remerity is unlimited The free putting a mans life into that mans hands whom he hath wronged is the greatest satisfaction that can be given 108 Temerity is an act without reason 108 There can be no eminent understanding without some parcell of folly 99 A great understanding causeth constancy a weake one obstinacy 145 He that is best if once he begin to be bad becomeâ— the worst 73 It is a great misfortune for a man to have worth and want repute and a far greater to have repute and want woâ—th 149 Peauty and eloquence are unprofitable weapons against wrath or fury 117 Youth should grieve at the defects of old age and old men laugh at the ignorance of youth 44 The Table of the chiefe heads discoursed upon in the Life of CORIOLANVS Coriolanus his defects attributed to want of education p 175 Whether education to Learning Sciences be good for all sorts of men p 176 Why the Romans honoured their Citizens for some brave acts with Oaken Crownes 182 All vices ought to be punished and all vertues rewarded 183 Impuniâ—â—e of offences is sometimes a reward p. 183 The vulgaâ—s reward is money a Noble mans honour 185 How rewards came to be altered 186 The same things are not in esâ—eeme every where 187 Nature desires that most which is most necessary 187 Riches the root of evill 188 Punishments changed by Tyrants 190 In what consists reputation 191 Who are fittest to command 193 Coriolanus rejoyced to have his mother heare of his worthy actions 194 Why anothers joy increases ours 195 Sannieticus King of Egypt 198 Coriolanus deâ—iring to bee chosen Consul by the people puts off his Senatoriall Robes 201 Why he did so 202 To judge of vertue truely wee must see it naked 204 Coriolanus termed proud and impatient and the cause of it 207 The vertue of choller in man 208 How humors in the body and passions in the mind may produce good effects 210 Wherein consists Patience 211 Women subject to impatience as well as men and the cause thereof 213 Why women being wrathfull are not valiant 214 How the common wealth of Rome might have made good use of Coriolanus his imperfections 216 Some defects are tolerable in young men and some vertues improper for them 218 Patience vertually containes all other vertues 222 A mans talents ought to bee imployed in due time 224 It is an unhappinesse for a man of worth to be born under a Tyrant or in a corrupt common wealth 226 The Ostracisine hindered the increase of the Athenian common wealth 227 The fortune of a Kingdome or common wealth may be transferred to another in the person of one man 228 A mans fortune decayes as his vigor 229 Coriolanus flies to the Volsci and is entertained by them 231 Man will give any thing to attaine his ends 231 Sometimes a man seekes to oppresse him whom he hath raised p. 232. and undoe what he himselfe hath done 234 One contrarie cures another if the contrarie bee not mistaken 235 Compassion and envie are the two ordinarie passions of great ones 236 Of favorites 238 Some desire greatnesse for their owne benefit some for the good of the common wealth 242 From different ends proceeds a different working towards them 243 Some love the person some its vertues 244 Mans life a warfare 248 Fortunes wheele cannot be fired 248 A stranger admitted in another common wealth to high degrees is in great danger 255 Every man hath a desire to his owne countrey 255 No man can hate his owne country though hee hate a prevailing party in it 256 Divers causes may provoke a man to bring in strangers to oppresse his native country 259 A man may rashly doe his countrey such a wrong as he cannot afterwards remedy 265 Coriolanus more fit to be compared with Cato then with Albiciades 268 Envie followes Humane glory 249 It is a great fortune to dye when fortune is at the highest 251 How Sejanus gained Tiberius 240 The Translator to the READER HAving this void Page lefâ— I thought good to set down therein this briefe explanation of the word Ostracisme which thou shalt finde in severall places of it The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies shells For the Athenians intended to put it in use the Citizens at the least to the number of six thousand for otherwise it was no lawfull nor full Assembly at a day appointed brought every man a shell whereon was written the name of him whom he would have banished and threw it into a place prepared for that purpose And the Magistrates telling the said shells he whose name was found written upon most of them was proclaimed banished for ten yeares Vale. FINIS Courteous Reader These Bookes following are Printed for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his shop at the Princes Armes in St Pauls Church-yard Various Histories with curious Discourses in Humane Learning c. 1. THe History of the Banished Virgin a Romance translated by I. H. Esq Fol. 2. The History of Polexander Englished by William Brown Gent. Printed for T. W. and are to be sold by Hum. Moseley in Folio 3. Mr James Howells History of Lewis the thirteenth King of France with the life of his Cardinall de Richelieu in Folio 4. Mr Howells Epistolae Hoelianae familiar Letters Domestic and Forren in six Sections Partly Historicall Politicall Philosophicall first Volume with Additions in 8o. 1650. 5. Mr Howells New vollume of Familiar Letters Partly Historicall Politicall Philosophicall the second Volume with many Additions 1650. 6. Mr Howells Third Volume of Additionall Letters of a fresher date never before published in 8o. 1650. 7. Mr Howels Dodona's Grove or the Vocall Forrest in 120. with Additions 1650. 8. Mr Howells Englands Teares for the present Warres in 12o. 1650. 9. Mr Howell Of the Pre-eminence and pedegree of Parliament in 12º 1650. 10. Mr Howells Instruction for Forren Travels in 12o. with divers Additions 1650. 11. Mr. Howels Vote or a Poem Royall presented to His Majesty in 4o. 12. Mr. Howels Angliae Suspiria Lachrimae in 12o. 13. Policy Vnveiled or Maximes of state done into English by the translator of Gusman the Spanish Rogue in 4o. 14. The History of the Inquisition composed by the R. F. Paul Servita the compiler of the History of the Councell of Trent in 4o. 15. Biathanatos a Paradox of Self-Homicide by Dr. Io Donne Deane of St Pauls London in 4o. 16. Marques Virgillio Malvezzi's Romulus and Tarquin Englished by Hen. Earle of Monmouth in 12o. 17. Marques Virgillio Malvezzis David persecuted Englished by Rob. Ashley Gent. in 12o. 18. Marques Virgillio Malvezzi Of the Success and chief events of the Monarchy of Spain in the year 1639. of the Revolt of the Catalonians Englished by Rob. Gentilis 12o. 19. Marques Virgillio Malvezzi's considerations on the lives of Alcibiades and Coriolanus Englished by Robert Gentilis in 12o. 1650. 20. Gracious Privileges granted by the
themselves eminent and conspicuous above the rest And some againe for no other end but for the good of their Country and to be able to do great matters in the behalfe of it The one is alwayes a vice and is termed ambition the other when it is not a vertue may be called pride The first aiming at a vicious end it cannot seeme strange if he proceeds towards it by such meanes he flatters bowes to the People and viliâ—ies himselfe to grow great not refusing to doe any thing be it never so base and servile so it may but availe him towards the obtaining of domination The last raiseth nor his fortune by any such meanes vertue will not give way to it nor Pride will not suffer him Caesar and Alcibiades were of the first Cato and Coriolanus may be numbred amongst the latter And if Plutarch looking upon Coriolanus his actions with a Greeke eye would not attriâ—ute unto him the name of magnanimous and valiant yet he might have termed him proud but not ambitious From such different ends proceeds a diverse manner of operating from the diverse operation are produced various effects in the people and in those to whom they are done Flattering bending and humbling ones selfe increases love in the People and at the same time diminishes the conceit of him that does so it detracts from his Majesty and therewithall make him not so much to be admired The people rejoyce at it because it is for their profit but though they desire those men should be so whom they make choice of to love yet they doe not desire them to be such whom they in end to revererce So that when they will make choise of one to command them they will chuse him rather whom they admire then him they love Doing of great actions without flattering or bowing to the people causes admiration in their brest it does not suffer a tender love to take roote in their hearts but instead thereof it oftentimes breeds an awfull love in them for as Majesty cannot put on tendernesse without abasing it selfe so cannot a man put on Majesty without altering himselfe But these loves are too different The one resides in the concupiscible the other in the intelligible part The one is towards his equall and if he be not so it makes him so and requires mildnesse The other seems to be towards one's superior and requires majesty The first hath the person for its aime the second his vertue The tender love loseth it selfe or diminisheth when the subject becomes Majesticall the awfull and respectfull love when he comes to be low The one easily turnes to contempt the other many times is changed into hatred How could the name of marriage please Messalina in Siluius without the Empire while shee could not enjoy him as a husband unlesse he became Emperour Peradventure shee knew that the Majesty of that degree would take away the Adulterers love and chanâ—e hers That contempt would creep into Siluius his love and reverence into hers That she should be obliged to respect where she onely loved and change the tendernesse of affections into obsequiousnesse of esteeme How could the Tribunes suspect Coriolanus for tyranny seeing he had quite lost the Peoples hearts by the harshnesse of the pranck he had plaid them if they had not feared he would have made himselfe Master of their understandings by the greatnesse of of operations Who spoke more freely to the Tribes and more sharply rebuked them then our Saviour Christ yet knowing that by vertue of the great miracles which he had wrought he had bred in them an awfull and respectfull love he goeth away because they should not proclaime him King Those who flatter the People either are not at all called to command if they bee they doe not continue in it He that attaines to it by a tender love let him prepare strong force to keepe himselfe in lest contempt and repentance beat him out againe Hee that is come to it through a respectfull love may by the same maintain himselfe in it The people being once brought under obedience by the commanding genius wil commit no outrage nor use any violence unlesse it be first used to them Alcibiades exceeding eloquent acceptable in the Peoples sight being accused dares not appeare to defend himselfe Coriolanus rough and as unskilfull in all good arts as hee was enemy to insinuations hatefull to the People appeares rather vaunting then defending himselfe resolved to make manifest the greatnesse of his mind and spirit rather then his innocency He distrusts the love of tendernesse that often uses to transforme it selfe into contempt and confides in that respectfull love that admits not of contempt He feares not hate which is also compatible with such a kind of love not that the being angry with a great vertue totally excludes the reverencing of it it floating lightly over any thing that is not pestilently produced by the grossenesse of ignorance or rancour of malice What would Coriolanus have had more How came it that he did not know himselfe in the highest point of the Epicicle when he shewed his fortune superior to Romes and the altering of hers at his disposall when he had seen his emulators at his feete and his enemies at his discretion when hee had at the same time obtained the sweet taste of revenge and the magnanimus honour of not having taken it But this not knowing how to retreate is a thing as common to great subjects as the desire it selfe of retyring In greatest motions they discourse of rest and amidst most turbulent businesse of a vacancy Therein doe they place their felicity and it is in their hands to attaine to it and yet they doe not Peradventure they would rettire with satisfaction and beleeve they shall and put it off till that time and still there is something wanting that they can never attaine to that satisfaction nor yet retiring and being deceivers of themselves live in continuall trouble and motion injoying no other rest or peace but a vaine hope and Chimericall imagination that they shall enjoy it Sometimes againe it is neither deceit nor ignorance but ought to be imputed to generosity of heart and constancy of mind If fortune though never so great cannot be given over with satisfaction yet feare must at last make it be abandoned and if to attaine unto it is required an enforced valour an undaunted mind a brest of steele who can forsake it cowardly that hath valiantly attained to it He will pretend to be master of it and will beleeve that it cannot change nor alter He will imagine himselfe superior to it and will not be daunted at it though it do change He will beleeve it firme and yet will bee glad to have it alter not refusing to avoid the disgust of a calm to launch him self into a tempestuous sea chusing rather to runne with hazard than not to stirre at all and will be willing to struggle with contâ—ary windes rather
the passing from dangers to secureness You will find wrath hatred envy desire of domination to be most weake passions if you compare them with feare This Chimericall passion is of greater force then those reall ones if we will beleeve an eminent Polititian Many and true provocations saith he had Otho to adventure himself to obtain the Empire Desire of domination a riot even burthensome to a Prince Poverty scarce to be tolerated by a private man Anger and hatred towards Galba Envy against Piso He feigned but one only of these passions to make him the more to affect it and that was Feare What makes Tyranny so pleasing but the love of danger Where it is great he can desire no more where it is but small he encreases it where there is none he feigns it Yet the tragick scene of these men is full of bloud unjustly spilt sometimes of guilty sometimes of half guilty and sometimes of innocent men I should say only of innocent for the greatest fault that Tyrants punish deserves the the name of the greatest innocency But if if this man be not yet grown so inhumane as to feign a fear where there is none yet he seldome reserves so much humanity as not to grudge and bemoane himself because there is none Tiberius comes into the Senate house he finds all the Senators to second his thoughts and flattter his actions No body Contradicts him no man provokes him He goes forth angry and enraged Calls them base men prepared for slavery He was troubled and molested saith the Author with such base servility he was ashamed said I of having caused it He was sorry I now say that he had lost that feare which was the Seminarie of his delights Plato and Tacitus also knew peradventure that to be true which I said though they did not explaine it They call a Tyrant unhappy not by reason of any outward feare which he with pleasure and delight satisfies by the death of sometimes one sometimes another Citizen But by reason of the inward feare which insensibly gnawing his entrailes lets him neither find rest nor hope for remedy If the griefe and paine of this did not counterpoise yea go beyond the pleasure and delight of the other we should amongst the Pagans reckon more Tyrants than Princes There is a Character imprinted in mans Nature by God which we call Conscience to the end that even who those may feare him who not know him Contenting himself rather with not being known then not feared to the end that the world should not be lost for want of feare nor men arrive to the extreme of wickednesse Alcibiades becomes Socrates his Scholar He addicts himself with much fervency to the learning of Sciences and with as much eagerness follows vices He studied greatness more then goodness to counterpoise not to forgoe his defects going forwards in acquiring vertue as a means to satisfie his ambition Which he cannot attain to by being admired by the lesser number namely the wise if at the same time he be abhorred by the greater number which are the ignorant He would be like the bad because many and because he would not become an enemy to many for not being like them He had his intent with reproach whereas he might have had it with commendation if he had outwardly habited himself with the vulgars qualities which are not vices and inwardly with wise mens that are vertues This had joyned in him those two so contrary elements the wise and ignorant in the same manner as the aire linkes the elements of fire and water together He that will gain a man let him not be his adversary or at the least let him not shew himselfe to be so for otherwise he will flye him If he cannot make himself semblable let him feign to be so if he means to be followed Resemblance is of great vertue every one celebrates it and peradventure none understand it The like doth not attract the like because it is the like but because the similitude is joyned with superiority otherwise iron might draw iron and if by vertue of resemblance it should receive force from the loadstone it also might do it He is deceived in Physick that thinks Rhubarb draws bilious humours because it hath a resemblance to them â—he resemblance causeth it to find no resistance but the superiority draws In Musick the unison which meerly resembleth is disliked and rejected as dissonant and the eight is admitted and approved as harmonious it adding nothing to the resemblance but superiority In policy to be of one and the same Province of the same Language and custome if there be no superiority brings forth a Republick or Common-wealth if there be a superiority it produces a Principality The Tribe of Iuda sees David grown great they say he is their brother and follow him he was so before and yet no man stirred He that thinks love to grow from resemblance what reason can he give for its being seldome enterchangeable being it should alwaies be so unless superiority added unto it perswade the enterchange This instinct of similitude either of suffering ones self to be drawn or of voluntarily following superiority often proceed from a desire of advancing to a greater perfection or of preserving that degree which one hath received from it for which purpose the resembling eminent is held a more fit Instrument then any other So the coldnesse of the earth which is not entire is preserved by that of the water which is fulâ—y perfect the humidity of the water by that of the aire the heate of the aire by that of the fire and all thesâ— by the virtuall qualities of the heaven which the inferiour ones eminently containe Alcibiades invited with other Nobles by Nicetus to supâ—er contemnes the invitation He makes himselfe drunke at home thâ—n goâ—s to his friends house takes away the one halfe of his plaâ—e and without any more adoe returnes to his owne hoâ—se The guests wonder at Alcibiades insolency and admiâ—e Nicetus patience He answers that he ought to thanke him foâ— that part which he had left him All troubles have their comforts and many poisons their antidotes He that instead of eating the vipers back eats its head and taile will not be cured he that with an ill looke lookes upon trouble when he might doe it with a good one will not be comforted One that were in love as Nicetus was with him that causeth the trouble would take an occasion to thanke him for it and he that hath been so hath done it Man doth not looke upon troubles with a good countenance because he contents not himselfe to come out of trouble at even hand by onely remaining comforted He is desirous to gaine sometimes compassion and with a female weakness makes moane sometimes repute and esteem and with a manly courage endures it This last though for the most part he shew a good countenance and the other see it yet will he not seeme to others
to take notice of it If any shews it him he is vexed thinking that by slighting the occasion he derogates from the greatnesse of his power Of these two wayes of passing over troubles the Female is the most common peradventure because Pusillanimity is more easie then Fortitude True it is that it is a vice but in this case the obtaining of the reward namely compassion will not let it seeme so Men had also rather compassionate then admire with compassion one benefits a wretched man without any loss yea with game with admiration he payes an homage due to a great worth even to his own disgrace The one is the daughter of that which the catastrophe in the world useth to bestow the other of that which our weakness cannot attaine to the first one goeth voluntarily to the other he is dragged The understanding afflicts it self in the acts of compassion if there be any delight it is in the sence In that of admiration it rejoices and the inferiour part is afflicted in it And although they be both oftentimes waies to take away the tormenting passion of envy yet the leaving of it by growing great or by seeing ones self outgon is every different It is mans nature to behold with an ill countenance those afflictions which God sends him and to make them greater then they are And with a good looke those which he procures to himselfe and make them lesse to avoid shame and gaine compassion He knowes that when they proceed meerely from Gods providence they are tokens of affection when from our own imprudency of punishment and to shew his love greater and his wrath lesser in the one case he increases and in the other he lessens it and alwayes to the losse and dammage of truth Which truth we ought not to wonder that nature hath placed according to Heraclitus his opinion in a deep well or according to Democritus in an obscure cave She did it to employ us all our life time in searching for it and when we have found it wee seek after nothing more then how to corrupt it Man provokes God by complaining of evill fortune more then he ought and by not attributing to him in prosperity so much as he should He knowes not he had it before it is gone and sometimes it goes away because it was not known And when with repentance wee should call our selves ingratefull with temerity giving new offence we call fortune unstable and which is worse we make it so Finally man finds such unsavourinesse in the meane and so much acrimony in the extreame that ordinarily he drawes back most from the first when he hath not arrived unto it and advances forward most when he is come to it or gone beyond it because he will not stay at it or because he would still go further from it whence comes that the young man shortens his years the old man encreases them His domestick and familiar figure saith Quintilian is hyperbole because he is an enemy to truth But this cannot be for truth is the object of mans most noble power it is not each ones equality it is reserved only for the best that which he sees in this world is sufficient to move his desire but because it is not so much as will satisfie it he is perplexed He would have it to be so but cannot really make it so he doth it as much as he can with hyperbole so that he lyeth not in hatred but in behalfe of truth corrupting that which is not his object to make it become so Alcibiades hath many Athenian Nobles that make love to him and offer him great presents he contemnes them A Country fellow falls in love with him sells all he hath and presents the money to him Alcibiades accepts of his love and his gift and with that mony makes him presently gaine a Talent He hath reason to make more esteeme of the Country Fellows affection then of the Nobles It was greater and sincerer He that gives not all he hath to the beloved person loves him not above all things he loves that better which he hath reserved for himself The passions of simple men are plaine those of Nobles are mixed with ambition The love of the one is meere love that of the other hath pride coined with it The one seeks only to delight himself the others to subject also yea more then subject hautines prevailing in them above affection whilest sometimes through jealousie by the death of the beloved they have deprived themselves of delight because they would not endure a Companion They say that love enters not an abject and degenerous breast but links it self only to noble hearts It is true of that part of love which is pride the peculiar sin of great ones Love is a Tyrant not only because he tyrannizes over him whom he conquers but because he also imprints in in him the Character of tyrannizing They decline love to be a desire of enjoying the thing beloved But it is also a desire to captivate its body and soule and to take away free will from it He that said Lucifer sinned through pride said well He that said he sinned through excess though he did not unfold it well did not peradventure speak totally ill The Angell saw God not as he is for then he would have loved him of necessity and in an ordinary way and had not sinned He loved him voluntarily and disorderly and sinned For it being made manifest to him that God would be humanated as we may say and man Goddisied changing vertue into passion adding pride to love to the desire of enjoying the desire of tyrannizing willing to be only alone or suffer no equall he forsook the love of God Iealous armed himself with hatred against mankind to hinder it as his rivall from enjoying the clear sight of the beatificall object But how stands Socrates amidst this multitude of lovers He peradventure beleeved that where there was so much beauty there was also a great disposition to vertues I meane not speculative but morall Even as amongst Brutes that which is the fairest performes best its proper naturall operation the Lion hath most valour the Greyhound most swiftness so to the understanding of many the fairest man should best perform those operations which are proper to man who being a compound of soule and body his said operations belong rather to the practicall then to the speculative intellect The speculative goes to the knowledge of the first truth the practick to the well directing of the operations according to true wisdom the one shall see its object only at home the other can only attaine unto it in its way And how should Nature give us our end in this world which though we labour for never so hard we cannot attaine in it But in what manner can that saying agree with Alcibiades actions who being exceeding beautifull was notwithstanding ambitious dishonest and lascivious They may say that the Prognostick is not
credit or endanger the losing of their lives is a matter full of hazard and adventure Wise men will come off in their affaires well enough howsoever the businesses prosper and valiant men for the most part overcome dangers be they never so great building their greatnesse where others had prepared a precipice for them It so happened to Saul with David and to Seleucus with Iugurth To deny them those boons and favours which they crave and oppresse their friends moves them to indignation and doth not abate their power The Prince of Orange and the Duke of Ariscot have testified that sufficiently Tiberius increased the peoples love to Germanicus more by persecuting him than if he had cherished him If it fell out well with Agesilaus touching Lysander it was because the goodnesse of the Subject helped him To punish and not utterly extinguâ—sh great ones is a great error in policie small errors in them ought to be connived at and great faults punished with death There is no medium to be used towards such between cherishing and killing If Astiages in stead of killing Arpagus sonne had put the father to death hee had not lost his Kingdome And if if Craesus had taken away Demetrius his life when he put out his eyes he had not lost himself Let it be as it will certainly it is barbarous inhuman in Comon-wealths Princes to make laws to hinder such as undertake actions worthy of everlasting fame and a glorious memory that are valorous and vertuous both in being and acting when they should rather enact such as might encourage men thereunto He that invented this most wicked Law of Ostracisme was an enemy to God Man and Nature and a ruiner of all good Lawes It aâ—mes not so much at destroying of tyranny as at the exercising of it with security whether it be in Prince Nobles or People taking away honorable and regardfull subjects whose valour and worth are the Sanctuary to which wronged subjects flye and whose presence is the onely curb to make Princes and Senators ashamed of committing wickednesse There never was any Common-wealth more abounding in worthy men than that of Rome while iâ— slourished nor that made better use of them than it did while it stood uncorrupted The people did with extraordinary applause honour a Citizens great vertue and punished with most severe justice the defects of the same man if he chanced to alter his nature When they perceived Melius to aspire to tyranny Manlius to attempt it Appius Claudius to have already attained it it did not help Melius hat he had freed them from famine Manlius that he had vindicated them from ssavery nor Appius that hee had been popular But they threw two of them downe headlong from the Tarpeian Rock and conspired the death of the other In the good time of the Common-wealth eminent vertue was much esteemed and not feared because that as soone as it aimed at sinister ends it lost together with its name both favour and applause And whereas it was reverenced whilest it was sincere when once it came to be counterfeit it was condemned The greatest dangers it ran it selfe into was not for having kept their best Citizens amongst them but exiled them As when Coriolanus came to conquer Rome and Furius Camillus was not there to defend it Let Common-wealths be so framed that all the parts thereof may be contented and let Princes rule their Subjects with a Fatherly affectioÌ„ that no desire of change may grow up and in so doing they both may cherish and prefer subjects of great worth They shall enjoy their vertue while it is upright without feare because it will be easie to chastise and punish it if once it grow corrupted Alcibiades to make use of his Talent and satisfie his unlimited ambition and desire of glory hinders the Athenians peace and goes to Warre with the Laacedemonians puts his native Countrey in hazard and brings it to a precioice Some subjects are born in Cities with most excellent inclinations and endowments Amongst those that want them as well as amongst those that are full of them some know it and some are ignorant of it One that is good for nothing and knowes he is so doth no hurt because he will not adventure himselfe neither could he do any great hurt if he did not know himself so he were known for then he would not be put to any tryall Indeed if he be not known there may bee some danger in him yet if hee doth not overthrow the Common-wealth or the Prince upon his first tryal before a second they will be undeceived and know what he is He that hath excellent parts and knows not of it is the better and he that hath them and knowes it oftentimes proves the worst And the later is like a medicine which finding no excremeÌ„ts to expell and break its force joyns with the humors finding noithng to heal corrupts the former The former is like Nature which shewes not her greatest force but upon greatest occasions One like flame set to wood having taken power by the matter bold and confident shewes out his form The other unseen like fire hidden in a stone wants the collision of occasion to manifest and disclose it The one ambitious and proud to passe on a potentia ad actum hunts after occasions many times he takes them great and sometimes they present themselves so sometimes they become so although they were once but mean whereby he loses himselfe and often times brings the ruine of the State alâ—ng with his own The other being humble seeks not after them and if they joyn with him they draw forth his good parts by the power of the matter He is the securer by so much as there is difference between the taking and seeking after occasions The one raises himselfe with the greatnesse of affaires the other is depressed one endangers the State the other drawes it out of dangers He that doth not know his owne worth dies unfortunate if occasions do not seek and finde him out sois he that knows it if he doth not finde them In States that have no occasions it were good there were no such men or if there be that they would not grow ambitious The soile which brings forth such trees if it have not roome wherein they may spread abroad their branches must seek and get some so must leave a way open for violence and â—ury to vent it selfe at For if they finde no way they will make one and there is a great deale of difference between a way rent open by ambition and one framed with prudency If a hammer worketh out a doore way or passage in a wall it doth it with designe and intent A piece of Ordnance shakes and oftentimes throwes the Wall downe but will never make a regular overture Nature spake to Scipio Nasica obscurelv It shewed him that it was not good to destroy Carthage hee understood the thing but not the sense and meaning
satisfaction and love passe to the understanding How can you conceive vertue to be otherwise but faire and good if â—ou consider it as vertue and in what other shape can you consider it if it doth not appeare naked unto you Hate Rage and Envy cannot touch it they are mothes which stick onely on the garments wormes that inhabit putrifaction onely strip her of applauses wealth and all other vaine habiliments if thou wilt have her be secure and enamourthee This vertue which being once known violently stirres up love takes impression in mens hearts sometimes in the Great ones sometimes in the Peoples by very different wayes Some would have it remaine within the spheare of mediocrity some would raise it up to the concave of the Moone It is not alwayes envy which desires it low nor love that continually desires to have it exalted Sometimes it happens because a Great one would come into a strict league of friendship with it and the People would by its means enjoy an honorable servitude He that is possessed of such a noble gemme may communicate it to some by a relation of friend to friend to others of Master to Servant The one to be perfect requires equality the other to bee pleasing a kind of distance The greater the Master is the more honorable is the servant and the more cordiall the friend is the greater equality is between them But the connexion which the People hath with a person of eminent vertue is like a servant to his Lord and he is desirous to exalt him But the great ones is as one friends to another and he doth not desire to have him advanced Aristotle though he makes equality too necessary in friendship sometimes attributing it to superabundancy sometimes to want as if he discovered the truth out of its due distance and with a hindred and obstructed meanes seemes to contradict himselfe and pretend it to proceed from a great equality He either was or would be deceived he needed to have bin neither if he had affirmed that both these causes united did produce a most strict league of friendship Superabundancy and want if one of them alone be divided into two subjects brings forth either slavery or its image The poor is the rich mans slave and the Scholar the Masters and if he be not he is like some such thing Of two superabundancies and two wants there is framed an almost indissoluble bond of friendship The People that find in themselves nothing but defect goe towards vertue and desire to have it made great because they will serve it The great one who with the defect of vertue hath superabundancy of honour and wealth would find him out who hath superabundance of what he wants with defect of his superabundance and desires to have him low because he would make him his friend And if this latter comes also to be exalted to honours and wealth the other loses his superabundancy and remaines with deefct onely He hath nothing whereon to found the harmonious equality which produces friendship and because he abhorres the character of being a servant he hates that vertue exalted which he venerated when it was humble If there be a great pleasure in the world it consists in doing a benefit and if there be any greater it is in requiting it Therefore that must needs be exceeding great which is produced by the harmonious interweaving of abundance and defect where the benefit is at the same time done and requited Plutarch calls Coriolanus proud and impatient I agree to it He attributes the cause of it to want of study I dissent from it Because learning doth not onely not hinder these passions but according to St. Pauls saying produces Pride and according to Solomons Impatience I attribute it to his being born in the Roman Common-wealth which more desirous to increase then to preserve itselfe as it was made more of valour esteeme in its Cittizens thereof Patience Wherefore at the last keeping one still alive it fell for want of the other True it is that as it is not against the law of Patience that one upon occasion when there is need should violently oppose one that operates ill no more is it of the essence of valour to repaire all dammages and revenge all offences But the Romans cared not for these qualifications That Valour was more usefull to them which operated then that which suffered And because for that part of valour which lookes after revenge wrath was very usefull and very hurtfull to that which belongs to suffering it is not to be wondred that some of them had the vice of impatience coupled with the vertue of fortitude Seneca would not admit this doctrine of wrath he would have it rooted out as if our nature were so perfect that it wanted no instigation to make it operate well nor no curbe to keep it from working evill He that will see how man ought to make use of wrath which we also call choler let him consider what use nature makes of that choler which is called Bilis I meddle not with that part which is called Nutritive which subtilizes the bloud that it may the easilier nourish the parts which feeds the heart and the musculous flesh which tempers the cold of the Pituitous humour with Melancholy I will speake only of the Excrementall Bilis There is one naturall and another without nature or extra naturam One reserved in the Gall bagge that is to clense and absterge the pituitous humors together with the ordures because like a medicament it instigates and provokes the expulsive vertue to send forth that which is not to be retained and which being retained would kill The other breeds Dysenteries Diareas Deliriums Frenzies perfect Tertians and an infinite of such diseases And even just so it is with wrath One kind of wrath is a passion which like that unbridled Bilis running on furiously brings one to a precipice The other regulated by the understanding and set apart for some occasion serves to instigate the vertue of valour and as Natures excrementall Bilis is necessary to expell the excrements which nature would not move to doe if it were not instigated so likewise this wrath is necessary for man to drive that away from him which the understanding hath concocted and judged fit to be driven out But nature doth not make use of the Bilis onely to expell excrements onely but also of the serous matter to distribute the bloud of melancholy to excite the appetite to retaine the food and sustaine the body Of the sharp and serous humour to mixe with the seed to provoke to generation and preserve the kind Although that serous humour bee that which causeth Hydropsie though the Atra Bilis produces Quartanes Cancers Hypocondries Rage and Madness though that from the sharp subtile humour the greatest part of the Cutancall diseases have their beginning So the minde likewise makes use of Wrath for Fortitude of Ambition for Magnanimity and yet the one
followed Coriolanus as it did Cato either he had returned into Rome victorious and established a better form of Government or being conquered had left a more lasting Government behinde him Cato dies because hee could not make the Citie free Coriolanus because hee would not bring it under subjection If any man wonders that I should compare Coriolanus to Cato let him in the first place and much more admire that Plutarch should compare him to Alcibiades the one was altogether effeminate the other manly The Greek soft and tender with Socrates education savoured of a Schoole The Roman harsh and hardened brought up in the camp was composed of nothing but warre The first was ambitious the last proud One severely flattered the people the other free opposed them Alcibiades framed himselfe to all mens fashions Coriolanus intended to frame every one to his humors One was beautifull eloquent and subtle with his beauty allured with his eloquence perswaded and with his subtilty deceived The other sterne in aspect rough in speech single in heart allured not perswaded not nor did not deceive Alcibiades loses himselfe like a vaine man Coriolanus like a solid In their banishments and in their deaths wherein they seemed to bee most like one another they were contrary They were both exiled it is true but one because he would alter the forme of the Common-wealth the other because hee would not have it altered They were both kill'd I confesse it but Alcibiades for hatred of his vices Coriolanus for envy of his vertues A Table of the chiefe heads discoursed upon in the Life of ALCIBIADES MAns desire is to live in the memorie of posterity chusing rather to survive infamous then to be quire forgotten p. 1. Mens virâ—ous actions ought not to bee recorded in Histories p. 4 Whether vice and vertue proceedes from the Patents inclinations or from the influence of stars or the temperature of the climat in which a child is borne p. 6 Whether by a childs actions one may judge of what his disposition will be when hee comes to be a man 15 Defects many times illustrate the perfections which are in a man 24 Feare the strongest and most prevailing passion 28 Alcibiades embraces learning to soment his Ambition 31 Alcibiades takes away halfe Nicetus his plate 33 The cause why Nicetus takes it patiently 33 Alcibiades contemnes the gifts of the Athenian Nobles and accepts a country fellowes p. 36 The reason thereof 37 Of what nature the reciprocall love was betweene Socrates and Alcibiades 38 An outward beauty argues not inward vertue 40 A young man cannot naturally be wise and in an old man wisedome decayes 45 Whether one may passe immediately from speculation to practise 46 Divines seldome good Polititians 48 Discourse unnecessary in speculative Sciences 49 Experience Mistresse of Policie 51 Great difference betweene being extravagant by election and being such naturally 56 Seldome any griefe but hath some pleasure in it Or any joy without some grief 59 Alcibiades no sooner admitted to the government of the Common-wealth but presently hee salls at odds with Phaeaces and Nicias 61 Emulation and Necessity Gaine and Glory were produced by Nature to keepe men from idlenesse 61 Why mans Emulation never ceases 62 The name of Liberty is commonly misunderstood 65 Whether manifest opposition or supplanting insinuation will soonest ruine a man 66 Open opposition dangerous at first onely 68 Growing powers easily kept from rising but grown hardly brought downe 69 Alcibiades and Nicias being put upon the Ostracisme it falls upon Hyperbosus a most vitious man 71 Inconveniencies of overmuch providence 74 Both the Nobles and the vulgar hate a great man but for different reasons 77 Why the Common-wealth of Athens grew not to such a height as the Roman 77 Ostracisme ill executed 79 The power and efficacie of union 80 Inconveniencies of banishing one great man and leaving another at home 82 Aristotle mistaken in the description of an excellent man 83 Wayes to suppress greatnes 85. yet all vaine 88 Powerfull Subjects must bee punished with death or not at all 88 Ostracisine an absolutely pernitious law 89 Whether he that knowes his own worth hee that knowes it not or a worthless man be most dangerous in a Common-wealth 90 Ingratefulness oftentimes springs from the delaying of gratitude 97 Vices have sometimes appearance of vertues 98 Too much circumspectness sometimes is hurtfull 105 A third may moderate two contraries if he participates of both otherwise not 107 Whether man be most pious in prosperity or in adversity 109 Some are naturally treacherous some become so upon occasion given them 114 Great difference between revenging a wrong and vindicating ones reputation 114 A mans presence continues love and his absence causes it to be forgotten 117 Envy and pusillanimity inseparable 121 Vices suddenly changed into vertues give great cause of suspition 123 A Paradox concerning Luxury and Incontinencie 126 Faults and errors are many times better connived at than reprehended 132 Some natures will gain the love of all sorts of men 133 An advice contrary to likelihood is seldome accepted of 135 Aloibiades takes Selibria by a stratagem 138 A sudden resolution works wonderful effects 139 Nature seldome bestowes valour and sagacity upon one person 142 Policie is an Art by it selfe which no man hath yet rightly learned 144 Cato unapt for Sciences and in what manner 145 An emulous equall carps at his corrivals skill an inferior emulator at his person 146 A fault committed out of malice and wilfulness is not so shamefull as one committed through inability or ignorance 148 Reputation is not lost by degrees but either remaines entire or is quite lost 149 Aloibiades cunning and subtile rather than wise 150 The difference betweene subtiltie and Wisdome 150 Some things laudable in a private man which are disalowed in a pulick person 152 A Generals subtilty different from a Polititians 154 Aloibiades flies to Farnabazus 54 Why he gained the love of all men Ibid In Arts some things are judged by the Senses and some by the understanding 187 Aloibiades had many vertues and many vices 160 He met with a Common wealth which admired his vertues and followed his vices Ibid. His vices overthrew him in his forraign imployments 161 Aloibiades his deaâ—h 162 Man wrastling with Fortune at last is overcome 162 Nothing firm in the world 165 Why some men continue fortunate some not 166 Alcibiades often though not continually forrunate 158 Some caÌ„not suffer the best nor endure the worst 84 Too much care is the daughter of suspition and enemy of truth 81 Compassion is the daughter of Feare 44 Envy takes pleasure in defects 24 Perfect excellency is hated by most men 72 The forbidden thing seems best 64 No man can give that which he is not owner of 9 The desire of worldly glory is wise mens madness and fooles wisdome but beguiles all 93 Modesty moderates envy extinguisheth it not 121 Prudence hath measure for its actions but