withall when it is received they have a power and facultie by a milde heat of the naturall spirits within them and with a delicate and foeminine tendernesse to concoct digest change and convert it into another nature and qualitie for that the paps have within them naturally the like temperature and disposition answerable unto it now these teats which spout out milke from the cocks of a conduct are so framed and disposed that it floweth not foorth all at once neither do they send it away suddenly but nature hath so placed the dug that as it endeth one way in a spongeous kinde of flesh full of small pipes and made of purpose to transmit the milke and let it distill gently by many little pores and secret passages so it yeeldeth a nipple in maner of a faucet very fit and ready for the little babes mouth about which to nuzzle and nudgell with it prety lips it taketh pleasure and loveth to be tugging and lugging of it but to no purpose and without any fruit or profit at all had nature provided such tooles and instruments for to engender and bring foorth a childe to no end I say had she taken so good order used so great industry diligence and forecast if withall she had not imprinted in the heart of mothers a woonderfull love and affection yea and an extraordinarie care over the fruit of their wombe when it is borne into the world for Of creatures all which breath and walke upon the earth in sight None is there wretched more than man new borne into this light And whosoever saith thus of a yoong infant newly comming forth of the mothers wombe maketh no lie at all but speaketh trueth for nothing is there so imperfect so indigent and poore so naked so deformed so foule and impure than is man to see to presently upon his birth considering that to him in maner alone nature hath not given so much as a cleane passage and way into this light so furred he is all over polluted with blood so ful of filth and ordure when he entreth into the world resembling rather a creature fresh killed slaine than newly borne that no bodie is willing to touch to take up to handle dandle kisse and clip it but such as by nature are lead to love it and therefore whereas in all other living creatures nature hath provided that their udders and paps should be set beneath under their bellies in a woman onely she hath seated them aloft in her breasts as a very proper and convenient place where shee may more readily kisse embrace coll and huggle her babe while it sucketh willing thereby to let us understand that the end of breeding bearing and rearing children is not gaine and profit but pure love and meere affection Now if you would see this more plainly proved unto you propose if you please and call to remembrance the women and men both in the olde world whose hap was either first to beare children or to see an infant newly borne there was no law then to command and compell them to nourish and bring up their yoong babes no hope at all of reciprocall pleasure or thanks at their hands that indured them no expectance of reward and recompense another day to be paied from them as due debt for their care paines and cost about them nay if you goe to that I might say rather That mothers had some reason to deale hardly with their yoong infants and to beare in minde the injuries that they have done them in that they endured such dangers and so great paines for them As namely when the painfull throwes as sharpe as any dart In travell pinch a woman neere and pierce her to the hart Which midwives Iunoes daughtersthen do put her to poore wretch With many a pang when with their hand they make her body stretch But our women say It was never Homerus surely who wrote this but Homeris rather that is to say some Poetresse or woman of his poeticall veine who had bene herselfe at such a busines and felt the dolourous pangs of child-birth or els was even then in labour and upon the point to be delivered feeling a mixture of bitter and sharpe throwes in her backe belly and flanks when shee powred out these verses but yet for all the sorow and deare bargaine that a mother hath of it this kinde and naturall love doth still so bend incline and leade her that notwithstanding she be in a heat still upon her travell full of paines and after-throwes panting trembling and shaking for very anguish yet she neglecteth not her sweet babe nor windeth or shrinketh away from it but she turneth toward it she maketh to it she smileth and laugheth upon it she taketh it into her armes she hugleth it in her bosome and kisseth it full kindly neither all this whiles gathereth she any fruits of pleasure or profit but painfully God wot and carefully She laps it then in raggs full soft With swadling bands shewraps it oft By turnes she cooles and keeps it warme Loth is she that it should take harme And thus aswell by night as day Paives after paines she taketh ay Now tell me I pray you what reward recompense and profit do women reape for all this trouble and painfull hand about their little ones None at all surely for the present and as little in future expectance another day considering their hopes are so farre off and the same so uncertaine The husbandman that diggeth and laboureth about his vine at the Acquinox in the Spring presseth grapes out of it and maketh his vintage at the Aequinox of the Autumne He that soweth his corne when the starres called Pleiades doe couch and goe downe reapeth and hath his harvest afterwards when they rise and appeare againe kine calve mares foale hennes hatch and soone after there commeth profit of their calves their colts and their chickens but the rearing and education of a man is laborious his growth is very slow and late and whereas long it is ere he commeth to proofe and make any shew of vertue commonly most fathers die before that day Neocles lived not to see the noble victorie before Salanus that Themistocles his sonue atchived neither saw Miltiades the happie day wherein Cimon his sonne won the fielde at the famous battell neere the river Eurynidon Xantippus was not so happy as to heare Pericles his sonne out of the pulpit preaching and making orations to the people neither was it the good fortune of Ariston to be at any of his sonne Platoes lectures and disputations in Philosophie the fathers of Euripides and Sophocles two renowmed Poets never knew of the victories which they obteined for pronouncing and rehearsing their tragedies in open theater they might heare them peradventure when they were little ones to stammer to lispe to spel and put syllables together or to speake broken Greeke and that was all But ordinary it is that men live to see heare and know when
this day Iolaus because they take him to have beene Hercules his derling in so much as upon his tombe the manner is of lovers to take a corporall oth and assurance of reciprocall Love Moreover it is reported of Apollo that being skilfull in Physicke he saved the life of Alcestis being desperatly sicke for to gratifie Admetus who as he loved her intirely being his wife so he was as tenderly beloved of him For the Poets doe fable that Apollo being inamoured for pure Love Did serve Admetus one whole yeere As one that his hir'd servant were And here it falleth out in some sort well that we have made mention of Alcestis for albeit women have ordinarily much dealing with Mars yet the ravishment and furious fits of Love driveth them otherwhiles to enterprise somewhat against their owne nature even to voluntarie death and if the 〈◊〉 fables are of any credit and may goe currant for trueth it is evident by such reports as goe of Alcestis of Protesilaus and Euridice the wife of Orpheus that Pluto obeieth no other god but onely Love nor doth what they command And verily howsoever in regard of all other gods as Sophocles saith He cannot skill of equity of favour and of grace But onely with him Iustice straight and rigour taketh place Yet he hath good respect and reverence to lovers and to them alone he is not implacable nor inflixible And therefore a good thing it is my friend I confesse to be received into the religious confraternity of the Eleusinian mysteries but I see that the votaries professed in Love are in the other world in better condition accepted with Pluto And this I say as one who neither am too forward in beleeving such fables of Poets nor yet so backward as to distrust and discredit them all for I assure you they speake well and by a certaine divine fortune and good hap they hit upon the trueth saying as they do that 〈◊〉 but lovers returne from hell unto this light againe but what way and how they wot not as wandring indeed and missing of the right path which plato of all men first by the meanes of philosophy found out and knew And yet among the Aegyptians fables there be certaine small slender and obscure shadowes of the truth dispersed here an there Howbeit they had need of an expert and well experienced hunter who by small tracts knoweth how to trace and finde out great matters And therefore let us passe them over And now that I have discoursed of the force and puissance of Love being so great as it appeareth I come now to examine and consider the bountie and liberality thereof to mankinde not whether it conferre many benefits upon them who are acquainted with it and make use thereof for notable they be and well knowen to all men but whether it bringeth more and greater commodity to those that are studious of it and be amorous For Euripides howsoever he were a great favourit of Love yet so it is that he promised and admired that in it which of all others is least namely when he said Love teacheth Musicke marke when you will Though one before thereof had no skill For he might as well have said that it maketh a man prudent and witty who before was dull and foolish yea valiant as hath 〈◊〉 said who before was a coward like as they that by putting into fire burning peeces of wood make them firme and straight where as they were before weake and tender Semblably every amorous person becommeth liberall and magnificent although he had beene aforetime a pinching snudge For this base avarice and micherie waxeth soft and melteth by love like as iron in the fire in such sort as men take more pleasure to give away and bestow upon those whom they love than they doe to take and receive of others For yee all know well how Anytus the sonne of Anthenion was inamoured upon Alcebiades and when he had invited certaine friends and guests of his unto a sumptuous and stately feast in his house Alcibiades came thither in a maske to make pastime and after he had taken with him one halfe of the silver cups that stood upon the boord before them went his waies which when the guests tooke not well but said that the youth had behaved himselfe vere proudly and malipertly toward him Not so quoth Anytus for he hath dealt very courteously with me in that when he might have gone away withall he left thus much behinde for me Zeuxippus taking ioy hereat O Hercules quoth he you want but a little of ridding quite out of my heart that hereditary hatred derived and received from our ancestors which I have taken against Anytus in the behalfe of Socrates and Philosophie in case he were so kinde and courteous in his love Be it so quoth my father but let us proceed Love is of this nature that it maketh men otherwise melancholicke austere and hard to be pleased or conversed withall to become more sociable gentle and pleasant for as ye know well enough More stately is that house in sight Wherein the fire burnes cleere and bright and even so a man is more lightsome and jocund when he is well warmed with the heat of love But the vulgar sort of men are in this point somewhat perversly affected and beside all reason for if they see a flashing celestiall light in an house by night they take it to be some divine apparition and woonder thereat but when they see a base vile abject mind suddenly replenished with courage libertie magnificence desire of honour with grace favour and liberality they are not forced to say as Telemachus did in Homer Certes some god I know full well Is now within and here doth dwell And is not this also quoth Daphnaeus tell me I pray you for the love of all the Graces an effect of some divine cause that a lover who regardeth not but despiseth in a maner all other things I say not his familiar friends onely his fellowes and domesticall acquaintance but the lawes also and magistrates kings and princes who is afraid of nothing admireth esteemeth and observeth nothing and is besides so hardy as to present himselfe before the flashing shot of piercing lightning so soone as ever he espieth his faire love Like to some cocke of cravain 〈◊〉 le ts fall Or hangs the wing and daunted is withall He droups I say his courage is cooled his heart is done and all his animositie quailed quite And heere it were not impertinent to the purpose to make mention of Sappho among the Muses The Romans write in their history that Cacus the sonne of Vulcane breathed and flashed flames of fire from his mouth And in trueth the words that Sappho uttereth be mixed with fire and by her verses testifieth the ardent and flaming heat of her heart Seeking for love some cure and remedy By pleasant sound of Muses melodie as Philoxenus writeth But Daphnaeus unlesse peradventure the
stumbling blocks of feare of paine of lusts and desires And verily the deciding and judgement of this disputation lieth in the sense which feeleth aswell the one as the other and is touched with them both For say that the one doth surmount and hath the victorie it doth not therefore defeit utterly and destroy the other but drawen it is thereto perforce and making resistance the while As for example the wanton and amorous person when he checketh and reprooveth himselfe therefore useth the discourse of reason against the said passion of his yet so as having them both actually subsisting together in the soule much like as if with his hand he repressed and kept downe the one part enflamed with an hot fit of passion and yet feeling within himselfe both parts and those actually in combat one against the other Contrariwise in those consultations disputes and inquisitions which are not passionate and wherein these motions of the brutish part have nothing to do such I meane as those be especially of the contemplative part of the soule if they be equall and so continue there ensueth no determinat judgement and resolution but a doubt remaineth as if it were a certaine pause or stay of the understanding not able to proceed farther but abiding in suspense betweene two contrarie opinions Now if it chance to encline unto one of them it is because the mightier hath overweighed the other annulled it yet so as it is not displeased or discontent no nor contesteth obstinately afterwards against the received opinion To be short to conclude all in one generall word where it seemeth that one discourse and reason is contrarie unto another it argueth not by and by a conceit of two divers subjects but one alone in sundrie apprehensions and imaginations Howbeit whensoever the brutish and sensuall part is in a conflict with reason and the same such that it can neither vanquish nor be vanquished without some sense of grievance then incontinently this battell divideth the soule in twaine so as the warre is evident and sensible And not onely by this fight a man may know how the source and beginning of these passions differeth from that fountaine of reason but no lesse also by the consequence that followeth thereupon For seeing that possible it is for a man to love one childe that is ingenuous and towardly disposed to vertue as also affect another as well who is ill given and dissolute considering also that one may use anger unjustly against his owne children or parents and another contrariwise justly in the defence of children or parents against enemies and tyrants Like as in the one there is perceived a manifest combat and resistance of passion against reason so in the other there may be seene as evident a yeelding and obeisance thereof suffering it selfe to be directed thereby yea and willingly running and offering her assistance and helping hand To illustrate this by a familiar example it hapneth otherwhiles that an honest man espouseth a wife according to the lawes with this intention onely to cherish and keepe her tenderly yea and to companie with her duly and according to the lawes of chastitie and honestie howbeit afterwards in tract of time and by long continuance and conversing together which hath bred in his heart the affection of love he perceiveth by discourse of reason and findeth in himselfe that he loveth her more deerely and entirely than he purposed at the first Semblably yoong scholars having met with gentle and kinde masters at the beginning follow and affect them in a kinde of zeale for the benefit onely that they reape by them Howbeit afterwards in processe of time they fall to love them and so in stead of familiar and daily disciples they become their lovers and are so called The same is usually to be seene in the behaviour and carriage of men toward good magistrates in cities neighbours also kinsfolke and allies For they begin acquaintance one with another after a civill sort onely by way of dutie or necessitie and use but afterwards by little and little ere they be aware they grow into an affectionate love of them namely when reason doth concurre perswading drawing unto it that part of the mind which is the seat of passions and affections As for that Poet whosoever he was that first wrate this sentence Two sorts there be of bashfulnes the one we cannot blame The other troubleth many an hower and doth decay the same Doth he not plainely shew that he hath found in himselfe by experience oftentimes that even this affection by meanes of lingring delay and putting off from time to time hath put him by the benefit of good opportunities and hindred the execution of many brave affaires Vnto these proofes and alle gations precedent the Stoikes being forced to yeeld in regard they be so cleere and evident yet for to make some way of evasion and escape they call shame bashfulnesse pleasure joy and feare warinesse or circumspection And I assure you no man could justly finde fault with these disguisements of odious things with honest termes if so be they would attribute unto these passions the said names when they be raunged under the rule of reason and give them their owne hatefull termes indeed when they strive with reason and violently make resistance But when convinced by the teares which they shed by trembling and quaking of their joints yea by chaunge of colour going and comming in stead of naming Dolour and Feare directly come in with I wot not what pretie devised termes of Morsures Contractions or Conturbations also when they would cloke and extenuate the imperfection of other passions by calling lust a promptitude or forwardnes to a thing it seemeth that by a flourish of fine words they devise shifts evasions and justifications not philosophicall but sophisticall And yet verily they themselves againe do terme those joies those promptitudes of the will and warie circumspections by the name of Eupathies i. good affections and not of Apathies that is to say Impassibilities wherein they use the words aright and as they ought For then is it truly called Eupathie i. a good affection when reason doth not utterly abolish the passion but guideth and ordereth the same well in such as be discreet and temperate But what befalleth unto vicious and dissolute persons Surely when they have set downe in their judgement and resolution to love father and mother as tenderly as one lover may another yet they are not able to performe so much Mary say that they determine to affect a courtisan or a flatterer presently they can finde in their hearts to love such most deerely Moreover if it were so that passion and judgement were both one it could not otherwise be so soone as one had determined that he ought to love or hate but that presently love or hate would follow thereupon But now it falleth out clean contrarie for that the passion as it accordeth well with some judgements and obeieth
may be the cause that sonnes cary their Fathers and Mothers foorth to be enterred with their heads hooded and covered but daughters bare headed with their haires detressed and hanging downe loose IS it for that Fathers ought to be honored as gods by their male children but lamented and bewailed as dead men by their daughters and therefore the law having given and graunted unto either sex that which is proper hath of both together made that which is beseeming and convenient Or it is in this regard that unto sorrow and heavinesse that is best beseeming which is extraordinarie and unusuall now more ordinarie it is with women to go abroad with their heads veiled and covered and likewise with men to be discovered and bare headed For even among the Greeks when there is befallen unto them any publike calamitie the manner and custome is that the women should cut off the hayres of their head and the men weare them long for that otherwise it is usuall that men should poll their heads and women keepe their haire long And to prove that sonnes were wont to be covered in such a case and for the said cause a man may alledge that which Varro hath written namely that in the solemnitie of funerals and about the tombs of their fathers they carry themselves with as much reverence and devotion as in the temples of the gods in such sort as when they have burnt the corps in the funeral fire so soone as ever they meet with a bone they pronounce that he who is dead is now become a god On the contrary side women were no wise permitted to vaile and cover their heads And we find upon record that the first man who put away and divorced his wife was Spurius Carbilius because she bare him no children the second Sulpitius Gallus for that he saw her to cast a robe over her head and the third Publius Sempronius for standing to behold the solemnitie of the funerall games 15 How it commeth to passe that considering the Romans esteemed Terminus a god and therefore in honour of him celebrated a feast called thereupon Terminalia yet they never killed any beast in sacrifice vnto him IT is because Romulus did appoint no bonds and limits of his countrey to the end that he might lawfully set out take in where pleased him and repute all that land his owne so far as according to that saying of the Lacedaemonian his speare or javelin would reach But Numa 〈◊〉 a just man and politick withall one who knew well how to govern and that by the rule of Philosophie caused his territorie to be confined betweene him and his neighbour nations and called those frontier bonds by the name of Terminus as the superintendent over-seer and keeper of peace and amitie between neighbours and therefore he supposed that this Terminus ought to be preserved pure and cleane from all blood and impollute with any murder 16 What is the reason that it is not lawfull for any maid servants to enter into the temple of the goddesse Leucothea and the Dames of Rome bringing in thither one alone and no more with them fall to cuffing and boxing her about the eares and cheeks AS for the wench that is thus buffeted it is a sufficient signe and argument that such as she are not permitted to come thither now for all others they keepe them out in regard of a certaine poeticall fable reported in this wise that ladie Jno being in times past jealous of her husband and suspecting him with a maid servant of hers fell mad and was enraged against her owne sonne this servant the Greeks say was an Aetolian borne and had to name Antiphera and therefore it is that heere among us in the citie of Chaeronea before the temple or chappell of Matuta the sexton taking a whip in his hand crieth with a loud voice No man servant or maid servant be so hardie as to come in heere no Aetolian hee or shee presume to enter into this place 17 What is the cause that to this goddesse folke pray not for any blessings to their owne children but for their nephewes onely to wit their brothers or sisters children MAy it not be that Ino being a ladie that loved her sister wonderous well in so much as she suckled at her owne breast a sonne of hers but was infortunate in her owne children Or rather because the said custome is otherwise very good and civill inducing and moving folks hearts to carie love and affection to their kinreds 18 For what cause were many rich men wont to consecrate and give unto Hercules the Disme or tenth of all their goods WHy may it not be upon this occasion that Hercules himselfe being upon a time at Rome sacrifice the tenth 〈◊〉 of all the drove which he had taken from Gerton Or for that he freed and delivered the Romans from the tax and tribute of the Dismes which they were wont to pay out of their goods unto the Tuskans Or in case this may not go current for an authenticall historie and worthie of credit what and if we say that unto Hercules as to some great bellie god and one who loved good cheere they offered and sacrificed plenteously and in great liberalitie Or rather for that by this meanes they would take downe and diminish alittle their excessive riches which ordinarily is an eie-sore and odious unto the citizens of a popular state as if they meant to abate and bring low as it were that plethoricall plight and corpulency of the bodie which being growen to the height is daungerous supposing by such cutting off and abridging of superfluities to do honour and service most pleasing unto Hercules as who joied highly in frugalitie for that in his life time he stood contented with a little and regarded no delicacie or excesse whatsoever 19 Why begin the Romans their yeere at the moneth Januarie FOr in old time the moneth of March was reckoned first as a man may collect by many other conjectures and by this especially that the fift moneth in order after March was called Quintilis and the sixt moneth Sextilis and all the rest consequently one after another until you come to the last which they named December because it was the tenth in number after March which giveth occasion unto some for to thinke say that the Romans in those daies determined and accomplished their compleat yeere not in twelve moneths but in ten namely by adding unto everie one of those ten moneths certain daies over and above thirtie Others write that December indeed was the tenth moneth after March but Januarie was the eleventh and Februarie the twelfth in which moneth they used certaine expiatorie and purgatorie sacrifices yea and offered oblations unto the dead as it were to make an end of the yere How be it afterwards they transposed this order and ranged Januarie in the first place for that upon the first day thereof which they call the Calends of Januarie
example even our very birth at first is nothing sightly at all nor pleasant in regard of the bloud and bitter pangs that do accompany it yet hath the same a goddesse to be the president overseer thereof to wit Lucina called thereupon Lochia and Ilithyta Besides better it were for a man never to have bene borne than to become evill and naught for want of a good governor and guardian Moreovor the deitie and devine power leaveth not man destitute when he is sicke no nor when he is dead but some God there is or other that hath an office and function even then and is powerfull in those occasions there is one I say that helpeth to convey the soules of such as have ended their life from hence into another world and to lay them in quiet repose who for bestowing and transporting of them in that sort is called Catunastes and Psychopompos according as he saith The shady night never bare The harps to sound a fine musician Nor prophet secrets to declare Ne yet in cures a good phisitian But for the soules of dead below In their due place them to bestow And yet in these ministeries and functions many odious troubles and incombrances there be whereas contrariwise there can be named no worke more holy no exercise game of price or profession of maisteries whatsoeuer whereof it beseemeth a god better to have the dispose presidence and oversight than is the charge and regard to order and rule the desires of lovers affecting and pursuing beautifull persons in the floure and prime of their age For herein their is nothing foule nothing forced not by constraint but that gentle perswasion attractive grace which yeelding in trueth a pleasant and sweet labor leadeth all travell whatsoever unto vertue and amitie which neither without a god can attaine unto the desired end which is meet and convenient nor hath any other god for the guide master and conductor than Love which is the companion of the Muses graces and Venus For Cupid sowing secretly In heart of man a sweet desire And heat of Love immediatly By kindling milde and gentle fire According as Menalippedes saith tempereth the pleasantest things that be with those that are most faire and beautifull How say you Zeuxippus is it not so Yes verily quoth he I am altogether of that minde for to hold the contrary were very absurd Then quoth my father againe and were it not as monstrous that whereas amitie hath foure severall kindes and branches according as the ancient Philosophers haue divided it The first in nature then that of propinquity and locall affinity the third of society and the last this of love every one of the rest should have a god to be the president and governour thereof to wit surnamed either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this amorous amitie onely or love as accursed interdicted and excommunicate be left without a lord and ruler considering that it requireth more care solicitude and government than all the rest It doth indeed quoth Zeuxippus and need it hath out of that which is strange but proper and familier of the owne Moreover quoth my father a man may here take hold by the way of Plato his opinion and doctrine to this purpose to wit that there is one kind of furie transmitted from the body to the soule proceeding from certaine indispositions and malignant distemperatures of ill humours or else occasioned by some hurtfull winde or pernitious spirit that passeth and entreth into it and this furie is a sharpe and dangerous disease There is another not without some divine instinct neither is it engendred at home and within us but a strange inspiration it is comming from without a very alienation of reason sense and understanding the beginning and motion whereof ariseth from some better power and a certaine divine puissance And this passion in generall is named Enthusiasmus as one would say a divine inspiration for like as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke signifieth repletion with spirit or winde And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is full of prudence and wit Even so saith he an agitation and shaking of the soule is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the participation and society of some more heavenly and divine power Now this enthusiasme is subdevided for one part thereof is propheticall and can skill of foretelling naturall things when one is inspired and possessed by Apollo A second is Bacchanall sent from Bacchus whereof Sophocles speaketh in one place thus And see you dance With Corybants For those furies of dame 〈◊〉 the mother of the gods as also Panique terrors frights hold 〈◊〉 of the Bacchenall sacred ceremonies The third proceedeth from the Muses which meeting with a tender and delicate soule not polluted with vice stirreth up and raiseth a poeticall spirit and musicall humour as for that raging and martiall Enthusiasme for Arinianius it is called that furious inspiration breathing warre is well knowen to every man for to proceed from god Mars a furie wherein there is no grace no musicall sweetnesse hindring the generation and nourishment of children and inciting people to take armes There remaineth one alienation more of the understanding ô Daphnaeus and an exstacie or transportation of mans spirit and the same not obscure nor quiet and calme concerning which I would demand of Pemptides heere What god is he that shakes the speare In hand which doth so faire fruit beare Even this ravishment of love setled as well upon faire and goodboies as honest and sober dames which is the hottest and most vehement transportation of the minde for see you not that even the very soldier and warrior himselfe comming once to be surprised therewith laide downe his armes presently and cast off his warlike furie For then his servants joy did make And corselet from his shoulders take and himselfe having no more minde to battell sat still looking upon others that fought And as for these Bacchanail motions these wanton skippings and frisks of the Corybantes they use to appease and stay by changing onely in dauncing of the measures the foot Trochaeus into Spondaeus and in song the Phrygian tune into the Dorique semblably Pythia the priestresse of Apollo being once come downe from her three footed fabricke upon which she receiveth that incentive spirit of furie remaineth quiet and in calme tranquillity whereas the rage of love after it hath once in good earnest caught a man and set him on fire there is no musicke in the world no charme no lenitive song no change of place able to stay it for amorous persons when they be present doe love if they be absent doe long in the day time they follow after their sweet hearts by night they lie and watch at their doores fasting and sober they call upon their faire paramours full and drunken they sing and chant of them neither are poeticall
wise Convey unto me that Musicall wench of thine that sings so daintily and receive for her ten talents which I send by this bearer let me have her I say unlesse thou thy selfe be in love with her When Antipatrides another of his minions came in a maske on a time to his house accompanied with a prety girle that plaied upon the psaltery sung passing well Alexander taking great delight contentment in the said damosell demanded of Antipatrides whether he were not himselfe enamoured of her And when he answered Yes verily and that exceeding much A mischiefe on thee quoth he leud varlet as thou art and the divell take thee but the wench he absteined from and would not so much as touch her But marke moreover besides of what power even in martiall feats of armes Love is Love I say which is not as saith Euripides Of nature slow dull fickle inconstant Nor in soft cheeks of maidens resiant For a man that is possessed secretly in his heart with Love needeth not the assistance of Mars when he is to encounter with his enemies in the field but having a god of his owne within him and presuming of his presence Most prest he is and resolute to passe through fire and seas The blasts of most tempestuous windes he cares not to appease And all for his friends sake and according as he commandeth him And verily of those children aswell sonnes as daughters of lady 〈◊〉 who in a Tragoedie of Sophocles are represented to be shot with arrowes and so killed one there was who called for no other to helpe and 〈◊〉 her at the point of death but onely her paramor in this wise Oh that some god my Love would send My life to save and me defend Ye all know I am sure doe ye not how and wherefore Cleomachus the Thessalian died in combat Not I for my part quoth Pemptides but gladly would I heare and learne of you And it is a storie quoth my father worth the hearing and the knowledge There came to aide the Chalcidians at what time as there was hot warre in Thessalie against the Eretrians this Cleomachus now the Chalcidians seemed to be strong enough in their footmen but much adoe they had and thought it was a difficult piece of service to breake the cavallerie of their enemies and to repell them So they requested Cleomachus their allie and confederate a brave knight and of great courage to give the first charge and to enter upon the said men of armes With that he asked the youth whom he loved most entirely and who was there present whether he would beholde this enterprise and see the conflict and when the yong man answered Yea and withall kindly kissing and embracing him set the helmet upon his head Cleomachus much more hardy and fuller of spirit than before assembled about him a troupe of the most valourous hosemen of all the Thessalians advanced forward right gallantly and with great resolution set upon the enemies in such sort as at the very first encounter he brake the front disarraied the men of armes and in the end put them to flight Which discomfiture when their infanterie saw they also fled and so the Chalcidians woon the field and archieved a noble victorie Howbeit Cleomachus himselfe was there slaine and the Chalcidians shew his sepulchre and monument in their Market place upon which there standeth even at this day a mighty pillar erected And whereas the Chalcidians before-time held this paederastie or love of yoong boies an in famous thing they of all other Greeks ever after affected and honoured it most But Aristotle writeth that Cleomachus indeed lost his life after he had vanquished the Eretrians in battell but as for him who was thus kissed by his lover he saith that he was of Chalcis in Thrace sent for to aide those of Chalcis in 〈◊〉 and hereupon it commeth that the Chalcidians use to chant such a caroll as this Sweet boies faire impes extract from noble race Endued besides with youth and beauties grace Envie not men of armes and bolde courage Fruition of your prime and flowring age For here aswell of Love and kinde affection As of prowesse we all do make profession The lover was named Anton and the boy whom he loved Philistus as Dionysius the Poet writeth in his booke of Causes And in our city of Thebes ô Pemptides did not one Ardetas give unto a youth whom he loved a complet armour the day that he was enrolled souldier with the inscription of Ardetas his owne name And as for Pammenes an amorous man and one well experienced in love matters he changed and altered the ordinance in battell of our footmen heavily armed reprooving Homer as one that had no skill nor experience of love for ranging the Achaeans by their tribes and wards and not putting in array the lover close unto him whom he loveth for this indeed had beene the right ordinance which Homer describeth in these words The Morians set so close and shield to shield So iointly touch'd that one the other held And this is the onely battalion and armie invincible For men otherwhiles in danger abandon those of their tribe their kindred also and such as be allied unto them yea and beleeve me they forsake their owne fathers and children but never was there enemie seene that could passe through and make way of evasion betweene the lover and his darling considering that such many times shew their adventerous resolution in a bravery and how little reckoning they make of life unto them being in no distresse nor requiring so much at their hands Thus Thero the Thessalian laying and clapping his left hand to a wall drew forth his sword with the right and cut off his owne thumbe before one whom he loved and challenged his corrivall to doe as much if his heart would serve him Another chanced in fight to fall groveling upon his face and when his enemie lifted up his sword to give him a mortall wound he requested him to stay his hand a while untill he could turne his body that his friend whom he loved might not see him wounded in his backe part And therefore we may see that not onely the most martiall and warlicke nations are most given to Love to wit the Boeotians Lacedaemonians and Candiots but also divers renowmed princes and captaines of olde time as namely Meleager Achilles Aristomenes Cimon Epaminondas And as for the last named he had two yong men whom he deerely loved Asopicus and Zephiodorus who also died with him in the field at Mantinea and was likewise interred neere unto him And when Asopicus became hereupon more terrible unto his enemies and most resolute Euchnanus the Amphyssian who first made head against him resisted his furie and smote him had heroique honors done unto him by the Phocaeans To come now unto Hercules hard it were to reckon and number his loves they were so many But among others men honour and worship to
Homer was mocked by the wooers of his wife because He cald for shieves of bread to eat And not for swords or candrons near For it was reputed a signe of magnanimity to demaund aswel as to give things of great price and value Much more then might a man deride and laugh at the auditor who will moove unto a Master or Doctour of the Chaire trifling frivolous and fruitlesse questions as otherwhiles some of these yoong men do who taking pleasure to vaunt themselves and to shew what great schollers they are in Logicke or the Mathematikes are woont to pur foorth questions as touching the sections of things indefinite also what be litterall motions or Diametricall Vnto whom a man may verie well answere as Philotimus the Phisitian did unto one that had a suppuration in his chist and by reason of an inward ulcer of his lungs was in a consumption who comming to him for counsell desired that he would give him a medicine for a little whit-flow growing about the roote of his naile but Philotimus perceiving by his colour and shortnes of winde in what case he was My good friend quoth he you have no such weed of a cure for your whit-flow you may hold your peace well enough at this time for any danger there Even so it may be said unto one of these yoong men There is no time now to thinke or dispute upon such questions but rather by what meanes you may be freed from presumptuous overweening of your selfe from pride and arrogance from wanton love and foolish toies that you may be setled in a sound state of life devoide of vanitie Moreover this yoong man is to have a good cie and ragard unto the sufficiencie of the speaker whether it be by naturall inclination or gotten by experience and practise and accordingly to frame and direct his questions in those points wherein he is most excellent and in no wise to force him who is well read and studied in Morall Philosophie to answer unto Physical or Mathematicall questions or him that is better seene in Natural Philosophy to draw unto Logick for to give his judgment of Hypothetical propositions to resolve them or to move the knots make solution of false Syllogisms Elenches sophisticall and such fallacies For like as one that would goe about to cleave wood with a key or unlocke a doore with an axe seemeth not so much to doe hurt unto those instruments as to deprive himselfe of the proper use and commoditie as well of the one as the other Even so they that require of a Speaker that which he is not apt unto by nature or wherein he is not well practised will not reape gather take that which willingly commeth from him and wherewith he is able to furnish them are not only hurt therein but incurre the name and blame of a pievish froward and malicious nature Furthermore this heed would be taken not to overlay him with many questions nor oftentimes to urge him therewith For this bewraieth one that in some sort loveth to heare himselfe speake and would be seene whereas when another doth propose a question to give attentive eare and that with mildnes and patience is a signe of a studious person and one that knoweth well how to behave himselfe in companie and can abide that others should learne aswell as he unlesse perhaps some private and particular occurrent do urge the contrarie or some passion do hinder which had neede to be staied and repressed or else some maladie and imperfection which requireth remedie For peradventure as Heraclitus saith it were not good for one to hide and conceale his owne ignorance but to let it appeere and be knowen and so to cure it But say that some fit of choler some assault of scrupulous superstition or some violent quarell and jarre with one houshold and kinsfolke or some furious passion proceeding from wanton lust Which doth the secret heart strings move That earst were never stir'd with love trouble our understanding and put it out of tune we ought not for the avoiding of a reproofe to flie for refuge to other matters and interrupt the discourse begun but be desirous to heare of such things even in open places of exercises and after the exercise or lecture done to take the Philosophers or Readers aside and conferre with them to be further enformed not as many doe who are well enough contented to heare Philosophers speake of others and have them theresore in great admiration but if it chance that a Philosopher leave other men and turne his speech to them apart to tell them freely and boldly what he thinketh admonishing and putting them in minde of such things as do concerne them then they are in a chafe then they say he speakes besides the text and more then needs For of this opinion are these men That wee are to heare Philosophers in Schooles for pastime as plaiers of Tragedies in a Theatre upon the Stage As for other matters out of the Schoole they holde them no better men than themselves and to say a trueth good reason have they so to deeme of Sophisters who are no sooner out of their chaires or come downe from off the pulpit and when their books and pettie introductions are laid out of their hands but in other serious actions and parts of this life to be discoursed of a man shall finde them as raw as other and nothing better skilled than the vulgar sort But to come unto those Philosophers indeed who worthily are so to be called and esteemed ignorant are such persons above rehearsed that their words be they spoken in earnest or in game their becks their nods their countenance whether it be composed to smiling or to frowning but principally their words directed privately to every one a part be all significant and cary some fruit commodious to those that with patience will give them leave to speake and are willing and used to hearken unto them As concerning the praises which we are to attribute unto them for their eloquence and well speaking there would in this dutie some wise caution meane be used for that in this case neither overmuch nor too little is commendable honest And verily that scholar who seemeth not to be moved or touched with any thing that he heareth is a heavie and unsupportable auditour full of a secret presumptuous opinion of himselfe conceited inwardly of his owne sufficiencie of an inbred selfe love and aptnesse to speake much of his owne doings shewing evidently that he thinketh he can speake better than that which hath beene delivered In regard whereof he never stirs brow any way decently he uttereth not a word to testific that he heareth willingly and with contentment but by a certaine forced silence affected gravitie and counterfeit countenance would purchase and winne unto himselfe the reputation of a staied man of a profound and deepe clerke and is as sparie of his praises as of his purse and money
so it repugneth with others and is obstinate and disobedient whereupon it is that themselves enforced thereto by the truth of the thing do affirme and pronounce that every judgement is not a passion but that onely which stirreth up and mooveth a strong and vehement appetite to a thing confessing thereby no doubt that one thing it is in us which judgeth and another thing that suffereth that is to say which receiveth passions like as that which moveth and that which is mooved be divers Certes even Chrysippus himselfe defininig in many places what is Patience and what is Continency doth avouch That they be habitudes apt and fit to obey and follow the choise of reason whereby he sheweth evidently that by the force of truth he was driven to confesse and avow That there is one thing in us which doth obey and yeeld and another which being obeied is yeelded unto and not obeied is resisted Furthermore as touching the Stoicks who hold That all sinnes and faults be equall neither wil this place nor the time now serve to argue against them whether in other points they swerve from the trueth howbeit thus much by the way I dare be bolde to say That in most things they will be found to repugne reason even against apparent and manifest evidence For according to their opinion euery passion or perturbation is a fault and whosoever grieve feare or lust do sinne but in those passions great difference there is seene according to more or lesse for who would ever be so grosse as to say that Dolons feare was equall to the feare of Ajax who as Homer writeth As he went out of field did turne and looke behinde full oft With knee before knee decently and so retired soft or compare the sorrow of King Alexander who would needs have killed himselfe for the death of Clytus to that of Plato for the death of Socrates For dolours and griefs encrease exceedingly when they grow upon occasion of that which hapneth besides all reason like as any accident which falleth out beyond our expectation is more grievous and breedeth greater anguish than that whereof areason may be rendered and which a man might suspect to follow As for example if he who ever expected to fee his sonne advanced to honour and living in great repuration among men should heare say that he were in prison and put to all maner of torture as Parmeno was advertised of his sonne Philotas And who will ever say that the anger of Nicocreon against Anaxarchus was to be compared with that of Magas against Philemon which arose upon the same occasion for that they both were spightfully reviled by them in reprochful termes for Nicocreon caused Anaxarchus to be braid in a morter with yron pestles whereas Magas commanded the Executioner to lay a sharpe naked sword upon the necke of Philémon and so to let him go without doing him any more harme And therefore it is that Plato named anger the sinewes of the soule giving us thereby to understand that they might be stretched by bitternesse and let slake by mildnesse But the Stoicks for to avoid and put backe these objections and such like denie that these stretchings and vehement fits of passions be according to judgement for that it may faile and erre many waies saying they be certaine pricks or stings contractions diffusions or dilatations which in proportion and according to reason may be greater or lesse Certes what variety there is in judgement it is plaine and evident For some there be that deeme povertie not to be ill others holde that it is very ill and there are againe who account it the worst thing in the world insomuch as to avoid it they could be content to throw themselves headlong from high rocks into the sea Also you shall have those who reckon death to be evill in that onely it depriveth us of the fruition of many good things others there be who thinke and say as much but it is in regard of the eternall torments horrible punishments that be under the ground in hell As for bodily health some love it no otherwise than a thing agreeable to nature and profitable withall others take it to be the soveraigne good in the world as without which they make no reckoning of riches of children Ne yet of crowne and regall dignitie Which men do match even with divinitie Nay they let not in the end to thinke and say That vertue it serveth in no stead and availeth nought unlesse it be accompanied with good health whereby it appeareth that as touching judgement some erre more some lesse But my meaning is not now to dispute against this evasion of theirs Thus much onely I purpose to take for mine advantage out of their owne confession in that themselves do grant That the brutish and sensuall part according to which they say that passions be greater and more violent is different from iudgement and howsoever they may seeme to contest and cavill about words and names they grant the substance and the thing it selfe in question joining with those who mainteine that the reasonlesse part of the soule which enterteineth passions is altogether different from that whcih is able to discourse reason and judge And verily Chrysppus in those books which he entituled Of Anomologie after he hed written and taught that angenis blinde and many times will not permit a man to see those things which be plaine and apparent and as often casteth a darke mist over that which he hath already perfectly learned and knowen proceedeth forward a little further For quoth he the passions which arise drive out and chase forth all discourse of reason and such things as were judged and determined otherwise against them urging it still by force unto contrary actions Then he useth the testimonie of Menander the Poet who in one place writeth thus by way of exclamation We worth the time wretch that I am How was my minde destraught In body mine where were my wits some folly sure me caught What time I fell to this For why thereof I made no choise Farre better things they were 〈◊〉 which had my former voice The same Chrysippus also going on still It being so quoth he that a reasonable creature is by nature borne and given to use reason in all things and to be governed thereby yet notwithstanding we reject and cast it behinde us being over-ruled by another more violent motion that carieth us away In which words what doth he else but confesse even that which hapneth upon the dissention betweene affection and reason For it were a meere ridiculous mockerie in deed as Plato saith to affirme that a man were better worse than himselfe or that he were able now to master himselfe anon ready to be mastered by himselfe and how were it possible that the same man should be better worse than himselfe and at once both master and servant unlesse every one were naturally in some sort double and had
but rather taketh pleasure therein those also which take away from us all shame and abashment to commitfaults such were they that brought the Sicilians to ruine and gave them occasion to beautifie or colour the tyrannie and crueltie of Denys and Phalaris with the goodly names of Iustice and Hatred of wickednesse These were the overthrow of Aegypt in cloking the effeminate wantonnesse the furious superstition the yelling noises after a fanaticall maner of king Ptolomaeus together with the marks that he caried of Lillies and Tabours in his body with the glorious names of Devotion Religion and the service of the gods And this was it that at the same time went very neere and had like to have corrupted and spoiled for ever the maners and fashions of the Romanes which before were so highly reputed to wit naming the riotousnes of Antonie his loosenes his superfluous delights his sumptuous shewes publike feasts with their profusion and wasting of so much monie by smooth and gentle termes of courtesies and meriments full of humanitie by which disguisements and pretexts his fault was mollified or diminished in abusing so excessively the grandence of his puissance fortune And what was it else that made Ptolomaeus to put on the masque or mussle as it were of a piper and to hang about him pipes and fluits What was it that caused Nero to mount up the Stage to act Tragedies with a visour over his face and buskins on his legs was it not the praise of such flatterers as these And are not most of our kings being when they sing small and fine after a puling maner saluted Apolloes for their musicke and if they drinke untill they be drunke honored with the names of Bacchus the god of wine and when they seeme a little to wrestle or trie some freats of activitie stiled by and by with the glorious addition of Hercules brought thinke you to exceeding dishonour shame by this grosse flatterie taking such pleasure as they do in these gallant surnames And therefore we had most need to beware of a flatterer in the praises which he giveth which himselfe is not ignorant of but being carefull and very subtill in avoiding all suspicion if haply he meet with one of these fine fooles and delicate minions well set out in gay apparell or some rusticall thicke-skin carying on his backe a good leather pilch or as they say one that feedeth grosly such he will not spare but abuse with broad flattery and make common laughing stocks of them Like as Struthias making a very asse of Bias and riding him up and downe yea insulting upon him for his sottishnesse with praises that he would seeme to hang upon him Thou hast quoth he drunk more than king Alexander the great with that turning to Cyprius laughed as hard as ever he could till he was ready to sinke againe But if a flatterer chance to deale with them that be more civill and elegant and do perceive that they have a speciall eie unto him in this point namely that they stand well upon their guard in this place for feare lest they be surprised by him then he goes not to worke directly in praising of them but he keepeth aloose he fetcheth about many compasses a great way off at first afterwards by little and little he winneth some ground and approcheth neerer and neerer making no noise untill he can touch and handle them much after the maner of those that come about wilde beasts assaying how to bring them to hand and make them tame and gentle For one while he will report to such a one the praises that some other give out of him imitating herein the Rhetoricians who many times in their orations speake in the third person and after this maner he will begin I was not long since quoth he in the market place where I had some talke with certeine strangers and other ancient personages of good worth whom I was glad at the heart to heare how they recounted all the good in the world of you and spake wonderfully in your commendation Otherwhiles he will devise and fetch out of his owne fingers ends some light imputations against him yet all forged and false agreeable to his person and condition making semblance as if he had heard others what they said of him and very cunningly will he close with him and beare him in hand that he is come in all haste to know of him whether ever he said or did so as was reported of him And if the other do denie it as it is no other like but he will thereupon he takes occasion to enter into the praise and commendation of the man in this wise I mervaile truly how that you should abuse and speake ill of any of your familiars and friends who were never woont so much as to miscall or say otherwise than well of your very enimies or how it possibly could be that you should be ready to gape after other mens goods who use to be so liberall and bountifull of your owne Other flatterers there be who like as Painters to set up their colours and to give them more beautifull light and lustre unto them lay neere unto them others that be more darke and shadowie so they in blaming reprooving reproching traducing deriding the contrarie vertues to those vices which are in them whom the meane to flatter covertly and underhand do praise and approove those faults and imperfections that they have and so in praising and allowing do feede and cherish the same As for example if they be among prodigall ding-thrists and wasters riotous persons covetous misers mischievous wretches and such as have raked scraped goods together by hooke and crooke and by all indirect means they care not how before them they will speake basely of Temperance and Abstinence calling it rusticitie and as for those that live justly and with a good conscience contenting themselves with their estate and therin reposing suffisance those they will nickname heartlesse and base minded folke altogether insufficient to do or dare any thing If it fall out that they converse and be in companie with such as be idle lusks and love to sit still at home and do nothing forbearing to meddle with ordinarie affaires abroad in the world they will not bash to finde fault with policie and civill government calling the managing of State matters and common weale a thanklesse intermedling in other mens affaires with much travaile and no profit And as for the minde and desire to be a magistrate and to sit in place of authoritie they will not let to say it is vaine glory and ambition altogether fruitlesse For to flatter and claw an oratour they will reproove in his presence a Philosopher Among light huswives that be wantonly given they winne the price and are very well accepted if they call honest matrons and chaste dames who content themselves with their owne husbands and them love alone rude and rusticall women untaught ill
and envie to be ever railing on all men and backe-biting them if hee chance any one time to breake out into the praise of some woorthy and excellent personage saying in this maner unto him This is a great fault that you have and a disease that followeth you thus to praise men of no woorth What is he I pray you whom you thus commend what good parts be in him hath he at any time done any doughty deed or delivered any singular speech that might deserve such praises But in amatorious and love matters they passe there you shall have them most of all to come over those whom they flatter and lay on load to them they will joine close and set them on a flaming fire For if they see brethren at some variance or setting nought by their parents or els to deale unkindly with their owne wives and to set no store by them or to be jealous and suspicious of them they never admonish chastice or rebuke them for it that they may amend but rather they will kindle more coales betweene and encrease their anger and discontentment on both sides Nay it is no great matter will they say it is even well enough you will never see and know who you are you are the cause of all this your owne selfe and selfe do selfe have you evermore have borne your selves so pliable submisse and lowly toward them that you are but rightly served But say there be some itching heat of love or smart anger upon jealousie in regard of a courtisan or married wife whom the party is amourous of then shal you see a flatterer ready at hand to display his cunning openly and to speake his minde freely unto him putting fire to fire and feeding his love you shall have him to lay the law upon this lover accusing and entring processe against him in these termes You have broken the lawes of love you have done and said many things not so kindly as beseemed a true louer but rather dealt hardly with your love and enough to lose her heart and incurre her hatred for euer Vnthankefull person that thou art For kisses so many of thy sweet hart Thus the flattering friends of Antonius when he burned in love of the Aegyptian queene Cleopatra would perswade and make him beleeve that she it was who was enamoured upon him and by way of opprobrious imputation they would tell him to his face that he was proud disdainfull hard hearted and void of all kinde affection This noble queene would they say forsaking so mighty and wealthy a kingdome so many pleasant palaces and stately houses of blessed abode such meanes and opportunities of happinesse for the love of you pineth away and consumeth herselfe trudging after your campe to and fro for to doe your Honour content and pleasure with the habit and title of your Concubine Whiles you in brest do cary an hart Which will not be wrought by any art neglecting her good lady and suffering her to perish for sorow and hearts griefe Whereupon he being well enough pleased to heare himselfe thus charged with wrong doing to her and taking more pleasure in these accusations of theirs than if they had directly praised him was so blinde that he could not see how they that seemed thus to admonish him of his duetie perverted and corrupted him thereby so much the more For this counterfeit liberty of plaine dealing and plaine speech may be very well likened to the wanton pinches and bitings of luxurious women who tickle and stirre up the lust and pleasure of men by that which might seeme to cause their paine For like as pure wine which otherwise of it selfe is a sure remedy against the poison of hemlocke if a man doe mingle it with the juice of the said hemlocke doth mightily enforce the poison thereof and make it irremediable for that by meanes of the heat it conveieth the same more speedily unto the heart even so these lewd and mischievous flatterers knowing full wel that franke speech is a singular helpe and remedy against flattery abuse it to flatter withall And therefore it seemeth that Bias answered not so well as he might have done to one that asked of him which was the shrewdest and most hurtfull beast of all other If quoth he your question be of wilde and savage a Tyrant is worse if of tame and gentle a Flatterer For hee might have said more truely that of Flatterers some be of a tame kinde such I meane as these parasites are who haunts the baines and stouphes those also that follow good cheere and keepe about the table As for him who like as the Pourcuttle fish stretcheth out his clawes like branches reacheth as farre as to the secret chambers and cabinets of women with his busie intermedling with his calumniations and malicious demeanors such a one is savage fell intractable and dangerous to be approched Now one of the meanes to beware of this flatterie is to know and remember alwaies that our soule consisteth of two parts whereof the one is addicted to the truth loving honestie and reason the other more brutish of the owne nature unreasonable given to untruth and withall passionate A true friend assisteth evermore the better part in giving counsell and comfort even as an expert and skilfull Physition who hath an eie that aimeth alwaies at the maintenance and encrease of health but the flatterer doth apply himselfe and settleth to that part which is voide of reason and full of passions this he scratcheth this he tickleth continually this he stroketh and handleth in such sort by devising some vicious and dishonest pleasures that he withdraweth and turneth it away quite from the rule and guidance of reason Moreover as there be some kind of viands which if a man eate they neither turne unto blood not ingender spirits ne yet adde vigor and strength to the nerves and the marrow but all the good they do is haply to cause the flesh or genitall parts to rise to stirre and loose the belly or to breed some foggie fantom and halfe rotten flesh which is neither fast nor sound within even so if a man looke neerely and have good regard unto a flatterer he shall never finde that all the words he useth minister or procure one jot of good to him that is wise and governed by reason but feed fooles with the pleasant delights of love kindle and augment the fire of inconsiderate anger provoke them unto envie breed in them an odious and vaine presumption of their owne wit increase their sorrow and griefe with moaning them and lamenting with them for companie set on worke and exasperate their inbred naughtinesse and lewd disposition their illiberall minde and covetous nature their diffidence and distrustfulnesse of others their base and servile timiditie making them alwaies worse and apt to conveive ill more fearefull jealous and suspicious by the meanes of some new accusations false furmises and conjecturall suggestions which they be ready to put
tooles may be repaired if they be worne or new made if the first be gon but to recover a brother that is lost it is not possible no more than to make a new hand if one be cut away or to set in another eie in the place of that which is plucked out of the head and therefore well said that Persian ladie when shee chose rather to save the life of her brethren than of her children For children quoth shee I may have more but since my father and mother be both dead brother shall I never have But what is to be done will some man say in case one be matched with a bad brother First this we ought evermore to remember that in all sorts of amities there is to be found some badnesse and most true is that saying of Sophocles Who list to search throughout mankinde More bad than good is sure to finde No kinted there is no societie no fellowship no amitie and love that can be found sincere sound pure and cleare from all faults The Lacedaemonian who had married a wife of little stature We must quoth he of evils chuse ever the least even so in mine advice a man may very well and wisely give counsell unto brethren to beare rather with the most domesticall imperfections and the infirmities of their owne blood than to trie those of strangers for as the one is blamelesse because it is necessarie so the other is blame-worthy for that it is voluntarie for neither table-friend and fellow gamester nor play-fere of the same age ne yet hoast or guest Is bound with links of brasse by hand not wrought Which shame by kinde hath forg'd and cost us nought but rather that friend who is of the same blood who had his nourishment and bringing up with us begotten of one father and who lay in the same mothers wombe unto whom it seemeth that Vertue herselfe doth allow connivencie and pardon of some faults so as a man may say unto a brother when he doth a fault Witlesse starke naught yea wretched though thou be Yet can I not forsake and cast off thee lest that ere I be well aware I might seeme in my hatred towards thee for to punish sharpely cruelly and unnaturally in thy person some infirmitie or vice of mine owne father or mother instilled into thee by their seed As for strangers and such as are not of our bloud we ought not to love first and afterwards make triall and judgement of them but first we must trie and then trust and love them afterwards whereas contrariwise nature hath not given unto proofe and experience the precedence and prerogative to go before love neither doth she expect according to that cōmon proverbe That a man should eate a bushell or two of salt with one whom he minded to love and make his friend but even from our nativitie hath bred in us and with us the very principle and cause of amitie in which regard we ought not to be bitter unto such nor to search too neerely into their faults and infirmities But what will you say now if contrariwise some there be who if meere aliens and strangers otherwise yet if they take a foolish love and liking unto them either at the taverne or at some game and pastime or fall acquainted with them at the wrestling or fensing schoole can be content to winke at their faults be ready to excuse and justifie them yea and take delight and pleasure therein but if their brethren do amisse they be exceeding rigorous unto them and inexorable nay you shall have many such who can abide to love churlish dogs skittish horses yea and finde in their hearts to feed and make much of fell ounces shrewd cats curst unhappie apes and terrible lions but they cannot endure the hastie and cholericke humor the error and ignorance or some little ambitious humor of a brother Others againe there be who unto their concubines and harlots will not sticke to assigne over and passe away goodly houses and faire lands lying thereto but with their brethren they will wrangle and go to law nay they will be ready to enter the lists and combat for a plot of ground whereupon a house standeth about some corner of a messuage or end of a little tenement and afterwards attributing unto this their hatred of brethren the colourable name of hating sinne and wickednesse they go up downe cursing detesting and reproching them fortheir vices whiles in others they are never offended nor discontented therewith but are willing enough daily to frequent and haunt their company Thus much in generall tearmes by way of preamble or proaeme of this whole treatise It remaineth now that I should enter into the doctrine and instructions thereto belonging wherein I will not begin as other have done at the partition of their heritage or patrimonie but at the naughtie emulation hart burning and jealousie which ariseth betweene them during the life of their parents Agesilaus king of Lacedaemon was wont alwaies to send as a present unto each one of the auncients of the citie ever as they were created Senatours a good oxe in testimony that he honored their vertue at length the lords called Ephori who were the censurers overseers of each mans behavior cōdemned him for this in a fine to be paid unto the State subscribling and adding a reason withall for that by these gifts and largesses he went about to steale away their hearts and favors to himselfe alone which ought indifferently to regard the whole body of the city even so a man may do well to give this counsell unto a sonne in such wise to respect honour his father and mother that hee seeke not thereby to gaine their whole love nor seeme to turne away their favour and affection from other children wholy unto himselfe by which practise many doe prevent undermine and supplant their brethren and thus under a colourable and honest pretense in shew but in deed unjust and unequall cloke and cover their avarice and covetous desire for after a cautelous and subtill maner they insinuate themselves and get betweene them and home and so defraud and cousen them ungentlemanly of their parents love which is the greatest and fairest portion of their inheritance who espying their time and taking the opportunitie and vantage when their brethren be otherwise employed and least doubt of their practises then they bestir them most and shew themselves in best order obsequious double-diligent sober and modest and namely in such things as their other brethren do either faile or seeme to be slacke and forgetfull But brethren ought to do cleane contrarie for if they perceive their father to be angrie and displeased with one of them they should interpose themselves and undergo some part of the heavie load they ought to case their brother and by bearing a part helpe to make the burden lighter then I say must they by their service and ministerie gratifie their brother
of his diffidence and distrust of them And say that a man should complaine of thee in such a case better it were yet to be challenged and blamed for distrusting all the while thou remainest safe and obtaine a victorie by that meanes than to be justly accused after an overthrow for being so open and trusting so easily Moreover how darest thou confidently and boldly blame and reproove another for not keeping that secret which thou thy selfe hast revealed for if it was behoovefull and expedient that it should not be knowen why hast thou tolde it to another but in case when thou hast let flie a secret from thy selfe unto a man thou wouldest have him to holde it in and not blurt it out surely it can not be but thou hast berter confidence in another than thy selfe now if he be like thy selfe who will pity thee if thou come by a mischiefe is he better and so by that meanes saveth thee harmelesse beyond all reason and ordinary course then hast thou met with one more faithfull to thee than thou art thy selfe but haply thou wilt say He is my very friend so hath he another friend be sure whom he will do as much for and disclose the same secret unto and that friend no doubt hath another Thus one word will get more still it will grow and multiplie by a sute and sequence linked hanging to an intemperate tongue for like as Unitie so long as she passeth not her bounds but continueth and remaineth still in herselfe is one and no more in which respect she is called in Greeke Monas that is to say Alone whereas the number of twaine is the beginning of a diversitie as it were and difference and therefore indefinite for straight-waies is Unitie passed forth of it selfe by doubling and so turneth to a plurality even so a word or speech all the while it abideth enclosed in him who first knew it is truely and properly called a Secret but after it is once gotten forth and set a going so that it is come unto another it beginneth to take the name of a common brute and rumour for as the Poet very well saith Words have wings A bird if she be let flie once out of our hands it is much adoe to catch againe and even so when a word hath passed out of a mans mouth hardly or unneth may we withholde or recover for it flieth amaine it flappeth her light wings fetching many a round compasse and spreadeth every way from one quarter to another well may mariners stay a ship with cables and ankers when the violence of the winde is ready to drive and carrie her an end or at least-wise they may moderate her swift flight course but if a word be issued out of the mouth as out of her haven and have gotten sea-roome there is no bay nor harborough to ride in there is no casting of anker will serve the turne away she goes with a mighty noise and hurry untill in the end she runnes upon some rocke and is split or els into a great and deepe gulfe to the present danger of him who set her foorth For in small time and with a little sparke Of fire a man may burne the for rest tall Of Ida mount ev'n so who list to marke All towne will heare a word to one let fall The Senate of Rome upon a time sat in sadde and serious counsell many daies together about a matter of great secrecie now the thing being so much the more suspected and hearkened after as it was lesse apparent and knowen abroad a certaine Romane dame otherwise a good sober and wise matron howbeit a woman importuned her husband and instantly besought him of all loves to tell her what this secret matter might be upon which they did sit so close in consultation protesting with many an oath and execrable curse to keepe silence and not to utter it to any creature in the world you must thinke also that she had teares at command lamenting and complaining withall what an unhappie woman she was in case her husband would not trust her so much as with a word the Romane Senatour her husband minding to trie and reproove her folly Thou hast overcome me sweet heart quoth hee and through thine importunitie thou shalt heare of a strange and terrible occurrent that troubleth us all So it is that we are advertised by our Priests that there hath bene a larke of late seene flying in the aire with a golden cop or crest on her head in maner of an helmet and withall bearing a javelin hereupon we do conferre and consult with our Soothsaiers and Diviners desirous to be certified out of their learning whether this prodigious token portend good or hurt to the Common-weale but keepe it to thy selfe as thou lovest me and tell it no bodie When he had thus said he went forth toward the Common hall and Market place his wife incontinently had no sooner spied one of her waiting maidens comming into the roome but she drew her apart begunne to beat and knocke her owne brest to rent and teare the haire off her head and therewith Ah woe 's me quoth she for my poore husband my sweet native countrey alas and weladay what shall we doe and what will become of us all as if shee taught her maide and were desirous that shee should say thus unto her againe Why what is the matter mistresse Now when the maiden thereupon asked her What newes shee set tale an end and told all marie shee forgat not the common and ordinarie burden or clause that all blabs of their tongue use to come in with But in any case quoth she say nothing but keepe it to thy selfe Scarse was shee gone out of her mistresse sight but seeing one of her fellowes whom she found most at leasure and doing little or nothing to her she imparted all That wench againe made no more adoo but to her lover she goes who haply then was come to visite her and telleth him as much By this meanes the tale was bruted abroad and passed roundly from one to another insomuch as the rumour thereof was runne into the market place and there went currant before the first author and deviset therof himselfe was gotten thither For there meetes with him one of his familiars and friends How now quoth he are you come but now directly from your house to the market place No quoth he againe I am but newly come Why then belike saith the other you have heard no newes Newes quoth he what newes should I heare and what tidings can you tell me off Why man answered he againe there hath beene of late a Larke seene flying with a golden cop or crest on her head and carrying beside a javelin and the Consuls with other Magistrates are readie to call a Senate house for to sit upon this strange occurrent With that the Senatour beforesaid turning aside smiling thus said to himselfe Wel done wife I con thee
the night long toile and moile like a drudge and hireling thy selfe hire other labourers for day-wages lie in the winde for inheritances speake men faire in hope to be their heire and debase thy selfe to all the world and care not to whom thou cap and knee for gaine having I say so sufficient meanes otherwise to live at ease to wit thy niggardise and pinching parsimonie whereby thou maist be dispensed for doing just nothing It is reported of a certaine Bizantine who finding an adulterer in bed with his wife who though she were but foule yet was ilfavoured enough said unto him O miserable caitise what necessitie hath driven thee thus to doe what needes Sapragoras dowrie well goe to thou takest great paines poore wretch thou fillest and stirrest the lead thou kindlest the fire also underneath it Necessarie it is in some sort that Kings and Princes should seeke for wealth and riches that these Governours also and Deputies muder them should bee great gatheres yea and those also who reach at the highest places and aspire to rule and soveraigne dignities in great States and cities all these I say have need perforce to heape up grosse summes of money to the end that for their ambition their proud port pompe and vaine-glorious humour they might make sumptuous feasts give largesses reteine a guard about their persons send presents abroad to other States mainteine and wage whole armies buie slaves to combat and fight at sharpe to the outtrance but thou makest thy selfe so much adoo thou troublest and tormentest both body and minde living like an oister or a shell-snaile and for to pinch and spare art content to undergo and indure all paine and travell taking no pleasure nor delight in the world afterwards no more than the Baine-keepers poore asse which carying billots and fagots of drie brush and sticks to kindle fire and to heat the stouphes is evermore full of smoake soot ashes and sinders but hath no benefit at all of the bane and is never bathed washed warmed rubbed scoured and made cleane Thus much I speake in reproch and disdaine of this miserable asse-like avarice this base raping and scraping together in maner of ants or pismires Now there is another kind of covetousnesse more savage and beast-like which they prosesse who backbite and slander raise malicious imputations forge false wils and testaments lie in wait for heritages cogge and cousen and intermeddle in all matters will bee seene in everie thing know all mens states busie themselves with many cares and troubles count upon their fingers how many friends they have yet living and when they have all done receive no fruition or benefit by all the goods which they have gotten together from all parts with their cunning casts subtil shifts And therefore like as we have in greater hatred and detestation vipers the venemous flies Cantharides and the stinging spiders called Philangia Tarantale than either beares or lions for that they kill folke and stinge them to death but receive no good or benefit at all by them when they are dead even so be these wretches more odious and woorthy to be hated of us who by their miserable parsimonie and pinching doe mischiefe than those who by their riot and wastfulnesse be hurtfull to a common-weale because they take and catch from others that which they themselves neither will nor know how to use Whereupon it is that such as these when they have gotten abundance and are in maner full rest them for a while and doe no more violence as it were in time of truce and surcease of hostilitie much after the maner as Demosthenes said unto them who thought that Demades had giuen over all his lewdnesse and knavery O quoth he you see him now full as lions are who when they have filled their bellies prey no more for the lice untill they be hungrie againe but such covetous wretches as be imploied in government of civill affaires and that for no profit nor pleasure at all which they intend those I say never rest nor make holiday they allow themselves no truce nor cessation from gathering heaping more together still as being evermore emptie have alwaies need of al things though they have all But some man perhaps will say These men I assure you do save lay up goods in store for their children and heires after their death unto whom whiles they live they will part with nothing If that be so I can compare them very well to those mice and cats in gold mines which feed upon the gold-ore and licke up all the golden sand that the mines yeeld so that men can not come by the golde there before they be dead and cut up in maner of anatomies But tell me I pray you wherefore are these so willing to treasure up so much money and so great substance and leave the same to their children inheritours and successors after them I verily beleeve to this end that those children and heires also of theirs should keepe the same still for others likewise and so to passe from hand to hand by descent of many degrees like as earthen conduct-pipes by which water is conveied into some cesterne withhold and reteine none of all the water that passeth through them but doe transmit and send all away from them ech one to that which is next and reserve none to themselves thus doe they untill some arise from without a meere stranger to the house one that is a sycophant or very tyrant who shall cut off this keeper of that great stocke and treasure and when he hath dispatched and made a hand of him drive and turne the course of all this wealth and riches out of the usuall chanell another way or at leastwise untill it fall into the hands as commonly men say it doth of the most wicked and ungracious imp of that race who wil disperse and scatter that which others have gathered who will consume and devour all unthristily which his predecessors have gotten and spared wickedly for not onely as Euripides saith Those children wastfull prove and bad Who servile slaves for parents had but also covetous carles pinching peni-fathers leave children behind thē that be loose riotous spend-thrifts like as Diogenes by way of mockery said upon a time That it were better to be a Megarians ram than his sonne for wherein they would seeme to instruct and informe their children they spoile and mar them cleane ingrafting into their hearts a desire and love of money teaching them to be covetous and base minded pinch-penies laying the foundation as it were in their heires of some strong place or fort wherein they may surely guard and keepe their inheritance And what good lessons and precepts be these which they teach them Gaine and spare my sonne get and save thinke with thy selfe and make thine account that thou shalt be esteemed in the world according to thy wealth and not otherwise But surely this not to instruct a
childe but rather to knit up fast or sow up the mouth of a purse that it may hold and keepe the better whatsoever is put into it This onely is the difference that a purse or money-bag becommeth foule sullied and ill-savoring after that silver is put it but the children of covetous persons before they receive their patrimonies or atteine to any riches are filled alreadie even by their fathers with avarice and a hungrie desire after their substance and verily such children thus nourtred reward their parents againe for their schooling with a condigne salarie and recompense in that they love them not because they shall receive much one day by them but hate them rather for that they have nothing from them in present possession alreadie for having learned this lesson of them To esteeme nothing in the world in comparison of wealth and riches and to aime at nought els in the whole course of their life but to gather a deale of goods together they repute the lives of their parents to be a blocke in their way they wish in heart that their heads were well laid they do what they can to shorten their lives making this reckoning That how much time is added to their olde age so much they lose of their youthfull yeeres And this is the reason why during the life of their fathers secretly and under-hand they steale after a sort by snatches their pleasure and enjoy the same They wil make semblance as if it came from other when they give away money and distribute it among their friends or otherwise spend it in their delights whiles they catch it privily from under the very wing of their parents and when they goe to heare and take out their lessons they will be sure to picke their purses if they can before they goe away but after their parents be dead and gone when they have gotten into their hands the keies of their coffers and signets of their bags then the case is altered and they enter into another course and fashion of life you shall have my yoong masters then put on a grave and austere countenance they will not seeme to laugh nor be spoken to or acquainted with any body there is no talke now of anointing the body for any exercise the racket is cast aside the tennis court no more haunted no wrestling practised no going to the schooles either of the Academie or Lycene to heare the lectures and disputations of Professors and Philosophers But now the officers and servants be called to audit and account now they are examined what they have under their hands now the writings billes obligations and deeds are sought up and perused now they fall to argue and reason with their receivers stewards factours and debters so sharpe-set they are to their negotiations and affaires so full of cares and businesse that they have no leasure to take their dinners or noone-meales and if they sup they can not intend to go into the baine or hot-house before it be late in the night the bodily exercises wherein they were brought up and trained in be laid downe no swimming nor bathing any more in the river Dirce all such matters be cast behinde and cleane forgotten Now if a man say to one of these Will you go and heare such Philosopher reade a lecture or make a sermon How can I go will he say againe I have no while since my fathers death O miserable and wretched man what hath hee left unto thee of all his goods comparable to that which he hath bereaved thee of to wit Repose and Libertie but it is not thy father so much as his riches flowing round about thee that environeth and compasseth thee so as it hath gotten the masterie thee this hath set foot upon thy throat this hath conquered thee like unto that shrewd wife in Hesiodus Who burnes a man without a match or brand of scorching fire And driveth him to gray-old age before that time require causing thy soule as it were to be full of rivels and hoarie haires before time bringing with it carking cares and tedious travels proceeding from the love of money and a world of affaires without any repose whereby that alacrity cheerefulnesse worship and sociable courtesie which ought to be in a man are decayed and faded cleane to nothing But what meane you sir by all this will some one haply say unto me See you not how there be some that bestow their wealth liberally with credit and reputation unto whom I answere thus Have you never heard what Aristotle said That as some there are who have no use at all of their goods so there be others who abuse the same as if he should say Neither the one nor other was seemely and as it ought to be for as those get neither profit nor honour by their riches so these susteine losse and shame thereby But let us consider a little what is the use of these riches which are thus much esteemed Is it not I pray you to have those things which are necessary for nature but these who are so rich and wealthy above the rest what have they more to content nature than those who live in a meane and competent estate Certes riches as Theophrastus saith is not so great a matter that wee should love and admire it so much if it be true that Callias the wealthiest person in all Athens and Ismenias the richest citizen of Thebes use the same things that Socrates and Epaminondas did For like as Agathon banished the flute cornet and such other pipes from the solemne feasts of men and sent them to women in their solemnities supposing that the discourses of men who are present at the table are sufficient to enterteine mirth euen so may he aswell rid away out ofhouses hangings coverlets and carpets of purple costly and sumptuous tables and all such superfluities who seeth that the great rich worldlings use the very same that poorer men do I would not as Hesiodus saith That plough or helme should hang in smoake to drie Or painfull tillage now be laid aside Nor works of oxe and mule for ever die Who serve our turnes to draw to till to ride but rather that these goldsmiths turners gravers perfumers and cooks would be chased and sent away forasmuch as this were indeed an honest and civill banishment of unprofitable artificers as forreiners that may be spared out of a citty Now if it be so that things requisite for the necessitie of nature be common aswell to the poore as the rich and that riches doe vaunt and stand so much upon nothing els but superfluities and that Scopas the Thessalian is worthily cōmended in this That being requested to give away and part with somwhat of his houshold stuffe which he might spare and had no need of Why quoth he in what things els consisteth the felicitie of those who are reputed happie and fortunate in this world above other men but in these supersluities that you seeme
strength and firme constancie not subject by meanes of reasons and good instruction to shaking I leave that to your owne consideration and mine together But now forasmuch as this total impassibilitie if I may so speake of the mind to wit a state so perfect that it is void of all affections is a great and divine thing and seeing that this profit and proceeding whereof we write consisteth in a kind of remission and mildnesse of the said passions we ought both to consider ech of them apart and also compare them one with another thereby to examine and judge the difference conferre we shall every passion by it selfe by observing whether our lusts and desires be more calme and lesse violent than in former time by marking likewise our fits of feare and anger whether they be now abated in comparison of those before or whether when they be up and enflarned we can quickly with the helpe of reason remoove or quench that which was wont to set them on worke or a fire compare we shall them together in case we examine our selves whether we have now a greater portion of grace and shame in us than of feare whether we finde in our selves emulation and not envie whether we covet honor rather than worldly goods and in one word whether after the manner of musicians we offend rather in the extremitie and excesse of harmonie called Dorion which is grave solemne and devout than the Lydian which is light and galliard-like that is to say inclining rather in the whole maner of our life to hardnes and severitie than to effeminate softnesse whether in the enterprise of any actions we shew timiditie and slacknesse rather than temeritie and rashnesse and last of all whether we offend rather in admiring too highly the sayings of men and the persons themselves than in despising and debasing them too low for like as we say in physicke it is a good signe of health when diseases are not diverted and translated into the noble members principal parts of the body even so it seemeth that when the vices of such as are in the way of reformation and amendement of life chaunge into passions that are more milde and moderate it is a good beginning of ridding them away cleane by little little The Lacedaemonian Ephori which were the high countrollers of that whole State demanded of the Musician phrynis when he had set up two strings more to his seven stringed instrument whether he would have them to cut in sunder the trebles or the bases the highest or the lowest but as for us we had need to have our affections cut both above and beneath if we desire to reduce our actions to a meane and mediocritie And surely this progresse or proceeding of ours to perfection professeth rather to let downe the lightest first to cut off the extremitie of passions in excesse and to abate the acrimonie of affections before we doe any thing else in which as saith Sophocles Folke foolish and incontinent Most furtous be and violent As for this one point namely that we ought to transferre our judgement to action and not to suffer our words to remaine bare and naked words still in the aire but reduce them to effect we have alreadie said that is the chiefe propertie belonging to our progresse and going forward now the principall arguments and signes thereof be these if we have a zeale and fervent affection to imitate those things which we praise if we be forward and readie to execute that which we so much admire and contrariwise will not admit nor abide to heare of such things as we in our opinion dispraise and condemne Probable it is and standeth with great likelihood that the Atheniansal in general praised and highly esteemed the valour and prowesse of Miltiades but when Themistocles said that the victorie and Trophee of Miltiades would not give him leave to sleepe but awakened him in the night plaine it is and evident that he not onely praised and admired but had a desire also to imitate him and do asmuch himselfe semblably we are to make this reckoning that our progresse and proceeding in vertue is but small when it reacheth no farther than to praise onely and have in admiration that which good men have woorthily done without any motion and inclination of our will to imitate the same and effect the like For neither is the carnall love of the bodie effectuall unlesse some little jealousie be mixed withall not the praise of vertue fervent and active which doth not touch the quicke and pricke the heart with an ardent zeale in stead of envie unto good and commendable things and the same desirous to performe and accomplish the same fully For it is not sufficient that the heart should be turned upside downe onely as Alcibiades was woont to say by the words and precepts of the Philosopher reading outof his chaire even untill the teares gush out of the eies but he that truly doth profit go forward ought by comparing himselfe with the works actions of good men and those that be perfectly vertuous to feele withall in his owne heart aswell a displeasure with himselfe and a griefe in conscience for that wherein he is short and defective as also a joy and contentment in his spirit upon a hope and desire to be equall unto them as being full of an affection and motion that never resteth and lieth still but resembleth for all the world according to the similitude of Simonides The sucking foale that keeps just pace And runs with dam in everie place affecting and desiring nothing more than to be wholy united and concorporate with a good man by imitation For surely this is the passion peculiar and proper unto him that truely taketh profit by the studie of Philosophie To love and cherrish tenderly the disposition conditions of him whose deeds he doth imitate and desire to expresse with a certaine good will to render alwaies in words due honor unto them for their vertue and to assay how to fashion and conforme himselfe like unto them But in whomsoever there is instilled or infused I wot not what contentious humor envie and contestation against such as be his betters let him know that all this proceedeth from an heart exulcerated with jealousie for some authoritie might and reputation and not upon any love honor or admiration of their vertues Now when as we begin to love good men in such sort that as Plato saith we esteeme not only the man himselfe happie who is temperate or those blessed who be the ordinarie hearers of such excellent discourses which daily come out of his mouth but also that we do affect and admire his countenance his port his gate the cast and regard of his eie his smile and maner of laughter insomuch as we are willing as one would say to be joined sodered and glued unto him then we may be assured certainely that we profit in vertue yea and so much the rather
venerable for this maner of rebuke is not unprofitable but breedeth in those who are chastised by them a great desire and emulation withall to atteine unto the like place of honour and dignitie But as for our selves we ought to take heed and beware how we trip or tread awry in this case for the maner of blaming our neighbours being as it is otherwise very odious and almost intolerable and which hath need of great caution and warinesse he that medleth his proper praise with the blame of another and seeketh glorie by his infamy cannot chuse but be exceeding hatefull and unsupportable as if he hunted after renowme and honour by the reprochfull and dishonorable parts of his neighbours Furthermore as they who naturally are enclined and disposed to laughter are to avoid and decline the ticklings and soft handling in those parts of the body that are most smooth sliecke and tender which soone yeelding and relenting to those light touches stirre up and provoke immediately that passion of laughing even so this caveat and advertisement would be given unto such as passionately be given to this desire of glory that they absteine from praising themselves at what time as they be collauded by other for a man that heareth himselfe praised ought indeed to blush for shame and not with a bold and shamelesse face to hearken thereto nay he should doe well to reproove those that report some great matter of him rather then to finde fault for saying too little and not praising him sufficiently a thing iwis that many men doe who are ready of themselves to prompt and suggest yea and to inferre other magnanimous facts and prowesses so far forth that they marre all aswell the praise that they give themselves as the laudable testimoniall of others And I assure you many there be who flattering themselves tickle and puffe up their owne conceits with nothing els but winde others againe upon a malicious intent laying some petie praise as it were a bait for them to bite at draw them on thereby to fall into their owne commendation some also you shall have who to that purpose will keepe a questioning with them propose certeine demands for the nonce to traine them within their toile and all to have the more matter that they might soone after laugh at Thus in Menander the glorious soldier made good sport being demanded of one DEMAND Good sir how came you by this wound and scar SOLDIER By dint of iavelin launced from a far DEMAND But how for gods sake how let us all know SOLDIER As I a wall did scale I caught this blow But well I see whiles that I do my best This to relate these make of me a jest And therefore in all these cases a man ought to bee as warie as possiblie hee can that he neither himselfe breake out in his owne praises nor yet bewray his weakenesse and folly by such interrogatoies and that hee may in the best and most absolute manner take heede thereto and save himselfe from such inconveniences the readiest way is to observe others neerely that love to bee praisers of themselves namely to call to minde and represent unto their owne remembrance how displeasant and odious a thing it is to all the world and that there is or can be no other speech so unsavory tedious and irkesome to heare for suppose that we are not able to say that we suffer any other harme at their hands who praise themselves yet we do all that we can to avoid such speech we make shift to be delivered from it and hasten all that we may to breath our selves as if it were an heavy burden which of it selfe and the owne nature overchargeth us insomuch as it is troublesome and intolerable even to flatterers parasites and needy smel-feasts in that necessitie and indigence of theirs to heare a rich man a prince a governor or a king to praise himselfe nay they give out that they pay the greatest portion of the shot when they must have patience to give eare to such vanities like unto that jester in Menander who breaketh out into these words He killeth me when at his boord I sit And with his cheere I fatter am no whit But rather pine away you may be sure When such bald jests to heare I must endure And yet as wise and warlike as they seeme A bragging foole and leawd sot I him deeme For considering that we are wont to say thus not onely against soldiers and glorious upstarts newly enriched whose maner is to make much of their painted sheaths powring out brave and proud discourses but also against sophisters thetoritians and philosophers yea and great captaines puffed up with arrogancy and presumption and speaking bigge words of themselves If we would call to remembrance that a mans owne proper praises be accompanied alwaies with the dispraises of others and that the end commonly of such vaine-glory is shame and infamie also that tediousnesse unto the hearers is as Demosthenes saith the reward and not any opinion to be reputed such as they say we would be more sparie and forbeare to speake so much of our selves unlesse some greater profit and advantage might afterwards grow either to us or to the hearers in place WHAT PASSIONS AND MALADIES BE WORSE THOSE OF THE SOULE OR THOSE OF THE BODIE The Summarie THis present question upon which Plutarch hath framed this declamation whereof there remaineth extant in our hands but one little parcell hath beene of long time discussed and debated among men the greater is our damage and detriment that we have heere no better division nor a more ample resolution of it by so excellent a philosopher as he was but seeing that this losse can not be recovered let us seeke for the cleering of all this matter in other authors but principally in those who search deepely to the verie bottom for to discover the source of all the maladies of the soule in stead of such writers who have treated of morall philosophie according to the doctrine and light of nature onely accompanied with precepts out of her schoole and have not touched the point but superficially as being ignorant what is originall and hereditarie corruption what is sinne how it entred first into the world what are the greatest impressions assaults effects and what is the end and reward thereof But to come unto this fragment our author after he had shewed that man of all living creatures is most miserable declareth wherein these humane miseries ought to bee considered and prooveth withall that the diseases of the soule are more dangerous than those of the body for that they be more in number and the same exceeding different hard to be knowen and incurable as evidently it is to be seene in effect that those who are afflicted with such maladies have their judgement depravate and overturned refusing remedie with the losse of rest and repase and a singular pleasure which they take to discover their unquietnesse anxietie and
importing a generall striking out of all debts and a cancelling of bonds he imparted this desseigne and purpose of his to some of his friens who did him a shrewd turne and most unjustly wrought him much mischiefe for upon this inkling given unto them they made haste to take up and borrow all the money they could as farre as their credite would extend not long after when this edict or proclamation aforesaid concerning the annulling of all debts was come foorth and brought to light these frends of his were found to have purchased goodly houses and faire lands with the monies which they had levied Thus Solon was charged with the imputation of doing this wrong together with them when as himselfe indeede was wronged and abnused by them Agesilaus also shewed himselfe in the occasions and sutes of his frends most weake and feeble minded more iwis than in any thing else resembling the horse Pegasus in Euripides Who shrunke full low and yeelded what he could His backe to mount more than the rider would and helping his familiar frends in all their distresses more affectionatly and willingly than was meet and reason for whensoever they were called into question in justice for any transgressions he would seeme to be privie and partie with them in the same Thus hee saved one Phaebidas who was accused to have surprised secretly the castle of Thebes called Ladmia without commission and warrant alledging in his defence that such enterprises ought to be executed by his owne proper motive without attending any other commandement Moreover he wrought so with his countenance and favour that one Ephodrias who was attaint for an unlawfull and heinous act and namely for entring by force and armes with a power into the countrey of Attica what time as the Athenians were allied and confederate in amitie with the Lacedaemonians escaped judgement and was found unguiltie which he did being wrought thereto and mollified as it were by the amourous praiers of his sonne Likewise there is a missive of his found and goeth abroad to be seene which he wrote unto a certaine great lord or potentate in these tearmes If Nicias have not trespassed deliver him for justice sake if he have transgressed deliver him for my sake but howsoever it be deliver him and let him go But Phocion contrariwise would not so much as assist in judgement Charillus his own sonne in law who had married his daughter when he was called into question and indited for corruption taking money of Harpalis but left him and departed saying In all causes just and reasonable I have made you my allie and wil imbrace your affinitie in other cases you shall pardon me Timoleon also the Corinthian after that he dealt what possibly he could with his brother by remonstrance by praiers and intreaty to reclaime and disswade him from being a tyrant seeing that he could doe no good on him turned the edge of his sword against him and joined with those that murdered him in the end for a magistrate ought to friend a man and stand with him not onely with this gage as farre as to the altar that is to say untill it come to the point of being forsworne for him according as Pericles one day answered to a friend of his but also thus farre forth onely as not to doe for his sake any thing contrary to the lawes against right or prejudicial to the common-weale which rule being neglected and not precisely observed is the cause that bringeth great losse and ruine to a state as may appeare by the example of Phoebidas and Sphodrias who being not punished according to their deserts were not the least causes that brought upon Sparta the unfortunate warre and battell at Leuctrae True it is that the office of a good ruler and administratour of the weale-publicke doth not require precisely and force us to use everity and to punish every slight and small trespasse of our friends but it permitteth us after we have looked to the main-chance and secured the State then as it were of a surplussage to succour our friends to assist and helpe them in their affaires and take part with them Moreover there be certeine favours which may be done without envie and offence as namely to stand with a friend rather than another for the getting of a good office to bring into his hand some honourable commission or an easie and kinde ambaslage as namely to be sent unto a prince or potentate in the behalfe of a city or State onely to salute him and doe him honour or to give intelligence unto another city of important matters in regard of amity league and mutual societie or in case there fall out some businesse of trouble difficulty and great importance when a magistrate hath taken upon himselfe first the principall charge thereof he may chuse unto him for his adjunct or assistant in the commission some especiall frend as Diomedes did in Homer To chuse mine owne companion since that you will me let ulysses that renowmed knight how can I then forget Ulysses likewise as kindly rendreth unto him the like praise againe These coursers brave concerning which of me you do demand O aged fire arrived heere of late from Thracian land Are hither come and there were bred their lord them lost in fight Whom valiant Diomedes slew by force of armes outright And twelve friends more and doughtie knights as ever horse did ride Were with him slaine for companie and lay dead by his side This modest kinde of yeelding and submission to gratifie and pleasure friends is no lesse honourable to the praisers than to the parties praised whereas contrariwise arrogancie and self-selfe-love as Plato saith dwelleth with solitudes which is as much to say as it is forsaken and abandoned of all the world Furthermore in these honest favors and kinde courtesies which we may bestow upon some frends we ought to associate other frends besides that they may be in some sort interessed therein also and to admonish those who receive such pleasures at our hands for to praise and thanke them yea and to take themselves beholden unto them as having bene the cause of their preferment and those who counselled and perswaded thereto but if peradventure they moove us in any undecent dishonest and unreasonable sutes we must flatly denie them howbeit not after a rude bitter churlish sort but mildly and gently by way of remonstrance and to comfort them withall shewing unto them that such requests were not beseeming their good reputation and the opinion of their vertue And this could Epaminondas do of all men in the world best and shift them off after the cleanliest maner for when hee refused at the instant sute of Pelopidas to deliver out of prison a certeine Tavernor and within a while after let the same partie goe at libertie at the request of his lemon or harlot whom he loved he said unto him Pelopidas such graces and favours as these we are to grant unto
note of insolencie and presumption because he forgat or omitted so small a demonstration and token of humanitie how can it be that he who goeth about to impaire the dignitie and credit of his companions in government or discrediteth and digraceth him in those actions especially which proceed from honour and bountie or upon an arrogant humour of his owne will seeme to do all and attribute the whole to himselfe alone how can such an one I say be reputed either modest or reasonable I remember my selfe that when I was but of yoong yeres I was sent with another in embassage to the Proconsul and for that my companion staid about I wot not what behind I went alone and did that which we had in commission to do together after my returne when I was to give an account unto the State and to report the effect of my charge message back againe my father arose and taking me apart willed me in no wise to speak in the singular number say I departed or went but We departed Item not I said or quoth I but We said in the whole recitall of the rest to joine alwaies my companion as if he had been associat at one hand with me in that which I did alone And verily this is not onely decent convenient and civill but that which more is it taketh from glorie that which is offensive to wit envie which is the cause that great captaines attribute and ascribe their noble acts to fortune and their good angell as did Timoleon even he who overthrew the Tyrannies established in Sicilie who founded and erected a temple to Good-Fortune Pythou also when he was highly praised and commended at Athens for having slaine king Cotys with his owne hand It was God quoth he who for to doe the deed used my hand And Theopompus king of the Lacedemonians when one said unto him that Sparta was saved and stood vpright for that their kings know how to rule well Nay rather quoth he because the people know how to obey well and to say a truth both these depend one upon the other howbeit most men are of this opinion and so they give out that the better part of policie or knowledge belonging to civill government lieth in this to fit men and frame them meete to be well ruled and commanded for in every citie there is alwaies a greater number of subjects than rulers and ech one in his turne especially in a popular state is governour but a while and for it afterwards continueth governed all the rest of his life in such sort that it is a most honest and profitable apprentiship as it were to learne for to obey those who have authoritie to command although haply they have meaner parts otherwise and be of lesse credite and power than our selves for a meer absurditie it were that wheras a principall or excellent actour in a Tragedie such as Theodorus was or Potus for hire waiteth oftentimes upon another mercenarie plaier who hath not above three words in his part to say and speaketh unto him in all humilitie and reverence because peradventure he hath the roiall band of a diademe about his head and a scepter in his hand in the true and unfained actions of our life and in case of policie and government a rich and mightie person should despise and set light by a magistrate for that he is a simple man otherwise and peradventure poore and of meane estate yea and proceede to wrong violate and impaire the publike dignitie wherein he is placed yea and to offer violence thereby unto the authoritie of a State whereas he ought rather with his owne credite and puissance helpe out the defect and weakenesse of such a man and by his greatnesse countenance his authoritie for thus in the citie of Lacedemon the kings were woont to rise up out of their thrones before the Ephori and whosoever els was summoned called by them came not an ordinary foot-pace or faire and softly but running in great haste in token of obedience and to shew unto other citizens how obeisant they were taking a great joy and glorie in this that they honour their magistrates not as some vaine-glorious and ungracious sots voide of all civilitie and manners wanting judgement and discretion who to shewe forsooth their exceeding power upon which they stande much and pride themselves will not let to offer abuse unto the judges and wardens of the publike games combats and pastimes or to give reprochfull termes to those that leade the dance or set out the plaies in the Bacchanale feast yea and mocke captaines and laught at the presidents wardens of the publik exercises for youth who have not the wit to know That to give honour is oftentimes more honorable than to be honored for surely to an honourable person who beareth a great sway carieth a mightie port with him in a citie it is a greater ornament grace to accompany a magistrate and as it were to guard and squire him than if the said magistrate should put him before or seeme to waite upon him in his traine and to say a truth as this were the way to worke him displeasure and procure him envie from the hearts of as manie as see it so the other would win him true glorie which proceedeth of love and benevolence And verily when such a man is seene otherwhiles in the magistrates house when he saluteth or greeteth him first and either giveth him the upper-hand or the middle place as they walke together he addeth an ornament to the dignirie of the citie and looseth thereby none of his own Moreover it is a popular thing and that which gaineth the hearts of the multitude if such a person can beare patiently the hard tearmes of a magistrates whiles he is in place and endure his cholericke fits for then he may with Diomedes in Homer say thus to himselfe How ever now I little do say It will be mine honor another day Or as one said of Demosthenes Well he is not now Demosthenes onely but he is a law-giver he is a president of the sacred plaies and solemne games and a crowne he hath upon his head c. and therefore it is good to put up all nowe and to deferre vengeance untill another time for either we shall come upon him when he is out of his office or at least wise wee shall gaine thus much by delay that choler will be well cooled and allaied by that time Moreover in any government or magistracie whatsoever a good subject ought to strive as it were a vie with the rulers especially if they be persons of good sort and gracious behaviour in diligence care and fore-cast for the benefit of the State namely in going to them to give notice and intelligence of whatsoever is meet to be done in putting into their hands for to be executed that which he hath with mature deliberation rightly resolved upon in giving meanes unto them for to
and the woorse sort of people are given thereto more than the better also if you goe thorow all barbarous nations you shall not finde those who are most haughtie-minded and magnanimous or cary any generositie of spirit in them such as be the Almans or Gaules addicted hereunto but Aegyptians Syrians Lydians and such other for some of these by report use to go downe into hollow caves within the ground and there hide themselves for many daies together and not so much as see the light of the sunne because forsooth the dead partie whom they mourne for is deprived thereof In which regard Ion the Tragicall Poet having as it should seeme heard of such fooleries bringeth in upon the stage a woman speaking in this wise Come forth am I now at the last Your nourse and childrens governesse Out of deepe caves where some daies past I kept in balefull heavinesse Others there be also of these Barbarians who cut away some parts and dismember themselves slit their owne noses crop their eares misuse disfigure the rest of their bodies thinking to gratifie the dead in doing thus if they seeme to exceed all measure that moderation which is according to nature There are besides who reply upon us and say That they thinke we ought not to waile and lament for every kind of death but onely in regard of those that die before their time for that they have not as yet tasted of those things which are esteemed blessings in this life to wit the joies of marriage the benefit of literature and learning the perfection of yeeres the management of common weale honors and dignities for these be the points that they stand upon and grieve most who lose their friends or children by untimely death for that they be disappointed and frustrate of their hopes before the time ignorant altogether that this hastie and overspeedie death in regard of humane nature differeth nothing at all from others for like as in the returne to our common native countrey which is necessarily imposed upon al and from which no man is exempted some march before others follow after and all at length meet at one and the same place even so in traveling this journey of fatall destinie those that arrive late thither gaine no more advantage than they who are thither come betime now if any untimely or hastie death were naught simply that of little babes and infants that sucke the brest and cannot speake or rather such as be newly borne were woorst and yet their death we beare verie well and patiently whereas we take their departure more heavily and to the heart who are growen to some good yeeres and all through the vanitie of our foolish hopes whereby we imagine and promise to our selves assuredly that those who have proceeded thus farre be past the woorst and are like to continue thus in a good and certaine estate If then the prefixed terme of mans life were the end of twentie yeeres certes him that came to be sifteene yeeres old we would not judge unripe for death but thinke that he had attained to a competent age and as for him who had accomplished the full time of twentie yeeres or approched neere thereto we would account him absolute happy as having performed a most blessed and perfect life but if the course of our life reached out to two hundred yeeres he who chanced to die at one hundred yeeres end would be thought by us to have died too soone and no doubt his untimely death we would bewaile and lament By these reasons therefore and those which heeretofore we have alledged it is apparent that even the death which we call untimely soone admitteth consolation and a man may beare it patiently for this is certaine that Troilus would have wept lesse yea even Priamus himselfe shed fewer teares in case he had died sooner at what time as the kingdome of Troy flourished or whiles himselfe was in that wealthy estate for which he lamented so much which a man may evidently gather by the words which he gave to his sonne Hector when he admonished and exhorted him to retire from the combat which he had with Achilles in these verses Returne my sonne within these wals that thou from death maist save The Trojan men and women both let not Achilles have Of thee that honour as thy life so sweet to take away By victorie in single fight and hast thy dying day Have pittie yet my sonne of me thy wofull aged sire Ere that my wits and senses faile whom Jupiter inire Will else one day at th' end of this my old and wretched yeeres Consume with miserable death out-worne and spent with teeres As having many objects seene of sorrow and hearts griefe My sonnes cut short by edge of sword who should be my reliefe My daughters trail'd by haire of head and ravisht in my sight My pallace rac'd their chambers sackt wherein I tooke delight And sucking babes from mothers brests pluckt and their braines dasht out Against the stones of pav'ment hard lie sprawling all about When enemie with sword in hand in heat of bloudy heart Shall havocke make and then my selfe at last must play my part Whom when some one by dint of sword or launce of dart from farre Hath quite bereft of vitall breath the hungry dogs shall arre About my corps and at my gates hale it and drag along Gnawing the flesh of hoarie head and grisled chin among Mangling besides the privie parts of me a man so old Unkindly slaine a spectacle most piteous to behold Thus spake the aged father tho and pluckt from head above His haires milke-white but all these words did Hector nothing move Seeing then so many examples of this matter presented unto your eies you are to thinke and consider with your selfe that death doth deliver and preserve many men from great greevous calamities into which without all doubt they should have fallen if they had lived longer But for to avoid prolixitie I will omit the rest my selfe with those that are related already as being sufficient to proove shew that we ought not to breake out beside nature and beyond measure into vaine sorrowes and needlesse lamentations which bewray nothing else but base and seeble minds Crantor the philosopher was wont to say That to suffer adversitie causelesse was no small easement to all sinister accidents of fortune but I would rather say That innocencie is the greatest and most soveraigne medicine to take away the sense of all dolour in adversitie moreover the love and affection that we beare unto one who is departed consisteth not in afflicting and punishing our selves but in doing good unto him so beloved of us now the profit and pleasure that we are able to performe for them who are gone out of this world is the honour that we give unto them by celebrating their good memorials for no good man deserveth to be mourned and bewailed but rather to be celebrated with praise and
two sonnes Paralus and Xantippus had both changed this life behaved himselfe in this manner as Protagoras reporteth of him in these words When his two sonnes quoth he both yoong and beautifull died within eight daies one after the other he never shewed any sad countenance or heavie cheere but tooke their death most patiently for in truth he was a man at all times furnished with tranquillitie of spirit whereby he daily received great frute and commoditie not onely in respect of this happinesse that he never tasted of hearts griefe but also in that he was better reputed among the people for every man seeing him thus stoutly to take this losse and other the like crosses esteemed him valiant magnanimous and of better courage than himselfe the one being privie to his owne heart how he was woont to be troubled and afflicted in such accidents As for Pericles I say immediately after the report of both his sons departure out of this world he ware a chaplet of floures neverthelesse upon his head after the maner of his country put on a white robe made a solemne oration to the people propounded good and sage counsels to the Athenians incited them to war Semblaby Xenophon one of the followers familiars of Socrates when he offred sacrifice one day unto the gods being advertised by certaine messengers returned from the battel that his sonne Gryllus was slaine in fight presently put off the garland which was upon his head and demaunded of them the manner of his death and when they related unto him that he bare himselfe valiantly in the field and fighting manfully lost his life after he had the killing of many enemies he tooke no longer pause for to represse the passion of his mind by the discourse of reason but after a little while set the coronet of flowers againe upon his head and performed the solemnitie of sacrifice saying unto those who had brought those tidings I never praied unto the gods that my sonne should be either immortall or long lived for who knoweth whether this might be expedient or no but this rather was my praier that they would vouchsafe him the grace to be a good man and to love and serve his countrey well the which is now come to passe accordingly Dion likewise the Syracusian when he was set one day in consultation and devising with his friends hearing a great noise within his house and a loud outcry demaunded what it was and when he heard the mischaunce that hapned to wit that a sonne of his was fallen from the top of the house and dead with the fall without anie shew or signe at all of astonishment or trouble of mind he commanded that the breathlesse corps should be delivered unto women for to be interred according to the maner of the countrey and as for himselfe he held on and continued the speech that hee had begun unto his friends Demosthenes also the oratour is reported to have folowed his steps after he had buried his onely and entirely beloved daughter concerning whom Aeschines thinking in reprochfull wise to chalenger her father said thus This man within a seven-night after his daughter was depauted before that he had mourned or performed the due obsequies according to the accustomed manner being crowned with a chaplet of flowers and putting on white robes sacrificed an oxe unto the gods and thus unnaturally he made no reckoning of her that was dead his onely daughter and she that first called him father wicked wretch that he is this Rhetorician thus intending to accuse and reproch Demosthenes used this manner of speech never thinking that in blaming him after this manner he praised him namely in that hee rejected and cast behind him all mourning and shewed that he regarded the love unto his native countrey more than the naturall affection and compassion to those of his owne bloud As for king Antigonus when he heard of the death of his sonne Alcyoneus who was slaine in a battell he beheld the messengers of these wofull tidings with a constant and undaunted countenaunce but after he had mufed a while with silence and held downe his head he uttered these words O Alcyoneus thou hast lost thy life later than I looked for ventring thy selfe so resolutely as thou hast done among thine enemies without any care of thine owne safetie or respect of my admonitions These noble personages there is no man but doth admire and highly regard for their constance magnanimitie but when it commeth to the point and triall indeed they cannot imitate them through the weakenesse and imbecillitie of mind which proceedeth of ignorance and want of good instructions howbeit there be many examples of those who have right nobly and vertuously caried themselves in the death and losse of their friends and neere kinsmen which we may reade in histories as well Greeke as Latin but those that I have rehearsed already may suffice I suppose to moove you for to lay away this most irksome mourning and vaine sorrow that you take which booteth not nor can serve to any good for that yoong men of excellent vertue who die in their youth are in the grace and favour of the gods for being taken away in their best time I have already shewed heeretofore and now also will I addresse my selfe in this place as briefly as possibly I can to discourse giving testimonie of the truth to this notable wise sentence of Menander To whom the gods vouchsafe their love and grace He lives not long but soone hath runne his race But peradventure my most loving and right deere friend you may reply in this maner upon me Namely that yoong Apollonius your sonne enjoied the world at will and had all things to his hearts desire yea and more befitting it was that you should have departed out of this life and beene enterred by him who was now in the flower of his age which had beene more answerable to our nature and according to the course of humanitie True it is I confesse but haply not agreeable to that heavenly providence and government of this universall world and verily in regard of him who is now in a blessed estate it was not naturall for him to remaine in this life longer than the terme prefixed and limited unto him but after he had honestly performed the course of his time it was 〈◊〉 and requisit for him to take the way for to returne unto his destinie that called for him to come unto her but you will say that he died an untimely death true and so much the happier he is in that he hath felt no more miseries of this life for as Euripides said very well That which by name of life we call Indeed is travell continuall Certes this sonne of yours I must needs say is soone gone and in the very best of his yeeres and flower of his age a yoong man in all points entire and perfect a fresh bacheler affected esteemed and well reputed of all those
the valour in you is nothing els but a wise and warie cowardise and your prowesse and boldnesse is no better than timerousnesse accompanied with skill and knowledge how to decline one danger by another To be briefe if you thinke your selves to be more hardie and valiant than beasts how commeth it that your Poets tearme those who fight manfully against their enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is wolves for courage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is lion-hearted and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is resembling the wilde boare in animositie and force but never doth any of them call a lion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as valiant as a man or a wild boare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is comparable to a man in courage and strength Yet I wot well when they would speake excessively in comparison their maner is to call men that are swift in running 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is light-footed like the winde and those who be faire ad beautifull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is angelicall or to see to like unto angels and even so they compare and resemble brave warriours in the highest degree unto beasts who in that case are much more excellent than men the reason is this for that choler and heat of courage is as it were the steele the file yea the very whetstone that giveth the edge unto fortitude and this doe brute beasts bring with them pure and simple unto fight whereas in you it being alway mingled and tempered with some discourse of reason as if wine were delaied with a little water it is gone and to seeke in the greatest dangers and faileth at the very point of opportunity when it is most to be used And some of you are of opinion and sticke not to say that in battell and fight there is no need at all of anger but that laying aside all choler we are to employ sober and staied reason wherein they speake not amisse and I holde well with them when the question is of defence onely and the securing of a mans owne life but surely if the case be so that we are to offend to annoy and defait our enemie they talke most shamefully Is it not a very absurd thing that ye should reproove and blame nature for that she hath not set unto your bodies any stings or pricks nor given you tusks and teeth to revenge your selves with ne yet armed you with hooked clawes and tallons to offend your enemies and in the meane while your owne selves take spoile and bereave the soule of that naturall weapon which is inbred with it or at leastwise cut the same short and disable it ULYSSES What Gryllus you seeme as farre as I gesse to have beene heeretofore some wittie and great oratour who now grunting out of your stie or frank have so pithily argued the case and discoursed of the matter in hand but why have you not in the same traine disputed likewise of temperance GRYLLUS Because forsooth I thought that you would first have refuted that which hath already beene spoken but I see well you desire to heare me speake of temperance because you are the husband of a most chaste wife and you thinke besides that your selfe have shewed good proofe of your own continencie in that you have rejected the love wanton company of Circe but even heerein you are not more perfect I meane in continence than any one beast for even they also lust not at all to companie or engender with those that are of a more excellent kind than their owne but take their pleasure with those and make love to such as be of the same sort and therefore no marvell that as the Mendesian buck-goat in Aegypt when he was shut up with many faire and beautifull women never for all that made to any of them but abhorred to meddle with them whereas he was raging wood in heat of lust after the does or female goats So you taking delight in your ordinary love have no desire at all being a man to sleepe or deale carnally with an immortall goddesse And as for the chastitie and continence of your owne lady Penelope I tell you there be ten thousand crowes in the world that after their manner caing and croking as they doe will make a meere mocke of it and shew that it is no such matter to be accounted of for there is not one of them but if the male or cock chance to die remaineth a widow without seeking after a make not for a litle while but even for the space of nine ages lives of a man so that in this respect your faire Penelope commeth behind the poorest crow or raven that is and deserveth not the ninth part of her honour for chastitie But seeing you are ware that I am so eloquent an oratour I care not much if I observe a methodicall order in this discourse of mine and like a clearke indeed beginne first with the definition of temperance and then proceed to the division of appetites and lusts according to their several distinct kinds right formally Temperance therefore is a certaine restraint abridgement or regularitie of lusts and desires a restraint I say and abating of such as are forren strange and superfluous to wit unnecessarie and a regularitie which by election and choise of time and temperature of a meane doth moderate those that be naturall and necessarie for you see that in lusts and desires there be infinit differences As for example the appetite to drinke besides that it is naturall is also necessarie But the lust of the flesh or concupiscence although nature hath given the beginning thereof yet so it is that we may live commodiously without it so as well it may be called naturall but in no wise necessarie Now there is another sort of desires that be neither naturall nor necessarie but accidentall and infused from without by a vaine opinion and upon ignorance of that which is good and there be such a number of them that they goe verie neere to chase away and thrust out all your naturall appetites much like as when the aliens and strangers that swarme in a citie drive out and expell the naturall inhabitants whereas brute beasts give no entrance nor any communication and fellowship to forren affections for to settle in their soules but in their whole life all their actions be farre remote from vain-glory selfe-conceit fond opinions as if they abode within the mediterranean parts distant from the sea True it is that in their port and carriage they be not so elegant so fine curious as men howbeit otherwise for temperance good government of their affections which be not many in number either domesticall or strange forren they are more precise woonderfull exact in the observing of them than they for the proofe and truth heereof the time was once when I my selfe no lesse doated and was besotted upon gold than you are now thinking verily that
still bee somewhere and continue though they indured otherwise all maner of paines and calamities than wholy to bee taken out of the universall world and brought to nothing yea and willing they are and take pleasure to heare this spoken of one that is dead How he is departed out of this world into another or gone to God with other such like manner of speeches importing that death is no more but onely a change or alteration but not a totall and entire abolition of the soule And thus they use to speake Then shall I call even there to mind The sweet acquaintance of my friend Also What shall I say from you to Hector bold Or husband yours right deere who liv'd so old And herof proceeded and prevailed this errour that men supposed they are well eased of their sorrow and better appaied when they have interred with the dead the armes weapons instrustruments and garments which they were wont to use ordinarily in their life time like as Minos buried together with Glaucus His Candiot pipes made of the long-shanke bones Of dapple doe or hinde that lived once And if they be perswaded that the dead either desire or demand any thing glad they are and willing to send or bestow the same upon them And thus did Periander who burnt in the funerall fire together with his wife her apparell habilliments and jewels for that he thought she called for them and complained that she lay a cold And such as these are not greatly affraid of any judge Aeacus of Ascalaphus or of the river Acheron considering that they attribute unto them daunces theatricall plaies and all kinde of musicke as if they tooke delight and pleasure therein and yet there is not one of them all but is readie to quake for feare to see that face of death so terrible so unpleasant so glum and grizly deprived of all sense and growen to oblivion and ignorance of all things they tremble for very horrour when they heare any of these words He is dead he is perished he is gone and no more to be seene grievously displeased and offended they be when these and such like speeches are given out Within the earth as deepe as trees do stand His hap shall be to rot and turne to sand No feasts he shall frequent nor heare the lute And harpe ne yet the sound of pleasant flute Againe When once the ghost of man from corps is fled And pass'd the ranks of teeth set thicke in head All meanes to catch and fetch her are but vaine No hope there is of her returne againe But they kill them stone dead who say thus unto them We mortall men have bene once borne for all No second birth we are for to expect We must not looke for life that is eternall Such thoughts as dreames we ought for to reject For casting and considering with themselves that this present life is a smal matter or rather indeed a thing of nought in comparison of eternitie they regard it not nor make any account to enjoy the benefit thereof whereupon they neglect all vertue and the honourable exploits of action as being utterly discouraged and discontented in themselves for the shortnesse of their life so uncerteine and without assurance and in one word because they take themselves unfit and unworthy to performe any great thing For to say that a dead man is deprived of all sense because having bene before compounded that composition is now broken and dissolved to give out also that a thing once dossolved hath no Being at all and in that regard toucheth us not howsoever they seeme to be goodly reasons yet they rid us not from the feare of death but contrariwise they doe more confirme and enforce the same for this is it in deed which nature abhorreth when it shal be said according to the Poet Homers words But as for you both all and some Soone may you earth and water become meaning thereby the resolution of the soule into a thing that hath neither intelligence nor any sense at all which Epicurus holding to be a dissipation thereof into I wot not what emptinesse or voidnesse small indivisible bodies which he termeth Atomi by that meanes cutteth off so much the rather all hope of immortalitie for which I dare well say that all folke living men and women both would willingly be bitten quite thorow and gnawen by the hel-dog Cerberus or cary water away in vessels full of holes in the bottome like as the Danaides did so they might onely have a Being and not perish utterly for ever and be reduced to nothing And yet verily there be not many men who feare these matters taking them to be poeticall fictions and tales devised for pleasure or rather bug beares that mothers and nourses use to fright their children with and even they also who stand in feare of them are provided of certeine ceremonies and expiatorie purgations to helpe themselves withall by which if they be once cleansed and purified they are of opinion that they shall goe into another world to places of pleasure where there is nothing but playing and dauncing continually among those who have the aire cleere the winde milde and pure the light gracious and their voice intelligible whereas the privation of life troubleth both yoong and old for we all even every one of us are sicke for love and exceeding desirous To see the beautie of sunnes light Which on the earth doth shine so bright as Euripides saith neither willing are we but much displeased to heare this And as he spake that great immortall eie Which giveth light thorowout the fabricke wide Of this round world made haste and fast did hie With chariot swift cleane out of sight to ride Thus together with the perswasion and opinion of immortallity they bereave the common people of the greatest and sweetest hopes they have What thinke wee then of those men who are of the better sort and such as have lived justly and devoutly in this life Surely they looke for no evill at all in another world but hope and expect there the greatest and most heavenly blessings that be for first and formost champions or runners in a race are never crowned so long as they be in combat or in their course but after the combat ended and the victory atchieved even so when these persons are perswaded that the proofe of the victorie in this world is due unto them after the course of this life wonderfull it is and it can not be spoken how great contentment they finde in their hearts for the privitie and conscience of their vertue and for those hopes which assure them that they one day shall see those who now abuse their good gifts insolently who commit outrage by the meanes of their might riches and authoritie and who scorne and foolishly mocke such as are better than themselves paie for their deferts and suffer woorthily for their pride and insolencie And forasmuch as never any of them who
the wife and thought them to be of the same nature Or was it not thought that giving of presents was of all other the least worst signe of amity and good will for even strangers and such as beare no love at all use in that sort to be giving and in that regard they would banish out of marriage such kind of pleasing and curring favour to the end that the 〈◊〉 love and affection between the parties should be free and without respect of 〈◊〉 and gaine even for it selfe and nothing else in the world Or because women commonly admit and entertaine straungers as corrupted by receiving of presents and gifts at their hands it was thought to stand more with honour and reputation that 〈◊〉 should love their owne husbands though they gave them nothing by way of gift Or rather for that it was meet and requisit that the goods of the husband should be common to the wife and to the wife likewise of the husband for the partie who receiveth a thing in gift doth learne to repute that which was not given to be none of his owne but belonging to 〈◊〉 so that man and wife in giving never so little one to another despoile and defraud themselves of all that is beside 8 What might be the cause that they were forbidden to receive any gift either of Sonne in law or Father in law OF Sonne in law for feare lest the gift might be thought by the meanes of the Father to passe about the returne unto the wife and of the Father in law because it was supposed meet and just that he who gave not should not likewise receive ought 9 What should be the reason that the Romans when they returned from some voyage out of a farre and forraine countrey or onely from their ferme into the citie if their wives were at home used to send a messenger unto them before for to give warning and advertisement of their comming EIther it was because this is a token of one that beleeveth and is verily perswaded that his wife intendeth no lewdnesse nor is otherwise busied than well whereas to come upon her at unwares and on a sodain is a kind of forlaying and surprize Or for that they make haste to send them good newes of their comming as being assured that they have a longing desire and doe expect such tidings Or rather because themselves would be glad to heare from them some good newes to wit whether they shall find them in good health when they come and attending affectionately and with great devotion their returne Or else because women ordinarily when their husbands be away and from home have many petie businesses and house affaires and other whiles there fall out some little jarres and quarrels within doores with their servants men or maidens to the end therefore all such troubles and inconveniences might be overblowen and that they might give unto their husbands a loving and amiable welcome home they have intelligence given unto them before hand of their arrivall and approch 10 What is the cause that when they adore and worship the gods they cover their heads but contrariwise when they meet with any honourable or worshipfull persons if their heads haplie were then covered with their cover they discover the same and are bare headed FOr it seemeth that this fashion maketh the former doubt and braunch of the question more difficult to be 〈◊〉 and if that which is reported of Aeneas be true namely that as Diomedes passed along by him whiles he sacrificed he covered his head and so performed his sacrifice there is good reason and consequence that if men be covered before their enemies they should be bare when they encounter either their friends or men of woorth and honour for this maner of being covered before the gods is not properly respective unto them but occasioned by accident and hath since that example of Aeneas beene observed and continued But if we must say somewhat else beside consider whether it be not sufficient to enquire onely of this point namely why they cover their heads when they worship the gods seeing the other consequently dependeth heereupon for they stand bare before men of dignitie and authoritie not to doe them any more honor thereby but contrariwise to diminish their envie for feare they might be thought to require as much reverence and the same honor as is exhibited to the gods or suffer themselves and take pleasure to bee observed and reverenced equally with them as for the gods they adored them after this sort either by way of lowlinesse and humbling themselves before their majestie in covering and hiding their heads or rather because they feared lest as they made their praiers there should come unto their hearing from without any sinister voice or inauspicate and ominous osse and to prevent such an object they drew their hood over their eares And how true it is that they had 〈◊〉 eie and regard to meet with all such accidents it may appeere by this that when they went to any oracle for to beresolved by answer from thence upon a scrupulous doubt they caused a great noise to be made all about them with ringing of pannes or brasen basons Or it may well be as Castor saith comparing in concordance the Romane fashions with the 〈◊〉 of the Pythagoreans for that the Daemon or good angell within us hath need of the gods helpe without and maketh supplication with covering the head giving thus much 〈◊〉 to understand thereby that the soule is likewise covered and hidden by the bodie 11 Why sacrifice they unto Saturne bare-headed IS it because Aeneas first brought up this fashion of covering the head at sacrifice and the sacrifice to Saturnus is much more auncient than his time Or for that they used to be covered unto the celestiall gods but as for Saturne he is reputed a Subterranean or terrestriall god Or in this respect that there is nothing hidden covered or shadowed in Trueth For among the Romans Saturne was held to be the father of Veritie 12 Why doe they repute Saturne the father of Trueth IS it for that as some Philosophers deeme they are of opinion that Saturne is Time and Time you know well findeth out and revealeth the Truth Or because as the Poets fable men lived under Saturnes reigne in the golden age and if the life of man was then most just and righteous it followeth consequently that there was much trueth in the world 13 What is the reason that they sacrificed likewise unto the god whom they tearmed Honor with bare head now a man may interpret Honor to be as much as Glory and Reputation IT is haply because Honor and glory is a thing evident notorious and exposed to the knowledge of the whole world and by the same reason that they veile bonet before men of worship dignitie and honor they adore also the deitie that beareth the name of Honor with the headbare 14 What
they lacke Or many times the bottome of the sea and great rivers being full of mud doth by the reflexion of the Sunne-beames represent the like colour that the said mud hath Or is not more probable that the water toward the bottome is not pure and sincere but corrupted with an earthly qualitie as continually carying with it somewhat of that by which it runneth and wherewith it is stirred and the same setling once to the bottome causeth it to be more troubled and lesse transparent PLATONIQVE QVESTIONS The Summarie IN these gatherings Plutarch expoundeth the sense of divers hard places which are found in the disputations of Socrates conteined in the Dialogues of Plato his disciple but especially in Timaeus which may serve to allure yoong students to the reading of that great Philosopher who under the barke of words hath delivered grave and pleasant matters PLATONIQUE QUESTIONS 1 What is the reason that God other-whiles commanded Socrates to do the part of a Midwife in helping others to be delivered of child-birth but for had himselfe in any wise to procreate children according as it is written in a treatise entituled Theaetetus For we ought not to thinke that if he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cavill to 〈◊〉 or to speake ironically in this place he would have abused the name of God Besides in this selfe same treatise he attributeth many other high and magnificall speeches unto Socrates namely this among many others Certes quoth he there be many men right good sir who cary this minde to me-ward that they are disposed plainly to carpe and bite me in case at any time I seeme to rid them of any foolish opinion that they have neither thinke they that I do it of good will and meaning well unto them shewing themselves herein far short of this doctrine That no God beareth evill will to men no more verily do I this unto them upon any malice but surely I can not otherwise chuse neither doe I thinke it lawfull for me either to smoother up and pardon a lie or to dissemble and suppresse a trueth IS it for that he tearmeth his owne nature as being more judicious and inventive by the name of God like as Menander doth saying This minde this our intelligence In trueth is of divine essence And Heraclitus Mans nature we must needs confesse Is heavenly and a god doubtlesse Or rather in very trueth there was some divine and celestiall cause which suggested and inspired into Socrates this maner of philosophy whereby sifting as hee did continually and examining others he cured them of all swelling pride of vaine errour of presumptuous arrogancy likewise of being odious first to themselves and afterwards to those about them of their company for it fortuned about his time that a number of these sophisters swarmed over all Greece unto whom yong gentlemen resorting paying good summes of money for their salary were filled with a great weening and opinion of themselves with a vaine perswasion of their owne learning and zelous love to good letters spending their time in idle disputations and frivolous contentions without doing any thing in the world that was either good honest or profitable Socrates therefore who had a speciall gift by his maner of speech and discourse as it were by some purgative medicine to argue and convince was of greater authority and credit when he confuted others in that he never affirmed nor pronounced resolutely any thing of his owne yea and he pierced deeper into the soules and hearts of his hearers by how much he seemed to seeke out the trueth in common and never to favorize and mainteine any opinion of his owne for this begetting of a mans owne fansies mightily empeacheth the facultie and power to judge another for evermore the lover is blinded in the behalfe of that which he loveth and verily there is nothing in the world that loveth so much the owne as a man doth the opinions and reason whereof himselfe was the father for surely that distribution and partition among children which is commonly said to be most and equall is in this case of opinions and reasons most unjust for in the former every one must take his owne but in this hee ought to chuse the better yea though it were another mans and therefore once againe he that fathereth somewhat of his owne becommeth the worse judge of other mens And like as there was sometime a sophister or great learned man who said That the Elians would be the better umpires and judges of the sacred Olympick games in case there were never any Elian came in place to performe his prizes even so he that would be a good president to sit and determine of divers sentences and opinions no reason there is in the world that he should desire to have his owne sentence crowned no nor to be one of the parties contending and who in truth are to be judged by him The Grecian captaines after they had defaited the Barbarians being assembled in counsell to give their voices unto those whom they deemed woorthy of reward and honour for their prowesse judged themselves all to have done the best service and to be the most valorous warriours And of philosophers I assure you there is not one but he would doe as much unlesse it were Socrates and such as he who confesse that they neither have nor know ought of their owne for these in truth be they who onely shew themselves to be uncorrupt and competent judges of the truth and such as cannot be chalenged for like as the aire within our eares if it be not firme and steady nor cleere without any voice of the owne but full of singing sounds and ringing noises cannot exactly comprehend that which is said unto us even so that which is to judge of reasons in philosophie if it meet with any thing that resoundeth and keepeth an hammering within hardly will it be able to understand that which shall be delivered without foorth for the owne particular opinion which is domesticall and dwelleth at home of what matter soever it be that is treated of will alwaies be the philosopher that hitteth the marke and toucheth the truth best whereas all the rest shall be thought but to opine probably the trueth Moreover if it be true that a man is not able perfectly to comprise or know any thing by good right and reason then did God forbid him to cast forth these false conceptions as it were of untrue and unconstant opinions and forced him to reproove and detect those who ever had such for no small profit but right great commoditie comes by such a speech as is able to deliver men from the greatest evill that is even the spirit of error of illusion and vanitie in opinion So great a gift as God of spectall grace Gave never to Asclepius his race For the physicke of Socrates was not to heale the body but to clense and purifie the soule festestered inwardly and corrupt Contrariwise if it
the tyrant Demylus and having no good successe therein but missing of his purpose maintained the doctrine of Parmenides to be pure and fine golde tried in the fire from all base mettal shewing by the effect that a magnanimous man is to feare nothing but turpitude and dishonour and that they be children and women or else effeminate and heartlesse men like women who are affraid of dolor and paine for having bitten off his tongue with his owne teeth he spit it in the tyrants face But out of the schoole of Epicurus and of those who follow his rules and doctrines I doe not aske what tyrant killer there was or valiant man and victorious in feats of armes what lawgiver what counsellour what king or governour of state either died or suffred torture for the upholding of right and justice but onely which of all these Sages did ever so much as imbarke and make a voiage by sea in his countries service and for the good thereof which of them went in embassage or disbursed any mony thereabout or where is there extant upon record any civill action of yours in matter of government And yet because that Metrodorus went downe one day from the city as far as to the haven Pyraeaeum tooke a journey of five or six miles to aide Mythra the Syrian one of the king of Persias traine and court who had bene arrested and taken prisoner he wrot unto all the friends that he had in the world of this exploit of his and this doubty voiage Epicurus hath magnified exalted in many of his letters What a doe would they have made then if they had done such an act as Aristotle did who reedified the city of his nativity Stagira which had bene destroied by king Philip or as Theophrastus who twice delivered and freed his native city being held and oppressed by tyrants Should not thinke you the the river Nilus have sooner given over to beare the popyr reed than they bene weary of discribing their brave deeds And is not this a grievous matter and a great indignity that of so many sects of Philosophers that have bene they onely in maner enjoy the good things and benefits that are in cities without contributing any thing of their owne unto them There are not any Poets Tragedians or Comedians but they have endevoured to doe or say alwaies some good thing or other for the defence of lawes and policie but these here if peradventure they write ought write of policie that we should not intermeddle at all in the civill government of state of Rhetoricke that we should not plead any causes eloquently at the barre of Roialty that we should avoid the conversing and living in kings courts neither doe they name at any time those great persons who manage affaires of common weale but by way of mockerie for to debase and abolish their glorie As for example of Epaminondas they say that he had indeed some good thing onely in name and word but the same was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say as little as might be for that is the very terme that it pleaseth them to use Moreover they name him heart of yron demaunding why he marched up and downe through out all Peloponnesus with his armie as he did and sat not rather quiet at home in his owne house with a dainty chaplet upon his head given wholly to make good chere and to sleepe with his belly full in a whole skin But me thinks I should not for any thing omit in this place to rehearse what Metrodorus hath written in his booke of philosophy wherein abjuring all dealing in government of state he saith thus Some there be of these wisemen quoth he who being full of vanity and arrogancy had so deepe an insight into the businesse thereof that in treating of the rules of good life and of vertue they suffer themselves to be carried away with the very same desires that Lycurgus and 〈◊〉 fell into What was this vanity indeed and the aboundance of vanity and pride to set the city of Athens free to reduce Sparta to good policy and the government of holsome lawes that yong men should doe nothing licenciously nor get children upon curtisans and harlots and that riches wanton delicacie intemperance loosenesse dissolution should beare no sway nor have the commaund in cities but law onely and justice for these were the desires of Solon And thus Metrodorus by way of scorne and contumelious reproch addeth thus much more for a conclusion to the rest And therefore quoth he it is well beseeming a gentleman to laugh a good and right heartly at all other men but especially at these Solones and Lycurgi But verily such an one were not a gentleman Metrodorus nor well borne but servile base unruly and dissolute and who deserved to be scurged not with the whip which is for free borne persons but with that whip Astragalote where with the maner was to whip and chastice those gelded sacrificers called Gally when they did amisse in the cerimonies and sacrifices of Cylote the great mother of the gods Now that they warred not against the lawgivers but the very lawes themselves a man may heare and learne of Epicurus for in his questions he demaundeth of himselfe whether a wise man being assured that no man ever should know would doe and commit any thing that the law forbiddeth and he maketh an answere which is not full nor an open plaine and simple affirmation saying doe it I will marry confesse it and be knowen thereof I will not Againe writing as I suppose unto Idomeneus he admonisheth him not to subject and enthrall his life unto lawes and the opinions and reputations of men unlesse it be in this regard onely that otherwise there is prepared odious whipping chere and that neere at hand If then it be so that they who abolish lawes governments and policies do withall subvert and overthrow mans life if Metrodorus and Epicurus doe no lesse withdrawing and averting their friends and followers from dealing in publicke affaires and spitefully hating those who doe meddle therein miscalling and railing at the chiefe and wisest lawgivers that ever were yea and willing them to contemne the lawes so that they keepe themselves out of the feare of the whip and danger of punnishment I cannot see that Colotes hath in any thing so much belied others and raised false imputations against them as he hath indeed and truely accused the doctrine and opinions of Epicurus OF LOVE The Summarie THis Dialogue is more dangerous to be read by yoong men than any other Treatise of Plutarch for that there be certeine glaunces heere and there against honest marriage to upholde indirectly and under hana the cursed and 〈◊〉 filthinesse covertly couched under the name of the Love of yoong boyes But minds guarded and armed with true chastitie and the feare of God may see evidently in this discourse the miserable estate of the world in that there be found
reproch or touch notwithstanding shee was yoong and therewith beautifull This fresh widow whiles she treated of a mariage to be made betweene Bacchon a yoong gentleman a neighbours childe whose mother was a very familiar friend of hers a certeine yoong maiden a kinswoman of her owne by often talking with him and frequenting his company much fell herselfe in some fancie with the yoong man Thus both hearing and speaking much good and many kinde speeches of him and seeing besides a number of other gentlemen and persons of good woorth to be enamoured upon him by little and little she also fell to bee in hot love with the youth howbeit with a full intention and resolution to doe nothing that should be dishonest or unbeseeming her place parentage reputation but to be wedded unto Bacchon lawfully in the open sight of the world and so to live with him in the estate of wedlocke As the thing it selfe seemed at the first very strange so the mother of the yoong man of one side doubted and suspected the greatnesse of her state and the nobility magnificence of her house linage as not meet correspondent to his cōdition for to be a lover or to be matched there and on the other side some of his companions who used to ride forth a hunting with him considering that the yoong age of Bacchon was not answerable to the yeeres of Ismenodora buzzed many doubts in his head and frighted him from her what they could saying That she might be his mother and that one of her age was not for him and thus by their jesting and scoffing they hindered the mariage more than they who laboured in good earnest to breake it for hee began to enter into himselfe and considering that he was yet a beardlesse youth and scarcely undergrowen he was abashed and ashamed to mary a widow Howbeit in the end shaking off all others he referred himselfe to Anthemion and Pisias for to tell him their minds upon the point and to advise him for his best Now was Anthemion his cousen german one of good yeeres and elder than himselfe farre and Pisias of all those that made love unto him most austere and therefore he both withstood the mariage and also checked Anthemion as one who abandoned and betraied the yoong man unto Ismenodora Contrariwise Anthemion charged Pisias and said he did not well who being otherwise an honest man yet heerein imitated leawd lovers for that he went about to put his friend beside a good bargaine who now might be sped with so great a mariage out offo worshipfull an house and wealthy besides to the end that he might have the pleasure to see him a long time stripped naked in the wrestling place fresh still and smooth and not having touched a woman But because they should not by arguing thus one against another grow by little and little into heat of choler they chose for umpiers and judges of this their controversie my father and those who were of his company and thither they came assistant also there were unto them other of their friends Daphnaeus to the one and Protogenes to the other as if they had beene provided of set purpose to plead a cause As for Protogenes who sided with Pisias he inveighed verily with open mouth against dame Ismenodora whereupon Daphnaeus O Hercules quoth he what are we not to expect and what thing in the world may not happen in case it be so that Protogenes is ready heere to give defiance and make warre against love who all his life both in earnest and in game hath beene wholy in love and all for love which hath caused him to forget his booke and to forget his naturall countrey not as Laius did who was but five daies journey distant for that love of his was slow and heavy and kept still upon the land whereas your Cupid Protogenes With his light wings displaied and spred Hath over seafull swiftly fled from out of Cilicia to Athens to see faire boies and to converse and goe up and downe with them for to say a trueth the chiefe cause why Protogenes made a voiage out of his owne countrey and became a traveller was at the first this and no other Heere at the company tooke up a laughter and Protogenes Thinke you quoth he that I warre not against love and not rather stande in the defence of love against lascivious wantonnesse and violent intemperance which by most shamefull acts and filthy passions would perforce chalenge and breake into the fairest most honest and venerable names that be Why quoth Daphnaeus then do you terme mariage and the secret of mariage to wit the lawfull conjunction of man and wife most vile and dishonest actions than which there can be no knot nor linke in the world more sacred and holy This bond in trueth of wedlocke quoth Protogenes as it is necessary for generation is by good right praised by Polititians and law-givers who recommend the same highly unto the people and common multitude but to speake of true love indeed there is no jot or part therof in the societie and felowship of women neither doe I thinke that you and such as your selves whose affections stand to wives or maidens do love them no more than a flie loveth milke or a bee the hony combe as caters and cookes who keepe foules in mue and feed calves and other such beasts fatte in darke places and yet for all that they love them not But like as nature leadeth and conducteth our appetite moderately and as much as is sufficient to bread and other viands but the excesse thereof which maketh the naturall appetite to be a vicious passion is called gourmandise and pampering of the flesh even so there is naturally in men and women both a desire to enjoy the mutuall pleasure one of another whereas the impetuous lust which commeth with a kinde of force and violence so as it hardly can be held in is not fitly called love neither deserveth it that name For love if it seise upon a yoong kinde and gentle heart endeth by amity in vertue whereas of these affections and lusts afterwomen if they have successe and speed never so well there followeth in the end the fruit of some pleasure the fruition and enjoying of youth and a beautifull body and that is all And thus much testified Aristippus who when one went about to make him have a distaste and mislike of Lais the curtisan saying that she loved him not made this answer I suppose quoth he that neither good wine nor delicate fish loveth me but yet quoth he I take pleasure and delight in drinking the one and eating the other For surely the end of desire and appetite is pleasure and the fruition of it But love if it have once lost the hope and expectation of amity and kindnesse will not continue nor cherish and make much for beauty sake that which is irksome and odious be it neverso gallant and in
unamiable For the conjunction of man and woman without the affection of love like as hunger and thirst which tend to nothing else but satiety and fulnesse endeth in nought that is good lovely and commendable but the goddesse Venus putting away all lothsome satiety of pleasure by the meanes of love engendred amitie and friendship yea and temperature of two in one And herereupon it is that Parmentdes verily affirmeth love to be the most ancient worke of Venus writing thus in his booke intituled Cosmogenia that is to say the creation of the world And at the first she framed love Before all other gods above But Hesiodus seemeth in mine opinion more physically to have made love more ancient than any other whatsoever to the end that all the rest by it might breed and take beginning If then we bereave this love of the due honours ordained for it certes those which belong to Venus will not keepe their place any longer Neither can it be truely said that some men may wrong and reproch love and forbeare withall to doe injurie unto Venus For even from one and the same stage we doe here these imputations first upon love Love idle is it selfe and in good troth Possesseth such like persons given to sloth And then againe upon Venus Venus my children hath not this onely name Of Venus or of Cypris for the same Answere right well to many an attribute And surname which men unto her impute For hellshe is and also violence That never ends but aie doth recommence And furious rage yong folke for to incense Like as of the other gods there is not one almost that can avoid the approbrious tongue of unlettered rusticity and ignorance For do but consider and observe god Mars who as it were in an Caldaean and Astronomicall table standeth in a place diametrally opposit unto love 〈◊〉 I say what great honours men have yeelded unto him and contrariwise what reprochfull termes they give him againe Mars is starke blinde and seeth not faire dames but like wilde bore By turning all things up side downe works mischeife evermore Homer calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say imbrued with blood and polluted with murders likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say variable and leaping from one side to another As for Chrysippus by ety mologizing and deriving this gods name fastneth upon him a criminous accusation saying that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so he is named in Greeke cometh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to murder and destroy giving thereby occasion unto some to thinke that the facultie and power in us prone to warre fight debate quarrell anger and fell stomacke is called 〈◊〉 that is to say Mars Like as others also will say that concupiscence in us is termed Venus our gift of speaking Mercurie skill in arts and sciences Muses and prudence Minerva See you not how deepe a pit and downefall of Atheisme and impietie is ready to receive and swallow us up in case we range and distribute the gods according to the passions powers faculties and vertues that be in us I see it very well quoth Pemptides but neither standeth it with pietie and religion to make gods to be passions nor yet contrariwise to beleeue that passions be gods How thinke you then quoth my father is Mars a god or a passion of ours Pemptides answered That he thought him to be a god ruling and ordering that part of our soule wherein is seated animositie anger and manly courage What Pemptides cried out my father then hath that turbulent warring overthwart and quarrelling part in us a deitie to be president over it and shall this that breedeth amity societie and peace be without a divine power to governe it Is there indeed a martiall and warlike god of armes called thereupon Stratius and Enyalius who hath the superintendance and presidence of mutuall murders wherein men kill and bekilled of armour weapons arrowes darts and other shot of assaults and scaling walles of saccage pillage and booties Is there never a god to be a witnesse guide director and coadjutour of nuptiall affection and matrimoniall love which endeth in unitie concord and fellowship There is a god of the woods and forests named Agroteros who doth aide assist and encourage hunters in chasing and crying after the roe-bucke the wilde goat the hare and the hart and they who lie in secret wait for to intercept woolves and beares in pitfalles and to catch them with snares make their praiers to Aristaeus Who first as I have heard men say Did grinnes and snares for wilde beasts lay And Hercules when he bent his bowe and was ready to shoot at a bird called upon another god and as Aeschylus reporteth Phoebus the hunter directed by-and-by His arrow straight as it in aire did fly And shall the man who 〈◊〉 after the fairest game in the world even to catch friendship and amitie have no god nor demi-god no angell to helpe to favorise and speed his enterprise and good endevours For mine owne part my friend Daphnaeus I take not man to be a more base plant or viler tree than is the oake the mulberie tree or the vine which Homer honoureth with the name of Hemeris considering that in his time and season he hath a powerfull instinct to bud and put foorth most pleasantly even the beauty both of body and minde Then quoth Daphnaeus who ever was there before God that thought or said the contrary Who answered my father mary even all they verily who being of opinion that the carefull industrie of plowing sowing and planting apperteineth unto the gods For certaine Nymphs they have hight Driades Whose life they say is equall with the trees And as Pindar us writeth God Bacchus who the pure resplendent light Of Autumne is and with his kinde influence Doth nourish trees and cause to graw upright And fructifie at length in affluence Yet for all this are not perswaded that the nouriture and growth of children and yong folke who in their prime and flour of age are framed and shaped to singular beauty and feature of personage belongeth to any one of the gods or demy gods Neither by their saying any deitie or divine power hath the care charge of man that as he groweth he should shoot up streight and arise directly to vertue and that his naturall indument and generous ingenuity should be perverted daunted and quelled either for default of a carefull tutour and directour or through the leawd and corrupt behaviour of bad company about him And verily were it not a shamefull indignity and ingratitude thus to say and in this behalfe to drive God as it were from that bounty and benignity of his to mankinde which being defused spred and dispersed over all is defectious in no part no not in those necessary actions and occasions where of some have their end more needfull iwis many times than lovely or beautifull to see to As for
off unjustly to pay the debt which you have promised us for having ere while by the way and against your will made some little mention of the Aegyptians and of Plato you passed them over then and even so doe you at this present as for that which Plato hath written or rather these Muses heere have by him delivered I know well you will say nothing thereof although we should request and pray you to doe it but for that you have covertly signified thus much that the mythologie or fables of the Aegyptians accord sufficiently with the doctrine of the Platonikes concerning Love it were against all reason that you should refuse to discover reveale and declare it unto us and content will we be in case we may heare but a little of such great and important matters Now when the rest of the companie instantly intreated likewise my father began againe and said That the Aegyptians like as the Greeks acknowledge two kindes of Love the one vulgar the other celestiall they beleeve also that there is a third beside to wit the sunne and Venus above all they have in great admiration as for us we see a great affinity and resemblance betweene Love and the sunne for neither of them both is as some doe imagine a materiall fire but the heat of the one and the other is milde and generative for that which proceedeth from the sunne giveth unto bodies nouriture light and deliverance from cold winter that which commeth from the other worketh the same effects in soules and as the sunne betweene two clouds and after a foggy mist breaketh foorth most ardent even so Love after anger fallings out and fits of jealousie upon attonement and reconciliation made betweene Lovers is more pleasant and fervent and looke what conceit some have of the sunne that it is kindled and quenched alternatiuely namely that every evening it goeth out and every morning is lighted againe the same they have of Love as being mortall corruptible and not permanent in one estate moreover that habite or constitution of the body which is not exercised and inured to endure both cold and heat can not abide the sunne no more can that nature of the soule which is not well nurtured and liberally taught be able to brooke Love without some paine and trouble but both the one and the other is transported out of order yea and indisposed or diseased alike laying the weight upon the force and power of Love and not upon their owne impuissance and weaknesse this onely seemeth to be the difference betweene them that the sunne exhibiteth and sheweth unto those upon the earth who have their eie-sight things beautifull and foule indifferently whereas Love is the light that representeth faire things onely causing lovers to be lookers of such alone and to turne toward them but contrariwise to make none account of all others Furthermore they that attribute the name of Venus to the earth are induced thereto by no similitude nor proportion at all for that Venus is divine and celestiall but the region wherein there is a mixture of mortall with immortall is of it selfe feeble darke and shadie when the sunne shineth not upon it like as Venus when love is not assistant unto it and therefore more credible it is that the moone should resemble Venus and the sunne Love rather than any other god yet are not they therefore all one because the body is not the same that the souleis but divers like as the sunne is sensible visible but Love spirituall and intelligible and if this might seeme a speech somewhat harsh a man might say that the sunne doeth cleane contrary unto Love for that it diverteth our understanding from the speculation of things intelligible unto the beholding of objects sensible in abusing and deceiving it by the pleasure and brightnesse of the sight perswading it to seeke in it and about it as all other things so trueth it selfe and nothing else where being ravished with the Love thereof For that we see it shine so faire Vpon the earth amid the aire according as Euripides saith and that for want of knowledge and experience of another life or rather by reason of forgetfulnesse of those things which Love reduceth into our memorie For like as when we awake in some great and resplendent light all nightly visions and apparitions vanish away and depart which our soule saw during sleepe even so it seemeth that the sunne doeth astonish the remembrance of such things as heere happen and chance in this life yea and to bewitch charme and enchant our understanding by reason of pleasure and admiration so as it forgetteth what it knew in the former life and verily there is the true reall substance of those things but heere apparitions onely by which our soule in sleepe admireth and embraceth that which is most beautifull divine and woonderfull but as the Poet saith About the same are vaine illusions Dreames manifold and foolish visions And so the mind is perswaded that all things heere be goodly and precious unlesse haply by good adventure it meet with some divine honest and chaste Love for to be her Physicion and savior which passing from the other world by things corporall may conduct and bring it to the truth and to the pleasant fields thereof wherein is seated and lodged the perfect pure and naturall beautie not sophisticate with any mixture of that which is counterfet and false where they desire to embrace one another and to commune together as good friends that of long time have had no interview nor entercourse assisted alwaies by Love as by a Sextaine who leadeth by the hand those that are professed in some religion shewing unto them all the holy reliques and sacred ceremonies one after another Now when they be sent hether againe the soule by it selfe can not come neere and approch thereto but by the organe of the body and like as because yoong children of themselves are not able to comprehend intelligible things therefore Geometricians put into their hands visible and palpable formes of a substance incorporall and impassible to wit the representations of sphaeres cubes or square bodies as also those that be dodecaedra that is to say having twelve equall faces even so the celestiall Love doth present and shew unto us faire mirrors to behold therein beautifull things howbeit mortall thereby to admire such as be heavenly and divine sensible objects for to imagine thereby those that be spirituall and intelligible These be the severall favors and beauties faire colours pleasant shapes proportions and features of yoong persons in the floure of their age which shining and glittring as they doe gently excite and stirre up our memorie which by little and little at the first is enflamed thereby whereby it commeth to passe that some through the folly of their friends and kinsfolke endevoring to extinguish this affection and passion of the minde by force and without reason have enjoied no benefit thereof but
it placeth in lieu thereof modest bashfulnesse silence and taciturnity it adorneth it with decent gesture and seemly countenance making it for ever after obedient to one lover onely Ye have heard I am sure of that most famous and renowmed courtisan Lais who was courted and sought unto by so many lovers and ye know well how she inflamed and set on fire all Greece with the love and longing desire after her or to say more truly how two seas strave about her how after that the love of Hippolochus the Thessalian had seased upon her she quit and abandoned the mount Acrocorinthus Seated upon the river side Which with greene waves by it did glide as one writeth of it and flying secretly from a great army as it were of other lovers she retired herselfe right decently within Megalopolis unto him where other women upon very spight envie and jelousie in regard of her surpassing beautie drew her into the temple of Venus and stoned her to death whereupon it came as it should seeme that even at this day they call the said temple The temple of Venus the murderesse We our selves have knowen divers yoong maidens by condition no better than slaves who never would yeeld to lie with their master as also sundry private persons of meane degree who refused yea and disdained the companie of queenes when their hearts were once possessed with other love which as a mistresse had the absolute command thereof For like as at Rome when there was a Lord Dictatour once chosen all other officers of State and magistrates valed bonet were presently deposed and laied downe their ensignes of authority even so those over whom Love hath gotten the mastery and rule incontinently are quit freed and delivered from all other lords and rulers no otherwise than such as are devoted to the service of some religious place And in trueth an honest and vertuous dame linked once unto her lawfull spouse by unfained love will sooner abide to be clipped clasped and embraced by any wolves and dragons than the contrectation and bed fellowship of any other man whatsoever but her owne husband And albeit there be an infinit number of examples among you here who are all of the same countrey and professed associats in one dance with this god Love yet it were not well done to passe over in silence the accidents which befell unto Camma the Galatian lady This yong dame being of incomparable beauty was maried unto a tetrarch or great lord of that countrey named Sinnatus howbeit one Synorix the mightiest man of all the Galatians was enamoured upon her but seeing that he could not prevaile with the woman neither by force and perswasion so long as her husband lived he made no more ado but murdred him Camma then having no other refuge for her pudicity nor comfort and easement of her hearts griefe made choise of the temple of Diana where she became a religious votary according to the custome of that countrey And verily the most part of her time she bestowed in the worship of that goddesse and would not admit speech with any 〈◊〉 many though they were and those great personages who sought her mariage but when Synorix had made meanes very boldly to aske her the question and to sollicite her about that point she seemed not to reject his motion nor to expostulate and be offended for any thing past as if for pure love of her and ardent affection and upon no wicked and malicious minde unto Sinnatus he had beene induced to do that which he did and therefore Synorix came confidently to treat with her and demand mariage of her she also for her part came toward the man kindly gave him her hand and brought him to the altar of the said goddesse where after she had made an offring unto Diana by powring forth some little of a certeine drinke made of wine hony as it should seeme empoisoned which she had put into a cup she began unto Synorix dranke up the one 〈◊〉 of it giving the rest unto the said Galatian for to pledge her Now when she saw that he had drunke it all off she fetched a grievous grone and brake forth aloud into this speech naming withall her husband that dead was My most loving and deere spouse quoth she I have lived thus long without thee in great sorow and heavinesse expecting this day but now receive me joifully seeing it is my good hap to be revenged for thy death upon this most wicked and ungratious wretch as one most glad to have lived once with thee and to die now with him As for Synorix he was caried away from thence in a litter and died soone after but Camma having survived him a day and a night died by report most resolutely and with exceeding joy of spirit Considering then that there be many such like examples aswel among us here in Greece as the Barbarians who is able to endure those that reproch and revile Love as if being associate and assistant to love she should hinder amitie whereas contrariwise the company of male with male a man may rather terme intemperance and disordinate lasciviousnesse crying out upon it in this maner Grosse wantonnesse or filthie lust it is Not Venus faire that worketh this And therefore such filths baggages as take delight to suffer themselves voluntarily thus to be abused against nature we reckon to be the woorst and most flagitious persons in the world no man reposeth in them any trust no man doth them any jote of honor and reverence nor vouchsafeth them woorthy of the least part of friendship but in very trueth according to Sophocles Such friends as these men are full glad and joy when they be gone But whiles they have them wish and pray that they were rid anone As for those who being by nature leaud and naught have beene circumvented in their youth aad forced to yeeld themselves and to abide this villany and abuse al their life after abhorre the sight of such wicked wantons and deadly hate them who have bene thus disposed to draw them to this wickednesse yea and ready they are to be revenged and to pay them home at one time or other whensoever meanes and opportunity is offered for upon this occasion Cratenas killed Archelaus whom in his flower of youth he had thus spoiled as also Pytholaus slew Alexander the tyrant of Pherae And Pertander the tyrant of Ambracia demanded upon a time of the boy whom he kept whether he were not yet with childe which indignity the youth tooke so to the heart that he slew him outright in the place whereas with women and those especially that be espoused and wedded wives these be the earnest penies as it were and beginnings of amity yea the very obligation and society of the most sacred holiest ceremonies As for fleshly pleasure it selfe the least thing it is of all other but the mutuall honour grace dilection and fidelity that springeth and ariseth
they be very engenious and witty mary in every plot they cannot avoid the note of bald devices affected curiositie in their inventions Like as therefore he that painted Apollo with a rocke upon his head signified thereby the day-breake the time a little before sunne rising even so a man may say that these frogs doe symbolize and betoken the season of the Spring at what time as the Sunne begins to rule over the aire and to discusse the winter at least waies if we must according to your opinion understand the Sunne and Apollo to be both one god and not twaine Why quoth Serapion are you of another minde and doe you thinke the Sunne to be one Apollo another Yes mary doe I quoth he as well as that the Sunne and Moone do differ Yea and more than so for the Moone doth not often nor from all the world hide the Sunne whereas the Sunne hath made all men together for to be ignorant of Apollo diverting the minde and cogitation by the meanes of the sense and turning it from that which is unto that which appeareth onely Then Seripion demanded of those Historians our guides and conductors what was the reason that the forsaid cell or chappell was not intitled by the name of Cypselus who dedicated it but called the Corinthians chappel And when they held their peace because as I take it they knew not the cause I began to laugh thereat And why should we thinke quoth I that these men knew or remembered any thing more being astonied and amased as they were to heare you fable and talke of the meteors or impressions in the aire For even themselves we heard before relating that after the tyranny of Cypselus was put downe and overthrowen the Corinthians were desirous to have the inscirption as well of the golden statue at Pisa as of this cell or treasure house for to runne in the name of their whole city And verily the Delphians gave and granted them so much according to their due desert But for that the Elians envied them that priviledge therefore the Corinthians passed a publicke decree by vertue whereof they excluded them from the solemnity of the Isthmian games And heereof it came that never after that any champion out of the territorie of Elis was knowen to shew himselfe to doe his devoir at those Isthmicke games And the massacre of the Molionides which Hercules committed about the city of Cleonae was not the cause as some doe thinke why the Elians were debarred from thence for contrariwise it had belonged to them for to exclude and put by others if for this they had incurred the displeasure of the Corinthians And thus much said I for my part Now when we were come as far as to the hall of the Acanthians and of Brasidas our discoursing Historians and expositours shewed us the place where sometimes stood the obelisks of iron which Rhodopis the famous courtisan had dedicated Whereat Diogenianus was in a great chafe and brake out into these words Now surely quoth he the same city to their shame be it spoken hath allowed unto a common strumpet a place whether to bring and where to bestow the tenth part of that salarie which she got by the use of her body and unjustly put to death Aesope her fellow servant True quoth Serapion but are you so much offended hereat cast up your eie and looke aloft behold among the statues of brave captaines and glorious kings the image of Mnesarete all of beaten gold which Crates saith was dedicated and set up for a Trophae of the Greeks lasciviousnesse The yong gentleman seeing it Yea but it was of Phryne that Crates spake so You say true quoth Serapion for her proper name indeed was Mnesarete but surnamed she was Phryne in meriment because she looked pale or yellow like unto a kinde of frogge named in Greeke Phryne And thus many times surnames doe drowne and suppresse other names For thus the mother of king Alexander the great who had for her name at first Pollyxene came afterwards to be as they say surnamed Myrtale Olympias and Stratonice And the Corinthian lady Eumetis men call unto this day after her fathers name Cleobuline and Herophile of the city Erythre she who had the gift of divination and could skill of prophesie was afterwards in processe of time surnamed Sibylla And you have heard Grammarians say that even Leda her selfe was named Mnesinoe and Orestes Achaeus But how thinke you quoth he casting his eie upon Theon to answere this accusation as touching Phryne Then he smiling againe In such sort quoth he as I will charge and accuse you for busying your selfe in blaming thus the light faults of the Greeks For like as Socrates reprooved this in Calltas that gave defiance onely to sweet perfumes or pretious odors for he liked well enough to see the daunces and gesiculations of yong boies and could abide the sight of kissing of pleasants buffons and jesters to make folke laugh so me thinks that you would chase and exclude out of the temple one poore silly woman who used the beauty of her owne body haply not so honestly as she might and in the meane time you can abide to see god Apollo environed round about with the first fruits with the tenth and other oblations arising from murders warres and pillage and all his temple throughout hanged with the spoiles and booties gotten from the Greeks yea and are neither angry nor take pity when you reade over such goodly oblations and ornaments these most shamefull inscriptions and titles Brasidas and the Acanthians of the Athenian spoiles the Athenians of the Corinthians the Phocaeans of the Thesalians the Oraneates of the Sicyonians and the Amphyctions of the Phocaeans But peradventure it was Praxiteles alone who was offensive unto Crates for that he had set up a monument there of his owne sweet heart which he had made for the love of her whereas Crates contrariwise should have commended him in that among these golden images of kings and princes he had placed a courtisan in gold reproching thereby and condemning riches as having in it nothing to be admired and nothing venerable for it well beseemeth kings and great rulers to present Apollo and the gods with such ornaments and oblations as might testifie their owne justice their temperance and magnanimity and not make shew of their golden store and abundance of superfluous delicates whereof they have their part commonly who have lived most shamefully But you alledge not this example of Croesus quoth another of our historians directours who caused a statue in gold to be made set up here of his woman-baker which he did not for any proud and insolent ostentation of his riches in this temple but upon an honest just occasion for the report goeth that Alyattes the father of this Croesus espoused a second wife by whom he had other children whom hereared and brought up This lady then purposing secretly to take
were so fierce and untractable used those robes and habillimonts which were proper usuall and familiar to them and all to gaine their hearts by little and little mollifying by that meanes the fiercenesse of their courage pacifying their displeasure and dulcing their grimnesse and austeritie would any man blame or reproove and not rather honour and admire his politicke wisdome in that with a little change and altering of his garments he had the dexteritie and skill to gaine all Asia and lead it as he would making himselfe thus by his armour master and lord of their bodies and by his apparell alluring and winning their hearts And yet these men commend Aristippus the Philosopher and disciple of Socrates for that one while wearing a poore thinne and thred-bare cloke and another while putting on a rich mantell of tissew wrought and died at Miletus he knew how to keepe decorum and decently to behave himselfe as well in the one garment as the other meane while they blame and condemne Alexander in that as he honored the habit of his owne countrey so he disdained not the apparell of another which he had conquered by armes intending therby to lay the ground-worke foundation of greater matters for his desseigne and purpose was not to over-runne and waste Asia as a captaine and ring-leader of a rable of theeves and robbers would doe nor to sacke and racke harry and worrie it as the praie and booty of unexpected and unhoped for felicity like as afterwards Anniball did by Italy and before time the Trierians delt by Ionia and the Scythians by Asia who made havocke and waste as they went but as one who meant to range all the nations upon earth under the obedience of one and the same reason and to reduce all men to the same policie as citizens under government of a common-weale therefore thus he composed and transformed himselfe in his raiment and habit And if that great God who sent the soule of Alexander from heaven to earth below had not so suddenly called it away againe unto himselfe peradventure there had beene but one law to rule and overlooke all men living the whole world haply had beene governed by one and the same justice as a common light to illustrate all places whereas now those parts of the earth which never had a sight of Alexander remaine in the shadow of darknesse as destitute of the very light of the sunne and therefore the very first project of his expedition and voiage sheweth that he caried the minde of a true Philosopher indeed who aimed not at the gaining for himselfe daintie delights and costly pleasures but intended to procure and compasse an universall peace concord unitie and societie of all men living one with another In the second place consider we his words and sentences for that in other kings and potentates also their maners and intentions of their minde are principally bewraied by their speeches Antigonus the elder when a certeine Sophister upon a time presented and pronounced unto him certeine commentaries and treatises which he had composed as touching justice Good fellow quoth he thou art a foole to come and preach unto one of justice when thou seest me bending mine ordinance against the cities of other princes and battering their wals as I do Denys also the tyrant was wont to say that we should deceive children with dies and cockal bones but beguile men with othes And upon the tombe of Sardanapalus was engraven this epitaph What I did eat and drinke I have the sports also remaine Which lady Venus did vouchsave all else I count but vaine Who can denie but that by the last of those speeches and apophthegmes sensuall lust and voluptuousnesse was authorized by the second Atheisme and impietie and by the first injustice and avarice Now if you take away from the sayings of Alexander his roiall crowne and diademe the addition of Jupiter Amnion whose sonne he was stiled to be and the nobility of his birth certes you would say they were the sage sentences of Socrates Plato or Pythagoras For we must not stand upon the brave titles and proud inscriptions which Poets have devised to be imprinted or engraven upon his pictures images and statues having an eie and regard not to shew the modestie but to magnifie the puissance of Alexander as for example This image here that stands in brasse so bright Of Alexander is the portraict right Up toward heaven he both his eies doth cast And unto Jove seemes thus to speake at last Mine is the earth by conquest I it hold Thou Jupiter in heaven mayst be bold And another Of Jupiter that heavenly God of might The sonne am I Great Alexander hight These were the glorious titles which glavering Poets I say in flattery of his fortune fathered upon him But if a man would recount the true apophthegmes indeed of Alexander he may do well to beginne first at those which he delivered in his childhood for being in footmanship the swftest of all other yoong lads of his age when his familiar play-feeres and mates were in hand with him very earnestly to runne a course at the Olympian games for a prise he demanded of them againe whether he should meet with kings there for his concurrents in the race and when they answered No Then were the match quoth he not equally nor indifferently made wherin if I have the woorse a king shall be foiled and if I gaine the victorie I shall but conquer private persons When his father Philip chanced in a battell against the Triballians to be runne thorow the thigh with a launce and albeit that he escaped danger of death yet was much grieved and dismaied to limpe and halt thereupon as he did Be of good cheere good father quoth he and go abroad hardly in the sight of the whole world that at every step you tread and set forward you may be put in minde of your valour and vertue How say you now proceed not these answeres from a Philosophicall minde and shew they not an heart which being ravished with a divine instinct and ardent love of good and honest things careth not for the defects of the bodie for how greatly thinke you joyed and gloried he in the wounds that he received in his owne person who in every one of them bare the testimony and memoriall of some nation subdued some battell won of some cities forced by assaile or of some kings that yeelded to his mercie Certes he never tooke care to cover and hide his scarres but caried them about him and shewed them where ever he went as so many marks and tokens engraved to testifie his vertue and prowesse And if at any time there grew some comparison either by way of serious disputation in points of learning or in table talke as touching the verses of Homer which of them were best when some seemed to commend this verse others that he would evermore preferre this above all other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A
the base to the female and the Hypotinusa to the issue of them both And verily Osiris representeth the beginning and principle Isis that which receiveth and Horus the compound of both For the number of three is the first odde and perfect the quaternarie is the first square or quadrate number composed of the first even number which is two and five resembleth partly the father and in part the mother as consisting both of two and three And it should seeme also that the very name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the universall world was derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say five and so in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in old time signified as much as to number and that which more is five being multiplied in it selfe maketh a quadrat number to wit twentie five which is just as many letters as the Aegyptians have in their alphabet and so many yeeres Apis also lived And as for Horus they used to call him Kaimin which is as much to say as seene for that this word is sensible and visible Isis likewise is sometime called Mouth otherwhiles Athyri or Methyer And by the first of these names they signifie a Mother by the second the faire house of Horus like as Plato termeth it to be the place capable of generation the third is compounded of Full and the cause for Matter is full of the world as being maried and keeping companie with the first principle which is good pure and beautifully adorned It should seeme haply also that the Poet Hesiodus when he saith that all things at the first were Chaos Earth Tartarus and Love groundeth upon no other principles than those which are signified by these names meaning by the Earth Isis by Love Osiris and by Tartarus Typhon as we have made demonstration For by Chaos it seemes that he would understand some place receptacle of the world Moreover in some sort these matters require the fable of Plato which in his booke entituled Symposium Socrates inferred namely wherein he setteth downe the generation of Love saying that Penia that is to say povertie desirous to have children went and lay with Poros that is to say riches and slept with him by whom she conceived with childe and brought foorth Love who naturally is long and variable and begotten of a father who is good wife and al-sufficient and of a mother who is poore needy and for want desirous of another and evermore seeking and following after it For the foresaid Poros is no other but the first thing amiable desireable perfect and sufficient As for Penia it is matter which of it selfe is evermore bare and needy wanting that which is good whereby at length she is conceived with childe after whom she hath a longing desire and evermore ready to receive somewhat of him Now Horus engendred betweene them which is the world is not eternall nor impassible nor incorruptible but being evermore in generation he endevoreth by vicissitude of mutations and by periodicall passion to continue alwaies yoong as if he should never die and perish But of such fables as these we must make use not as of reasons altogether really subsisting but so as we take out of ech of them that which is meet and convenient to our purpose When as therefore we say Matter we are not to rely upon the opinions of some Philosophers and to thinke it for to be a bodie without soule without qualitie continuing in it selfe idle and without all action whatsoever for we call oile the matter of a perfume or ointment and gold the matter of an image or statue which notwithstanding is not voide of all similitude and even so we say that the very soule and understanding of a man is the matter of vertue and of science which we give unto reason for to bring into order and adorne And some there were who affirmed the minde or understanding to be the proper place of formes and as it were the expresse mould of intelligible things like as there be Naturalists who hold that the seed of a woman hath not the power of a principle serving to the generation of man but standeth in stead of matter and nourishment onely according unto whom we also being grounded heerein are to thinke that this goddesse having the fruition of the first and chiefe god and conversing with him continually for the love of those good things vertues which are in him is nothing adverse unto him but loveth him as her true spouse and lawfull husband and like as we say that an honest wife who enjoieth ordinarily the company of her husband loveth him neverthelesse but hath still a minde unto him even so giveth not she over to be enamoured upon him although she be continually where he is and replenished with his principall and most sincere parts But when and where as Typhon in the end thrusteth himselfe betweene and setteth upon the extreme parts then and there she seemeth to be sadde and heavy and thereupon is said to mourne and lament yea and to seeke up certeine reliques and pieces of Osiris and ever as she can sinde any she receiveth and arraieth them with all diligence and as they are ready to perish and corrupt she carefully tendeth and keepeth them close like as againe she produceth and bringeth foorth other things to light of her selfe For the reasons the Idaeae and the influences of God which are in heaven and among the starres doe there continue and remaine but those which be disseminate among the sensible and passible bodies in the earth and in the sea diffused in the plants and living creatures the same dying and being buried doe many times revive and rise againe fresh by the meanes of generations And heereupon the fable saith thus much more that Typhon cohabiteth and lieth with Nephthys and that Osiris also by stealth and secretly keepeth company with her for the corruptive and destroying power doeth principally possesse the extreme parts of that matter which they name Nephthys and death and the generative preserving vertue conferreth into it little seed the same weake and feeble as being marred and destroied by Typhon unlesse it be so much as Isis gathereth up saveth which she also norisheth mainteineth But in one word to speake more generally he is stil better as Plato Aristotle are of opinion for the naturall puissance to engender to preserve moveth toward him as to a subsistance and being whereas that force of killing destroying moveth behind toward non subsistence which is the reason that they call the one Isis that is to say a motion animate and wise as if the word were derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to move by a certeine science and reason for a barbarous word it is not But like as the generall name of all gods and goddesses to wit Theos is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of visible and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
1031.30 Ale a counterfeit wine 685.40 Alalcomenae the name of a citie in Ithacesia 901.40 Alalcomenion in Boeotia ib. Alastor 896.1 Alastores 1330.40 Alcamenes his Apophthegmes 453.20 Alcathoe 899.30 Alcestis cured by Apollo 1146.30 Alcibiades of loose behaviour 350.50 Alcibiades a not able flatterer 88.50 his apophthegmes 419.30 he had no good utterance 252.10 Alcioneus the sonne of K. Antigonus a forward knight 530.1 Alcippus and his daughters their pitifull historie 948.10 Alcyons the birds 615.20 Alcyon a bird of the sea of a wonderfull nature 977.30 how she builds her nests 218.10 Alcmaeonidae debased and traduced by Herodotus 1231.20 Alcman the Poet. 270.40 Alcmenaes tombe opened 1206.1 Alenas how declared K. of Thessalie 191.1 K. Alexander the great winketh at his sisters follies 372.50 his respect to Timoclia 504. 1. his apophthegmes 411.10 his magnanimitie ib. his activitie ib. his continencie ib. his magnificence ib. his bountie and liberalitie 411.30 he noteth the Milesians ib. 40. his gratious thankefulnes to Tarrias 1279.50 his frugalitie and sobrietie in diet 412.10 entituled Jupiter Ammons sonne ib. 20. he reprooveth his flatterers ib. he pardoneth an Indian his archer 413.10 his censure of Antipater 412.30 his continence ib. 40. he presumeth not to be compared with Hercules 413.30 his respect of those who were in love 412.40.50 whereby he acknowledged himselfe mortall 105.20.766.30 he honored Craterus most and affected Hephestion best 413.40 his death day observed 766.1 his demeanour to king Porus. 413.40 his ambitious humour 147.40 639.20 he used to sit long at meat 655.10 he dranke wine liberally ib. he wisheth to be Diogenes 296.20 his flesh yeelded a sweet smell 655.10 his moderate cariage to Philotas 1280.20.30 he died with a surfet of drinking 613.20 how he was crossed by Fortune 1283.20 he would not see King Darius his wife a beautifull Lady 142.20 he was favorable to other mens loves 1280. 1. his picture drawen by Apelles 1274.50 his statue cast in brasse by Lysippus ib. his bounty to Persian women 487.1 whether he were given to much drinking 655.10 he intended a voyage into Italie 639.20 his sorrow compared with that of Plato 75.1 he forbeareth the love of Antipatrides 1145.1 he contesteth with Fortune 1264. 30. how hee reprooved his flatterers 1282.1 Alexander nothing beholden to Fortune 1264.40 Alexander his misfortunes and crosses in warre 1264.40.50 The meanes that Alexander had to conquer the world 1265.40 how he enterteined the Persian ambassadours in his fathers absence 1283.10 what small helps he had by Fortune 1265.30 Alexander the great a Philosopher 1266.10 he is compared with Hercules 1282.40 how he joined Persia Greece together 1267.40 his adverse fortune in a towne of the Oxydrates 1284.50 Epigrams and statues of him 1269.10.20 his hopes of conquest whereupon grounded 1283.40 his apophthegmes 1269.30 his kindnes and thankefulnes to Aristotle his master 1270.10 how he honored Anaxarchus the Musician ib. his bounty to Pyrrho and others ib. his saying of Diogenes ib. his many vertues joined together in his actions 1270.10 he espoused Roxane 1278.50 his behavior toward the dead corps of King Darius 1271.10 his continency ib. 20. 1279.1 his liberalitie compared with others 1271.30 his affection to good arts and Artisans 1274.20 his answere 〈◊〉 the famous architect Staficrates 1275.40 he graced Fortune 1276.40 his sobriety and milde cariage of himselfe 1278.1 his temperance in diet 1278.50 his exercises and recreations ib. he espoused Statira the daughter of Darius 1278.50 his hard adventures and dangers 1281.30 compared with other Princes 1284.10 Alexander Tyrant of Pherae his bloudy minde 1273.30 Alexander Tyrant of Pherae 428.10 killed by Pytholaus 1155.20 Alexander the 〈◊〉 6 9.20 Alexandridas his apophthegmes 453.30 Alexidimus bastard son of Thrasibulus 329.20 Alexis on old Poet. 385.50 what pleasures he admitteth for principall 27.40 Alibantes 989.50 Alibas what body 785.20 Alimon a composition 338.40 Alima 339.1 Aliterij who they were 143.50 Aliterios 896.1 Allegories in Poets 25.1 Allia field 859.20.637.20 Alliensis dies 858.30 Almonds bitter prevent drunkennesse 656.1 they kill foxes 16.30 their vertues and properties otherwise 656.10 Aloiadae what Gyants 1175.20 Alosa a fish 953.20 Alphabet letters coupled together how many sillables they will make 782.30 Alpheus the river of what vertue the water is 1345.1 Altar of hornes in Delos a woonder 978.20 Altar of Jupiter Idaeus 908.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of divers significations 29.20 Alysson the herbe what vertues it hath 684.40 Alynomus how he came to be K. of Paphos 1281.20 K. Amasis honoureth Polycritus his sister and mother 505.20 Ambar how it draweth strawes c. 1022.40 Ambition defined 374.50 Ambitious men forced to praise themselves 597.10 Ambrosia 338.10.1177.30 Amenthes what it 〈◊〉 1299.20 Amoebaeus the Musician 67.10 Amestris sacrificed men for the prolonging of her life 268.20 Amethyst stones why so called 684.1 their vertue 18.50 Amiae or Hamiae certeine fishes whereof they take their name 974.30 Amity and Enmity the beginning of all things 888.1 Aminocles enriched by shipwracks 1237.30 Amnemones who they be 889.20 Amoun and Ammon names of Jupiter 1291.1 Amphiaraus 908.20 Amphiaraus commended 419.10 he comforteth the mother of Archemorus 43.1 520.50 Amphictyones 390.40 Amphidamas his funerals 716.20 Amphidamas 334.40 Amphithea killeth her selfe 914.10 Amphion of what Musicke he was author 1249.20 Amphissa women their vertuous act 491.20 Amphitheus delivered out of prison 1226.20 Amphitrite a name of the sea 1317.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it is 687.20 Anacampserotes what plants 1178.50 Anacharsis the Philosopher had no certaine place of abode 336.1 put his right hand to his mouth c. 195.40 Anacreon his odes 759.1 Anaxagoras his opinion of the first principle of all things 806.10 how he tooke the death of his sonne 529.10.132.1 why he was thought impious 266.20 Anaxander his apophthegmes and epigrams 453.50 Anaxarchus tortured by Nicocreon 75.10 he flattereth Alexander 295.20 reproved by Timon 70.50 a loose and intemperate person 752.1 Anaxilas his apophthegmes 453.50 Anaximander his opinion of men and fish 780.10 his opinion of the first principle 805.50 his opinion of God 812.1 Anaxemenes confuted by Aristotle 995.1 his opinion of the first principle 806.1 Anchucus the sonne of Midas his resolute death 908.1 Ancient men how to accept of dignities 396.50 Ancus Martius king of Rome 631.1 Andorides the oratour his parentage acts and life 920.40 accused for impiety ib. acquit 921.1 he saved his owne father from death ib. a great statist and a merchant besides ib. 10. arrested by the K. of Cyprus ib. 20. banished ib. his orations and writings 921.30 when he flourished ib. Andreia 762.1 Androclidas his apophthegmes 454.1 Androcides how he painted the gulfe of Scylla 705.30 Anger the sinewes of the soule 75. 10. how it differeth from other passions 119. 20. 30. how it may be quenched and appeased 120.10 how set on fire ib. 20. compared with other passions 121.10.20 c. who are not subject unto it 123.50.124.1 mixed with other passions 131.10 to prevent it as great
love of Lysandra have made you to forget your olde sports and delights wherewith you were wont to passe the time away call to minde I beseech you and rehearse unto us those sweet verses of faire Sappho wherein she saith that when her love came in her sight she lost her voice presently and was speechlesse her bodie ran all over into colde sweats she became pale and wan she fell a trembling and quaking her braines turned round surprised she was with dizzinesse and fell into a fainting fit of swowning Thrice happy do I holde that wight Who may est soones enjoy thy sight Of thy sweet voice to reape delight And pleasant smiles Which kindle in me such a fire That as I them do much admire My heart they ravish and desire Transport the whiles Thy face no sooner doe I see But sudden silence comes on me My tongue strings all dissolved bee And speech quite gone Then underneath my skin is spred A firy flush of colour red With that mine eyes be darkened And sight yeeld none Mine eares also do buzze and ring And yet distinctly heare nothing Cold drops of swet run down trickling Or stand as dew My joints anon and sinewes shake My heart-root pants my flesh doth quake And palenesse soone doth overtake My former hew And thus full wan I do remaine As flower in house that long hath laine Or grasse in field which wanting raine Doth quickly fade Untill at length in extasie Withouten sense and breath I lie As if death of me suddenly Surprize had made When Daphnaeus had recited this sonet Is not this quoth my father in the name of Jupiter I beseech you a plaine possession of the minde by some heavenly power is not this I say an evident motion and a very celestiall ravishment of the spirit What furious passion was there ever so great and strong that came upon the prophetesse Pythia when she mounted that three-footed fabricke from whence she delivered oracles Who ever was there so farre transported and caried beside himselfe by the pipes and flutes of fanaticall persons supposed to be surprized by some divine spirit of furie by the tabour and other strange ceremonies in the service of Cybele the mother of the gods Many there be that holde the same body and looke upon the same beautie but the amourous person onely is caught and ravished therewith What should be the reason of it Certes there is some cause thereof Verily when Menander sheweth it unto us yet we learne it not nor understand his meaning by these verses There is a maladie of the minde That it surpriseth fatally Who smitten is therewith doth finde Himselfe sore wounded inwardly And heereof is god Love the cause who toucheth one and spareth another But that which ought indeed to have been spoken rather at the first Since now it comes into my minde And way out of my mouth would finde as Aeschilus saith I thinke not good to overpasse in silence being a matter of so great importance For of all things els my good friend in a maner whereof we take knowledge not by the ministerie of the five naturall senses some there be that came into credit at the beginning and authority by fables other by lawes and the rest by doctrine and discourse of reason Now the constant beleese and full perswasion of the gods the first masters teachers and authors altother thereof were Poets Law givers and in a third ranke Philosophers who all with one accord jointly did set this downe as a verity that Gods there be howbeit they are at great discord and variance touching the number order nature essence and power of them For those whom the Philosophers acknowledge to be gods are not subject to diseases nor to age neither know they what it is to fele paine or endure trauell Escape they doe the passage of the firth Of roaring Acheron and live in joy and mirth And in that regard Philosophers admit not at all the Poeticall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say contentions and reconsiliations they will not allow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be gods nor confesse them to be the sonnes of Mars and in many points doe they differ also and dissent from law givers as Xenophanes did who said unto the Egyptians as touching Osiris if you take him for a mortall man adore him not if you account him an immortall god lament not for him Againe the the Poets and law givers on the other side deigne not nor will abide so much as to heare those Philosophers who of certeine Idees numbers unities and spirits make gods neither can they possibly conceive and understand such doctrine In summe much variety there is dissonance in their opinions about this one point but like as in old time there were three sects or factions in Athens al adverse opposite malicious one unto the other to wit of the Paralli the Epacrii and Paediaei yet notwithstanding when they were assembled and met together in a generall councell they gave all their voices and suffrages to Solon and elected him with one common assent their peace-maker their governour and law giver as one woorthy without any question or doubt at all to have conferred upon him the principality and highest degree of vertue and honour even so those three sects differing in opinion about the gods and giving their voices some on this side and others on that and not willing to subscribe one unto another nor easily receiving that which is otherwise delivered than by themselves be all of one and the same minde as touching this one god Love and him the most excellent Poets the best Law givers and the principall Philosophers admit with one voice into the register and kalender of the gods praising and extolling him highly in all their writings and like as Alcaeus saith That all the Mitylenaeans with one accord and generall consent chose Pittacus for their soveraigne prince and tyrant even so Hesiodus Plato and Solon bring and conduct Love out of Helicon into the Academie unto us for our king prince and president crowned and adorned gaily with garlands and chaplets of flowers honored also and accompanied with many shackles and couples professing amitie and mutuall societie not such as Euripides saith With fetters bound and tied was Farre stronger than of iron and brasse Linking them by a cold heavy and massie chaine of need and necessitie as a colourable vaile and pretence to shame and turpitude but such as are caried by winged chariots unto the most goodly and beautifull things in the world whereof others have treated better and more at large When my father had thus said See you not quoth Soclarus how being fallen now againe the second time into one and the same matter you forced your selfe to turne away from it I wot not how avoiding to enter into this holy discourse and if I may be so bold to say what I thinke shifting
Panchon which never Graecian nor Barbarian save himselfe saw as having sailed unto the countreies of the Panchonians and Triphylians nations forsooth that neither are nor ever were in this world And yet verily a great name there goeth among the Assyrians of the woorthy and renowmed acts of Semiramis as also in Aegypt of Sesostris As for the Phrygians even at this day they terme noble exploits and admirable enterprises by the name Manica of one of their ancient kings whom they called Manis who in his time was a most prudent and valiant prince and whom others named Masdes Cyrus led the Persians and Alexander the Macedonians with conquest still and victorie from one end of the world in maner to another and yet for all these brave acts no otherwise renowmed they are nor remembred but onely for puissant and good kings and say there were haply some of them who upon an overweening and high conceit of themselves helped forward with youth and want of experience as Plato saith and whose mindes were puffed up and inflamed with pride and vain-glory tooke upon them the surnames of gods and had temples founded in their names yet this glory of theirs lasted but a while and soon after being condemned by the posterity of vanitie and arrogancie together with impietie and injustice Were quickly gone like smoke which mounting hie Into the aire doth vanish by and by and now as fugitive slaves that may be brought backe againe where ever they be found they are haled and pulled away from their temples and altars and nothing remaineth for them but their tombs sepulchers and therefore that old king Antigonus when a certeine Poet named Hermodotus in his verses called him the sonne of the Sun yea a god Well quoth he my groome that daily voideth my close stoole knowes no such matter by me Lysippus also the Imager did very well to reproove Apelles the painter for that when he drew the picture of Alexander hee portraied him with lightning in his hand whereas Lysippus put in his hand a launce the glory and renowme whereof as due and proper unto him yea and beseeming his person indeed no time nor age should ever be able to abolish In which regard I hold better with them who thinke that the things which be written of Typhon Osiris and Isis were no accidents or passions incident to gods or to men but rather to some great Daemons of which minde were Pythagoras Plato Xenocrates and Chrysippus following heerein the opinions of the ancient Theologians who hold that they were farre stronger than men and that in puissance they much surmounted our nature but that divinitie which they had was not pure and simple but they were compounded of a nature corporall and spirituall capable of pleasure of griefe and other passions and affections which accompanying these mutations trouble some more others lesse For in these Daemons there is like as also among men a diversity and difference of vice and of vertue For the acts of Giants and Titans so much chaunted in every Greeke song the abominable deeds likewise and practises of one Saturne the resistance also of Python against Apollo the sounds of Bacchus and the wanderings of Ceres differ in no respect from the accidents of Osiris and Typhon and of all other such like fabulous tales which every man may heare as much as he list as also whatsoever lying covered and hidden under the vaile of mystical sacrifices and ceremonies is kept close not uttered nor shewed to the vulgar people is of the same sort And acding hereto we may heare Homer how he calleth good men and such as excell others diversly one while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say like unto the gods otherwhile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say comparable to the gods sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say having their wisdome and counsell from the gods But the denomination or addition drawen from the Daemons he useth commonly as well to the good as the bad indifferent to valiant persons and to cowards to a timorous and fearefull soldior thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemonian approch thou neare The Greeks why doest thou so much feare On the other side of an hardy soldior 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When he the charge in field the fourth time gave Like to some Daemon he did himselfe behave And againe in the woorse sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Daemonian what is that great offence Which Priam and his sonnes committed have Against thee for to make thy just pretence In wrathfull tearmes upon them thus to rave And them no grace and mercy to vouchsave Nor rest untill thou seest the stately towne Of Ilion destroid and rased downe Giving us heereby thus much to understand that the Daemons have a mixt nature and a will or affection which is not equall nor alwaies alike And heereupon it is that Plato verily attributeth unto the Olympian and celestiall gods all that which is dexterous and odde but unto the Daemons whatsoever is sinister and even And Xenocrates holdeth that those daies which be unluckie and dismall those festivall solemnities likewise which have any beatings or knocking and thumping of brests or fasting or otherwise any cursed speeches and filthy words are not meet for the honour worship either of gods or of good Daemons but he supposeth that there be in the aire about us certeine natures great puissant howbeit shrewd malicious and unsociable which take some pleasure in such matters and when they have obteined and gotten so much to be done for their sake they goe about no farther mischiefe nor wait any shrewder turnes whereas contrariwise both Hesiodus calleth the pure and holy Daemons such also as be the good angels and keepers of men Givers of wealth and opulence as whome This regall gift and honour doth become And Plato also termeth this kinde of Daemons or angels Mercuriall that is to say expositours or interpretours and ministeriall having a middle nature betweene gods and men who as mediatours present the praiers and petitions of men heere unto the gods in heaven and from thence transmit and convey unto us upon earth the oracles and revelations of hidden and future things as also their donations of goods and riches As for Empedocles he saith that these Daemons or fiends are punished and tormented for their sinnes and offences which they have committed as may appeere by these his verses For why the power of aire and skie did to the sea them chace The sea them cast up of the earth even to the outward face The earth them sends unto the beames of never-tyred Sunne The Sunne to aire whence first they came doth fling them downe anon Thus posted to and fro twixt seas beneath and heav'ns aboue From one they to another passe not one yet doth them love untill such time as being thus in this purgatory chastised and clensed they recover againe that place
estate and degree which is meet for them and according to their nature These things and such like for all the world they say are reported of Typhon who upon envy and malice committed many outrages and having thus made a trouble and confusion in all things filled sea and land with wofull calamities and miseries but was punished for it in the end For Isis the wife and sister of Osiris in revenge plagued him in extinguishing and repressing his fury and rage and yet neglected not she the travels and paines of her owne which she endured her trudging also and wandring to and fro nor many other acts of great wisdome and prowesse suffered she to be buried in silence and oblivion but inserting the same among the most holy ceremonies of sacrifices as examples images memorials and resemblances of the accidents happing in those times she consecrated an ensignement instruction and consolation of piety and devout religion to godward as well for men as women afflicted with miseries By reason whereof she and her husband Osiris of good Daemons were transmuted for their vertue into gods like as afterwards were Hercules and Bacchus who in regard thereof and not without reason have honours decreed for them both of gods and also of Daemons intermingled together as those who in all places were puissant but most powerfull both upon and also under the earth For they say that Sarapis is nothing else but Pluto and Isis the same that Proserpina as Archemachus of Eubaea and Heraclitus of Pontus testisie and he thinketh that the oracle in the city Canobus is that of father Dis or Pluto King Ptolemaeus surnamed Soter that is to say saviour caused that huge statue or colosse of Pluto which was in the city Sinope to be be taken from thence not knowing nor having seene before of what forme and shape it was but onely that as he dreamed he thought that he saw Serapis commanding him withall speed possible to transport him into Alexandrta Now the king not knowing where this statue was nor where to finde it in this doubtfull perplexity related his vision aforesaid unto his friends about him and chanced to meet with one Sosibius a great traveller and a man who had bene in many places and he said that in the city of Sinope he had seene such a statue as the king described unto them Whereupon Ptolemaeus sent Soteles and Dionysius who in long time and with great travell and not without the especiall grace of the divine providence stole away the said colosse and brought it with them Now when it was come to Alexandria and there seene Timotheus the great Cosmographer and Antiquary and Manethon of the province Sebennitis guessed it by all conjectures to be the image of Pluto and namely by Cerberus the hel-dog and the dragon about him perswading the king that it could be the image of no other god but of Serapis For it came not from thence with that name but being brought into Alexandria it tooke the name Serapis by which the Aegyptians doe name Pluto And yet Heraclitus verily the Naturalist saith that Hades and Dronisis that is to say Pluto and Bacchus be the same And in trueth when they are disposed to play the fooles and be mad they are caried away to this opinion For they who suppose that Hades that is to say Pluto is said to be the body and as it were the sepulcher of the soule as if it seemed to be foolish and drunken all the while she is within it me thinkes they doe allegorize but very baldly And better it were yet to bring Osiris and Bacchus together yea and to reconcile Sarapis unto Osiris in saying that after he hath changed his nature he became to have this denomination And therefore this name Sarapis is common to all as they know very well who are professed in the sacted religion of Osiris For we ought not to give eare and credit to the bookes and writings of the Phrygians wherein we finde that there was one Charopos the daughter of Hercules and that of Isatacus a sonne of Hercules was engendred Typhon neither yet to make account of Phylarchus who writeth that Bacchus was the first who from the Indians drave two beeses whereof the one was named Apis and the other Osiris That Sarapis is the proper name of him who ruleth and embelisheth the universall world and is derived of the word Sairein which some say signifieth as much as to beautifie and adorne For these be absurd toies delivered by Phylarchus but more monstrous and senselesse are their absurdities who write that Sarapis is no god but that it is the coffin or sepulchet of Apis that is so called as also that there be certain two leaved brasen gates in Memphis bearing the names of Lethe Cocytus that is to say oblivion and wailing which being set open when they interre and bury Apis in the opening make a great sound and rude noise which is the cause that we lay hand upon every copper or brasen vessell when it resoundeth so to stay the noise thereof Yet is their more apparence of trueth and reason in their opinion who hold that it was derived of these verbes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to move as being that which moveth the whole frame of the world The priests for the most part hold that Sarapis is a word compounded of Osiris and Apis together giving this exposition withall and teaching us that we ought to beleeve Apis to be an elegant image of the soule of Osiris For mine owne part if Sarapis be an Aegyptian name I suppose rather 〈◊〉 it betokeneth joy and mirth And I ground my conjecture upon this that the Aegyptians ordinarily call the feast of joy and gladnesse termed among the Athenians Charmosyna by the name of Sairei For Plato himselfe saith that Hades which signifieth Pluto being the sonne of Aidos that is to say of shamefastnesse and reverence is a milde and gracious god to those who are toward him And very true it is that in the Aegyptians language many other proper names are significant and carry their reason with them as namely that infernall place under the earth into which they imagine the soules of the dead doe descend after they be departed they call Amenthes which terme is as much to say as taking and giving but whether this word be one of those which in old time came out of Greece and were transpotted thither we will consider and discusse better hereafter Now for this present let us prosecute that which remaineth of this opinion now in hand For Osiris and Isis of good Daemons were translated into the number of the gods And as for the puissance of Typhon oppressed and quelled howbeit panting as yet at the last gaspe and striving as it were with the pangs of death they have certaine ceremonies and sacrifices to pacify and appease Other feasts also there be againe on the contrary side wherein they