in Ballance let Mercy turn the Scale If all Wicked Men should be punish'd Who should scape THOUGH Mercy and Gentleness of Nature keeps all in Peace and Tranquillity even in a Cottage yet is it much more Beneficial and Conspicuous in a Palace Private Men in their Condition are likewise Private in their Virtues and in their Vices but the Words and the Actions of Princes are the Subject of Publick Rumor and therefore They had need have a Care what Occasion They give People for Discourse of whom people will be alwayes a Talking There is the Government of a Prince over his People a Father over his Children a Master over his Scholars an Officer over his Soldiers He is an Unnatural Father that for every Trifle beats his Children Who is the Better Master he that Rages over his Scholars for but missing a word in a Lesson or he that tryes by Admonition and fair Words to Instruct and Reform them An Outrageous Officer makes his Men run from their Colors A skilful Rider brings his Horse to Obedience by mingling Fair meanes with Foul whereas to be perpetually switching and spurring makes him Vitious and Jadish And shall we not have more care of Men than of Beasts It breaks the Hope of Generous Inclinations when they are deprest by Servility and Terror There is no Creature so hard to be pleas'd with Ill Usage as Man CLEMENCY does well with All but best with Princes for it makes their Power Comfortable and Beneficial which would otherwise be the Pest of Mankind It establishes their Greatness when they make the good of the Publick their Particular Care and Employ their Power for the safety of the People The Prince in effect is but the Soul of the Community as the Community is only the Body of the Prince So that in being Merciful to Others he is Tender of Himself Nor is any Man so Mean but his Master feels the Loss of him as a Part of his Empire And he takes Care not only of the Lives of his People but also of their Reputations Now giving for granted that all Virtues are in themselves Equal it will not yet be deny'd that they may be more Beneficial to Mankind in One Person than in Another A Beggar may be as Magnanimous as a King For What can be Greater or Braver than to baffle Ill Fortune This does not hinder but that a Man in Authority and Plenty has more Matter for his Generosity to work upon than a Private Person And it is also more taken notice of upon the Bench than upon the Level When a Gracious Prince shewes himself to his People they do not fly from him as from a Tiger that had rous'd himself out of his Den but they worship him as a Benevolent Influence they secure him against all Conspiracies and Interpose their Bodies betwixt Him and Danger They Guard him while he sleeps and defend him in the Field against his Enemies Nor is it without Reason this Unanimous Agreement in Love and Loyalty and this Heroical Zeal of Abandoning themselves for the safety of their Prince but it is as well the Interest of the People In the Breath of a Prince there 's Life and Death and his Sentence stands good Right or Wrong If he be Angry no body dares Advise him and if he does Amiss who shall call him to Accompt Now for him that has so much Mischief in his Power and yet applyes That Power to the Common Utility and Comfort of his People diffusing also Clemency and Goodness into Their hearts too What can be a greater Blessing to Mankind than such a Prince Any Man may kill another Against the Law but only a Prince can save him so Let him so deal with his own Subjects as he desires God should deal with him If Heaven should be Inexorable to Sinners and destroy All without Mercy What Flesh could be safe But as the Faults of Great Men are not presently punish'd with Thunder from Above let them have a like regard to their Inferiors here upon Earth He that has Revenge in his Power and does not Use it is the Great Man Which is the more Beautiful and Agreeable State that of a Calm a Temperate and a Clear day or That of Lightening Thunder and Tempests And this is the very difference betwixt a Moderate and a Turbulent Government 'T is for Low and Vulgar Spirits to Brawl Storm and Transport themselves but 't is not for the Majesty of a Prince to lash out into Intemperance of Words Some will think it rather Slavery than Empire to be debarr'd Liberty of Speech And what if it be when Government it self is but a more Illustrious Servitude He that uses his Power as he should takes as much Delight in making it Comfortable to his People as Glorious to himself He is Affable and easie of Access his very Countenance makes him the Joy of his Peoples Eyes and the Delight of Mankind He is Belov'd Defended and Reverenc'd by all his Subjects and Men speak as well of him in Private as in Publick He is safe without Guards and the Sword is rather his Ornament than his Defence In his Duty he is like that of a good Father that sometimes gently Reproves a Son sometimes Threatens him nay and perhaps Corrects him But no Father in his right Wits will Disinherit a Son for the First Fault There must be Many and Great Offences and only Desperate Consequences that should bring him to that Decretory Resolution He will make many Experiments to try if he can Reclaim him first and nothing but the utmost Despair must put him upon Extremities It is not Flattery that calls a Prince the Father of his Country The Titles of Great and August are Matter of Complement and of Honor but in calling him Father we mind him of that Moderation and Indulgence which he owes to his Children His Subjects are his Members Where if there must be an Amputation let him come slowly to it and when the Part is cut off let him wish it were on again let him Grieve in the doing of it He that passes a Sentence presently looks as if he did it willingly and then there is an Injustice in the Excess IT is a Glorious Contemplation for a Prince first to consider the vast Multitudes of his People whose Seditious Divided and Impotent Passions would cast All into Confusion and destroy Themselves and Publick Order too if the Band of Government did not restrain them And Thence to pass to the Examination of his Conscience saying Thus to himself It is by the Choice of Providence that I am here made God's Deputy upon Earth the Arbitrator of Life and Death and that upon My breath depends the Fortune of my People My Lips are the Oracles of their Fate and upon Them hangs the Destiny both of Cities and of Men. It is under my Favor that People seek for either Prosperity or Protection Thousands of Swords are Drawn or Sheath'd
Intent of Bounty For it falls only upon those that do not want and perverts the Charitable Inclinations of Princes and of Great Men who cannot reasonably propound to themselves any such End What does the Sun get by travelling about the Universe by visiting and comforting all the quarters of the Earth Is the whole Creation made and order'd for the good of Mankind and every particular Man only for the good of himself There passes not an hour of our Lives wherein we do not enjoy the Blessings of Providence without Measure and without Intermission And What Design can the Almighty have upon us who is in himself full safe and inviolable If he should Give only for his own Sake What would become of Poor Mortals that have nothing to return him at best but Dutiful Acknowledgments 'T is putting out of a Benefit to Interest only to Bestow where we may place it to Advantage Let us be Liberal then after the Example of our Great Creator and Give to others with the same Consideration that he gives to us Epicurus his Answer wil be to this That God gives no Benefits at all but turns his back upon the World and without any Concern for us leaves Nature to take her Course And whether he does any thing himself or nothing he takes no notice however either of the Good or of the Ill that is done here below If there were not an Ordering and an Over-Ruling Providence How comes it say I on the other side that the Universality of Mankind should ever have so Unanimously agreed in the Madness of Worshipping a Power that can neither Hear nor Help us Some Blessings are freely given us Others upon our Prayers are granted us and every day brings forth Instances of great and of Seasonable Mercies There never was yet any Man so Insensible as not to Feel See and Understand a Deity in the ordinary Methods of Nature though many have been so obstinately Ungrateful as not to confess it Nor is any Man so wretched as not to be a Partaker in that Divine Bounty Some Benefits 't is true may appear to be unequally divided But 't is no small matter yet that we Possess in Common and which Nature has bestow'd upon us in her very self If God be not Bountiful whence is it that we have all that we pretend to that which we Give and that which we Deny that which we Lay up and that which we Squander away Those innumerable delights for the Entertainment of our Eyes our Eares and our Understandings Nay that Copious Matter even for Luxury it self For care is taken not only for our Necessities but also for our Pleasures and for the Gratifying of all our Senses and Appetites So many pleasant Groves Fruitful and Salutary Plants so many fair Rivers that serve us both for Recreation Plenty and Commerce Vicissitudes of Seasons Varieties of Food by Nature made ready to our hands all sorts of Curiosities and of Creatures and the whole Creation it self Subjected to Mankind for Health Medicine and Dominion We can be thankful to a Friend for a few Acres or a little Money and yet for the Freedom and Command of the whole Earth and for the great Benefits of our Being as Life Health and Reason we look upon our selves as under no Obligation If a Man bestowes upon us a House that is delicately beautifyed with Paintings Statues Gildings and Marble we make a mighty business of it and yet it lies at the Mercy of a Puff of Wind the Snuff of a Candle and a hundred other Accidents to lay it in the dust And Is it nothing now to sleep under the Canopy of Heaven where we have the Globe of the Earth for our place of Repose and the Glories of the Heavens for our Spectacle How comes it that we should so much value what we have and yet at the same time be so unthankful for it Whence is it that we have our breath the comforts of light and of heat the very blood that runs in our veins The Cattel that feed us and the Fruits of the Earth that feed them Whence have we the Growth of our Bodies the Succession of our Ages and the Faculties of our Mindes So many Veins of Mettles Quarries of Marble c. The Seed of every thing is in it self and it is the blessing of God that raises it out of the dark into Act and Motion To say nothing of the charming Varieties of Musique beautiful Objects Delicious Provisions for the Palate Exquisite Perfumes which are Cast in over and above to the common Necessities of our Being ALL this sayes Epicurus we are to ascribe to Nature And Why not to God I beseech yee As if they were not both of them one and the same Power working in the whole and in every part of it Or if you call him the Almighty Iupiter the Thunderer the Creatour and Preserver of us all it comes to the same Issue Some will express him under the Notion of Fate which is only a Connexion of Causes and himself the Uppermost and Original upon which all the rest depend The Stoicks represent the several Functions of the Allmighty Power under several Appellations When they speak of him as the Father and the Fountain of all Beings they call him Bacchus and under the Name of Hercules they denote him to be Indefatigable and Invincible And in the Contemplation of him in the Reason Order Proportion and Wisdom of his Proceedings they call him Mercury So that which way soever they look and under what Name soever they Couch their Meaning they never fail of finding him for he is every where and fills his own Work If a Man should borrow Money of Seneca and say that he owes it to Anneus or Lucius he may change the Name but not his Creditor for let him take which of the three Nameâ—… he pleases he is still a Debtor to the same Person As Justice Integrity Prudence Frugality Fortitude are all of them the Goods of one and the same Mind so that whichsoever of them pleases us we cannot distinctly say That it is This or That but the Mind BUT not to carry this Digression too far that which God himself does we are sure is well done and we are no less sure that for whatsoever he gives he neither Wants Expects nor Receives any thing in Return So that the only end of a Benefit ought to be the Advantage of the Receiver And that must be our scope without any By-regard to our selves It is objected to us the singular caution we prescribe in the Choice of the Person for it were a Madness we say for a Husbandman to Sow the Sand Which if true say they you have an eye upon Profit as well in Giving as in Plowing and Sowing And then they say again That if the conferring of a Benefit were desirable in it self it would have no dependence upon the choice of the Man for let us give it When How
Restoring That which I deny to be a Benefit I answer That if the Receiver take it for a Benefit and fails of a Return 't is an Ingratitude in him for that which goes for an Obligation among wicked Men is an Obligation upon them and they may pay one another in their own Quoin the Money is Current whether it be Gold or Leather when it comes once to be Authoriz'd Nay Cleanthes carries it farther He that is wanting sayes he to a kind Office though it be no Benefit would have done the same thing if it had been one and is as guilty as a Thief is that has set his Booty and if already Arm'd and Mounted with a purpose to seize it though he has not yet drawn Blood VVickedness is form'd in the heart and the Matter of Fact is only the Discovery and the Execution of it Now though a wicked Man cannot either Receive or Bestow a Benefit because he wants the VVill of doing good and for that he is no longer wicked when Virtue has taken possession of him yet we commonly call it one as we call a Man Illiterate that is not Learn'd and Naked that is not well clad not but that the one can Read and the other is Cover'd CHAP. XV. A General View of the Parts and Duties of the Benefactor THE three main Points in the Question of Benefits are First A Iudicious Choice in the Object Secondly in the Matter of our Benevolence And Thirdly a Gracious Felicity in the Manner of expressing it But there are also incumbent upon the Benefactor other Considerations which will deserve a Place in this Discourse IT is not enough to do one Good Turn and to do it with a Good Grace too unless we follow it with more and without either Upbraiding or Repining It is a Common shift to charge that upon the Ingratitude of the Receiver which in truth is most commonly the Levity and Indiscretion of the Giver for all Circumstances must be duely weigh'd to Consummate the Action Some there are that we find Ungrateful but what with our Frowardness Change of Humor and Reproaches there are more that we make so And this is the Business We Give with Design and Most to those that are able to give Most again We Give to the Covetous and to the Ambitious to those that can never be thankful for their desires are Insatiable and to those that will not He that is a Tribune would be a Praetor the Praetor a Consul never reflecting upon what he was but only looking forward to what he would be People are still Computing Must I lose this or that Benefit if it be lost the fault lies in the ill bestowing of it for rightly plac'd it is as good as Consecrated if we be deceiv'd in another let us not be deceiv'd in our selves too A Charitable Man will mend the Matter and say to himself perhaps he has forgot it perchance he could not perhaps he will yet Requite it A Patient Creditor will of an ill Pay-Master in time make a good Creditor an Obstinate Goodness overcomes an ill disposition as a Barren Soyl is made Fruitful by Care and Tillage But let a Man be never so Ungrateful or Inhumane he shall never destroy the Satisfaction of my having done a good Office BUT What if others will be wicked Does it follow that we must be so too If others will be Ungrateful Must we therefore be Inhumane To Give and to Lose is Nothing but to Lose and to Give still is the Part of a great Mind And the others in effect is the greater Loss for the one does but lose his Benefit and the other loses himself The Light shines upon the Profane and Sacrilegious as well as upon the Righteous How many disappointments do we meet with in our Wives and Children and yet we couple still He that has lost one Battel hazards another The Mariner puts to Sea again after a Wreck An Illustrious Mind does not propose the Profit of a good Office but the Duty If the World be Wicked we should yet persevere in Well-doing even amongst Evil Men. I had rather never receive a Kindness than never bestow one not to Return a Benefit is the Greater Sin but not to Confer it is the Earlier We cannot propose to our selves a more glorious Example than that of the Almighty who neither needs nor expects any thing from us and yet he is continually showring down and distributing his Mercies and his Graces among us not only for our Necessities but also for our Delights as Fruits and Seasons Rain and Sun-shine Veins of Water and of Metall and all this to the Wicked as well as to the Good and without any other End than the common Benefit of the Receivers With what Face then can we be Mercenary one to another that have receiv'd all things from Divine Providence gratis 'T is a common saying I gave such or such a Man so much Mony I would I had thrown it into the Sea And yet the Merchant Trades again after a Piracy and the Banker ventures afresh after a bad Security He that will do no good Offices after a disappointment must stand still and do just nothing at all The Plow goes on after a Barren Year and while the Ashes are yet warm we raise a new house upon the Ruins of a former What Obligations can be greater than those which Children receive from their Parents And yet should we give them over in their Infancy it were all to no purpose Benefits like Grain must be follow'd from the Seed to the Harvest I will not so much as leave any place for Ingratitude I will pursue and I will encompass the Receiver with Benefits so that let him look which way he will his Benefactor shall be still in his Eye even when he would avoid his own Memory And then I will remit to one Man because he calls for 't to another because he does not to a third because he is Wicked and to a fourth because he is the Contrary I 'll cast away a Good Turn upon a Bad Man and I 'll requite a Good one The one because it is my Duty and the other that I may not be in his Debt I do not love to hear any Man complain That he has met with a Thankless Man If he has met but with one he has either been very Fortunate or very Careful And yet Care is not sufficient For there is no way to scape the hazard of losing a Benefit but the not bestowing of it and to neglect a Duty to my self for fear another should abuse it It is an others fault if he be Ungrateful but it is Mine if I do not Give To find one Thankful Man I will oblige a great many that are not so The Business of Mankind would be at a stand if we should do nothing for fear of Miscarriages in matters of Uncertain Event I will try and believe all things before I give any
lose his Country than to return from Banishment the only Man that deny'd any thing to Sylla the Dictator who recall'd him Nor did he only refuse to come but drew himself farther off Let them sayes he that think Banishment a Misfortune live slaves at Rome under the Imperious Cruelties of Sylla He that sets a Price upon the Heads of Senators and after a Law of his own Institution against Cut-throates becomes the greatest himself Is it not better for a Man to live in Exile Abroad than to be Massacred at Home In suffering for Virtue 't is not the Torment but the Cause that we are to Consider and the more Pain the more Renown When any Hardship befalls us we must look upon it as an Act of Providence which many times suffers Particulars to be wounded for the Conservation of the whole Beside that God Chastises some People under an Appearance of Blessing them turning their Prosperity to their Ruin as a Punishment for abusing his Goodness And we are further to Consider that many a Good Man is Afflicted only to teach others to suffer for we are born for Example And likewise that where Men are Contumacious and Refractory it pleases God many times to Cure greater Evils by Less and to turn our Miseries to our Advantage HOW many Casualties and Difficulties are there that we dread as insupportable Mischiefs which upon farther thoughts we find to be Mercies and Benefits As Banishment Poverty Loss of Relations Sickness Disgrace Some are Cur'd by the Lance by Fire Hunger Thirst taking out of Bones Lopping of Limbs and the like Nor do we only Fear things that are many times Beneficial to us but on the other side we hanker after and pursue things that are Deadly and Pernicious We are Poyson'd in the very Pleasures of our Luxury and betray'd to a Thousand Diseases by the Indulging of our Palate To lose a Child or a Limb is only to part with what we have receiv'd and Nature may do what she pleases with her own We are Frail our selves and we have receiv'd things Transitory That which was given us may be taken away Calamity tryes Virtue as the Fire does Gold Nay he that lives most at ease is only delay'd not dismiss'd and his Portion is to come When we are visited with Sickness or other Afflictions we are not to murmure as if we were ill us'd It is a Mark of the General 's Esteem when he puts us upon a Post of Danger We do not say My Captain uses me Ill but He does me Honor And so should we say that are commanded to encounter Difficulties for this is our Case with God Almighty WHAT was Regulus the worse because Fortune made Choice of him for an Eminent Instance both of Faith and Patience He was thrown into a Case of Wood stuck with pointed Nailes so that which way soever he turn'd his Body it rested upon his Wounds his Eye-lids were cut off to keep him waking and yet Mecaenas was not happier upon his Bed than Regulus upon his Torments Nay the World is not yet grown so wicked as not to prefer Regulus before Mecaenas And can any Man take That to be an Evil of which Providence accompted this brave Man worthy It has pleased God sayes he to single me out for an Experiment of the Force of Humane Nature No Man knows his own Strength or Value but by being put to the Proof The Pilot is try'd in a Storm the Soldier in a Battle the Rich Man knows not how to behave himself in Poverty He that has liv'd in Popularity and Applause knows not how he would bear Infamy and Reproach Nor he that never had Children how he would bear the Loss of them Calamity is the Occasion of Virtue and a Spur to a Great Mind The very Apprehension of a Wound startles a Man when he first bears Arms but an Old Soldier bleeds boldly because he knows that a Man may lose Blood and yet win the Day Nay many times a Calamity turns to our Advantage and Great Ruines have but made way to Greater Glories The Crying out of Fire has many times quieted a Fray and the Interposing of a wild Beast has parted the Thief and the Traveller for we are not at leisure for Less Mischiefs while we are under the Apprehension of Greater One Man's Life is sav'd by a Disease Another is Arrested and taken out of the way just when his House was falling upon his head TO shew now that the Favours or the Crosses of Fortune and the Accidents of Sickness and of Health are neither Good nor Evil God permits them indifferently both to Good and Evil Men. 'T is hard you 'll say for a Virtuous Man to suffer all sorts of Misery and for a Wicked Man not only to go free but to enjoy himself at pleasure And Is it not the same thing for Men of Prostituted Impudence and Wickedness to sleep in a whole skin when Men of Honor and Honesty bear Arms lie in the Trenches and receive Wounds Or for the Vestal Virgins to rise in the Night to their Prayers when Common Strumpets lie stretching themselves in their Beds We should rather say with Demetrius If I had known the will of Heaven before I was call'd to 't I would have offer'd my self If it be the Pleasure of God to take my Children I have brought them up to that End If my Fortune any Part of my Body or my Life I would rather present it than yield it up I am ready to part with all and to suffer all for I know that nothing comes to pass but what God appoints Our Fate is Decreed and things do not so much Happen as in their due time Proceed and every Mans Portion of Joy and Sorrow is Predetermin'd THERE is nothing falls amiss to a Good Man that can be charg'd upon Providence for Wicked Actions Lewd Thoughts Ambitious Projects Blind Lusts and Insatiable Avarice against all These he is Arm'd by the Benefit of Reason And Do we expect now that God should look to our Luggage too I mean our Bodies Democritus discharg'd himself of his Treasure as the Clog and Burthen of his Mind Shall we wonder then if God suffers that to befall a Good Man which a Good Man sometimes does to himself I lose a Son and why not when it may some time so fall out that I my self may kill him Suppose he be Banish'd by an Order of State Is it not the same thing with a Mans Voluntary leaving of his Country and never to return Many Afflictions may befall a Good Man but no Evil for Contraries will never Incorporate All the Rivers in the World are never able to Change the Tast or Quality of the Sea Prudence and Religion are above Accidents and draw Good out of every thing Affliction keeps a Man in Ure and makes him Strong Patient and Hardy Providence treats us like a Generous Father and brings us up to Labours Toyles and
best but a Friend of his that was a Stoick and a stout Man reason'd the Matter to him after this manner Marcellinus do not trouble your self as if it were such a mighty business that you have now in hand 't is Nothing to Live all your Servants do it nay your very Beasts too but to Dy Honestly and Resolutely that 's a great point Consider with your self there 's nothing pleasant in Life but what you have tasted already and that which is to Come is but the same over again And how many Men are there in the World that rather chuse to Dye than to suffer the Nauseous Tediousness of the Repetition Upon which discourse he fasted himself to Death It was the Custome of Pacuvius to Solemnize in a kind of Pagentry every day his own Funerals When he had Swill'd and Gourmandiz'd to a Luxurious and Beastly Excess he was carry'd away from Supper to Bed with this Song and Acclamation He has Liv'd he has Liv'd That which he did in Lewdness would become us to do in Sobriety and Prudence If it shall please God to add another Day to our Lives let us thankfully receive it but however it is our Happiest and Securest Course so to compose our selves to Night that we may have no Anxious Dependence upon to Morrow He that can say I have Liv'd this Day makes the next clear again DEATH is the worst that either the Severity of Laws or the Cruelty of Tyrants can impose upon us and it is the Utmost extent of the Dominion of Fortune He that is fortify'd against That must consequently be Superior to all other Difficulties that are but in the Way to 't Nay and in some Occasions it requires more Courage to Live than to Dye He that is not prepar'd for Death shall be perpetually troubled as well with vain Apprehensions as with real Dangers It is not Death it self that is Dreadful but the Fear of it that goes before it When the Mind is under a Consternation there is no State of Life that can please us for we do not so much endeavour to Avoid Mischiefs as to Run away from them and the greatest slaughter is upon a flying Enemy Had not a Man better breathe out his Last once for all than lye Agonizing in pains Consuming by Inches losing of his Blood by Drops and yet how many are there that are ready to betray their Country and their Friends and to prostitute their very Wives and Daughters to preserve a Miserable Carkass Madmen and Children have no apprehension of Death and it were a shame that our Reason should not do as much toward our security as their Folly But the great matter is to Dye Considerately and Chearfully upon the Foundation of Virtue For Life in it self is Irksome and only Eating and Drinking and Feeling in a Circle HOW many are there that betwixt the Apprehensions of Death and the Miseries of Life are at their Wits End what to do with themselves wherefore let us fortifie our selves against those Calamities from which the Prince is no more exempt than the Beggar Pompey the Great had his head taken off by a Boy and an Eunuch young Ptolomy and Photinus Caligula commanded the Tribune Daecimus to kill Lepidus and another Tribune Chaereas did as much for Caligula Never was any Man so Great but he was as Liable to suffer Mischief as he was Able to do it Has not a Thief or an Enemy your Thâ—…ote at his Mercy Nay and the meanest of Servants has the Power of Life and Death over his Master for whosoever contemns his own Life may be the Master of Another bodies You will find in Story that the Displeasure of Servants has been as Fatal as that of Tyrants And what matters it the Power of him we Fear when the thing we Fear is in every Bodies Power Suppose I fall into the hands of an Enemy and the Conqueror Condemns me to be led in Triumph It is but carrying me thither whither I should have gone without him that is to say toward Death whither I have been marching ever since I was born It is the Fear of our Last hour that disquiets all the Rest. By the Justice of all Constitutions Mankind is condemn'd to a Capital Punishment Now how despicable would that Man appear who being Sentenc'd to Death in Common with the whole World should only Petition that he might be the last Man brought to the Block Some Men are particularly afraid of Thunder and yet extremely careless of Other and of greater Dangers as if That were all they have to Fear Will not a Sword a Stone a Feaver do the work as well Suppose the Bolt should hit us it were yet braver to Dye with a Stroke than with the Bare Apprehension of it Beside the Vanity of Imagining that Heaven and Earth should be put into such a Disorder only for the Death of one Man A Good and a Brave Man is not mov'd with Lightening Tempests or Earthquakes but perhaps he would voluntarily plunge himself into that Gulph where otherwise he should only fall the cutting of a Corn or the swallowing of a Fly is enough to dispatch a Man and 't is no matter how great That is that brings me to my Death so long as Death it self is but Little Life is a small matter but 't is a matter of Importance to Contemn it Nature that Begot us expells us and a better and a safer Place is provided for us And what is Death but a Ceasing to be what we were before we are kindled and put out to Cease to Be and not to Begin to Be is the same thing We Dye daily and while we are growing our Life decreases every moment that passes takes away part of it All that 's past is Lost Nay we divide with Death the very Instant that we Live As the last Sand in the Glass does not Measure the Hour but finishes it so the Last moment that we Live does not make up Death but concludes There are some that Pray more earnestly for Death than we do for Life but it is better to receive it chearfully when it Comes than to hasten it before the time BUT What is it that we would live any longer for Not for our Pleasures for those we have tasted over and over even to Satiety so that there 's no point of Luxury that 's New to us But a Man would be loth to leave his Country and his Friends behind him That is to say he would have them go First for that 's the least part of his Care Well! But I would fain live to do more Good and discharge my self in the Offices of Life As if to Dye were not the Duty of every Man that Lives We are loth to Leave our possessions and no Man Swims well with his Luggage We are all of us equally Fearful of Death and Ignorant of Life But What can be more shameful than to be Sollicitous upon the Brink of
it by Choice and not by Necessity for the Practice of Poverty in Jeast is a Preparation toward the Bearing of it in Earnest But it is yet a Generous Disposition so to provide for the worst of Fortunes as what may be easily born the Premeditation makes them not only Tolerable but delightful to us for there 's That in them without which nothing can be Comfortable that is to say Security If there were nothing else in Poverty but the Certain Knowledge of our Friends it were yet a most Desirable Blessing when every Man leaves us but those that Love us It is a shame to place the Happyness of Life in Gold and Silver for which Bread and Water is sufficient Or at the Worst Hunger puts an end to Hunger For the Honor of Poverty it was both the Foundation and the Cause of the Roman Empire and no Man was ever yet so Poor but he had enough to carry him to his Journeys End ALL I desire is that my Poverty may not be a Burthen to my self or make me so to others and That is the best State of Fortune that is neither directly necessitous nor far from it A Mediocrity of Fortune with a Gentleness of Mind will preserve us from Fear or Envy which is a Desirable Condition for no Man wants power to do Mischief We never consider th Blessing of Coveting nothing and the Glory of being full in our selves without Depending upon Fortune With Parcimony a Little is sufficient and without it Nothing whereas Frugality makes a Poor Man Rich. If we lose an Estate we had better never have had it He that has Least to Lose has Least to Fear and those are better satisfy'd whom Fortune never favour'd then those whom she has forsaken That State is most Commodious that lies betwixt Poverty and Plenty Diogenes understood this very well when he put himself into an Incapacity of losing any thing That Course of Life is most Commodious which is both safe and wholsome the Body is to be indulg'd no farther than for Health and rather Mortify'd than not kept in Subjection to the Mind It is Necessary to provide against Hunger Thirst and Cold and somewhat for a Covering to shelter us against other Inconveniences but not a Pin matter whether it be of Turf or of Marble A Man may lye as warm and as Dry under a Thatch'd as under a Gilded Roof Let the Mind be Great and Glorious and all other things are Despicable in Comparison The Future is Uncertain and I had rather beg of my Self not to Desire any thing than of Fortune to Bestow it The End SENECA OF Anger AND Clemency THE Contents Chap. I. ANger describ'd It is against Nature and only to be found in Men. p. 1. Chap. II. The Rise of Anger p. 7. Chap. III. Anger may be Supprest p. 12. Chap. IV. It is a short Madness and a deformed Vice p. 20. Chap. V. Anger is neither Warrantable nor Useful p. 25. Chap. VI. Anger in General with the Danger and Effects of it p. 45. Chap. VII The Ordinary Grounds and Occasions of Anger p. 65. Chap. VIII Advice in the Case of Contumely and Revenge p. 76. Chap. IX Cautions against Anger in the Matter of Education Converse and other General Means of preventing it both in our selves and others p. 86. Chap. X. Against Rash Iudgment p. 100. Chap. XI Take nothing ill from another Man till you have made it your own Case p. 109. Chap. XII Of Cruelty p. 115. OF Clemency p. 125. SENECA OF Anger CHAP. I. Anger describ'd It is against Nature and only to be found in Men. WE are here to Encounter the most Outrageous Brutal Dangerous and Intractable of all Passions the most Loathsome and Unmannerly Nay the most ridiculous too and the subduing of this Monster will do a great deal toward the Establishment of Humane Peace It is the Method of Physitians to begin with a Description of the Disease before they meddle with the Cure and I know not why this may not do as well in the Distempers of the Mind as in those of the Body THE Stoicks will have Anger to be A desire of Punishing another for some Injury done Against which it is Objected That we are many times Angry with those that never did hurt us but possibly may though the harm be not as yet done But I say that they hurt us already in Conceipt and the very Purpose of it is an Injury in Thought before it breaks out into Act. It is opposed again That if Anger were a Desire of Punishing Meà n People would not be Angry with Great Ones that are out of their Reach For no Man can be said to Desire any thing which he Judges Impossible to Compass But I answer to this That Anger is the Desire not the Power and Faculty of Revenge Neither is any Man so low but that the greatest Man alive may peradventure lye at his Mercy ARISTOTLE takes Anger to be A desire of paying sorrow for sorrow and of Plaguing those that have Plagued us It is argu'd against both that Beasts are Angry though neither provok'd by any Injury nor mov'd with a desire of any bodies Grief or Punishment Nay though they cause it they do not design or seek it Neither is Anger how unreasonable soever in it self found any where but in Reasonable Creatures It is true that Beasts have an Impulse of Rage and Fierceness as they are more affected also than Men with some Pleasures But we may as well call them Luxurious and Ambitious as Angry And yet they are not without certain Images of Humane Affections They have their Likings and their Lothings but neither the Passions of Reasonable Nature nor their Virtues nor their Vices They are mov'd to Fury by some Objects they are quieted by others they have their Terrors and their Disappointments but without Reflection And let them be never so much Irritated or Affrighted so soon as ever the Occasion is remov'd they fall to their Meat again and lye down and take their Rest. Wisdom and Thought are the Goods of the Mind whereof Brutes are wholly Incapable and we are as unlike them within as we are without They have an odd Kind of Phancy and they have a Voice too but Inarticulate and Confus'd and Incapable of those Variations which are Familiar to us ANGER is not only a Vice but a Vice point blank against Nature for it Divides in stead of Joyning and in some measure frustrates the End of Providence in Humane Society One Man was born to help another Anger makes us destroy one another the one Unites the other Separates the one is Beneficial to us the other Mischievous the one Succors even Strangers the other Destroyes even the most Intimate Friends The one Ventures all to Save another the other Ruines himself to Undo another Nature is Bountiful but Anger is Pernicious For it is not Fear but Mutual Love that binds up Mankind THERE are some Motions