which is full of ripe understanding of considerate wisedome and of good directions and plots well and surely laied In which persons the white head and gray beard which some laugh and make good game at the crow-foot about the eies the furrowes in the forehead the rivels and wrinckles in the face besides appearing beare witnesse of long experience and adde unto them a reputation and authoritie which helpe much to perswade and to draw the minds of the hearers unto their will and purpose For to speake truely youth is made as it were to follow and obey but age to guide and command and that citie or State is preserved wherein the sage counsels of the elders and the martiall prowesse of the yonger beare sway together And for this cause highly and woonderfully are these verses following praised in Homer and namely in the first place Then to begin a goodly sort of ancient captaines bold Assembled he in Nestors ship a counsell there to hold upon the same reason also that counsel of the wisest and principall men assistant unto the kings of Lacedaemon for the better government of the State the oracle of Apollo Pythius first called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Elders and Lycurgus afterwards directly and plainly tearmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Old men and even at this very day the counsell of Estate in Rome is named a Senate that is to say an assembly of ancient persons And like as the law and custome time out of minde hath allowed unto Kings and Princes the diademe that is to say a roiall band or frontlet the crowne also to stand upon their heads as honourable mots ensignes of their regall dignitie and sovereigne authoritie even so hath nature given unto olde men the white head and hoarie beard as honourable tokens of their right to command and of their preeminence above others And for mine owne part I verily thinke that this nowne in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a prize or reward of honour as also the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as to honour continue still in use as respective to the honour due unto olde men who in Greeke are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for that they bathe in hot waters or sleepe in softer beds but because in cities well and wisely governed they be ranged with kings for their prudence the proper and perfect goodnesse whereof as of some tree which yeeldeth winter fruit which is not ripe before the latter end of the yeere nature bringeth forth late and hardly in olde age and therefore there was not one of those martiall and brave couragious captaines of the Greeks who found fault with that great king of kings Agamemnon for making such a praier as this unto the gods That of the Grecian host which stood of many woorthie men Such counsellers as Nestor was they would vouchsafe him ten but they all agreed with him and by their silence confessed That not onely in policie and civill government but also in warre olde age carrieth a mightie great stroke for according as the ancient proverbe beareth witnesse One head that knowes full wisely for to reed Out goesten hands and maketh better speed One advice likewise and sentence grounded upon reason and delivered with perswasive grace effecteth the greatest and bravest exploits in a whole State Well say that olde age hath many difficulties and discommodities attending upon it yet is not the same therefore to be rejected for the absolute rule of a king being the greatest and most perfect estate of all governments in the world hath exceeding many cares travels and troubles insomuch as it is written of king Seleucus that he would often-times say if the people wist how laborious and painfull it were to reade and write onely so many letters as he did they would not deine to take up his diademe if they found it throwen in their very way as they goe And Philip being at the point to pitch his campe in a faire ground when he was advertised that the place would not affoord forage for his labouring beasts O Hercules quoth he what a life is this of ours that we must live forsooth and care to serve the necessitie of our asses Why then belike it were high time to perswade a king when he is aged for to lay downe his diademe to cast off his robes of purple to clad himselfe in simple array to take a crooked staffe in hand and so to go and live in the countrey for feare lest if he with his gray haires raigned stil he should seeme to do many superfluous and impertinent things and to direct matters out of season Now if it were unseemely and a meere indignitie to deale with Agesilaus with Numa and Darius all kings and monarchs after this sort unmeet likewise it is that we should remove and displace Solon out of the counsell of Areopagus or depose Cato from his place in the Romane Senate because of their olde age Why should we then goe about to perswade such an one as Pericles to give over and resigne his government in a popular State for over besides there were no sense at all that if one have leapt and mounted into the tribunall seat or chaire of estate in his yoong yeeres and afterwards discharged upon the people common-wealth those his violent passions of ambition and other furious fits when ripe age is now come which is woont to bring with it discretion and much wisdome gathered by experience to abandon and put away as it were his lawfull wife the government which hee hath so long time abused The foxe in Aesops fables would not suffer the urchin to take off the tiques that were setled upon her bodie For if quoth she thou take away these that be already full there will come other hungry ones in their place and even so if a State rejected evermore from administration of the common-wealth those governours that begin once to be olde it must needs be quickly full of a sort of yoong rulers that be hungrie and thirstie both after glory but altogether void of politike wit and reason to governe for how can it otherwise be and where should they get knowledge if they have not bene disciples to learne nor spectatours to follow and imitate some ancient magistrate that manageth state affaires The Cards at sea which shew the feat of sailing and ruling ships can not make good sea-men or skilfull pilots if they have not beene themselves many times at the stearne in the poope to see the maner of it and the conflicts against the waves the winds the blacke stormes and darke tempests What time in great perplexitie The mariner doth wish to see Castor and Pollux twins full bright Presaging safetie with their light How then possibly can a yoong man governe and direct a citie well perswade the people aright deliver wise counsel in the Senate having but read one little booke treating of pollicy or haply
how can he deserve quoth Ariston to be commended who is kind and friendly to wicked persons Another reproved Hecataeus a professour in Rhetoricke who being invited to eat with them at their seasts which they call Syssitia spake never a word all dinner time unto whom he made this answere It seemeth that you are ignorant that he who knoweth how to speake wel can skil likewise of the time when it is good to speake and when to keepe silence ARCHIDAMUS the sonne of Zeuxidamus when one asked him who they were that governed the citie Sparta answered The lawes first and then the magistrates who ruled according to those lawes When he heard one praising exceedingly a plaier on the harpe and for his skill in musicke having him in singular admiration My friend quoth he what honourable reward shall they have at your hands who be men of prowesse and valour when you commend so highly an harper Another recommended unto him a musician and said Oh what an excellent chaunter is there This is quoth he even as much as a good cooke or maker of pottage among us meaning that there was no difference at all betweene giving pleasure by sound of voice or instruments and the dressing of viands or seasoning sewes One promised to give him wine that was very sweet and pleasant And to what purpose quoth he considering that it serveth but for to draw on more wine and to make folke drinke the rather and besides to cause men to be lesse valiant and unfit for any good things Lying at siege before the city of Corinth he marked how there were hares started even close under the walles thereof upon which sight he said thus to those that served with him Our enemies are easie to be surprised and caught when they are so lazie and idle as to suffer hares to lie and harbour hard under their citie walles even within the trench and towne-ditch He had bene chosen an umpire betweene two parties who were at variance for to make them friends and he led them both into the temple of Diana surnamed Chalceaecos where he willed them both to promise and sweare laying their hands upon the altar of that goddesse that they would both twaine observe from point to point whatsoever he should award which they undertooke to doe and bound it with an oath accordingly I judge then quoth he that neither of you both shall depart out of this temple before you have made an attonement and pacified all quarrels betweene you Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily had sent unto his daughters certeine rich robes to weare but he refused them and said I greatly feare that when they have this raiment upon them they will seeme more foule and ilfavoured than now they do Seeing his owne sonne in a battell fighting desperately against the Athenians Either quoth he augment thy strength or abate thy courage ARCHIDAMUS the sonne of Agesilaus when king Philip after the battell which he had won against the Greeks neere vnto Cheronea wrote unto him a rough and sharpe letter returned unto him backe againe this answere in writing If you take measure now of your owne shadow you shall finde it no bigger than it was before the victorie Being demanded the question upon a time how farre the territory of the Lacedaemonians did extend he answered Even as farre as they can reach with their javelins Periander the physician was a sufficient man in his art and esteemed with the best and most excellent howbeit he wrote in verse but with a bad grace unto whom he said one day thus I marvell much Periander whether you had rather be named an ill poet or a good physician In the warre which the Lacedaemonians made against King Philip some gave him counsell to be wel advised where he fought and to battell as far as he could from his owne countrey unto whom he replied againe This is not the thing quoth hee that wee ought to regard but rather to consider and thinke upon this how we may quit our selves so well in fight that we be winners in the end And to those who praised him for that he had woonne a field of the Arcadians he made this answer It had beene better that we had overcome them rather in wisedome and prudence than in might and force About the time that hee entred by force force and armes into the countrey of Arcadia being advertised that the Eleans sent aide and succor unto the Arcadians he wrate unto them in this sort Archidamus to the Eleans greeting A blessed thing it is to be quiet at repose When the confederate allied nations in the Peloponnesiacke warre demaunded how much money would serve for the defraying of the charges to the said warre belonging and requested him to taxe each one how much they should contribute War quoth he knoweth no sum is not waged at any certaine rate Seeing a shot which was levelled from an engine of batterie newly brought out of Sicily O Hercules quoth he now is mans prowesse gone for ever And for that the Greeks would not give credit and be perswaded by him to performe those conditions of peace which had beene made with Antigonus and Craterus two Macedonians for to live in their ancient libertie alledging that the Lacedaemonians would be lords more rigorous and insupportable than the Macedonians The sheepe quoth he hath alwaies one and the same voice but man changeth it oftentimes in divers sorts untill he have brought about and finished his desseignes ASTICRATIDAS when one said after that King Agis had lost the field to Antigonus about the citie Megale O poore Lacedaemonians what will you doe now will you become slaves to the Macedonians answered thus And why so Can Antigonus forbid and let us but we will die in fight for Sparta BIAS being surprised by an ambush which was laid for him by Iphicrates captaine of the Athenians when his souldiers said Now captaine what is to be done What else quoth hee but to advise you to save your selves and to resolve my selfe for to die in fight BRASIDAS found among dried figs a mouse that bit him by the hand so as he was glad to let her goe whereupon he said unto those that were present Lo how there is not the least creature that may be but it is able to make shift and save it life in case it have but the heart to defend it selfe against those who assaile it In a certaine skirmish he was wounded with a javelling thorow his buckler and when he had drawen the head out of his bodie with the verie same weapon he slew his enemie who had hurt him and to those who asked him how he came so wounded he answered thus Because my buckler deceived me When he put himselfe into his journey to the warres he wrote thus unto the Ephori All that is requisite for this warre as touching the warre do I will to my power or die for it After he had lost his life in
saying of his likewise by the love and affection which he caried unto wisdome and mens of knowledge In briefe his acts be evident proofes of his vertue and in no wise of the temerity and rashnesse of fortune But even in this very place Plutarch hath broken off his treatise leaving the end thereof defectuous namely where he began to discourse of the contempt of death and of the constant resolution of Alexander against the most churlish and boisterous assaultes of fortune OF THE FORTUNE OR vertue of K. Alexander THese are the sayings and allegations of fortune affirming and proving that Alexander was her owne peculiar peece of worke and to be ascribed unto her alone But we must gainesay her in the name and behalfe of Philosophy or rather of Alexander himselfe who taketh it not wel but is highly displeased that he should be thought to have received his empire at fortunes hand gratis and as a meere gift and benefit which he had bought and purchased with sheding much of his owne blood and receiving many a wound one upon another Who many restlesse nights did passe Without all sleepe full broad awake And many a bloody day there was Whiles be in field did skirmish make Whiles he fought against forces and armies invincible against nations innumerable rivers impassable rocks inaccessible and such as no shot of arrow could ever reach accompanied alwaies with prudent counsell constant patience resolute valour and staied temperance And verily I am perswaded that himself would say unto fortune chalenging unto herselfe he honor of his hautie worthy acts in this maner Come not heere either to deprave my vertue or to deprive me of my due honor in ascribing it unto thy selfe Darius was indeed a peece of worke made by thee whom of a base servitor no better than a currior or lackey to a king thou didest advance and make the lord of the Persians Sardanapalus likewise was thy handy worke upon whose head when he was earding and spinning fine purple wooll among women thou diddest set the imperiall diademe As for me I mounted up and ascended as farre as to Susa with victory after the battell at Arbela The conquest of Cilicia made the way open for me to enter into Aegypt and the field that I wan at the river Granicus which I passed over going upon the dead budies of Mithridates and Spithridates leutenants to the king of Persia gave me entrance into Cilcia Vaunt now and boast as much as thou wilt of those kings who never were wounded in figat nor lost one drop of their blood These say may well be counted fortunate and thy derlings Ochus I meane Artaxerxes whom immediately from the very day of their nativity thou hast enstalled in the roial throne of Cyrus But this body of mine carieth the markes tokens of fortune not favourable and gracious but contrariwise adverse and opposit unto me First in Illyricum I had my head broken with a great stone and my necke brused and crushed with a Pestill Afterwards in the journey and battell of Granicus my head was cloven with a Barbarians cimeter At the field fought neere Issus my thigh was run through with a sword before the city of Gaza I was shot through the ancle above my foot with one arrow and into the shoulder with another whereupon I was unhorsed and falling heavy in mine armour out of my saddle I lay there for dead upon the ground Among the Maracadarts my shin bone was cut in sunder with shotof quarels and arrowes Besides many a knocke wound which I gat among the Indians and every where I met with hot service among them untill I was shot quite through the shouder Another time as I fought against the Gandridae I had the bone of my leg cut in twame with another shot likewise in a skirmish with the Mallotae I caught an arrow in my brest and bosome which went so farre and stucke so fast that it left the head behinde and with the rap and knocke of an iron pestill my necke bone was crushed And at what time as the skaling ladders reared against the wals brake fortune enclosed and shut me up alone to fight and maintaine combate not against noble concurrents and renowmed enimies but obscure and simple Barbarous soldiers gracing and gratifying them thus farre forth as that they went with in a little of taking away my life And had not Ptolemaeus come betweene and covered me with his targuet had not Limnaeus in defence of me opposed his owne body and received many a thousand darts and there lost his life in the place for me had not I say the Macedonians by force of armes and resolure courage broken downe the wall and laid it along certes that base village that Barbarous burrow of no name had bene at this day the sepulcher of Alexander Furthermore all that journey and expedition of mine what was it else but tempestuous stormes extreame heat and drought rivers of an infinit depth mountaines so exceeding high as no bird could flie over them monstrous beasts and so huge withall as they were hideous and terrible to be seene strange and savage fashions of life revolts of disloiall states and governours yea and afterwards their open treasons and rebellions And as for that which went before his voiage all Greece panting still and trembling for remembrance of the warres which they endured under his farther Philip now up their head The city of Athens now shaking off from their armour the dust of the battell at Chaeronea began to rise againe and recover themselves after that overthrow To it joined Thebes and put forth their helping and. All Macedonia was suspected and stood in doubtfull termes as enclining to Amyntas and the children of Acropus The Illyrians brake out into open warres and make hostile invasions The Scythians hung in equall ballance uncertaine which side to take expecting what their neighbours would doe that began to stir and revolt Besides the good gold of Persia which had found the way into the purses of orators and governors of every citie made all Peloponnesus to rise in armes The coffers of Philip his father were emptie and had no treasure in them but in insteed thereof they were indebted and paid interest as Onesicritus writeth for two hundred talents In these great wants in such poverty and so troubled a state see a yong man newly come out of his infancie childhood durst hope and assuredly looke for to be lord of Babylon and Susa nay to speake more truely and in a word he intended in his designements the conquest of the whole world and that with a power onely of thirty thousand fooumen and foure thousand horse for no greater forces brought he into the field as Aristobulus reporteth or according as king Ptolemaeus writeth they were thirty thousand foot and five thousand three hundred footmen and five thousand five hundred horsemen Now all the glorious meanes and great provision for the maintenance and
especially of liquid things as wine Lichanos A string of an instrument or note in Musicke Index In an instrument the fore-finger string or third in the GAM-UT or skale D SOL RE and C SOL RE UT according to the addition of Hypatōn or Mesōn 〈◊〉 Any publicke function but more particularly for the ministerie in the church about divine service and worship of God Lydius Modus Lydian Musicke dolefull and lamentable Lyceum or Lycium A famous place neere to Athens wherein Aristotle taught Philosophie His followers because they conferred and disputed walking in this Lyceum were called Peripatetici Lyrical poets Such as composed ditties and songs to be sung unto the Lute or such like stringed instruments M MArcus M' Manius with the note of apostrophus Forenames of sundry houses in Rome Medimnus A measure conteining sixe Modij Romane and may goe with us for a bushel and three pecks of London measure or thereabout Megarian questions that is to say Such as were propounded and debated among the Philosophers Megarenses for there was a sect of them taking name of the place like as the Cyrenaiks for Euclides and Stilpo were Megarians Mercenarie that is to say Hirelings or such as take wages Mese The middle string or meane it endeth on Eight and beginneth the other in the skale of Musicke In the GAM UT A LA MI RE. Metamorphosed that is to say Transmuted and changed Metaphysicks that is to say Supernaturall The first and principall part of Philosophy in the intention although it be last atteined unto as unto which all other knowledge serveth and is to be referred The Philosophers Theologie or Divinity treating of intelligible and visible things Meteors Be impressions gathered in the aire above as thunder lightning blasing stars and such like Mimi Were actours upon the stage representing ridiculously the speech and gesture of others jesters and vices in a play Also certeine Poemes or plaies more lascivious than Comoedies and fuller of obscoene wantonnesse The authors of such were called Minographi as Laberius Mina or Mna A weight answering to Libra that is to say a pound Also coine valued at so much Minervall The stipend or wages paid unto a Schoole-master for the institution and teaching of scholars derived of Minerva the president of learning and good arts Mixolidian tune that is to say Lamentable and pitifull meet for Tragoedies Monarchie The absolute government of a state by one prince Roialty Mordicative that is to say Biting and stinging as mustard seed Pelletary of Spaine Muscles The brawny or fleshy parts of the bodie Mythologie A fabulous Narration or the delivery of matters by way of fables and tales N NEmeia Certaine solemne games instituted in the honour of Hercules for killing a lion in the forest Nemea or as some thinke in the remembrance of Archemorus a yong babe killed by a serpent Nete The lowest or last string in an instrument answering to the treble and opposite to Hypate Some take it cleane contrary for the base See Hypate and Erasmus upon the Adage Dis diapason Nete Diezeugmenon A treble string or note of musicke last of disjuncts E LA MI. Nete Hyperbolaean the last of trebles A LA Mi RE. Nete Synnemmenon or Syzeugmenon The last of the conjuncts a string or note in musicke D La SOL. Niglary Are thought to be notes or tunes in musicke powerfull to encourage See Scholiast in Aristoph Nones Were certaine daies in the moneth so called because they began evermore the ninth day before the Ides honored by the Romans both for the birth day of king Servius and also for the chasing out of the kings for otherwise it was not festivall according as Ovid writeth Nonarum tutela deo caret Novenary number that is to say Nine O OBolus A certeine weight halfe a scriptul or scrupul the sixt part of a drachme or somewhat better in Greece also a small coine currant for eight chalci which in silver is a peny and saithing Octaedra A Geometricall body of eight bases sides or faces distinct by their angles Oeconomie House-governement or the Administration and dispose of houshold affaires Oligarchi A state of governement wherein a few and those properly of the welthier sort rule the common wealth Olympiades were the space of those foure yeeres according to which the Grecians reckoned the time as the Romans did by their lustra and Christians by the yeere of our lord Olympicke or Olympian games were instituted first by Hercules in the honour of Jupiter Olymptus or of Pelops as some thinke and celebrated with a solemne affluence and concourse from all parts of Greece every foure yeeres complet once betweene Pisa and Elis in a plaine called Olympta where also stood the temple of Jupiter Olympius Oracle An answere or sentence given by the devil or the supposed gods of the 〈◊〉 also the place where such answeres were delivered Organe An Instrument And our body is said to be Organicall because the soule performeth her operations by the parts thereof as instruments Orthios Nomos In musicke a tune or song exceeding high and incentive which when Timotheus sung before king Alexander he was so moved and incited that presently he leapt foorth and tooke armes Orthographi That part of Grammar which teacheth the feat of writing truely also true writing it selfe Ostracisme In Athens A condemnation and confining for ten yeeres space of that person who was thought to grow greater in wealth reputation and opinion of vertue or otherwise than the democratic or free popular estate would well beare ordained first by Clisthenes who for his labour was himselfe first condemned It tooke the name of Ostratos a shell or little potsherd wherein his name was written whom any of the people was in that behalfe offended with and meant to expell the city And if the major part of the people noted one in this maner he was sent away It differed from banishment because no person lost by Ostracisme goods or lands againe the time was limited and the certaine place set downe where he should abide In this sort Aristides the just valiant Themistocles and other good men were driven out Oxyrynchos A fish so called of a long sharpe beake or snout that it hath P PAean The name of Apollo An hymne also to Apollo and Diana for to avert plague warre or any calamity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to strike or to heale or of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stay or make to cease Paederastî The loving of yong boies commonly taken in the ill part as signifying the abuse of them against kinde Paegnta Pleasant poems or merry ditties for delight Paeon or Paeon The name of Apollo and of a metricall foot in verse of which Paeans are composed and it is duple to wit of foure sillables either the first long and the other three short or the first short and the other three long it is named also Paean also an epithet of Apollo To Palliat that is to say To
bred unlovely and having no grace with them But herein is the very height of wickednesse that these flatterers for advantage will not spare their owne selves For like as wrestlers debase their owne bodies and stoupe downe low otherwhiles for to overthrow their fellowes that wrestle with them and to lay them along on the ground so in blaming and finding many faults with themselves they winde in and creepe closely to the praise and admiration of others I am quoth one of them a very coward and no better than a verie slave at sea I can away with no labour and travell in the world I am all in a heat of choler and raging mad if I heare that one hath given me any bad termes mary as for this man meaning him whom he flattereth he casteth doubts at no perill and danger all is one with him sea or land he can endure all hardnesse and he counteth nothing painfull no hurt there is in him a singular man he is and hath not his fellow he is angry at nothing he beareth all with patience But say he meet with one at aventure which standeth upon his owne bottome and hath some great opinion of his owne sufficiency for wit and understanding who hath a desire to be austere and not to depend upon the conceits of others but resteth in his owne judgement and upon a certaine uprightnesse in himselfe eftsoones hath these verses in his mouth Sir Diomede do not me praise So much to more or lesse Nor out of measure me dispraise I love not such excesse This flatterer then who is this owne crafts-master and hath thoroughly learned his trade goeth not the old way to worke in setting upon him but he hath another engin and device in store to assaile such a grim sir withall He will make an errand to him for counsell in his owne affaires as being the man whom he esteemeth to have more wit and wisdome than himselfe There be divers others quoth he with whom I have better acquaintance and familiaritie than with your selfe Howbeit sir I am forced of necessitie to make bold and to importune you a little For whither else should wee ingram men repaire that have neede of advice and to whom are we to have recourse in matters of trust and secresie And then after he hath heard once what he will say and it makes no matter what it be he will take his leave saying that he hath received not counsell from a man but an oracle from some god Now before he departeth if haply he perceive that he taketh upon him good skill and insight in litterature he wil present unto him some compositions of his owne penning praying him withall to peruse them yea and to correct the same Mithridates the king affected and loved the art of Physicke verie well by reason whereof some of his familiar friends about him came and offered themselves to be cut and cauterised by him which was a meere flatterie in deed and not in word For it seemed that they gave great testimonie of his soule in that they put their lives into his hands Of subtile spirits thus you may see That many formes and shapes there be But this kind of dissimuled praises requiring greater and more warie circumspection to be taken heed of if a man would detect and convince hee ought of purpose when hee is tempted and assailed with such flatterie to obtrude and propose unto the flatterer absurd counsell if he seeme to damaund and aske it advertisements also and properly of the same kinde yea and corrections without all sense and to no purpose when he shall offer his labours to be read and perused In so doing if he perceive the partie suspected to be a flatterer doth not gainesay nor contradict any thing but alloweth of all and receiveth the same yea and more than that when he shall to everie point crie out and say Oh well said and sufficiently O excellent wit be sure then he is caught in a trap they I say it will be found plainely according to the common by-word That when he did a watchword crave Some other thing he sought to have Or as we say in Proverb old Draffe was his errand but drinke he would that is to say he waited for some occasion and opportunitie by praising to puffe him up with vanitie and overweening of himselfe Moreover like as some have defined painting to be a mute Poësie even so praising is a kind of silent and secret flatterie Hunters we see then soonest deceive the poore beasts when they seeme to do nothing lesse then to hunt making semblance as though they either travelled like wayfaring men or rended their flocks or else tilled the ground Semblably flatterers touch those whom they flatter neerest and enter to the verie quicke by praising when they make no shew thereof but seeme to do nothing lesse than praise For he that giveth the chaire and seat to another comming in place or as he is making an oration either in publike place before the people or in Councell house to the Senate breaketh off his owne speech and yeeldeth unto him his roome giving him leave to speake or to opine and remaineth silent himselfe by this his silence sheweth that he doth repute the other a better man and of more sufficiencie for wisedome and knowledge than himselfe much more than if he should pronounce and ring it out aloude to the whole audience And hereupon it is that this sort of people who make profession of faltterie take up ordinarily the first and highest seats aswell at sermons and publike orations whither men flocke to heare as at the Theaters and shewen places not that they thinke themselves worthic of such places but because they may rise and make roome for better richer persons as they come and thereby slatter them kindly This we see also that in solemne assemblies and great meetings or auditories they are by their good wils the first that put themselves forth and make offer to begin speech but it is for nothing else but that afterward they would seeme to quit the place and give assent to their betters soone retracting their owne opinions when they heare a mightie man a rich or noble personage in authoritie to contradict and say the contrarie And here we ought most of all to be circumspect and warie that we may evict them of this That all this courting this giving place this yeelding of the victorie and reverence made unto others is not for any more sufficiencie that they acknowledge in them for their knowledge experience and vertues ne yet for their worthinesse in regard of elder age but only for their wealth riches credit and reputation in the world Megabysus a great Lord belonging to the kings court of Persia came upon a time to visit Apelles the painter and sitting by him in his shop to see him worke began of his owne accord to discourse I wot not what of lines shadowes and other matters belonging to
his art Apelles hearing him could not hold but said unto him See you not sir these litle prentise boies here that grinde Oker and other colours So long as you sate still and said never a word they advised you well and their eie was never off wondering to see your rich purple robes your chaines and jewels of gold no sooner began you to speake but they fell to teighing and now they laugh you to skorne talking thus as you doe of those things which you never learned And Solon being demaunded once by Craesus King of Lydia what men he had seene whom he reputed most happie in this world named unto him one Tellus none of the great men of Athens but a good plaine and meane citizen Cleobis also and Biton and these he said were of all others most fortunate But these flatterers will affirme that Kings and Princes rich men and rulers are not onely blessed happie and fortumate but also excell all others in wisedome knowledge and vertue There is not one of them that can endure so much as to heare the Stoicks who hold that the sage and wise man such a one as they depaint unto us ought all at once to be called rich faire noble yea and a king whereas our flatterers will have the rich man onely whom they are disposed to flatter to be an Oratour and a Poet yea and if he will himselfe a painter a good piper passing light of foote and strong of limmes insomuch as whosoever wrestleth with him shall be sure to take the foile and lye along and whomsoever he runneth with in the race he shal come behinde him a faire deale but how Surely even as Crisson the Himeraean lagged for the nonce behind King Alexander the Great when he ran with him for the best game for which the King was highly displeased wroth at him when he once perceved it Carneades was woont to say that the sons of Kings and great rich men learned to do nothing well and right but onely to sit and ride an horse For that their masters are woont to flatter and praise them in all their schooles where they be taught for if they be at the exercise of wrestling you shall have him that wrestleth with them of purpose to take a fall and lie under them Marie the horse not knowing nor having the reason to discerne a private mans sonne from a prince nor whether he be poore or rich that sits upon his backe will be sure to cast him over his head and lay him along whosoever he be that cannot skill how to hold and rule him Bion therefore was but a verie lob and foole in saying thus If I wist that with praising a peece of ground I could make it good rich and fertile it should want for no praises and rather would I commend it than toile and moile in digging tilling doing worke about it And yet I will not say that a man is too blame and doth amisse in praising if so be that those who are praised be the better and more fruitfull in all good things for it Howbeit to come againe into the ground before said a field being praised never so much is not the worse nor lesse fertile therefore but I assure you they that commend folke falsely and beyond their desert and due puffe them full of winde and vanitie and worke their overthrow in the end But now having discoursed sufficiently upon this article and point of praises let us proceed forward to treat of franknes and libertie of speech And verily meete and reason it had beene that as Patroclus when he put on the armour of Achilles and brought forth his horses of service to battell durst not meddle with his speare Pelias but left it onely untouched so a flatterer also although he maske and disguise himselfe withother habits ornaments and ensignes of a friend should let this libertie onely of speech alone and not once go about to touch or counterfeit it as being indeed A baston of such poise and weight So big withall so stiffe and streight that of all others it belongeth onely to friendship for to be caried and welded by it But for as much as our flatterers now a daies are afraid to be detected in laughing in their cups in their jests scoffes and gamesome mirth therefore to avoide such discovery they have learned forsooth to knit and bend the browes they can skill iwis to flatter and yet looke with a frowning face and crabbed countenance they have the cast to temper with their glavering gloses some rough reprehensions and chiding checks among let us not overpasse this point untouched but consider and examine the same likewise For mine owne part I am of this minde That as in a Comedie of Menander there comes in a counterfeit Hercules to play his part upon the stage with a club on his shoulder that is you may bee sure nothing massie heavie stiffe and strong but some device and gawd hollow and emptie within made of browne paper or such like stuffe Even so that plaine and free speech which a slatterer useth will bee found light soft and without any strength at all to give a blow much like to say truly unto the soft bed pillowes that women lie on which seeming full and plumpe to resist and beare out against their heads yeeld and sinke under the same so much the more For after the same maner this counterfeit free speech of theirs puffed up full of winde or else sluffed with some deceitfull light matter seemeth to rise up to swell and beare out hard stiffe to the end that being pressed downe once and both sides as it were comming together it might receive enlap and enfold him that chaunceth to fall thereupon and so carie him away with it Whereas the true and friendly libertie of speech indeed taketh hold of those that are delinquent and do offend bringing with it a kinde of paine for the time which notwithstanding is holsome and healthfull resembling heerein the nature of honie which being applied to a sore or ulcerous place at the first doth smart and sting but it doth clense and mundifie withall and otherwise is profitable sweete and pleasant But as touching this plaine dealing and franke speech I will write a part of purpose in place convenient As for the flatterer he maketh shew at the first that he is rough violent and inexorable in all dealings with others For over his servants he carieth a hard hand and is not pleased with their service with his familiars acquaintance and kinsfolke he is sharpe and eager ready to finde fault with every thing he maketh no reckoning nor account of any man but himselfe he despiseth and disdaineth all the world besides there is not a man living that he will pardon and forgive he blameth and accuseth every one and his whole studie is to is win the name reputation of a man that hateth vice in that regard careth not whom he doth provoke
mire confessing and declaring I wot not what sinnes and offenses that he hath committed to wit that he hath eaten or drunke this or that which his god would not permit that he hath walked or gone some whither against the will and leave of the divine power Now say he be of the best sort of these superstitious people and that he labour but of the milder superstition yet will he at leastwise sit within house having about him a number of all kindes of sacrifices and sacred aspersions yee shall have old witches come and bring all the charmes spels and sorceries they can come by and hang them about his necke or other parts of his bodie as it were upon a stake as Bion was woont to say It is reported that Tyribasus when he should have beene apprehended by the Persians drew his cemiter and as hee was a valiant man of his hands defended himselfe valiantly but so soone as they that came to lay hands on him cried out and protested that they were to attach him in the kings name by commission from his Majestie he laid downe his weapon aforesaid immediately and offred both his hands to be bound and pinnioned And is not this whereof we treat the semblable case whereas others withstand their adversitie repell and put backe their afflictions and worke all the meanes they can for to avoide escape and turne away that which they would not have to come upon them A superstitious person will heare no man but speake in this wise to himselfe Wretched man that thou art all this thou suffrest at the hands of God and this is befallen unto thee by his commandement and the divine providence all hope hee rejecteth he doth abandon and betray himselfe and looke whosoever come to succour and helpe him those he shunneth and repelleth from him Many crosses there be and calamities in the world otherwise moderate and tolerable which superstition maketh mischievous and incurable That ancient King Midas in old time being troubled and disquieted much in his minde as it should seeme with certaine dreames and visions in the end fell into such a melancholy and despaire that willingly he made himselfe away by drinking buls blood And Aristodemus king of Messenians in that warre which he waged against the Lacedaemonians when it hapned that the dogs yelled and houled like wolves and that there grew about the altar of his house the herbe called Dent de chien or Dogs grasse whereupon the wisards and soothsayers were afraid as of some tokens presaging evill conceived such an inward griefe tooke so deepe a thought that he fell into desperation and killed himselfe As for Nicias the Generall of the Athenian armie haply it had beene farre better that by the examples of Midas and Aristodemus he had beene delivered and rid from his superstition than for feare of the shadow occasioned by the eclipse of the moone to have sitten stil as he did and do nothing untill the enemies environed and enclosed him round about and after that fortie thousand of Athenians were either put to the sword or taken prisoners to come alive into the hands of his enemies and lose his life with shame and dishonor for in the darkenesse occasioned by the opposition of the earth just in the mids betweene the sunne and the moone whereby her body was shadowed and deprived of light there was nothing for him to feare and namely at such a time when there was cause for him to have stood upon his feet and served valiantly in the field but the darkenesse of blinde superstition was dangerous to trouble and confound the judgement of a man who was possessed therewith at the very instant when his occasions required most the use of his wit and understanding The sea already troubled is With billowes blew within the sound Up to the capes and clifs arise Thicke mistie clouds which gather round About their tops where they do seat Fore-shewing shortly tempests great A good and skilful pilot seeing this doth well to pray unto the gods for to escape the imminent danger and to invocate and call upon those saints for helpe which they after call Saviours but all the while that he is thus at his devout praiers he holdeth the helme hard he letteth downe the crosse saile-yard Thus having struck the maine saile downe the mast He scapes the sea with darknesse overcast Hesiodus giveth the husbandman a precept before he begin to drive the plough or sow his seede To Ceres chaste his vowes to make To Jove likewise god of his land Forgetting not the while to take The end of his plough-taile in hand And Homer bringeth in Ajax being at the point to enter into combat with Hector willing the Greeks to pray for him unto the gods but whiles they praied he forgat not to arme himselfe at all pieces Semblablie Agamemnon after he had given commandement to his souldiours who were to fight Ech one his launce and speare to whet His shield likewise fitly to set then and not before praieth unto Iupiter in this wise O Iupiter vouchsafe me of thy grace The stately hall of Priamus to race for God is the hope of vertue and valour not the pretense of sloth and cowardise But the Iewes were so superstitious that on their Sabbath sitting still even whiles the enemies reared their scaling ladders and gained the walles of their citie they never stirred foot nor rose for the matter but remained fast tied and inwrapped in their superstition as it were in a net Thus you see what superstition is in those occurrences of times and affaires which succeed not to our minde but contrary to our will that is to say in adversity and as for times and occasions of mirth when all things fall out to a mans desire it is no better than impietie or atheisme and nothing is so joyous unto man as the solemnitie of festivall holidaies great feasts and sacrifices before the temples of the gods the mysticall and sacred rites performed when wee are purified and cleansed from our sinnes the ceremoniall service of the gods when wee worship and adore them in which all a superstitious man is no better than the Atheist for marke an Atheist in all these he will laugh at them untill he be ready to go beside himselfe these toies will set him I say into a fit of Sardonian laughing when he shall see their vanities and other-whiles he will not sticke to say softly in the eare of some familiar friend about him What mad folke be these how are they out of their right wits and enraged who suppose that such things as these doe please the gods Setting this aside there is no harme at all in him As for the superstitious person willing he is but not able to joy and take pleasure for his heart is much like unto that city which Sophocles describeth in these verses Which at one time is full of incense sweet Resounding mirth with loud triumphant song And yet the
of their transmigration named thereupon Metageitnion yea and do celebrate a festivall holiday and sacrifice which in memoriall of that remooving they call Metagetnia for that this passage of theirs into another neighbourhood they received and interteined right willingly with joy and much contentment I suppose you wil never say so Now tell me what part of this earth habitable or rather of the whole globe and compasse thereof can be said farre distant or remote one from the other seeing that the Mathematicians are able to proove and make demonstration by reason that the whole in comparison and respect of heaven or the firmament is no more than a very pricke which hath no dimension at al But we like unto pismires driven out of our hole or in maner of bees dispossessed of our hive are cast downe and discomforted by and by and take our selves to be foreiners and strangers for that we know not how to esteeme and make all things our owne familiar and proper unto us as they be And yet we laugh at the folly of him who said That the moone at Athens was better than at Corinth being in the meane while after a sort in the same error of judgement as if when we are gon a journey from the place of our habitation we should mistake the earth the sea the aire and the skie as if they were others and farre different from those which we are accustomed unto for Nature hath permitted us to goe and walke through the world loose and at libertie but we for our parts imprison our selves and we may thanke our selves that we are pent up in straight roomes that we be housed and kept within wals thus of our owne accord we leape into close and narrow places and notwithstanding that we do thus by our selves yet we mocke the Persian Kings for that if it be true which is reported of them the drinke all of the water onely of the river Choaspes by which meanes they make all the continent besides waterlesse for any good they have by it whereas even we also when we travell and remoove into other countries have a longing desire after the river Cephisus or Eurotas yea and a minde unto the mountaine Taigetus or the hill Pernassus whereby upon a most vaine and foolish opinion all the world besides is not onely void of water but also like a desert without citie and altogether inhabitable unto us Contrariwise certaine Egyptians by occasion of some wrath and excessive 〈◊〉 of their King minding to remoove into Ethiopia when as their kinsfolke and friends requested them to turne backe againe and not to forsake their wives and children after a shamelesse manner shewing unto them their genitall members answered them That they would neither want wives nor children so long as they carried those about them But surely a man may avouch more honestlie and with greater modestie and gravitie that hee who in what place soever feeleth no want or misse of those things which be necessarie for this life cannot complaine and say That he is there out of his owne countrey without citie without his owne house and habitation or a stranger at all so as he onely have as he ought his eie and understanding bent hereunto for to stay and governe him in maner of a sure anchor that he may be able to make benefit and use of any haven or harborough whatsover he arriveth unto For when a man hath lost his goods it is not so easie a matter to recover them soone againe but surely everie citie is straight waies as good a native countrey unto him who knoweth and hath learned how to use it to him I say who hath such rootes as will live be nourished and grow in every place and by any meanes 〈◊〉 Themistocles was furnished with and such as Demetrius the Phalerian was not without who being banished from Athens became a principall person in the court of King Ptolomoeus in Alexandria where he not onely himselfe lived in great abundance of all things but also sent unto the Athenians from thence rich gifts and presents As for Themistocles living in the estate of a Prince through the bountifull allowance and liberalitie of the King of Persia he was woont by report to say unto his wife and children We had beene utterly undone for ever if we had not beene undone And therefore Diogenes surnamed the Dog when one brought him word and said the Sinopians have condemned thee to be exiled out of the kingdome of Pontus And I quoth he have confined them within the countrey of Pontus with this charge That they shall never passe the atmost bonds Of Euxine sea that hems them with her stronds Stratonius being in the Isle Seriphos which was a verie little one demaunded of his host for what crimes the punishment of exile was ordained in that countrey and when he heard and understood by him that they used to banish such as were convicted of falshood and untrueth Why then quoth he againe hast not thou committed some false and leawd act to the ende that thou mightest depart out of this straight place and be enlarged whereas one Comicall Poet said A man might gather and make a vintage as it were of figs with slings and foison of all commodities might be had which an Iland wanted For if one would weigh and consider the trueth indeed setting aside all vaine opinion and foolish conceits he that is affected unto one citie alone is a verie pilgrim and stranger in all others for it seemeth nether meete honest nor reasonable that a man should abandon his owne for to inhabite those of others Sparta is fallen to thy lot saith the proverbe adorne and honor it for so thou art bound to doe be it that it is of small or no account say that it is seated in an unholesome aire and subject to many 〈◊〉 or be plagued with civill dissentions or otherwise troubled with turbulent affaires But whosoever he be whom fortune hath deprived of his owne native countrey certes she hath graunted and allowed him to make choice of that which may please and content him And verily the precept of the Pythagoreans serveth to right good stead in this case to be practised Choose say they the best life use and custome will make it pleasant enough unto thee To this purpose also it may bee wisely and with great profit said Make choice of the best and most pleasant citie time will cause it to be thy native countrey and such a native countrey as shall not distract and trouble thee with any businesse nor impose upon thee these and such like exactions Make paiment and contribute to this levie of money Goe in embassage to Rome Receive such a captaine or ruler into thine house or take such a charge upon thee at thine owne expenses Now he that calleth these things to remembrance if he have any wit in his head and be not overblind every way in his owne opinion and selfe-conceit will wish and
wives and children For the goddesse Diana in Ephesus yeelded sanctuarie franchise and savegard unto all debters against their creditours who fled for succour into her temple But the sanctuarie indeed of parsimonie frugalitie and moderate expense into which no usurers can make entrie for to hale and pull out of it any debter prisoner standeth alwaies open for those that are wise and affoordeth unto them a large space of joious and honorable repose For like as that Prophetesse which gave oracles in the temple of Pythius Apollo about the time of the Medians warre made answere unto the Athenian Embassadors That God gave vnto them for their safetie a wall of wood whereupon they leaving their lands and possessions abandoning their citie and forsaking their houses and all the goods therein had recourse unto their ships for to save their libertie even so God giveth unto us woodden tables earthen vessels and garments of course cloth if we would live in freedome Set not thy minde upon steeds of great price And chariots brave in silver harnesse dight With claspes with hookes and studs by fine device Ywrought in race to shew a goodly sight for how swift soever they be these usurers will soone overtake them and run beyong But rather get upon the next asse thou meetest with or the first pack-horse that commeth in thy way to flie from the usurer a cruell enemie and meere tyrant who demaundeth not at thy hands fire and water as sometimes did that barbarous King of Media but that which woorse is toucheth thy libertie woundeth thine honor and credit by proscriptions writs and open proclamations If thou pay him not to his conteut he is ready to trouble thee if thou have wherewith to satisfie him he wil not receive thy payment unlosse he list if thou prize and sell thy goods he will have them under their worth art thou not disposed to make a sale of them hee will force thee to it doest thou sue him for his extreame dealing he will seeme to offer parley of agreement if thou sweare unto him that thou wilt make paiment he will impose upon thee hard conditions and have thee at command if thou goe to his house for to speake and conferre with him hee will locke the gates against thee and if thou stay at home and keepe house thou shalt have him rapping at thy doore he will not away but take up his lodging there with thee For in what stead served the law of Solon in Athens wherein it was ordained that among the Athenians mens bodies should not be obliged for any civill debt considering that they be in bondage and slaverie to all banquers and usurers who force men to keepe in their heads and that which more is not to them alone for that were not such a great matter but even to their verie slaves being proud insolent barbarous and outrageous such as Plato describeth the divels and fiery executioners in hel to be who torment the soules of wicked and godlesse persons For surely these cursed usurers make thy hall and judiciall place of justice no better than a very hell and place of torment to their poore debters where after the manner of greedie geirs and hungrie griffons they flay mangle and eate them to the verie bones And of their beaks and talons keene The markes within their flesh be seene And some of them they stand continually over not suffring them to touch and taste their owne proper goods when they have done their vintage and gathered in their corne other fruits of the earth making them fast pine away like unto Tantalus And like as king Darius sent against the citie of Athens his lieutenants generall Datis and Artaphernes with chaines cordes and halters in their hands therewith to binde the prisoners which they should take semblablie these usurers bring into Greece with them their boxes and caskets full of schedules bils hand-hand-writings and contracts obligatorie which be as good as so many irons and fetters to hang upon their poore debters and thus they go up and downe leaping from citie to citie where they sow not as they passe along good and profitable seede as Triptolemus did in old time but plant their rootes of debts which bring foorth infinite troubles and intolerable usuries whereof there is no end which eating as they goe and spreading their spaunes round about in the end cause whole cities to stoupe and stinke yea and be ready to suffocate and strangle them It is reported of hares that at one time they suckle young leverets and be ready to kinnule others that be in their bellies and withall to conceive a fresh but the debts of these barbarous wicked and cruell usurers do bring foorth before they conceive For in putting out their money they redemand it presently in laying it downe they take it up they deliver that againe for interest which they received and tooke in consideration of lone and use It is said of the Messenians citie Gate after gate a man shall here find And yet one gate ther 's alwaies behind But it may better be said of usurers Usurte here upon usurie doth grow And end thereof you never shall know and here withall in some sort they laugh at natural philosophers who holde this Axiome That of nothing can be engendred nothing for with them usurie is bred of that which neither is not ever was of that I say which never had subsistence nor being Howbeit these men thinke it a shame reproch to be a publicane and take to farme for a rent the publike revenewes notwithstanding the lawes do permit and allow that calling whereas themselves against all the lawes of the world exact a rent and custome for that which they put foorth to usurie or rather to speake a truth in lending their money they defraude their debtors as bankrupts do their creditors For the poore debter who receiveth lesse than he hath set downe in his obligation is most falsely coufened deceived and cut short of that which he ought to have And verily the Persians repute lying to be a sinne but in a second degree for in the first place they reckon to owe money and be indebted in as much as leasing followeth commonly those that be in debt But yet usurers ly more than they neither are there any that practise more falshood and deceit in their day debt bookes wherein they write that to such a one they have delivered so much whereas indeed it is farre lesse and so the motive of their lying is faire avarice neither indigence nor poverty but even a miserable covetousnes and desire ever to have more and more the end whereof turneth neither to pleasure nor profit unto themselves but to the losse and ruine of those whom they wring and wrong for neither till they those grounds which they take away from their debters nor dwell in the houses out of which they turne them nor their meat upon those tables which they have from them ne
to be afraid much more to do ill than to receive and sustaine harme for asmuch as the one is the cause of the other And this is a civill and generous feare proper and peculiar to a good prince namely to be afraid lest his subjects should ere he be aware take wrong or be hurt any way Much like as dogs that be of gentle kinde Who watchfully about the folds attend In case they once by subtill hearing finde A savage beast approch and thit her tend feare not for themselves but in regard of the cattell which they keepe In like maner Epaminondas when the Thebanes fell dissolutely to drinke and make good cheere at a certeine festivall time himselfe went all alone to survey the armour and wals of the citie saying That he would fast and watch that all the rest might quaffe the while and sleepe with more securitie Cato likewise at Utica proclaimed by sound of trumpet to send away by sea all those who escaped alive upon the overthrow which there hapned and when he had embarqued them all and made his praiers unto the gods to vouchsafe them a bon voiage he returned into his owne lodging and killed himselfe shewing by this example what a prince or commander ought to feare and what he should contemne and despise Contrariwise Clearchus the tyrant of Pontus shutting himselfe within a chest slept there as a serpent within her hole and Aristodemus the tyrant of Argos went up into a hanging chamber aloft which had a trap dore whereupon he caused a little bed or pallet to be set and there he slept and lay with his concubine and harlot which hee kept and when he was gotten up thither the mother of the said concubine came ordinarily to take downe the ladder and brought it thither againe every morning How thinke you did this tyrant tremble for feare when he was in a frequent theater in the palace in the counsell house and court of justice or at a feast considering that he made a prison of his bed chamber To say a verie truth good princes are afraid for their subjects sake but tyrants feare their subjects and therefore as they augment their puissance so doe they encrease their owne feare for the more persons that they commaund and rule over the greater number they stand in dread of for it is neither probable nor seemely as some philosophers affirme That God is invisibly subsistent and mixed within the first and principall matter which suffreth all things receiveth a thousand constreints and adventures yea and is subject to innumerable changes and alterations but hee sitteth in regard of us above and there is resiant continually in a nature alwaies one and ever in the same estate feated upon holy foundations as Plato saith where he infuseth his power and goeth through all working and finishing that which is right according to nature and like as the sunne in heaven the most goodly and beautifull image of him is to be seene by the reflexion of a mirror by those who otherwise can not endure to behold himselfe as he is even so God ordeineth in cities and societies of men another image of his and that is the light of justice and reason accompanying the same which wise and blessed men describe and depaint out of sentences philosophicall conforming and framing themselves to that which is the fairest and most beautifull thing in the world and nothing is there that doth imprint in the soules and spirits of men such a disposition as reason drawne and learned out of philosophie to the end that the same should not befall unto us which king Alexander the great did who having seene in Corinth Diogenes how generous he was esteemed highly and admired the haughtie courage magnanimitie of the man insomuch as he brake foorth into these words Were I not Alexander surely I would be Diogenes which was al one in maner as if he should have said That he was troubled encombred with his wealth riches glory and puissance as impeachments and hinderances of vertue and bare an envious and jealous eie to the homely course cloke of the philosopher to his bagge and wallet as if by them alone Diogenes was invincible and impregnable and not as himselfe by the meanes of armes harnish horses speares and pikes for surely he might with governing himselfe by true philosophicall reason have beene of the disposition and affection of Diogenes and yet continue neverthelesse in the state and fortune of Alexander and so much the rather be Diogenes because he was Alexander as having need against great fortune like a tempest raised with boisterous winds and full of surging waves of a stronger cable and anchor of a greater helme also and a better pilot for in meane persons who are of low estate and whose puissance is small such as private men be follie is harmelesse and sottish though such be yet they doe no great hurt because their might is not answerable thereto like as it falleth out in foolish and vaine dreames there is a certeine griefe I wot not what which troubleth and disordereth the mind being not able to compasse bring about the execution of her desires lusts but where might malice are met together their power addeth folly unto passion affections most true is that speech of Denys the tyrant who was wont to say That the greatest pleasure contentment which he enjoied by his tyranny was this that whatsoever he would was quickly done presently executed according to that verse in Homer No sooner out of mouth the word was gone But presently withall the thing was done A dangerous matter it is for a man to will and desire that which he ought not being not able to performe that which hee willeth and desireth whereas malicious mischiefe making a swife course through the race of puissance and might driveth and thrusteth forward every violent passion to the extremitie making choler and anger to turne to murder love to proove adultery and avarice to growe into confiscation of goods for no sooner is the word spoken but the partie once in suspition is undone for ever and presently upon the least surmise and imputation ensueth death But as the naturall philosophers do hold that the lightning is shot out of the cloud after the clap of thunder like as bloud issueth after the wound is given and incision made and yet the said lightning is seene before for that the eare receiveth the sound or cracke by degrees whereas the eie meeteth at once with the flash even so in these great rulers and commanders punishments oftentimes go before accusations and sentences of condemnation before evident proofes For wrath in such may not long time endure No more than flouke of anchor can assure A ship in storme which taketh slender hold On sand by shore whereof none may be bold unlesse the weight of reason doe represse and keepe downe licentious power whiles a Prince or great Lord doth after the manner of
consult with him about the affaires of greatest importance for he seemed to be a man of great reach and is renowmed in the histories for a most wise and sage prince And therefore upon a time after that the strength of his bodie was utterly decayed in such sort as for the most part of the day he kept his bed and stirred not forth when the Ephori sent unto him and requested that he would give them meeting in the common hall of the citie he arose out of his bed and strained himselfe to walke thither but when he was gone a pretie way with much paine and difficultie he chanced to meet with certeine little boies in the street and demanded of them whether they knew any thing more powerfull than the necessitie to obey their master and when they answered No he made this account that his impotencie ought to be the end and limit of his obeisance and so returned backe immediatly to his owne house For surely ones good will ought not to shrinke before his power but when might faileth the good will would not be forced further Certes it is reported that Scipio both in war abroad also in civill affaires at home used the counsell of Caius Laelius insomuch as some there were who gave out and said that of all those noble exploits Scipto was the actour but Laelius the authour And Cicero himselfe confesseth that in the bravest most honourable counsels which he exploited during his consulship by the meanes whereof he saved his countrey he consulted with Publius Nigidius the Philosopher So that we may conclude that in many kindes of government and publicke functions there is nothing that impeacheth and hindereth olde men but that they may well enough shew their service to the common-wealth if not in the best simply yet in good words sage counsell libertie and authoritie of franke speech and carefull regard according as the Poets say for they be not our feet nor our hands nor yet our whole bodie and the strengeth thereof which are the members and goods onely of the common-weale but first and principally the soule and the beauties thereof to wit justice temperance and prudence which if they come slowly and late to their perfection it were absurd and to no purpose that men should enjoy house land and all other goods and heritages and should not themselves procure some profit and commoditie to their common countrey by reason of their long time which bereaveth them not so much of strength able for to execute outward ministeries as it addeth sufficiencie of those faculties which are requisit for rule and command Loe what the reason was that they portraied those Hermes that is to say the statues of Mercurie in yeeres without either hands or feet howbeit having their naturall parts plumpe and stiffe giving us thereby covertly to understand that we have least need of olde mens labour and corporall travell so that their words be active and their speeches full of seed and fruitfull as it is meet and convenient THE APOPHTHEGMES OR NOTABLE SAYINGS OF KINGS PRINCES AND GREAT CAPTAINS The Summarie IF speech be the signe and lively picture of the minde as it is indeed a man may judgs by these Apophthemes or notable Sayings and collected heere together how excellent in feats of armes in politike government or otherwise particularly these personages were who are heere represented unto us like as some speciall acts enterlaced among their sayings do also shew Two sorts of people there be who abuse the fruit that good menmight draw out of the consideration reading of these discourses The one be certeine glorious persons who upon a vaine desire of outward shew and to be seene and for no other intent following Aesops crow trim themselves with the plumes and feathers of others these have gotten together a heape and store-house as it were of wise sayings from auncients in old time whereby they might be conspicuous and seeme to be of some valour and reputation among those who have not wit enough to see into them and know what they are The other are hypocrites who having a lothsome stinke and bitter gall in the heart pretend sweetnesse and home at the end of their toong and all to seduce their neighbours or rather to deceive their owne selves for that they have never any regard of their owne dutie But heere in this discourse there is to be seene nothing affected nothing borrowed from others nor farre fet but there is represented unto us a certeine open simple admirable nature in this diversitie of grave pleasant learned speeches wherein sweetnesse is mingled with profit for to fit all persons and to be aptly 〈◊〉 unto their maners and behaviour of what calling and degree soever they be in the world Item beerein are represented acts proceeding from great wit deepereach and high conceit of valour of equitie modestie good disposition and singular cariage in the whole course and management of mans life the which are proposed and manifested unto us to this end that the wisedome and bountie of the almightie might so much the better appeere in that he hath vouchsafed such ornaments to publike States for to 〈◊〉 and uphold mans life amid those confusions which were brought into the world by occasion of sin Moreover this first collection may well be devided into five principall parts whereof The first conteineth the notable sayings deeds of the kings of Persia and other strange nations The second of the governors and potentates of Sicilie The third of the Macedonian kings and namely of Alexander the great and his successors The fourth of the great himselfe wounded in fight he seized upon his enemies body brought him perforce armed as he was alive out of his galley into his owne Being encamped in the land of his friends and confederates yet neverthelesse he fortified his campe with a deepe trench and high rampar round about verie carefully and when one said unto him what needs all this and whom are wee to feare The woorst speech quoth he that can come out of a captaines mouth is this Had I wist or I never looked for such a thing As he was putting his armie in array for to give battell unto the Barbarians he said that he feared nothing at all but that they should not take knowledge of Iphicrates whose verie name and presence was enough to affright all their enemies Being accused of a capitall crime he said unto the Sycophant who had enformed and drawen a bill of enditement against him Canst thou tell what thou doest good fellow when the citie is environed with warre on everie side thou perswadest the people to consult about me and not to take counsell with me Harmodius who was descended from the race of that ancient and noble Harmodius reproched him one day for his meane parentage as being come from an house of base degree The noblenesse quoth he of my line beginneth in me but thine endeth in thee An oratour
presence and so reteined him for one yeere longer saying withall this verse The hire of silence now I see Is out of perill and jeopardie Having heard that King Alexander the Great at the age of two and thirtie yeeres having performed most part of his conquests was in doubt with himselfe and perplexed what to do and how to be employed afterwards I woonder quoth he that Alexander thought it not a more difficult matter to governe and preserve a great empire after it is once gotten than to winne and conquer it at first When he had enacted the law Julia as touching adulterie wherein is set downe determinately the manner of processe against those that be attaint of that crime and how such are to be punished who be convict thereof it hapned that through impatience and heat of choler he fell upon a yoong gentleman who was accused to have committed adulterie with his daughter Julia in so much as he buffetted him well and thorowly with his owne fists the yoong man thereupon cried unto him Your selfe have made a law Caesar which ordaineth the order and forme of proceeding against adulteries whereat he was so dismaied abashed yea and so repented himselfe of this miscariage that he would not that day eat anie supper When he sent his nephew or daughters sonne Caius into Armenia he praied unto the gods to accompanie him with that good will of all men which Pompey had with the valiantnesse of Alexander the Great and with his owne good fortune He said that he left unto the Romans for to succeed him in the empire one who never in his life had consulted twise of one thing meaning Tyberius Minding to appease certaine yoong Romane gentlemen of honour and authoritie who made a great noise and stirre in his presence when he saw that for all his first admonitions he could do no good he said unto them Yoong gentlemen give 〈◊〉 unto me an old man whom when I was yoong as you are auncient men would give 〈◊〉 unto The people of Athens had offended and done him some displeasure unto whom hee 〈◊〉 in this wise You are not ignorant I suppose that I am displeased with you for otherwise I would not have wintered in this little isse Aegina and more than thus he neither did nor said afterwards unto them When one of Eurycles his accusers had at large with all libertie and 〈◊〉 centiousnesse of speech uttered against him without any respect what he would he let him run on still untill he came to these words And if these matters Caesar seeme not unto you notorious and heinous command him to rehearse unto me the seventh booke of Thucydides Caesar offended now at his audacious impudencie commanded him to be had away and led to prison but being advertised that he was the onely man left of the race and line of captaine Brasidas hee sent for him and after he had given him some sew good admonitious he let him goe 〈◊〉 had built him a most stately and magnisicent house even from the foundation to the roose thereof which when Caesar saw he said It rejoiceth my heart exceedingly to see thee build thus as if Rome should continue world without end LACONICKE APOPHTHEGMES OR THE NOTABLE SAYINGS OF LACEDAEMONIANS The Summarie PLutarch had in the collection precedent among the Apophthegmes of renowmed Greeks mingled certaine notable sayings of King Agesilaus and other Lacedaemonians but now he exhibiteth unto us a treatise by it selfe of the said Lacedaemonians who deserve no doubt to be registred apart by themselves as being a people who of all other nations destitute of the true knowledge of God least abused their tongue 〈◊〉 which regard also he maketh a more ample description of their Apphthegmes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by so many pleasant speeches and lively reencounters that it was no marvell if so 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 Sparta was flourished so long being governed and peopled by men of such dexterity and so well 〈◊〉 the parts both of bodie and minde and yet who knew better to do than to say Moreover this Catalogue here is distinguished into foure principall portions whereof the first representeth the 〈◊〉 speeches of Kings Generall captaines Lords and men of name in Lacedaemon the second 〈◊〉 the Apophthegmes of such Lacedaemonians whose names are unknowen the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the customes ordinances which serve for the maintenance of their estate and the fourth 〈◊〉 certaine sayings of some of their women wherein may be seene so much the more the valour megnanimitie of that nation As touching the profit that a man may draw out of these 〈◊〉 it is verie great in everie respect neither is there any person of what age or condition soever but he may learne herein verie much and namely how to speake little to say well and to 〈◊〉 himselfe vertuously as the reading thereof will make proofe We have noted 〈◊〉 and observed somewhat in the margin not particularising upon everie part but onely to give a taste and appetite unto the Reader for to meditate better thereof and to apply unto his owne use both it and all the rest which he may there comprehend and understand LACONICKE APOPHthegmes or the notable sayings of Lacedaemonians AGESICLES a king of the Lacedaemonians by nature given to heare and desirous to learne when one of his familiar friends said unto him I woonder sir since you take so great pleasure otherwise to heare men speake wel and eloquently that you do not entertaine the famous sophister or rhetorician Philophanes for to teach you made him this answer It is because I desire to be their scholler whose sonne also I am that is among whom I am borne And to another who demaunded of him how a prince could raigne in safetie not having about him his guards for the suretie of his person Marie quoth he if he rule his subjects as a good father governeth his children AGESILAUS the Great being at a certaine feast was by lot chosen the master of the said feast and to him it appertained to set downe a certaine law both in what manner and how much everie one ought to drinke now when the butler or skinker asked him how much he should poure out for everie one he answered If thou be well provided and have good store of wine fill out as much as everie man list to call for but if thou have no great plentie of it let everie guest have alike There was a malefactor who being in prison endured constantly before him all maper of torments which when he saw What a cursed wretch is this and wicked in the highest degree who doth employ this patience and resolute fortitude in the maintenance of so shamefull and mischievous parts as he hath committed One highly praised in his presence a certaine master of Rhetoricke for that he could by his eloquent toong amplifie small matters making them seeme great wherupon he said I take him not to be a good shomaker who putteth on a big
citie should rebell against their masters and come to him for that he would make them all free and give them libertie to espouse and marie their mistresses even the wives of their former masters The dames conceived hereof so great choler and indignation in their harts together with the slaves themselves who were provoked likewise to anger as well as they and readie to assist their mistresses that they tooke heart to mount upon the walles of the citie and to carrie thither stones darts and all manner of shot beseeching their husbands to fight lustily and with good courage eftsoones admonishing and encouraging them to quit themselves like men and do their devoir which they did so effectually both in word and deed that in the end they repulsed the enemie and constrained Philip to raise his siege from before the citie without effecting his purpose and there was not so much as one slave that revolted from his master unto him THE WOMEN OF ARGOS THe exploit of the Argive dames against Cleomenes king of Lacedaemon in defence of the citie Argos which they enterprised under the conduct and by the perswasion of Telesilla the poëtresse is not lesse glorious and renowmed than any action that ever was atchieved by a crew of women This dame Telesilla as the fame goeth was descended of a noble and famous house howbeit in body she was very weake and sickly by occasion wherof she sent out to the oracle for to know how she might recover her health answer was made that she shoulde serve honour and worship the Muses she yeelding obedience to this revelation of the god and giving herselfe to learne poesie and likewise vocall musicke and skill in song in short time was delivered from her maladie and became most renowmed and highly esteemed among women for hir poeticall veine and musicall knowledge in this kind in processe of time it fortuned that Cleomenes the king of the Spartans having in a battell slaine a great number indeed of Argives but not as some fabulous writers have precisely set downe seven thousand seven hundred seventie and seven advaunced directly to the citie of Argos hoping to finde and surprize the same void of inhabitants but the women as many as were of age sufficient as it were by some heavenly and divine instinct put on a resolute minde and an extraordinary courage to doe their best for to beate backe their enemies that they should not enter the citie and in very truth under the leading of Telesilla they put on armes tooke weapon in hand and mounting up the wals stood round about the battlements thereof and environed them on every side defending the citie right manfully to the great wonder admiration of the enemies thus they gave Cleomenes the repulse with the losse and carvage of a great number of his men Yea and they chased Democrates another king of Lacedaemon out of their citie as Socrates saith who had made entrance before and seised that quarter which is called Pamphyliacum when the citie was thus saved by the prowesse of these women ordeined it was that as many of them as chaunced in this service to be slaine should be honorably enterred upon the great causey or high-way called Argeia and unto them who remained alive graunted it was for a perpetuall monument and memoriall of their prowesse to dedicate and consecrate one statue unto Mars This combat and fight as some have written was the seventh day or as other say the first of that moneth which at Argos in old time they called Tetartos but now Hermeus on which day the Argives do celebrate even in this age a solemne sacrifice and feast which they call Hybristica as one would say reprochfull and infamous wherein the custome is that women went clad in soldiers coates and mantels but men were arraied and attired in womens peticoates frocks and veiles Now to replenish and repeople the citie againe for default of men who died in the wars they did not as Herodotus writeth use this pollicie to marrie their slaves to their widdowes but they granted free burgeosie of their citie unto the better sort of men who were their neighbors and borderers and granted unto them for to affiance and espouse the said widowes but it should seeme that these wives disdained despised in some sort these husbands of theirs as not comparable to their former for they made a law that these wives should have counterfeit beards set to their chins whensoever they slept and lay with their husbands THE PERSIAN WOMEN CYrus having caused the Persians to rebel against king Astyages the Medes hapned to be discomfited vanquished together with the Persians now when the Persians fled amaine toward the city and their enemies followed hard at their heeles ready to enter pel-mell with thē the women issued out of the gates met them even before the citie and plucking up their clothes before from beneath to their waste cried unto them Whither away and whither doe you flie the most beastly cowards that ever were for run as fast as you wil there is no reentrance here for you into that place out of which you came first into the world the Persians being ashamed as well to see such a sight as to heare those words blamed and rebuked themselves whereupon they turned againe and made head at their enemies sought freshly and put them to flight from which time forward there was a law established That whensoever the king returneth from some farre voiage and entreth into the citie everie woman should receive of him a piece of gold and that by the ordinance of king Cyrus who first enacted it But it is reported that king Ochus one of his successors who being bad enough otherwise was the most covetous prince that ever raigned over them turned alwaies out of the way passed besides the citie and never would come into it after such a journey whereby the women alwaies were disappointed of that gratuitie and gift which they ought to have had but king Alexander contrariwise entred the citie twice and gave to every woman with childe double so much that is to say two such pieces of gold THE WOMEN OF GAULE BEfore that the Gaules passed over the mountaines called Alpes and held that part of Italy which now they doe inhabit there arose a great discord and dangerous sedition among them which grew in the end to a civill warre but when both armies stood embattailed and arranged ready to fight their wives put themselves in the very mids betweene the armed troupes tooke the matter of difference and controversie into their hands brought them to accord and unitie and judged the quarrell with such indifferent equitie and so to the contentment of both parts that there ensued a woonderfull amitie and reciprocall good will not onely from citie to citie but also betweene house and house insomuch that ever after they continued this custome in all their consultations aswell of warre as peace to take the counsell
and yet consideratly waiting the time and opportunitie of revenge on the other side Synorix followed his sute verie earnestly soliciting and intreating 〈◊〉 nately neither seemed he to alledge vaine and frivolous reasons but such as carried some colourable pretense of honestie namely that he had alwaies shewed himselfe a man of more valor worth than Sinatus and whereas he took away his life induced he was thereto for the 〈◊〉 love that hee bare to Camma and not mooved thereto by any malice otherwise This yoong dame at the first seemed to denie him but yet her denials were not verie churlish and such as he might take for his finall answer for daily by little and little she made semblant that she relented and inclined unto him for that divers kinsfolk and friends also of hers joined with him to second his sute who for to gratifie and doe pleasure unto Synorix a man of the greatest credit and authoritie in his countrey perswaded yea forced her to yeeld unto this match To be short in the end she gave her consent Synorix was sent for to come unto her where she kept her resiance that in the presence of the said goddesse the contract of marriage might passe the espousals be solemnized when he was come she received and welcomed him with an amiable and gracious countenance lead him unto the very altar of Diana where rehgiously with great ceremonie she powred forth before the goddesse a little of a potion which shee had prepared out of a boule the one part thereof she drunke herselfe the other she gave unto Synorix for to drinke now this potion was mead mingled with ranke poison when she saw that he had taken his draught she fetching a loud and evident groane doing reverence also unto the goddesse I protest and call thee to witnesse quoth she most powerfull and honourable goddesse that I have not survived Sinatus for any other cause in the world but onely to see this day neither have I had any joie of my life all this while that I have lived since but onely in regard of hope that one day I might be revenged of his death which seeing that now I have effected I go most gladly and joifully unto that sweet husband of mine and as for thee most accursed wicked wretch in the world give order to thy kinsfolke and friends in stead of a nuptiall bed to provide a grave for thy burial the Galatian hearing these words and beginning withal to feele the operation of the poison and how it wrought troubled him within his bowels and all parts of his body mounted presently his chariot hoping that by the jogging and agitation thereof he might vomit and cast up the poison but immediately he alighted againe and put himselfe into an easie litter but did he what he could dead he was that very evening as for Camma she continued all the night languishing and when she heard for certaintie that he was deceased she also with joy and mirth departed out of this world STRATONICE THe selfesame province of Galatia affoorded two other dames woorthy of eternall memorie to wit Stratonice the wife of king Deiotarus and Chiomara the wife of Ortiagon as for Stratonice she knowing that the king her husband was desirous to have children lawfully begotten for to leave to be his successors inheritors of the crowne and yet could have none by her praied and intreated him to trie another woman and beget a childe of her body yea and permitted that it should be put unto her and she would take it upon her as her owne Deiotarus woondered much at this resolution of hers and was content to doe all things according to her mind wherupon she chose among other captives taken prisoner in the warres a proper faire maiden named Electra whom she brought into Deiotarus bed chamber shut them in both together and all the children which this concubine bare unto him his wife reared and brought up with as kinde an affection and as princelike as if she had borne them herselfe CHIOMARA AT what time as the Romans under the conduct of Cn. Scipio defaited the Galatians that inhabit in Asia it befell that Chiomara the wife of Ortiagon was taken prisoner with other Galatian women the captaine whose captive she was made use of his fortune did like a soldier and abused her bodie who as he was a man given unto his fleshly pleasure so he looked also as much or rather more unto his profit and filthie lucre but so it fell out that overtaken he was and entrapped by his owne avarice for being promised by the woman a good round quantitie of gold for to deliver her out of thraldome and set her at libertie he brought her to the place which she had appointed for to render her and set her free which was at a certeine banke by the river side where the Galatians should passe over tender him the said monie and receive Chiomara but she winked with her eie thereby gave a signall to one of her own companie for to kill the said Romane captaine at what time as he should take his leave of her with a kisse and friendly farewell which the partie did with his sword at one stroke fetched off his head the head she herselfe tooke up and wrapped it in the lap of her gowne before and so gat her away apace homeward when she was come to her husbands house downe she cast his head at his feet whereat he being astonied Ah my sweet wife quoth he it is a good thing to keepe faithfull promise True quoth she but it is better that but one man alive should have my companie Polybius writeth of the same woman that himselfe talked with her afterwards in the citie of Sardis and that he found her then to be a woman of an high minde and of woonderfull deepe wit But since I am fallen to the mention of the Galatians I will rehearse yet one story more of them A WOMAN OF PERGAMUS KIng Mithridates sent upon a time for threescore of the principall lords of Galatia to repaire unto him upon trust and safe-conduct as friends into the citie Pergamus whom being come at his request he enterteined with proud imperious speeches whereat they al took great scorn and indignation insomuch as one of them named Toredorix a strong tal man of his hands besides woonderfull couragious Tetrarch of the Tossepians country undertooke this one day enterprise to set upon Mithridates at what time as he sat in judgement gave audience from the tribunal seat in the publike place of exercise and both him and seat together to tumble downe headlong into the pit underneath but it fortuned that the king that day came not abroad as his maner was up into that place of open exercise but commanded al those Galatian lords to come and speake with him at his house Toredorix exhorted them to be bold and confident and when they were
voiages or pastimes as they deprive us of our pleasures yea and marre them quite and therefore they who love their delights and pleasures most had least need of any men in the world to neglect their health For many there be who for all they be sicke have meanes to studie philosophy and discourse thereof neither doth their sicknesse greatly hinder them but that they may be generals in the sield to leade armies yea and kings beleeve me to governe whole realmes But of bodily pleasures and fleshly delights some there be which during a maladie will never breed and such as are bred already yeeld but a small joy and short contentment which is proper and naturall unto them and the same not pure and sincere but confused depraved and corrupted with much strange stuffe yea and disguised and blemished as it were with some storme and tempest for the act of Venus is not to any purpose performed upon gourmandise and a full belly but rather when the bodie is calme and the flesh in great tranquillity for that the end of Venus is pleasure like as of eating also and of drinking and health unto pleasures is as much as their faire weather and kinde season which giveth them secure and gentle breeding much like as the calme time in winter affoords the sea-fowles called Alcyones a safe cooving sitting and hatching of their egges Prodicus is commended for this pretie speech That sire was the best sauce and a man may most truely say That health is of all sauces must divine heavenly and pleasant for our viands how delicate soever they be boiled rosted baked or stewed doe no pleasure at all unto us so long as wee are diseased drunken full of surfet or queasie stomacked as they be who are sea-sicke whereas a pure and cleane appetite causeth all things to be sweet pleasant and agreeable unto sound bodies yea and such as they will be ready to snatch at as Homer saith But like as Demades the oratour seeing the Athenians without all reason desirous of armes and warre said unto them That they never treated and agreed of peace but in their blacke robes after the losse of kinsfolke and friends even so wee never remember to keepe a spary and sober diet but when we come to be cauterized or to have cataplasmes and plasters about us we are no sooner fallen to those extremities but then we are ready to condemne our faults calling to minde what errours we have committed in times past for untill then we blame one while the aire as most men doe another while the region or countrey as unsound and unholsome we finde fault that we are out of our native soile and are woonderfull loth to accuse our owne intemperance and disordinate appetites And as king Lisymachus being constreined and enforced within the country of the Getes for very thirst to yeeld himselfe prisoner and al his armie captivate unto his enemies after he had taken a draught of cold water said Good God what a great felicitie have I forgone and lost for a momentarie and transitory pleasure even so we may make use thereof and apply the same unto our selves when wee are sicke saying thus How many delights have we marred quite how many good actions have we fore-let what honest pastimes have we lost and all by our drinking of cold water or bathing unseasonably or else for that we have over-drunke our selves for good fellowship for the bite sting of such thoughts as these toucheth our remēbrance to the quicke in such sort as the scarre remaineth still behind after that we are recovered and maketh us in time of our health more staied circumspect and sober in our diet for a bodie that is exceeding sound and healthy never bringeth foorth vehement desires and disordinate appetites hardly to be tamed or with stood but we ought to make head against them when they beginne to breake soorth and 〈◊〉 out for to enjoy the pleasures which they are affected unto for such lusts some complaine pule and crie for a little as wanton children doe and no sooner is the table taken awaie but they be quiet and still neither finde they fault and make complaint of any wrong or injurie offred unto them but contrariwise they be pure jocund and lightsome not continuing heavie nor readie to heave and cast the next day to an end like as by report captaine Timotheus having upon a time beene at a sober and frugall scholars supper in the academie with Plato said That they who supped with Plato were merry and well appaied the next day after It is reported also that king Alexander the Great when he turned backe those cooks which queene 〈◊〉 sent unto him said That he had about him all the yeere long better of his owne namely for his breakfast or dinner rising betimes and marching before day light and for his supper eating little at dinner I am not ignorant that men otherwhiles are very apt to fall into an ague upon extreme travell upon excessive heats also and colds but like as the odors and sents of 〈◊〉 he weak seeble of themselves whereas if they be mixed with some oile they take force 〈◊〉 even so fulnesse and repletion is the ground which giveth as a man would say bodie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto the outward causes and occasions of maladies and of a great quantity of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humours there is no danger because all such indispositions and crudities are soone 〈◊〉 dissipated and dissolved when some fine or subtill bloud when some pure spirit I 〈◊〉 their motion but where there is a great repletion indeed and abundance of 〈◊〉 as it were a deepe and mirie puddle all troubled and stirred then there arise from 〈◊〉 many maligne accidents such as be dangerous and hard to cure and therefore we are 〈◊〉 to doe like some good masters of ships who never thinke their vessels bee fully fraught and charged throughly and when they have taken in all that ever they can doe nothing else but worke at the pumpe void the sinke and cast out the sea water which is gotten in even so when we have well filled and stuffed our bodies fall to purge and cleanse them with medicines and 〈◊〉 but we ought rather to keepe the bodie alwaies neat nimble and light to the end that if it chaunce otherwise at any time to be pressed and held downe it might be seene above for lightnesse like unto a piece of corke floting aloft upon the water but principally we are to beware of the very 〈◊〉 indispositions which are forerunners of maladies for all diseases walke not as Hesicdus saith in silence and say nothing when they come As whom wise Jupiter hath berest Of voice and toong to them none left But the most part of thē have their vant-curreurs as it were their messengers trumpets namely crudities of stomack wearinesse and heavinesse over all the bodie According to the 〈◊〉 of Hippocrates lassitudes and laborious heavinesse of the bodie comming
hapned againe unto Romulus just upon the very same day when hee was translated out of this life for they say that even at the very instant when the sunne entred into the ecclipse he also departed out of sight and was no more seene which fell out to be upon the day called Nonae Capratinae upon which day the Romans doe still at this present celebrate a solemne feast Now when these first founders were in this manner bred and borne after that the tyrant sought to make them away by good fortune it hapned that the minister to take them and execute the deed was neither a barbarous nor a mercilesse cruell slave but a gracious and pitifull servitour who would in no wise murder the silly babes but finding a convenient place upon the banke by the river side adjoyning hard to a faire greene meddow and shadowed with pretie trees growing low by the ground there he bestowed the infants neere unto a wilde sigge tree which they called afterwards Ruminalis for that a teat or pappe in Latin is called Ruma which done it chaunced that a bitch-woolfe having newly whelped her litter and feeling her pappes bestruct with milke and so stiffe by reason that her yoong ones were dead that they aked againe and were ready to burst seeking to be eased and to discharge her-selfe thereof came gently to these babes stooped downe and seemed to winde about them put unto them her teats desirous labouring to be delivered of her milk as if it had beene a second litter And then see the fortune of it a certeine bird consecrated to Mars which thereupon men name in Latine Picus Martius that is to say a Speght or Wood-pecker chaunced to approch neere and having alighted gently upon the tips of her toes fast by them softly opened with one of her clees the mouthes of these infants one after another she conveied into them certeine morsels minced small even of her owne food provision That this is true the said wilde fig tree at this day is named Ruminalis of the woolves teat called in Latine Ruma which she held unto the babes for to suckle them doth testifie And long time after the inhabitants about that place have observed this custome not to expose and cast foorth any thing that is bred and borne amongst them but to reare and nourish all in a venerable memoriall of this happe and resemblance of the accident which befell unto Romulus and his brother Remus Now that these two fondlings were nourished and brought up afterward in the citie of Gabii unknowen to all the world that they were the children of Sylvia and the nephewes or daughters children of Numitor the king may seeme to be a craftie theevish cast and deceitfull sophistrie proceeding from Fortune to the end that they shold not perish before they had done some woorthy exploit by reason of their noble birth but be discovered by their very deeds and effects shewing their vertue as a marke of their nobilitie And heere I call to minde a certeine speech which Themistocles a brave and wise captaine upon a time gave to some other captaines who after him and in a second place were in great name at Athens and much esteemed howbeit pretending to deserve more honour than he The morrow-mind quoth he quarrelled and contended upon a time with the feast or holi-day which went before it saying That she was full of labour and businesse and never had any rest whereas in her there was nothing but eating and drinking that which before hand had beene prepared and provided with great paine and travell unto whom the feast made this answer Certes true it is that thou saiest but if I had not bene where hadst thou bene Even so quoth Themistocles if I had not conducted the Medians warre what good would you have done now and where had your imploiment bene Semblably me thinks that Fortune saith the same unto the Vertue of Romulus Thy acts are famous and thy deeds renowmed thou hast shewed by them indeed that descended thou art from divine bloud and some heavenly race but thou seest againe how farre short thou art of me how long after me it was ere thou didst come in place for if I had not when time was shewed my selfe kinde gracious and courteous unto those poore infants but had forsaken and abandoned them silly wretches how could you have had any being and by what meanes should you have bene so gloriously seene in the world in case I say a female wilde beast even a shee-wolfe had not come in the way having her bigs swollen enflamed and aking with the plentie of milke flowing as it were a streame unto them seeking rather whom to feed than by whō she should be fed or if she had bene altogether savage indeed hunger-bitten these roiall houses these stately temples these magnificent theaters these faire galleries these goodly halles palaces and counsell-chambers had they not bene at this day the lodges cottages and stalles of shepherds and herdmen serving as slaves some lords of Alba and Tuscan or els some masters of the Latine nation The beginning in all things is chiefe and principall but especially in the foundation and building of a city and Fortune is she who is the authour of this beginning and foundation in saving and preserving the founder himselfe for well may Vertue make Romulus great but Fortune kept him untill he became great It is for certeine knowen and confessed that the reigne also of Numa Pompilius which continued long was guided and conducted by the favour of a marvellous Fortune for to say that the nymph Aegeria one of the Wood-Fairies called Dryades a wise and prudent goddesse was enamoured of him and that lying ordinarily by his side taught him how to establish governe and rule the weale-publicke peradventure is a meere fabulous tale considering that other persons who are recorded to have bene loved by goddesses and to have enjoied them in mariage as for example Peleus Anchises Orion Emathion had not for all that thorowout their life contentment and prosperitie without some trouble and adversitie but surely it seemeth that Numa in very trueth had good Fortune for his domesticall and familar companion and to reigne jointly with him which Fortune of his receiving the citie of Rome as in a boisterous and troublesome tempest or in a turbulent sea to wit in the enmitie envie and malice of all the neighbor-cities and nations bordering upon it and besides disquieted within it selfe and troubled with an infinit number of calamities and seditious factions quenched all those flames of anger and alaied all spightfull and malicious grudges as some boisterous and contrary windes And like as men say that the sea even in mid-winter receiveth the yong brood of the birds Halcyones after they be newly hatched and giveth them leave to be nourished and fed in great calme and tranquilitie even so Fortune spreading and drawing round about this people newly planted and as
by the multitude of enemies slaine and heapes of spoiles but counted them by realmes subdued by nations conquered and brought to subjection by isles and firme lands of the continent reduced into servitude and bondage and all to augment the greatnesse of their empire In one battell king Philip was chased out of Macedonia one blow and one conflict caused Antiochus to abandon and forgoe Asia by one defaiture the Carthaginians lost Lybia one man alone in one expedition and by the power of one armie conquered unto them Armenia the kingdome of Pontus the sea Euximus Syria Arabia the Albanians the Iberians all the nations even as farre as the mountaine Caucasus and the Hircanians yea and the very ocean sea which environeth the world round about saw the same man thrise victor and conquerour the Nomades in Affricke he repressed and vanquished even to the coasts of the south sea he subdued Spaine which revolted and rebelled with Sertorius as far as to the atlantike sea the kings of the Albanians he pursued never left the chase until he had driven them to the Caspian sea Al these brave exploits and glorious conquests he atchieved so long as he used the publique Fortune of the citie but afterwards he was overthrowen and came to ruine by his owne private desires Now that great Daemon and tutelar god of the Romans did not second them for a day as it were and no more neither in a short time did his best and came to the height and vigor of his gracious favour as that of the Macedonians nor gave them his assistance upon the land onely as he who was the patron of the Lacedemonians or at sea alone as the Athenians god ne yet was long ere he would stirre as he whom the Colophonians trusted upon no nor gave over quickly as the Persians patron did but even from the very nativitie and foundation of the citie it began it grow up waxed and went forward as it did it managed the government of it it continued firme and sure with it by land by sea in warre in peace against Barbarians and against the Greeks He it was that when Anniball the Carthaginian overspred all Italy in manner of a land 〈◊〉 or violent brooke wrought it so that partly through envie and in part through the malice of his spightfull fellow-citizens no succours and supplies were sent to feed and mainteine him and so by that meanes wasted spent and consumed him to nothing in the end he it was that dispersed and kept the armies and forces of the Cimbrians Teutonians a great way and a long time asunder so as they could not meet to the end that Marius might be furnished and provided sufficiently to fight with them and to defait them both one after another hee empeached the joining together of three hundred thousand sighting men at one time all invincible soldiers and appointed with armes insuperable that they might not invade and over-runne all Italy For this cause and by the meanes of this protector Antiochus sat still and stirred not to aid Philip all the whiles that the Romans made sharpe warre upon him likewise when Antiochus was in distresse and danger of his whole estate Philip being discomfited before durst not hold up his head and died the while he and none but he procured that whiles the Marsians warre set all Rome and Italy on a light fire the Sarmatian and Bastarnianwarre held king Mithridates occupied Finally through his procurement king Tigranes when Mithridates flourished and was in his ruffe most puissant upon suspition envie and distrust would not joine with him and afterwards when the said Mithridates had an overthrow combined and banded with him that in the end he might also lose his life and perish with him for company What! in the greatest distresses and calamities that lay heavie upon the citie was it not the Romane Fortune that redressed all and set it upright againe As for example When as the Gaules were encamped round about the mount Capitoll and held the castle besieged A plague she sent the souldiers soone fell sicke Throughout their host whereof they died thicke Fortune also it was meere chance that revealed their comming in the night gave advertisement thereof when no man in the world either knew or doubted thereof and peradventure it would not be impertinent and besides the purpose in this place to discourse of it more at large After the great discomfiture and overthrow that the Romans received neere the river Allia as many as could save themselves by good foot-manship when they were come to Rome filled the whole citie with a fright and trouble insomuch as the people woonderfully amazed with this fearefull newes fledde scattering heere and there excepting onely a few who put themselves within the castle of the Capitoll resolved to keepe that piece and abide the extremitie of the siege others who escaped after that unfortunate battell and defeiture assembled themselves immediately in the citie Veii and chose for their dictator Furius Camillus a man whō the people proud insolent upon their long prosperitie had before time rejected and sent away into banishment condemning him for robbing the common treasure but then being humbled by his affliction and brought to a low ebbe called him backe againe after that discomfiture committing and putting into his hands the absolute power and soveraigne authoritie but to the end it might not be thought that it was by the occasion of the iniquitie and infortunity of the time and not according to order of law that the man excepted of this high magistracie and that in a desperate state of the citie without all hope that ever it should rise againe he was elected by the tumultuary suffrages of a broken armie dispersed and wandring heere and there his will was that the senators of Rome who had retired themselves within the Capitoll aforesaid should be made acquainted and advertised thereof and that by their uniforme consent they might approove and confirme that election of him which the souldiors and men of warre had decreed Now among the others there was one named Caius Pontius a valiant and hardy man who undertooke and promised in his owne person to goe and carry the newes of that which had beene determined unto those who abode within the Capitol and verily he enterprized a thing exceeding dangerous for that hee was to passe through the middes of the enemies who then invested the Capitoll with trenches and a strong corps-de-guard when he was come to the river side by night he fastened just under his brest certeine broad pieces of plates of corke and so committing his body to the lightnesse of such a barge hee bare himselfe thereupon and hulled with the course of the water which was so good and favourable unto him that it carried him over and set him gently upon the banke on the other side of the river without any danger at all where he was no sooner landed but hee went directly
over seeking and say that he is gone away and run to the muses and there lurketh and lieth hidden among them and anon when supper is ended they use to put forth darke riddles and propose questions one to another hard to be solved the mysterie whereof teacheth us thus much that both we ought at the table to use such speech as doth conteine some good learned speculation and erudition and also that when those discourses are joined with wine and drunkennesse then they be the muses who hide and cover all furious outrage and enormitie which also is willing to be deteined and kept by them THE FIRST QUESTION As touching those daies which are ennobled by the nativitie of some renowmed persons and withall of that pragenie or race which is said to be derived from the gods THis book then which is the eighth in order of our symposlaques or discourses at the table shall conteine in the first place that which not long since we chanced to heare and speake that day whereon we celebrate the feast of Platoes nativity for having solemnized the birth day of Socrates upon the sixth of February the morow after which was the seventh of that moneth we did the like by Plato which gave us occasion and ministred matter first to enter into a discourse fitting the occurrence of these two nativities in which Diogenianus the Pergamian began first in this maner Ion the poet quoth he said not amisse of fortune that being as she was different from wisdome in many things yet she brought foorth effects not a few like unto her and as for this it seemeth that she hath caused it to fall out very well and fitly and not without some skill rash though she be otherwise not only for that these two birth-daies jumpe so nere one unto the other but also because that of the master who of the twaine more ancient commeth also in order before the other Whereupon it came into my head also to alledge many examples of occurrents happening likewise at one and the same time and namely as touching the birth and death of Euripides who was borne that very day whereon the Greeks fought the navall battell of Solamis at sea with the king of Persia and whose fortune it was to die the same day that Denys the elder tyrant of Sicilie was borne as if fortune of purpose as Timaeus saith had taken out of the world a poet who represented tragicall calamities the very same day that she brought into the world the actour thereof Mention also was made of the death of king Alexander the Great which fell out just upon the same day that Diogenes the Cynicke philosopher departed this life and by one generall voice accorded it was that king Attalus left his life the very day that hee celebrated the memoriall of his nativitie and some there were who said that Pompey the Great died in Aegypt the same day of the yere that he was born though others affirmed that it was one day sooner semblably there came into our remembrance at the same time Pindarus who being borne during the solemnitie of the Pythicke games composed afterwards many hymnes in the honour of that god for whom those games were solemnized Then Florus said that Carneades was not unworthy to be remembred upon the day of Platoes nativity considering he was one of the most famous pillers that supported the schoole of Academy and both of them were borne at the festivall times of Apollo the one in Athens what time as the feast Thargelia was holden and the other that very day when as ths Cyrenians solemnized it which they call Carnea and both of them fell out just upon the seventh day of Februarie on which day you my masters who are the prophets and priests of Apollo doe say that himselfe was borne and therefore you call him Hebdomagenes neither doe I thinke that they who attribute unto this God the fatherhood of Plato doe him any dishonour in that he hath begotten and provided for us a physician who by the meanes of the doctrine of Socrates even another Chrion cureth and healeth the greater infirmities and more grievous maladies of the soule Moreover it was not forgotten how it was held for certeine that Apollo appeared in a vision by night unto Ariston the father of Plato and a voice besides was heard forbidding him expresly not to lie with his wife nor to touch her for the space of ten moneths Hereupon Tyndares the Lacedaemonian seconded these words and said that by good right we were to sing and say thus of Plato He seemed not the sonne of mortall wight Some god for sire he may avouch by right Howbeit for my part I am afraid that to beget repugneth no lesse with the immortalitie of the deitie than to be begotten for surely even the act of generation implieth also a mutation and passion and king Alexander the Great signified no lesse one time when he said that he knew himselfe principally to be mortall and subject to corruption by having companie with a woman by his sleep for that sleepe is occasioned by a relaxation proceeding from feeblenesse and as for all generation performed it is by the passage of some portion of ones selfe into another and so much therefore is lost gone from the principall and yet on the other side I take heart againe and am confirmed when I heare Plato himselfe to call the eternall God who never was borne nor begotten Father and Creatour of the world and of other things generable not that God doth engender after the maner of men by the meanes of naturall seed but by another power doth ingenerate and infuse into matter a vertue generative and a principle which altereth moveth and transmuteth the same For even by windes that female birds inspire Conceiv'd they be when they to breed desire Neither doe I thinke it any absurditie that a god companying with a woman not as man but after another sort of touching contractation and by other meanes altereth and replenisheth her being a mortall creature with divine and heavenly seed And this is quoth he no invention of mine for the Aegyptians hold that their Apis is in that manner engendred by the light of the moone striking upon his dam whereby she is conceived and generally they admit thus much that a god of the male sex may deale with a mortall woman but contrariwise they think not that a mortall man is able to give unto any goodesse the beginning of conception or birth for they are of opinion that the substance of these goddesses consisteth in a certeine aire and spirits yea and in certeine heats and humors THE SECOND QUESTION How Plato is to be understood when he saith That God continually is exercised in Geometry AFter these words there ensued some silence for a while and then Diogenianus beginning againe to speake How thinke you masters quoth he are you contented well pleased considering that we have had some speech already
speake of necessity either was not before the creation of the world at what time as those first bodies lay still unmoveable or stirred confusedly or else if he were before he either slept or watched or did neither the one nor the other but as the former of these we may not admit for that God is eternall so the latter we cannot 〈◊〉 for if God slept from all eternity and time out of minde he was no better than dead for what is eternal sleep other than death but surely God is not subject to death for the immortallity of God and this vicinity to death are much distant asunder and cannot stand both together but if wee say that God was awake all that while either he was defectuous in his blessed state of felicity or els he enjoyed the same complet but in the first condition God is not happy for whatsoever wanteth ought of felitity cannot be happy and verily in the second state he is not better for if he were defective in nothing before to what purpose busied he himselfe in such vaine enterprises moreover if there be a God and that by his prudent care mens affaires be governed how commeth it to passe that wicked men prosper in the world and finde fortune their 〈◊〉 mother but the good and honest suffer the contrary and feele her to be a curst stepdame for king Agamemnon as the poet faith Aprince right good and gracious A knight with all most 〈◊〉 was by an adulterer and adulteresse surprised and murdered trecherously and Hercules one of his race and kinred after he had ridde and purged the life of man from so many monsters that troubled his reposewas poisoned by Deianeira and so by indirect meanes lost his life THALES saith that God is the soule of the world ANAXIMANDER is of opinion that the starres be celestiall gods DEMOCRITUS is perswaded that God is a minde of a fierie nature and the soule of the world PYTHAGORAS affirmeth that of the two first principles Unitie was God and the soveraigne good which is the very nature of one and is Understanding it selfe but the indefinite binarie is the divell and evill about which is the multitude materiall and the visible world SOCRATES and PLATO doe hold that he is one and of a simple nature begotten and borne of himselfe alone truly good All which tearmes and attributes tend unto a Minde so that this minde is God a forme separate apart that is to say neither mingled with any matter nor entangled and joined with any thing passible whatsoever ARISTOTLE supposeth that this supreme God is an abstract forme setled upon the round sphaere of the universall world which is an heavenly and celestiall body and therefore tearmed by him the fifth body or quinta essentia which celestial body being divided into many sphaeres coherent by nature but separate and distinct by reason and understanding hee thinketh each of these sphaeres to be a kinde of animall composed of body and soule of which twaine the bodie is celestiall mooving circularly and the soule reason unmooveable in it selfe but the cause in effect of motion The Stoicks teach after a more generall manner and define God to be a working and artificiall fire proceeding methodically and in order to the generation of the world which comprehendeth in itselfe all the spermaticall proportions and reasons of seed according to which every thing by fatall destinie is produced and commeth foorth also to be a spirit piercing and spreading through the whole world howbeit changing his denomination throughout the whole matter as it passeth by transition from the one to the other Semblably that the world is God the starres likewise and the earth yea and the supreme minde above in heaven Finally Epicurus conceiveth thus of the gods that they all have the forme of man and yet be perceptable onely by reason and cogitation in regard of the subtile parts and fine nature of their imaginative figures he also affirmeth that those other foure natures in generall be incorruptible to wit the atomes vacuitie infinitie and resemblances which also be called semblable parcels and elements CHAP. VIII Of Daemons and demy-gods otherwise named Heroes TO this treatise of the gods meet it is to adjoine a discourse as touching the nature of Daemones and Heroes THALES PYTHAGORAS PLATO and the STOICKS hold that these Daemons be spirituall substances and the Heroes soule separate from their bodies of which sort there be good and bad the good Heroes are the good soules and the bad Heroes the bad soules but EPICURUS admitteth none of all this CHAP. IX Of Matter MAtter is the first and principall subject exposed to generation corruption and other mutations The Sectaries of THALES and PYTHAGORAS together with the Stoicks doe say that this Matter is variable mutable alterable and fluxible all wholly thorow the universall world The disciples and followers of DEMOCRITUS are of opinion that the first principles be impassible to wit the small indivisible bodie Atomos Voidnesse and Incorporall ARISTOTLE and PLATO doe holde that Matter is corporall without forme shape figure and qualitie in the owne nature and propertie but when it hath received formes once it becommeth as it were a nurse a molde pattern and a mother They who set downe for this Matter water earth fire or aire do not say that now it is without forme but that it is a very bodie but such as affirme that these Atomes and indivisible bodies be the said Matter make it altogether formelesse CHAP. X. Of Idea IDea is a bodilesse substance which of it selfe hath no subsistence but giveth figure and forme unto shapelesse matters and becommeth the very cause that bringeth them into shew and evidence SOCRATES and PLATO suppose that these Ideae bee substances separate and distinct from Matter howbeit subsisting in the thoughts and imaginations of God that is to say of Minde and Understanding ARISTOTLE admitteth verily these formes and Ideae howbeit not separate from matter as being the patterns of all that which God hath made The STOICKS such as were the scholars of Zeno have delivered that our thoughts and conceits were the Ideae CHAP. XI Of Causes A Cause is that whereupon dependeth or followeth an effect or by which any thing hapneth PLATO hath set downe three kinds of Causes and those are distinguished by these tearmes By which Of which and For which but he taketh the most principall to be that By which that is to say the efficient cause which is the minde or understanding PYTHAGORAS and ARISTOTLE do hold that the principall Causes be incorporall and as for other Causes either by participation or by accident they are of a corporal substance and so the world is a bodie But the STOICKS are of opinion that all Causes are corporall inasmuch as they be spirits CHAP. XII Of Bodies A Bodie is measurable and hath three dimensions length bredth and depth or thicknesse Or thus A Bodie is a masse that resisteth touching naturally of it selfe
principally in two severall Treatises of the former tome perceived how Plutarch is quite contrary unto the Epicureans and namely in one of those Treatises he dealeth with a certaine booke which he now expresly refuteth where Colotes endevoured to proove that a man can not possibly live well according to the opinions of other Philosophers Plutarch sheweth on the contrarie side that impossible it is to leade a joifull life after the doctrine of Epicurus and that it is accompanied with overweening impudency and slanderous calumniation And not contenting himselfe thus to have confuted them of purpose once or twice he setteth upon them in this discourse and particularly he copeth with Colotes whose slouth filthinesse and impiette he heere describeth The summe of all which declamation is this That these Epicureans are not any way worthy the name of Philosophers who contrariwise tread and trample under foot all the parts of true Philosophie discovering in their writings aswell as thorowout all their lives meere beastly brutalitie But all that is delivered in this Treatise may be reduced well to two principall points The one conteineth a defence or excuse of the doctrine taught by Democritus Empedocles Parmenides Socrates and other ancient Philosophers standered by Colotes who extolled farre above them the traditions and precepts of his master The other discovereth divers absurdities and strange opinions of the Epicureans even by their owne testimonies whom Plutarch refelleth soundly handling in this disputation many articles of Philosophie Naturall Morall and Supernaturall and particularly of the Senses of Nature of the Atomes of the Universall world of the Knowledge of man of the Opinion of the Academicks of the Apprehensions faculties passions and affections of the soule of the certeintie of things sensible of the falsitie and trueth of imaginations of the use of Lawes of the profit of Philosophie of the sovereigne good of religion and of other such matters the principles whereof the Epicureans abolished bringing in paradoxes woonderfull strange for to shuffle things confusedly and make all uncerteine All which is marked particularly in the traine and course of the authours owne words and therefore needlesse it is to specifie thereof any more because I would avoid tantologies unnecessary repetitions True it is that in certeine refutations Plutarch is not so firme as were to be desired but that may be imputed to his ignorance of the true God As for the rest it may suffice serve to know the misery wretchednes of the Epicureans and that other Philosophers had many good parts and delivered many beautifull speeches whereof all vertuous persons may reape and gather great fruit in applying and referring the same to their right use And for to close up all he maketh a comparison betweene true Philosophers and the Epicureans proving in very many places that Colotes and his fellowes like himselfe are people not onely unprofitable but also most pernicious and so by consequence unworthy to live in the world AGAINST COLOTES THE Epicurean COlotes whom Epicurus was wont ô Saturninus to call by way of slattering diminution Colatar as and Colatarius composed and put forth a little booke which he entituled That there could be no life at all according to the opinions of other Philosophers and dedicated the said booke unto king Ptolemaeus Now what came into my minde to speake against this Colotes I suppose you would take pleasure to reade the same in writing being as you are a man who loveth elegancie and all honest things especially such as concerne the knowledge of antiquity besides esteemeth it the most prince like exercise and roiall study to beare in minde and have alwaies in hand as much as possibly may be the discourses of auncient Sages Whereas therefore of late this booke was in reading one of our familiar friends one whom you know well enough Aristodemus by name an Aegian borne a man exceeding passionate and of all the Academicks a most sranticke sectary of Plato although hee carie not the ferula like unto the madde supposts of Plato I wot not how contrary to his usuall maner was very patient and silent all the while giving care most civilly even to the very end But so soone as the lecture was done Goe to now my masters quoth he whom were we best to cause for to arise and fight with this fellow in the quarrell and defence of Philosophers For I am not of Nestors minde neither doe I greatly praise him for that when there was to be chosen the most valiant warrior of those nine hardy knights who were presented to enter into combat with Hector hand to hand committed the election unto fortune and put all to the lot But you see also quoth I that even he referred himselfe to be ordered by the lot to the end that the choise might passe according to the dispose and ordinance of the wisest man The lot out of the helmet then did fall Of Ajax whom themselves wisht most of all And yet if you command me to make election How can I ever put out of mind Divine Ulysses a prince so kind Consider therefore and be well advised how you may be able to refell this man Then Aristodedemus But you know full well quoth he what Plato sometime did who being offended with his boy that waited upon him would not himselfe swindge him but caused Speusippus to doe so much for him saying withall That he was in a fit of choler And even so I say as much to you Take the man to you I pray and entreat him at your pleasure for my selfe am very angry with him Now when all the rest of the company were instant with me and praied me to take this charge in hand Well I see quoth I that I must speake seeing you will needs have it so but I am affraid lest I may seeme my selfe to be more earnestly bent against this booke than it deserveth in the defence and maintenance of Socrates against the incivility rudenesse scurrility and insolence of this man who presenteth as one would say unto him hay as if he were a beast and demaundeth how he may put meat into his mouth and not into his care whereas haply the best way were to laugh onely at him for such railing especially considering the mildnesse and gentle grace of Socrates in such cases Howbeit in regard of the whole host beside of other Greeke Philosophers namely Democritus Plato Empedocles Parmenides and Melissus who by him are foully reviled it were not onely a shame to be tongue tied and keepe silence but also meere sacriledge and impiety to remit any jot or forbeare to speake freely to the utmost in their behalfe being such as have advanced philosophy to that honour and reputation which it hath And verily our parents together with the gods have given us our life but to live well we suppose and that truely that it commeth from the philosophers by the meanes of that doctrine which we have received from them as
So that no man is able to praise those sufficiently and to their full desert who to represse such furious and beastly affections have set downe law established policie and government of State instituted magistrates and ordeined holsome decrees and edicts But who bee they that confound yea and utterly abolish all this Are they not those who give out that all the great empires and dominions in the worlde are nothing comparable to the crowne and garland of fearelesse tranquillity and repose Are they not those who say that to be a king and to reigne is to sinne to erre and wander out of the true way leading to felicity yea and to this purpose write disertly in these termes we are to shew how to maintaine in best sort and to keepe the end of nature and how a man may avoid at the very first not to enter willingly and of his owne accord into offices of state and government of the multitude Over and besides these speeches also be theirs there is no need at all henceforth for a man to labour and take paines for the preservation of the Greeks nor in regard of wisdome and learning to seeke for to obtaine a crowne at their hands but to eate and drinke Ô Timocrates without hurt doing to the body or rather withall contentment of the flesh And yet the first and most important article of the digests and ordinance of lawes and policie which Colotes so highly commendeth is the beleefe and firme perswasion of the gods whereby Lycurgus in times past sanctified the Lacedēmonians Numa the Romans that ancient Ion the Athenians and whereby Deucalion brought all the Greeks universally to religion which noble and renowmed personages made the people devout affectionate zealously to the gods in praiers othes oracles and prophesies by the meanes of hope and feare together which they imprinced in their hearts In such sort that if you travell through the world well you may finde cities without wals without literature without kings not peopled and inhabited without housen 〈◊〉 and such as desire no coine which know not what Theaters or publicke hals of bodily exercise meane but never was there nor ever shall be any one city seene without temple church or chappell without some god or other which useth no praiers nor othes no prophesies and divinations no sacrifices either to obtaine good blessings or to avert heavy curses and calamities nay me thinks a man should sooner finde a city built in the aire without any plot of ground whereon it is seated than that any common wealth altogether void of religion the opinion of the gods should either be first established or afterwards preserved and maintained in that 〈◊〉 This is it that containeth and holdeth together all humane society this is the foundation prop and stay of all lawes which they subvert and overthrow directly who goenot round about the bush as they say nor secretly and by circuit of covert speeches but openly and even at the first assault set upon the principall point of all to wit the opinion of God and religion and then afterwards as if they were haunted with the furies they confesse how greivously they have sinned in shuffling and confounding thus all rights and lawes and in abolishing the ordinance of justice and pollicy to the end that they might obtaine no pardon for to slip and erre in opinion although it be not a part of wise men yet it is a thing incident to man but to impute and object those faults unto others which they commit themselves what should a man call it if he forbeate to use the proper termes names that it deserveth For if in writing against 〈◊〉 or Bion the Sophister he had made mention of lawes of pollicy of justice and government of common weale might not one have said unto him as Electra did to her furious brother Orestes Poore soule be quiet feare none ill Deare hart in bed see thou be still cherishing and keeping warme thy poore body As for me let them argue and expostulate with me about these points who have lived oeconomically or politickly And such are they all whom Colotes hath reviled and railed upon Among whom Democritus verily in his writings admonisheth and exhorteth both to learne military science as being of all others the greatest and also to take paines and endure travels Whereby men attaine to much renowme and honour As for Parmenedes hee beawtified and adorned his owne native countrey with most excellent lawes which he ordained in so much as the magistrates every yeere when they newly enter into their offices binde the citizens by an oth to observe the slatutes and lawes of Parmenides And Empedocles not onely judicially convented and condemned the principall persons of the city wherein he dwelt for their insolent behaviour and for distracting or embeselling the publicke treasure but also delivered all the territorie about it from sterility and pestilence whereunto before time it was subject by emmuring and stopping up the open passages of a certaine mountaine through which the southern winde blew and overspred all the plaine country underneath Socrates after he was condemned to death when his frends had made meanes for him to escape refused to take the benefit thereof because he would maintaine and confirme the authority of the lawes chusing rather to die unjustly than to save his life by disobaying the lawes of his country Melissus being praetor or captaine generall of the city wherein he dwelt defaited the Athenians in a battell at sea Plato left behinde him in writing many good discourses of the lawes and of civill government but much better imprinted he in the hearts and minds of his disciples familiars which were the cause that Dion freed Sicily from the tyrany of Dionysius and Thrace likewise was delivered by the meanes of Python and Heracledes who killed king Cotys Chabrtas and Phocion worthy commaunders of the Athenians armie came both out of the schoole Academia As for Epicurus he sent as farre as into Asia certaine persons of purpose to taunt and revile Timocrates yea and caused the man to be banished out of the kings court onely for that he had offended Metrodorus his brother And this you may read written in their owne books But Plato sent of those friends which were brought up under him Aristonimus to the Arcadians for to ordeine their common wealth Phormio to the Elians Menedemus to those of Pyrrha Eudoxus to the Cnidians and Aristotle to those of Stagira who being all his disciples and samiliars did pen and set downe lawes Alexander the Great requested to have from Xenocrates rules and precepts as touching the government of a kingdome And he who was sent unto Alexander from the Greeks dwelling in Asia who most of all other set him on a light fire and whetted him on to enterprise the warre against the barbarous king of Persia was Delius an Ephesian one of Platoes familiars Zenon also ascholar of Parmenides undertooke to kill
the tyrant Demylus and having no good successe therein but missing of his purpose maintained the doctrine of Parmenides to be pure and fine golde tried in the fire from all base mettal shewing by the effect that a magnanimous man is to feare nothing but turpitude and dishonour and that they be children and women or else effeminate and heartlesse men like women who are affraid of dolor and paine for having bitten off his tongue with his owne teeth he spit it in the tyrants face But out of the schoole of Epicurus and of those who follow his rules and doctrines I doe not aske what tyrant killer there was or valiant man and victorious in feats of armes what lawgiver what counsellour what king or governour of state either died or suffred torture for the upholding of right and justice but onely which of all these Sages did ever so much as imbarke and make a voiage by sea in his countries service and for the good thereof which of them went in embassage or disbursed any mony thereabout or where is there extant upon record any civill action of yours in matter of government And yet because that Metrodorus went downe one day from the city as far as to the haven Pyraeaeum tooke a journey of five or six miles to aide Mythra the Syrian one of the king of Persias traine and court who had bene arrested and taken prisoner he wrot unto all the friends that he had in the world of this exploit of his and this doubty voiage Epicurus hath magnified exalted in many of his letters What a doe would they have made then if they had done such an act as Aristotle did who reedified the city of his nativity Stagira which had bene destroied by king Philip or as Theophrastus who twice delivered and freed his native city being held and oppressed by tyrants Should not thinke you the the river Nilus have sooner given over to beare the popyr reed than they bene weary of discribing their brave deeds And is not this a grievous matter and a great indignity that of so many sects of Philosophers that have bene they onely in maner enjoy the good things and benefits that are in cities without contributing any thing of their owne unto them There are not any Poets Tragedians or Comedians but they have endevoured to doe or say alwaies some good thing or other for the defence of lawes and policie but these here if peradventure they write ought write of policie that we should not intermeddle at all in the civill government of state of Rhetoricke that we should not plead any causes eloquently at the barre of Roialty that we should avoid the conversing and living in kings courts neither doe they name at any time those great persons who manage affaires of common weale but by way of mockerie for to debase and abolish their glorie As for example of Epaminondas they say that he had indeed some good thing onely in name and word but the same was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say as little as might be for that is the very terme that it pleaseth them to use Moreover they name him heart of yron demaunding why he marched up and downe through out all Peloponnesus with his armie as he did and sat not rather quiet at home in his owne house with a dainty chaplet upon his head given wholly to make good chere and to sleepe with his belly full in a whole skin But me thinks I should not for any thing omit in this place to rehearse what Metrodorus hath written in his booke of philosophy wherein abjuring all dealing in government of state he saith thus Some there be of these wisemen quoth he who being full of vanity and arrogancy had so deepe an insight into the businesse thereof that in treating of the rules of good life and of vertue they suffer themselves to be carried away with the very same desires that Lycurgus and 〈◊〉 fell into What was this vanity indeed and the aboundance of vanity and pride to set the city of Athens free to reduce Sparta to good policy and the government of holsome lawes that yong men should doe nothing licenciously nor get children upon curtisans and harlots and that riches wanton delicacie intemperance loosenesse dissolution should beare no sway nor have the commaund in cities but law onely and justice for these were the desires of Solon And thus Metrodorus by way of scorne and contumelious reproch addeth thus much more for a conclusion to the rest And therefore quoth he it is well beseeming a gentleman to laugh a good and right heartly at all other men but especially at these Solones and Lycurgi But verily such an one were not a gentleman Metrodorus nor well borne but servile base unruly and dissolute and who deserved to be scurged not with the whip which is for free borne persons but with that whip Astragalote where with the maner was to whip and chastice those gelded sacrificers called Gally when they did amisse in the cerimonies and sacrifices of Cylote the great mother of the gods Now that they warred not against the lawgivers but the very lawes themselves a man may heare and learne of Epicurus for in his questions he demaundeth of himselfe whether a wise man being assured that no man ever should know would doe and commit any thing that the law forbiddeth and he maketh an answere which is not full nor an open plaine and simple affirmation saying doe it I will marry confesse it and be knowen thereof I will not Againe writing as I suppose unto Idomeneus he admonisheth him not to subject and enthrall his life unto lawes and the opinions and reputations of men unlesse it be in this regard onely that otherwise there is prepared odious whipping chere and that neere at hand If then it be so that they who abolish lawes governments and policies do withall subvert and overthrow mans life if Metrodorus and Epicurus doe no lesse withdrawing and averting their friends and followers from dealing in publicke affaires and spitefully hating those who doe meddle therein miscalling and railing at the chiefe and wisest lawgivers that ever were yea and willing them to contemne the lawes so that they keepe themselves out of the feare of the whip and danger of punnishment I cannot see that Colotes hath in any thing so much belied others and raised false imputations against them as he hath indeed and truely accused the doctrine and opinions of Epicurus OF LOVE The Summarie THis Dialogue is more dangerous to be read by yoong men than any other Treatise of Plutarch for that there be certeine glaunces heere and there against honest marriage to upholde indirectly and under hana the cursed and 〈◊〉 filthinesse covertly couched under the name of the Love of yoong boyes But minds guarded and armed with true chastitie and the feare of God may see evidently in this discourse the miserable estate of the world in that there be found
milke Moreover betimes in the morning he damanded of all passengers whom he met where he should finde the children of Polymnis dwelling in that country And what stranger might this be quoth I for by your report he should be some great personage and not a private man and of meane degree Not so quoth Phidolaus but when he comes welcome he shall be and we will receive him courteously But for this present if peradventure Simmias you know any thing more than we concerning those letters whereof we were of late in doubt declare it unto us for it is said that the priests of Aegypt understood by conference together the letters of a certaine table of brasse which Agesilaus not long since had from us at what time as he caused the tombe of Alcmena to be opened I have not quoth Simmtas calling another matter presently to minde seene this faid table ô Phidolaus but Agetoridas the Spartan carrying with him many letters from Agestlaus came to thy city Memphis and went unto the prophet Chonuphis with whome we conferred as touching Philosophy and abode together a certaine time my selfe I meane and Plato with Ellopion the Peparethian Thither I say arrived he as sent from king Agesilaus who requested Chonuphis that if he understood any thing of those letters which were written in the said brasse he would interpret the same and send it backe unto him incontinently So this prophet was musing and studying three daies together by himselfe perusing and turning all sorts of figures and characters of auncient letters and in the end wrote backe his answer unto king Agesilaus and by word of mouth told us that the said writing gave direction and commandement unto the Greeks to celebrate the feast and solemnize the plaies and games in the honor of the Mufes also that the forme of those characters were the very same which had beene used at the time when Proteus reigned in Aegypt which Hercules the sonne of Amphitryo learned and that God by those letters advised and admonished the Greeks to live in peace and repose instituting certeine games unto the Muses for the study of Philosophy and good litterature and disputing one against another continually with reasons and arguments as touching justice laying armes cleane aside As for us we thought verily even then at the very first that Chonuphts said well and truely but much rather when in our returne out of Aegypt as we passed along Caria certeine persons of the lsle Delos met us upon the way who requested Plato as he was a man well seene and exercised in Geometrie to explane the meaning unto them of a certeine strange oracle hard to be understood which god Apollo had given them the tenour whereof was this That the Delians and all other Greeke nations should have a cessation end of all their present troubles and calamities when they had once doubled the alter which stood in the temple at Delo for they being not able to guesse nor imagine what the substance and meaning should be of this answer delivered by the oracle and besides making themselves ridiculous when they thought to double the fabricke and building of the altar for when they had doubled ech side of the foure they were not ware how by augmentation they made a solid bodie eight times as bigge as it was before and that by ignorance of the proportion which in length yeeldeth the duple they had recourse unto Plato for to be resolved of this difficulty Then he calling to minde the foresaid Aegyptian priest said unto them that the god plaied with the Greeks for despising good sciences reproching them for their ignorance and commanding them in good earnest to study Geometry and not cursarily after a superficiall maner for that it was a matter and worke not of a depravate conceit nor of a troubled and dimme understanding but sufficiently exercised and perfectly seene in the sciences of Lines to find of two lines one middle proportioned which is the onely means to double the figure of a cubicke body being augmented equally in all dimensions And as for these quoth he Eudoxus the Cnidian or Helicon the Cyzicenian hath performed sufficiently unto you howbeit we are not to thinke that the god hath need of any such duplication neither was it that which he meant but he commanded the Greeks to give over armes for to converse with the Muses in dulcing their passions by the study of good literature and the sciences and so to couple and carie themselves as that they might prosit and not hurt one another But whiles Simmias thus spake my father Polymnis entred the place and sat him downe close unto Simmias beginning thus to speake Epaminondas quoth he requesteth both you and all the rest that be heere unlesse your businesse otherwise be the greater not to faile but heere to stay as being desirous to make you acquainted with this stranger who is of himselfe a gentle person and withall is hither come with a generous and honest intention being one of the Pythagorian Philosophers from out of Italy and his arrivall into these parts as by occasion of certeine visions and dreames as he saith yea and evident apparitions admonishing him to powre and offer unto the good seignior Lysis upon his tombe those libaments which are due unto men departed and having brought with him a good quantitie of gold he supposeth that he is bound to make recompense unto Epaminondas for the charges which which he was at in keeping mainteining good Lysis in his old age and most ready he is without our request and against our will to succour our need and povertie Simmias taking great pleasure to heare this You tell us quoth he of a woonderfull man indeed and such an one as is woorthy of Philosophy but what is the reason that he came not directly unto us Because quoth he he tooke up lodging last night about the sepulchre of Lysis and as I take it Epaminondas hath led him to the river Ismenus for to wash but from thence they will come both together unto us but before that he spake with us he lodged upon the tombe of Lysis with a purpose as I thinke to take up the bones and reliques of his body for to cary with him backe into Italy unlesse there were some spirit or daemon empeached him in the night When my father had thus much said he held his tongue and then Galaxidorus O Hercules quoth he how hard a matter is it to finde a man who is altogether free from vanitie and in whom there is no spice of superstition For some there be who even against their willes are otherwhiles surprised with these passions by reason either of ignorance or infirmity others againe to the end they might be thought more religious more devout and better beloved of the gods upon a singularity referre all their actions to the gods as the authors thereof preferring before all the inventions that came into their minde dreames and fantasticall
an estate wherein he is to be seene of the whole world she discovereth his wants she discrediteth and dishonoreth him the rather waving and shaking every way through his levitie So that by this we must confesse that greatnesse lieth not in the bare possession but in the well using of good things For many times it falleth out that very infants even from their cradle inherite the realmes and seignories of their fathers like as Charillus did whom Lycurgus his uncle broght in his swadling bands into the common hall Phiditium where the lords of Sparta were wont to dine together set him in the roiall throne and in the stead of himselfe declared and proclaimed him king of Lacedaemon Now was not this babe for all this great but he rather might be accounted a great person who rendring unto the new borne infant his fathers honor due unto him would not intervert and derive it upon himselfe and so defraud his nephew thereof As for Aridaeus who could make him a great man whom differing indeed nothing from a babe Meleager swadled indeed and enwrapped onely within a purple robe and roiall mantell of estate and so enstalled him in the throne of Alexander wherein he did very well to give the world to understand within a few daies after how men reigne by vertue and how by fortune for he subrogated in the place of a true prince that managed the empire indeed a very counterfect plaier and actor of a kings part or to speake more truly he brought a mute and dumbe diademe to walke through the world for a time as it were upon a stage The comicall Poet said A very woman may well a burden beare If first a man upon her doe it reare But a man may contrariwise say that a silly woman or a yong child may take up yea and charge upon the shoulders of another a scignory a realme a great estate and empire as Bagoas the Eunuch tooke and laid upon Oarses and Darius the kingdome of the Persians Mary when as one hath taken upon him a mighty power and dominion to beare to weld manage the same and not under the weight and heavy load of affaires belonging thereto to be overwhelmed brused or wrested awry that is the act of a man endued with vertue understanding and courage such an one as Alexander was howsoever some there be who reproch him that he loved wine to well and would be drunke But this great gift he had that in his important affaires he was sober neither was he drunke and overseene nor ever forgat himselfe and grew to any outrage for all the puissance authority and liberty that he had whereof others when they had some part and little tast could not hold and containe themselves For No sooner are their purses stuft With coine or they to honor brought But they anon with pride are puft And soone bewray that they be naught They kicke they winse they fling and prance None may stand safely in their way If fortune once their house advance Some unexpected power to sway Clytus for having sunke three or foure gallies of the Greeks nere the Isle Amorgus would needs be stiled with the name of Neptune and a three tined mace caried before him Demetrius upon whom fortune had bestowed a little skirt or lappet as it were which he tare from Alexanders dominion was well content to heare himselfe called Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the vawter Cities sent unto him not embassadors but Theores forsooth that is to say especiall persons deputed for to consult with the gods and his answeres to them must be termed I would not else Oracles And Lysimachus who held the coasts of Thracia which was but the border or edge of Alexanders kingdom grew to that heigth of surly pride intollerable arrogancy that he would breake out into these words Now the Bizantines come to doe homage unto me seeing how I reach and touch the skie with my launce At which speech of his Pasiades standing by could not forbeare but say unto the company Let us be gone my masters with all speed lest this man bore an hole in heaven with the point of his launce But what should we speake more of these persons who might be allowed in some sort to cary an hauty minde and beare their heads aloft in regard of Alexander whose souldiers they were seeing that Clearchus the tyrant of Heraclea caried upon his scepter as his device the resemblance of lightning and one of his sonnes he named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a thunderbolt And Denys the yonger called himselfe the sonne of Apollo in a certeine Epigram to this effect Doris the Nymph by Phoebus did conceive And from them both my birth I do derive And in trueth Denys the elder the naturall father of this man who put to death ten thousand of his owne citizens and subjects if not more who for very envie betraied his owne brother into the hands of his enemies who had not the patience to stay for his owne mothers death an aged woman and who by the course of nature would have died within few daies after but smothered and stopped her breath who also himselfe wrote in a tragoedy of his owne making For why know this that lordly tyranny The mother is of wrong and vilany yet forsooth of three daughters which he had named one Arete that is to say Vertue another Sophrosyne that is to say Temperance and a third Dicoesyne that is to say Justice Some there were who needs would be surnamed Euergeta that is to say Benefactors others Soteres that is to say Saviours Some called themselves Callinici that is to say Victorious others Megali that is to say Great And yet as glorious additions as they caried in their stiles who is able to expresse in words their marriages following thicke one in the necke of another spending the long day continually like a sort of stallions among a number of women as if they had beene a stud of so many mares their unkind abusing of faire boies their violent rapes and enforcements of yong damosels their drumming and tabouring with a sort of effeminate womanlike wantons their dice playing in the day time their piping and sounding the flute in open Theaters their nights spent in suppers and whole daies in long dinners But Alexander gat up and sat to his dinner by the breake of day and went not to supper before it was late in the evening he dranke and made good cheere when he had first sacrificed to the gods he plaied at dice with Midias one time whiles he had a fever upon him his pastimes and recreations were to travell and march upon the way and withall to learne how to shoot an arrow how to launce a dart how to mount a chariot nimbly and dismount againe with facility Roxane he espoused and wedded onely for pure love and to content his fancy and affection but Statira the daughter
esteemed among those men like as him selfe had them in great admiration in so much as he of all others seemed most to imitate their maner of mysticall speaking under covert words to involve his doctrine and sentences within figurative aenigmaticall words for the characters which are called Hieroglyphicks in Aegypt be in maner all of them like to these precepts of Pythagoras Eat not upon a stoole or chaire Sit not over a bushell Plant no date tree Stirre not the fire in the house nor rake into it with a sword And me thinks that whereas the Pythagoreans call unitie Apollo Tiro Diana the number of seven Minerva and the first cubicke Neptune this resembleth very neere that which the Aegyptians consecrate dedicate in their temples and agreeth with that which they both do write For their king and lord Osiris they depaint and pourtray by an eie and a scepter and some there be who make this interpretation of the name Osiris as if it signified having many eies for that Os in the Aegyptian tongue betokeneth many and Iri an eie As for heaven they describe by a yoong countenance by reason of the perpetuity thereof whereby it never waxeth old An eie they set out by an heart having under it an hearth with fire burning upon it In the city of Thebes there stood up certeine images without hands resembling Judges and the chiefe or President among them was blindfolded or hoodwincked to give us to understand that justice should neither be corrupted with briberie nor partiall and respective of persons In the signet or seale ring of their 〈◊〉 and militarie men there was engraven the portracture of the great flie called the Beettill because in that kinde there is no female but they be all males they blow or cast their seed in forme of a pellet or round ball under dung which they prepare to be a place not for their food more than for their brood Whensoever therefore you shall heare the Aegyptians tell tales of the gods to wit of their vagarant and wandring perigrinations or of their dismembrings and other such like fabulous fictions you must call to minde that which we have before said and never thinke that they meane any such thing is or hath beene done according to that litterall sense for they do not say that Mercurie properly is a dog but forasmuch as the nature of this beast is to be wary watchfull vigilant and wise able to distinguish by his taking knowledge and semblance of ignorance a friend and familiar from an anemy and stranger therefore as Plato saith they attributed and likened him to the most eloquent of all the gods Neither doe they thinke when they describe the Sunne that out of the barke of the tree Lotus there ariseth a babe new borne but in this wise doe they represent unto us the Sunnerising giving thus much to understand covertly that the light and illumination of the Sunne proceedeth out of the waters of the sea for even after the same maner the most cruell and terrible king of the Persians Ochus who put to death many of his nobles and subjects and in the end slew their beefe Apis and eat him at a feast together with his friends they called The sword and even at this day in the register and catalogue of their kings he goeth under that name not signifying thereby his proper substance but to expresse his hard and fell nature and his mischievous disposition they compared him to a bloudy instrument and weapon made to murder men In hearing then and receiving after this maner that which shal be tolde unto you as touching the gods after an holy and religious maner in doing also and observing alwaies diligently the accustomed rites ordeined for the sacred service of the gods and beleeving firmely that you can not performe any sacrifice or liturgy more pleasing unto them than to study for to have a sound and true opinion of them by this meanes you shall avoid superstition which is as great a sinne as impietie and Atheisme Now the fable of Isis and Osiris is as briefly as may be by cutting off many superfluous matters that serve to no purpose delivered in this wise It is said that dame Rhea at what time as Saturne lay secretly with her was espied by the Sunne who cursed her and among other maledictions praied that she might not be delivered nor bring forth child neither in any moneth nor yeere but Mercurie being inamoured of this goddesse companied likewise with her and afterwards as he plaied at dice with the Moone and won from her the seventieth part of every one of her illuminations which being all put together make five entire daies he added the same unto the three hundred and threescore daies of the yeere and those odde daies the Aegyptians do call at this present the daies of the Epact celebrating and solemnizing them as the birthdaies of their gods for that when the full time of Rhea was expired upon the first day of them was Osiris borne at whose birth a voice was heard That the lord of the whole world now came into light and some say that a certeine woman named Pamyle as she went to fetch water for the temple of Jupiter in the city of Thebes heard this voice commanding her to proclaime aloud That the Great King and Benefactour Osiris was now borne also for that Saturne committed this babe Osiris into her hands for to be noursed therefore in honour of her there was a festivall day solemnized named thereupon Pamylia much like unto that which is named Phallephoria unto Priapus On the second day she was delivered of Aroueris who is Apollo whom some likewise call the elder Orus Upon the third day she brought forth Typhon but he came not at the just time nor at the right place but brake thorow his mothers side and issued foorth at the wound On the fourth day was Isis borne in a watery place called Panhygra And the fifth day she was delivered of Nephthe who of some is named also Teleute and Venus others call her Nice Now it is said that she conceived Osiris and Aroueris by the Sunne Isis by Mercurie Typhon and Nephthe by Saturne which is the cause that the kings reputing the third of these intercalar daies to be desasterous and dismall dispatched no affaires thereupon neither did they cherish themselves by meat and drinke or otherwise untill night that Nephthe was honoured by Typhon that Isis and Osiris were in love in their mothers bellie before they were borne and lay together secretly and by slealth and some give out that by this meanes Aroueris was begotten and borne who by the Aegyptians is called Orus the elder and by the Greeks Apollo Well during the time that Osiris reigned king in Aegypt immediatly he brought the Aegyptians from their needy poore and savage kinde of life by teaching them how to sow and plant their grounds by establishing good lawes among them and by shewing
who hold and affirme such fables as these touching the blessed and immortall nature whereby especially we conceived in our minde the deity to be true and that such things were really done or hapned so indeed We ought to spit upon their face And curse such mouthes with all disgrace as Aeschylus saith I need not say unto you for that you hate and detest those enough alreadie of your selfe who conceive so barbarous and absurd opinions of the gods And yet you see verie well that these be not narrations like unto old wives tales or vaine and foolish fictions which Poets or other idle writers devise out of their owne fingers ends after the maner of spiders which of themselves without any precedent subject matter spin their threeds weave and stretch out their webbes for evident it is that they conteine some difficulties and the memorials of certeine accidents And like as the Mathematicians say that the rainbow is a representation of the Sunne and the same distinguished by sundry colours by the refraction of our eie-sight against a cloud even so this fable is an apparence of some doctrine or learning which doeth reflect and send backe our understanding to the consideration of some other trueth much after the maner of sacrifices wherein there is mingled a kinde of lamentable dole and sorrowfull heavinesse Semblably the making and disposition of temples which in some places have faire open Isles and pleasant allies open over head and in other darke caves vaults and shrouds under the earth resembling properly caves sepulchers or charnell vauts wherein they put the bodies of the dead especially the opinion of the Osirians for albeit the bodie of Osiris be said to be in many places yet they name haply Abydus the towne or Memphis a little citie where they affirme that his true body lieth in such sort as the greatest and welthiest persons in Aegypt usually doe ordeine and take order that their bodies be interred in Abydus to the end they may lie in the same sepulchre with Osiris and at Memphis was kept the beese Apis which is the image and figure of his soule and they will have his body also to be there Some likewise there be who interpret the name of this towne as if it should signifie the haven and harbour of good men others that it betokeneth the tombe of Osiris and there is before the gate of the citie a little Isle which to all others is inaccessible and admitteth no entrance insomuch as neither fowles of the aire will there light nor fishes of the sea approch thither onely at one certeine time the priests may come in and there they offer sacrifices and present oblations to the dead where also they crowne and adorne with flowers the monument of one Mediphthe which is overshadowed and covered with a certeine plant greater and taller than any olive tree Eudoxus writeth that how many sepulchres soever there be in Aegypt wherein the corps of Osiris should lie yet it is in the citie Busiris for that it was the countrey and place of his nativitie so that now there is no need to speake of Taphosiris for that the very name it selfe saith enough signifying as it doeth the sepulture of Osiris Well I approove the cutting of the wood and renting of the linnen the effusions also and funerall libaments there performed because there be many mysteries mingled among And so the priests of Aegypt affirme that the bodies not of these gods onely but also of all others who have beene engendred and are not incorruptible remaine among them where they honoured and reverenced but their soules became starres and shine in heaven and as for that of Isis it is the same which the Greekes call Cyon that is to say the dogge-starre but the Aegyptians Sothis that of Orus is Orion and that of Typhon the Beare But whereas all other cities and states in Aegypt contribute a certeine tribute imposed upon them for to pourtray draw and paint such beasts as are honored among them those onely who inhabite the countrey Thebais of all others give nothing thereto being of opinion that no mortall thing subject to death can be a god as for him alone whom they call Cneph as he was never borne so shall he never die Whereas therefore many such things as these be reported and shewed in Aegypt they who thinke that all is no more but to perpetuate and eternize the memorie of marvelous deeds and strange accidents of some princes kings or tyrants who for their excellent vertue mighty puissance have adjoined to their owne glory the authoritie of deitie unto whom a while after there befell calamities use heerein a very cleanly shift and expedite evasion transferring handsomly from the gods unto men all sinister infamie that is in these fable and helpe themselves by the testimonies which they finde and read in histories for the Aegyptians write that Mercurie was but small of stature and slender limmed that Typhon was of a ruddy colour Orus white Osiris of a blackish hew as who indeed were naturally men Moreover they call Osiris captaine or generall Canobus pilot or governor of a ship after whose name they have named a starre and as for the shippe which the Greeks name Argo they hold that it was the very resemblance of Osiris ship which for the honour of him being numbred among the starres is so situate in heaven as that it mooveth and keepeth his course not farre from that of Orion and the Cyon or dogge-starre of which twaine the one is consecrate unto Horus the other to Isis. But I feare me that this were to stirre and remoove those sacred things which are not to be touched and medled withall and as much as to fight against not continuance of time onely and antiquitie as Simonides saith but also the religion of many sorts of people and nations who are long since possessed with a devotion toward these gods I doubt I say lest in so doing they faile not to transfer so great names as these out of heaven to earth and so goe very neere and misse but a little to overthrow and abolish that honour and beliefe which is ingenerate and imprinted in the hearts of all men even from their very first nativitie which were even to set the gates wide open for a multitude of miscreants and Atheists who would bring all divinity to humanity and deitie to mans nature yea and to give a manifest overture and libertie for all the impostures and jugling casts of Euemerus the Messenian who having himselfe coined and devised the originals of fables grounded upon no probability nor subject matter but even against the course of reason and nature spred and scattered abroad throughout the world all impietie transmuting and changing all those whom we repute as gods into the names of admirals captaines generall and kings who had lived in times past according as they stand upon record by his saying written in golden letters within the citie
Panchon which never Graecian nor Barbarian save himselfe saw as having sailed unto the countreies of the Panchonians and Triphylians nations forsooth that neither are nor ever were in this world And yet verily a great name there goeth among the Assyrians of the woorthy and renowmed acts of Semiramis as also in Aegypt of Sesostris As for the Phrygians even at this day they terme noble exploits and admirable enterprises by the name Manica of one of their ancient kings whom they called Manis who in his time was a most prudent and valiant prince and whom others named Masdes Cyrus led the Persians and Alexander the Macedonians with conquest still and victorie from one end of the world in maner to another and yet for all these brave acts no otherwise renowmed they are nor remembred but onely for puissant and good kings and say there were haply some of them who upon an overweening and high conceit of themselves helped forward with youth and want of experience as Plato saith and whose mindes were puffed up and inflamed with pride and vain-glory tooke upon them the surnames of gods and had temples founded in their names yet this glory of theirs lasted but a while and soon after being condemned by the posterity of vanitie and arrogancie together with impietie and injustice Were quickly gone like smoke which mounting hie Into the aire doth vanish by and by and now as fugitive slaves that may be brought backe againe where ever they be found they are haled and pulled away from their temples and altars and nothing remaineth for them but their tombs sepulchers and therefore that old king Antigonus when a certeine Poet named Hermodotus in his verses called him the sonne of the Sun yea a god Well quoth he my groome that daily voideth my close stoole knowes no such matter by me Lysippus also the Imager did very well to reproove Apelles the painter for that when he drew the picture of Alexander hee portraied him with lightning in his hand whereas Lysippus put in his hand a launce the glory and renowme whereof as due and proper unto him yea and beseeming his person indeed no time nor age should ever be able to abolish In which regard I hold better with them who thinke that the things which be written of Typhon Osiris and Isis were no accidents or passions incident to gods or to men but rather to some great Daemons of which minde were Pythagoras Plato Xenocrates and Chrysippus following heerein the opinions of the ancient Theologians who hold that they were farre stronger than men and that in puissance they much surmounted our nature but that divinitie which they had was not pure and simple but they were compounded of a nature corporall and spirituall capable of pleasure of griefe and other passions and affections which accompanying these mutations trouble some more others lesse For in these Daemons there is like as also among men a diversity and difference of vice and of vertue For the acts of Giants and Titans so much chaunted in every Greeke song the abominable deeds likewise and practises of one Saturne the resistance also of Python against Apollo the sounds of Bacchus and the wanderings of Ceres differ in no respect from the accidents of Osiris and Typhon and of all other such like fabulous tales which every man may heare as much as he list as also whatsoever lying covered and hidden under the vaile of mystical sacrifices and ceremonies is kept close not uttered nor shewed to the vulgar people is of the same sort And acding hereto we may heare Homer how he calleth good men and such as excell others diversly one while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say like unto the gods otherwhile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say comparable to the gods sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say having their wisdome and counsell from the gods But the denomination or addition drawen from the Daemons he useth commonly as well to the good as the bad indifferent to valiant persons and to cowards to a timorous and fearefull soldior thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemonian approch thou neare The Greeks why doest thou so much feare On the other side of an hardy soldior 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When he the charge in field the fourth time gave Like to some Daemon he did himselfe behave And againe in the woorse sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Daemonian what is that great offence Which Priam and his sonnes committed have Against thee for to make thy just pretence In wrathfull tearmes upon them thus to rave And them no grace and mercy to vouchsave Nor rest untill thou seest the stately towne Of Ilion destroid and rased downe Giving us heereby thus much to understand that the Daemons have a mixt nature and a will or affection which is not equall nor alwaies alike And heereupon it is that Plato verily attributeth unto the Olympian and celestiall gods all that which is dexterous and odde but unto the Daemons whatsoever is sinister and even And Xenocrates holdeth that those daies which be unluckie and dismall those festivall solemnities likewise which have any beatings or knocking and thumping of brests or fasting or otherwise any cursed speeches and filthy words are not meet for the honour worship either of gods or of good Daemons but he supposeth that there be in the aire about us certeine natures great puissant howbeit shrewd malicious and unsociable which take some pleasure in such matters and when they have obteined and gotten so much to be done for their sake they goe about no farther mischiefe nor wait any shrewder turnes whereas contrariwise both Hesiodus calleth the pure and holy Daemons such also as be the good angels and keepers of men Givers of wealth and opulence as whome This regall gift and honour doth become And Plato also termeth this kinde of Daemons or angels Mercuriall that is to say expositours or interpretours and ministeriall having a middle nature betweene gods and men who as mediatours present the praiers and petitions of men heere unto the gods in heaven and from thence transmit and convey unto us upon earth the oracles and revelations of hidden and future things as also their donations of goods and riches As for Empedocles he saith that these Daemons or fiends are punished and tormented for their sinnes and offences which they have committed as may appeere by these his verses For why the power of aire and skie did to the sea them chace The sea them cast up of the earth even to the outward face The earth them sends unto the beames of never-tyred Sunne The Sunne to aire whence first they came doth fling them downe anon Thus posted to and fro twixt seas beneath and heav'ns aboue From one they to another passe not one yet doth them love untill such time as being thus in this purgatory chastised and clensed they recover againe that place
insult over him debase and defame him what they can In so much as men of a ruddy colour they deride make of them a laughing stocke And as for the inhabitants of Coptos they use at a certaine feast to throw an asse headlong downe from the pitch of an high rocke because Typhon was ruddy and of a red asses colour The Busiritants and Lycopolites forbeare to sound any trumpets because they resemble the braying of an asse and generally they take an asse to be an uncleane beast and daemonicall for the resemblance in hiew that it hath with him and when they make certaine cakes in their sacrifices of the moneths Payni and Phaophi they worke them in paistry with the print upon them of an asse bound Also in their solemne sacrifice to the Sun they command as many as will be there to worship that god not to we are any brooches or jewels of gold about their bodies nor to give any meat or provander unto an asse what need soever he have thereof It seemeth also that the Pythagoreans themselves were of opinion that Typhon was some fiend or daemonicall power for they say that Typhon was borne in the even number of six and fifty againe that the triangular number or sigure is the puissance of Pluto Bacchus and Mars of the quadrangle is the power of Rhea Venus Ceres Vesta and Juno that of twelve angles belongeth to the might of Jupiter but that of fifty six angles is the force of Typhon as Eudoxus hath left in writing But the Aegyptians supposing that Typhon was of a reddish colour doe kill for sacrifice unto him kine and oxen of the same colour observing withall so precisely that if they have but one haire blacke or white they be not sacrificeable for they thinke such sacrifices not acceptable but contrariwise displeasant unto the gods imagining they be the bodies which have received the soules of leaud and wicked persons transformed into other creatures And therefore after they have cursed the head of such a sacrifice they cut it off and cast it into the river at least waies in old time but now they give it unto strangers But the oxe which they meane to sacrifice indeed the priests called Sphragistae that is to say the sealers come marke it with their seale which as Castor writeth was the image of a man kneeling with his hands drawen backe and bound behinde him and having a sword set to his throat Semblably they use the name of an asse also as hath bene said for his uncivill rudenesse and insolency no lesse than in regard of his colour wherein he resembleth Typhon and therefore the Aegyptians gave unto Ochus a king of the Persians whom they hated above all others as most cursed and abominable the surname of asse whereof Ochus being advertised and saying withall This asse shall devour your oxe caused presently their beefe 〈◊〉 to be killed and sacrificed as Dinon hath left in writing As for those who say that Typhon after he had lost the field fled six daies journy upon an asse backe and having by this meanes escaped beg at two sonnes Hierosolymus and Judaeus evident it is heerein that they would draw the story of the Iewes into this fable And thus much of the allegorirall conjectures which this tale doth affoord But now from another head let us of those who are able to discourse somewhat Philosophically and with reason consider first and formost such as deale most simply in this behalfe And these be they that say like as the Greeks allegorize that Saturne is time Juno the aire and the generation of Vulcan is the transmutation of aire into fire even so they give out that by Osiris the Aegyptians meane Nilus which lieth and keepeth company with Isis that is to say the earth That Typhon is the sea into which Nilus falling loseth himselfe and is dispatched heere and there unlesse it be that portion thereof which the earth receiveth and whereby it is made fertill And upon the river Nilus there is a sacred lamentation even from the daies of Saturne wherein there is lamenting how Nilus springing and growing on the left hand decaieth and is lost on the right For the Aegyptians doe thinke that the east parts where the day appeareth be the forefrunt and face of the world that the North part is the right hand the South part the left This Nilus therfore arising on the left hand and lost in the sea on the right hand is said truely to have his birth and generation in the left side but his death and corruption in the right And this is the reason why the priests of Aegypt have the sea in abomination and terme salt the fome and froth of Typhon And among those things which are interdicted and forbidden this is one that no salt be used at the boord by reason whereof they never salute any pilots or sailers for that they keepe ordinarily in the sea and get their living by it This also is one of the principall causes why they abhorre fishes in such sort as when they would describe hatred they draw or purtray a fish like as in the porch before the temple of Minerva within the city Sai there was purtraied and engraven an infant an old man after them a falcon or some such hauke and close thereto a fish and last of all a river-horse which Hieroglyphicks doe symbolize and signifie thus much in effect O all yea that come into the world and goe out of it God hateth shamelesse injustice For by the hauke they understand God by the fish hatred and by the river-horse impudent violence and vilany because it is said that he killeth his father and after that forceth his owne mother and covereth her And semblably it should seeme that the saying of the Pythagoreans who give out that the sea is a teare of Saturne under covert words doe meane that it is impure and uncleane Thus have I beene willing by the way to alledge thus much although it be without the traine of our fable because they fall within the compasse of a vulgar and common received history But to returne to our matter the priests as many as be of the wiser and more learned sort understand by Osiris not onely the river Nilus and by Typhon the sea but also by the former they signifie in one word and simply all vertue and power that produceth moisture and water taking it to be the materiall cause of generation and the nature generative of seed and by Typhon they represent all desiccative vertue all heat of fire drinesse as the very thing that is fully opposite and adverse to humidity and hereupon it is that they hold Typhon to be red of haire and of skin yellow and by the same reason they willingly would not encounter or meet upon the way men of that hew no nor delight to speake unto such Contrariwise they feigne Osiris to be of a blacke colour because all water causeth the earth
situate in their naturall seats as it is meet and appertaineth and each of those worlds shall have superior inferiour circular and a centre in the midst not in regard of another world nor of that which is without but in it selfe and in respect of it selfe And as for the supposition which some make of a stone without the world it cannot be imagined how possibly it should either rest or moove for how can it hang still seeing it is ponderous and waighty or moove toward the midst of the world as other heavy bodies considering it is neither part of it nor counted in the substance thereof As concerning that earth which is contained in another world and fast bound we need not to make doubt and question how it should not fall downe hither by reason of the wieght not be plucked away from the whole seeing as we doe that it hath a naturall strength to containe every part thereof For if we shall take high and low not within and in respect of the world but without forth we shall be driven unto the same difficulties and distresses which Epicurus is fallen into who maketh his little Atomes or indivisible bodies to move and tend toward those places which are under foot as if either his voidnesse had feet or the infinity which he speaketh of permit a man to imagine either high or low And therefore some cause there is to marvell at Chrysippus or rather to enquire and demand what fansie hath come into his head and mooved him to say that this world is seated and placed directly in the midst and that the substance thereof from all 〈◊〉 having taken up and occupied the place of the midst yet neverthelesse it is so compact and tied together that it endureth alwaies and is as one would say immortalized for so much hath he written in his fourth booke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Of possible things dreaming to no purpose of a middle place in that vast 〈◊〉 and yet more absurdly attributing unto that middle which is not nor hath any subsistence the cause of the worlds continuance and stabilitie especially having written thus much many times in other places that the substance is governed and mainteined partly by the motions tending to the mids and partly by others from the mids of it As for other oppositions besides that the Stoicks make who is there that feareth them as namely when they demand How it is possible to mainteine one fatall necessity and one divine providence and how it can otherwise be but that there should be many DIES and ZENES that is to say Joves and Jupiters if we grant that there be many worlds For to begin withall if it be an inconvenience to allow many such Joves and Jupiters their opinions verily be farre more absurd for they devise an infinit sort of Sunnes Moones Apolloes Dianaes and Neptunes in innumerable conversions revolutions of worlds Moreover what necessitie is there to enforce us to avow many Jupiters if there be many worlds and not rather in every of them a severall god as a sovereigne governor and ruler of the whole furnished with all understanding and reason as he whom we surname the Lord and Father of all things Or what should hinder but that all worlds might be subject to the providence destiny of Jupiter and he reciprocally have an eie to oversee all to direct digest and conduct all in ministring unto them the principles beginnings seeds and reasons of all things that are done and made For it being so that we do see even here many times a bodie composed of many other distinct bodies as for example the assembly or congregation of a city an armie and a daunce in every one of which bodies there is life prudence and intelligence as Chrysippus thinketh impossible it is not likewise that in this universall nature there should be ten fifty yea and a hundred worlds using all one and the same reason and correspondent to one beginning But contrariwise this order and disposition is best beseeming the gods For we ought not to make the gods like unto the kings of a swarme of bees which go not forth but keepe within the hive nor to holde them enclosed and imprisoned as it were rather and shut up fast within Matter as these men do who would have the gods to be certeine habitudes or dispositions of the aire and supposing them to be powers of waters and of fire infused and mixed within make them to arise and be engendred together with the world and so afterwards to be burnt likewise with it not allowing them to be loose and at libertie like as coatch-men and pilots are but in maner of statues or images are set fast unto their bases with nailes and sodered with lead even so they enclose the gods within bodily matter and pin them hard thereto so as being jointed as it were sure unto it they participate therewith all changes and alterations even to finall corruption and dissolution Yet is this opinion fare more grave religious and magnificent in my conceit to holde that the gods be of themselves free and without all command of any other power And like as they firy light Castor and Pollux succour those who are tossed in a tempest and by their comming and presence Allay the surging waves of sea below And still the blustring winds aloft that blow and not sailing themselves nor partaking the same perils with the mariners but onely appearing in the aire above save those that were in danger even so the gods for their pleasure goe from one world to another to visit them and together with nature rule and governe every one of them For Jupiter verily in Homer cast not his eies far from the city of Troy either into Thracia or the Nomades and vagrant Scythians along the river Ister or Daunbie but the true Jupiter indeed hath many faire passages goodly changes beseeming his majesty out of one world into another neither looking into the infinit voidnesse without nor beholding himselfe and nothing els as some have thought but considering the deeds of men and of gods the motions also and revolutions of the starres in their sphaeres For surely the deity is not offended with variety nor hateth mutations but taketh much pleasure therein as a man may guesse by the circuitions conversions and changes which appeare in the heaven I conclude therefore that the infinitie of worlds is a very senselesse and false conceit such as in no wise will beare and admit any god but emploieth fortune and chance in the managing of all things but contrariwise the administration and providence of a certeine quantity and determinate number of worlds seemeth unto me neither in majestie and worthinesse inferior nor in travell more laborious than that which is emploied and restreined to the direction of one alone which is transformed renewed and metamorphozed as it were an infinit sort of times After I had delivered this speech I
power for to deceive and abuse the world as also by certeine notable sayings as these Know thy selfe Nothing too much and such like he hath kept bound unto him persons of highest spirit and greatest conceit causing them to thinke that in delivering so goodly precepts for the rule and direction of this life it must needs be the true friend of mankinde yea and the very heavenly wisdome that spake by these Oracles But his audacious pride together with most intolerable impudence hath appeared in the inscription of this bareword E I upon the porch of the temple of Apollo in Delphi in that he pretended title and claimed thereby according to the last interpretation thereof in this present discourse to put himselfe in the place of the eternall God who onely Is and giveth Being unto all things And that which worse is the blindnesse was so horrible even of the wisest Sages that this opinion hath beene seated in their heads whiles this tyrant possessed them in such sort as they tooke pleasure to suffer themselves so to be cousened by him But hereby good cause have we to praise our God who hath discovered and laid open to us such impostures and maketh his majestie knowen unto us by his word to be the onely true and eternall deitie in adoring and worshipping whom we may safely and truely say E I that is to say Thou art as contrariwise the deceitfull wiles and illusions of satan and his complices do declare how fearefull and horrible the judgement of God is upon such rebellious spirits Now if some over-busie and curious head will heere dispute and reason against the justice of him who is the disposer of all things and enterprise to controule that eternall wisedome which governeth the world for having mercy upon such as it pleaseth him and suffering to fall from so excellent an estate the Apostatate and disobodient angels and yet permitting them to have such a powerfull hand over the most part of Adams children we answer in one word Man what art thou that thus wilt plead against God shall the thing formed say unto him who formed it Why hast thou made me so Hath not the potter full power to make of the same masse of earth or clay one vessell for honor and another for dishonor The judgements of God are unsearchable they have neither bottom nor brinke the riches of his wisdome and knowledge are inscrutable and beyond all computation his waies are hidden and impossible to be found out If then there be any place in the consideration of the secrets of God where we ought to be retentive warie and discret it is in this where every man hath just occasion to thinke upon this not able lesson and advertisement Not to presume for to know over and above that which he should but to be wise unto sobrietie and that no man ought to be pussed up with pride but rather to feare Moreover as touching the contents of this discourse the author having used an honest and decent Presace saith in generall That by this present inscription Apollo intended to make himselfe knowen and to incite every man to inquire into time But heere in the enemie of mankind sheweth his audacity and boldnesse sufficiently as also how he deludeth and mocketh his slaves in that after he had deprived them of right and sound judgement he stirreth them up to know who he is which is as much as if one should plucke out the eies and cut in twaine the ham-strings of a traveller or watfaring man and then bid him seeke out his way and goe onward on his journey Now he brings in foure divers personages delivering their minds as touching this Mot EI. Lamprias opining in the first place thinketh that the first and principall wise Sages of Greece devised it for that they would be knowen and discerned from others Ammonius secondly referreth and applieth it to the Wishes and Questions of those who resort unto the Oracle Theon the third attributeth this 〈◊〉 unto Logicke and doth all that possibly he can to mainteine his opinion 〈◊〉 the Mathematician speaking in the fourth place and seconded by Plutarch Philosophizeth at large upon the number of 5. represented by the letter E he discourseth and runneth through all the Mathematikes and divers parts of Philosophy and all to approove and make good his conceit but his 〈◊〉 and end is to shew under the mysticall sense of numbers the perfection of his Apollo which he draweth and fetcheth also from the consideration of his titles epithets and attributes But Ammonius gathering together their voices and closing or stopping up the disputation seemeth to hit the marke prooving by most strong and learned reasons that Apollo would by this word instruct pilgims how they ought to salute and call him to wit in saying thus E 〈◊〉 that is to say Thou art he which is opposite unto that salutation which this false god usurping the name of the true Jehovah or alwaies Existent greeteth men with in setting just before their eies in the entrie and forefront of his temple these two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Know thy selfe Having enriched this with two evident proofes the one taken from the uncerteine condition of creatures the other from the firmitude and true estate or being of the Creator he exhorteth his fellowes to list up themselves to the contemplation of the essence of God and to honour the Sunne his expresse image Which done herefuteth certeine contrary opinions and after a new confirmation of his discourse he endeth where he first began to wit that the knowledge of God and our selves are opposite in such sort as yet neverthelesse they must meet and concurre in us But all the application of this discourse unto Apollo whom you must take for the very divell in no wise is fit and agreeable And heerein a man may see better yet what madnesse and folly is the wisdome of man and in how thicke and palpable darknesse they goe groping with their hands before them who are no otherwise guided than by the discourse of their owne reason Which teacheth us once againe to adore the secrets of God to recognize and apprehend his mercies in the matter of our salvation to dread also his justice which sheweth it selfe in the deplorable and piteous blindnesse of so many nations even from the time that sinne first entred into the world unto this present day WHAT SIGNIFIETH THIS word EI engraven over the dore of Apolloes temple in the city of Delphi I Light of late in my reading friend Sarapion upon certeine pretie Iambique verses not unelegantly endited which Dicaearchus supposeth that the Poet Euripides delivered unto king Archelaus to this effect No gifts will I to you present Since poore I am and wealth you have Lest I for folly of you be shent Or by such giving seeme to crave For he who of that little meanes which he hath bestoweth some small present upon them that are rich and possesse much
her daughters their wofull end 948.40 Democritus studious in searching the causes of things 660. 〈◊〉 Democritus commended 1128.1 his opinion as touching dreames 784.20 his opinion as touching Atomes 807. 40. what he thought of God 812.1 Democritus a brave captaine et sea 1242. 〈◊〉 Demodorus an ancient Musician 1249.40 Demonides his shoes 23.10 Demosthenes the oratour never dranke wine 792.50 he loved not to speak unpremeditate 355 10. his parentage education and life 930.50 he called judicially to account his tutors or Guardian 931.10 he sued Midias in an action of battery 931.20 his painfull studie ib. how he corrected his evill gestures ib. 30. his defects in nature ib. 40. his exercise of declaiming by the seaside ib. he sided against the faction of K. Philip. 931.40 encouraged by Eunomus and Andronicus ib. 50. his speech of Action in eloquence 932.1 flowted by Comicall Poets for his broad othes in pleading 932.1 he mainteineth the pronouncing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the accent over the second syllable 932.10 Demosthenes dashed Lamachus out of countenance 932.20 commended by K. Philip for his eloquence 932.20 his kindnesse unto Aeschines 932.40 disgraced at his first comming to the barre 398.20 accused and quit ib. his timorousnesse ib. 50. his Motor device upon his targuet ib. not blamed in his orations for praising himself 304.50.305.1 his imploiment and good service in the Common weale 933.1 his honours that he obteined ib. 10. noted for bribery and corruption ib. 20. condemned and banished ib. recalled home by a publique decree ib. 30. he flieth and taketh Sanctuary ib. 40. his answer as touching premeditate speech 8.1 his statue with his owne Epigram 934. 10. his death ib. his issue ib. 30. honours done unto him after death ib. 40. he first made an oration with a sword by his side 934.30 his orations ib. 50. surnamed Batalus for his riotous life ib. scoffed at by Diogenes the Cynicke 935.1 his tale of the asse and the shadow 935. 10. his apophthegme to Polus the great actour 935.20 he studied his orations much ib. 30. how he tooke the death of his only daughter 529.40 Denary or Ten the perfection of numbers 806.40 Deniall of unjust and unlawfull requests 170.20 Denys the Tyrant 296.40 Denys of Sicily abused by slatterers 93.40 how he served a minstrell 56.1 Denys the tyrants wife and children cruelly abused by the Italians 377.1 his cruelty to Philoxenus the Poet. 1274.1 Denys the elder could not abide idlenesse 394.30 how he named his three daughters 1278.30 his witty apophthegmes 406.10 the yoonger his apophthegmes 407.20 his apophthegme 1268.50 his base nigardise to an excellent Musician 1273.30 his proud vain-glory 1278.20 Dercillidas his apophthegmes 456.30 Deris what Daemon 157.30 Destinies three 797.40 Destiny or fatall necessitie 816.40 what it is 817.1 substance thereof what it is ib. 50 Deucalion his deluge 961.50 Dexicreon a cousening Mount-banke or Merchant venturer 904.1 Diagoras of Melos 810.40 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 of two sorts 758.40 whether they ought to be rehearsed at supper time 759.50 Dianaes temple at Rome why men do not enter into 851.10 Diana but one 796.20 the same that the Moone 697.20 her attributes given by Timotheus 28.10 her temple within the Aventine hill why beautified with Cowes hornes 851.20 Diana Chalceoecos 455.10 surnamed Dictynna 978.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how defined 953.1 Diapason what symphonie in Musicke 1037.1 Diapente what symphony in Musicke 1037.1 Diapente in tempering wine and water 695.20 Diaphantus his apophthegme 2.30 Diatessaron what symphony in Musicke 1035.50 Diatessaron in tempering wine and water 695.20 Diatonique Musicke 796.40 Diatrion in tempering wine and water 695.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 736.50 〈◊〉 the citie perished 1190.20 Dice 295.20.557.50 Dictamnus the herbe medicinable 968.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 785.20 Diesis 1037.40 Diet exquisit condemned 617.40 620.20 Diet for sicke persons 611.40 Diet for men in health 612.10 Diet physicke taught us by brute beasts 969.10 Differring of punishmēt 540.1.10 Digestion of meats how hindered 701.1.10 Diligence supplieth the defect of nature 3.20 the power thereof ib. 30 Dinaea what Daemon 157.30 Dinarchus the orator his life and acts 937.30 his voluntary extle ib. 50 Dino a great captaine 901.30 Dinomenes what oracle he received as touching his sonnes 1197 20 Diogenes smote the master for the scholars misbehaviour 81.40 his free speech to K. Philip. 111.10 Diogenes the Sinopian a Philosopher abandoned the world 249.20 Diogenes compared himselfe with the great king of Persia. 250.1 Diogenes the Cynicke his apophthegme unto a boy drunken 250 Diogenes his patience 128.20 his speech to a yoonker within a Taverne 254.30 Diogenes the Cynicke his answer as touching his banishment 273 20. he contemned slavery 299.20 Diogenes master to Antisthenes 666.1 Diogenes rebuketh Sophocles about the mysteries of Ceres 28.10 his apophthegme as touching revenge of an enemie 28.1 concerning fleshly pleasure 6.30 his silthy wantonnes 1069.1 his franke speech to K. Philip 279.10 Diognetus sansieth Polycrite 497.1 Dion how he tooke the death of his owne sonne 525.40 through foolish bashfulnesse came to his death 165. 30. his apophthegmes 408.1 Dionysius See Denys Dionysus Eleutherios 885.1 Dioscuri two starres 822.10 Dioxippus rebuked by Diogenes for his wandering and wanton eie 141.20 his opinion as touching the passage of our meats and drinks 745.1 Dis diapason 1037.30 Discontentednesse in Alexander the great 147.40 Discourse of reason what it is 839 40 Diseases of a strange maner 782.40 Diseases of the body which be worst 313.30 Diseases of the soule woorse than those of the body 313.10 Diseases have their avantcurriers or forerunners 616.20 Diseases how they arise 781.10 Diseases new how they come 781.20 Diseases which were first 782.1 a Dish of sowes paps 613.50 Disme or tenth of goods why offered to Hercules 855.50 Disputation what maner of exercise 619.30 Disputation after meales 622.50 Distances betweene sunne moone and the earth 1165.30 Dithyrambs what verses songs 1358.10 they sort well with Bacchus 1358.10 Diversitie 65.40 Divine what things be called 728 20.30 Divine knowledge or doctrine of the gods seven folde 810.10 Divine providence what it is 1052 50 Divine providence denied by the Epicureans 598.1 Divine service most delectable ib. 40 Divine power author of no ill nor subject thereto 600.1 Divination of many kinds 841.10 Divination ascribed to Bacchus 1764.10 Divination by dreames 784.10 Divination dented by the Epicureans 598.1 Docana what images they were 174.1 Doctrine and life ought to go together 1057.40 Dodecaedron 1020.40.819.20 Dogs sacrificed by the Greeks in all expiations 873.1 odious unto Hercules 880.30 not allowed to come into the castle of Athens 886. 50. esteemed no cleane creatures 887.10 sacrificed to infernall gods and to Mars 887.20 Sea Dogs how kind they be to their yoong ones 218.20.976.40 Dog how subtill he is 959.40 Dogs their admirable qualities 962.20 a Dog discovereth the murderer of his master ib. 30 a Dog detecteth the murder of Hesiodus ib. 40 Dogs gentle and couragious withall 964.10
878.50 Noses hawked in estimation among the Persians and why 403.1 NOTHING TOO MUCH 1201. 10. 345.50 526. 50. This Mot hath ministred matter of many questions and disputations 1354.10 Nothing 1098.10 Notions of divers sorts 836.10 Notus the winde why so called 1025.20 Nources who are to be chosen 4.40 Nourishment and groweth in animall creatures 849.1 Nourishment or feeding of infants 4.20 Nouriture see education Novv 1019.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 858.10 named Nonae ib. Nownes and verbs sufficient for speech 1027.10 Nuceria killeth Phenius Firmus her husbands base sonne 915.40 Nullity or not being after this life condemned 604.30.40.50 Numa Pompilius a sage Philosophicall king 855. 20. a peaceable prince 856.30 Numa Pompilius 630. 10. his raigne ascribed to fortune 633.30 Number the principall of all things 806.40 Numbers even defective 868. 50 Number odde perfect ib. Nundinae what they were 865.40 Nympha in breeding of bees what it is 670.40 Nymphaeus a captaine of the Melians 487.30 Nymphs age 1327.40 Nymphs Nomades 1333.30 O OAristes 290.10 to Oblivion an altar 792.10 Ocean represented the Moone 1161.10 Ochimus 896.30 Ochna the daughter of Collonus 900. 30. killeth her selfe ib. 40 Ochus a wicked king of Persia. 486. 50. why he was called by the Aegyptians The sword 1291.50 Ochus by the Aegyptians called an asse 1300.1 he killed their Apis. ib. Ocridion 896.30 Ocrisia the supposed mother of Servius Tullius 635. 40. strangely conceived with childe 636.1 Octaedra 768.20.819.20.1020 30 Ocytocium 956.10 Odours sweet proceed from heat 655.20 Odours smell better a farre off 657.50 Oeconomie See House-government Oedipus overthrowen by his own curiosity 142.40 he plucketh out his owne eyes 223.1 Oenomaus loved to have a race of good horses 903.40 Oenuphis the priest and prophet of Heliopolis in AEgypt 1291.20 Oeolycus his funerals 716.20 Oeonoloae 899.40 Oeonus the sonne of Lycimnius 880.30 Ogygie what Iland 1180.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who they be 28.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of divers significations 29.1 an Oinion commended by Homer 709.30 Oinions rejected by Isis priests and why 1290.20 Oke branches made the Civik coronet at Rome 880.50 Okes honoured 749.20 the Olde age of divers princes and rulers happy in their government 385.1.10 Olde age berest of bodily pleasures 386.50 Olde age whereof it commeth 849 50 Olde age hath recreations 388.20 it is freed from envy ib. 30 Olde age how to be secured from contempt 389.10 Olde men fit for to be rulers 389.40 Olde age how it is commendable for government 390.20 Olde men unmeet to mary ib. 30 Olde age why honored most in Lacedaemon 398.50 Olde age not unfit for government 383.1.10 it should not be idle 384.1 Olde folke why they drinke meere wine 656.40 wherefore dull in all senses ib. Olde folke see better a farre off 657.10 they love to be asked many questions 664.1 Olde men soone drunken 687.10 Olde men drie 687.30 why called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. Olde age to what accidents subject 687.50 Oligarchy what it is 941.20 Olive tree wood for what fire it serveth best 697.1 Olympus an ancient Musician 1250.10 Q. Olympias words of a Thessalian woman whom the King her husband loved 319. 30. her speech of a yong gentleman newly maried 319.40 Omomi 1306.10 Omphalos what part of the world 1321.40 Omphis what it signifieth 1304.40 Onobatis who she was 889.1 Onochus king of the Aenians 896.20 killed by his owne men ib. Onomademus his counsell to have alwaies some adversaries 244. 10. a great politician ib. his apophthegmes ib. Onoscelis how ingendred 914.20 Opium what it is and the force thereof 684.40 at the Oracles why they made a great sound with basons c. 854.10 Oracles of Apollo delivered in rude verse 1188.1 Oracle at Delphi why it hath given over to answer in verse 1189.20 Oracles delivered in prose 1197.20.1198 from Oracles why poesie is rejected 1199.40 Oracles why given in verse and obscurely in old time 1199.1200 Oracles why more plaine of late time than before 1200.40.50 an Oracle bidding the Greekes to double the altar at Delos 1207.20 Oracle of Lebadia 1323.50 Oracles why for the most part they ceased ib. Oracle of Ptous Apollo ib. Oracle of Amphiaraus 1324.1 Oracle of Tegyrae 1324.10 Oracle at Delphi in olde time not frequented 1326.20 the reasons discussing why Oracles cease 1343.1 Oracles by what meane they be performed 1344.20 Oracle at Delphi by what occasion it began first 1345.10 Oracle of Tyresias how it came to faile 1346.10 Oracles of Mopsus and of Amphilochus 1346.10 Oracle of Mopsus how it was tried by the governour of Cilicia 1346.20 Oratours pleading at the Pythique games for the prize 716.20 Oratory wherein it cōsisteth 796.1 Oratour whereof derived 866.50 Oratours and warriours compared together 987.40 Order in the composition of the world 646.10 Order belongeth to God 1167.10 Order in feasts 646.10 the Order of setting guests at the table 649.30 Orestes furious 857.1 Orestes how he was feasted 642. 50. how he was feasted by the linage of Demophon 678.30 Orestes revengd his fathers and sisters death 916.50 Orgilaus 380.50 Orion what starre 1295.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what they be 1062.40 Ornaments of women what they be 320.10 Oromasdes 1044.1 Oromazes what God 1336.1 Orontes his apophthegm 404.40 Orpheus an ancient Poet Musician 1250.20 Orphne 100.1 Orthios what musicke 1251.10 Orus his fable 1044.10 Orus or Horus the elder the same that Apollo 1292.20.30 Orus his answers to his father Osiris 1294.40 he vanquished Typhon in sundrie battels 1294.1295 Oryx a beast observing the Dogsiarres rising 968.30 Osiris what he signifieth 778.30 Osiris how the name is derived 1291.20.1308.40 1311.30 how he is portraied ib. Osiris the Sunne and Isis the Moone 1308.50 of Osiris and Isis the fable 1292.1 Osiris borne ib. 10. he reduced Aegypt to civilitie 1292.30 supposed to be Bacchus ib. found by Isis. 1294. 10. why there be many monuments and sepulchres of his 1294.20 his body where interred 1295.30 his corps dismembred by Typhon 1294.20 Osiris Isis and Typhon allegorized 1300.10 Osiris shut up in a chest what it signifieth 1303.10 Osiris his sepulture 1304.30 how he is pourtraied hieroglyphically 1308.1.10 his pollicy to vanquish his enemies and to rule his subjects 1315.40 his robes 1318.1 Otacaustes 143.1 Otacaustae who they be the Oth that the judges in Aegypt tooke 143.30 404.50 Othes not rashly to be taken 860.20 Othe of the Pythagoreans 806.50 The Other 1031.1 Othryades his valour 907.20 Othryadas traduced by Herodotus 1231.20.30 Otis a bird delighting in the fellow ship of horses 〈◊〉 Overweening in yoong men is to be rid away 53.40 Ovihj how the name came at Rome 865.10 Oxyrynchites what people 1289.50 Oxyrynchos what fish ib. Oyle 〈◊〉 transparence 〈◊〉 in the sea 1007.30 Oyle why Homer calieth Moist 740.30 Oyle the onely moist and liquid 〈◊〉 that will burne 740.50 Oyle best in the top of the vessell 747.30 Oyle will not be mingled with any liquor 675.30.748.1
be 896.30 Psychostasia a Tragoedie of Aeschylus 21.20 Psychoponipos what god 1142.1 Psyche 29.1 Ptolomaeus Philadelphus espouseth his owne sister 13.20 Ptolomaeus Lagus his sonne how frugall he was 414.1 Ptolomaeus the first that erected a library 591.40 Ptolomaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 547.10 K. Ptolomens Philopater sacrificeth elephants 965.50 K. Ptolomaeus abused by flatterers 93.40 98.1 a lover of learning 98.1 he represseth his anger 125.10 Ptolemaeus Soter translated the Colosse of Sarapis unto Alexandria 1298.40 Pulse why forbidden to be eaten 881.50 Punishment ought to be inflicted at leasure 542.30 Punishment of servants how to be ordered 126.40.50 Purgations for students 623.20 Purgative physicke taught us by brute beasts 968.1 Purgatorte of the Painims and philosophers 1182.40 Purple death in Homer 13.30 Purple fishes how sociable they be 975.40 Putrefaction what it is 774.30 Pyanepsion what moneth 1314.20 Pyladion 759.10 Pylaochos 1301.30 the Pyramis was the first bodie 1339.20 Pyramis 819.20 Pyramus a lake 799.40 Pyrander stoned to death 915.1 Pyraichmes king of the Euboeans 908.30 his horses ib. Pyroeis what starre 821.40 Pyrtho his apophthegme 255.1 Pyrrhias sacrificed to his benefactour 898.20 K. Pyrrhus delighted to be called the eagle 968.50 his apophthegmes 416.50 Pyrsophion 898.1 Pysius what it signifieth 890.20 Pythagoras sacrificed an oxe for the invention of one Theoreum 768.40 Pythagoras his precepts smell of the Aegyptian Hierogliphickes 1291.20 Pythagoras a Tuskane 〈◊〉 776 30 Pythagoras how much addicted to Geometrie 590.10 he condemned crueltie to dumbe beasts 243. 30. hee 〈◊〉 a draught of fishes 779.1 the first author of the name of Philosophers 806.30 he taught in Italy 807.20 his opinion of God 812.1 Pythagorean precepts ib. 40 Pythagoras abode long in Aegypt 778.20 Pythagorical darke sentences expounded 15.10.20 Pythagorean precepts not to be taken literally 887.30 Pythagoreans pittifull unto dumb beasts 958.20.248.30 Pythes the rich 506.40 his vertuous wife ib. his strange death 507.40 Pytheas his apophthegme 420.40 what befell unto Pythia the prophetesse at the Delphicke oracle 1350.10 Pythia how she is to be chosen and disposed 1350.20 Pythicke games which were most ancient 715.50 Pythocles unmeasurably praised by Colotes and the Epicureans 1126.20 Pythoegia what day it is 693.30 〈◊〉 what they be 1327.1 Pythius an epithet of Apollo 1153.50 Python modest in his selfe praises 306.1 how he avoided envie 306.1.371.1 Python wounded by Apollo 891.10 Q QVaternary of the Pythagoreans 806.50.1036.10 Quaternary number 1036.10 why dedicated to Mercury 789.20 Quaternity of Plato and Pythagoras compared 1037.50 Questions or riddles proposed by K. Amasis of AEgypt to the K. of AEthiopia 333.50 What Questions are to be propounded unto a Philosopher 57.50.58.1 Questions to be discoursed upon at the table of what sort they should be 644.20 What Questions men delight to be asked 662.30 What Questions we mislike most 663.30 A Question or case as touching repugnant lawes 793.1 Questions Platonique assoiled 1016.10.20 c. Questours at Rome 〈◊〉 ambassadours 805.50 A Quince why eaten by the new bride 316.20 Quinquertium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 808.10.812.10 Quintilis what moneth 856.10 the same that Julie 859.20 Quintius his apophthegmes 〈◊〉 a parle betweene him and K. Philip. 431.1 he set free all the Greeke captives ib. his 〈◊〉 tale of his host at Chalcis 431.20 his jest as touching Philopoemen 〈◊〉 Quires three in Lacedaemon 308.20 Quirinalia the feast of fooles 880.10 Quiris a speare or javelin 880.10 the name of Mars ib. 〈◊〉 the name of Juno 880.10 R RAine how ingendred 828.10 Rain-water nourisheth 〈◊〉 and seeds most 〈◊〉 Raines which be best for seeds or yoong plants 1004.50 Raine showers named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rainbow 828.30 how it 〈◊〉 1151.30 how it is represented to our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Raria 322.10 Rationall or verball Philosophy 〈◊〉 Ravens age 1327.40 Reading what maner of 〈◊〉 619.30 A Reading schoole first taught by Sp. Carbilius 〈◊〉 To teach for to Read and spell an honourable office 870.30 Reason ought to guide and rule our free will 51.40 Reason or discipline powerfull to attaine vertue 3.1 Reason given to man in 〈◊〉 of many other parts 231.30 Of Reasonable natures foure kinds 1327.20 Reason how divided 799.10 Reasoning or disputing at the table 622.20 Rebukes and checks at wise 〈◊〉 hands be well taken 106.30.40 Recreation and repose to be allowed children in due time 11.10 Recreations allowed Governours and Statesmen 388.20 Recreations and pastimes allowed by Plato 624.50 Red sea 1183.30 Regulus a Pancratiast died with bathing and drinking upon it 630.20 Religious men have great comfort in the exercise of their religion 599.50 Religion the foundation of all policie and government 1127.40 Religious in the good breedeth no desperate feare 45.30 Religion a meane betweene 〈◊〉 and superstition 268.40 Remorse of conscience in divers 547.1.10 Repentance and remorse of conscience 160.50 Repletion or emptinesse whether is more to be feared 703.30 Repletion cause of most diseases 616.10 Reproofe of others a thing incident to olde folke 310.50 Respiration how it is performed 840.10 Revenge not best performed in anger 125.30 Revenge not to be done 〈◊〉 545.10 how it should be taken 126.10 Revenge of enemies to forbeare is commendable 243.1 Rex Sacrorum at Rome 871.40 Rhadamanthus a judge of the dead 532.20 Rhesus killed his brother Similus 913.40 banished by his father ib. Rhetana her enterprise 914.50 Rhetoricke hath three parts 786.50 Rhetrae 450.10 Rhetrae delivered by Lycurgus in prose 1197.40 Rhodopis the harlot and her obelisks 1194.50 Riches how to be regarded 6.40 how to be used 214.1 A Riddle as touching a Phrygian flute 331.30 Riddle of the king of AEthiopia unto Amasis king of AEgypt 332.1 Riddle of Cleobuline 335.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth 28.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 785.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Musicke 1252.20 Right line 1021.10 A Ring worne streight 1137.10 Rods and 〈◊〉 why borne before the head magistrates at Rome 877.50 Roiot youth ought to avoid 12.10 Roma a Trojan lady 484.20 Rome city whether beholden more to vertue than to fortune 628.10 Rome the worke of fortune and 〈◊〉 jointly together 628.30 Rome the pillar of the whole world 628.40 Rome why founded and reared by the favour of fortune 632.20 Rome much subject to scarefires 867.10 The Romane Daemon 636.50 Romane kings left their crowne to none of their children 149.10 Romane words derived from the Greeks 776.10 Romanes of their returne home gave intelligence beforehand to their wives 853.30 The Romanes fortunate affaires under the conduct of Cn. Pompeius 636.40 Romane tongue used in all countreys 1028.1 Romulus a martiall prince 856.20 Romulus and Remus their birth generation ascribed to fortune 632.20 when begotten ib. 30 Romulus and Remus wonderfully preserved 632.40 how 〈◊〉 and brought up 633. 〈◊〉 916.40 Romulus translated 632.30 Romulus killed Remus 859.50 Romulus murdred by the Senate 915.20 The Rose garland of what use it is 683.30.684.20 Rose why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke 684.50 Rosin burnt by Aegyptians in the
what they be 〈◊〉 Wine liberally taken what effects it worketh 194.10 Wine how it killeth the vine 1013 20 Wine how hot and how it is colde 1112.10.20 Wine how students should use 621.10 Wine the best drinke ib. Wine what effects it worketh 681 20.763.50 it discovereth the 〈◊〉 of the heart 681.40 Wine a singular medicine that Wine is cold 683.40 689.30 Wine new See Must. Wine whether it should runne through a streiner before it be drunke 736.20 Wine called at the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the name of Lees. 736.40 varietie of Wines soone causeth drunkennesse 700.50 Wine best in the middes of the vessels 747.30 Wine why poured forth at Rome before the temple of Venus 866.30 Wine hurt with winde and aire 747.50 Wine the foundation of government and counsell in Greece 762.1 Wine in Greeke why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 762.50 Wine and the vine came of giants bloud spilled upon the ground 1289.40 Wine is talkative 763.1 Wine worketh boldnesse and confidence 763.40 Wine causeth a selfe conceit and opinion of wisedome 763.1 Wine new at what time of the yccre first tasted or set abroach 785.1 Wine sparily drunke by the Aegyptian kings 1289.40 that Wine is cold 688.1 a Wing compared to God 1021.40 Winter how it is caused 829.40 Wisdome and fortune produce like effects 628.20 the wise man of the Stoicks described 1055.50 Wisdome what it is 233.1 to be preferred before all worldly things 1288.1 Wool more pliable if it be gently handled 658.30 Wolves whelpe al in twelve daies 1015.20 Women not soone drunke and the reason thereof 687.10 their temperature moist ib. Women whether they be colder or hotter than men 688.1 that Women be hotter ib. 10 one Womans body put to tenne dead mens bodies in a funerall fire 688.20 that Women be colder than men 688.30 Women why they conceive not at all times 843.20 a Woman beareth five children at the most at one birth 850.50 Women why they weare white at funerals in Rome 859.30 a prety tale of a talkative Woman 198.30 Women can keepe no secret counsell 199.30 Women are best adorned with vertue and literature 325.10 20 Womens vertuous deeds 482.20 Women publickely praised at Rome 483.10 Women of Salmatica their vertuous act 489.50 a Woman of Galatias love to Toredorix 502.50 Wooden dogge among the Locrians 892.50 Wood-pecker a birde why so much esteemed at Rome 857.10 Wood-pecker feed Romulus and Remus 857.10 consecrated to Mars wherefore ib. 20 Words filthy are to be avoided by children 11.50 a Word occasion of much mischiefe 242.20 Words compared with deeds 402 40 Words the lightest things in the world 668.40.196.10 Words have wings 198.10 World of what principles it was composed 1305.50 World how it was made 808.20 in the World foure regiments 1219.30 World one 808.50 how Plato prooveth it 809.1.1335.30 more Worlds than one 1335.50 World not incorruptible 809.10 Worlds infinite 809.10 infinity of Worlds condemned 1332.30.1334.20 World round 809.30 Worlds in number five 1335.20 World why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 818.1 Worlds whether one or infinite 818.10 Worlds not one nor five but 183. 1334.30 World and Whole not both one 818.10 World and the parts thereof compared to a mans body 1168 World what it is 646.10 Worlds in number five how prooved 1339.10 World what forme or figure it hath 818.20 World whether it be animate or endued with soule 818.30 Worlds five which they be 1359.1 whether it be corruptile or eternall 818.40 World whereof it is nourished 818.50 Worlds five proportionate to the five senses 1359.10 Worlds fabricke at which element it began 819.10 Worlds fabricke in what order it was framed 819.30 World why it copeth or bendeth 819.50 the World to come hath joies for good men 603.20 Worlds sides right left 820.20 the Worlds conflagration 1328.10 World created by god 1032.40 the Worlds generall conflagration held by the Stoicks 1090.30 Worship of brute beasts excused 1327.50 Wrathfulnesse what it is 119.50 Wrestling whether it were the most ancient Gymnike exercise 672.30 X XAnthians plagued by the meanes of Bellerophontes 489.40 Xanthians negotiate in the name of their mothers and beare their names 489.50 Xenocrates his aurelets or bolsters for the eares 52.20 Xenocrates a scholar hard to learne 63. 1. his opinion as touching the soule of the world 1031.10 he directed Alexander the great in the government of the king dome 1128.30 Xenocrite her vertuous deed 505 30. she conspireth the death of Aristodemus the tyrta 506.30 Xenophanes his saying of the Aegyptian Osiris 1149.10 Xenophon reporteth his owne acts 372.10 Xenophon the Philosopher beloved of king Agesilaus 448.30 how he tooke the death of his sonne 529.30 Xenophon called Nycteris 930.20 he penneth the history of himselfe 982.10 Xerxes menaceth Athos 121.40 he died for sorrow that his owne sonnes were at deadly discord 176.50 Xerxes and Ariamenes bretheren how they strove for the crowne 186.40 how they were agreed 187.1.10 Xerxes his pollicie to keepe downe rebellious mutinous subjects 403.40 his apophthegmes ib. his clemency unto two Lacedaemonians 474.1 Xerxes his barbarous cruelty unto rich Pythes 507.20 Xuthus 895.20 Y YEere why it is called the age of man 1328.20 of Jupiter 826.20 of the Sunne ib. of Mercury and Venus ib. of the moone ib. the Yeere or revolution of Saturne 826.20 the great Yeere 826.20 Yeeres dedicated to Jupiter 876.1 Yeugh tree shade how hurtfull 684.40 Yoong men are to be governed with greater care than children 14.40 to what vices they be subject 14.30.40 Yoong men how they sleepe at Lacedaemon 475. 40. how they demeaned themselves to their elders at Lacedaemon 476.1 Yoong lads permitted to steale at Lacedaemon 476.20 Yoong folke drunke resemble olde men 687.50 Youth ought not to be over-bold nor yet too fearefull 8.40 how they should read the bookes of Sages 9.50 Youth is to obey 391.20 Youth brought up hardly at Lacedaemon 476.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it fignifieth in composition 726.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth 726.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 760.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Nosegaies 684.30 Yron why it is not vocall and resonant 770.30 Z ZAleucus his 〈◊〉 highly reputed among the Locrians 306.10 Zarates the maister of Pythagoras 1031.20 Zeipetus king of the 〈◊〉 903.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say To live 991. 20 Zeno his opinion of vertue 65.1 he lost all that he had 148.40 Zeno traineth his scholars to the hearing of the musicke of instruments 67.20 Zeno the disciple of Parmenides undertooke to kill the 〈◊〉 Demytus 1128.30 Zeno bitoff his own tongue 196.30 contrary to himselfe 1058.50 Zeno the Cittiaean honored by Antigonus the yonger 416.1 Zeno his valorous resolution 1128.30 his opinion as touching the principles of all things 808.20 his answere to the Persian embassadour as touching taciturnity 194.30 Zephiodorus a minion of Epaminondas 1146.10 Zephyrus what wind 693.40.789.30 Zovs hath many significations 〈◊〉 Zeuxidamus his apophthegmes 457.50 Zodiak circle
entertainment of this power more or lesse which fortune had prepared for him came to seventy talents as Aristobulus hath set it downe in writing or as Duris recordeth he was furnished with mony and victuals to serve for thirty daies and no longer How then was Alexander so inconsiderate rash and void of counsell as to enterprise warre with so small meanes against so puissant an armie of the Persians No I wis for never was their captaine that went forth to warre better appointed and with greater and more sufficient helpes than he to wit magnanimity prudence temperance fortitude wherewith Philosophy had furnished him as with munition for his voiage as being better provided for this enterprise against the Persians by that which he had learned of his muster and teacher Aristotle than by all the patrimonie and revenewes which his father Philip had left him Well to beleeve those who write that Alexander himselfe would otherwhiles say that the 〈◊〉 and Odyssaea a of Homer accompanied him alwaies as his voiage provision to the warres we may be esily enduced for the reverence and honor which we owe unto Homer but if a man should say that Homers Ilias and Odyssaea were unto him an easement of his travels or an honest pastime and recreation at his leasure and that the true municion and voiage provision indeed for the maintenance of his wars were the discourses precepts which he had learned out of Philosophy and the treatises or commentaries as touching confidence fearelesseresolution of prowesse valour magnanimity and temperance we are ready to mocke and deride him and why so because forsooth he hath written nothing of Syllogisnres of Axiomes or of the elements and principles of Geometry because he hath not used to walke in the schoole of Lycen nor held positions and disputed of questions in the Academie for these be the things whereby they measure and define Philosophy who thinke that it consisteth in words and not in deeds And yet Pythagoras never writ ought nor Socrates nor Arcesilaus no nor Carneades who all no doubt were most renowmed Philosophers neither were they imploied and occupied in so great warres in reducing Barbarouskings to civillity or in founding and building great cities among savage nations neither travelled they through the world visiting lawlesse and cruell people to teach them to live peaceably and in order who had never heard of peace or of lawes but these great and famous personages for all the leasure and rest that they had from imploiments and busie affaires left all writing for Sophisters onely How came it then that thy were reputed Philosophers Surely it arose either upon their saying which they delivered or the maner of life that they led and the actions which they did or else the doctrine which they taught Let us now therefore judge of Alexander also accordingly by the same for it will be found and seene by the words which he said the deeds that he wrought and the lessons which he taught that he was some great Philosopher and in the first place if you thinke good consider which at first sight may seeme most strange and wonderfull what disciples Alexander had and compare them with the scholars of Plato or of Socrates These men taught those who were of quicke wit and spake the same language that they did and if they had nothing else yet understood they at leastwise the Greeke tongue howbeit for all this many of their auditours and disciples there were whom they could never perswade to their rules and precepts but such as Crittas Alcibiades and Clestiphon rejected and shoke off all their doctrine as the bitte of a bridle and turned another way Whereas if you marke and consider the discipline of Alexander you shall finde that he taught the Hyrcanians to contract mariage and live in wedlocke the Arachosians to till the ground and follow husbandrie the Sogdians he perswaded to nourish their aged fathers and not to kill them the Persians to reverence and honour their mothers and not to mary them as they did before O the admirable Philosophie of this prince by meanes whereof the Indians adore and worship the gods of Greece the Scythians burie their dead and eate them not We woonder at the powerfull and effectuall speech of Carneades for that he knew how to make Clitomachus named before Asdrubal and a Carthaginian borne to conforme himslefe to the Greekes fashions and language Wee admire the emphaticall gift of Zeno who was able to perswade Diogenes the Babylonian to give himselfe to the studie of Philosophie But while Alexander conquered Asia and reduced it to civilitie Homer was read ordinarily the sonnes of the Persians Susians and Gedrosians chaunted the tragoedies of Euripides and Sophocles As for Socrates condemned hee was and put to death by the Athenians at the sute of sycophants and promoters who enformed against him that he had brought into Athens new gods whereas by the meanes of Alexander the inhabitants of Bactra and the mountaine Caucasus even at this present adore the gods of Greece Plato hath left in writing one forme of policie and government of common-wealth but he could never perswade so much as one man to use and follow it so harsh and austere it was found to be But Alexander having founded above threescore and ten cities among the barbarous nations and sowen throughout all Asia the mysteries sacrifices and ceremonies of Divine service which were used in Greece reclaimed them from their savage and brutish life And verily few there be among us who read and peruse the lawes of Plato whereas there be infinit thousands and millions of men who have used and doe at this day practise those of Alexanders ordeining and such nations were much more happy whom he conquered and subdued than they that escaped his puissance For these had never any person who eased and delivered them out of their miserable life but the other were forced by the conquerour to lead a blessed life in such sort as that which Themistocles sometime said when being banished out of Athens and fled to the king of Persia at whose hands having received rich gifts and the donation besides of three cities which paid him yeerely tribute one for bread another for wine and the third for his meat and other viands he spake thus unto his sonnes Oh how had we bene undone if we had not beene undone The same may more justly be verified of those who were then subdued by Alexander Never had they beene civilized if by him they had not beene vanquished and brought under his subjection there had beene no citie Alexandria built in Aegypt no Seleucia in Mesopotamia no Prophthasia in the Sogdians countrey no Bucephalia among the Indians neither should the mountaine Cacausus have had neere unto it the citie Hellas inhabited and peopled by the meanes of which cities their rude bestiality being first staied and held under by little and little was extinct and by custome of the better changed the