Camna wife to Synates used all manner of devices to bring her to yeeld to his passion but all his pursuits with the eminency of his Qualitie having no power to shake the resolution of this Lady he imagined that if her Husband were out of the world he should compasse what had been refused him He put him to death and after this cruelty importuned so the kindred of this Widow that she made show of an agreement to a Marriage with Synogaris when they came to the Ceremonies and that they were to go to the Temple of Diana this chast Lady carried with her a drink of which she drank half her self and then gave the rest to Synogaris who drank it joyfully not imagining it to be poyson Camna seeing her designe accomplish'd cast her self upon her knees before the Image of Diana to whom she presented these thanks and excuses Great Deity thou knowest how unwillingly and to what purpose I have consented to a Marriage with this murderer If Grief kill'd as often as it ariseth to an extreme I had not been now in this world where notwithstanding I have not refused to stay a while to take vengeance of this persidious man that thou seest who beleeves that I can love him after he hath ravished from me my dear Synatis Think on thy self barbarous man and confesse what right I have to sacrifize thy life to that which thou hast rob'd my Husband of I do not reckon mine own since I have imploy'd the end of it to give posterity a remarkable testimony of my love and thy cruelty Camna was so happy as to see him die first though he drank last the Gods gave this satisfaction to her Fidelity and she went out of this world often calling upon Synatis that he might come and meet her to accompany her in this her journey Can men produce a nobler example of Constancy and was it not an erring Philosopher that maintained publickly that among a thousand men there could hardly be found one constant but amongst all women none If Constancy be shewn in the continuation of a designe in spight of all impeachments and crosses how great was that of Psyche in the search of Cupid shee saw three goddesses set against her pretensions Iuno Ceres and Venus and yet her passion became victorious over their malevolence she did things that seemed impossible she went down to hel where she spoke to Proserpina and the gods esteemed so much her resolution that they Deified her and gave her her love which she had sought so constantly After so many effects of their fidelity it is hard to decide whether the Prince of Philosophers had reason to compare women kind to the first matter because they desire alwaies to change forms and though they have a most perfect one they turne a generall inclination for all others This Philosopher meant to conclude by this parallel that women are insatiable and variable for men as matter is for formes But it is a comparison too injurious and would suit better with this Philosopher then with the lightest woman since he left his Herina for another Mistresse to whom he erected Altars to convince himselfe with more solemnity of that fault which he had accused women of They have more reason to complain of men then to fear their reproaches How is the simplicity of credulous ones now abused What pawn soever men give they my be better called cousners then inconstant because at the same time that they promise fidelity they purpose to violate it so as there is no change in their resolution but only in their discourse Variablenesse doth not distract Wits of the higher strain one may rely on them even their least designes remain firm in all the storms of Fortunes Levity ariseth from the weaknesse of the brain and Constancy from the force of it After Affection hath fastned two hearts the separation of them should be impossible for if Love in its own nature be immortal it is not true if it can cease St. Austine himself said that his friend and he seemed to have but one soul to live as well as to love and death had not so properly separated two as divided one and after the losse of this his confident he feared death and abhorted life because without him he lived but one half of himself and that he was obliged to preserve this rest lest his friend should die out-right There were few so constant as this great person On the contrary many would believe themselves too innocent if they did not annex treachery and persidiousnesse to Inconstancy I cannot conceive how there should any remain of this profession because all the world detests it those that use it distrust it and those that are injured by them cannot orgive them Indeed not to pursue all the â—â—ules of Physiognomy to know them their mind alone witnesseth that falling out with all the world they do not agree themselves confessing without speaking that horrour which is their sins conception It must needs be that theirs is the greatest guilt in the world since they arraign themselves in their own Court of Conscience even going sometime as far as execution with their own hands practising a new form of justice where they are Judges Parties Accusers and Executioners though we naturally love our selves they cannot shew themselves mercy and one may read in the colour of their face that none can absolve them when their own soul condemns them and torments them It must needs be the most horrible and the most inexcusable of all sins since those that are guilty of it have so much pain to commit it and that they do much harm unto themselves in doing it to others 'T is for this reason that Fidelity is alwayes cheerfull among thorns and Perfidiousnesse alwayes troubled and pensive even in the beds of Roses A loyal spirit feels not his torments and a trayterous one tasts not his pleasures Their senses are diversly suspended because vitiousness bitters even their delights and vertue sweetens and relisheth the others ills and sufferings There needs no proofs to shew that Women are seldomer perfidious then men we may judg by these following examples of the rest What excuse could Ptolomy King of Aegypt find after the receit of so many obligations from Pompey for his commanding him to be murthered while he fled to him for refuge after the defeat of Pharsalia those that have read the History will confesse that it was an unparallell'd cruelty and treachery Though Iulius Caesar had declared Brutus for his heir yet he was one of the first that struck him in the Senate without any consideration of the favours which he expected or enjoyed from this Emperor When the soul is sullied with this vice it is capable of all the malice that can be imagined Covetousness keeps close to it which when any woman hath a propensity to she can hardly be faithful there is nothing that she would not buy or sell to be made rich It
approve of those that put their devotion upon the racke to make it scoul as if one could not be saved without being ugly When the grace of God is in the soul the face is toucht over with the sweetness of it and not the features and colours of the damned The weather is overcast when it is disposed to raine and dejected looks prognosticate somewhat ominous in their musings Those that have no purpose to doe ill nor remorse for having done ill are not of this froward humor which is as contrary to devotion as to comliness This no way detracts from penitence it raines in summer aswell as winter and love sheds as many teares as feare Joy cryes aswell as sorrow and the remembrance of sin doth not deject us so that the returne to grace may not raise us again to joy Sometimes it rains when the Sun shins so Repentance doth often powr down tears upon smiling faces Bees draw honey from Flowers without spoyling them by touching them Devotion doth yet more in every profession where it is beautifying and making it more lovely And if precious Stones put into honey take a lustre from it according to their naturall colours so there is no condition in the world that doth not improve the estimation of it when it is accompanyed with Piety it makes the professed Religious more cheerfull and Lay men lesse insolent moderating pleasures and sweetning austerities it makes Marriage the comlier Warre the juster Commerce the faithfuller and the Court the fuller of honour It is much ignorance and tyranny to believe it can be found no where but in Cloysters and that one can have nothing to do with it abroad in the world without incroaching upon the Charter house or the Capuchins We are in times where it is not accounted of if it be not excessive in appearance so that many content themselves to have a becoming Devotion or rather a humane Religion I never see this monstrous Devotion but it puts me in mind of the Trojan Horse that was stuff'd with enemies for which notwitstanding by reason of the pretence of piety they did not onely open their Gates but broke down their Walls to receive with more solemnity the Present devoted to Minerva but since Laocoon that took a Lance in his hand to sound it and to try if it were hollow was punished for his just curiosity let us content our selves to disapprove of these shewes of the times lest we come off as ill as he did if we undertake to quarrell with it Indeed those Women that keep such adoe and use so much craft to deceive some eyes under the pretext of conscience do like Spiders that take a great deal of pains to make Webs where they themselves are hung at last without any other advantage but to have caught flyes and they shallow-brains Cleer spirits scorn this and I cannot conceive how discreet women can mistake dreams for revelations or let themselves be surprized by such illusions Likely those that seem very fond of their Husbands it is with designe to deceive them and among the Romans Ladies have been suspected of their Husbands death onely for crying excessively over their Tombs In Religion as well as Society dissimulation is commoner then truth and this great shew is at least suspicious if not vitious superstitious women make more scruple of a litle sin then of a great one And are like the Jewes that made more Conscience of entring into the Pretor-hall then of condemning Christ or of not washing their hands then of persecuting Innocence It is true that women retaine that of the first that made more Ceremony and shewed more feare to touch the forbidden fruit then to eate it These questions tales and scruples without reason trouble not discreet persons that follow Alexanders example vertuously cutting off troublesome knots rather then yeelding themselves to unty them as the vulgar doe that are ignorant of true devotion Notwithstanding this lest we should passe from one extreme to another we must behave our selves in taxing superstition as those that in the time of Xerxes burned the houses in Asia They medled not with the buildings neer the Temples not only to preserve those sacred places from being burnt but for feare they should be so much as black'd so in this case we omit many things which we might blame with justice but not without danger of driving weake Spirits to impiety when superstition riseth from simplicity it deserves pitty or excuse but when from art punishment and suffering The ears that cover the corne or the leaves about trees are not superfluous nature hath given them either to preserve or beautifie them Ceremonies are of the same use to Religion and as devotion is inseparable from love it borrowes often loves raptures and Gods servants can containe themselves no more then prophane ones which honor their Mistresses even in haire and Ciphers Divine love expressed more favour in the effects then the worldly and a great Author sayes very well That if the Poets Cupid have two wings that the Seraphins have six It is true that Hypocrites are not so reproveable as Libertines because it is better to counterfeit vertue then vice But in what concernes conversation the best covering is to have none because it is easier to be good in effect then only in shewe and it is lesse paine to certifie the Conscience then to set the behaviour After all this it cannot be denied that women are not firmer and truer in their devotion then men since in that occasion where there was most affection to be shewed to God there were found three Maryes under the Cross where there was but one Disciple Of Chastity and Complacency IT is fit to joyn these two fair Qualities to reduce them to a perfect temper since there be some that become shy and wild by being Chaste and others that refuse nothing out of Complacency It is indeed to be either too good or too ill an humour and is but changing of vices in stead of avoyding them If Vertue have two extremes that offend it equally one must not make use of the one for defence against the other as if one must be covetous for fear of being prodigall or throw ones self into the fire to escape the water Morality approves not such a carriage it doth not teach us to pick out but fly from sins to fix only upon Vertue which is hard to find because either excesse or scarcity hides it from the ignorant They that think women cannot be vertuous and obliging understand little the nature of Vertue nay are voyd of common sense much more of any right opinion Vertues are but divers not contrary and the correspondence is too naturall not to be able to subsist in the same subject when they are well suted they do better in one anothers company then alone 'T is that which Theodosius was so much commended for among the Emperors seeming to make himself esteemed by contrary Qualities his gentlenesse
that Chastity belongs particularly to Women because they that have it not are counted Monsters One could not have wonder'd so much at the want of it if the quality were not natural to them Indeed there have been men that have possessed this Vertue but it hath been upon occasions where some consideration hath taken away the merit from it Alexander shewed some continency with Darius his wifes but to prove it was rather policy then vertue what did he not do with the Amazons Scipio being very young restored a very handsom woman that was presented him to her Husband but there it was pride that was stronger then love because he had lost his credit with the Spaniard if he had accepted the offer What praise doth Lenocrates deserve for forbearing to enjoy that Lady which was brought him his coldness proceeded from his age besides he was drunk and sought for rest and if he had not been neither drunk nor sleepy it was so common a one as the most debauched would have been ashamed of as well as a Philosopher There needs no long discours to prove that chastity belongs not to men they themselvs quit their part of it and believe it were to encroach on the profession of women to practise the precepts they give them or not to be before them in the violation of so fair Maxims for Honor and Chastity Is is not a strange custom and worthie of reproof to see men take all kind of liberty without allowing the least One might think by their tyranny that Marriage was instituted to only make Jailers for Women There is much ingratitude as well as injustice in it to exact a fidelity which one will not return when the obligations to it are equall Women have wit and conscience enough to beleeve that revenge would cost them too dear if they lost their own Vertue to take satisfaction of their Husbands viciousnesse Octavia did not desist from loving Mark Antony singularly whilest he made love to Cleopatra and left a great Beauty at Rome to possesse a lesse in Aegypt They that have this constancy deserve admiration but those that have it not have some colour for their weaknesse Example pleads for them for they imagine that it is not likely that a Chrystal should resist blows that might break Diamonds or Marble If I may be allowed to give my opinion after my prayers since God loved one of his disciples more tenderly then the rest one may have a particular inclination without blemishing chastity that doth not banish affections but regulates and moderates them yet we must take heed that kindnesse which in its own nature is a vertue be not made a vice in the practice not to be couzened in it the end and designe of it must be examined as soon as it begins and we must assure our selves that it is forbidden if we pretend to any thing but affection since dishonest love is the trade of those that do not spend their time in some commendable imployment we must believe that Chastity is preserved by occupation and corrupted by idlenesse Diana hunts and Pallas studies but Venus is idle Of Courage MEN think that Courage is a Qualitie inseparable from them and by a peculiar priviledge essentially tyed to their Sex without bringing other ground or title to it but their own presumption But he that had much adoe to imagine that there was so much as one brave or valiant Woman in the world made them full reparation for so great an injury and though he was accounted the wisest and most powerful of all men he lost that high advantage among women which weakned him so far as to bring him to Sacrifice to Idols Histories are full of their generous action for the preservation of their countrey for love of their husbands and for the Religion of their ancestors As the strength of the braine is shewed in walking a top on high without feare of falling so the force of our wits is expressed in looking upon precipices and danger without disorder The stupid have not this advantage when they expect hazards nor the rash when they seeke them none but the wise defend themselves from misfortune without either being precipitate or insensible since Courage should always be with a free deliberation and that it is neither a forced vertue nor a parly natural I can hardly hold them generous whose constitution makes so light as they are transported without any cause nor those that Nature has made so heavy as they cannot resent injuries and offences This is either an excesse or a defect of sensibleness and may be better cald stupidity or levity then courage If there must be Judicionsnes in all the discourse of an Orator prudency should be found in all the actions of a wise man and without that let Polyphemus be never so strong it will not save his sight and though Vlysses be the weaker the Gyant with all his strength cannot defend himselfe against him They that know the temper of women will confesse that they have a great disposition to true Courage being neither cold to a degree of insensibleness nor hot to a degree of rashness Couragious persons do not throw themselves into all occasions as if they had as many lives to lose as the world had hazards misfortunes let them set never so good a face on it even the bravest find some paine to expose themselves for that which depends meerely on opinion and are unwilling to commit a fault which even the losse of their lives cannot repaire Temerity is punished in the other world after it hath bin blamed in this those that have this vertue will not allow anger or dispaire the name of Courage and I cannot thinke that men have reason to call women fearfull because they are not hasty unadvised Those that say I make an Apology for slackness wil not take it ill if I answer That they make one for brutality What glory is there to cut one anothers throat and what advantage but the fashion to brag of a Profession which the Gâ—thes were masters of and hath given us both the rules examples of What is easier then to let our selves be carried away with fury and follow the Motions of our passions Those that the vulgar call valiant are like glasses which one can scarce touch without breaking They know not that wits like bodies are alwayes most sensible where they are weakest If it be generosity to be tetchy and complaine every foot the sick have more then the found old men then young fools more then wise men when seare and boldness are reasonable they oppose not one another the one opens our eyes for a prevision of misfortunes the other animates us to a resistance of them when they are present I doe not thinke that any body will deny this faire quality to women when they shall have read this story which Tit. Livius hath left us to their advantage which he confesseth to have writ with love
ruine of time and the defects of nature to be more remarkable in themselves The care and time that is spent in curious dresling is reprovable when it is excessive or when the intentions are not allowable I do not believe that there is any more harm to beautifie faces then to set precious stones or polish marble We azure wainscots paint images guild swords enrich garments We make even Temples brave why should ornament be forbidden to complexion or beauty when the designes are faire too since it is permitted to all things else Saint Ierome writing to Gaudensius about the cloaths of young Pacutula seemes to excuse the curiosity of women in very remarkable terms Their sex saith he is curious in ornaments and studies naturally the sumptuousnesse of cloaths in so much as I have seen many chast Ladies that dresse themselves very costly without having any aim in their designes but their particular contentment by a certain harmless complacency or satisfaction This inclination is so natural to them as heretofore many Ladies did entomb their ornaments with themselves to carry into the other world that which they had loved so much in this Those that dislike these indifferent things which the intention either justifies or perverts imagine that they have a great advantage over women when they call them the divels fortresses without considering though ill spirits work sometimes in their actions and clothes that they are no more guilty of the ill that happens when their designes are irreprochable then thunder is when the divels make it light upon men or Churches Yet this discourse doth not enlarge it self to the defence of vice or the justification of licentiousnesse Modesty is a powerfull charme without it beauty is soul-lesse and other Vertues may deserve admiration that only merits love Fxcessive Ornaments add not to Beauty nor diminish deformity since in Pythagoras his Opnion an ill favoured woman set out very brave is laughter for Heaven and lamentation for earth Women that glory so much in their rich cloathes have nothing but what may be had in Shops and if they were well considered it would be found that they abuse our eyes as those old Images which are all hollowed within with rottennesse But is it not a shameful thing to see that men are more set on these Superfluities then women Hortensius a Romane Orator passed halfe the day in considering and sprusing himself in stead of learning his Speeches And without going back so far we are in an Age where men professe more then ever this blameable curiosity I believe if one had well examined the set faces and Baby looks of a great many one would give them the quality of Aristogares that took so much pains to make himself fine and genteel that at last he was called Madam To speak truly they are as far out of their design as the decency of their Sex because they are never lesse pleasing then when they force themselves to constraine others to think so Negligence is more advantageous to them then studiednesse and freedome then reservation Therefore me thinks that a Poet sayes well that marks that Theseus was not brave when Ariadne gave him such proofs of her love It is to be feared Ladies that too Chevaliere are beyond modesty Men too much Ladyed are short of Manhood I do not wonder that Pompey lost so many Battles since his men had so much care of their faces as they were never hurt but in their backs But to return to what concernes our purpose Caesar seeing his daughter Iulia Augusta too curiously brave considered her a great while without gracing her with a word expressing his dissatisfaction by his silence The next day seeing her more modestly drest he told her with a smiling face That that habit became better the daughter of Augustus the reply of this Princesse was not lesse considerable then the admonishment of the Emperour I was dressed yesterday said she for my Husband but to day for my Father The wisest allow women to please many to subject one but after they have made that choice then they are forbidden the continuance of their designe It must be acknowledged that if women dressed themselves only for complacency to marriage there would be not so much excesse and Husbands would not complain so much that profusion introduces poverty and jealousie into their Families I do not wonder that women have so much ado to walk since most commonly they carry three or four houses hanging at their eares Of Iealousie ONe cannot lose that without sorrow that is possessed with love and preserved with carefulnesse therefore Jealousie is not so unjust as many imagine because it makes us only fear that another should dispoile us of that which we believe should be only ours Is it such a fault to watch the keeping what we love principally in a time where fidelity is so rare as there is none but those that are assured to be deceived that do not fear to be so If the goods of fortune and body yeild to those of the mind so their losse must be most sensible when affections which we believe we have deserved by ours are taken from us it is the greatest stealth as they are the most valuable proprieties And indeed to reason well of it Love is an Empire only of two Persons which cannot be extended further without destruction in it obedience soveraignty are reciprocal It is so covetous as it would not lose so much as a cast of an eye or a haire Indeed it is no lesse folly to believe that there is no love left in the mind that begins to be jealous then to conclude that there is no life in one that is but sick on the contrary pain and sensiblenesse are never in dead bodies so jealousie is never found in hatred or in difference It must needs be that this passion has likelihood of reason since God himself heretofore allowed husbands to try the fidelity of their wives with a water which they called the water of probation or jealousie If all suspicions were extravagant or unjust God would have interdicted them not have cured them by so solemn remedies he would have shown rather a detestation then compassion on them So those are grosly deceived that think they have criminated jealousie when they maintaine that it derogates from the opinion of our owne merits or the fidelity of the person we love if one examine well this passion it rises not commonly from that distrust and we do at the same time believe our selves lovely and others beloved 'T is a fear that discovers not so much our own weaknesse as it confesseth the merit of our enemies We do but the same in this as we do for treasures or other things which we cannot love without fear of losing As the most firm in Religion may have doubts so the most confident in love are capable of some suspicion The strongest trees are shaken by the wind though the roots be fixed whiles
the leavs and branches are tossed One would wish to have no il belief but reports conjectures shake us rather to a fearful then a confident conclusion The mind suffers much in this irresolution and apparencies trouble much when one cannot directly judg of the falshood or truth of them There are both good and ill examples both to settle and to shake us and ordinarily our thoughts light upon them that persecute us rather then those that ease us That of Penelope comforts us when we represent to ourselves that her fidelity lasted five twenty years in the absence of her Husband but that of Messalina tyrannizes over us and awakes our suspicions when we think of our infamous impurities our minds are balanced on both sides but the misfortune is that conjectures having given the Alarm that by too strict an enquiry we either find or invent somewhat to change our doubts into beliefs Should we not rest our selves after having had a tryal of a person and may effects for testimonies of the affection But all those proofs keep us not from vexing our selves because fear which is not in our power interprets ill the least appearances and buries it selfe even in false objects when it finds no true What tryal soever we have had of fidelity when love hath nothing left to desire it hath all to fear It is the natural course of our passions that threaten change when they are in extremes and ruine themselves without any occasion only because they are humane Hypocrates has made a good maxime to advertise us that bodies are in danger of sickness when they are too high and strong But a Poet has a better conceit for the alteration of minds raised with too violent an affection The will deserves as well a wheele of inconstancy for her passions as fortune for her favours in the top there is no subsistence long either by reason of misfortune or imbecility Those that are in the highest pitch in love are like those which are on the top of too great Elevations their head growes dizzy and though no body touch them they reel till they fall of themselves meerly by the fear of falling When the Sun is at noon it begins to decline because when it cannot pass that point it retires and removes it self when nothing drives it to its setting or another Hemispheere Our minds seem to have the same motions and distaste followes liking by an order that is as natural as that which makes night succeed the day or ebbs and floods in the sea We feel our selvs insensibly weary even of the loveliest things and though the soul be immortal in her own nature yet she seems in her actions to express a youthfulness and age as bodies do Socrates said that the Gods did strive to mingle pleasure pain one with another but when they could not do that yet at least they tyed them together that the alternative succession may prevent insolence and despair This happens often without our own voluntary contributions and as we slip down from joy to sorrow so oftentimes we perceive our love change into coldnesse or indifferency The diseases of the mind as wel as the body are formed most commonly without our consent we lose the quiet of our soul as our health all at once without any prevision of the change and not knowing how to find the cause or remedy of this passion no more then of a Quartain Ague But I have too long spoke against my own mind as well as reason in favour of a passion that ruines loves reputation and disorders the souls tranquillity Reason ingenders love and love jealousie but the one and the other resemble little wormes that corrupts the matter that forms them The one kills his father and the other his mother How moderate soever this passion be it is alwayes dangerous and in this case there must be injustice committed forbidding the practice by reason of the abuse because they are too much fastned to one another As there is no little Serpent without some Venom there is no so well tempered jealousie that does not produce many misfortunes Those that compare it to Ivy do it very fitly because as that growes ordinarily but upon old heaps of ruines so this passion wreaths it selfe most commonly about tortured and dejected spirits We see Ivy flourishing with green upon trees that are dry and sapples so the older men grow this passion youthens the more and becomes the stronger in such as age or craziness of wit infeebles or stupifies other plants have their root at the foot Ivy has every where and even more root then leaves Jealousy roots it self every day more and more and insinuates it self more inseparably into the soul then Ivy can do into trees or walls It is but the middle kind of wits that are capable of this contagion excellent ones are above it and mean ones below these are ignorant of the occasions and the other unmoved with them It is in this that stupidity arrives at the same point as wisdom and Clowns are as happy as Philosophers otherwise those that afflict themselvs for a mis-fortune where there is no remedy but patience do entertain this error in the world and have a whole moon in their head when they think they have but halfe an one on their forhead It is to be very senselesse to afflict ones selfe without obliging any body and make a damnation in this world for fear of missing it in the next If the mistrust of jealous ones be knowne they augment the il instead of the redress if it be not it is superfluous and it is a hidden pain which silence and modesty render more supportable I do not wonder if jealous ones be lean their passion feeds on nothing but phantasmes Good wits restrain their curiosity while indifferent ones let it loose to learn what should be unknown not considering that in the commerce of this world the most exact do not make best their accounts If we could regulate well our opinions we should suppresse many enemies Melancholy and meditations entertain jealousie diversion and forgetfulnesse put it away Wit as well as sight wearies when it is fixt too long on one object In these occasions we must overcome as the Parthians do by flying and rather divert our thoughts then direct them with too much intentivenesse it is an enemy with poisoned weapons and his approach is enough to overthrow when the memory has once received it reason comes often too late for a resistance One may hinder the entrance but it never goes out before it has ruined the host Cydippus among the Romans was so pleased to see buls baited as he thought so much of it all night as he rose in the morning with hornes on his head This spectacle pleasing him he had entertained his fancy with it and in the end his imagination did him this ill office 'T is thus that many make their heads ake without considering that their unquietnesse and curiosity is