeral Certainly a very commendable and a most human Custom whereby Men excel other Animals who know no other Rites of Burial than the Solemnity of being devour'd by other Beasts and who have no other Tombs than the living Sepulchers of their Fellow Creatures But Humane Nature abhors the Brutishness of such Obsequies for a savage Conquerour seeing the field bestrewed with arms and scattered limbs bedews his garland and sheds tears at the thoughts of his bloody Victory and indulges his Enemies the civil pomp of an handsome Interment Death puts a period to the most barbarous Cruelty which never raves beyond the Fatal Stroke Caesar wept at the Herse and pitied the Fate of slain Pompey whom when alive he persecuted with the greatest Fury and with all the Methods and Arts of Ruine How unhumane is that Countrey which suffers even Strangers to lie unburied How much more therefore ought we to Honour with a Sepulcher a Citizen a Kinsman But how great an impiety to leave a Parent expos'd to the open air He is unworthy of his own life that celebrates not with cost his Fathers death Can a Son be excessive in kindness so to his Parent for whom not only his Wealth and Liberty but let him expend his very Life too He can give nothing to him but what he derived from him Is he only obliged to reverence his Parents whilst alive Must he contemn and spurn at them when dead whom Death among the Antients did seem to consecrate and whose Monuments were had in great Veneration This our Heir therefore whose Breast was inflamed with a Pious Ardor towards his Father will not have him lie without a Sepulcher and scorns that he should have no other Grave but a Prison and therefore for the Magnificence of his Funeral he sells his Liberty and himself too We have here a rare Example of unusual Piety and of a Filial Care Cimon shew'd himself a loving Son to his Father when alive and a Pious one when he was dead He imposed voluntarily on himself the Yoke of Slavery that his Father might have a Monument and lost his Freedome that he might enjoy the Priviledge of the dead He thought with himself if his Father should want a Sepulcher his name would quickly find one and the Glory thereof be soon buried in Oblivion Degenerous Posterity would lose the Example of so exellent Vertue unless his Memory was committed to the faithful Custody of
own Ruine and thy Death hath been more pernicious to thy Country than ever could thy Life be which was so odious as thou thought'st to the Athenians But yet 't was so dear to the Gods as that thine Enemies were commanded not to deprive thee of it or to dip their swords in thy precious gore But thou disdainst so kind a Favour and by fighting like the Giants against Heaven hast exposed thy self to an ignominious Death For Codrus did not Heroically in the Feild discomfit his Enemy with a threatning look neither shining in Armor or besmear'd with Blood did he breath his last but deludes his Enemy with a disguise in the habit of a poor man and doth spontaneously embrace a degenerous Death Seeing he undertook such great things for his Country he without doubt propos'd to himself great Rewards such as should purchase him an eternal name and transmit his Fame to future Ages But who will lament his immature Fate whereas the Ruine of the Republick is to be more deplored What Subject will sing his Encomiums seeing he hath deceivep not only his Enemies but his Friends too His Fate is deplorable on both sides seeing by his death the Garland is won and the Empire is destroyed Thou wast inflamed O Codrus with too great a Devotion and Zeal for thy Country who wast so forgetful of thy Life and Liberty and dids't so contemn the Care of the Gods If the former course of thy Life was just yet now thou hast committed an heinous Crime thus by offering violence to Nature and exercising Tyranny over thy self Let not Nature be thus violated Codrus hath lost his golden Liberty to free his Country from filthy Bondage hath laid down his Life to give it continuance and to rescue it from Death But how can it survive and live when he is dead who by his Valour alone did preserve and defend it and who whilst in Being was both the Delight and Ornaâ—ent of the People He had more prudently consulted the Athenians good if he had still reign'd and if the Enemy had not kill'd the Prince but the People and brought them to so sad and fatal an end Thus liv'd this stout Heroe who might lawfully support the sinking state might punish the pride of his triumphant Enemies might with his Life and Valour seeing he could purchase Victory by his own Blood have animated and encouraged the conquered Athenians and repaied their slaughter again with ruine For t is not the part of a Valiant Captain to yield at the first wound but obstinately to pursue flying Victory and with a pertinacious resolution solicite adverse and reluctant Fortune and as it were extort violently from the Gods the Palm of Victory Codrus by his signal Piety to his Country hath through his Death purchas'd to the Athenians Victory and Safety But yet he had shew'd himself more wise and valiant if escaping but one though unhappy battel he at length by a more prosperous event of War had made himself Victorious and his Country too DECLAM VI. Whether Paulus Emilius did well who utterly desparing of the Safety of the Republick rush't wilsully into the Battel and caus'd his own Death AFter so unfortunate a management of Affairs after so cruel a slaughter of his Souldiers and the total overthrow of his whole Army Can Aemilius do you think live an ignoble Life Do you believe I can endure Hannibal flush'd with Victory and triumphing over a routed Consul Seeing my Souldiers are so ambitious of the glory of Valour that when their Strength fails and their hands are unprofitable they had rather expose their heads to the Conquerours weapons than decline a Fight as if they would hinder Victory when they cannot conquer Seeing my Common Souldiers give so excellent a specimen of Roman Courage shall Paulus their General basely fly Seeing my stout Cavalry protected me in the Battel and so bravely fell in the hot dispute shall I basely survive them and run to Rome And there like Women and Children lament the Ruine of the State which I had so illy defended Shall I only shed tears for my Countrey whilst you faithful Souls pour out no less than your last Breath Rather let mine Enemy slice me into a thousand peices and spill my very heart-blood that the Citizens may know that I contemn Death with the same Courage as I did formerly their unjust Reproaches and let the Conquerour Hannibal understand that we have yielded to him in Fortune only but not in Valour I fear not to be censur'd Rash and Furious and too unadvised in my Actions for what do I desire that seems so unreasonable Seeing I cannot live without Reproach and Envy I only seek an honest Death You all know in my former Consulship when things were better with me than now how I scarce escap't with my Life from the Popular Tumult And what do you think the displeased People will do in so great a Desolation and Slaughter of their Souldiers But why do I mention things of so long a date In this present Consulship the ungrateful Citizens did upbraid with Sloath and Cowardize though by my Care and Counsel I diverted this Plague that hung over their heads and rescu'd my men from the jaws of their Enemies by detecting their Treacheries What a man have I shewed my self in this Battel who have fought illy and seeing I durst not die who have fled more basely Fancy me leading like Cattle the remainder if there be any left of my rallied Army through unwayed Mountains and Summer Thickets Fancy us to fly like Harts and to be stun'd with the noise of our close Pursuers Fancy us entring the City overwhelm'd with griefe and their Sorrow to swell at our Approaches I am not to be carried there after the Roman manner in a Triumphant Chariot And indeed I know not the use of such a Chariot unless to carry me to the utmost limits and bounds of the Earth whither the name of Hannibal the Report of this Overthrow and the Execrations of the City cannot reach Methinks I see the Patrons and the Clients mixt together and all in Publick Methinks I see the wretched Matrons running on all sides to the Hallowed Temples and sweep the Altars with dishevel'd Tresses We hear nothing but the Howlings and Lamentations of the Citizens nothing but the complaints of them that weep In vain they do now implore my Aid now they curse that unhappy General Methinks I hear the enraged Multitude railing against me in such language Give me my Children Restore my Parents Return my Souldiers who may defend the walls All which Clamour is an harsher sound than noise of the treacherous Carthaginians that assanlted us in the Rear than the groans of Souldiers beset with Enemies than the dismal voice of Hannibal whereby he pronounced to his Souldiers certain Victory But though things are grievous yet if they benefit my Countrey I can bravely bear them I could wish to live though in Disgrace and Infamy if
War shall require Subjects like Bulls to Jove must fall victims to their Prince Then certainly t is no such great matter to expend a little Gold otherwise unprofitable unless in War for the Honor of the King for the defence of the City Palace nay of Majestie too Nothing could be thought on more noble and more redounding to the Honour of the Emperour or give a greater Proof of a Deitie than that Golden Statue pull'd down and demolisht in the defence of the City If the Imperial Image could so protect the weak Citizens and by I know not what Charm shews that it can effect somewhat that is August and Magnificent if the Royal Essigies could assright Enemies could stretch out its Fatall Arms and kill those with the Cruelty of a Look whom it cannot wound with its extended hands I say if the meer Figure could do this what shall we think then of the real person whose Statue could drive away his approaching Enemies Let it therefore be domolisht and by its fall let it prove that there is nothing belongs to an Emperour but what is Divine We read that the Statue of Scipio did protect the Italians from the Carthaginians and that his Reliques and Ashes were as useful to Rome as the living General We know that an Enchantress can wound a man meerly by waxen Images and at once can hurt the Original and the Copy too can strike the Image and hit by Sympathy the Man too so that t is not so great a matter for the Imperial Statue to effect these things seeing waxen Puppets have something of Life in them and become Arbiters of Life and Death Behold the misery of the poor City Contemplate the sad Looks hollow Cheeks the paleness of the Inhabitants at the thoughts either of present Danger or fearful expectation of future Death Both the Subjects and the Statue are all like to perish and like to be involv'd in the same ruine But is it not best to preserve them to secure the Citizens the walls of the Emperour and lastly to protect the Emperour himself and all by the destruction of one Statue For 't is easie after a Conquest to erect and raise new Images and new Statues and those greater and with the Relicks of this gold after Fights and Overthrows to make an absolute Image and consecrate it to Caesar Let the golden Statue and the sacred Image be quite defac'd that it may be restored and raised more August and Divine we do not envy the Emperour that piece of Divinity as to be absent unarmed invisible and yet by this Art to be present at his Battels to stir up the feeble Citizens whereby he shews himself not so much to be an Emperour as a God Though 't is an heinous crime to violate any thing that for their noble exploits is consecrated and devoted to the memory of our Ancestors yet seeing neither the Peace of Countries can be enjoyed without Arms nor Arms be procured without Pay it may not seem a wonder if we endeavour by our honest Ingenuity to free our selves from forreign Invasion and restore our selves to our fotmer Liberty and ancient Glory Ingenuous Spirits are ashamed to be put under and to submit their neeks to the Tyranny of a Yoke and to become Tributaries to those whom we have freed from ruine and the jaws of Death therefore we thought it good rewards adding Courage to Souldiers to scrape off the gold from the Imperial Statues and to coin it into money and that not to defend our selves only but the Gods too For we were reduced to that extremity that unless we had laid out our money and care for the Safety of the Countrey we had certainly perished and been destroyed by them The Temples had been rob'd of their Gods and the Deities been depriv'd of their Temples too they had condemn'd us to hard and miserable Bondage and that which went nearest to us they would have shackled our Hands with unwonted chains But by this our Trick we have prevented our Enemies from sacking Rome and have triumpht over those who would have conquered us and that which makes us more Noble and Happy we have not flincht from our first Enterprise but have stoutly resisted their fierce On-sets and have subdued our cruel Enemies and that with our Ancient and truly Roman Valour and have put their necks impatient of Bondage under our yoke and the Gods favouring our Cause we have wholly routed them and reduc'd them Behold our Enemies enrag'd with grief do liment and howl at their miserable Fate and curse our Valour and good Fortune too Behold on the contrary us walking in State and Pomp we are received with publick acclamations and the Gods have congratulated our fresh Victory and thank us for preserving them untoucht and safe with what Solemnity will our Triumph be celebrated in Pompey's Theater with what joy and shoutings are Trophies erected in Honor of our Victory with what care is the Gold and Silver restored to their respective Statues and the People of Rome are so far from derogating from or eclipsing their Splendor that they take care to preserve them and to adorn and gild them with greater Curiosity Rome being secure from and having lost its Rivals and the Gods being free from all Fear let us not withdraw from Tumults and betake our selves to ease and quiet Let the City enjoy her former Beauty and Magnificence and let the Roman People display their wonted Glory Let the Souldiers boast of their wounds and scars and let them esteem them their most honourable Badges and Ornaments of their Bodies DECLAM XV. Against the Citizens REligion is preserved inviolable among all Nations and there is no Villany so extreme no Impiety so cruel as to allow of and favour horrid Sacriledge A very Enemy himself though never so much incens'd would scarce suffer the sacred Temples and the Monuments of our Ancestors to be prophaned and spoiled But ye Romans ye have laid aside all Conscience and Religion in so basely demolishing the Representative of the Emperour which you ought to have protected with all your Strength and with as great care as the Prince himself Besides there was no need of committing so great a Crime for the Desolations of War threatning Poverty and the grim Aspect of approaching Death ought to have animated them and increased their Courage in the Defence of their Liberty and Country and of their own safety and of their Princes too O most earthly and sordid Souls who breaking the Laws and contemning and despising both Gods and Men have thus villanously prophaned most sacred Majesty little less to be adored than a Deity it self so that the Gods are unsafe and Jove justly fears lest you vile Miscreants like Dyonisius the Tyrant should presume to pull his golden Beard If you could no otherwise have defeated your Enemies Army you had better have embrac'd an honest Death than to endure a Life so scandalous and stain'd with so horrid a
Vnder Monarchy we suffer in our Estates Taxes Subsidies drain our purses and after too great evacuation leave them gasping for life whereas under Democracy the People shall be Princes and in what Government there is we all shall have a share Can this in our case be pleaded still notwithstanding what hath been just now delivered I had thought the hints of an Ignominious deserved death should fright us from these abortive dangerous Fancies I answer fairly Give me a free Republick with all my heart where I may be free from Slavery and Treason too where I may be free Body and Soul from the foul blot of Rebellion The name of Rebel cates into and cankers the flesh beside it sticks like a curse to the race and line of the attempter Incest Blasphemy Parricide Sacriledg four foul offences but Rebellion so soul it is involves Three of them Again let the Objectors Prudence consider not only the Present but something of the Future Who knows what will be after him we have said and seen with thanks to Heaven that a banished Prince may return again In thy Behaviour to the Publick have regard say I to thy own Posterity thou shalt live but thy while leave thy Children thy own and thy Princes blessing thy Deeds and Writings perhaps will not secure thy Estate to thy Heirs unless thou draw up an Act of Oblivion which since thou canst not do let thy Heirs have no occasion for it They who need it for their babes must when they dye pray that the Prince may never be restored that Right may never take place which beside the fruitlesness of the wish how conducible it is to those who commend themselves to another world Let any sober man judge As for Tyranny and Arbitrary Power Who will give us the definition of a Tyrant 't is more easie to asperse than define Every charge against a Governor will not amount to Tyranny as neither every indictment of the Subject will come up to Treason He who calls a Prince a Tyrant calls him Monster murders buries yea stakes his body for None is a Tyrant but he who in spight of all Natural or Divine Laws doth what he pleaseth Unless you can insert that killing clause of felonious Indictment viz. Having not the fear of God before his eyes you are no Subject but a Viper and deserve to be trod on after you have hissed and shewn your teeth In the vastness of administration 't is a miracle if there be no failures In the receipt of a sum of thousands there may be one or two less currant peices without the reproach I hope of Thievery or Cheat. How many times doth Innocence it self to say nothing of unavoidable Oversight in a Governour suffer as grievously as wilfull Malice Even Lycurgus t is a shame to hear it was affronted pelted with stones and driven from his Kingdom History rings how just he was and yet how savagely used And so t is fresh in our memories how the meekest and most innocent of all Princes was stab'd by the vulgar by the inscription of ultimus Tyrannorum Naughty men calumniate strongly for their own ends cry out upon One to set up an hundred Tyrants Besides that many administrations of Government may be pretended to be Arbitrary not because they are so but because they are less usuall according to some emergencies extraordinary Some wise men say that in all Supremacy there must be some use of unconfined and arbitrary Power which they prove by the confession and practice of the People where they arrogate Supremacy but if This be too high or harsh a string for us then we say whatever Tyranny or arbitrary Power signifies t is a refractary Spirit to cry out upon the best Form for the apprehensions of those abuses which have been found in their own tumults and new Models Cade and Tyler of old as He who made the filthy rime to Magna Charta were rascally Tyrants Arbitrary Government by Arms Rumps and Committees most men who either love the Republick or their own Estates do dread the return of such confounded Republiques To speak what I think if we search the wound to the bottome t is an impatiency of all Government Divine though it be in an untutored selfish people that makes them so free in aspersing our Governors such who have been bred to understand nothing so much as their private interest instead of good manners or Religion it self As to our Liberty we have already said that just Liberty is not invaded for unjust and unnatural why is it desired what Man who is truly man dare stand by the wild notion of the vulgar Liberty let loose the Felons then and the Mad-men the Prisons and Bedlam be broke open in the name of Liberty And let no man be bound That suits finely indeed To be bound no not to their good Behavior Let all young men Apprentices command their Indentures and renounce or cancel their oathes of faithful service Let the Tenants deny Service to their Land-Lords for a Land-Lord is but a linch of Tyranny and what is Rent but an exaction of Tribute by Nature we are all as good one as another and as free let us remove therefore all encroachments to speak out of the Rich upon the meaner sort and let Right be done that is let no great One run away with All and an Hundred have just nothing Let a through reformation and restitution be made of our ancient Liberty and let Estates and Fortunes be sweetly levelled for Government is a yoke do our Lords think to make Brutes of us This is the sence not only of the Roman Slaves and Imperial Boors who break out into seditions at every opportunity but of the poorer sort among our selves See we the necessity of Government for who can out-vote them who have most voices It is expedient therefore for them to be instructed that Levelling is Confusion neither has Nature made all equal witness the difference of Ages Statures Beauties Parts or Gifts of the Mind Government is as necessary as Breathing t is called a yoke but an easie one and so we may call our garments if we please because they are just fit to our bodies and keep them from growing out of shape Religion is also called a yoke and I hope we are not weary of that Add that Liberty is a Faculty of operating according to our Station We illustrate it by the Members of the Body who in their Stations have their Freedoms and their Priviledges also but yet exactly keep due order the Foot may draw on a neat pantofle the Hand put on a fine perfumed Cordovan the Foot may walk forward backward Stand Caper Dance the Hand may Give Take Exercise it self to work or play But neither may the Hand assassine the Face or pull out the Eye nor may one Foot kick against the other No man hath Liberty to forget himself Vulgar people like little Children think their Liberty is infringed when the
embraces of Kings and Princes How vile therefore and what a nothing is a little modicum a parcel of money if standing in competition with the Divinity of beauty This unfortunate Lass hath made such a swop as Glaucus in Homer who chang'd away his gold foolishly for brass and may deservedly be styl'd the very Proverb of stupidity But consider I pray urgent necessity did press upon her The reward of her hands could hardly defend her from the injuries of cold and hunger labour and diligence was all her possession and her whole revenue But who diminisheth that true wealth far to be preferred above Persian riches But what hurt is there in a shaven crown though there is no money given for the filth and excrements of a nasty head We confess our hair to be nothing else but the scurff and dregs of a cribrous head stretch't and extended into slender threds but the more vile the materials the more admirable and exquisite the skill and workmanship The excellency of these above other locks doth evidently appear from the very desires of him that buys them which were greedy and pecuniary Behold how importunate his petitions How vehement his wishes and how eagerly doth he long for the possession of them For this very reason O besieg'd Virgin because he is so instant deny his request for if fictitious cruck's add such a grace to other heads what glories and prettinesses must these scatter upon her neck being never transplanted from their native soil nor ever depriv'd of their natural elegance On this thy crime do thou thy self pass sentence O most indiscreet Virgin Thou canst not be acquitted by thy self thy Judge The richer mettal of thy golden hair thou hast chang'd and truck't for viler silver and haâ— deliver'd that to the buyer which might have been a credit and an ornament to the seller Beware therefore for the future of thine own glass For that which even now did please thee with the lovely reflection of thy flattered Image now affright's thee with the mormo's and represented horrours of thine ugly shapes neither is there any reason why thou shouldst expect a milder doom from our tribunal whose candour smiles and expanded brow your filthy baldness hath terrified and converted into contracted frowns DECLAM III. Tiberius did well in forbidding the Kindred of those that were Condemned to Lament and Mourn IF the sacredness of Laws ought to be kept and preserved inviolable and if a domestick conspirator is more dangerous than a forreign invader then wicked sighs breathed out for criminals are to be accus'd as guilty and mourning weeds presage as much the fate of the mourner as the death of him for whom he griev's Certainly the Emperour did well consult the good of his Citizens who forbad and condemn'd both the rebellion and impiety of those groans and tears that were both utter'd and shed at a wicked funeral That conspiracy ought to be bury'd in the deepest silence which with a clamorous grief would recal the soul of an expiring Tyrant repair the decays of wasted strength and with a new life restore fresh and more vigorous treacheries It had been noble and generous at the death of a Captain though an enemy to perform such funeral rites which his souldiers would have celebrated with solemn pomp Thus in vain the Heroe of old breath'd his soul into his gasping companion in vain he embrac't him clos'd his eyes and in vain he imbib'd his last breath But when a villain dyes let his neighbour fear nay let his unhappy issue too to suck and receive his last spirit lest the wretch should bequeath in the legacy of a sob his crimes and should pant slaughter and so after death live in his kindred still a murderer as mad dogs by biting and hags by kissing instill their poysons and leave a deadly dart on their friends lips Hence often it is that an innocent son possessing the soul of his damn'd father inherits his vices and his punishments too The Deities would have us dumb and silent who with secret darts do scatter death forbidding all noise but their own thunder and seeing no body that 's guilty dies lamented by his neighbour we must obey Fate Thus one being smitten the prudent herd consulting its safety deny's a refuge to the wounded Deer and willingly comply's with the expert Archer to prevent the slaughter of more sacrifices Grief trickling from Parents in such liberal showers seems to suspect the integrity of the Judge and to accuse the magistrate of injustice too whilst he is thought to be corrupt and his power criminal And indeed well may such tears affright and terrify which do patronize wickedness and it's Authors too Though they distil silently and in their first drops discover only but feeble angers but at length when floods shall meet with floods and Blasts of sighs are opposed by blasts then the deluge of sorrow swells into complaints and boils and ferments into impotent revenge The aspect of these mourners grow fierce and cruel who execute with their looks and murder the assertors of their own right After such mild severity and so calm a storm let it shame the Citizens to weep more let them blush to grieve for dying treachery and let not the out-cry of a conclamation but more pleasant noises attend the herse If a doleful mother always pregnant with a vitious brood should still deplore her nefarious off-spring in vain are prisons and tribunals where the Hypocrisie of grief and counterfeit lamentations corrupt the fidelity and integrity both of Judge and witness and so the guilty enjoy their suffrages and so numerous Patrons of vice do expiate the crime If guilt be in so great esteem let the Guard be armed from a full prison and let the weeping City reduced and profligated by a rebellious Citizen feel those treacheries of which the lamented villains were the Authors and let it deplore the loss of its robust vigor so plainly enfeebled by their strength Thus the swift Hart is griev'd at his horns when their unprofitable weight does hinder flight and when the useless burden of his branching head shall expose him as a prey to the cruel hunter The condition of the Republick was more prosperous and flourishing after the slaughter of these Citizens For whilst friends do torment and joyfully punish malefactors the old contagion begins to languish and that pristine fury dispers'd amongst many dyes and determines in the author only But if turgent sorrow shall improve the fertility of growing impiety and the poyson that 's nourish't in one member doth not only infect a single man but corrupt also the whole alliance then the compassionate Father in vain laments his conscious grief the Mother in vain repents of her unjust sorrow and that she hath thus polluted her innocent tears which deserve to be punish't not for her own but only for the guilt of her condemn'd son And thus whilst the same crime hath made them all equal and they are
as much ally'd by vice as blood let the whole family be accus'd and the whole progeny be condemn'd let no solemn honours confiscate with his heritage attend his herse no funeral rites grace and adorn his prophane pile Let not his condemned ashes enjoy the repose of a quiet Urn Let his carcass lye unburied that as well dead as alive he may suffer punishment DECLAM IV. The Carthaginians did very ill in crucifying a Captain unadvisedly waging war though he returned with Victory THough a reverent esteem is to be shewn to Laws and the sanctions of the Countrey are not to be despised yet 't is unjust methinks to condemn to the cross this Captain who so unwillingly did violate but one of these and that meerly to defend the City and all things besides from the violence and injury of a furious enemy Law-givers know not what a day may bring forth their Constitutions and Decrees must give place a little when occasion shall require the Prudence of the General is disregarded lest if the Magistrate should by a Gibbet deterr the Souldiers from conquering against their orders they should so much fear capital punishment as not to endeavour the safety of the Republick How doth this Captain fluctuate afflicted with the dubious fate of Metius being on all sides distracted by instant death If he should be conquer'd he becomes a sacrifice to the insolence of his enemy and so ruine and destruction must needs befall him but if he triumphs the cross a gibbet and a more ignoble fate attends him However he had rather try the clemency of noted Carthage than expose himself his Countrey to the cruelty of a Victorious and odious Nation He hop'd that his good success might have easily atton'd for the envy of the fact and that it would not have been so ungrateful to Carthage in regard he had been so adventageous to it He fights therefore and overcomes and by the votes of the Carthaginians he is adjudged to the cross A man certainly most worthy of life who for the publick good made himself obnoxious to so severe a death But what unjust cruelty is this to hurry a Conquerour spared by the tempest of war and arms to a punishment more barbarous than his enemies sword He that contrary to the Laws and with suspence of success or unfortunately joins battle let him endure the deserved smart of his own rashness but whosoever inflicts penance on a Conqueror whose war both the favour of the Gods and the event do allow of he both disquiets and accuses Heaven By what an unhappy kindness of the fates hath our captain survived the battle to be reserv'd a victime for the ignominious cross He might have fell being conquer'd by the revenge of his enemies without the crime of a guilty Judge But whilst by the unjust suffrages of the Citizens he is punish't with a gibbet and disgrac't too the life of the Conquerour and the justice of the Country go both to wrack So falls our Captain as famous for the merit of his excellent valour as remarkable for the disgrace of an ungrateful City who that he might render Carthage victorious was not startled at the danger either of field or tribunal but twice hazarded his life and had twice conquer'd if the Carthaginians had not been more obdurate than his enemies souldiers He dy'd not being overpower'd in battel neither through his own miscarrage or default of Fortune his punishment is aggravated by the unworthiness of it for he is adjudged by them to death to whom by his victory he gave life This great Severity may be thought the greatest Justice which though it may be defended perhaps by Law yet not in Equity What if the Captain being assur'd of Victory did not expect the commands of his Country An Enemy may be conquered before it can be determined by the Senate whether a General shall fight or not The Fate of this Officer is very deplorable who might be compell'd by the Laws to be conquer'd but could not overcome securely against them But the sense of the Law is to be regarded and not the terms The Carthaginians forbad their Generals to fight against the Orders and Constitutions of their Country because Captains especially young ones are inflam'd with a desire of Renown and Victory and oftentimes run upon an engagement rashly so that the Strength and Prosperity of the Republick is much abated and the Glory of their Nation obscur'd by the fatal overthrow of their defeated Army But our Captain wise and prudent as well as valiant knew he should conquer before he sought neither is it to be doubted but that the Law-givers themselves if they had been present at the Warr and had understood the conveniences of Fighting would have advised to them an Encounter How unjust therefore is it to condemn that which if present they had approv'd of and that too after the Victory was won and Trophies raised through the Conduct and Valour of this wise Captain Certainly there is reason to suspect that the Carthaginians did not so much take ill the violation of the Law as they envyed the Honors and Triumphs of the Victor and therefore censur'd him to so shameful a death His doom was barbarous and cruel and if after the dangers of War the Citizens shall thus at home threaten the cross to their victorious Captains they may deservedly fear least hereafter they should want men to defend their Countrey DECLAM V. Whether Codrus did well in devoting himself to destruction and losing both his Life and Liberty for the safety of his Country Against Codrus SEeing there is no Happiness to a people but what depends on the Counsel and Valour of a prudent Prince He therefore that throws away his life for his Countries good seems not so much to prevent it's misery as to increase and hasten its approaching Ruine For after the decease of a valiant Emperour who dares not assault a people wretched and without a head Who dares not provoke them being destitute and void of Strength Who hopes not to subdue them and to raise Trophies to himself from their Spoils seeing they are without Counsel which is a stronger fortress aginst their Enemy than Bulwarks and Castles The sudden death of Codrus might perhaps remove from his Country some present calamity it might perhaps disperse an imminent Storm But alas to what Evils is it left expos'd now he is gone who could alone preserve it who whilst he liv'd was its only safeguard There is no Law observed now the Emperour is dead The distracted People sheath their swords in their own bowels and by mutuall slaughters bring that destruction upon themselves which was forbidden by the Oracle to fall upon the Peleponensiaus No Homage and Obedience is paid to Governours the Subject hath shaken off the yoke from his neck and every miscreant lays unjust claim to that Empire which was left by the Princes voluntary death Thus O Codrus hast thou involved others in thine
others Vertue make Laws for themselves as well as for the People and defend with their own the Roman Liberty One can't so much oppress but the other is as ready to redress their Grievance neither can they vex the Republick with private Animosity but they must turn their Fury upon their own selves And thus the haughty Lyon affrights with a noise the common Herd and preys only upon little Flocks but when he hath in view another Lion he is struck dumb and silent and they both disdain the neglected Cattle but both emulous and jealous of each others Honour and neither brooking the equality of a Rival do engage mutually and terrifie no more the despised droves but exert their Fury upon and seek to devour their own selves If this Consular Government please the Senate then these Roman Youths may not by Force subvert it without Punishment They seem to undermine the City to affect the Kingdom and to revoke themselves instead of Kings These Younkers certainly aspire too high who take up arms against the Fathers Consuls and established Laws of Rome Professed Enemies that dare do any thing never strike at the Form of Government Every Nation may as it pleaseth Dispose of its people and may restrain them by what ties it listeth and Cities at Emnity do not give Laws to themselves nor do they foment civil Broils among their Citizens or embroil their Citizens in civil wat 's Seeing therefore the Government of the Consuls is either to be establisht by the death of the Conspirators or to be abrogated for the future by a free Remission the most just Brutus did justly condemn his Sons for the Liberties of his Countrey and for the Priviledges of Rome And that he might not survive a childless Parent he the Assertor and Father of the Laws hath translated into his own Family and hath adopted the Citizens in the room of his Sons DECLAM XIII Against Brutus AFter the Foundation of the Empire lay'd in Blood and such a continual succession of horrid Cruelty as if it was just that as Rome in her Infancy consecrated her future Grandeur by so a Barbarous a Crime so she should defend her Safety by repeated Slaughters and Patricidial Murders maintaining thereby the limits of her Power I say after the frequent Violations of the Laws of Nature and the exile and banishment of proscribed Humanity or Prescription of exiled and discarded Humanity 'T is no wonder that Brutus should exert his rage on his own flesh and more Cruel than Indians who only devour their dead Friends should wreak his Fury upon his own Bowells He slays his own sons those dear Pledges of himself because he would not favour the private ties of Affinity But let him satisfie his Fury so savagely and that he may be a safe-guard to Rome let him be fierce and inhumane Cease ye Romans by the help of the Gods to reduce and subdue forreign Nations seeing Rome by her shedding blood and by her flagitious Crimes hath given a specimen of her future Impiety and Brutus the Assertor and Patron of Rome having left his Enemies prosecutes with Hatred his own Sons and triumphing at home in a bloody Victory is become a Conquerour within his own house Let not the Deities hope any more for their wonted Flames nor for the solemn Pomp of former Victims seeing Brutus spared not his very Houshold Gods whilst he equally forgets both his Piety and his Sons by the death of his off-spring he shews himself to be but a cruel Parent by whose blood he hath purchased an ill gotten Liberty After such great Specimens of an ambitious Spirit and Crimes successfully committed against the Republick he now attempts a greater wickedness and that such an one which cannot be expiated by any Sacrifice For having got the Empire and by the death of the Kings having obtained his desire he does now beging to wanton in Cruelty and being backt with Power doth more violently rage His Sons that resist his growing Tyranny he prosecutes with a cruel affection and strikes them through with darts of Love and like a swelling deluge checkt by violence he invades them presently with a double force and lets them fall as victims for the defence and safeguard of the new Empire Most unhappy Young Men whose Valour alone hath made them miserable who have done nothing worthy of death unless it be Capital to resist the unjust Pride of their Father and to defend Rome from the Treacheries of Brutus Things are come now to that pass that there is need both of the Pious and Valiant to restore the Republick For what could they do else if they had not offended against Brutus they had sinned which had been worse against the Gods and Countrey too A crime is to be chosen about which they did not long deliberate The vainer name of a Father could not affright them nor the reverence of a Parent deter them For let him be no longer a Father of Children if he will be no more a Parent of his Countrey The Young Men had a natural Veneration for Majesty and therefore respect and honor the Kings and defend their Prerogatives to their last breath The City was so oppress'd with Cruelty and so bloody with the slaughter of murdered Citizens that the Gods themselves could hardly releive it without exposing themselves to death and danger But Brutus hastens to his Sons with the greatest Zeal and at once doth use both Prayers and Threats he sooths them up with winning Insinuations he accosts them with language as soft as deceitful He objects unto them the Honour Glory and Allurements of Empire the great Pleasure and Priviledge of Governing But our Young Men oppose and embrace not this wheedling Courtship whose Fidelity is not to be shaken either by Price or Pleasure no not by death it self and therefore the cruel Father advances himself to the highest pitch of Fury and Impiety and by the dismal Tragedy of his Sons sacrifices to the Liberty of his Country that those whom he could not provoke by his Ambition and Tyranny he might at least overcome by Death and Envy Thus whilst he hath beheaded his Sons and endeavors to spill his own blood he doth not only lose the Reputation of being Humane but buries his name in silence and oblivion He deprives himself of the comfort of Posterity and of that Immortality which is for ever propagated by a dear off-spring DECLAM XIV When a certain City was daily harass'd by continual War the Citizens at length decreed among themselves to demolish the golden Statue of the Emperour to coin money for their subport and maintenance For the Citizens IF you know not the greatness of Imperial Majesty and how much to be defended by the Lives and Estates of Loyal Subjects I say if you do not any otherwise understand it yet from hence you may learn namely that the Glory of the whole Empire depends upon the Safety of the Emperour and as often as
Crime it had been better to have been opprest with Poverty and Bondage than so ignominiously to live and to purchase your Liberty at the price of your Innocency What sacrifice can atone for this fact Ye have O ye Romans by throwing down the Monument of the Emperour made an attempt on his sacred Person and so are guilty of High-Treason We do too much indulge the Parricides in suffering them to be openly and publickly defended whom the Gods would have punishe and slain too For the appeasing of whose Anger the whole Religion of the City can scarce suffice Because if we rightly consider their Losses we shall find somewhat which besides War and a Siege we ought to deplore somewhat that is sad and Tragical which cannot at all be ascribed to an Enemy For behold here are Citizens who have added this impious Cruelty to all our miseries that we seem meerly to be supported by the Benefit of our Sacriledge and midst the Terrours and Hardships of War and Hunger to dare to abuse the Emperour i. e. to prophane violate and contemn the Gods themselves If an Enemy had done this we had hop'd for a Victime and would have made them by their Fall to have expiated and aton'd for their Guilt But now with what Hope with the Assistance of what Deity can we take up Arms for we have lost our Courage because our Innocence and which is more our Emperour too Our Enemies rejoice and begin their Triumph from our Crimes The wicked Citizens boast as if they had defeated Hunger and their Enemies by their horrid Sacriledge and indeed so they have for the Heinousness of the Fact had scar'd them with iâ— Horrour and put them to Flight unlesâ— its Blackness had recalled them and moveâ— them to Revenge and so made them witâ— a double Fury fall upon the Sacrilegious and exert their Rage upon them If despair should make us Conquer yet we should blush to enter the City and be ashamed to visit those sacred Temples whose Holiness we have polluted with our unhallowed hands Behold how these Pious Inhabitants have preserved their unhappy City They have goâ— their sustenance by Sacriledge by which we are fed for sacrifice though a whole City is not Victim enough for such a Guilt where the Gods the Emperour nay our Enemies are to be aton'd and satisfied We do not complain of trivial matters nor are we content with a single Grief but we lament the Condition of the whole City which these Villanous Parricides have distracted wasted and spoiled in the Emperour For after they had defiled themselves with this black Crime they propagated the Contagion to the Vulgar that every one might bear the proper Guilt of his own Sacriledge It grieves us to think how with a ravenous mouth we devoured the dismal Gates and how greedily we swallowed even the horrid â—mpiety We ow to the Citizens that we â—ive that we can courageously behold the horror of the Fact and so great an Instance of Cruelty You thank them for restoring your decay'd Strength for arming you with your Emperour and making that a Prey to the Enemy which they themselves ador'd whilst in the Temple They have spoiled the tutelar Deity more venerable than Hunger they have spoil'd the Emperour more August than the Image They have spoil'd that which standing we might have liv'd innocently even in the ruine of the City If a Conquerour had entred we might have been secure For the sacred Majesty of such a Statue would either have extorted Religion from them or if they have none 't will teach them some But our Grief hath overcome our Hopes and we have defil'd our miseries and which is the last that belongs to the miserable we have lost Pity DECLAM XVI Manlius Torquatus to maintain the Discipline of his Camp killed his own Son For Manlius I Am not Ignorant with what Prejudice I stand here before you in the behalf of Manlius For I fear that these sad and harsh Commands will be very ungrateful to your tender ears which yet are wholsome for my Son who either by Fate or through Shame of declining Battel was driven into the body of his thickest Enemies and as it happen'd prov'd Victor But he whom no Law or Edict either of Father or Consul could keep from rashly breaking his rank and order is to be restrained by the Sword Let not Martial Discipline be corrupted by one ill Example lest the whole Army suffer through Default of one Our Manlius aim'd at something to be done more August and Glorious than the soft Effeminacies of fond Parents His Passion was more strong and severe than to defend and patronize his Bowels his Off-spring in so great a Wickedness 'T is Inhuman and horrid to hate his Issue but yet to spare such a Son is worse than Hatred the Law and Republick can't be so satisfied Let the Son suffer for his rashness rather than the Common-wealth rue for the wicked Indulgence of his Father What People did ever more religiously preserve Martial Discipline than the Romans To whom warfare was far more ancient than Parents or Children whose well order'd Troops have advanc't them from nothing to the Dominion of the whole world neither can the Roman Glory be Eclipsed nor the wide Empire of the Victorious Shrink or Decay unless this strong tye or Union of distant Colonies be dissolv'd by Effeminacy Lust or Luxury whilst with a well disciplin'd Army like a well fortified City they did repel the On-set of their invading Enemies they always returned with Triumphant Eagles But whilst the Son of Manlius breaking his ranks obtains the Victory he departs only not conquered You have here most equal Judges Manlius acting the part not so much of a stout and valiant General as of a solicitous and careful Parent nor more commendable for his Justice than his singular Clemency who even consulted the good of the Republick though 't was to his own damage He thought it far better to be the Lord of the Country than to be called the Father of so stubborn a Son neither did he study only the good of his Country but of himself too and whilst he punisht his Son with death for declining the Commands of his Father he preferr'd an honest Reputation before an infamous Off-spring and seeing he could not beget an Heir equal to his Parent he would have none survive that is unlike so great a Captain But Torquatus lives still and as long as Martial Discipline and Laws of Camps do flourish Manlius the Patron of Arms will survive and never fall or decline but with the very Standards seeing he smote with the Ax his only Son he hath vindicated his name from devouring obscurity Thus he hath prolonged his Life by dying and surviving himself hath ' een by mortality made himself Immortal And so aged Valour withstanding the Teeth of Time and Rottenness hath transmitted him to Posterity without an Heir DECLAM XVII Whether it is lawful to use
Persian Pomp in the midst of War Aff. VVHy should I doubt I know no reason but that only seems unlawful Persian-like to grow rich We adore a Penurious and a hard Fortune and lament the loss of a golden Age not so much because we are Vicious as because we are Beggars yea our minds are so impoverisht necessity causes such a degeneracy that we cannot conceive the Splendor of the Persian Equipage It becomes the Lords of the Earth thus richly to fight That Magnisicence is honest and those Ornaments glorious which are only the rewards of Sweat and Valour Persicus describ'd with his Sword the whole Universe and commenc'd Geographer by his own Victories he understood Bactria from a Cloak and the Sogdiani from an Helmet his Steed hath been laden with Spoils of several Nations and why then should he not proudly prance who hath dar'd to fight for his Harness and Trappings and who will level the Mountains and lay flat with the ground his Enemies too that he might vex his crest with their weighty Jewels That Pomp doth justly excuse Pride and is neither vain nor ridiculous which is the reward of ancient Valour and is a spur to new Those who are afraid of Ghosts and Goblins who can't undauntedly contemn the Fates nor dare provoke death Let them combate in squallid weeds and mournful dress But those that are of an approv'd Valour and who draw Fortune after them bound in chains to whom t is the same to war and triumph why is it not lawful for them to breath perfumes to shine with Oils and Balsomes and to enjoy the Testivity of a crowned brow and to use in War all the Pompous Luxury that attends a Victory Let the rude vulgar contemn that which is noble and gallant as if Robes of Kings and Triumphal Garments must declare the Mind to be Proud and Soft we have often seen Vertue I know not by what unhappiness half clad in tattered weeds and scarcely cover'd without a Figure But as if vile raiment were a Vertue it self it will be a Reproach to the deserving to be richly attir'd neither is he thought worthy of Praise who dies for his Countrey if he sacrifice himself with well ordered Hair and if by chance an importunate Hero should with a trim aspect put to flight his Enemies the austere Laws would condemn him as though still drunk with Victory When Rome was reduc't to so great extremity as wholly to despair of its sinking Empire when the Sinews of War began to crack and the Strength of the Republick began to languish and Roman Valour could atchieve no more the Senators did not take Sanctuary in Forts and Garrisons nor did fly to Arms but adorn'd themselves with their Robes and Purple whose Senatorian Pomp representing the Sages as so many Gods did strike such a reverence into the amazed Enemy that ceasing to resist and aw'd with the Religion of the solemn Spectacle they began to fear retreat and worship What need we care If adverse Fortune befals us we shall die in the same gallantry wherein we fought and to the Angry Deities fall crown'd sacrifices But if our success be prosperous that will give credit and reputation and recommend the Honesty Vertue of our Magnificence and will vindicate the lawfulness of our censured Glory DECLAM XVIII Whether Philostratus did well who to make Death Familiar lived in a Tomb seven years Against Philostratus WHen I contemplate nothing but the noisome ruines of dead Men and am conversant only amongst Vaults and Sepulchers I seem already sentenced and adjudged to death having no other company in my squalid solitute but the Society of Monuments and learned Marbles I am encompassed on every side with gaping Tombs but they are not vocal for amongst the Histories and Epitaphs of famous Heroes you will find a silence as deep as the dismal Cell wherein they are cloistered Here you may see the Urn of a Commander adorned with Poetry and Lawrel too but as speechless as the heaps of his Enemies over which he triumphed There you may read inscriptions as durable as the stone on which they are written and which are sacred to the memory of a voluble Orator whose mouth now is fuller of dust than t is of Eloquence and he that even now was begirt with a ring of living Admirers now stands surrounded with the dumb Attendance of breathless Images It is reported that the Statue of Memnon saluted by the raies of the rising Sun became vocal as if the dead Image was Ambitious to proclaim the approach of so great a Deity and as if that Musical God that found out Harmony had been the Author and Inventor of sounds too But we need not the Influence of a propitious Heaven here you may behold a Monument never saluted or seen by the Sun and within it a Philosopher like a certain Oracle uttering speeches darker than the Cavern wherein he lies For our Philostratus inhabits at once both his Study and Sepulcher too He reads melancholy volumes that treat of death and meditates of certain I know not what trivial notions and invokes the Fiend with as fervent Zeal as the warmer Poet his beloved Muse But oh Philostratus we have heard some times that the Muses can inspire but never knew before that death could dictate Away with those solemn thoughts about your latter end Fly swifter than Fate from the Putrid rumes of filthy Carcases and keep thy self as safe from these as thou wouldst from Death For within the narrow confinement of this sordid Cave there is nothing lives besides thee and worms The Air is infected with Stench and Rottenness and the place is infested with nought but Horror with the deformed Shapes of Ghosts and Goblins 'T is true we read of the Vestal Virgins that being once deflowr'd they were interred alive and were condemned to the perpetual darkness of a dismal Den and so extinguisht at once both the Flame of their Life and Lamp too But if thou Philostratus liest hid any longer in the Cloisters of thy Tomb we will suppose thee as criminal as the Guilty Nuns and think the Austerity of thy Life to be not so much thy choice as thy Pennance What Pleasure lies hid in the obscurity of a charnel House Wanton Lovers affect the night that they may act in darkness But behold all things are unfit for lascivious Embraces all as cold as the Marble under which they lie no kisses to be gathered but from mouldred Lips or from the Fragments that are left by glutted Worms Behold thy Companions in thy gloomy Cave Here are the Legs and Armes the Ribs and Thighs of thy scattered Ancestors as void of Life as they are of Flesh There lies a Head which rob'd of its Beauty and Brains too is a lively Image of that death thou adorest behold the sockets of their extinguisht eyes See the ruines of a nibled nose as if devouring Venus had been preying upon the dead as well as the riots and
slender disdainful and is very haughty You cannot be ignorant what Flames of contention are usually kindled and attend that Amity which is supported and maintained by mutual aspect and how often t is offended with trivial things Those whom we have passionately loved and whose sweet Society have importunately desir'd as not only Friends but Brothers and Children and if there be any thing more dear the very Deity it self of Friendship even these I say we wish to be absent if they hinder our Studies and obstruct our business O what fervent Zeal is there to be found in Love what jars in Wedlock what sighs and tears what complaints and suspicions 'twixt jealous Paramours what civil Wars I will not say betwixt Masters and Servants betwixt Brothers and Sisters Children and Parents Parents and Children what Indignation is stirred in them against their Off-spring who whilst they desire to be good look on them as bad and so do as it were after a manner hate them whilst they do most affectionately love them Come we now to the sacred name of Friendship which being derived from Love cannot be conceived to exist or be without that Passion But what difference in the lives and actions of Friends though they agree in their Ends how do they clash in their Opinions Advices and Counsels what conflicts about Religion and sacred things whereas in absence no contests and bickerings no gall and bitterness nothing pungent and afflicting besides desires and yet these longings have a relish of Sweetness and Delight Tell me O my Pamphilus why amongst the many wishes of men the chiefest of their desires is the fruition of their Friend why do they covet his Society under the same roof is it because distance of place makes Friendship languish and is remoteness the bane of all Fidelity doth the aspect of thy Friend shedâ— complacency and a quietness into thy Soul and art thou but half thy self in his absence but if a Friend may be possess'd not only naturally but civilly too how can absence hinder him from sitting and walking from railing and jesting from seriously discoursing and conversing with thee sometimes a Friend is not discern'd but when he is absent A gluâ— of Friendship is nauseous and insipid but aâ— appetite after it gives a relish to its tast wherefore if the great Masters of Love prescribe an intermission of enjoyment as very expedient for Paramours whose whole pleasure is in presence why is not an interregnun of fruition as convenient for Friends in whose Vertue all delight is plac'd and is not any way incommoded by absence in regard it is every where present I know not whether Epicurus was at Athens or else where when writing to his Friend he bid him do all things as if Epicurus saw him But certainly Annaeus was in Campania when speaking to his Lucilius living in Sicily by letters he exhorts him to study sup and to walk with him which things he could not perform unless he act them on the Scene of Fancy without the help and ministery of Coporal Organs But perhaps thine eyes anxiously desire thy Friend when absent 't is true somewhat is withdrawn from thy sight by absence but nothing from thy mind no nor from thine eyes neither if it be a true firm and well establish't Union For Cicero in an Epistle to his Friend Balbus sighting in France under the Command of Caesar tells us that he saw him not only in his mind but with his eyes too which if it be so tell me my good Fellow why canst thou not both hear thine absent Friend and see him too unless your sight is more quick and ready at a lascivious cast than at a Vertuous glance and you esteem sound more honourable than chast Love which no distance or force can obstruct or hinder If we should behold nothing but what is directly before us and confronts our sight and only present objects should delight and please us then our vision must needs be narrow and all our Enjoiments very scanty then farewel all joys of mental operations and the complacency that we find in severe Speculations Do not therefore rack thy self with the thoughts of thine absend Friend do not resent his departure heinously he that hath learn't to bear the death of his Friend will never be concern'd or flinch at his absence If thou only considerest of this in Friendship that its Foundation is perpetual firm and stable then Death it self can take nothing from thee Hast thou never heard how Laelius in Tully comforted himself how doth his dear Scipir live with him how doth the Fame and Vertue of his deceased Friend survive and flourish and shall never be blotted out of the register of his memory do not therefore yield to thy desires but embrace thy Friend in Idea and Contemplation whom neither Death nor Absence can take from thee lament not the departure of thy sweet Associate for this bitter absence will sweeren and render more Inscious his desir'd presence DECLAM IV. Whether Friendship is the burden of Vertue No. I Cannot think Love to be so degenerous a Passion as to spring only from servile Blood What are those Friendships and Caresses those delicate Blandishments and soft Sportings what are those chast Graces faâ—etious Delights and pleasant hours it usually affords I 'le be hang'd if Love be nothing but a sweet Servitude What Dialogues and Embraces what Gifts and presents what acceptable Pledges of reciprocal Affections and what are all these only the mutual offices of Bondage and Slavery certainly we rather may exclaim O the delicious tenor of a joyful Life O infinite Bliss and Happiness I should be apt to think Jove himself Hypochondriack and Melancholy and not sufficiently happy in his ravishing Elisium if he should alwayes be contemplative and not sometimes recreate himself and dally in the Society of Gods and Goddesses The most affectionate breasts of the most Amorous Turtles do sometimes boil and ferment with anger and are infested with the storms of unkind Brawls The Chrystal Serenity of the smiling Heavens is darkned with the tears of a frowning Skie and the brightness of the Sun is benighted with the horrour of obscuring Clouds thus Friendship may be eclipsed but not extinguisht may sink into a swoon and fall away but not quite into an Apostacie and utterly die He is a most delicate Lover who cannot endure the froth of raging Language which when the estuation of the blood growes calm and abates vanisheth with the choler that first caus'd it The commands of my Friend I obey his advice I follow his perswasions I yield to his affections I prove his jests I laugh at and care not a fig for his anger and yet I do nothing whereby I may be thought to serve him but rather to love him nothing by the Fatal necessity and constraint of bondage but by Friendly Counsel and the sweetest Sympathy of most obliging Lovers I fear not the frowns of the angry Heavens not a deluge
die into darkness and the obscure Globe of the widdowed Moon would flie and vanish into winds and showers and thus if concord should be banish't from this Sublunary Scene and Friendship ostracism'd out of this inferiour world and the golden chain of Unity should be unlink't and broken how soon would this beauteous contexture be all unravelled into its first Chaos the unpropt Heavens would want an Atlas Kingdoms would moulder into dust and rubbish and Princes vanish into air and shades there would be either no Empires at all or very vain ones like heads in Pictures without brains In vain would the Heavens slatter themselves with the hopes of a long duration of inviolable Stars and uncorrupted ages if they did not harmoniously accord within themselves and all discord being divore'd of the wrangling Qualities if by a happy marriage they were not united to their matter and among themselves too The daily dissolution we see in things and their continual hastning to their last period proceeds meerly from Strifes and Contests The Elements do mutually engage at cuffs and as it were studiously bent on each others ruine do box it stoutly till death do part them Neither can we mortals boast a greater Safety who through Wars and Contentions do rush upon our Fate with winged speed Death would every where be esteem'd but a Fable and Phantasm a very valn and trivial Deity if men would accord within themselves and enter into a strict League of mutual Charity For no life so happy or as if emulous of Heaven comes nearer the Nature of the Gods above than where there is a recipocal Harmony of wills and desires and if possible a mixture of Souls The most impregnable Bulworks nay the Sinews of a Nation even money it self cann't so fortifie a City as the mutual Kindness and Love of Citizens No engins whatsoever nay the tutelar Deities themselves can't be Talismans sufficient for the defence of that place which is not blessed with the sacred Genius of Unanimity For how doth it lie open even to an unarmed man when fermenting and boiling with intestine fends it contends against it self and is its own Enemy to how great dangers both of Rocks and Waves is that vessel exposed which amidst bussling storms and the gaping Ocean as it were for the pastime of the winds is distracted with the contrary violence of divers pilots and certainly to no less hazards is obnoxious that City whose Inhabitants disagreeing among themselves and being of various tempers do exchange their Peace and Quiet for bloody brawls and inhumane Slaughters That either shelves and quick sands this either its self or its Enemies will overwhelm with ruine As a dismal instance of this sad Event I appeal to that fortified City of Regium so besieg'd on all sides with strength and Bulworks that it stood impregnable against all invasion and bafled the assaults even of the God of war But when once it began to groan under intestine Animosities with what winged speed did it â—lie to ruine and how soon did it drop into dust and rubbish how many Ghosts did the civil Wars dismiss to the shades below how did they tire the Destinies with repeated Funerals and weary the boat of reâ—â—less Charon and at last with what Facility did the besieg'd their strength being most decay'd by a long League I say how soon did they raze the City and drew about it their hostile plow and therefore O Rome not an Army of mountains can promise thee unshaken wals or a safe Capitol so long as thou framest to thy self Trojan horses whilst Private Catilines with fire and sword invade the Senate There is no speedier way to Spoils and Trophies than when Swords and Souls as it were conspiring all men level at the same end Nothing sooner blocks up the passage of an invading Enemy than twisted Counsels and breasts united in one common Harmony Not numerous Xerxes a General more formidable than any Encelladus at whose sight the very Sun absconded and Nature totter'd whose Army sip't up the Ocean and whose Arrows Heaven I say this terrible Warriour could not one jot prevail either with fire or sword against united Greece for that all commanding Diety Love soon scatter'd his Forces better than the strength of any Engine What unprofitable darts did that grim aspect of war shoot and level how was the sword brandish't in vain neither could any Arm or the God of war himself do any thing Let us reflect on our age and take a survey of this Kingdom what serene dayes have we enjoyed here how to the envy of ages and nations without camp or sword hath our Britain flourish't and I hope will for ever enjoy an undisturbed peace we congratulate our Unity Peace Laws Judges Flamines Temples Cities Academies and whatsoever is sacred or august in this our England What Elegancies are legible and inscrib'd on the fabrick of the body what charms are conspicuous in each part and what Divinities are scattered in every member how in vain doth the Dotage of the year discover its horyness in Ice and Frosts and with what fruitless flames do the Stars burn seeing it can establish to it self an amicable concord and harmonious temper whereas let but the disagreeing Principles of things contend and squobble and how swiftly do they hasten to their ruine Thus Cities grow and great wealth is preserved and a little increased by Concord but Discord diminisheth the most pompous riches and utterly razeth the most opulent Towns Those things are most durable which are most one and united and all things covet an Eternity and are ambitious of Immortality Thus stones stick most closely in their several Parts water crowds into a globe least it should perish by division if any thick body be laid upon it it is advanced upward and I know not by what instinct preserves it in an abiding state in regard the parts will not be separated from their parts for all separation is fatal to things that are alike Particles of water falling on the pavement of a smooth table appear and shew themselves tumid and globular neither will be demolish't into flatness by the shaken board But if other portions of the Element be added to them then one drop hath a mind to and defires another and then they are as it were immediately married and mutually incorporated assisting each other against the hostilities of the air and the violence of the surface on which they fell least they should be destroied by them All which do as it were with a vocal stilness whisper and suggest and as so many mute Doctors do proclaim by their filence what a guard inviolable Concord and Unity uniterrupted by Strifes and emulous of Eternity hath indulged to Nature But now if Nations owe their Cities those Souls of Kingdoms and Scepters to Love and Amity and are more safely begirt with a guard of hearts than of swords or hands or if these sublunary things in the absence of this Deity should be