we ought so much to forbid our selves as that which pleases us most our Inclination is no less deprav'd than their Taste it proceeds from a poison'd Spring it comes not from Nature sound and well but from that which is corrupted I approve mightily the Opinion of them who compare the Amity of Election to the Sun and the Love of Inclination to the Moon for the former is always equal and the latter is commonly unconstant full of Errour and of Spots The Moon of her self has no Brightness Inclination alone has no Conduct It has need to borrow that from Reason And above all after the same manner as the Moon appearing sometimes with the Sun does not make the Day for all that nor contribute any assistance towards the Enlightening of the World so when by good Fortune the Love of Inclination meets with that of Election it ought not to govern us or make it self our Master but on the contrary it ought to borrow all it's Light and Direction from the other But to improve this Comparison a little further I could wish to this purpose that the Ladies would imitate Her whom the Holy Spirit describes in sacred Writ as having the Moon under her Feet and being all over inviron'd and as it were cloathed with the Sun I mean that they ought not utterly to throw away Inclination but to conquer and moderate it that there should be in Love a little of Humour and a great deal of Prudence That Amity has no need of Inclination but in its Birth but has need of Consideration as long as it endures If it be necessary that the one be the Mother of it it is so too that the other be the Nurse and Mistress And in truth Inclination is like an imprudent Mother who loves her Children too well They must be wrested from her Bosom as soon as they are brought forth for fear that in Caressing and Embracing she should stifle them After all this Inclination is nothing else for the most part but a Phantasm the most learned find it difficult to express the Cause or the Nature of it It is so occult and hidden that many not being able to comprehend the Love that it gives Birth to they say it is they know not what which forms it self they know not how and which conquers by they know not what sort of Charms There are some that teach upon the Foundations of Plato's Philosophy That Inclination comes from Remembrance and that our Souls having view'd each other in another World before it seems that this is not the beginning of a Love but the continuance of 〈◊〉 That this is not properly the Birth of an Affection but the awakening of it Insomuch that according to their Opinion our Souls call to mind their former Alliance no otherwise than as two persons that have mutually lov'd heretofore when they see each other again after a long Separation they are surprized at first sight while the Imagination and Memory are at labour to discover and recollect those that touch them There are some others that attribute an Inclination to the Stars and who will have it that the same Cause which produces Flowers in the Bosom of the Earth produces also the Sympathy that is in our Souls Some again ascribe it to the four Qualities that they fansie are mingled in us namely Heat and Cold Dryness and Moisture And others make short Work of it and ascribe it to Destiny But that I may not trouble my self or the Reader with the Opinions of all those that deceive themselves and who seek the Original of the Inclination there where it is not it seems to me that we may philosophize rightly to proceed only from the Love of our selves We love all that which resembles us even to our Pictures we cherish our Image in all things where we see it We love all that which comes from us Fathers for these reasons love their Children Painters their Draughts Artificers their Work It is from hence that we may learn the great danger there is where the Love of Inclination engages us for since we very often love our selves on that side where we are most Imperfect and we embrace even our very shadow like Narcissus It follows from thence that we are in danger to love the Imperfections of others if it happens that they resemble our own If the love of our selves be blind that of Inclination is so likewise this is an Effect that must carry the resemblance of its Cause But if this Love of Inclination were not so dangerous and so full of darkness what need is there of this Sympathy or natural Conformity And why may not Love place it there where it was not Love as well as Death equals all things and makes a likeness where it does not find it In loving as well as dying both Kings and Shepherds find themselves at the same point Herein they are both Men equal in respect of Affection and of Weakness Love is like a Fire which can kindle another any where It does not only transmit it self into the subject it burns but also has power to dispose that to receive it It removes the qualities contrary to its own to put in others It drives the Enemy from the place it lays Siege to before it does render it self Master of it And to say the truth as there are hidden Forms in the Bosom of Matter which natural Agents are able to excite and produce so there are hidden Inclinations in our Souls which Conversation and Familiarity may give birth to There needs no more but to seek well after them and if we find them not at first yet a little time usually produces them How often do we see some Persons that distast us at the first and who nevertheless after a little Conversation do highly please us And others again who ravish us at the first sight and afterwards displease us as much Love may succeed to Aversion as well as Aversion to Love Experience sufficiently shows this and as those Trees that are of different kinds being well grafted do not fail to bring forth Fruit so the Amity that is formed between two Persons of different Humours may not fail to succeed well Plato had some reason to say That Love is a Teacher of Musick for as much as an Affection may breed as well in an inequality of Humours as a harmony may be made up of unequal Voices And indeed what sort of Conformity can we find between the young and the old who yet nevertheless do often mutually Love and Caress each other What proportion or likeness is there between the Loadstone and the Iron If the one drew the other out of Sympathy and Resemblance would not Iron be rather attracted by Iron than by the Stone to which it has a great deal less likeness But to the end that we may the better see how shameful and unjust this Love of Inclination is it is enough to consider that they who love us
and Contemplation improves the Judgment But among these noble Occupations of the Soul if we would determine which is the most important it must be confessed that Reading furnishes both the other And without that our Contemplation would be of no advantage and our Conversation without pleasure It is necessary to the Ladies of greatest Wit as well as to those of the meanest in that it gives to the former much the greater Lustre as it mends the Imperfections and Defects of the latter It renders these tolerable and makes them admirable And to say the truth Reading shews us many things which our own reasoning could never discover it adds solidity to our thoughts and a charming sweetness to our discourse It finishes and compleats that which Nature has but only begun Nor is it strange that we should receive so great advantage from this since the best Inventions in the world have ow'd their Original to Reading join'd with Judicious Thinking and the one is as the Father the other a Mother to the sinest Thoughts And because neither of these separately can produce any thing of perfection it is easie to comprehend why they who have no love for Books can speak nothing but what is trivial and their conversation is no better than a persecution of their company That a good Wit may set off its self well enough without any thing of Study as they say a good Face needs no Ornaments is what I cannot without dissimulation allow But on the contrary it must be said that as the stomachs which have greatest heat have need of most food to keep the body in good plight and maintain life so the brightest Wits have most need of reading to acquire thereby politeness and fulness and especially to moderate that vigour which cannot succeed but by chance when it is altogether alone It is then in this incomparable School they must learn what is excellent to entertain the company that is good and to be a remedy against the bad Here the Ladies must receive antidotes against the persecutions of those whose discourse is all Idle and Impertinent It is Reading that renders Conversation most grateful and Solitude least tedious There are others nevertheless of another opinion and such as think that 't is sufficient for learning the best things in the world to enjoy the conversation of good Wits without putting ones self to the trouble of turning over Books But tho I grant that the Conversation of Worthy Persons is very necessary and may as a living School influence us most powerfully while we see the rule and an excellent example together Yet it seems to me that they who content themselves with the company of those that Know much might become more compleat by reading their works It is my Opinion that if Conversation gives readiness Reading affords abundance that the former distributes only what this latter acquires and is liberal of the riches which reading heaps together Moreover since men take more pains about what they write than what they speak and no man employs so much care in that which is to endure but for a moment as in that which is to endure for ever It must be own'd that we may rather expect to find excellent things in the Writings of great Persons than in their Discourse for while they let nothing pass in their Books that is not finisht it is not possible but many things imperfect will slip from them in discourse and conversation Besides there needs no more but an agreeable voice or with some a great noise a sweet accent or a good grace to charm those that hear But there is nothing to abuse or impose upon them that read It is much more easie to deceive the Ear than the Eye Discourses pass on with but a superficial notice taken of them and hardly have we the leisure to observe their defects But Writings remain steadily exposed to the Censures of those that judge and the faults of them are never pardon'd Herein there lies as I think a very good reason for the reading of good Books that the great Wits have in them left us their best performances and they have employ'd their watchings and studies more to the Writing than Speaking well However if it be necessary for the proof of this to join Experience with Reason what can any desire for the Ornament of the Mind that may not be met with in Books We may find there Instructions of every make we may see Vertue under every sort of Visage We may there discover Truth in every representation of it we can desire we may see her with all her strength among the Philosophers with all her purity among the Historians and with all her beauty postures and sine disguises in the Orators and Poets And from this so agreeable variety it is possible for all sorts of humours and conditions to find content and instruction It is here that Truth is not disorder'd by Passions that she speaks without fear as well as without design and dreads not to enter the Palaces nor even the Presence of the greatest Monarchs For this reason too is Reading extreamly requisite to the Ladies for since they want Mute Instructors as well as Princes and as well Beauty as Royalty does not so easily find Teachers as Flatters It is necessary that for the apprehending their defects they should learn sometimes from the admonitions of the Dead That which the Living dare not say to them It is in Books alone that they can remark the imperfections of their minds as in their Mirrors they discern those of their Faces It is there they will find Judges that cannot be corrupted either by their Love or Hatred It is there that the most fair as well as the least so are equally treated having to do with Arbitrators that use the Eyes they have only to put a difference between Vertue and Vice BUT HOWEVER since all Books are not excellent and there are many which truly deserve to be brought to no light but by the fire the printing of which should rather have been hindred than the reading them It must be acknowledged that there is no less difficulty in choosing good Books to employ us when we are alone than to choose good Wits for our entertainment in company So that if any find they must not rely upon themselves in this matter for the making of a good choice they ought at least to follow the counsel of the most knowing and most vertuous for fear that in reading they may happen to infect the Mind or debauch the Conscience I cannot forbear in this place to reprehend the tyranny of certain Wits who form among themselves a kind of Cabal for the censure of all things and think the approbation of their Cabal must be first obtained before a thing can deserve to be approved by others As the value of Money derives it self from the Ordinance of the Prince so must the value of Books and the purity of Language depend upon
entertain an eternal Sedition within our selves We cannot be happy but by halves our Inclination is upon the rack while our Reason is satisfied It is true that is said of Love that without Inclination it cannot long subsist Without this an Amity has not an entire Satisfaction nor even Confirmation It is a Building without Foundation which needs but a Touch or Blast to throw it down But to finish this Argument with the strongest Proof of all Since Love ceases to live when it ceases to reign and that it cannot divide its Power without losing it That we may sufficiently prove the Love of Inclination to be the most Sovereign and the most Legitimate it is enough to show that it is the most single and that it will never permit that we should love more than one thing As we can have but one Sympathy we cannot love perfectly more than one Object On the contrary as we can seek our Interest in several Persons when we find it not in one alone so this Love of Consideration may be divided it may seek what is profitable in one and what is agreeable and pleasing in another After all if Consideration and Inclination were to dispute before a Wise Judge that he might determine to which of the two Love does most lawfully belong as heretofore the two Mothers pleaded before Solomon for the living Child Inclination would at length have the advantage He would give Love to that since it can endure no Division of it as the other can and because it will possess it or lose it entirely AFTER WE have seen the Reasons which are given to prove that Inclination is the more strong in Amity it is time to examine those which may be brought to show that Election is the more assured and safe in such an important Concern It shall then suffice at the first to make it appear how much Inclination is dangerous to shew how blind it is For as the Dawn precedes the rising of the Sun so Knowledge ought to go before Love and however Sympathy does act without Choice and Light yet that which it does in a Moment causes oftentimes the repentance of the whole Life Election is not so forward nor ready 't is true and also it is not so unfortunate And I think Zeuxis return'd a very prudent Answer to those that reproach'd him for that he was long in finishing his Pieces I says he aâ— a long time in drawing a Picture because what I draw is to endure a long time One may say for a firm Affection that which he said for an excellent Picture It is necessary that a long Experience should precede a true Amity for fear lest a long Regret should follow an Election too lightly made This of Sympathy is an Agreement very suddenly made it often obliges it self without knowing to what Conditions and commonly signs without having look'd upon the Articles The Example of Dido alone sufficiently shews the tragick Effects of this Lightness The Poet had reason to say that her Love was blind and that it consisted of a Fire that had more heat than brightness And in truth I find in this Fable the Infelicity as well as the Blindness of this Love If Dido had an Inclination Aeneas had none at all as she was imprudent he was ungrateful History and Experience afford us Examples enough of this sort and when I make use of Fable I do this for Ornament to my Discourse not to give it greater Strength But to say truth is not this a very weak Reason to perswade a Woman to love me to say that I have a great Inclination for her The same Argument I bring to perswade Love may serve her for the refusal of giving it If I say I follow my Inclination in loving such a Person may not she say she follows hers in not loving me Is not her Aversion as well founded as my Sympathy If I wish that she would renounce her Humour to satisfie mine has not she right to pretend to the same advantage over me In truth I extreamly love what the Poets say of this matter They feign that Cupid has two sorts of Arrows the one of Gold the other of Lead the former gives Love the latter Hatred With the one he inflam'd Apollo with the other he chill'd Daphne Was not the Flight of this Shepherdess altogether as just as the Pursuit of the God If he sought her because of an Inclination to her she shunn'd him because she had an Aversion to him Besides what Assurance have we that any have an Inclination for us what Marks that are sufficiently certain can any give whereby to know it It is true that we may well perceive our own but whereby can we infallibly observe that of others This can only if at all be done by the means of Reason which ought to examine whether that which we take at first for true be not an Illusion or Fiction And to speak rationally of this thing when the Inclination surprises as sometimes it does our Reason so as to make us too easily fall in love with an Object Reason then is found like a Servant interested or corrupted that will engage her Mistress to her Disadvantage The Senâ—â— herein would often debauch the Spirit they are Servants that are traiterous or ignorant and bring false reports to their Master Iâ— it not then a great deal better that we love for the amiable Qualities that we see than for an Inclination that is hidden from us Why should we entertain a Love for which we know neither Cause nor good Reason This is in truth to love by chance here is nothing but Uncertainty There can never be an intire Satisfaction in our Love while we shall be in pain to know whether the Sympathy be equal on both sides We perceive a Wound without knowing the Hand that struck and are enslav'd by invisible Chains And I assure my self that if we would be curious to examine well that which has arrested us we should soon acknowledge our Errour and Imprudence If we did but light up a Lamp as Psyche did perhaps we should find with her that this Love is but a Child who fears to be seen lest we should know and despise his Weakness It is a great unhappiness that we have some Difficulty to undeceive our selves Though the Sentiments which are most natural are not the most reasonable yet as the Earth cherishes best those Weeds that it brings forth of it self more than the Plants that the Gardener sows in it So we seem to entertain more carefully the Affections that come from our natural Corruption than those that proceed from our Reason Nevertheless we ought to consider that as the Physician corrects the Appetite to make it relish what is wholesome nourishment So we ought also if we will be wise to regulate our minds that we may direct our Affections to right Objects We must of necessity treat our selves like sick Persons in this case there is nothing
only out of Inclination do affront us they do not love us at all for any Merit in us since very often they love before they know us and become amorous before they can well know whether we are amiable or not This is an effect of their Temper rather than Choice and in my Opinion we have no great Obligation to them for the doing that which they cannot hinder HAVING thus shown what there is of Good on of Evil in these two sorts of Amities it will be very easie to observe what will be the best life of them It is not necessary to divide but only to regulate them It is true that these are to our Minds like the two fansied Poles to the Heavens on which they turn these are the Poles of our Thoughts and Actions And as the one Pole of the Heavens is under our Feet while the other is elevated above our Heads so it seems fit that we have less regard to Inclination than to Election and this latter ought to serve us for a Star to guide our Love and Friendship by They say the Great Alexander had two Favourites whom he obliged after a very different fashion He lov'd Ephestion tenderly as the Companion of his Pleasures and Craterus strongly for the government of his Estate and Affairs As Emperour he esteem'd the one as Alexander he lov'd the other It is necessary to join these two sorts of Love together to make a perfect one lest Love being without Inclination be constrain'd or being without Election it be too Imprudent If there be no Consideration Love is without Conduct If there be no Sympathy in it 't is without much Pleasure and Sweetness In truth it seems as if these two Loves are in one Soul after the same manner that those two Twins of whom the Holy Scripture speaks were in the Womb of their Mother These are two Brothers of which the one is foremost in the Order of Nature but nevertheless he must not have the advantage of this The one is the more violent and impetuous the other is the more gentle and prudent And it is the unhappiness of our Minds as it was of their dying Father to encline more to the side of that love which is the more natural and which proceeds from Sympathy But as the Mother of Jacob gave him means to supplant his Brother iâ— ought also to be that reason should direct as how to regulate Inclination to the 〈◊〉 that Election may be the Mistress of it After all if any should demand of me the Rules that are most necessary to be observed in our Amity as well for the satisfaction of the Conscience as of the Mind in my Opinion there is no better than this To believe that our Affection is unjust whenever it is contrary to that we owe to God As the Ark was between the Cherubims so 't is necessary that God be present between two Hearts that mutually love This ought to be the Knot of our Loves that we may render them strong and reasonable And to say as that Reverend Bishop who has writ so Divinely on the Love of God Love is the more commendable on Earth by so much as it is the more like that which is between the Wise and Pure Inhabitants of Heaven Of the Complaisant or Pleasing Humour IT IS TRUE that there is nothing of more importance than to know the Art to Please and to make ones self beloved in all Companies As we have all an Inclination towards Society we ought to enquire after the means to succeed well in it and to gain the Affection and Esteem of those we meet when we are in Conversation or in Business It is true that among all the Qualities necessary to this there is not one that seems more requisite than Complaisance or Courteousness since without that all the other are without Gracefulness and are as it were dead But it is also very certain that the Use of this is very difficult Most easily does this offend either in Excess or Defect If it be not attended with a great deal of Judgment and Discretion then the Ladies that are too Complaisant pass for Loose or Affected and if they are not enough so they shall be thought to be Disdainful or Uncivil There is not less danger in receiving this than in giving it Those Ladies that render too much Complaisance are liable to be troublesome those that receive too much are in danger to be seduced There are those that will mingle Flattery with Complaisance to bring them into Error as Wine is mingled with Poison to draw down the deadly Draught There is therefore danger lest many should take the Poison for Food and lest they drink the Flattery while they think themselves receiving only a simple Complaisance Commonly the one of these is so strictly join'd to the other that there is need of a great deal of Prudence to be able to separate them And that we may the better succeed in this it seems to me convenient to examine in the first place what there is of Good or of Evil iâ— the Complaisant Humour to the end we may learn with the better method and the greater facility wherein the Use of this is allow'd or forbidden to us AS THE Complaisance which I must condemn is nothing else but the Art to deceive pleasantly it must be acknowledg'd that the most pernicious of its Effects are that it makes an appearance pass for truth and a feigned Friendship for a true one Those Spirits that are most dissembled constrain themselves to appear Genuine and Sincere to the end they may gain the Credit of Confidents and Friends But it is herein that their Artifice is discovered and it comes to be known that they have not that Freedom and Ingenuity they pretend to in that they over-act their Pretences to iâ— Though Patrâ—â—lus made use of all the Armour of Achilles and some of his Weapons yet he would not venture to use his Javeline because this was of such a sort as that Achilles alone was well able to manage it In like manner though a dissembled Person does take all the appearances of one that is Vertuous yet she should not dare to meddle with the pretence to Freeness or â—â—genuousness of Temper This is a quality that cannot possibly sit well upon her she cannot counterfeit Plaâ—â—ness without betraying that she wâ—â—â—â— it As the Câ—â—â—leons take all sorts of Colours from the things they lie upon excepting only the white so â—â—â—se disguised Souls will take all sorts of â—â—â—pes will appear under all forms of Countenance but after all their Artifice it will be always observ'd That it is impossible to serve themselves well of a pretence to Freedom and Candour As upon painted Faces we may commonly see both the Paint and the ugliness too so we may see at the same time upon the looks that are too Complaisant the plain traces of Dissimulation and Knavery The Ladies have but too much experience
is after this manner that it abuses both Reproofs and Praises and makes the Laws either severe or favourable as it will It throws Oil into Fire it foments and inflames yet more the most debauched Inclinations it encourages to the committing of evil those that as yet boggle a little at it it le ts loose the Reins to the most wild Desires when a just Fear had restrain'd them It speaks to us as the accursed Julia to her Son Bassianus You can do whatever you will This young Emperour being become most monstrously in love with his own Mother when at a certain time he saw her with her Neck and Brests uncover'd and sigh'd in her hearing without daring to tell the Cause the Motions of his lascivious Love not having yet entirely stifled those of his Respect and Fear This complaisant Courtisan took away from him all Apprehension she hardned him in his Passion instead of reproving him She was not asham'd to have her own Son her Gallant and to be Mother and Mistriss to the same Person What is there so horrid and impious but Complaisance can advise to it It can dispence with any thing there are no Passions so extravagant but this can breed them in the Soul or maintain them there When the vile Myrrha fell in love with her own Father she found a Compliance in her Nurse who afforded her Means to succeed in her infamous Design instead of diverting her from it When Dido was passionately in love with a Stranger her Sister too complaisant in the Case added to the Flames instead of striving to quench them Complaisance approves all that which we will and takes but little care to perswade tho' without Eloquence since it advises only to that which pleases The Ills that Concupiscence causes only to bud in us Complaisance makes them increase and bring forth Fruit. If Concupiscence be the Mother of Wickedness this is the Nurse of it it finishes and exalts that which the other left but low and beginning It finds Excuses for every thing It said to the Wretch Bassianus when he was in love with his Mother that the Will of Kings ought to be their only Rule And they being above all others there is no reason they should be depriv'd of the Pleasures they desire by submitting themselves to the forbiddings of another Man This said to Myrrha that the Gods themselves had no Regard to Nearness of Blood that Juno was the Sister and Wife of Jupiter and that the Motions of Love do not at all oppose those of Nature It told Dido that the Dead do not mind at all what the Living do that there is no Fidelity due to him that is not any longer and that Sichaeus was not jealous in his Tomb of that which Aeneas might do at Carthage This has in it a readiness to undertake the most horrid Enterprises this was the Sister of Dido that corrupted her this was the Nurse of Myrrha that led her to the fatal Precipice this was the Mother of Baessianus that debauch'd her own Son It encourages those Women that hesitate and tremble it teaches those that are ignorant it hardens those that are scrupulous and fortifies them that are weak It is for this Reason that Complaisance is so well receiv'd when any have ill Designs because instead of contradicting or reproving these it gives the Means to carry them on and accomplish them It is from hence that the terrible Guards about the Persons of Kings cannot hinder this from entring into Palaces It is for this that it is every where receiv'd with such a gracious Countenance and especially in Courts where there must be nothing used but supple Cringing and where Licentiousness will not be reprov'd It is lastly for this Reason that the Amorous and the Courtiers strive to keep the Fair and the Princes in Errour to the end they may maintain themselves in their Favour Let us not dissemble in this matter and while we are speaking of this base and cowardly Complaisance let us not render our selves guilty of the Crime we condemn The Complaisant round about a Man that is in favour are as Shadows about a Body in the Sun-shine If one removes â—â—mself they are stirr'd with the same Motion if one sweats they wipe their Faces if one be a cold their Faces are frozen if we speak these are but Echo's to repeat our Words They are Shadows which have no Solidity and fly from us when we think to lay hold on them Voices without a Soul which Interest and not Truth drives from the Breasts of Flatterers How unprofitable to us is such a Complaisance Have we any Assistance from a Shadow that follows us Have we any Consolation from an Echo that pities us But alas how dangerous is this Complaisance If you speak Blasphemies this Echo will answer them run to any manner of Wickedness this Shadow will follow you This Echo repeats the Speeches of the Impious as well as of the Just and this Shadow follows the Bodies that are Sick as well as those that are sound Unhappy Compassion that knows very well how to destroy us in a good Fortune but knows not how to comfort us as it ought under a bad one Deceitful Complaisance that stays with us but only while our gaudy Days last and flies away like the Birds that change their Country when the Winter approaches May we not after all this say That Prosperity as well as Adversity has but few true Friends since as the one wants them that should comfort it the other is no less in want of those that should admonish As the Miserable have none to show them some grounds of Hope so they that are Happy are no less destitute of such as should warn them to fear If Compassion be dumb in the presence of the Afflicted Complaisance is so in the presence of the Vicious the one is careful not to keep at too great distance from a good Fortune the other sometimes fears to approach an evil one See here that Complaisance is the Poison of the Great the Enchantment of the Court the Enemy of Truth and Mother of all Vice AND NEVERTHELESS how much Mischief soever it does we have no small Difficulty to defend our selves from it it is an agreeable Murderer the Wounds of it please us and when it kills we cannot tell how to complain I grant there are some that have Remedies as well as Vlysses against this fatal Syren who smiles to make others weep and wracks those Vessels that she has allur'd to her by her Songs and who appears beautiful but is indeed a Monster Certainly if there be some that are Enemies to Complaisance there are a great many more that suffer themselves to be enchanted with it If there are some few that resemble Theodosius in this that they are invincible to their Commendations and that they chuse rather to endure Slander than Flattery There are many more like Antipater who are willing to dissemble their