if the other knew would greatly profit him what course would you take Or how would you discharge your selfe A singular and principall friendship dissolveth all other duties freeth all other obligations The secret I have sworne not to reveale to another I may without periurie impart it vnto him who is no other but my selfe It is a great and strange woonder for a man to double himselfe those that talk of tripling know not nor cannot reach vnto the height of it Nothing is extreame that hath his like And he who shall presuppose that of two I love the one as well as the other and that they enter-love one another and love me as much as I loue them he multiplieth in brother-hood a thing most singular and alonely one and then which one alone is also the rarest to be found in the world The remainder of this history agreeth very wel with what I said for Eudamidas giveth as a grace fauor to his friends to employ them in his need he leaveth them as his heires of his liberality which consisteth in putting the meanes into their hands to doe him good And doubtlesse the force of friendship is much more richly shewen in his deed then in Aretheus To conclude they are imaginable effects to him that hath not tasted them and which makes me woonderfully to honor the answer of that yong Souldier to Cyrus who enquiring of him what he would take for a horse with which he had lately gained the prize of a race and whether he would change him for a Kingdome No surely my Liege said he yet would I willingly forgoe him to gaine a true friend could I but finde a man worthy of so precious an alliance He said not ill in saying could I but finde For a man shall easily finde men fit for a superficiall acquaintance but in this wherein men negotiate from the very centre of their harts and make no spare of any thing it is most requisite all the wardes and springs be sincerely wrought and perfectly true In confederacieâ— which hold but by one end men have nothing to provide for but for the imperfections which particularly doe interest and concerne that end and respect It is no great matter what religion my Physician and Lawyer is of this consideration hath nothing common with the offices of that friendship they owe-mee So doe I in the familiar acquaintances that those who serve-me contract with me I am nothing inquisitive whether a Lackey be chaste or no but whether he be diligent I feare not a gaming Muletier so much as if he be weake nor a hot swearing Cooke as one that is ignorant and vnskilfull I never meddle with saying what a man should do in the world there are over many others that do it but what my selfe do in the world Mihi sic vsus est Tibi vt opus est facto face So is it requisite for me Doe thou as needfull is for thee Concerning familiar table-talke I rather acquaint my selfe with and follow a merry conceited humour than a wise man And in bed I rather prefer beauty then goodnesse and in society or coversation of familiar discourse I respect rather sufficiency though without Preua ' hommie and so of all things else Even as he that was found riding vpon an hobby-horse playing with his children besought him who thus surprized him not to speake of-it vntil he were a father himself supposing the tender fondnesse and fatherly passion which then would possesse his minde should make him an impartiall iudge of such an action So would I wish to speake to such as had tried what I speake of but knowing how far such an amitie is from the common vse how seld seene and rarely found I looke not to finde a competent judge For even the discourses which sterne antiquitie hath left vs concerning this subject seeme to me but faint and forcelesse in respect of the feeling I have of it And in that point the effects exceed the very precepts of Philosophie Nil ego contulâ—rim iucundo sanus amico For me be I well in my wit Nought as a merry friend so fit Ancient Menander accounted him happy that had but met the shadow of a true friend verily he had reason to say so especially if he had tasted of any for truely if I compare all the rest of my forepassed life which although I have by the meere mercy of God past at rest and ease and except the losse of so deare a friend free from all grievous affliction with an ever-quietnesse of minde as one that have taken my naturall and originall commodities in good payment without searching any others if as I say I compare-it all vnto the foure yeares I so happily enjoied the sweet company and deare-deare society of that worthy man it is nought but a vapour nought but a darke and yrkesome light Since the time I lost him quem semper acerbum Semper honoratum sic Diâ— voluistis habebo Which I shall ever hold a bitter day Yet ever honor'd so my God t' obey I doe but languish I doe but sorrow and even those pleasures all things present-me with in stead of yeelding me comfort doe but redouble the griefe of his losse We were copartners in all things All things were with vs at halfe me thinkes I have stolne his part from him Nec fas esse vâ—â—a me voluptate hîc frui Dâ—crevi tantisper dum ille abest meus particeps I have set downe no joy enjoy I may As long as he my partner is away I was so accustomed to be ever two and so enured to be never single that me thinks I am but halfe my selfe Illam meâ— si partem animae tulit Maturior vis quid moror altera Nec charits aequè nec superstes Integer Ille dies vtramque Duxit ruinam Since that part of my soule riper fate reft me Why stay I heere the other part he left me Nor so deere nor entire while heere I rest That day hath in one ruine both opprest There is no action can betide me or imagination possesse me but I heare him saying as indeed he would have done to me for even as he did excell me by an infinite distance in all other sufficiencies and vertues so did he in all offices and duties of friendship Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus Tam chari capitis What modesty or measure may I beare In want and wish of him that was so deare O misero frater adempte mihi Omnia tecumvâ— Ã perierunt gaudia nostra Quae tuus in vita dulcis alebat amor Tu mea tu moriens fregisti commoda frater Tecum vnà tota est nostra sepulta anima Cuius ego interitu tota de mente fugaui Haec studia atque omnes delicias animi Alloquar audiero nunquam tua verba loquentem Nunquam ego te vita frater amabiliâ—r Aspiciam post hac at
Foxes Why to Deere to flie a pace By parents is it given when parents feare incites Vnlesse because a certaine force of inward spirits With all the bodie growes As seed and seed-spring goes That divine justice is grounded therevpon punishing the fathers offences vpon the children forsomuch as the contagion of the fathers vices is in some sort printed in childrens soules and that the misgovernment of their will toucheth them Moreover that if the soules came from any other place then by a naturall consequence and that out of the bodie they should have been some other thing they should have some remembrance of their first being Considering the naturall faculties which are proper vnto him to discourse to reason and to remember si in corpus nascentibus insinuatur Cur super anteactam aetatem meminisse nequimus Nec vestigia gestarum rerum vlla tenemus If our soule at our birth be in our bodie cast Why can we not remember ages over-past Nor any markes retaine of things done first or last For to make our soules condition to be of that worth we would they must all be presupposed wise even when they are in their naturall simplicitie and genuine puritie So should they have been such being freed from the corporall prison aswell before they entred the same as we hope they shall be when they shall be out of it And it were necessarie they should being yet in the bodie remember the said knowledge as Plato said that what we learn't was but a new remembring of that which we had knowne before A thing that any man may by experience maintaine to be false and erronious First because we doe not precisely remember what we are taught and that if memorie did meerely execute hir function she would at least suggest vs with something besides our learning Secondly what she knew being in hir puritie was a true vnderstanding knowing things as they are by hir divine intelligence Whereas heer if she be instructed she is made to receive lies and apprehend vice wherein she cannot imploy hir memorie this image and conception having never had place in hir To say that the corporall prison doth so suppresse hir naturall faculties that they are altogether extinct in hir first is cleane contrarie to this other beliefe to knowledge hir forces so great and the operations which men in this transitorie life feel of it so wonderfull as to have thereby concluded this divinitie and fore-past eternitie and the immortalitie to come Nam si tantopere est animi mutata pot est as Omnis vt actarum exciderit retinentia rerum Non vt opinor ea ab let ho iam longior errat If of our minde the power be so much altered As of things done all hold all memorie is fled Then as I ghesse it is not far from being dead Moreover it is here with vs and no where else that the soules powers and effects are to be considered all the rest of hir perfections are vaine and vnprofitable vnto hir it is by hir present condition that all hir immortalitie must be rewarded and paide and she is onely accomptable for the life of man It were injustice to have abridged hir of hir meanes and faculties and to have disarmed hir against the time of hir captivitie and prison of hir weaknesse and sicknesse of the time and season where she had been forced and compelled to draw the judgement and condemnation of infinite and endlesse continuance and to relie vpon the consideration of so short a time which is peradventure of one or two houres or if the worst happen of an age which have no more proportion with infinite then a moment definitively to appoint and establish of all hir being by that instant of space It were an impious disproportion to wrest an eternall reward in consequence of so short a life Plato to save himselfe from this inconvenience would have future payments limited to a hundred yeares continuance relatively vnto a humane continuance and many of ours have given them temporall limits By this they judged that her generation followed the common condition of humane things As also her life by the opinion of Epicurus and Democritus which hath most been received following these goodly apparances That her birth was seen when the bodie was capable of her her vertue and strength was perceived as the corporall encreased in her infancie might her weaknesse be discerned and in time her vigor and ripenesse then her decay and age and in the end her decrepitude gigni pariter cum corpore vna Crescere seutimus paritérque senescere mentem The minde is with the bodie bred we doe behold It jointly growes with it with it it waxeth old They perceived her to be capable of diverse passions and agitated by many languishing and painfull motions where through she fell into wearinesse and griefe capable of alteration and change of joy stupefaction and languishment subject to her infirmities diseases and offences even as the stomacke or the foote mentem sanari corpus vt aegrum Cernimus flecti medicinâ posse videmus We see as bodies sicke are cur'd so is the minde We see how Phisicke can it each way turne and winde dazled and troubled by the force of wine removed from her seat by the vapors of a burning feaver drowzie and sleepie by the application of some medicaments and rouzed vp againe by the vertue of some others corpeream naturam animi esse necesse est Corporeis quoniam telis ictúque laborat The nature of the minde must needs corporeall bee For with corporeall darts and stroks it 's griev'd we see She was seen to dismay and confound all her faculties by the onely biting of a sicke-dogge and to containe no great constancie of discourse no sufficiencie no vertue no philosophicall resolution no contention of her forces that might exempt her from the subjection of these accidents The spittle or slavering of a mastive dog shed vpon Socrater his hands to trouble all his wisdome to distemper his great and regular immaginations and so to vanquish and annull them that no signe or shew of his former knowledge was left in him vis animaï Conturbatur divisa seorsum Disiectatur eodem illo distracta veneno The soules force is disturbed seperated Distraught by that same poison alienated And the said venome to finde no more resistance in his soule then in that of a childe of foure yeares old a venome able to make all Philosophie were she incarnate become furious and mad So that Cato who scorned both death and fortune could not abide the sight of a looking glasse or of water overcome with horrour and quelled with amazement if by the contagion of a mad dog he had falne into that sicknesse which Phisitians call Hydrophobia or feare of waters vis morbi distracta per artus Turbat agens animam spumantes aequore salso Ventorum vt validis ferveseunt viribus vndae The force
office otherwise it should lose both effect and grace And is a part which cannot indifferently belong to all For truth it selfe hath not the priviledge to bee employed at all times and in every kinde Bee her vse never so noble it hath his circumscriptions and limites It often commeth to passe the world standing as it doth that truth is whispered into Princes eares not onely without fruit but hurtfully and therewithall vnjustly And no man shall make me beleeve but that an hallowed admonition may be viciously applied and abusively employed and that the interest of the substance should not sometimes yeeld to the interest of the forme For such a purpose and mystery I would have an vnrepining man and one contented with his owne fortune Quod sit esse velit nihilque malit Willing to be as him you see Or rather nothing else to bee and borne of meane degree Forsomuch as on the one side hee should not have cause to feare lively and neerely to touch his maisters heart therby not to lose the course of his preferment And on the other side being of a low condition hee should have more easie communication with all sorts of people Which I would have in one man alone for to empart the priviledge of such liberty and familiarity vnto many would beget an hurtful irreverence Yea and of that man I would above all things require trusty and assured silence A King is not to bee credited when for his glory hee boasteth of his constancy in attending his enemies encounter if for his good amendment and profit hee cannot endure the liberty of his friends words which have no other working power then to pinch his learning the rest of their effect remaining in his owne hands Now there is not any condition of men that hath more neede of true sincerly-free and open-hearted advertisements then Princes They vndergoe a publike life and must applaude the opinion of so many spectators that if they be once enured to have that concealed from them which diverteth them from their course they at vnawares and insensibly finde themselves deepely engaged in the hatred and detestation of their subjects many times for occasions which had they beene forewarned and in time gently reformed they might no doubt have eschewed to no interest or prejudice of their private delights Favorites doe commonly respect themselves more then their masters And surely it toucheth their free-hold forsomuch as iâ—good truth the greatest part of true friendshipâ—-offices are towards their soveragne in a crabbed and dangerous Essay So that there is not onely required much affection and liberty but also an vndanted courage To conclude all this galâ—emafrie which I huddle-vp here is but a register of my lives-Essayes which in regard of the internall health are sufficiently exemplare to take the instruction against the haire But concerning bodily health no man is able to bring more profitable experience then my selfe who present the same pure sincere and in no sorte corrupted or altred either by arte or selfe-will'd opinion Experience in her owne precinct may justly be compared to Phisicke vnto which reason giveth place Tiberius was wont to say that whatsoever had lived twenty yeares should be able to answere himselfe of all such things as were either wholesome or hurtfull for him and know howe to live and order his body without Phisicke Which hee peradventure had learned of Socrates who industriously advising his disciples as a study of chiefe consequence to study their health told them moreover that it was very hard if a man of vnderstanding heedefully observing his exercises his eating and drinking should not better then any Phisition discerne and distinguish such things as were either good or bad or indifferent for him Yet doth Physicke make open profession alwayes to have experience for the touch-stone of her operation And Plato had reason to say that to be a good Physition it were requisite that he who should vndertake that profession had past through all such diseases as hee will adventure to cure and knowen or felt all the accidents and cricumstances hee is to iudge of It is reason themselves should first have the pox if they will know how to cure them in others I should surely trust such a one better then any else Others but guide vs as one who sitting in his chaire paints seas rockes shelves and havens vpon a boarde and makes the modell of a tale ship to saile in all safety But put him to it in earnest he knowes not what to doe nor where to beginne They make even such a description of our infimities as doth a towne-crier who crieth a lost horse or dog and describeth his haire his stature his eares with other markes and tokens but bring either vnto him he knowes him not Oh God that physicke would one day affoord mesome good and preceptible helpe how earnestly would I exclaime Tandem efficaci do manus scientâ—â— I yeeld I yeeld at length To knowledge of chiefe strength The Artes that promise to keepe our body and minde in good health promise much vnto vs but therewith there is none performeth lesse what they promise And in our dayes such as make profession of these Artes amongst vs doe lesse then all others shew their effects The most may be said of them is that they sell medicinable drugs but that they are Physitians no man can truly say it I have lived long enough to yeeld an accoont of the vsage that hath brough mee to this day If any bee disposed to taste of it as his taster I have given him an assay Loe here some articles digested as memory shall store me with them I have no fashion but hath varied according to accidents I onely register those I have most beene acquainted with and hetherto possesse me most My forme of life is ever alike both in sickenesse and in health one same bed the same houres the same meate the same drinke doth serve me I adde nothing to them but the moderation of more or lesse according to my strength or appetite My health is to keepe my accustomed state free from care and trouble I see that sickenesse doth on the one side in some sort divert me from it and if I beleeve Physitians they on the other side will turne mee from it So that both by fortune and by arte I am cleane out of my right bias I beleeve nothing more certainely then this that I cannot be offended by the vse of things which I have so long accustomed It is in the hands of cuctome to give our life what forme it pleaseth in that it can do all in all It is the drinke of Circes diversifieth our nature as she thinkes good How many nations neere bordering vpon vs imagine the feare of the sereine or night-calme to be but a jest which sâ—o apparantly doth blast and hurt vs and whereof our Mariners our watermen and our countriemen make but a laughing-stocke You make a Germane sicke if you lay him
would set an innocent face on the matter answered that for the love and respect of his Majestie the Duke his Master would have beene very loth that such an execution should have beene done by day Heere every man may guesse whether he were taken short or no having tripped before so goodly a 〈…〉 as was that of our King Francis the first Pope Iulius the second having sent an Ambassador to the King of England to animate him against our foresaid King the Ambassador having had audience touching his charge and the King in his answer vrging and insisting vpon the difficultie he found foresaw in levying such convenient forces as should be required to withstand so mightie and set vpon so puisant a King and alleaging certaine peâ—â—ment reasons The Ambassador fondly and vnâ—itly replied that him-selfe had long before maturely considered them and had told the Pope of them By which answer so farre from his proposition which was with all speed without more circumstances to vndertake and vngergoe a dangerous warre the King of England tooke hold of the first argument which in effect he afterward found true which was that the said Ambassador in his owne particular intent was more affected to the French side whereof advertising his master his goods were all conâ—iscate himselfe disgraced and he very hardly escaped with life The tenth Chapter Of readie or slowe speech One ne furent à tous toutes graces donnes All Gods good graces are not gone To all or of all any one So doe we see that in the gift of eloquence some have such a facility and promptitude and that which we call vtterance so easie and at command that at all assaies and vpon everie occasion they are ready and provided and others more slow never speake any thing except much laboured and premeditated As Ladies and daintie Dames are taught rules to take recreations and bodily exercises according to the advantage of what they have fairest about them If I were to give the like counsel in those two different advantages of eloquence whereof Preachers and pleading lawiers of our age seeme to make profession the slowe speaker in mine opinion should be the better preacher and the other the better lawier For somuch as charge of the first allowes-him as much leisure as he pleaseth to prepare him-selfe moreover his cariere continueth still in one kinde without interruption whereas the Lawyers occasions vrging him still vpon any accident to be ready to enter the lists and the vnexpected replies answers of his advers partie do often divert him from his purpose where he is enforced to take a new course Yet is-it that at the last enter-view which was at Marseilles betweene Pope Clemens the seventh and Francis the first our King it hapned cleane-contrarie where Monsieur Poyet a man of chiefe reputation all daies of his life brought vp to plead at the bar whose charge being to make an Oration before the Pope and having long time before premeditated and con'd the same by roat yea as some report brought it with him ready-penned from Paris the very same day it should have beene pronounced the Pope suspecting he might happily speake something might offend the other Princes Ambassadors that were about him sent the argument which he at that time and place thought fittest to be treated of to the king but by fortune cleane contrarie to that which Poyet had so much studied for So that his Oration was altogether frustrate and he must presently frame another But he perceiving himselfe vnable for-it the Cardinall Bellay was faineto supply his place and take that charge vpon him The Lawyers charge is much harder than the Preachers yet in mine opinion shall we find more passable Lawyers then commendable Preachers at least in France It seemeth to be more proper to the mind to have her operation ready sudden and more incident to the judgement to have it slow and considerate But who remaineth mute if he have no leisure to prepare himselfe and he likewise to whom leisure giveth no advantage to say better are both in one selfe degree of strangenesse It is reported that Seuerus Cassius spake better extempore and without premeditation That he was more beholding to fortune then to his diligence that to be interrupted in his speech redounded to his profit that his adversaries feared to vrge-him lest his sudden anger should redouble his eloquence I know this condition of nature by experience which can-not abide a vehement and laborious premeditation except it hold a free a voluntarie and selfe-pleasing course it can never come to a good end We commonly say of some compositions that they smell of the oile of the lampe by reason of a certaine harshnesse and rudenesse which long plodding labour imprints in them that be much elaborated But besides the care of well-doing and the contention of the minde over-stretched to her enterprise doth breake and impeach the-same even as it hapneth vnto water which being closely pent-in through it's owne violence and abundance can not finde issue at an open gullet In this condition of nature whereof I now speake this also is ioyned vnto it that it desireth not to be pricked forward by these strong passions as the anger of Cassius for that motion would be over-rude it ought not to be violently shaken but yeeldingly solicited it desireth to be rouzed and prickt forward by strange occasions both present and casuall If it goe all-alone it doth but languish and loyter behinde agitation is her life and grace I cannot well containe my selfe in mine owne possession and disposition chaunce hath more interest in it than my selfe occasion company yea the change of my voice drawes more from my minde than I can finde therein when by my selfe I second and endevor to employ the same My words likewise are better than my writings if choise may be had in so woorthlesse things This also hapneth vnto me that where I seeke my selfe I finde not my selfe and I finde my selfe more by chaunce than by the search of mine owne judgement I shall perhaps have cast-foorth some suttletie in writing happily dull and harsh for another but sinooth and curious for my selfe Let vs leave all these complements and quaintnesse That is spoken by everie man according to his owne strength I have so lost it that I wot not what I would have said and strangers have sometimes found it before me Had I alwaies a razor about me where that hapneth I should cleane raze my selfe out Fortune may at some other time make the light thereof appeare brighter vnto me than that of mid-day and will make mee woonder at mine owne faltring or sticking in the myre The eleuenth Chapter Of Prognostications As touching Oracles it is very certaine that long before the comming of our Sauiour Iesus Christ they had begun to loose their credit for we see that Cicero laboureth to finde the cause of their declination and these be his words
so many wounding passions and of so severall sorts and so filthie and lothsome a societie waiting vpon her that shee is equivalent to penitencie Wee are in the wrong to thinke her incommodities serve her as a provocation seasoning to her sweetnes as in nature one contrarie is vivified by another contrarie and to say when we come to vertue that like successes and difficulties over-whelme it and yeeld it austere and inaccessible Where as much more properly then vnto voluptuousnes they ennobled sharpen animate and raise that divine and perfect pleasure which it mediates and procureth vs. Truly he is verie vnworthie her acquaintance that counter-ballanceth her cost to his fruit and knowes neither the graces nor vse of it Those who go about to instruct vs how her pursuite is very hard and laborious and her jovisance well pleasing and delightfull what else tell they vs but that shee is ever vnpleasant and irksome For what humane meane did ever attaine vnto an absolute enjoying of it The perfectest have beene content but to aspire and approach her without ever possessing her But they are deceived seeing that of all the pleasures we know the pursute of them is pleasant The enterprise is perceived by the qualitie of the thing which it hath regard vnto for it is a good portion of the effect and consubstantiall That happines and felicitie which shineth in vertue replenisheth her approaches and appurtenances even vnto the first entrance and vtmost barre Now of all the benefits of vertue the contempt of death is the chiefest a meane that furnisheth our life with an ease-full tranquillitie and giues vs a pure and amiable taste of it without which every other voluptuousnes is extinguished Loe here the reasons why all rules encounter and agree with this article And albeit they all leade vs with a common accord to despise griefe povertie and other accidentall crosses to which mans life is subject it is not with an equall care as well because accidents are not of such a necessitie for most men passe their whole life without feeling any want or povertie and other-some without feeling any griefe or sicknes as Xenophilus the musitian who lived a hundred and sixe yeares in perfect and continuall health as also if the worst happen death may at all times and whensoever it shall please vs cut off all other inconveniences and crosses But as for death it is inevitable Omnes eodem cogimur omnium Versatur vrna serius ocyus Sors exitura nos inaeter num exitium impositura cymbae All to one place are driv'n of all Shak't is the lot-pot where-hence shall Sooner or later drawne lots fall And to deaths boat for aye enthrall And by consequence if she make vs affeard it is a continuall subject of torment and which can no way be eased There is no starting-hole will hide vs from her she will finde vs wheresoever we are we may as in a suspected countrie starte and turne heere and there qua quasi saxum Tantalo semper impendet Which evermore hangs like the stone over the head of Tantalus Our lawes doe often condemne and send malefactors to be executed in the same place where the crime was committed to which whilest they are going leade them along the fairest houses or entertaine them with the best cheere you can non Siculae dapes Dulcem elaborabunt saporem Non avium cithaeraeque cantus Somnum reducent Not all King Denys daintie fare Can pleasing taste for them prepare No song of birds no musikes sound Can lullabie to sleepe profound Doe you thinke they can take any pleasure in it or be any thing delighted and that the finall intent of their voiage being still before their eies hath not altered and altogether distracted their taste from all these commodities and allurements Audit iter numer átque dies spatióque viarum Metitur vitam torquetur peste futura He heares his iorney count's his daies so measures he His life by his waies length vex't with the ill shall- be The end of our cariere is death it is the necessarie object of our aime if it affright vs how is it possible we should step one foote further without an ague The remedie of the vulgar sort is not to thinke on it But from what brutall stupiditie may so grosse a blindnesse come vpon him he must be made to bridle his Asse by the taile Qui capite ipse suo instituit vest igia retro Who doth a course contrarie runne With his head to his course begunne It is no marvell if he be so often taken tripping some doe no sooner heare the name of death spoken of but they are afraid yea the most part will crosse themselves as if they heard the Divell named And because mention is made of it in mens wils and testaments I warrant you there is none will set his hand to them till the Physitian have given his last doome and vtterly forsaken him And God knowes being then betweene such paine and feare with what sound judgement they indure him For so much as this sillable sounded so vnpleasantly in their eares and this voice seemed so ill-boding and vnluckie the Romans had learned to allay and dilate the same by a Periphrasis In liew of saying he is dead or he hath ended his daies they would say he hath lived So it be life be it past or no they are comforted from whom we have borowed our phrases quondam alias or late such a one It may happily be as the common saying is the time we live is worth the mony we pay for it I was borne betweene eleven of the clocke and noone the last of Februarie 1533. according to our computation the yeare beginning the first of Ianuarie It is but a fortnight since I was 39. yeares old I want at least as much more If in the mean time I should trouble my thoughts with a matter so farre from me it were but folly But what we see both young and olde to leave their life after one self condition No man departs otherwise from it than if he but now came to it seeing there is no man so crazed bedrell or decrepite so long as he remembers Met husalem but thinkes he may yet live twentie yeares Moreover seely creature as thou art who hath limited the end of thy daies Happily thou presumest vpon Physitians reports Rather consider the effect and experience By the common course of things long since thou livest by extraordinarie favour Thou hast alreadie over-past the ordinarie tearmes of common life And to prove it remember but thy acquaintances and tell me how many more of them have died before they came to thy age than have either attained or out-gone the same yea and of those that through renoune have ennobled their life if thou but register them I will lay a wager I will finde more that have died before they came to five and thirty yeares than after It is consonant with reason and
some multiplie as Species vnder one Genus is the true looking-glasse wherein we must looke if we will know whether we be of a good stamp or in the right byase To conclude I would have this worlds-frame to be my Schollers choise-booke So many strange humours sundrie sects varying judgements diverse opinions different lawes and fantasticall customes teach-vs to judge rightly of ours and instruct our judgement to acknowledge his imperfections and naturall weaknesse which is no easie an apprentiship So many innovations of estates so many fals of Princes and changes of publike fortune may and ought to teach vs not to make so great accompt of ouâ—s So many names so many victories and so many conquests buried in darke oblivion makes the hope to perpetuate our names but ridiculous by the surprising of â—en Argo lettiers or of a small cottage which is knowne but by his fall The pride and fiercenesse of so many strange and gorgeous shewes the pride-puft majestie of so many courts and of their greatnesse ought to confirme and asâ—ure our sight vndauntedly to beare the affronts and thunder-claps of ours without seeling our eyes So many thousands of men low-laide in their graves afore-vs may encourage-vs not to feare or be â—isâ—aied to go meet so good companie in the other world and so of all things else Our life said Pithagoras drawes-neare vnto the great and populous assemblies of the Olympike games wherein some to get the glorie and to win the goale of the games exercise their bodies with all industrie others for greedinesse of gaine bring thither marchand se to sell others there are and those be not the worst that seek after no other good but to marke how wherefore and to what end all things are done and to be spectators or observers of other mens lives and actions that so they may the better judge and direct their owne Vnto examples may all the most profitable Discourses of Philosophie be sorted which ought to be the touch-stone of humane actions and a rule to square them by to whom may be said quid fas optare quid asper Vâ—â—le â—ummus habet patriae charisque propinquis Quantum elargiri deceat quem te Deus esse Iussis humana qua parte locatus es in re Quid sumus aut quidnam victuri gignimur What thou maiest wish what profit may come cleare From new-stampt coyne to friends and countrie deare What thou ought'st give whom God would have thee bee And in what part mongst men he placed thee What we are and wherefore To live heer we were bore What it is to know and not to know which ought to be the scope of studie what valour what temperance and what justice-is what difference there-is betweene ambition and avarice bondage and freedome subjection and libertie by which markes a man may distinguish true and perfect contentment and how far-forth one ought to feare or apprehend death griefe or shame Et quo quemque modo fugiátque ferátque laborem How ev'ry labour he may plie And beare or ev'ry labour flie What wards or springs move-vs and the causes of so many motions in-vs For me seemeth that the first discourses wherewith his conceit should be sprinkled ought to be those that rule his manners and direct his sense which will both teach him to know himselfe and how to live and how to die-well Among the liberall Sciences let vs begin with that which makes-vs free Indeed they may all in some sort stead-vs as an instruction to our life and vse of-it as all other things-else serve the same to some purpose or other But let vs make especiall choice of that which may directly and pertinently serve the same If we could restraine and adapt the appurtenances of our life to their right byase and naturall limits we should find the best part of the Sciences that now are in vse cleane out of fashion with vs yea and in those that are most in vse there are certaine by-waies and deep-â—lows most profitable which we should do-well to leave and according to the institution of Socrates limit the course of our studies in those where profit is wanting sapere aude Incipe vivendi qui rectè prorogat â—oram Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis at ille Labitur labâ—tur in omne volubilis aevum Be bold to be wise to begin be strong He that to live well doth the time prolong Clowne-like expects till downe the streame be run That runs and will run till the world be done It is more simplicitie to teach our children Quid moveant Pisces animosáque signa Leonis Lotus Hesperia quid Capricornus aqâ—â— What Pisces move or hot-breath'd Lâ—os beames Or Capricornus bath'd in westerne streames The knowledge of the starres and the motion of the eightspheare before their owne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What longs it to the seaven stars and me Or those about Boôtes be Anaximenes writing to Pithagoras saith with what sence can I ammuse my selfe to the secrets of the Starres having continually â—eath or bondage before mine eies For at that time the Kings of Persia were making preparations to war against his Countrie All men ought to say so Being beaten with ambition with avarice with rashnesse and with superstition and having such other enemies vnto life within him Wherefore shall I study and take care about the mobility and variation of the world When hee is once taught what is fit to make him better and wiser he shal be entertained with Logicke naturall Philosophy Geometry and Rhetoricke then having setled his judgement looke what â—cience he doth most addict himselfe vnto he shall in short time attaine to the perfection of it His lecture shall be somtimes by way of talke and somtimes by booke his tutor may now then supply him with the same Author as an end motiue of his institution sometimes giuing him the pith substance of it ready chewed And if of himselfe he be not so throughly acquainted with bookes that hee may readily find so many notable discourses as are in them to effect his purpose it shall not be amisse that some learned man being appointed to keepe him company who at any time of neede may furnish him with such munition as hee shall stand in neede of that hee may afterward distribute and dispense them to his best vse And that this kinde of lesson be more easie and naturall then that of Gaza who will make question Those are but harsh thornie and vnpleasant precepts vaine idle immateriall words on which small hold may be taken wherin is nothing to quicken the minde In this the spirit findeth substance to bide and feed vpon A fruit without all comparison much better and that will soone bee ripe It is a thing worthy consideration to see what state things are brought vnto in this our age and how Philosophie even to the wisest and men of best vnderstanding is but an idle vaine
Blosius who was one of his chiefest friends what he would have done for him and that he answered All things What All things replied he And what if he had willed thee to burne our Temples Blosius answered He would never have commanded such a thing But what if he had done it replied Lelius The other answered I would have obeyed him If hee were so perfect a friend to Gracchus as Histories report he needed not offend the Consuls with this last and bolde confession and should not have departed from the assurance hee had of Gracchus his minde But yet those who accuse this answer as seditious vnderstand not well this mysterie and doe not presuppose in what termes he stood and that he held Gracchus his will in his sleeve both by power and knowledge They were rather friends than Cittizens rather friends than enemies of their countrey or friends of ambition and trouble Having absolutely committed themselves one to another they perfecty held the reines of one anothers inclination and let this yoke be guided by vertue and conduct of reason because without them it is altogether impossible to combine and proportion the same The answer of Blosius was such as it should be If their affections miscarried according to my meaning they were neither friendes one to other nor friends to themselves As for the rest this answer soundes no more than mine would doe to him that would in such sort enquire of me if your will should commaund you to kill your daughter would you doe it and that I should consent vnto it for that beareth no witnesse of consent to do it because I am not in doubt of my will and as little of such a friends will It is not in the power of the worlds discourse to remove me from the certaintie I have of his intentions and judgements of mine no one of it's actions might be presented vnto me vnder what shape soever but I would presently finde the spring and motion of it Our mindes have jumped so vnitedly together they have with so fervent an aflection considered of each other and with like affection so discovered and sounded even to the very bottome of ech others heart and entrails that I did not onely know his as well as mine owne but I would verily rather have trusted him concerning any matter of mine than my selfe Let no man compare any of the other common friendships to this I have as much knowledge of them as another yea of the perfectest of their kinde yet will I not perswade any man to confound their rules for so a man might be deceived In these other strict friendships a man must march with the bridle of wisdome and precaution in his hand the bond is not so strictly tied but a man may in some sort distrust the same Love him saide Chilon as if you should one day hate him againe Hate him as if you should love him againe This precept so abhominable in this soveraigne and mistris Amitie is necessarie and wholesome in the vse of vulgar and customarie frendships toward which a man must employ the saying Aristotle was woont so often to repeat Oh you my friends there is no perfect friend In this noble commerce offices and benefits nurses of other amities deserve not so much as to bee accounted of this confusion so full of our willes is cause of it for euen as the friendship I beare vnto my selfe admits no accrease by any succour I give my selfe in any time of neede whatsoever the Stoickes alleadge and as I acknowledge no thanks vnto my selfe for any service I doe vnto my selfe so the vnion of such friends being truely perfect makes them loose the feeling of such duties and hate and expell from one another these words of division and difference benefit good deed dutie obligation acknowledgement prayer thanks and such their like All things being by effect common betweene them wils thoughts judgements goods wives children honour and life and their mutuall agreement being no other than one soule in two bodies according to the fit definition of Aristotle they can neither lend or give ought to each other See here the reason why Law-makers to honour marriage with some imaginary resemblance of this divine bond inhibite donations betweene husband and wife meaning thereby to inferre that all things should peculiarly bee proper to each of them and that they have nothing to divide and share together If in the friendship wherof I speake one might give vnto another the receiver of the benefit should binde his fellow For each seeking more than any other thing to doe each other good he who yeelds both matter and occasion is the man sheweth himselfe liberall giving his friend that contentment to effect towards him what he desireth most When the Philosopher Diogenes wanted money he was wont to say That he re-demanded the same of his friends and not that he demanded it And to shew how that is practised by effect I will relate an auncient singular example Eudamidas the Corinthian had two friends Charixenus a Sycionian and Aretheus a Corinthian being vpon his death-bed and very poore and his two friends very rich thus made his last will and testament To Aretheus I bequeath the keeping of my mother and to maintaine her when she shall be â—lde To Charixenus the marrying of my daughter and to give her as great a dowry as he may and in case one of them shall chance to die before I appoint the surviver to substitute his charge and supply his place Those that first saw this testament laughed and mocked at the same but his heires being advertised thereof were very well pleased and received it with singular contentment And Charixenus one of them dying five daies after Eudamidas the substitution being declared in favour of Aretheus he carefully and very kindly kept and maintained his mother and of five talents that he was worth he gave two a halfe in mariage to one only daughter he had and the other two a halfe to the daughter of Eudamidas whom he maried both in one day This example is very ample if one thing were not which is the multitude of friends For this perfect amity I speake-of is indivisible each man doth so wholy give himselfe vnto his friend that he hath nothing left him to divide else-where moreover he is grieved that he is double triple or quadruple and hath not many soules or sundry wils that he might conferre them all vpon this subject Common friendships may bee divided a man may love beautie in one facilitie of behaviour in another liberalitie in one and wisedome in another paternity in this fraternity in that man so forth but this amitie which possesseth the soul and swaies it in all soveraigntie it is impossible it should be double If two at one instant should require helpe to which would you runne Should they crave contrary offâ—ces of you what order would you follow Should one commit a matter to your silence which
common deplored and bewailed their countries misfortunes some went home to their owne houses othersome staied there to be entombed with Vibius in his owne fire whose death was so long and lingring forsomuch as the vapor of the wine having possessed their veines and slowed the effect and operation of the poyson that some lived an houre after they had seene their enemies enter Capua which they caried the next day after and incurred the miseries and saw the calamities which at so high a rate they had sought to eschew Taurea Iubellius another citizen there the Consul Fulvius returning from that shamefull slaughter which he had committed of 225. Senators called him churlishly by his name and having arested him Command quoth he vnto him that I alâ—o be massacred after so many others that so thou maist brag to have murthered a much more valiant man then ever thou wast Fulvius as one enraged disdaining him forasmuch as he had newly received letters from Rome contrarie to the inhumanitie of his execution which inhibited him to proceed any further Iubellius continuing his speach said sithence my Countrie is taken my friends butchered having with mine owne hands slaine my wife and children as the only meane to free them from the desolation of this ruine I may not die the death of my fellow-citizens let vs borrow the vengeance of this hatefull life from vertue And drawing a blade he had hidden vnder his garments therwith ran himselfe through and falling on his face died at the Consuls feet Alexander besieged a citie in India the inhabitants whereof perceiving themselves brought to a very narrow pinch resolved obstinately to deprive him of the pleasure he might get of his victorie and together with their citie in despite of his humanitie set both the Towne themselves on a light fire and so were all consumed A new kind of warring where the enemies did all they could and fought to save them they to loose themselves and to be assured of their death did all a man can possible effect to warrant his life Astapa a Citie in Spaine being very weake of wals and other defences to withstand the Romanes that besieged the same the inhabitants drew all their riches and wealth into the market-place whereof having made a heap and on the top of it placed their wives and children and encompassed and covered the same with drie brush wood that it might burne the easier and having appointed fiftie lusty yong men of theirs for the performance of their resolution made a sallie where following their determined vow seeing they could not vanquist suffered themselves to be flame every mothers childe The fiftie after they had massacred every living soule remaining in the Citie and set fire to the heap joyfully leaped there-into ending their generous libertie in a state rather insensible then dolorous and reprochfull shewing their enemies that if fortune had been so pleased they should aswell have had the courage to bereave them of the victorie as they had to yeeld it them both vaine and hideous yea and mortall to those who allured by the glittering of the gold that moulten ran from out the flame thicke and three-fold approching greedily vnto it were therein smothered burned the formost being vnable to give backe by reason of the throng that followed them The Abideans pressed by Philip resolved vpon the verie same but being prevented the King whose heart yerned and abhorred to see the fond-rash precipitation of such an execution having first seized-vpon and saved the treasure and moveables which they had diversly condemned to the flames and vtter spoyle retiring all the Souldiers granting them the full space of three daies to make themselves away that so they might do it with more order and leasure which three daies they replenished with blood and murther beyond all hostile crueltie And which is strange there was no one person saved that had power vpon himselfe There are infinite examples of such-like popular conclusions which seeme more violent by how much more the effect of them is more vniversall They are lesse then severall what discourse would not doe in every one it doth in all The vehemence of societie ravishing particular judgements Such as were condemned to die in the time of Tiberius and delaide their execution any while lost their goods and could not be buried but such as prevented the same in killing themselves were solemnly enterred might at their pleasure bequeath such goods as they had to whom they list But a man doth also sometimes desire death in hope of a greater good I desire saith Saint Paul to be out of this world that I may be with Iesus Christ and who shall release me out of these bonds Cleombrotus Ambraciota having read Platoes Phaedon was so possessed with a desire and longing for an after-life that without other occasion or more adoe he went and headlong cast himselfe into the sea Whereby it appeareth how improperly we call this voluntarie dissolution dispaire vnto which the violence of hope doth often transport-vs and as often a peacefull setled inclination of judgement Iaques du Castell Bishop of Soissons in the voyage which Saint Lewes vndertooke beyond the Seas seeing the King all his Armie readie to returne into France and leave the affaires of Religion imperfect resolved with himself rather to go to heaven And having bidden his friends farewell in the open view of all men rushed alone into the enemies troops of whom he was forthwith hewen in pieces In a certaine kingdome of these late-discovered Indies vpon the day of a solemne procession in which the Idols they adore are publikely caried vp and downe vpon a chariot of exceeding greatnesse besides that there are many seen to cut and slice great mammocks of their quicke flesh to offer the said Idols there are numbers of others seen who prostrating themselves alongst vpon the ground endure verie patiently to be mouldred and crushed to death vnder the Chariots wheeles thinking thereby to purchase after their death a veneration of holinesse of which they are not defrauded The death of this Bishop armed as we have said argueth more generositie and lesse sence the heat of the combate ammusing one part of it Some common-wealths there are that have gone about to sway the justice and direct the opportunitie of voluntarie deaths In our Citie of Marseille they were wont in former ages ever to keep some poison in store prepared and compounded with hemlocke at the Cities charge for such as would vpon any occasion shorten their daies having first approved the reasons of their enterprise vnto the six hundred Elders of the Towne which was their Senate For otherwise it was vnlawfull for any bodie except by the Magistrates permission and for verie lawfully-vrgent occasions to lay violent hands vpon himselfe The verie same law was likewise vsed in other places Sextus Pompeius going into Asia passed through the Iland of Cea belonging to Negropont it fortuned whilst he abode there
of so many things brought ever vnto Varro and to Aristotle Did it ever exempt or could it at any time free them from humane inconveniences Were they ever discharged of those accidents that incidently follow a seelie labouring man Could they ever draw any ease for the gout from Logike And howbeit they knew the humour engendring the same to lodge in the joints have they felt-it the lesse Did they at any time make a covenant with death although they knew full well that some nations rejoyce at her comming as also of Cuckoldship because they knew women to be common in some Countries But contrariwise having both held the first ranke in knowledge the one amongst the Romanes the other among the Graecians yea and at such times wherein sciences flourished most we could never learne they had any speciall excellencie in their life Wee see the Graecian hath been put to his plunges in seeking to discharge himselfe from some notable imputations in his life Was it ever found that sensualitie and health are more pleasing vnto him that vnderstands Astrologie and Grammar â—lliterati num minus nervi rigent As stiffe vnlearned sinnewes stand As theirs that much more vnderstand or shame and povertie lesse importunate and vexing Scilicet morbis debilitate carebis Et luctum curam effugies tempora vita Longatibi posthaec fatomeliore dabuntur Thou shall be from disease and weaknesse free From moane from care long time of life to thee Shall by more friendly fate affoorded be I have in my daies seen a hundred Artificers and as many labourers more wise and more happie then some Rectors in the Vniversitie and whom I would rather resemble Me thinks Learning hath a place amongest things necessarie for mans life as glorie noblenesse dignitie or at most as riches and such other qualities which indeed stead the same but a far-off and more in conceipt than by Nature We have not much more need of offices of rules and lawes how to live in our common-wealth than the Cranes and Antes have in theirs Which notwithstanding we see how orderly and without instruction they maintaine themselves If man were wise he would value every thing according to it's worth and as it is either more profitable or more necessarie for life He that shall number vs by our actions and proceedings shall doubt lesse finde many more excellent-ones amongst the ignorant then among the wiser sort I meane in all kind of Vertues My opinion is that ancient Rome brought forth many men of much more valour and sufficiencie both for peace and warre then this late learned Rome which with all her wisedom hath overthrowne her erst-flourishing estate If all the rest were alike then should honestie and innocencie at least belong to the ancient for she was exceedingly well placed with simplicitie But I will shorten this discourse which happily would draw me further then I would willingly follow yet this much I will say more that onely humilitie and submission is able to make a perfect honest man Every one must not have the knowledge of his dutie referred to his own judgement but ought rather to have it prescribed vnto him and not be allowed to chuse it at his pleasure and free-will otherwise according to the imbecilitie of our reasons and infinite varietie of our opinions we might peradventure forge and devise such duties vnto our selves as would induce vs as Epicurus saith to endevour to destroy and devoure one another The first law that ever God gave vnto man was a Law of pure obedience It was a bare simple commandement whereof man should enquire and know no further forasmuch as to obey is the proper dutie of a reasonable soule acknowledging a heavenly and superiour benefactor From obeying and yeelding vnto him proceed all other vertues even as all sinnes derive from selfe-over-weening Contrariwise the first temptation that ever seized on humane Nature was disobedience by the Divels instigation whose first poison so far insinuated it selfe into vs by reason of the promises he made vs of wisedome and knowledge Eritis sicut Dij scientes bonum malum You shall be like Gods knowing both good and evill And the Syrens to deceive Vlysses and alluring him to fall into their daungerous confounding snares offer to give him the full fruition of Knowledge The opinion of Wisdome is the plague of man That is the occasion why ignorance is by our Religion recommended vnto vs as an instrument fitting beleefe and obedience Cavete ne quis vos decipiat per Philosophiam inanes seductiones secundum elementa mundi Take heed lest any man deceive you by Philosophie and vaine seducements according to the rudiments of the world All the Philosophers of all the sects that everwere do generally agree in this point that the chiefest felicitie or summum bonum consisteth in the peace and tranquilitie of the soule and bodie but where shall we finde-it Ad summum sapiens vno minor est love dives Liber honoratus pulcher Rex denique Regum Praecipuè sanus nisi cùm pituita molesta est In summe who wise is knowne Is lesse then Iove alone Rich honorable free faire King of Kings Chiefely in health but when fleagme trouble brings It seemeth verily that Nature for the comfort of our miserable and wretched condition hath allotted vs no other portion but presumption It is therefore as Epictetus saith that man hath nothing that is properly his owne but the vse of his opinions Our hereditarie portion is nothing but smoke and winde The Gods as saith Philosophie have health in true essence and sicknesse in conceipt Man cleane contrarie possesseth goods in imagination and evils essentially We have had reason to make the powers of our imagination to be of force For all our felicities are but in conceipt and as it were in a dreame Heare but this poore and miserable creature vaunt himselfe There is nothing saith Cicero so delightfull and pleasant as the knowledge of Letters of Letters I say by whose meanes the infinitie of things the incomprehensible greatnesse of nature the heavens the earth and all the Seas of this vast vniverse are made knowne vnto vs. They have taught vs Religion moderation stowtnesse of courage and redeemed our soule out of darknesse to make her see and distinguish of all things the high aswell as the lowe the first as the last and those betweene both It is they that store and supplie vs with all such things as may make vs live happily and well and instruct vs how to passe our time without sorrow or offence Seemeth not this goodly Orator to speake of the Almighties and everliving Gods condition And touching effects a thousand poore seelie women in a countrie towne have lived and live a life much more reposed more peaceable and more constant then ever he did Deus ille fuit Deus inclyte Memmi Qui princeps vitae rationem invenit eam qua Nunc appellatur
and perfect life some without sight and some without hearing who knoweth whether we also want either one two three or many senses more For if we want any one our discourse cannot discover the want or defect thereof It is the senses priviledge to be the extreame bounds of our perceiving There is nothing beyond them that may stead vs to discover them No one sense can discover another An poterunt oculos aures reprehendere an aures Tactus an hunc porro tactum sapor arguet oris An confutabunt nares oculive revincent Can eares the eyes or can touch reprehend The eares or shall mouths-taste that touch amend Shall our nose it confute Or eyes gainst it dispute They all make the extreamest line of our facultie scorsum cuique potestas Divisa est sua vis cuique est To each distinctly might Is shar'de each hath it's right It is impossible to make a man naturally blind to conceive that he seeth not impossible to make him desire to see and sorrow his defect Therefore ought we not to take assurance that our minde is contented and satisfied with those we have seeing it hath not wherewith to feel hir owne maladie and perceive hir imperfection if it be in any It is impossible to tell that blinde man any thing either by discourse argument or similitude that lodgeth any apprehension of light collour or sight in his imagination There is nothing more backward that may push the senses to any evidence The blind-borne which we perceive desire to see it is not to vnderstand what they require they have learn't of vs that something they want and something they desire that is in vs with the effect consequences thereof which they call good Yet wâ—t not they what it is nor apprehend they it neere or far I have seene a Gentleman of a good house borne blinde at least blinde in such an age that he knowes not what sight is he vnderstandeth so little what he wanteth that as we doe he vseth words fitting sight and applieth them after a manner onely proper and peculiar to himselfe A child being brought before him to whom he was god-father taking him in his armes he said good Lord what a fine child this is â—it is a goodly thing to see him What a cheerefull countenance he hath how prettily he looketh Hee will say as one of vs. This hall hath a faire prospect It is very faire weather The Sunne shines cleare Nay which is more because hunting hawking tennis-play and shuting at buts are our common sportes and exercises for so he hath heard his minde will be so affected vnto them and he wil so busie himselfe about them that hee will thinke to have as great an interest in them as any of vs and shew himselfe as earnestly passionate both in liking and disliking them as any else yet doth he conceive and receive them but by hearing If he be in a faire champian ground where he may ride they will tell him yonder is a Hare started or the Hare is killed he is as busily earnest of his game as he heareth others to be that have perfect sight Give him a ball he takes it in the left hand and with the right streekes it away with his racket In a piece he shutes at randome and is well pleased with what his men tell him be it high or wide Who knowes whether man-kind commit as great a folly for want of some sense and that by this default the greater part of the visage of things be concealed from vs Who knowes whether the difficulties we find in sundrie of Natures workes proceede thence And whether diuers effects of beasts which exceede our capacitie are produced by the facultie of some sense that we want And whether some of them have by that meane a fuller and more perfect life then ours We seize on an apple wel-nigh with all our senses We finde rednes smoothnes odor and sweetnes in it besides which it may have other vertues either drying or binding to which we have no sense to be referred The proprieties which in many things we call secret as in the Adamant to drawe yron it is not likely there should be sensitiue faculties in nature able to judge and perceive them the want whereof breedeth in vs the ignorance of the true essence of such things It is happily some particular sense that vnto Cockes or Chanticleares discovereth the morning and midnight houre and mooveth them to crow That teacheth a Hen before any vse or experience to feare a Hawke and not a Goose or a Peacocke farre greater birds That warneth yong chickins of the hostile qualitie which the Cat hath against them and not to distrust a Dog to strut and arme themselves against the mewing of the one in some sort a flattering and milde voyce and not against the barking of the other a snarling quarrelous voice that instructeth Rats Wasps and Emmets ever to chuse the best cheese and frute having never tasted them before And that addresseth the Stag the Elephant and the Serpent to the knowledge of certaine herbs and simples which being either wounded or sicke have the vertue to cure them There is no sence but hath some great domination and which by his meane affordeth not an infinite number of knowledges If we were to report the intelligence of soundes of harmony and of the voyce it would bring an imaginable confusion to all the rest of our learning and science For besides what is tyed to the proper effect of every sense how many arguments consequences and conclusions draw we vnto other things by comparing one sense to another Let a skilfull wise man but imagine humane nature to be originally produced without sight and discourse how much ignorance and trouble such a defect would bring vnto him and what obscurity and blindnesse in our minde By that shall wee perceiue how much the privation of one or two or three such senses if there be any in vs doth import vs about the knowledge of truth We have by the consultation concurrence of our five senses formed one Verity whereas peradventure there was required the accord consent of eight or ten senses and their contribution to attaine a perspicuous insight of her and see her in her true essence Those Sects which combate mans science do principally combate the same by the vncetainety and feeblenesse of our sences For since by their meane and intermission al knowledge comes vnto vs if they chaunce to misse in the report they make vnto vs if eyther they corrupt or alter that which from abroade they bring vnto vs if the light which by them is transported into our soule bee obscured in the passage wee have nothing else to holde by From this extreame difficultie are sprung all these fantazies which everie Subject containeth whatsoever wee finde in it That it hath not what wee suppose to finde in it And that of the Epicurians which is that the Sunne is
saevitiae pereuntis parcere morti And we have seeene when all the body tortur'd lay Yet no stroke deadly giv'n and that in humane way Of tyranny to spare his death that sought to die Verely it is not so great a matter being in perfect health and well setled in minde for one to resolve to kill himselfe It is an easie thing to shew stoutnes and play the wag before one come to the pinch So that Heliogabalus the most dissoluteman of the world amidst his most riotous sensualities intended whensoever occasion should force him to it to have a daintie death Which that it might not degenerate from the rest of his life hee had purposely caused a stately tewre to be built the nether part and fore-court wherof was floored with boardes richly set and enchased with gold and precious stones from-off which hee might headlong throwe himselfe downe He had also caused cordes to be made of gold and crimson silke therewith to strangle himselfe And a rich golden rapier to thrust himselfe through And kept poison in boxes of Emeraldes and Topases to poison himselfe with according to the humor hee might have to chuse which of these deaths should please him Impiger fortis virtute coactâ A ready minded gallant And in forst valour valiant Notwithstanding touching this man the wantonnesse of his preparation makes it more likely that he would have fainted had he beene put to his triall But even of those who most vndantedly have resolved themselves to the execution we must consider I say whether it were with a life ending stroke and that tooke away any leasure to feele the effect thereof For it is hard to gesse seeing life droope away by little and little the bodies-feeling entermingling it selfe with the soules meanes of repentance being offered whether in so dangerous an intent constancie or obstinacie were found in him In Caesars civill warres Lucius domitius taken in prussia having empoisoned himselfe did afterward rue and repent his deede It hath hapned in our daies that some having resolved to die and at first not stricken deepe enough the smarting of his flesh thrusting his arme backe twice or thrice more wounded himselfe a new and yet could never strike sufficiently deepe Whilst the arraignement of Plantius Silvanus was preparing Vrgulaniae his grandmother sent him a poignard wherewith not able to kill himselfe throughly hee caused his owne servants to cutte his veines Albucilla in Tiberius time purposing to kill hirselfe but striking over faintly gave hir enemies leasure to apprehend and imprison hir and appoint hir what death they pleased So did Captaine Demosthenes after his discomfiture in Sicilie And C. Fimbria having over feeblie wounded himselfe became a sutor to his boy to make an end of him On the other side Ostorius who forsomuch as hee could not vse his owne arme disdained to employ his servants in any other thing but to hold his dagger stiffe and strongly and taking his running himselfe caried his throate to it's point and so was thrust through To say truth it is a meate a man must swallow without chewing vnlesse his throate be frostshod And therefore Adrianus the Emperour made his Phiâ—â—tian to marke and take the just compasse of the mortall place about his pap that so his aime might not faile him to whom he had given charge to kill him Loe why Caesar being demanded which was the death he most allowed answered the least premeditated and the shortest If Caesar said it it is no faintnesse in me to beleeve it A short death saith Plinie is the chiefe happe of humane life It grie veth them to acknowledge it No man can be saide to be resolved to die that feareth to purchase it and that cannot abide to looke vpon and out-stare it with open eyes Those which in times of execution are seene to runne to their end and hasten the execution doe it not with resolution but because they will take away time to consider the same it grieves them not to be dead but to die Emori nolo sed me esse mortuum nihil aestimo I would not die too soone But care not when t is doone It is a degree of constancie vnto which I have experienced to arrive as those that cast themselves into danger or into the Sea with closed eyes In mine opinion there is nothing more worthy the noting in Socrates life then to have had thirtie whole dayes to ruminate his deaths-decree to have digested it all that while with an assured hope without dismay or alteration and with a course of actions and words rather supprest and loose-hanging then out-stretched and raised by the weight of such a cogitation That Pomponius Atticus to whome Cicero writeth being sicke caused Agrippa his sonne in lawe and two or three of his other friends to be called for to whom he said that having assaied how he got nothing in going about to be cured and what he did to prolong his life did also lengthen and augment his griefe he was now determined to make an end of one and other intreating them to allow of his determination and that by no meanes they would loose their labour to disswade him from it And having chosen to end his life by abstinence his sickenes was cured by accident The remedy he had employed to make himselfe away brought him to health againe The Physitions and his friendes glad of so happy a successe and rejoycing thereof with him were in the end greatly deceived for with all they could doe they were never able to make him alter his former opinion saying that as he must one day passe that cariere and being now so forward he would remoove the care another time to beginne againe This man having with great leasure apprehended death is not onely no whit discouraged when hee comes to front it but resolutely falles vpon it for being satisfied of that for which he was entred the combate in a braverie he thrust himselfe into it to see the end of it It is farre from fearing death to goe about to taste and savour the same The historie of Cleanthes the philosopher is much like to this His gummes being swolne his Physitions perswaded him to vse great abstinence having fasted two dayes he was so well amended as they told him he was well and might returne to his wonted course of life He contrarily having already tasted some sweetenes in this fainting resolveth not to draw backe but finish what he had so well begunne and was so farre waded into Tullius Marcellinus a yoong Romane Gentleman willing to prevent the houre of his destiny to ridde himselfe of a disease which tormented him more than he would endure although Physitions promised certainely to cure him howbeit not sodainely called his friends vnto him to determine about it some saieth Seneca gave him that counsell which for weakenesse of heart themselves would have taken others for flatterie that which they imagined would be most pleasing vnto him but a
to ingenuitie and ever to speake truth and what I thinke both by complexion and by intention leaving the successe thereof vnto fortune Aristippus said that the chiefest commoditie her reaped by Philosophie was that he spake freely and sincerely to all men Memory is an instrument of great service and without which judgement will hardly discharge his duty whereof I have great want What a man will propose vnto me he must doe it by peece-meales For to answer to a discourse that hath many heads lieth not in my power I cannot receive a charge except I have my writing tables about me and if I must remember a discourse of any consequence be it of any length I am driven to this vile and miserable necessitie to learne every word I must speake by rote otherwise I should never doe it well or assuredly for feare my memory should in my greatest need faile me which is very hard vnto me for I must have three houres to learne three verses Moreover in any long discourse the libertie or authoritie to remoove the order to change a word vncessantly altering the matter makes it more difficult to bee confirmed in the authors memory And the more I distrust it the more it troubleth me It serveth me better by chance and I must carelesly sollicite her for if I vrge her she is astonished and if it once beginne to waver the more I sound her the more entangled and intricate shee proveth She will wait vpon me when she list not when I please And what I feele in my memorie I feele in many other parts of mine I eschew commandement duty and compulsion What I doe easily and naturally if I resolve to doe it by expresse and prescribed appointment I can then doe it no more Even in my body those parts that have some liberty and more particular jurisdiction doe sometimes refuse to obey me if at any time I appoint and enjoine them to doe me some necessary services This forced and tyrannicall preordinance doth reject them and they either for spight or feare shrinke and are quailed Being once in a place where it is reputed a barbarous discourtesie not to pledge those that drinke to you where although I were vsed with all liberty in favour of certaine Ladies that were in companie according to the fashion of the countrey I would needs play the good fellow But it made vs all mery for the threats and preparation that I should force my selfe beyond my naturall custome did in such sort stop and stuffe my throat that I was not able to swallow one drop and was barr'd of drinking all the repast I found my selfe glutted and full of drinke by the overmuch swilling that my imagination had fore-conceived This effect is more apparant in those whose imagination is more vehement and strong yet it is naturall and there is no man but shall sometimes have a feeling of it An excellent Archer being condemned to death was offered to have his life saved if he would but shew any notable triall of his profession refused to make proofe of it fearing lest the contention of his will should make him to misse-direct his hand and that in lieu of saving his life hee might also lose the reputation he had gotten in shooting in a bow A man whose thoughts are busie about other matters shall very neere within an inch keepe and alwaies hit one selfe same number and measure of paces in a place where he walketh but if heedily hee endevour to measure and count them he shall finde that what he did by nature and chance he cannot doe it so exactly by desseigne My Library which for a countrey Library may passe for a very faire one is seated in a corner of my house if any thing come into my minde that either I must goe seeke or write in it for feare I should forget it in crossing of my Court I must desire some other body to remember the same for me If speaking I embolden my selfe never so little to digresse from my Discourse I doe ever loose it which makes mee to keepe my selfe in my speech forced neere and close Those that serve me I must ever call them either by their office or countrey for I finde it very hard to remember names Well may I say it hath three sillables that it's sound is harsh or that it beginneth or endeth with such a letter And should I live long I doubt not but I might forget mine own name as some others have done heretofore Messala Corvinus lived two yeeres without any memory at all which is also reported of George Trapezoncius And for mine owne interest I doe often ruminate what manner of life theirs was and whether wanting that part I shall have sufficient to maintaine myselfe in any good sort which looking neere vnto I feare that this defect if it be perfect shall loose all the functions of my soule Plenus rimarum sum hâc atque illâc perfluo I am so full of holes I can not holde I runne out ev'ry way when tales are tolde It hath often befallen me to forget the word which but three houres before I had either given or received of another and to forget where I had layed my purse let Cicero say what he list I helpe my selfe to loose what I perticularly locke vp Memoria certè non modè Philosophiam sed omnis vitae vsum omnésque artes vna maximè continet Assuredly memorie alone of all other things compriseth not onely Philosophy but the vse of our whole life and all the sciences Memorie is the receptacle and case of knowledge Mine being so weake I have no great cause to complaine if I know but little I know the names of Artes in Generall and what they treate of but nothing further I turne and tosse over bookes but do not studie them what of them remaines in me is a thing which I no longer acknowledge to be any bodies else Onely by that hath my judgement profited and the discourses and imaginations wherewith it is instructed and trained vp The Authours the place the words and other circumstances I sodainely forget and am so excellent in forgetting that as much as any thing else I forget mine owne writings and compositions Yea mine owne sayings are every hand-while alleaged against my selfe when God wot I perceive it not He that would know of me whence or from whom the verses or examples which here I have hudled vp are taken should greatly put me to my shifts I could hardly tell it him Yet have I not begged them but at famous and very well knowen gates which though they were rich in themselves did never please me vnlesse they also came from rich and honourable hands and that authority concurre with reason It is no great marvell if my booke follow the fortune of other bookes and my memory forgoe or forget as well what I write as what I reade and what I give as well as what I receive Besides the defect of
to like purpose And Kings ought often to be put in minde of it to make them feele that this great charge which is given them of the commandement over so many men is no idle charge and that there is nothing may so justly distaste a subject from purting himselfe in paine and danger for the service of his Prince then therewhilst to see him given to lazinesse to base and vaine occupations and to have care of his conservation seeing him so carelesse of ours If any shall goe about to maintaine that it is better for a Prince to manage his warres by others then by himselfe Fortune will store him with sufficient examples of those whose Lieutenants have atchieved great enterprises and also of some whose presence would have beene more hurtfull then profitable But no vertuous and coragious Prince will endure to be entertained with so shamefull instructions Vnder colour of preserving his head as the statue of a saint for the good fortune of his estate they degrade him of his office which is altogether in military actions and declare him vncapable of it I know one would rather chuse to be beaten then sleepe whilst others fight for him and who without jelousie never saw his men performe any notable act in his absence And Selim the first had reason to say that he thought victories gotten in the masters absence not to be compleate So much more willingly would he have said that such a master ought to blush for shame who onely by his name should pretend any share in it having therevnto employed nothing but his thought and verbal direction Nor that since in such a busines the advises and commandements which bring honor are only those given in the field and even in the action No Pilote exerciseth his office standing stil The princes of Otomans race the chefest race in the world in warlike fortune have earnestly embraced this opinion And Baiazeth the second with his sonne who ammusing themselves about Sciences and other private home-matters neglected the same gave diverse prejudiciall blowes vnto their Empire And Amurath the third of that name who now raigneth following their example beginneth very well to feele their fortune Was it not the King of England Edward the third who spake these words of our King Charles the fifth There was never King that lesse armed himselfe and yet was never King that gave me so much to doe and put me to so many plunges He had reason to thinke it strange as an effect of fortune rather then of reason And let such as will number the Kings of Castile and Portugall amongst the warlike and magnanimous conquerors seeke for some other adherent then my selfe forsomuch as twelve hundred leagues from their idle residence they have made themselves masters of both Indias onely by the conduct and direction of their factors of whom it would be knowne whether they durst but goe and enjoy them in person The Emperor Iuhan said moreover that a Philosopher and gallant minded man ought not so much as breath that is to say not to give corporall necessities but what may not be refused them ever holding both minde and body busied about notable great and vertuous matters He was ashamed any man should see him spitte or sweat before people which is also said of the Lacedemonian youths and Xenphon reporeth it of the Persian forasmuch as he thought that continuall travel exercise and sobriety should have concocted and dried vp all such superfluities What Seneca saith shall not impertinently be alleaged here That the ancient Romanes kept their youth vpright and taught their children nothing that was to be learned sitting It is a generous desire to endevor to die both profitable and manlike But the effect consisteth not so much in our good resolution as in our good fortune A thousand have resolved to vanquish or to die fighting which have missed both the one and other Hurts or emprisonment crossing their desseigne and yeelding them a forced kinde of life There are diseases which vanquish our desires and knowledge Fortune should not have seconded the vanitie of the Romane Legions who by othe bound themselves either to die or conquer Victor Marce Fabi revertar ex acie Si fallo lovem patrem Gradiuumque Martem alâ—osque iratos inveco Deos. I will O Marcus Fabius returne conqueror from the armie If in this I deceive you I wish both great Iupiter and Mars and the other Gods offended with me The Portugalles report that in certaine places of their Indian conquests they found some Souldiers who with horrible execrations had damned themselves never to enter into any composition but either they would be killed or remaine victorious and in signe of their voweâ—ore their heads and beards shaven We may hazard and obstinate our selves long enough It seemeth that blowes shunne them who over-joyfully present themselves vnto them and vnwillingly reach those that overwillingly goe to meete them and corrupt their end Some vnable to loose his life by his adversaries force having assaied all possible meanes hath beene enforced to accomplish his resolution either to beare away the honor or not to carie away his life and even in the fury of the fight to put himselfe to death There are sundrie examples of it but nete this one Philistus chiefe Generall of yong Dionisius his navie against the Siracusans presented them the battle which was very sharply withstood their forces being alike wherein by reason of his prowesse he had the better in the beginning But the Siracusans flocking thicke and threefold about his gally to grapple and board him having performed many worthie exploytes with his owne person to riddâ— himselfe from them disparing of all escape with his owne hand deprived himselfe of that life which so lavishly and in vaine he had abandoned to his enemies hands Moleâ— Moluch King of Fez who not long since obtained that famous victorie against Sebastian King of Portugall a notable victorie by reason of the death of three Kings and transmission of so great a Kingdome to the crowne of Castile chansed to be grievously sicke at what time the Portugales with armed hand entred his dominions and afterward though hee foresaw it approching nearer vnto death empaired worse and worse Never did man more stoutly or more vigorously make vse of an vndanted courage than he He found himselfe very weake to endure the ceremonious pompe which the Kings of that Country at their entrance into he Camp are presented withall which according to their fashion is full of all magnificence and state and charged with all maner of action and therefore he resigned that honour to his brother yet resigned he nothing but the office of the chiefe Captaine Himselfe most gloriously executed and most exactly perfourmed all other necessarie duties and profitable Offices Holding his body laid along his cowch but his minde vpright and courage constant even to his last gaspe and in some sort after He might have vndermined his enemies who were fond-hardily
and the onely payment neuer faileth vs. To ground the recompence of vertuous actions vpon the approbation of others is to vndertake a most vncertaine or troubled foundation namely in an age so corrupt and times so ignorant as this is the vulgar peoples good opinion is iniurious Whom trust you in seeing what is commendable God keepe mee from beeing an honest man according to the description I dayly see made of honour each one by himselfe Quae fuerant vitia mores sunt What earst were vices are now growne fashious Some of my friendes have sometimes attempted to schoole me roundly and sift mee plainely either of their owne motion or envited by me as to an office which to a well composed minde both in profit and lovingnesse exceedeth all the duties of sincere amity Such have I euer entertained with open armes of curtesie and kinde acknowledgement But now to speake from my conscience I often found so much false measure in their reproches and praises that I had not greatly erred if I had rather erred then done well after their fashion Such as wee especially who live a private life not exposed to any gaze but our owne ought in our hartes establish a touchstone and thereto touch our deedes and try our actions and accordingly now cherish and now chastise our selues I haue my owne lawes and tribunall to iudge of mee whether I adresse my selfe more then any where els I restraine my actions according to other but extend them according to my selfe None but your self knowes rightly whether you be demisse and cruel or loyall and deuout Others see you not but ghesse you by vncertaine coniectures They see not so much your nature as your arte Adhere not then to their opinion but hold vnto your owne Tuo tibi iudicio est vtendum Virtutis viciorum graue ipsius conscientiae pondus est qua sublata iacent omnia You must vse your owne iudgement The weight of the very conscience of vice and vertues is heauy take that away and all is downe But where as it is said that repentance nearely followeth sinne seemeth not to emplye sinne placed in his rich aray which lodgeth in vs as in his proper mansion One may disavowe and disclaime vices that surprise vs and whereto our passions transport vs but those which by long habite are rooted in a strong and ankred in a powerfull will are not subiect to contradiction Repentance is but a denying of our will and an opposition of our fantasies which diuerts vs here and there It makes some disauow his former vertue and continencie Quae mens est hodie cur eadem non puero fuit Vel cur his animis incolumes non redeunt genae Why was not in a youth same minde as now Or why beares not this minde a youthfull brow That is an exquisite life which euen in his owne priuate keepeth it selfe in awe and order Euery one may play the jugler and represent an honest man vpon the stage but within and in bosome where all thinges are lawfull where all is concealed to keepe a due rule or formall decorum that 's the point The next degree is to bee so in ones owne home and in his ordinary actions whereof we are to giue accoumpt to no body wherin is no study nor arte And therefore Bias describing the perfect state of a family whereof saith hee the maister be such inwardly by himselfe as hee is outwardly for feare of the lawes and respect of mens speaches And it was a worthy saying of Iulius Drusus to those worke-men which for three thousande crownes offered so to reforme his house that his neighbours should no more ouer looke into it I will giue you sixe thousand said hee and contriue it so that on all sides euery man may looke into it The custome of Agesilaus is remembred with honour who in his trauaile was wont to take vp his lodging in churches that the people and Gods themselues might pry into his priuate actions Some haue beene admirable to the world in whom nor his wife nor his seruant euer noted any thing remarkeable Few men haue beene admired of their familiars No man hath beene a Prophet not onely in his house but in his owne country saith the experience of histories Euen so in things of nought And in this base example is the image of greatnesse discerned In my climate of Gascoigne they deeme it a iest to see mee in print The further the knowledge which is taken of mee is from my home of so much more woorth am I. In Guienne I pay Printers in other places they pay mee Vpon this accident they ground who liuing and present keepe close-lurking to purchase credit when they shall be dead and absent I had rather haue lesse And I cast not my selfe into the world but for the portion I draw from it That done I quit it The people attend on such a man with wonderment from a publike act vnto his owne doores together with his roabes hee leaues-of his part falling so much the lower by how much higher hee was mounted View him within thereall is turbulent disordered and vile And were order and formality found in him a liuely impartiall and well sorted iudgement is required to perceiue and fully to discerne him in these base and priuate actions Considering that order is but a dumpish and drowsie vertue To gaine a Battaile perfourme an Ambassage and gouerne a people are noble and woorthy actions to chide laugh sell pay loue hate and mildely and iustly to conuerse both with his owne and with himselfe not to relent and not gaine-say himselfe are thinges more rare more difficult and lesse remarkeable Retired liues sustaine that way what euer som say offices as much more crabbed and extended then other liues doe And priuate men saith Aristotle serue vertue more hardly and more highly attend her then those which are magistrates or placed in authority Wee prepare our selues vnto eminent occasions more for glory then for conscience The nearest way to come vnto glory were to doe that for conscience which wee doe for glory And me seemeth the vertue of Alexander representeth much lesse vigor in her large Theater then that of Socrates in his base and obscure excercitation I easily conceiue Socrates in the roome of Alexander Alexander in that of Socrates I cannot If any aske the one what hee can doe hee will answere Conquer the world let the same question bee demaunded of the other he will say leade my life conformably to it 's naturall condition A science much more generous more important and more lawfull The woorth of the minde consisteth not in going high but in marching orderly Her greatnesse is not excercised in greatnesse in mediocritye it is As those which iudge and touch vs inwardely make no great accoumpt of the brightnesse of our publique actions and see they are but streakes and poyntes of cleare Water surging from a bottome otherwise slimie and full of mud So
mee I have a thousand times gone to bedde in mine house imagining I should the very same night either have beene betrayed or slaine in my bedde compounding and conditioning with fortune that it might be without apprehension of fearefull astonishment and languishment And after my praiers have cried out Impius haec tam culta novalia miles habebit Shall these our grounds so deckt and drest By godlesse souldiers be possest What remedie It is the place where my selfe and most of my ancestors were borne therein have they placed their affection and their name Wee harden our selves vnto whatsoever we accustome our selves And to a wretched condition as ours is custome hath beene a most favourable present given vs by nature which enureth and lulleth our sense asleepe to the suffring of divers evils Civill warres have this one thing worse then other warres to cause every one of vs to make a watch-tower of his owne house Quà m miserum porta vitam muroque tueri Vixque suae tutum viribus esse domus How hard with gate and wall our life to gard And scarce be safe in our owne houses bard It is an irkesome extremitie for one to be troubled and pressed even in his owne houshold and domesticall rest The place wherein I dwell is ever both the first and last to the batterie of our troubles and where peace is never absolutely discerned Tum quoque cùm pax est trepidant formidine belli Ev'n when in peace they are They quake for feare of warre quoties pacem fortuna lacessit Hac iter est bellis melius fortuna dedisses Orbe sub Eoo sedem gelidaque sub Arcto Errantesque domos As oft as fortune troubleth peace their race Warres makes this way fortune with better grace In th'Easterne world thou shouldst have giv'n them place Or wandring tents for warre vnder the cold North-starre I sometimes draw the meanes to strengthen my selfe against these considerations from carelesnesse and idlenesse which also in some sort bring vs vnto resolution It often befulleth me with some pleasure to imagine what mortall dangers are and to expect them I do even hood-winkt with my head in my bosome and with stupiditie plunge my selfe into death without considering or knowing it as into a deepe hollow and bottomlesse abysse which at one leape doth swallow me vp and at an instant doth cast me into an eternall slumber full of insipiditie and indolencie And in these short sudden or violent deaths the consequence I fore-see of them affoords me more comfort then the effect of feare They say that even an life is not the best because it is long so death is the best because it is short I estrange not my selfe so much by being dead as I enter into confidence with dying I enwrap and shrowd my selfe in that storme which shall blinde and furioosly wrap me with a ready and insensible charge Vea if it hapned as some gardners say that those Roses and Violets are ever the sweeter and more odoriferous that grow neere vnto Garlike and Onions forsomuch as they sucke and draw all the ill savours of the ground vnto them so that these depraved natures would draw and sucke all the venome of mine aire and infection of my climate and by their neerenesse vnto me make me so much the better and purer that I might not lose all That is not but of this something may be forsomuch as goodnesse is the fairer and more attracting when it is rare and that contrarietie stifneth and diversitie encloseth well-doing in it selfe and by the jealousie of opposition and glory it doth inflame it Theeves and stealers godamercie their kindnesse have in particular nothing to say to mee no more have I to them I should then have to do with over-many sorts of men Alike consciences lurke vnder diverâ— kinds of garments Alike crueltie disloialtie and stealing And so much the worse by how much it is more base more safe and more secret vnder the colour of lawes I hate lesse an open-professed iniurie then a deceiving traitrous wrong an hostile and war-like then a peacefull and lawfull Our feaver hath seased vpon a body which it hath not much empaired The fire was in it but now the flame hath taken hold of it The report is greater the hurt but little I ordinarily answer such as demand reasons for my voiages That I know what I shunne but wâ—t not what I seeke If one tell mee there may bee as little sound health amongst strangers and that their manners are neither better nor purer then ours I answer first that it is very hard Tam multa scelerum facies The formes so manifold Of wickednesse we hold Secondly that it is ever a gaine to change a bad estate for an vncertaine And that others evils should not touch vs so neare as ours I will not forget this that I can never mutinie so much against France but I must needs looke on Paris with a favourable eye It hath my hart from my infancy whereof it hath befalne me as of excellent things the more other faire and stately citties I have seene since the more hir beauty hath power and doth still vsurpingly gaine vpon my affection I love that Cittie for hir owne sake and more in hir onely subsisting and owne being then when it is full-fraught and embellished with forraine pompe and borrowed garish ornaments I love hir so tenderly that even hir spots hir blemishes and hir warts are deare vnto me I am no perfect French-men but by this great-matchlesse Cittie great in people great in regard of the felicitie of hir situation but above all great and incomparable in varietie and diversitie of commodities The glory of France and one of the noblest and chiefe ornaments of the world God of his mercy free hir and chase away all our divisions from hir Being entirely vnited to hir selfe I finde hir defended from all other violence I forewarne hir that of all factions that shall bee the worst which shall breed discord and sedition in hir And for hir sake I onely feare hir selfe And surely I am in as great feare for hir as for any other part of our state So long as she shall continue so long shall I never want a home or retreat to retire and shrowd my selfe at all times a thing able to make me for get the regret of all other retreates Not because Socrates hath said it but because such is in truth my humour and peradventure not without some excuse to esteeme all men as my country-men and as I kindly embrace a Polonian as a Frenchman postposing this naturall bond to vniversall and common I am not greatly strucken with the pleasantnesse of naturall aire Acquaintances altogether new and wholly mine doe in my conceit countervaile the woorth of all other vulgar and casuall acquaintances of our neighbours Friendships meerely acquired by our selves doe ordinarily exceed those to which wee are joyned either by communication of Climate or affinity
frowning countenance nor regardeth the inconstancy of their will Who hatcheth not his children or huggeth not honours with a slavish propension nor leaves to live commodiously having once lost them Who doth good namely for his owne satisfaction nor is much vexed to see men censure of his actions against his merite A quarter of an ownce of patience provideth for such inconveniences I finde ease in this receit redeeming my selfe in the beginning as good cheape as I can By which meanes I perceive my selfe to have escaped much trouble and manifold difficulties With very little force I stay these first motions of my perturbations And I abandon the subject which beginnes to molest me and before it transport mee Hee that stops not the loose shall hardly stay the course He that cannot shut the dore against them shall never expell them being entred He that cannot attaine an end in the beginning shall not come to an end of the conclusion Nor shall hee endure the fall that could not endure the starts of it Etenim ipsae se impellunt vbi semel à ratione discessum est ipsáque sibi imbecillit as indulget in altumque provehitur imprudens nec reperit locum consistendi For they drive themselves headlong when once they are parted and past reason and weakenesse soothes it selfe and vnawares is carried into the deepe nor can it finde a place to tarry in I feele betimes the low windes which are forerunners of the storme buzze in mine eares and sound and trie mee within câ—â— flamina prima Cùm deprensa frâ—munt sylvis câ—ca volutant Murmura venturos nautis prodentia ventos As first blasts in the woods perceiv'd to goe Whistle and darkely speake in murmurs low Foretelling Marriners what windes will grow How often have I done my selfe an apparant injustice to avoide the danger I should fall into by receiving the same happily worse from the judges after a world of troubles and of foule and vile practises more enemies to my naturall disposition then fire or torment Convenit a litibus quantum licet nescso an paulo plus etiam quam licet abhorrentem esse Est enim non moâ—â— liberale paululum non nunquam de suo iure decedere sed interdum etiam fructuosum As much as wee may and it may be more then we may we should abhorre brabling and lawing for it is not onely an ingenious part but sometimes profitable also at sometimes to yeeld a little of our right If we were wise indeede wee should rejoyce and glory as I heard once a yonggentleman borne of a very great house very wittily and vnfainedly rejoyce with all men that his mother had lost her sute as if it had beene a cough an ague or any other yrksome burthen The fauours which fortune might have given mee as aliances and acquaintances with such as have Soveraigne authority in those things I have in my conscience done much instantly to evoide imploying them to others prejudice and not over-value my rights above their worth To conclude I have so much prevailed by my endevours in a good houre I may speake it that I am yet a virgin for any sutes in law which have notwithstanding not omitted gently to offer mee their service and vnder pretence of lawfull titles insinuate themselves into my allowance would I but have given eare vnto them And as a pure maiden from quarrels I have without important offence either passive or active lingred out a long life and never heard worse than mine owne name A rare grace of heaven Our greatest agitations have strange springs and ridiculous causes What ruine did our last Duke of Burgundie runne into for the quarrell of a cart-load of sheepes-skinnes And was not the graving of a seale the chiefe cause of the most horrible breach and topsie-turvy that ever this worlds-frame endured For Pompey and Casar are but the new buddings and continuation of two others And I have seene in my time the wisest heads of this realme assembled with great ceremonie and publike charge about treaties and agreements the true deciding wherof depended in the meane while absolutely and soveraignely of the will and consultations held in some Ladies pate or cabinet and of the inclination of some sillie woman Poets have most judiciously look't into this who but for an apple have set all Greece and Asia on fire and sword See why that man doth hazzard both his honor and life on the fortune of his rapier and dagger let him tell you whence the cause of that contention ariseth he can not without blushing so vaine and so frivolous is the occasion To embarke him there needes but little advisement but being once-in all parts doe worke Then are greater provisions required more difficult and important How farre more easie is it not to enter than to get forth We must proceed contrary to the brier which produceth a long and straight stalke at the first springing but after as tired and out of breath it makes many and thicke knots as if they were pawses shewing to have no more that vigor and constancie Wee should rather begin gently and leasurely and keepe our strength and breath for the perfection of the worke We direct affaires in the beginning and holde them at our mercie but being once vndertaken they guide and transport vs and we must follow them Yet may it not be sayd that this counsell hath freed me from all difficulties and that I have not beene often troubled to controle and bridle my passions which are not alwayes governed according to the measure of occasions whose entrances are often sharpe and violent So is it that thence may be reaped good fruit and profit Except for those who in well doing are not satisfied with any benefit if their reputation be in question For in truth such an effect is not compted of but by every one to himselfe You are thereby better satisfied but not more esteemed having reformed your selfe before you come into action or the matter was in sight yet not in this onely but in all other duties of life their course which aime at honour is diverse from that which they propound vnto themselves that follow order and reason I finde some that inconsiderately and furiously thrust themselves into the listes and growe slacke in the course As Plutarke saith that Such as by the vice of bashfulnesse are soft and tractable to graunt whatsoever is demaunded are afterward as prone and facile to recant and breake their word In like manner he that enters lightly into a quarrel is subject to leave it as lightly The same difficultie which keeps me from embracing the same should encite me being once mooved and therein engaged to continue resolute It is an ill custome Being once embarked one must either goe-on or sinke Attempt coldly sayed Byas but pursue hotly For want of judgement our harts faile vs Which is also lesse tolerable Most agreements of our moderne quarrels are shamefull and
formes I saw a miserable sicke man for the infinite desire he had to recover ready to burst yea and to die with thirst whom not long since another Physitian mocked vtterly condemning the others counsell as hurtfull for him Had not hee bestowed his labour well A man of that coate is lately dead of the stone who during the time of his sickenesse vsed extreame abstinence to withstand his evill his fellowes affirme that contrary his long fasting had withered and dried him vp and so concocted the gravell in his kidnies I have found that in my hurts and other sickenesses earnest talking distempers and hurts me as much as any disorder I commit My voice costs me deare and wearieth me for I have it lowd shrill and forced So that when I have had occasion to entertaine the eares of great men about weighty affaires I have often troubled them with care how to moderate my voice This story deserveth to bee remembred and to divert me A certaine man in one of the Greeke schooles spake very lowde as I doe the maister of the ceremonies sent him word hee should speake lower let him quoth he send mee the tune or key in which he would have me speake The other replied that hee should take his tune from his eares to whom he spake It was well sayd so hee vnderstood himselfe Speake according as you have to doe with your auditory For if one say let it suffice that he heareth you or governe your selfe by him I do not thinke he had reason to say so The tune or motion of the voyce hath some expression or signification of my meaning It is in me to direct the same that so I may the better represent my selfe There is a voyce to instruct one to flatter and another to chide I will not onely have my voyce come to him but peradventure to wound and pierce him When I brawle and rate my lackey with a sharpe and piercing tune were it fit he should come to me and say Master speake softly I vnderstand and heare you very well Est quaedam vox ad auditum accomodâ—ta non magnitudine sed proprietatâ— There is a kinde of voyce well applied to the hearing not by the greatnesse of it but by the propriâ—tie The word is halfe his that speakeh and halfe his that harkoneth vnto it The heaâ—er ought to prepare himselfe to the motion or bound it taketh As betweene those that play at tennis he who keepes the hazard doth prepare stand stirre and march according as he perceives him who stands at the house to looke stand remoove and strike the ball and according to the stroake Experience hath also taught mee this that wee lose our selves with impatience Evills have their life their limites their diseases and their health The constitution of diseases is framed by the patterne of the constitution of living creatures They have their fortune limited even at their birth and their dayes allotted them Hee that shall imperiously goe about or by compulsion contrary to their courses to abridge them doth lengthen and multiply them and instead of appealing doth harsell and wring them I am of Crantors opinion that a man must neither obstinately nor frantikely oppose himselfe against evills nor through demissenesse of courage faintingly yeeld vnto them but according to their condition and ours naturally incline to them A man must give sickenesses their passage And I finde that they stay least with mee because I allow them their swinge and let them doe what they list And contrary to common-received rules I have without ayde or arte râ—dde my selfe of some that are deemed the most obstinately lingring and vnremoovably-obstinate Let nature worke Let hir have hir will Shee knoweth what snee hath to doe and vnderstands hir selfe better then wee doe But such a one died of it will you say So shall you doubtlesse if not of that yet of some other disease And how many have wee seene die when they have had a whole Colledge of Physitians round about their bed and looking in their excrements Example is a bright looking-glasse vniversall and for all shapes to looke-into If it be a lushious or taste-pleasing potion take it hardly it is ever so much present ease So it be delicious and sweetely tasting I will never stand much vpon the name or colour of it Pleasure is one of the chiefest kindes of profite I have suffered rheumes gowty defluxions relaxions pantings of the heart megreimes and other such-like accidents to grow old in me and die their naturall death all which have left me when I halfe enured and framed my selfe to foster them They are better conjured by curtesie then by bragging or threats We must gently obey and endure the lawes of our condition We are subject to grow aged to become weake and to fall sicke in spight of all physicke It is the first lesson the Mexicans give their children When they come out of their mothers wombes they thus salute them My childe thou art come into the world to suffer Therefore suffer and hold thy peace It is injustice for one to grieve that any thing hath befallen to any one which may happen to all men Indignare si quid in te iniquè propriè constitutum est Then take it ill if any thing bee decreed vniustly against thee alone Looke on an aged man who sueth vnto God to maintaine him in perfect full an vigrous health that is to say he will be pleased to make him yong againe Stulte quid haec frustra votis puerilibus opt as Foole why dost thou in vaine desire With childish prayers thus t' aspire Is it not folly his condition will not beare it The gowt the stone the gravell and indigestion are symptomes or effects of long continued yeares as heates raines and windes are incident to long voyages Plato cannot beleeve that Aescuâ—apius troubled himselfe with good rules and diet to provide for the preservarion of life in a weake wasted and corrupted body being vnprofitable for his country inconvenient for his vocation vnfit to get sound and sturdy Children and deeme not that care inconvenient vnto divine justice and heavenly Wisedome which is to direct all things vnto profite My good sir the matter is at an end You cannot be recovered for the most you can be but tampered withall and somewhat vnder-propt and for some houres have your misery prolonged Non secus instantem cupiens fulcire ruinam Diversis contrà nititur obicibus Donec certa dies omni compage solutâ Ipsum cum rebus subruat auxilium So he that would an instant ruine stay With divers props strives it to vnderlay Till all the frame dissolvd a certaine day The props with th'edifice doth oversway A man must learne to endure that patiently which he cannot avoyde conveniently Our life is composed as is the harmony of the World of contrary things so of divers tunes some pleasant some harsh some sharpe some flat some low and some high What