their houshold and ordinary affairs they are neat and cleanly their table is moderate and frugal never prodigall and luxurious In Merchandize there is not one Citizen but is cunning at it and industrious and greedy of gain and looks close to it yet they are all liberal and beneficial to the Inhabitants that are pressed with poverty or are in want and toward the rest hospitable gentle mild affable easy and without any dissembling or complemental delusions they are open and clear to all For Godlinesse and pious worship Zelanders are cunning they are rather religious than superstitious But as for the people and dwellers in this country there is no place of the world are so cunning and crafty in smelling out and discovering impostors captious deceivers dissemlers flatterers spies underminers and dangerous men though they do flatter cunningly and use all skill to tickle their ears for they cannot withall their arts and Coggings and counterfeit behaviours and false glosses deceive these men but they will soon find them out They are so wise to tell What 's sound and faigned words they know full well Pers Sat. 5. If Brasse with Gold be mingled for to sell As some use to do who speak one thing and mean another From this skill of judging of counterfeits some common quibs and taunting proverbs have risen amongst the Hollanders Some inclinations of the lower Hollanders the fool in the Comedy that they publickly acted speaking to them that no man must take offence at it The Brabander is merry jocant ridiculous immoderate in stage-playes and Comedies the Fleming is lascivious intemperate lustfull wanton the Hollander simple improvident carelesse dull sluggish sleepy foolish nothing Politick the Zelander is crafty cunning deceitfull flye false Which affections also grow stronger as they grow old and shew themselves more for cibly unlesse the inclination of nature be conquered and men better taught that they may bear better fruit For those are the vices of the baser people and manners of the Nation Manners of the Nation are peculiar to the people Every Nation hath its vioes and not of the Noblemen Gentlemen and such as have liberall education But since every Nation hath its faults and vices manners inclinations and studies that is customes they all apply themselves unto so this Nation that hath the common nature of men hath its imbred and natural affections that nature carries them to partly proceeding from the ambient Ayre which manifestly affects our bodies partly to say nothing of mens dier from the nature of their Parents and manners of their Ancestors and ordinary custome of life which with time is so grown up with them and fastned in their minds that it can hardly be ever taken out Noblemens manners differ from the fashions of the commons whence it comes to passe that if you take away the Nobility or Senatours that are all Schollers and adorned with learning the common people and promiscuous multitude are inhumane rude barbarous fierce cruel unruly and far from civility if you go over any Nations whatsoever But that inveterate errour and depraved manners may be removed which begin from our cradles and infancy to wax in our minds and which we seem to suck in with our Mothers milk Children to be instructed by their Ancestors it is the office and duty of Parents which our men now begin to take great care about to see their children taught well and to use so much care for the manuring of their minds that laying aside all naturall fiercenesse they may be inclined to all humanity and curtesie A simile from wild beasts and Trees For as wild trees by transplanting and by the industry of man become mild and grow in Orchards and cruel wild beasts by mans Art and managing grow tame so mans mind which is not altogether so hard as Iron or Adamant may be bent and instructed in more humane Arts to learn honesty honour vertue godlinesse and religion This is that amongst us that makes our Fishermen a people rude and used to the Sea Zirizea full of Fishermen whereof in Zirizea there are above 500. besides young boyes not yet of age that learn the same vocation that afterwards are to be taken for Marriners and experienced Pilots are of so great integrity of life and manners that never any quarrels contentions discords or jars arise amongst them and they never go to law one with another so that the Magistrate never interposeth to decide any controversies between them but upon most urgent occasions for they use to hold a counsel themselves The condition of life of the Marriners in Zeland and so to put an end to them all They suffer none of their vocation to beg and they hold it a disgrace for any of their company to ask an Alms at the dore or any thing by intreaty But the company of Fishermen and he that is the chief amongst them whom they call their Deacon appoints an allowance out of the common stock for every one that stands in want and hath not sufficient to keep his family so that they need nothing whereby they may frugally and liberally sustain their hunger The Zelanders Fishermens moderation of their affections But when such a great multitude go to Sea to fish very far off and it happens that they speed not well none of them is vexed or troubled at it nor wishes any ill luck to any man but they all take it quietly and thankfully in hopes that they shall have a better voiage for the future But that moderation of their mind in such rude men What the source of nature can do is not engrafted by any laws prescribed unto them or teaching from wise men but by the instinct and guiding of Nature and apprehended by reason whereby they find what is honest and decent and what is not But to look back to the Scheld The original and course of the River Scheld This River at Vermandose is yet well known by its antient name it comes forth of two Fountains by the Nervii now called Tornaci and through Gaunt a most famous City Gaunt a nursery for Students where I first went to School to learn my Letters and so through the rest of the Countries of Flanders it comes to Antwerp and runs under the wals of it and make a famous harbour The Scheld an Ornament to Antwerp Why the Scheld running by Flanders is called the Houte and place for Ships to ride safely in Then running a little farther it parts into two and divides Brabant and Flanders from Zealand for winding on the left hand toward the South it runs on the coasts of Flanders and is called by another name de Honte from its barking and noise it makes where the passage lyeth open by South Vealand and Wallachria into the Western Sea and again a passage into these parts but on the right hand leaving the Coasts of Brabant by a continued course and
XVIII To what we ought to ascribe amongst such multitudes of men the great dissimilitude of forme and the manifold difference that is between man and man in their faces countenances eyes and other parts so that sometimes Brothers and Sisters are not one like the other AS there is in Nature a wonderful gracious variety so there is the same in the form and shapes of men in their colours contenance eyes lineaments and in their faces there is found an admitable and numberlesse disparity and dissimilitude To What must be ascribed dissimilitude in men Some refer this to the influence of the Starrs but I think to referr it more properly and rationally to the nature of the Seed and the Mothers Imagination For being that the woman in the very conception and all the time she goes with Child The Womans imagination doth many things even for nine months hath divers thoughts in her mind and every moment is drawn this way and that way by thinking on divers things and her eyes being still fixed upon such objects she lights upon it falls out that those things she sees and are fastest rivered in her imagination are communicated to her Child For when the Nature of the woman is carefully intent in framing the Infant and thinks on nothing but a fair and well proportioned Child and all her forces are bent thereunto if any shape or Image be represented to the sight this soon reflects upon the of-spring who participates of it Moreover Mothers so soon as the Child is born do the best they can that the Child may have a decent comely well proportioned body fitly distinguished in all the parts of it The faults of Nature may be amended For Childrens bodies are ductile and pliable as Clay or Wax and may be bended any way Wherefore if the mouth stand awry and is uncomely they forge frame and order it into a decent posture and if the face be frowning and lowring they will make it pleasant and amiable and beautifull they make the eyes very handsome and lovely and of gray eyes or blunket which Infants commonly have by reason of moysture they make them black by abundantly feeding them with milk and chiefly if the Nurse be of a hot temper and the Child be kept in a dark place For a light Chamber where the Sun shines in much or a great fire hurts the render eyes But squint rolling gogle eyes and such as turn the wrong way That the balls of the eyes may grow black are reduced to their right posture by bending the sight the contrary way for the Muscles will be brought to their naturall places by wresting them to the otherside and being turned about will come right they raise and set eaven the nostrills that are crooked and fall down by a gentle way of handling them but they reduce Eagle noses and such as are with beck by pressing them down to a decent figure that the perpendicular of the nose may be stretched forth from the forehead and eybrows unto the hollow part in the upper-lip like a gnomon or right line or style that stands upon Sun Dialls What forme of Nose is comely neither set on bending outward or inward Likewise if the lips be swoln or fat which is usuall with the Aethiopians as also if the nose that is crooked be pressed down they handle these artificially and they often presse them that they may grow lesse and sink down lower by the same way they frame into a comely fashion a chin that sticks out or is drawn in the forehead head cheeks or eybrows that are deformed and decently order by art what is not seemly So if nature limp on any part and is gon off from the best forme and proportion Whence comes deformity of the body as some have wry necks crooked gowty ill favourd legs or bunch backs that makes them ugly all these errours are easily mended in those that are Children and such members as are wrested or disjoynted or out of their places are for right by the care and industry of man So the diligent care of Nurses makes Children grow up handsomely and so are obnoxious to no deformities of their limbs But the negligence of many Mothers and great idlenesse makes Children not onely to grow up unhandsomely and ill favour'dly but they become bunch-backr lame squint eye'd bull-headed and not comely to look on for they are departed from the dignity and excellency that is in man's body Some Nurses are over diligent and too officious who bestow some labour also on the Childrens privy parts that serve them them to make water with and in time shall be usefull for propagation of Children that they may be ripe betimes and not fail of hopes of getting Children and when they come to be marryed they may not be a shamed for ill performing the matrimoniall duty when they observe bitter contentions and quarrels to arise amongst kindred for this very cause that they will threaten to divorce their Sons in Law unlesse they can shew their manhood and please their wives the better yet I use to dislike and discommend this effeminate and lascivious office used by Nurses for young youths by reason of pulling them thus by their yards before their time or that they come to be of age or have mans strength they are prone to venery and so consume those helps and vent out those humours and vitall spirits wherewith afterwards they might be able to procreate lusty and lively Children whereas by unseasonable venery The discommodities of untimly venery they either get no Children or if they beget any they are lither and not so long lived Therefore I think it is good not to let young people marry too soon untill their forces bestrong and confirmed and that they can endure any hardnesse in matrimoniall society which tender years cannot do for they will presently wax faint and effeminate It is then better that the secret parts should swell out of their own accord naturally than that they should be drawn forth by any allurements CHAP. XIX Many kinds of Animals Fishes Birds Insects are bred without Seed as also Pants and many Animals and small Birds by an unusall way without the copulation of Male and Female do conceive DAily examples shew that many things come forth and are propagated by nature of their own accord and withovt any embracings of others or generation onely from filth corruption as Dormice Rats Snails Shell-fish Carterpillers Grass-Worms Wasps Hornets Weevils Froggs Moths Toads Eels Many things breed from corruption In mens bodies Worms though these have seed within them whereby afterwards they propagate abundantly Also many plants grow forth from the muddy moysture of the earth and fatnesse of it no seed being sowed or plants set in the ground before as are Darnel Cockle Nettles wild Olives Weeds and grasse that spring up of themselves Also there are some Crows in the Low-Countries that conceive by their
the City of Zirizea abounds exceedingly well with all things which are usefull and commodious for mans life and no lesse than when it was famous for negotiations with strangers and frequented with goers and commers of all sides For the concourse and merchandise of forraigners and celebrity of a place may sometimes be lost suddenly either by the rising of some war from without or seditions at home or popular tumults for presently all strangers withdraw themselves and take care for their own safety But that negotiation that is performed amongst the Citizens and Inhabitants shutting out all usury and traffique in a compendious way made with strangers or the Inhabitants and is a liberal gain is stable firm solid and not so much subject to envy But if calamity come from some other place then the Citizens and natives Mediocrity of felicity is commendable stand firm and undaunted and do not easily forsake their Country their Churches their houses wives and dear children nor do they go away yeild what they have to strangers to enjoy Yet the men of Zirizea All things are governed by divine providence in so great mutation of humane things and change from one to another which is all wrought by Gods providence seem wisely to have consulted for their own profit and to have exchanged uncertain things for certain For their people being most skilfull Marriners when their trading at Sea did not succeed very well in forraign commodities they altered their course of Trade and began to fall to fishing which is a very great gain and hurts no body and here they fear no shipwrack nor losse of traffique no disgrace for usury or increase upon money and the rest of the Citizens follow saving wayes of gain such as are honest and envied by none out of those things that the earth yeilds abundantly for mans use wherewith they recreate themselves liberally besides a laudable education they provide a very large patrimony for their children and leave them an inheritance to preserve their Parents names by But that strangers may understand in what part of the earth and under what climate the City Zirizea is and under what elevation of the Pole I took the height of the Pole-artick or North-Pole above Zirizea's Horizon and I found the elevation to be 51. degrees 47. Minutes and that was the altitude of that verticall point the longitude is 25. degrees whence it comes that since the Sun is not far from them and departs not very far from the Island but doth moderately shine upon them in the two Equinoctials and two Solstices the Inhabitants by the benefit of the Sun have no dull and stupid wits but they are witty civill merry yet many of them by the reason of the Sea that hath its influence upon them will speak very scurrilous crabbed and brinish language sometimes of which subject I lately held a pleasant discourse with Job Nicolais a discreet man and industrious who carefully labours for the publick good and doth what he can to promote it and desireth that the Citizens should be men of sound and good manners and if they have contracted any fault by the Salt vapours of the Sea that are so near to them that it might be mended with good education CHAP. III. How comes it that such as are old men or far in years do beget children not so strong and oft times such as are froward and of a sad and sowre Countenance and such as are seldome merry THey that marry when their age declines and their youthly heat is abated for the most part beget sorrowfull children and such as are froward sad not amiable silent and of a sowre and frowning countenance Youth is full of juyce because they are not so hot in the act of venery or so lusty as young people that are full of juice For the heat of our age is fittest for to act this Comedy Old men being feeble their spirits small and their body dry and exhausted of bloody humours the natural faculties are weak and that force that comes from them to beget a child is uneffectuall and invalid having very small ability so that they cannot perform the marriage duty so manfully and there wants many things in those they do beget Which is intimated in that dispute that the Angel is said to have had with Esdras Esdras 4. Ask saith he thy Mother and she will tell thee why those she bears now are not like those she bore before thee but are lesse in stature and she will say unto thee that the rest were conceived and born when she was young but these when the Womb decayed hence it is that such as are born in old age are slender small weak Why some are not so strong feeble not tall and have not so much strength because natures forces are decayed with age and the natural and vitall spirits are diminished Why some are dejected in mind whence also the mind is more dejected is not so nimble lively merry and jocant because these have obtain'd all things sparingly and not so largely unlesse perhaps their Parents were pleasing and merry and moderately heated with wine when they were begot For sometimes old people wil shew themselves young and lascivious together to be so wel pleased that in the spring they wil one embrace the other A Proverb from Horses that are worn out For that time of the year serves for Horses also that are decaid and worn out as the Proverb saith for to make them neigh whereby the Hollanders mean that there are none so old but at that pleasant time of the year when nature puts forth all her forces but they will shew some tokens of a mind raised also whereby it falls out that if a woman thus chance to conceive when they are merry The affects of Parents go to the Children after nine months she will bring forth a mild beautifull pleasant flourishing lively generous active Child And if their Parents in their young years were of a clowdy and impleasing disposition as many froward people be when they get their Children all falls to the worst all those affections and tumults that use to arise amongst married people and all their distempers will be derived to their Children so that neither the conception nor time the woman goes with Child nor her delivery not nutrition can be performed decently and according to Natures order and the Children contract many ertours and faults of bodies and mindes from the disturbed motions of their minds of all which the fault is to be imputed to the parents who were the cause and seed plot of all these imperfections of nature The faults of Children to be imputed to the Parents Wherefore such as would take the best care for their Childrens good and would have them tractable and pleasant and sweet of behaviour must take especiall care for this that in matrimoniall embracements all things may be moderately performed that nothing happen
opinion concerning Women that Plato to the disgrace of this sex saith that they have hardly any soul and scarse deserve to be called by the name of man or to be honour'd with it yet St. Paul 1 Cor. 11. who with a fatherly care gives counsell concerning oeconomicall government and peace in Families will have honour given to the woman that belongs to her and that she must not be totally despised or accounted base and vile since she is of allmost the same dignity and condition and partakes of the same guifts with man being taken out of man by the operation of God that made them both Genes 2. Wherefore the man is the Image and Glory of God as the Apostle saith but the Woman is the glory of the Man for the man is not from the Woman but the Woman is from the Man For man was not created for Woman but Woman for Man yet the Man is not witout the Woman Eph. 5. nor the Woman without the Man in the Lord who so orders all things that the woman must be in subjection to the Man For as the Woman is from the Man so the Man by the Woman begetteth Children So that there is a society for help that is seen on both sides Colos 3. and there is required the mutuall succour love and consent of them both Wherefore St. Peter thinks it fit that Women should obey their husbands Pet. 3. and that the men should be gentle and loving to their Wives forbearing them as being the weaker vessells pardoning small faults in them and winking at many things and not repining at them for it is not fit that a man should be too cruell against that sex which is so frail Adultery in woman is an indelible spot Adulterers laugh at adultery with a proverbiall speech or too sharp and bitter so long as a Woman doth her duty and is not tainted in her honesty and chastity which fault when it is known brings a man more indignation than it doth him hurt as Adulterers use to say yet that spot in a woman can never be washt out nor can that wound be healed though Christian charity and matrimoniall love must not be too rigid or implacable since there is reconciliation with God and the divine goodnesse provoked by our wickednesse idolatries and grievous sinns is wont to be pacified by our prayers and repentance when we acknowledge the errours of our lives past when we are sorrowfull for what we have done and disdaine and hate our sinns with a setled purpose of amendment of life Moreover great part of molestation in this sex comes from the tediousnesse of their going with Child and the trouble they have in suckling and breeding up their Children whence women are so froward and no small inconvenience from their Termes stopt which if they run at the set time for them the heat of anger and bitternesse is driven off those smoky vapours being turned from their hearts and brains and the sad vapour being discussed that useth to fly upwards When a woman is more patient But it is best known to them that are marryed I need not enlarge my discourse upon it how calme and mild that man shall find his Wife when the marriage bed is frequently adorned and this ground is manured with often embracings and copulation And although I may seem to have been something tedious and fuller of words than it needs in explaining this Paradox or sentence that is besides the common opinion and vulgar custome of the Wise Hebrew The place of Ecclus explaind that the meaning of it might be searched out That the wickednesse of a man is better than a good woman that is such a one that is afterwards a cause of Infamy and by whose society disgrace may arise The sense is it is better to hold commerce with a wicked man or to deal with him than to have to do with a deceitfull woman For though in shew and at first appearence she may seem to be good and honorable and in outward behaviour discovers no wickednesse or deceit yet afterward you shall find her inconstant false captious fraudulent and full of imposture so that if any man deceive another the fraud and imposture of a man is righteousnesse compared with the wickednesse of a woman The like forms of speech are found frequently in the Scripture So God in Ezechiel aggravates the wickednesse of Jerusalem very much Ezech. 16. saith that she hath justified Sodom and Samaria whereby he condemns her for to be more wicked and that she exceeds those nations in impiety and wicked actions that the Sodomites and Samaritans compared to her The place in Ezechiel explain'd may seem to be just So in the wickednesse of opinions and in asserting any pernicious sect and maintaining it one man may be more dangerous and more impious than another that some Hereticks may be accounted Orthodox and to teach the right saving truth compared with others One man is more wicked than another that establish more absurd impious blasphemous execrable doctrines which is grown to a proverb This man is a godly and holy man in respect of that as much as to say that though they be both Knaves and ungodly yet if you would measure them both by the rule of equity and square of Justice one may be accounted innocent and to be pardoned in respect of the other 's wicked enormities So one man is more superstitious than another and farther from the true religion and piety and worship of God So want of knowing truth doth fools delude Horat. l. 2. Sermon Ignorance of truth begets errors And errour from the right way doth exclude All those that doubt some here do misse some there All such by seeming truths seduced are So errour involvs a man as well as it doth a woman and wickednesse lays hold of them both but the woman is more detestable and execrable for her wickednesse Therefore the wickednesse of a man is better than a woman doing good and as the Dutch proverb runs De deucht van Een vrouwe is Ergher dan Een Mans boosheyt By which proverb they aggravate the malice of that sex that if you should compare vices with vices and examine the frauds impostures fallacies and devices of them both those that are committed by women are farr more pernicious and heavy than such as are acted by men CHAP. XIV Wherefore an Eggat both ends where by at the long and narrower end it will stand like the Pole artick and antartick cannot be brokén between your fingers or both hands closed together although you press it wherfore steeped in sharp Vineger it will grow soft like a tractable and soft membrane lastly why the same Egg steeped in Aquavitae that is in spirits of Wine it will be consumed like iron by Aquafortis An Egge will melt in Vinegar IF you steep an egg in the sharpest Vineger four days or rather
it is certain that Poets first drew barbarous rude savage men that wandred up and down like beasts to lead a civill and sociable life which Horace expresseth in elegant Verse In Art Poet. The praise of a Poet. Sacred Orpheus Interpreter of'th Gods Drew Wild Men to be calm who liv'd at ods As Cannibals and hence he got the name Of making Tigres and grim Lions tame So Amphion who built the Thebane State Is said to draw the stones to banish hate With sound of 's Lute such Wisdome formerly There was to sever what was privacy From publick for in that age men took care To part from prophane things that sacred are Laws were prescribed to marriage wandring lust Was bounded Towns were built and what was just Was carv'd in Wood then was this dignity Given to Poets and to Poetry CHAP. XV. Of the use and profit of Histories SInce History that is a faithfull relation of things acted is as profitable as pleasant and besides the pleasure we find in reading of it there comes by it a great increase of Wisdome it is fit that every man should be studious in reading of History Use of History From Livy a commendation of History Titus Livius doth by the way shew us what use and fruit comes by History This is the most fruitfull and wholesome thing in the knowledge of things to see the documents of all examples as placed in a most famous monument and from thence you may take what is good to imitate for your self and for your Common-Wealth and to avoid what is foul to undertake and which is foul in the upshot of businesse Zeno his opinion of History So when one asked Zeno by what way a man might be happy he may saith he if he cast his eyes upon the examples of former dayes and look upon the monuments and actions of his Forefathers De oratore For History is as Cicero testifieth the light of truth keeper of time the life and strength of memory the Mistresse of life the Messenger of antiquity wherein all things are described accurately and ar large and with the greatest fidelity and narration of truth as it should be The Sacred Scriptures do open a most large field of Histories and afford us most ample relations of things done from whence may be fetcht wholesome documents and fit examples to lead our lives by whereof many set before our eyes the prodigious Judgments of God The Scriptures hold forth good examples and we are all of us warned thereby how abominable in Gods sight Idolatry is and the contempt of Gods word and to give him no reverence and to seek for helps of safety elsewhere CHAP. XVI Of Comedy NExt to History is Comedy the glasse of mans life wherein every man may behold his own Manners and affections and an expresse pattern of his daily life in the person of some other man Use of Comedy and each man observes his own vertues or vices in a pleasant spectacle as Cicero calls it that is civil elegant ingenious witty in which kind of exercise almost all Nations in their Mother tongues use sometimes great liberty of speech and freedome of language The liberty of Comedians so that as Horace hath it their liberty exceeds the just bounds for that in reprehending vices they are oft-times too bitter For they not onely mark out common people of the meanest condition but in the most frequented Theaters of the City they traduce the chief and principal men and taunt them sharply with their bitter Rimes Moderation must be used in Comedies But if they do this without any spot of contumely or infamy and the Verses be not seditious speaking onely bitterly against such as deserve it it may seem to be tolerable that those that are gauled may mend when their sore backs are touched and may be put in mind of their duties The Low Dutch call this liberty in Comedies Batamenten as they call their musical Verses that they make their Comedies with Rym or Dichten We must learn some things But we must learn these delights and pleasures of wits in our younger years and not when we are grown in years For such studies are proper for flourishing youth yet such as are grown up when they have learned them in their childhood they may sometimes recreate themselves with them in their riper age No age is too late to learn Yet let not men of ripe years nor old men be ashamed to learn what is good and profitable for vertue and honesty for no age is too late or unseasonable to obtain those things as it is never too late for a man to forsake his vices CHAP. XVII Of the Art of Eloquent speaking which is necessary for any man of what Language soever he be RHetorique or Oratory whose office it is to speak fitly distinctly and decently and to allure and inflame the minds of the hearers with grave sentences and choice words is chiefly necessary and usefull for those who are Preachers or Magistrates and Governours of Common-wealths Eloquence allays sedition or are Consuls or Generals such as are conversant in mutinous Armies and popular seditions whom it concerns by their places and authority to pacify and over-rule the unruly multitudes by their counsels and majesty of their words For subjects are not alwaies to be constrained by threats terrours cruelty punishments and by the Sword unlesse the matter requires the shedding of bloud to allay the Tumult but with pleasing speeches and sugar'd words and a grave well-composed countenance and by this means to recall wicked men from their perverse waies to their former duty The same prudence must the Master of a Family use toward those of his house and Schoolmasters toward their Schollers that are of a tumultuous spirit CHAP. XVIII To what Sciences do the studies of Humanity make way for us Politer learning is an Ornament to our studies BUt studies of humanity or liberal Arts are not onely usefull to polish our Tongues with sweet words and enticements of speech but for Arts that are necessary and profitable for our lives as Natural Philosophy Physick Law wherein chiefly the mind of man rests and receives comfort I mean not humane but heavenly Philosophy whereby Christ leading us Chrisi's Philosophy we attain the knowledg of God and to love and trust in him For all Arts wherein Mans Industry is exercised must be referred to this and directed to this end The professours of worldly Wisedome did not obtain this who wandring from the truth thrust into mens minds things false for true vain for solid faigned for true doubtfull for certain hurtfull for safe because they wanted divine inspiration Three arts are chiefly usefull But since amongst the rest there are principally three Arts that not onely bring honour and profit to the professours of them though that must not be very much looked after but also they are usefull for the people and a
the urine vex a man if dimnesse and blear-ey'dnesse hurt the eyes if the hands or feet be held with the Gowt Horace in Art If Scabs or swelling tumours do offend The mind of man cannot so readily perform it's office or functions Wherefore I suppose they do well who take care of their health and keep the body and all its parts free from excrements For so the mind is fit for great matters and more ready for any noble employments The greatest part of men neglecting all ornament and taking no care of their health hunt onely after wealth and is busied in getting of gain Health is better than wealth though health be better than Gold and there is nothing more to be desired than tranquillity of mind Horace confirms it by Verses L. 1. Epist 12. If thou be sound of body feet and hands 'T is better than to have rich Craesus lands For 't is not wealth nor baggs of Gold be sure Can cares of mind or body sicknesse cure And that he might recal men to a frugal and moderate use of things he adds L. 2. Epist 2. He that enjoyes his wealth Must alwaies live in health The wise Hebrew accords with the words of Horace exactly It is better to be poor and well Ecclus 30. than to be rich and sick Health and a sound body is better than any Gold or the greatest riches There is no wealth better than a sound body and no joy greater than the joy of the heart Wisd 4. therefore felicity is not to be measured by wealth or prosperous successe but by the soundnesse of the body and of the mind For he onely lives and is well that perfectly enjoyes the commodity of both these CHAP. XXIX Wholesome precepts are no lesse proper for the mind than they are for the body THere are three things reported to be most wholesome which are fit for every man to observe To feed not to full Not to fly from labour To preserve natural seed To these I oppose as many things most unwholesome which besides diseases bring on old age apace and cause men to die young To eat too much To be idle To use too much venery We must use moderation in natural things For since frugality when we banish gluttony keeps the body sound and exercise when we drive away idlenesse and sluggishnesse makes the same nimble and ready we may take examples from horses for the other Virg. l. 3. Georg. Our minds are strengthened by no industry As by declining love and venery Old age is not proper for venery For intemperate and lustfull youth makes the body feeble in old age Wherefore since we are to use moderation in our desires in our youth we are to do it much more in our age and to stop up all wayes of luxury for as it is naught in youth as Cicero saith so it is most unseemly and foul in old age For as we need strength in war and agility and force to endure labours so in love we need strength to wage war in Venus camps in the night which will consume the tediousnesse of matrimony and make us able to sustain the conditions of a froward Wife Wherefore not War nor love are fit for old men because both these carry with them many troubles and hindrances which old age is not fit nor able to undergo L. 1. Amor. Eleg. 9. Ovid hath expressed this in very elegant Verses Cupid hath Tents and every lover war Believe me Attic every lover war What times are fit for war with love agree Old souldiers are naught so old venery Love is a kind of warfar cowards then For to maintain these Ensigns are no men The Winter nights hard labour and long wayes And every pain is found in Venus frays Who sees not how uncomely it is for an old man that is full of wrinkles and worn out to fall to kissing and embracing like to young people for old folks are unable to perform those duties So Sophocles when he was old being asked by one whether he would use venerious actions answered well that the Gods had order'd it better and that he would with a good will fly from that as he would from a rude and cruel Master CHAP. XXX We must take care of our credit and reputation USe all the means you can that your acquaintance may have an excellent opinion of you We must have care of our credit and may give a laudable testimony and commendation of your worth and may think and speak of you worthily Nor be ashamed to observe what opinion the common people have of you and how they stand affected towards you For to neglect what any man thinks or speaks of a man ◠1. offic is the part saith Cicero not onely of an arrogant man but also of a dissolute man Math. 16. So we read that Christ asked his Apostles what the multitude said of him and what rumours they scattered abroad concerning him lastly what they thought of the Messias not that he sought for glory and was ambitious but that he might make trial whether after they had heard so many saving Sermons and seen so many Miracles from him they thought any better and more honourably of him than the common people did Chaist did not seek for honour amongst men Wherefore he enquired so much of them that he might draw from them a solid profession of their faith and that he might try how much they had profited in the heavenly doctrine that hath no fraud or vanity in it no deceit or impostures as the Pharises did caluminate it but is all saving and sincere delivered unto us by the truth it self and the Son of God who is the Saviour that was expected Whom when Saint Peter by the inspiration of God had openly professed in the name of them all Profession of faith and had undoubtedly proclaimed Jesus to be the Saviour of the World and that by belief in him all mankind obtains redemption Christ praised the profession of Saint Peter that he had by inspiration from above and saith that being it stood on so firm a foundation it should never be conquered or fail We must take care for decency In every action and in every word and deed be mindfull of decency and what is most comely for the reason of honesty requires that Whence it is a handsome saying that it is the chiefest Art to know what is decent that is what is fit for nature and convenient to our wit and manners Dat ù wel voeght ende betaemt How we must affect glory It is a compendious and ready way to solid glory if you shew your selves to be such a one as you would be thought to be which Horace gives us notice of 'T is good to be what men do say thou art L. 1. Epist 27. That is what thou art said to be and which the people testify of thee For if they say thou