thoroughly defecated these thoughts will be neither well-understood nor relish'd They are not of a cut for every ordinary Perception nor the staring ghesses of the incogitant Rabble For as I have heard our Church-men say that the Antient Fathers suppos'd that the sufferings which our Saviour underwent in his Body were more afflictive to him than the same wou'd have been to an other person by reason of his excellency and quickness of the sense of Feeling so likewise these sublime Ratiocinations will be reach'd in proportion to the height of the capacity that stretches it self at them They are not deliver'd with Ornament and Polishing they are firm and solid like Metals of the strongest most enduring and noblest substance which are fil'd with the greatest difficulty They are not set off with any pimping dress or forreign blandishments but the Author seems to have that of Martial in his Eye Quicquid amas cupias non placuisse nimis Tho' certainly truth never appears more beauteous and killing than when we have the good Fortune to see her as stark-naked as ever her Maker made her or Men keep plain-dealing still so in this World Octavius took great care to express his mind with the greatest plainness imaginable and was us'd to reprehend Marc-Antony for writing such things as Men did rather wonder at than understand To speak the truth when we write on a rational Subject it is a hard matter to be witty without spoiling the Connexion and order of Deductions For Wit being nothing but the ferment of the Soul such Excoctions must necessarily offuscate the brightness of Reason we must deal with it as we do with dangerous Physick weighing it by Grains and Scruples and nice Proportions And in the management of such Arguments it is as carefully and prudentially to be disperst as motion in the Universe what it gains in one part it looses it another so that in the whole it remains always alike and the same This Objection I foresaw would presently be rais'd against these Essayes and therefore I have taken leave of you Sir here to answer it at first once for all There are many others that I know will be started which I cannot better obviate and make a reply to as well as to those which the Author himself brings against the English Stage than by prefixing here a Preliminary discourse concerning the distinct Tracts of this Book which I must submit all along to your Lime and Correction For since Criticks now adays are grown more assuming than Jove himself and the sacred Lawrel it self is not over-safe from their Thunder-bolts the humbler Shrubs of the plain as Cowley calls them had best take all possible care to shelter themselves the best they can This I shall endeavour to perform in Emulation of my present Author with all the natural easiness imaginable I will go no further than my own present thoughts which hazard rather than Study brings into my mind I will fancy my self in your Company sliding from one hint to another in a grateful variety of Sentiments I will only examine the plain nature of things and not the adventitious Appendixes of industrious Cogitation If I must be sometimes forc'd to an Ostentation of Learning when I come to want a Quotation I will get up to reach down my Author I will speak nothing in a passionate and Dogmatical Huff nor will I follow in Poetry the great Duellists in Religion who tho Chaplains to the Prince of Peace are evermore termagantly mad and with the most sanguinary zeal hacking and hewing one another All the World knows how necessary to our selves is the observation of other Mens minds and manners The Stage has been so often call'd the Looking-glass of Mankind that I am as much asham'd to repeat it as to obtrude a Proverb upon Company for a new notion or to averr with an hundred and fifty Oaths that two and two make four It is almost an Eternal verity and had not Cicero told me that for the preservation of health a Man ought to study and be thoroughly acquainted with the State of his own Body yet I shou'd have believ'd that it is very requisite towards a good Regulation of our Lives to take a Prospect of the loveliness of Vertue the odiousness of Vice and to see those little extravagancies of Men's Tempers which are stil'd humours publickly ridicul'd The two first of these are the proper business and subject matter of Tragedy and Tragi-comedy For I shall use this latter Term since it 's not only authoriz'd by Plautus but also by the Modern Practice Tho I may possibly elsewhere and at some other time take occasion to shew there is no such thing in Nature In Tragedy every thing is employ'd to move and stir up the Passions of the Spectators by the dreadful Adventures which it represents and then it 's work is to appease and settle their Souls in their former calm and tranquillity whilst the great Heroes of Antiquity are rais'd from their Graves taking up their Tenements of Clay again to converse with us This questionless is a great advantage that for half a Crown we can come into their Company and hear them be their own Historians and talk such fine things about Love and Honour without being affrighted at their Spectres And this is one of the chief Preheminences of a City above a Countrey Life that we can enjoy such illustrious and edifying Dialogues We see virtue in it's exalted State that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 7. C. 1. which Aristotle who poyson'd his Pupil and Benefactour mentions in his Ethicks whereby he denotes that it is not so much situated above our Attainments as above our obligations to attain it but that when we have acquir'd it into our reach it will most infallibly lift us above the ordinary Predicament of humane Nature and we shall all become Transcendentals So that these great Heroes must be truly great and endued with all manner of Perfections and all the Moral Vertues And their Vices must be either very carefully managed or quite conceal'd Alexander must have a great deal of deference and veneration paid him and he must not be expos'd to laughter tho he should pretend himself to be the By-blow of a God rather than that of honest King Philip which his nown Mother resents most bitterly in a very pathetick Letter to the ungracious Universal Monarch However so many Abatements are not to be made as that Tragedy should swerve from History It may improve it but in such a measure that the discrimination of the real Persons may remain Tragedy is to glorify them in this Resurrection but yet they are still to continue the same Individual Men. It wou'd be extreamly ridiculous to draw Tully and Catiline Caesar and Cato Antony and Brutus with the same lines and the same features tho they liv'd in the very same Age together and the same Common-Wealth And my Author says that the French excel
before their Eyes and sometimes divert ' emselves in pleasing Impressions As soon as Rome came to be corrupted the Romans quitted Tragedy and could not endure to behold any Image of the Ancient Vertue or Valour for Vertue signifies nothing else on the Stage From those days to the last of the Common-wealth Comedy was the Recreation of Great Men the divertisement of Polite Persons and the amusement of a People either Remiss or Soft'ned A little before the Civil War the Spirit of Tragedy began to animate the Romans by a secret disposition of a Genius that prepar'd 'em for the dreadful Revolutions happening afterwards Caesar wrote one and many Persons of Quality wrote some likewise But the disorders being calmed under Augustus and Peace and tranquillity Re-established Pleasure was the only thing they hunted after Then came Comedies into Play again the Pantomimes were Men in vogue and credit and Tragedy made a shift to keep up her Reputation Under Nero's Reign Seneca imbib'd fatal Ideas which made him compose the Tragedies that he has left us And when corruption was in full Sway and Vice general and A-la-mode the Pantomimes did utterly destroy both Tragedy and Comedy No longer now had Wit any part in the Stage-representations and only the sight did seek in Postures and motions that which might imprint Voluptuous Phantasms on the Soul of the Spectators At this day the Italians bless ' emselves for being shone upon by the same Sun for breathing the same Air and inhabiting the same good Land that the old Romans dwelt in heretofore But they have e'en very wisely left that wicked rigid Virtue of those Romans to their Histories and have believ'd that they good Men have no need of Tragedy to encourage them to those difficult things which they have no mind to do As they love the indulgent comforts of an ordinary and un-fighting life and the pleasures of a Voluptuous one they desire to form such representations as agree both with the one and the other And this was the Origine of the mixture of Comedy and the Pantomimick Art together which we see in the Italian Theater All the Actors that play now are generally very excellent even those that play an amorous part And not to do them an injury any more than shew them any favour I will say they are very good Astors but have very bad Comedies and perhaps they cou'd make good ones and perhaps they have reason not to make such And one day telling Cintsio in a slurring way that there was not Veri-similitude enough in their Pieces he answer'd me that if there were more I should soon see my good Comedians dye o' Famine with their good Comedies § Of the English COMEDY THere is no Comedy more conormable to that of the Antients than the English in what respects the manners It is not pure and sincere Galantry full of Adventures and amorous discourses as in Spain and France but the representation of humane life in common according to the diversity of Humors and several Characters of Men. 'T is an Alchimist who by the illusions of his Art entertains the deceitful hopes of a vain curioso 'T is a simple and Credulous Person whose foolish easiness is eternally abus'd 'T is sometimes a ridiculous Politician Grave starcht and compos'd who plucks up his Shoulders and pinks with his Eyes at every thing being most mysteriously suspicious and who fancies he can find designs hidden in the most common Intentions and thinks to discover Artifice in the most innocent actions of Life 'T is a foolish Lover a false Bravo an unthinking great Clerk the one with his natural Extravagancies and the other with his ridiculous Affectations Indeed these Cheats these simpletons this Polititian with the other Characters being ingeniously form'd are carried on too far according to Frenchmen's Opinions as those of the French Theater lye somewhat heavy on the Stomach of an Englishman And the reason hereof is perhaps that the English think too much and most commonly the French think not enough In effect the French content ' emselves with the first Images received from Objects And to stop them at the meer Out-sides of things an appearance almost always serves instead of truth and what is easy for that which is natural And here I shall say upon the by that these two last Qualities are sometimes confounded together very ill to the purpose What is easy and what 's natural agree sufficiently in their opposition to what is hard or forc'd But when the French go about to dive into the nature of things or the natural disposition of Persons every Man will confess that they do not always easily attain their end There is some Internal thing something hidden which they would discover if they wou'd plumb matters a little deeper In as much difficult as it is for the French to enter things so much hâ—rd a bus'ness do the English find it to get out They never leave off thinking till they become Masters of the thing on which they think and when they comprehend their subject they dig still where nothing is to be found and surpass the just and natural Idea which they ought to have by an over-profound inquiry To speak the truth I never met with people of better understanding than the French who give attention to consider and the English that can break off from their too great Meditations to return to an easiness of discourse and a certain Liberty of Mind which we ought always if it be possible to enjoy Men of the best sense in the World are the French that think and the English that speak I am insensibly casting my self into too general considerations and therefore shall resume my subject concerning Comedy again and pass to a considerable distinction and difference betwixt the English and French sock And that is that the French being tyed up to the regularity of the Ancients refer all to one principal action without any other diversity than that of the means whereby they think to bring it about We are all to agree in this point that one principal event ought to be the only scope and end of the Representation in a Tragedy wherein the mind wou'd suffer some violence in such divertings as would turn its thoughts aside The misfortunes of a miserable King the fatal and tragical death of a great Heroe hold the Soul strongly chain'd up to these important Objects and instead of all the variety in the World it is satisfi'd with knowing the different means that lead to this principal action But Comedy being made to divert us and not wholly to seize us provided that likelyhood be kept and Extravagance avoided in the opinion of the English the diversities are pleasing surprizes and agreeable Alterations whereas the continual expectation of the same thing wherein nothing of importance can be conceiv'd must necessarily create a faintness in our attention So that instead of representing an eminent and signal Imposture carryed on by
And tho all these fail their own Consciences will not fail to lay themselves open Now if some Men believe that their Riches and â—ower fortifie 'em sufficiently against humane justice and set them above Laws and Punishments yet they cannot secure their dear Persons against Divine Justice They never lift up their Eyes towards Heaven but their Consciences fly in their Faces and give 'em horrible apprehensions and they are still phancying that those piercing disquiets which devour them without abatement are the secret Executioners of the punishment which the Divinity inflicts upon them For what Power or what Riches when they are justly acquired can so much diminish the irksomnesses of this Life but that at the same time the remorses of Conscience the fear of punishment and the Aversion of Men do the more augment them Are there not many Persons who cannot set bounds to the desire of being more Rich of getting more Honours of Lording it more absolutely of shewing themselves more voluptuous of making more stately and delicious Feasts of still propagating more and more their sinister Sentiments And do we not see that how great a prey soever they may have scrap'd together by their lewd ways all this instead of pacifying their evil desires helps only to enflame them still the more and these people have more need of being chastis'd by the Laws than corrupted by reprimands Thus reason invites Men of a sound judgment to maintain the justice established by the Laws and Equity which derives its origine from Nature and Faith which may be termed the Band of Civil Society And this very reason shews that unjust actions ought never to be undertaken not by the weak who wou'd undertake to attempt them without success nor by the Potent who having compassed them would not meet with due repose nor the accomplishment of their desires in them And in short it forces us to own that justice is not desirable for it self but because it procures us much contentment because it makes us to be belov'd and cherish'd which are two delicious things And in a word by these two means it renders our Life the more secure and our Pleasure the more compleat Now if the praise of those very Virtues wherein other Philosophers did principally employ their most magnifick Harangues cannot find any issue but that which leads to Pleasure and if that Pleasure which is the end of all the Vertues be the only thing which calls us to it self and attracts us by its own proper Nature we may boldly deduce this Corollary that it is the summum bonum and the most perfect of all the blessings of humane Life And we can no longer question but that that is the truly happy Life which Epicurus hath taught us O holy and severe Pleasure O admirable Philosophy By what mischance did Men come to decry thee How hast thou been abhorr'd by many virtuous Persons that did not understand thee What has hindred their Eyes from seeing through the Veil that their Virtues are under thy Dominion And how did they happen to treat then with opprobrious terms when they are obliged to thee for their Felicity But happy the Men that have been of the Wise Man's Sect that hath followed thee Happy those who have imitated him Happy even those who being born in an Age wherein several believe that the Vice and Pleasure of Epicurus are but one and the same thing have had sufficient light to discover the contrary or at least sufficient address to stand up in its defence tho they have not had courage sufficient to put it into Practice FINIS Annotations ON EPICURUS HIS MORALITY PAge 63. some Stoicks who were Epicurus greatest Enemies have not used him so roughly I suppose he means Seneca for One tho he was no Enemy to Epicurus in his Life what-ever he might be in his Doctrine who in many places of his Works giveth him high Commendations More particularly there is one Sentence which speaks mighty kindly in his Favour and which Gassendus has plac'd in the Title Page of his Life of this Philosopher But I cannot at present set it down here the Place not recurring to me in Seneca only I remember in general that 't is in his Epistles and not having by me the Book written by that immortal Gallican Philosopher whom this latter Age may boast of no less for his Learning than Experience and who seems to have made an equal Combination of Speculation and Practice together But I am heartily of Opinion that all these good words which Seneca gave Epicurus were in complement to the rest of the Great and Lordly Men of his Age who thorough the Extremities of the whole Roman Empire were generally Epicureans if they did at all hold any solid and fundamental Opinions Page 67. People would deal c. In this place my Author infers the innocence of the Philosophy from the Life of the Philosopher which is no conclusive way of arguing Mr. Hobbs no doubt doth hold many Dogmes which are repugnant if not destructive to our holy Religion Now I cannot conclude because his Life I mean as to the greater part of it for innocency and strictness might be parallel'd with that of the Primitive Christians that therefore those Tenents of his were as harmless and meek as any those Catechumens did entertain But what-ever our Author says upon this Head is not so true of Athens as Malmsbury There is a different Fame goes aboat of every Man and it belongs to our judgment to weigh all sides Epicurus his Friends aver this and more of him than is here related But they are unquestionably over ballanc'd on the other side However as to Mr. Hobbs I do believe him to have been a truly honest and sincere Man who spoke what he thought and moreover to be upright in his Life and Conversation notwithstanding the stories I have heard at Bishop's Tables concerning his dealings with the foremention'd Gassendus Page 68. Some who have taken Information of that Wisemans Life But if they happen to take Information from his Adversaries that dissented from him or perhaps those that writ the plain truth of things they will not present the World with such a fair History of his Life as they find Epitomiz'd in this and the ensuing Page They will find that he stole every Mother's Son of his Opinions from Democritus and the Eleatick School tho' afterwards he endeavour'd to hide and conceal the Theft by changing the Opinions in some little things That he was so vain and proud as to exclude from the number of Learned Men all that did not adhere to his Philosophy and did not declare themselves his Sectators as Plutarch acquaints us That he was of a fierce and vexatious Spirit would let no body alone but rail'd at every thing that stood in his way most contumeliously contending with Aristotle most shamefully Billings-gating Phaedo the Socratick and in several Volumes opposing Timocrates the Brother of Metrodorus his
of the same Opinion with the Sages It 's very easy to give the reason we do not act like them we make no enquiry we do not sift matters we adhere only to what is told us without instructing our selves in the nature of things we account those the best which have most examples and approvers And we do not follow reason but only its resemblance we retain our errors because they are authoriz'd by those of others We love rather to believe than judge and we are so unjust that we defend against reason the spurious opinions that have come down to us Thus this infirmity is one of those which hath made Epicurus fall under the publick Aversion and which has almost egg'd on all Men to strike him out of the List of Philosophers They have condemn'd him without knowing him and have banish'd him without hearing him they would not pry into the merits of his cause and seem to have been afraid of his making his own justification But in my opinion the first and most reasonable pretence that Men had to slight his Doctrine was the life of some Vicious Wretches who having abus'd the name of that Philosopher corrupted the reputation of his Sect. These People have giv'n their Vices the inscription of his Wisdom They have popt their defects into the Bosom of his Philosophy and flock'd in vast multitudes to places where they understood Pleasure was commended The mischief was they did not throughly apprehend that pleasure and those praises They rested satisfy'd with its name in general and veil'd and defended their Debaucheries and courted the Authority of a great Man to support the Lewdness of their own lives so as instead of profiting by the good Instructions of that Philosopher and in his School correcting their own evil Inclinations they have even lost that which cou'd only be left'em namly the shame of tripping They are come to that pass as to fall extolling Actions whereat they blusht before they have glory'd in the Vices they conceal'd in short have follow'd without any shame the pleasure they brought along with them and not that which was endeavoured to be inculcated into them In the mean while the Worâ—d had judged upon appearances and seeing that those persons who stâ—lâ—d themselves Philosophers were extreamly dissolute that they made a publick profession of their failings that they cited Epicurus to authorize their impurity laziness and gluttony This same World made no difficulty of pronouncing that this Philosophers Doctrine was most pernicious and of comparing his Disciples to the vilest Animals in nature Epicuri de grege Porcum PEople would deal very unreasonably with Epicurus and his affairs would be in a very ill posâ—ure if some had not been careful to put them to the Test and separated ' emselves from that multitude which has ever been an Enemy to all Wise Men and upon an alien opinion condemned Socrates tho approved of by the Gods Thus they have met with some who have taken Information of that Wise-mans Life and without dwelling upon the belief of the vulgar or the face of things have penetrated farther and in the result of their research given Testimonies of his Probity and the Sanctity of his Doctrine After due knowledge they Proclaimed his pleasure as severe as the Stoicks vertue that tho its title was delicate its precepts were difficult and to be debauched like Epicurus a Man must be as sober as Zeno. And certainly its incredible that a Person whose Countrey erected him several Statues whose Friends swayed the Citys of Greece who loved the Worship of the Gods and his Countreys good who had piety towards his Parents Liberality towards his â—rethren and gentleness for his Slaves whose modesty kept him from tampering in the State and Temperance made him commonly only live on Bread and Water its incredible I say that this Man should write the Precepts of Lewdness or teach his Disciples the practise of the vices he naturally abhorred On the contrary as if this excellent Personage had apprehended that the title he bestowed upon his Discipline might foster the naughty inclinations of several and that Men might fall to caluminate his pleasure As if he had foreseen the unjust Hatred of following Ages and the Lewd Life of those who should abuse his Doctrine he took care himself to make its Apology he explained its great Thirst and sobriety and banished from the Garden where he Philosophized with his Friends those who abusing the name of pleasure were its corrupters and who considered their own vices as the soveraign good of Man and tranquillity of Life By no means will I that in this you pin your Faith upon my Sleeve I will make him speak in his own person and I le show you one of his Letters Thus he Writes to Menecans Notwithstanding we say these are his words that pleasure is the end of Man we do not mean vile and infamous pleasure such as proceeds from the Tast and Gluttony this unlucky opinion is of persons that are ignorant of or oppose our precepts and separate themselves from their Communion or turn 'em into an ill sense So that you see how careful he was of having a defence ready against ignorance and ill opinion that he believed there were only those two things capable of decrying him and which indeed were as we have already said the only things which ruined his repute among the greatest part of the World His very Life tho discreet and sober has not however wanted to be attacqued by Invectives and detractions but those who have written it having recited the calumnies of his Enemies have incontinently refuted them and have not composed the History of that Philosopher but at the same time they have made his Apology As my design is not to entertain you with his Actions but only to defend his pleasure I le refer you to Diogenes Laertius for the relation of his Life and content my self with Philosophizing with you upon the Nature of that Pleasure that has so many Enemies and we will examine whether it be such as to exclude out of the rank of good and wise Men those who defend and follow it Living according to Nature and not having any sensation of Pain is what Epicurus calls living pleasantly Methinks herein there is nothing to be taxed and such a Life has no need of censors and there is no Government so severe in the World as can disapprove any thing in this position Following Nature is following Reason the bounds nature has prescribed are those of Innoâ—ence there is nothing in nature but what is just and equitable From nature it is not that Avarice came she has concealed Gold in the Bowels of the vilest Element and we have torn it thence Nature was not the cause of Ambition which torments us It brought us into the World and with equality sends us out thence packing We only differ from one another in as much as we corrupt it We
enrich'd with Gold and Ivory Many lovely Youths were the Rowerâ— or rather so many Cupids The tast knew no Fowle but what it was furnished with at that entertainment The Ocean provided it with Fish and the Provinces of the Empire with diversity of Meats In short all appeared with huge daintiness and abundance I omit speaking of the infamous Houses erected upon the Banks which were stock'd with Women of great Quality and I will forget the Courtizans there seen stark naked The Night it self contributed to the Pleasure of this Debauch its shades were combated by an infinity of Lights and its silence agreeably disturb'd by the Harmony of several consorts Would you know what delight Nero took in all these things and if he departed satisfied from this Banquet You need only imagin that he carried with him thither the memory of his câ—imes and the remorses of his conscience and you will make no difficulty of concluding that despair accompanied him to that Entertainment that he there felt the Penitential Whip and that tho his outside had the face of a triumph he acted in his mind a Bloody Tragedy If he had any joy it was that of the Menades He was obliged for his Pleasure to his fury or Drunkenness and his happiness augmented with the diminution of his reason I suppose the same thing of all those of his retinue for I imagin there neither Seneca nor Thraseas Poetus nor Bareas Soranus who lived according to nature amidst the corruption of their Age to be of the number of the Guests Doubtless such only were present as endear'd themselves to his conversation by a conâ—ruity of manners Who egg'd him on in his crimes Who were his Ministâ—rs in 'em and before whom he ought not to blush at least sin the resemblance of the wicked hinders their shame Certâ—inly such â— Riff-Raff were far from being happy there was no finding a sound Man in all that Assembly Pleasure could not get admittance into those Bosoms which excesses had intirely possessed Quemvis media erue Turba Aut ob avaritiam aut misera ambitionelaborat Hic Nuptarum insaâ—it amori bus hic Puerorum In short they were assaulted with all the ill passions which destroy the repose of mind and by consequence were not in a State of relishing the Pleasure we approve I could wish that this Philosoper had been present at this Debauch and that in the Eyes of the universe he had told his opinion I am sure he 'd have declar'd the truth before Nero's Face He would not have dreaded death which he held indifferent and I imagin in this manner he 'd have spoken Oh Wretched Prince How art thou mistaken in believing that pleasure is found in thy excesses It is as far remote from 'em as thou art from Lifes true happiness Thou dragg'st thy unhappiness along in all places where thou go'st and do what thou wilt thou can'st not sculk one moment from thy conscience Thou may'st cover thy Table with Meats still more precious than those it abounds with tast the most delicious Wines of Greece and Italy Sully thy self afterwards in all abominations that Debauchery can invent yet nothing wilt thou find in all this to afford thee satisfaction and tho thy body were fill'd thy mind wou'd still be in quest of Pleasure These are not the things which render Life happy t is only Prudence which composes the soveraign good 't is she alone which will teach thee to regulate thy desires according to NATURE and in this Rule it iâ— thou wilt find what thou canst not meet with in thy disorders If any thing be wanting turn thy Eyes towards that common Mother she will give thee wherewith easily to content thee Art thou thirsty She has every where plac'd Rivers and Springs where thou may'st squench thy Thirst. Hungry Places where thou wilt find Fruits to live on If thou art not satisfy'd with these things thou wilt never be satisfy'd with all thy Excesses consult thy Hunger and thy Thirst they will make thee find delights in the simplicity of nature and Bread and Water will serve thee instead of the best Dish upon Earth thou canst call to mind when thou art in necessity Now that thou art not so thou dost not give thy Stomach time to disgest Meats thy intemperance dayly engenders crudities it advances the hour of that death which Hobgoblings thee with so many apprehensions Thus thou makest Feasts without their affording thee any Pleasure because thou constrain'st thy Nature forcing it to obey thy Desires But know thy Desires interfere with thy Nature and the overflowings of thy Mind darken the light of thy Reason wherefore do not flatter thy self with tasting the Pleasures thou imagin'st There 's nothing bounded but in nature all that is repugnant to nature is infinite and consequently above us Ambitious Subjects aspire to Crowns If they became Kings they wou'd be the sole Monarchs of the World Being Monarchs they 'd wish for Incense and Sacrifices and the Fable of the Gyants informs us that the Earth has dar'd to pretend to Heavens Dominion It is so with other bad desires no body can be happy but he who knows how to regulate his desires And as it only belongs to the Wise Man to undertake that Province so it only belongs to him to command the universe Only he can extract Pleasure out of all these things and he alone uses Delights soberly and despises them in their Possession For thy part who dishonourest the race of Augustus and art the Infamy of human kind over whom the anger of the Gods has given thee the command do what thou list thou wilt ever be unhappy thy grief will backney thee at all moments and in all places Thou wilt never steal one minute from thy conscience And in the midst of thy good cheer thou wilt drink no Wine but what will represent to thee the Innocents Blood which thy cruelty has shed on such or such an occasion This is if I be not mistaken what Epicurus wou'd have said this is what he wou'd have alledged in Justification of his Philosophy and thus wou'd he have reprov'd the Emperours Enormities But forasmuch as that 't is impossible that the mind the Arbiter of Pleasure should enjoy perfect pleasure if the body its Minister endures any torment Epicurus or rather truth teaches that the privation of corporal pain is necessary to the composition of that summum bonum which the pleasure of the Sages does produce And in truth the alliance betwixt the mind and the flesh is so close that it 's very difficult to separate their pleasures and their suâ—ferings The mind can scarce be soveraignly happy while Maladies afflict the Body The mind can scarce think of joy while the violence of pain tears from it complaints or can the mind be sensible of pleasure as long as it is in all parts that undergo the assaults of pain Let the Stoicks boast as high as they please the insensibility
of their Sect and that rigorous virtue which makes a mock of pain they 'le find their body does not colten with their opinion and that tho their discourses be magnificent sublime yet they are neither according to truth or humane nature I will not prop this Proposition with the example of the Mobile of those Philosophers I will not make use of a Name they may scruple to receive nor pitch on a Man whose virtues may seem suspected by them Hercules alone shall bear testimony of what I urge that Hercules who is plac'd among the Gods whom so many labours have rendred Famous and the Poets made choice of for a perfect model of the force of their Wisdom What if we take a view a while of that Hero dying and consider the last Actions of his Life That Invincible Mans Congee will be doubtless like his entrance Illustrious in performing something Heroick Certainly he will say nothing as may dishonour his Noble Actions or seem unworthy of his former virtue The strength of his pain gets the mastery over his courage His Constancy yields to the ardour of the Venom which devours him he does not only complain he weâ—ps he cries he howls At circum gemâ—nt petrae Locrorum alta Eubaeae Promontâ—ria And 't is with the last effects of rage and despair that he departs out of this Life to take his place among the Gods Therefore let the Stoicks rank themselves in our party let 'em tattle no longer of their insensibility nor foist on us that the Wise man may be happy amid Tortures and let 'em not despise pain to which Hercules himself was constrain'd to submit so many victories But if it be answer'd that the Poets were to blame for representing Hercules in this manner and that in favour of that Hero they are willing to rescue him from the Authority of Books and the consent of Theatres Possidonius formerly one of Cicero's Masters and the greatest of all the Stoicks for so he is stil'd by that disciple will serve us for an illustrious example we shall see a Pillar of the Porch stagger'd by a Disease The Gout being the Malady of that Philosopher was likewise the wrack of his constancy he endur'd its violence as patiently as an ordinary Man would have done and tho he upbraided pain that all it's twinges pinches could not constrain him to own that it was an evil yet for all this it afflicted him and made him complain It seems too that Cicero was choqu'd or at least astonisht at this wisemans weakness I have seen says he Possidonius the greatest of the Stoicks have as little power to undergo the pains of the Gout as my Host Nicomachus whom Tully accounted a common sort of Fellow And assuredly I am so far from believing that true felicity can concur with pain that I should esteem it the action of a Wise Man to part with his Life if he could not separate it from pain And because the Memory of Mecoenas is in great veneration with me and in my Opinion he ought never to be mention'd but with Honour I wiâ—h if it were possible that those Verses which remain to us of him had been stissâ—d and he had not informed us that he was more wedded to Life than became I do not say a Philosopher but only a Man of Courage You cou'd not have offer'd him any condition so he might but live but what he wou'd have accepted were he deform'd that 's no matter were he maimed he 'd find some consolation in living let him endure all the Torments of the most violent Distempers he 'd still be happy if they were not mortal and tho you shou'd have sentenc'd him to the most cruel of Deaths he wou'd not consent to quit Life provided he cou'd keep it amidst the Tortures of Executions Debilem faciâ—o mann Debilâ—m pede coxa Tuber adstrue Gibberum Lubricos quate dentes Vita dum superest bene est Hanc mihi vel acuta Si sedam Cruce sustine Without doubt Effeminacy dictated these Verses to him while he tasted all the Pleasures of Life He never had had any experience of pain and had he fall'n into the ill condition he proposes Death wou'd have been as welcome to him as a Reprieve to a Criminal upon the Rack It 's easy by this to understand that Mâ—caenas was voluptuous but no Epicurean since those Philosophers have too genâ—rous a Soul to shrink to such feeble sentiments they dread Death much less than pains and sometimes renounce Pleasure for very pain And the reason is that Epicurus well judging that most Men being allured and corrupted by the fruition of pleasures and suffering themselves without Rule and blindly to be hurry'd away by the current of their Appetites wou'd not be in a capacity to foresee the pains and afflictions which wou'd fall upon 'em in conseqâ—ence of those disorders And besides fearing that the love of case and Effeminacy of sâ—irit joyn'd to the fear of pain and labour might oblige them to be wanting in their Duties and to render themselves useless in Lâ—fe he was of opinion that in the time wherein a Wise man shou'd have full liberty of Election and wherein nothing shou'd hinder him from procuring his own satisfaction he might abandon himself to pleasure and give a temporary Fare-well to Pain But That then are certain seasons in which they must be Friends again and during which the Obligation of Duties and the Necessity of Things ought to constrain him not to refuse Dolour and to reject Voluptuousness 'T was this generous Maxim that made Cato of Vtica his own Executioner For tho' he might have born himself up on the Mines of his Party and Caesar wou'd have been mighty glad to grant him his Life yet the shame of surviving the Loss of the Publique Liberty and the Infamy of Servitude would not let that large Heart even deliberate whether he should choose the Pain of dying gloriously to avoid the Pleasure of living after a manner that seem'd to him unworthy of a Roman This Maxim it was that made Regulus to reput himself into the hands of his Enemies where the Cruelties of his Tormentors were less sâ—nsible to him than his Remorse would have been for having broken his word 'T was this Maxim which making Fabricius to despise the Treasures of the King of Epeirus made him also despise the evil desires which folâ—ow the possession of Riches and preserve to himself the Repose of Mind the sovereign and chiefest of Pleasures Lastly it was this Maxim that set Cicero o' declaiming against Anthony to devote himself for the safety of the Common-wealth at a time when he might have stayed at home very fairly in Peace and quietly enjoy'd an easie Life and the Delights of his own Studies To this Maxim there are no laudible Actions but what may be referr'd And what Heroick Peaâ—s soever those great men have atchiev'd you will find that if they have run
she beheld these misfortunes without bewailing them she had been insensible and we very inhumane if after so many very litteral losses we shou'd go about to debar her tears But for all that when she has wept and bedew'd four or five Handkerchiefs for some time we should not be unjust to prescribe bounds to her affliction by regulating her tears and sorrow and by advising her at length to oppose the force of reason against that of despair Now some delicate and Womanish Man that is affected with her complaints might perhaps start in her defence that those who would limit her sorrow to the first motions of her mind would allow her her laments to the last minutes of their Lives if they shar'd the afflictions whereof they only judge And by consequence they would prove that our Philosophy which only talks of Victories would take wing at the sight of so many calamities when it shou'd see them coming pell-mell to overthrow it To such a tender-hearted Man I wish a mighty deal of happiness for without dispute if any mischance befall him he would not forbear weeping most bitterly Yet not unless upon this condition that for this kind wish he will give me a dispensation from believing what he saies and not exact of me that I judge of the strength of his Philosophy by the feebleness of reason For not staying much to refute all those Men he may have corrupted in case there be any such and it be lawful to hate such effeminate People Men I shall content my self with putting him to the blush with two common examples They are Persons whose Age and Sex might probably render extreamly feeble and yet in their infirmity have that force and strength which our effeminate Blade does not desiderate in Hecuba and does even despair to find among the Philosophers Let him consider the deaths of Astianax and Philoxena a Child and a Virgin These the Greeks condemned both to execution See here Vlysses advancing himself holding the first by the hand and walking fiercely to tumble him down But See! the Boy follows him with no less assurance Sublin i gradu Incedit Ithacus parvulum dextra trahens Priami Nepotem nec gradu sequi Puer Ad alta pergit mania Consider that among all those who accompany and lament him he alone it is whose Eyes are dry and who refuseth Tears to his own Death Observe that whilest his Executioners are invoking the Gods to that bloudy Sacrifice he Throws himself down from the Pinacle of the Tower from whence he was doom'd to be precipitated and voluntarily himself puts a Period to a Life which had hardly begun its Part. But let us turn our eyes to the other side For Polixena is already plac'd upon Achilles Sepulchre and only expects the Blow which is to appease that Grecians shade and rejoyn his Soul to those of his Fore-Fathers Admire her Beauty which appears so sparling and Serene Her Mien not at all discompos'd at the approach of Death On the contrary this Sun which is going to set for ever seems to add a new Lustre to the last Beams of its Light There is also in her Aer something more strong than her Sex present Condition ought to bear And indeed she thinks it not enough to expect the Blow without Shunning it But she sees it coming with much fierceness Câ—â—versa ad â—ctâ—n stat Trâ—ci vultu Ferâ—x And when Pyrrhus had given her the Mortal stroak her last action seems still an action of courage and she does not let her self fall upon the Sepulchre of Achilles but with design to make its Earth more heavy and even in dying to revenge her self Tell me now if it be not a shame in Hecuba to see her Children more couragious than her self Tell me if it becomes her to pour forth such an Ocean of tears while Astianax and Polixena dye without shedding one single Melancholy drop Tell me if you do not think those persons happy in comparison with that miserable Woman Or if you are so non-plust with the prospect of all these thiâ—gs that you have nothing more to urge in her behalf acquiesce at the long run with us that she had too little courage in her calamities and wanted fortitude to resent them less cruelly Now if it be true that a â—eakness of mind is the only thing which renders misfortunes insupportable to us and which making us to leave the Helm in the sharpest Tempests and Hurricanes of Fortune doth occasion the wrecks we suffer in places where with safety we might plow the billows Ought we not to seek fortitude that so we may use it as an Anchor opposing it against the rage of Wind and Water and sheltering our selves from the barbarity of the Storâ— Upon this Pillar we ought certainly to lean which serves for a foundation to pleasure joâ—ning this Vertue to temperance and wisdom And for the living in repose and in the privation of misery we must believe that this firm and couragious Spirit is ever above anxieties and cares seeing it despises death it self And it must be so well prepared for pain as to bear always in mind that death is the remedy of the most violent that the lâ—ast have many good Intervals and that it is Master of the middle and moderate ones Which things standing thus we are to infer that we do not blame timidity and weakness nor praise fortitude and temperance for their peculiar regard but that we reject those and desire these because of the former pain is the effect and the latter skreen us from it So that now Justice remains only behind to be examined and then we shall have done with the principal which our Ethicks call the Cardinal Vertues But the things that might be said upon this point are almost the same with the foregoing And it is no less conjoin'd with pleasure than Prudence Temperance and Fortitude which can no ways be withdrawn nor separated from it And truly this pleasure is so far from bringing any dammage to our minds that it doth ever nourish therein by its influence and its nature such thoughts and sentiments as are sedate and never leaves us without these hopes that we shall never want any thing of all that nature desires when it is uncorrupted And just as Intemperance and Folly afflict torment and trouble us incessantly So Injustice no sooner seizes on a Mans Breast but it instils disorder and confusion into it rendering him unhappy tho it should not render him criminal But if an unjust Man does any sinister action tho he commit it in such sort that neither Men nor the Sun are privy or can bear witness of it yet notwithstanding that he is sure of its being conceal'd and what obscurity soever the shades might have which covered it he is still under apprehensions of its being discuss'd by truth Suspition commonly follows the actions of the wicked and then discourse and then rumour and then the accuser and then the judge
Companion because he in some small concerns differ'd from him in Philosophy Laertius indeed on whose Sleeve Gassendus seems to pin his Faith hath spoken much in his behalf to vindicate his Reputation from this among other Aspersions that he asserted the lowest sorts of bodily Pleasure to be the supreme Felicity of Mankind he says that his Scholars did either ignorantly or wilfully mistake him Yet his profess'd Disciple and great Admirer Lucian who preferr'd him before all other Philosophers and exalted him at such a rate as never Man was exalted unless Lucretius had the management of him comparing him with Aristippus and Democritus his Masters saith that he exceeded them both in Impiety and Luxury His impiousness appears that he had the most monstrous conceptions of God and his Providence that ever Atheist pretended to own and that he denyed the Immortality of the Soul All which Metaphysicks may be seen in Laertius himself But as for his voluptuousness we know that Tully an Author of much greater Authority than Laertius having objected to one of Epicurus his Friends his unworthy definition of happiness quoting it in his own words and reproaching the sense of it asserts that Epicurus did acknowledge no happiness distinct from corporal and soft and obscene Pleasures of which he us'd to discourse by name without blushing He reports also concerning Metrodorus who as we have said was Epicurus intimado that he did scornfully disdain his Brother Timocrates because he hesitated whether all things that belong to an happy Life are to be measur'd by the Belly and offer'd to shew Velleius his Books if he question'd the Allegation His Garden was not shut to Whores and Strumpets It was a perfect Moor-fields only I believe it might be a cleanlier place and better situated Leontium was the Creswel Famous for her audacious Writing against Theophrastus and the right knack of a virtuosaâ—Impudence which had risen to that height as to cast very foul blots on the impotent Lust of Epicurus when the poor Gentleman was now grown deadly old in a Letter which she wrote to Lamia yet extant It is recorded in the second Book of Alciphron where the Learned part of the World if they have any occasion for it may find it whole and entire I only think fit in this place both for the honest satisfaction of the Reader and for an Idea of Style to our Modern Jilts to translate the beginning of it Nothing in my Conscience is more hard to please than that old Fellow when he grows young again this Epicurus O Laud does so mortifie me He must be picking faults with every thing suspecting the very Leaves of the Trees that make a noise writing Eternal Love Letters to me which keep me from his Garden By Venus if Adonis were now Fourscore years Old Lowsy always Sick and wrapp'd his Head in a Fleece of Wooll instead of a Cap I could not endure him These brief Memoirs may satisfie any Man that has no mind to take up any thing upon trust before he comes to read this dissertation wherein the Foundation-Principle of the Epicurean Philosophy i. e. That our happiness doth consist in voluptuousness is with great Industry canvass'd and to the great honour greater perhaps than he deserv'd of Epicurus Page 87. There is nothing bounded but in Nature That is to say every thing in nature hath its particular Limits and Circumscriptions according to the threefold dimensions of places Tho all things taken together i. e. the Vniverse or natura rerum may have a vast and indefinite Extension and banish the supposition of imaginary spaces Yet in things immaterial and independent of matter and body it is not so Ex. Gr. The Will enjoys an Attribute next to infinity There are no bounds to be set to it but what reason prescribes and this prescription is to be guided according to the necessities of Nature Ambition is the greatest Extravagance and Monstrosity and gave a Monmothian Birth to the Fable of Typhon who was a Gyant feign'd to be the Son of Erebus and Terra Ambition ascending as all other vices from Hell of which he was a Type He was said to have reach'd Heaven with his Heads because of his aspiring Thoughts and to have forc'd Old Jove from thence in regard by Ambitious Spirits Princes are often chas'd from their Thrones Page 90. Let the Stoiques boast as high as they please the insensibility of their Sect. They held 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Passions were Irrational whence they defined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inordinate Impulse straying beyond Nature This was a pleasant conceit but such a one as I am glad they held with all my heart since otherwise we had never met with all that Wit which Seneca bestows upon the Illustration of this Point while with a great deal of Passion he labours to prove that the Wise man ought to have none 'T is certain the whole Intrigue of Virtue and Vice consists in the Passions And by the same Argumâ—nt a Papist may persuade us Proâ—â—â—â—â—nts to throw away our Bibles â—tterly because we sometimes make bad use of them Page 94. And because the memory of Maecenas These verses of Maecenas Seneca comments upon excellently well and like himself in his hundred and first Epistle He calls it Turpissimum Votum that ever Man should refuse neither weakness nor deformity nor the Cross it self provided but a little Life would stay in him during his sufferings Herein he prays for the Greatest Curse that could befall him he begs for a continuance of his Punishment as if it were for Life it self But of all things this was the most contemptible that he should desire to live tho it were to be Crucifiâ—d You may debilitate cripple me says he if you please so that the Soul does but stay in my broken and useless body Squash me double in pieces upon the Rack so that the distorted Monster does get some Time You may hoist and nail me to the sharpned Cross yet it is worth my while to compress my Wounds and to hang down straightned from the Tree so that I but defer what is best in Evils an end of the Punishment It is worth my while to have a Ghost that I may give it up What can we wish to this man but that his Prayers may be answer'd Was ever heard a Bargain of so much foolish Fear Did ever man beg his Life with so much Turpitude Do ye think Virgil had ever repeated that to him Vsque adeóne mori miserum est Or he had ever seen let me add those Verses of his beloved Horace wherein Regulus is describ'd leaving Rome at his return for Carthage and which in my weak Judgment I think to go beyond any thing that ever Horace writ of Imagery Fertur pudicae Conjugis Osculum Parvósque natos ut capitis Minor A se removisse virilem Torvus humi posuisse Vultum Donec labantes consilio Patres Firmaret Autor nunquà m