maske of outward shewe doth debosh and abandon himselfe to all sides so many new subiects so many contrary and different opinions as their Philosophers They agree not among themselues that fire is hot when there should bee none but the Pirrhoniens to make them rest doubtfull thereof and despight of their knowledge to affirme nothing certaine They suspect the senses as if they were halfe corrupted by the familiarity of those things which enuiron them And if we will condemne them according to the mercy of Sense wee shall finde that Beasts suffer the same iurisdiction that wee doe and that by the priuiledge of their sence wee cannot refuse them the liberty to leaue or chuse to take or refuse to absolue or condemne according to the quality of good or euill which presents its selfe to their imagination by the particular fauour and recommendation of their senses For they haue learnt in their Schoole that fire is hot and they know it as well as we who can yeeld no other reason and cannot passe beyond the knowledge of this cause aboue that which our experience and Sense hath taught vs. The Ape will beware and not approach too neere the fire except the fagot be small and vnbound because of the discourse he holds in himselfe to auoide the like disaster wherein he was formerly fallen But what haue we to say if they haue their sense and feeling more subtile then ours doeth it not thence follow they haue a purer knowledge a simpler resemblance and a more harmonious condition then we The Stagge hath his Hearing the Eagle her Sight the Dogge his Smelling the Ape his Tast and the Tortoise her Feeling more subtile then wee although of this last onely as of the most brutall some attribute vs the preheminency and thereby they finde the obiects more discouered and naked then we doe that which a hundred ensuing propositions doe but imaginarily discouer to vs this beast sees it with a simple and first innate knowledge and who can deny but that it is more noble and perfect in this kinde of beast then in vs If it bee true that those things which are most approaching and neerest to the trueth are the most worthie Is not the Eagle to bee esteemed and held a truer obseruer of the light and greatnesse of the Sunne then the sight of Man which flies and soares so low that the least obstacle astonisheth him and his owne proper weakenesse and imbecillity hindereth him That if for the conseruation of our owne good temper and the knowledge of Hearbes which are proper and necessary for the restoring of our health we will atribute the priuiledge and aduantage to our selues Let vs see of a Man and a Beast hurted which of the two will be soonest cured The Serpent among a thousand different Plants and Hearbes throwes himselfe on that which is proper to him and returnes to his Combat more couragious and generous then before whiles Man in his conference and consultation of Hearbes and of their properties and qualities runnes most incertainely after his remedy which many times prooues more preiudiciall and hurtfull to him then his wound or sickenesse When reason failes vs we then imploy experience and the conference of euents which most commonly produceth a bad consequence in regard they are still different and variable But this knowledge which causeth the Serpent without premeditation to take that which is proper for him either it is giuen and infused to him by Nature or it is done by a simple and primary apprehension which at first sight discouereth him the trueth of the obiect But howsoeuer it is farre more noble and absolute then ours which consisteth but onely of the Tast and comparison and conference of so many false things So beasts doe more certainely know obiects then men because they are led and conducted there to by the light of Nature which is still certaine and cleere-seeing and men by their owne which is but an obscure and glimmering light for the true knowledge or trueth it selfe is the tranquillity of the minde it is an infallible point which is expressed in one word as the perfectest knowledge which is attributed to superiour Intelligences proceedes of the first ray of the minde without reflection I meane without deuoluing or ratiotination for we neede no discourse but onely to approach the thing which is farre distant from vs or to approach our selues neerer to it If we haue our finger thereon there is nothing more vnprofitable then those intricate propositions then those lets and stops of discourse wherein our thoughts are frequently so entermixed and confused that we shall haue sooner done to teare then to vntie the webbe or knot thereof SECTION V. Man hauing some knowledge of himselfe although it bee imperfect as also of those whom he frequents he contemnes their Learning and esteemes none but that which is growne in forraigne Countries or which he receiues from an vnknowne hand THe nimblest Wits are accustomed to frame to themselues most conceptions but they are so weake as they can giue no blow to trueth and if we haue found it open and vncouered we will in such sort tie and fixe our selues there-to that the stormes and tempests which continually arise in vs by the trouble of our passions giue vs too weake iogges or thrusts to make vs forsake the possession thereof We should be still inseparably vnited and as the heauy body which is arriued to his Center is no longer waighty so our Soule arriued to her Center and vnited to her true obiect shall haue no more lightnes weaknesse or inconstancy but she is too farre estranged from it Those Arts and Sciences which the Poet said were giuen vs by the Gods are but the shadowes and Images of that which remaines in their brest we find none but weak ones like our selues all things goe with a trembling and an ill assured pace it seemes they are obliged by one the same law to follow one and the same pace and dance as we doe It seemes that our first Fathers haue enioyed it more pleasantly and with lesse contradiction then we our antient Philosophers who succeeded them haue seized it by a thorny place which hath sowne among them so many diuorces and quarrells that if wee beare any respect or reuerence to their writings it is as much for their antiquitie as for their merits Our Age hath seene many great and excellent wits which the farther distant they are from our sight the neerer they approach our praise and recommendation But because Learning is no longer prised and esteemed among vs it seemes that she is choaked and smothered betweene their hands it appeares to vs she hath no more fame and lustre but among strangers wee beleeue that hee in whom wee haue seene and obserued some faults can produce nothing but that which is defiled and vitious we value men as we doe Figures or Statues of stone which wee prise the more for their antiquity and behold
raine hayle winde and lightning but if the thunder come to fall thereon it then teares its branches and thunder-claps our trauelling Pilgrime So Philosophie armes vs against contempt pouertie banishment and the other defects and vices of opinion and defends and sheltereth vs from the violent windes of passions But if sicknes and paine which is the thunder of Fortune fall vpon vs it teares all that it meetes withall breakes downe our weake baricadoes and defences and makes vs feele the points and edges of his indignation And yet the Thunder of heauen spared the sacred tree of Apollo but that of fortune without any respect to vertue that euer sacred and soueraine tree of thâ— Gods insolently breakes and teares it in peeces as triumphing in the losse and ruine thereof So that if the vertue of man could diuert and turne away this thunder from his head as she doth other iniuries of fortune I beleeue with reason that she might pretend the name and title of perfect and compleat felicity But likewise wee must not indifferently tearme all that to bee griefe and paine which afflicts vs Let vs therefore endeuour yea enforce our selues to restraine and keepe it within the surest bounds and limits that we can Let vs see what it is and if mans felicity may agree and sympathize with it according to the opinion of the Stoicks which for my part I beleeue not SECTION IV. As it belongs to none but to the minde to iudge of true or false so our sense ought to be the onely Iudge either of pleasure or paine ALL things should be considered absolutely and simply in their proper Essence and Being or relatiuely as regarding our selues Absolutely in their Being as the Earth the Sea the Sunne and the Starres which Essence or Being is equally spread and diffused euery where It is this truth which is not knowne in his Essence but onely of God and therefore where the point of humane wisedome in vaine striues to assaile it Or relatiuely in regard of our selues and then this reflexion engageth either our body or our minde If the body it is tearmed good or euill and there is none but our senses which haue right to iudge of a Knowledge which is infused to them and so much and so long conioyned that the harmony of the temperaments is not molested or troubled by any false agreement If the minde then it is tearmed true or false whereof the one caries the figure of good and the other of euill which is that which wee tearme ratiocination which from vniuersall propositions inferres and drawes particular consequences and composeth of this collection reduced in order by iudgement the Science or Knowledge of things But the minde and the body ioyning together in a community in those things which they had of each other in particular The minde secures the body and promiseth to prouide him a Sentinell to conserue and watch against the surprises of his Enemie which is paine or affliction by the meane of her care and fore-sight conditionally that shee may participate of the enioyance of those profits and pleasures which proceede from her But this agreement and harmony lasteth not long for the minde abuseth her selfe and this abuse is conuerted into tyrannie for of a companion that formerly she was she now becomes Master and violating the lawes of society shee vsurpes vpon the iurisdiction of the senses beleeuing that this vsurpation giues her an absolute right and full power to iudge of the quality of good or bad without consulting or taking counsell of the senses and then as shee will iudge that to be either good or bad which is not so will she doe of griefe or pleasure which was not of the same nature and in the end disposing soueraignly of all she is ariued to this height and point to beleeue that those pleasures which were fallen to the lot and share of the senses were obliged to content and satisfie her insatiable appetite without informing her selfe if they had worthily acquited themselues of their charge and functions which was to appease the hunger and desire of our senses The which desire because it is limited within the extent of its obiect is easily exchanged and conuerted into tranquillity and a peaceable enioying thereof In the meane time the minde playes the auerse and difficult still murmures and repines against it and entertaines man in this perturbation and perplexitie which you see He is become more amorous and affectionate to other mens children then to his owne and this bastard affection of his serues him as a paire of staires whereby by little and little he descends to the misunderstanding of himselfe and then being buried in the darknesse of obliuion he leaues in prey the inheritance which he had promised to giue to this community and renounced his owne which was lawfull which is the meditation or knowledge of true or false for as much as in the body of man the soule may bee capable to foment and cherish the goods or pleasures of her companion And farther if their profits or pleasures were of the same quality and nature when by any misfortune the portion of the one or other were ruined there would yet in the other lot and portion remaine enough to nourish and content them both As the Philosopher who liuing by the sweat and labour of his owne hands vaunted that thereby he was yet able to maintaine and nourish another like himselfe But the foode and nutriment of the one is not that of the other for all that which they haue truly in Commons betwixt them is the harmony which should make this musicke to be composed of spirituall and corporall things wherein if either the one or the other mutinie or rebell then expect no farther harmony or agreement for it is nothing else but confusion But the senses being conducted by the infused and cleare-sighted light of nature are better gouerned in their Common-wealth The one hath enterprised nothing against the other It neuer happens that the eye vndertakes to heare or the eare to see if it bee not abusiuely spoken But since they haue elected this inconstant mind to gouerne them as their head or Chieftain they haue reaped and receiued nothing but shame and confusion The eye findes nothing to be absolutely faire but that which raritie or opinion pleaseth to recommend to vs to be so So the Rose and Gilliflower are nothing in comparison of a flower which growes in the Indies or forraigne Countries But this Tyrant aduanceth yet farther for he puts them to the racke and makes them pay deerely for the errour of this their foolish indiscretion For the senses dare not embrace that which they prise and affect dearest without her free consent and permission If any ticklish desire giue them a contrary motion to that of reason then the minde lifts vp her hand and staffe and vseth them so vnkindly and vnworthily that there is no seruitude or slauery so rigorous They may well passe without
by their owne passions But what as long as we languish in our vices we know them not None but hee that is awaked can recount his dreames for in sleepe we perceiue not their abuse and deceit The euills of the soule are obscured in their thicknesse Hee that is most sicke feeles it least And although according to Marsilius Ficinus that passions are indifferent to good and euill to vice and vertue neuerthelesse the noblest of them accuseth vs of imperfection because they neuer obserue rule or measure There are other wayes passages to ariue to Vertue It is too dangerous to walke or vsurpe on vice for it is then to bee feared lest wee fall into it The soule bred in the shadowe which hath not as yet tempted hazards and repulsed the assaults of fortune must essay all other wayes but that For one that Ambition hath cast into Vertue it hath precipitated a million to vice It is still safer and better for vs couragiously to quarell with her then to trust her except it be in the same manner that we would trust our Enemie But because all passions are weake and tender in their beginning the safest way to secure vs from their corruption is to strangle them in their cradle and make that the first point of their birth doe in the same moment and instant see their last ruine and destruction and consequently the end of their Essence or Being SECTION II. We may say of loue that which the Romanes said of an Emperour that they knew not whether they receiued more good or euill of him WE are taught that there is neuer lesse found to speake then when the subiect whereon wee will discourse is better knowne of himselfe then all which can bee alleadged to proue and confirme it It is the same in the cause and subiect of Loue which of it selfe giues such cleare maximes and instructions that all the reasons which wee can contribute to the cleering doeth but onely serue to the obscuring thereof and nature within vs hath giuen vs such pertinent lessons that all words and discourse will finde themselues confounded when they vndertake to discouer the secret of this Art and Science His first flames strike such an excesse or fits that they cannot be knowne by the motion or beating of our pulse and his dartes flie and slide into our heart with so much craft and subtiltie that reason can neither obserue nor finde out the way pathe or steppes thereof She nourisheth with her heat and giues the first motion to all our interiour motions as the first principle of humane passions because all the violent motions which man can feele are either for his defence and conseruation and this is the loue of himselfe or for the encrease of his owne Content and this is the Loue of Vnion without himselfe and these are the two greatest wheeles of Nature who haue the charge to mooue the rest of our passions and who obey at the first command of Loue according to the necessitie of the Law which they haue thus established among them But we shall know her better by her effects then by her selfe If we thinke to hold her any where she escapes from vs and transformes her selfe into so many shapes and fashions that we can obserue nothing in her but mutation and change It is reported that Mercury by the commandement of Iupiter once vndertooke to make a Gowne for Diana that she might be no more dishonoured in going naked among the Gods and especially against the Lawes of her shame-fastnesse and chastitie but seeing that incessantly she either encreased or diminished and that she was neuer at one and the same stay he despaired of being able to effect it The inequalitie of mens affections and Inconstancie so naturall to Loue may serue for the same excuse to him that will vndertake to define it and to prescribe a Roabe oâ— Vestment fit for her humour what inconuenience will there be to permit her to goe naked Sith none is of a more shame-full face then this Goddesse and that she is neuer richer then in her pouertie nor prouder in her apparell then in her simple nakednesse at least if wee will beleeue the Poets For feare therefore that the fresh and louely sight of so many beauties doe not dazell our eyes we must put our eyes before them not behold them fixedly diuert our sight from their charmes or enforce our selues to couer them and to hide them from the ragges of any description Loue is a desire of Beautie say the Philosophers which by reason dislodgeth the Soule from the body to liue elsewhere and to agitate in others a passion which not onely altereth mans nature but wholly reuerseth and ouerthrowes it because the Soule of him that loues is more in the subiect where she loues then where she animates and resides Iudge what order and measure she can obserue in her deportments and carriage sith that bound and constrained vnder the authoritie of others she neither mooues nor stirres but vpon credit and by the leaue of others Man in his other passions is not tormented but with one at a time but in this of Loue he conuokes and assembles all the others who at their very enterance lose their names as small Brookes which ingrosse the brest and bosome of greater Riuers moreouer he yet addes those of others which he loueth and weddes with as much or more affection then his owne I esteeme that it is therefore for this reason that some of the Ancients beleeued that Iupiter himselfe could not be enamored and wise at one time Agesilaus tells vs that Wisedome and Loue are incompatible because that by the conference of things past iudgeth of euents to come and this considereth nothing but the present and takes no other councell but from his owne fury and blindnesse His obiect which he tearmeth Beautie consisteth in a concurrence harmony and decency of many parts linked conioyned in one the same subiect That point which stings and tickleth our heart and by his ready and violent motion inflames our senses to seeke it is tearmed desire the which if it inflame his obiect with the like desire as one Torch which lightens another this concurrence caused by the resemblance is called reciprocall Loue Sympathie or according to Astrologers inclination or participation of the same Planets and Influences as it hapneth to those whose very first sight is so fatall that at that same instant they lose the one to the other and both their hearts and libertie by the meeting and enterchainging of visuall raies which vnite confound and lose themselues in one and the same end and concurrence The will of the one doeth diue and plunge it selfe into that of the other and no longer reserues any thing of his owne particular or proper wee can no more perceiue the threades or seames whereby they are conioyned and sowed so close together It is not in Loue as it is in Musique which is composed of
in confusion and then the function and organes of the spirits are changed and consequently their effect which is the sense and feeling thereof Which is seene by those who fall into a trance or swooning They feele nothing lesse then paine in those parts which with farre more reason should betide them because the force and power of the spirits dispierced throwe all the body is in one instant assembled and gathered together in this place whereas contrariwise Death hapneth and comes to vs by the extinguishing of the spirits who by their extreame weakenesse cannot furnish power enough to moue the wheeles and organes of our feeling and as without paine they haue abandoned the remotest parts and members they faile in them without any perceiuing thereof The body depriued of Knowledge and therefore ignorant of his losses supports it without any paine or griefe So that if there be any paine or bitternesse in this seperation it should be in the soule who touched with the remembrance of fore-past pleasures which she hath enioyed and tasted in her commerce and traffique with the body shee cannot depart or estrange her selfe without paine and lamentation But I affirme and say that paine hath no power but ore the Body and that the Soule being wholly simple pure and spirituall is exempt of its iurisdiction and it hath no hold or power ouer her That if the knowledge which she hath bee capable to giue him any sense or feeling of paine it should bee for his good But there is nothing which the Soule embraceth with more passion nor desireth so eagerly then her rest and tranquillity I meane the enioyance and possession of her obiect for then chiefely when she is detained in the prison of the body she findes nothing pleasing in this strange Countrie which can content her appetite Iudge then if she gâ—ieue to depart and dislodge from the body and whether a Prisoner detained by the Turkes when we take off the chaines from his hands and feete pay his Ransome to reconduct him into his natiue country so restore him to the free possession of his goods and liberty haue any great cause to afflict himselfe for this separation I confesse you will answere me that I no more feare Death for its paine sith there is none so sharpe which we will not willingly endure and suffer and which is not entermixed with some sweetnesse if we flaâ—ter our selues with the hope of a remedy But who is he who ought not to apprehend the losse of goods which are common to the one and the other to the minde and the body which being diuided and separated their sweet enioyance can no more be recouered I say that if this losse be a griefe or euill this euill ought to concurre and meet either in the enioying thereof or then when you possesse and enioy it no longer As for the present should you not iniustly complaine because you enioy it quietly and that you attribute the good which they bring vs to the possessing of them But it is no euill no more then when you enioy them not because the euill is the feeling which we haue of a thing that afflicts vs but Death depriues vs of all sense and feeling and therefore of this paine and affliction that if you afflict your selfe because death depriues you of the remembrance thereof by the same reason euery night before you sleepe you ought to bewaile and lament it and to take your farewell because you goe to lose the memory thereof Those who haue iudged most sollidly and pertinently of Death and who haue most curiously depainted it at Nature and Life haue compared it to sleepe But if we will aske the opinion of Trophonius and Agamedes they will teach vs what is the most Soueraigne of our Riches and contents because after they had built and consecrated a stately Temple to the honour of Apollo they besought him in requitall that he would eternally grant them the best thing and it was answered them by the Oracle that their demand should be satisfied within three dayes but before the expiration thereof they both died He who is in the worst estate and condition beginnes to hope when he hath no more to feare whereof he is not presently afflicted Man being then so miserable in his life hath he not reason to aime and aspire to some better thing To feare Death saith Socrates is the part of a Wise man because all the World ignores it in not knowing whether it be our good or our euill But what should we not feare if we feare that which cowardise her selfe hath sought for her retraite and shelter and for the speediest and most soueraigne remedy of all afflictions and miseries The Egyptians had still in their Bankets the Image of Death neuerthelesse it was not feare who had the charge to represent them this picture but it was Constancy and Vertue who had that commission and who would not permit that in the middest of their Delights and Ioyes they should be interrupted by any vnexpected accident But if Death then befell them that he should be of their company that the ceremony might not be troubled in regard they kept him his place and dish and briefely that the ioy of the company mought not be disturbed for because they neither knew the certaine place or time where they should attend Death they therefore attended him in all times and places Aristotle tells vs that there is no feare but of doubtfull things it is then in vaine for vs to apprehend it or that our feare prepares him such base and cowardly courages in regard there is nothing more ceâ—taine then Death How many are there found who suruiue their glory and whose languishing life hath not serued but for a Tombe to bury their reputation It was said by a Philosopher that the sweete pleasures of life was but a slauery if the libertie to die were to be said so why then should we feare that which the wisest of the World held the surest harbour and sanctuary of our tranquillity It now rests that we fight against the feare of paine which serues but to afflict vs with a present griefe of that which it may be will nâ—uer befall vs or at least farre otherwise then we feare The Painter Parhasius exposed his Slaues to the Racke thereby the more naturally to represent the feigned tortures of Prometheus We are Slaues to feare who of an imaginary euill delights to cast on vs the gall and bitternesse of a thousand true vexations and afflictions For how often haue we shaked and trembled with feare at those things which haue produced vs no greater damage then the bare apprehension thereof Haue we euer feared or expected any thing with extreame impatiency but that we haue still found it altered and changed with the beliefe and hope thereof Hath not paine many sharpe points and throes of it selfe without it be any way needfull for our feare to edge or sharpen them As farre distant
his first babling and pratling yeares are watred with nothing but with his teares His infancy full of astonishment and feare vnder the rod of his superiour His riper yeares discouer him by all the parts of his body and soule expose him to the inevitable snares of Loue to the dangerous blowes of fortune and to the stormes and fury of all sorts of Passions In his declining age as broken with so many cares calamities and labours hee flyes but with one wing and goes coasting along the riuer to land more easily possessed and tormented neuerthelesse with many vnprofitable and superfluous thoughts He is afflicted at the time present grieved at the past and in extreame care and trouble for that to come as if he now beganne to liue Hee perceiues not his age but by his gray haires and wrinkled forehead and most commonly hath nothing remaining to testifie that he hath liued so great a number of yeeres but an old withred age which enclines him to a generall distaste of all fruits that his weake stomach cannot digest which often imprints more wrinkles and furrowes in his minde then in his face His body bending and bowing which is no longer supported but by the ayde and assistance of others like an old building ruinous and vncouered in a thousand places which by little and little seemes to end and destroy itselfe Whiles his fugitiue soule which meets nothing else in this fraile Vessell but that which is either sowre or vinowed seekes by all meanes to breake her alliance and in the end retires being infinitly weary to haue so long conducted and supported so decrepit and heauy a burthen loden with all miseries as the sincke and receptacle of all griefes and euils which the influence of Heauen continually powreth downe vpon the face of Earth Nothing so weake and yet so proud Let vs heare him speake with what boldnesse doth he not praise his audacious front His heart is puffe vp and swelld with glory and many great bumbasted Words as if mounted on some Throne hee formes himselfe an imaginary Scepter for a marke of his Soueraigne greatnes Hee hath saith he the Dominion and Empire ouer all things created He commands all beasts The Sunne Heauen and Earth are but the ministers of his power But wretched and proud as thou art dost thou beleeue thou hast power to command where thou hast no right but in thy obedience Thy inclinations fortune and mis-fortune which droppe and destill on thy head through those celestiall pipes doe they not constraine thee with blowes and stripes to stoope and acknowledge their superintendency Bow downe bow downe thine eyes for it is farre more proper and conuenient for thee If not that after the custome of the Thracians thou wilt shoot arrowes against Heauen which will after returne and fall on thine owne head And if for the aduantages and priuiledges of the body thou wilt preferre thy selfe to all beasts vouchsafe onely to enter in comparison with a few of them in particular The courage of the Lyon the strength of the Elephant the swiftnesse of the Stagge and the particular qualities which are found in others will prooue thee farre inferiour to them Hauing thus walked thine eyes vpon the garden knots of this world now make a reflexion thereof in thy selfe and if thy iudgment retaine any ayre of health I know thou wilt say with me or rather with wise Solomon That man is nothing else but vanity without and within in what forme and posture of vice so euer thou contemplate him Then wee shall haue the assurance to say with the Philosophers That laughter is proper to man And proper indeed it is according to the rules of Democritus to laugh and mocke at his folly as at his Vanity That other Philosopher more pittifull then this testified by his weeping that hee had no other weapons then teares to defend the blowes and wipe the wounds of so miserable a condition as ours That if we enquire by what right he imposed on his companions the burthen of so seuere a law and so ponderous and pressing a yoke I finde that hee is no way excusable but in this that hee submitted himselfe to the same slauery and seruitude The equality of our euils herein doth some way extenuate and cut off the iust subiect of our complaints For he which sees himselfe fettered to the fortune of an iron chaine although thou haue inroled him among the number of thy slaues yet hee may neuerthelesse vaunt to see thee fight vnder the displayed Ensigne of the same misfortune not like himselfe tyed to an iron chaine but to one a little more honourable as it may be to a chaine of gold or peraduenture to a bracelet of haire which captiuates thy heart and liberty vnder the tempting lures of a young beauty or else by the linkes of thy Ambition which inseperably chaines thee to Fortune sith all sorts and degrees of liuing is but slauery that the Scepters of Princes are farre heauier in their hands then the crookes of innocent Shepheards That if no condition haue power to exempt and dispence thee from this slauery what shall wee accuse either the vice of a malicious nature which at thy birth powred into thy breast so many miseries or rather the defect of thy knowledge and iudgement which enwrapped thee in so obscure and thicke a cloude that this blindnesse makes thee euery moment stumble against the good which presents it selfe to thy eyes as against euill And that in this ignorance thou art as a Ship abandoned to the fury of the waues which the horrour of the night hath surprised in the middest of a storme and tempest wherein in the feare of shipwrack the surest places where his good fortune throwes him giues him no lesse astonishment and feare then the most dangerous places For the fauours of Nature should still put thee out of the suspition of her malignitie What hath shee not done to preuent and remedy the discontent which may arise in thy heart through an obiect so full of discontent shee hath hid from thine eyes and sight the most secret parts which giue the life and motion as the weakest and most subiect to corruption and the most vile because they resemble the inward part of the foulest beast of all And indeede shee hath giuen thee eyes to see abroad onely and to admire in the world as in a Temple the liuely images of the Diuinitie But as for those things which are without vs could she doe any thing better or more aduantagious to man for the cōsolation of so many afflictions and griefes which incessantly assaile him then the habit or custome thereof as a sweet potion which administreth sleepe and easeth that part whereunto it is applied to operate his effect with more facilitie and lesse contradiction This fauour in my opinion is not the least Present which she could giue him For a habitude of suffering afflictions dulleth the first edge and point thereof and
hardneth the body to the performance thereof And surely if the griefe which wee very often feele and endure had so much violence in the continuation as in the first excesse thereof the courage and strength of man would proue too weake so long to resist it The Irons which were clapp'd on the hands and feete of the Philosopher seem'd not so heauie to him the second day as the first and when they tooke them from him to make him swallow downe the poyson which was prepared for him that very day and time hee saw his consolation to spring and arise from his griefe and in the middest of his tortures and executioners the subiect of pleasure and ioy Consider then if there remaine any thing to thy pride wherewith it should swell and growe so great but Vanity and what weapons there are left thee to fight against thy misfortune but onely Patience which ought to make thee acknowledge that thou art indebted for thy slauery but onely to thy selfe because Nature hath assisted thee with her best power and that for the rest shee referres it hee to ordaine according to the rules of thy sufficiencie Or if thou wilt yet know the head spring and originall from whence arise so many discontents in our life it is because men feare as Mortalls and desire as Immortalls They binde the liuing to the dead Diuine with Humane They will ingraft the head of a God vpon the body of a Hogge so their desires which are deriued from this superiour part giues no end to their impatiencie Their feare in this soule and inferiour part giues lesse truce to their true torment and the one and the other draw for our misfortune an affliction and paine of that which is not because they labour for the future as for the present vpon the empty as vpon the full and vpon the inanitie as the substance Enterprises begun hold our mindes in suspence those which are desperate in sorrow as if some byas which we haue to manage and turne those things which present themselues to vs could not meete but with causes of affliction and misery and as if ambitious of our owne misfortune wee deuance and runne before to meete it and that it were impossible for vs to gather a Rose except by the prickle Also griefe hath more Art to make vs feele it then pleasure hath ioy to make vs tast it A little affliction presseth vs farre more then an extreame contentment and in reuoking to minde those things which time hath stolne from our eyes it seemes that our memory is better edged by the sharpnesse of those things which we haue felt then by the polishing of those things which haue but as it were rased our vnderstanding Our remembrance cannot keepe firme his foote slides and as soone failes him Our thoughts flye vpon things past and stop not but at that which she findes sharpe angry and difficult to digest so the time past which afflicts vs the present which troubleth vs and the future which denounceth warre to our desires or feares doth hinder vs from relishing any thing which is pure Homer who put two Tunnes at the entry of Iupiters doore of Good and Euill ought to haue said that the Good was reserued for the Gods and the other remained in partage to men or that Iupiter being a louer of that which was good as hee is the cause was too couetous in his expenses and with one hand was too prodigall in powring out Euils vpon mankind Good and Euill is in all things and euery where intermixed so confusedly and are so neere one to the other that it is not in our weake power to marke the difference thereof except by that place which doth neerest touch and concerne vs which is that of griefe and sorrow Which side so euer wee bend or encline it is still towards that of misery Consider the inconstancy and irresolution of thy desires It is not in thine owne power to stay firme and permanent in one condition and qualitie That if thy sensuall appetite could bee the Iudge and Arbitrator of her owne voluptuousnesse and that shee were left to doe what shee pleased I yet doubt that shee would still finde some thing to craue or desire For this hungry and insatiable desire which carrieth her to that which is not and the displeasing taste which is intermixt in the enioying thereof makes vs presently weary thereof Which is the reason why the Wiseman craued nothing of GOD but the effects of his diuine will requiring that which was truly proper and necessary for him But as our desires are wauing and different so our will is weake towards good or euill and cannot absolutely beare it selfe towards the one and the other without some bruse or hurt deriued from the croude and confusion of our owne proper desires We can difficultly agree with our selfe and none with a firme and an assured heart can suggest any wicked act but that his conscience repines and murmures within him Shee cannot consent vnto crime and thorowe so great a masse of flesh she discouereth and accuseth her selfe for want of witnesses Or if despight her power she cannot disclose it yet shee then secretly scratcheth and incessantly excruciateth her selfe Constancie and Vertue which the Philosopher would lodge in the heart of the Wise man as in a sacred Temple is it so firme that it will neuer shake No it is a Vanity to thinke so But as the world is but a perpetuall dance or brawle so shee goes from one dance to another a little more languishing And as in a sicke body the parts lesse offended with paine and the contagion of the disease are termed sound so among this great troope of men the least vitious are termed vertuous and wee terme that firme and constant which moues not with so much swiftnesse and leuity as the rest Qualities haue no title but in the comparison Those Boates which seeme so great on the Riuer of Seine are very little at Sea and that resplendant vertue of the antient Philosophers which diffuseth and darts forth so much brightnesse among vs doth owe this aduantage to mens folly and ignorance Shee will be found vitious if shee submit her selfe to be sounded and to suffer the last touch and triall because the diuine wisedome hath baptised ours with Vanity Weakenesse and Folly To giue it more Firmity shee hath neede of a foundation more solide then the heart of man For as the fixed starres in their disposition and scituation ought notwithstanding to obey the course motion of heauen so constancie doth alwayes wheele and waue about and despight her selfe is obliged to the motion and inconstancie of that whereunto it is tyed and fastned The wisest doth nothing else but goe astray in all his actions and if he strike vpon the point of constancie it is most commonly by indirect meanes and wayes Hee neuer aymes where he strikes Hee resembleth those Muskatieres who knowing their defect or fault take their ayme
Tasting to sauours and Feeling to colde heate and other naturall qualities whereof the subiects or causes consists and this by the meanes of the ayre which receiues retaines and beares as a Mediator these sorts of the one to the other subiect These fiue messengers carie to the interiour powers endewed with knowledge all that we can comprehend or desire And they all thrust forward to common sence as to theiâ— centre where they faithfully report the images of those things according as they haue gathered and collected them which after iudgeth and discerneth thereof Their particular power is confined and limited within the bounds of the obiect which is prescrib'd them without whose extent they neuer aduance For the eyes neither iudge nor know any thing but colours nor the eares but onely those tones and sounds wherewith they are strucken But common sence iudgeth of the one and the other seuerally neuer confounds them and is industriously carefull to present them to the imaginatiue who as an ingenious Painter receiues and gathereth the liuely formes which being cleansd of sensible conditions and particular qualities become vniuersall and are capable to be presented to the Vnderstanding being thus disroabd of their grosse apparell and guided by the light of the Intellect an agent which stands at the entry as a Torch to hinder either the order or confusion of images or formes which may meet and assaile one the other in the crowde and then presently presents them to the still and quiet Intellect who hauing opinioned vpon these formes that haue beene presented to him iudgeth which are profitable and which preiudiciall and then offers them afterwards to our Will together with his iudgement thereon Who as Mistresse of the Powers ordaines that they shall all embrace her party and so to follow that which pleaseth or else to eschew and avoid that which displeaseth him But to the ende that in the absence of objects the Vnderstanding may haue wherewith to imploy and entertaine himselfe hee commits to the guard and custody of Memory those formes which are shewed to him by his fancy to present them to him as often as it is needefull and although the subtilty and quicke actiuitie of these different motions are almost insensible wee must neuerthelesse thus dispose and order them although one onely motion doth in one and the same instant touch all these different strings which concurre to the sweet harmony of the thoughts and motions of a well-ordered minde thereby to enlighten with more familiarity the beginning progresse and ende of matters and how and in what manner materiall things are made spirituall thereby to haue more communication and commerce with our soule And yet notwithstanding it is not a necessarie consequence that this order bee so religiously obserued For I speake of free operations which are made in a sound Vnderstanding and not of those who permit themselues to be guided and gouerned by their owne opinions and who content themselues simply to follow the great high way as the more frequented and beaten without enquiring where they goe nor why they follow this sort of life because their affection and fancy which hath receiued the formes which Sense presented to them with some particular recommendation and fauour presented them likewise as soone to the sensuall appetite vnder the forme of good or euill who without communicating it to his superiour Iudges commands as a Lieutenant generall ouer the moovable powers who are subiect to him which are dispersed in the Muscles Arteryes and other parts of the body that they obey him either to approach or retyre to flye or follow and to performe such other motions as is requisit and proper to the impression that is giuen them by this sensuall appetite SECTION II. The different operation of the Senses concludes not that there are fiue no more then the different effects of the rayes of the Sunne that there are many Sunnes IT seemes to me with some probability and apparance that the number and multitude of the Senses might bee reduced to that of Feeling for as the most delicate parts of the body feele cold or heate good or euill more sensibly and liuely then the grosser so Man touched with the same obiect seemes to be diversly touched because his body in her tenderest parts receiues a feeling so delicate and subtile that it loseth the name of feeling and then we giue it another according to our fancy and opinion although in effect that proceeds from the disposition or delicatenesse of the sensible part the which the more it is small tender and subtile the more the feeling becomes delicate and subtile And indeede the same obiect which toucheth vs if it be generally ouer all the body that wee terme feeling or if hee meet with any part more liuely or animated as in the superiour part of man where nature hath lodged as in a heauen the Intelligences and the liuely formes and images of the Diuinity the same obiect I say which in all the body could meete with none but with grosse parts could not make that the feeling should produce the effects of all the other Senses according to the part where he met the which the more delicate it is the more this feeling doth subtilise in the end purifies it self so that it seemes to be absolutely some other thing and to haue no resemblance with that which the vulgar and popular voyce termes feeling For if the obiect touch our tast the sence and feeling is farre more subtill then when it toucheth our foote hand or any grosser part of the body And therefore we will terme it no more feeling but sauour or relish If it be present it selfe to the nose it subtilizeth it selfe the more If to the hearing againe more If to the sight it is with such a subtilty and purity that it seemes to be an opinion meerely erroneous to call that sense feeling because the obiect which strikes it toucheth it not hard enough or that it doth not hurt or offend so much so liuely in this part as in others If neuerthelesse they will behold the Sunne with open eyes this pricking burning paine which they feele in their eye will bee enough sharpe and sensible to draw this confession from their tongue For were it so that the obiect touched not our eye but that this faculty of seeing depended wholly of him he would imagine all things of one and the same colour If the feeling he receiues by the degrees of the obiect which are conuayed to him by the meanes and assistance of the ayre made him not to obserue the difference as if he alwayes looke through a greene or red glasse all that is presented to him appeares of the same colour That if this faculty were absolutely in vs that the thing touched vs not that the obiect had no right but of patience and reception and not of action or emission We should see all equally without being more interested of one obiect then of
the dangerous Sea Monsters which of all sides appeare and approach to swallow him vp Our passions are the windes from whence proceede the tempests of our soule windes pent and shut vp which can finde no other issue or passage but by false opinion who weake and tender in his beginning hauing surpriz'd the most simple vnder the authority of number and antiquity of witnesses hath extended himselfe to the most iudicious and capable But hee who can ascend to his head-spring shall finde but a very small brooke which being difficultly knowne at the place of his first birth and originall is wonderfully encreased and fortified by the course and currant of his age The birth and beginning of Estates and Empires doe fade and wither by degrees through the very greatnesse and wâ—ight of their augmentation By the same hands which Princes held their Scepters they also caried the Sheepe-hooke and the Senate of Rome disdain'd not to borrow her Consuls from Agriculture to commit the helme of the Estate into his hands who formerly contented himselfe to conduct the Plough and this new dignity fill'd their courages with so little vanity that they preferr'd the ease and tranquillity of their Country life to the greatest honours they could exspect from their dignities But it seemes that mans Inuention would extenuate and quell the troublesome burthen of these dignities by the lures and charmes of a vaine glory which it hath sowen and disperced vpon the approaches to the end that that which heretofore was contemn'd by the most worthiest may giue them some cause to affect themselues As that adulterous Woman who hauing not lâ—res enough to make her desired doth by the meanes of painting borrowe a thousand other forraigne fashions the more easily to seduce and abuse those whose affection she seekes and desires But since that deceitfull painting and decoration hath poysoned the hearts of men they haue all inconsiderately ranne thereto who should be first so as that which heretofore could difficultly be desired is now so passionately beloued and embraced of that passion that our wealth our pleasures and our life hath nothing but bitternesse out of the painefull employment and troublesome exercise of some publique dignity or office which more truly oppresseth and loades our mindes then our backes and wholy engageth our liberty in popular affaires and disturbancie as if our owne had not enowe whereof sufficiently to employ our selues if it be not that too familiarly casting our sight vpon our owne affaires and businesses that the fauour which wee conferre and giue to our selues preuents and hinders the effect of our iudgement by diuerting it other wheres Which is that that hath occasioned the Poet to complaine with vs in that being too much knowne to the world we yet dye onely vnknowne to our selues That if we laugh at those who antiently commended themselues for weeping at Funeralls and so to purchase true profit by their false and faigned teares What ought wee then say of those who to wed themselues to other mens passions and to make themselues slaues to their affections doe engage their wealth and liberty The sorrow of those was in showe and their profit in effect but the wealth and honour of those is but in Opinion and their labour and solicitude in truth The profit and honour which succeedes thereof doth too ill requite and pay this subiection without needing to buy it so dearely yea at the double value thereof by engaging our goods and persons And yet if desert or merit could bee receiued in payment it were well but it seemes that Merit is one of the weakest meanes to arriue thereto Gold and Siluer will finde place in the worser sort of people and by their splendor doth so ecclipse and blinde the eyes of the vulgar that the very report and beliefe thereof sufficeth with them to giue those the title of wiser whose grauity fortune and roabe giues beliefe to a thousand vaine and ill-beseeming discourses Apelles was not discommendable who seeing a Knight in his Shop very brauely and richly apparelled and couered with many Bracelets and Chaines of gold who after a long silence intermedled impertinently to praise some of his courser Pictures Apelles returned him this answere Thou art much to be reproued and blamed because before thou spakest thy followers thy countenance and rich apparell made my Apprentizes esteeme thee to be some great and wise personage but now by thy speeches hauing discouered thy ignorance they no more prise or regard thee A regular silence is no small grace and aduantage to a man raised in dignity We still presume all things of him whereof he ought to be capable vntill his discourse confirme and ratifie it to be the contrary and many times to the preiudice of his reputation And many one will finde in this mans tongue matters of admiration which in anothers hee will repute worthy of contempt and laughter so much Iudgement is ore-mastred and curbed by opinion which of it selfe produceth nothing but faigned and disguised SECTION III. Opinion very ill requites the greatnesse to hold her still in shew and esteeme and to giue all the World right to controule her actions THe priuiledge of Princes and great Men sufficiently testifies it by the false exteriour shew and apparance those sumptuous buildings adorned with Marble and Porphyry those Robes enriched and embroidered with Gold and Pretious-stones touch vs but exteriourly they deceiue our eyes but if our fight could as well perceiue the Rust which they engender by the vse thereof in their Soules as the sparkâ—ling splendor which they outwardly defuse wee shall finde that Fortune delights to strew Roses about them and that she hides the Thornes in their hearts thereby to giue all the World more cause to enuie her fauours which are but in shew and apparance It seemes that to bee aduanced and eleuated in so high a Throne they must renounce the common pleasures of the societie of men and that hauing no more commerce and familiarity with them by reason of so great a disparity they must conuerse and disport themselues a part and no more entermeddle with the delights and pleasures of life which seemes to bee so inter-wouen and linked together that they cannot please vs except others haue the same interest therein with vs If their greatnesse giue them a facile and easie enioyance of their desires meeting with no difficultie which egges them forwards or rather which inflames their appetites then this facilitie makes them presently the more to loathe and distast it and so those delights and pleasures which Fortune seemes to present and prostituâ—e to them it is onely to the end and purpose they shall not enioy them that which shee giues them with her left hand shee snatcheth from them with her right I meane shee giues them imaginary good things and but too true and assured euills in a word their condition hath more Dignitie then Content or profit Aâ—las on whose shoulders our Poets haue placed
whereto we aspire Wee may as soone ariue there by diuerting our face as by following it by the eyes of our hope as well as Rowers who by turning their backes obtaine the port of their desires The greatest good which we can finde in the goods of Fortune is not to seeke or research thâ—m To flie that which is subiect to deceiâ—e our hopes is the surest meanes to meete with what we desire We must stop and stay our hopes in the very beginning of their conceptions sith the good which assembles them by the name or forme of greatnesse is false and gratifies none lesse then those who follow the glimmering light and brightnesse thereof Yea it is so farre from true good as it commonly falls out vnto vs as to a child who gazing at the flame of the Candle is so taken and rauished with the sight and beauty thereof as he thrusts his hand to it but hauing crâ—sh'd it in his fingers he extinguisheth the light thereof and so burnes himselfe for wanâ— of iudgement So we follow the rayes of Fortune but being possessed of it wee eclipse the lustre thereof in our owne hands whereof wee were formerly enamoured and delighted which leaues vs a very sharpe and sensible burning to the preiudice of our reputation Because if our desire succeede our hope presently enkindleth a new one which nourished by this becomes farre more violent then the formâ—r as fire if the wood or matter faile not enkindleth infinite more Wee must therefore stop the flight and current thereof betimes and if reason giue no end to our hopes let vs not hope that Fortune is capable to doe it For it is impossible for her to giue true content and tranquillity to our soule because true tranquillity cannot be meant or expounded but by the vniformitie and resemblance of the like or equall thinâ—s But as the Circle and the Square of Geometricians cannot comprise or containe one and the same space and that the figure and superficies of the one is not entirely filled by the figure and superficies of the other So the Soule which is the Image of God and therefore simple and circular if wee will vse the Words of the Cabalists agreeing in all and by all with it selfe it is impossible that shee can be equally comprized among the bounds of other figures multiplied and composed of many parts and angels I meane of worldly pleasures and fauours of Fortune which cannot satisfie her and which by this insacietie doeth sufficiently testifie their insufficiency We must therefore ecclips the wings of our hope and if possible wee can stop her as soone as she beginnes to take her birth and flight or else temperately imploy her in the research of Riches whose veine is so deepely and profoundly hidden within vs. Neuerthelesse because the winde of this passion seemes to appease the fire and ardor of our discontents and that the most violent griefe that can be feeles it selfe ouer-mastred by the very point and consideration of hope we must in this regard suffer and endure it and make vse thereof in those inconueniences where the constancy of the Soule findes her selfe to be very weake because too strongly assaulted and assailed Misfortunes which threaten vs doe not alwayes befall and surprise vs but are many times diuerted by other accidents and some times by the ruine of their owne authours Such a one hath prepared poyson for another who hath beene choaked therewith himselfe And when this Euill or Misfortune should be ineuitable yet the good which wee haue receiued by the sweet flattery of our hopes cannot yet be taine away or bereaued from vs. But when we are not besieged by sharpe and violent afflictions and that our Estate and Condition being farre distant from the great blowes of Fortune makes vs to respire the aire of a sweet and pleasant life what neede we then to make our selues blinde in the middest of our good fortune to forsake and stray from our selues by the inraged licentiousnesse which we giue to our desires to flie the good which we possesse to contemne that which we haue obtained purchased it may be which heretofore hath inflamed vs with the lik desire to enioy it as that which now torments vs through the hope of a new good and where we may yet finde lesse saciety then in the former And this is the most dangerous blow wherewith our Enemie I meane Fortune can offend vs for what disturbance and torment is it which surpriseth our hope when she inforceth her selfe to breake all those lets and obstacles which oppose our desire She changeth our good into euill so that which should comfort vs in our griefe and sorrowes doeth change the sweetnesse and tranquillitie of our liues and ingendereth afflictions and crosses in the middest of our contentments and felicities SECTION VI. Feare casts her selfe into the future time as into a darke and obscure place thereby with a small cause or subiect to giue vs the greater wonder and astonishment HOpe and Feare are Sister-germaines but as that heates our desire and inflames our courage to the most generous actions so this quencheth and deads it by the Ice of her vaine apprehensions Among those things which we should apprehend I finde none more worthy of feare then feare it selfe because from an imaginary euill she knowes how to draw most sharpe and bitter sorrowes and being ingenious to worke our sorrow shee runnes before the good which may befall vs disguiseth them apparelleth them with her owne liuery and by this meanes giues the name of Enemy to him that comes purposely to assist vs. But what suspition can we haue of him who vnder the cloake and shadow of good will comes to counsell vs to our preiudice and damage This Chimaera beates at our breasts and aduertiseth it that his Enemy is at the gate which is true but it is with so great terrour and trembling that it makes vs incapable of counsell It is by this art and subtilty that she deliuers vs vp to our Enemy of whose approaches she had foretold vs. So as if we giue eare to her pernitious designes she makes vs distrust our owne proper good and by these euill courses changeth the tranquillity and sweetnesse of our life For what pleasure doeth the enioying of any good bring vs if it be still accompanied with the feare of losing it She incessantly tells vs of bad euents and teacheth vs thereby that the surest things for our content are subiect to the inconstancy of Fortune which with one backe-blow shakes and ouerthrowes the strongest foundations of our tranquillity As our Desire is not inflamed but to seeke good so our feare aimes onely to flie and eschew euill Pouertie Death and Griefe are the liueliâ—st coullers wherewiâ—h wee can depaint the cause of our feares Wee haue formerly shewen that Pouerty is onely euill in our opinion whose points are not sharpned but by the temper of our owne imaginations But it is in vaine to feare
that which cannot offend vs despight our selues Nature hath caused vs to be all borne equally rich esteemes so little of the goods she giues vs which we tearme riches as of our passions and the feare to lose them Seneca sayes that the Gods were more propitious and fauourable when they were but of earth then since when they were made of Gold or Siluer meaning thereby that the rest and tranquillity of the mind was more frequently found in the life of our fore-fathers who sought no other riches then the fruites of their labours then it hath done since when men being curious to open the bosome and rip vp the bowells of the earth haue therein found Mines of Gold and Siluer which shee hath dispersed and sowen among vs as seed of discord and diuision The meanest estate and condition and those steps which are neerest the earth are still the firmest and surest as the highest are the most dangerous And if Pouertie bee any way harsh or distastfull it is onely because she can throw vs into the armes of Hunger Thirst Heate Cold or other discommodities So in Pouertie it is not she which is to be feared but rather Griefe and Paine whereof we will hereafter speake in its proper place But some one will say who is he that apprehends and feares not Death There is no pouerty so poore which findes not wherewith to liue The body is easily accustomed and hardned to endure Heate or Cold but what remedy is there against Death who with his sharpe sithe cuts and reapes away so many pleasures yea the very threed of our life which can neuer be regained for although old men approach Death in despight of themselues and that their distast of worldly pleasures the forerunner thereof should yet giue them resolution to aduance boldly neuerthelesse they retire backe they tremble at the ghastly sight and shadow of Death yea they are affraide sincke downe in their beds and wrap themselues vp in their couerlets and to vse but one word they dye euery moment at the onely feare and thought of Death And I who am in the Spring-time of my age cherished of the Muses and beloued of Fortune in the very hight of all pleasures and voluptuousnesse shall not I yet feare Death So many Griefes and Sorrowes so many conuulsions and gnashing of our teeth are they not to be apprehended and feared can the linkes of that marriage of the Body and Soule be dissolued and broken but by some violent effect and power those who are insensible feare their dissolution Flowers and Trees seeme to mourne at the edge of the Knife and shall not then our sense and feeling bee sensible thereof yea and remarke and see it in our feare I answere It is true that of all things which Nature representeth vnto vs most terrible there is nothing which shee hath depainted in such fearefull colours as the figure and image of Death Euery thing tendes to the conseruaâ—ion of its being and generously oppose and fight against those who seeke to destroy it But the feare which wee entermixe with it is not of the match oâ— party but is onely of our owne proper beliefe and inuention Paine which seemes to be the iustest cause to make vs apprehend it is excluded and hath nothing to doe with it because the seperation of the soule and body is done in so sodaine a moment and instanâ— that our Vnderstanding hardly perceiuing it it iâ— very difficult for our sense to doe it Those gastly lookes which deuance it or the rewâ—rd of good or euill which followes it are no appurtenances â—or dependancies of this instant or moment But I will say more For as there is no time in this instant so likewise there is no paine because the senses cannot operate or agitate according to the opinion of Philosophers but with some certaine Interim of time and which is more that those last panges are passed away without any sense or feeling thereof And contrariwise if in this seperation the paine should be either in the body or soule or both First the body feeles it not because there is nothing but the senses which can perceiue it who being in disorder and confusion by the disturbance of the vitall spirits which they oppresse and restraine their disposition is thereby vitiated The function of the senses being interrupted they cease to operate and therefore of feeling the effect of paine but more especially when the spirits abandon them and retire and withdrawe themselues from the heart The which wee perceiue and see in those who fall in a swoone whose eyes remaine yet open without seeing and without operation which happeneth and comes to passe because the spirits which should make the wheeles of the sight to moue and operate haue abandoned their places and functions The Soule of her selfe cannot remedy it no more then a Fountainer can cause his water-workes to play when there is no water the which by reason thereof is then meerely out of his power And as the eye by the defect hereof performes not her function and without perceiuing thereof ceaseth to operate so all the other senses by the same rule and reason doe faile vs. When our Soule will take her last farewell of our body shee flyes to the regions of the Liuer and Heart as to her publique places all the spirits being dispierced and bending here and there in the body to take her last fare-well of them which retire without that the parts or members farther off doe feele any paine of this seperation but because henceforth they can no more feele it for that they carie away with them the heat and strength of feeling If therefore there be any paine it must be in the noble parts who profer their last farewell and thankes to the Soule for the care labour and paine which shee hath had to giue them life and motion The Husband cannot lâ—aue or goe from his Wife without a great sense and feeling of sorrowe for his sighes griefes and teares testifie how bitter and displeasing this seperation is to him Can therefore this seperation of the soule from the body bee performed with lesse griefe and paine Some will say that the most remote parts and members shall be insensible thereof and endure and suffer nothing in this reluctation and conflict which is onely because they haue giuen this charge and conferred this commission to the noble parts to performe it As in the seperation of one whom we deerely affect and loue all the whole body which suffereth in this farewell to make his griefe and sorrowes the more apparent commits the charge thereof to the eyes by their teares and to his breast by her sighes to expresse his sense and feeling thereof I answere that there is no paine because the spirits who withdrawe themselues by the defects and failing of others in these interiour parts are either in good and perfect order and their function is common and therefore without paine or else
prodigie And yet that onely proceeds from the fascination of the eyes which is abused and deceiued and thinkes to see a biller for a strawe So opinion makes vse of the same Artifice and whiles the eye of reason is deceiued and betrayed hee cannot not discouer the abuse Now consider then with a sound and perfect sight all those things as they are to the end that if thou fall once againe into the relapse of this same errour that the remembrance of that which thou now â—eest may diminish the opinion and estimation of that which thou mayest make hereafter which will bee no small profit and aduantage â—or thee The lesse thou esteemest them the lesse passionate thou shalt bee for them For the worth and merit which wee beleeue is in a thing is that which engendereth our desire and loue What doest thou thinke hereof now at present Doest thou not feele a tranquillity in thy selfe through 〈◊〉 contempt and disdaine of those thinâ—s And alâ—hough thou art voluntarily dispâ—â—y led of all thy delights as thy vaine glorie ambition and foolish loue of riches yet thou shalt neuerthelesse feele a perfect coâ—â—ntâ—â—ment Thou must then confesse that 〈…〉 true sith the possession of all these things hath not giuen thee this perfect content 〈…〉 tranquillity that thou must accuse 〈◊〉 weakenesse and that it proceedes 〈◊〉 some other thing which is in vs which is called reason and which must bee dressed and pruned by a long exercise and custome which wee tearme Vertue which watering this plant makes it to produce desire and felicitie As our good issueth from interiour man so also doth our euill For that which afflicts thee is the designe to possesse those things which thou hast not But those things are within thee sith they touch thee not and they doe thee no good nor harme Thou complainest neuerthelesse to feele so sharpe and burning a griefe that it troubleth thy rest by night and almost dries thee vp with languishing But heerein there is but two things to consider to wit desire and the thing desired and because this last is neither criminall nor guilty of thy griefe as being farre distant from thee it must therefore needes follow that it is desire sith it is lodged in the same place where thou feelest this burning this affliction in being remoued with too much violence Hee hath exceedingly scratch'd and fetch'd blood of thee within he is then the cause of thy griefe and euill thou must thâ—refore cut it off and retaine it peaceably within the compasse of those things which are easie and neere If Fortune diminish any thing it is but to restraine it the more and when all that wee haue shall vanish and be tane away there will yet remaine enough in our breast and minde to reioyce us The voyce being restrained and shut vp makes more noyse strength being collected and assembled produceth more effects and the more our desire is restrained the more it puffes vp and swells our contentment as being neerest to his tranquillity and next neighbour of our owne felicity Cease therefore to desire any thing but that which thou enioyest All these things which Fortune giues thee is but borrowed apparell from common Brokers the which because it is common to all men belongs not properly to any one who weares them I counsell thee to clad thy body with them but not thy affections and to loade thy backe with them but not thy minde Reserue this for Vertue it is by her which we ought to weigh and ballance all the priuiledges and good fortunes of man Reason makes him very different from beasts but reason or perfect reason makes him to differ much from other men who are like him in shape but as then not in quality and vertue To measure a man by his exteriour goods of Fortune is to comprehend in measuring a Statue the height of his basis or foundation but to measure him by his interiour vertues wee must then doe it by his naturall greatnesse whereof neither fetters nor fire can diminish or take away the very least part Fortune subiecteth vs to all things but contrariwise Vertue eleuates vs aboue all Shee dissolues Ice shee enforceth and giues a law to griefe and paine She breakes Irons yea she passeth through fire and flames to put vs in possession of this felicity We say therefore that felicity is the vse of a perfect reason It is this Philosophers stone which conuerts to gold all that wee touch Shee supports all aduerse accidents and misfortunes that befall her with a requisite moderation and decencie and performes the best actions which can be desired or discouered vpon all causes and accidents which betide her If wee are assieged by many disasters and afflictions she then makes vse of Constancie as of some sharpe and Physicall potion to cure vs in this extreamity or at least to flatter and sweeten the sense and feeling of our paine and griefe If they come not to vs by whole troopes but by one and one at a time then she teacheth vs how to fight with them and which is more how to vanquish them And because the goods of Fortune by their arriuall or departure doe still engender some interiour disease in vs therefore shee purifieth and preserues our minde from this contagion Or if it seeme to thee that Vertue giues thee not so many sweet and ticklish pleasures in this felicity as vnchast and impudent Fortune doth in the hugge of her embraces The pleasure neuerthelesse is more firme solid and permanent Men dally and kille their Mistresses otherwise then they doe their children and yet notwithstanding in these embraces and kisses their affection is sufficiently bewrayed and demonstrated to those who see it Time in the end cuts off the web of those foolish affections but what griefes so euer this naturall loue meetes in the breeding and bringing vp of his children it is yet more tender and deere as if their watchings their care sweat and labour therein were as so many materialls to cyment more firmely and soundly this their affection to their children So any difficulties which oppose the designe of a vertuous man cannot interrupt the course of affection which hee conceiues and beares to his lawfull children I meane to those faire and glorious actions who as to make shewe and demonstration of their beauties they seeke not an ampler Theater then that of a good conscience So they neede no other light or day to accompany their glory then that which they cast and dispierce in the company of wise men by the lustre of their owne proper brightnesse The end of the fifth Discourse The sixth Discourse Of Morall Vertue SECTION I. Sicke or distempered mindes are not capable of all sorts of remedies but they shall finde none more soueraigne then the diuerting thereof WEE haue long enough played the Philosopher and now in its turne we must represent and act that of man That heroicall Vertue whereof wee precedently discoursed appertaines to
the height and sublimity of the same flight to select and make choyse of vigorous and masculine reasons in comparison of those which wee commonly vse and employ for our consolation which are as weake lame and feeble as our courage It some times falls out that the same reasons issuing from our mouth or pen as from theirs but not from our hearts and from the very bottome of our breasts Wee present them all rawe and as the boyling or bubling of a Fountaine renders his water without tasting or digesting it so wee onely preferre these words without knowing their price or value Our too rawe and indigested stomack cannot consume this meat and draw its nutriment thence Wee discourse in the same manner language and tearmes as they doe but yet wee thinke differently Our words are but as the rinds and barkes of our conceptions it is not enough that the report thereof come to our eares but the sense must also passe to our vnderstanding wee must cleaue them in sunder to gather the iuyce and Sugar of them and to discouer that which they haue in them of secret and hidden But our Morall vertue diminisheth that which is of the honour of her dignity shee hath sooner done to stoope and descend downe to vs then to lift our selues vp to her And then familiarizing and accommodating her selfe with our imperfections she perâ—mits vs to shed some teares Shee weepes with vs and fauoureth our plaints and mournings in their first and most furious violence vntill by little and little shee can diuert the eyes of our thoughts vpon some other remote obiect and so exhale and dissipate in the contemplation of contrary things the power of the spirits of our blood which were assembled conspired together about our heart to surmount and vanquish all sorts of consolations and so to permit onely the enterance of griefes torments bitter thoughts sharpe and cruell remembrings and other Officers of comfortlesse sorrow and affliction So this power being diuided is thereby so weakened that the first obiect being capable to enflame touch our thoughts to the quicke hee easily takes possession of the place and banisheth this importunate Tyrant from the seate and Empire which he had violently vsurped This remedy as the most sweet and pleasing is the most generall and vniuersall physicke which shee employes in the cure of violent'st passions All diseases of the minde are not cured but either by diuersion or by the equall sharing and diuision of our imagination in whose power resides all that they participate of sharpe or bitter because shee assembles and linkes together all the spirits of the soule which are perfectly purified and refined in the admirable nets which lye vnder the ventricle or posteriour part of the braine to marke him out the greatnesse of his euill or disease which it augments and encreaseth by this labour and paine as fire doth by the aboundance and affluence of wood And if this imagination can be diuided by the force and strength of a contrary obiect shee thereby makes her selfe weake and feeble in her functions and contrariwise in the ease or paine the good or euill which wee may feele The minde is a power which communicates her selfe wholly to the subiect to which shee is fixed tyed From whence it comes that we many times see her equally tormented at obiects of small value as at those things of farre greater consequence The good which enuironeth vs is not considerable to him in comparison of a little euill which at present presseth and afflicteth him And not being able to surprise this sorrowfull matter before hee haue let gone all the others hee then vnites and fastens yea glewes himselfe thereunto vntill he become drunke with this griefe And as the Horseleach still suckes out all the bad bloud vntill hee burst So the minde suckes and drawes hence all that is bitter vntill this poyson hauing engendred a kinde of an Impostume in our heart doth in the end burst therewith and frees her selfe thereof by our teares which distill and descend from our eyes If the rayes of the Sunne are fully receiued in the bottome of a burning Looking-glasse they there vnite in their centre and their power straying and defusing before they are recollected and assembled in this point doe so linke and fortifie themselues that they burne and destroy that which so sweetly they had formerly cherish'd and nourished Right so if the minde assemble all her powers and her intellectuall rayes in the force and strength of imagination as in the Christall of a Looking-glasse it destroyeth the tranquillity which it reuiued before by her benigne and gratious influences the which she generally owes to all the members of the body and whereof she cannot wholly dispose to the seruice of the one without the domage and preiudice of the others As it visibly befalls those who newly feele some griefe or anxiety or to those who dispose and addict themselues to things which require a strong imagination as Poesie Painting or Perspectiue Wee must then without giuing time or leasure to our minde to taste the poyson of this passion dispierce the rayes of this imagination by the alluring Charmes of a contrary obiect Hee who dies in the heat of a Combat with his weapons in his hands hath apprehended feared nothing lesse then death for glory is the point of honour choler and reuenge do equally preoccupate his thoughts and surpasse his imaginations so as there remaines in him no place to feare death And those who haue attempted to plant the Crosse among Infidells and cyment and water it with their blood thereby to make Christianity to encrease and fructifie they being possessed of this holy zeale hath not the force and power of their loue surmounted in them the feare of death Shall I say that the power of so liuely and so ardent an imagination by his extreame violence can likewise destroy the common function of the senses and hereby pull away the weapons out of the hands of griefe and paine because the senses make not their operations but by the helpe of the spirits which are dispierced in the muscles and arteries and generally throughout all the body which may be attracted by a suddaine motion to this superiour part and place of imagination so that the members remaine without this interiour operation and therefore without griefe or paine the which Celsus reports of a Priest but how truly I know not whose soule being rauished in an extasie left his body for a certaine time without respiration or any sense or feeling But as our letting blood and phlebotomizing is the onely remedy in these and the like suddaine accidents because hereby they attract the spirits to their region and duty So in strong imaginations be it that they proceede from extreame griefe or paine which takes vp all our senses in the contemplation of his misery or the deformity of his obiect which makes vs shake and tremble and stupifies and dulls our
and barking dogges who seemed desirous to deuoure her and which indeede are no other but desires proceeding from the sensuall appetite which Plato saith is one of the Horses that drawes the Chariot of the soule which fights against this reason whose obstinate insensibility so hardened and obdurated it selfe that shee exchanged her heart into a rocke which could not be mollified by the teares of her infortunate Seruant and Louer It is for none but for Temperance to enter into the Temple of pleasure and voluptuousnesse Vlysses vpon the assurance of this flower which hee had receiued from heauen and which hee caried not in his hand but in his heart entered into the Pallace of Circe awakened his sleeping Companions and being drunke with those enchantments past on to the most secret Cabinets of Voluptuousnesse and Pleasure contented his amorous desires receiued those sweet daliances courtings and embraces and without forgetting himselfe he considered the charming snares of her eyes which seem'd to lull him a sleepe in the rauishing extasies of an amorous passion and inuited him to repose and rest himselfe in the lap of so many sweet delights and pleasures But his courage hauing loosed and slacked the reines to his affection vpon the prostitution of so many delicious and amorous dainties he then made a short stay and stand returned to his former minde and resolution takes his leaue of her without reluctation or sorrow and by his pleasing and yet generous cariage constraines the curtesie of this faire Princesse to accompany him forth to the gate of her owne Pallace But how much easier is it not to enter then to come forth and depart in this manner The Vice is not to enter but not to bee able to come forth said Aristippus going into a Curtizan With a very small force and constraint wee may at first stop the motions of these emotions but when they are once begun wee are but too too naturally subiect to follow them Most commonly it are they which drawe vs and there is but this vertue of Temperance which can againe take vp the reines and stop them in the very middes of their course and cariere We must cut off the head and tayle thereof whereof the first withereth our heart and the second incessantly scratcheth and woundeth it Intemperancie giues death to voluptuousnesse Continencie denies and refuseth it life and Temperance giues and conserues it to her and by a certaine griefe which shee intermixeth in all her actions she agrees so well in all things and euery where with her selfe that she much obligeth vs and makes vs her debters for the felicity which wee may pretend and hope for from her SECTION III. To thinke that Vertue can indifferently cure all sorts of euills or afflictions is a testimonie of Vanitie or else of our being Apprentices and Nouices in Philosophie FElicitie how comes it to passe that wee can surprise and hold thee but with one hand If it bee true that thou reposest thy selfe in the bosome of Philosophie as he made vs beleeue who first caused it to descend from heauen to liue among vs here in earth But why should there bee so many Philosophers and yet so fewe wisemnn If these promises be true if these remedies are certaine and infallible where is the effect And yet there is no reason so much to taxe our condition as to thinke to make it guilty of that whereof it may be innocent It is good somtimes to auoyde and leaue off anger and violence where faire meanes may suffice and preuaile of it selfe I much doubt if Philosophie who puts weapons into our hands to correct and chastise Vice could defend the blowes if wee turned them against her selfe For wherein doth she employ her selfe but to afflict vs in thinking to heale and cure vs. When we are in perfect health shee doth so often againe assaile and touch vs that in the end shee changeth our good disposition and welfare Her false Councels turnes into true afflictions which shee afterwards fights not against but onely feignedly If shee raise vs vp a degree aboue others wee thereby see euils and afflictions farther off then they do and at the very instant and moment that we fore-see them wee haue neede to remedy them because thâ—y wound vs as much by their sight as by their assaults And when with the same lance she can cure this wound is the Physitian to bee commended who wounds and offends the health of his sicke Patient thereby to make shewe of his skill and sufficiencie But yet so farre is hee from curing vs that our minde is easily shaken and can afterwards very difficultly resolue with firme footing to support this phantasticall enemie and imaginarie euill and affliction But if any simple or earthly man who hath no other obiect in his thoughts then that which hee hath before his eyes runnes the same fortune which we doe to the disasters which wee haue fore-seene and predicted then this his stupidity hath no neede of remedy but at the very blowe and occasion Hee liues as ioyfull and contented as the Philosopher Pyrrhons Hogge without any feare of stormes or tempests whiles Philosophie enuironeth vs purposely to rectifie and comforâ— vs with her sweetest consolations Shee tells vs That it is but a cloud That the least winde can beate off this storme and tempest before it fall on our heads That the inconstancie of Fortune as often deceiues our feares as our hopes But who is hee who in the expectation of an euill or affliction can purely rellish and taste the sweetnesse of comfort and ioy which enuiron him This sharpe remembrance hath it not bitternesse enough in it to make it seeme sower and distastfull This affliction holdes vs fast by the coller of our doublets and hee therewith stoopes the Philosopher as well as the Clowne The Goute and Stone doe equally afflict and offend them All our reasons are left behinde the doore and there is but onely our sense and feeling which is of this scot and company But yet I will pay the Philosopher more soundly and seuerely then the Clowne For that considereth nothing else but that which he feeles His appetite is colder and therewithall more subiect to griefe and paine And this hauing the spirits of his blood more refined and subtilized by the labour of his meditation as also his sense and feeling more tender and delicate the liuely image of paine workes as much yea a greater power and effect in him by his imaginary impression as by his point and reality So this fore-sight serues for nothing but to drawe those miseries neere vs which are farthest from vs and then very difficultly can she cure our other present and naturall discommodities because she cannot well ease and comfort her owne If shee vndertake to appease the burning fire of the paine which afflicts her shee then employes and applies no other Physick but onely the remembrance of fore-past pleasures A weak and feeble Remedy which by this disioynted
and lame comparison insteed of diminishing doth exceedingly encrease and augment our paine As a great fire encreaseth by throwing a little water in it so our paine is the more incensed and exasperated by the image and remembrance of pleasure which presents it selfe to oppose it This grosse and stupid Ignorance which giues I know not what manner of patience to present euills and afflictions and carelesnesse to future sinister accidents is farre more aduantagious to humane Nature What neede is there that vnder the shewe and colour of good shee should come to discouer vs so tyrannicall a countenance and wayted and attended on by so many true euills and vexations and by her vaine and rash enterprise exposing to our sight the miserable estate of our condition Wee can neuer truly knowe our iust weight but in lifting our selues vp aboue the ground He who is well remoues not sayes the Italian prouerbe Nature had placed vs in a very firme and sure degree where wee ought to haue stayed Wee could not haue fallen from thence because it was the lowest step Man thinking to raise and eleuate himselfe higher hath prepared the danger of his owne fall Shee hath more liuely imprinted in our fancies their weight and greatnesse then the reasons and meanes to vanquish them I graunt that this Knowledge is the sweetest foode of the minde and that mans chiefest felicity proceedes from meditation But was it not farre better to haue exhausted and dried vp the head spring sith from thence is flowne the torrent of our miseries and afflictions The wisest and subtillest Philosophie is but folly to God and because wee are vpon reprehensions and reproaches wee may also accuse it to be guilty for the defect of those who haue separated and withdrawen themselues from the bosome of the Church It had beene better to haue failed to doe well for feare of some small euill which might ariue because wee farre more sensibly feele griefe then pleasure To man there is nothing more visible then good nor more sensible then euill We shal as litle feele a long health as the sweetnesse of a quiet and profound sleepe without dreames or interruption If we are troubled and tormented with an Ague that day which it ariued to vs shall of all the yeare be marked either with capitall or rubrick letters Our thoughts fix and tye themselues thereunto and they disdainfully steale ouer all the rest without seeing them and stop at nothing but at this displeasing remembrance In his health and possession he is peaceable of all other good things as those great riuers who in their beds and course commonly make small noyse and of his griefe it is as of those impetuous torrents and inundations which commonly by their precipitated motions astonish with their noyse and violence all those who dwell neere them Man knowes not his own good but by the absence and want thereof Hee cannot soundly iudge or esteeme of health but in his sicknesse Contrariwise the point of griefe and paine by reason of the feare we haue thereof which is as the shadow yea the true shadow which followes and deuanceth our body doth by her presence and his absence still afflict vs. Our senses fall into a swoon and slumber of ioy and are neuer awakened but by afflictions and sorrow Also shee is more moueable and inconstant then pleasure And if any extreame pleasure or voluptuousnesse will awaken vs and pinch vs with the sense and feeling thereof it must borrow I know not what point of griefe and paine which by a pleasing constraint will drawe from our tongue some tone of weeping and bewailing A peaceable life full of security and assurance and exempt and free from the stormes and tempests of Fortune resembleth a dead Sea without trouble or agitation as Demetrius affirmed But because in the estate whereunto the world is reduced As one said well It is easier to make a new then to reforme it Let vs leaue the Physitian to be calumniated and scandalized by him that is in health Buâ— for wee who languish in the assaults of euill and misery let vs shut our eyes to his imperfections If insteed of lancing our Impostume hee hath pricked vs neere it or hurted vs in any other delicate and sensible part of our body let vs not quarell with him for feare lest hee forsake and abandon vs and that thereby wee be doubly grieued and offended It may bee that hee will cure one or the other of our wounds but to beleeue that these remedies are so soueraine that all sorts of griefes and afflictions should and may hope for their entire cure thereof it is that which we cannot and therefore must not promise our selues Truth still giues the lye to flattery Great Alexander feeling himselfe wounded of an Arrow all the world said hee swore that I was the sonne of Iupiter but yet the bloud which streames from this my wound cries out wiâ—h a loud voyce that I am a man Let vs not thinke that Mineruas sonne and his dearest Fauorites haue any more dignified priuiledge The blowes of Fortune make them well remember that they are dull and stupid men because our body and the one halfe of our selues is a thing which wee possesse not but at his courtesie and mercie and whereof she hath farre more right and propriety then we The best Philosophie doth not indifferently cure all sorts of diseases and afflictions but without cherishing or diminishing the fauour which wee receiue thereof let vs endeuour not to esteeme it by its iust price and value Me thinkes that in this pilgrimage of our life shee resembleth the tree which the Traueller met in his way who if the weather be faire and cleare in beholding and considering it hee admires the beauty thereof and the sweetnesse and pleasantnesse of its fruit But if there happen any storme and shower of raine then hee flies vnder the branches thereof thereby to defend and shelter him from the iniurie of the weather although hee can difficultly so well saue and couer himselfe that he doe not yet feele many discommodities thereby But yet farre lesse by comparison then him who disdaining and contemning this shelter still continueth on his way and without any fence or defence whatsoeuer exposeth himselfe to the mercilesse mercy of the tempest When wee are at peace with Fortune there is no thing so sweet and pleasing as this Philosophie Doth Fortune regard vs with a bad eye Will she dart vpon vs the Arrowes of her choler then wee runne and arange our selues vnder this tree which as soone extendeth his branches ouer vs yea he weds our quarell and striues to defend the blowes or to quell and dead the violence thereof And yet wee cannot so well auoide it but yet there remaines many parts and places aboue vs whereby wee are exposed to the mercy of our enemie and to the point and fury of his choler The branches and shelâ—er of this tree may defend the Traueller from
her and without the fruit of this meditation which makes it so commendable A pretious Iewell indeed it is but farre more necessary to this little Common-weale for ornament and decencie then for absolute necessity For that which is in this manner necessary is vniuersall and equall as the heart is necessary to the life of man Reason is a faculty which although it haue her roote in the soule yet she cannot perfect her selfe without the assistance and concurrence of well disposed organes for the most accomplished is but errour iudge therefore what the most imperfect are it is but an accident whose defect changeth nothing the substance of Man Plato was no more a man then a common Porter was An inequality which sufficiently testifies that of absolute necessity it is not necessary to man But at last The Senses growe rebellious and mutinous and will proclaime their triumphes or Holliday in that which concernes their charge or duty of the minde because the minde so powerfully and soueraignly vsurpes vpon their iurisdiction and from this sedition as from the head spring or fountaine of all euills flowes the disorder and confusion which we finde in all things Arts and Learning are endomaged and damnified by the corruption of the senses which hauing no more right to iudge of good or euill will yet intermeddle to knowe true or false as is seene in those who denie Infinity because their grosse senses who would intrude themselues to bee parties in this difference can neuer agree with that which they cannot comprehend Or as those who denie the life or immortality of the Soule because they haue demaunded counsell of the senses which cannot approue of things so difficult and hard of disgestion and so seldome controuerted or proposed For the eye hath not seene nor the eare heard spoken of these discourses neither can Tast Smelling or Feeling giue any testimonies thereof To make them therefore know this Soule it must be as Cicero speakes of the Gods to the Epicurians not a body but as a body that it had not veines Arteries or bloud but as it were veines arteries and bloud that shee was and that shee was not that it had not a humane figure but as a humane figure not being able to represent the soule vnto vs no more then Painters who represent Angels vnder humane shapes and figures If Beasts could figure themselues out a God they would make him of their owne form and shape not beleeuing as an antient Philosopher affirmed that there is any fairer or better shaped then their owne And these men doe the same of the Soulâ— which they cannot otherwise comprehend or conceiue then vnder that of a body whose members possesse some place hauing her dimensions length breadth and depth vnder the very image and figure of man then which they beleeue there is no nobler or else they otherwise beleeue there is none at all or at least that it must be corporall So if it be corporall it must needes bee corruptible as indeede they themselues are wholly composed both of body and corruption And this is the preiudice which the Senses bring to those who haue caused it to bee beleeued in the iudgement which they should make of true or false But as the minde being farre more busie in motion and of a larger latitude and extent then the Senses hath caused a more apparant sensible and vniuersall disorder so shee will not allowe for good but onely that which is pleasing and delightfull to her She hath put new guards ouer all the goods of Nature and will not without her permission and consent that it should bee lawfull for vs to enioy any of them And yet neuerthelesse among those things which we hold and tearme good wee may easily obserue and remarke those that she hath charged corrupted Those goods which carie the marke and seale of Nature imprinted on their fore-heads doe content vs and satisfie and appease by their enioyance the burning desire which hath so violently caused vs to re-search and seeke them And contrariwise the others doe but encrease this feruent desire or thirst which the opinion and vice of our minde hath enkindled in vs The goods which are of his owne inuention doe neither appertaine to the minde or the body For they are neuters and indifferent The minde as it were commitâ—ing adultery with the body hath engendered them as so many Monsters which participate some thing both of the one and the other Of the minde the estimation price and value Of the body that which they containe in them of materiall and terrestriall That which they haue in them of more naturall or of speciall and indiuiduall difference doth not properly belong either to the one or the other It is reported That Mules who are a third different sort of beasts which two former haue propagated are incapable to engender So those goods or priuiledges of Nature which deriue their Being from such different Natures doe neuer of themselues engender any good either to the minde or the body They are instruments whereof we indifferently make vse either to good or euill and which for the most part serue onely to foment our vices and passions But as these good things are neuters and indifferent so the euill which likewise proceedes of his Artifice ought not to haue greater priuiledges and therefore the effect which they produce in vs which we tearme griefe or paine cannot be tearmed so but very wrongfully and abusiuely As imprisonment banishment losse of honours Pouerty offends neither the body nor the minde but is the chaine which onely presseth either the one or the other If the mind complaine it is too blame for it belongs to him onely to knowe true or false If he say that riches are good and pouerty euill the senses will giue him the lye thereto for they complaine not at least if they doe they doe it vniustly If our minde had made this proposition to wit That the oare or matter of gold resembles that of earth or that the difference proceedes not from the mixture of qualities and accidents wee must not appeale therein to our senses Or if the Eye would contradict this proposition because the colour of earth differs from that of gold hee should not bee receiued or beleeued as Iudge If our feeling would adde in his own behalfe that hee findes the one hard the other soft the one smooth and the other harsh and impollished yet it were false and it may be shewed them that it belongs onely to them to iudge of good or euill and not of true or false Wee must not then by the same reason tearme that good or euill but which onely the Senses will so please to doe or as true or false that which it shall please the minde to ordaine So then there is nothing which will beare the name and quality of paine but the contrary obiect to the inclination of our feeling thereof as long as it is present with him and