Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	believe_v	know_v	word_n	4,525	5	4.2540	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39868	Lucian's ghost: or, Dialogues between the dead, wandering in the Elyzian shades. Being certain satyrical remarques upon the vain ostentatious humours of several learned and philosophical men and women, as well ancient as modern. Composed first in French, and now paraphras'd into English, by a person of quality.	Fontenelle, M. de (Bernard Le Bovier), 1657-1757.	1684 (1684)	Wing F1413B; ESTC R213744	36,631	141

where posterity takes care to find out the meaning and fulfill it Aesop It seems you reli'd very much on the wit and candour of your Readers to find out Allegories where you never meant 'em what would you have done had they taken 'em in the Literal sense Homer Why truly I should not have thought it so great a misfortune Aesop What that your Gods should wound and mangle one another and Jupiter the Thunderer at an Assembly of the Deities threaten to beat the mighty Juno that the Warriour Mars should bellow so loud as ten thousand men when he was wounded by Diomedes and instead of taking the revenge of an Heroe and cutting all the Greeks in pieces go crying to Jupiter to make complaint of his Wound all this had been very fine without an Allegory Homer And why not You may imagine that the wit of Man searches onely after Truth but be not deceiv'd Falsity and Humane Invention sympathize extremely If you have Truth to tell you had need disguise it in a Fable to make it relish but if Fiction onely be your Province there 's no need of intermixing Truth 't will better please without it so that what 's true dare not appear in its own native colours but is constrain'd to borrow of some gawdy Fable to make it be receiv'd whereas whatever is Fictitious need assume no other than its own Man's wit and fancy being the place of its birth as well as of its abode and to which Truth is always a Stranger I 'll tell you moreover had I put my Invention upon the stretch and almost crackt my Brains to find out Allegories and Allusions it might well have been that men would have swallow'd the Fable without having any prospect to the Figure and that 's the reason that the Stories of my Gods and Heroes were not found so ridiculous Aesop Oh! you make me tremble then I fear 't is believ'd that my Beasts did really speak as I made 'em in my Fables Homer This Fear of yours is mighty pleasant Aesop Why if it were really believ'd as you say that the Gods had those discourses together onely because you related it why might it not be credited with the same ease that my Beasts spake because I said it Homer Oh! The case is not the same for men would very easily believe that the Gods are as great Fools as they are yet they won't allow Beasts to be so wise DIALOGUE VI. Between Athenais and Icasia Icasia SInce you are willing to know the principal Adventures of my Life I 'll tell it you in short The Emperour under whom we liv'd had an inclination to Marry and to make the better choice of an Empress he issued out his Proclamation to give notice that if any Woman thought her Beauty capable of raising her to a Throne she should on a prefixt day make her appearance at Constantinople and God knows there were no small number of pretenders among the rest I was one who had so good an opinion of my self that I thought my Youth and Beauty the liveliness of my Eyes with the sweetness of my Air and handsomeness of my Meen might not without some reason raise my hopes to the Empire On the meeting of this handsome Assembly we all survey'd each others Faces not without some uneasiness and I observ'd when they came to mine they fixt their Eyes with Envy and Emulation At length the Emperour came into the Aslembly and having taken several turns between our Beautifull ranks when he came to me just as I wisht he stopt and beholding me with a loving Air Indeed says he these Women are dangerous Creatures being capable of doing so much harm I streight believ'd I needed only shew a little wit to crown all my hopes so between hope and fear I made this quick Reply But Sir Women in recompence can and have often done much good But this unhappy Answer destroy'd all my pretensions for the Emperour fansied it so witty he dar'd not espouse me Athen. Certainly this Emperour was of a very strange humour so much to fear a witty Woman and I doubt he had but little wit himself because he found so much in your Reply but to deal frankly I think you had no such great reason to be angry with your self Ica So the Fates would have it that your wit alone should make you Empress and the very appearance on 't defeat me You were not onely witty but a Philosopher too and yet you could Espouse the Emperour Theodosius the younger Athen. If I should have had so sad an Example as yours before my Eyes I should have been a little frighted tho' for after my Father had bred me a Scholar and given me all the advantages of Education he disinherited me supposing that my knowledge in the Sciences was a very ample Fortune and to speak the truth I believ'd so too But now I see my errour and that I ran a very great risk of making no other Fortune but what my bare Philosophy could give me Icasia See now what use may be made of this Example 't would be pleasant if some person on the like occasion who knowing my story should make this advantage of it as not to shew her wit though there were ne'er so fair an opportunity for it Athen. I would not answer for her that her strategeme should succeed since 't was design'd 'T is those follies we commit by chance that make us happy have you never heard the Story of the Painter who drew a Bunch of Grapes so natural and fine that he deceiv'd the very Birds who as soon as e'er they saw 'em expos'd flew to taste ' em You may judge what reputation he got by this piece they were painted in the hand of a little Country Boy who was drawn in the same piece It hapned that some person skilfull in that Art commended the painting of the Grapes which were so naturally drawn as to allure the Birds but not the Boy because he did fright them from ' em And certainly his observation was very rational yet if the Painter had remembred to have drawn the Boy with the same exactness he had never gain'd that honour by his Grapes Ica Well I am satisfi'd though we know how to take the justest measures yet we could not assure our selves of their success and this instance of the Painter might well make us tremble lest like him we had not made some necessary fault in the management of our affairs to make 'em prosperous There 's nothing certain in the world above since Fortune takes such care to give different successes to the same Action it baffles all their humane policy and obliges Mankind to live without either Rule or Order Dialogues of the Ancients and Moderns DIALOGUE I. Between Augustus and Peter Aretine P. Aret. YES I was one of the most eminent Wits of the Age and Pensioner to the most considerable Princes in Europe Aug. Then you were still oblig'd to write

Warriour But once again what would you conclude from hence Smind That this Lover and this Conquerour and almost all Mankind though they lye on Beds of Roses yet the folding but of one Leaf might be enough to disturb their rest A very small uneasiness is sufficient to destroy our pleasures and these are our Beds of Roses where 't will be a matter of some difficulty to make all the Leaves lye smooth and easie Milo I must confess I am not very knowing in these matters but in my opinion you your Imaginary Lover and your Conquerour and every body else of this temper doe your selves a great deal of wrong by being so over-nice and delicate Smind Ah Milo Men of wit are no Crotonians as thou art but Sybarites like me Milo Now I guess what you would be at That nature having made 'em of a more delicate frame than ordinary they would enjoy too many pleasures if the fineness and subtilty of their Reason did not devest 'em of those that were superfluous Smind You 're mistaken in your Guesses men of wit have no pleasures that are superfluous Milo Then they are fools to take so much pains to destroy their own happiness Smind Behold the misery of the whole Creation Mankind onely does enjoy this fineness of temper which is produc'd by the brisk and and lively motion of the blood and spirits Every body is satisfy'd with himself when he has it and he that has it not is still in pursuit after it yet it diminishes our pleasures and makes 'em flat and dull which of their own natures are insipid enough How miserable therefore is the condition of humane nature that 's furnish't but with so few delights and yet our subtile reason marrs 'em all in the enjoyment DIALOGUE III. Between Dido and Stratonice Dido ALas my Stratonice how unfortunate am I you must needs have heard how I liv'd the mirrour of Chastity and prov'd so constant to my first Vows that I chose rather to burn alive and sacrifice my self to the shade of my first Husband than endure a second Yet I could not secure my self from the Censure of evil Tongues as to my very death which was the Crown and Ornament of my life It has pleas'd a certain Poet called Virgil to change me who always had the reputation of a wise and prudent Matron into a young Coquet who let her self be Charm'd with the good Meen of a stranger the first day she saw him and in fine he has turn'd the whole History of my Life into a Romance Yet he would not rob me of my last Funeral Pyle But can you guess the Reason he gives why I cast my self into it not to avoid a second Marriage but despair of seeing my self forsaken by the handsome stranger Straton On my word such fain'd Relations may prove of very ill consequence to the World and we shall have but few Women die Martyrs to Conjugal Fidelity if every Capricious Poet may take the liberty of saying what he pleases of 'em after they are dead perhaps Virgil has not done you so much injury though as you imagine and has onely disoblig'd you by discovering some Intrigue which you hop't would be concealed Dido Had there been any probability in the Amour which the Poet would make me entertain I should not so much complain of him But he gives me Aeneas for my Lover a man that left the World Three hundred years before I came into it Straton I must confess that what you say is something yet there is so great a Resemblance in the several Stories of your Lives that you seem very much to be made the one for the other you were both constrain'd to forsake your native Lands and try your Fortunes in Foreign Kingdoms He was a Widower and you a Widow so that the Agreement of your Loves might well Answer that of your Fates 'T is true you were born Three hundred years after him yet the Poet had so much Reason to make you meet and Love that he might very well dispence with Three hundred years and thought it not of consequence enough to spoil so plausible an Amour Dido What sort of Reasoning is this are not Three hundred years always Three hundred years and how can two persons living at this distance meet and love Straton 'T was in this very point that Virgil hath most shew'd his wit he was a man that understood the world and well knew that in such Amorous Entertainments men judge not of the truth of the Relation by the speciousness of its appearance but sometimes by the very improbability of the Story Dido I am not well satisfy'd that he has fix't his handsome Mysteries and plausible Romances on me Straton Why has he Ridicul'd you and made you speak impertinently any where Dido Neither 'T is my Character which gives his Poem all its beauty and though he has bely'd me yet there is something Divine in his very Fiction and had he been oblig'd to have drawn me with my native Honesty his Aeneids would have lost very much of their Lustre Straton Wherefore then do you complain so much Though he has sully'd your Vertue which you so much rely'd on yet in return he has given you Wit and Beauty which perhaps you never could pretend to Dido What then is that a sufficient recompence Straton I know not what temper you were of but I 'm sure most women would rather have their Vertue sully'd than either their Wit or Beauty and I do ingenuously acknowledge to you it was my temper There came a Painter to the Court of the King of Syria my Husband who on some occasion I had disoblig'd and to revenge himself on me Painted me in the Embraces of a Common Souldier and having expos'd the Picture fled my Subjects zealous for my Honour would publickly have burnt it but because he had drawn me so admirably well though the motions he gave it were more to the advantage of my Beauty than Vertue I preserv'd it from the flames and sent kindly for the Painter and pardon'd him Now if you had been of my mind you should have dealt with Virgil after the same manner Dido If Wit and Beauty were the most considerable Qualifications of a Lady it were not then amiss Straton I can't decide to which the precedency is due but in Common Conversation if the discourse be of a Woman who is a stranger to any of the company the first question is whether she be handsome the second if she have Wit and it rarely happens that any body gives himself the trouble to ask a third DIALOGUE IV. Between Anacreon Aristotle Arist I Could not have believ'd that a Sonnet-maker should have the confidence to compare himself with a Philosopher and one of my Reputation too Anac You would make the name of a Philosopher sound very great I can assure you my Songs have purchas'd me the title of the wise Anacreon and I 'm sure there 's no Phisopher

concern of Men to know what will be and therefore the Astrologers are so hunted after to inform 'em who tell 'em with a great deal of Confidence that there are hot and cold Signs Male and Female that some Planets are good and others hurtfull and that some are neither one nor t'other but are so complaisant to conform themselves according to the humour of the Company they are found in yet all these Follies are very well receiv'd because they are in hopes by them to be brought to the knowledge of the future J. of Nap. What do they let us know nothing then I wonder that you who were my Astrologer shou'd speak so ill of your own Art Ansel Heark ye the Dead don't use to lie I abus'd you with that very Art which I profest and you so much esteem'd J. of Nap. Oh! but I won't believe you how cou'd you foretell me then that I should be four times marry'd and what probability was there that any rational person wou'd let her self be so often caught in the same Noose therefore I am certain you read my Destiny in the Stars Ansel I 'll assure ye I consulted the Stars much less than your Inclinations and though some of our Predictions come to pass yet this is no proof of the Infallibility of the Art I cou'd bring you to one of our Fraternity who can tell you a very pleasant Story on this Subject This Man was a profest Astrologer and rely'd as little upon his own Art as ever I did yet to satisfie himself whether there was any certainty in it or not he dedicated one whole day to make his Observations whether the particular Actions of it cou'd any ways answer to his Rules and it happen'd that he foretold many things which were far more strange than your four Marriages which mightily surpriz'd him but afterwards more narrowly examining his Astronomical Tables on which his Predictions were grounded he found 'em to be all false and imperfect and if they had been rightly made he should have been oblig'd to have foretold the quite contrary J. of Nap. If this be true I 'm forry I knew it not in t'other World that we might have been no longer cheated with these Impostors Ansel There are Stories enough in the World to their disadvantage and yet the Art continues still in vogue Men are so Infatuated with a desire of knowing what 's to come that they will by no means suffer themselves to be disabus'd with pleasure they sacrifice their All to a future hopes yet when it comes to their possession they streight fly from it as if spightfull Nature had so ordain'd that Mankind should ne'er enjoy those goods they have nor think of making themselves happy the present moment but still refer it to that which is to come as if at its Arrival it wou'd not be like the former J. of Nap. I own 't is still the same yet 't is not good that one should think so Ansel I shall make you understand the folly of this fond Opinion by the Relation of a Fable There was a Man that was thirsty and sitting at a Fountain-head refus'd to taste the Waters because he hop'd at length they wou'd become more clear and pure the Waters still continu'd running yet still the same which made him wait as formerly in expectation But at last the Fountain became dry and when he wou'd there was nothing left for him to drink J. of Nap. I believe this story might not onely be appli'd to me but to all the dead and our Glass of Life is quite run out before we know what use to make of it But what then methinks 't is Expectation makes the greatest Blessing and there is something of pleasure not onely in the hope but in the fear of what 's to come wou'd you have a Man live in the world as we do here where the present and the future are all alike Ansel Man's Life were very pleasant indeed if all the happiness on 't consisted in the prospect of distant and imaginary Objects What pleasure can it be to aspire at that which can be ne'er enjoy'd and pursue a shadow which can ne'er be Caught FINIS A Catalogue of new Books Printed for and sold by James Norris at the King's Arms without Temple-Bar 1684. 1. MAssinello or a Satyr against the Association and the Guild-hall Riot Quarto 2. Eromena or the Noble stranger a curious Novell Octavo 3. Tractatus adversus Reprobationis absolutae decretum nova methodo succentissimo compendio adornatus in duos Libros digestus Octavo 4. An Idea of Happiness in a Letter to a Friend enquiring wherein the greatest happiness attainable by Man in this Life does consist Quarto 5. A Murnival of Knaves or Whiggism plainly display'd and if not grown shameless Burlesqu'd out of Countenance Quarto 6. The accomplish't Lady or deserving Gentle-woman being a Vindication of Innocent and Harmless Females from the Aspersions of Malicious Men wherein are contained many Eminent examples of the Constancy Chastity Prudence Policy Valour Learning c. wherein they have not onely equall'd but excell'd many of the contrary Sex Twelves 7. Patriae Parricida or the History of the horrid Conspiracy of Cataline against the Common-Wealth of Rome in English Octavo 8. Core Redivivus in a Sermon Preach'd at Christ-Church Tabernacle in London upon Sunday September the 9th 1683. being a day of Publick Thanksgiving for the late Deliverance of his sacred Majesty's Person and Government from the Treasonable Rebellion and Fanatick Conspiracy Quarto 9. Romes Rarities or the Pope's Cabinet unlock'd and expos'd to veiw being a true and faithfull account of the Blasphemy Treason Massacres Murders Lechery Whoredom Buggery Sodomy Debauchery Pious Frauds c. of the Romish-Church from the Pope himself to the Priest or inferiour Clergy Octavo