whole Life is imploy'd in and whose most vigorous attention is taken up in sawing of Marble this is very foolish and trivial But there are others more astonishing for they are intirely useless and spend their days in doing nothing this is yet less than sawing Marble * The major part of Mankind so far forget that they have a Soul and launch out into such Actions and Exercises that we appear in the wrong if we believe we speak advantageously of any Man when we say he thinks this is become a common Elogy and yet it raises a Man only above a Dog or an Horse * How do you divert your self how do you spend your time Is the Question asked both by Fools and Men of Sense if I answer 't is to open my Eyes and to see to prepare my Ears to hear to enjoy Health Ease and Liberty 't is to say nothing the solid the great and the only good is slighted makes no impression The Answer should be Do you Game do you Dance Is it good for Man to have a liberty if it were possible so large and extensive that it would only prompt him to desire one thing else that is to have less liberty Liberty is not Idleness it is a free use of time to choose our Labour and our Exercise in one word to be free is not to do nothing but to be the sole Arbiter of what we do and what we leave undone In this Sense what good so great as Liberty * Caesar not being old enough to think of the Conquest of the Universe had no other happiness to endeavour after than a brave course of Life and a great Name after Death he was born fierce and ambitious enjoy'd a vigorous health he could not better imploy his time than in the Worlds Conquest Alexander being too young for so serious a design 't is stupendious that in his juvenile years Women and Wine had not confounded his Enterprize * A young Prince of an August Race the love and hope of his People given by Heaven to prolong the felicity of the Earth greater than his Progenitors the Son of an Hero who was his Pattern hath now told the Universe by his divine qualities and anticipated Vertues that the Sons of Hero's are nearer being so than other men * If the World should continue an hundred millions of years it is still in its Spring and is but now beginning we our selves are not far from the first Men and the Patriarchs and who could distinguish us from them in Ages so distant but if we may judge of what is to come by what is past how many things are there unknown to us in Arts and Sciences in Nature nay I durst say in History too What vast discoveries would then be made what different Revolutions would then happen in the States and Empires of the whole World How great would our Ignorance appear and how slender our Experience that is not of above six or seven thousand years standing * There is no way too tedious for him that Travels gently and without hurry and there are no advantages too remote from those that prepare themselves with Patience * To make Court to none and not to expect Courtship from any is an happy condition a Golden Age and the most Natural State of Man * The World is for those that follow the Court or people Cities but Nature is theirs who inhabit the Country they only live or at least only know that they live * Why do you treat me with this coldness and why do you complain on me for some Expressions of mine in relation to some of our young Courtiers You are not Vicious Thrasyllus are you for my part I know it not but you inform me so your self that which I know is that you are not Young And you that are personally offended at what I said of some great people don't cry out of a wound intended for another Are you Haughty Malicious a Buffoon a Flatterer a Hypocrite I was ignorant of it indeed and did not think of you but was speaking of some Great men * Moderation and Prudence in Conduct leave men obscure To be known and admir'd 't is necessary to have great Virtues or whatâ—s perhaps equal great Vices * Men are pre-engag'd prejudic'd and charmâ—d indifferently with the conduct of great and mean persons a fortunate Câ—ime wants little of being commended as much as a real Virtue and success supplies the place of all Virtues 'T is a black action a horrid odious attempt indeed that Success cannot justify * Men seduc'd by fair appearances and specious pretences are easily inducâ—d to like and approve an ambitious design of some great man's contrivance They speak of it with concern the boldness or the novelty pleases 'em it becomes familiar to 'em already and they expect nothing but the success when on the contrary it happens to miscarry they confidently and without any regard to their former judgmeâ—t decide of the action that it was rash and cou'd never take * There aâ—e some designs which are of that vast consequence and make so great a figure which have imployâ—d the Tongues of Men so long which have caus'd so much hope or fear to several People engag'd in 'em according to their different Interestsâ— in which all the Honour and Fortunes of a man are concern'd these have made too much shew to be withdrawn without being executed How dreadful soever the danger may be that a man begins to foresee will be the consequence of his undertaking He must on tho it overwhelms him the least evil he is to expect is the miscarriage * In a ill man there is not wherewithal to make a great man You may commend his Insight and his Contrivance admire his Conduct extol his Address to make use of the properest and shortest means to attain his ends if his ends are bad Prudence has no share in them and where Prudence is wanting find Greatness if you can Of the Fashion 'T IS a very foolish thing and very much betrays our weakness to be subject to the fashion in our Diet way of Living Health and Conscience Brown Meat is out of fashion and therefore 't is insipid and â—twouâ—d be an offence against good manners to cure a Fever otherwise than by bleeding It has been out of fashion this great while to die by the hands of Theotymus none but the populace are now sav'd by his Pious Exhortations he has outliv'd himself * Curiosity is not an inclination to what is good and beautiful but to what is rare and singular for those things which another can't match 'T is not an affection for those things which are best but for those which are most in the fashionâ— 'T is not an amusement but a passion often so violent that it yields to Love and Ambition only in the meanness of its object 'T is not a passion for every thing that is scarce and in vogue but only for some particular
abound in Riches * To make one's Fortune is so fine a Phrase and so very significant that t is universally us'd it past from the Court to the City broke its way into the Cloysters scal'd the Walls of the Abbyes of both Sexes There is no place sacred or prophane where it has not penetrated it pleases Strangers and Barbarians 't is met with in all Languages and there is scarce any one now who can speak but has learnt to make use on 't * He who has cunning enough to make Contracts and fill his Coffers thinks presently he has a Head fit for Government * To make one's Fortune a Man ought to have some sort of Wit but neither the good nor the fine the great nor the sublime the strong nor the delicate I cannot exactly tell which it is and am yet to be inform'd Custom and Experience are more useful in making one's Fortune than Wit We think of it too late and when at last we resolve on t we begin by those Faults which we have not always time to repair Whence perhaps it proceeds that Fortunes are so rarely acquired A Man of a little Genius may be fond of advancing himself and in such case neglecting all things else he will think on 't from morning till night and then break his Rest with contriving how to effect it He begins early and sets out in his youth in the way to Preferment If he finds any thing oppose his passage he naturally turns his byass and goes on the right-hand or left according as he sees it most convenient If new Obstacles arise here he returns into the old path he quitted and disposes himself by the nature of the Difficulties sometimes to surmount 'em sometimes to avoid em or take other measures as Use Interest and Opportunity direct him Is so good a Head and such great Talents necessary for a Traveller to follow at first sight the great Road and if that is full or crowded to cross the Fields and continue in a bye and a nearer way till by this means he gets again at last into the former Road and finishes his Journey Is so much Sense requisite in an ambitious Man to attain his Ends Is he then a Wonder or only a Coxcomb who by his Riches purchases himself Favour and Advancement There are some stupid and weak Men who place themselves in fine Stations and die rich yet we ought not to suppose they have contributed to it by the least Industry or Labour Some body has directed em to the fountain-head or perhaps chance only led 'em to it They have been then askt Would you have water Draw and they have drawn it * Whâ—n wâ— arâ— young wâ— arâ— often poor we havâ— neither made Acquisitions nor are our Inheritances fallen yet into our hands We become rich and old at the same time thus â—tis rare that Men can unite all their Advantages And if perhaps any Person is so fortunate he deserves not our Envy since he may by Death be so great a Loser rather when we consider his Circumstances and the Shortness of their Continuance we ought to pity him * A Man should be thirty years old before he thinks of his Fortune â—Tis seldom compleated before fifty he goes to Building in his old Age and dies amongst the Painters and Glasiers * What is the fruit of a great Fortune Unless it be to possess the Vanity Industry Labour and Expence of those who went before us and to work our selves in Planting Building and Inlarging for our Posterity * Men open their Shops and set out their Wares every Morning to cheat their Customers and lock 'em up at night after having cheated all day * In all Conditions the poorest Man is the nearest Neighbour to Honesty and the rich as little distant from Knavery Ability and Cunning seldom get a Man excessive Riches A shew of Honesty is in all Trades the surest way to grow rich * The shortest and best way to make your Fortune is to convince People 't is their Interest to serve you * Men tempted by the Cares of Life or a desire to acquire Riches and Glory incourage themselves in their Deceit and cultivate wicked Talents and Knavish Practices forgetting the Danger and Consequence till they Quit 'em afterwards for a discreet Devotion which was never seen in 'em before their Harvests were gathered and they were in Possession of a well-establishâ—d Fortune * There are Miseries which make People Cowards some who want Food dread the Winter and are afraid of living whilst others elsewhere are eating early fruits forcing the Earth and the Seasons to furnish 'em with Delicates I have known meer Citizens have the Impudence to swallow at a Morsel the Nourishment of a hundred Families let who will set themselves against such Extremities Iâ—ll render my self as little obnoxious to the World as possible and if I can will neither be happy or unhappy but hide and secure my self in the Littleness of my Condition * The Poor are troubled that they want all things and no body comforts them The Rich are angry that they can want the least thing or that any one would resist them * He is rich whose Receipt is more than his Expences and he is poor whose Expences are more than his Receipt There is nothing keeps longer than a little Fortune and nothing is sooner done than a great one Great Riches are near Neighbours to Poverty If he is only rich who wants nothing a very wise Man is a very rich Man If he is only poor who desires much and is always in want the Ambitious and the Covetous languish in extream Poverty * The Passions tyrannize over Mankind Ambition reigns over the rest and gives them a little while the Appearance of all the Vertues I once believ'd Tryphon who commits every vice sober chaste liberal humble and even devout and I might have believ'd it still if he had not made his Fortune * There is no end to a Man's desire of growing rich and great when the Cough seizes him when Death approaches his Face shrivel'd and his Legs weak he cries My Fortune my Establishment * There is but two ways of rising in the World by your own Industry and anotherâ—s Weakness * Features discover Complexion and Manners and an Air the Goods of Fortune you may see by a Man's Countenance if he has great or small Revenues * Crysantes a wealthy impertinent Man would not be seen with Eugeneus who is a Man of Wit but poor lest he should dishonour him Eugeneus has the same Dispositions for Crysantes and there 's no great fear they will often run against one another * If good Thoughts good Books and their Authors depended on Riches or such as have acquir'd 'em What a hard Fate would the Learn'd lie under What a Power would then be assum'd over them With what Authority would they treat those poor Wretches whose Merit has not advanc'd or enrich'd them And for this reason they
and Just as to declare against himself in favour of his Subjects Allies and Enemies Such a happy Memory as continually presents to him the Names Faces Petitions and Occasions of his Subjects A vast Capacity that extends not only to extraneous Affairs to Commerce State Maxims Political Designs New Conquests and the defence of them by numerous and unaccessible Forts but knows how to confine himself at home to consider the particular wants of the Realm to banish all false Worship he meets with prejudicial to Soveraignty to abolish all impious and cruel Customs to reform the Laws and Usages if they 're fill'd with Abuses to make his Cities rich and easie by an exact Polity and render them Noble and Magnificent by the addition of sumptuous Edifices To punish scandalous Vices severely To advance the Honour of Reâ—igion and Vertue by his Authority and Example To Protect the Church and Clergy their Rights and Liberties To Govern with the tenderness of a Father always contriving the Ease of his Subjects To lighten their Taxes and Subsidies that they may not be Impoverish'd He must be enrich'd with several great endowments for War He must be vigilant sedulous and unwearied He must be able to Command numerous Armies in Person and be sedate and composâ—d in the midst of danger His sole Design ought to be the Safety and Honour of his Kingdomâ— wâ—ich he must always prefer to his own Life His Power must be of such an extent as to leave no room for under-hand Solicitationsâ— private Intrigues and Cabals and sometimes to lessen the vast distance betwixt the Nobless and the Populace that they may all agree to be equally subject His Knowledge so extensive as to enable him to see every thing with his own Eyes and act immediateâ—y and by himself That his Generals are but his Lieutenants and his Ministers are but his Ministers A profound Wisdom to know when to declare War how to overcome and to make the best use of a Victory To know when to make Peace and when to break it to force his Enemies to accept it according to their several Interests To set bounds to a vast Ambition and to know how far to extend his Conquests To have leisure for Plays Feasts and Shews To Cultivate Arts and Sciences To design and erect magnificent Structures even when surrounded with private and declar'd Enemies To conclude A vigorous and commanding Genius that renders him belov'd by his Subjects and fear'd by Strangers and that reduces his Court and all his Realm to that Union and good Intelligence that they 're like a single Family perfectly united under one Head These admirable Vertues seem to be compriz'd in the Idea of a Soveraign 'T is true we rarely see them all meet in one Subject several of them are owing to the Soul and Temper others to Conjunctures and extraneous Things yet I must tell you it appears to me that the Prince that unites all these in his single Personâ— very well deserves the Name of Great Of MAN LET us not be angry with Men when we see them stubborn ungrateful unjust proud Lovers of themselves and forgetful of others they are made so 't is their Nature they â—an no more prevent it than a Stone from falling to the Ground or Fire from flying upwards * In one sense Men are not Light or but in little things They change their Habits Language Fashions Decorums and sometimes their Taste but they always preserve their bad Manners are firm and constant to what is Ill and to an indifference for Vertue * Stoicism is a sport of the Mind an Idea something like Plato's Republick Stoicks feign that a Man may laugh at his Poverty be insensible of Injuries Ingratitude or the loss of his Estate Parents and Friends look coolly on Death and regard it as an indifferent thing which ought not to make him merry or melancholy Never to let Pleasure or Pain master him To undergo the torments of Fire or Sword without the least sigh or a single tear And this Phantom of Vertue and imaginary Constancy they are pleas'd to call Wisdom They have left Mankind full of the same defects they found them and not cur'd them of the least weakness Instead of painting Vice in its most frightful and ridiculous forms to correct their Minds they have form'd an Idea of Perfection and Heroicism of which they are not capable and exhorted them to what is impossible Thus this Wise Man that is to be or will never be but in Imagination finds himself naturally above all Ills and Events the most painful Fit of the Gout or the most sharp Fit of the Cholick can't extort from him the least complaint Heaven and Earth may be turn'd up and down without concerning him in their fall he would stand firm on the Ruins of the Universe while another Man grows almost distracted cries despairs looks fiery and is out of breath for a Dog lost or a Porringer broke in pieces * Restlesness of Mind an inequality of Humour an inconstancy of Heart and an uncertainty of Conduct are all Vices of the Soul but different and as like as they appear are not always found in one Subject * 'T is difficult to decide Whether irresolution makes a Man more unfortunate or contemptible or even if there is not always more conveniency in being of the wrong side than of none at all * A Man unequal in his temper is several Men in one he multiplies himself as often as he changes his Taste and Manners He is not this Minute what he was the last and will not be the next what he is now he is his own Successor ask not of what Complexion he is but what are his Complexions nor of what Humour but how many sorts of Humours has he Don't deceive your self is it Eutichrates whom you meet How cold is he to Day Yesterday he would have sought you caress'd you and made his Friends jealous of you Does he remember you Tell him your Name Menalcas goes down Stairs opens the Door to go out shuts it and perceives that his Night-Cap is still on and examining himself a little better finds but one half of his face Shav'd his Sword on the Right-side his Stockings hanging over his Heels and his Shirt out of his Breeches If he walks into the Street he feels something strikes him on his face or stomach he can't suppose what 't is till waking and opening his Eyes he sees himself by a Cart-wheel or under a Joiners Pent-house with the Coffins about his Ears Sometimes you may see him run against a Blind Man push him backwards and aftewards fall over him Sometimes he happens to come up Forehead to Forehead with a Prince and obstruct his passage with much ado he recollects himself and has but just time to squeeze himself into a Wall to make room for him He seeks quarrels and brawls puts himself into a heat calls to his Servants and tells them one after another every thing
of some body or other which he is able to relieve by his intercession to others at least if not immediately out of his own pocket Neither are all men qualified for the Pulpit or fit publickly to deliver their Doctrine and Exhortations But what man is there who at some time or other doth not meet with some Sinner whom he may attempt to reclaim by his private discourses and his friendly admonitions should a man make but one Convert through the whole course of his Life he could not be said to have bestow'd his time in vain or to have been a useless burden upon Earth * There are two worlds one we already dwell in but must leave it so as never to return The other we must shortly be transported to there to abide for ever Interest Dominion Friends Reputation and Riches are most useful in the first The despising of all these things is most useful for the next Now which of them had a man best to choose * Who has liv'd one day hath liv'd a thousand still the same Sun the same Earth the same World the same Enjoyments Nothing more like this day than to morrow Death only would be new to us Which is but an exchange of this Bodily state for one thaâ— is all Spiritual But man though so greedy of novelties hath no curiosity for this Tho unsettl'd in his mind and still growing weary of whatever he enjoys he never thinks his Life too long and would perhaps consent to live for ever What he sees of Death makes a deeper impression on his mind than what he knows of it The fear of pain and sickness the horror of the Grave make him lose the desire of knowing another World And the strongest motives of Religion can but just bring him to receive his doom with submission * Had God left it to our choice to dye or to live for ever And did we consider how dismal it is for a man to see no end of his Poverty Subjection Sickness or Sorrow or at best to enjoy Riches Greatness Health and Pleasure with an absolute necessity of exchanging them shortly for their contraries by the continual vicisâ—itude of times and thus to be tost to and fro by the wheel of Fortune betwixt Happiness and Misery It wou'd pose any one to make a choice Nature having ty'd us to the former saves us the labour of choosing And the necessity of dying is made easy by Religion * If my Religion be false it is a snare at least which you must own to be laid with such temptations that I could not avoid rushing into it and being intangl'd by it What Majesty what Glory in its Mysteries what a connexion in all the several parts of its Doctrine How very rational is it how candid and innocent in its Moraâ—s and who can stand against the strength of so many millions of witnesses the most moderate and the wisest of men who during three whole ages have succeeded each other and whom the sense of the same truth so constantly supported in their Exiles in the darkest Dungeons and even in death itself and the most painful torments Set open the Books of History run it over through all its parts take it from the beginning of the world and even from before that if you can was there ever any thing like this Could all the power of God himself have laid a fitter plot to seduce me How then shall I escape Whether shall I run And how shall I find any thing that 's better nay thaâ— is but half so good Since I must be led into ruin this shall be my way to it Denying the Being of a God would indeed suit my inclinations much better than suffering my self to be deluded though by so plausible and so specious a pretence But I have examin'd thoroughly have endeavour'd all I could and still want the power of being an Atheist This then must be my doom and I am forc'd again to stick to my Religion * The grounds on which Religion is founded are either true or false If false the Religious man and the strictest observer of all the precepts of Self-denial ventures no more than just the loss of threescore years which I 'll allow to be foolishly bestow'd But if true the vicious man is of all men most miserable And I tremble at the very thoughts of what unutterable and incomprehensible torments I see him daily heaping upon himselfâ— Tho the truth of Religion was much less demonstrated than it really is certainly there is no prudent man but would choose to be virtuous * Those who dare presume to deny the Being of a God hardly deserve that one should strive to demonstrate it to them or at least that one should argue with them with more seriousness than I have done hitherto They are for the generality so ignorant that it makes them unqualify'd for the understanding of the clearest principles and of the truest and most natural inferences Yet I am willing to offer this to their reading provided they don 't fancy that it is all that can be said upon the subject of so noble and so perspicuous a truth Forty years ago I was not neither was it in my power ever to be any more than now that I am it is in my power to cease from being My existence therefore hath had its beginning and is now continu'd thro the influence of somethiâ—g which is without me which will subsist after me which is better and more powerful than I. Now if that something is not God let me but know what it is I exist But this existence of mine proceeds perhapâ— you 'll say from the power only of an universal nature which has been such as we see it now from all Eternity But this nature is either only spiritual and then â—tis God or only material and consequently could not create that part of my Being which is spiritual my Soul or else it is a compound of Spirit and Matter and then that part of it which you say is a Spirit is that which I call God Again Perhaps you 'll add that what I call my Soul is nothing but a part of Matter which subsists through the power of an universal Nature which also is material which always was and ever will be such as we see it now and which is not God But at least you must grant that what I call my Soul let it be what it will is something which thinks That if it is made up of Matter it is such a Matter as thinks for you can never beat it into me that at the time I am thus arguing there is not something within me that thinks Now this something since you will have it to owe its being and its preservation to an universal Nature which always was and every will be as to the first cause of both it necessarily follows that this universal Nature either thinks or is nobler and more perfect than that which thinks And if nature
the judgment and skill of the ingenious Contriver My thoughts will be the same with yours and I 'll suppose this must be the dwelling of one of those men who from the very minute they get into place think on nothing but on the laying the Foundation of some great and sumptuous Palace Yet what is this piece of ground so order'd and on the beautifying of which all the art of the most skilful Workmen have been employ'd if the whole Earth is but an Atome hanging in the air and if you 'll but hear what I am going to say You are plac'd Lucilius on some part of this Atome you must needs be very little since you hold there is so little room Yet you have eyes imperceptible like two points Open them however towards heaven What is sometimes the object of your observations there Is it the Moon when at the full 'T is radiant then and very beautiful tho all its light be but the reflections of the Sun 's It appears as large as the Sun itself larger than the other Planets than any of the Stars But be not deceivâ—d by outward appearance nothing in Heaven is so little as the Moon The extent of its superficies exceeds not the thirteenth part its solidity not the eight and fortieth part and its Diameter which is two thousand two hundred and fifty miles not a quarter part of that of the Earth And the truth is that what makes it so great in appearance is its proximity only Its distance from us being no more than thirty times the Diameter of the Earth or three hundred thousand miles Nay and its course is nothing in comparison of the prodigious long race of the Sun thro the spacious Firmament For it is certain it runs not above sixteen hundred and twenty thousand miles a day which is not above sixty seven thousand five hundred miles an hour or one thousand one hundred and five and twenty miles a minute And yet to compleat this Course it must run five thousand six hundred times faster than a Race-Horse that goes twelve miles an hour It must be eighty times swifter than the sound than the noise for example of a Cannon or of the Thunder which flies eight hundred and one and thirty miles an hour But if you 'll oppose the Moon to the Sun with respect to its greatness its distance or its course you shall find there is no comparison to be made betwixt ' em Remember only that the Diameter of the Earth is nine thousand miles That of the Sun 's is a hundred times as large which is nine hundred thousand miles Now if this be the breadth of it every way judge you what its superficies what its solidity must be Do you apprehend the vastness of this extent and that a million of such Globes as the Earth being laid together would not exceed the Sun in bigness How great will you cry must then the distance of it be if one may judge of it by its smallness in appearance 'T is true it is prodigious great it is demonstrated that the Sun's distance from the Earth can be no less than ten thousand times the Diameter of the Earth Or which is all one than ninety millions of miles Nay and it may be four times perhaps six times perhaps ten times as much for ought we know There is no method found out for the computing of it Now for the help of your apprehension let us suppose a Mill-stone falling from the Sun upon the Earth let it come down with all the swiftness imaginable and even swifter than the heaviest body's falling from never so high let us also suppose that it preserves always the same swiftness without acquiring a greater or losing from that it already has that it advances forty yards every second which is half the heighth of the higheâ—t Steeple and consequently two thousand four hundred yards in a minute But to facilitate this computation allow it be two thousand six hundred and forty yards which is a mile and an half its fall will be three miles in two minutes ninety miles in an hour and two thousand one hundred and sixty miles in a day Now it must fall ninety millions of miles before it comes down to the Earth so that it can't be less than forty one thousand six hundred and sixty six days which is above one hundred and forty years in performing this journey Let not all this fright you Lucilius I 'll tell you more The distance of Saturn from the Earth is at least ten times as much as the Sun 's so that it is no less than nine hundred thousand millions of miles and that this Stone would be above eleven hundred and forty years in falling down from Saturn to the Earth Now by this elevation of Saturn's raise your imagination so high if you can as to conceive the immensity of its daily course The Circle which Saturn describes has above eighteen hundred millions of miles Diameter and consequently above five thousand four hundred millions of miles circumference So that a Race-Horse which I 'll suppose to run thirty miles an hour must be twenty thousand five hundred and forty eight years in taking this round I have not said all Lucilius that can be said on the miracle of this visible world Or to speak more like your self on the wonders of Chance which alone you will allow to be the first cause of all things It is still more wonderful in its operations than you imagin Learn what Chance is Or rather be instructed in the knowledge of all the power of your God Do you know that this distance of the Sun from the Earth which is ninety millions of miles and that of Saturn which is nine hundred millions of miles are so inconsiderable if oppos'd to that of the other Stars that no comparison can express the true measure of the latter For indeed what proportion is there betwixt any thing that can be measur'd let its extent be what it will and that which it is impossible to measure The heighth of a Star cannot be known it is if I may so speak immensurable All Angles Sinuses and Paralaxes become useless if one goes about to compute it And should one man observe a fixed Star from Paris and another from Iapan the two lines that should reach fâ—om their Eyes to that Star should make no Angle at all And should be confounded together and make up one and the same line so inconsiderable is the space of the whole Earth in comparison of that distance But tho Stars have this in common with Saturn and the Sun and I should express something more If then two Astronomers should stand the one on the Earth and the other in the Sun and from thence should observe one Star at the same time the two visual rays of these two Astronomers should not in appearance form an Angle But that you may conceive the same thing another way should a man be plac'd on one
of the Stars this Sun this Earth and the ninety millions of miles that are betwixt â—em would seem to him but as one point There are demonstrations given for it 'T is for this reason that the distance there is betwixt any two Stars tho they appear never so near one another is not to be measur'd You would think if you judg'd by your eye the Plyades almost touch'd one another There is a Star seems to be plac'd on one of those which make the Tail of the Great Bear your sight can hardly perceive that part of the Heavens which divides 'em they make together as it were but one double Star Yet if the most skilful Astronomers cannot with all their Art find out their distance from each other how far asunder must two Stars be which appear remote from one another And how much farther yet the two Polar Stars How prodigious the length of that line which reaches from one to the other How immense the Circle which this line is the Diameter of How unfathomable the solidity of the Globe which this Circle is but a Section of Shall we still wonder that these Stars though so exceeding great seem no larger to us than so many Sparks Shall we not rather admire that from so vast a heighth they should pâ—eserve the least appearance of bodies and that they should be seen at all And indeed the quantity of them that is unseen is innumerable 'T is true we limit the number of the Stars but that is only of such Stars as are visible to us for how should we number those we cannot see Those for example which make up the Via Lactea that trace of light which on a clear night you may observe from North to South in the Sky Those I say which being by their extraordinary heighth so far out of the reach of our eyes that we cannot distinguish every individual Star amongst 'em give a white cast only to that part of the Heavens they are plac'd in Behold then the Earth on which we tread it hangs loose like a grain of Sand in the air A multitude of fiery Globes the vastness of whose bulk confounds my imagination and whose heighth exceeds the reach of my conceptions all perpetually rowling round this grain of Sand has been for above these six thousand years and are still daily crossing the wide the immense spaces of the Heavens Or if you desire an other and yet as wonderful a system the Earth itself is turning round the Sun which is the center of the Universe with a swiftness that surpasses my imagination Methinks I see the motion of all these Globes the orderly march of these prodigious bodies they never disorder never hit never touch one another should but the least of them happen to start aside and to run against the Earth what must become of the Earth But on the contraryâ— all keep their respective stations remain in the order prescrib'd to them follow the tracts which are laid before them And this at least with respect to us is done with so little noise that the vulgar knows not that there are such Bodies What a strange and wonderful effect of chance Could intelligence itself have done any thing beyond this One only thing I cannot understand Lucilius These vast bodies are so exact and so constant in theiâ— courses in their revolutions and their relations to each other that a little Animal being confin'd in a corner of that wide space which is call'd the world having made their observations on them has contriv'd an exact and an infallible method of foretelling in what degree of their respective Courses every one of these Stars will be two thousand four thousand nay twenty thousand years hence Here lyes my scruple Lucilius If it be by chance that they observe such constant rules what is order and what are rules Nay I 'll ask you what is chance is it a Body is it a Spirit is it a Being which you distinguish from all other Beings which has a particular existence or which resides in any place Or rather is it not a mode or a fashion of Being When a Bowl runs against a Stone we are apt to say it is a chance but is it any thing more than the accidental hitting of these bodies one against the other If by this chance or this hitting the Bowl it changes its strait course into an oblique one if its direct motion becomes more contracted if ceasing from rowling on its Axis iâ— winds and whirls like a top shall I from thence infer that motion in general proceeds in this Bowl from the same chance Shall I not rather suspect that the Bowl owe it to itself or to the impulse of the arm that threw it Or because the circular motions of the wheels of a Clock are limited the one by the other in their degrees of swiftness shall I be less curious in examining what may be the cause of all these motions Whether it lyes in the wheels themselves or is derived from the moving faculty of a weight that gives 'em the swing But neither these Wheels nor this Bowl could produce this motion in themselves And it does not lye in their own nature if they can be depriv'd of it without changing this nature It is thereforâ— likely that they are mov'd some other way and through a foreign power And as for the Coelestial Bodies if they should be depriv'd of their motion should therefore their nature be alter'd Should they cease from being bodies I can't believe they should Yet they move and since they move not of themselves nor by their own nature one would examine Lucilius whether there is not some principle without 'em that causes this motion Whatever you find it I call it God Shou'd we suppose these great bodies to be without motion indeed I could not ask who moves ' em But I should still be allow'd to inquire who made them as I may examine who made these Wheels or this Bowl And though each of these Bodies was suppoâ—'d to be but a heap of Atomes which have accidentally knit themselves together through the figure and conformity of their parts I should take one of those Atomes and should say who created this Atome is it Matter is it a Spirit had it any Idea of itself before it made itself If so then it existed a minute before it did exist It was and it was not at the same time And if it be the Author of its own being and of its manner of being why made it itself a Body rather than a Spirit Or else had this Atome no beginning Is it Eternal Is it Infinite Will you make a God of this Atome * The mite has eyes and turns away if it meets with such objects as may be hurtful to it place it on any thing that is black for the help of your observation and if while it is walking you lay but the least bit of Straw in its way you 'll see
it alter its course immediately And can you think that the Cristalline humour tâ—e retina and the optick nerve all which convey sight to this little animal are the product of chance One may observe in a drop of Water that a little Pepper which has been steep'd in it has excited the thirst of an infinite number of small Animals whose figure may be perceiv'd with the help of a Magnifying-glass and who are moving to and fro with an incredible swiftness like so many Monsters in the wide Ocean Each of these small Animals is a thousand times less than a Mite and yet is a body that lives which receives nourishment which grows which must not only have Muscles but such Vessels also as are equivalent to Veins Nerves and Arteries and a Brain to make a distribution of its Animal Spirits A bit of any thing that is mouldy tho it be no bigger than a grain of Sand appears thro a Microscope like a heap of many Plants of which some are plainly seen to bear Flowers and other Fruits some have buds only and others are wither'd How extreamly small must be the Roots and Fibers through which these little plants receive their nourishment And if one considers that these plants bear their own Seed as well as Oaks or Pines or that these small Animals are multiply'd by generation as well as Elephants and Whales whether will not such observations lead one Who could work all these things which are so fine so exceeding small that no eye can perceive 'em and that they â—s well as the Heavens border upon infinity it self tho in the other extream Would not one think it was the same Being who made and who moves with so much ease the Heavens and the Stars those vast Bodies which are so wonderful in their bigness their elevation the swiftness and the prodigious extent of their Courses * Man enjoys the Sun the Stars the Heavens and their influences as much as he does the Air he breathes and the Earth on which he treads and by which he is supported This is Matter of Fact and if besides the fact I were to prove the probability of the thing and that it is fitting he should do so I might easily make it out since the Heavens and all that is contain'd in them are not to be compar'd in nobleness and dignity with one of the meanest men on Earth And since there can be no other porportion betwixt them than what there is betwixt Matter which is destitute of Sentiment and is only an extent according to three dimensions and a spiritual a reasonable or an intelligent Being And if any one says that all these things might have serv'd for the preservation of Man I answer that less could not have serv'd for the Glory of God and for the magnifying of his power his goodness and his magnificence since let his works be never so great and wonderful they might still have been infinitely greater The whole universe if it be made for man is in a literal sense the least thing that God has done for man the proof of which may be drawn from Religion Man is therefore neither presumptuous nor vain when submitting to the evidence of Truth he owns the advantages he has receiv'd and might be tax'd with blindness and stupidity did he refuse to yield himself convinc'd thro the multitude of proofs which Religion lays before him to shew him the greatness of his prerogatives the certainty of his refuge the reasonableness of his hopes and to teach him what he is and what he may be Ay but the Moon is inhabited at least we don't know but it may What and to how little purpose is it you talk of the Moon Lucilius If you own there is a God nothing indeed is impossible But do you design to ask whether it is on us alone that God has bestow'd such great blessings Wheâ—her there are not other Men or other Creatures in the Moon whom also he has madâ— the objects of his Bounty To so vain a curiosity to so frivolous a question let me answer Lucilius that the Earth is inhabited we are the Inhabitants of it and we know that we are so we have proofs demonstrations and convictions for all that we are to believe of God and of our selves Let the Nations who inhabit the Celestial Globes whatever those Nations are be mindful of their own concerns They have their cares and we have ours You have observ'd the Moon Lucilius you have found its spots its deeps its ruggedness its elevation its extent its course and its eclipses no Astronomer has yet done more Now contrive some new and more exact Instruments observe it again and see whether it is inhabited what are its Inhabitants whether they are like men or whether they are really men let me look after you and let us both be convinc'd that there are men who inhabit â—he Moon and then Lucilius we 'll consider whether those men are Christians or no and whether God has made 'em to share his favours with us * Many millions of years nay many thousand millions of years in a word as many as can be comprehended within the limits of time are but an instant being compar'd with the duration of God who is Eternal The spaces of the whole universe are but a point of an Atome being compar'd with his Immensity If it be so as I affirm it is for what proportion can there be between what is finite and what is infinite I ask what is a man's life or the extent of a grain of Sand which is callâ—d the Earth nay of a small part of that Earth which man inhabits and enjoys The wicked are prosperous while they live Yes some of them are I own Virtue is opprest and Vice remains unpunish'd It happens so sometimes 't is true This is then an injustice No not at all You should have prov'd to draw this conclusion the wicked absolutely happy the virtuous absolutely depriv'd of happiness and vice absolutely and always remaining unpunish'd That short time in which the good are opprest and the wicked are prosperous should at least have a duration What we call prosperity and good fortune should be something more than a false appearance or a vain shadow which vanishes away This Atome the Earth in which Virtue and Vice so seldom meet with their deserts should be the only stage on which they are to receive their puâ—ishments or their rewards I can't infer more clearly from my thinking that I am a Spirit than I conclude from what I do or do not according as I please that I am free Now freedom is the power of choosing or of taking a voluntary determination towards good or evil so that the doing of good or evil is what is call'd Virtue or Viceâ— For Vice to remain absolutely unpunish'd would be an injustice 't is true For Vice to remain unpunish'd on Earth is a mystery only yet let us with the Atheist suppose that an injustice
too All injustice is a negation or a privation of justice therefore all injustice supposes a justice All justice is a conformity to a soveraign reason I 'll ask you then whether it has not ever been just that Vice should be punish'd Yes certainly and the denying of it would be as ridiculous as if one should pretend to say that a Triangle has not three Angles Now all conformity to reason is a truth This conformity as I said just now always was It may then be included in the number of what we call eternal truths but this truth either is not and cannot be or else it is the object of a knowledge This knowledge therefore is eternal and this eternal knowledge is God The most secret crimes are discover'd so easily notwithstanding all the care that has been taken to prevent their being brought to light And such discoveries seem to result so naturally even from the darkest plots that the Authors of those crimes could invent to hide their guilt that one would think nothing but God could have produc'd those unexpected events The number of these discoveries is so great that those who are pleas'd to attribute them to chance must own at least that from all ages the effects of chance have been most wonderful * If you suppose that every man on Earth without exception is rich and wants nothing I 'll infer from thence that there is never a man on Earth but what is poor and wants every thing There are but two sorts of riches which comprehend all the rest Money and Land If all were rich who would be a Husbandman to cultivate the Earth or who would dig and rip up its Bowels to find out Gold or Silver Those who live remote from any place where Gold and Silver lies could not dig for Gold and Silver And those who inhabit barren Lands which produce nothing but Minerals should hardly reap any Fruits Ay but Trade it is to be suppos'd would supply both the one and the other But should all men abound in riches so that none were under a necessity of living by his labour who would be troubl'd with transporting from one place to another your Gold your Silver or any thing that were bought or barter'd Who would fit out your Ships Who would take care of conducting of them to their respective ports Who wou'd travel in Caravannes Even necessaries and the most useful things would then be wanted by every one To banish necessity from the Earth were to bid an adieu to all Arts and Sciences all Inventions and Handicrafts besides such an equality amongst men as to their riches and possessions would occasion the like as to their ranks in the World would banish all subordination and would reduce men to have no Servants but themselves to receive no help nor succour from each other would make Laws frivolous and useless would draw after it an uâ—iversal Anarchy would produce violence injuries murders and impunity If on the other hand you suppose all men to be poor and indigent in vain the Sun enlightens our Horizon in vain it warms the Earth and renders it fruitful in vain the Heavens pour out their influences on it in vain the Rivers water it with their streams in vain the Fields abound with Fruits in vain the Sea the Rocks and the Mountains are ransack'd and rifl'd of their Treasures But if you grant that of all the men who are scatter'd throughout the world some are rich and others poor necessity then must reconcile unite and bind them together Some must serve and obey some must labour and cultivate the Earth some must contrive and invent some improve and bring their inventions to perfection others must rule protect assist communicate and enjoy Order is restor'd and providence appears * Should you suppose Power Idleness and Pleasure to be the share of some men only and Subjection Care and Misery the lot of all the rest either the malice of men must have remov'd all these things from their natural place or else Divinity itself must want Prudence Some inequality in the conditions of men for order and subordinations sake is the work of God and demonstrates a providence â—oo great a disproportion and such as is generally seen amongst them is their own work and an incroachment of theirs upon one another All extreams are vicious and proceed from Men compensation is just and proceeds from God * If these Characters don't take I wonder they should not but if they take I wonder they should FINIS THE Moral Characters OF THEOPHRASTUS â— Made English from the Greek WITH A Prefatory Discourse Concerning THEOPHRASTVS From the French of Mons r De La Bruyere LONDON Printed in the Year 1698. A Prefatory Discourse Concerning THEOPHRASTUS I Cannot conceive that Man is capable of entertaining a more vain and ridiculous thought than to imagine that in Writing of any Art or Science he shall be able to escape all sort of Critick and obtain the good opinion of all his Readers For without observing the differences of the Genius of Men as strange as that of their Faces which makes some relish speculation others things that are practical inclines some to turn over Books to exercise their fancy others to form their Judgment and amongst Readers these love the force of demonstration those to understand nicely or form ratiocinations and conjectures I confine my self only to that Science which describes Manners examines men and discovers their Characters and I dare say that works of this kind which touch so near and whose subject is Men themâ—elves will not easily meet with a favourable reception Some of the Learned taste nothing but the Apothegms of the Ancients and examples drawn from the Romans Grecians Persians and Egyptians the History of the present time is insipid to them they are not at all toucht with the Men that are about them and with whom they live they make no observations on their Manners The Ladies and Courtiers on the contrary and all those that have abundance of Wit without Learning are very indifferent towards those things that preceded them and very eager after those that pass before their Eyes and are as it were under their hands these they pry into these they apprehend they continually observe the persons that surround them are charm'd with the descriptions and representations that are made of their contemporaries and fellow Citizensâ— in short of those that resemble themselves to whom yet they think they do not bear the least similitude as those that instruct us from the Pulpit often judge it expedient to neglect Preaching solid Divinity to gain Men by their own weakness and reduce them to their duty by things that please their palate and are within their comprehension The Court is ignorant of the affairs of the City or by reason of the contemptible opinion it has of it does not endeavour to remove the prejudice and is not in the least toucht with the images it might furnish it