regard wisely sayd the Poët Euripides When as the ground is not well laid at first for our natiuity With parents fault men will upbraid both us and our posterity A goodly treasure then have they who are well and honestly borne when in the confidence and assurance thereof they may be bold to beare their heads aloft and speake their minds frankly wheresoever they come and verily they of all others are to make the greatest account of this blessing who wish to have faire issue of their bodies lawfully begotten Certes a thing it is that ordinarily daunteth and casteth downe the heart of a man when he is privie to the basenesse of his birth and knoweth some defect blemish and imperfection by his parents Most truly therefore and to the purpose right fitly spake the same Poët The privitie to fathers vice or mothers fault reprochable Will him debase who otherwise is hautie stout and commendable Whereas contrariwise they that are knowen to be the children of noble and worthy parents beare themselves highly and are full of stomacke and generositie In which conceit and loftie spirit it is reported that Diaphantus the sonne of Themistocles was woont to say and that in the hearing of many That whatsoeuer pleased him the same also the people of Athens thought well of for that which I would have done quoth he my mother likewise sayth Yea unto it what my mothers minde stands to Themistocles my father will not gainsay it and looke what likes Themistocles the Athenians all are well contented therewith Where by the way the magnanimitie and brave mind of the Lacedaemoninas is highly to be praised who condemned their king Archidamus in a great fine of money for that he could finde in his heart to espouse a wife of little stature alledging therewith a good reason Because say they his meaning is to get not a breed of Kings but Kinglins or divers Kings to reigne over us Well upon this first advertisement concerning children there dependeth another which they who wrote before us of the like argument forgat not to set downe and what is that namely That they who for procreation of children will come neere unto women ought to meddle with them either upon empty stomacks and before they have drunke any wine at all or at leastwise after they have taken their wine in measure and soberly for such will proove commonly wine-bibbers and drunkards who were engendred when their fathers were drunken according to that which Diogenes sayd upon a time unto a youth whom he saw beside himselfe and farre overseene with drinke My ladde quoth he thy father gat thee when he was drunke And thus much may suffice for the generation of children As touching their nourture and education whereof now I am to discourse That which we are woont generally to say of all Arts and Sciences the same we may be bolde to pronounce of vertue to wit that to the accomplishment thereof and to make a man perfectly vertuous three things ought to concurre Nature Reason and Vsage By reason I understand doctrine and precepts by usage exercise and practise The first beginnings we have from nature progresse and proceeding come by teaching and instruction exercise and practise is performed by diligence And all three together bring foorth the height of perfection If any one of these faile it cannot otherwise be but that vertue also should have her defect and be maimed For nature without learning is blind Doctrine wanting the gift of nature is defectuous and exercise void of the other twaine imperfect And verily it fareth in this case much like as in Husbandrie and tillage of the earth For first and formest requisite it is that the ground be good Secondly that the Husbandman be skilfull and in the third place that the seed be cleane and well chosen Semblaby Nature resembleth the soile the Master who teacheth representeth the labouring Husbandman and last of all the rules precepts admonitions and examples are compared to the seede All these good meanes I dare with confidence avouch met together and inspired their power into the mindes of these woorthy personages who throughout the world are so renowmed Pythagor as I meane Socrates Plato and all the rest who have attained to a memorable name and immortall glorie Blessed then is that man and entirely beloved of the gods whose hap it is by their favor and grace to be furnished with all three Now if any one be of this opinion that those who are not endued with the gift of naturall wit and yet have the helpes of true instruction and diligent exercise to the attaining of vertue cannot by this meanes recover and repaire the foresaid defect Know he that he is much deceived and to say more truely quite out of the way for as idlenesse and negligence doth marre and corrupt the goodnesse of nature so the industrie and diligence of good erudition supplieth the defect and correcteth the default thereof Idle and slothfull persons we see are not able to compasse the things that be easie whereas contrariwise by studie and travell the greatest difficulties are atchieved Moreover of what efficacie and execution diligence and labour is a man may easily know by sundrie effects that are daily observed For we do evidently perceive that drops of water falling upon the hard rocke doe eate the same hollow yron and brasse we see to weare and consume onely by continuall handling The fellies in chariot wheeles which by labour are bended and curbed will not returne and be reduced againe do what you can to their former streightnesse Like as it is impossible by any device to set streight the crooked staves that Stage-players goe withall And evident it is that whatsoever against nature is by force and labour chaunged and redressed becometh much better and more sure than those things that continue in their ownekinde But are these the things onely wherein appeareth the power of studie and diligence No verily For there are an infinite number of other experiments which proove the same most cleerely Is there a peece of ground naturally good Let it lie neglected it becommeth wilde and barrain Yea and the more rich and fertill that it is of it selfe the more waste and fruitlesse it prooveth for want of tillage and husbandry Contrariwise you shall see another plot hard rough and more stonie than it should be which by good ordering and the carefull hand of the husbandman soone bringeth foorth faire and goodly fruit Againe what trees are there which will not twine grow crooked and proove fruitlesse if good heed be not taken unto them Whereas if due regard be had and that carefulnes employed about them which becommeth they beare fruit and yeeld the same ripe in due season Is there any body so sound and able but by neglect riot delicacie and an evill habit or custome it will grow dull feeble and unlostie yea and fall into a misliking and consumption On the other side what complexion is there so
contradict gainsay and strives a while yet in the end yeeldeth unto lusts and followeth them but the Intemperate man is led thereby and at the first giveth consent and approoveth thereof Againe the Intemperate person is well content and taketh joy in having sinned whereas the other is presently greeved thereat Againe he runneth willingly and of his owne accord to commit sinne and vilanie but the incontinent man maugre and full against his minde doth abandon honestie And as there is this distinct difference plainly seene in their deeds and actions so there is no lesse to be observed in their words and speeches For the sayings ordinarily of the Intemperate person be these and such like What mirth in life what pleasure what delight Without content in sports of Venus bright Were those joies past and I for them unmeet Ring out my knell bring foorth my winding sheet Another saith To eat to drinke to wench are principall All pleasures else I Accessortes call As if with all his hart and soule he were wholly given to a voluptuous life yea and overwhelmed therewith And no lesse than those he also who hath these words in his mouth Now suffer me to perish by and by It pleaseth nay it booteth me to dy speaketh as one whose appetite and judgement both were out of order and diseased But the speeches of Incontinent persons be in another key and farre different For one saith My mind is good and thither doth sway My nature bad and puts it away Another Alas alas To see how Gods above have sent to men on earth this miserie To know their Good and that which they should love yet wanting grace to do the contrarie And a third Now plucks now hales of deadly 〈◊〉 a fire but surely hold my reason can no more Than anchor flanke stay ship from being split when grounded 't is on sands neere to the shore He nameth unproperly and without good grace the slanck of an anchor resting lightly upon the loose sand to signifie the feeble hold that reason hath which is not resolute and firmely seated but through the weaknesse and delicacie of the soule rejecteth and forsaketh judgement And not much unlike heereunto is this comparison also that another maketh in a contrarie sense Much like a ship which fastened is to land With cordage strong where of we may be bold The windes do blow and yet she doth withstand And checke them all her cables take such hold He termeth the judgement of reason when it resisteth a dishonest act by the name of Cable and Cordage which notwithstanding afterwards may be broken by the violence of some passion as it were with the continuall gales of ablustring winde For to say a very trueth the intemperate person is by his lusts and desires caried with full saile to his pleasures hee giveth himselfe thereto and thither directeth his whole course but the incontinent person tendeth thither also howbeit as a man would say crookedly and not directly as one desirous and endevouring to withdraw himselfe and to repell the passion that draweth and moveth him to it yet in the end he also slideth and falleth into some foule and dishonest act Like as Timon by way of biting scoffe traduced and reproved Anaxarchus in this wise Here shew's it selfe the dogged force of Anaxarchus fell So stubburne and so perminent when once he tooke apitch And yet as wise as he would seeme awretch I heard folke tell He judged was for that to vice and pleasures overmich By nature prone he was a thing that Sages most do shun Which brought him backe out of the way and made him dote anon For neither is a wise Sage properly called continent but temperate nor a foole incontinent but intemperate because the one taketh pleasure and delight in good and honest things and the other is not offended nor displeased with foule and dishonest actions And therefore incontinencie resembleth properly a minde as I may so say Sophisticall which hath some use of reason but the same so weake that it is not able to perseuere and continue firme in that which it hath once knowen and judged to be right Thus you may see the differences betweene Intemperance and Incontinence As for Continencie Temperance they differ also in certeine respects correspondent in some proportion unto those on the contrary side For remorse sorrow displeasure and indignation doe not as yet abandon and quit continence whereas in the minde of a temperate person all lieth plaine and even on every side nothing there but quietnesse and integritie in such sort as whosoever seeth the great obeisance and the marvellous tranquillitie whereby the reasonlesse part is united incorporate together with the reasonable might well say And then anon the winds were downe a calme ensued straightway No waves were seene some power divine the sea asleepe did lay namely when reason had once extinguished the excessive furious and raging motions of the lusts and desires And yet these affections and passions which of necessity nature hath need of the same hath reason made so agreeable so obeisant so friendly and cooperative yea and ready to second all good intentions and purposes ready to be executed that they neither run before it nor come dragging behinde ne yet behave themselves disorderly no nor shew the least disdisobedience so as ech appetite is ruled by reason and willingly accompanieth it Like as the sucking foale doth go And run with dam both to and fro The which confirmeth the saying of Xenocrates touching those who earnestly studie Philosophie and practise it For they onely quoth he doe that willingly which others doe perforce and for dread of the law who forbeare indeed to satisfie their pleasures and turne backe as if they were scared from them for feare of being bitten of some curst mastive or shrewd cat regarding nothing els but danger that may ensue thereupon Now that there is in the soule a sense and perceivance of that strength firmity and resolution to encounter sinfull lusts and desires as if it had a power to strive and make head againe it is very plaine and evident howbeit some there be who holde and maintaine That Passion is nothing different from Reason neither by their saying is there in the mind a dissension or sedition as it were of two divers faculties but al the trouble that we feele is no more but an alteration or change of one the selfe same thing to wit reason both waies which we our selves are not able to perceive for that forsooth it changeth suddenly and with such celeritie never considereth all the while that the same faculty of the minde is framed by nature to concupiscence and repentance both to be angrie and to feare enclined to commit some foule and dishonest fact by the allurement of pleasure and contrariwise restrained from the same for feare of paine As for lust feare and all such like passions they are no other say they but perverse opinions and corrupt judgements not
to stand upon our guard so we have no lesse cause to consider how we should converse among our neighbours Now of all those vices andimperfections which defame mans life and cause the race course thereof to be difficult wondrous painfull to passe anger is one of those which are to be ranged in the first ranke in such sort that it booteth not to be provided of good friends if this furious humor get the mastery over us like as contrariwise flatterers such other pestilent plagues have not so easie entrance into us nor such ready meanes to be possessed of us so long as we be accōpanied with a certaine wise and prudent mildnesse In this discourse then our authour doing the part of an expers Physician laboureth to purge our mindes from all choler and would traine them to modestie and humanitie so farre foorth as Philosophie morall is able to performe And for to atraine unto so great a benefit he sheweth in the first place that we ought to procure our friends for to observe and marke our imperfections that by long continuance of time we may accustome our selves to holde in our judgement by the bit of reason After certaine proper similitudes serving for this purpose and a description of the mconventences and harmes that come by wrath he prooveth that it is an easie matter to restraine and represse the same to which purpose be setteth downe divers meanes upon which he discourseth after his usuall maner that is to say with reasons and inductions enriched with notable similitudes and examples afterwards having spoken of the time and maner of chastising and correcting those who are under our power and governance he proposeth aswell certaine remedies to cure choler as preservatives to keepe us from relapse into it againe Which done he representet hire lively as in a painted able to the end that those who suffer themselves to be surprised therewith may be abashed and ashamed of their unhappy state and therewith he giveth five not able advertisements for to attaine thereto which be as it were preservatives by meanes whereof we should not feele our selves attaint any more with this maladie OF MEEKENES OR HOW A man should refraine choler A TREATISE IN MANNER of a Dialogue SYLLA IT seemeth unto me ô Fundanus that painters doe verie well and wisely to view and consider their workes often and by times betweene before they thinke them finished and let them go out of their hands for that by setting them so out of their sight and then afterwards having recourse thither againe to judge thereof they make their eies as it were new judges to spie and discerne the least fault that is which continuall looking thereupon and the ordinarie view of one and the same thing doth cover and hide from them But forasmuch as it is not possible that a man should depart from himselfe for a time and after a certaine space returne againe not that he should breake interrupt and discontinue his understanding and sense within which is the cause that each man is a worse judge of himselfe than of others A second meanes and remedie therefore in this case would be used namely to review his friends sundrie times and eftsoones likewise to yeeld himselfe to be seene and beheld by them not so much to know thereby whether he aged apace and grow soone old or whether the constitution of his bodie be better or worse than it was before as to survey and consider his manners and behaviour to wit whether time hath added any good thing or taken away ought that is bad and naught For mine owne part this being now the second yeere since I came first to this citie of Rome and the fifth month of mine acquaintance with you I thinke it no great woonder that considering your towardnes and the dexteritie of your nature those good parts which were alreadie in you have gotten so great an addition and be so much increased as they are but when I see how that vehement inclination and ardent motion of yours to anger whereunto by nature you were given is by the guidance of reason become so milde so gentle and tractable it commeth into my minde to say thereunto that which I read in Homer O what a woondrous change is here Much milder are you than you were And verily this gentlenes and meekenes of yours is not turned into a certaine sloth and generall dissolution of your vigour but like as a peece of ground well tilled lieth light and even and besides more hollow than before which maketh much for the fertilitie thereof even so your nature hath gotten in stead of that violent disposition and sudden propension unto choler a certaine equalitie and profunditie serving greatly to the management of affaires whereby also it appeereth plainely that it is not long of the decaying strength of the bodie by reason of declining age neither yet of the owne accord that your hastinesse and cholericke passion is thus faded but rather by meanes of good reasons and instructions well cured And yet verily for unto you I will be bold to say the truth at the first I suspected and could not well beleeve Eros our familiar friend when he made this report of you unto me as doubting that he was readie to give this testimonie of you in regard of affection and good will bearing me in hand of those things which were not indeed in you but ought to be in good and honest men and yet as you know well ynough he is not such a man as for favour of any person and for to please can be easily perswaded and brought to say otherwise than he thinketh But now as he is freed and acquit from the crime of bearing false witnesse so you since this journey and travell upon the way affoordeth you good leasure will I doubt not at my request declare and recount unto us the order how you did this cure upon your selfe and namely what medicines and remedies you used to make that cholericke nature of yours so gentle so tractable so soft and supple so obeisant I say and subject wholy to the rule of reason FUNDANUS But why do you not your selfe ô Sylla my deerest and most affectionate friend take heed that for the amitie and good will which you beare unto me you be not deceived and see one thing in me for another As for Eros who for his owne part hath not alwaies his anger stedfastly staied with the cable and anchor of Homers Peisa that is obedient and abiding firme in one place but otherwhiles much mooved and out of quiet for the hatred that he hath of vice and vicious men it may verie wel be and like it is that unto him I seeme more milde and gentle than before like as we see in changing and altering the notes of prick-song or the Gam-ut in musicke certaine Netae or notes which are the base in one 8. being compared which other Netae morelow and base become Hypatae that is
niggards and base minded pinch-pennies Which done be discovereth the second miserie of covetous wretches to wit That avarice doth tyrannize over her caitife and slave not suffring him to use that which she commaunded him to winne and get The third is this That it causeth him to gather and heape up riches for some promoter or catch-poll or else for a Tyrant or else for some wicked and gracelesse heire whose nature and properties hee doeth represent and describe verie lively Afterwards having concluded that covetous persons are herein especially miserable for that the one sort of them use not their goods at all and other abuse the same he prescribeth three remedies against this mischievous maladie The first That those who greedily gape after riches have no more in effect than they who stand contented with that which is necessarie for nature The second That we are not to count them happy who be richly furnished with things unprofitable And the last That it is vertue wherein we ought to ground and seeke for contentment for there it is to be found and not in riches OF AVARICE OR Covetousnesse HIppomachus a great master of wrestling such exercises of the bodie hearing some to praise a certeine tall man high of stature and having long armes and handes commending him for a singular champion and fit to fight at buffets A proper fellow hee were quoth he if the garland or prize of the victory were hung on high for to be reached with the hand semblably it may be said unto them who esteeme so highly and repute it a great felicitie to be possessed of much faire lands to have many great and stately houses to be furnished with mighty masses and summes of money in case felicity were to be bought and solde for coine And yet a man shall see many in the world chuse rather to be rich and wretched withall than to give their silver for to be happy and blessed but surely it is not silver nor golde that can purchase either repose of spirit void of griefe and anguish or magnanimity ne yet setled constancie and resolution confidence and suffisance or contentment with our owne estate Be a man never so rich he can not skill thereby to contemne riches no more than the possession of more than enough worketh this in us That we want not still and desire even things that be superfluous What other evill and maladie then doeth our wealth and riches rid us from if it delivereth us not from avarice By drinke men quench their thirst by meat they slake their hunger And he that said Give Hipponax a 〈◊〉 to keepe him warme For colde extreame I shake and may take harme if there were many clothes hung or cast upon him would be offended therewith and fling them from him but this their strong desire and love of money it is neither silver nor gold that is able to quench and let a man have never so much yet he coveteth neverthelesse to have more still And well it may be verified of riches which one said sometime to an ignorant and deceitfull Physician Your drugs and salves augment my sore They make me sicker than before For riches verily after that men have once met therewith wheras before they stood in need of bread of a competenthouse to put in their heads of meane comment and any viands that come next hand fill them now with an impatient desire of golde silver ivory emerauds horses and hounds changing and transporting their naturall appetite of things needfull and necessarie into a disordinate lust to things dangerous rare hard to be gotten and unprofitable when they be had For never is any man poore in regard of such things as suffice nature never doeth he take up money upon usurie for to buy himselfe meat cheese bread or olives but one indebteth himselfe for to build a sumptuous and stately house another runnes in debt because he would purchase a grove of olive trees that joineth to his owne land one is engaged deeply in the usurers books by laying corne-grounds and wheat-fields to his owne demaines another because he would be possessed of fruitfull vineyards some are endebted with buying mules of Galatia and others because they would be masters Of lustie steeds to win the prize by running in a race With ratling noise of emptie coatch when it is drawen apace have cast themselves into the bottomlesse gulfe of obligations conditions covenants interests statutes reall gages pawnes and afterwards it commeth to passe that like as they who drinke when they be not drie eat without a stomacke many times cast up by vomit even that which they did eat drinke when they were hungry thirsty even so when they will needs have such things as be superfluous and to no use doe not enjoy the benefit of those things that are needfull and necessarie indeed Lo what kinde of people these be As for those who are at no cost nor will lay out any thing and notwithstanding they have much yet ever covet more a man may rather marvell and woonder at them if he would but remember that which Aristippus was woont to say He that eateth much quoth he and drinketh likewise much and is never satisfied nor full goeth to the Physicians asketh their opinion what his disease and strange indisposition of the body might be and withall craveth their counsell for the cure and remedie thereof but if one who hath five faire bedsteds already with the furniture thereto belonging and seeketh to make them ten and having ten tables with their cupboords of plate will needs buy ten more and for all that he is possessed of faire manours and goodly lands have his bags and coffers full of money is never the better satisfied but still gapeth after more breaketh his sleeps devising and casting as he lieth awake how to compasse the same and when he hath all yet is he not full such an one I say never thinks that he hath need of a Physician to cure his maladie or to discourse unto him from what cause all this doth prodeod And verily a man may looke that of those who are thirsty ordinarily and he that hath not drunke will be delivered of his thrist so soone as he meeteth with drinke but in case such an one as evermore drinketh and powreth in still never giving over yet neverthelesse continueth drie and thirstie we judge him to have no need of repletion but rather of purging and evacuation him I say we appoint for to vomit as being not troubled and distempered upon any want but with some extraordinary heat or unkinde acrimonies of humours that be within him even so it is with those that seeke to get and gather goods he that is bare and poore in deed will haply give over seeking so soone as he hath got him an house to dwell in or found some treasure or met with a good friend to helpe him to a summe of money to make cleere with the usurer and to
and discommodities of our life And Plutarch entring into this matter sheweth first in generallity That men learne as it were in the schoole of brute beasts with what affection they should beget nourish and bring up their children afterward he doth particularise thereof and enrich the same argument by divers examples But for that he would not have us thinke that he extolled dumbe beasts above man and woman he observeth and setteth downe verie well the difference that is of amities discoursing in good and modest tearmes as touching the generation and nouriture of children and briefly by the way representeth unto us the miserable entrance of man into this race upon earth where he is to runne his course Which done he proveth that the nourishing of infants hath no other cause and reason but the love of fathers and mothers he discovereth the source of this affection and for a conclusion sheweth that what defect and fault soever may come betweene and be medled among yet it can not altogether abolish the same OF THE NATURALL LOVE OR KINDNES OF PARENTS to their children THat which mooved the Greeks at first to put over the decision of their controversies to forraine judges and to bring into their countrey strangers to be their Umpires was the distrust and diffidence that they had one in another as if they confessed thereby that justice was indeed a thing necessarie for mans lite but it grew not among them And is not the case even so as touching certaine questions disputable in Philosophie for the determining whereof Philosophers by reason of the sundry and divers opinions which are among them have appealed to the nature of brute beasts as it were into a strange city and remitted the deciding thereof to their properties and affections according to kinde as being neither subject to partiall favour nor yet corrupt depraved and polluted Now surely a common reproch this must needs be to mans naughtie nature and leawd behaviour That when we are in doubtfull question concerning the greatest and most necessary points perteining to this present life of ours we should goe and search into the nature of horses dogs and birds for resolution namely how we ought to make our marriages how to get children and how to reare and nourish them after they be borne and as if there were no signe in maner or token of nature imprinted in our selves we must be faine to alledge the passions properties and affections of brute beasts and to produce them for witnesses to argue and prove how much in our life we transgresse and go aside from the rule of nature when at our first beginning and entrance into this world we finde such trouble disorder and confusion for in those dumbe beasts beforesaid nature doth retaine and keepe that which is her owne and proper simple entire without corruption or alteration by any strange mixture wheras contrariwise it seemeth that the nature of man by discourse of their reason and custome together is mingled and confused with so many extravagant opinions and judgements fet from all parts abroad much like unto oile that commeth into perfumers hands that thereby it is become manifolde variable and in every one severall and particular and doeth not retaine that which the owne indeed proper and peculiar to it selfe neither ought we to thinke it a strange matter and a woonderfull that brute beasts void of reason should come neerer unto nature and follow her steps better than men endued with the gift of reason for surely the verie senselesse plants heerein surpasse those beasts beforesaid and observe better the instinct of nature for considering that they neither conceive any thing by imagination nor have any motion affection or inclination at all so verily their appetite such as it is varieth not nor stirreth to and fro out of the compasse of nature by meanes whereof they continue and abide as if they were kept in and bound within close-prison holding on still in one and the same course and not stepping once out of that way wherein nature doth leade and conduct them as for beasts they have not any such great portion of reason to temper and mollifie their naturall properties neither any great subtiltie of sense and conceit nor much desire of libertie but having many instincts inclinations and appetites not ruled by reason they breake out by the meanes thereof other-whiles wandering astray and running up and downe to and fro howbeit for the most part not very farre out of order but they take sure holde of nature much like a ship which lieth in the rode at anchor well may she daunce and be rocked up and downe but she is not caried away into the deepe at the pleasure of windes and waves or much after the maner of an asse or hackney travelling with bit and bridle which go not out of the right streight way wherein the master or rider guideth them whereas in man even reason herselfe the mistresse that ruleth and commandeth all findeth out new cuts as it were and by-waies making many starts and excursions at her pleasure to and fro now heere now there whereupon it is that she leaveth no plaine and apparant print of natures tracts and footing Consider I pray you in the first place the mariages if I may so terme them of dumbe beasts and reasonlesse creatures and namely how therein they folow precisely the rule and direction of nature To begin withall they stand not upon those lawes that provide against such as marrie not but lead a single life neither make they reckoning of the acts which lay a penaltie upon those that be late ere they enter into wedlocke like as the citizens under Lycurgus and Solon who stood in awe of the said statutes they feare not to incurre the infamie which followed those persons that were barren and never had children neither doe they regard and seeke after the honours and prerogatives which they atteined who were fathers of three children like as many of the Romains do at this day who enter into the state of matrimonie wedde wives 〈◊〉 beget children not to the end that they might have heires to inherit their lands and goods 〈◊〉 that they might themselves be inheritors capable of dignities immunities But to proceed unto more particulars the male afterwards doth deale with the female in the act of generation not at all times for that the end of their conjunction and going together is not grosse pleasure so much as the engendring of young and the propagation of their kinde and therefore at a certeine season of the yeare to wit the very prime of the spring when as the pleasant winds so apt for generation do gently blow and the temperature of the aire is friendly unto breeders commeth the female full lovingly and kindly toward her fellow the male even of her owne accord and motion as it were trained by the hand of that secret instinct and desire in nature and for her owne part she doth what
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
presence and so reteined him for one yeere longer saying withall this verse The hire of silence now I see Is out of perill and jeopardie Having heard that King Alexander the Great at the age of two and thirtie yeeres having performed most part of his conquests was in doubt with himselfe and perplexed what to do and how to be employed afterwards I woonder quoth he that Alexander thought it not a more difficult matter to governe and preserve a great empire after it is once gotten than to winne and conquer it at first When he had enacted the law Julia as touching adulterie wherein is set downe determinately the manner of processe against those that be attaint of that crime and how such are to be punished who be convict thereof it hapned that through impatience and heat of choler he fell upon a yoong gentleman who was accused to have committed adulterie with his daughter Julia in so much as he buffetted him well and thorowly with his owne fists the yoong man thereupon cried unto him Your selfe have made a law Caesar which ordaineth the order and forme of proceeding against adulteries whereat he was so dismaied abashed yea and so repented himselfe of this miscariage that he would not that day eat anie supper When he sent his nephew or daughters sonne Caius into Armenia he praied unto the gods to accompanie him with that good will of all men which Pompey had with the valiantnesse of Alexander the Great and with his owne good fortune He said that he left unto the Romans for to succeed him in the empire one who never in his life had consulted twise of one thing meaning Tyberius Minding to appease certaine yoong Romane gentlemen of honour and authoritie who made a great noise and stirre in his presence when he saw that for all his first admonitions he could do no good he said unto them Yoong gentlemen give 〈◊〉 unto me an old man whom when I was yoong as you are auncient men would give 〈◊〉 unto The people of Athens had offended and done him some displeasure unto whom hee 〈◊〉 in this wise You are not ignorant I suppose that I am displeased with you for otherwise I would not have wintered in this little isse Aegina and more than thus he neither did nor said afterwards unto them When one of Eurycles his accusers had at large with all libertie and 〈◊〉 centiousnesse of speech uttered against him without any respect what he would he let him run on still untill he came to these words And if these matters Caesar seeme not unto you notorious and heinous command him to rehearse unto me the seventh booke of Thucydides Caesar offended now at his audacious impudencie commanded him to be had away and led to prison but being advertised that he was the onely man left of the race and line of captaine Brasidas hee sent for him and after he had given him some sew good admonitious he let him goe 〈◊〉 had built him a most stately and magnisicent house even from the foundation to the roose thereof which when Caesar saw he said It rejoiceth my heart exceedingly to see thee build thus as if Rome should continue world without end LACONICKE APOPHTHEGMES OR THE NOTABLE SAYINGS OF LACEDAEMONIANS The Summarie PLutarch had in the collection precedent among the Apophthegmes of renowmed Greeks mingled certaine notable sayings of King Agesilaus and other Lacedaemonians but now he exhibiteth unto us a treatise by it selfe of the said Lacedaemonians who deserve no doubt to be registred apart by themselves as being a people who of all other nations destitute of the true knowledge of God least abused their tongue 〈◊〉 which regard also he maketh a more ample description of their Apphthegmes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by so many pleasant speeches and lively reencounters that it was no marvell if so 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 Sparta was flourished so long being governed and peopled by men of such dexterity and so well 〈◊〉 the parts both of bodie and minde and yet who knew better to do than to say Moreover this Catalogue here is distinguished into foure principall portions whereof the first representeth the 〈◊〉 speeches of Kings Generall captaines Lords and men of name in Lacedaemon the second 〈◊〉 the Apophthegmes of such Lacedaemonians whose names are unknowen the third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the customes ordinances which serve for the maintenance of their estate and the fourth 〈◊〉 certaine sayings of some of their women wherein may be seene so much the more the valour megnanimitie of that nation As touching the profit that a man may draw out of these 〈◊〉 it is verie great in everie respect neither is there any person of what age or condition soever but he may learne herein verie much and namely how to speake little to say well and to 〈◊〉 himselfe vertuously as the reading thereof will make proofe We have noted 〈◊〉 and observed somewhat in the margin not particularising upon everie part but onely to give a taste and appetite unto the Reader for to meditate better thereof and to apply unto his owne use both it and all the rest which he may there comprehend and understand LACONICKE APOPHthegmes or the notable sayings of Lacedaemonians AGESICLES a king of the Lacedaemonians by nature given to heare and desirous to learne when one of his familiar friends said unto him I woonder sir since you take so great pleasure otherwise to heare men speake wel and eloquently that you do not entertaine the famous sophister or rhetorician Philophanes for to teach you made him this answer It is because I desire to be their scholler whose sonne also I am that is among whom I am borne And to another who demaunded of him how a prince could raigne in safetie not having about him his guards for the suretie of his person Marie quoth he if he rule his subjects as a good father governeth his children AGESILAUS the Great being at a certaine feast was by lot chosen the master of the said feast and to him it appertained to set downe a certaine law both in what manner and how much everie one ought to drinke now when the butler or skinker asked him how much he should poure out for everie one he answered If thou be well provided and have good store of wine fill out as much as everie man list to call for but if thou have no great plentie of it let everie guest have alike There was a malefactor who being in prison endured constantly before him all maper of torments which when he saw What a cursed wretch is this and wicked in the highest degree who doth employ this patience and resolute fortitude in the maintenance of so shamefull and mischievous parts as he hath committed One highly praised in his presence a certaine master of Rhetoricke for that he could by his eloquent toong amplifie small matters making them seeme great wherupon he said I take him not to be a good shomaker who putteth on a big
sophisters so that according to their doctrine we are to make this definition of sovereigne good even the avoidance of evill for how can one lodge any joy or place the said good but onely there from whence paine and evil hath beene dislodged remooved To the same effect writeth Epicurus also to wit That the nature of a good thing is ingendred and ariseth from the eschuing shunning of evill as also that it proceedeth from the remembrance cogitation and joy which one conceiveth in that such a thing hapned unto him For surely it is an inestimable and incomparable pleasure by his saying to wit the knowledge alone that one hath escaped some notable hurt or great danger And this quoth he is certainly the nature and essence of the soveraigne good if thou wilt directly apply thy selfe thereto as it is meet and then anon rest and stay therein without wandering to and fro heere and there prating and babling I wot not what concerning the definition of the said sovereigne good O the great felicitie and goodly pleasure which these men enjoy rejoicing as they doe in this that they endure none evill feele no paine nor suffer sorow Have they not thinke you great cause to glorifie to say as they doe calling themselves immortal and gods fellowes Have they not reason for these their grandeurs and exceeding sublimites of their blessings to cry out with open mouth as if they were possessed with the frantike furie of Bacchus priests to breake foorth into lowd exclamation for joy that surpassing all other men in wisedome and quicknesse of wit they onely have found out the sovereigne celestiall and divine good and that which hath no mixture at all of evill So that now their beatitude and felicitie is nothing inferior to that of swine and sheepe in that they repose true happinesse in the good and sufficient estate of the flesh principally and of the soule likewise in regard of the flesh of hogges I say and sheepe for to speake of other beasts which are of a more civill gentle and gallant nature the height and perfection of their good standeth not upon the avoiding of evil considering that when they are full and have stored their crawes some fall to singing and crowing others to swimming some give themselves to flie others to counterfeit all kinds of notes and sounds disporting for joy of heart and the pleasure that they take they use to plaie together they make pastime they hoppe leape skippe and daunce one with another she wing thereby that after they have escaped some evill nature inciteth and stirreth them to seeke forward and looke after that which is good or rather indeed that they reject and cast from them all that which is dolorous and contrary to their nature as if it stood in their way and hindred them in the pursute of that which is better more proper natural unto them for that which is necessarie is not straight waies simplie good but surely the thing that in truth is desirable and woorthie to be chosen above the rest is situate farther and reacheth beyond the avoidance of evill I meane that which is indeed pleasant and familiar to nature as Plato said who forbad expresly to call or once to esteeme the deliverance of paine and sorrow either pleasure or joy but to take them as it were for the rude Sciographie or first draught of a painter or a mixture of that which is proper and strange familiar and unnaturall like as of blacke and white But some there be who mounting from the bottom to the mids for want of knowledge what is the lowest and the middle take the middle for the top and the highest pitch as Epicurus Metrodorus have done who defined the essential nature and substance of the soveraigne good to be the deliverance and riddance from evill contenting themselves with the joy of slaves and captives who are enlarged and delivered out of prison or eased of their irons who take it to be a great pleasure done unto them in case they be gently washed bathed and annointed after their whipping-cheere and when their flesh hath beene torne with scourges meane-while they have no taste at all or knowledge of pure true and liberal joyes indeed such as be sincere cleane and not blemished with any scarres or cicatrices for those they never saw nor came where they grew for say that the scurfe scabbe and manginesse of the flesh say that the bleerednesse or gummy watering of rheumatike eies be troublesome infirmities and such as nature cannot away withall it followeth not heereupon that the scraping and scratching of the skinne or the rubbing and clensing of the eies should bee such woonderfull matters as to bee counted felicities neither if we admit that the superstitious feare of the gods and the grievous anguish and trouble arising from that which is reported of the divels in hell be evill we are not to inferre by and by that to be exempt and delivered there fro is happinesse felicitie and that which is to be so greatly wished and desired certes the assigne a very straight roome and narrow place for their joy wherein to turne to walke too rome and tumble at ease so farre foorth onely as not to be terrified or dismaied with the apprehension of the paines and torments described in hell the onely thing that they desire Lo how their opinion which so farre passeth the common sort of people setteth downe for the finall end of theri singular wisedome a thing which it seemeth the very brute beasts hate even of thēselves for as touching that firme constitution and indolence of the body it makes no matter whether of it selfe or by nature it be void of paine and sicknesse no more in the tranquillitie and repose of the soule skilleth it much where by the owne industrie or benefit of nature it be delivered from feare and terror and yet verily a man may well say and with great reason that the disposition is more firme and strong which naturally admitteth nothing to trouble and torment it than that which with judgement and by the light and guidance of learning doth avoid it But set the case that the one were as effectuall and powerfull as the other then verily it will appeere at leastwise that in this behalfe they have no advantage and preeminence above brute beasts to wit in that they feele no anguish nor trouble of spirit for those things which are reported either of the divels in hel or the gods in heaven nor feare at all paines and torments expecting when they shall have an end That this is true Epicurus verily himselfe hath put downe in writing If quoth he the suspicious and imaginations of the meteores and impressions which both are and doe appeare in the aire and skie above did not trouble us nor yet those of death and the pangs thereof we should have no need at all to have recourse unto the naturall causes of all those things no more
present For to say That the thing which costeth us the losse of all that we have toucheth us not is a very absurd speech considering that this very cogitation and apprehension thereof concerneth us much already for this insensibilitie doth not afflict and trouble those who have no more Being but such as yet are namely when they come to cast their account what detriment and losse they receive by being no more and that by death they shall be reduced to nothing for it is not the three-headed-helhound Cerberus nor the river of teares and weeping Cocytus which cause the feare of death to be infinit and interminable but it is that menacing intimation of Nullity or Not being of the impossibility to returne againe into a state of Being after men once are gone and departed out of this life for there is no second nativitie nor regeneration but that Not-being must of necessitie remaine for ever according to the doctrine of Epicurus for if there be no end at all of Non-essence but the same continue infinit and immutable there will be found likewise an eternall and endlesse miserie in that privation of all good things by a certeine insensibilitie which never shall have end In which point Herodotus seemeth yet to have dealt more wisely when he saith That God having given a taste of sweet eternitie seemeth envious in that behalfe especially to those who are reputed happie in this world unto whom that pleasure was nothing els but a bait to procure dolor namely when they have a taste of those things which they must for goe for what joy what contentment and fruition of pleasure is there so great but this conceit and imagination of the soule falling continually as it it were into a vast sea of this infinition is not able to quell and chase away especially in those who repose all goodnesse and beatitude in pleasure And if it be true as Epicurus saith That to die in paine is a thing incident to most men then surely there is no meane at all to mitigate or allay the feare of death seeing it haleth us even by griefe and anguish to the losse of a sovereigne good and yet his sectaries would seeme to urge and enforce this point mainly to wit in making men beleeve that it is a good thing to escape and avoid evill and yet forsooth that they should not thinke it evill to be deprived of good They confesse plainly that in death there is no joy nor hope at all but what pleasure and sweetnesse soever we had is thereby and then cut off whereas contrariwise even in that time those who beleeve their soules to be immortall and incorruptible looke to have and enjoy the greatest and most divine blessings and for certeine great revolutions of yeeres to converse in all happinesse and felicity sometime upon the earth otherwhiles in heaven untill in that generall resolution of the universall world they come to burne together with Sun and Moone in a spirituall and intellectuall fire This spacious place of so many and so great joies Epicurus cutteth off and abolisheth cleane in that he anulleth all hopes that we ought to have in the aide and favour of the gods whereby both in contemplative life he exstinguisheth the love of knowledge and learning and also in the active the desire of valourous acts of winning honour and glory restraining driving and thrusting nature into a narrow roome of a joy which is very strait short and unpure to wit from the soules delight to a fleshly pleasure as if she were not capable of a greater good than the avoiding of evill WHETHER THIS COMMON MOT BE WELL SAID LIVE HIDDEN OR SO LIVE AS NO MAN MAY KNOW THOV LIVEST The Summarie THis precept was first given by Neocles the brother of Epicurus as saith Suidas and as if it had bene some golden sentence it went currant ordinarily in the mouthes of all the Epicureans who advised a man that would live happily not to intermeddle in any publike affaires of State but Plutarch considering well how ill this Emprese sounded being taken in that sense and construction which they give unto it and foreseeing the absurd and dangerous consequences ensuing upon such an opinion doth now confute the same by seven arguments or sound reasons to wit That therein such foolish Philosophers discover mightily their excessive ambition That it is a thing dishonest and perillous for a man to retire himselfe apart from others for that if a man be vicious he ought to seeke abroad for remedie of his maladie if a lover of goodnesse and vertue he is likewise to make other men love the same Item That the Epicureans life being defamed with all or dure and wickednesse it were great reason in deed that such men should remaine hidden and buried in perpetuall darknesse After this he sheweth that the good proceeding from the life of vertuous men is a sufficient encouragement for every one to be emploied in affaires for that there is nothing more miserable than an idle life and that which is unprofitable to our neighbors That life birth generation mans soule yea and man himselfe wholly as he is teach us by their definitions and properties That we are not set in this world for to be directed by such a precept as this and in conclusion That the estate of our soules after they be separate from the bodie condemneth and overthroweth this doctrine of the Epicureans and prooveth evidently that they be extreame miserable both during and after this life All these premisses well marked and considered instruct and teach them that be of good calling in the world and in higher place to endevor and straine themselves in their severall vocations to flie an idle life so farre forth that they take heed withall they be not over curious pragmaticall busie and stirring nor too ready and forward to meddle in those matters which ought to be let alone as they be for feare lest whiles they weene to raise and advance themselves they fall backe and become lower than they would WHETHER THIS COMMON Mot be well said Live hidden or So live as no man may know thou livest LOe how even himselfe who was the authour of this sentence would not be unknowne but that al the world should understand that he it was who said it for expresly he uttered this very speech to the end that it might not remain unknowen that he had some more understanding than others desirous to winne a glorie undeserved and not due unto him by diverting others from glory and exhorting them to obscurity of life I like the man well verily for this is just according to the old verse I hate him who of wisdome beares the name And to himselfe cannot performe the same We reade that Philoxenus the sonne of Eryxis and Gnatho the Sicilian two notorious gluttons given to bellie-cheere and to love their tooth when they were at a feast used to snite their noses into the very dishes and platters
Moreover there be other sorts of pleasant talke besides these and namely to heare and recite fables devised for mirth and pleasure discourses of playing upon the flute harpe or lute which many times give more contentment and delight than to heare the flute harpe or lute it selfe plaied upon Now the very precise time measured as it were and marked out to be most proper and meet for such recreations is when we feele that our meat is gently gone downe and setled quietly in the bottome of the stomacke shewing some signe of concoction and that naturall heat is strong and hath gotten the upper hand Now forasmuch as Aristotle is of opinion that walking after supper doth stirre up and kindle as one would say our naturall heat and to sleepe immediately after a man hath supped doth dull and quench it considering also that others be of a contrary minde and hold that rest and repose is better for concoction that motion so soone after troubleth and impeacheth the digestion and distribution of the meats which is the cause that some use to walke after supper others sit still and take their ease me thinks a man may reconcile and satisfie verie well after a sort these two opinions who cherishing and keeping his bodie close and still after supper setteth his mind a walking awakeneth it suffering it not to be heavie idle at once by and by but sharpneth and quickneth his spirits as is before said by little and little in discoursing or hearing discourses of pleasant matters and delectable such as be not biting in any wise nor offensive and odious Moreover as touching vomits or purgations of the bellie by laxative medicines which are the cursed and detestable easements and remedies of fulnesse and repletion surely they would never be used but upon right great and urgent necessitie a contrary course to many men who fill their gorges and bodies with an intent to void them soone after or otherwise who purge and emptie the same for to fill them againe even against nature who are no lesse troubled nay much more offended ordinarily by being fedde and full than fasting and emptie insomuch as such repletion is an hinderance to the contentment and satisfying of their appetites and lusts by occasion whereof they take order alwaies that their bodie may be evermore emptied as if this voidance were the proper place and seat of their pleasures But the hurt and dammage that may grow upon these ordinary purgations and vomits is very evident for that both the one and the other put the body to exceeding great straines and violent disturbances As for vomiting it bringeth with it one inconvenience by it selfe more than the former in that it procureth augmenteth an unsatiable greedinesse to meat for ingendered there is by that meanes a violent turbulent hunger like as when the course or stream of a river hath bene for a while stopped staid snatching or greedy at meat which is evermore offensive not a kind appetite indeed when as nature hath need of meat but resembling rather the inflammations occasioned by medicines or cataplasmes Hereupon it is that the pleasures proceeding from thence paste and slippe away incontinently as abortive and unperfect accompanied with inordinate pantings and beatings of the pulse great wrings in the enjoying of them and afterwards ensue dolorous tensions violent oppressions or stoppings of the conduits pores the reliques or retensions of ventosities which staie not for naturall ejections and evacuations but runne up and downe all over our bodies like as if they were shippes surcharged having more need to bee eased of their burden than still to be loden with more excrements As for the troublesome motions of the belly and guts occasioned by purgative drougues they corrupt spill and resolve the natural strength of the solide parts so that they engender more superfluties within than they thrust out and expel And this is for al the world like as if a man being discontented to see within his native citie a multitude of naturall Greekes inhabitants should for to drive them out fill the same with Scythians or Arabian strangers For even so some there be who greatly miscounting and deceiving themselves for to send foorth of their bodies the superfluous humors which are in some sort domesticall and familiar unto them put into them I wot not what Guidian graines Scammoni and other strange drougues fet from farre countries such as have no familiar reference to the bodie but are meere wilde and savage and in truth have more need to be purged and chaced out of the body themselves than power and vertue to void away and expell that wherewith nature is choked and overcharged The best way therefore is by sobrietie and regular diet to keepe the bodie alwaies in that moderate measure of evacuation and repletion that it may be able by proportionable temperature to maintaine it selfe without any outward helpe But if it fall out otherwhiles that there be some necessitie of the one or the other vomits would be provoked without the helpe of strange physicall drogues and not with much adoo and curiositie that they disquiet trouble no parts within but onely for to avoid cruditie and indigestion reject and cast up that gentlie which is too much and cannot be prepared and made meet for concoction For like as linnen clothes that bee scoured and made cleane with sopes ashes lees and other abstersive matters weare more and fret out sooner than such as be washed simply in faire water even so vomites provoked by medicines offend the body much more and marre the complexion But say the belly bee bound and costive there is not a drougue that easeth it so mildly or provoketh it to the siege so easily as doe certaine meats whereof the experience is familiar unto us and the use nothing dolorous and offensive Now in case the body be so heard that such kinde viands will not worke and cause it to be sollible then a man ought for many daies together to drinke thinne and cold water or use to fast or else take some clister rather than purgative medicines such as disquiet the body and overthrow the temperature thereof And yet many there be who ever and anon are ready to run unto them much like unto those lewd and light wanton women who use certeine inedicines to cause abortion or to send away the fruit which they have newly conceived to the end that they might conceive soone againe and have more pleasure in that fleshly action Now is it time to say no more but to let them goe that perswade such evacuations As for those on the contrarie side who interject certaine exact precise and criticall fastings observed too straightly according to just periods and circuits of daies surely they teach nature wherin they doe not well to use astriction before it have need and acquaint her with a necessarie abstinence of food which in it selfe is not necessarie even at a prefixed time which
contentment when they be asked questions of that which they have an insight in and knowing so much by themselves as they doe loth they bee to have their cunning hidden and to be thought of others ignorant therein therefore those who have beene great travellers and sailed in many voiages cannot be better pleased than when others enquire of them as touching farre countries strange seas the manners fashions and customes of barbarous nations and you bring them to bedde as they say when you put them to discourse of such matters as being most willing to describe and draw upon a table the coasts places straigths and gulfes by which and through which they have passed reputing it to be no small frute of all their travels and an easement of the paines which they have endured in one word looke whatsoever we of our selves are woont without the demaund and intreatie of others to recount and relate willingly the same are we desirous that men should aske us questions of and howsoever we seeme to doe pleasure unto the company yet indeed we have much adoe to hold and with great paine forbeare to utter the same This is a very maladie incident to sailers and sea-men above all other As for those that be of a more modest and civill nature they are desirous to be asked those things which they are willing enough to utter but that they be abashed and in reverent regard of them that be present passe over in silence those exploits which they have performed happily and with great honour and therefore good olde Nestor in Homer did very wisely who knowing well the ambitious humour and desire of glory which was in Ulysses spake unto him Ulysses flower of noble chivalrie Renowmed knight and all the Greeks glorie To tell us now I pray good sir begin How ye both twaine did those great horses win For unwilling men are to heare those who praise themselves or recount their owne worthy acts if there be not one or other of the company that is urgent with them so to do or unlesse they be in maner forced unto it and therefore they are glad when they be asked concerning the ambassages wherein they have beene imploied of their acts during the time of their government of State especially if they have performed some great and honourable service therein and withall perceive that it is not for envie nor malice that such demands be made for otherwise such as be envious or malicious weepe at those reports and be ready to put them by not willing to give place unto any narrations nor to minister occasion or matter of talke that may turne to the honor and commendation of him that delivereth the same Moreover this is another meanes to gratifie those who are to answere namely to move question of such things as they wot well enough that their enemies and ill-willers are loth to heare And verily Ulysses said to Alcinous in this wise A minde you have to heare me tell my wofull miserie That I might still sigh groane and waile for my hard destinie Even so Oedipus in Sophocles answered thus to the company of the Chorus Awoe it is my friend to raise and wake A griefe that long hath slept and rest doth take But contrariwise Euripides wrote after this sort How sweet is it to one for to remember The paine now past which sometime he did suffer True it is but not to those who still wander and being tossed in troublesome seas do yet meet with new misfortunes and calamities But to returne againe to our former purpose we ought to beware how wee demand ill newes for men are grieved at the heart to make report either how they have bene cast condemned in any sute or that that they have buried their children as also how infortunate they have bene in their traffique either by sea or land contrariwise they are well pleased to rehearse and repeat often times if they be asked the question how they have had good audience given them from the publike place of making orations and obteined whatsoever they there demaunded how they have beene saluted and honourably entreated by some king and potentate and how when other passengers and travellers with them have beene plunged into dangers of tempest or theeves they onely escaped the perill and for that in the bare relation they seeme as it were to enjoy the thing it selfe they can not be satisfied with the discourse and remembrance thereof Also men rejoice and take delight when they be asked as touching their friends who are fortunate and doe prosper in the world or of their owne children that profit well in learning and good literature or have sped well in pleading causes or otherwise are of credit in the court and with princes semblably they be very well content and pleased to be moved for to relate and so are more willing to make report of the losses or shamefull disgraces of their enemies and ill-willers whom either they have overthrowen at the barre and caused to be condemned or who otherwise are fallen into any disastrous calamity for of themselves loth they are unlesse they be required thereto to recount such things lest they might be reputed malicious and glad to heare of other mens harmes A hunter loveth very well to have speech and question mooved unto him as touching hounds so doth a champion and one that delighteth in bodily exercises to be trained to talke of gymnasticall pastimes and seats of activitie like as an amorous lover of such persons as be faire and beautifull a devout and religious man discourseth ordinarily of dreames and visions that hee seeth and what good successe he hath had in his affaires by observing the direction of oracles the presages of augurie and osses by doing sacrifice and generally by the grace and especiall favour of the gods and such be well pleased for to be asked questions as concerning these matters As for old folke you shall do them a high pleasure if you put them to it for to make any discourse whatsoever for although the narration concerne them nothing at all nor be to any purpose yet if one aske them questions he tickleth them in the right veine and scratcheth them as they say where it itcheth This appeareth by these verses out of Homer O Nestor sonne of Neleus tell me in veritie How Agamemnon elder sonne of Atreus did die Where was his yoonger brother then sir Menelaus hight Lives he or no in Achaea at Argos citie bright Here you see Telemachus asketh him many questions at once giving him occasion and matter of much speech not as some do who restreining olde folke to answere to the point only which is necessarie and driving them within a narrow compasse bereave them of that which is their greatest pleasure In sum they that would rather please and delight than displease and trouble propose such questions the answeres whereunto draw with them not the blame and reproofe but the praise and commendation
patronesse of artisans to Mercurie likewise the master of merchants and occupiers and therefore upon the evening attend songs musicke minstrelsie plaies daunces weddings Masques mommeries feasts and banquets Noise of hauthoies fluits and cornets In the morning a man shall heare nothing but the thumping sounds of the smithes hammer and sledges beating and knocking upon the anvill the grashing noise of sawes the morowwatch of Publicans Customers and Toll-gatherers crying after those that come in or go forth the ajournements of serjeants and criers calling for apparance in the court before the judges publications of edicts and proclamations summons to attend and be ready to make court and to do duetie unto some prince great lord or governour of State at which time all pleasures be gone and out of the way Of Venus then there is no talke The slaves of Bacchus do not walke With Ivie dight the gamesome sport Of gallant youths is all-a-mort For why as day growes on apace Cares and troubles come in place Moreover you shall never reade that the poet Homer reporteth of any woorthy prince and demi-god that in the day-time he lay either with wife or concubine onely he saith that Paris when he fled out of the battell went and couched himselfe in the bosome and lap of his Helena giving us thereby to understand that it is not the part of an honest minded husband but the act of a furious and wanton-given adulterer to follow such pleasures in the day-time Neither doth it follow as Epicurus saith that the bodie takes more harme by performing this duetie of marriage after supper than in the morning unlesse a man be so drunke or overcharged with meats that his bellie is ready to cracke for certeinly in such a case it were very hurtfull and dangerous indeed but if one have taken his meat and drinke sufficiently be wel in health and in some measure cheerefull if his bodie be apt and able his minde well disposed thereto if hee interpose some reasonable time betweene and then fall to clip and imbrace his wife he shall not thereby incurre any great agitation that night nor feare the heavie load and repletion of meat neither will this action worke him any dammage or coole him too much ne yet disquiet and remoove out of their place the atomies as Epicurus saith but if hee compose himselfe afterwards to sleepe and repose he shall soone supplie againe that which was voided and replenish the vessels with a new afflux of spirits which were emptied by the said evacuation But of all things especiall heed would be taken not to play at this game of Venus in the day time for feare lest the body and minde both being troubled already with the cares and travels of sundry affaires be by this meanes more exasperat and inflamed considering that nature hath not a sufficient and competent time betweene to repose and refresh her selfe for all men my good friend have not that great leasure which Epicurus had neither are they provided for their whole life-time of that rest and tranquillity which he said that he got by good letters and the study of philosophy nay there is not one in maner but every day he finds himselfe amused and emploied about many affaires and businesses of this life which holde him occupied to which it were neither good nor expedient for a man to expose his body so resolved enfeebled and weakened with the furious exploit of concupiscence Leaving him therefore to his foolish opinion of the gods that being immortall and happy they have no care of our affaires nor busie themselves therewith let us obey the lawes maners and customes of our owne countrey as every honest man ought to do namely to be sure in the morning to go into the temple and to lay our hands upon the sacrifice if haply a little before we have done such a deed For in trueth well it were that interposing the night and our sleepe betweene after a sufficient time and competent space we should come to present our selves pure and cleane as if wee were risen new men with the new day and purposing to leade a new life as Democritus was woont to say THE SEVENTH QUESTION What is the cause that Must or new wine doth not inebriate or make folke drunke THe maner was in Athens to give the assay and to taste new wines the eleventh day of the moneth February which day they named Pithaegia and verily in olde time they observed this ceremonie to powre out the first drawing thereof unto the gods before they dranke of it making their praiers devoutly that the use of this medicinable drinke might be holsome and healthfull not noisome nor hurtfull unto them But in our countrey this moneth is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sixt day of which moneth the manner was to pierce their vessell first and taste new wines after they had sacrificed to good Fortune and good Daemon and that the westerne winde Zephyrus had done blowing for of all windes this is it that most troubleth disquieteth and turneth wine and looke what wine may escape this season great hope there is that it will hold and continue good all the yeere after according to which custome my father upon a time sacrificed as his maner was and after supper finding that his wine was good commendable he proposed this question unto certeine yoong men that were students with mee in philosophie How it came to passe that new wine would not make a man drunke the thing seemed at the first unto many a very strange and incredible paradox But Agias said That this new sweet wine was every way offensive unto the stomacke and quickly glutted it by reason whereof a man could hardly drinke so much of Must as were sufficient to overturne his braines for that the appetite is quickly dulled and wearied for the small pleasure that it taketh so soone as it feeleth no more thirst Now that there is a difference betweene sweet and pleasant the poet Homer knew well enough and gave us so much to understand when he said With cheese and hony that is sweet With pleasant wine a drinke most meet For in truth wine at the first is to be counted sweet but in the end it becommeth pleasant namely after it hath age and by the meanes of working ebullition and concoction passed to a certeine harshnesse and austeritie But Aristaenetus of Nica said That he well remembred how he had read in a certeine place in some books That Must mingled with wine staieth represseth drunkennesse he added moreover and said That there were physicians who ordeined for them that had overdrunke themselves to take when they went to bed a piece of bread dipped in hony and to eat it If then it be so that sweet things doe mittigate and dull the force of wine good reason it is that newe wine should not inebriate untill the sweetnesse thereof be turned into pleasantnesse We approoved greatly the discourse of these two yoong
certaine power which causeth it to swell as it were and have an appetite to engender For other cause there can 〈◊〉 none rendred why rocks clifts and mountaines be barren and drie but this that they have either no fire at all or else participate 〈◊〉 little the nature thereof in summe so farre off is water from being of it selfe sufficient for the owne preservation or generation of other things that without the aide of fire it is the cause of the owne ruine and destruction For heat it is that keepeth water in good estate and preserveth it in her nature and proper substance like as it doth all things besides and looke where fire is away or wanteth there water doth corrupt and putrifie in such sort as the ruine and destruction of water is the default of heat as we may evidently see in pools marishes and standing waters or wheresoever water is kept within pits and holes without issue for such waters in the end become putrified and stinke againe because they have no motion which having this propertie to 〈◊〉 up the naturall heat which is in everie thing keepeth those waters better which have a current and runne apace in that this motion preserveth that kind heat which they have And hereupon it is that To live in Greeke is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sigfieth to boile How then can it otherwise be that of two things it should not be more profitable which giveth being and essence to the other like as fire doth unto water Furthermore that thing the utter departure whereof is the cause that a creature dieth is the more profitable for this is certaine and manifest that the same without which a thing cannot bee hath given the cause of being unto the same when it was with it For we do see that in dead things there is a moisture neither are they dried up altogether for otherwise moist bodies would not putrifie considering that putrefaction is the turning of that which is drie to be moist or rather the corruption of humours in the flesh and death is nothing else but an utter defect and extinction of heat and therefore dead things be extreme cold insomuch as if a man should set unto them the very edge of rasours they are enough to dull the same through excessive cold And we may see plainely that in the verie bodies of living creatures those parts which participate least of the nature of fire are more senselesse than any other as bones and haire and such as be farthest remooved from the heart and in manner all the difference that is betweene great and small creatures proceedeth from the presence of fire more or lesse for humiditie simply it is not that bringeth forth plants and fruits but warme humiditie is it that doth the deed whereas cold waters be either barren altogether or not verie fruitful and fertill and yet if water were of the owne nature fructuous it must needs follow that it selfe alone and at all times should be able to produce fruit whereas we see it is cleane contrarie namely that it is rather hurtfull to fruits And now to reason from another head and go another way to worke to make use of fire as it is fire need wee have not of water nay it 〈◊〉 rather for it quencheth and 〈◊〉 it out cleane on the other side many 〈◊〉 be who cannot tell what to doe with water without fire for being made hot it is more profitable and otherwise in the owne kinde hurtfull Of two things therefore that which can do good of it selfe without need of the others helpe is better and more profitable Moreover water yeeldeth commodity but after one sort onely to wit by touching as when we feele it or wash and bathe with it whereas fire serveth all the five senses doth them good for it is felt both neere at hand and also seene afarre of so that among other meanes that it hath of profiting no man may account the multiplicity of the uses that it affoordeth for that a man should be at any time without fire it is impossible nay he cannot have his first generation without it and yet there is a difference in this kinde as in all other things The very sea it selfe is made more 〈◊〉 by heat so as it doth heat more by the agitation and current that it hath than any other waters for of it selfe otherwise it differeth not Also for such as have no need of outward fire we may not say that they stand in need of none at all but the reason is because they have plenty and store of naturall heat within them so that in this very point the commodity of fire ought to be esteemed the more And as for water it is never in that good state but some need it hath of helpe without whereas the exellencie of fire is such as it is content with it selfe and requireth not the aid of the other Like as therefore that captaine is to be reputed more excellent who knowes to order and furnish a citie so as it hath no need of forren allies so we are to thinke that among elements that is the woorthier which may often times consist without the succour and aide of another And even as much may be said of living creatures which have least need of others helpe And yet haply it may be replied contrariwise that the thing is more profitable which we use alone by it selfe namely when by discourse of reason we are able to chuse the better For what is more commodious and profitable to men than reason and yet there is none at all in brute beasts And what followeth heereupon Shall we inferre therefore that it is lesse profitable as invented by the providence of a better nature which is god But since we are fallen into this argument What is more profitable to mans life than arts but there is no art which fire devised not or at least wise doth not maintaine And heereupon it is that we make 〈◊〉 the prince and master of all arts Furthermore whereas the time and space of life is very short that is given unto man as short as it is yet sleepe as Ariston saith like unto a false baily or publicane taketh the halfe thereof for it selfe True it is that a man may lie awake and not sleepe all night long but I may aswell say that his waking would serve him in small stead were it not that fire presented unto him the commodities of the day and put a difference betweene the darkenesse of the night and the light of the day If then there be nothing more profitable unto man than life why should we not judge fire to be the best thing in the world since it doth augment and multiply our life Over and besides that of which the five senses participate most is more profitable but evident it is that there is not one of the said senses maketh use of the nature of water
nor so much as know one another And verily all men do thinke that to gather to lay up to keepe to dispense and bestow is condrucible and profitable when there is received profit and commodity by such things And a good substantiall housholder buyes himselfe locks and keies he keepeth his cellars his closets and coffers Taking great joy his chamber doore with hand for to unlocke Where lies of golde and silver both his treasure and his stocke But to gather and lay up to keepe with great care diligence and paine those things which are for nothing profitable is neither honourable nor yet seemly and honest If then Ulysses being 〈◊〉 by Circe to make that fast knot had with it tied sure and sealed up as it were not the gifts and presents which Alcinous gave him to wit trefeets pots plate clothes apparell and gold but some trash as sticks stones and other pelfe raked together thinking it a great felicity for him to possesse and keepe charily such riffe-raffe and trumperie who would have praised and commended him for it or imitated this foolish forecast witlesse providence and vaine diligence And yet this is the goodly and beautifull honesty of the Stoicks profession in generall this is their honourable gravity this is their beatitude and nothing els is it but an heaping up a keeping and preserving of things unprofitable and indifferent For such be those which they say are according to nature and much more those outward matters forasmuch as sometime they compare the greatest riches with fringes and chamber-pots of golde yea and I assure you otherwhiles as it falleth out with oile cruets And aftewards like as those who thinke they have most insolently and proudly abused with blasphemous words and polluted the temples the sacred ceremonies and religious services of some gods or divine powers presently change their note and become penitent persons and falling downe prostrate or sitting humbly below upon the ground blesle and magnifie the heavenly power of the Godhead even so they as incurring the vengeance and plague of God for their presumptuous follies arrogant and vaine speeches are found puddering and raking againe in these indifferent things nothing indeed pertinent unto them setting out a throat and crying as loud as they can what a gay matter what a goodly and honourable thing it is to gather and lay up such commodities and especially the communion and fellowship of enjoying and using them also that whosoever want the same and can not come by them have no reason to live any longer but either to lay violent hands on themselves or by long fasting and abstinence from all viands to shorten their lives bidding vertue farewell for ever And these men verily howsoever they repute Theognis to be a man altogether of a base and abject minde for saying thus in verse Aman from povertie to flie O Cyrmis ought himselfe to cast Headlong from rocks most steepe and hie Or into sea as deepe and vast themselves meane while in prose give these exhortations and say that to avoid a grievous maladie and escape exceeding paine a man ought if he had not a sword or dagger neere at hand nor a poisoned cup of hemlocke to cast himselfe into the sea or els fall headlong and breake his necke from some steepe rocke yet affirme they that neither the one nor the other is hurtfull evill or unprofitable nor maketh those miserable who fall into such accidents Whence then shall I begin quoth he what ground-worke and foundation of duety shall I lay or what shall I make the subject and matter of vertue leaving nature and abandoning that which is according to nature And whereat I pray you good sit begin Aristotle and Theophrastus what principles take Xenocrates and Polemon And even Zeno himselfe hath he not followed them in supposing Nature and that which is according to Nature for to be the elements of felicitie But these great clerks verily rested here in these things as eligible expetible good and profitable adjoining moreover unto them vertue which emploieth the same and worketh by ech of them according to their proper use thinking in so doing to accomplish a perfect and entire life and to consummate that concord and agreement which is in trueth sortable and consonant unto Nature For they made no confused mish-mash nor were contrary to themselves as those who leape and mount on high from the ground and immediatly fall downe upon it againe and in naming the same things meet to be chosen and yet not expetible proper and convenient and withall not good unprofitable and yet fit for good uses nothing at all pertinent unto us and yet forsooth the very principles of dueties and offices But looke what was the speech of these noble and famous personages the same also was their life their deeds I say were answerable and conformable to their words Contrariwise the sect of these Stoicks doth according to that craftie woman whom Archilochus describeth to cary water in the one hand and fire in the other for in some of their doctrines and assertions they receive and admit nature in another they reject her or to speake more plainly in their acts and deeds they adhere and cleave unto those things which are according to nature as being eligible and simply good but in their disputations and discourses they refuse and condemne the same as things indifferent and nothing available to vertue for the acquiring of felicitie nay that which woorse is they give her hard and reprochfull tearmes And forasmuch as all men generally are perswaded in their minds that the sovereigne good is a thing joious exoptable happie most honourable and of greatest dignitie 〈◊〉 of it selfe and wanting nothing See now this sovereigne good of theirs and examine it according to this common opinion To put forth ones finger like a sage and wise Philosopher doth this make that joious good or what exoptable thing I pray you is a prudent torture who casteth himselfe downe headlong from an high rocke so he do it with a colour of reason and honesty is he happy and fortunate is that most honourable and of grearest price and dignity which reason many times chuseth to reject for another thing that of it selfe is not good is that all-sufficient in it selfe accomplished and perfect which whosoever do presently injoy if haply they can not obteine with all some one of these indifferent things they will not deigne to live any longer was there ever knowen any discourse or disputation wherein use and ordinary custome suffered more outrage and abuse which stealing and plucking from it the true and naturall conceptions as legitimate children of her owne putteth in the place bastards changelings of a monstrous and savage kinde and constreineth it to love cherish and keepe them in lieu of the other And thus have they done in treating of good things and evill expetible and to be avoided proper and strange which ought to have beene more cleerely and plainly distinguished than
from it daily is highly to be reckoned and accounted of and therefore neither can the Delphians be noted for follie in that they terme Venus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a chariot by reason of this yoke-fellowship nor Homer in calling this conjunction of man and wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say amity and friendship Solon likewise is deemed by this to have beene an excellent law-giver and most expert in that which concerneth mariage when he decreed expresly that the husband should thrice in a moneth at the least embrace his wife and company in bed with her not for carnall pleasures sake I assure you but like as cities and states use after a certeine time betweene to renew their leagues and confederacies one with another so he would have that the alliance of mariage should eftsooones be enterteined anew by such solace and delectation after jarres which otherwhiles arise and breed by some bone cast betweene Yea but there be many enormious and furious parts will some one say that are plaied by such as are in love with women And be there not more I pray by those that are enamoured upon boies do but marke him who uttereth these passionate words So often as these eies of mine behold That beardlesse youth that smooth and lovely boy I faint and fall then wish I him to hold Within mine armes and so to die with joy And that on tombe were set where I do lie An Epigram mine end to testifie But as there is a furious passion in some men doting upon women so there is as raging an affection in others toward boies but neither the one nor the other is love Well most absurd it were to say that women are not endued with other vertues for what need we to speake of their temperance and chastity of their prudence fidelity and justice considering that even fortitude it selfe constant confidence and resolution yea and magnaminity is in many of them very evident Now to holde that being by nature not indisposed unto other vertues they are untoward for amitie onely and frendship which is an imputation laid upon them is altogether beside all reason For well knowen it is that they be loving to their children and husbands and this their naturall affection is like unto a fertile field or battell soile capable of amitie not unapt for perswasion nor destitute of the Graces And like as Poesie having sitted unto speech song meeter and thime as pleasant spices to aromatize and season the same by meanes whereof that profitable instruction which it yeeldeth is more attractive and effectuall as also the danger therein more inevitable Even so nature having endued a woman with an amiable cast and aspect of the eie with sweet speech and a beautifull countenance hath given unto her great meanes if she be lascivious and wanton with her pleasure to decive a man and if she be chaste and honest to gaine the good will and favour of her husband Plato gave counsell unto Xenocrates an excellent Philosopher and a woorthy personage otherwise howbeit in his behavior exceeding soure and austere to sacrifice unto the Graces and even so a man might advise a good matron and sober dame to offer sacrifice unto Love for his propitious favour unto mariage and his residence with her and that her husband by her kind loving demeanour unto him may keepe home and not seeke abroad to some other and so be forced in the end to breake out into such speeches as these out of the Comoedie Wretch that I am and man unhappy I So good a wife to quit with injury For in wedlocke to love is a better and greater thing by farre than to be loved for it keepeth folke from falling into many faults slips or to say more truly it averteth them from all those inconveniences which may corrupt marre ruinate a mariage as for those passionate affections which in the beginning of matrimoniall love moove fittes somewhat poinant and biting let me entreat you good friend Zeuxippus not to feare for any exulceration or smart itch that they have although to say a trueth it were no great harme if haply by some little wound you come to be incorporate and united to an honest woman like as trees that by incision are engraffed and grow one within another for when all is said is not the beginning of conception a kinde of exulceration neither can there be a mixture of two things into one unlesse they mutually suffer one of the other be reciprocally affected And verily the Mathematical rudiments which children be taught at the beginning trouble them even as Philosophie also at the first is harsh unto yong men but like as this unpleasantnesse continueth not alwaies with thē no more doeth that mordacity sticke still among lovers And it seemeth that Love at the first resembleth the mixture of two liquors which when they begin to incorporate together boile and worke one with another for even so Love seemeth to make a certaine confused tract and ebullition but after a while that the same be once setled and throughly clensed it bringeth unto Lovers a most firme and assured habit and there is properly that mixtion and temperature which is called universall and thorough the whole whereas the love of other friends conversing and living together may be very well compared to the mixtion which is made by these touching and interlacings of atomes which Epicurus speaketh of and the same is subject to ruptures separations and startings a sunder neither can it possibly make that union which matrimoniall love and mutuall conjunction doeth for neither doe there arise from any other Loves greater pleasures nor commodities more continually one from another ne yet is the benefit and good of any other friendship so honorable or expetible as When man and wife keepe house with one accord And lovingly agree at bed and bord Especially when the law warranteth it and the bond of procreation common betweene them is assistant thereto And verily nature sheweth that the gods themselves have need of such love for thus the Poets say that the heaven loveth the earth and the Naturalists hold that the Sunne likewise is in love with the Moone which every moneth is in conjunction with him by whom also she conceiveth In briefe must it not follow necessarily that the earth which is the mother and breeder of men of living creatures and all plants shall perish and be wholly extinct when love which is ardent desire and instinct inspired from god shall abandon the matter and the matter likewise shall cease to lust and seeke after the principle and cause of her conception But to the end that we may not range too farre nor use any superfluous and nugatory words your selfe doe know that these paederasties are of all other most uncertaine and such as use them are wont to scoffe much thereat and say that the amitie of such boies is in manner of an egge divided
senses being inserted and ingraffed in our bodies by harmony but principally those which are celestiall and divine namely sight and hearing which together with God give understanding and discourse of reason unto men with the voice and the light doe represent harmony yea and the other inferrior senses which follow them in as much as they be senses are likewise composed by harmony for all their effects they performe not without harmony and howsoever they be under them and lesse noble yet they yeeld not for all that for even they entring into the body accompanied with the presence of a certaine divinity together with the discourse of reason obtaine a forcible and excellent nature By these reasons evident it is that the ancient Greeks made great account and not without good cause of being from their infancie well instructed and trained up in Musicke for they were of opinion that they ought to frame and temper the mindes of yoong folke unto vertue and honesty by the meanes of Musicke as being right profitable to all honest things and which wee should have in great recommendation but especially and principally for the perillous hazzards of warre In which case some used the Hautboies as the Lacedaemonians who chaunted the song called Castorium to the said instruments when they marched in ordinance of battell for to charge their enimies Others made their approch for to encounter and give the first onset with the noise of the Lyra that is to say the harpe or such like stringed instruments And this we finde to have bene the practise of the Candiots for a long time for to use this kinde of Musicke when they set forth and advanced forward to the doubtfull dangers of battell And some againe continue even to our time in the use of Trumpets sound As for the Argives they went to wrestle at the solemne games in their city called Sthenia with the sound of the Hautboies And these games were by report instituted at first in the honor and memory of their king Danaus and afterwards againe were consecrated to the honor of Jupiter surnamed Sthenius And verily even at this day in the Pentathlian games of prise the maner and custome is to play upon the Hautboies and to sing a song thereto although the same be not antique nor exquisite nor such as was wont to be plaied and sung in times past as that Canticle composed sometime by Hierax for this kinde of combat and named it was Eudrome Well though it be a faint and feeble maner of song yet somewhat such as it was they used with the Hautboies And in the times of greater antiquity it is said that the Greeks did not so much as know Theatricall Musicke for that they emploied all the skill knowledge thereof in the service and worship of the gods in the institution and bringing up of youth before any Theater was built in Greece by that people but all the Musicke that yet was they bestowed to the honor of the gods and their divine service in the temples also in the praises of valiant and woorthy men So that it is very probable that these termes Theater afterwards and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long before were derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say God And verily in our daies Musicke is growen to such an heigth of difference and diversity that there is no mention made nor memory remaining of any kinde of Musicke for youth to be taught neither doth any man set his minde thereto or make profession thereof but looke whosoever are given to Musicke betake them selves wholy to that of Theaters for their delight But some man may haply say unto me What good sir thinke you that in old time they devised no new Musicke and added nothing at all to the former Yes I wis I confesse they did adjoine thereto some new inventions but it was with gravity and decency For the historians who wrote of these matters attributed unto Terpander the Dorian Nete which before time they used not in their songs and tunes And even so it is said that the Myxolidien tune was wholly by him devised to the rest as also the note of the melody Orthien and the song named Orthius by the Trochaeus for sounding the al' arme and to encourage unto battell And if it be true as Pindarus saith Terpander was the inventour of those songs called Scolia which were sung at feasts Archilochus also adjoined those rhymes or Iambicke measures called Trimetra the translation also and change into other number and measures of a different kinde yea and the maner how to touch and strike them Moreover unto him as first inventour are attributed the Epodes Tetrameter Iambicks Procritique and Prosodiacks as also the augmentation of the first yea and as some thinke the Elegie it selfe over and besides the intension of Iambus unto Paean Epibatos of the Herous augmented both unto the Prosodiaque also the Creticke Furthermore that of Iambique notes some be pronounced according to the stroke others sung out Archilochus was the man by report who shewed all this first and afterwards tragicall Poets used the same likewise it is said that Crexus receiving it from him transported it to be used at the Bacchanall songs called Dithyrambs And he was the first also by their saying who devised the stroake after the song for that beforetime they used to sing and strike the strings together Likewise unto Polymnestus is ascribed all that kinde of note or tune which now is called Hypolydius and of him they say that he first made the drawing out of the note longer and the dissolution and ejection thereof much greater than before Moreover that Olympus upon whom is fathered the invention of the Greeke musicke that is tied to lawes and rules was hee who first brought by their saying all the kinde of harmonie and of rhymes or measures the Prosodiaque wherein is conteined the tune and song of Mars also the Chorios whereof there is great use in the solemnities of the great mother of the gods yea and some there be who make Olympus the authour also of the measure Bacchius And thus much concerning every one of the ancient tunes and songs But Lasus the harmonian having transferred the rhymes into the order of Dithyrambs and followed the multiplicitie in voice of hautboies in using many sounds and those diffused and dispersed to and fro brought a great change into Musicke which never was before Semblably Melanippides who came after him conteined not himselfe in that maner of Musicke which then was in use no more than Philoxenus did Timotheus for he whereas beforetime unto the daies of Terpander the Antissaean the harpe had but seven strings distinguished it into many more sounds and strings yea and the sound of the pipe or hautboies being simple and plaine before was changed into a Musicke of more distinct varietie For in olde time unto the daies of Melanippides a Dithyrambicke Poet the plaiers of the
mother 338.10 Morall vertue what it is 64.30 Morows after Kalends Nones and Ides dismall daies 858.20 Motes in the Sunne 770.40 Mothers love their sonnes better than their daughters 321. 50. they ought to suckle their owne babes 4.30 how tender they be over their infants 220.50.221.1.10 Moüth a name of Isis what it signifieth 1310.20 Motion what it is 815.40 of Motion sixe sorts 831.40 to Mourne for the dead what nations be addicted most 523.10 Mucius Scaevola his valorous resolution 907.1 Mucius or Mutius Scaevola 629 30 Mulbery tree not cut downe at Athens 749.30 Mules why barren 844.20 a Mules craft detected by Thales 964.40 a Mule rewarded at Athens 963.20 a Mullet hard to be caught 971.20 Mulius 634.20 Multitude not to be flattered and pleased 7.20 Mummius mooved to pittie with the verses cited by a yoong lad 787.20 Murderers of the Poet Ibycus revealed by their owne wordes 201.50 Musaea what houses 141.50 Muses why called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how they be severally emploied 799.10.20.30 Muses three named Hypate Mese and Nete 796.40 Muses why nine 796.20 Muses at first but three 796.30 why they be many 796.20.30 Muses named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 795.50 Mushromes of Italy 613.40 Mushromes whether they breed by thunder 704.1 Musicall discourses rejected by Epicurus 591.30 Musicke how to be emploied 1249.1 Musicke ariseth from three causes 654.20 Musicke used in warre among the Lacedaemonians 477.1 Musicke or melody of three kinds 796.40 Musicke Phrygian 1251.20 Musicke Dorian 1251.20 Musicke Lydian 1251.20 Musicke sorteth well with martiall knights 1274.50 Musicke why used at feasts 1263.10 Musicke necessary in the managing of the state 1262.20 the effects of Musicke in a common wealth 1262.30 lawes of Musicke not to broken 1261.1 Musicall notes Mese Hypate and Nete answerable to the three faculties of mans soule 1025.10 Musicke doth inebriate more than wine 750.50 Musicks complaint to Justice 1257 40 Musicians ditties of what matter they are to be made 25.20 Musicke plaine commended in Lacedaemon 477.10 Musicke Chromaticke 592.30 Musicke harmonicall 592.30 Musicke highly regarded in olde time 1256.30 Musike commended 263.10 the use of Musicke in warre 1256.30 Musicke fitter for merry 〈◊〉 than for sorrow and sadnesse 758.10 the use of Musicke 1261.40 Must or new wine doth not soone inebriate or make drunke 693. 30. how it continueth sweet long 1012.20 Mutabilitie of this life 511.1 Mycale the blinde mouse deified by the Aegyptians 710.40 Myconos what it is 646.30 Mymactes an attribute to God 125.20 Myrtia Venus 857.1 Myrionimus an attribute of Isis. 1309.1 Myro her piteous death 495.10 Myronides his apophthegme 418 40 Myrrhe burnt in perfume by the Aegyptians at noone 1318.50 Myrrhina a sumptuous strumpet 936.40 Myrtle why not used in the chappel of the goddesse Bona. 856.50 consecrated to Venus ib. why it is alwaies greene 686.30 Myson his apophthegme to Chilon 878.50 N NAmes among the Romanes men have three women twaine 884.30 Fore-names when given to the Romanes children 884.10 Fore-Names how they be written 884.40 Names of gods how to be taken in Poets 29.50 Names of vertues attributed to vices the overthrow of states 93.40 Namertes his apophthegme 467.10 Naphtha about Babylon 723.50 Narcislus why the daffodille is so called 683.50 Narrations historicall resemble pictures 983.50 Native country which is properly called 272.20 Nature what it is 817.30.805.1 1114.1115 Nature why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1101.1 Naturall heat how it is excited 611.40 Naturall is finite Vnnaturall infinite 782.10 Naturall Philosophy wherein it consisteth 804.40 Naturall things 805.1 Nature contented with a little 1179.40 Nature of what power for attaining to vertue 3.1 Nauplius assisted by the Chalcidians 898.1 Nausicaa in Homer how to be praised or blamed 35.20 Nausicaa by Homer compared to a date tree 772.10 Nausicaa in Homer washing her clothes 658.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 738.40 Neaera the wife of Hypsicreon enamoured of Promedon 496 20 Necessitas non habet legem 400.40 Necessity 797.50.1033.10 Of Necessity what is the essence 816.30 Necessary defined 1051.20 Necessity what it is 816.20 Nectar 338.10.1177.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Homer 791.40 Negligence corrupteth the goodnesse of nature 3.20 good Neighbours a great treasure 418.20 Nemanous what it sgnifieth 1293.40 Nemertes what Daemon 157.40 Nemesis what it is 768.1 Nepenthes 644.10 Nephalia 712. 50. what sacrifices 621.50 Nephthe or Nepthis borne 1292. 20. what other names she hath ib. Neptune Equestris 867.20 Neptune why pourtraied with a three forked mace 1317.20 Neptune surnamed Phytalmios 717.20.780.1 surnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 10 Neptune and Jupiter compared together 42.1 Neptune many times vanquished 792.1.10 Nero abused and corrupted by flatterers 93.50 his soule tormented in hell 560. 50. he hardly escaped murdering 196.20 Nessus the Centaure 870.40 Nestis the water 808.1 Nestor feedeth the ambitious humour of Vlisses 663.1 Nestor and Calchas compared together 38.30 Nestor milde in rebuking 398.1 why esteemed above Laertes or Peleus 389.20 Nete 796.40 how it is derived 1025.20 Nets why they rotte more in winter than in summer 1007.50 Newes forbidden to be harkened after in the city Locri. 139.1 Nicander his apophthegme 467.20 Nicanor wonne by the liberality of K. Philip. 408.50 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say victory whereof it is derived 772.1 Nicias the captaine by his superstition overthrowen 265.10 Nicias the painter how much addicted to his worke 387.1 589.30 Nicocles K. of Cyprus his liberality to Isocrates 924.30 Nicocrates his tyranny 498.10 murdered by Daphnis 499.30 Nicolai certeine dates why so called 772.20 Nicolaus a peripateticke Philosopher ib. Nicomedes K. of Bithynia made himselfe vassall to the Romans 1276.40 Nicostratus his apophthegme 425.20 a concurrent of Phaulius and detectour of his bawdry 1144.30 Nicturus a starre the same that Phaenon or Saturne 1180.40 Nicostrata the daughter of Phoedus 948.10 Niger the great Rhetorician died with overstraining his voice 620.10 Night meet for the sports of Venus 692. 10. more resonant than the day 770.10 Night what it is 1000.1 Night and eclipse of the sunne compared 1171.20.30 Nightingales teach their yong ones to sing 966.50 Niloxenus 327.1 Nilus water is thought to pinguify and make corpulent 1289.30 Nilus water why drawen in the night by sailers for their drinke 774.10 Nilus inundation whereof it is caused 833. 10. the height of the rising thereof 1304.40 Nine a number resembling the male 884. 20. the first square triangle number 884.30 Niobe over-sorrowful for the losse of her children 526. 40. her children slaine by Latona 266.50 The Lady Niobes daughters killed 1145.10 Nisus built the city Nisaea 893.20 Nobility of what esteeme 6.40 Nobility of birth alone not commended 46.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what they be 953.1 A Noise from without sooner heard within than contrariwise 769.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why lawes be so called 680.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in musicke of sundry sorts Nonae Capratinae 632.30 Nones 858.1 After Noone Romans made no league nor treaty of peace
faint and weake which is not brought to great strength and perfection in the end by continual travell and ordinary exercises Are there any horses in the world which if they be well handled and broken while they are colts will not proove gentle in the end and suffer themselves easily to be mounted and manned Contrariwise let them remaine untamed in their youth strong-headed stiffenecked and unruly will they be alwaies after and never fit for service And why should we marvell at these and such like matters considering that many of the most savage and cruell beasts that be are made gentle and familiar yea and brought to hand by labour and paines taken about them Well said therefore that Thessalian whosoever he was who being demaunded which Thessalians of all others were most dull and softest of spirit Answered thus Even they that have given over warfare But what need we to stand longet upon this point For certaine it is that out manners and conditions are qualities imprinted in us by tract and continuance of time and whosoever saith that Morall vertues are gotten by custome in my conceit speaketh not amisse but to very great purpose And therefore with one example and no more produced by Lycurgus as touching this matter I will knit up and conclude my discourse thereof Lycurgus him I meane who established the lawes of the Lacedaemonians tooke two whelpes of one licter and comming both from the same sire and damme Those he caused to be nourished and brought up diversly and unlike one to the other that as the one prooved a greedie and ravenous curre and full of shrewd turnes so the other was given to hunting and minded nothing but to quest and follow the game Now upon a certaine day afterwards when the Lacedaemonians were met together in a frequent assembly he spake unto them in this manner My Masters citizens of Lacedaemon Of what importance to engender vertue in the hart of man custome nourture discipline and education is I will presently shew unto you by an evident demonstration and with that he brought foorth in the sight of them all those two whelpes and set directly before them a great platter of sops in broth and therewith let loose also a live hare but behold one of them followed immediately after the hare but the other ranne straight to slap in the platter aforesaid The Lacedaemonians wist not what to make of this nor to what purpose he shewed unto them these two dogs before said untill he brake out into this speech These two dogs quoth he had one damme and 〈◊〉 same sire but being bred and brought up diversly See how the one is become a greedy gut and the other a kinde hound And thus much may serve as touching custome and diversitie of education It were meete now in the next place to treat of the feeding and nourishing of infants newly borne I hold it therefore convenient that mothers reare their babes and suckle them with their owne breasts For feede them they will with greater affection with more care and diligence as loving them inwardly and as the proverbe saith from their tender nailes whereas milch nources and fostermothers carie not so kinde a hart unto their nourcelings but rather a fained and counterfet affection as being mercenarie and loving them indeed for hire onely and reward Furthermore even nature her selfe is sufficient to proove that mothers ought to suckle and nourish those whom they have borne and brought into the world For to this end hath she given to every living creature that bringeth foorth yoong the foode of milke and in great wisedome the divine providence hath furnished a woman with two teats for this purpose that if happily she should be delivered of two twinnes at once she might have likewise two fountaines of milke to yeeld nourishment for them both Moreover by this meanes more kinde and loving they will be unto their children and verily not without great reason For this fellowship in feeding together is a bond that knitteth or rather a wrest that straineth and stretcheth benevolence to the utmost The experience whereof we may see even in the very brute and wilde beasts which hardly are parted from their companie with whom they have beene nourished but still they lowe and mowe after them Mothers therefore as I have said ought especially to endevour and do their best for to be nources of their owne children if it be possible But in case they cannot by reason either of some bodily infirmitie and indisposition that way for so it may fall out or that they have a desire and do make hast to be with childe againe and to have more children then a carefull eie and good regard would be had not to entertaine those for nources and governesses that come next to hand but to make choise of the very best and most honest that they can come by and namely for faire conditions and good behavior to choose Greekish women before any other For like as the members and limmes of little infants so soone as ever they be borne are of nccessitie to be formed and fashioned that afterwards they may grow straight and not crooked even so at the very first their harts and manners ought to be framed and set in order For this first age of childhood is moist and soft apt to receive any impression whiles the heart is tender every lesson may be soone instilled into it and quickly will take hold whereas hard things are not so easie to be wrought and made soft And as signets or seales will quickly set a print upon soft wax so the tender hearts of yoong children take readily the impression of whatsoever is taught them In which regard Plato that heavenly and divine Philosopher seemeth unto me to have given a wise admonition for nources when he warned them not to tell foolish tales nor to use vaine speeches inconsiderately in the hearing of yoong infants for feare least at the first their minds might apprehend folly and conceive corrupt opinions Semblably the Poët Phocylides seemeth to deliver sage counsaile in this behalfe when he saith A child of yoong and tender age Ought to be taught things good and sage Neither is this precept in any wise to be forgotten or passed by That other children also who are either to attend upon them whiles they be nourced and brought up or to beare them companie and be fedde together with them be chosen such as above all things are well mannered and of good conditions Then that they speake the Greeke toong naturally and pronounce the same most plainely and distinctly for feare least if they sort with such feeres as either in language are barbarous or in behaviour leawd and ungratious they catch infection from them and be stained with their vices For such old sawes and proverbes as these are not so rise without good reason If thou converse and cohebite with a lame creaple thou wilt soone learne to limpe and halt thy selfe Now when
bare Their squadron thicke and battell square Likewise If die we must most glorious is death For vertue when we spend our vitall breath presently ought to conceive thus much That all is spoken of the best most excellent and divinest habitude in us which we understand to be the verie rectitude and rule of reason and judgement the heighth and perfection of our reasonable humaine nature yea and the disposition of the soule accordant with it selfe But when he readeth againe these other verses there Vertue in men Iove causeth for to grow And fade by him it doth both ebbe and flow As also Where worldly wealth and riches are Vertue and fame follow not farre let him not by set him downe and by occasion of these words have the rich in woonderfull great admiration as if they could anon buy vertue for money and with their wealth have it at command let him not thinke I say that it lieth in the power of Fortune either to augment or to diminish vertue but rather deeme thus and make this construction that the Poet under the name Vertue signifieth Worship Authoritie Power Prosperitie or some such matter For so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes taken by them in the native and proper signification for a naughtie and wicked disposition of the minde as when Hesiodus writeth thus Of wickednesse a man may evermore Have foison great and plenteous store But otherwile it is used for some other evill calamitie or infortunitie as by Homer Men quickly age and waxen olde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with hunger and cold c. And much were he deceived who should perswade himselfe that Poets take beatitude and blessednesse which in Greeke is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so precisely as Philosophers doe who understand thereby an absolute habitude and entire possession of all good things or rather an accomplished perfection of this life holding on a prosperous course according to nature for many times Poets abuse this word calling a man blessed and happie who is rich in world goods and giving the terme of felicitie and happinesse unto great power fame and renowme As for Homer he useth verily these termes aright and properly in this verse Although much wealth I do holde and enjoy Yet in my heart I take no blessed joy So doth Menander when he writeth thus Of goods I have and money great store And all men call me rich therefore But yet how rich soever I seeme Happie and blest none doth me deeme Euripides maketh great disorder and confusion when he writeth in this sort I would not have that blessed life Wherein I finde much paine and griefe Also in another place Why do'st thou honor tyranny Happie injustice and vtllany unlesse a man as I said before take these termes as spoken metaphorically or by the figure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. the abusion of them otherwise than in their proper sense And thus much may serve as touching this point Now for this that remaineth behind yoong men would be put in remembrance and admonished not once but oftentimes that Poesie having for her proper subject an argument to be expressed by imitation howsoever she useth the ornaments beautifull furniture of sigurative speeches in setting out and describing those matters and actions which are presented unto her yet neverthelesse she doth not forgo the resemblance and likelihood of truth For that imitation indeed delighteth the Reader so long onely as it carieth some shew of probabilitie And therefore that imitation which seemeth not altogether to square and depart from the rule of veritie doth expresse the signes of vertues and vices both at once entermingled one with another in actions Such is the Poeme and composition written by Homer which resteth not in the strange opinions and paradoxes of the Stoicks who holde That neither any evill at all can sort with vertue ne yet one jot of goodnesse with vice but he hath bidden farewell to such precise positions namely That a foolish and lewd person in all his actions when and wheresoever doth offend and sinne and semblably the wise and vertuous man at all times and in all places can not chuse but do every thing well These are the principles which the Stoicks schooles refound withall Howbeit in the affaires of this world and in our dayly life and conversation as Euripdes saith It cannot be in everie point That good and bad should be disjoint But in all actions we dayly see One with another medled will be But the Art of Poetrie setting apart the truth in deede useth most of all varietie and sundry formes of phrases For the divers imitations are they that give to fables that vertue to moove affections passions in the readers these are they that worke strange events in them even contrarie to their opinion and expectation upon which ensueth the greatest woonder and astonishment wherein lieth the chiefe grace and from whence proceedeth the most delight and pleasure whereas contrariwise that which is simple and uniforme is not patheticall nor hath in it any fiction Heereupon it is that Poets bring not in the same persons alwaies winners alwaies happy and doing wel and that which more is when they feigne that the gods themselves meddle in mens affaires they describe them not without their passions nor yet exempt from errors faults for feare lest that part of their Poesie which stirreth up the affection holdeth in suspense and admiration the mindes of men should become idle and dull for want of some danger and adversarie as it were to excite and quicken it which being so let us bring a yoong man to the reading of Poets works not fore-stalled and possessed before with such an opinion as touching those great and magnificall names of ancient worthies as if they had beene wise and just men or vertuous Princes in the highest degree of perfection and as a man would saie the very Canon rule and paterne of all vertue uprightnes and integritie Otherwise he should receive great damage thereby in case I say he were of this minde to approove and have in admiration all that they did or said as singular and to be offended at nothing that he heareth from them neither would he allow of him who blameth and findeth fault with them when they either do or say such things as these O father Iove ô Phoebus bright ô Pallas maiden pure That you would all bring this about and make us twaine secure That not one Trojane might escape nor Greeke remaine aliue But we two knights That we I say and none but we belive May win the honor of this warre and onely reape the joy Of victory to race the wals and stately towres of Troy Also I heard the voice most piteous of Pryams daughter bright Cassandra faire a virgin chaste whom me for to despight My wife dame Clytemnestra slew by cruell treacherie Because of us she jelous was for sinne of lecherie Likewise With concubine of Father mine she
that authour is of such are all one in effect with the opinions and discourses of Plato in his dialogue Gorgias and in his books of Common weale to wit that more dangerous it is to doe wrong that to suffer injurie and more damage commeth by giving than by receiving an abuse Also to this verse of Aeschylus Be of good cheere Excessive paine Can not endure nor long remaine When wofull bale is at the highest Then blessed boot be sure is nighest we must say that they be the very same with that divulged sentence so often repeated by Epicurus and so highly admired by his followers namely That as great paines are not durable so long griefs are tolerable And as the former member of this sentence was evidently expressed by Acschylus so the other is a consequent thereof and implied therein For if a griefe that is fore and vehement endureth not surely that which continueth can not be violent or intolerable Semblably this sentence of Thespis the Poet in verse Thou seest how Iove all other gods for this doth farre excell Because that lies he doth abhorre and pride of heart expell He is not wont to laugh and scorne to frumpe he doth disdaine He onely can not skill of lusts and pleasures which be vaine is varied by Plato in prose when he saith that the divine power is seated farre from pleasure and paine As for these verses of Barchylides We holde it true and ever will maintaine That glory sound and vertue doth endure Great wealth and store we take to be but vaine And may befall to vile men and impure As also these of Euripides to the like sense Sage temperance I holde we ought to honour most in heart For with good men it doth remaine and never will depart As also these When honour and worldly wealth you have To furnish your selves with vertue take care Without her if riches you get and save Though blessed you seeme unhappy you are Containe they not an evident proofe and demonstration of that which the Philosophers teach as touching riches and externall goods which without vertue profit not those at all who are possessed of them And verily thus to reduce and fitly to accommodate the sentences of Poets unto the precepts and principles delivered by Philosophers will soone dissever Poetrie from fables and plucke from it the masque wherewith it is disguised it will give I say unto them an esfectuall power that being profitably spoken they may be thought serious and perswasive yea and besides will make an overture and way unto the minde of a yoong ladde that it may encline the rather to Philosophicall reasons and discourses namely when he having gotten some smatch and taste alreadie thereof and being not voide altogether of hearing good things he shall not come altogether without judgement replenished onely with foolish conceits and opinions which he hath evermore heard from his mothers and nurses mouth yea and otherwhiles beleeve me from his father tutour and schoole-master who will not sticke in his hearing to repute for blessed and happie yea and with great reverence to give the worship to those who are rich but as for death paine and labour to stand in feare and horror thereof and contrariwise to make no reckoning and account of vertue but to despise the same and thinke it as good as nothing without earthly riches and authoritie Certes when yoong men shal come thus rawly and untrained to heare the divisions reasons arguments of Philosophers flat contrary to such opinions they will at first be much astonied troubled disquieted in their minds and no more able to admit of the same and to reduce such doctrine than they who having a long time bene pent in and kept in darke can abide the glittering raies of the Sun shine unlesse they were acquainted before by little little with some false and bastard light not altogether so lively and cleere as it And even so I say yoong men must be accustomed beforehand yea and from the very first day to the light of the trueth entermingled somewhat with fables among that they may the better endure the full light and sight of the cleere trueth without any paine and offence at all For when they have either heard or read before in Poemes these sentences Lament we ought for infants at their birth Entring a world of eares that they shall have Whereas the dead we should with joy and mirth Accompanie and bring them so to grave Also Of worldly thing we need no more but twaine For bread to eat the earth doth yeeld us graine And for to quench our thirst the river cleere Affords us drinke the water faire and sheere Likewise O tyrannie so lov'd and in request With barbarous but hatefull to therest Lastly The highest pitchos mans felicitie To feele the least part of adversitie Lesse troubled they are grieved in spirit when they shall heare in the Philosophers schooles That we are to make no account of death as a thing touching us That the Riches of nature are definite limited That felicitie and soveraigne happines of man lieth not in great summes of money ne yet in the pride of managing State affaires nor in dignities and great authority but in a quiet life free from paine and sorrow in moderating all passions and in a disposition of the minde kept within the compasse of Nature To conclude in regard hereof as also for other reasons before alleaged A yoong man had neede to be well guided and directed in reading of Poets to the end that he may be sent to the studie of Philosophie not forestalled with sinister surmises but rather sufficiently instructed before and prepared yea and made friendly and familiar thereto by the meanes of Poetrie OF HEARING The Summarie BY good right this present discourse was ranged next unto the former twaine For seeing we are not borne into this world learned but before we can speake our selves sensibly or any thing to reason we ought to have heard men who are able to deliver their minds with judgement to the ende that by thier aide and helpe we may be better framed and fitted to the way of vertue requisite it is that after the imbibition of good nourture in childhood and some libertie and license given to travelin the the writings of Poets according to the rules above declared Yoong men that are students should advance forward and mount up into higher schooles Now for that in the time when this Author Plutarch lived be sides many good bookes there were a great number of professours in the liberall sciences and namely in those rites into which Barbarisme crept afterwards he proposeth and setteth downe those precepts now which they are to follow and observe that goe to heare publike lectures orations and disputations thereby to know how to behave themselves there which traning haply may reach to al that which we shal heare spoken elsewhere and is materiall to make us more learned and better mannered
In the first place therefore he sheweth that at what time as we grow to yeeres of discretion we should have a feeling of our ignorance to the ende that we may be desirous to learne and after wards heare willingly For to encrease our affection he toucheth those dangers into which they fall who will needs be teachers before they be taught themselves adjoyning hereto those vices and inconveniences which a yoong man is to take heed of in hearing and above all others to beware of envie as also on the other side what he ought to studie Now for that imposible it is that teachers should be perfect and fully accomplished in all things he proceedeth to declare with what minde and spirit we should take knowledge and consider of their imperfections giving withall an advertisement how to avoide another extremitie to wit an excessive admiration of him that speaketh namely to leave the principall substance of doctrine the which will be so much more accepted in case it be commended and adorned with eloquence He commeth afterwards to treat of those problemes and questions which may be propounded in companies and meetings also of the pleasure that we ought to take when we are told the truth in such sort that as we are not to envy them for their excellencie who speake any thing to raise and set us aloft so on the contrary side we ought to carie with us thither a spirit favourable gracious well prepared hating slatterie loving reprehensions patient voide of that rusticall bashfulnes which we see in over blunt and dull natures neither presumptuous nor yet discouraged but keeping a good measure and meane betweene vatne curiositie and that supine sloth and idlenes which is in the most part of those that he hearers To conclude he would have him that hath diligently heard a certaine time and with discretion to exercise him selfe in devising and inventing some thing of his owne in such sort that he may put the same foorth so as the outward part may discover well what goodnes there lyeth inclosed within OF HEARING THis little treatise my friend Nicander which being gathered and compiled by starts as my leysure would serve As touching the maner of Hearing I lately put in writing and send here unto you To the end that you being delivered now from the subjection of Maisters who were woont to command you and having put on your virile robe and growen to mans estate may knowhow to heare him that giveth you good counsell For this licentious easement and deliverie from all government which some yoong men for desault of good nourture and education do untruely terme Libertie fetteth over them more rough Lords and harder Masters by farre than were those teachers tutors and governours under whom they were awed in their childhood to wit their owne irregular lusts and unordinate appetites which now be as it were dischained let loose For like as a woman to use the words of Herodot us no sooner doth of her smocke or inner vesture but therewithall she casteth off all shamefastnes and modestie even so some yoong men there be who together with the garments of infancie and childhood lay by all grace shame and feare so that being once divested of that habit and apparell which became them so well and gave them a modest and sober countenance they are straightwaies full of stubbornesse and disobedience As for your selfe who have oftentimes heard that To follow God and to obey Reason is all one you ought to thinke that the wiser sort and such as have wit indeed repute not the passage and change from chidhood to mans estate an absolute deliverance and freedome from commandement and subjection but an exchange onely of the commander for that their life in steed either of a mercenarie hireling or some master bought with a peece of money who was woont to governe it in their nonage and minoritie taketh then a divine and heavenly guide to conduct it even Reason unto which they that yeeld themselves obeisant are to be reputed onely free and at libertie For they alone live as they would who have learned to will that which they should whereas if our actions and affections both be disordinate and not ruled by reason the libertie of our free-will is small slender and feeble yea and intermingled for the most part with much repentance Like as therefore among new Burgovises who lately are enrolled Free-Denisens to enjoy the Franchises and priviledges of some citie they that were meere aliens before and strangers new come from far and remote parts finde themselves grieved at the first with many things that are done yea and complaine thereof but such as had beene inhabitants there sometime before they were made citizens who partly by education were inured and partly by custome and conversing familiarly acquainted with the lawes and customes of the place never thinke much but can brooke well ynough and undergo with patience all charges and impositions laid upon them So it behooveth that a yoong man should along time have beene bred up and as it were halfe noursed in Philosophie accustomed I say he ought to have beene from the begining with intermingling all that he learneth or heareth in his tender yeeres with Philosophicall reasons that being thus made tractable gentle and familiar before hand he might now betake himselfe wholy and in good earnest to Philosophie which alone is able to array and adorne yoong men with those robes and ornaments of reason which are manlike indeed and everie way perfect Moreover I suppose you will be well pleased and content to give eare unto that which Theophrastus hath written of hearing which of all the five senses given us by nature presenteth both the most and also the greatest passions unto the minde For there is no object of the eye nothing that we taste or touch that causeth such exstasies so violent troubles or sudden frights as those which enter and pearce into the soule by the meanes of some noises sounds and voices incident to our hearing And albeit this sense lie thus open and exposed to passions yet is it more fit to admit reason than such affections for many places there be and parts of the bodie that make way and give entrance unto vices for to passe unto the soule but the only handle as I may so say wherewith vertue may take holde of yong men are their eares provided alwaies that they were kept cleane and near at the first from all flatterie and defended against corrupt and leawd speeches that they touch them not Good reason therefore had Xenocrates to give order that children should have certaine aurielets or bolsters devised to hang about their eares for their defence rather than sencers and sword-plaiers for that these are in danger onely to have their eares spoiled with knocks or cuts by weapons but the other to have their maners corrupted and marred with naughtie speeches Neither was it any part of Xenocrates his meaning to deprive them altogether
of hearing and to commend deafenesse but to admonish and exhort them so long to forbeare the hearing of evill words and to take heed untill other good sayings enterteined and nourished there in long continuance of time by Philosophie had seized the place and were well setled in that part which is most easie to be mooved and perswaded by speech where being once lodged they might as good sentinels and guards preserve and defend the same Bias verily that auncient Sage being commanded by king Amasis to send ento him the best and woorst piece of a beast killed for sacrifice plucked foorth the tongue onely and sent it him giving him thus much thereby to understand That speech is the cause both of most good and also of greatest harme Many there be also who ordinarily when they kisse little children both touch their eares withall and also bid them do the like insinuating thus much covertly by way of mirth and sport That they are to love those who profit them and doe them good by their eares For this is certeine and evident that a yoong man deprived and debarred of hearing being able to taste and conceive reason will not onely become barren altogether of fruit and put out not so much as any buds and flowers at all which may give some hope of vertue but also contrariwise will soone turne to vice and send foorth of his corrupt minde many wilde and savage shoots like as a ground neglected and untilled beareth nothing but briers brambles and hurtfull weeds For the motions and inclinations unto pleasures and the sinister conceits and suspitions of paines and travels which are no strangers to us iwis entring in directly from without foorth by themselves or els let in by evill suggestions but inbred with us and the naturall sources of infinite vices and maladies if a man suffer to run on end with the raines at large whither by nature they would go and not cut them off by sage remonstrances or divert them another way and thereby reforme the default of nature surely there were not upon the face of the earth any wilde beast but would be more tame and gentle than man Forasmuch as therefore the sence of hearing bringeth unto yoong men so great profit and no lesse perill with it I suppose it were well done if a man would eftsoones both devise with himselfe and also discourse with others as touching the order and maner of hearing Forasmuch as we doe see most men in this point to offend and erre in that they exercise themselves in speaking before they were used to heare supposing that good speech requireth akinde of discipline meditation and practise ere it be learned as for hearing though men use it without any art it makes no matter how yet they may receive profit thereby as they thinke And verily albeit at Tennis play they that practise the feat thereof learne to take the ball as it commeth and also to strike and send it from them againe both at once Yet in the use of speech it is otherwise for to receive it well goeth before the utterance and deliverie thereof like as conception and retention of the seed doeth praeceed birth of the infant It is said That the egges laid by fowles called Wind-egges as they proceed of imperfect and false conceptions so they are the rudiments and beginnings of such fruits as never will quicken and have life even so The speeches that yoong men let fall such I meane as never knew how to heare nor were wont to receive profit by hearing are nothing els indeed but very winde and as the Poet saith Words vaine obscure and foolish every one Which under clouds soone vanish and be gone Certes if they would powre out any liquor out of one vessell into another they are wont to encline and turne downe the mouth of the one so as the said liquor may passe into the receptorie without shedding any part thereof least in stead of an infusion indeed there be an effusion onely and spilling of the same and yet thesemen cannot learne to be attentive and give good care unto others so as nothing do escape them which is well and profitably delivered But here is the greatest folly and most ridiculous that if they meet with one who can relate the order of a feast or great dinner discourse from point to point of a solemne shew or pompe tella tale of some dreame or make report of a quarrell and brablement betweene him and another they harken with great silence bid him say on and will not misse every circumstance Let another man draw them apart to teach them some good and profitable lesson to exhort them to their dutie to admonish and tell them of a fault to reproove them wherein they did amisse or to appease their moode when they be in choler they can not abide and indure him for either the will set in hand to argue and refute him by arguments contending and contesting against that which hath beene said if they be able so to doe or if they finde themselves too weake they slinke away and run thither where they may heare some other vaine and foolish discourses desirous to fill their eares like naughtie and rotten vessels with any thing rather then that which is good and necessarie They that would keepe and order horses well teach them to have a good mouth to reine light and to obey the bit even so they that bring up children as they ought make them obsequent and obeisant to reason by teaching them to heare much and speake little For Spintharus praising Epaminondas upon a time gave out thus much of him That he could hardly meet with another man who knew more than hee and spake lesse And it is commonly said that nature herselfe hath given to each us but one tongue and two eares because we ought to heare more than we speake Now as Silence and Taciturnitie is everie where and at all times a singular and sure ornament of a yoong man so especially if when hee heareth another man to speake he interrupt and trouble him not nor baie and barke as it were at every worde but although he do not very well like of his speech yet hath patience and forbeareth giving him leave to make an end and when he hath finished his speech setteth not upon him presently nor beginneth out of hand to confute him but suffereth him to pause a while and as Aeschines saith giveth him some time to breath and bethinke himselfe to see if haply he thinke it good to adde any more to that which hath beene delivered already or change somewhat or els retract and unsay something Whereas they that by and by cut a man off with contradictions and neither heare nor are well heard themselves but are ever replying upon other whiles they speake observe no decorum nor grace at all but shew a very undecent and unseemely behavior But he that is accustomed to heare patiently and with a modest and
and also reputed Morall and namely wherein it differeth especially from vertue contemplative as having for the subject matter thereof the passions of the minde and for the forme Reason Likewise of what nature and substance it is as also how it doth subsist and hath the Being to wit whether that part of the soule which is capable of the said vertue be endued and adourned with reason as appropriate and peculiar unto it or whether it borrow it from other parts so receiving it be like unto things mingled and adhering to the better or rather for that being under the government and rule of another it be said to participate the power and puissance of that which commendeth it For that vertue also may subsist and have an essentiall being without any subject matter and mixture at all I suppose it is very evident and apparent But first and formost I hold it very expedient briefly to run through the opinions of other Philosophers not so much by way of an Historical narration and so an end as that when they be once shewed and laid abroad our opinion may both appeere more plainly and also be held more surely Menedemus then who was borne in the citie Eretria abolished all pluralitie and difference of vertues supposing that there was but one onely vertue and the same knowen by sundry names For he said that it was but one and the same thing which men called Temperance Fortitude and Iustice like as if one should say A Reasonable creature and a man he meaneth the selfe same thing As for Ariston the Chian he was of opinion likewise that in substance there was no more but one vertue the which he termed by the name of Health mary in some divers respects there were many vertues and those different one from another as namely for example if a man should call our eie-sight when it beholdeth white things Leucothea when it seeth black Melanthie and so likewise in other matters For vertue quoth he which concerneth and considereth what we ought either to do or not to do beareth the name of Prudence when it ruleth and ordereth our lust or concupiscence limiting out a certaine measure and lawfull proportion of time unto pleasures it is called Temperance if it intermedle with the commerce contracts and negotiation betweene man and man then it is named Iustice like as to make it more plaine a knife is the same still although it cut now one thing and then another and the fire notwithstanding it worketh upon sundry matters yet it remameth alwaies of one and the same nature It seemeth also that Zeno the Citiean inclined in some sort to this opinion who in 〈◊〉 Prudence saith that when it doth distribute to every man his owne it ought to be called Iustice when it is occupied in objects either to be chosen or avoided then it is Temperance and in bearing or suffring it should be named Fortitude Now they that defend and mainteine this opinion of Zeno affirme that by Prudence he understandeth Science or Knowledge But Chrysyppus who was of this minde that ech vertue had a peculiar qualitie and according to it ought to be defined and set downe wist not how ere he was aware he brought into Philosophie and as Plato saith raised a swarme of vertues never knowne before and wherewith the schooles had not beene acquainted For like as of Valiant he derived Valour of Iust Iustice of Clement Clemencie so also of Gracious he comes in with Gratiositie of Good Goodnes of Great Greatnesse of Honest Honestie and all other such like Dexterities asfabilities and courtesies he termed by the name of vertues and so pestered Philosophie with new strange and absurd words more iwis than was needfull Now these Philosophers agree jointly all in this that they set downe vertue to be a certeine disposition and power of the principall part of the soule acquired by reason or rather that it is reason it selfe and this they suppose as a truth consessed certeine firme and irrefragable They hold also that the part of the soule subject to passions sensuall brutish and unreasonable differeth not from reason by any essentiall difference or by nature but they imagine that the very part and substance of the soule which they call understanding reason and the principal part being wholy turned and changed as well in sodaine passions as alterations by habitude and disposition becommeth either vice or vertue and in it selfe hath no brutishnesse at all but is named onely unreasonable according as the motion of the appetite and lust is so powerfull that it becommeth mistresse and by that meanes she is driven and caried forcibly to some dishonest and absurd course contrary to the judgement of reason For they would have that very motion or passion it selfe to be reason howbeit depraved and naught as taking her force and strength from false and perverse judgement Howbeit all these as it may seeme were ignorant of this one point namely that ech one of us to speake truly is double and compound And as for one of these duplicities they never throughly saw that onely which is of the twaine more evident to wit the mixture or composition of the soule and body they acknowledge And yet that there is besides a certeine duplicitie in the soule it selfe which consisteth of two divers and different natures and namely that the brutish and reasonles part in maner of another bodie is combined and knit into reason by a certeine naturall linke of necessitie It seemeth that Pythagoras himselfe was not ignorant And this we may undoubtedly gather and conjecture by his great diligence which he emploied in that Musicke and Harmonie which he inferred for the dulcing taming appeasing of the soule as knowing ful wel that all the parts thereof were not obedient and subject to instruction learning and discipline ne yet such as might by reason be altered and trained from vice to vertue but required some other kinde of perswasive power cooperative with it for to frame the same and make it gentle and tractable for otherwise it would be hardly or never conquered by Philosophie and brought within the compasse of obedience so obstinate and rebellious it is And Plato verily was of this opinion which he professed openly and held as a firme and vndoubted trueth that the soule of this universall world is not simple uniforme and uncompounded but mixed as it were of a certaine power of Identitie and of Diversity For after one sort it is governed and turned about continually in an uniforme maner by meanes of one and the same order which is powerfull and praedominant over all and after another sort againe it is divided into circles sphoeres and motions wandering and contrary in maner to the other whereupon dependeth the beginning of diversitie in generation of all things in the earth Semblably quoth he the soule of man being a part and portion of that universall soule of the world composed likewise of proportions and
disperst and spred in brest To keepe the tongue then apt to barke and let it lie at rest The consideration of these things collected thus together serveth not onely to take heede alwaies unto them that are subject to yre and therewith possessed but also besides to know throughly the nature of anger how it is neither generous or manfull nor yet hath anie thing in it that savoreth of wisedome and magnanimitie Howbeit the common people interpret the turbulent nature thereof to be active and meet for action the threats and menaces thereof hardinesse and confidence the peevish and froward unrulinesse to be fortitude and strength Nay some there be who would have the crueltie in it to be a disposition and dexteritie to atchieve great matters the implacable malice thereof to be constancie and firme resolution the morositie and difficultie to be pleased to be the hatred of sinne and vice howbeit herein they do not well but are much deceived for surely the very actions motions gestures and countenance of cholerike persons do argue and bewray much basenesse and imbecilitie which we may perceive not onely in these brain-sicke fits that they fall upon little children and them pluck twitch and misuse flie upon poore seely women and thinke that they ought to punish and beat their horses hounds and mules like unto Ctesiphon that famous wrestler and professed champion who stucke not to spurne and kicke his mule but also in their tyrannicall and bloudly murders wherein their crueltie and bitternesse which declareth their pusillanimity base mind their actions which shew their passions their doing to others bewraying a suffering in themselves may be compared to the stings and bitings of those venemous serpents which be very angric exceeding dolorous and burne most themselves when they do inflict the greatest inflamation upon the patients and put them to most paine For like as swelling is a symptome or accident following upon a great wound or hurt in the flesh even so it is in the tenderest and softest minds the more they give place and yeeld unto dolor and passion the more plentie of choler and anger they utter foorth as proceeding from the greater weaknes By this you may see the reason why women ordinarily be more waspish curst and shrewd than men sicke folke more testie than those that are in health old people more waiward and froward than those that be in the floure and vigor of their yeeres and finally such as be in adversitie and upon whom fortune frowneth more prone to anger than those who prosper and have the world smiling upon them The covetous mizer and pinching peni-father is alwaies most angrie with his steward that laieth foorth his monie the glutton is ever more displeased with his cooke and cater the jealous husband quickly falleth out and brawleth with his wife the vaine-glorious foole is soonest offended with them that speake any thing amisse of him but the most bitter and intollerable of all others are ambitious persons in a citie who lay for high places and dignities such also as are the heads of a faction in a sedition which is a trouble and mischiefe as Pindarus saith conspicuous and honorable Loe how from that part of the mind which is wounded greeved suffreth most and especially upon infirmitie and weakenesse ariseth anger which passion resembleth not as one would have it the sinewes of the soule but is like rather to their stretching spreines and spasmatick convulsions when it streineth and striveth overmuch in following revenge Well the examples of evill things yeeld no pleasant sight at all onely they be necessary and profitable and for mine owne part supposing the precedents given by those who have caried themselves gently and mildly in their occasions of anger are most delectable not onely to behold but also heare I begin to contemne and despise those that say thus To man thou hast done wrong be sure At mans hand wrong for to endure Likewise Downe to the ground with him spare not his coate Spurne him and set thy foote upon his throate and other such words which serve to provoke wrath and whet choler by which some go about to remoove anger out of the nurcery and womens chamber into the hall where men do sit and keepe but heerein they do not well For prowesse and fortitude according in all other things with justice and going fellow-like with her me thinkes is at strife and debate with her about meekenesse and mildnesse onely as if she rather became her and by right apperteined unto her For otherwhiles it hath beene knowne that the woorst men have gone beyond and surmounted the better But for a man to erect a Trophee and set up a triumphall monument in his owne soule against ire with which as Heraclnus saith the conflict is hard and dangerous for what a man would have he buieth with his life it is an act of rare valour and victorious puissance as having in trueth the judgement of reason for sinewes tendons and muskles to encounter and resist passions Which is the cause that I studie and am desirous alwaies to reade and gather the sayings and doings not onely of learned clearks and Philosophers who as our Sages and wise men say have no gall in them but also and much rather of Kings Princes Tyrants and Potentates As for example such as that was of Antigonus who hearing his souldiors upon a time revile him behinde his pavilion thinking that he heard them not put forth his staffe from under the cloth unto them and said A whorson knaves could you not go a little farther off when you meant thus to raile upon us Likewise when one Arcadian an Argive or Achaean never gave over reviling of King Philip and abusing him in most reprochfull tearmes yea and to give him warning So far to flie untill he thither came Where no man knew nor heard of Philips name And afterwards the man was seene I know not how in Macedonia the friends and courtiers of king Philip were in hand with him to have him punished and that in any wise he should not let him go and escape Philip contrariwise having him once in his hands spake gently unto him used him courteously sending unto him in his lodging gifts and presents and so sent him away And after a certeine time he commanded those courtiours of purpose to enquire what words he gave out of him unto the Greekes but when everie one made report againe and testified that he was become another man and ceased not to speake woonderfull things in the praise of him Lo quoth Philip then unto them Am not I a better Physician than all you and can I not skill how to cure a foule tongued fellow Another time at the great solemnitie of the Olympian games when the Greekes abused him with verie bad language his familiar friends about him said they deserved to be sharply chastised and punished for so miscalling and reviling him who had beene so good a benefactor of
deciding and judging causes because to authority it addeth violence and insolency nor in the teaching and instruction of our children for it maketh them desperate and haters of learning nor in prosperity for it encreaseth the envy and grudge of men ne yet in adversity because it taketh away pitty and compassion when they who are fallen into any misfortune shew themselves testie froward and quarellous to those who come to moane and mourne with them This did Priamus as we reade in Homer Avant quoth he you chiding guests you odious mates be gone Have you no sorrowes of your owne but you come me to moane On the other side faire conditions and milde behaviour yeeldeth succour and helpe in some cases composeth and ordereth matters aright in others dulceth and alaieth that which is tart and sowre and in one word by reason of that kinde meeke and gentle quality it overcommeth anger and all waiward testinesse whatsoever Thus it is reported of Euclides in a quarrell or variance betweene him and his brother For when his brother had contested and said unto him I would I might die if be not revenged of thee he inferred againe Nay let me die for it if I perswade thee not otherwise before I have done by which one word he presently woon his brothers heart so that he changed his mind and they parted friends Polemon likewise at a certaine time when one who loved precious stones was sicke for faire costly rings such like curious jewels did raile at him outragiously answered not a word againe but looked very wistly upon one of the signets that the other had and well considered the fashion and workemanship thereof which when the party perceived taking as it should seeme no small contentment and being very well pleased that he so porused his jewell Not so Polemon quoth he againe but looke upon it thus betweene you and the light and then you will thinke it much more beautifull Aristippus fell out upon a time I know not how with Aeschines and was in a great choler and fit of anger How now Aristippus quoth one who heard him so high at such hot words where is your amity friendship all this while Mary asleepe quoth he but I wil waken it anon With that he stept close to Atschines and said Thinke you me so unhappy every way and incurable that I deserved not one admonishment at your hands No marvell quoth Aeschines againe if thought you who for naturall wit in all things els excel me to see better in this case also than I what is meet and expedient to be done For true it is that the Poet saith The boare so wilde whose necke with hristles strong Is thicke beset the tender hand and soft Of woman nice yea and of infant yong By stroking faire shall bend and turne full oft Much sooner farre and that with greater case Than wrestlers strong with all their force and peise And we our selves can skill how to tame wilde beasts we know how to make yoong woolves gentle yea and lions whelps other-whiles we cary about with us in our armes but see how we againe afterwards in a raging fit of choler be ready to fling from us and cast out of our sight our owne children our friends and familiars and all our houshold servants our fellow citizens and neighbours we let loose our ire like some savage and furious beast and this rage of ours we disguise and cloke forsooth with a colourable and false name calling it Hatred of vice But heerein I suppose we doe no otherwise than in the rest of our passions and diseases of the minde tearming one Providence and forecast another Liberalitie and a third Pietie and religion and yet for all these pretenses of goodly names we can not be cured of the vices which they palliate to wit Timorousnesse Prodigalitie and Superstition And verily like as our naturall seed as Zeno said is a certeine mixture and composition derived and extracted from all the powers and faculties of the soule even so in mine opinion a man may say that choler is a miscellane feed as it were and a dregge made of all the passions of the mind for plucked it is from paine pleasure and insolent violence Of envie it hath this qualitie to joy in the harmes of other men it standeth much upon murder but woorse it is simply than murder for the wrathfull person striveth and laboureth not to defend and save himselfe from taking harme but so he may mischiefe and overthrow another he careth not to come by a hurt and shrewd turne himselfe It holdeth likewise of concupiscence and lust and taketh of it the worse and more unpleasant part in case it be as it is indeed a desire and appetite to greeve vexe and harme another And therefore when we approch and come neere to the houses of luxurious and riotous persons we heare betimes in the morning a minstrel-wench sounding and playing the Morrow-watch by breake of day we see the muddy-grounds and dregs as one was wont to say of the wine to wit the vomits of those who cast up their stomacks we behold the peeces and fragments of broken garlands and chaplets and at the dore we finde the lackies and pages of them who are within drunken and heavie in the head with tipling strong wine But the signes that tell where hastie cholericke and angry persons dwell appeere in the faces of their servants in the marks and wales remaining after their whipping and in their clogs yrons and fetters about their feete For in the houses of hastie and angrie men a man shall never heare but one kind of musicke that is to say the heavie note of wailing grones and piteous plaints whiles either the stewards within are whipped and scourged or the maidens racked put to torture in such sort that you would pitie to see the dolors paines of yre which she suffreth in those things that she lusteth after taketh pleasure in And yet as many of us as happen to be truly justly surprised with choler oftentimes for the harted detestation that we have of vices ought to cut off that which is excessive therein and beyond measure together with our over-light beleefe and credulitie of reports concerning such as converse with us For this is one of the causes that most of all doth engender and augment choler when either he whom we tooke for an honest man prooveth dishonest and is detected for some naughtinesse or whom we reputed our friend is fallen into some quarrell and variance with us as for my selfe you know my nature and disposition what small occasions make me both to love men effectually and also to trust them confidently and therefore just as it falleth out with them who go over a false floore where the ground is not fast but hollow under their feete where I leane most and put my greatest trust for the love that I beare there I offend most and soonest catch
and mighty men in the little houses of meane and poore folke in Kings Courts and in the bed-chambers of new wedded wives it is inquisitive in all matters searching aswell the affaires of strangers and travellers as negotiations of Lords and Rulers and other-while not without danger of his owne person For much like as if a man upon a kinde of wanton curiositie will needs be tasting of Aconite or Libard-baine to know forsooth the quality of it commeth by a mischiefe dieth of it before he can know any thing therof so they that love to be prying into the faults of great persons many times overthrow themselves before they come to any knowledge For such as can not be content with the abundant raies and radiant beames of the Sunne which are spread so cleere over all things but will needs strive and force themselves impudently to looke full upon the circle of his body and audaciously will presume and venture to pierce his brightnesse and enter into the very minds of his inward light commonly dazzle their eies and become starke blinde And therefore well and properly answered Philippides the writer of Comedies upon a time when King Lysimachus spake thus unto him What wouldest thou have me to impart unto thee of my goods Philippides What it pleaseth your Maiesty quoth he so it be nothing of your secrets For to say a truth the most pleasant and beautifull things simply which belong to the estate of Kings do shew without and are exposed to the view and sight of every man to wit their sumptuous feasts their wealth and riches their magnificent port and and pompe in publike places their bountifull favours and liberall gifts But is there any thing secret and hidden within Take heed I advise thee how thou approch and come neere beware I say that thou do not stirre and meddle therein The joy and mirth of a Prince in prosperitie can not be concealed hee cannot laugh when he is disposed to play and be merry but it is seene neither when he mindeth and doth prepare to shew some gracious favour or to be bountifull unto any is his purpose hidden but marke what thing he keepeth close and secret the same is terrible heavie stearne unpleasant yea ministring no accesse nor cause of laughter namely the treasure house as it were of some ranckor and festered anger a deepe designe or project of revenge Jealousie of his wife some suspicion of his owne sonne or diffidence and distrust in some of his minions favorites and friends Flie from this blacke cloud that gathereth so thicke for when soever that which is now hidden shall breake foorth thou shalt see what cracks of thunder and flashes of lightning will ensue thereupon But what be the meanes to avoid it mary even as I said before to turne and to withdraw thy curiositie another way and principally to set thy minde upon matters that are more honest and delectable Advise thy selfe and consider curiously upon the creatures in heaven in earth in the aire in the sea Art thou delighted in the contemplation of great or smal things if thou take pleasure to behold the greater busie thy selfe about the Sunne seeke where he goeth downe and from whence he riseth Search into the cause of the mutations in the Moone why it should so change and alter as it doth like a man or woman what the reason is that she looseth so conspicuous a light and how it commeth to passe that she recovereth it againe How is it when she hath beene out of sight That fresh she seemes and doth appeere with light First yoong and faire whiles that she is but new Till round and full we see her lovely hew No sooner is her beautie at this height But fade she doth anon who was so bright And by degrees she doth decrease and waine Untill at length she comes to naught againe And these truly are the secrets of nature neither is she offended and displeased with those who can find them out Distrustest thou thy selfe to atteine unto these great things then search into smaller matters to wit what might the reason be that among trees and other plants some be alwaies fresh and greene why they flourish at all times and be clad in their gay clothes shewing their riches in every season of the yeere why others againe be one while like unto them in this their pride and glorie but afterward you shall have them againe like unto an ill husband in his house namely laying out all at once and spending their whole wealth and substance at one time untill they be poore naked and beggerly for it Also what is the cause that some bring foorth their fruit long-wise others cornered and others round or circular But peradventure thou hast no great mind to busie thy selfe and meddle in these matters because there is no hurt nor danger at all in them Now if there be no remedie but that Curiositie should ever apply it selfe to search into evill things after the maner of some venemous serpent which loveth to feed to live and converse in pestilent woods let us lead direct it to the reading of histories and present unto it abundance and store of all wicked acts leawd and sinfull deeds There shall Curiositie finde the ruines of men the wasting and consuming of their state the spoile of wives and other women the deceitfull traines of servants to beguile their masters the calumniations and slanderous surmises raised by friends poisoning casts envie jealousie shipwracke and overthrow of houses calamities and utter undoing of princes and great rulers Satisfie thy selfe herewith to the full and take thy pleasure therein as much as thou wilt never shalt thou trouble or grieve any of thy friends acquaintance in so doing But it should seeme that curiosity delighteth not in such naughtie things that be very old and long since done but in those which be fresh fire new hot and lately committed as joying more to beholde new Tragedies As for Comedies and matters of mirth she is not greatly desirous to be acquainted with such And therefore if a man do make report of a mariage discourse of a solemne sacrifice or of a goodly shew or pompe that was set foorth the curious busie-bodie whom we speake of will take small regard thereto and heare it but coldly and negligently He will say that the most part of all this he heard alreadie by others and bid him who relateth such narrations to passe them over or be briefe and cut off many circumstances Marie if one that sits by him chance to set tale on end and begin to tell him there was a maiden defloured or a wife abused in adulterie if he recant of some processe of law or action commenced of discord and variance betweene two brethren you shall see him then not to yawne and gape as though hee had list to sleepe you shall not perceive him to nod hee will make no excuse at all that his leisure will not
angry with himselfe and displeased that he is not at once both a savage lion of the forrest bolde and venturous of his owne strength and withall a daintie fine puppie of Malta cherished and fostered in the lappe and bosome of some delicate dame and rich widdow commend me to him for a senselesse foole of all fooles and to say a sooth I holde him also as very an asse and doltish fop who will needs bee such an one as Empedocles Plato and Democritus namely to write of the world of the nature and true essence of all things therein and withal to keepe a rich olde trot and sleepe with her every night as Euphorion did or els like unto those who kept company with Alexander the great in drinking and gaming as one Medius did and yet thinke it a great abuse and indignity forsooth if he may not be as much admired for his wealth as Ismenias and esteemed no lesse for his vertue than Epaminondas We see that the runners in a race be not discontented at all if they weare not the garlands and coronets of wrestlers but rest pleased with their owne rewards and therein delight and rejoice It is an olde said saw and a common proverbe Sparta is thy lot and Province looke well to it and adorne the same For it is a saying also of wise Solon And yet we will not change our boone With them for all their wealth and golde Goods passe from man to man full soone Ours vertue is a sure free holde Strato the naturall Philosopher when he heard that Menedemus his Concurrent had many more scholars by far than he What marvel is that quoth he if there more that desire to be washed and bathed than are willing to be anointed rubbed Aristotle writing to Antipater It is not meet quoth he that Alexander alone should thinke highly of himselfe in that he is able to command so many men but they also have good cause to be aswell conceited of themselves who have the grace to beleeve of the gods as they ought For surely they that thus can make the best use of their owne estate shall never be vexed nor at their neighbours wel-fare pine away for very envie Which of us now doeth require or thinke it fit that the vine-tree should beare figges or the olive grapes and yet we our selves if we may not have all at once to wit the superiority and preeminence among rich men among eloquent orators and learned clearks both at home and abroad in the schooles among Philosophers in the field among warriors aswell among flattering claw-backs as plaine spoken and tel-troth friends to conclude unlesse we may goe before all pinching peny-fathers in frugalitie yea and surpasse all spend-thrifts in riot and prodigallity we are out of our little wits we accuse our selves daily like sycophants we are unthankeful we repine and grumble as if we lived in penury and want Over and besides do we not see that Nature herselfe doeth teach us sufficiently in this point For like as she hath provided for sundry kinds of bruit and wilde beasts divers sorts of food for all feed not upon flesh all pecke not upon seeds and graines of plants neither doe all live upon roots which they worke from under the ground even so she hath bestowed upon mankinde many meanes to get their living while some live by graffing and feeding of cattell others by tillage some be Fowlers others Fishers and therefore ought every man to chuse that course of life which sorteth best with his owne nature and wholly to apply and set his minde thereto leaving unto others that which pertaineth to them and not to reprove and convince Hesiodus when he thus speaketh although not to the full and sufficiently to the point The Potter to Potter doth beare envie One Carpenter to another hath a spightfull eie For jealous we are not onely of those who exercise the same art and follow that course of life which we do but the rich also do envie the learned and eloquent noble men the rich advocates and lawiers captious and litigious sophisters yea and that which more is gentlemen free-borne and descended from noble and auncient houses envie Comedians when they have acted well and with a good grace upon the stage in great Theaters dauncers also and jesters in the court whom they see to be in favor and credite with Kings and Princes and whiles they do admire these and thinke them happie for their good speed and successe in comparison of their owne doings they fret and grieve and out of measure torment themselves Now that everie one of us hath within himselfe treasuries laid up of contentment and discontentment and certeine tunnes of good things and evil not bestowed as Homer said Unto the doore-sill and entrie of Jupiters house but placed in each of our owne mindes the divers passions whereunto we are subject do sufficiently proove and shew For such as are foolish and unadvised doe neglect and let go the very good things that presently they have and never care to enjoy them so intentive and earnestly bent are their mindes and spirits alwaies to that which is comming and future expectation whereas wise men on the contrary side call to their fresh remembrance those things that are past so as they seeme to enjoy the same as if they were present yea and in make that which is no more to be as beneficiall unto them as if they were ready and at hand For surely that which is present yeelding it selfe to be touched by us but the least moment of time that is immediately passing our senses seemeth unto fooles to be none of ours nor any more to concerne us But like as the Roper which is painted in the tēple of Pluto or description of Hell suffereth an asse behind him to gnaw eate a rope as fast as he twisteth it of the Spartbroome even so the unthankfull and senselesse oblivion of many ready to catch and devoure al good things as they passe by yea and to dissipate and cause to vanish away every honest and notable action all vertuous deeds duties delectable recreations and pleasant pastimes all good fellowship and mutuall societie and all amiable conversation one with another will not permit that the life be one and the same linked as it were and cheined by the coppulation of things passed and present but deviding yesterday from to day and this day from the morrow as if they were sundry parts of our life bringeth in such a forgetfulnesse as if things once past had never beene As for those verily who in their disputations and Philosophicall discourses admit no augmentation of bodies affirming that every substance continually fadeth and vanisheth would make us beleeve in word that each one of us every howre altereth from himselfe and no man is the same to day that he was yesterday but these for fault of memorie not able to reteine and keepe those things that are done and past no nor to
have fallen out so I was in great hope of other matters and little looked I for this so they shall be able to rid us of all sudden pantings and leapings of the hart of unquiet disorderly beating of the pulses and soone stay and settle the furious troublesome motions of impatience Carneades was woont in time of greatest prosperitie to put men in minde of a change for that the thing which hapneth contrarie to our hope and expectation is that which altogether and wholy doth breed sorrow and griefe The kingdome of the Macedonians was not an handfull to the Romaine Empire and dominion and yet king Perseus when he had lost Macedonie did not only himselfe lament his owne fortune most pitiously but in the eies also of the whole world he was reputed a most unfortunate and miserable man But behold Paulus Aemelius whose hap it was to vanquish the said Perseus when he departed out of that Province and made over into the hands of another his whole armie with so great commaund both of land and sea was crowned with a chaplet of flowers and so did sacrifice unto the gods with joy and thanks-giving in the judgement of all men woorthily extolled and reputed as happie For why when he received first that high commission and mightie power withall he knew full well that he was to give it over and resigne it up when his time was expired where as Perseus on the contrarie side lost that which he never made account to lose Certes even the Poet Homer hath given us verie well to understand how forcible that is which hapneth besides hope and unlooked for when he bringeth in Ulysses upon his returne weeping for the death of his dog but when he sate by his owne wife who shed teares plentifully wept not at all for that he had long before at his leasure against this comming home of his prevented and brought into subjection as it were by the rule of reason that passion which otherwise hee knew well enough would have broken out whereas looking for nothing lesse than the death of his dog he fell suddenly into it as having had no time before to represse the same In summe of all those accidents which light upon us contrarie to our will some grieve and vexe us by the course and instinct of nature other and those be the greater part we are woont to be offended and discontented with upon a corrupt opinion and foolish custome that we have taken and therefore we should do verie well against such temptations as these to be ready with that sentence of Menander No harme nor losse thou dost sustaine But that thou list so for to faine And how quoth he can it concerne thee For if no flesh without it wound Nor soule within then all is sound As for example the base parentage and birth of thy father the adulterie of thy wife the losse or repulse of any honor dignitie or preeminence for what should let notwithstanding all these crosses but that thy bodie and minde both may be in right good plight and excellent estate And against those accidents which seeme naturally to grieve and trouble us to wit maladies paines and travels death of deere friends and toward children we may oppose another saying of Euripides the Poët Alas alas and well a-day But why alas and well away Nought else to us hath yet beene delt But that who daily men have felt For no remonstrance nor reason is so effectuall to restraine and stay this passionate and sensuall part of our mind when it is readie to slip and be carried headlong away with our affections as that which call 〈◊〉 remembrance the common and naturall necessitie by meanes whereof a man in 〈◊〉 his bodie being mixed and compounded doth expose and offer this handle as it were 〈◊〉 vantage whereby fortune is to take hold when she wrestleth against him for otherwise a the greatest and most principall things he abideth fast and sure King Demetrius having 〈◊〉 and woon the citie Megara demaunded of Stilpo the wise Philosopher whether he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any goods in the sackage and pillage thereof Sir quoth he I saw not so much as one man carrying any thing of mine away semblably when fortune hath made what spoile nee can and taken from us all other things yet somewhat there remaineth still within our selves Which Greeks do what they can or may Shall neither drive nor beare away In which regard we ought altogether so to depresse debase and throw downe our humaine nature as if it had nothing firme stable and permanent nothing above the reach and power of fortune but contrariwise knowing that it is the least and woorst part of man and the same fraile brittle and subject to death which maketh us to lie open unto fortune and her assaults whereas in respect of the better part we are masters over her and have her at command when there being seated and founded most surely the best and greatest things that we have to wit sound and honest Opinions Arts and Sciences good discourses tending to vertue which be all of a substance incorruptible and whereof we can not be robbed we I say knowing thus much ought in the confidence of our selves to cary a minde invincible and secure against whatsoever shall happen be able to say that to the face of Fortune which Socrates addressing his speech indeed covertly to the Judges seemed to speake against his two accusers Anytus and Melitus Well may Anytus and Melitus bring me to my death but hurt or harme me they shall never be able And even so Fortune hath power to bring a disease or sicknesse upon a man his goods she can take away raise she may a slander of him to tyrant prince or people and bring him out of grace and favour but him that is vertuous honest valiant and magnanimous she can not make wicked dishonest base-minded malicious envious and in one word she hath not power to take from him a good habitude setled upon wisdome and discretion which wheresoever it is alwaies present doth more good unto a man for to guide him how to live than the pilot at sea for to direct a ship in her course for surely the pilot be he never so skilfull knoweth not how to still the rough and surging billowes when he would he can not allay the violence of a tempest or blustering winde neither put into a safe harbor and haven or gaine a commodious bay to anker in at all times and in every coast would he never so faine nor resolutely without feare and trembling when he is in a tempest abide the danger and under-goe all thus farre foorth onely his art serveth so long as he is in no despaire but that his skill may take place To strike main-saile and downe the lee To let ship hull untill he see The foot of mast no more above The sea while he doth not remove But with one hand in other fast Quaketh and panteth
whiles we be tempering about this immoderate shamefacednesse for to remoove it that we do not draw away with it grace and modesty gentlenes and debonarity which be adjacents and lie close unto it under which qualities lieth lurking and sticketh close to the foresaid naughtie bashfulnesse flattering him that is possessed therewith as if he were full of humanitie courtesie civilitie and common sense not opinionative severe inflexible and untractable which is the reason that the Stoicke Philosophers when they dispute of this matter have distinguished by severall names this aptnes to blush or over-much bashfulnesse from modestie and shamefacednesse indeed for feare lest the aequivocation and ambiguitie of one common word might give some occasion and vantage to the vicious passion it selfe to do some hurt As for us they must give us leave to use the tearmes without calumniation or rather permit us to distinguish according to Homer when he saith Shame is a thing that doth mickle harme and profiteth as much neither without good cause is it that in the former place he putteth downe the harme and discommoditie thereof for surely it is not profitable but by the meanes of reason which cutteth off that which is superfluous and leaveth a meane behinde To come then unto the remedies thereof it behooveth him first and formost who is given to blushing at every smal matter to beleeve be perswaded that he is possessed with such an hurtfull passion now there is nothing hurtfull which is good and honest neither ought he to take pleasure and delight when he shall be tickled in the eare with praises and commendations when he shall heare himselfe called gentle jolly and courteous in steed of grave magnanimous and just neither let him do as Pegasus the horse in Euripides who When mount his back Bellerophontes should With trembling stoup'd more than his owne selfe would that is to say give place and yeeld after a base manner to the demaunds and requests of everie man or object himselfe to their wil and pleasure for feare forsooth lest one should say of him Lo what a hard man is this See how inexorable he is It is reported of Bocchorus a king of Egypt that being rough fell austere the goddesse Isis sent the serpent called Aspis for to wind and wreath about his head and so to cast a shadow over him from above to the ende that hee might be put in minde to judge aright but this excessive shamefastnesse which alwaies overspreadeth and covereth them who are not manly but faint-hearted and effeminate not suffering them once to dare to deny or gainsay any thing surely would avert and withdraw judges from doing justice close up their mouthes that in counsels and consultations should deliver their opinion frankly yea and cause them both to say and do many things inconsiderately against their minde which otherwhiles they would not For looke whosoever is most unreasonable and importunate he will ever tyrannize and dominier over such an one forcing by his impudencie the bashfulnesse of the other by which meanes it commeth to passe that this excessive shame like unto a low piece of soft ground which is ready to receive all the water that comes and apt to be overflowed and drowned having no power to withstand and repulse any encounter nor say a word to the contrarie whatsoever is proposed yeeldeth accesse to the lewdest desseignes acts and passions that be An evill guardian and keeper of childhood and yoong age is this excessive bashfulnesse as Brutus well said who was of this minde that neither he nor she could well and honestly passe the flower of their fresh youth who had not the heart and face to refuse and denie any thing even so likewise a bad governesse it is of the bride-bed and womens chamber according to that which shee saide in Sophocles to the adulterer who repented of the fact Thy flattering words have me seduced And so perswaded I am abused In such sort as this bashfulnes over and besides that it is vicious and faultie it selfe spoileth and marreth cleane the intemperate incontinent person by making no resistance to his appetites and demaunds but letting all ly unfortified unbard and unlockt yeelding easie accesse and entrance to those that will make assault and give the attempt who may by great gifts and large offers catch and compasse the wickedest natures that be but surely by perswasions and inductions and by the meanes withall of this excessive bashfulnesse they oftentimes conquer and get the mastrie even of such as are of honest and gentle disposition Here I passe-by the detriments and damages that this bashfulnesse hath beene the cause of in many matters and that of profit and commoditie namely how many men having not the heart to say nay have put forth and lent their money even to those whose credite they distrust have beene sureties for such as otherwise they would have beene loth and unwilling to engage themselves for who can approove and commend this golden sentence written upon the temple of Apollo Be surety thou maist but make account then to pay howbeit they have not the power to do themselves good by that warning when they come to deale in the world And how many have come unto their end and died by the meanes of this foolish qualitie it were hard to reckon For Creon in Euripides when he spake thus unto Medea For me Madame it were much better now by flat deniall your minde to discontent Than having once thus yeelded unto you sigh afterwards full sore and ay repent gave a very good lesson for others to follow but himselfe overcome at length through his foolish bashfulnesse graunting one day longer of delay at her request overthrew his owne state and his whole house Some there were also who doubting and suspecting that they were laide for to be bloodily murdered or made away by poison yet upon a foolish modestie not refusing to go into the place of daunger came to their death and were soone destroied Thus died Dion who notwithstanding hee knew well enough that Callippus laide wait for him to take away his life yet forsooth abashed he was to distrust his friend and host and so to stand upon his guard Thus was Antipater the sonne of Cassander massacred who having first invited Demetrius to supper was bidden the morrow after to his house likewise and for that he was abashed to mistrust Demetrius who the day before had trusted him refused not to go but after supper he was murdered for his labour Moreover when Polysperchon had undertaken and promised unto Cassander for the summe of one hundred talents to kill Hercules a base sonne of king Alexander by lady Barsine he sent and requested the said Hercules to sup with with him in his lodging the yoong gentleman had no liking at all to such a bidding but mistrusting and fearing his curtesie alleaged for his excuse that he was not well at ease whereupon Polysperchon came himselfe in person unto
the whiles stand still and gently letting them do with us what they will untill they may with ease lay us all along when we have once yeelded to be so handled at their pleasure for surely they that give care to flatterers differ in no respect from those who set out their legs of purpose to be supplanted and to have their heeles tripped up from under them save onely in this that those are woorse foiled and catch the more shamefull fall I meane aswell such as remit punishment to naughtie persons because forsooth they love to be called mercifull milde and gentle as those on the contrary side who being perswaded by such as praise them do submit thēselves to enmities and accusations needlesse but yet perilous as being borne in hand made beleeve they were the onely men such alone as stood invincible against all flatterie yea and those whom they sticke not to tearme their very mouthes voices and therefore Bion likened them most aptly to vessels that had two eares for that they might be caried so easily by the eares which way a man would like as it is reported of one Alexinus a Sophister who upon a time as he walked with others in the gallerie Peripatos spake all that naught was of Stilpo the Megarean when one of the company said unto him What meane you by this considering that of late no longer since than the other day he gave out of you al the good that may be I wot wel quoth he for hee is a right honest gentleman and the most courteous person in the worlde Contrariwise Menedemus when he heard that Alexinus had praised him many a time But I quoth he do never speake well of Alexinus therfore a bad man he must needs be that either praiseth a naughty person or is dispraised of an honest man So hard it was to turn or catch him by any such meanes as making use and practising that precept which Hercules Atistheneus taught his children when hee admonished and warned them that they should never con those thanke who praised them and this was nothing else but not to suffer a mans selfe to be overcome by foolish modestie nor to flatter them againe who praised him For this may suffice in mine opinion which Pindarus answered upon a time to one who said unto him That in everie place and to all men he never ceased to commend him Grand mercie quoth he and I will do this favor unto you againe that you may be a true man of your word be thought to have spoken nothing but the truth To conclude that which is good and expedient against all other affections and passions they ought surely to remember who are easily overcome by this hurtfull modestie whensoever they giving place soone to the violence of this passion doe commit a fault and tread awry against their minde namely to call to remembrance the markes and prints of remorse and repentance sticking fast in their minde and to repent eftsoones and keepe the same a long time For like as waifaring men after they have once stumbled upon a stone or pilots at sea when they have once split their ship upon a rocke and suffred shipwracke if they call those accidents to remembrance for ever after doe feare and take heed not onely of the same but of such like even so they that set before their eies continually the dishonours and damages which they have received by this hurtfull and excessive modestie and represent the same to their minde once wounded and bitten with remorse and repentance will in the like afterwards reclaime themselves and not so easily another time be perverted and seduced out of the right way OF BROTHERLY LOVE OR AMITIE The Summarie A Man should have profited but badly in the schoole of vertue if endevouring to carry himselfe honestly toward his friends and familiars yea and his verie enemies he continue still in evill demeanor with his owne brethren unto whom he is joined naturally by the streightest line andlinke that can be devised But for that ever since the beginning of the world this proverbiall sentence from time to time hath beene currant and found true that the Unitie of Brethren is a rare thing Plutarch after he had complained in the verie entrance of this little booke that such a maladie as this raigned mightily in his time goeth about afterwards to apply a remedie thereto And to this effect he sheweth that since brotherly amitie is taught and prescribed by nature those who love not their brethren be blockish unnaturall enemies to their owne selves yea and the greatest Atheists that may be found And albeit the obligation wherein we are bound to our parents amounteth to so high a summe as we are never able fully to discharge he prooveth notwithstanding that brotherly love may stand for one verie good paiment toward that debt whereupon he concludeth that hatred betweene brethren ought to be banished for that if it once creepe in and get betweene it will be a verie hard matter to rejoine and reconcile them againe Afterwards he teacheth a readie and compendious way how a man ought to manage and use a brother ill disposed In what manner brethren should carrie themselves one to another both during the life of their father and also after his decease discoursing at large upon the dutie of those who are the elder or higher advanced in other respects as also what they should doe who are the yoonger namely that as they are not equall to their other brethren in yeeres so they be their inferiours in place of honor and in wealth likewise what meanes as well the one as the other are to follow for to avoid envie and jealousie Which done he teacheth brethren who in age come verie neere their naturall dutie and kindnesse that they ought to shew one unto another to which purpose he produceth proper examples of brotherly amttie among the Pagans In the ende since he can not possibly effect thus much that brethren should evermore accordwell together he setteth downe what course they are to take in their differences and disagreements and how their friends ought to be common betweene them and for a final conclusion he treateth of that honest care and respective regardone of another that they ought to have and especially of their kinsefolke which he enricheth with two other notable examples OF BROTHERLY LOVE or amitie THose ancient statues representing the two brethren Castor and Pollux the inhabitants of the citie Sparta were woont in their language to call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And two paralell pieces of timber they are of an equall distance asunder united and joined together by two other pieces overthwart now it should seeme that this was a device fitting verie well and agreeable to the brotherly amitie of the said two gods for to shew that undivisible union which was betweene them and even so I also do offer and dedicate unto you ô Nigrinus and Quintus this little
seene to grow These good parts therefore be they more or lesse in others if he that seemeth to have them in farre better and in greater measure do not debase smother hide and hinder them nor deject his brother as in some solemnitie of games for the prize from all the principall honours but rather yeeld reciprocally unto him in some points and acknowledge openly that in many things he is more excellent and hath a greater dexteritie than himselfe withdrawing alwaies closely all occasions and matter of envie as it were fewell from the fire shall either quench all debate or rather not suffer it at all to breed or grow to any head and substance Now he that alwaies taketh his brother as a colleague counseller and coadjutor with him in those causes wherin himselfe is taken to be his superiour as for example If he be a professed Rhetorician and Oratour using his brother to pleade causes if he be a Politician asking his advice in government if a man greatly friended imploying him in actions and affaires abroad and in one word in no matter of consequence and which may win credit and reputation leaving not his brother out but making him his fellow and companion in all great and honourable occasions and so giving out of him taking his counsell if he be present and expecting his presence if he be absent and generally making it knowen that he is a man not of lesse execution than himselfe but one rather that loveth not much to put himselfe forth nor stands so much upon winning reputation in the world and seeking to be advanced in credit by this meanes he shall lose nothing of his owne but gaine much unto his brother These be the precepts and advertisements that a man may give unto him that is the better and superiour To come now to him who is the inferiour he ought thus to thinke in his minde That his brother is not one alone that hath no fellow nor the onely man in the world who is richer better learned or more renowmed and glorious than himselfe but that often-times he also is inferiour to a great number yea and to many millions of us men Who on the earth so large do breed Upon her fruits who live and feed but if he be such an one as either goeth up and downe bearing envie unto all the world or if he bee of so ill a nature as that among so many men that are fortunate he alone and none but he troubleth him who ought of all other to be dearest and is most neerely joined unto him by the obligation of blood a man may well say of him That he is unhappy in the highest degree and hath not left unto another man living any meanes to go beyond him in wretchednesse As Metellus therefore thought that the Romans were bound to render thanks unto the gods in heaven for that Scipio so noble and brave a man was borne in Rome and not in any other citie so everie man is to wish and pray unto the gods that himselfe may surmount all other men in prosperity if not yet that he might have a brother at least-wise to attaine unto that power and authoritie so much desired but some there be so infortunate and unlucky by nature in respect of any goodnesse in them that they can rejoice and take a great glorie in this to have their friends advanced unto high places of honor or to see their hoasts and guests abroad princes rulers rich and mightie men but the resplendent glorie of their brethren they thinke doth eclypse and darken their owne renowme they delight and joy to heare the fortunate exploits of their fathers recounted or how their great grandsires long ago had the conduct of armies and were lord praetours and generals in the field wherein they themselves had never any part nor received thereby either honor or profit but if there have fallen unto their brethren any great heritages or possessions if they have risen unto high estate and atchieved honorable dignities if they are advanced by rich and noble mariages then they are cast downe and their hearts be done And yet it had behooved and right meet it were in the first place to bee envious to no man at all but if that may not be the next way were to turne their envie outward and eie-bite strangers and to shew our spite unto aliens who are abroad after the maner of those who to rid themselves from civill seditions at home turne the same upon their enimes without and set them together by the eares and like as Diomedes in Homer said unto Glaucus Of Trojanes and their allies both who aide them for goodwill Right many are beside your selfe for me in fight to kill And you likewise have Greeks enough with whom in bloodie field You may your prowessetry and not meete me with speare and shield even so it may be said unto them There be a number besides of concurrents upon whom they may exercise their envie and jealousie and not with their naturall brethren for a brother ought not to be like unto one of the balance scales which doth alwaies contrarie unto his fellow for as one riseth the other falleth but as small numbers do multiplie the greater and serve to make both them bigger and their selves too even so an inferior brother by multiplying the state of his brother who is his superior shall both augment him and also increase and grow himselfe together with him in all good things marke the fingers of your hand that which holdeth not the pen in writing or striketh the string of a lute in playing for that it is not able so to do nor disposed and made naturally for those uses is never a whit the worse for all that nor serveth lesse otherwise but they all stir and moove together yea and in some sort they helpe one another in their actions as being framed for the nonce unequal one bigger longer than other that by their opposition and meeting as it were round together they might comprehend claspe and hold any thing most sure strong and fast Thus Craterus being the naturall brother of king Antigonus who reigned and swaid the scepter Thus Perilaus also the brother of Cassander who ware the crowne gave their minds to be brave warriors and to lead armies under their brethren or else applied themselves to governe their houses at home in their absence whereas on the contrary side the Antiochi and Seleuci as also certeine Grypi and Cyziceni and such others having not learned to beare a lower saile then their brethren and who could not content themselves to sing a lower note nor to rest in a second place but aspiring to the ensignes and ornaments of roiall dignitie to wit the purple mantle of estate with crowne diademe and scepter filled themselves and one another with many calamities yea and heaped as many troubles upon all Asia throughout Now forasmuch as those especially who by nature are ambitious and disposed
in the meane while they perceive not how they receive into the mids of them and suffer to traverse and crosse them men of a currish and dogged nature who can do nothing els but barke betweene and sowe false rumours and calumniations betweene one and another for to provoke them to jarre and fall together by the eares and therefore to great reason and very well to this purpose said Theophrastus That if al things according to the old proverbe should be common among friends then most of all they ought to enterteine friends in common for private familiarities and acquaintances apart one from another are great meanes to disjoine and turne away their hearts for if they fall to love others and make choise of other familiar friends it must needs follow by consequence to take pleasure and delight in other companies to esteeme and affect others yea and to suffer themselves to be ruled and led by others For friendships and amities frame the natures and dispositions of men neither is there a more certeine and assured signe of different humors and divers natures than the choise election of different friends in such sort as neither to eate and drinke not to play not to passe and spend whole daies together in good fellowship and companie is so effectuall to hold and maintaine the concord and good will of brethren as to hate and love the same persons to joy in the same acquaintance and contrariwise to abhor and shun the same companie for when brethren have friends common betweene them the said friends will never suffer any surmises calumniations quarrels to grow betweene and say that peradventure there do arise some sudden heat of choler or grudging fit of complaint presently it is cooled quenched and suppressed by the mediation of common friends for readie they will be to take up the quarrell and scatter it so as it shall vanish away to nothing if they be indifferently affectionate to them both and that their love incline no more to the one side than to the other for like as tin-soder doth knit and rejoyne a crackt peece of brasse in touching and taking hold of both sides and edges of the broken peeces for that it agreeth and forteth as well to the one as to the other and suffreth from them both alike even so ought a friend to be fitted and sutable indifferently unto both brethren if he would knit surely and confirme strongly their mutuall benevolence and good will But such as are unequall and cannot intermeddle and go betweene the one as well as the other make a separation and disjunction and not a sound joint like as certeine notes or discords in musicke And therefore it may well bee doubted and question made whether Hesiodus did well or no when he said Make not a feere I thee advise Thy brothers peere in any wise For a discreet and sober companion common to both as I said before or rather incorporat as it were into them shall ever be a sure knot to fasten brotherly love But Hesiodus as it should seeme meant and feared this in the ordinary and vulgar sort of men who are many of them naught by reason that so customably they be given to jealousie and suspition yea and to selfe-love which if we consider and observe it is well but with this regard alwaies that although a man yeeld equall good will unto a friend as unto a brother yet neverthelesse in case of concurrence he ought to reserve ever the preeminence and first place for his brother whether it be in preferring him in any election of Magistrates or to the mannaging of State affaires or in bidding and inviting him to a solemne feast or publike assembly to consult and debate of weightie causes or in recommending him to princes great lords For in such cases which in the common opinion of the world are reputed matters of honor and credit a man ought to render the dignitie honor and reward which is beseeming and due to blood by the course of nature For in these things the advantage and prerogative will not purchase so much glorie and reputation to a friend as the repulse and putting-by bring disgrace discredit and dishonor unto a brother Well as touching this old said saw and sentence of Hestodus I have treated more at large elsewhere but the sententious saying of Menander full wisely set downe in these words No man who lov's another shall you see Well pleas'd himselfe neglected for to bee putteth us in minde and teacheth us to have good regard and care of our brethren and not to presume so much upon the obligation of nature as to despise them For the horse is a beast by nature loving to a man and the dog loves his master but in case you never thinke upon them nor see unto them as you ought they wil forgoe that kind affectiō estrange themselves take no knowledge of you The bodie also is most necrely knit and united to the soule by the greatest bond of nature that can be but in case it be neglected and contemned by her or not cherrished so tenderly as it looketh to be unwilling shall you see it to helpe and assist her nay full untowardly will it execute or rather give over it will altogether everie action Now to come more neere and to particularise upon this point honest and good is that care and diligence which is emploied and shewed to thy brethren themselves alone but better it would be farre if thy love and kind affections be extended as far as to their wives fathers and daughters husbands by carrying a friendly minde and readie will to pleasure them likewise and to do for them in all their occasions if they be courteous and affable in saluting their servants such especially as they love and favour thankfull and beholding to their Physicians who had them in cure during sicknesse and were diligent about them acknowledging themselves bound unto their faithfull and trustie friends or to such as were willing and forward to take such part as they did in any long voyage and expedition or to beare them company in warfare And as for the wedded wife of a brother whom he is to reverence repute and honor no lesse than a most sacred and holy relique or monument if at any time he happen to see her it will be come him to speake all honour and good of her husband before her or to be offended and complaine as well as she of her husband if he set not that store by her as he ought and when she is angred to appease and still her Say also that she have done some light fault and offended her husband to reconcile him againe unto her and entreat him to be content and to pardon her and likewise if there be some particular and private cause of difference betweene him and his brother to acquaint the wife therewith and by her meanes to complaine thereof that she may take up the matter by composition
and end the quarrell Lives thy brother a batcheler and hath no children thou oughtest in good earnest to be angrie with him for it to sollicite him to marriage yea with chiding rating and by all meanes urge him to leave this single life and by entring into wedlocke to be linked in lawfull alliance and affinitie hath he children then you are to shew your good will and affection more manifestly as well toward him as his wife in honouring him more than ever before in loving his children as if they were your owne yea and shewing your selfe more indulgent kinde and affable unto them that if it chaunce they do faults and shrewd turnes as little ones are woont they runne not away nor retire into some blind and solitarie corner for feare of father and mother or by that meanes light into some light unhappie and ungracious companie but may have recourse refuge unto their unkle where they may be admonished lovingly and find an intercessor to make their excuse get their pardon Thus Plato reclaimed his brothers son or nephew Spensippus from his loose life and dissolute riot without doing any harme or giving him foule words but by winning him with faire and gentle language whereas his father and mother did nothing but rate and crie upon him continually which caused him to runne away and keepe out of their sight he imprinted in his heart a great reverence of him and a fervent zeale to imitate him and to set his mind to the studie of Philosophie notwithstanding many of his friends thought hardly of him and blamed him not a litle for that he tooke not another course with the untoward youth namely to rebuke checke and chastice him sharply but this was evermore his answere unto them That he reprooved and tooke him downe sufficiently by shewing unto him by his owne life and carriage what difference there was betweene vice and vertue betweene things honest and dishonest Alenas sometime King of Thessalie was hardly used and over-awed by his father for that he was insolent proude and violent withall but contrariwise his uncle by the fathers side would give him entertainment beare him out and make much of him Now when upon a time the Thessalians sent unto Delphos certaine lots to know by the oracle of god Apollo who should be their king The foresaid uncle of Alenas unwitting to his brother put in one for him Then Pythia the Prophetesse gave answere from Apollo and pronounced That Alenas should be king The father of Alenas denied and said that he had cast in no lot for him and it seemed unto every man that there was some errour in writing of those billes or names for the lotterie whereupon new messengers were dispatched to the Oracle for to cleere this doubt and then Pythia in confirmation of the former choise answered I meane that youth with reddish heare Whom dame Archedice in wombe did beare Thus Alenas declared and elected king of Thessalie by the oracle of Apollo and by the meanes withall of his fathers brother both proved himselfe afterward a most noble prince excelling all his progenitours and predecessours and also raised the whole nation and his countrey a great name and mighty puissance Furthermore it is seemely and convenient by joying and taking a glory in the advancement prosperity honours and dignities of brothers children to augment the same and to encourage and animate them to vertue and when they do well to praise them to the full Haply it might be thought an odious and unseemely thing for a man to commend much his owne sonne but surely to praise a brothers sonne is an honourable thing and since it proceedeth not from the love of a mans selfe it can not be thought but right honest and in truth divine for surely me thinks the very name it selfe of Uncle is sufficient to draw brethren to affect love deerly one another and so consequently their nephewes and thus we ought to propose unto our selves for to imitate the better sort such as haue bene immortalised deified in times past for so Hercules notwithstanding he had 70 sonnes within twaine of his owne yet he loved Iolaus his brothers sonne no lesse than any of them insomuch as even at this day in most places there is but one altar erected for him and his said nephew together and men pray jointly unto Hercules and Iolaus Also when his brother Iphiclus was slain in that famous battell which was fought nere Lacedaemon he was so exceedingly displeased and tooke such indignation thereat that he departed out of Peloponnesus and left the whole countrey As for Leucothea when her sister was dead she nourished and brought up her childe and together with her ranged it among the heavenly saints whereupon the Romane dames even at this day when they celebrate the feast of Leucothea whom they name Matuta carrie in their armes and chearish tenderly their sisters children and not their owne OF INTEMPERATE SPEECH OR GARRVLITIE The Summarie THat which is commonly said All extremities be naught requireth otherwhiles an exposition and namely in that vertue which we call Temperance one of the kinds or branches whereof consisteth in the right use of the tongue which is as much to say as the skill and knowledge how to speake as it becommeth now the moderation of speech hath for the two extreames Silence a thing more often praise-worthy than reprochable and Babble against which this Discourse is addressed Considering then that silence is an assured reward unto wise men and opposite directly unto much pratling and comely and seemely speech is in the mids we call not silence a vice but say That a man never findeth harme by holding his peace But as touching Garrulitie or Intemperate speech the authour sheweth in the very beginning of his Treatise that it is a maladie incurable and against nature for it doth frustrate the talkative person of his greatest desire to wit for to have audience and credit given him also that it maketh a man inconsiderate importune and malapert ridiculous mocked and hated plunging him ordinarily into danger as many events have prooved by experience For to discover this matter the better he saith consequently That the nature of vertuous men and those who have noble bringing up is directly opposite unto that of long-tongued persons and joining the reasons by which a man ought not to bewray his secret together with those evils and inconveniences which curiosity much babble do bring and confirming all by fine similitudes and not able examples afterwards taking in hand againe his former speech and argument he compareth a traiter and busie talker together to the end that all men should so much the rather detest the vice of garrulitie then he proceedeth immediatly to discover and apply the remedies of this mischiefe willing us in the first place and generally to consider the calamities and miseries that much babbling causeth as also the good commodity which proceedeth of silence
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
themselves a dogge or a serpent come in their way they flie from them let their brood be about them when such a danger is presented it is woonderfull how ready they will be to defend the same yea and to fight for even above their power Do we thinke now that nature hath imprinted such affections and passions in these living creatures for the great care that she hath to mainteine the race and posteritie as it were of hens dogs or beares or doe we not rather make this construction of it that she shameth pricketh and woundeth men thereby when we reason and discourse thus within our selves that these things bee good examples for as many as follow them and the reproches of those that have no sense or feeling of naturall affection by which no doubt they do blame and accuse the nature of man onely as if she alone were not affectionate without some hire and reward nor could skill of love but for gaine and profit for admired he was in the theaters that thus spake first For hope of gaine one man will love another Take it away what one will love his brother This is the reason according to the opinion and doctrine of Epicurus that the father affecteth his sonne the mother is tender over her childe and children likewise are kind unto their parents but set-case that brute beasts could both speake and understand language in some open theater and that one called to meet together a sufficient assembly of beefs horses dogs and fowles certes if their voices were demanded upon this point now in question hee would set downe in writing and openly pronounce that neither bitches loved their whelpes nor mares their foles heas their chickens and other fowles their little birds in respect of any reward but freely and by the instinct of nature and this would be found a true verdict of his iustified and verified by all those passions and affections which are observed in them and what a shame and infamie unto mankind is this to grant and avouch that the act of generation in brute beasts their conception their breeding their painfull deliverie of their young and the carefull feeding and cherishing of them be natures works meerely and duties of gratuitie and contrariwise that in men they be pawnes given them for securitie of interest hires gages and earnest pennies respective to some profit and gaine which they draw after them But surely as this project is not true so it is not woorth the hearing for nature verily as in savage plants and trees to wit wilde vines wilde figge trees and wilde olives she doth ingenerate certeine raw and unperfect rudiments such as they be of good and kinde fruits so she hath created in brute beasts a naturall love and affection to their young though the same be not absolute nor fully answerable to the rule of justice ne yet able to passe farther than the bonds and limits of necessitie As for man a living creature endued and adorned with reason created and made for a civill societie whom she hath brought into the world for to observe lawes and justice to serve honour and worship the gods to found cities and governe common-wealths and therein to exercise and performe al offices of bountie him she hath bestowed upon noble generous faire and fruitfull seeds of all these things to wit a kinde love and tender affection toward his children and these she followeth still and persisteth therein which she infused together with the first principles and elements that went to the frame of his body and soule for nature being every way perfect and exquisite and namely in this inbred love toward infants wherein there wanteth nothing that is necessarie neither from it is ought to be taken away as superfluous It hath nothing as Erasistratus was woont to say vaine frivolous and unprofitable nothing inconstant and shaking too and fro inclining now one way and then another For in the first place as touching the generation of man who is able to expresse her prudence sufficiently neither haply may it stand with the rule of decent modestie to be over-curious and exquisite in delivering the proper names and tearmes thereto belonging for those naturall parts serving in that act of generation and conception secret as they be and hidden so they neither can well nor would willingly be named but the composition and framing thereof so aptly made for the purpose the disposition and situation likewise so convenient we ought rather to conceive in our minde than utter in speech Leaving therefore those privie members to our private thoughts passe we to the confection disposition and distribution of the milke which is sufficient to shew most evidently her providence in desire and diligence for the superfluous portion of blood which remaineth in a womans bodie over and above that which serveth for the use whereunto it is ordeined floting up and downe within her afterwards for defect or feeblenesse of spirits wandereth as it were to and fro and is a burden to her bodie but at certaine set-times daies to wit in every monthly revolution nature is carefull and diligent to open certeine scluces and conducts by which the said superfluous blood doth void and passe away whereupon shee doth not onely purge and lighten all the bodie besides but also cleanseth the matrice and maketh it like a piece of ground brought in order and temper apt to receive the plough and desirous of the seed after it in due season now when it hath once conceived and reteined the said seed so as the same take root and be knit presently it draweth it selfe strait and close together round and holdeth the conception within it for the navill as Democritus saith being the first thing framed within the matrice and serving in stead of an anchor against the waving and wandering of it to and fro holdeth sure the fruit conceived which both now groweth and heereafter is to be delivered as it were by a sure cable and strong bough then also it stoppeth and shutteth up the said riverets and passages of those monethly purgations and taking the foresaid blood which otherwise would run an void by those pipes and conducts it maketh use thereof for to nourish and as it were to water the infant which beginneth by this time to take some consistence and receive shape and forme so long untill a certaine number of daies which are necessarie for the full growth thereof within be expired at which time it had need to remove from thence for a kinde of nutriment else-where in another place and then diverting the said course of blood with all dexterity a skilfull hand no gardener nor fountainer in drawing of his trenches and chanels with all his cunning so artificiall and employing it from one use to another she hath certeine cesternes as it were or fountaine-heads prepared of purpose from a running source most readie to receive that liquor of blood quickly and not without some sense of pleasure and contentment but
with few and by that meanes thinke their estate more sure and stedfast After this he treateth of the choise of friends but especially of one Then discourseth he of that which is requisite in true friendship annexing thereto many proper and apt similitudes which represent aswell the benefit that sincere affection bringeth as the hurt which commeth of fained and counter seit amitie This done he proveth that to enterteine a number of friends is a very hardmatter yea and unpossible for that a man is not able to converse with them nor to frame and sort with them all but that he shall procure himselfe enemies on all sides and when he hath enriched and adorned the same with not able examples he proceedeth to describe what use a man is to make of friendship and with what sort and condition of men he ought to joine in amity but this is the conclusion That an honest and vertuous man can not quit himselfe well and performe his devoire unto many friends at once OF THE PLURALITIE of friends SOcrates upon a time demanded of Menon the Thessalian who was esteemed very sufficient in all litterature and a great schoole-man exercised in long practise of disputations and named to be one as Empedocles saith who had attained to the very height and perfection of wisedome and learning what vertue was and when he had answered readily and boldly enough in this wise There is a vertue quoth he of a yoong childe and of an olde gray beard of a man and of a woman of a magistrate and of a private person of a master and of a servant I con you thanke quoth Socrates againe replying unto him you have done it very well I asked you but of one vertue and you have raised and let flie a whole swarme as it were of vertues guessing and collecting not amisse by such an answere that this deepe clearke who had named thus many vertues knew not so much as one And might not a man seeme to scorne and mocke us well enough who having not yet gotten one friendship and amity certaine are afraid forsooth lest ere we be aware we fall into a multitude and pluralitie of friends for this were even as much as if one that is maimed and starke blinde should feare to become either Briareus the giant with an hundred armes and hands or Argus who had eies all over his bodie And yet we praise and commend excessively and beyond all measure the yoong man in Menander when he saith Of all the goods which I do holde To thinke ech one I would be bolde Right woonderfull if I might finde The shadow onely of a friend But certeinly this is one cause among many others the same not the least that we cannot be possessed of any one assured amity because we covet to have so many much like vnto these common strumpets and harlots who for that they prostitute their bodies so often and to so manie men cannot make any reckoning to hold reteine any one paramor or lover fast and sure unto them for that the first commers seeing themselves neglected and cast off by the enterteinment of new retire and fall away from them and seeke elsewhere or rather much after the maner of that foster-childe of lady Hypsipyle Who being set in meddow greene With pleasant flowers all faire beseene One after other cropt them still Hunting this game with right goodwill For why his heart tooke great content In their gay hew and sweety sent So little wit and small discretion The infant had and no * repletion even so every one of us for the desire of noveltie and upon a satietie and fulnesse of that which is present and in hand suffreth himselfe ever to be caried away with a new-come friend that is fresh and flowring which fickle and inconstant affection causeth us to change often and to begin many friendships and finish none to enter still into new amities and bring none to perfection and for the love of the new which we pursue and seeke after wee passe by that which we held already and let it go To begin then first and formost at antiquity as it were from the goddesse Vesta according to the old proverbe let us examine and consider the common fame of mans life which hath beene delivered unto us from hand to hand time out of minde by the succession and progresse of so many ages from the old world unto this day and take the same for a witnesse and counseller both in this matter wee shall finde in all the yeeres past these onely couples and paires of renowmed friends to wit Theseus and Pirithous Achilles and Patroclus Orestes and Pylades Pythias and Damon Epaminondas and Pelopidas For friendship is indeed as I may so say one of these cattell that love company and desire to feed and pasture with fellowes but it can not abide heards and droves it may not away with these great flocks as jayes dawes and choughes do And whereas it is commonly said and thought that a friend is another owne selfe and men give unto him the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke as if a man would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is such another what implieth all this but that friendship should be reduced within the measure and compasse of the duall number that is of twaine Well this is certaine we can buy neither many slaves nor purchase many friends with a small piece of coine but what may be this piece of money that will fetch friends Surely kinde affection or good will and a lovely grace joined with vertue things I may tell you so rare as looke thorowout the world and the whole course of nature you shall find nothing more geason No marvell then if it be unpossible either to love many or to be loved of many perfectly and in the heigth of affection But like as great rivers if they be divided into many chanels and cut into sundry riverets cary but an ebbe water and run with no strong streame even so a vehement and affectionate love planted in the minde if it be parted many and divers waies becommeth enervate and feeble and commeth in maner to nothing This is the reason in nature that those creatures which bring forth but one and no more love their yoong more tenderly and entirely than others do theirs Homer also when he would signifie a childe most dearely beloved calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say only begotten and toward old age to wit when the parents have no more betweene them nor ever are like or doe looke to have another for mine owne part I would not desire to have that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say one friend and no more but surely I could wish that with other he were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say long and late first ere he be gotten like as a sonne which is borne toward the
he have not wisedome withall There was one that cavilled upon a time with Captaine Iphicrates and by way of reproch minding to proove that he was of no reckoning demaunded what he was For quoth he you are not a man at armes nor archer nor yet targuetier I am not indeed I confesse quoth Iphicrates but I am he who commaund all these and employ them as occasion serveth even so wisedome is neither gold nor silver it is not glorie or riches it is not health it is not strength it is not beautie what is it then Surely even that which can skill how to use all these and by means whereof each of these things is pleasant honorable and profitable and contrariwise without which they are displeasant hurtfull and dangerous working his destruction and dishonor who possesseth them And therefore right good counsell gave Prometheus in Hesiodus to his brother Epimetheus in this one point Receive no gifts at any time which heavenly Iove shall send But see thou do refuse them all and backe againe them send Meaning thereby these outward goods of fortunes gift as if he would have said Goe not about to play upon a Flute if thou have no knowledge in Musicke nor to reade if thou know never a letter in the booke mount not on horsebacke unlesse thou canst tell how to sit him and ride and even so he advised him thereby not to seeke for office and place of government in common-weale wanting wit as he did nor to lay for riches so long as he bare a covetous minde and wist not how to be liberall nor to marrie a wife for to bee his maister and to lead him by the nose for not onely wealth and prosperitie hapning above desert unto unadvised folke giveth occasion as Demosthenes said unto them for to commit many follies but also wordly happines beyond all reason and demerit causeth such as are not wise to become unhappie and miserable in the end OF ENVIE AND HATRED The Summarie IN this briefe Treatise concerning Envie and Hatred Plutarch after he hath shewed in generall tearmes that they be two different vices and declared withal the properties of the one and the other prooveth this difference by diversreasons and arguments ranged in their order he discovereth the nature of envious persons and malicious and sheweth by a proper similitude that the greatest personages in the world be secured from the clawes and pawes of envious persons and yet for al that cease not to have many enemies And verily it seemeth that the Author began this little worke especially for to beat downe envie and that the infamie thereof might so much more appeere in comparing andmatching it with another detestable vice the which notwithstanding he saith is lesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than it OF ENVIE AND HATRED IT seemeth at the first sight that there is no difference betweene envie and hatred but that they be both one For vice to speake in generall having as it were many hookes or crotchets by meanes thereof as it stirreth to and fro it yeeldeth unto those passions which hang thereto many occasions and opportunities to catch holde one of another and so to be knit and enterlaced one within the other and the same verily like unto diseases of the body have a sympathie and fellow-feeling one of anothers distemperature and inflammation for thus it commeth to passe that a malicious and spightfull man is as much grieved and offended at the prosperitie of another as the envious person and so we holde that benevolence and good-will is opposite unto them both for that it is an affection of a man wishing good unto his neighbour and envie in this respect resembleth hatred for that they have both a will and intention quite contrary unto love but forasmuch as no things like to the same and the resemblances betweene them be not so effectuall to make them all one as the differences to distinguish them asunder let us search and examine the said differences beginning at the very source and originall of these passions Hatred then is ingendred and ariseth in our heart upon an imagination and deepe apprehension that we conceive of him whom we hate that either he is naught wicked in general to every man or els intending mischiefe particularly unto our selves for commonly it falleth out that those who thinke they have received some injurie at such an ones hand are disposed to hate him yea and those whom otherwise they know to be maliciously bent and wont to hurt others although they have not wronged them yet they hate and can not abide to looke upon them with patience whereas ordinarily they beare envie unto such onely as seeme to prosper and to live in better state than their neighbours by which reckoning it should seeme that envie is a thing indefinite much like unto the disease of the eies Ophthalmia which is offended with the brightnesse of any light whatsoever whereas hatred is determinate being alwaies grounded upon some certeine subject matters respective to it selfe and on them it worketh Secondly our hatred doeth extend even to brute beasts for some you shall have who naturally abhorre and can not abide to see cats nor the flies cantharides nor todes nor yet snakes and any such serpents As for Germanicus Caesar he could not of all things abide either to see a cocke or to heare him crow The Sages of Persia called their Magi killed all their mice and rats aswell for that themselves could not away with them but detested them as also because the god forsooth whom they worshipped had them in horror And in trueth all the Arabians and Aethiopians generally holde them abominable But envie properly is betweene man and man neither is there any likelihood at all that there should be imprinted envie in savage creatures one against another because they have not this imagination and apprehension that another is either fortunate or unfortunate neither be they touched with any sense of honour or dishonour which is the thing that principally and most of all other giveth an edge and whetteth on envie whereas it is evident that they hate one another they beare malice and mainteine enmitic nay they go to warre as against those that be disloiall treacherous and such as are not to be trusted for in this wife doe eagles warre with dragons crowes with owles and the little nonner or tit-mouse fighteth with the linnet insomuch as by report the very bloud of them after they be killed will not mingle together and that which is more if you seeme to mixe them they will separate and run apart againe one from the other and by all likelihood the hatred that the lion hath to the cocke and the elephant also unto an hogge proceedeth from feare for lightly that which creatures naturally feare the same they also hate so that herein also a man may assigne and note the difference betweene envie and hatred for that the nature of beasts is capable of the one but not
an houre fled vice and cast it from him fully whereof in a long time before he was not able to be rid of one little portion But you know full well already that those who holde such extravagant opinions as these make themselves worke enough and raise great doubts and questions about this point namely How a man should not perceive and feele himselfe when he is become wise and be either ignorant or doubtfull that this growth and increase commeth in long processe of time by little and a little partly by addition of some thing and partly by subtraction of other untill one arrive gently unto vertue before he can perceive that he is going toward it Now if there were so quicke and sudden a mutation as that he who was to day morning most vicious should become in the evening as vertuous and if there ever were knowen to happen unto any man such a change that going to bed a very foole and so sleeping should awake and rise a wise man and taking his leave of yesterdaies follies errours and deceits say unto them My vaine lying dreames so vaine a-day aday Nought worth you were I now both see and say Is it possible that such a one I say should be ignorant of this sudden change and not perceive so great a difference in himselfe not feele how wisedome all at once hath thus lightened and illuminated his soule for mine owne part I would rather thinke that one upon earnest prayer transformed by the power of the gods from a woman to a man as the tale goes of Caeneus should be ignorant of this Metamorphosis than he who of a coward a foole and a dissolute or loose person become hardie wise sober and temperate or being transported from a sensuall and beastly life unto a divine and heavenly life should not marke the very instant wherin such a change did befall But well it was said in olde time That the stone is to be applied and framed unto the rule and not the rule or squire unto the stone And they the Stoiks I meane who are not willing to accommodat their opinions unto the things indeed but wrest and force against the course of nature things unto their owne conceits and suppositions have filled all philosophie with great difficulties and doubtfull ambiguities of which this is the greatest In that they will seeme to comprise all men excepting him onely whom they imagine perfect under one and the same vice in general which strange supposition of theirs hath caused that this progresse and proceeding to vertue called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seemeth to be a darke and obscure riddle unto them or a meere fiction little wanting of extreame follie and those who by the meanes of this amendment be delivered from all passions and vices that be are held thereby to be in no better state nor lesse wretched and miserable than those who are not free from any one of the most enormious vices in the world and yet they refute and condemne their owne selves for in the disputations which they holde in their schooles they set the injustice of Aristides in equall ballance to that of Phalaris they make the cowardise and feare of Brasides all one with that of Dolon yea and compare the follie or errour of Melitus and Plato together as in no respect different howbeit in the whole course of their life and mangement of their affaires they decline and avoid those as implacable and intractable but these they use and trust in their most important businesse as persons of great worth and regard but we who know and see that in every kinde of sinne or vice but principally in the inordinate and confused state of the soule there be degrees according to more or lesse and that heerein differ our proceedings and amendments according as reason by little and little doth illuminate purge and cleanse the soule in abating and diminishing evermore the visiositie thereof which is the shadow that darkneth it are likewise fully perswaded that it is not without reason to be assured that men may have an evident sense and perceivance of this mutation but as if they were raised out of some deepe and darke pit that the same amendment may be reckoned by degrees in what order it goeth forward In which computation we may goe first and formost directly after this maner and consider whether like as they who under saile set their course in the maine and vast ocean by observing together with the length and space of time the force of the winde that driveth them doe cast and measure how farre they have gone forward in their voiage namely by a probale conjecture how much in such a time and with such a gale of winde it is like that they may passe so also in philosophie a man may give a gesse and conjecture of his proceeding and going forward namely what he may gaine by continuall marching on still without stay or intermission otherwhiles in the mids of the way and then beginning a fresh againe forward but alwaies keeping one pace gaining and getting ground still by the guidance of reason For this rule If little still to little thou do ad A heape at length and mickle will be had was not given respectively to the encrease of summes of money alone and in that point truely spoken but it may likewise extend and reach to other things and namely to the augmentation of vertue to wit when with reason and doctrine continuall use and custome is joyned which maketh mastrie and is effectuall to bring any worke to end and perfection whereas these intermissions at times without order and equalitie and these coole affections of those that studie philosophie make not onely many staies and lets in proceeding forward as it were in a journey but that which is worse cause going backward by reason that vice which evermore lies in wait to set upon a man that idlely standeth still never so little haleth him a contrary way True it is that the Mathematicians do call the planets Stationarie and say they stand still while they cease to moove forward but in our progresse and proceeding in philosophie that is to say in the correction of our life and maners there can be admitted no intervall no pause or cessarion for that our wit naturally being in perpetuall motion in maner of a ballance alwaies casteth with the least thing that is one way or other willing of it selfe either to encline with the better or else is forcibly caried by the contrary to the worse If then according to the oracle delivered unto the inhabitants of Curba which willed them if they minded afterwards to live in peace they should make war both night and day without intermission thou finde in thy selfe and thine owne conscience that thou hast fought continually with vice as well by night as by day or at leastwise that thou hast not often left thy ward and abandoned thy station in the garrison nor continually admitted the
follow that famous Physician Hippocrates who both openly confessed and also put downe in writing that he was ignorant in the Anatomie of a mans head and namely as touching the seames or situres thereof and this account will he make that it were an unworthy indignitie if when such a man as Hippocrates thought not much to publish his owne errour and ignorance for feare that others might fall into the like hee who is willing to save himselfe from perdition can not endure to be reproved nor acknowledge his owne ignorance and follie As for those rules and precepts which are delivered by Pyrrho and Bion in this case are not in my conceit the signes of amendment and progresse so much as of some other more perfect and absolute habit rather of the minde for Bion willed and required his scholars and familiars that conversed with him to thinke then and never before that they had procecded and profited in Philosophie when they could with as good a will abide to heare men revile and raile at them as if they spake unto them in this maner Good sir you seeme no person leawd nor foolish sot iwis All haile Faire chieve you and adieu God send you alwaies blis And Pyrrho as it is reported being upon a time at sea and in danger to be cast away in a tempest shewed unto the rest of his fellow passengers a porket feeding hard upon barley cast before him on ship boord Loe my masters quoth he we ought by reason and exercise in Philosophie to frame our selves to this passe and to attaine unto such an impassibilitie as to be moved and troubled with the accidents of fortune no more than this pig But consider furthermore what was the conceit and opinion of Zeno in this point for hee was of mind that every man might and ought to know whether he profited or no in the schoole of vertue even by his very dreames namely if hee tooke no pleasure to see in his sleepe any filthy or dishonest thing nor delighted to imagine that he either intended did or approved any leawd unjust or outragious action but rather did beholde as in a setled calme without winde weather and wave in the cleere bottome of the water both the imaginative and also the passive facultie of the soule wholly overspread and lightened with the bright beames of reason which Plato before him is it should seeme knowing well enough hath prefigured and represented unto us what fantasticall motions they be that proceed in sleepe from the imaginative sensual part of the soule given by nature to tyrannize overrule the guidance of reason namely if a man dreame that he seeketh to have carnall company with his owne mother or that he hath a great minde and appetite to eate all strange unlawfull and forbidden meats as if then the said tyrant gave himselfe wholy to all those sensualities concupiscences as being let loose at such a time which by day the law either by feare or shame doth represse keepe downe Like as therefore beasts which serve for draught or saddle if they be well taught and trained albeit their governors and rulers let the reines loose and give them the head fling not out nor goe aside from the right way but either draw or make pace forward stil as they were wont ordinarily keepe the same traine and hold on in one course and order even so they whose sensuall part of the soule is made trainable and obedient tame and well schooled by the discipline of reason will neither in dreames nor sicknesses easily suffer the lusts and concupiscences of the flesh to rage or breake out unto any enormities punishable by law but will observe and keepe still in memorie that good discipline and custome which doth ingenerate a certeine power and efficacie unto diligence whereby they shall and will take heed unto themselves for if the mind hath bene used by exercise to resist passions and temptations to hold the bodie and all the members thereof as it were with bit bridle under subjection in such sort that it hath at cōmand the eies not to shed teares for pitty the heart like wise not to leape pant in seare the naturall parts not to rise not stirre but to be still quiet without any trouble at all upon the sight of any faire and beautifull person man or woman how can it otherwise be but that there should be more likelihood that exercise having seized upon the sensuall part of the soule and tamed it should polish lay even reforme and bring unto good order all the imaginations and motions thereof even as farre as to the very dreames and fantasies in sleepe as it is reported of Stilpo the philosopher who dreamed that he saw Neptune expostulating with him in anger because he had not killed a beefe to sacrifice unto him as the manner was of other priests to doe and that himselfe nothing astonied or dismaid at the said vision should answer thus againe What is that thou saist ô Neptune commest thou to complaine indeed like a child who pules and cries for not having a peece big enough that I take not up some money at interest and put my selfe in debt to fill the whole citie with the sent and savor of rost and burnt but have sacrificed unto thee such as I had at home according to my abilitie and in a meane whereupon Neptune as hee thought should merrily smile and reach foorth unto him his right hand promising that for his sake and for the love of him he would that yeere send the Megarians great store of raine and good foison of sea-loaches or fishes called Aphyrae by that meanes comming unto them by whole sculles Such then as while they lie asleepe have no illusions arising in their braines to trouble them but those dreames or visions onely as be joious pleasant plaine and evident not painfull not terrible nothing rough maligne tortuous and crooked may boldly say that these fantasies and apparitions be no other than the reflexions and raies of that light which rebound from the good proceedings in philosophie whereas contrariwise the furious pricks of lust timorous frights unmanly and base flights childish and excessive joies dolorous sorrowes and dolefull mones by reason of some piteous illusions strange and absurd visions appeering in dreames may be well compared unto the broken waves and billowes of the sea beating upon the rocks and craggie banks of the shore for that the soule having not as yet that setled perfection in it selfe which should keepe it in good order but holdeth on a course still according to good lawes onely and sage opinions from which when it is farthest sequestred and most remote to wit in sleepe it suffereth it selfe to returne againe to the old wont and to be let loose and abandoned to her passions But whether these things may be ascribed unto that profit and amendement whereof we treat or rather to some other habitude having now gathered more
above all other things to see unto those goods which we may enjoy during the same and to oppose them against the present griefe and sorrow Afterwards he prooveth by sundrie and diversreasons that banishment is not in it selfe simply naught he 〈◊〉 and laieth open the folly and miserie of those who are too much addicted unto one countiey shewing by notable examples that a wise man may live at ease and contentment in all places that the hubitation in a strangeregion and the same limited and confined straightly withineertaine precincts doth much more good 〈◊〉 than harme that a large countrey lying out farre everie way maketh a man never a whit the more happie whereas contraiwise to be enclosed and pent up bringesh many commodities with it 〈◊〉 that this is the onely life and that is no life at all to be evermoreflitting to and fro from place to place Now when he hath beautified this theame abovesaid with many faire 〈◊〉 and proper in ductions he comforteth those who are de barred and excluded from any citie or province resuting with very good and sound arguments certaine persons who held banishment for a note of infamie shewing withall that it is nothing else but sinne and vice which bringeth a man into a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and condition concluding by the examples of Anaxagoras and Socrates that neither imprisonment nor death can enthrall or make miserable the man who loveth vertue And contrariwise he giveth us to under stand by theexamples of Phaëthon and Icarus that vitious and sinfull persons fall datly and continually one way or other into most grievous calamities through their owne audaciousnes and follie OF EXILE OR BANISHMENT SEmblable is the case of wise sentences and of good friends the best and most and assured be those reputed which are present with us in our calamities not in vaine and for a shew but to aide and succour us for many there be who will not sticke to present themselves yea and be ready to conferre and talke with their friends in time of adversitie howbeit to no good purpose at all but rather with some danger to themselves like as unskilfull divors when they goe about to helpe those that are at point to be drowned being clasped about the body sinke together with themfor company Now the speeches and discourses which come from friends and such as would seeme to be helpers ought to tend unto the consolation of the partie afflicted and not to the defence and justification of the thing that afflicteth for little need have we of such persons as should weepe and lament with us in our tribulations distresses as the maner is of the Chori or quires in Tragedies but those rather who will speake their minds frankely unto us and make remonstrance plainly That for a man to be sad and sorrowfull to afflict and cast downe himselfe is not onely every way bootlesse and unprofitable but also most vaine and foolish but where the adverse occurrents themselves being well handled and managed by reason when they are discovered what they be give a man occasion to say thus unto himselfe Thou hast no cause thus to complaine unlesse thou be dispos'd to faine A meere ridiculous follie it were to aske either of bodie and flesh what it aileth or of soule what it suffereth and whether by the occurrence of this accident it fare worse than before but to have recourse unto strangers without to teach us what our griefe is by wailing sorrowing and grieving together with us and therefore when wee are apart and alone by our selves wee ought ech one to examine our owne heart and soule about all and every mishap and infortunitie yea and to peise and weigh them as if they were so many burdens for the bodie is pressed downe onely by the weight of the fardell that loadeth it but the soule often times of it selfe giveth a surcharge over and above the things that molest it A stone of the owne nature is hard and yce of it selfe colde neither is there any thing without that giveth casually to the one the hardnesse to resist or to the other the coldnesse to congeale but banishments disgraces repulse and losse of dignitie as also contrariwise crownes honours sovereigne magistracies preeminences and highest places being powerfull either to afflict or rejoice hearts in some measure more or lesse not by their owne nature but according to judgement and opinion every man maketh to himselfe light or heavie easie to be borne or contrariwise intolerable whereupon we may heare Polynices answering thus to the demand made unto him by his mother How then is it a great calamitie To quit the place of our nativitie POLYNICES The greatest crosse of all it is doubtlesse And more indeed than my tongue can expresse but contrariwise you shall heare Aleman in another song according to a little Epigram written of him by a certeine Poet At Sardes where mine ance stours sometime abode did make If I were bred and nourished my surname I should take Of some Celinus or Bacelus in robes of golde arai'd And jewels fine while I upon the tabour plai'd But now Alcman I cleped am and of that Sparta great A citizen and poet for in Greekish muse my vaine Exalts me more than Dascyles or Gyges tyrants twaine for it is the opinion and nothing els that causeth one and the same thing to be unto some good and commodious as currant and approved money but to others unprofitable and hurtfull But set case that exile be a grievous calamitie as many men doe both say and sing even so among those meats which we eat there be many things bitter sharpe hote and biting in taste howbeit by mingling therewith somewhat which is sweet and pleasant we take away that which disagreeth with nature like as there be colours also offensive to the sight in such sort as that the eies be much dazled and troubled therewith by reason of their unpleasant hew or excessive and intolerable brightnesse If then for to remedie that inconvenience by such offensive and resplendent colours we have devised meanes either to intermingle shadowes withall or turne away our eies from them unto some greene and delectable objects the semblable may we doe in those sinister and crosse accidents of fortune namely by mixing among them those good and desireable blessings which a man presently doth enjoy to wit wealth and abundance of goods a number of friends and the want of nothing necessarie to this life for I do not thinke that among the Sardinians there be many who would not be very wel content with those goods and that estate which you have even in exile and chuse rather with your condition of life otherwise to live from home and in a strange countrey than like snailes evermore sticking fast to their shels be without all good things els enjoy only that which they have at home in peace without trouble and molestation Like as therefore in a certaine Comaedie there was one who exhorted
actions for the better management of publike affaires for it is no pleasure neither is it easie to doe them good who are not willing to profit and receive good and the disposition of the will proceedeth from beliefe and confidence Like as the light doth more good unto them that see than to those who are seene even so is honour more profitable unto them who perceive and feele the same than to such as are neglected and contemned But hee who dealeth not in affaires of State who liveth to himselfe and setteth downe his felicitie in such a life apart from others in rest and repose saluteth a farre off vaine-glorie and popularitie which others joy in who be conversant in the view and sight of people and in frequent assemblies and theaters much like unto Hippolytus who living chaste saluted the goddesse Venus a great way off but as for the other glory which proceedeth from men of woorth and honour he neither refuseth nor disdaineth it Now when as the question is of amitie we are not to seeke for it and to contract friendship onely with such as be wealthie have the glorie credit and authoritie of great lords no more than we ought to avoid these qualities if the same be joined with a gentle nature which is of faire and honest conditions The Philosopher seeketh not after beautifull and wel-favoured yoong men but such as be docible tractable well disposed and desirous of knowledge but if withall they be endued with beautifull visage with a good grace and are in the flower of youth this ought not to fright him from thence neither must the lovely casts of their countenance and amiable aspects drive him from comming neere unto those nor chase him away if he see them worthy paines taking and for to be regarded Thus when power riches and princely authoritie shall be found in men of good nature who be moderate and civill the philosopher will not forbeare to love and cherish such neither be afraid to be called a courtier or follower of great personages They that strive most dame Venus to eschue Do fault as much as they who her pursue Even so it is with the amitie of princes and great potentates and therefore the contemplative philosopher who will not deale at al in affaires of weale-publicke must not avoid and shun such but the civill philosopher who is busied in managing of the common weale ought to seeke for them and finde them out not forcing them after a troublesome maner to heare him nor charging their eares with reports and discourses that be unseasonable and sophisticall but framing himselfe willingly to joy in their companie to discourse to passe the time with them when they are willing and so disposed Twelve journeis long are Berecynthian plaines And those I sowe yeerely with sundry graines He that said this if he had loved men as well as he affected husbandry and tillage would more willingly have plowed and sowed that ground which is able to maintaine and feed so many men then that little close or pindle of Antisthenes which hardly was sufficient to find himselfe alone Certes Epicurus who placed the soveraigne good and felicitie of man in most sound rest and deepe repose as in a sure harbour or haven defended and covered from all windes and surging waves of the world saith That to doe good unto another is not onely more honest and honorable than to receive a benefite at anothers hand but also more pleasant and delectable for there is nothing that begetteth so much joy as doth beneficence which the Greekes terme by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Grace Well advised he was therefore and of wise judgement who imposed these names upon the three Graces Aglaia Euphrosyne and Thalia for without all question the joy and contentment is farre greater and more pure in him who doeth a good turne and deserveth a thanke than in the partie who receiveth the same and therefore it is that many times men doe blush for shame when a good turne is done unto them whereas alwaies they rejoice when they confer a benefite or favour upon another Now do they a benefit unto a whole multitude and nation who are the meanes to make those good whom the people and multitude can not misse but have need of whereas contrariwise they that corrupt and spoile princes kings and great rulers as doe these flatterers false sycophants and slaunderous promoters are abominable unto all are chased out and punished by all like unto those that cast deadly poison not into one cup of wine but into a fountaine or spring that runneth for to serve in publike and where of they see all persons use to drinke Like as therefore according to Eupolis it is said onely by way of mockerie concerning those flatterers and comicall parasites who hanted the table of rich Callias that there was neither fire brasse nor steele that could keepe them out but they would come to sup with him but as for the minions and favorites of tyrant Apollodorus Phalarit or Dionysius after the decease of their lords and masters the people fell upon them did beat them with cudgels torture upon the rack burne at a stake range them with the accursed and damned crew for that they before named did wrong to one alone but these did injurie unto many by the meanes of corrupting one who was their ruler even so those philosophers that converse and keepe companie with private persons do cause them to be well contented pleasant gracious and harmelesse to their owne selves and no more but whosoever reformeth some evill conditions in a great ruler or soveraigne magistrate framing and directing his will and intention to that which he ought this man I say after a sort is a philosopher to the publike State in that he doth correct the mould and amend the pattern to which all the subjects be composed and according to it governed The cities and states which be well ruled decree and yeeld honour and reverence to their priests for that they doe pray unto the gods for good things not in regard of themselves nor of their kinsfolke and friends alone but universally in the behalfe of all the citizens and yet these priests doe not make the gods good nor the givers of good things but being such alreadie of themselves to them they powre their praiers make invocations But philosophers who live and converse with princes and great lords cause them to be more just and righteous more moderate and better affected to well doing by meanes whereof it is like that they receive more joie and contentment And if I should speake my conceit it seemeth unto me that the harpe-maker wrought and made his harpe more cheerefully and with greater pleasure when he knew that the master owner of the said harpe should build the wals about the citie Thebes as Amphion did or to staie and appease the great civil sedition of the Lacedaemonians by singing
our selves to confirme and approve those praises and to give testimonie thereof against our owne minde a thing more beseeming vile and base flatterie than true honour namely if we can abide to praise any in presence Howbeit although this be most true and that the case standeth so such occurrences may so fall out that an honourable person who manageth the politike affaires of a common-wealth may hazzard and venture boldly to speake of himselfe and in his owne behalfe for his advantage not in regard of any glory grace or pleasure to gaine thereby but for that the occasion or action that is presented requireth that he should speake and give testimonie of himselfe as he would and might doe of any other matter of trueth especially when the deeds by him atchieved or the parts that be in him be good and honest then he is not to forbeare or spare to speake hardly that he hath done so or els much like for surely such a praise as this bringeth forth good fruit and out of it as from a fruitfull graine or seed there proceed many other praises those farre greater And certes a civill and politike man doeth not desire and love honour as a salarie solace or recompense for his vertuous actions but for that to have the credit and reputation among others of a trustie and faithfull person in whom men may repose their trust and confidence doth affoord him good meanes and occasions to performe many other greater and more goodlier actions for a pleasant and easie matter it is to benefit them who love thee and put their trust in thee whereas on the contrary side exceeding hard it is or rather impossible to make use of vertue and to imploy it to the good of those who have thee in suspition or be ready to raise false calumniations against thee and so to force them who do avoid the meanes of receiving any good and pleasure at thy hands Moreover it would be considered what other occasions there may be for which a man of honour and honestie may praise himselfe to the end that by taking good heed and avoiding of that which in selfe-praise is so vaine and odious we faile not to serve our turnes with the profit and commodity that may come thereby Now of all others most foolish is their praise who commend themselves to this end that they would be praised of others and such praise as this we hold most contemptible for that it seemeth to proceed from ambition and an unseasonable appetite of vaine-glory onely for like as those who have no other food to feed upon be constreined to eat the flesh of their owne bodies against nature which is the very extremity and end of famine even so those that hunger after honour and praise if they can not meet with others to praise them fall to praise themselves wherein their behaviour is unseemly and shamefull for that upon a love of vaine-glory they are desirous to make a supply and sufficiency from their owne selves but yet when as they go not simply to worke nor seeke to be praised by themselves but upon a certaine emulation and jealousie of other mens praises they come to compare and oppose their owne deeds for to dim and darken the actions of others then over and besides their vanity they adde thereto envie and malice for according to the common proverbe He is curious and ridiculous who setteth his foot in another mans daunce but upon envie and jealousie to thrust a mans selfe betweene the praises of others and to interrupt the same with his owne selfe-praise is a thing that wee ought to beware of and not onely so but also to take heed that wee suffer not others at such a time to praise us but gently to yeeld honour unto those who are worthy to be praised and honoured and if peradventure they be unworthy and deserve not the same yet ought not wee to deprive them of the praises which are given unto them by interposing our owne but rather stand up against them convince them openly and prove by evident and pregnant reasons that there is no cause why they should be reputed so great and be so highly honoured As touching this point therefore plaine and evident it is that we ought not so to doe howbeit a man may praise himselfe without blame first and formost if he do it by way of his owne defence in answering to a slander raised or an imputation charged upon him like as Pericles did in Thucydides where he uttereth these words And yet you my masters of Athens are angrie with me who may vaunt of my selfe to be such an one as need not to give place unto any whatsoever either in foresight and knowledge of that which is behovefull to the common-wealth or in eloquence and delivery thereof or in love to the State or in sincere integrity free from all corruption bribery and avarice against which I stand invincible for in speaking thus magnificently of himselfe in such a case he did not onely avoid the blame and reproch of vanity of arrogancy and presumptuous ambition but also that which more is he shewed withall his wisedome and greatnesse yea and the magnanimitie of vertue which was so farre from being humbled and dejected that it rather conquered and held under hand envie insomuch as others hearing such men speake in this wise proceed not any farther nor be willing to judge and censure them but are caried away and ravished with a certaine joy yea and inspired as it were from heaven to heare such brave vanteries namely if the persons be constant and the reports which they make true according as the effects which follow do testifie The Thebanes verily at what time as their captaines were accused for that when the terme of their government and magistracie called Boeotarchia was expired they returned not incontinently home but made an invasion and entred in armes into Laconia and dealt in the administration of affaires about the citie of Messaene hardly and with much adoo assoiled and quit Pelopidas when he humbled himselfe and became a suppliant unto them for pardon but contrariwise when Epaminondas came and recounted in magnificent words those brave exploits which he had atchieved in that voiage and at the same time protesting in the ende that he was prest and readie to take his death so that they would confesse and acknowledge that mauger their minds and against their wils he had pilled and spoiled Laconia repeopled Messaene and reduced into a league and amitie with them all the cities of Arcadia they had not the heart so much as to give their voices and suffrages in any sentence of condemnation against him but departed out of the assembly admiring the haughtie courage of the man and rejoicing with mirth and laughter to heare him plead him cause with resolution And therefore the speech of Sthenelus in Homer is not simply and altogether to be reprooved when he saith Pronounce I dare and it avow
absurd to use certaine corrections of praises in this case as for example If one haply in our presence fall to praise us for being eloquent learned rich or in great reputation to pray him not to give such reports of us but rather for to commend us if we be good and bountiful hurtful to none and profitable to many for in so doing we seem not to confer praises upon our selves but to transfer them not to take pleasure in them that praise us but rather to be grieved and displeased that we are not praised for such things as we ought nor as we should as also to hide the woorse qualities under the better not so much willing and desirous to be praised as to teach how it is meet to praise for this manner of speech neither with stone nor bricke have I fortified and walled this citie but if you will needs know how I have fensed it you shall finde that I have furnished it with armor horses confederates and allies seemeth to come neere and tend unto such a rule yea and the saying of Pericles toucheth it neerer for when the hower of his death now approched and that he was to goe out of this world his kinsfolke and familiar friends weeping wailing and grieving thereat as good reason was called to minde and rehearsed the armies that hee had conducted the expeditions which hee had made his puissance that he had borne as also how many victories he had atchieved what Trophees he had erected what townes cities he had conquered and laid to the seignorie of the Athenians all which he now should leave behind him but he lifting up himselfe a little reproved and blamed them greatly for relating and alledging those praises which were common to manie and whereof some were more due to fortune than to vertue whiles they omitted and let passe the greatest and most beawtifull commendation of all others and that which truely and indeed properly belonged unto him namely that for his sake there was never any Athenian that put on blacke or wore a mourning gowne this example of his giveth both unto an oratour if he be praised for his singular eloquence meanes and occasion to transferre the praise unto his life and maners and also to a warrior generall captaine who is had in admiration for his martiall prowesse experience or fortunate successe in wars to stand rather upon his clemencie and justice and thereof freely to discourse And contrariwise againe when a man hath excessive praises heaped upon him as the manner commonly of many is by way of flatterie to give those commendations which moove envie meet it is to use such a speech as this With gods in heaven above I have no share To them therefore why dost thou me compare But if thou knowest me aright and takest me truely for such an one as I am praise these good parts in me that I am uncorrupt and not overtaken with gifts and briberie that I am sober and temperate that I am sensible reasonable full of equitie and humanitie For the nature of envie is willingly to yeeld unto him that refuseth the greater praises those that be lesse and more modest neither depriveth she of true commendation those who will not admit and receive false and vaine praises and therefore men thinke not much to honor those Kings and Princes who who are unwilling to be stiled gods or the children of gods but rather to be intituled either Philadelphi that is Kinde to brothers and sisters or Philometores that is Loving to their mothers or Euergetoi that is Benefactors or else Theophiles that is Deerely beloved of the gods which are goodly and beawtifull denominations meet for men and good princes like as againe those who hardly will endure them that either in writing or speaking attribute unto them the name of Sophi that is Sages or wise men can well abide to heare those who name them Philosophi that is Lovers of wisedome or such as say of them that they profit in the study of wisedome or give them such like attribute as is modest and not subject to envie whereas these ambitious Rhetoritians and vaine-glorious Sophisters who in their orations to shew their learning expect these and such like acclamations from their auditorie O divine and angel-like speech ô heavenly and magnifically spoken lose withall this commendation as to be said for to have delivered their minde modestly courteously and as becommeth civill men Certes like as they who be loth and take heed to offend and hurt them that are bleere-eied or otherwise given to the paine and inflamation of them do mingle among the gallant and lively colours some duskish shadowes even so some there be who in rehearsing their owne praises not altogether resplendent cleere without any mixture at all but intermedled with some imperfections defects and light faults among by that meanes discharge themselves of the heavie load of envie and hatred Thus Epireus in Homer giving out glorious words of his wrestling and buffet-fight vaunting bravely of his valour As if he would his teene and anger wreake Upon him and with fists his boanes all breake said withall Is 't not enough that herein I do vant For other skill in combat I do want But haply this man is woorthy to be mocked and laughed at who for to excuse his arrogant braverie of a wrestler and champion bewraied and confessed that otherwise he was but a fearefull coward whereas contrariwise that man is of judgement civil also and gracious besides who alledgeth against himselfe some oblivion or ignorance some ambitious spirit or els a desire to heare and learne the Sciences and other knowledge like as Ulysses when he said But lo my minde desirous was to hearken and give eare I will'd my mates me to unlose that I might go more neare And againe in another place Although much better it had beene yet would I not beleeve But see his person and then trie if gifts he would me give To be short all sorts of faults so they be not altogether dishonest and over-base if they be set unto praises rid them of all envie and hatred and many other there be who interposing a confession of povertie want of experience yea and beleeve me their base parentage among their praises cause them thereby to be lesse odious and envied Thus Agathocles as he sat drinking unto yoong men out of golde and silver plate right curiously wrought commanded other vessels of stone earth and potters worke to be set upon the table saying unto them Lo quoth he what it is to persevere in travell to take paines and adventure valiantly for wee in times past made those pots pointing to the earthen vessell but see now we make these shewing the plate of golde and silver and verily it seemed that Agathocles by reason of his base birth and povertie was brought up in some potters forge who afterward became the absolute monarch almost of all Sicilie Thus it appeareth what remedies may
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
favors at his hands ceased not to backbite and slander him made them this answer What thinke you will they doe then if I should worke them a shrewd turne semblablie when make-bate women shall come twatling and say How doth your husband misuse you loving him and making so much of him as you doe in all dutie and loialty your answere must be What will become of me then if I should begin to hate him and doe him injurie 36 A certeine master there was upon a time who espied a slave of his that was long before runne away and when he had set his eie upon him ranne apace for to take hold of him the poore slave fled still and gat at length a mil-house over his head That 's happie quoth the master to himselfe I would not wish to meet with him in a better place even so a woman who upon jealousie is upon the point to be divorced and depart from her husband and being ill appaid in her mind for being driven to this hard exigent should thus speake unto herselfe What is it that my concurrent who is the cause of this my jealousie can wish in her heart to content her better than to see me do this whereabout I am namely to vexe and torment my selfe thus as I do to be so far out and in such tearmes with my husband abandoning his house and forsaking our mariage bed 37 The Athenians observe and celebrate three seasons of sacred seednesse in the yeere the first in the isle Scyros in memoriall of the first invention of tillage and sowing in that countrey the second in a place called Raria and the third under their owne citie walles which they call Buzygion in remembrance of yoking oxen to the plough but the nuptiall tillage as I may so say which is imploied for issue and procreation of children and to mainteine our race and posterity is the most sacred of all other and ought to be observed with all holinesse And therefore Sophocles well and wisely gave this attribute unto Cytherea or Venus when hee named her Eucarpos that is Fertile or Fruitfull in which regard man and wife lawfully joined in matrimonie are to use the same religiously and with all precisenesse absteining wholly from all incestuous illegitimate and forbidden conjunctions and not plowing or sowing there whereas they are not willing to reape or if it chance that there come up any fruit they are ashamed thereof and willing to hide and conceale it 38 Gorgias the oratour in a great assembly at the Olympian games made a solemne oration to the Greeks who were met there from all parts exhorting them to live in peace unitie and concord one with another at which speech of his one Melanthius there present This man quoth he telleth us a tale of unitie and exhorteth us all to concord here in publike who can not perswade in his private house at home himselfe his owne wife her chamber-maid to agree and live peaceably together being but three in all and no more for it should seeme that Gorgias cast a fancie to the said wench and his wife was jealous of her and therefore his house and familie ought to be in good order who will busie himselfe and intermeddle in ordering of publike affaires or composing of matters among friends for commonly it falleth out that the faults which we commit against our wives be more divulged abroad in the world than the misdemeanours of our wives 39 Cats are much offended they say with the odour and sent of sweet perfumes insomuch as they will runne mad therewith if it chance likewise that a woman can not away with such perfumes but that her braines be thereby troubled and ready to overturne her husband were of a very strange nature and should deale hardly with her in case he would not forbeare to use sweet ointments or strong senting odours but for a little pleasure of his owne to suffer her for to fall into so great inconvenience and to neglect her contentment Now if it be so that such accidents of brain-sicknesse happen unto women not when their busbands be perfumed but when they are given to keepe queanes and love harlots it were meere injustice in them for a small pleasure of their owne to offend and disquiet their wives and not to doe so much for their sake as those who come among bees who for that purpose will not touch their owne wives for the time because bees as it is said hate such and are ready to sting them above all others but cary so bad a minde with them as to come and lie by their owne wives side being polluted and defiled with the filthie companie of other strumpets 40 They that have the government of elephants never put on white raiment when they come about them no more do they weare red clothes who approch neere unto bulles for that these beasts before named are afraid of such colours especially and grow fierce and wood therewith It is said moreover that tygers when they heare the sound of drummes or tabours about them become enraged and in a furious madnesse all to teare themselves Seeing it is so therefore that there be some men who can not abide but are highly displeased to see their wives in their scarlet purple robes and others againe who can not away with the sound of cymbals or tabours what harme is it if their wives wil forbeare both the one and the other for feare of provoking and offending their husbands and live with them without unquiet brawles and janglings in all repose and patience 41 A certeine yong woman when king Philip plucked and haled her unto him against her will Hand off good sir quoth she and let me goe all cats be gray in the darke and when the candle is out all women are alike It is not amisse to say so I confesse unto dissolute persons and adulterers but an honest married dame ought especially when the light is gone not to be all one with other common naughty packs but even then when as her body can not be seene to let her chastitie honestie and pure love to her husband appeare most that it may be well seene that she keepeth herselfe for him alone 42 Plato exhorted elder folke to behave themselves more modestly before yong persons than any other that so they might learne also to reverence their elders and be respecteous of them for where olde people be shamelesse it is not possible to imprint any shame or grace in the yonger Now ought an husband evermore to cary in remembrance this precept To have none in the world in better respect and more reverence than his owne wife forasmuch as the bed-chamber is unto her a schoole-house either of chastity and pudicity or els of loosenesse and incontinence for the husband that followeth those pleasures himselfe which he debarreth his wife of doth as much as bid his wife to fight with those enemies unto whom he hath already yeelded
one as the other Tush quoth Alexidemus these are but words for verie deed I have observed that even you who would be counted Sages and wise men lay for meanes enough to make your selves honored and with that he passed by us and went his way Now as we mused and woondered much at this strange fashion and behaviour of the man Thales turning unto us This man quoth he is a brain-sicke foole and of a monstrous nature as you may well know by one tricke that he plaied when he was a verie youth for when there was brought unto Thrasybulus his father a most excellent sweet and precious ointment he powred it out all into a great boll or standing cup and wine-likwise upon it and when he had so done drunke it up himselfe every drop working by this meanes enmitie in stead of friendship to Thrasybulus Immediately after this there comes to me a servitor with these words Periander requesteth you to take Thales this other stranger with you and to come and see a thing that is newly presented and brought unto him for to know your opinon whether he is to take it as an occurrent happened by meere chance or rather a prodigie that doth presage and prognosticate some strange event for he himselfe is much troubled in minde thereat and mightily feareth that it be some pollution or staine to this his feastivall sacrifice hee had no sooner said this but he brought us into one of the housen that stood upon the garden where we found a yoong lad seeming unto us to be some heard-man he had not yet an haire on his face and otherwise beleeve me he was faire enough and well-favoured who opening a leather poke or bag that he had shewed unto us a yoong monstrous babe which as he said was borne of a mare in the upper parts about the necke and armes shaped like a man but all the rest resembling an horse howbeit crying and wrawling as like as possibly might be to an infant new come into the world at which sight Niloxenus turning his face at one side cried out God blesse us turne away his displeasure from us But Thales after he had looked wistly a good while upon the yoong lad aforesaid smiled at the matter as his maner was to play and make good game with me about mine art Are you not minded quoth he ô Diocles to go about some 〈◊〉 sacrifice for this prodigious sight and to set on worke those gods whose care and charge it is to divert such imminent perils and misfortunes this being as it is so fearfull a prodigie and unluckie accident How else quoth I againe for I assure you this is a token presaging discord and sedition and I much feare lest this matter proceed as farre as to marriages and the act of generation even to the prejudice of posteritie considering that the goddesse before the expation and satisfaction of her former anger threatneth thus the second time as you see Thales answered never a word to this but departed laughing And when Periander met us at the verie hall doore and enquired what we thought of this strange occurrent which we went to see Thales left me and taking him by the hand As touching that quoth he which Diocles wil perswade you unto do you as he willeth you at your best leasure for mine owne part mine advise and counsell unto you is that you entertaine no more such youthes as this to keepe your mares or at least-wise that you give them wives to wed At the hearing of which words it seemed unto me that Periander was exceeding well pleased for he laughed a good and after he had embraced Thales kissed him Then Thales turning unto me I suppose verily quoth he ô Diocles that this prodigious token hath wrought the effect and is come to an end alreadie for see you not what an evill accident is befallen unto us in that Alexidemus will not dine with us Well when wee were come within the hall Thales beginning to speake with a loude voice And where is the place quoth he wherein this honest man thought scorne tooke such snuffe to be set which when it was shewed unto him he turned about and went to sit there himselfe and so took us with him saying withall I would for mine owne part have given any money rather than failed to sit at the same boord with Ardalus Now was this Ardalus a Troezenian by profession a Piper and a Priest serving the Ardalian Muses whose images ancient Ardalus the Troezenian had erected and dedicated Then Aesope who not long before had beene sent by king Croesus as well to Periander as to the oracle of Apollo in the citie of Delphos being set upon a low settle neere to Solon who sat above him came in with his fable and thus said A mule quoth he of Lydia having beheld the forme and shape of his owne body within a river and woondring much at the beautie and goodly stature thereof began to runne with full cariere to fling and shake his head and his maine like a lustie brave horse but within a while remembring that hee was an asses sonne and foaled by an asse he staid his swift course all on a sudden and laid away his pride and insolent braverie At these words Chilo briefly in his Laconian language Thou hast told quoth he a tale by thine owne selfe who being a slow-backe like and asse will needs runne as the said mule After this entered in dame Melissa and tooke her place close unto Periander Eumetis also sate downe to supper with them Then Thales addressed his speech unto me who sate next above Bias and said My friend Diocles how hapneth it that you tell not Bias that your friend and guest Niloxenus of Naucratia is come from beyond sea the second time sent from his lord the King unto him with new questions and riddles for to assoile to the end that he may take knowledge of them while he is sober and in case for to studie and thinke upon their solutions Then Bias taking the word out of his mouth It hath bene quoth he his old fashions of long time for to seeme to fright astonish me with such admonitions advertisements as these as for me I know ful wel that as Bacchus otherwise is a wise and powerfull god so in regard of his wisedome he is surnamed Lysius which is as much to say as unfolding and undooing the knots of all difficulties which is the cause that I have no feare at all that if I be full of him I shal bee lesse heartie and able to mainteine the combat when I come to it and am put to dispute These and such like pleasant speeches passed to and fro in meriment as they sat at meat Now when I saw the setting out and provision of this supper more frugall and sparie than ordinarie I thought in my minde that to make a feast and give enterteinment to wise and good men putteth a man
thereof to himselfe like as in times past at Athens Stratocles and Dromoclidas with those about them for to go unto their golden harvest for so by way of jest and merrie speech they called the Tribunall seat and publike pulpit where orations were made unto the people no nor upon any fit of a sudden passion that commeth upon him as Cajus Gracchus did at Rome sometime who at the verie time when his brothers troubles were hot and his death fresh and new retired for a while out of the way and betooke himselfe to a private course of life farre remote from the common-wealth affaires but afterwardes being suddenly enkindled and inflamed againe with choler upon certaine outragious dealings and opprobrious wordes given him by some would needes in all the haste upon a spleene rush into the government of State and quickly had his handes full of businesses and his ambitious humour was soone fed and satisfied but then when as he would with all his heart have withdrawen himselfe changed his life and taken his repose he could not by any meanes lay downe his authoritie and puissance to such greatnes it was growen but was killed before he could bring that about As for these who compasse and dresse themselves as plaiers for to act upon the scaffold in some great Theater and champions to contend with other concurrents or else aime at vaine-glorie it can not be but they must needs repent of that which they have done especially when they once see that they must serve those whom they thought they were woorthie to rule or that they can not chuse but displease them whom they were desirous to gratifie and content And verily this is my conceit of such that they runne headlong upon policie and State matters like unto those who by some misadventure and sooner than they looked for be fallen into a pit for it can not otherwise be but they be woonderously disquieted seeing the depth thereof and wish they had never come there but were out againe whereas they who considerately and upon good deliberation goe downe into the said pit carrie themselves soberly with quietnes and contentment of spirit they are vexed offended and dismaied at nothing as who at their first entrie put on a resolute minde proposing unto themselves vertue and their dutie onely and intending no other thing for to be the scope and end of all their actions Thus when as men have well grounded their choise in themselves untill it be so surely setled confirmed that unneth or hardly it can be altered or changed then they ought to bend all their wits to the consideration and knowledge of the nature of their citizens and subjects whose charge they have undertaken or at leastwise of that disposition which being compounded as it were of them all appeereth most and carrieth greatest sway among them For at the verie first and all at once to goe about a change and to order and to reforme the nature of a whole comminaltie were an enterprise neither easie to be effected nor safe to bee practised as being a thing that requireth long time and great authoritie and power But doe they must as wine doth in our bodies which at the beginning is moistned as it were and overcome by the nature of him who drunke it but afterwards by gentle warming his stomacke and by little and little entring into his veines it becommeth of strength to affect the drinker and make a change and alteration in him semblably a wise politician and governor untill such time as he hath wonne by the confidence reposed in him and the good reputation that he hath gotten so much authority among the people that he is not able to rule and lead them at his pleasure will accommodate and apply himselfe to their manners and fashions such as he findeth them and thereby conjecture and consider their humors untill he know wherein they take pleasure whereto they are inclined and what it is wherewith they will soonest be lead and carried away As for example the Athenians as they are given to be hastie and cholericke so they be as soone turned to pitie and mercy more willing to entertaine a suspition quickly than to have patience and at leasure to be enformed and take certaine knowledge of a thing and as they be more enclined and readie to succour base persons and of low condition so they love embrace and esteeme merrie words and pleasant conceits delivered in game and laughter more than sage and serious sentences they are best pleased when they heare themselves praised and least offended againe with those that flout and mocke them terrible they are and dread to their verie rulers and magistrates and yet courteous and milde enough even to the pardoning of their professed enemies The nature of the Carthaginian people is farre otherwise bitter fell fierce sterne and full of revenge obsequious to their betters and superiours churlish and imperious over their inferiours and underlings in feare most base and cowardly in anger most cruell firme and constant in their resolution and where they have taken a pitch hard to be mooved with any sports pastimes and jolitie and in one word rough untractable You should not have seene these fellowes if Cleon had requested them sitting in counsell forasmuch as he had sacrificed unto the gods and was minded to feast some strangers that were his friends and come to visit him to put off their assembly to another day to arise laughing and clapping their hands for joy nor if whiles Alcibiades was a making unto them a solemne oration a quaile should have escaped from under his gowne and gotten away would they have runne after her away to catch her and given her to him againe nay they would have fallen all upon him they would have killed them both in the place as if they had contemned them and made fooles of them considering that the banished captaine Hanno because in the campe and armie when he marched he used a lion as a sumpter horse to carrie some of his baggage saying that this savoured strongly of a man that affected tyrannie Neither do I thinke that the Thebanes could ever have contained themselves but have opened the letters of their enemies if they had come into their hands like as the Athenians did who having surprized king Philips posts and curriers would never suffer one of their letters missive to be broke open which had the superscription to Queene Olympias my wife nor discover the love-secrets and merrie conceits passing from an husband being absent in another countrey and writing to his wife Neither doe I thinke that the Athenians on the other side would have endured and borne with patience the proude spirit and scornefull contempt of Epaminondas who would not make answere to an imputation charged against him before the bodie of the people of Thebes but arose out of the Theater where the people was assembled and thorow them all went his way and departed into the place of
and readie to be spoken withall whosoever comes having his house open alwaies as it were an haven or harbour of refuge to as many as have occasion to use him Neither is this debonairity and care of his seene onely in the businesse and affaires of such as employ him but also in this that he will as well rejoice with them who have had any fortunate and happie successe as condole greeve with those unto whom there is befallen any calamitie or misfortune never will he be knowen to be troublesome and looke for double diligence of a number of servitors and verlets to waite upon him to the baines or stouphes nor to keepe a stir for taking up and keeping of places for him and his traine at the theaters where plaies and pastimes are to bee seene ne yet desire to be conspicuous and of great marke above others in any outward signes of excessive delights and sumptuous superfluities but shew himselfe to be equall like and sutable to others in apparell in his fare and furniture at the table in the education and nouriture of his children in the keeping of his wife for her state and array and in one word be willing to carrie and demeane himselfe in all things as an ordinary and plaine citizen bearing no greater port and shew than others of the common multitude moreover at hand to give advise and counsell friendly to every man in his affaires ready to enterteine defend follow their causes as an advocate freely and without taking fee or any consideration whatsoever to reconcile man and wife when they be at ods to make love-daies and peace betweene friends not spending one little peece of the day for a shew at the tribunall seat or in the hall of audience for the common-wealth and then afterwards all the day the rest of his life drawing unto himselfe al dealings all negotiations and affaires from everie side for his owne particular behoofe and profit like unto the north-east winde Caecias which evermore gathereth the clouds unto it but continually bending his minde and occupying his head in carefull studie for the weale publike and in effect making it appeere unto the world that the life of a State-man and a governor is not as the common sort thinke it easie and idle but a continuall action and publike function by which fashions and semblable courses that he taketh he gaineth and winneth unto him the hearts of the people who in the end come to know that all the flattering devises and entisements of others be nothing else but false baits and bastard allurements in comparison of his prudence and carefull diligence The flatterers about Demetrius vouchsafed not to call any other princes and potentates of his time Kings but would have Seleucus to be named the Commander of the elephants Lysimachus the keeper of the treasurie Ptolomeus the admirall of the sea and Agathocles the governour of the islands But the people although peradventure at the first they reject a good wise and sage person among them yet in the end after they have seene his truth and knowen his disposition and kinde nature they will repute him onely to bee popular politike and woorthie to be a magistrate indeed and as for the rest they wil both repute and call one the warden and setter out of the plaies another the great feaster and a third the president of games combats and publike exercises Moreover like as at the feasts and bankets that Callias or Alcibiades were at the cost to make none but Socrates was heard to speake and all mens eies were cast upon Socrates even so in cities and States governed aright well may Ismenias deale largesses Lichas make feasts and Niceratus defray the charges of plaies but Epaminondas Aristides Lysander and such as they are those which beare the magistracie they governe at home they command and conduct armies abroad Which being well and duly considered there is no cause why you should be discouraged or dismaid at the reputation and credit that they win among the people who have for them builded theaters and erected shew-places founded halles of great receit and purchased for them common places of sepulture for to burie their dead all which glorie lasteth but a while neither hath it any great matter or venerable substance in it but vanisheth away like smoke and is gone even assoone as either the plaies in such theaters or games in shew-places are done and ended They that have skill and experience of keeping and feeding bees doe hold opinion and saie that those hives wherein the bees yeeld the biggest sound make most humming and greatest stir within like best are most sound healthfull and yeeld most store of home but he upon whom God hath laid the charge and care of the reasonable swarme as I may say and civill societie of men will judge the happinesse and blessed state thereof most of all by the quietnesse and peace therein and in all other things he will approove the ordinances and statutes of Solon endevoring to follow and observe the same to his full power but doubt hee will and marvell what hee should meane by this when he writeth that he who in a civill sedition would not range himselfe to a side and take part with one or other faction was to bee noted with infamie for in a naturall bodie that is sicke the beginning of change toward the recoverie of health commeth not from the diseased parts but rather when the temperature of the sound and healthie members is so puissant that it chaseth and expelleth that which in the rest of the bodie was unkind contrary to nature even so in a citie or State where the people are up in a tumult sedition so it be not dangerous and mortall but such as is like to be appeased and ended there had need to be a farre greater part of those who are sound and not infected for to remaine and cohabit still for to it there commeth and hath recourse that which is natural and familiar from the wise and discreet within and the same entreth into the other infected part and cureth it but such cities as be in an universall uprore and hurly-burly utterly perish and come to confusion if they have not some constreint from without and a chastisement which may force them to be wise and agree among themselves Neither is my meaning that I would have you a politike person and States-man in such a sedition and civill discord to sit still insensible and without any passion or feeling of the publike calamitie to sing and chaunt your owne repose and tranquillitie of blessed and happie life and whiles others be together by the eares rejoice at their follie for at such a time especially you are to put on the buskin of Theramenes which served as well the one legge as the other then are you to parley and common with both parties without joyning your selfe to one more than to the other by which meanes neither you
shall be thought an adversarie because you are not ready to offend either part but indifferent to both in aiding as well the one as the other and envie shall you incur none as bearing part in their miserie in case you seeme to have a fellow-feeling and compassion equally with them all but the best way were to provide and forecast that they never breake out to tearmes of open sedition and this you are to thinke for to be the principall point and the height of all pollicie and civill government for evident it is and you may easily see that of those greatest blessings which cities can desire to wit peace libertie and freedome plentie and fertilitie multitude of people and unitie and concord as touching peace cities have no great need in these daies of wise governors for to procure or mainteine the same for that all wars both against the Greekes and also the Barbarians are chased away and gone out of sight as for libertie the people hath as much as it pleaseth their sovereignes and princes to give them and peradventure if they had more it would be woorse for them for the fertility of the earth and the abundance of all fruits the kind disposition and temperature of all seasons of the yeere That mothers in due time their babes into the world may beare Resembling in all points their sires to wit their fathers deare and that children so borne may live and be live-like every good and wise men wil crave at Gods hands in the behalfe of his owne fellow citizens Now there remaineth for a States-man and politike governour of all those works proposed one onely and that is nothing inferiour to the rest of the blessings above-named to wit the unitie and concord of citizens that alwaies dwell together and the banishing out of a citie of all quarrels all jarres and malice as the maner is in composing the differences and debates of friends namely by dealing first with those parties which seeme to be most offended and to have taken the greatest wrong in seeming to be injuried as well as they and to have no lesse cause of displeasure and discontent than they afterwards by little and little to seeke for to pacifie and appease them by declaring and giving them to understand that they who can be content to strike saile a little do ordinarily go beyond those who thinke to gaine all by force surmount them I say not onely in mildenesse and good nature but also in courage and magnanimitie who in yeelding and giving place a little in small matters are masters in the end and conquerors in the best and greatest which done his part is to make remonstrance both particularly to every one and generally to them all declaring unto them the feeble and weake estate of Greece and that it is very expedient for men of sound and good judgment to enjoy the fruit and benefit which they may have in this weakenesse and imbecilitie of theirs living in peace and concord one with another as they doe considering that fortune hath not left them in the midst any prize to winne or to strive for For what glorie what authoritie what power or preeminence will remaine unto them that haply should have the better hand in the end be masters over their adversaries but a proconfull with one commandement of his will be able to overthrow it and transport it unto the other side as often and whensoever it pleaseth him but say that it should continue stil yet is it not woorth all this labour and travell about it But like as scare-fires many times begin not at stately temples and publike edifices but they may come by some candle in a private and little house which was neglected or not well looked unto and so fell downe and tooke hold thereof or haply straw or rushes and such like stuffe might catch fire and suddenly flame and so thereupon might ensue much losse and a publike wasting of many faire buildings even so it is not alwaies by meanes of contention and variance about affaires of State that seditions in cities be kindled but many times braules and riots arising upon particular causes and so proceeding to a publike tumult and quarrell have beene the overthrow and utter subversion of a whole citie In regard whereof it perteineth unto a politike man as much as any one thing els to foresee and prevent or else to remedy the same to see I say that such dissentions do not arise at al or if they be on foot to keep them down from growing farther and taking head or at leastwise that they touch not the State but rest still among whom it began considering this with himselfe giving others to understand that private debates are in the end causes of publike and small of great when they be neglected at first and no convenient remedies used at the verie beginining Like as by report the greatest civill dissention that ever hapned in the citie of Delphos arose by the meanes of one Crates whose daughter Orgilaus the sonne of Phalis was at the point to wed now it hapned by meere chance that the cup out of which they were to make an essay or effusion of wine in the honour of the gods first and then afterwards to drinke one to another according to the nuptiall ceremonies of that place broke into peeces of it selfe which Orgilaus taking to be an evill presage forsooke his espoused bride and went away with his father without finishing the complements of marriage Some few daies after when they were sacrificing to the gods Crates conveied covertly or underhand a certaine vessell of gold one of those which were sacred and dedicated to the temple unto them and so made no more adoo but caused Orgilaus and his brother as manifell church-robbers to be pitched downe headlong from the top of the rocke at Delphos without any judgement or forme and processe of law yea and more than that killed some of their kinsfolke and friends notwithstanding they entreated hard and pleaded the liberties and immunitie of Minervaes temple surnamed Provident into which they were fled and there tooke sanctuarie And thus after divers such murders committed the Delphians in the end put Crates to death and those his complices who were the authors of this sedition and of the money and goods of these excommunicate persons for so they were called seazed upon by way of confiscation they built those chapples which stand beneath the citie At Syracusae also of two yoong men who were verie familiarly acquainted together the one being to travell abroad out of his countrey left in the custodie of the other a concubine that he had to keepe untill his returne home againe but he in the absence of his friend abused her bodie but when his companion upon his returne home knew thereof he wrought so that for to crie quittance with him he lay with his wife and made him cuckold this matter came to hearing at the counsell table of the
which is full of ripe understanding of considerate wisedome and of good directions and plots well and surely laied In which persons the white head and gray beard which some laugh and make good game at the crow-foot about the eies the furrowes in the forehead the rivels and wrinckles in the face besides appearing beare witnesse of long experience and adde unto them a reputation and authoritie which helpe much to perswade and to draw the minds of the hearers unto their will and purpose For to speake truely youth is made as it were to follow and obey but age to guide and command and that citie or State is preserved wherein the sage counsels of the elders and the martiall prowesse of the yonger beare sway together And for this cause highly and woonderfully are these verses following praised in Homer and namely in the first place Then to begin a goodly sort of ancient captaines bold Assembled he in Nestors ship a counsell there to hold upon the same reason also that counsel of the wisest and principall men assistant unto the kings of Lacedaemon for the better government of the State the oracle of Apollo Pythius first called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Elders and Lycurgus afterwards directly and plainly tearmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Old men and even at this very day the counsell of Estate in Rome is named a Senate that is to say an assembly of ancient persons And like as the law and custome time out of minde hath allowed unto Kings and Princes the diademe that is to say a roiall band or frontlet the crowne also to stand upon their heads as honourable mots ensignes of their regall dignitie and sovereigne authoritie even so hath nature given unto olde men the white head and hoarie beard as honourable tokens of their right to command and of their preeminence above others And for mine owne part I verily thinke that this nowne in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a prize or reward of honour as also the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as to honour continue still in use as respective to the honour due unto olde men who in Greeke are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for that they bathe in hot waters or sleepe in softer beds but because in cities well and wisely governed they be ranged with kings for their prudence the proper and perfect goodnesse whereof as of some tree which yeeldeth winter fruit which is not ripe before the latter end of the yeere nature bringeth forth late and hardly in olde age and therefore there was not one of those martiall and brave couragious captaines of the Greeks who found fault with that great king of kings Agamemnon for making such a praier as this unto the gods That of the Grecian host which stood of many woorthie men Such counsellers as Nestor was they would vouchsafe him ten but they all agreed with him and by their silence confessed That not onely in policie and civill government but also in warre olde age carrieth a mightie great stroke for according as the ancient proverbe beareth witnesse One head that knowes full wisely for to reed Out goesten hands and maketh better speed One advice likewise and sentence grounded upon reason and delivered with perswasive grace effecteth the greatest and bravest exploits in a whole State Well say that olde age hath many difficulties and discommodities attending upon it yet is not the same therefore to be rejected for the absolute rule of a king being the greatest and most perfect estate of all governments in the world hath exceeding many cares travels and troubles insomuch as it is written of king Seleucus that he would often-times say if the people wist how laborious and painfull it were to reade and write onely so many letters as he did they would not deine to take up his diademe if they found it throwen in their very way as they goe And Philip being at the point to pitch his campe in a faire ground when he was advertised that the place would not affoord forage for his labouring beasts O Hercules quoth he what a life is this of ours that we must live forsooth and care to serve the necessitie of our asses Why then belike it were high time to perswade a king when he is aged for to lay downe his diademe to cast off his robes of purple to clad himselfe in simple array to take a crooked staffe in hand and so to go and live in the countrey for feare lest if he with his gray haires raigned stil he should seeme to do many superfluous and impertinent things and to direct matters out of season Now if it were unseemely and a meere indignitie to deale with Agesilaus with Numa and Darius all kings and monarchs after this sort unmeet likewise it is that we should remove and displace Solon out of the counsell of Areopagus or depose Cato from his place in the Romane Senate because of their olde age Why should we then goe about to perswade such an one as Pericles to give over and resigne his government in a popular State for over besides there were no sense at all that if one have leapt and mounted into the tribunall seat or chaire of estate in his yoong yeeres and afterwards discharged upon the people common-wealth those his violent passions of ambition and other furious fits when ripe age is now come which is woont to bring with it discretion and much wisdome gathered by experience to abandon and put away as it were his lawfull wife the government which hee hath so long time abused The foxe in Aesops fables would not suffer the urchin to take off the tiques that were setled upon her bodie For if quoth she thou take away these that be already full there will come other hungry ones in their place and even so if a State rejected evermore from administration of the common-wealth those governours that begin once to be olde it must needs be quickly full of a sort of yoong rulers that be hungrie and thirstie both after glory but altogether void of politike wit and reason to governe for how can it otherwise be and where should they get knowledge if they have not bene disciples to learne nor spectatours to follow and imitate some ancient magistrate that manageth state affaires The Cards at sea which shew the feat of sailing and ruling ships can not make good sea-men or skilfull pilots if they have not beene themselves many times at the stearne in the poope to see the maner of it and the conflicts against the waves the winds the blacke stormes and darke tempests What time in great perplexitie The mariner doth wish to see Castor and Pollux twins full bright Presaging safetie with their light How then possibly can a yoong man governe and direct a citie well perswade the people aright deliver wise counsel in the Senate having but read one little booke treating of pollicy or haply
consult with him about the affaires of greatest importance for he seemed to be a man of great reach and is renowmed in the histories for a most wise and sage prince And therefore upon a time after that the strength of his bodie was utterly decayed in such sort as for the most part of the day he kept his bed and stirred not forth when the Ephori sent unto him and requested that he would give them meeting in the common hall of the citie he arose out of his bed and strained himselfe to walke thither but when he was gone a pretie way with much paine and difficultie he chanced to meet with certeine little boies in the street and demanded of them whether they knew any thing more powerfull than the necessitie to obey their master and when they answered No he made this account that his impotencie ought to be the end and limit of his obeisance and so returned backe immediatly to his owne house For surely ones good will ought not to shrinke before his power but when might faileth the good will would not be forced further Certes it is reported that Scipio both in war abroad also in civill affaires at home used the counsell of Caius Laelius insomuch as some there were who gave out and said that of all those noble exploits Scipto was the actour but Laelius the authour And Cicero himselfe confesseth that in the bravest most honourable counsels which he exploited during his consulship by the meanes whereof he saved his countrey he consulted with Publius Nigidius the Philosopher So that we may conclude that in many kindes of government and publicke functions there is nothing that impeacheth and hindereth olde men but that they may well enough shew their service to the common-wealth if not in the best simply yet in good words sage counsell libertie and authoritie of franke speech and carefull regard according as the Poets say for they be not our feet nor our hands nor yet our whole bodie and the strengeth thereof which are the members and goods onely of the common-weale but first and principally the soule and the beauties thereof to wit justice temperance and prudence which if they come slowly and late to their perfection it were absurd and to no purpose that men should enjoy house land and all other goods and heritages and should not themselves procure some profit and commoditie to their common countrey by reason of their long time which bereaveth them not so much of strength able for to execute outward ministeries as it addeth sufficiencie of those faculties which are requisit for rule and command Loe what the reason was that they portraied those Hermes that is to say the statues of Mercurie in yeeres without either hands or feet howbeit having their naturall parts plumpe and stiffe giving us thereby covertly to understand that we have least need of olde mens labour and corporall travell so that their words be active and their speeches full of seed and fruitfull as it is meet and convenient THE APOPHTHEGMES OR NOTABLE SAYINGS OF KINGS PRINCES AND GREAT CAPTAINS The Summarie IF speech be the signe and lively picture of the minde as it is indeed a man may judgs by these Apophthemes or notable Sayings and collected heere together how excellent in feats of armes in politike government or otherwise particularly these personages were who are heere represented unto us like as some speciall acts enterlaced among their sayings do also shew Two sorts of people there be who abuse the fruit that good menmight draw out of the consideration reading of these discourses The one be certeine glorious persons who upon a vaine desire of outward shew and to be seene and for no other intent following Aesops crow trim themselves with the plumes and feathers of others these have gotten together a heape and store-house as it were of wise sayings from auncients in old time whereby they might be conspicuous and seeme to be of some valour and reputation among those who have not wit enough to see into them and know what they are The other are hypocrites who having a lothsome stinke and bitter gall in the heart pretend sweetnesse and home at the end of their toong and all to seduce their neighbours or rather to deceive their owne selves for that they have never any regard of their owne dutie But heere in this discourse there is to be seene nothing affected nothing borrowed from others nor farre fet but there is represented unto us a certeine open simple admirable nature in this diversitie of grave pleasant learned speeches wherein sweetnesse is mingled with profit for to fit all persons and to be aptly 〈◊〉 unto their maners and behaviour of what calling and degree soever they be in the world Item beerein are represented acts proceeding from great wit deepereach and high conceit of valour of equitie modestie good disposition and singular cariage in the whole course and management of mans life the which are proposed and manifested unto us to this end that the wisedome and bountie of the almightie might so much the better appeere in that he hath vouchsafed such ornaments to publike States for to 〈◊〉 and uphold mans life amid those confusions which were brought into the world by occasion of sin Moreover this first collection may well be devided into five principall parts whereof The first conteineth the notable sayings deeds of the kings of Persia and other strange nations The second of the governors and potentates of Sicilie The third of the Macedonian kings and namely of Alexander the great and his successors The fourth of the great himselfe wounded in fight he seized upon his enemies body brought him perforce armed as he was alive out of his galley into his owne Being encamped in the land of his friends and confederates yet neverthelesse he fortified his campe with a deepe trench and high rampar round about verie carefully and when one said unto him what needs all this and whom are wee to feare The woorst speech quoth he that can come out of a captaines mouth is this Had I wist or I never looked for such a thing As he was putting his armie in array for to give battell unto the Barbarians he said that he feared nothing at all but that they should not take knowledge of Iphicrates whose verie name and presence was enough to affright all their enemies Being accused of a capitall crime he said unto the Sycophant who had enformed and drawen a bill of enditement against him Canst thou tell what thou doest good fellow when the citie is environed with warre on everie side thou perswadest the people to consult about me and not to take counsell with me Harmodius who was descended from the race of that ancient and noble Harmodius reproched him one day for his meane parentage as being come from an house of base degree The noblenesse quoth he of my line beginneth in me but thine endeth in thee An oratour
swiftnesse than of rightcousnesse And when one hapned to discourse out of time and place of things verie good and profitable My good friend quoth he unto him your matter is honest and seemely but your manner of handling it is bad and unseemely LEONIDAS the soone of Anaxandridas and brother to Clomenes when one said unto him There was no difference betweene you and us before you were a king Yes I wis good Sir quoth he for if I had not been better than you I had never beene king When his wife named Gorgo at what time as he tooke his leave of her and went foorth to fight with the Persians in the passe of Thermopylae asked of him whether hee had ought else to commaund her Nothing quoth he but this that thou be wedded againe unto honest men and bring them good children When the Ephori said unto him that he lead a small number foorth with him to the foresaid straights of Thermopylae True quoth he but yet enough for that service which we go for And when they enquired of him againe and said Why sir entend you any other desseigne and enterprise In outward shew quoth he and apparance I give out in words that I goe to empeach the passage of the Barbarians but in verie truth to lay downe my life for the Greekes When he was come to the verie entrance of the said passe hee said unto his souldiers It is reported unto us by our scouts that our Barbarous enemies be at hand therefore wee are to lose no more time for now we are brought to this issue that we must either defait them or else die for it When one said unto him for the exceeding number of their arrrowes we are not able to see the sun So much the better quoth he for us that we may fight under the shade To another who said Lo they be even hard close to us And so are we quoth he hard by them Another used those words unto him You are come Leonidas with a verie small troupe for to hazard your selfe against so great a multitude unto whom he answered If youregard number all Greece assembled together is notable to furnish us for it would but answere one portion or cannot of their multitude but if you stand upon valor prowesse of men certes this number is sufficient Another there was who said as much to him But yet I bring quoth he money enough considering we are heere to leave our lives Xerxes wrote unto him to this effect You need not unlesse you list be so perverse and obstained as to fight against the gods but by siding and combining with me make your selfe a monarch over all Greece unto whom he wrote back in this wise If you knew wherein consisted the soveraigne good of mans life you would not covet that which is another mans for mine owne part I had rather loose my life for the safetie of Greece than be the commaunder of all those of mine owne nation Another time Xerxes wrote thus Send me thy armour unto whom he wrote backe Come your selfe and setch it At the verie point when he was to charge upon his enemies the marshals of the armie came unto him and protessed that they must needs hold off and stay until the other allies confederates were come together Why quoth he thinke you not that as many as be minded to fight are come alreadie or know you not that they onely who dread and reverence their kings be they that fight against enimies this said he commaunded his souldiers to take their dinners for sup we shall said he in the other world Being demaunded why the best and bravest men preferre an honorable death before a shamefull life Because quoth he they esteeme the one proper to nature onely but to die well they thinke it peculiar to themselves A great desire he had to have those yoong men of his troupe and regiment who were not yet maried and knowing well that if he delt with them directly and openly they would not abide it he gave unto them one after another two brevets or letters to carrie unto the Ephori and so sent them away he meant also to save three of those who were married but they having an inkeling thereof would receive no brevets or missives at al for one said I have followed you hither to fight and not to be a carier of newes the second also By staying heere I shall quit my selfe the better man and the third I will not be behind the rest but the formost in fight LOCHAGUS the father of Polyaenides and Syron when newes was brought unto him that one of his children was dead I knew long since quoth he that he must needs die LYCURGUS the law-giver minding to reduce his citizens from their old maner of life unto a more sober and temperat course and to make them more vertuous and honest for before time they had beene dissolute and over delicate in their maners and behaviour nourished two whelpes which came from the same dogge and bitch and the one he kept alwaies within house used it to licke in every dish to be greedy after meat the other he would leade forth abroad into the fields and acquaint it with hunting afterwards he brought them both into an open and frequent assembly of the people and set before them in the mids certaine bones sosse scraps he put out also at the same time an hare before them now both the one and the other tooke incontinently to that whereto they had beene acquainted and ranne apace the one to the messe of sops and the other after the hare and caught it heereupon Lycurgus tooke occasion to inferre this speech You see heere my masters and citizens quoth he how these two dogs having one sire and one dam to them both are become farre different the one from the other by reason of their divers educations and bringing up whereby it is evident how much more powerfull nouriture and exercise is to the breeding of vertuous maners than kinde and nature howbeit some there be who say that these two dogs or whelps which he brought out were not of one and the same dogge and bitch but the one came from those curres that used to keepe the house and the other from those hounds that were kept to hunting and afterwards that he acquainted the whelpe that was of the woorse kinde onely to the chase and that which came of the better race to slappe licke and doe nothing else but raven whereupon either of them made their choise and ranne to that quickly whereto they were accustomed and thereby he made it appeer evidently how education trayning and bringing up is availeable both for good and bad conditions for thus he spake unto them By this example you may know my friends that nobilitie of bloud how highly soever it is esteemed with the common sort is to no purpose no though we bee descended from the race of Hercules if we
your anguish mitigate your pensivenesse and stay your needlesse mourning and bootlesse lamentation for why If minde be sicke what physicke then But reasons fit for ech disease A wise man knowes the season when To use those meanes the heart to ease And according as the wise Poet Euripides saith Ech griefe of minde ech maladie Doth crave a severall remedie If restlesse sorow the heart torment Kind words of friends worke much content Where folly swaies in every action Great need there is of sharpe correction For verily among so many passions and infirmities incident to the soule of man dolor and heavinesse be most irkesome and goe neerest into it By occasion of anguish many a one they say hath run mad and fallen into maladies incurable yea and for thought and hearts-griefe some have bene driven to make away themselves Now to sorow and be touched to the quicke for the losse of a sonne is a passion that ariseth from a naturall cause and it is not in our power to avoid which being so I cannot for my part holde with them who so highly praise and extoll I wot not what brutish hard and blockish indolence and stupiditie which if it were possible for a man to enterteine is not any way commodious and available Certes the same would bereave vs of that mutuall benevolence and sweet comfort which we finde in the reciprocall interchange of loving others and being loved againe which of all earthly blessings we had most need to preserve and mainteine Yet do I not allow that a man should suffer himselfe to be transported and caried away beyond all compasse measure making no end of sorow for even that also is likewise unnaturall and proceedeth from a corrupt and erronious opinion that we have and therefore as we ought to abandon this excesse as simply naught hurtfull and not beseeming vertuous and honest minded men so in no wise must we disallow that meane and moderation in our passions following in this point sage Crantor the Academick Philosopher I could wish quoth he that we might be never sicke howbeit if we chance to fall into some disease God send us yet some sense and feeling in case any part of our bodie be either cut plucked away or dismembred in the cure And I assure you that senselesse impassibilitie is never incident unto a man without some great mischiefe and inconvenience ensuing for lightly it falleth out that when the bodie is in this case without feeling the soule soone after will become as insensible reason would therefore that wise men in these and such like crosses cary themselves neither void of affections altogether nor yet out of measure passionate for as the one bewraieth a fell and hard heart resembling a cruell beast so the other discovereth a soft and effeminate nature beseeming a tender woman but best advised is he who knoweth to keepe a meane and being guided by the rule of reason hath the gift to beare wisely and indifferently aswell the flattering favours as the scowling srownes of fortune which are so ordinarily occurrent in this life having this forecast with himselfe That like as in a free State and popular government of a common wealth where the election of sovereigne magistrates passeth by lots the one whose hap is to be chosen must be a ruler and commander but the other who misseth ought patiently to take his fortune and beare the repulse even so in the disposition and course of all our wordly affaires we are to be content with our portion allotted unto us and without grudging and complaint gently to yeeld our selves obedient for surely they that can not so doe would never be able with wisedome and moderation to weld any great prosperitie for of many wise speeches and well said sawes this sentence may go for one How ever fortune smile and looke full faire Be thou not proud nor beare a loftie mind Ne yet cast downe and plung'd in deepe ae spaire If that she frowne or shew herselfe unkind But alwaies one and same let men thee find Constant and firme reteine thy nature still As gold in fire which alter never will For this is the propertie of a wise man and wel brought up both for any apparent shew of prosperitie to be no changling but to beare himselfe alwaies in one sort also in adversitie with a generous and noble mind to mainteine that which is decent beseeming his own person for the office of true wisdome considerate discretion is either to prevent avoid a mischiefe cōming or to correct and reduce it to the least narrowest compasse when it is once come or els to be prepared and ready to beare the same manfully and with all magnanimitie For prudence as touching that which we call good is seene and emploied foure maner of waies to wit in getting in keeping in augmenting or in well and right using the same these be the rules as well of prudence as of other vertues which we are to make use and benefit of in both fortunes as well the one as the other for according to the old proverb No man there is on earth alive In every thing who ay doth thrive And verily By course of nature unneth it wrought may be That ought should check fatall necessitie And as it falleth out in trees and other plants that some yeeres they beare their burden and yeeld great store of frute whereas in others they bring foorth none at all also living creatures one whiles be frutefull and breed many yoong otherwhiles againe they be as barren for it and in the sea it is now tempest and then calme semblably in this life there happen many circumstances and accidents which winde and turne us into the chaunces of contrarie fortunes in regard of which varietie a man may by good right and reason say thus O Agamemnon thy father Atreus hee Alwaies to prosper hath not begotten thee For in this life thou must have one day joy Another griefe and wealth mixt with annoy And why thou art by mort all nature fraile Thy will against this course cannot prevaile For so it is the pleasure of the gods To make this change and worke in man such ods As also that which to the same effect the poet Menander wrote in this wise Sir Trophimus if you the onely wight Of women borne were brought into this light With priviledge to have the world at will To taste no woe but prosper alwaies still Or if some god had made you such behest To live in joy in solace and in rest You had just cause to fare thus as you doe And chafe for that he from his word doth goe And hath done what he can not justifie But if so be as truth will testifie Under one law this publike vitall aire You draw with us your breath for to repaire I say to you gravely in tragick stile You ought to be more patient the while To take all this in better woorth I say Let
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
before you were acquainted therewith have ordained mine owne sonnes to be judges namely for Asia two Minos and Rhadamanthus and one for Europe to wit Aeacus These therefore after they be dead shall sit in judgement within a meddow at a quarrefour or crosse-way whereof the one leadeth to the fortunate isles the other to hell Rhadamanthus shall determine of them in Asia Aeacus of those in Europe and as for Minos I wil grant unto him a preeminence in judgement above the rest in case there happen some matter unknowen to one of the other two and escape their censure he may upon weighing and examining their opinions give his definitive sentence and so it shall be determined by a most sincere and just doome whether way each one shall goe This is that O Callicles which I have heard and beleeve to be most true whereout I gather this conclusion in the end that death is no other thing than the separation of the soule from the body Thus you see ô Apollonius my most deere friend what I have collected with great care and diligence to compose for you sake a consolatorie oration or discourse which I take to be most necessarie for you as well to asswage and rid away your present griefe to appease likewise and cause to cease this heavinesse and mourning that you make which of all things is most unpleasant and troublesome as also to comprise within it that praise and honour which me thought I owed as due unto the memoriall of your sonne Apollonius of all others exceedingly beloved of the gods which honour in my conceit is a thing most convenient and acceptable unto those who by happie memorie and everlasting glorie are consecrated to immortalitie You shall doe your part therefore and verie wisely if you obey those reasons which are therein conteined you shall gratifie your sonne likewise and doe him a great pleasure in case you take up in time and returne from this vaine affliction wherewith you punish and undoe both bodie and mind unto your accustomed ordinarie and naturall course of life for like as whiles he lived with us he was nothing well appaied and tooke no contentment to see either father or mother sadde and desolate even so now when he converseth and so laceth himselfe in all joy with the gods doubtlesse he cannot like well of this state wherein you are Therefore plucke up your heart and take courage like a man of woorth of magnanimitie and one that loveth his children well release your selfe first and then the mother of the yoong gentleman together with his kinsfolke and friends from this kind of miserie and take to a more quiet peaceable maner of life which will be both to your sonne departed and to all of us who have regard of your person as it becommeth us more agreeable A CONSOLOTARIE LETTER OR DISCOURSE SENT UNTO HIS OWNE WIFE AS TOUCHING THE DEATH OF HER AND HIS DAUGHTER The Summarie PLutarch being from home and farre absent received newes concerning the death of a little daughter of his a girle about two yeeres old named Timoxene a childe of a gentle nature and of great hope but fearing that his wife would apprehend such a lesse too neere unto her heart he comforteth her in this letter and by giving testimonie unto her of vertue and constancie 〈◊〉 at the death of other children of hers more forward in age than she was he exhorteth her likewise to patience and moderation in this newe occurrence and triall of hers condemning by sundry reasons the excessive sorrow and unwoorthy fashion of many fond mothers 〈◊〉 withall the inconveniences that such excessive heavinesse draweth after it Then continuing his consolation of her he declareth with what eie we ought to regard infants and children aswell before as during and after life how happie they be who can content themselves and rest in the will and pleasure of God that the blessings past ought to dulce and mitigate the calamities present to stay us also that we proceed not to that degree and height of infortunitie as to make account onely of the misadventures and discommodities hapning in this our life Which done he answereth to certeine objections which his wife might propose and set on foot and therewith delivereth his owne advice as touching the incorruption and immortalitie of mans soule after he had made a medly of divers opinions which the ancient Philosophers held as touching that point and in the end concludeth That it is better and more expedient to die betimes than late which position of his he confirmeth by an ordinance precisely observed in his owne countrey which expresly for bad to mourne and lament for those who departed this life in their childhood A CONSOLATORIE LETTER or Discourse sent unto his owne wife as touching the death of her and his daughter PLUTARCH unto his wife Greeting THe messenger whom you sent of purpose to bring me word as touching the death of our little daughter went out of his way as I suppose and so missed of me as he journeyed toward Athens howbeit when I was arrived at Tanagra I heard that she had changed this life Now as concerning the funerals and enterring of her I am verily perswaded that you have already taken sufficient order so as that the thing is not to doe and I pray God that you have performed that duetie in such sort that neither for the present not the time to come it worke you any grievance displeasure but if haply you have put off any such complements which you were willing enough of your selfe to accomplish untill you knew my minde and pleasure thinking that in so doing you should with better will and more patiently beare this adverse accident then I pray you let the same be performed without all curiositie and superstition and yet I must needs say you are as little given that way as any woman that I know this onely I would admonish you deare heart that in this case you shew both in regard of your selfe and also of me a constancie and tranquillitie of minde for mine owne part I conceive and measure in mine owne heart this losse according to the nature and greatnesse thereof and so I esteeme of it accordingly but if I should finde that you tooke it impatiently this would be much more grievous unto me and wound my heart more than the 〈◊〉 it selfe that causeth it and yet am not I begotten and borne either of an oake or a rocke whereof you can beare me good witnesse knowing that wee both together have reard many of our children at home in house even with our owne hands and how I loved this girle most tenderly both for that you were very desirous after foure sonnes one after another in a row to beare a daughter as also for that in regard of that fancie I tooke occasion to give her your name now besides that naturall fatherly affection which men cōmonly have toward little babes there was one
to let go the resemblance of an hereditarie vice which beginneth to bud and sprout in a yoong man to stay and suffer it I say to grow on still burgen and spread into all affections untill it appeare in the view of the whole world for as Pindarus saith The foolish heart doth bring forth from within Her hidden fruit corrupt and full of sin And thinke you not that in this point God is wiser than the Poet Hesiodus who admonisheth us and giveth counsell in this wise No children get if thou be newly come From dolefull grave or heavie funerall But spare not when thou art returned home From solemne feast of Gods celestiall as if he would induce men to beget their children when they be jocund fresh and mery for that the generation of them received the impression not of vertue and vice onely but also of joy sadnesse all other qualities howbeit this is not a worke of humane wisdome as Hesiodus supposeth but of God himselfe to discern foreknow perfectly either the conformities or the diversities of mens natures drawen from their progenitors before such time as they breake forth into some great enormities whereby their passions affections be discovered what they are for the yong whelps of beares wolves apes such like creatures shew presently their naturall inclination even whiles they be very yong because it is not disguised or masked with any thing but the nature of man casting it selfe and setling upon maners customes opinions lawes concealeth often times the ill that it hath but doth imitate counterfeit that which is good and honest in such sort as it may be thought either to have done away cleane all the staine blemish imperfection of vices inbred with it or els to have hidden it a long time being covered with the vaile of craft subtiltie so as we are not able or at leastwise have much adoe to perceive their malice by the sting bit pricke of every several vice And to say a truth herein are we mightily deceived that we thinke men are become unjust then only and not before when they do injurie or dissolute when they play some insolent and loose part cowardly minded when they run out of the field as if a man should have the cōceit that the sting in a scorpion was then bred not before when he gave the first pricke or the poison in vipers was ingendred then only when they bit or stung which surely were great simplicitie and meere childishnesse for a wicked person becommeth not then such an one even when he appeareth so and not before but hee hath the rudiments and beginnings of vice and naughtinesse imprinted in himselfe but hee sheweth and useth the same when he hath meanes fit occasion good opportunitie and might answerable to his minde like as the thiefe spieth his time to robbe and the tyrant to violate and breake the lawes But God who is not ignorant of the nature and inclination of every one as who searcheth more into the secrets of the heart and minde than into the body never waiteth and staieth untill violence beperformed by strength of hand impudencie bewraied by malepart speech or intemperance and wantonnesse perpetrated by the naturall members and privie parts ere he punish for he is not revenged of an unrighteous man for any harme and wrong that he hath received by him nor angry with a thiefe or robber for any forcible violence which he hath done unto him ne yet hateth an adulterer because he hath suffered abuse or injurie by his meanes but many times he chastiseth by way of medicine a person that committeth adulterie a covetous wretch and a breaker of the lawes whereby otherwhiles he riddeth them of their vice and preventeth in them as it were the falling sicknesse before the sit surprise them Wee were erewhile offended and displeased that wicked persons were over-late and too slowly punished and now discontented we are complaine for that God doth represse chastise the evill habit and vicious disposition of some before the act committed never considering and knowing that full often a future mischiefe is worse and more to be feared than the present and that which is secret and hidden more dangerous than that which is open and apparent Neither are we able to comprehend and conceive by reason the causes wherefore it is better otherwhiles to tolerate and suffer some persons to be quiet who have offanded and transgressed already and to prevent or stay others before they have executed that which they intend like as in very trueth wee know not the reason why medicines and physicall drogues being not meet for some who are sicke be good and holsome for others though they are not actually diseased yet haply in a more dangerous estate than the former Hereupon it is that the gods turne not upon the children and posterity all the faults of their fathers and ancestours for if it happen that of a bad father there descend a good sonne like as a sickly and crasie man may beget a sound strong and healthfull childe such an one is exempt from the paine and punishment of the whole house and race as being translated out of a vicious familie and adopted into another but that a yoong sonne who shall conforme himselfe to the hereditarie vice of his parents is liable to the punishment of their sinfull life aswell as he his bound to pay their debts by right of succession and inheritance For Antigonus was not punished for the sinnes of his father Demetrius nor to speake of leaud persons Phileus for Augeas ne yet Nestor for Neleus his sake who albeit they were descended from most wicked fathers yet they prooved themselves right honest but all such as whose nature loved embraced and practised that which came unto them by descent and parentage in those I say divine justice is wont to persecute and punish that which resembleth vice and sinne for like as the werts blacke moales spots and freckles of fathers not appearing at all upon their owne childrens skinne begin afterwards to put foorth and shew themselves in their nephews to wit the children of their sonnes and daughters And there was a Grecian woman who having brought foorth a blacke infant and being troubled therefore and judicially accused for adultrie as if shee had beene conceived by a blacke-moore shee pleaded and was found to have beene hereselfe descended from an Aethiopian in the fourth degree remooved As also it is knowen for certaine that of the children of Python the Nisibian who was descended from the race and line of those old Spartans who were the first lords and founders of Thebes the yoongest and he that died not long since had upon his body the print and forme of a speare the very true and naturall marke of that auncient line so long and after the revolution of so many yeeres there sprang and came up againe as it were out of the deepe this resemblance of the stocke
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
there was no good nor possession in the world comparabnle to it I was in love also fo silver and ivorie and he that had most store heereof me thought was a right happie man and most highlie in grace and favour with the gods whether he were Phrygian or Carian it skilled not more base minded than Dolon or infortunate otherwise than Priamus insomuch as being linked fast and tied to these deires I reaped and received no pleasure nor any contentment at all from al other blessings for notwithstanding I was sufficiently furnished with them yet I tooke my selfe left needie nad destitute of those which I accounted the greatest and therefore I well remember when I saw you upon a time stately arraid with a rich robe in Candie I wished not to have your wisedome and vertue but your beautifull cassocke so deintily and finely wrought your mantell I say of purple so delicate soft the beautie whereof I beheld with such admiration that I was even ravished and transported with the sight thereof as for the button or claspe al of pure gold belonging thereto it had in it a singularitie by it selfe and an excellent workeman hee was no doubt who tooke delight in the turning and graving thereof and verily for mine owne part I followed after you for to see it as if I had beene enchaunted or bewitched as women that bee amorous of their lovers But now being delivered from these vaine and foolish opinions and having my braine purged from such fantasticall conceits I passe over gold and silver and make no more account of them than I doe of other ordinarie stones your goodly habilliments your fine embroidered garments of needle worke and tapistrie I set so light by that I make more reckoning I assure you of a good deepe puddle of soft mire and dirt to walter and wallow in at mine ease and for to sleepe when my belly is ful than of them neither is there any of these appetites comming from without that hath place in our soule but our life for the most part we passe in desires and pleasures necessarie and even those which are meere naturall onely and not altogether so necessarie wee use them neither disorderly nor yet unmeasurably And of them let us first discourse As for that familiar pleasure which proceedeth from sweet odours and such things as by their sent doe affect the smelling over and besides the simple delight that it yeeldeth which costeth nought it bringeth therewith a certaine profit and commoditie for to discerne nourishment and make choise of food for the tongue is named as it is indeede the judge of sweet of sharpe eager and sowre sapours namely when as the juices of those things which are tasted come to bee mingled and concorporate with the discretive facultie and not before But our sense of smelling before wee once taste those juices or sapours judgeth of the force and qualitie of every thing yea and senteth them much more exquisitely than all the tasters that give essaie before kings and princes As for that which is familiar and agreeable unto us it receiveth inwardly but whatsoever is strange and offensive it rejecteth and sendeth foorth neither will it suffer the same once to touch us or to offend our taste but it bewraieth accuseth and condemneth the evill and noisome qualitie thereof before it doth us any harme and otherwise it troubleth not us at all as it doth you whom it forceth to mixe and compound together for perfumes cinamon nard spike lavander camell the sweet leafe malabathum and the aromaticall calamus or cane of Arabia medling and incorporating one within another by the exquisit skilling and cunning of the apothecarie and perfumer forcing drogues and spices of divers natures to be blended and confected together and buying for great summes of money one pleasure which is not beseeming men but rather fit for fine wenches and daintie damosels and nothing at all profitable And yet being thus corrupt as it is it mareth not onely all women but also the most part of you that are men in so much as you will not otherwhiles lie with your owne espoused wives unlesse they be perfumed and besmeared all over with sweet oiles and ointments or els bestrewed with odoriserous powders when they come to companie with you Whereas contrariwise among us the sow allureth the bore the doe or she goat draweth unto her the buck other females the males of their kinde by their owne sent and smell casting from them the pure and neat savour of the medowes and the verdure of the fields and so comming together as in marriage for generation with a kinde of mutuall love and reciprocall pleasure neither doe the females hold off and make it daintie disguising and covering as it were their owne lust as harlots doe with looking strange and coie at the matter pretending colourable excuses or making semblance of refusall and all to enchant entise and draw on the rather nor the males when they come unto them being pricked with the furious instinct of lust to generation doe buie either for money or for great paine and travell or for long subjection and servitude the act of generation but they performe the same unfeignedly and without deceit in due time and season without anie cost when as nature in the spring stirreth up and provoketh the generative concupiscence of all living creatures even as it putteth foorth the buds and sprouts of plants and anon delaieth as it were and quencheth the same for neither the female after she is once sped and hath conceived seeketh after the male nor the male wooeth her any more nor followeth after her of so little regard and small price is this pleasure among us but nature is all in all and nothing doe wee against it Heereof also it is that there hath not beene knowne unto this day any lust so farre to transpote beasts as that males should joine in this act with males or females with females whereas among you there be many such examples even of such as otherwise were accounted great and woorthie personages for I let those passe who were of no woorth or note to speake of Even Agamemnon went through all Boeotia chasing and hunting after Argynnus who sledde sevretly from him meane while he pretended colourable yet false excuses of his abode there to wit the sea and the windes and afterwards this faire and goodly knight bathed himselfe gently in the poole of Copais as it were there to quench the heat of his love and to deliver himselfe from this furious lust Semblablie Hercules pursuing after a yoong beardlesse Genymade whom he loved was left behind the other gallants and brave knights that enterprised the voiage for the golden fleece and so not embarquing with them betraied the fleet Likewise upon a scutchian of the louver or valted roufe of Apollos temple surnamed Ptoius there was one of you who secretly wrote this inscription Achilles the faire even after that Achilles
himselfe had begotten a sonne and I heare say that these letters remaine there to be seene even at this day Now if it chaunce that a dunghill cocke tread another cocke when there is no henne at hand he is burnt quicke for that some wizard soothsaier or interpreter of such straunge prodigies will pronounce that it is omenous and presageth some evill lucke Thus you see how men themselves are forced to confesse that beasts are more continent than they that to satisfie fulfil their lusts they never violate nor abuse nature whereas in you it is otherwise for nature albeit she have the helpe and aide of the law is not able to keepe your intemperance within the limits and bounds of reason but like unto a violent streame which runneth forcibly often times and in many places it worketh much outrage causing great disorder scandall and confusion against nature in this point of carnall love and fleshly lust for there have bene men who attempted to meddle and deale with shee goats with sowes and mares as also women who have bene as wood and raging mad after certeine beasts of the male kinde and verily of such copulations as these are come your Minotaures and Aegipanes yea and as I verily thinke those Sphinxes and Centaures in time past have bene bred by the same meanes True it is I confesse that otherwhiles upon necessity and extreame famine a dogge hath bene knowen to have devoured a man or a woman yea and some fowle hath tasted of their flesh and begun to eat it but there was never found yet any brute beast to have lusted after man or woman to engender with them whereas men both in this lust and in many other pleasures have often times perpetrated outrage upon beasts Now if they be so unbridled so disordinate and incontinent in these appetites much more dissolute they are knowen to be than beasts in other desires and lusts that be necessarie to wit in meats and drinks whereof we never take pleasure but it is with some profit but you seeking after the tickling pleasure and delight in drinking and eating rather than the needfull nourishment to content and satisfie nature are afterwards well punished for it by many grievous and long maladies which proceed all from one source to wit surfeit and repleation namely when you stuffe and fill your bodies with all sorts of flatulent humors ventosities which hardly are purged excluded forth for first formost ech sort of beasts hath a severall food and peculiar kinde of nourishment some feed upon grasse others upon roots and some there be againe which live by fruits as for those that devoure flesh they never touch any other kinde of pasture neither come they to take from the weaker and more feeble kind their proper nouriture but suffer them to grase feed quietly Thus we see that the lion permitteth the stag and hinde to grase and the wolfe likewise the sheepe according to natures ordinance and appointment but man being through his disordinate appetite of pleasures and by his gluttonie provoked to all things tasting and assaying whatsoever he can meet with or heare of as knowing indeed no proper and naturall food of his owne is of all creatures living he alone that enteth and devoureth all things for first he feedeth upon flesh without any need or necessitie enforcing him thereto considering that he may alwaies gather presse cut and reape from plants vines and seeds all sort of fruits one after another in due and convenient seasons untill he be weary againe for the great quantity thereof and yet for to content his delicate tooth and upon a lothsome fulnesse of necessarie sustenance he secketh after other victuals neither needfull nor meet for him ne yet pure and cleane in killing living creatures much more cruelly than those savage beasts that live of ravin for bloud and carnage of murdered carcases is the proper and familiar food for a kite a wolfe or a dragon but unto man it serveth in stead of his daintie dish and more than so man in the use of all sorts of beasts doth not like other creatures that live of prey which absteine from the most part and warre with some small nūber even for very necessity of food for there is neither fowle flying in the aire nor in maner any fish swimming in the sea nor to speake inone word any beast feeding upon the face of the earth that can escape those tables of yours which you call gentle kinde and hospitall But you will say that all this standeth in stead of sauce to season your food be it so why then doe you kill the same for that purpose and for to furnish those your milde and courteous tables But the wisedome of beasts farre different for it giveth place to no arte whatsoever that is vaine and needlesse and as for those that be necessarie it enterteineth them not as comming from others nor as taught by mercenarie masters for hire and money neither is it required that it should have any exercise to glue as it were and joine after a slender maner ech rule principle and proposition one to another but all at once of it selfe it yeeldeth them all as native and inbred therewith We heare say that all the Aegyptians be Physicians but surely every beast hath in it selfe not onely the art and skill to cure and heale it selfe when it is sicke but also is sufficiently instructed how to feed and nourish it selfe how to use her owne strength how to fight how to hunt how to stand at defence yea and in very musicke they are skilfull ech one in that measure as is requisit and befitting the owne nature for of whom have we learned finding our selves ill at ease to goe into the rivers for to seeke for crabbes and craifishes who hath taught the tortoises when they have eaten a viper to seeke out the herbe Organ for to feed upon who hath shewed unto the goats of Candie when they be shot into the bodie with arrowes to finde out the herbe Dictamnus for to feed on it and thereby to cause the arrow head to come forth and fall from them For if you say as the trueth is that nature is the schoole-mistresse teaching them all this you referre and reduce the wisedome and intelligence of dumbe beasts unto the sagest and most perfect cause or principle that is which if you thinke you may not call reason nor prudence ye ought then to seeke out some other name for it that is better and more honourable and to say a trueth by effects shee sheweth her puissance to be greater and more admirable as being neither ignorant nor ill taught but having learned rather of it self not by imbecilitie and feeblenesse of nature but contrariwise through the force and perfection of naturall vertue letting go and nothing at all esteeming that beggerly prudence which is gotten from other by way of apprentissage Neverthelesse all those things which men either for
mature and staid judgement he giveth us to understand that he is of a contrarie opinion but his principall scope that he shooteth at seemeth to be a cutting off and abridging of the great excesse and superfluitie in purveying buying and spending of viands which in his time began to grow out of all measure a disorder and inormitie which afterwards encreased much more For to gaine and compasse this point hee would seeme to perswade men to the opinion of Pythagoras which mightily cutteth the wings of all riot and wast full dissolution Moreover this ought not to be taken so as if it favoured and seconded the errour of certeine fantasticall persons who have condemned the use of Gods good creatures for in the schoole of Christ wee are taught good lessons which refute sufficiently the dreames of the Pythagoreans and resolve assuredly the good conscience of all those that make use of all creatures meet for the sustentation of this life soberly and with thanks giving as knowing them to be good and their use cleane and pure unto those whom the spirit of regeneration hath sanctified for to make them partakers of that realme which is not shut up and inclosed in meats and drinks As touching this present tract for the maintenance of Pythagoras his paradox he alledgeth five reasons to wit That the eating of flesh is a testimonie and signe of inhumanitie That we ought to forbeare it considering we are not driven upon necessitie to feed there upon That it is an unnaturall thing That it hurteth soule and body and for a conclusion That men will never come themselves and converse modestly together if they learne not first to be pitifull and kinde even to the very dumbe beasts WHETHER IT BE LAWfull to eat flesh or no. The former Oration or Treatise BUt you demand of mee for what cause Pythagoras absteined from eating flesh And I againe do marvell what affection what maner of courage or what motive and reason had that man who first approched with his mouth unto a slaine creature who durst with his lips once touch the flesh of a beast either killed or dead or how he could finde in his heart to be served at his table with dead bodies and as a man may say very idols to make his food and nourishment of those parts and members which a little before did blea low bellow walke and see How could his eies endure to beholde such murder and slaughter whiles the poore beasts were either sticked or had the throats cut were flaied and dismembred how could his nose abide the smell and sent that came from them how came it that his taste was not cleane marred and overthrowen with horrour when he came to handle those uncouth sores and ulcers or receive the bloud and humours issuing out of the deadly wounds The skinnes now flaied upon the ground did spraule The flesh on spits did bellow still and low Roast sod and raw did crie aswell as craule And yeeld a voice of living oxe or cow But this you will say is a loud lie and a meere poeticall fiction howbeit this was certeinly a strange and monstrous supper that any man should hunger after those beasts and desire to eat them whiles they still kept a lowing to prescribe also and teach men how they should feed of those creatures which live and crie still to ordeine likewise how they ought to be dressed boiled roasted and served up to the boord But he who first invented these monstruosities ought to be inquired after and not hee who last gave over and rejected the same Or a man may well say that those who at the first began to eat flesh had all just causes so to do in regard of their want and necessitie for surely it was not by reason of disordinate and enormious appetite which they used a long time nor upon plentie and abundance of necessarie things that they grew to this insolencie to seeke after strange pleasures those contrarie to nature But verily if they could recover their senses and speech againe they might well say now Oh how happie and well beloved of the gods are you who live in these daies in what a world and age are you borne what affluence of all sorts of good things do you enjoy what harvests what store of fruits yeeldeth the earth unto you how commodious are the vintages and what riches do the fields bring unto you what a number of trees and plants do furnish you with delights and pleasures which you may gather and receive when you thinke good you may live if you list in all maner of delicacie without once fouling your hands for the matter whereas our hap was to be borne in the hardest time and most terrible age of the world when as we could not chuse but incur by reason of the new creation of all things a great want and streight indigence of many necessaries the face of the heaven and skie was still covered with the aire the starres were dusked with troubled and instable humors together with fire and tempestuous windes the sunne was not yet setled and established having a constant and certeine race to holde his course in From East to West to make both even and morne Dinstinct nor by returne from Tropiques twaine The seasons chang'd from those that were beforne Bedight with leaves with flowers with fruits and graine The earth suffered wrong by the inordinate streames and inundations of rivers which had neither certeine chanels nor banks much of it lay waste and deformed with loughs marishes and deepe bogges much also remained savage being over-spred with wild woods and fruitlesse sorests it brought forth no fruits ripe and pleasant neither were there any tooles and instruments belonging to any arte nor so much as any invention of a witty head Hunger never gave us case or time of repose neither was there any expectation or waiting for the yeerely seasons of seednesse for there was no sowing at all No marvell therefore if we did eat the flesh of beasts and living creatures even contrary to nature considering that then the very mosse and barke of trees served for food well was he who could find any greene grasse or quicke coich or so much as the root of the herbe Phleos but whensoever men could meet with acornes and mast to taste and feed upon they would dance and hop for joy about an oake or beech tree and in their rusticall songs call the earth their bountifull mother and their kinde nourse and such a day as that onely they accounted festivall all their life besides was full of vexation sorrow and heavinesse But now what rage what furie and madnesse inciteth you to commit such murders and carnage seeing you have such store and plentie of all things necessarie for your life why belie you the earth and most unthankfully dishonour her as if shee could not susteine and nourish you why doe you violate the divine power of Ceres the inventresse of sacred
custome be dangerous counsellers yet granteth and agreeth in the end that a man may eat flesh upon certaine conditions which he doth specifie condemning withall the cruell excesse and riot of many in their fare After this having shewed by the example of Lycurgus that we ought to cut off the first occasions of all super fluities he conferreth the opinions of Pythagoras and Empedocles with those of other philosophers and therewith setteth downe his owne conceit and advice Afterwards when he had in one word touched from whence and whereupon men become so bold and hardie to eat flesh he declareth a fresh and brooveth that this manner of feeding doth woonderfully prejudice both bodie and soule And in conclusion he confuteth the Stoicks opposite enemies to the doctrine of Pythagoras leaving this refutation unperfect were it that himselfe never finished it or that the malice and iniquitie of the time hath deprived us thereof Like as many other fragments missing in these works OF EATING FLESH The second Declamation REason would that we should be fresh disposed and readie in will in mind and thought to heare the discourse against this mustie and unsavorie custome of eating flesh For hard it is as Cato was woont to say to preach unto the belly that hath no eares and besides wee have all drunke of the cup of custome resembling that of Circe which Compounded is of dolors griefes and paines Of sorrowes woes and of deceitfull traines Neither is it an easie matter for them to cast up againe the hooke of the appetite to eat flesh who have swallowed it downe into their entrals and are transported and full of the love of pleasures and delights But well and happie it were for us if as the manner is of the Aegyptians so soone as men are dead to paunch them and when their belly and bowels be taken foorth to mangle cut and slice the same against the sunne and then to fling them away as being the cause of all sinnes that they have committed so we would first cut away from our selves all our gourmandise gluttonie and murdering of innocent creatures that we might afterwards lead the rest of our life pure and holy considering that it is not the belly it selfe that by murder defileth us but polluted it is by our intemperance But say it is not in our power to effect thus much or be it that upon an inveterate custome we are ashamed in this point to be innocent and faultlesse yet let us at leastwise commit sinne in measure and transgresse with reason Let us I say eat flesh but so as we be driven thereto for verie hunger and not drawen to it by a licorous tooth to satisfie our necessitie and not to feed our greedie and delicate humour kill we a beast howbeit with some griefe of heart with some commiseration and pitty and not of a proud and insolent spirit ne yet of a murderous minde as men doe now adaies after many and divers sorts For some in killing of swine or porkets thrust them in with red hot spits to the end that the bloud being shed and quenched as it were by the tincture of the sirie iron running through the body might cause the flesh forsooth to be more tender and delicate ye shall have others leape upon the udders and paps of the poore sowes ready to farrow and trample upon their bellies and teats with their feet that the bloud the milke and the congealed bag of the yoong pigges knit within the dammes wombe being all jumbled coufused and blended together even amidde the painfull pangs of farrowing O Jupiter Piacularis they might make I would not els a most deintie dish of meat and devoure the most corrupt and putrified part of the poore beast many there are who have a device to stitch and sowe up the eies of cranes and swannes and when they have so done to mew them up in a darke place and so feed them cramming them with strange compositions and pastes made of dried figges but wot you why because their flesh should be more deintie and pleasant whereby it appeareth evidently that it is not for need of nourishment nor for want and necessitie but even for sacietie wantonnesse sumptuous curiositie and superfluous excesse that of horrible injustice and wickednesse they make their pleasure and delight and like as the filthy lecherous person who is unsatiable in the pleasure of women after he hath assaied many runneth on headlong still roving and ranging every way and yet his unbrideled and untamed lust is not yet satisfied but hee falleth to perpetrate such horrible villanies as are not once to be named even so intemperance in meats when it hath passed once the bounds of nature and limits of necessitie proceedeth to outrage and crueltie searching all meanes how to varie and change the disordinate appetite for the organs and instruments of our senses by a fellow seeling and contagion of maladies are affected one by another yea and runne into disorder and sinne to gether through intemperance when they rest not contented with the measure assigned them by nature Thus the hearing being out of frame and sicke or not gulded by reason marreth musicke the feeling when it is degenerate into an effeminate delicacie seeketh silthily after wanton ticklings touchings and frictious handling of women the same vice of intemperance hath taught the eiesight not to be contented with beholding morisks pyrthick or warlike dances nor other law dable and decent gestures ne yet to see and view faire pictures and goodly statues but to esteeme the death and murder of men their mortall wounds bloudie fights and deadly combats to be the best fights and spectacles that can be devised And heereupon it is that upon such excessive fare superfluity at the table there ensue ordinarily wanton loves upon lecherie and filthy venerie there followeth beastly talke these baudie ballads and stinking tales be accompanied commonly with hideous sights monstrous shewes lastly these hornble spectacles have attending upon them crueltie and inhumane impassibilitie euen in the cases of verie mankind Heereupon it was that Lycurgus the divine law giver in those three ordmances of his which he called Rhetrae commanded that the dores roufes finials of houses should be made with the saw the ax onely no other instrument besides thereto emploied which he did not I assure you for any hatred at all that he conceived against augers wimbles twibils or other tooles for joyners or carvers worke but he knew well inough that a man would never bring among such simple frames a gilded bedstead nor venture to carrie into an house so plainly built silver rables hangings carpets and coverings of rich tapestrie died with purple or any precious stones and he wist full well that with such an house with such bedsteads tables and cups a frugall supper and a simple dinner would agree and sort best For to say a truth upon the beginning and foundation of a disordinate diet and superfluous
Metrodorus how bravely and valiantly he went downe from the citie of Athens to the port Pyreaeum for to aid and succour Mythris the Syrian albeit Metrodorus did no service at all in that sally What manner of pleasures then and how great ought wee to esteeme those which Plato enjoied when Dion a scholar of his one of his bringing up rose up to put downe the tyrant Dionysius to deliver the state of Sicily from servitude what contentment might Aristotle find when he caused the citie of his nativitie which was ruinate and rased to the ground to be reedified and his countrimen fellow-citizens to be called home who were banished what delights and joies were those of Theophrastus and Phidias who deposed and overthrew those tyrants who usurped the lordly dominion of their countrey and for private persons in particular how many they relieved not in sending unto them a strike or a bushell of corne and meale as Epicurus sent unto some but in working and effecting that those who were exiled out of their native countrey driven from their owne houses and turned out of all their goods might returne home againe and reenter upon all that such as had beene prisoners and lien in irons might be delivered and set at large as many also as were put from their wives and children might recover and enjoy them againe What need I make rehearsall unto you who know all this well enough But surely the impudence and absurditie of this man I can not though I would passe over with silence who debasing and casting under foot the acts of Themistocles and Miltiades as he did wrot of himselfe to certeine of his friends in this sort Right nobly valiantly and magnificently have you shewed your endevour and care of us in provision of corne to furnish us withall and againe you have declared by notorious signes which mount up into heaven the singular love and good will which you beare unto me And if a man observe the manner of this stile and writing he shall find that if he take out of the misteries of this great philosopher that which concerneth a little corne all the words besides are so curiously couched and penned as if the epistle had beene written purposedly as a thankes giving for the safety of all Greece or at leastwise for delivering setting free and preserving the whole citie and people of Athens What should I busie my head to shew unto you that for the delights of the bodie nature had need to be at great cost and expences neither doth the chiefe pleasure which they seeke after consist in course bisket-bread in pease pottage or lentile broth but the appetites of these voluptuous persons call for exquisit and daintie viands for sweete and delicate wines such as those be of Thasos for sweet odours pleasant perfumes and precious ointments for curious junkets and banketting dishes for tarts cake-bread marchpanes and other pastrie works well wrought beaten and tempered with the sweet liquor gathered by the yellow winged Bee over and besides all this their mind stands also to faire and beautiful yoong damosels they must have some pretie Leontium some fine Boïchon some sweet Hedia or daintie Nicedion whom they keepe and nourish of purpose within their gardens of pleasure to be ready at hand As for the delights and joies of the mind there is no man but will consesse and say That founded they ought to be upon the greatnesse of some noble actions and the beautie of worthy and memorable works if we would have them to be not vaine base and childish but contrariwise reputed grave generous magnificent and manlike whereas to vaunt and glory of being let loose to a dissolute course of life and the fruition of pleasures and delights after the maner of sailers and mariners when they celebrate the seast of Venus to boast also and please himselfe in this That being desperatly sicke of that kinde of dropsie which the Physicians call Ascites he forbare not to feast his friends still and keepe good companie neither spared to adde and gather more moisture and waterish humours still unto his dropsie and remembring the last words that his brother Neocles spake upon his death-bed melted and consumed with a speciall joy and pleasure of his owne tempered with teares there is no man I trow of sound judgement and in his right wits who would tearme these sottish sollies either sound joies or perfect delights but surely if there be any Sardonian laughter as they call it belonging also to the soule it is seated in my conceit even in such joies and mirths mingled with teares as these which do violence unto nature but if any man shal say that these be solaces let him compare them with others and see how farre these excell and go beyond them which are expressed by these verses By sage advice I have effected this That Spartaes martiall fame eclipsed is Also This man ô friend and stranger both was while he lived heere The great and glorious starre of Rome his native citie decre Likewise I wot not what I should you call An heavenly God and man mortall And when I set before mine eies the noble and worthy acts of Thrasibulus and Pelopidas or behold the victories either of Aristides in that journey of Plateae or of Miltiades at the battell of Marathon I am even ravished and transported besides my selfe and forced to say with Herodotus and deliver this sentence That in this active life there is more sweetnesse and delectation than glorie and honour and that this is so Epaminondas will beare me witnesse who by report gave out this speech that the greatest contentment which ever he had during his life was this That his father and mother were both alive to see that noble Trophee of his for the victorie that he wan at Leuctres being generall of the Thebans against the Lacedaemonians Compare we now with this mother of Epaminondas Epicurus his mother who tooke so great joy to see her sonne keeping close in a daintie garden and orchard of pleasure where he and his familiar friend Polyenus gat children in common upon a trull and courtisan of Cyzicum for that both mother and sister of Metrodorus were exceeding glad of his marriage may appeare by his letters missive written unto his brother which are extant in his books and yet they goe up and downe everie where crying with open mouth That they have lived in joy doing nought els but extoll and magnifie their delicate life faring much like unto slaves when they solemnize the feast of Saturne supping and making good cheere together or celebrate the Bacchanales running about the fields so as a man may hardly abide to heare the utas and yelling noise they make when upon the insolent joy of their hearts they breake out into many fooleries and utter they care not unto whom as vaine and fond speeches in this maner Why sut'st thou still thou wretched lout Come let us drinke and quaffe about The
to use them forcing the bodie which otherwise would not seeke after them to participate thereof onely because they be much spoken of and hard to come by to the end that we make our report and recount unto others what wee have done and be reputed by them right happie and fortunate for that wee have enjoied things so deere so singular and so geason The like affection they cary to women also of great name and reputation for it falleth out that having their owne wives in bedde with them and those faire and beautifull dames such also as love them deerely they lie still and stirre not but if they meet with any courtisan such as Phryne or Lais was unto whom they have paied good silver out of their purse though otherwise their bodies be unable dull and heavie in performing the worke of Venus yet doing they will be what they can and straine themselves upon a vaine-glorious ambition to provoke and stirre up their lascivious lust unto fleshly pleasure whereupon Phryne herselfe being now old and decaied was woont to say That she sold her lees and dregs the deerer by reason of her reputation A great thing it is and wonderfull that if we receive into our bodies as many pleasures as nature doth require or can well beare or rather if upon divers occasions and businesses we resist her appetites and put her off unto another time and that we be loth and hardly brought to yeeld unto her necessities or according as Plato saith give place after that she hath by sine force pricked and urged us thereto we should not suffer for all that any harme thereby but goe away freely without any losse or detriment but on the other side if we abandon our selves to the desires that descend from the soule to the bodie so farre foorth as they force us to minister unto the passions thereof and rise up together with them impossible it is but that they should leave behinde them exceeding great losses and damages in stead of a few pleasures and those feeble and small in appearance which they have given unto us and this above all things would be considered that we take heed how we provoke the body to pleasures by the lusts of the minde for the beginning thereof is against nature For like as the tickling under the arme-holes procureth unto the soule a laughter which is not proper milde and gentle but rather troublesome and resembling some spasme or convulsion even so all the pleasures which the bodie receiveth when it is pricked and provoked by the soule be violent forced turbulent furious and unnaturall Whensoever therefore any occasion shall present it selfe to enjoy such rare and notable delights it were better for us to take a glorie in the abstinence rather than in the fruition thereof calling to minde that which Simonides was woont to say That he never repented any silence of his but often times he beshrewed himselfe for his speech and even so we never repent that we have refused any viands or drunke water in slead of good Falerne wine And therefore we ought not onely not to force nature but if other-whiles we be served with such cates and meats as she craveth we are to divert our appetite from the same and to reduce it to the use of simple and ordinary things many times even for custome and exercise If right and law may broken be for any earthly thing The best pretense is for to win a crowne and be a king So said Eteocles the Thebane though untruely but we may better say If we must be ambitious and desirous of glorie in such things as these it were most honest and commendable to use continence and temperance for the preservation of health Howbeit some there be who upon an illiberall pinching and mechanicall sparing can restraine and keepe downe their appetites when they be at home in their owne houses but if it chance they be bidden foorth to others they gorge and fill their bellies with these exquisit and costly viands much like to those who in time of warre and hostilitie raise booties and prey upon the lands of their enemies what they can and when they have so done they goe from thence ill at ease carrying away with them for the morrow upon this their fulnesse and unsatiable repletion crudity of stomacke and indigestion Crates therefore the philosopher thinking that civill warres and tyrannies arise and grow up in cities aswell by reason of superfluity and excesse in dainty fare as upon any other cause whatsoever was woont by way or mirth to give admonition in these tearmes Take heed you bring us not into a civill sedition by augmenting the platter alwaies before the Lentil that is to say by dispending more than your revenues will beare But in deed every man ought to have this command and rule of himselfe as to say Augment not evermore the platter before the Lentil nor at any time passe beyond the Cresses and the Olive even to fine tarts and delicate fishes lest you bring your bodie into a domesticall dissention afterwards with it selfe namely to painfull colickes lasks and fluxes of the bellie by over-much fulnesse and excesse of feeding for simple viands and ordinarie conteine the appetite within the bounds and compasse of nature but the artificiall devices of cooks and cunning fellowes in pastry with their curious cates of all sorts with their exquisit sauces and pickles as the comicall Poet saith set out and extend alwaies the limits of pleasure encroching still beyond the bounds of utilitie and profit And I wot not verily how it comes about that considering we so much detest and abhorre those women who give love-drinks and can skill of charmes and forceries to bewitch and enchant men with we betake thus as we do unto mercenarie hirelings or slaves our meats and viands to be medicined as it were and no better than poisoned for to enchant and bewitch us And admit that the saying of Arcesilaus the Philosopher against adulterers and other lascivious persons may seeme somewhat with the bitterest namely that it made no great matter which way one went about that beastly worke whether before or behinde for that the one was as bad as the other yet impertinent it is not nor beside the subject matter which we have in hand For to say a trueth what difference is there betweene eating of Ragwort Rogket and such hot herbs for to stirre up the lust of the flesh and to provoke the taste and appetite to meat by smelles and sauces like as mangie and itching places have alwaies need of rubbing and scratching But peradventure it would be better to reserve unto another place our discourse against dishonest fleshly pleasures and to shew how honest and venerable a thing in it selfe is continence for our purpose at this present is to debarre many great pleasures otherwise in their owne nature honest for I assure you our diseases doe not put us by so many actions so many hopes
thicke and grosse Furthermore needfull it is for them that love to bathe thus in colde water to fall into the subjection of that over-straight and exquisit diet which we would avoid having evermore an eie upon this not to breake the same in any point whatsoever for that the least fault and smallest errour in the world is presently sore chasticed and costeth full deere whereas contrariwise to enter into the baine and wash in hote water pardoneth us and holdeth us excused sor many things for it doth not so much diminish the strength and force of the bodie as it bringeth profit another way for the health thereof framing and applying most gently and kindly the humors to concoction and in case there be some which can not well and perfitly be digested so they be not altogether cruide and raw nor float aloft in the mouth of the stomacke it causeth them to dissolve and exhale without any sense of paine yea and withall it doth mitigate and cause to vanish and passe away the secret lassitudes of the musculous members And yet as good as banes be if we perceive the bodie to be in the naturall state and disposition firme and strong enough better it were to intermit and for-let the use of baths and in stead thereof I holde it holsomer to anoint and rub the bodie before a good fire namely if it have need to be chafed and set in an heat for by this meanes there is dispersed into it as much heat as is requisit and no more which cannot be against the sunne for of his heat a man can not take more or lesse at his owne discretion but according as he affecteth or tempereth the aire so he affourdeth his use And thus much may serve for the exercise of students To come now unto their food and nouriture if the reasons and instructions before delivered by which we learne to restraine represse and mitigate our appetites have done any good time it were to proceed forward to other advertisements but in case they be so violent so unruly and untamed as if they were newly broken out of prison that it is an hard piece of worke to range them within the compasse of reason and if it be a difficult piece of worke to wrestle with the bellie which as Cato was wont to say hath no eares we must worke another feat and device with it namely by observing the quality of the viands to make the quantity more light and lesse offensive and if they be such as be solid and nourish much as for example grosse flesh meats cheese drie figges and hard egges they must feed of them as little as they can for to refuse and forbeare them altogether were very hard but they may be more bold to eate heartily of those that be thinne and light such as are the most part of worts or pot-herbes birdes and fishes that be not fatte oileous for in eating of such meats a man may at once both gratifie his appetite and also never overcharge his bodie but above all take heed they must of crudities and surfeits proceeding from liberall eating of flesh-meats for besides that they lode the stomacke presently as they are taken there remaine afterwards behind naughtie reliques and therefore it were verie well that they accustomed their bodies never to call for flesh considering that the earth it selfe bringeth foorth other kinds of food sufficiently not onely for the necessitie of nourishment but also for pleasure and the contentment of the appetite for some of them are ready to be eaten without any dressing or the helpe of mans hand others be mingled and compounded after divers sorts to make them more savorie and toothsome But for asmuch as custome after a sort is a second nature or at leastwise not contrarie to nature we must not accustome our selves to feed on flesh for to fulfill our appetites after the maner of wolves lions but use it onely as the foundation and ground of other viands which being once laid we are to make our principall nourishment of other cares and dishes which as they are more appropriate to our bodies and sutable to nature so they doe incrassate and dull lesse the vigor and subtilitie of the spirit and the discoursing reasonable part of the soule which is kindled mainteined and set to burne cleere by a more delicate and light matter As touching liquid things they must use milke not as an ordinarie drinke but as a strong meat that nourisheth exceeding much but for wine we are to say to it as Euripides did to Venus Welcome to me in measure and in meane Too much is naught yet doe not leave me cleane for of all drinks it is most profitable of medicines most pleasant and of daintie viands most harmelesse provided alwaies that it be well delaied and tempered with opportunity of the time rather than with water And verily water not that onely wherewith wine is mingled but also which is drunke betweene whiles apart by it selfe causeth the wine tempered therewith to doe the lesse harme in regard whereof a student ought to use himselfe to drinke twice or 〈◊〉 every day a draught of sheere water for that it will enfeeble the headinesse of the wine make the usuall drinking of pure water more familiar to the stomacke and this I would have to be done to this end that if they be driven perforce to drinke faire water they might not thinke it strange nor be ready to refuse it For many there be who oftentimes have recourse to wine when iwis they had more need to runne to the water and namely when they be over-heat with the sunne yea and contrariwise when they be stiffe frozen with cold or have streined themselves to speake much or studied and sitten hard at their booke and generally after that they have travelled sore till they be wearie or have performed some vehement exploit or violent exercise then I say they thinke that they ought to drinke wine as if nature herselfe required and called for some contentment and refreshing of the bodie and some change and alteration after travels but nature verily is not desirous to have any good done to her in this sort if you call such pleasure a doing of good but she demaundeth onely a reducement to a meane betweene labour and rest and therefore such persons as these are to be cut short and abridged of their victuals and either to be debarred quite of all wine or else enjoined to drinke it well delaied with water for wine being of it selfe of a violent and stirring nature augmenteth and maketh more unquiet the stormie perturbations arising within the body it doth irritate and distemper more and more the parts therein already offended and troubled the which had much more need to be appeased and dulced to which purpose water serveth passing well for if we otherwise being not a thirst drinke hot water after we have laboured or done some painfull exercise in the exceeding heats of
studie and in the end is driven to languish and lie sicke in bed together with it for company And therfore Plato wisely admonisheth us not to move and exercise the body without the soule not the soule without the body but to drive them both together equally as if they were two steeds drawing at one spire of a chariot and especially at such a time when as the body is busied with the soule and laboureth together with her we ought to have the most care of it and to allow it that attendance cherishment which is meet and requisit to the end that thereby we may requite it with good and desireable health esteeming this to be the greatest benefit and most singular gift that proceedeth thereupon in that neither the one nor the other for default of good disposition is impeached or hindered in the knowledge of vertue and the practise thereof aswell in literature as in the actions of mans life OF THE ROMANS FORTUNE The Summarie IF ever there were any State politike in the rising growth and declination whereof we are to see acknowledge the admirable providēce of God together with the strength and wisdome of man certes the Romane empire ought to be set in the formost range The causes of the foundation and advancement of this great Monarchie are otherwise considered by those whom the heavenly trueth revealed in the holy Scripture doth illuminate than by the Pagans and Sages of this world guidedonely by the discourse of their reason corrupted with sinne and ignorance of the true God For when the question is as touching the government of the universall world although the sovereigne Lord thereof use often times the spirituall and corpor al vigor both of mortall men for to execute his will yet we may behold above it and before any exploit of visible instruments this great and incomprehensible wisdome of his who having decreed in himselfe all things executeth every moment his deliberations so that in regard of him there is nothing casuall but all keepe a course according to his determinate and resolute will but in respect of us many things be accident all for that the counsels of that eternall and immutable wisedome are hidden from us and appeare not but by little and little Infidels and miscreants who are not able to comprehend this secret have imagined and set downe for governesses of mans life Fortune and Vertue meaning by Fortune that which the common saying compriseth in these few words In this world there is nothing els but good lucke and bad but so as if any man could skill how to manage his owne fortune he might make it of bad good and commodious and this they meant by the word Vertue which is an habitude or disposition of the mind and body by the meanes whereof he that is indued therewith might prevent and overthrow quite all the assaults of Fortune Some there be who abuse the word Fortune for to abolish the providence of God and others have attributed so much unto Vertue that they have set man out of those limits in which his owne proper nature and above all the divine trueth placed him Others againe have ascribed some thing unto Fortune and yet they neither understand nor declare what it importeth but have given out although very irresolutely that Fortune cannot give the check to a vertuous man If we had this treatise following entire and perfect all the ancient philosophie and learning as touching this question had bene manifestly discovered unto us But the principall part of this discourse is lost in such sort as Plutarch having brought in Fortune and Vertue disputing upon this point Whether of them should have the honour of the foundation and maintenance of the Romane empire hath left unto us nothing but the plea of Fortune who by divers reasons and proofs holdeth that the wisdome valour of the people of Rome was not the cause of their grandence but Fortune that is to say as he expresly sheweth in one place the guidance and helpe of God who hath so raised this estate for many others and for to hold one good part of the world jointly in one body under such a chiefe and sovereigne As concerning the reasons alledged in the favor and maintenance of Fortune they be marked in order and drawen out well at large whereas those of Vertue are omitted or peradventure reserved to the judgement and discretion of the reader for to invent devise and apply them by himselfe and of them all to collect and gather one conclusion tending to this for to shew the great wonders of Gods providence in susteining the Romane empire and the notable aid of an infinit number of instruments which the said divine providence emploied in planting raising up and pulling downe so mighty and renowmed a dominion OF THE ROMANS FORTUNE VErtue and Fortune have fought many great combats and those oftentimes one against the other but that which presenteth it selfe unto us at this time is the greatest of all the rest to wit the debate plea which they had together as touching the empire of Rome namely whether of them twaine wrought that worke and which of them brought foorth so mightie a puissance For this wil be no small testimonie on her side who shall gaine the victorie or rather a great apologie against the imputation charged upon the one and the other For Vertue is accused in that she is honest but unprofitable and fortune that she is uncerteine but yet good and it is commonly said that as the former is fruitlesse for all her paines so the other is faithlesse and untrustie in all her gifts For who will not say if the greatnesse of Rome be adjudged and awarded to one of them that either Vertue is most profitable in case she could doe so much for good and honest men or Fortune most firme and constant if she have preserved and kept so long that which she once hath given Iön the poet in those works of his which he composed without verse and in prose saith That Fortune and Wisedome two most different things and farre unlike one to the other produce neverthelesse most like and semblable effects both the one and the other indifferently make men great and honorable they advance them in dignitie puissance estate and authoritie And what need I for to draw out this matter at length rehearse and reckon up a number of those whom they have preferred considering that even nature herselfe who hath borne us and brought foorth all things some take to be Fortune and others Wisedome This present discourse therefore addeth unto the citie of Rome a great and admirable dignitie in case we dispute of her as our manner is of the earth the sea the heaven and the starres namely whether it were by Fortune or by providence that she was first founded and had her being For mine owne part I am of this opinion that howsoever Fortune and Vertue have alwaies had many quarrels and debates
otherwise yet to the framing and composition of so great an empire and puissance it is very like they had made truce and were at accord that by one joint-consent also they wrought both together and finished the goodliest piece of work that ever was in the world Neither think I that I am deceived in this conjecture of mine but am perswaded that like as according to the saying of Plato the whole world was not made at first of fire and earth as the two principall and necessarie elements to the end that it might be visible and palpable considering that as the earth gave massinesse poise and firmitude so fire conferred thereunto colour forme and motion Besides the other two natures and elements which are betweene these two extremes to wit aire and water by softning melting tempering and quenching as it were the great dissociation and dissimilitude of the said extremes have drawen together incorporate and united by the meanes of them the first matter even so time and God together intending such a stately piece of worke as Rome tooke Vertue and Fortune and those they tempered and coupled in one as yoke-fellowes to the end that of the thing which is proper both to the one and the other they might found build and reare a sacred temple indeed an edifice beneficiall and profitable unto all a strong castle seated upon a firme ground-worke and an eternall element which might serve in stead of a maine pillar to susteine the decaying state of the world readie to reele and sinke downward and finally as a sure ankerhold against turbulent tempests and wandering waves of the surging seas as Democritus was woont to say For like as some of the naturall philosophers hold That the world at the first was not the world and that the bodies would not joine and mingle themselves together for to give unto nature a common forme composed of them all but when the said bodies such as yet were small and scattered heere and there slid away made meanes to escape and flie for feare they should be caught and interlaced with others such also as were more strong firme and compact even then strove mainly one against another and kept a foule coile and stirre together in such manner as there arose a violent tempest a dangerous ghust and troublesome agitation filling all with ruine error and shipwracke untill such time as the earth arose to greatnesse by the tumultuarie concourse of those bodies that grew together whereby she herselfe began first to gather a firme consistence and afterwards yeelded in her-selfe and all about her a 〈◊〉 seat and resting place for all other Semblably when the greatest empires and potentacies among men were driven and caried to and fro according to their fortunes and ranne one against another by reason that there was not one of that grandence and puissance as might command all the rest and yet they all desired that sovereignty there was a woonderfull confusion a generall destruction a strange hurliburly a tumultuary wandering and an universall mutation and change throughout the world untill such time as Rome grew to some strength and bignesse partly by laying and uniting to her-selfe the neighbour nations and cities neere about her and in part by conquering the seignories realmes and dominions of princes sarre of and strangers be yond sea by which meanes the greatest and principall things in the world began to rest and be setled as it were a firme foundation and sure seat by reason that a generall peace was brought into the world and the maine empire thereof reduced to one round circle so firme as it could not be checked or impeached for that indeed all vertues were seated in those who were the founders and builders of this mightie State and besides Fortune also was ready with her favour to second and accompany them as it shall more plainly appeere and be shewed in this discourse ensuing And now me thinks I see from this project as it were from some high rocke and watch tower Vertue and Fortune marching toward the pleading of their cause and to the judgment and decision of the foresaid question propounded but vertue in her part and maner of going seemeth to be milde gentle in the carriage also of her eie staied and composed the earnest care likewise and desire she hath to mainteine and defend her honor in this contention maketh her colour a little to rise in her face albeit she be farre behinde Fortune who commeth apace and maketh all the haste she can now there conduct her and attend upon her round about in manner of a guard a goodly traine and troupe Of worthies brave who martiall captaines were In bloudy warres and bloudy armours beare All wounded in the fore-part of their bodies dropping with bloud and swet mingled together leaning upon the truncheons of the launces pikes halfe broken which they hud won from their enemies But would you have us to demand and aske who they might be They say that they be the Fabricii the Camilli the Lucii surnamed Cincinnati the Fabii Maximi the Claudii Marcelli and the two Scipioes I see also C. Marius all angry and chasing at Fortune Mucius Scaevola likewise is amongst them who sheweth the stump of his burnt hand crying aloud withall And will you ascribe this hand also to Fortune And Marcus Horatius Cocles that valliant knight who fought so bravely upon the bridge covered all over with the shot of Tuskan darts and shewing his lame thigh seemeth to speake from out of the deep whirle-pit of the river into which he leapt these words And was it by chance Fortuue that my legge became broken I lame upon it Loe what a company came with vertue to the triall of this controversie and matter in question All warriours stout in complet armour dight Expert in feates of armes and prest to fight But on the other side the gate and going of Fortune seemes quicke and fast her spirit great and courage proud her hopes high and haughtie she over-goeth vertue and approcheth nere at hand already not mounting and lifting up her selfe now with her light and flight wings nor standing a tiptoe upon a round ball or boule commeth she wavering and doubtfull and then goeth her way afterwards in discontentment and displeasure but like as the Spartiates describe Venus saying That after she had passed the river Eurotas she layd by her mirrors and looking glasses cast aside her daintie jewels and other wanton ornaments and threw away that tissue and lovely girdle of hers and taking speare and shield in hand sheweth her selfe thus prepared and set out unto Lycurgus euen so Fortune having abandoned the Persians and Assyrians flew quicklie over Macedonia and soone shooke off Alexander the great then travailed she a while through Aegipt and Siria carying after her kingdomes as she went and so having ruined and ouerthrowen the Carthaginians state which with much variety and change she had oftentimes upheld she approched in the end
toward that place which he saw was without all light conjecturing by the darknesse and silence withall that he should not light upon any of the watch or ward there thus he began to climbe up the steepe rocke whereas he could find any way to set sure footing upon the stones that stuck out or wheresoever he found a place to yeeld better accesse and ascent than another so fetching a compasse and catching hold with his hand upon the rough cragges and bearing himselfe as well as possibly he could he made such shift that in the end he crawled up to the toppe thereof and there those Romans that kept watch and ward and were foremost of the corps-de-guard having espied him helped to pull him up then declared hee unto those within the place what had beene set downe and agreed upon by them who were without from whom hee had no sooner received their assent and approbation of the foresaid ordinance concluded but the verie same night he made his returne the way that he came unto Camillus the next morning one of the barbarous enemies as hee walked about that place thinking of no such thing perceiving by very chaunce partly the print of a mans tiptoes together with the marks of unsteady footing and partly the grasse and weeds crushed and broken which grew heere and there in such places where they had some little earth to mainteine them as also the tracts and traces where he had leaned and wrestled with his bodie either in clambring up or striving overthwart went straight waies and related unto his fellow-souldiors what he had seene who taking it thus that the enemies themselves shewed them the way and trode it out before them 〈◊〉 presently to doe the like and to gaine the toppe of the rocke In the night time therefore having observed where the place was most solitary and void of watchmen they mounted up without being descried and discovered not onely by the men who were in guard and sentinell but not so much as by the dogges which were set a front before for to assist the watch so sleepie they were all both the one and the other Howbeit the good Fortune of Rome wanted no voice to bewray so imminent a danger and to give warning thereof for there were within the Capitoll certeine geese consecrated unto the goddesse Juno kept at the cities charges in the honour of her close under her temple now is this creature of all others by nature very timorous and at every little noise that is made ready to be affrighted and at that time especially by reason that there was within the place great scarcitie of victuals they were neglected and for that they were kept somewhat hungry slept not so soundly as they were wont to doe by reason whereof at the first being aware of the enemies comming even so soone as they had gotten over the battlements of the wals they came ful but upon them being affrighted besides to see their bright armour set up such a gagling note after their manner that all the court of the castle rung with their violent and disonant noise whereat the Romans were awakened and suspecting deepely what the matter was ranne incontinently to the wall gave the enemies the repulse and turned them downe with their heads forward in memoriall of which accidents and occurrents Fortune goeth as it were in triumph even at this day For at Rome they are woont upon a certeine set day of the yeere in a solemne procession to have a dogge carried in a shew crucisied and a goose borne in a gorgeous litter upon a rich cushion most sumptuously dight and set out which spectacle representeth and sheweth unto us the puissance of Fortune and the great meanes that she hath to effect all those things with ease and facilitie which in mans reason seeme unpossible considering that she giveth a kinde of wittie perceivance and understanding to brute beasts otherwise foolish and voide of reason yea and infuseth bold courage and strength to those which by nature are fearefull weake and cowardly For what man is there unlesse he be altogether deprived of naturall sense and affection who would not be astonied and ravished againe with a woonderfull admiration to consider and discourse after a sort with himselfe comparing the heavie cheere and mournefull condition of this citie in those daies with the felicitie and statelie port thereof at this present to looke up I saie to the Capitoll and behold the riches there the sumptuositie and magnificence of the monuments and oblations there to bee seene the excellent pieces of worke wrought by most cunning artificers striving who might doe best the presents of cities contending who should bee most bounteous and liberall the crownes sent by kings and princes and what precious things soever the earth the sea the islands the firme lands of the continent the rivers trees beasts champain fields mountaines and metall-mines doe affoord and in one word the first fruits and choise parcels of all things in the world which seeme all to strive one with another to embelish grace adorne enrich and beautifie this onely place and withall to looke backe unto those times past and consider how it went within a very little that all this should never have beene or at least-wise not extant at this day seeing that all being within the power of mercilesse fire fearefull darknesse of the mirke night cruell and barbarous swords and most bloudy minds and inhumane hearts of these Gaules the poore contemptible beasts foolish reasonlesse and timorous made the overture to save all and were the principall instruments of preservation also how those brave gallants valourous knights and great captaines and commanders the Manlii the Servii the Posthumii and Papyrii the ancestours and progenitours of so many noble houses afterwards were very neere and at the point to have beene undone for ever and come to nothing had not these silly geese awakened and started up to fight for their countrey and to defend the god patron and protectour of the city And if it be true that Polybius writeth in the second booke of his historie as touching those Gaules who at that time surprised the city and were lords of Rome That when newes came suddenly unto them how certeine of their barbarous neighbous neere at hand were entred in armes within their owne countrey and won all before them as they went they had returned in hast backe and made peace with Camillus certes without all doubt Fortune even then had bene the cause also of the cities safetie in distracting the enemies or rather in withdrawing them another way contrary to all hope and expectation of man But what need we to stand thus upon these old histories wherein there is no certeintie to build upon delivered considering that the state of Rome was then ruinate and all their annales records registers and memorials either perished or confounded according as Livie himselfe hath left in writing seeing that the affaires of the Romans
turne chanted another apart giving one to another in order from hand to hand a branch or garland of a myrtle tree which I suppose they called Asaron for that he who tooke the said branch was to sing in his course and to the same purpose a lute there was or an harpe that went round about the table and looke who could skill to play upon it tooke it in hand and sung thereto in measures but those who had no knowledge at all in musicke and refused the said instrument gave occasion of the name Scotion because such maner of singing was not common or easie unto all others there be who say That the said branch of myrtle went not round about to all the guests in order but passed from table to table or from bedde to bedde for when he that sat for most at the first table had sung he sent it to the principall or first man of the second and he to the chiefe person of the third and so consequently the second did by the second by reason whereof and in regard of this crosse and overthwart varietie in the oblique revolution thereof the song was called Scotion THE SECOND QUESTION Whether the master of the feast ought himselfe to assigne unto every guest his place or suffer them to sit as they will themselves MY brother Timon having upon a time invited many persons to a feast willed every one of them as he entred in to take his place and sit where he thought good himselfe for that there were among them strangers citizens neighbours familiars friends and kinsfolke and in one word all that were bidden were not one mans children but a medley and mixt number of all sorts and conditions Now when as they were for the most part come already and had taken their places a certeine stranger well appointed like an amourous gallant in some comedie all in his purple excessive otherwise in curious and costly apparrel attended besided with a traine of lacquies and pages following at his heeles and in one word better guarded than regarded came to the doore of the hall or dining-chamber who after he had cast his eie round about and viewed all the companie how they sat at the table would not enter in but flung away immediatly and stayed not Many there were who ranne after him requesting him to returne and beare them company but in no wise would hee saying That he saw never a place left woorthy his person which when they who were set already understood and many of them had taken their drinke well and had in maner their full load they being right glad tooke up a great laughter and with this note Now farewell he since needs he will be gone Better his roome than company quoth ech one but after that supper was done my father addressing his speech unto me who sat a great way off Timon and I quoth he have chosen thee for a judge to decide a matter of some question and difference betweene us for I blamed and reprooved him a pretie while since about this stranger for if at the first he had ordered the matter well according as I would have had him and bestowed every man in his owne place we should not have bene condemned for our oversight and disorder in this behalfe especially by such a person who hath the skill Horsemen to range in comely battellray And targatiers on foot to leade the way For it is reported that Paulus Aemilius him I meane that defaited Perseus king of Macedonie after that glorious victory made many great and magnificent feasts wherein besides the wonderfull furniture and provision that he ordeined he observed in all points a singular order dispose saying That to one the same man belonged the knowledge aswel how to set out a most friendly and merry feast as to range a most terrible battell for both the one and the other required great discretion and good order which was the reason that Homer the poet was wont when he spake of right valiant warrious and most roial personages deserving best the highest place of command to tearme them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the disposers and setters of the people in order Yea and you that are philosophers doubt not to say and affirme That the great God of heaven in making and creating the world did nothing but change disorder into good order without putting to or taking away ought that was before by disposing and setting every thing in place meet and convenient and so by giving a most beautifull forme to that confused masse or Chaos in nature which had no forme at all wrought this admirable piece of worke which we call the World As for these great high points indeed of doctrine we learn them of you but we our selves are able to see and observe thus much that how sumptuous soever a feast be otherwise yet if it want good order there is no grace or pleasure at all in it A very ridiculous thing it is therefore and a meere mockerie that cooks clearks of the kitchin and sewers should be so carefull what dishes ought to be served first second in the middle or in the last place yea and beleeve me to looke unto it very diligently that there be a convenient place ordeined for persumes and sweet odours when they are to be brought in for chaplets also and garlands that are to be distributed dealt about and last of all for a minstrell wench if any be there to sing play where she may be best heard in the mean while the master of the feast suffer those who are bidden to all this for to sit pell-mell at the table at a venture as if they came onely to fill and cram their bellies without giving either to age or to dignity or to any matter of like qualitie that ranke and order which is fit decent meet for every one in the keeping of which discretion the best man in the place hath his due honor in sitting highest he that is second inferior is by use and custome acquainted and well contented to sit accordingly and the huisher who hath the ordering of the matter is well exercised to distinguish and judge that which is befitting every one according to his estate and degree For it can not stand with any reason that in the Counsell-house there should be a place knowen either of sitting or standing more or lesse honourable according to the quality and dignity of the person and that for setting men at the table there should be the like order observed And is it meet that the host or master of the feast should drinke to one before another and yet have no regard at the first in placing of his guests putting no difference nor observing any distinction at all making of a feast even in the verie beginning one myconos as they say in the common proverbe which is as much as a mish-mash and confused mingle-mangle of all And
likewise in all other things diligent industrious talkative and namely inclined to making of verses and chanting songs as much or rather more than any other passion which can enter into the heart of man THE SIXTH QUESTION Whether king Alexander of Macedonie were a great drinker THere was some speech upon a time as touching king Alexander the Great to this effect That he dranke not so much as sat long at his meat and passed the time away in devising and talking with his friends but Philinus shewed by certeine scroles papers and day-books of the said kings house that they who held that opinion knew not well what they said for that this particular instance was ordinarily and usually found in those records That such a day the king slept all day long upon his liberall drinking of wine yea and other-whiles it appeareth that he slept the morrow after likewise which is the reason that hee was not so forward in venerous matters nor given much to women though otherwise he was hastie quicke and couragious great arguments of an inward heat of bodie and it is to be seene upon record That his flesh yeelded from it and breathed a passing sweet smell insomuch as his shirts and other clothes were full of an aromaticall sent and savour as if they had bene perfumed which seemeth also to be an argument and signe of heat For we see that those be the hottest driest countries which bring foorth cynamon and frankincense according as Theophrastus saith That a sweet odour proceedeth of perfect concoction and digestion of humours namely when by naturall heat all superfluous moisture is quite chased and expelled And by all likelihood this was the principall cause that Callisthenes grew into disgrace and lost the kings favour for that he was unwilling to sup with him in regard that he would impose upon him to drinke so much For it is reported that upon a time the great boule or goblet surnamed Alexanders boule having passed round about the table thorowout untill it came to Callisthenes he refused it and put it backe saying withall I will not drinke in Alexander for to have need of Aesculapius And thus much was said then concerning king Alexanders much wine-bibbing Moreover king Mithridates he who warred against the Romans among other games of prise which hee exhibited ordeined one for those who could drinke best and eat most and by mens saying himselfe performed them both so well that he won the prize in the one and the other for he could eat and drinke more than any man living in his time by occasion whereof he was commonly surnamed Dionysus that is to say Bacchus But as touching the reason of this surname wee say it is an opinion rashly received for when hee was a very infant lying in the cradle the lightning caught the swadling clothes and set them on fire but never touched or hurt his body save onely that there remained a little marke of the fire upon his forehead which notwithstanding the haire did cover that it was not greatly seene so long as he was a childe againe when he was a man growen it chaunced that the lightning pierced into the bed chamber where he lay asleepe and for his owne person it was not so much as singed therewith but it blasted a quiver of arrowes that hung at his bed-side went through it and burnt the arrowes within which as the soothsaiers and wise men out of their learning did intepret signified that one day he should be puissant in archers and light armed men But most men affirme that hee gat his surname of Bacchus or Dionysus in regard of the resemblance and likenesse of such accidents of lightning and blasting as many times befall After these words passed they entred into a speech as touching great drinkers among whom was reckoned also one Heraclides a famous wrestler or champion whom the men of Alexandria in our fathers daies pleasantly called little Hercules This good fellow when he could not meet with a companion able to set foot to his and drinke with him continually used to invite some to breake their fast with him in a morning others to beare him company at dinner some he would bidde to supper and intreat others last of all to sit with him at his collation or banquet after supper now when the first were gone came in the second immediatly then you should have the third succeed them in place and no sooner were they departed but in steps the fourth crew without any interruption and he himselfe sat it out still and making no intermission was able to hold out with all and beare those fower repasts and refections one after another Among those who were familiarly acquainted with Drusus sonne to the emperour Tibetius a physician there was who in drinking would chalenge and defie all the world but observed it was by some that spied and looked neere unto him That to prevent drunkennesse he used to take alwaies five or sixe bitter almonds before every cuppe that he drunke and when he was once debarred of them and not suffered so to doe he was not able to beare his drinke nor resist the least headinesse and strength thereof And verily some there be who say that these almonds have an abstersive propertie to bite to clense and scoure the flesh in such sort as that they will take away the spottes and freckles of the visage by reason of which qualitie when they be taken afore drinke with their bitternesse they fret the pores of the skinne and leave the impression of a certeine biting behinde them by meanes whereof there ensueth a certaine revulsion downward from the head of those vapours which flie up thither and so evaporate away through the said pores But for mine owne part I am of this opinion rather that their bitternesse hath a vertue to dry up and spend humors which is the reason that of all vapours the bitter is most unpleasant and disagreeable to the taste for that indeed as Plato saith consuming moisture as it doth by meanes of the drinesse which it hath it doth unnaturally binde and draw in the little veines of the toong which of themselves be soft and spungeous after the same manner men use to restraine such wounds or ulcers which be moist with medicines or salves composed of bitter drougues according as the poet Homer testisieth in these verses A bitter roote he bruis'd with hands and laid upon the sore To take the anguish cleane away that it might ake no more And so applied when it was all paines were soone allaid The running ulcer dried anon and flux of bloud was staid He said well and truly of that which is in taste bitter That it hath a vertue propertie to drie And it should seeme also that the powders which women strew upon their bodies for to represse diaphoneticall and extraordinarie sweets be by nature bitter and astringent so forcible is their bitternesse to binde and restreine which being so great reason
folly to gather the juice and liquor of such fruits and in the meane time reject and condemne the fairer colours and sweet savours that the seasons of the yeere do yeeld onely for the delightsome aspect and pleasure that floweth as it were out of them if they affoord not otherwise some vertue and propertie which is good and profitable It seemeth rather yet that we should do the contrary namely if it be true as you philosophers say that nature doth nothing in vaine and for no purpose that she hath created and produced these things for the pleasure onely of man as serving to no other purpose but onely for to cheere up our spirits and content our outward senses Marke this moreover and besides how unto trees and plants that prosper and grow nature hath given leaves to save and defend their fruits as also that under their covert themselves one while warmed and another while cooled and refreshed might be able the better to endure the injuries of the aire and change of seasons As for flowers they yeeld no commoditie at all by their tarrying upon the plant unlesse it be this that we have delight in smelling and pleasure in beholding them for a time in that there exhale and breathe from them woonderfull sweet savors and they discover unto us an infinit sort of tinctures and colours by no art of man imitable And therefore when we strip trees of their leaves they seeme displeased and grieved thereat they feele as it were the smart and paine of a wound and there is left by that meanes a hurt and sore like an ulcer and being thus despoiled of their naturall beauty and heart they are ill-favoured to see to and desormed so that we ought not onely as Empedocles saith The leaves of laurel wholly to forbeare And to abstaine her branches for to teare but also we are to spare the leaves and boughs of all other trees and not by their deformitie to adorne our selves robbing and spoiling them perforce and against nature whereas if we gather and crop their flowers we do them no hurt nor wrong at all For this maner of dealing with them resembleth vintage and gathering grapes from the vine and if they be not plucked in due time they shed of their owne accord all faded and withered Like as therefore they be barbarous people who clad themselves with the felles and skinnes of sheepe in stead of making cloth of their wooll to apparell their bodies even so me thinks that they who twist and plait their chaplets of leaves rather than flowers doe not use plants so well as they ought to doe Thus much I thought good to deliver unto you in defence of those that make and sell flower garlands for Grammarian I am not nor much read in poets to alledge testimonies out of their poems wherein it is to be found that in olde time the victors who wan the prize of the sacred games were crowned all with chaplets of flowers howbeit thus much I will be bold to avouch out of them That the rose-garland was peculiarly destined and appropriat to the muses for so I remember I have read in one place of Sappho the poetresse where speaking of a great rich woman yet altogether ignorant unlettered and a meere stranger to the muses she writeth thus All dead thou shalt intombed lie And leave no name nor memorie For roses none thou could'st come by That flower on mountaine Pierie But now it is time to heare what testimonie Tryphon will alledge out of his physicke Then Tryphon taking in hand the matter in question Our ancients quoth he in alder time were not ignorant of all these points neither forgat they to treat thereof as having exceeding great use of plants in the practise of physicke For proofe whereof there remaine at this day most evident arguments for the Tyrians offer unto Agemonides and the Magnesians unto Chiron who were the first that professed and practised physicke in those parts the primices and first gatherings of those herbs and roots wherewith they were wont to cure and heale their patients and prince Bacchus not onely for the invention of wine a most puissant medicine I may say to you and a pleasant was esteemed a sufficient physician but also for that he taught those who were surprised and ravished with Bacchanal furie to crowne their heads with ivie and brought that plant into honour and reputation by that meanes for that it hath a propertie in nature repugnant and contrary unto the qualitie of wine repressing and quenching the coldnesse which it hath the predominant heat thereof that men might take lesse harme thereby and so withstand drunkennesse And verily the names of certeine plants do plainly shew the great industrie and carefull diligence of our forefathers in this behalfe For the walnut-tree they called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that it sendeth from it a certeine heavie and somniferous vapour which hurteth the head of those who lie under the shade and boughts thereof whereby it causeth them to be drowsie The daffodil likewise seemeth to have taken the name Narcissus because it benummeth the sinewes and ingendreth a heavie sleepinesse or stupefaction which is the reason that Sophocles tearmed it the ancient coronet of the great gods meaning thereby the gods terrestriall Moreover it is said that the herbe Rue had the denomination in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the vertue which it hath by reason that with the drinesse wherewith it is endued and the same occasioned by excessive heat it is so astringent that it knitteth bindeth and hardeneth the naturall seed of man and is a great enemie to conception and women with childe As for the Amethyst aswell the herbe as the stone of that name they who thinke that both the one and the other is so called because they withstand drunkennesse miscount themselves and are deceived for in trueth both are named so of the colour and as for the leafe of the herbe it hath no fresh and lively hew but resembleth a winelesse weake wine as one may say that either drinketh flat and hath lost the colour or els is much delaied with water Many other plants may be alledged to this purpose whose properties and naturall vertues have imposed their names but these examples may suffice to shew the studious industrie and great experience of our ancestours in regard whereof they used to weare chaplets of leaves and flowers upon their heads whiles they sat drinking wine for strong wine and pure of it selfe having begun to assaile the head and to enervate or enfeeble the whole body by seizing upon the originall fountaine of the nerves and senses to wit the braine doth mightily trouble and disquiet a man for the remedie of which inconvenience the sent and smell breathing from flowers serveth marvellous well for that the same doth defend and fortifie as with a rampar the castle and citadell as it were of the head against the
assaults and impressions of drunkennesse For these flowers if they be hot gently unstop and open the pores and in so doing make way and give vent for the heady wine to evaporate and breathe out all fumosities and contrariwise if they be temperatly colde by closing gently the said pores keepe downe and drive backe the vapours steaming up into the braine And of this vertue are the garlands of violets and roses which by their smell and comfortable sent represse and stay both ache and heavinesse of head As for the flower of Privet Saffron and Baccaris that is to say Our Ladies gloves or Nard Rusticke bring them sweetly to sleepe who have drunke freely for these send from them a milde aire breathing after a smooth and uniforme manner the which doth softly comprise and lay even the unequall distemperatures the troublesome acrimonies and disorderly asperities arising in the bodies of those who have overdrunk themselves whereupon there ensueth a calme and thereby the strength of the headie wine is either dulled or else rebated Other sorts of flowers there be the odours whereof being spred and dispersed about the braine purge mildly the pores and passages of the senses and their organes subtiliat and discusse gently withour trouble and offence with their moderate heat the humors and all moist vapours by way of rarefaction and warme the braine comfortably which by nature is of a cold temperature and for this cause especially those pettie garlands or poesies of flowers which they hung in old time about their necks they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if one would saie suffumigations and they annointed all their brest-parts with the oiles that were expelled or extracted from them Alcyus also testifieth as much where hee willeth to powre sweet oile upon his head that had suffered much paine and upon his brest all grey for even so such odors are directed up as farre as to the braine being drawen by the sense of smelling So it was not because they thought that the soule which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was seated and kept residence within the heart that they called these wreathes and garlands about their necks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some would have it for then more reason it had beene to have tearmed them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it was as I said before of the exhalation or evaporation upward from the region of the breast against which they were worne pendant neither are wee to woonder that the exhalations of flowers should have so great force for we finde it written in records that the shadow of Smilax especially when it is in the flower killeth them that lie a sleepe under it also from the Poppie there ariseth a certeine spirit when the juice is drawen out of it which they call Opium and if they take no better heed who draw the same it causeth them to swoone and fall to the ground there is an herbe called Alysson which whosever hold in their hands or doe but looke upon it shall presently be ridde of the yexe or painfull hickot and they say it is very good also for sheepe and goates to keepe them from all diseases if the same be planted along their cotes and folds the Rose also named in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was so called for that it casteth from it an odoriferous smell which is the reason that it quickly fadeth and the beautie passeth soone away cold it is in operation although it carie the colour of fire and not without good cause for that the little heat that it hath flieth up to the superficies of it as being driven outwardly from within by the native coldnesse that it hath THE SECOND QUESTION Whether Ivie of the owne nature be cold or hot THis speech of Tryphon we greatly praised but Amonius smiling It were not meet quoth he to kicke and spurne againe nor to overthrow so beautifull and gay a discourse as this was embelished and adorned with as great varietie as the garlands whereof it treated and which he undertooke to defend and mainteine but that I cannot tell how it is come to passe that the Ivie is enterlaced in the chaplet of flowers and said by the naturall coldnesse that it is to have a vertue and propertie to extinguish and quench the forcible heat of new wine for contrariwise it seemeth to be hot and ardent and the frute which it beareth being put into wine and infused therein giveth it power to inebriat and make drunke yea and to trouble and disquiet the bodie by the inflammation that it causeth by reason of which excessive heat the very body thereof groweth naturall crooked after the manner of wood that curbeth and warpeth with the fire also the snow which oftentimes cōtinueth and lieth many daies upon other trees flieth in great haste from the Ivie tree or to speake more properly is presently gone thawed and melted if it chance to settle upon it that by reason of the heat and that which more is as Theophrastus hath left in writing Harpalus the lieutenant generall under Alexander the Great in the province of Babylon by expresse order and direction from the king his master endevoured and did what he might to set in the kings orchard there certaine trees and plants which came out of Greece and such especially as yeelded a goodly shade caried large leaves and were by nature cold for that the countrey about Babylon is exceeding hot and scorched with the burning heat of the sunne but the ground would never enterteine nor abide the Ivie onely notwithstanding that Harpalus tooke great paines and emploied most carefull diligence about it for plant it as often as he would it dried and died immediatly and why hotte it is of the owne nature and was planted in a mould farre hotter than it selfe which hindered it for taking root for this is a generall and perpetuall rule that all excessive enormities of any object destroy the force and powers of the subject in which regard they desire rather their contraries in such sort as that a plant of cold temperature requireth an hot place to grow in and that which is hot demaundeth likewise a cold ground and this is the reason that high mountaine countries windie and covered with snow beare ordinarily trees that yeeld torch-wood and pitch as pines cone trees and such like And were it not so my good friend Tryphon yet this is certeine that trees which by nature are chill and cold shedde their leaves every yeere for that the small heat which they have for very penurie retireth inwardly and leaveth the outward parts naked and destitute whereas contrariwise heat and uncteous fattinesse which appeereth in the olive laurell and cypresse trees keepe themselves alwaies greene and hold their leaves like as the Ivie also doth for her part And therefore good father Bacchus hath not brought into use and request the Ivie as a preservative and present helpe against the encounter of
good at all by reason that their seed is cold and feeble furthermore all the accidents and passions which colde worketh doe befall unto those that be drunke for they tremble and shake they are heavie and dull of motion and looke pale the spirit in their joints and members is unquiet and mooveth disorderly their tongues falter stut and be double last of all their sinewes in the extremities of the bodie are drawen up in maner of a crampe and benummed yea and in many drunkennesso endeth in a dead palsie or generall resolution of all parts namely after that the wine hath utterly extinguished and mortified their naturall heat Physicians also are woont to cure these symptones and inconveniences procured by excessive drinke and surset by laying the patients presently in bedde and covering them well with clothes for to bring them to an heat the next morrow they put them into the baine or hot-house and rub them wel with oile they nourish them with meats which do not trouble the masse of the body and thus by this cherrishing they gently fetch againe and recover the heat which wine had dissipated and driven out of the bodie And forasmuch as quoth I in things apparent and evident to the eie we search for the like faculties which lie hidden and secret how can we doubt what drunkennesse is and with what it may be compared for according as I have before said drunken folke resemble for all the world old men and therefore it is that great drunkards soone wax old many of them become bald before their time and grow to be grey and hoarie ere they be aged all which accidents seeme to surprize a man for defect of heat Moreover vineger in some sort resembleth the nature and propertie of wine now of all things that are powerfull to quench there is none so repugnant and contrarie to fire as vineger is and nothing so much as it by the excessive coldnesse that it hath overcommeth and represseth a flame Againe we see how physicians use those fruits to coole withall which of all others be most vinous or represent the liquor of wine as for example pomgranates and other orchard apples As for honie do they not mix the substance thereof with raine-water and snow for to make thereof a kinde of wine by reason that the cold doth convert the sweetnesse for the affinitie that is betweene them into austeritie when it is predominant and more puissant what should I say more have not our ancients in olde time among serpents dedicated the dragon and of all plants consecrated Ivie to Bacchus for this cause that they be both of a certeine colde and congealing nature Now if any doe object for proofe that wine is hot how for them that have drunke the juice of hemlocke the sovereigne remedie and counterpoise of all other is to take a great draught of strong wine upon it I will replie to the contrary and turne the same argument upon them namely that wine and the juice of hemlocke mingled together is a poison incurable presently killeth those who drinke it remedilesse So that there is no more reason to prove it hot for resisting hemlocke than colde for helping the operation of it or els we must say that it is not coldnesse whereby hemlocke killeth those that drinke it so presently but rather some other hidden qualitie and propertie that it hath THE SIXTH QUESTION Of the convenient time for a man to know his wife carnally CErteine yoong men who were new students and had lately tasted of the learning conteined in ancient books were ready to teare Epicurus in pieces and inveighed mightily against him as an impudent person for proposing and moving speech which was neither seemly nor necessarie in his symposium or banquet as touching the time of meddling with a woman for that an ancient man well stept in yeres as he was should make mention begin talke of venerous matters and namely at a banquet where many yoong men were in place to particularize and make question in this sort Whether it were better for a man to have the use of his wife before supper or after seemed to proceed from a lascivious minde and incontinent in the highest degree Against which some there were who alledged the example of Xenophon who after his supper or banquet brought his guests not on foot but on horse-backe riding a gallop away home to lie with their wives But Zopyrus the physician who was very well seene and conversant in the books of Epicurus said That they had not read diligently and with advisement his booke called Symposium that is to say The banquet For he tooke not this question quoth he to treat of at the beginning as a theame or subject matter expresly chosen and of purpose whereto all their talke should be directed and in nothing els to be determined and ended but having caused those yoong men to rise from the table for to walke after supper he entred into a discourse for to induce them to continence and temperance and to withdraw them from dissolute lust of the flesh as being at all times a thing dangerous and ready to plunge a man into mischiefe but yet more hurtfull unto those who use it upon a full stomacke after they have eat and drunke well and made good cheere at some great feast And if quoth Zopyrus he had taken for the principall subject the discourse of this point is it pertinent and beseeming a philosopher not to treat and consider at all of the time and houre proper and meet for men to embrace their espoused wives or much better so to doe in due season and with discretion and is it I pray you not discommendable to dispute thereof elswhere and at other times and altogether dishonest to handle that question at the table or at a feast for mine owne part I thinke cleane contrary namely that we may with good reason reprove and blame a philosopher who openly in the day time should dispute in publicke schooles of this matter before all commers and in the hearing of all sorts of people but at the table where there is a standing cup set before familiars and friends and where other-whiles it is expedient to vary and change our talke which otherwise would be but lewke warme or starke colde for all the wine how can it be unseemely or dishonest either to speake or heare ought that is holsome and good for men as touching the lawfull company with their wives in the secret of marriage for mine owne part I protest unto you I could wish with all my heart that those Partitions of Zeno had beene couched in some booke entituled Abanquet or pleasant treatise rather than bestowed as they are in a composition so grave and serious as are the books of policie and government of State The yoong men at these words were cut over the thumbs and being abashed held their tongues and sat them downe quietly Now when others of the company
to withstand the appetite and to represse the same when it doth exceed is not so hard and difficult a matter but to stirre up to provoke corrobrate the same when it is lost decaied before due time or to give an edge unto it being dull and faint is a mastrie indeed and a piece of worke my friend I may say unto you not so easily done whereby it appeares that the nouriture of divers viands is better than the simple food and that which by reason is alwaies of one sort doth soone satisfie and give one enough by how much more easie it is to stay nature when she is too speedie and hastie than to set her forward being weary and drawing behinde and whereas some haply there bee who say that repletion and fulnesse is more to be feared and avoided than inanition and emptinesse that is not true but rather the contrary in deed if repletion and surfet grow to corruption or to some maladie it is hurtfull but emptinesse if it bring and breed none other harme els is of it selfe adverse and contrary to nature Let these reasons therefore be opposed as it were dissonant and sounding of a contrary string against those which you Philinus have phylosophically discoursed as for others of you heere that for saving money and to spare cost sticke to salt and cumin you are ignorant for want of experience that varietie is more pleasant and the more delectable that a thing is the more agreeable it is to the appetite provided alwaies that you shunne excesse and gourmandise for surely it cleaveth quickly to the body which is desirous of it going as one would say before and ready to meet it halfe-way for to receive it having the eie-sight to prepare the way whereas contrariwise that which is lothsome or not pleasing to the appetite floteth and wandereth up and downe in the bodie and findeth no enterteinment in such sort as either nature rejecteth it quite or if she receive it the same goes against her heart she doth it for pure need and want of other sustenance now when I speake of diversitie variety of viands note thus much and remember that I meane not these curious works of pa stry these exquisit sawces tarts and cakes which go under the name of Aburtacae Canduli Carycae which are but superfluous toies and vanities for otherwise Plato himselfe alloweth varietie of meats at the table to these generous and noble-gentlemen his citizens whom he describeth in his common-wealth when hee setteth before them bulbs scalions olives salade herbes cheese and al manner of deinties that woorth would affoord and over above al these he would not defraud nor cut feasts short of their junckets banquetting dishes at the end of al. THE SEGOND QUESTION What is the reason of this opinion so generally received that Mushromes be engendred of thunder and that those who lie asleepe are not thought to be smitten with lightning AT a certeine supper where we were in the city Elis Agemachus set before us Mushromes of an exceeding bignesse whereat when the companie seemed to woonder one who was there present smiled and said Certes these may beseeme well the great thunders that we have lately had within this few daies by which words he seemed pleasantly to scoffe at this vulgar opinion That Mushromes should breed of thunder Now some were there who said That thunder caused the earth to chinke and open using the meanes of the aire as it were a wedge to cleave it and withall that they who seeke for Mushromes by those crevices guesse where they are to be found whereupon arose this common opinion That they were engendred of thunder and not shewed thereby as if a man should imagine that a showre of raine breedeth snailes and not rather cause them to creepe foorth and be seene abroad But Agemachus seemed then in good earnest to confirme the said received opinion by experience praying the company not to conclude by by that a thing was incredible because it was strange and wonderfull For quoth hee there be many other effects of thunder lightning and other meteores or celestial impressions right admirable whereof it were very hard if not altogether impossible to comprehend the causes and the reasons For this ridiculous round root called the Bulb which maketh us so good sport and is growen into a by-word little though it be escapeth not by that meanes from thunder but because it hath a propertie cleane contrary unto it like as the figge tree also and the skin of the seale or sea-calfe and of the beast Hyena with whose skinnes mariners and sailers are wont to clothe the ends of their crosse-saile yards whereupon they hang their sailes gardeners also and good husbandmen call those showres that fall with thunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say good to water their grounds and so they thinke them to be In summe it were great simplicity and meere folly to woonder heereat considering that we doe see before our eies things more admirable than this and indeed of all other most incredible namely out of moist clouds fire to flash and from the same soft as they be so great cracks and horrible claps of thunder Well I am quoth he in these matters somewhat talkative and full of words because I would sollicit and move you to be more willing to search into the cause for that I meane not to deale hardly otherwise with you and seeme to presse you every one to lay downe your part toward the paiment for these my great Mushromes Why quoth I Agemachus himselfe seemeth in some sort to have pointed with his very finger to the reason hereof for I assure you at this present I can not thinke of any one more probable than this namely that together with thunder there falleth downe many times a certeine genitall water apt to ingender and the cause thereof is heat mingled among for that pure light piercing substance of the fire being now converted into lightning is gone and passed away but the more weightie grosse and flatilent part remaining behinde enwrapped within the cloud altereth and taketh quite the coldnesse away and drinketh up the moisture making it more flateous and windie in such sort as by this meanes especially these raines gently and mildly enter pierce into plants trees and herbs upon which they fall causing them within a while to thrive in bignesse and infusing within them a particular temperature and a peculiar difference of juice As we may observe otherwise that the dew maketh the grasse to be better seasoned as it were and fitter to content the appetite of sheepe and other cattell yea and those clouds upon which that reflexion is made which we call the rain-bow fill those trees and wood upon which they fall with a passing sweet and pleasant odor wherof the priests of our countrey be not ignorant but acnowledge as much calling the same Irisiseepta as if the rain-bow
pores be open for that the spirit hath forsaken and abandoned them which is the cause likewise that voices odors and savours passe through them unheard and unsmelled for why that which should resist and in resistance suffer and take impression meeteth not with those objects that are presented unto it and least of all when they pierce with such swiftnesse and subtilitie as the fire of lightning doth for that which of it selfe is lesse firme strong for to resist offensive things nature doth desend fortifie and furnish with remedies against that which offendeth by putting before them hard and solide munitions but looke what things bee of incomparable force and invincible they lesse offend and hurt that which yeeldeth than that which maketh head and resistance adde moreover heereunto that they who lie a sleepe are lesse affraid affrighted or astonied by occasion whereof and of nothing else many have died onely I say for feare of death without any harme at all done unto them and this is the very cause that shepheards teach their sheepe to runne and gather round together into a troupe when it thundreth for that they which are dispersed and scattered a sunder for very feare take harme and cast their yoong ones in time of thunder yea and an infinit number have beene knowen to lie dead on the ground by reason of thunder without any marke or stroke wound scorch or burne seene upon them whose life and soule for very feare hath flowen out of their bodies like a birde out of a cage for according as Euripides saith The very blast of some great thunder-clap Hath many a one strucke stone-dead with a flap And forasmuch as otherwise the sense of hearing is of all others most subject to suffer violent passions and the fearefull frights occasioned by sounds and noises worke greatest troubles in the minde against it the privation of sense is a sure bulwarke and rampar to a man that lieth asleepe where as they who are awake be many times killed with feare of the thing before it commeth for a fright to say a trueth knitting closing and compressing the body fast giveth more strength a great deale to the stroake when it comes for that it findeth more resistance THE THIRD QUESTION Why at a wedding or bride-supper men use to invite more guests than at other times AT the wedding of my sonne Autobulus ô Sossius Senecio one who came frō Chaeronea was with us to solemnize the feast a great nūber there were besides of other honorable personages which gave unto him occasion for to demand this question What the cause might be that ordinarily we invite more guests to such a marriage supper than to any other feast considering that even those law-givers who impugned most the superfluitie and riot of feasts have precisely expresly set downe the number of those persons whom they would have to be bidden guests to a wedding For of the ancient philosophers quoth he the man that treated of this argument and the cause thereof to wit Hecataeus of Abdera hath written nothing in my judgement worth ought not to the purpose for thus he saith That they who marry wives bid many persons to their wedding to the end that many may take knowledge and beare witnesse that being free borne and of free condition they take wives likewise of like free birth and condition For the comicall poets cleane contrary mocke and laugh at those who make proud and sumptuous feasts at their marriage setting out the same with great pompe and magnificence as if that were no sure bond nor linke to be trusted unto wherewith they would seeme to knit wedlocke like as Menander said to one who willed the bridegrome to make a strong rempar all about of pots pannes and platters When that is done on every side What is all this to your new bride But lest we might not seeme to finde fault with others at our pleasure for that we have nothing of our owne to say which is the easiest matter in the world I shewed first and formost that there was no occasion of feasting so publike nor so much divulged and celebrated as marriage for say that we sacrifice unto the gods or feast a friend for his farewell when he is to goe a long voiage or enterteine a traveller and stranger that passeth by our house or commeth of purpose to visit us we may do all without the privitie of kinsefolke friends but a nuptiall feast where the wedding-song and caroll of 〈◊〉 is chanted aloud where the torches are to be seene lightburning where the hautboies and pipes play merrily and resound where as Homer saith the very women and maidens stand woondering at their doores to see and heare is notoriously knowen and proclaimed to the whole world in regard whereof because there is none ignorant of these espousals and festivall solemnities men being ashamed to leave out any invite generally all their kinsefolke familiar friends and acquaintance as whom in some sort it doth concerne and who have an interest in the thing When we all had approoved this Theon taking in hand the question Surely all this quoth he may goe for currant for it carrieth great probabilitie therewith but you may adde moreover if you please thus much That these marriage feasts are not onely for friends but also for kinsefolke and allies for that a whole kindred race and generation come to have another new alliance to be incorporated into them and that which more is when two houses in this wise be joined together both he who receiveth the woman thinketh that hee ought to enterteine and feast the kindred and friends of him that giveth her and he who giveth her likewise taketh himselfe bound to doe as much reciprocally by the knisefolke and friends of the receiver whereby the feast and number of them who are bidden groweth double Now forasmuch as many marriage complements and to say a trueth the most part in maner all are performed at weddings by women surely where the goodwives be great reason there is that of necessitie their husbands also should be welcome for their sakes and so thereby the companie still doth increase THE FOURTH QUESTION Whether the viands which the sea affoordeth be more delicate than those of the land GAlepsus a town in Euboea where there be baths naturally of hot waters is a proper seat and place fitted by nature for sundry honest pleasures beautified with many faire houses and lodgings in such sort as it is reputed the publike hostelrie of all Greece and albeit there be great game there of hunting and hawking and woonderfull plentie aswell of fowle as other venison yet is the market no lesse served from the sea nor their tables lesse furnished 〈◊〉 daintie fish for that indeed along the coast the sea is very deepe and the water faire nourishing an infinit number of excellent fishes This towne flourisheth more in the mids of Spring than at any other season of the yeere for much concourse
transitorie besides and soone at an end like unto the odor of a perfume and sweet ointment or the smell of rost in a kitchin a day after whereas discourses philosophicall and disputations of learning when they be remembred afterwards yeeld alwaies new pleasure and fresh delight unto those that were at them yea and cause them who were absent and left out in hearing the relation thereof to have no lesse part of learning and erudition than they who were present for thus we see that even at this day students and prosessours of learning have the fruition and enjoy the benefit of Socrates his banquets no lesse than they themselves who were personally present and had their reall part of them at the time and verily if corporall matter as dainty dishes and exquisit fare had so greatly affected and delighted their minds with pleasure Plato and Xenophon should have put downe in writing and left unto us the memoriall not of the discourses there held nor of the talke which then passed but rather of the furniture of the table have made a note of the delicate viands pastrie works comfitures and junkets served up in Callias or Agathus houses whereas now of all such matters there is no mention at all as if they were of no account nor worth the naming notwithstanding very like it is there was no want of provision no spare of cost nor defect of diligence in that behalfe but on the otherside penned they have most exactly and with great diligence the discourses of good letters and philosophy which then and there passed merrily and those they have commended unto posterities to give us example that we ought not onely to devise and reason together when we are at the boord but also to call to minde afterwards what good talke had passed and to keepe the same in memorie THE FIRST QUESTION What is the reason that those who be fasting are more thirsty than hungry NOw send I unto you Sossius Senecio this sixth booke of banquet discourses whereof the first question is Why those who be long fasting are more thirstie than hungry for it may seeme contrary unto all reason that thirst rather than hunger should ensue much fasting for that the want of dry food would seeme by course of nature to require a supplie of nutriment by the like Then began I in this manner to argue before the companie there in place That of all things within us and whereof we consist our naturall heat either alone or principally had need of nouriture and maintenance for thus verily wee doe observe in outward elements that neither aire water nor earth desire nutriment neither doe they consume whatsoever is neere unto them but it is fire onely that requireth the one and doth the other which is the reason that all yoong folke doe eat more than elder persons for that they be hotter yea and old men and women can endure to fast better because their naturall heat is already decaied and feeble in them like as it is in those living creatures which have but little bloud for small need have they of nouriture for default of naturall heat Moreover thus much we may observe in everie one of our selves that our bodily exercises our loud outcries and such like matters as by motion doe augment heat make us to take more pleasure in our meat and to have a better appetite to eat now the principall most familiar and naturall food of heat in mine opinion is moisture as we may see by daily experience that burning flames of fire increase by powring oile thereto of all things in the world ashes are the driest because the whole humiditie is burnt up and consumed but the terrestriall substance destitute of all liquor remaineth alone semblably the natures of fire is to separate and divide bodies by taking away the moisture which held them sodered and bound together when as therefore wee fast long our naturall heat draweth forcibly unto it first all the humours out of the reliques of our nourishment which done the inslammation thereof passeth farther and setteth upon the very radical humour within our flesh searching every corner for moisture to feed and nourish it there being caused therefore a woonderfull drinesse our bodie like as in earth or clay that is parched with heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by consequence commeth to stand more in need of drinke than of meat untill such time as we have taken a good draught by meanes whereof our heat being well refreshed and 〈◊〉 worketh and procureth appetite to solide and dry nourishment THE SECOND QUESTION Whether it be want of food that causeth hunger and thirst or rather the transformation and change of the conduits and passages within our bodies THis discourse being thus ended Philo the physician went about to impugne and overthrow the first position mainteining that thirst proceeded not from default of any nourishment but was to be imputed unto the change of the forme in certaine passages of the body and for demonstration heereof hee alledged of the one side this experience That they who be a thirst in the night if they sleepe upon it lose their thirstinesse although they drinke never a drop on the other side that they who have the ague if their fit decline or be off them or in case the feaver be cleane past and gone presently they are eased of their drought likewise there be many who after they have beene bathed yea and beleeve me others when they have vomited are ridde of thirstinesse and yet they get moisture neither by the one nor the other but they are the pores and petie conduits of the body that suffer mutation because they be altered and transformed into another state and disposition and this appeereth more evidently in hunger for many sicke folke there be who at one time have need of nourishment and yet want appetite to their meat some there are againe who let them eat and fill themselves never so much have never the lesse appetite to meat nay their greedie hunger encreaseth the more semblablie you shall have many of those who lothed their meat to recover their stomacke and appetite quickly by tasting a few olives or capres condite with salt pickle whereby it appeareth plainly that hunger is not occasioned by default of nourishment but through the said alteration or passion of the pores and conduits of the body for surely such meats as those although they diminish the want of nourishment by addition of more food yet neverthelesse cause hunger and even so the poinant acrimonie of these salt viands contenting the taste and pleasant to the mouth by knitting binding and strengthening the stomacke or contrariwise by relaxing or opening the same do procure unto it and breed therein a certeine gnawing and a disposition to the liking of their meat which we call appetite The reason of these arguments seemed unto me very wittily devised and framed pretily for to carrie a good shew of probabilitie howbeit to be contrary unto the
principall end of nature to which the appetite doth leade and conduct every living creature desirous to supplie that which is wanting to fill that which is emptie and pursuing alwaies that which is meet for it and familiar but yet defectuous for to say that the thing wherein principally a living creature differeth from a livelesse bodie was not given unto us for the tuition maintenance and preservation of our health and safetie even as it were of our eies that be so proper and familiar to the body and to feare such occurrents as be adverse thereto but to thinke that the same is onely a passion change and alteration of the pores occasioned according as the same be made either bigger or smaller is to speake plainly the fashion and part of those who make no reckoning at all of nature Moreover to confesse that to quake for colde hapneth unto our bodie for want of heat familiar and naturall unto it and with one breath to denie that hunger and thirst proceed not from defect of moisture and nourishment is very absurd and yet more unreasonable and monstrous it were to affirme that nature desireth evacuation when she feeleth her selfe charged with fulnesse and withall hath a desire to repletion not because she findeth her selfe over-emptie but upon some other passion comming I know not how not which way Certes these needs and repletions in the bodies of living creatures resemble properly the accidents that fall out in agriculture and husbandry for the earth suffereth many such defects and requireth as many helpes and remedies against drought we seeke to moisten by watering for burning with heat to coole moderately when things are frozen to heat them againe and keepe them warme by laying as it were many coverings over and looke what is not in our power to doe we pray unto the gods for the helpe and furnish us therewith namely sweet and milde dewes pleasant and comfortable windes so that nature alwas seeketh supplie of that which is defective for to preserve her state and temperature And in my conceit this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth nourishment seemeth to import as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say preserving nature preserved it is in plants verily trees insensibly as Empedocles said by the aire about them when they are refreshed and watered thereby in convenient maner as need requireth but as for us our appetite causeth us to seeke and procure that for default whereof we have not our kinde temperature But let us consider better ech one of those reasons by it selfe which have bene delivered and how untrue they be for first and formost those viands which have a quicke sharpe and pleasing taste by reason of their acrimonie procure no appetite at all in those parts which be capable of nouriture but only a certeine biting or gnawing in them much like unto that itching when something is applied unto the skin that doth plucke and fret it and say that this passion or affection whatsoever it is procureth appetite it standeth to great reason that by such sharpe and quicke viands those matters which caused fulnesse comming to be attenuated and made more subtill are discussed dissolved and so dissipated as they ought to be by which meanes consequently there followeth a want and defect not for that the pores and passages be altered or changed into another forme but rather because they be now voided cleere and purged considering that those juices which be sharpe eager quicke piercing and saltish by attenuating and making tender the matter that they meet with and worke upon do discusse disgregate and scatter the same in such sort as they ingender and procure a new appetite To come now unto those who sleepe upon their thirstinesse they be not the pores which by their transformation allay thirst but by reason that they receive humiditie from the fleshie parts and are filled with a vapourous moisture from thence and as for vomits in casting up one thing which is adverse to nature they give her meanes to enjoy another which is friendly and familiar thereto for thirst is not a desire so much of an exceeding great quantitie of moisture as of that which is kinde and familiar and therefore although a man have within him great abundance of that moisture which is unnaturall yet neverthelesse he wanteth still for that his thirst giveth place to no other humiditie but unto that which is proper and naturall and whereof it is desirous neither commeth mans bodie into a good temper againe before such time as that humiditie be removed and gone which was enemie to nature and then the waies and passages receive willingly that moisture which is friendly and familiar unto her as to the ague beforesaid it driveth indeed the moisture inwardly into the center as it were of the bodie for when the middle thereof is all on a fire thither runneth and retireth all the humiditie where it is thrust together and reteined and by reason that there is such store thereof pressed and pent in it falleth out often times that many being sicke of the ague do cast and vomit it up for to be discharged thereof and be exceeding thirstie withall for want of moisture and for the drinesse that is in other parts of the bodie which call for humiditie when as then the fever either declineth or hath intermission so as the ardent heat within is gone from those interior parts in the center and middle of the bodie the moisture returneth againe into the outward habit it spreadeth I say and is dispersed thorowout according to the naturall course thereof so as at once it bringeth ease to the parts within and withall causeth the flesh and skin without to be smoothe soft and moist whereas before it was rough hard and drie yea and many times it mooveth sweats whereby it commeth to passe that the want which before caused thirst now ceaseth and is gone while the moisture is returned from the place wherein before it was streightly pressed and kept in unto that which is desirous and hath need of it and where it is at large and more at libertie for like as in an orchard or garden although there be a pit conteining plentie of water unlesse a man draw some out of it and therewith water the ground it can not chuse but the herbs plants and trees will be as one would say athirst and at a fault for nourishment even so it fareth in our bodies if all the moisture be gotten to one place no marvell if the rest do want and become exceeding drie untill such time as it run againe and that there be a new diffusion thereof like as it falleth out with those who are sicke of an ague when the fit is past or the fever hath left them and to those who sleepe upon thirst for in these sleepe bringeth backe the moisture from the center and middle of the bodie distributing it to all the members and parts thereof
we dayly burne namely that the airie substance therein flieth up in smoake that which is terrestriall turneth into ashes and there is nothing but that which is moist or liquid that flameth out burneth light and is consumed cleane for why fire hath no other sustenance to feed upon and therefore water wine and other liquors stand much upon a feculent muddie earthly matter which is the cause that if a man do cast them upon a fire or flame by their asperitie they disgregate and by their weight choke quench it but oile for that most properly and sincerely it is moist and by reason also that it is so subtile soone receiveth alteration and being over come by the fire is quickly inflamed but the greatest argument to prove the moisture of oile is this that a little thereof will spread and go a great way for neither honie nor water nor any other liquid thing whatsoever in so small a quantitie can be dilated and drawen so far as oile but for the most part they are spent and gone by occasion of their siccity and verily oile being so pliable and ready to be drawen every way soft also and glib is apt to run all over the body when it is anointed it floweth and spreadeth a great way by meanes of the humiditie of all parts which are so moveable in such sort as it continueth a long time and hardly will be rid away it sticketh and cleaveth so fast for a garment if it be dipped and drenched all over in water will soone be drie againe but the spots and staines with oile require no small adoe to be scoured out and cleansed for that it taketh so deepe an impression and all because it is so fine subtile and exceeding moist and Aristotle himselfe saith that even wine also being delaied with water if it be gotten into a cloth is hardly fetched out for that now it is more subtile than before and pierceth farther within the pores thereof THE TENTH QUESTION What is the cause that the flesh of beasts killed for sacrifice if it be hung upon a fig-tree becommeth more tender within a while ARiston had a cooke commended highly by those who used to sup with his master for singular skill in his art and namely for that among all other viands which he handled and dressed passing well hee served up a cocke unto the table before us newly killed and sacrificed unto Hercules the flesh whereof did eat as short and tender as if he had hung by the heeles a day or two before and when Ariston said that it was an easie matter so to doe and that there needed no more but presently when his throat was cut to hang him upon a fig-tree we tooke occasion thereby to search into the cause of this effect Certes that there passeth from the figge-tree a sharpe aire and strong spirit our verie eiesight will testifie as also the common speech that goeth of a bull who if he be tied to a fig-tree how wilde savage and fell soever he was before will soone be meeke and quiet abide to be handled and in one word lay downe his furious rage as if it were cleane daunred But the principall cause heereof was attributed to the acrimonie and sharpe qualitie of the wood for the tree is more succulent than any other insomuch as the verie figge it selfe the wood also and the leafe be all full of juice also whiles it burneth in the fire there ariseth from it a bitter biting smoake very hurtfull to the eies and when it is burnt there is made of the ashes a strong leie very detersive and scouring which bee all signes of heat and moreover whereas the milkie juice of the sig-tree will cause milke to turne and cruddle some say it is not by the inequality of the figures of milke which are comprehended and glewed as it were therewith namely when the united and round parts thereof are cast up to the superficies but for that the foresaid juice by meanes of heat doth resolve the waterie substance of the liquor which is not apt to gather consistence and be thickned moreover this is another figne thereof that notwithstanding the juice be in some sort sweet yet it is good for nothing and maketh the woorst and most unpleasant drinke in the world for it is not the inequalitie therof that causeth the smooth parts to gather a crud but the heat which maketh the cold and cruddie partes to coagilate A good proofe of this we have from salt which serveth to this purpose because it is hot but it impeacheth this interlacing and glutinous binding pretended for that by nature it doth rather dissolve and unbinde To come againe therefore unto the question in hand the fig-tree sendeth from it a sharpe piercing and incisive spirit and this is it that doth make tender and as it were concoct the flesh of the saide foule and as great an effect should one see if he had put him in a heape of wheat or such corne or covered him all over with salt nitre and all by reason of heat and that this is true that wheat is hot may be gathered by the vessels full of wine which are hidden within a heape of wheat for a man shall soone finde that the wine will be all gone THE SVENTH BOOKE OF SYMPOSIAQUES OR BANQUET-DISCOURSES The Summarie 1 AGainst those who reproove Plato for saying that our drinke passeth thorough the lungs 2 What is that which Plato calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and why those seedes which fall upon beeses hornes become hard in concoction 3 Why the middle part in wine the highest in oile and the bottome of hony is best 4 Wherefore the Romans in old time observed this custome never in any case to take away the table cleane nor to suffer a lampe or candle to goe out 5 That we ought to take great heed of those pleasures which naughtie musicke yeeldeth and how we should beware of it 6 Of those guests who are called shadowes and whether a man may goe to a feast unbidden if hee be brought thither by those who were invited when and unto whom 7 Whither it he lawfull and honest to admit she-minstrels at a feast or banquet 8 What matters especially it is good to heare discoursed upon at the table 9 That to sit in counsell or consult at a table was in old time the custome of Greeks as well as of Persians 10 Whether they did well that so consulted at their meat THE SEVENTH BOOKE OF Symposiaques or banquet-discourses The Proeme THe Romans have commonly in their mouthes ô Sossius Senecio the speech of a pleasant conceited man and a curteous whosoever he was who when he had supped alone at any time was wont thus to say Eaten I have this day but not supped shewing thereby that meales would never be without mirth and good companie to season the same and to give a pleasant taste unto the viands Euenus verily used to say That fire was
turne to speake What should we meane by this I pray you in the name of Jupiter quoth he to attribute this cause unto an invisible motion of the aire and leave the agitation tossing and divulsion thereof which is so manifest and evident to our eies for this great ruler and commander in the heaven Jupiter doth not after an imperceptible maner nor by little and little stirre the smallest parcels of the aire but all at once so soone as he sheweth his face exciteth and moveth all things in the world Giving foorthwith a signall in such wise As men thereby unto their works may rise which they no sooner see but they obey and follow as if together with the new day they were regenerate againe and entred into another manner of life as Democritus saith setting themselves unto their businesse and affaires not without some noise effectual cries in which sense Ibycus called not impertinently the morning or dawning of the day Clytus for that now we begin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to heare others yea to speake aloud our selves whereas the aire of the night being for the most part calme and still without any waves and billowes for that everie thing is at rest and repose by all likelihood conveigheth the voice entier and whole unto us not brokē nor diminished one jot At these words Aristodemus of Cypres who was one of our companie But take heed Thrasyllus quoth he that this which you say be not convinced and resuted by the battels and marches of great armies in the night season for that upon such an occasion the noise and outcries be no lesse resounding and cleere how troubled and waving soever the aire be than otherwise and peradventure there is some cause thereof proceeding also from our selves for the most part of that which we speake in the night season is of this nature that either we commaund some body after a turbulent manner as if a passion urged us thereto or if we demaund and aske ought we crie as loud as we can for that the thing which wakeneth and maketh us to rise at such a time when as we should sleepe and take our repose for to speake or doe any thing is no small matter or peaceable but great and important hasting us for the urgent necessitie thereof unto our businesse in such sort that our words and voices which then we utter go from us in greater force and vehemency THE FOURTH QUESTION How it comes to passe that of the sacred games of prize some use one maner of chaplet and some another yet all have the branch of the date tree Also why the great dates bee called Nicolai During the solemnitie of the Isthmick games at what time as Sospis was the judge and directour thereof now the second time other feasts of his I avoided namely when as hee invited one while many strangers together and otherwhiles a number of none else but citizens and those one with another but one time above the rest when as hee feasted those onely who were his greatest friends and all men of learning I my selfe also was a bidden guest and present among them now by that time that the first service at the table was taken awaie there came one unto the professed oratour and rhetorician Herodes who brought unto him from a scholar and familiar of his who had wonne the prize for an encomiasticall or laudatorie oration that he had made a branch of the date tree together with a plaited and broided coronet of flowers which when he had curteously received he returned them backe to him again saying withall that hee marvelled why some of these sacred games had for their prize this crowne and others that but generally all a branch of date tree For mine owne part quoth he I cannot perswade my selfe that this ariseth upon that cause which some alledge namely the equality and uniformitie of the leaves springing and growing out as they doe alwaies even and orderly one just against another directly wherein they seeme to contend and strive a vie resembling thereby a kinde of combat and that victorie it selfe tooke the name in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say not yeelding nor giving place for there be many other plants which as it were by weight and measure distribute nourishment equally unto their boughes and branches growing opposite in that manner and heerein observe exactly a woonderfull order and equality but in my conceit more probabilitie and apparence of reason they alledge who imagine suppose that our auncients made choice of this tree because they tooke a love to the beautie talnesse and streight growing thereof and namely Homer who compareth the beautie of Nausicaa the Phaeocian queene unto the plant or stem of a faire date tree for this you all know verie well that in old time they were wont alwaies to cast upon those victorious champions who had wonne the prize roses and rose champion flowers yea and some otherwhiles apples and pomegranates thinking by this meanes to recompence and honour them but there is nothing else so much in the date tree to commend it so evidently above other trees for in all Greece fruit it beareth none that is good to be eaten as being unperfect and not ripe enough and if it bare heere as it doth in Syria and Aegypt the date which of all fruits for the lovely contentment of the eie is of all sights most delightsome and for the sweetnesse of taste of all banquetting dishes most pleasant there were not a tree in the world comparable unto it and verily the great monarch and emperour Augustus by report for that he loved singularly well one Nicolaus a philosopher Peripatetick in regard that he was of gentle nature and sweet behaviour tall and slender withall of stature and besides of a ruddy and purple colour in his visage called the fairest and greatest dates after his name Nicolai and to this day they beare that denomination In this discourse Herodes pleased the company no lesse with the mention of Nicolaus the philosopher than he did with that which he had spoken to the question And therefore quoth Sospis so much the rather ought we every one to devise for to conferre unto this question propounded whatsoever hee is perswaded concerning it Then I for my part first brought foorth mine opinion as touching the superioritie of this date tree at the sacred games because the glorie of victours and conquerors ought to endure and continue incorruptible and as much as possibly may be not age and waxe old for the date tree liveth as long as any plant whatsoever that is longest lived and this is testified by these verses of Orpheus Living as long as plants of date trees tall Which in the head be greene and spread withall And this is the onely tree in manner which hath that propertie indeed which is reported though not so truely of many others And
and daintie feeding which without any just or lawfull cause troubleth disquieteth the seas and descendeth into the very bottome of the deepe for we have no reason at any time to call the red sea-barbell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say corne devourer nor the guilt-head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say vine waster or grape eater nor yet any mullets lubins or sea-pikes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say seed gatherers as we name divers land beasts noting them thereby for the harme and annoiance they doe unto us neither can we impute unto the greatest fish in the sea the least wrong or shrewd turne wherewith wee charge in our exceeding neerenesse and parsimonie some cat or wezill a mouse or rat which haunt our houses in which regard they precisely contemning themselves not for feare of law onely to doe wrong unto men but also by the very instinct of nature to offer no injurie unto any thing in the world that doth them no harme nor displeasure used to feed on fish lesse than on any other meat admit there were no injustice in the thing all busie curiositie of men in this point being so needlesse as it is bewraieth great intemperance and wastfull gluttony and therefore Homer in his poeme deviseth this that not onely the Greeks encamping upon the streight of Hellespont absteined wholy from eating fish but also that the delicate and daintie toothed Phaeacians the wanton and licorous woers likewise of lady Penelope dissolute though they were otherwise and all islanders were never served at their tables with any viands or cates from the sea no nor the companions of Ulysses in that grear and long voiage of theirs which they had at sea ever laid hooke leape or wee le or cast net into the sea for fish so long as they had a bit of bread or handfull of meale left But when their ship had vittailes none But all therein was spent and gone even a little before that they laid hands upon the kowes of the sunne then began they to fish not iwis for any deintie dishes but even for necessary food With bended hookes for now their maw Great hunger bit and guts did gnaw So that for extreme need they were forced to eat fish and to kill the sunnes kine whereby wee may perceive that it was a point of sanctimonie and chastitie not onely among the Aegyptians and Syrians but the Greeks also to forbeare feeding upon fish for that beside the injustice of the thing they abhorred as I thinke the superfluous curiositie of such food Heereupon Nestor tooke occasion to speake And why quoth he is there no reckoning made of my countrey-men and fellow-citizens no more than of the Megarians and yet you have heard me to say often times that the priests of Neptune whom we call Hieromnemones never eat fish for this god is surnamed Phytalmios that is to say the President of breeding and generation in the sea and the race descending from that ancient Hellen sacrificed unto Neptune by the name and addition of Patrogeneios that is to say the stock-father and principall Progenitour being of opinion that man came of a moist and liquid substance as also be the Syrians which is the very cause that they worship and adore a fish as being of the same kinde generation and nouriture with themselves philosophizing and arguing in this point with more apparence and shew of reason than Anaximander did who affirmed not that men and fishes were bred both in the same places but avouched that men were first engendred within fishes themselves and there nourished like their yoong frie but afterward when they became sufficient and able to shift and helpe them they were cast foorth and so tooke land like as therefore the fire eateth the wood whereby it was kindled and set a burning though it were father and mother both unto it according as he said who inserted the marriage of Ceyx among the works of Hesiodus even so Anaximander in pronouncing that fish was both father and mother unto men taxeth and condemneth the feeding thereupon THE NINTH QUESTION Whether it be possible that new diseases may be engendred by our meats PHilo the physician constantly affirmed that the leprosie called Elephantiasis was a disease not knowen long since for that none of the ancient physicians made any mention of this maladie whereas they travelled and busied their braines to treat of other small trifling matters I wot not what and yet such subtilties as the common sort could hardly comprehend But I produced and alledged unto him for a witnesse out of philosophie Athenodorus who in the first booke of his Epidemiall or popular diseases writeth that not onely the said leprosie but also Hydrophobie that is to say the feare of water occasioned by the biting of a mad dogge were first discovered in the daies of Asclepiades now as the companie there present marvelled that these maladies should newly then begin and take their consistence in nature so they wondered as much on the other side how so great and grievous diseases could be hidden so long and unknowen to men howbeit the greater part inclined rather to this second later opinion as being more respective and favourable to man for that they could not be perswaded that nature in such cases should in mans bodie as it were in some citie studie novelties and be evermore inventing and working new matters As for Diogenianus he said that the passions and maladies of the soule held on their common course and went the accustomed way still of their predecessours And yet quoth he wickednesse is very manifold in sundry sorts and exceeding audacious to enterprise any thing and the mind is a mistresse of herselfe and at her owne command having puissance to turne and change easily as she thinketh good and yet that disordinate confusion of hers hath some order in it keeping a measure in her passions and conteining herselfe within certeine bounds like as the sea in the flowings and tides in such sort as that she bringeth forth no new kinde of vice such as hath not bene knowen unto those in olde time and of which they have not written for there being many different sorts of lusts and desires infinite motions of feare as many kinds of paine and no fewer formes of pleasure which would require great labour to reckon up and not to give over These neither now nor yesterday Began but all have liveday And no man knowes nor can say well Since when they first to men befell nor yet whereupon any new maladie or moderne passion hath arisen in our body considering it hath not of it selfe the beginning of motion properly as the soule hath but is knit and conjoined with nature by common causes and composed with a certeine temperature the infinite varietie whereof wandereth notwithstanding within the pourprise of set bounds and limits like unto a vessell which lying at anchor in the sea neverthelesse doth wave and
seene at all with him the master beleeved this lay with her but one time above the rest desirous to know who she was with whom he companied called for a light and so soone as he knew it was his owne daughter he drew his sword and followed after this most vilanous and and incestuous filth intending to kill her but by the providence of Venus transformed she was into a tree bearing her name to wit Myrtle as Theodorus reporteth in his Metamorphoses or transmutations Valeria Tusculanaria having incurred the displeasure of Venus became amorous of her owne father and communicated this love of hers unto her nourse who likewise went cunningly about her master and made him beleeve that there was a young maiden a neighbous child who was in fancie with him but would not in regard of modestie be knowen unto him of it nor be seene when she should frequent his companie Howbeit her father one night being drunk called for a candle but the nourse prevented him and in great hast wakened her who fled therupon into the countrey great with child where she cast her selfe downe from the pitch of a steep place yet the fruit of her wombe lived for notwithstanding that fall she did not miscarie but continued still with her great belly and when her time was come delivered she was of a sonne such an one as in the Roman language is named Sylvanus and in Greeke Aegipanes Valerius the father tooke such a thought thereupon that for verie anguish of mind he threw himselfe downe headlong from a steepe rocke as recordeth Aristides the Milesian in the third booke of Italian histories 23 After the destruction of Troy Diomedes by a tempest was cast upō the coast of Libya where raigned a king named Lycus whose maner and custome was to sacrifice unto his owne father god Mars all those strangers that arrived and were set a land in his countrey But Callirohōe his daughter casting an affection unto Diomedes betraied her father and saved Diomedes by delivering him out of prison And he againe not regarding her accordingly who had done him so good a turne departed from her and sailed away which indignitie she tooke so neere to the heart that she hanged her selfe and so ended her daies this writeth Juba in the third booke of the Libyan historie Calpurnius Crassus a noble man of Rome being abroad at the warres together with Regulus was by him sent against the Massilians for to seize a stronge castle and hard to be won named Garaetion but in this service being taken prisoner and destined to be killed in sacrifice unto Saturne it fortuned that Bysatia the kings daughter fansied him so as she betraied her father and put the victory into her lovers hand but when this yoong knight was retired and gone the damsell for sorrow of heart cut her owne throat as writeth Hesianax in the third booke of the Libian historie 24 Priamus king of Troy fearing that the city would be lost sent his yoong sonne Polydorus into Thrace to his sonne in law Polymester who married his daughter with a great quantity of golde Polymester for very covetousnesse after the destruction of the city murdered the childe because he might gaine the gold but Hecuba being come into those parts under a colour and pretence that she should bestow that golde upon him together with the helpe of other dames prisoners with her plucked with her owne hands both eies out of his head witnesse Euripides the tragaedian poet In the time that Hanniball overran and wasted the countrey of Campania in Italy Lucius Jmber bestowed his sonne Rustius for safetie in the hands of a sonne in law whom he had named Valerius Gestius and left with him a good summe of money But when this Campanian heard that Anniball had wonne a great victorie for very avarice he brake all lawes of nature and murdered the childe The father Thymbris as he travelled in the countrey lighting upon the dead corps of his owne sonne sent for his sonne in law aforesaid as if he meant to shew him some great treasure who was no sooner come but he plucked out both his eies and afterwards crucified him as Aristides testifieth in the third booke of his Italian histories 25 Aeacus begat of Psamatha one sonne named Phocus whom he loved very tenderly but Telamon his brother not well content therewith trained him foorth one day into the forest a hunting where having rouzed a wilde bore he launced his javelin or bore-speare against the childe whom he hated and so killed him for which fact his father banished him as Dorotheus telleth the tale in the first booke of his Metamorphoses Cajus Maximus had two sonnes Similius and Rhesus of which two Rhesus he begat upon Ameria who upon a time as he hunted in the chase killed his brother and being come home againe he would have perswaded his father that it was by chaunce and not upon a propensed malice that he slew him but his father when he knew the truth exiled him as Aristocles hath recorded in the third booke of Italian Chronicles 26 Mars had the company of Althaea by whom she was conceived and delivered of Meleager as witnesseth Euripides in his tragoedie Meleager Septimtus Marcellus having maried Sylvta was much given to hunting and ordinarily went to the chase then Mars taking his advantage disguising himselfe in habit of a shepherd forced this new wedded wife and gat her with childe which done he bewraied unto her who he was and gave her a launce or speare saying unto her That the generositie and descent of that issue which she should have by him consisted in that launce now it hapned that Septimius slew Tusquinus and Mamercus when he sacrificed unto the gods for the good encrease of the fruits upon the earth neglected Ceres onely whereupon she taking displeasure for this contempt sent a great wilde bore into his countrey then he assembled a number of hunters to chase the said beast and killed him which done the head and the skinne he sent unto his espoused wife Scimbrates and Muthias her unckles by the mother-side offended heereat would have taken all away from the damosell but hee tooke such displeasure thereat that hee slew his kinsmen and his mother for to be revenged of her brethrens death buried that cursed speare as Menylus reporteth in the third booke of the Italian histories 27 Telamon the sonne of Aeacus and Endeis fledde by night from his father and arrived in the isle of Euboea ** The father perceiving it and supposing him to be one of his subjects gave his daughter to one of his guard for to be cast into the sea but he for very commiseration and pitty sould her to certaine merchants and when the shippe was arrived at Salamis Telamon chaunced to buy her at their hands and she bare unto him Ajax witnesse Aretados the Gnidian in the second booke of his Insular affaires Lucius Trocius had by his wife Patris a daughter
and hinde withall To hunt and follow hard at trace So neere unto the quicke did that discourse touch me alleaging such a number of proper and pithy reasons SOCLARUS True it is that you say ô Autobulus for me thought that therein he stirred up and awakened his singular eloquence and skill in Rhetoricke which some time he had discontinued which lay asleepe to gratifie as I take it those yoong gentlemen who were present in place and withall to solace and disport himselfe among them but that which pleased me most was this When hee represented unto our eies by way of comparison sword-fencers fighting at sharpe one with another to the uttrance alledging this for one of his reasons wherefore he principally commending hunting in that it diverteth and calleth away a certeine affection that we have either naturally engraffed or else acquired by use and custome to take pleasure in seeing men at swords point enter into combat for life death one against another turneth it especially hither yeelding unto us a faire pure and innocent spectacle of artificial cunning conjoined with hardinesse and courage guided with reason against brutish force and witlesse strength and in so doing giveth us to understand that this sentence of Euripides is woorthy to be praised when he saith Small is mans strength and puissance corporall His wit is great and prudence naturall It tames all fish beneath in sea so deepe And wily beasts aloft on earth that keepe AUTOBULUS And yet my good friend Soclarus some there be who hold that this inflexible rigour and savage impassibility of not being mooved at all with pitty came from hence into mens hearts namely from the custome of killing of beasts in chase and of learning not to have in honour the sight of bloudshed and of the grievous wounds of beasts which they received but to take delight in seeing them to die and to be cut in pieces and like as in the citie of Athens when it was reduced under the tyrannie of the thirtie usurpers the first man whom they put to death was a sycophant of whom it was said then that hee had well deserved it and was rightly served and so they said by a second and a third but from thence they went forward by little and little untill they came to lay hold upon honest men and in the end spared not the best and most vertuous citizens even so he that killed at the first a beare or a woolfe was highly commended and thought to have done a very good deed and an oxe or a swine that had eaten some things provided for a sacrifice or oblation to the gods was condemned as fit and worthy to die heereupon stagges and hinds hares also and goates which men began already to eat invited also the flesh of sheepe yea and in some places of dogges and horses to the table But they who taught first to dismember and cut in pieces for meat a tame goose a house dove and familiar pigeon a dung-hill cocke or domesticall henne of the roust and that not for to satisfie and remedie the necessitie of hunger as doe these weezils and cattes and but onely for pleasure and to feed a daintie tooth surely have confirmed and strengthened all that bloudinesse and savage cruelty which was in our nature and made it altogether inflexible and immooveable without any compassion but contrariwise enfeebled and dulled for the most part all naturall mildnesse and humanitie whereas on the other side the Pythagoreans would have men to accustome themselves to use gentlenesse even towards beasts as an exercise of pitty and mercy to men for custome which traineth us familiarly by little and little to any passion and affection hath a wonderous efficacie to set a man forward thereunto But I wot not how being entred into speech we have forgotten our selves and not kept us to that which was begun yesterday and should be continued and held on this day for yesterday as you know very well having agreed upon this That all sorts of living creatures have in them some little discourse and reason we gave good occasion and matter of a learned and pleasant disputation unto our yoong gentlemen who love hunting so well namely as touching the wit and wisedome of beasts whether there be more in them of the land or those of the sea which question we are as I take it this day to decide in case Aristotimus and Phaedimus hold on still and persist in their defiances and chalenges which yesterday they gave one another for the one of them undertooke unto his friends and companions to mainteine that the earth bringeth foorth beasts of more sense capacitie and understanding and the other contrariwise promised as much in the behalfe of the water SOCLARUS That they do Autobulus they are of the same mind still to dispute it out and here they wil be anon for this very purpose for I saw them in the morning betimes addressing making themselves readie but if you thinke it good before this combat begin let us go in hand againe with that which yesterday should have been handled and was not partly for that the time and place served not therto or rather because the matter was proposed unto them at the table and among the cups of wine which went merrily about and not treated of in good earnest and sadnesse in deed for one there was who seemed after a pragmaticall sort to resound on the adverse part not impertinently as if he came out of the Stoicks schoole thus much That like as mortal is opposite unto immortall corruptible unto incorruptible and corporall to incorporall even so confesse we ought that reasonable is contrarie to unreasonable so that if one of them be the other ought likewise of necessitie to be and that this onely couple of contraries among so many other ought not to be left defectuous or unperfect AUTOBULUS And what is he friend Soclarus who will say that if we admit in nature that which is reasonable to subsist and have being wee should not likewise allow that which is unreasonable for no doubt it is and that in great measure namely in all creatures which have no life nor soule neither need we to seeke father for any other opposition unto that which is reasonable for whatsoever is without life and soule is incontinently opposite unto that which together with soule hath the use of understanding and reason and if any one there be who maintaineth that nature for all this is not unperfect in that everie substance having soule is either reasonable or unreasonable another will say unto him likewise that a nature endued with life and soule is not defective namely in that either it hath imagination or else is without it is either sensitive or else hath no sense to the end that it may have on either side these two oppositions or privations making counterpoise one against another about one and the same kind as two contrarie branches arising out of one
stemme or trunke And if he thinke him to be absurd who demaundeth that it should be graunted unto him that of a nature endued with soule one branch should be sensitive and another senslesse for that he thinketh that everie nature which hath a soule is incontinently both sensitive and also imaginative yet for all this shall he have no more apparance to require that one should suppose this unto him for to be true namely that whatsoever hath soule should be either reasonable or unreasonable discoursing with those men who held opinon that nothing hath sense but the same hath understanding withall and that there is not one kind of animall creatures but it hath some manner of opinion and discourse of reason like as it hath sense and naturall appetite for nature who as men say and that right truely maketh all things for some cause and to some end hath not made a living creature sensitive onely and simply to have a passive sense but whereas there be a number of things proper and agreeable to it and as many againe for the contrarie it could not possibly endure and continue the minute of an houre if it knew not how to fit it selfe with one and to take heed and beware of the other So it is therefore that sense giveth unto every animall creature the knowledge of them both indifferently but the discretion which accompanieth the said sense in chusing receiving and pursuing after that which is profitable or refusing rejecting and flying from that which is hurtfull and pernicious there is no apparance at all of reason to induce us to say that those creatures have if they had not withall some meane facultie and aptitude naturall to discourse judge conceive comprehend retaine and remember as for those creatures verily from which you take altogether the gift of expectance remembrance election provision and preparation afore hand and moreover the facultie of hoping fearing desiring and refusing good have they none at all of their eies of their eares or of any other sense apprehension or imagination in case there be no use thereof and farre better it were for them that they were cleane destitute and quite deprived of such faculties than to suffer travell paine and sorrow and have not wherewith to put by and repell such inconveniences and yet there is a discourse extant of the naturall philosopher Strato shewing by plaine demonstration that impossible it is to have any sense at all without some discourse of reason for many times we runne over the letters in bookes and writings with our eies yea and we heare the sound of words with our eares without conceiving and comprehending either the one or the other but they fly and passe away when as our mind is otherwise occupied but afterwards when the mind is come againe to it selfe and united it it runneth and pursueth after the same and gathereth every thing together againe which was scattered In regard whereof it was not said amisse in old time The mind it is that doth both heare and see As for the rest full deafe and blind they bee as if the motion and passion about the eies and eares caused no sense at all if the mind and understanding were away And therefore Cleomenes king of Lacedaemon being one day at a feast in Egypt where there was rehearsed at the table a pretie Acroame or eare-delight which pleased the companie verie well being demaunded the question what hee thought of it and whether hee judged it not verie well penned and set downe As for that quoth he I report me unto you that heard it and I referre it to your judgement for mine part my mind was all the while in Peloponnesus And therefore necessarie it is that everie creature which hath sense should likewise be endued with discourse of reason and understanding considering that by our understanding wee come to sense But set the case that the senses have no need at all of the understanding to exercise their functions operations but when the sense hath done her part in discerning that which is proper and familiar unto a living creature from it that is contrarie adverse unto it it passeth away and is gone What is it then that remembreth and calleth to minde what is it that feareth things noisome and offensive and contrariwise desireth those which be good and holsome what is it that seeketh meanes to compasse and get things when they are not present what is it that deviseth and prepareth offensive forts and retracts yea and engins to catch and take or contrariwise shifts and policies to escape nets and grinnes laied for them when they are at the point to be caught and surprised and yet these men say as much as this comes to when ever and anon in all their introductions they dull our eares and make our heads ake againe with their definitions for they define 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a project or deliberat purpose to be a desseigne of bringing somewhat to effect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say endevour to be an appetite or desire before an appetite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say provision to be an action before action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say remembrance or memorie to be the comprehension of a proposition affirmative or negative already past whereof the present trueth was otherwise comprised by the sense for of all these faculties there is not so much as one reasonlesse I meane not proceeding from the discourse of reason and yet they all concurre and are to be found in every living creature and even so verily they define 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say intelligences to be notions laied up apart and reserved within but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say cogitations to be notions still in motion as for passions they confessing and defining them all in generality to be evil judgements false opinions a woonder it is how they passe over so many effects and motions which are to be found in brute beasts some proceeding from anger and choler others againe from feare and besides all this envie I may tell you and jealousie when as they themselves beleeve me sticke not to punish their horses and beat their dogs when they do a fault not rashly and in vaine but consideratly for to correct them and make them wiser working thereby imprinting in them a displeasure with themselves proceeding from paine which we call repentance as touching other pleasures and delights that which passeth and is received by the eares they terme it forsooth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say an enchantment that which commeth by the eie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say bewitching and they use both the one and the other against wilde beasts for certeine it is that stagges and horses do joy in the sound of whistles flutes and hautboies also men call forth crabfish crevisses and grampels out of their holes perforce
thereof in particular and exquisitely to deliver the same were a verie hard piece of worke if not impossible and to passe the same over in silence argueth supine negligence for looke throughout the whole historie of nature you shall not find so small a mirrour againe for to represent greater things and more beautifull being as it were a most pure and cleere drop wherein appeareth most apparantly the full resemblance of entier vertue Here may be seene lovely friendship and civill societie here sheweth it selfe the verie image of valour and prowesse with painfull patience and industrie here may a man behold many seeds of continence many sparks of wisedome and as many of righteousnes Cleanthes the philosopher although he maintaineth not that beasts have any use of reason made report neverthelesse that he was present at the sight of such a spectacle and occurrent as this There were quoth he a number of ants which went toward another ants hole that was not their owne carrying with them the corps of a dead an t out of which hole there came certaine other ants to meet them on the way as it were to parle with them and within a while returned backe and went downe againe after this they came forth a second yea a third time retired accordingly untill in the end they brought up from beneath as it were a ransom for the dead body a grub or little worme which the others received and tooke upon their shoulders and after they had delivered in exchange the fore said corps departed home moreover it is worth the observation although it be a thing daily seene of everie man what curtesie and civilitie they use in meeting one another how those who be light and carie nothing willingly give way unto such as bee charged and loaden and suffer them to passe likewise how they gnaw asunder and divide piece meale such burdens as they being single cannot beare whole to the end that the same may be carried and transported from place to place by more in number Aratus in his prognostickes setteth this downe for a signe of raine toward when they bring foorth their seeds and graines and lay them abroad to take the aire When ants make haste with all their Foorth of their holes to carrie them abroad And yet there be some who in this place write not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say egs but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they would say their goods to wit the fruits or seeds which they have gathered and laid up for their provision on when they perceive them to begin to mould or bee fusty or feare that they will corrupt and putrifie But that which surpasseth all other prudence policie and wit is their caution and prevention which they use that their wheat or other corne may not spurt and grow For this is certaine that dry it cannot continue alwaies nor sound and uncorrupt but it will in time waxe soft resolve into a milkie juice when it turneth and beginneth to swell and chit for feare therefore that it become not a generative seed and so by growing loose the nature property of food for their nourishment they gnaw that end thereof or head where it is woont to spurt and bud forth For mine owne part I do not admit or beleeve all that which some do anatomize of their caves and holes who give out that there is not one direct and straight way leading downe thereinto nor the same easie and ready for any other creature to passe through but there be certeine secret allies blinde-pathes crooked turnings and hollow cranks which meet all at the end in three holes or concavities whereof the one forsooth is the common hall for them to meet all together the second is their cellar or ambry for their victuals and provision and the third a by-roome where they bestow their dead Well I thinke it not amisse nor impertinent if next after pismires I bring foorth upon the stage before you the elephants to the end that we may know the nature of this art and intelligence which now is in question as well in the greatest beasts as the smallest creatures and see how as it appeereth in the one so it is not defective or wanting in the other Other men I am sure doe make a woonder at that which the elephant learneth and is taught whose docilitie is exhibited unto us in the theaters by his sundry sorts of gestures and changes in dauncing such as fortheir varietie and exquisit elegancie it were very hard for men with all their memorie perfection of witte and exercise to remember to expresse and performe accordingly but I for my part me thinks doe see more cleerely and evidently the prudence and sagacitie of this beast in the passions affections and motions which he hath of himselfe without teaching as being more simple sincere and naturall for not long since at Rome there were a number of them trained and exercised against the solemnity of their games and plaies in certeine strange stations intricate motions and hard turnings round to goe to come to stande and wheele about in a trice but among them there was one more dull blockish grosse and slowe than the rest both in conceiving and also in reteining by reason whereof he being ever and anon reproched and rated with shamefull words yea and many times beaten well for his unto wardnesse was found otherwhiles alone by himselfe in the night repeating as it were and conning his lessons by moone-shine labouring hard for to expresse and atteine unto that whch hee had beene taught Agnon writeth that before this time in Syria there was an elephant kept and nourished in a private mans house whose governour had allowed unto him from his master a certeine measure of barley every day for his provender but there was not a day went over his head wherein he robbed and deceived him not of the one halfe it fortuned that one time above the rest the master of the house would needs see the elephant served then his governour powred out before him his full allownce even the whole measure that was his due but the elephant casting an unhappy and untoward eie at him divided his barley with the snout of his trunke and put a part the one moity thereof shewing the best way he could devise unto his master the wrong that the governour aforesaid had done unto him He reporteth like wise of another who seeing that his keeper blended earth and stones among his barley to make the measure to seeme compleat spied his time and came unto the potage pot standing over the fire wherein was flesh a seething for dinner and filled it up with ashes Another being provoked and misused at Rome by certeine little boies who with their bodkins and penknives used to pricke and punch his snout or trunke caught up one of them by the middle and held him up in the aire so as it was thought he would have crushed and squeazed the guttes
unspoken or not expressed now it hapned that there were solemnized great funerals of one of the welthiest personages in the city and the corps was caried foorth in a great state with the sound of many trumpets that marched before in which solemnitie for that the maner was that the pompe and whole company should stand still and rest a time in that verie place it fell out so that the trumpetters who were right cunning and excellent in their arte staied there founding melodiouslie all the while the morrow after this the pie became mute and made no noise at all nor uttered not so much as her naturall voice which she was wont to doe for to expresse her ordinarie and necessarie passions insomuch as they who before time woondered at her voice and prating marvelled now much more at her silence thinking it a very strange matter to passe by the shop and heare her say nothing so as there grew some suspition of others professing the same art and trade that they had given her some poison howbeit most men guessed that it was the violent sound of the trumpets which had made her deafe and that together with the sense of hearing her voice also was utterly extinct but it was neither the one nor the other for the trueth was this as appeared afterwards she was in a deepe studie and through meditation retired within herselfe whiles her minde was busie and did prepare her voice like an instrument of musicke for imitation for at length her voice came againe and wakened as it were all on a sudden uttering none of her olde notes nor that which she was accustomed before to parle and counterseit onely the sound of trumpets she resembled keeping the same periods the same stops pauses and straines the same changes the same reports and the same times and measures a thing that confirmeth more and more that which I have said before namely that there is more use of reason in teaching of themselves than in learning by another Yet can I not conteine my selfe but I must needs in this place recite unto you one lesson that I my selfe saw a dogge to take out when I was at Rome This dog served a plaier who professed to counterfeit many persons and to represent sundry gestures among sundry other prety tricks which his master taught him answerable to divers passions occasions and occurrents represented upon the stage his master made an experiment on him with a drogue or medicine which was somniferous indeed and sleepie but must be taken and supposed deadly who tooke the piece of bread wherein the said drogue was mingled and within a little while after he had swallowed it downe he began to make as though hee trembled quaked yea and staggered as if he had beene astonied in the end he stretched out himselfe and lay as stiffe as one starke dead suffering himselfe to be pulled haled and drawen from one place to another like a very blocke according as the present argument and matter of the place required but afterwards when hee understood by that which was said and done that his time was come and that he had caught his hint then beganne he at the first to stirre gently by little and little as if hee had newly revived or awakened and stared out of a dead sleepe and lifting up his head began to looke about him too and fro at which object all the beholders woondered not a little afterwards he arose upon his feet and went directly to him unto whom he was to goe very jocund and mery this pageant was performed so artificially I cannot tell whether to say or naturally that all those who were present and the emperour himselfe for Vespasian the father was there in person within the theater of Marcellus tooke exceeding great pleasure and joied woonderfully to see it But peradventure we may deserve well to be mocked for our labour praising beasts as we doe so highly for that they be so docible and apt to learne seeing that Democritus sheweth and proveth that we our selves have beene apprentises and scholars to them in the principall things of this life namely to the spider for spinning weaving derning and drawing up a rent to the swallow for architecture and building to the melodious swanne and shrill nightingale for vocall musicke and all by way of imitation As for the art of physicke and the three kindes thereof we may see in the nature of beasts the greatest and most generous part of each of them for they use not onely that which ordeined drogues and medicines to purge ill humours out of the body seeing that the tortoises take origan wezels rue when they have eaten a serpent dogges also when they be troubled with choler of the gall purge themselves with a certeine herbe thereupon called dogges-grasse the dragon likewise if he finde his eies to be dimme clenseth scoureth and dispatcheth the cloudinesse thereof with fenell and the beare so soone as she is gone out of her denne seeketh out the first thing that she doth the wilde herbe called Aron that is to say wake-robin for the acrimonie and sharpnesse thereof openeth her bowels when they are growen together yea and at other times finding herselfe upon fulnesse given to loth and distaste all food she goes to finde out ants nests where she sits her downe lilling out the tongue which is glibbe and soft with a kinde of sweet and slimy humour untill it be full of ants and their egges then draweth she it it againe swalloweth them downe and thereby cureth her lothing stomacke Semblably it is said that the Aegyptians having observed their bird Ibis which is the blacke storke to give herselfe a clister of sea water by imitation of her did the like by themselves Certeine it is that their priests use to besprinkle purifie and hallow themselves with that water out of which she hath drunke for let any water be venemous or otherwise hurtfull and unholsome the Ibis will none of it but also some beasts there be which feeling themselves ill at ease are cured by diet and abstinence as namely woolves and lions when they have devoured too much flesh and are cloied or glutted therewith they lie me downe take their ease cherishing and keeping themselves warme It is reported likewise of the tygre that when a yoong kidde was given unto her she fasted two daies according to the diet which she useth before she touched it and the third day being very hungry called for other food ready to burst the cage wherein she was enclosed and forbare to eat the said kid supposing that now she was to keepe it with her as a familiar domesticall companion Nay that which more is recorded it is that elephants practise the feat of chirurgery for standing by those that are wounded in a battell they can skill of drawing out tronchions of speares javelin heads arrowes and darts out of their bodies with such dexterity and ease that they will neither teare and
hurt their flesh nor put them to any paine whatsoever The goats of Candy when they be shotte into the body with arrowes or darts fall to eat the herbe Dictamus thereby thrust them out and make them fal off with facility by this meanes they have taught women with child that this herbe hath a propertie to cause abortive birth and the child in their wombe to miscarrie for the said goats are no sooner wounded but they runne presently to this herbe and never seeke after any other remedy Woonderfull these things are no doubt howbeit lesle miraculous when we consider the natures of beasts how they be capable of arithmeticke and have the knowledge of numbring and keeping account as the kine and oxen about Susa for appointed they be there to water the kings gardens drawing up water in buckets with a device of wheels that they turne about in maner of a windles and everie one of them for their part must draw up an hundred buckets in a day so many they will do just but more you shal not get of them neither by faire meanes nor foule for no sooner have they performed their task but presently they give over impossible it is to force them any farther then their account notwithstanding triall hath bene made so justly and exactly they both know and also keepe the reckoning as Ctesians the Guidian hath left in writing As for the Lybians they mocke the Aegyptians for reporting this of their beast called Oryx as a great singularitie that hee setteth up a certaine crie that verie day and houre when as the star named by them Sothe and by us the Dog or 〈◊〉 doth arise for they give out that with them all their goats together at the verie instant when the said starre mounteth up within their horizon with the sunne will bee sure to turne and looke into the east and this they hold to be an infallible signe of the revolution of that starre agreeing just with the rules and observations of the Mathematicians But to close up and conclude at length this discourse that it may come to an end let us as it were take in hand the sacred anchor and for a finall conclusion knit up all with a briefe speech of their divinitie and propheticall nature For certaine it is that one of the greatest most noble and ancient parts of divination or soothsaying is that which being drawen from the flight and singing of birds they call Augurie and in truth the nature of these birds being so quicke so active so spirituall and in regard of that agilitie nimblenesse verie pliable and obsequent to all visions fantasies presented offereth it selfe unto God as a proper instrument to be used turned which way he wil one while to motion another while into certaine voices laies tunes yea into divers sundrie gestures now to stop and stay anon to drive and put forward in manner of the winds by meanes whereof he impeacheth and holdeth backe some actions and affections but directeth others unto their end accomplishment And this no doubt is the reason that Euripides tearmeth al birds in generall the heraulds and messengers of the gods and particularly Socrates said that he was become a fellow servitor with the swans semblably among the kings Pyrrhus was well pleased when as men called him the Eagle and Antiochus tooke as great pleasure to be called the Sacre or the Hauke Whereas contrariwise when we are disposed to mocke to flout or to reproch those that be dull indocible and blockish wee call them fishes To bee short an hundred thousand things there be that God doth shew foretell and prognosticate unto us by the meanes of beasts as well those of the land beneath as the fowles of the aire above But who that shall plead in the behalfe of fishes or water-creatures will not be able to alledge so much as one for deafe they be all and dombe blind also for any fore-sight or providence that they have as being cast into a balefull place and bottomlesse gulfe where impious Atheists rebellious Titans or giants against God are bestowed where they have no sight of God no more than in hell where damned soules are where the reasonable and intellectuall part of the soule is utterly extinct and the rest that remaineth drenched or rather drowned as a man would say in the most base and vile sensuall part so as they seeme rather to pant then to live HERACLEON Plucke up your browes good Phaedimus open your eies awake your spirits and bestirre your selfe in the defense of us poore Ilanders and maritime inhabitants for here we have heard not a discourse iwis merrily devised to passe away the time but a serious plea premeditate and laboured before hand a verie Rhetoricall declamation which might beseeme well to bee pronounced at the barre in judiciall court or delivered from a pulpit and tribunall before a publicke audience PHAEDIMUS Now verily good sir Heracleon this is a meere surprise and a manifest ambush laid craftily of set purpose for this brave oratour as you see being yet fasting and sober himselfe and having studied his oration all night long hath set upon us at the disvantage and altogether unprovided as being still heavy in the head and drenched with the wine that we drunke yesterday Howbeit we ought not now to draw backe and recule for all this for being as I am an affectionate lover of the poet Pindarus I would not for any good in the world heare this sentence of his justly alledged against me When games of prise and combats once are set Who shrinketh backe and doth pretend some let In darknesse hides and obscuritie His fame of vertue and activitie for at great leasure we are all and not the dances onely be at repose but also dogs and horses castnets drags and all manner of nets besides yea and this day there is a generall cessation given to all creatures as wel on land as in sea for to give eare unto this disputation And as for you my masters here have no doubt nor be you affraid for I will use my libertie in a meane and not draw out an Apologie or counterplea in length by alledging the opinions of philosophers the fables of the Aegyptians the headlesse tales of the Indians or Libyans without proofe of any testimonies but quickly come to the point and looke what examples be most manifest and evident to the eie and such as shall bee testified and verified by all those marriners or travellers that are acquainted with the seas some few of them I will produce And yet verily in the proofes and arguments drawen from creatures above the ground there is nothing to empeach the sight the view of them being so apparant and daily presented unto our eie whereas the sea affoordeth us the sight of a few effects within it those hardly and with much adoe as it were by a glaunce and glimmering light hiding from us the most part
of the breeding and feeding of fishes the meanes also that they use either to assaile one another or to defend themselves wherein I assure you there be actions of prudence memory societie and equity not a few which because they are not knowen it cannot chuse but our discourse as touching this argument will be lesse enriched and enlarged with examples and so by consequence the cause more hardly defended and mainteined Over and besides this advantage have land beasts that by reason of their affinity as it were and daily conversation with men they get a tincture as it were from them of their maners and fashions and consequently enjoy a kinde of nurture teaching discipline and apprentising by imitation which is able to dulce allay and mittigate all the bitternesse and austerity of their nature no lesse than fresh water mingled with the sea maketh it more sweet and potable likewise all the unsociable wildenesse and heavy unweldinesse therein it stirreth up when the same is once mooved and set on foot by the motions that it learneth by conversing with men whereas on the otherside the life of sea-creatures being farre remote and devided by long and large confines from the frequentation of men as having no helpe of any thing without nor any thing to be taught it by use and custome is altogether solitarie and by it selfe as nature brought it soorth so it continueth and goeth not abroad neither mingled nor mixed with forren fashions and all by reason of the place which they inhabit and not occasioned by the quality of their owne nature for surely their nature conceiving and reteining within it selfe as much discipline and knowledge as it is possible for to atteine unto and apprehend exhibiteth unto us many tame and familiar eeles which they call sacred that use to come to hand such as are among the rest of those in the fountaine Arethusa besides many other fishes imdivers places which are very obeisant and obsequious when they be called by their names as is reported of Marcus Crassus his lamprey for which he wept when it was dead and when Domitus upon a time reproched him for it by way of mockerie in this wise Were not you the man who wept for your lamprey when it was dead he came upon him presently in this maner And were not you the kinde and sweet husband who having buried three wives never shed teare for the matter the crocodiles not only know the voice of the preists when they call unto them and endure to be handled and stroked by them but also yawne and offer there teeth unto them to be picked and clensed with there hands yea and to be skowred and rubbed all over with linen clothes It is not long since that Philinus a right good man and well reputed after his returne from his voiage out of Aegypt where he had bin to see the countrey recounted unto us that in the city of Anteus he had seene an olde woman ly a sleepe on a little pallet together with a crocodile who very decently and modestly couched close along by her side And it is found in old records that when one of the kings called Ptolomaei called unto the sacred crocodile it would not come nor obey the voice of the priests notwithstanding they gently praied and intreated her a signe thought to be a prognosticke and presage of his death which soone after ensued whereby it is plaine that the kind and generation of these water beasts is neither incapable nor deprived of that sacred and highly esteemed science of divination and foretelling future things considering that even in the countrey of Lycia betweene the cities of Phellos and Myrz that is a village called Sura where I heare say the inhabitants use to sit and behold the fishes swimming in the water like as in other places they observe birds flying in the aire marking their lying in wait and ambush their scudding away and pursute after them whereby according to a certeine skill that is among them they can foretell future things to come But this may suffice to shew and declare that their nature is not altogether estranged from us nor unsociable As touching their proper wit and naturall prudence wherein there is no mixture at all borrowed from other this is ingenerall a great argument thereof that there is no creature that swimmeth or liveth in the waters except those which sticke to stones and cleave to rocks that is so easie to be caught by man or otherwise to be taken without trouble as asses are by wolves bees by the birds Meropes grashoppers by swallowes or serpents by stagges who are so easily caught up by them in Greeke they tooke the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of lightnesse but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of drawing up serpent out of his hole The sheepe calleth as it were the woolfe by the foote like as by report the leopard allureth unto him the most part of beasts who are willing to approch him for the pleasure they take in his smell and above all others the ape But sea creatures generally all have a certeine inbred sagacity a wary perceivance before hand which maketh them to be suspicious and circumspect yea and to stand upon their guard against all fore-laying so that the arte of hunting and catching them is not a small piece of worke and a simple cunning but that which requireth a great number of engins of all sorts and asketh woonderfull devices and subtill sleights to compasse and goe beyond them and this appeereth by the experience of such things as we have daily in our hands For first and formost the cane or reed of which the angle rodde is made fishers would not have to bee bigge and thicke and yet they had need of such an one as is tough and strong for to plucke up and hold the fishes which commonly doe mightily fling and struggle when they be caught but they chuse rather that which is small and slender for feare lest if it cast abroad shadow it might moove the doubt and suspicion that is naturally in fishes moreover the line they make not with many water-knots but desire to have it as plaine and even as possibly may be without any roughnesse for that this giveth as it were some denuntiation unto them of fraud and deceit they take order likewise that the haires which reach to the hooke should seeme as white as possibly they can devise for the whiter they be the lesse are they seene in the water for the conformity and likenesse in colour to it as for that which the poet Homer saith Downe right to bottome of the sea like plumbe of leade she went That peiseth downe the fishers hooke and holdes the line extent Which passing through transparent horne that rurall oxes head bare To greedy fishes secretly brings death ere they be ware Some misunderstanding these verses would infer therupon that men in old
he is inclosed and clasped within the armes as one would say of a net endureth his fortune resolutely and never dismaieth for the matter nay he is very well appaied and pleased for he is glad in his heart that he hath so many fishes about him caught in the same net which hee may devour and make merrie with at his pleasure without paines taking and when he sees that he is drawen up neere to the land he makes no more adoe but gnawes a great hole in the net away he goes But say that he cannot dispatch this feat so quickly but he comes into the fishers hands yet hee dieth not for this at the first time for they draw a rish or reed thorow the skinne along his crest and so let him go but if he suffer himselfe to be taken the second time then they beat and cudgell him well and know him they do by the seames or skars remaining of the foresaid reed Howbeit this falleth out verie seldome for the most part of them when they have beene once pardoned do acknowledge what favour they have received and beware for ever after how they do a fault and come into danger againe But whereas there be infinit other examples of subtle slights and wittie wiles which fishes have invented both to foresee and prevent a perill also to escape out of a danger that of the cuttle is woorthie to be recited and would not be passed over in silence for having about her necke a bladder or bag hanging full of a blacke muddie liquor which thereupon they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Inke when she perceives herselfe beset compassed about so as she is ready to be taken she casteth forth from her the said inke full craftily that by troubling the water of the sea all about her and making it looke thicke and blacke she might avoid the sight of the fisher and so make an escape unseene Following heerein the gods in Homer who many times with overspreading a back cloud withdraw and steale away those whom they are minded to save but enough of this Now as touching their craft and subtiltie in assailing and chasing others there be many experiments and examples presented unto our sight for the fish called the Starre knowing full well that whasoever he toucheth wil melt and resolve offreth and yeeldeth her body to be handled suffering as many as passe by her or approch neere to stroke him and as for the cramp-fish Torpedo you all know well enough her powerfull propertie not onely to benumme and stupifie those who touch her but also to transmit a stupefactive qualitie even along the maishes and cords of the net to the verie hands of the fishers who have caught her And some there be who report thus much moreover as having farther experience of her woonderfull nature that in case she escape and get away alive if men do baddle aloft in the water or dash the same upon them they shall feele the said passion running up to the verie hand and benumming their sense of feeling as it should seeme by reason of the water which before was altered and turned in that manner This fish therefore having an imbred knowledge hereof by nature never fighteth a front with any other neither hazardeth himselfe openly but fetching a compasse about the prey which it hunteth after shooteth forth from her these contagious influences like darts infecting or charming rather the water first therewith and after wards by meanes thereof the fish that she laieth for so that it can neither defend it selfe nor flie and make an escape but remaineth as it were arrested and bound fast with chaines or utterly astonied The sea-frog called the Fisher which name he gat by a kind of fishing that he doth practise is knowen well enough to many and Aristotle saith that the cuttle aforesaid useth likewise the same craft that he doth His manner is to hang downe as it were an angle line a certaine small string or gut from about his necke which is of that nature that hee can let out in length a great way when it is loose and draw it in againe close together verie quickly when he list Now when he perciveth some small fish neere unto him hee suffreth it to nibble the end thereof and bite it and then by litle and little and prively plucketh and draweth it backe toward him untill he can reach with his mouth the fish that hangeth to it As touching poulps or purcuttles and how they change their colour Pindarus hath ennobled them in these verses His mind doth alter most mutable To poulpe the sea fish skinne semblable Which changeth hue to all things sutable To live in all worlds he is pliable The poet Theognis likewise Put on a mind like polyp fish and learne so to dissemble Which of the rocke whereto it sticks the colour doth resemble True it is that the chamaeleon also eftsoone changeth colour but it is not upon any craftie desseigne that he hath nor yet for to hide himselfe but only for that he is so timorous for cowardly he is by nature and feareth everie noise Over and besides as Theophrastus writeth full he is of a deale of wind and the bodie of this creature wanteth but a little of being all lungs and lights whereby it may bee guessed that it standeth altogether upon ventositie and wind and so consequently verie variable and subject to change whereas that mutabilitie of the polype is a powerfull and setled action of his and not a momentarie passion or infirmitie for hee altereth his colour of a deliberate purpose using it as a sleight or device either to conceale himselfe from that whereof he is affraid or else to catch that whereof hee feedeth and by meanes of this deceitfull wile he praieth upon the one that escapeth him not escapeth the other that passeth by sees him not But to say that he eateth his owne cleies or long armes that he useth to stretch foorth is a loudlie marie that he standeth in feare of the lampray and the conger is verie true for these fishes do him many shrewd turnes and he cannot requite them the like so slipperie they be and so soone gone Like as the lobster on the other side if they come within his clutches holdeth them fast squeizeth them to death for their glibby slicknesse serveth them in no stead against his rough cleies and yet if the polype can get entangle him once within his long laces hee dies for it See how nature hath given this circular vicissitude to avoid and chase one another by turnes as a verie exercise and triall to make proofe of their wit and sagacitie But Aristotimus hath alledged unto us the hedghoge or land urchin and stood much upon I wot not what foresight he hath of the winds and a woondrous matter he hath made also of the triangular flight of cranes As for me I will not produce the sea urchins of this
holdeth it fast and devoureth the same but much more will this spunge draw in her selfe when a man comes neere and touches her for then being better advertised and touched to the quicke she quaketh as it were for feare and plucketh in her body so streight and so hard that the divers and such as seeke after them have no small adoe but finde it to be a painfull matter for to get under and cut them from the rocks The purple fishes keepe in companies together make themseves a common cel much like to the combs which bees doe frame wherein by report they do engender breed and looke what they have laid up for their store and provision of victuals to wit mosse reits and such sea-weeds those they put forth out of their shels present them unto their fellowes for to eat banquetting round as it were every one in their turne and keeping their course to feast one eating of anothers provision But no great marvell it is to see such an amiable society and loving fellowship among them considering that the most unsociable cruel and lavage creature of all that live either in rivers or lakes or seas I meane the crocodile sheweth himselfe wonderfull fellow-like and gracious in that society and dealing that is betweene him the trochilus For this trochilus is a little bird of the kinde of those which ordinarily doe haunt meres marishes and rivers waiting and attending upon the crocodile as it were one of his guard neither liveth this bird at her owne finding nor upon her owne provision but of the reliques that the crocodile leaveth The service that she doth for it is this when she seeth the ichneumon having plastred his body as it were with a coat of mud baked hard in maner of a crust and like unto a champion with his hands al dusty ready to wrestle prepared to take hold of his enimy ly in wait for to surprise the crocodile asleepe she awakeneth him partly with her voice and partly by nebbing him with her bill Now the crocodile is so gentle and familiar with her that he will gape with his chawes wide open and let her enter into his mouth taking great pleasure that she should picke his teeth and pecke out the little morsels of flesh that sticke betweene with her prety beake withall to scarifie his gummes But when he hath had enough of this would shut and close his mouth againe he letteth fall the upper chaw a little which is a warning unto the bird for to get forth but he never bringeth both jawes together before he knowe that the trochilus is flowen out There is a little fish called the guide for quantity proportion of shape resembling the gudgeon only without forth it seemeth like unto a bird whose feathers for feare stand up the scales stare so and are so rough This fish is ever in the company of one of these great whales swimming before and directing his course as if he were his pilot for feare lest he should light upon some shelves runne upon the sands in the shallowes or otherwise shoot himselfe into some narrow creeke where he can hardly turne and get foorth The whale followeth hard after willing to be guided and directed by him even as a shippe by the helme and looke what other thing soever besides commeth within the chaos of this monsters mouth be it beast boat or stone downe it goes all incontinently that foule great swallow of his and perisheth in the bottomlesse gulfe of his panch onely this little fish he knoweth from the rest and receiveth into his mouth and no farther as an ancker for within it sleepeth and while the fish is at repose the whale likewise resteth still as if he ridde at ancker no sooner is it gotten foorth but he followeth on a fresh never leaving it by day nor by night for otherwise hee would wander heere and there and many of these whales there have beene lost in this manner wanting their guide pilot which have runne themselves a land for default of a good pilot For we our selves have seene one of them so cast away not long since about the isle Anticyra and before time by report there was another cast upon the sands and not farre from the city Buna which lay there stinking and purrified whereupon by the infection of the aire there ensued a pestilence in those parts adjoining What should one say Is there any other example woorthy to bee compared with these societies so streightly linked and enterlaced with mutuall benevolence Aristotle indeed reporteth great friendship and amitie betweene foxes and serpents joining and combiming together against their common enemie the eagle also betweene the Otides and horses for the bird Otis delighteth in their company and to be neere them for that they may rake into their dung For mine owne part I cannot see that the very bees or the pismires are so industrious and carefull one for another True it is that they travell and labour in common for a publicke weale but to aime at any particular good or to respect the private benefit one of another we can finde example of no beast upon the land wheresoever but we shall perceive this difference much better if we convert our speech to the principall duties and greatest offices of societie generation I meane and procreation of yoong First and formost all fishes which haunt any sea either neere unto lakes or such as receiveth great rivers into it when they perceive their spawning time to be neere come up toward the land and seeke for that fresh water which is most quiet and least subject to agitation for that calmenesse is good for their breeding besides these lakes and rivers ordinarily have none of these monstrous sea monsters so as both their spawne and their yoong frie is there in most safetie which is the reason that there are so many fishes bred about the Euxine sea for that it nourisheth no whales or other great fishes onely the sea-calfe which there is but small and the dolphin who is as little Moreover the mixture of many great rivers which discharge themselves into the sea causeth the temperature of the water to be very good and fit for great bellied spawners But most admirable of all others is the nature of the fish anthios which Homer called the sacred fish although some thinke that sacred in that place is as much to say as great in which sense we tearme the great bone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say sacred whereupon the ridge bone resteth as also the great maladie called the falling sicknesse is tearmed in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the sacred sicknesse others interpret it after the common and vulgar maner namely for that which is vowed and dedicated to some god or otherwise abandoned but it seemeth that Eratosthenes so called the guilthead or golden-ey as appeareth by this verse of his Most swift of course with browes as
be so that the trueth may be knowen and that there be but one truth he who learned it of him that found it not out hath no lesse than the inventer himselfe yea better receiveth it he who is not perswaded that he hath it nay he receiveth that which is simply best of all much like as hee who having no naturall children of his owne body begotten taketh the best that he can chuse for to make his adopted childe But consider heere with me whether other kinds of learning deserve not haply to have much study imploied in them as namely Poetry Mathematicks the art of Eloquence and the opinions of Sophisters and great clerks Therefore God of that divine power whatsoever forbad Socrates to engender them but as touching that which Socrates esteemed to be the onely wisedome to wit the knowledge of God and spirituall things which hee himselfe calleth the amorous science there be no men that beget or invent it but call the same onely to remembrance whereupon Socrates himsele never taught any thing but proposing onely unto yoong men certeine beginning of difficulties and doubts as it were the fore throwes of child-birth stirred up awakened and drew foorth their owne naturall wits and inbred intelligences and this was it that he called the midwives art which brought nothing into them from without as others would make them beleeve who conferred with them that they infused reason and understanding but shewed onely and taught them that they had already within themselves a minde and understanding of their owne and the same sufficient to nourish though it were confused and unperfect 2 What is the reason that in some places he called the soveraigne God father and maker of all things WAs it for that he is in trueth the father of gods such as were ingendred and also of men as Homer calleth him like as the maker of those creatures which have neither reason nor soule for according as Chryisppus saith we use not to cal him the father of the secondine wherein the infant is inwrapped within the wombe who conserred genetall seed although the said secondine be made of the seed Or useth he not a metaphor as his maner is when figuratively he tearmeth him Father of the world who is the efficient cause according to his usuall maner of speaking as namely in the Dialogue entituled Symposium where he maketh Phaedrus the father of amatorious discourses for that he it was who proposed and set abroad the same like as he named Callipedas in a dialogue bearing his name The father of philosophicall discourses for that there passed many beautifull speeches in philosophy whereof he ministred the occasion and beginning Or rather was it not because there is a difference betweene father and maker as also betweene generation and creation for whatsoever is ingendred is made but not è conversò whatsoever is made is likewise ingendred semblably who hath begotten hath also made for generation is the making of a living creature but if we consider a workeman to wit either a mason or carpenter a weaver a lute maker or imager certes the worke is distinct and separate from the maker whereas the mooving principle and the puissance of him who begetteth is infused into that which is begotten it conteineth his nature being as it were a parcell distracted from the very substance of him who ingendred it Forasmuch then as the world doth not resemble a conjunction of many pieces set joined fastened and glued together but hath in it a great portion of the animall life yea and of divinity which God hath infused and mingled in the matter as derived from his owne nature and substance good reason it is therefore that he should be surnamed both the father and maker of the world being a living creature as it is These points being very conformable and proportionate to the opinion of Plato consider withall a little if this also which I shall deliver be not likewise accordant thereunto namely that the world being composed of two parts to wit of body and of soule the one which is the body God hath not ingendred but having the matter thereof exhibited unto him he hath formed shaped and fitted it binding and limiting it according to the infinitie thereof with termes bounds and figures proper thereto but the soule having a portion of understanding discourse of reason order and harmonie is not onely the worke but also a part of God not by him but even of him and issuing from his owne proper substance In his booke therefore of Politiques or Common wealth having divided the whole world as it were a line into two segments or sections unequall he subdivideth either section into other twaine after the same proportion for two generall kinds he maketh of all things the one sensible and visible the other intelligible unto the intelligible kinde he attributeth in the first degree the primitive formes and Ideae in the second degree the Mathematicks and as for the sensible kinde he attributeth thereto in the first ranke all solide bodies and in the second place the images and figures of them Also to every one of these foure members of his said division he giveth his owne proper judge to the first of Idaees understanding to the Mathematicks imagination to the solide bodies faith and beleefe to the images and figures conjecture To what end then and upon what intention hath he divided the whole world into two sections and the same unequall and of those two sections whether is the greater that of sensible objects or that of intelligible As for himselfe he hath not shewed and declared it but presently it wil appeare that the portion of sensible things is the greater for the indivisible substance is of things intellectuall being evermore of one sort and resting upon the same subject in one state and reduced to very short and narrow roome and the same pure and neat whereas the other being spread and wandering upon bodies is that section of sensible things Moreover the propertie of that which is incorporall is to be definite and determinate And a bodie as touching the matter thereof is indefinite and undeterminate becomming sensible when by participation of the intelligible it is made finite and limitable Over and besides like as every sensible thing hath many images many shadowes and many figures and generally out of one onely patterne there may be drawen many copies and examples imitated as well by art as by nature so it can not chuse but the things that here be sensible should be more in nūber than they above which are intelligible according to the opinion of Plato supposing this that things sensible be as it were the images and examples of the originall patterns to wit the intelligible Ideae Furthermore the intelligence of these Idaees and formes by substraction deduction and division of bodies is ranged answerable to the order of the Mathematicks arising frō Arithmeticke which is the science of Numbers into Geometry to
And thus you see the demonstration of this and so it is no hard matter to understand by that which we have delivered what is the reason why Plato having said that intervals sesquialterall sesquitertian and sesquioctaves are made by filling the sesquitertians with sesquioctaves made no mention of the seqsuialterons but hath left them behind namely for that the sesquialter is filled when one putteth a sesquioctave to asesquitertiall or rather a sesquitence to a sesquioctave These things thus shewed in some sort by way of demonstration now to fill the intervals and to interject the Medieties if none before had shewed the meanes and maner how I would leave you to do it for your exercise but the same having beene done already by many worthy personages and principally by Crantor Clearchus and Theodorus all borne in the city Soli It will not be impertinent to deliver somewhat as touching the difference betweene them for Theodor us maketh not two files of nnmbers as the other doe but rangeth them all in the same line directly one after another to wit the duple and the triple and principally he groundeth and fortifieth himselfe by this position which they so call of the substance drawen out in length making two branches as it were from one trunke and not foure of twaine then he saith that the interpositions of the Medieties ought so to take place for otherwise there would be a trouble and confusion and anon passeth immediately from the first duple to the first triple when they should be that which ought to fulfill the one and the other On the other side there maketh for Crantor the position and situation of plaine numbers with plaine squares with squares and cubes with cubes which are set one against another in opposite files not according to their range but alternatively ******************* which is of one sort as Idea or forme but that which is divided by bodies is the subject and the matter and the mixture of them both in common is that which is complet and perfect As touching then the substance indivisible which is alwaies one and of the same sort wee are not thus to thinke that it admitteth no division for the smalnesse thereof like to those little bodies called Atomi but that of it which is simple pure and most subject to any passion or alteration whatsoever alwaies like it selfe and after one maner is said to be indivisible and to have no parts by which simplicity when it commeth to touch in some fort such things as be compounded divisible and caried to and fro it causeth that diversitie to cease restreineth that multitude and by meanes of similitude reduceth them to one and the same habitude And if a man be disposed to call that which is divisible by bodies matter as subject unto it and participating the nature thereof using a certeine homonymie or equivocation it mattereth not much neither skilleth it as touching the thing in question but those who would have the corporall matter to be mixed with the indivisible substance be in a great errour first because Plato hath not now used any names thereof for that he hath evermore used to call it a receptacle to receive all and a nurse not divisible by bodies but rather a body divided into individuall particulars Againe what difference would there be betweene the generation of the world and of the soule if the constitution of the one and the other did consist of matter and things intelligible Certes Plato himselfe as one who would in no wife admit the soule to be engendred of the body saith That God put all that which was corporall within her and then that without forth the same was enclosed round about with it In sum when he had framed and finished the soule according to proportion he inferreth and annexeth afterwards a treatise of matter which before when he handled the creation of the soule he never required nor called for because created it was without the helpe of matter The like to this may be said by way of confutation against Posidonius and his sectaries for very farre they went not from matter but imagining that the substance of tearmes and extremities was that which he called divisible by bodies and joining with the intelligible they affirmed and pronounced that the soule is the Idea of that which is distant every way and in all the dimensions according to the number which conteineth harmony which is very erronious For the Mathematicks quoth he are situate betweene the first intelligible and sensible things but the soule having of intelligible things an eternall essence and of sensible objects a passible nature therfore meet it is that it should have a middle substance between both But he was not ware that God after he had made and finished the soule used the bounds termes of the body for to give a forme to the matter determining the substance thereof dispersed and not linked or conteined within any limits by environing it with superficies composed of triangles all joined together And yet more absurd than that it is to make the soule an Idea for that the soule is alwaies in motion but the Idea is immooveable neither can the Idea be mixed with that which is sensible but the soule is alwaies linked fast with the body besides God did imitate Idea as one who followed his patterne but he wrought the soule as his piece of worke And that Plato held the soule not to be a number but rather a thing ordeined by number we have already shewed and declared before But against both these opinions and their patrons this may be opposed in common That neither in numbers nor in tearmes and limits of bodies is there any apparence or shew of that puissance whereby the soule judgeth of that which is sensible for the intelligence and facultie that it hath was drawen from the participation and societie of the intelligible principle But opinions beliefs assents imaginations also to be passive and sensitive of qualities inherent in bodies there is no man will thinke that they can proceed from unities pricks lines or superficies and yet not onely the soules of mortall men have the power to judge of all the exterior qualities perceptible by the senses but also the very soule of the world as Plato saith when it returneth circularly into her selfe and toucheth any thing that hath a substance dissipable and apt to be dispersed as also when it meeteth with ought that is indivisible by mooving herselfe totally she telleth in what respect any thing is the same and in what regard divers and different whereto principally ech thing is meet either to doe or to suffer where when and how it is affected alwel in such as are engendred as in those that are alwais the same Moreover making a certeine description with all of the ten predicaments hee declareth the same more cleerely afterwards True reason quoth he when it meeteth with that which is sensible and if therewith the circle of
all things are comprised and conteined in Fatall destiny we must grant this proposition to be true and say one put thereto all things done among men upon the earth and in the very heaven and place them within Fatall destiny let us grant as much for the present But if we understand that this word Fatall as it rather see meth doth import not all things but that onely which followeth and is dependant then wee may not grant and say that all things be comprehended in Fatall destiny considering all that which the law doeth comprehend and where of it 〈◊〉 is not lawfull nor according to law for why it compriseth treason it treateth of cowardise of running away from ones colours and place in battell of adultery and many things semblable of which we cannot say any one is lawfull forasmuch as even to performe valorous service in the wars to kill tyrants or to exploit any vertuous deed I would not tearme lawfull because properly that is lawfull which is commanded by the law and if the law did command those things how can they avoid to be rebellious and transgressors of the law who have not done valiant exploits in armes have not killed tyrants nor performed any other notable acts of vertue and in case they be offenders of the law why are they not punished accordingly But if to punish such be neither just nor reasonable then confesse we must that these matters be not legall nor according to law for legall and according to law is that which is namely prescribed set downe and expresly commanded by the law in any action whatsoever Semblably those things onely be Fatall and according to destiny which are done by a divine disposition proceeding so that Fatall destiny may well cōprise all things howbeit many of those which be comprised therein and in maner all that went before to speake properly cannot be pronounced Fatall nor according to Fatall destiny which being so we ought to declare now in order consequently how that which is in our owne power to wit free will how fortune possible contingent and other such like things which be ranged and placed among the premisses may subsist safely with fatall distiny and how fatall distiny may stand with them for fatall distiny comprehendeth all as it seemeth and yet these things happen not by any necessity but every of them according to there owne nature The nature of possible is to have a presubsistence as the gender and to goe before the contingent and the cōtingent as the subject matter ought to be presupposed before the things which are in our power for that which is in us as a lord and master useth the contingent And fortune is of this nature to intercurre betweene our free will and what is in us by the property of contingencie enclining to the one side and to the other which you may more easily apprehend and understand if you consider how every thing that is produced forth yea and the production it selfe and generation is not without a certaine puissance and no puissance or power there is without a substance as for example the generation of man and that which is produced and engendred is not without a power and the same is about the man but man himselfe is the substance Of the puissance or power being betweene commeth the substance which is the puissant but the production and that which is produced be both things possible There being therefore these three puissance puissant and possible before puissance can be of necessitie there must be presupposed a puissant as the subject thereof and even so it must needs be that puissance also subsist before that which is possible By this deduction then in some sort is declared what is that which we call possible so as we may after a grosse maner define it to be that which puissance is able to produce and to speake more properly of the same by adjoining thereto thus much provided alwaies that nothing without-forth doe impeach or hinder it But among possible things some there be that never can be hindred as namely in heaven the rising and setting of the stars and such like others may be impeached as the most part of humane affaires yea and many meteors in the aire As for the former as things hapning by necessitie they be called necessarie the other for that they fall out sometime contrariwise we tearme contingent and in this sort may they be described Necessary is that possible thing which is opposit to impossible contingent is that possible whereof possible also is the contrary For that the sun should go downe is a thing both necessary possible as being contrary unto this impossibility namely that the sun should not set at all but that when the sun is set there should come raine or not raine are both of them possible and contingent Againe of things contingent some there be which happen oftentimes and for the most part others rare and seldome some fall out indifferently as well one waie as another even as it hapneth And plaine it is that these be opposit and repugnant to themselves as for those which happen usually and very often contrary they be to such things as chance but seldome and these indeed for the most part are subject to nature but that which chanceth equally one way as well as another lieth in us and our will for examples sake that under the Dog starre it should be hot and colde the one commonly and for the most part the other very seldome are things both submitted to nature but to walke or not to walke and such things whereof the one and the other be subject to the free will of man are said to be in us and in our choise and election but rather and more generally they be said to be in us For as touching this tearme To be in us it is to be understood two maner of waies and thereof are two kindes the one proceedeth from passion as namely from anger or concupisence the other from discourse of reason or judgement and understanding which a man may properly say to be in our election And some reason there is that this possible contingent which is named to be in us and to proceed from our appetite and will should be called so not in the same regard but for divers for in respect of future time it is called possible and contingent but in regard of the present it is named In us and in our free will so as a man may thus define and distinguish of these things Contingent is that which both it selfe and the contrary whereof is possible that which in us is the one part of contingent to wit that which presently is in doing according to our appetite Thus have we in maner declared that by nature possible goeth before contingent and contingent subsisteth before that which in us also what ech of them is and whereupon they are so called yea and what be the qualities adjoining thereto it
appertaine unto us to be most accordant unto humane life and the common prenotions inbred anticipations of knowledge abovesaid But to the end that no man might denie that he is repugnant and contrary to himselfe loe what he saith in his third booke of justice This is it quoth he that by reason of the surpassing grandure beawty of our sentences those matters which we deliver seeme feined tales and devised fables exceeding mans power and farre beyond humane nature How can it be that any man should more plainly confesse that he is at war with himselfe than he doth who saith that his propositions and opinions are so extravagant and transcendent that they resemble counterfeit tales and for their exelency surmount the condition and nature of man and yet forsooth for all this that they accord and agree passing well with humane life yea and come neerest unto the said inbred prenotions and anticipations that are in us Hee affirmeth that the very essence and substance of infelicitie is vice writing and firmly mainteining in all his books of morall and naturall philosophy that to live in vice is as much as to live in misery and wretchednesse but in the third booke of Nature having said before that it were better and more expedient to live a senselesse foole yea though there were no hope that ever he should become wise than not to live at all he addeth afterwards thus much For there be such good things in men that in some sort the very evill things goe before and are better than the indifferent in the middes betweene As for this how he hath written elswhere that there is nothing expedient and profitable in fooles and yet in this place setteth downe in plaine termes that it is expedient to live foolish and senselesse I am content to overpasse but seeing hee saith now that evill things goe before and one better than the indifferent or meane which with them of his sect are neither good nor ill surely it is as much as if hee affirmed that evill things are better than things not evill and all are as to say that to be wretched is more expedient than not to be wretched and so by that meanes he is of opinion that not to be miserable is more unprofitable than to be miserable and if it be more unprofitable than also it must be more hurtfull and dammageable But being desirous in some sort to mollifie this absurditie and to salve this sore he subnexeth as touching evill things these words My meaning is not quoth he that they should go before and be preferred but reason is the thing wherewith it is better to live although a man should ever be a foole than not to live at all First and formost then hee calleth vice an evill thing as also whatsoever doth participate of vice and nothing els now is vice reasonable or rather to speake more properly reason delinquent so that to live with reason if we be fooles and void of wisdome what is it els but to live with vice now to live as 〈◊〉 is all one as to live wretched Wherein is it then and how commeth it about that this should go before meane and indifferent things for it was not admitted that happie life should go before miserie neither was it ever any part say they of Chrysippus his meaning to range and count among good things To remaine alive no more than among bad To depart this life but he thought that these things were of themselves indifferent and of a middle nature in which regard otherwhiles it is meet for happy men to leave this life and for wretches to continue alive And what greater contrariety can there be as touching things eligible or refusable than to say that for them who are happy in the highest degree it is sit and beseeming to forgoe and for sake the good things that be present for want of some one thing that is indifferent And yet Chrysippus is of this minde that no indifferent thing is of the owne nature to be desired or rejected but that we ought to chuse that onely which is good and to shun that alone which is bad so as according to their opinion it comes to passe that they never divert their dessignments or actions to the pursute after things desirable nor the avoidance of things refusable but another marke it is that they shoot aime at namely at those things which they neither eschue nor chuse according thereto they live die Chrysippus avoweth confesseth that there is as great a difference betweene good things bad as possibly may be as needs there must in case it be true that as the one sort of them cause those in whom they are to be exceeding happy so the other extreme wretched miserable Now in the first booke of the end of good things he saith that aswell good things as bad be sensible for these be his very words That good and evill things be perceptible by sense we must of necessity acknowledge upon these arguments for not onely the very passions indeed of the minde together with their parts and severall kinds to wit sadnesse feare and such like be sensible but also a man may have a sense of theft adultery and semblable sinnes yea and of follie of cowardise and in one word of all other vices which are in number not a few and not onely joy beneficence and other dependances of vertuous offices but also prudence valour and the rest of the vertues are object to the sense But to let passe all other absurdities conteined in these words who will not confesse but that there is a meere contradiction in that which they delivered as touching one that becomes a wise man and knowes not thereof for considering that the present good is sensible and much different from that which is evill that one possibly should of a wicked person proove to be vertuous and not know thereof not have sense of vertue being present but to thinke that vice is still within him how can this otherwise be but most absurd for either no man can be ignorant and out of doubt whether he hath all vertues together or els he must confesse that there is small difference and the same hard to be discerned betweene vice and vertue felicity and infelicity a right honest life and a most dishonest in case a man should passe from the one to the other and possesse one for the other without ever knowing it One worke he wrote entituled Of lives and the same divided into foure books in the fourth whereof he saith That a wise man medleth not with great affaires but is occupied in his owne businesse onely without being curious to looke into other mens occasions his very words to this purpose be these For mine owne part of this opinion I am that a prudent man gladly avoideth a stirring life intermedleth little and in his owne matters onely for to deale simply in a mans owne affaires and to
enter into little businesse in the world be both alike commendable parts and the properties of civill and 〈◊〉 persons And in maner the same speeches or very like thereto he hath delivered in the third booke of such things as be expetible and to be chosen for themselves in these termes For in truth quoth he it seemeth that the quiet life should be without danger and in perfect security which few or none of the vulgar sort are able to comprehend and understand Wherein first and formost it is evident that he commeth very neere to the errour of Epicurus who in the government of the world disavoweth divine providence for that he would have God to rest in repose idle and not emploied in any thing And yet Chrysippus himselfe in his first booke of Lives saith That a wise man willingly will take a kingdome upon him yea and thinke to make his gaine and profit thereby and if he be not able to reigne himselfe yet he will at leastwise converse and live with a king yea goe foorth with him to warre like as Hydanthyrsus the Scythian did and Leucon of Pontus But I will set downe his owne words that we may see whether like as of the treble and base strings there ariseth a consonance of an eight so there be an accord in the life of a man who hath chosen to live quietly without doing ought or at leastwise to intermeddle in few affaires yea and yet afterwards accompanieth the Scythians riding on horsebacke and manageth the affaires of the kings of Bosphorus upon any occasion of need that may be presented For as touching this point quoth he that a wise man will go into warlike expeditions with princes live and converse with them we will consider againe thereof heereafter being as it is a thing that as some upon the like arguments imagine not so we for the semblable reasons admit and allow And a little after Not onely with those who have proceeded well in the knowledge of vertue and beene sufficiently instituted and trained up in good maners as were Hydanthyrsus and Leucon abovesaid Some there be who blame Calisthenes for that he passed over the seas to king Alexander into his campe in hope to reedifie the city Olynthus as Artstotle caused the city Stagyra to be repaired who highly commend Ephorus Xenocrates and Menedemus who rejected Alexander But Chrysippus driveth his wise man by the head forward for his gaine and profit as farre as to the city Panticapaeum and the deserts of Scythia And that this is I say for his gaine profit he shewed before by setting downe three principall meanes beseeming a wise man for to practise and seeke his gaine by the first by a kingdome and the beneficence of kings the second by his friends and the third besides these by teaching literature and yet in many places he wearieth us with citing this verse of Euripides For what need mortall men take paine Onely for things in number twaine But in his books of Nature he saith That a wise man if he have lost the greatest riches that may be esteemeth the losse no more than if it were but a single denier of silver or one grey groat Howbeit him whom he hath there so highly extolled and pussed up with glory heere hee taketh downe and abaseth as much even to make him a meere mercenary pedante and one that is faine to teach a schoole for he would have him to demaund and exact his salary sometime before hand of his scholar when he enters into his schoole and otherwhile after a certeine prefixed time of his schooling is come and gone And this quoth hee is the honester and more civill way of the twaine but the other is the furer namely to make him pay his mony aforehand for that delay and giving attendance is subject to receive wrong and susteine losse and thus much he uttereth in these very termes Those teachers that be of the wiser sort cal for their schoolage and minervals of their scholars not all after one maner but diversly a number of them according as the present occasion requireth who promise not to make them wise men and that within a yeere but undertake to doe what lies in them within a set time agreed upon betweene them And soone after speaking of his wise man He will quoth he know the best time when to demaund his pension to wit whether incontinently upon the entrance of his scholar as the most part do or to give day and set downe a certeine time which maner of dealing is more subject to receive injurie howsoever it may seeme more honest and civill And how can a wise man tell me now be a despiser of money in case hee make a contract and bargaine at a price to receive money for delivering vertue or if he doe not deliver it yet require his salary neverthelesse as if he he had performed his part fully Either how can he be greater than to susteine a losse and damage if it be so that he stand so strictly upon this point and be so warie that he receive no wrong by the paiment of his wages For surely no man is said to bee injuried who is not hurt nor endamaged and therefore how ever otherwise he hath flatly denied that a wise man could receive warning yet in this booke he saith that this maner of dealing is exposed to losse and damage In his booke of Common-wealth he affirmeth that his citizens will never doe any thing for pleasure no nor addresse and prepare themselves therefore praising highly Euripides for these verses What need men but for two things onely swinke Bread for to eat and water shere to drinke And soone after he proceedeth forward and praiseth Diogenes for abusing himselfe by forcing his nature to passe from him in the open street and saying withall to those that stood by Oh that I could chase hunger as well from my belly What reason then is there in the selfesame bookes to commend him for rejecting pleasure and withall for defiling his owne body as hee did so beastly in the sight of the whole world and that for a little filthy pleasure In his books of Nature having written that nature had produced and brought foorth many living creatures for beauty onely as delighting and taking pleasure in such lovely varietie and therewith having adjoined moreover a most strange and absurd speech namely that the peacocke was made for his tailes sake and in regard of the beauty thereof cleane contrary to himselfe in his books of Common-wealth he reprooveth very sharpely those who keepe peacocks and nightingals as if he would make lawes quite contrary to that soveraigne law-giver of the world deriding nature for taking delight and employing as it were her study in bringing foorth such creatures unto which a wise man wil give no place in his city and common-wealth For how can it otherwise be but monstrous and absurd for to finde fault with those who nourish such creatures
〈◊〉 that is to say the protectour of plants another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the president of physicke and divination meane while neither is health simply good nor generation ne yet fertilitie of the ground and abundance of fruits but indifferent yea and unprofitable to those who have them The third point of the comon conception of the gods is that they differ in nothing so much from men as in felicity and vertue but according to Chrysippus they are in this respect nothing superior to men for he holdeth that for vertue Jupiter is no better than Dion also that Jupiter Dion being both of them wise doe equally and reciprocally helpe one another for this is the good that the gods doe unto men and men likewise unto the gods namely when they proove wise and prudent and not otherwise So that if a man be no lesse vertuous he is not lesse happy insomuch as he is equall unto Jupiter the saviour in felicitie though otherwise infortunate and who for grievous maladies and dolorous dismembring of his body is forced to make himselfe away and leave his life provided alwaies that he be a wise man Howbeit such an one there neither is nor ever hath bene living upon the earth whereas contrariwise infinit thousands and millions there are and have beene of miserable men and extreme infortunate under the rule and dominion of Jupiter the government administration wherof is most excellent And what can there be more against common sense than to say that Jupiter governing and dispensing all things passing well yet we should be exceeding miserable If therefore which unlawfull is once to speake Jupiter would no longer be a saviour nor a deliverer nor a protectour and surnamed thereupon Soter Lysius and Alexicacos but cleane contrary unto these goodly and beautifull denominations there can not possibly be added any more goodnesse to things that be either in number or magnitude as they say whereas all men live in the extremitie of miserie and wickednesse considering that neither vice can admit no augmentation nor misery addition and yet this is not the woorst nor greatest absurdity but mightily angry and offended they are with Menander for speaking as he did thus bravely in open theater I hold good things exceeding meane degree The greatest cause of humane miserie For this say they is against the common conception of men meane while themselves make God who is good and goodnesse it selfe to be the author of evils for matter could not verily produce any evill of it selfe being as it is without all qualities and all those differences and varieties which it hath it received of that which moved and formed it to wit reason within which giveth it a forme and shape for that it is not made to moove and shape it selfe And therefore it cannot otherwise be but that evill if it come by nothing should proceed and have being from that which is not or if it come by some mooving cause the same must be God For if they thinke that Jupiter hath no power of his owne parts nor useth ech one according to his owne proper reason they speake against common sense and doe imagine a certeine animall whereof many parts are not obeisant to his will but use their owne private actions and operations whereunto the whole never gave incitation nor began in them any motion For among those creatures which have life and soule there is none so ill framed and composed as that against the will thereof either the feet should goe forward or the tongue speake or the horne push and strike or the teeth bite whereof God of necessity must endure abide the most part if against his will evill men being parts of himselfe doe lie doe circumvent and beguile others commit burglary breake open houses to rob their neighbors or kill one another And if according as Chrysippus saith it is not possible that the least part should be have it selfe otherwise than it pleaseth Jupiter and that every living thing doeth rest stay and moove according as he leadeth manageth turneth staieth and disposeth it Now well I wot this voice of his Sounds worse and more mischcivous is For more tolerable it were by a great deale to say that ten thousand parts through the impotencie and feeblenesse of Jupiter committed many absurdities perforce even against his nature and will than to avouch that there is no intemperance no deceit and wickednesse where of Jupiter is not the cause Moreover seeing that the world by their saying is a city and the Sarres citizens if it be so there must be also tribes and magistracies yea and plaine it is that the Sunne must be a Senatour yea the evenning starre some provost major or governor of the city And I wot not wel whether he who taketh in hand to confute such things can broch and set abroad other greater absurdities in naturall matters than those doe who deliver and pronounce these doctrines Is not this a position against common sense to affirme that the seed should be greater and more than that which is engendred of it For we see verily that nature in all living creatures and plants even those that be of a wilde and savage kinde taketh very small and slender matters such as hardly can be seene for the beginning the generation of most great and huge bodies For not onely of a graine or corne of wheat it produceth a stalke with an eare and of a little grape stone it bringeth forth a vine tree but also of a pepin kernill akorne or bery escaped and fallen by chance from a bird as if of some sparkle it kindled and set on fire generation it sendeth forth the stocke of some bush or thorne or else a tall and mighty body of an oake a date or pine tree And hereupon it is that genetall seed is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke as one would say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the enfolding and wrapping together of a great masse into a small quantity also nature taketh the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the inflation and defusion of proportions and numbers which are opened loosened under it And againe the fire which they say is the seed of the world after that generall conflagration shall change into the owne seed the world which from a smaller body and little masse is extended into a great inflation and defusion yea and moreover occupieth an infinite space of voidnesse which it filleth by his augmentation but as it is engendered that huge greatnesse retireth and setleth anon by reason that the matter is contracted and gathered into it selfe upon the generation We may heare them dispute and reade many of their books and discourses wherein they argue and crie out aloud against the Academicks for confounding all things with their Aparalaxies that is to say indistinguible identities
our hands this doubt I say whether they be true or false what opinion is it that they doe not shake and make to waver what judgement and assent do not they turne up-side downe For if men being not drunke nor intoxicate nor otherwise troubled in their braines but sober well in their wits and sound of judgement professing also to write of the trueth and of the canons and rules to judge by in the most evident passions and motions of the sense set downe that for true which can not possibly subsist and for false that which subsisteth it is not to be marvelled nor thought incredible if they give no judgement of such things which evidently appeare but rather be of contrary judgements For a man may lesse woonder at one for affirming neither the one nor the other and keeping himselfe in a meane betweene two opposits than for putting downe things repugnant and meere contrary For he that neither affirmeth nor denieth but holds himselfe quiet is lesse repugnant both unto him who putteth downe his opinion than he who denieth it and also to him that denieth it than he who puts it downe And if it be possible to make doubt and sticke at these things it is not impossible then to doe so of others at leastwise according to you who are of opinion that there is no difference at all betweene sense and sense betweene imagination and imagination and therefore this doctrine as touching the retention of beliefe and assent is not as Colotes saith a vaine fable nor a captious toy of rash and light-headed yong men that love to jangle and prate but a setled resolution and habituall disposition of staied men who be wary and take heed that they mistake not any thing and fall into inconvenience or abandon at aventure their judgment to the senses so conjecturall and doubtfull and not suffring them to be deceived and caried away with those who hold that things uncerteine if they seeme and appeare ought to be beleeved as well as if they were certeine notwithstanding they see so great obscurity and incertitude in imaginations and apparent things But rather the infinity that you put downe and the images which you dreame of be fables And as for heady rashnesse and a vaine humour of much babble hee engendreth in yoong students who writeth of Pythocles being not fully eighteene yeeres of age that there was not in all Greece a better or more towardly nature as being one who with admiration was able most excellently to expresse the conceptions of his minde and that his case was much like to the incomparable beauty of women wishing and praying therefore that all those surpassing gifts and most rare parts might not worke the yoong man hatred and envie But busie Sophisters they be and vaine fellowes who against so great and excellent personages dare write so impudently and proudly And yet I confesse Plato Aristotle Theophrastus and Democritus gainsaied and contradicted those who wrote before them Howbeit there was never man knowen but himselfe so bold as to make a booke against all indifferently and with such a proud inscription as he did And than afterwards forsooth like unto those who have offended and displeased the gods in the end of the said booke as one confessing his faults he saith That they who have established lawes and ordinances who have erected roiall governments and politicke rule of cities and states have set the life of man in great quiet safety and security yea and delivered it from dangerous troubles which if they were abrogated and put downe we should lead a savage life like wilde beasts one would eat another as they met together for these be the very words that he useth though unjustly and untruly For say a man did abolish lawes and yet withall leave behind unrepealed and uncondemned the doctrines and books of Parmenides Socrates Heraclitus and Plato we should be farre for all that from devouring one another or living a savage life for we should feare and forbeare dishonest things we should even for vertue and honesty honour justice beleeve that the gods good magistrates and the angels or spirits have the guarding keeping and superintendance of mans life thinking all the gold that is both above and under the ground not able to counterpeize vertue and doing willingly by reason and learning as Xenocrates was woont to say that which now we doe perforce for feare of the lawes But when shall our life become beastly savage and insociable Mary when the lawes being taken away there shall be left remaining books and discourses inciting and soliciting men unto pleasure when it shall be thought and beleeved that the world is not ruled and governed by Gods providence when they shall be deemed Sages and wise men who spit against honesty and vertue unlesse it be joined with pleasure and when they shall deride and mocke such sentences as these In Justice is an eie Which all things doth espie And Godneere doth stand And sees all at hand As also this old said sawe God having in his power the beginning mids and end of the whole world passeth directly throughout all nature and goeth round about attended upon by Justice to punish those who transgresse the law divine For they that despise and contemne these instructions as idle fables and suppose that the sovereigne good consisteth in the belly and other parts whereby we enjoy pleasure be those who had need of the law they ought to feare the whip and stand in awe of some king prince and magistrate who hath the sword of justice in his hand to the end that they might not devour their neighbour by insatiable gluttony which upon Atheisme and impiety would grow to excessive outrage For verily such is the life of brute beasts for that they know nothing better than pleasure they have no sense of Gods justice they neither honour nor regard the beauty of vertue But if nature hath endued them with any hardinesse craft and industrious activity they employ the same to satisfie their fleshly pleasure and accomplish their lusts And therefore Metrodorus is reputed a great wise man for saying that all the fine subtill witty and exquisit inventions of the soule have beene devised for to please and delight the flesh or else for the hope to obteine and enjoy the same and looke what art soever tendeth not thereto is vaine to no purpose By such discourses and Philosophicall reasons as these downe goe holsome lawes and in place thereof enter in lions pawes woolves teeth oxes paunches and camels necks and throates and for want of writings and speech the very beasts doe preach and teach such doctrines and opinions as these with their bleating bellowing neighing and braying For all the voice that they have is nothing but belly cheere and the pleasure of the flesh which they either embrace presently or joy in the expectation thereof unlesse haply there be some kind of them that delighteth naturally in gagling cackling and garrulity
upon him with this contradiction and say that he may aswel hold that whatsoever is beneath the Primum mobile or starrie firmament ought to be called Below In summe how is the earth called The middle and whereof is it the middle for the universall frame of the world called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is infinit and this infinit which hath neither head nor foot how can it in reason have a navill for even that which we call the mids of any thing is a kinde of limitation whereas infinitie is a meere privation of all limits and bounds As for him who saith it is not in the mids of that universalitie but of the world he is a pleasant man if he thinke not withall that the world it selfe is subject to the same doubts and difficulties for the said universall frame leaveth not unto the very world a middle but is without a certeine seat without assured footing mooving in a voidnesse infinite not into some one place proper unto it and if haply it should meet with some any other cause of stay and so abide stil the same is not according to the nature of the place And as much may we conjecture of the Moone that by the meanes of some other soule or nature or rather of some difference the earth 〈◊〉 firme beneeath and the Moone mooveth Furthermore you see how they are not ignorant of a great errour and inconvenience for if it be true that whatsoever is without the centre of the earth it skils not how is to be counted Above and Aloft then is there no part of the world to be reckoned Below or Beneath but aswell the earth it selfe as al that is upon it shal be above aloft and to be short every bodie neere or about the centre must go among those things that are aloft neither must we reckon any thing to be under or beneath but one pricke or point which hath no bodie and the same forsooth must make head and stand in opposition necessarily against all the whole nature besides of the world in case according to the course of nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say above and beneath be opposite And not onely this absurdity will follow but also all heavie and ponderous bodies must needs lose the cause for which they bend and incline hither for bodie there will be none toward which it should move and as for this pricke or centre that hath no bodie there is no likelihood neither would they themselves have it so that it should be so puissant and forcible as to draw to it and reteine about it all things And if it be found unreasonable and repugnant to the course of nature that the world should be all above and nothing beneath but a terme or limit and the same without body without space and distance then this that we say is yet more reasonable namely that the region beneath and that above being parted distinctly one from another have neverthelesse ech of them a large and spacious roume to round themselves in But suppose if it please you it were against nature that terrestriall bodies should have any motion in heaven let us consider gently and in good termes not after a tragicall maner but mildly This prooveth not by-and-by that the Moone is not earth but rather that earth is in some place where naturally it should not be for the fire of the mountaine Aetna is verily under the ground against the nature of it howbeit the same ceaseth not therefore to be fire The winde conteined within leather bottles is of the owne nature light and given to mount upward but by force it commeth to be there where naturally it ought not to be Our very soule it selfe I beseech you in the name of Jupiter is it not against nature deteined within the body being light in that which is heavie being of a firie substance in that which is colde as yee your 〈◊〉 and being invisible in that which is grosse and palpable do we therefore denie that the soule is within the bodie that it is a divine substance under a grosse and heavie masse that in a moment it passeth thorowout heaven earth and sea that it pierceth and entreth within flesh nerves and marrow and finally is the cause together with the humors of infinit passions And even this Jupiter of yours such as you imagine and depaint him to be is he not of his owne nature a mighty and perpetuall fire howbeit now he submitteth himselfe and is pliable subject he is to all formes and apt to admit divers mutations Take heed therefore and be well advised good sir lest that in transferring and reducing every thing to their naturall place you doe not so philosophize as that you will bring in a dissolution of all the world and set on foot againe that olde quarrell and contention among all things which Empedocles writeth of or to speake more to the purpose beware you raise not those ancient Titans and Giants to put on armes against nature and so consequently endevour to receive and see againe that fabulous disorder and confusion whereby all that is weightie goeth one way and whatsoever is light another way apart Where neither light some countenance of Sunne nor earth all greene With herbs and plants admired is nor surging sea is seene according as Empedocles hath written wherein the earth feeleth no heat nor the water any winde wherein there is no ponderosity above nor lightnesse beneath but the principles and elements of all things be by themselves solitary without any mutuall love or dilection betweene them not admitting any society or mixture together but avoiding and turning away one from the other mooving apart by particular motions as being disdainfull proud and carying themselves in such sort as all things do where no god is as Plato saith that is as those bodies are affected wherein there is no understanding nor soule untill such time as by some divine providence there come into nature a desire and so amity Venus and Love be there engendred according to the sayings of Empedocles Parmenides and Hesiodus to the end that changing their naturall places and communicating reciprocally their gifts and faculties some driven by necessity to moove other bound to rest they be all forced to a better state remitting somewhat of their 〈◊〉 and yeelding one to another they grew at length unto accord harmony and societie For if there had not beene any other part of the world against nature but that ech one had bene both in place and for quality as it ought naturally to be without any need of change or transposition so that there had beene nothing at the first wanting I greatly doubt what and wherein was the worke of divine providence or whereupon it is that Jupiter was the father creator and maker For in a campe or field there would be no need of a man who is expert and skilfull in ranging and ordering of battell
deliverance of women in childbirth But I feare me that I should moove and provoke Pharnaces againe who all this while sitteth still and saieth nought if I alledge the ebbing and flowing or the inundations of the great Ocean as they themselves say the firthes streights and armes of the sea which swell and rise by the Moone naturally given to encrease moisture and breed humours and therefore I will direct my words toward you rather friend Theon for you say unto us in expounding these verses of the Poet Aleman What things on earth the 〈◊〉 as nourse doth feed Which Jupiter and Moone betwixt them breed that in this place he calleth the aire Jupiter and saith that being moistened by the Moone he is converted into dew for the Moone my good friend seemeth in nature to be quite contrary unto the sunne not onely in this that whatsoever he doeth thicken drie and harden she is woont to resolve moisten and mollifie but that which more is to humect and refrigerate the heat that commeth from him when the same lighteth upon her or is mingled with her Therefore as well they who suppose the Moone to be a firie and ardent body doe erre as those who would have the creatures there inhabiting to have all things necessarie for their generation food and maintenance like unto them that live heere never considering the great difference and inequality which is in nature wherein there be found greater and more varieties and diversities of living creatures one with another than with other things neither would there be men in the world without mouthes and whose lippes are growen up together and who were nourished also with smels onely in case men could not live without solide and substantiall food But that power of Nature which Ammonius himselfe hath shewed us and which Hesiodus under covert words hath given us to understand by these verses In Mallowes and in Asphodels which grow on every ground What use and profit manifold for man there may be found Epimenides hath made plaine and evident indeed and effect teaching us that nature susteineth and preserveth a living creature with very small food and maintenance for so it may have but as much as an oilive it needs no more nourishment but may live therewith and doe full well Now it is very like probable that those who dwel within the Moone if any els be light active and nimble of body and easie to be nourished with any thing whatsoever also that the Moone as well as the Sunne who is a living creature standing much upon fire and by many degrees greater than the earth is nourished and mainteined as they say by the humours which are upon the earth like as all other starres which are in number infinite So light and slender they imagine those living creatures to be that are above and so soone contented and satisfied with small necessaries But we neither see this nor yet consider that a divers region nature and temperature is meet and agreeable unto them much like as if when we could not ourselves come nere unto the sea nor touch and taste it but have seene it only a farre off heard that the water in it is bitter brackish salt and not potable one should come and tell us that it nourisheth a mightie number of great creatures of all sorts formes living in the bottome thereof and that it is full of huge and monstrous beasts which make use of the water as we doe of aire hee would be thought to tell us tales and monstrous fables even so it seemeth that we stand affected and disposed in these matters of the Moone not beleeving that there be any men inhabiting within it But I am verily perswaded that they may much more marvell seeing the earth heere a sarre off as the dregges sediment and grounds as it were of the whole world appearing unto them through moist cloudes and foggie mists a small thing God wot and the same without light base abject and unmooveable how the same should breed nourish maintaine and keepe living creatures which have motion breathing and vitall heat and in case they had ever heard these verses out of Homer as touching certaine habitations Ugly and foule most hideous to be seene Whereof the gods themselves right fearefull beene Also Under the earth beneath and hell unseene As farre as heavens from earth remooved beene they would thinke verily and say that they had beene spoken of this earth heere and that darke hell and Tartarus were heere situate and farre remote as also that the Moone onely was the earth as being equally distant from heaven above and hell beneath Now before I had well made an end of my speech Sylla taking the words out of my mouth Stay a while quoth he ô Lamprias your speech and hold off with your boat as they say for feare you runne an end with your tale upon the ground ere you be aware and mar all the plaie which for this present hath another scene and disposition and I my selfe am the actour but before I proceed farther I will bring forth mine author unto you if there be nothing to impeach me who beginneth in this maner with a verse of Homer Farre from the maine within the Ocean sea There lies an Iland hight Ogygiae distant from great Britaine or England Westward five daies sailing And other three isles there be of like distance one from the another and from the said iland bearing northwest whereas the sun setteth in Summer in one of which the barbarous people of the countrey do fable and feine that Saturne was deteined and kept prisoner by Iupiter Now for the keeping as well of it as of those other isles and the whole sea adjacent which was called Saturns sea the gyant Ogygius or Briareus was placed as also that the maine and firme land wherewith the great sea is bordered round about is remooved from the others isles not so farre but from Ogygia five hundred stadia or there about unto which men use to row in galleis for that sea is very ebbe and low hardly to be passed by great vessels by reason of the huge quantitie of mudde brought thither by a number of rivers which running out of the maine continent discharge themselves into it raising mightie shelves and barres whereby the sea is choked up as it were with earth and hardly navigable which gave occasion of that old opinion which went thereof that it should be frozen and stand all over with an ice Well the coasts along the firme land which lie upon this sea are inhabited by Greeks all about a mightie bay or gulfe thereof no lesse spacious than the huge lake Maeotis the mouth or entrance whereof lieth directly opposite unto that of the Caspian sea These people are reputed and named to be the inhabitants of the continent or firme land accounting and calling all us Ilanders as dwelling in a land environed round about and washed with the sea They suppose also
as require a short simple and plaine answere were the part of an ambitious and vainglorious Sophister who tooke a pride in the elegant composing of oracles Over and besides Pythia of her selfe is of a gentle and generous nature and when she descendeth thither and converseth with the god she hath more regard of trueth than of glory neither paseth she whether men praise or dispraise her And better iwis it were for us if we also were likewise affected But we now in a great agony as it were fearefull perplexity lest the place should leese the reputation which it hath had for the space of three thousand yeeres and doubting that some would abandon it and cease to frequent it as if it were the schoole of a Sophister who feared to lose his credit and to be despised devise apologies in defence thereof faining causes and reasons of things which we neither know nor is beseeming us for to learne and all to appease and perswade him who complaineth and seemeth to finde fault whereas we should rather shake him off and let him goe For with him first It will be worst who hath such an opinion of this our God as that he approved and esteemed these ancient sentences of the Sages written at the entrance of the temple Know thy selfe Too much of nothing principally for their brevity as containing under few words a pithy sentence well and closely couched and as a man would say beaten soundly togehter with the hammer but reproved and blamed moderne oracles for delivering most part of their answeres briefely succinctly simply and directly And verily such notable Apophthegmes and sayings of the ancient Sages resemble rivers that runne through a narrow streight where the water is pent and kept in so close that a man cannot see through it and even so unneth or hardly may the bottom of their sense be sounded But if you consider what is written or said by them who endevour to search unto the very bottom what every one of these sentences doth comprehend you shall finde that hardly a man shall meet with orations longer then they Now the dialect or speech of Pythia is such as the Mathematicians define a straight and direct line namely the shortest that may be betweene two points and even so it bendeth not it crookeneth not it maketh no circle it carieth no double sense and ambiguity but goeth straight to the trueth and say it be subject to censure and examination and dangerous to be misconstured and beleeved amisse yet to this day it hath never given advantage whereby it might be convinced of untrueth but in the meane time it hath furnished all this temple full of rich gifts presents and oblations not onely of Greeke nations but also of barbarous people as also adorned it with the beautiful buildings and magnificent fabricks of the amphictyons For you see in some sort many buildings adjoined which were not before and as many repaired and restored to their ancient perfection which were either fallen to decay and ruined by continuance of time or else lay confusedly out of order And like as we see that neere unto great trees that spred much and prosper well other smaller plants and shrubs grow and thrive even so together with the city of Delphos Pylaea flourisheth as being fed and maintained by the abundance and affluenee which ariseth from hence in such sort as it beginneth to have the forme and shew of solemne sacrifices of stately meetings and sacred waters such as in a thousand yeeres before it could never get the like As for those that inhabited about Galaxion in Baeotia they found and felt the gracious presence and favour of our God by the great plenty and store of milke For From all their ewes thicke milke did spin As water fresh from lively spring Their tubs and tunnes with milke therein Brim full they all home fast did bring No barrels bottels pailes of wood But full of milke in houses stood But to us he giveth better markes and more evident tokens and apparent signes of his presence and favour than these be having brought our countrey as it were from drinesse and penurie from desert waste wildernesse wherein it was before to be now rich and plentiful frequented and peopled yea and to be in that honor and reputation wherein we see it at this day to flourish Certes I love my selfe much better for that I was so well affected as to put to my helping hand in this businesse together with Polycrates and Petraeus Yea and him also I love in my heart who was the first author unto us of this government and policy and who tooke the paines and endevoured to set on foot and establish most part of these things But impossible it was that in so small a time there should be seene so great and so evident a mutation by any industry of man whatsoever if God himselfe had not bene assistant to sanctifie and honour this oracle But like as in those times past some men there were who found fault with the ambiguity obliquity and obscurity of oracles so there be in these daies others who like sycophants cavill at the overmuch simplicitie of them whose humorous passion is injurious and exceeding foolish For even as little children take more joy and pleasure to see rainbowes haloes or garlands about the Sunne Moone c. yea and comets or blasing starres than they do to behold the Sunne himselfe or the Moone so these persons desire to have aenigmaticall and darke speeches obscure allegories and wrested metaphors which are all reflexions of divination upon the fansie and apprehension of our mortall conceit And if they understand not sufficiently the cause of this change and alteration they go their waies and are ready to condemne the God and not either us or themselves who are not able by discourse of reason to reach unto the counsell and intention of the said gods OF THE DAEMON OR FAMILIAR SPIRIT OF SOCRATES A Treatise in maner of a Dialogue The Summarie THe The bans having lost their freedome and liberty by the violent proceedings of Archias Leontidas and other tyrants who banished a great number of good citizens and men of woorth in which roll and catalogue Pelopidas was one as appeareth in the storie of his life wherein Plutarch writeth of all this matter at large it fell out at last that the exiled persons tooke heart drew to an head and wrought so as they reentred the city of Thebes slew the tyrants and displaced the garrison of the Spartans Which done they dispatched their ambassages to other States and Common wealths of Greece for to justifie this their action and namely among the rest they sent Caphisias to Athens who being there at the request of Archidamus a personage of great authoritie related and reported the returne of the banished men the surprising of the tyrants and the restoring of the citie to their ancient franchises and that with discourses woonderfull patheticall and such as
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
as if they thought to hide themselves within the bodies of the blacke storkes called Ibides of dogges and haukes passeth all the monstrous woonders and fixions of tales that can be devised Likewise to hold that the soules of those who are departed so many as remaine still in being are regenerate againe onely in the bodies of these beasts is as absurd and incredible as the other And as for those who will seeme to render a civill and politicke reason heereof some give out that Osiris in a great expedition or voiage of his having divided his armie into many parts such as in Greeke are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say bands and companies he gave unto every of them for their severall ensignes the portractures and images of beasts and each band afterwards honored their owne had in reverence as some holy and sacred thing Others affirme that the kings who succeeded after Osiris for to terrify their enimies went forth to battell carying before them the heads of such beasts made in gold and silver vpon their armes Some there be againe who alledge that there was one of these their subtile and fine headed kings who knowing that the Aegyptians of their owne nature were lightly disposed ready to revolt and given to change and innovations also that by reason of their great multitude their power was hardly to be restrained and in maner invincible in case they joined together in counsell and drew jointly in one common line therefore he sowed among them a perpetuall superstition which gave occasion of dissention and enmity among them that never could be appeased For when he had given commandement unto them for to have in reverence those beasts which naturally disagreed and warred together even such as were ready to eat and devour one another whiles every one endevored alwaies to succor and maintaine their owne and were moved to anger if any wrong or displeasure were done to those which they affected they sell together themselves by the eares ere they were aware and killed one another for the enmity and quarell which was betweene those beasts whom they adored and so fostered mutuall and mortall hatred For even at this day of all the Aegyptians the Lycopolitans onely eat 〈◊〉 because the wolfe whom they adore as a god is enimy unto sheepe And verily in this our age the Oxyrinchites because the Cynopolites that is to say the inhabitants of the city Cynopolis eat the fish named Oxyrinchos that is to say with the sharpe becke whensoever they can entrap or catch a dogge make no more adoe but kill him for a sacrifice and eat him when they have done Vpon which occasion having levied warre one against the other and done much mischiefe reciprocally after they had beene well chastised and plagued by the Romans they grew to attonement and composition And for as much as many of them doe say that the soule of Typhon departed into these beasts it seemeth that this fiction importeth thus much that every brutish and beastly nature commeth and proceedeth from some evill daemon and therefore to pacific him that he doe no mischiefe they worship and adore these beasts And if paradventure there happen any great drowght or contagious heat which causeth pestilent maladies or other unusuall and extraordinary calamities the priests bring forth some of those beasts which they serve and honor in the darke night without any noise in great silence menasing them at the first and putting them in fright Now if the plague or calamity continue still they kill and sacrifice them thinking this to be a punishment and chastisement of the said evill daemon or else some great expiation for notable sinnes and transgressions For in the city verily of Idithya as Manethos maketh report the maner is to burne men alive whom they called Typhony whose ashes when they had boulted through a tamise they scattered abroad untill they were reduced to nothing But this was done openly at a certaine time in those daies which are called Cynades or Canicular Mary the immolation of these beasts which they accounted sacred was performed secretly and not at a certaine time or upon perfixed daies but according to the occurrences of those accidents which happned And therefore the common people neither knew nor saw ought but when they solemnize their obsequies and funerals for them in the presence of all the people they shew some of the other beasts and throw them together into the sepulcher supposing thereby to vex and gall Typhon and to represse the joy that he hath in doing mischiefe For it seemeth that Apis with some other few beasts was consecrated to Osiris howsoever they attribute many more unto him And if this be true I suppose it importeth that which we seeke and search all this while as touching those which are confessed by all and have common honors as the foresaid stroke Ibis the hauke and the Babian or Cynecephalus yea and Apis himselfe for so they call the goat in the city Mendes Now their remaineth the utility and symbolization heereof considering that some participate of the one but the most part of both For as touching the goat the sheepe and the Ichneumon certaine it is they honor them for the use and profit they receive by them like as the inhabitants of Lemnos honor the birds called Corydali because they finde out the locusts nests and quash their egges The Thessalians also have the storkes in great account because whereas their country is given to breed a number of serpents the said storks when they come kill them up all By reason whereof they made an edict with an intimation that whosoever killed a storke should be banished his country The serpent Aspis also the wezill and the flie called the bettill they reverence because they observe in them I wot not what little slender images like as in drops of water we perceive the resemblance of the Sunne of the divine power For many there be even yet who both thinke and say that the male wezill engendreth with the female by her care and that she bringeth forth her yoong at the mouth which symbolizeth as they say and representeth the making and generation of speech As for the beetils they hold that throughout all their kinde there is no female but all the males doe blow or cast their seed into a certaine globus or round matter in forme of bals which they drive from them and roll to and fro contrary waies like as the Sunne when he moveth himselfe from the west to the east seemeth to turne about the heaven cleane contrary The Aspis also they compare to the planet of the Sunne because he doth never age and wax old but mooveth in all facility readinesse and celerity without the meanes of any instruments of motion Neither is the crocodile set so much by among them without some probable cause For they say that in some respect he is the very
of the soule which is subject to passions For sweet odors as they doe many times excite and stirre up the sense when it is dull and beginneth to faile so contrariwise they make the same as often drowsie and heavy yea and bring it to quietnesse whiles those aromaticall smels by reason of their smoothnesse are spred and defused in the bodie According as some Physicians say that sleepe is engendred in us when the vapour of the food which we have received creepeth gently along the noble parts and principall bowels and as it toucheth them causeth a kinde of tickling which lulleth them asleepe This Cyphi they use in drinke as a composition to season their cups and as an ointment besides for they hold that being taken in drinke it scowreth the guttes within and maketh the belly laxative and being applied outwardly as a liniment it mollifieth the bodie Over and above all this Rosin is the worke of the Sunne but Myrrh they gather by the Moone light out of those plants from which it doth destill But of those simples whereof Cyphi is compounded some there be which love the night better as many I meane as be nourished by cold windes shadowes dewes and moisture For the brightnesse and light of the day is one and simple and Pindarus saith that the Sunne is seene through the pure and solitarie aire whereas the aire of the night is a compound and mixture of many lights and powers as if there were a confluence of many seeds from every starre running into one By good right therefore they burne these simple perfumes in the day as those which are engendred by the vertue of the Sunne but this being mingled of all forts and of divers qualities they set on fire about the evening and beginning of the night OF THE ORACLES THAT HAVE CEASED TO GIVE ANSWERE The Summarie THe spirit of errour hath endevoured alwaies and assaied the best he can to mainteine his power and dominion in the world having after the revolt and fall of Adam beene furnished with instruments of all sorts to tyrannize over his slaves In which number we are to range the oracles and predictions of certaine idoles erected in many places by his instigation by meanes whereof this sworne enemy to the glory of the true God 〈◊〉 much prevailed But when it pleased our heavenly father to give us his sonne for to be our Saviour who descending from heaven to earth tooke upon him our humane nature wherein he susteined the 〈◊〉 and punishment due for our sinnes to deliver us out of hell and by vertue of his merits to give us entrance into the kingdome of heaven the trueth of his grace being published and made knovenin the world by the preaching of the Aposlles and their faithfull successours the Divell and his angels who had in many parts and places of the world abused and deceived poore idolaters were forced to acknowledge their Sovereigne and to keepe silence and suffer him to speake unto those whom he meant to call unto salvation or els to make them unexcusable if they refused to heare his voice This cessation of the Oracles put the priests and sacrificers of the the Painims to great trouble and woonderfull perplexitie in the time of the Romane Emperours whiles some imputed the cause to this others to that But our authour in this Treatise discourseth upon this question shewing thereby how great and lamentable is the blindnesse of mans reason and wisedome when it thinketh to atteine unto the secrets of God For all the speeches of the Philosophers whom he bringeth in heere as interlocutours are 〈◊〉 tales and fables devised for the nonce which every Christian man of any meane judgemeut will at the first sight condemne Yet thus much good there is in this discourse that the Epicureans are here taxed and condemned in sundry passages As touching the contents of this conference the occasion thereof ariseth from the speech of Demetrius and Cleombrotus who were come unto the Temple of Apollo for the one of them having rehearsed a woonder as touching the Temple of Jupiter Ammon mooveth thereby a farther desire of disputation but before they enter into it they continue still the former speech of the course and motion of the Sunne Afterwards they come to the maine point namely Why all the Oracles of Greece excepting that onely of Lebadia ceased To which demand 〈◊〉 a Cynique Philosopher answereth That the wickednesse of men is the cause thereof Ammonius 〈◊〉 attributeth all unto the warres which had consumed the Pilgrims that used to resort unto the said Oracles Lamprias proposeth one opinion and Cleombrotus inferring another of his fall into a discourse and common place as touching Daemons whom he verily raungeth betweene gods and men disputing of their nature according to the Philosophie of the Greeks Then he proveth that these Daemons have the charge of Oracles but by reason that they departed out of one countrey into another or died these Oracles gave over To this purpose he telleth a notable tale as touching the death of the great Pan concluding thus that 〈◊〉 Daemons be mortall we ought not to woonder at the cessation of Oracles After this Ammonius confuteth the Epicureans who holde That there be no 〈◊〉 And upon the confirmation of the former positions they enter together into the examination of the opinions of the 〈◊〉 and Platonists concerning the number of the worlds to wit whether they be many or infinit growing to this resolution after long dispute that there be many and 〈◊〉 to the number of five Which done Demetrius reviving the principall question moveth also a 〈◊〉 one Why the Daemons have this power to speake by Oracles Unto which there be many and 〈◊〉 answeres made which determine all in one Treatise according to the Platonists Philosophie of 〈◊〉 principall efficient and finall cause of those things that are effected by reason and particularly of 〈◊〉 and predictions for which he maketh to concurre the Earth the Sunne Exhalations Daemons and the Soule of man Now all the intention and drift of Plutarch groweth to this point that the earth being incited and moved by a naturall vertue and that which is proper unto it and in no wise divine and perdurable hath brought forth certaine powers of divination that these inspirations breathing and arising out of the earth have touched the understandings of mē with such efficacy as that they have caused them to foresee future things afarre off and long ere they hapned yea and have addressed and framed them to give answere both in verse and prose Item that like as there be certeine grounds and lands more 〈◊〉 one than the other or producing some particular things according to the divers and peculiar proprietie of ech there be also certeine places and tracts of the world endued with this temperature which both ingender and also incite these Enthusiaque and divining spirits Furthermore that this puissance is meere divine indeed howbeit not per petuall eternall
spirit of prophesy in those daies used many organs and voices to speake unto the people being a greater multitude than now there be And therefore we should on the other side rather wonder if God would suffer to run in vaine like waste water this propheticall divination or to resound againe like as the desert rockes in the wide fields and mountaines ring with the resonance and ecchoes of heard-mens hollaing and beasts bellowing When Ammonius had thus said and I held my peace Cleombrotus addressing his speech unto me And grant you indeed quoth he thus much that it is the god Apollo who is the authour and overthrower also of these Oracles Not so answered I for I maintaine and hold that God was never the cause of abolishing any Oracle or divination whatsoever but contrariwise like as where he produceth and prepareth many other things for one use and behoofe nature bringeth in the corruption and utter privation of some or to say more truely matter being it selfe privation or subject thereto avoideth many times and dissolveth that which a more excellent cause hath composed even so I suppose there be some other causes which darken and abolish the vertue of divination considering that God bestoweth upon men many faire goodly gifts but nothing perdurable immortall in such sort as the very workes of the gods do die but not themselves according as Sophocles saith And verily the Philosophers and naturalists who are well exercised in the knowledge of nature and the primitive matter ought indeed to search into the substance property and puissance of Oracles but to reserve the originall and principall cause for God as very meet and requisit it is that it should so be For very foolish and childish it is that the god himselfe like unto those spirits speaking within the bellies of possessed folkes such as in old time they called Eugastrimithi and Euryclees and be now termed Pythons entred into the bodies of Prophets spake by their mouthes and used their tongues and voices as organs and instruments of speech for he that thus intermedleth God among the occasions and necessities of men maketh no spare as he ought of his majesty neither carieth he that respect as is meet to the preservation of the dignity and greatnesse of his power and vertue Then Cleombrotus You say very well and truely quoth he but for as much as it is a difficult matter to comprise and define in what maner and how farre forth and to what point we ought to employ this divine providence in my conceit they who are of this minde that simply God is cause of nothing at all in the world and they againe that make him wholly the authour of all things hold not a meane and indifferent course but both of them misse the very point of decent mediocrity Certes as they say passing well who hold that Plato having invented and devised that element or subject upon which grow and be engendred qualities the which one while is called the primitive matter and otherwhile nature delivered Philosophers from many great difficulties even so me thinks they who ordained a certaine kinde by themselves of Daemons betweene god and men have assoiled many more doubts and greater ambiguities by finding out that bond and linke as it were which joineth us and them together in society Were it the opinion that came from the ancient Magi and Zoroasties or rather a Thracian doctrine delivered by Orpheus or els an Aegyptian or Phrygian tradition as we may conjecture by seeing the sacrifices both in the one countrey and the other wherein among other holy and divine ceremonies it seemeth there were certeine dolefull ceremonies of mourning and sorrow intermingled savouring of mortality And verily of the Greeks Homer hath used these two names indifferently terming the Gods Daemons and the Daemons likewise Gods But Hesiodus was the first who purely distinctly hath set downe foure kinds of reasonable natures to wit the Gods then the Daemons and those many in number and all good the Heroes and Men for the Demi-gods are ranged in the number of those Heroicke worthies But others hold that there is a transmutation aswell of bodies as soules and like as we may observe that of earth is ingendred water of water aire and of aire fire whiles the nature of the substance still mounteth on high even so the better soules are changed first from men to Heroes or Demi-gods and afterwards from them to Daemons and of Daemons some few after long time being well refined and purified by vertue came to participate the divination of the gods Yet unto some it befalleth that being not able to holde and conteine they suffer themselves to slide and fall into mortall bodies againe where they lead an obscure and darke life like unto a smoaky vapour As for He siodus he thinketh verily that even the Daemons also after certeine revolutions of time shall die for speaking in the person of one of their Nymphs called Naiades covertly and under aenigmaticall termes he designeth their time in this wise Nine ages of men in their flower doth live The railing Crow foure times the Stags surmount The life of Crowes to Ravens doth nature give A threefold age of Stags by true account One Phoenix lives as long as Ravens nine But you faire Nymphs as the daughters verily Of mighty Jove and of nature divine The Phoenix yeeres ten fold do multiply But they that understand not well what the Poet meaneth by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make the totall sum of this time to amount unto an exceeding great number of yeeres For in trueth it is but one yeere and no more And so by that reckening the whole ariseth in all to nine thousand seven hundred and twenty yeeres just which is the very life of the Daemons And many Mathematicians there be by whose computation it is lesse But more than so Pindarus would not have it when he saith that the Nymphs age is limited equall to trees whereupon they be named Hamadryades as one would say living and dying with Okes. As he was about to say more Demetrius interrupted his speech and taking the words out of his mouth How is it possible quoth he ô Cleombrotus that you should make good and mainteine that the Poet called the age of man a yeere onely and no more for it is not the space either of his flower and best time nor of his olde age according as some reade it in Hesiodus for as one reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is say flourishing so another readeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say aged Now they that would have it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put downe for the age of man thirty yeeres according to the opinion of Heraclitus which is the very time that a father hath begotten a sonne able to beget another of his owne but such as follow the reading that hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attribute unto the age of man an
the Britaines held for sacrosainct and inviosable Now within a while after he was arrived thither the aire and weather was mightily troubled many portenteous signes were given by terrible tempests and stormes with extraordinary windes thunders lightnings and firie impressions but after that these tempests were ceased the Ilanders assured him that one of those Daemons or Demi-gods who surmounted the nature of man was departed For like as a lampe say they or candle so long as it burneth light offendeth no bodie but when it is put out or goeth forth it maketh a stinke offensive unto many about it even so these great Soules whiles they shine and give light be milde gracious and harmelesse but when they come to be extinct or to perish they raise even as at that present outragious tempests yea and oftentimes infect the aire with contagious and pestilent maladies They reported moreover that in one of those Ilands Briareus kept Saturne prisoner in a sound sleepe for that was the devise to hold him captive about whose person there were many other Daemons of his traine and his servitours Cleombrotus then taking occasion for to speake I am able my selfe also quoth he to alledge many such examples if I list but it may suffice for this present matter in hand that this is nothing contrary nor opposit unto that which by us hath beene delivered And verily we know full well that the Stoicks hold the same opinion not onely of Daemons that we doe but also of the gods that there being so great a multitude of them yet there is but one alone immortall and eternall whereas all the rest had their beginning by nativity and shall have an end by death And as for the scoffes scornes and mockeries that the Epicureans make we ought not to regard them nor be affraid of them for so audacious they are that they use the same even in the divine providence terming it a very fable and oldwives tale But we contrariwise hold that their infinity of worldes is a fable indeed as also to say that among those innumerable worlds there is not so much as one governed by reason or the providence of God but that all things were first made and afterwards maintained by meere chance and fortune Certes if it be lawfull to laugh and that we must needs make game in matters of Philosophy we should rather mocke those who bring into their disputations of naturall questions I wot not what deafe blinde dumbe and inanimate images remaining I know not where and continuing in appearance infinit revolutions of yeeres wandring round about and going to and fro which say they issue and flowe from bodies partly yet living and partly from those who long agoe were dead burnt yea and rotten and putrified to nothing These men I say we should doe well to laugh at who draw such ridiculous toies and vaine shadowes as these into the serious disputations of nature Meanwhile forsooth offended they are and angry if a man should say there be Daemons and that not onely in nature but in reason also it standeth with good congruity they should cōtinue and endure a long time These speeches thus passed Ammonius began in this wise Cleombrotus in mine opinion quoth he hath spoken very well and what should impeach us but that we may admit and receive his sentence being so grave as it is and most beseeming a Philosopher For reject it once we shall be forced to reject also and denie many things which are and usually happen whereof no certeine cause and reason can be delivered and if it be admitted it draweth after it no traine and consequence of any impossibility whatsoever nor of that which is not subsistent But as touching that one point which I have heard the Epicureans alledge against Empedocles and the Daemons which he bringeth in namely That they cannot possibly be happy and long lived being evill and sinfull as they are for that vice by nature is blind and of it selfe falleth ordinarily headlong into perils and inconveniences which destroy the life this is a very sottish opposition for by the same reason they must confesse that Epicurus was worse than Gorgias the Sophister and Metrodorus than Alexis the Comicall Poet for this Poet lived twice as long as Metrodorus and that Sophister longer than Epicurus by a third part of his age For it is in another respect that we say Vertue is puissant and vice feeble not in regard of the lasting continuance or dissolution of the bodie for we see that of beasts there be many dull slow and blockish of spirit many also by nature libidinous unruly and disordered which live longer than those that are full of wit wily wary and wise And therefore they conclude not aright in saying that the divine nature enjoieth immortality by taking heed and avoiding those things that be noisome and mischievous For it behooved in the divine nature which is blessed and happy to have set downe an impossibility of being subject to all corruption and alteration and that it standeth in no need of care and labour to mainteine the said nature But peradventure it seemeth not to stand with good maners and civility to dispute thus against those that are not present to make answere for themselves it were meet therefore that Cleombrotus would resume and take in hand that speech againe which he gave over and laied aside of late as touching the departure and translation of these Daemons from one place to another Then Cleombrotus Yes mary quoth he but I would marvell if this discourse of mine would not seeme unto you much more absurd than the former delivered already and yet it seemeth to be grounded upon naturall reason and Plato himselfe hath made the overture thereto not absolutely pronouncing and affirming so much but after the maner of a doubtfull opinion and under covert words casting out a certeine wary conjecture tending that way although among other Philosophers it hath beene disclaimed and cried out against But forasmuch as there is set a cup on the boord full of reasons and tales mingled together and for that a man shall hardly meet in any place againe with more courteous and gratious hearers among whom he may passe and put away such narrations as pieces of forren coine and strange money I will not thinke much to gratifie you thus farre foorth as to acquaint you with a narration that I heard a stranger and a Barbarian relate whom after many a journey made to and fro for to finde him out and much money given by me for to heare where he was I met with at length by good hap neere unto the Red sea His maner was to speake and converse with men but once in the yeere all the rest of his time as he said himselfe he spent among the Nymphs Nomades and Daemons Well with much adoe I light upon him I communed with him and he used me courteously The fairest man he was to see to of all that ever I
paused and held my peace Then Philippus making no long stay As for me I will not greatly strive nor stand upon it quoth he whether the trueth be so or otherwise but in case we force God out of the superintendance of one onely world how is it that we make him to be Creatour of five worlds neither more nor lesse and what the peculiar and speciall reason is of this number to a plurality of worlds rather than of any other I would more willingly know than the occasion or cause why this Mot EI is so consecrated in this Temple For it is neither a triangular nor a quadrat nor a perfect ne yet a cubique number neither seemeth it to represent any other elegancie unto those who love and esteeme such speculations as these And as for the argument inferred from the number of elements which Plato himselfe obscurely and under covert tearmes touched it is very hard to comprehend neither doeth it carie and shew any probabilitie whereby he should be induced to conclude and draw in a consequence that like it is considering in matter there be engendered five sorts of regular bodies having equall angels equall sides and environed with equall superficies there should semblably of these five bodies be five worlds made and formed from the very first beginning And yet quoth I it should seeme that Theodorus the Solian expounding the Mathematicks of Plato handleth this matter not amisse nor misinterpreteth the place and thus goeth he to worke The Pyramis Octaedron Dodecaedron and Icosaedron which Plato setteth downe for the first bodies are right beautifull all both for their proportions and also for their equalities neither is there left for nature any other to devise and forme better than they or indeed answerable and like unto them Howbeit they have not all either the same constitution nor the like originall for the least verily and smallest of the five is the Pyramis the greatest and that which consisteth of most parts is Dodecaedron and of the other two behind the Icosaedron is bigger by two fold and more than Octaedron if you compare their number of triangles And therfore impossible it is that they should be all made at once of one and the same matter for the small and subtile and such as in composition are more simple than the rest were more pliable no doubt and obedient unto the hand of workemen who mooved and formed the matter and therefore by all consequence sooner made and brought into subsistence than those which had more parts and a greater masse of bodies of which and namely of such as had more laborious making and a busier composition is Dodecaedron Whereupon it followeth necessarily that the Pyramis onely was the first body and not any of the other as being by nature created and produced afterwards But the remedie and meanes to salve and avoid this absurditie also is to separate and devide the matter into five worlds for here the Pyramis came foorth first there the Octaedron and elsewhere the Icosaedron and in every of these worlds out of that which came first into esse the rest drew their originall by the concretion of parts which causeth them all to change into all according as Plato doth insinuate discoursing by examples in maner throughout all but it shall suffice us briefly to learne thus much For aire is engendred by the extinction of fire and the same againe being subtilized and rarefied produceth fire Now in the seeds of these two a man may know their passions and the transmutations of all The seminary or beginning of fire is the Pyramis composed of foure twenty first triangles but the seminary of the aire is Octaedron consisting of triangles of the same kind in number fortie eight And thus the one element of aire standeth upon two of fire composed and conjoined together and againe one body or element of the aire is devided and parted into twaine of fire which becomming to be thickned and constipate more still in it selfe turneth into the forme of water in such sort as throughout that which commeth first into light giveth alwaies a ready and easie generation unto all the rest by way of change and transmutation and so that never remaineth solitary and alone which is first but as one masse and constitution hath the primitive antecedent motion in another of originall beginning so in all there is kept one name and denomination Now surely quoth Ammonius it is stoutly done of Theodorus and he hath quit himselfe very well in fetching about this matter so industriously But I would much marvell if these presuppositions of his making do not overthrow and refute one another for he would have that these five worlds were not composed all at once together but that the smallest and most subtile which required least workmanship in the making came foorth first then as a thing consequent and not repugnant at all he supposeth that the matter doth not thrust foorth alwaies into essence that which is most subtile and simple but that otherwhiles the thickest the most grosse and heaviest parts shew first in generation But over and besides all this after a supposall made that there be five primitive bodies or elements and consequently thereupon five worlds he applieth not his proofe and probabilitie but unto foure onely For as touching the cube he subtracteth and remooveth it quite away as they doe who play at nine holes and who trundle little round stones for that such a square quadrate body every way is naturally unfit either to turne into them or to yeeld them any meanes to turne into it for that the triangles of which they be composed are not of the same kind for all the rest do in a common consist of a demi-triangle as the base but the proper subject whereof this cube particularly standeth is the triangle Isoscetes which admitteth no inclination unto a demi-triangle nor possibly can be concorporate or united to it Now if it be so that of those five bodies there be consequently five worlds that in ech one of those world 's the beginning of their generation and constitution is that body which is first produced and brought to light it would come to passe that where the cube commeth foorth first for the generation of the rest none of the other bodies can possibly be there forasmuch as the nature of it is not to turne or change into any one of them For I let passe heere to alledge that the element or principle whereof Dodecaedron is composed is not that triangle which is called Scalenon with three unequall sides but some other as they say how ever Plato hath made his Pyramis Octaedron and Icosaedron of it And therefore quoth Ammonius smiling thereat either you must dissolve these objections or else alledge some new matter as touching the question now presently in hand Then answered I For mine owne part alledge I am not able at this time any thing that carieth more probability but
peradventure it were better for a man to yeeld reasons of his owne opinion rather than of anothers To begin againe therefore I say that nature being parted and devided at the first in two parts the one sensible mutable subject to generation and corruption and varietie every way the other spirituall and intelligible and continuing evermore in one and the same state it were very strange and absurd my good friends first to say that the spirituall nature receiveth division and hath diversity and difference in it and then to thinke much and grow into heat of cholar and anger if a man allow not the passible and corporall nature wholly united and concorporate in it selfe without dividing or separating it into many parts For more meet it were yet and reasonable that natures parmanent and divine should cohere unto themselves inseparably and avoid as much as is possible all distraction and divulsion and yet this force and power of The Other medling also even with these causeth in spirituall and intellectuall things greater dissociations and dissimilitudes in forme and essentiall reason than are the locall distances in those corporall natures And therefore Plato confuting those who hold this position that all is one affirmeth these five grounds and principles of all to wit Essence or seeing The same The other and after all Motion and Station Admit these five no marvell is it if nature of those five bodily elements hath framed proper figures and representations for every one of them not simple and pure but so as every one of them is most participant of each of those properties and puissances For plaine and evident it is that the cube is most meet and sortable unto station and repose in regard of the stability and stedy firmitude of those broad and flat faces which it hath As for the Pyramis who seeth not and acknowledgeth not incontinently in it the nature of fire ever mooving in those long and slender sides and sharpe angles that it hath Also the nature of Dodecaedron apt to comprehend all other figures may seeme propetly to be the image representing Ens or That which is in respect of all corporall essence Of the other twaine Icosaedron resembleth The Other or Diverse but Octaedron hath a principall reference to the forme of The same And so by this reckoning the one of them produceth foorth Aire capable of all substance in one forme and the other exhibiteth unto us Water which by temperature may turne into all sorts of qualities Now if so be that nature requireth in all things and throughout all an equall and uniforme distribution very probable it is that there be also five worlds and neither more nor fewer than there be moulds or patterns to the end that ech example or patterne may hold the first place and principall puislance in ech world like as they have in the first constitution and composition of bodies And this may stand in some sort for an answer and to satisfie him who mervaileth how we devide that nature which is subject to generation and alteration into so many kinds but yet I beseech you consider and weigh with me more diligently this argument Certeine it is that of those two first and supreme principles I meane Unity and Binary or Duality this latter being the element and originall primative of all difformity disorder and confusion is called Infinity but contrariwise the nature of Unitie determining and limiting the void infinity which hath no proportion nor termination reduceth it into a good forme and maketh it in some sort capable and apt to receive a denomination which alwaies accompanieth sensible things And verily these two generall principles shew themselves first in number or rather indeed to speake generally no multitude is called number untill such time as unitie comming to be imprinted as the forme in matter cutteth off from indeterminate infinity that which is superfluous heere more and there lesse for then ech multitude becommeth and is made number when as it is once determined and limited by unitie but if a man take unitie away then the indesinite and indeterminate Dualitie comming againe in place to confound all maketh it to be without order without grace without number and without measure Now considering it is so that the forme is not the destruction of matter but rather the figure ornament and order thereof it must needs be that both these principles are within number from which proceedeth the chiefe dissimilitude and greatest difference For the indefinite and indeterminate principle to wit Duality is the author and cause of the even number but the better to wit Unitie is the father as one would say of the odde number so as the first even number is two and the first odde number three of which is compounded five by conjunction common to both but in the owne puissance odde For it behooved necessary it was in as much as that which is corporall sensible for composition sake is divided into many parts by the power and force of The Other that is to say of Diversitie that it should be neither the first even number nor yet the first uneven or odde but a third consisting of both to the end that it might be procreate of both principles to wit of that which engendreth the even number and of that which produceth the odde for it could not be that the one should be parted from the other because that both of them have the nature puissance of a principle These two principles then being conjoinct together the better being the mightier is opposed unto the indeterminate infinitie which divideth the corporal nature so the matter being divided the unitie interposing it selfe between impeacheth the universall nature that it was not divided and parted into two equall portions but there was a pluralitie of worlds caused by The Other that is to say by Diversitie and difference of that which is infinit and determinate but this 〈◊〉 was brought into an odde and uneven number by the vertue and puissance of The same and that which is finite because the better principle suffred not nature to extend farther than was expedient For if one had beene pure and simple without mixture the matter should have had no separation at all but in as much as it was mixed with Dualitie which is a divisive nature it hath received indeed and suffred by this meanes separation and division howbeit staied it hath in good time because the odde was the master and superior over the even This was the reason that our auncients in old time were wont to use the verbe Pempasesthai when they would signifie to number or to reckon And I thinke verily that this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say All was derived of Pente that is to say Five not without good reason because that five is compounded of the two first numbers and when other numbers afterwards be multiplied by others they produce divers numbers whereas five if it be multiplied
receive fansies affections and presensions without any discourse of reason or ratiocination hitteth upon that which is to come at what time as it is most remooved from that which is present and in this extasie is it transmuted by a certaine temperature and disposition of the body which we call Enthusiasme or inspiration Now such a disposition as this many times the body of it selfe hath but the earth putteth foorth and yeeldeth unto men the sources and fountaines of many other powers and faculties some of which transport them out of their wits bringing maladies contagions and mortalities others againe be sometime good kinde and profitable as they know full well who make experience thereof But this spring this winde or propheticall spirit of divination is most divine and holy whether it arise and breath up alone by it selfe through the aire or be drawen up with some liquid humour For comming once to be infused and mixed within the body it causeth a strange temperature and unusuall disposition in the soules the property whereof a right hard matter it is to declare exactly and expresse certeinly but a man in reason may atteine thereto by conjecture sundry waies for by heat and dilatation it openeth I wot not what little holes by which in all likelihood the imaginative facultie is set on worke about future things much like as wine which working and boiling in the body fumeth up and among other motions it revealeth and discovereth many hidden secrets For the fury of Bacchus and of drunkennesse if we may beleeve Euripides conteineth much divination when the soule being enchased and enflamed expelleth all feare which humane wisdome bringeth in and by that meanes many times averteth and quencheth the divine inspiration And heerewithall a man may alledge very well and not without great reason that siccitie comming intermingled with heat subtilizeth the spirit and maketh it pure and of the nature of fire for according to Heraclitus The soule it selfe is of a dry constitution whereas humiditie doth not onely dim the sight and dull the hearing but also being mingled with the aire and touching the superficies of mirrours dusketh the brightnesse of the one and taketh away the light of the other On the contrary side it is not impossible that by some refrigeration and 〈◊〉 of this spirit after the maner of the tincture and hardnesse of iron this part of the soule which doth 〈◊〉 should shew it selfe and get a perfect edge And like as tinne being melted with brasse which of it selfe is a mettall in the oare rare spongious and full of little holes doth drive it neerer and maketh it more massie and solid and withall causeth it to looke more bright and resplendent even so I see no inconvenience to hinder but that this propheticall exhalation having some congruence and affinity with the soules should fill up that which is lax and empty and drive it close together more inwardly For many things there be that have a reference and 〈◊〉 one unto the other thus the beane is sortable unto the purple die Sal-nitre likewise helpeth much the tincture of a rich scarlet or crimson colour if it be mixed therewith according also as Empedocles said And with the flower of Saffron red Fine flax and silke are coloured And we have heard you speake good friend Demetrius of the river Cydnus and the sacred cutting knife of Apollo in Tarsus and namely how the said river onely clenseth that iron whereof the knife is made neither is there any other water in the world able to scoure that knife like as in the city Olympia they temper the ashes that commeth of the sacrifices with the water of the river Alpheus and make thereof a mortar wherewith they plaister the altar there but if they assay to doe it with the water of any other river else it will not sticke to nor binde one jot No marvell therefore it is if the earth sending up out of it many exhalations these onely are found to transport the soules with an enthusiasme or divine fury and represent the imaginations and fansies of future things But without all question and contradiction the report that goeth of the Oracle in this place accordeth well to this purpose For it is said that this propheticall and divining power heere shewed it selfe first by occasion of a certeine heardman who chanced heere to fall who thereupon began to cast foorth certaine fanaticall cries and voices as if he had bene possessed with such a divine inspiration Whereof the neighbors and those that came about him at first made no account but afterwards when they saw that it fell out so indeed as he had foretold they had the man in great admiration and the greatest clerks and wisest men of all the Delphians calling to remembrance his name gave out that it was Coretas So that it seemeth to me that the soule admitteth this temperature and mixtion with this propheticall spirit as the sight of the eie is affected with the light For albeit the eie hath naturally a property and power to see yet the same is not effectuall without the light even so the soule having this puissance and facultie to foresee future things like unto the eie had need of some proper and convenient thing to kindle it as it were and set an edge upon it And heereupon it is that many of our auncients have thought Apollo and the Sunne to be one and the same god They also who know what this beautifull and wise proportion is and withall doe honour it looke what reference or respect there is of the body to the soule of the sight to light and of the understanding to the trueth the same force and power they esteemed there is of the Sunnes power unto the nature of Apollo saying that he is the issue and geniture proceeding from Apollo who is eternall and who continually bringeth him foorth For like as the one kindles bringeth foorth and stirreth up the visuall power and vertue of the sense even so doth the other by the propheticall vertue of the soule They therefore who thought that it was one and the selfe same god by good right dedicated and consecrated this Oracle unto Apollo and unto the Earth judging that the Sunne it was which wrought that temperature and imprinted this disposition in the earth whereof arose this propheticall evaporation And verily as Hesiodus upon good consideration and with much more reason than some Philosophers called the Earth The ground-worke sure Of all nature even so we deeme it to be eternall immortall and incorruptible many of the vertues and faculties which are in it we hold that some faile in one place and others breed a new and engender in another and great probability there is that there be transmutations and changes from one place to another and that such revolutions as these in the course and processe of long time turne and returne circularly often in it as a man may conjecture and certeinly collect by
such things as manifestly do appeere For in divers and sundry countries we see that lakes and whole rivers yea and many more sountaines and springs of hot waters have failed and beene quite lost as being fled out of our sight and hidden within the earth but afterwards in the very same places they have in time shewed themselves againe or else run hard by And of mettall mines we know that some have beene spent cleane and emptied as namely those of silver about the territory of Attica semblably the vaines of brasse oare in Euboea out of which they forged sometime the best swords that were hardned with the tincture of cold water according to which the Poet Aeschylus said He tooke in hand the keene and douty blade Which of Euboean steele sometime was made The rocke also and quarry in Carystia it is not long since it gave over to bring foorth certeine bals or bottomes of soft stone which they use to spin and draw into thred in maner of flax for I suppose that some of you have seene towels napkins nets caules kerchiefes and coifes woven of such thred which would not burne and consume in the fire but when they were foule and soiled with occupying folke flung them into the fire and tooke them foorth againe cleane and faire but now al this is quite gone and hardly within the said delfe shall a man meet with some few hairie threds of that matter running here there among the hard stones digged out from thence Now of all these things Aristotle and his sectaries hold That an exhalation within the earth is the onely efficient cause with which of necessity such effects must faile and passe from place to place as also otherwhiles breed againe therewith Semblably are we to thinke of the spirits and exhalations prophetical which issue out of the earth namely that they have not a nature immortall and such as can not age or waxe olde but subject to change and alteration For probable it is that the great gluttes of raine and extraordinary flouds have extinguished them quite and that by the terrible fall of thunder-bolts the places were smitten and they withal dissipated and dispatched but principally when the ground hath beene shaken with earthquakes and thereupon setled downward and fallen in with trouble and confusion of whatsoever was below it cannot chuse but such exhalations conteined within the holow caves of the earth either changed their place and were driven forth or utterly were stifled and choked And so in this place also there remained and appeered some tokens of that great earth-quake which overthrew the city and staied the Oracle heere like as by report in the city Orchomenos there was a plague which swept away a number of people and therewith the Oracle of Tiresias the prophet failed for ever so continueth at this day mute and to no effect And whether the like befell unto the Oracles which were woont to be in Cilicia as we heare say no man can more certeinly enforme us than you Demetrius Then Demetrius How things stand now at this present I wot not for I have beene a traveller and out of my native country a long time as yee all know but when I was in those parts both that of Mopsus and also the other of Amphtlochus flourished and were in great request And as for the Oracle of Mopsus I am able to make report unto you of a most strange and woonderfull event thereof for that I was my selfe present The Governour of Cilicia is of himselfe doubtfull and wavering whether there be gods or no upon infirmity as I take it of miscredance and unbeliefe for otherwise he was a naughty man a violent oppressour and scorner of religion But having about him certeine Epicureans who standing much upon this their goodly and beautifull Physiologie forsooth as they terme it or else all were marred scoffe at such things he sent one of his affranchised or freed servants unto the Oracle of Mopsus indeed howbeit making semblance as if he were an espiall to discover the campe of his enemies he sent him I say with a letter surely sealed wherin he had written without the privity of any person whatsoever a question or demaund to be presented unto the Oracle This messenger after the order and custome of the place remaining all night within the sanctuary of the temple fel there asleepe and rehearsed the morrow morning what a dreame he had and namely that he thought he saw a faire and beautifull man to present himselfe unto him and say unto him this onely word Blacke and no more for presently he went his way out of his sight Now wee that were there thought this to be a foolish and absurd toy neither wist we what to make of it But the governour aforesaid was much astonied thereat and being stricken with a great remorse and pricke of conscience worshipped Mopsus and held his Oracle most venerable for opening the letter he shewed publikely the demaund conteined therein which went in these words Shall I sacrifice unto thee a white Bull or a blacke insomuch as the very Epicureans themselves who conversed with him were much abashed and ashamed So he offred the sacrifice accordingly and ever afterwards to his dying day honoured Mopsus right devoutly Demetrius having thus said held his peace but I desirous to conclude this whole disputation with some corollary turned againe and cast mine eie upon Philippus and Ammonius who sat together Now they seemed as if they had somewhat to speake unto me and thereupon I staied my selfe againe With that Ammonius Philip quoth he ô Lamprias hath somewhat yet to say of the question which hath beene all this while debated For he is of opinion as many others beside him are that Apollo is no other god than the Sunne but even the very same But the doubt which I moove is greater and of more important matters For I wot not how erewhile in the traine of our discourse we tooke from the gods all divination and ascribed the same in plaine termes to Daemons and angels and now we will seeme to thrust them out againe from hence and to disseize them of the Oracle and three footed table of which they were possessed conferring the beginning and principall cause of prophesie or rather indeed the very substance and power it selfe upon windes vapours and exhalations For even those temperatures heats tinctures and consolidations if I may so say which have beene talked of remove our minde and opinion farther off still from the gods and put into our heads this imagination and conceit of such a cause as Euripides deviseth Cyclops to alledge in the Tragoedie bearing his name The earth must needs bring forth grasse this is flat Will she or nill she and feed my cattell fatte This onely is the difference because he saith not that he sacrificed his beasts unto the gods but unto himselfe and his belly the greatest of all the Daemons but we both sacrifice and
Diatessaron is Epitritos or Sesquitertiall that is to say the whole and a third part over of Diapente Hemolios or Sesquialterall that is to say the whole and halfe as much more of Diapason duple of Diapason with Diapente together triple of Dis-diapason quadruple And as for that which the Musicians bring in over and above these to wit Diapason and Diatessaron for so they name it they are not worthy to be admitted and received as transcending all meane and measure to gratifie forsooth the unreasonable pleasure of the eare against all proportion and breaking as it were the ordinance of the law To let passe therefore the five positures of the Tetrachords as also the first five tones tropes changes notes or harmonies call them what you will for that they change and alter by setting up or letting downe the strings more or lesse or by streining or easing the voice all the rest are 〈◊〉 as bases and trebles For see you not that there being many or rather infinit intervals yet five there be onely used in song namely Diesis Hemitonium Tonos Trisemitonion and Ditonos Neither is there any space or intervall greater or lesse in voices distinguished by base and treble high and low that can be expressed in song But to passe by many other such things quoth I onely Plato I will alledge who affirmeth that there is indeed but one world mary if there were more in number and not the same one alone it must needs be that there are five in all and not one more But grant that there be no more in trueth than one as Aristotle holdeth yet so it is that the same seemeth to be composed and coagmented in some sort of five other worlds whereof one is that of earth another of water the third of fire the fourth of aire as for the fifth some call it heaven others light and some againe the skie and there be who name it a quint-essence unto which onely it is proper and naturall of all other bodies to turne round not by violent force nor otherwise by chance and aventure Plato therefore observing and knowing well enough that the most beautifull and perfect figures of regular bodies which be in the world within compasse of nature are five in number namely the Pyramis the Cube the Octaedron Icofaedron Dodecaedron hath very fitly appropriated and attributed ech of these noble figures unto one or other of those first bodies Others there be also who apply the faculties of the naturall senses which likewise be in number five unto the said primitive bodies to wit Touching which is firme solid and hard to Earth Tasting which judgeth of the qualities of savors by the meanes of moisture to Water Hearing to the Aire for that the aire being beaten upon is the voice and sound in the eares of the other twaine Smelling hath for the object Sent or odour which being in maner of a perfume is ingendred and elevated by heat and therfore holdeth of the Fire as for the Sight which is cleere and bright by a certeine affinitie and consanguinity which it hath with the heaven and with light hath a temperature and complexion mingled of the one and the other neither is there in any living creature other sense nor in the whole world any other nature and substance simple and uncompound but a marvellous distribution there is and congruity of five to five as it evidently appeareth When I had thus said and made a stop withall after a little pause betweene O what a fault quoth I ô Eustrophus had I like to have committed for I went within a little of passing over Homer altogether as if he had not beene the first that divided the world into five parts allotting three of them which are in the middes unto three gods and the other two which be the extremes namely heaven and earth whereof the one is the limit of things beneath the other the bound of things above in common and not distributed like the others But our speech must remember to returne againe as Euripides saith from whence it hath digressed For they who magnifie the quaternarie or number of foure teach not amisse nor beside the purpose that everie solide body hath taken the beginning and generation by reason of it For it being so that every solide consisteth in length and bredth having withall a depth before length there is to be supposed a positure and situation of a point or pricke answerable to unitie in numbers and longitude without bredth is called a line and the mooving of a line into bredth and the procreation of a superficies thereby consisteth of three afterwards when there is adjoined thereto profundity or depth the augmentation groweth by foure untill it become a perfect solidity So that every man seeth that the quaternary having brought nature to this point as to performe and accomplish a body in giving it a double magnitude or masse with firme soliditie apt to make resistance leaveth it afterwards destitute of the thing which is greatest and principall For that which is without a soule to speake plaine is in maner of an Orphan unperfect and good for nothing so long as it is without a soule to use and guide it but the motion or disposition which putteth in the soule ingenerated by meanes of the number of five is it that bringeth perfection and consummation unto nature Whereby it appeereth that there is an essence more excellent than the foure inasmuch as a living body endued with a soule is of a more noble nature than that which hath none but more than so the beauty and excellent power of this number five proceeding yet farther would not suffer a body animate to be extended into infinite kinds but hath given unto us five divers sorts of animate and living natures in al. For there be Gods Daemons or Angels Demi-gods or Heroës then after these a fourth kind of Men and last of all in the fift place is that of brute Beasts and unreasonable Furthermore if you come and divide the soule according to nature the first and obscurest part or puissance thereof is the vegetative or nutritive faculty the second is the sensitive then the appetitive after it the irascible wherein is engendred anger Now when it is once come unto that power which discourseth by reason and brought nature as it were to perfection there it resteth in the fift as in the very pitch top of all Since then this number hath so many and those so great puissances faculties the very generation thereof is beautiful to be considered I meane not that whereof we have already heeretofore discoursed when we said that composed it was of two and three but that which is made by the conjunction of the first principle with the first square and quadrate number And what is that principle or beginning of all numbers even one or Unitie and that first quadrat is Foure and of these twaine as a man would say of
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
a vertue as to bridle it 40.30 to be repressed at the first 120.30 upon what subject it worketh 121.30 how it altereth countenance voice and gesture 122.1.10 compounded of many passions 131.10 it banisheth reason 542.20 Angle lines why made of stone-horse tailes 971.10.1008.40 Anio the river whereof it tooke the name 917.40 Animall creatures subject to generation and corruption 846.30 of sundry sorts ib. 50 Annibal his apophthegme of Fab. Maximus 429.10.20 he scoffeth at soothsaying by beasts entrals 279.20 vanquished in Italie 637.1 Anointing in open aire forbidden at Rome 864.30 Anointing against the fire and sun 620.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1166.10 Answers to demaunds how to be made 204.30.40 of three sorts 205.40 Antagoras a poet 415.10 Antagoras a stout shepheard 905.20 Antahidas his apophthegmes 425.30.454.10 how he retorted a scoffe upon an Athenian 363.50 his apophthegme to K. Agesilaus 423.1 Antarctike pole 820.40 Anthes and Anthedonia 894.20 Anthes an auncient Musician 1249.30 Anthedon what it is 894.10 Anthias the fish why called sacred 976.1 Anthisterion what moneth 785.1 Anticlia the mother of Vlysses 901.40 Antigenes enamored upon Telesippe was kindly used by King Alexander 1280.1 Antigonus the elder how he tooke his sonnes death 530.1 being an aged king yet governed well 395.50 his answere unto a Sophister 1268.50 Antigonus the yoonger his brave speech of himselfe 909.1 his apophthegmes 415.40 his piety and kindnesse to his father ib. Antigonus the third his apophthegmes 416.10 his continencie ib. 20 Antigonus the elder his justice 414.30 his patience ib. 40. his magnificence ib. he reprooveth a Rhetorician 414.50 reproved by the Poet Antagoras 415.10 his apophthegmes 414.10 his martiall justice ib. warie to prevent the ocasion of sinne ib. 20. what use he made of his sicknes 414.30 his counsell to a captaine of his garison 1137.20 he acknowledgeth his mortality ib. how he repressed his anger 124.30 his patience 126.1 his secrecy 197.30 his answer to an impudent begger 167.20 Antiochus one of the Ephori his apophthegme 425.30.454.20 K. Antiochus Hierax loving to his brother Seleucus 416.20 he loved to be called Hierax 968.50 Antiochus the great his apophthegmes 417.10 he besiegeth Hierusalem and honoureth a feast of the Jewes ib. 20 Antipater Calamoboas a Philosopher 207.30 Antipater his bash fulnesse cause of his death 165.30.40 his answer to Phocion 103.30 Antipatrides rebuked by K. Alexander the great 1145.1 Antiperistasis what effects it worketh 1021.50 Antiphera an Acolian borne maid servant of Ino. 855.40 Antipho the oratour his pregnant wit 918.50 his parentage and life 418.40 he penned orations for others 919.1 he wrote the institutions of oratorie 919.10 for his eloquence surnamed Nestor 919.10 his stile and maner of writing and speaking ib. the time wherein he lived ib. 20. his martiall acts ib. his Embassie ib. condemned and executed for a traitour ib. 30. his apophthegme to Denys the Tyrant ib. 40. how many orations he made ib. he wrote tragoedies ib. he professed himselfe a Physician of the soule ib. 50 other works and treatises of his 920.1 the judiciall processe and decree of his condemnation ib. 10. inconsiderate in his speech before Denys 108.1 Antipathies of divers sorts in nature 676.20 Antisthenes what he would have us to wish unto our enemies 1276.1 Antipodes 825.30.1164.10 Antisthenes his answer 364.20 his apophthegme 240.50 a great peace maker 666.1 Antitheta 988.10 Anton. 1145.40 Antonius his overthrow by Cleopatra 632.1 enamoured of Queene Cleopatra 99. 20. abused by flatterers ib. 93.50 Antron Coratius his history 851.20 Anubis borne 1293.20 Anytus loved Alcibiades 1147.10 Anytus a sycophant 300.10 Aorne a strong castle 413.30 Apathies what they be 74.20 Apaturia a feast 1232.1 Apeliotes what wind 829.30 Apelles his apophthegme to a painter 8.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what feat of activity 716.40 Aphabroma what it is 893.20 Aphester who he is 889. Apioi 903.40 Apis how ingendred 766.40 killed by Ochus 1300.1 Apis how he is interred 1301.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what daunces 1251.30 Apollo why called Delius and Pythius 608.30 he wan the prize personally 773.1 a favorer of games of prize ib. 10. surnamed Pyctes ib. 20 Apollo the Runner ib. surnamed Paean Musegetes 797.20 Apollo when borne 766.10 why named Hebdomagines 766.20 his two nourses Alethia and Corythalia 696.1 why surnamed Loxias 103.30 Apollo painted with a cocke on his hand 1194.20 Apollo the authour of Musicke 1252.50 his image in Delos how portraied 1253.1 Apollo what attributes he hath and the reason therof 1353.50 Apollo affectionate to Logicke as well as to Musicke 1356.30 Apollo and Bacchus compared together 1348.1.10.20 Apollo why he is so called 1362.30 why he is called Iuios ib. why Phoebus ib. Apollo and the Sunne supposed to be both one 1362.40 Apollo compared with Pluto 1363.10 Apollodorus troubled in conscience 547.1 Apollodorus an excellent painter 982.20 Queene Apollonis rejoiced in the love of her brethren 176.40 Apollonius the physician his counsell for leane folke 1004.30 Apollonius his son cōmēded 530 Apollonius kinde to his brother Sotion 185.40 Aposphendoneti who they be 890.50 Apotropaei what gods they be 756.1 Appius Claudius the blinde 397.20 his speech in the Senate ib. Application of verses and sentences in Poets 45.30 April consecrated to Venus 879.30 Apopis the brother of the Sunne 1302.10 Apples why named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 726.30 Apple trees why called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 726 Araeni Acta what it is 897.20 Arcadians repute themselves most ancient 881.1 Arcesilaus sunne of Battus unlike to his father 504.20 surnamed Chalepos ib. poisoned by Laarchus ib. Arcesilaus the Philosopher defended against Colotes 1123.40 he shutteth Battus out of his schoole 92. 20. his patience 129.20 a true friend to Apelles 102.30 Archelaus king of Macedonie his answere to Timotheus the Musician 1273.50 Archestratus a fine Poet not regarded 1273.10 Archias 〈◊〉 Spartan honoured by the Samians 1233.20 Archias the Corinthian his notorius outrage 945.40 Archias murdered by Telephus his minion 946.1 he built Syracusa in Sicily ib. Archias Phygadotheres a notable catchpol 936.20 Archias an high priest 1225.1 Archias the ruler of the Thebans negligent of the state 650.30 Archias tyrannized in Thebes 1204. 10. killed by Melon 1225.20 Archelaus his opinion of the first principles 806.30 K. Archelaus how he served an impudent craver 167.10 his apophthegme 408.1 Archidamus his apothegme 425.1.423.20 Archidamus the son of Zeuxidamus his apophthegmes 454.50 Archidamus the sunne of Agesilaus his apophthegmes 455.20 K. Archidamus fined for marying a little woman 2.40 Archilochus an ancient poet and musician 1250.20 Archilochus what he added to musicke 1257.10 Archimedes how studious in geometrie 387.10.590.10 Archiptolemus condemned and executed with Antiphon 920.10.20.30 Architas represseth his anger 542.30 his patience 12.40 Arctique pole 820.40 Arctos the beare a starre representeth Typhon 1295.50 Ardalus 330.30 Ardetas a lover 1145.50 Aretaphila her vertuous deede 498.10 her defence for suspicion of preparing poison to kill her husband 499.1 Argei at Rome what images 861.30 Argileonis the mother
her daughters their wofull end 948.40 Democritus studious in searching the causes of things 660. 〈◊〉 Democritus commended 1128.1 his opinion as touching dreames 784.20 his opinion as touching Atomes 807. 40. what he thought of God 812.1 Democritus a brave captaine et sea 1242. 〈◊〉 Demodorus an ancient Musician 1249.40 Demonides his shoes 23.10 Demosthenes the oratour never dranke wine 792.50 he loved not to speak unpremeditate 355 10. his parentage education and life 930.50 he called judicially to account his tutors or Guardian 931.10 he sued Midias in an action of battery 931.20 his painfull studie ib. how he corrected his evill gestures ib. 30. his defects in nature ib. 40. his exercise of declaiming by the seaside ib. he sided against the faction of K. Philip. 931.40 encouraged by Eunomus and Andronicus ib. 50. his speech of Action in eloquence 932.1 flowted by Comicall Poets for his broad othes in pleading 932.1 he mainteineth the pronouncing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the accent over the second syllable 932.10 Demosthenes dashed Lamachus out of countenance 932.20 commended by K. Philip for his eloquence 932.20 his kindnesse unto Aeschines 932.40 disgraced at his first comming to the barre 398.20 accused and quit ib. his timorousnesse ib. 50. his Motor device upon his targuet ib. not blamed in his orations for praising himself 304.50.305.1 his imploiment and good service in the Common weale 933.1 his honours that he obteined ib. 10. noted for bribery and corruption ib. 20. condemned and banished ib. recalled home by a publique decree ib. 30. he flieth and taketh Sanctuary ib. 40. his answer as touching premeditate speech 8.1 his statue with his owne Epigram 934. 10. his death ib. his issue ib. 30. honours done unto him after death ib. 40. he first made an oration with a sword by his side 934.30 his orations ib. 50. surnamed Batalus for his riotous life ib. scoffed at by Diogenes the Cynicke 935.1 his tale of the asse and the shadow 935. 10. his apophthegme to Polus the great actour 935.20 he studied his orations much ib. 30. how he tooke the death of his only daughter 529.40 Denary or Ten the perfection of numbers 806.40 Deniall of unjust and unlawfull requests 170.20 Denys the Tyrant 296.40 Denys of Sicily abused by slatterers 93.40 how he served a minstrell 56.1 Denys the tyrants wife and children cruelly abused by the Italians 377.1 his cruelty to Philoxenus the Poet. 1274.1 Denys the elder could not abide idlenesse 394.30 how he named his three daughters 1278.30 his witty apophthegmes 406.10 the yoonger his apophthegmes 407.20 his apophthegme 1268.50 his base nigardise to an excellent Musician 1273.30 his proud vain-glory 1278.20 Dercillidas his apophthegmes 456.30 Deris what Daemon 157.30 Destinies three 797.40 Destiny or fatall necessitie 816.40 what it is 817.1 substance thereof what it is ib. 50 Deucalion his deluge 961.50 Dexicreon a cousening Mount-banke or Merchant venturer 904.1 Diagoras of Melos 810.40 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 of two sorts 758.40 whether they ought to be rehearsed at supper time 759.50 Dianaes temple at Rome why men do not enter into 851.10 Diana but one 796.20 the same that the Moone 697.20 her attributes given by Timotheus 28.10 her temple within the Aventine hill why beautified with Cowes hornes 851.20 Diana Chalceoecos 455.10 surnamed Dictynna 978.40 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how defined 953.1 Diapason what symphonie in Musicke 1037.1 Diapente what symphony in Musicke 1037.1 Diapente in tempering wine and water 695.20 Diaphantus his apophthegme 2.30 Diatessaron what symphony in Musicke 1035.50 Diatessaron in tempering wine and water 695.20 Diatonique Musicke 796.40 Diatrion in tempering wine and water 695.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 736.50 〈◊〉 the citie perished 1190.20 Dice 295.20.557.50 Dictamnus the herbe medicinable 968.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 785.20 Diesis 1037.40 Diet exquisit condemned 617.40 620.20 Diet for sicke persons 611.40 Diet for men in health 612.10 Diet physicke taught us by brute beasts 969.10 Differring of punishmēt 540.1.10 Digestion of meats how hindered 701.1.10 Diligence supplieth the defect of nature 3.20 the power thereof ib. 30 Dinaea what Daemon 157.30 Dinarchus the orator his life and acts 937.30 his voluntary extle ib. 50 Dino a great captaine 901.30 Dinomenes what oracle he received as touching his sonnes 1197 20 Diogenes smote the master for the scholars misbehaviour 81.40 his free speech to K. Philip. 111.10 Diogenes the Sinopian a Philosopher abandoned the world 249.20 Diogenes compared himselfe with the great king of Persia. 250.1 Diogenes the Cynicke his apophthegme unto a boy drunken 250 Diogenes his patience 128.20 his speech to a yoonker within a Taverne 254.30 Diogenes the Cynicke his answer as touching his banishment 273 20. he contemned slavery 299.20 Diogenes master to Antisthenes 666.1 Diogenes rebuketh Sophocles about the mysteries of Ceres 28.10 his apophthegme as touching revenge of an enemie 28.1 concerning fleshly pleasure 6.30 his silthy wantonnes 1069.1 his franke speech to K. Philip 279.10 Diognetus sansieth Polycrite 497.1 Dion how he tooke the death of his owne sonne 525.40 through foolish bashfulnesse came to his death 165. 30. his apophthegmes 408.1 Dionysius See Denys Dionysus Eleutherios 885.1 Dioscuri two starres 822.10 Dioxippus rebuked by Diogenes for his wandering and wanton eie 141.20 his opinion as touching the passage of our meats and drinks 745.1 Dis diapason 1037.30 Discontentednesse in Alexander the great 147.40 Discourse of reason what it is 839 40 Diseases of a strange maner 782.40 Diseases of the body which be worst 313.30 Diseases of the soule woorse than those of the body 313.10 Diseases have their avantcurriers or forerunners 616.20 Diseases how they arise 781.10 Diseases new how they come 781.20 Diseases which were first 782.1 a Dish of sowes paps 613.50 Disme or tenth of goods why offered to Hercules 855.50 Disputation what maner of exercise 619.30 Disputation after meales 622.50 Distances betweene sunne moone and the earth 1165.30 Dithyrambs what verses songs 1358.10 they sort well with Bacchus 1358.10 Diversitie 65.40 Divine what things be called 728 20.30 Divine knowledge or doctrine of the gods seven folde 810.10 Divine providence what it is 1052 50 Divine providence denied by the Epicureans 598.1 Divine service most delectable ib. 40 Divine power author of no ill nor subject thereto 600.1 Divination of many kinds 841.10 Divination ascribed to Bacchus 1764.10 Divination by dreames 784.10 Divination dented by the Epicureans 598.1 Docana what images they were 174.1 Doctrine and life ought to go together 1057.40 Dodecaedron 1020.40.819.20 Dogs sacrificed by the Greeks in all expiations 873.1 odious unto Hercules 880.30 not allowed to come into the castle of Athens 886. 50. esteemed no cleane creatures 887.10 sacrificed to infernall gods and to Mars 887.20 Sea Dogs how kind they be to their yoong ones 218.20.976.40 Dog how subtill he is 959.40 Dogs their admirable qualities 962.20 a Dog discovereth the murderer of his master ib. 30 a Dog detecteth the murder of Hesiodus ib. 40 Dogs gentle and couragious withall 964.10
of 〈◊〉 145. 50. an enime to health 624.30 Idols of Aegina and Megara 725.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what significations it hath 976.10 Janus honoured most by K. Numa 156.30 Janus with two faces 857.30 Janus temple shut and open at Rome 634.40 Jests which men can abide best 664.20 Jests without biting 664.50 Of Jests and prety scoffes sundry sorts 664.40 Jewes how superstitious they were 265.50 why they abstaine from eating swines flesh 710. 20 they have swine in abomination 711.20 The Jewes feast 712. 10 Ignorance is odious 608.40 Ilands inhabited by great persons 275. Ilithyia a surname of Diana 697.20.1184.40 1142.1 Image workes exhibited at feasts and banquets 760.10 Images and statues refreshed by the Censours 883.1 Images devised by Democritus 784.30 Imaginations or fantasies whether they be true 835.40 Imagination what it is 836.30 Imaginable 836.40 Imaginative 836.40 Imagined or fantasie ib. 50 Imitation in bad things 89.50 Imitation 33.1 〈◊〉 Imber of Thymbris 913.30 Immortality of the soule 553.1.10 Immortalitie without knowledge and wisdome is not life 1288.1 Imperfections of the body not to be imputed by way of reproch 47.50 Impiety see Athisme Inachus the river 901.20 Incense burned by the Aegyptians 1318.40 Indian dames burnt with their husbands in one funerall fire 299.30 loving to their husbands 299.30 Indian Sages die voluntarily 299.40 The Indian root 1177.30 Indifferent things what they be 1084.40 Indolence condemned 510.1 Indolence of the Epicures 583.30 Indos a sophisticall argument 622.20 Infants bewitched by some mens eies 723.10 Infants in the wombe whether animal or no 844.50 how they be nourished 845.20 what part of theirs is first perfected in the wombe 845.30 borne at seven moneths end be livelike 845.40 how they be vitall and like to live 10.20.846.20 eight moneth infants live not ordinarily 846.20 Infants new borne helpelesse 221.1 Infinity the principle of all 805.50 Infortunity not to be ubraided 48.1 Injury to a mans selfe 1066.10 Ino enraged upon iealousie 855.30 Vnto Ino praiers made in the behalfe of Nephewes and Neeces 855.40 troubled in minde for abusing her lord and husband Athamas 548.10 Inoculation or graffing in the budde 675.10 Intelligible subjects 1018.50 Intemperance and incontinence how they differ 69.50.70.1 Intervals in Musicke 1358.50 Io traduced and slandered by Herodotus 1229.40 Iobates king of Lycia 489.10 Iocasta in brasse 715.20 Iolas poisoned king Alexander 937.1 Iolaus became yoong againe 1055 50 Iolaus beloved of his uncle Hercules 191.20 his dearling 1146.20 his tombe ib. Iole flang her selfe downe from a wall 910.20 Ion the Poet wrate also in prose 628.20 Ionique Philosophie 805.40.806.30 Iphicles brother of Hercules 〈◊〉 880.30 Iphicles slaine and lamented by Hercules 191.20 Iphicrates discommended for dealing in too many matters 366.20 his apophthgemes 419.50 his apophthegme to Callias 82.20 reproched for his base parentage 419.50 his bodilie strength and valour 420.1 Iphigenia sacrificed 910.40 Ire how portraied hieroglyphically by the Aegyptians 1291.30 Ire moderate helpeth vertue 77.10 Irene 894.10 Iriciscepta what they be 704.40 Iris the Poets fable to be the mother of Love 1151.30 Ironia that Socrates used 665.50 Irreligion bringeth in brutish barbarisme 1126.40 Isagoras traduced by Herodotus 1233.30 Isis Haires or Isidos Plocamoi what plants 1178.40 Ision the temple of Isis. 1288.20 Isia 1311.20 Isis what it signifieth 1288.10 whereof derived 1321.20 Isiake Priests 1288.40 why they be shaven and weare linnen ib. 50. why they forbeare salt 1289 20 Isis borne 1292.20 she mourneth for Osiris 1293.10 her abiliments 1318.1 Isis symbolizeth the land of AEgypt 1302.30 Isles fortunate for blessed folk 531 50 Isles of Damons and Heroes about Britaine 1332.10 Isles commended 275.20 Ismenias his prety scoffe to an unskilfull minstrell 665.40 Ismenius an epithet of Apollo 1353.50 Ismenodora a vertuous and beautifull dome 1132.1 she falleth in love with Bacchon 1132.1 she surpriseth Bacchon 1138.10 Isaeus the oratour his life 926.20 he imitated Lysias ib. 30. when he flourished ib. his orations and other works ib. Isocrates would not philosophize at the boord 640.30 taxed for pusillanimity and idlenes 988.1.40 his parentage and condition 923.20 the time of his birth and education ib. he defendeth his master Theramenes ib. 30. his nature ib. 40. he penned orations ib. he taught a schoole ib. 50. his abode in Chios ib. a great gainer by keeping schoole 924. his scholars ib. his answer to Demosthenes comming to him for to be taught 924.10 his minervall ib. the time of his death 924.20 he pined himselfe to death ib. his age ib. his wealth ib. 30. his apophthegme ib. 40. he adopted Aphareus his sonne 924.30.40 his sepulchre 924.50 his tombe 925.1 his statue of brasse erected by Timotheus the sonne of Conon 925.10 his orations ib. his bashfull modestie ib. 20. his apophthegms 925. 20. he mourned for the death of Socrates ib. 30. he termed Ephorus Diphorus ib. 40. given naturally to waentonnesse 925.40 his statue erected in brasse by Aphareus his adopted sonnc 925.50 his picture 926.10 Isoscecles 1020.30 Isthmia the name of the Admirall gallie of Antigonus 718.10 Isthmique games 717.10 Ithacesia 898.10 Judaeus the sonne of Typhon 1300.1 Judges how portraied in AEgypt 1291.30 K. Jugurtha led prisoner by Sylla 358.30 Julia law as touching adulterie 442.40 Julius Drusus a man of great integrity 351.10 Julius Caesar beholden to Fortune 631.20 June the moneth dedicated to Juno 879.30 Juno why she is so called 876.1 Juno had but one nourse Euboea 696.1 Juno Lucina ib. Juno aire 808.1 Junoes Priestresse or Flamina ever sad 879.30 Juno Gamelia 320.10 no beast having gall sacrificed to her ib. Junoes dressing her selfe in Homer what it meaneth 25.10 Jupiter Olympius 1360.40 Jupiter Agoraeus 1218.10 Jupiter compared with Neptune 1288.1 Jupiter Labradeus in Caria his image 902.10 Jupiter Hospitalis 279.40 Jupiters statue without eares 1317.10 Jupiter Tarsius 908.10 Jupiter Astraeus 314.40 Jupiters Priest or Flamin is not anointed abroad in the aire 864 10. why called Flamin 864. 30. he might not sweare 866.1 Jupiter fire 808.1 Jupiter Carius 1233.40 Jupiter had two nourses Ida and Adrastia 696.1 Jupiter Sthenius 1256.40 Jupiters oaristes why Minos was called 290.10 Jupiter had divers acceptions among Poets 30.10 Jupiter the onely immortall God consumeth all the rest 1099.1 Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1278.10 Justice or Fortitude whether the greater vertue 424.10 Justice or Injustice in beasts 956. 10 Justice what it is 69.10 the end of the law 295.1 Justice neglected by Magistrates the overthrow of States 360. 20. whether there be any in beasts 956.1 Ivy garlands what use they have 683.50 whether it be hote or colde 685.10 it would not grow about Babylon 685.20 Ivy chaplets why used in Winter ib. 40 that Ivy is cold 686.1 Ivy berries intoxicate the braine 686.1 why the wood groweth tortuous 686.10 why it is alwaies greene 686.20 Ivy consecrated to Bacchus 690. 20.1302.10 rejected from the sacrifice and temples of celestiall gods 887.40 fit for franticke folke 888.1 Ixion loved Juno 291.10 in Euripides
words of mine that I meant to alledge old testimonies and to cite stale and triviall examples for proofe of the cause to wit the funerals of Oeolycus the Thessalian and of Amphidamas the Chalcidian at which Homer and Hesiodus made verses one against another for the victorie as stories make mention but casting by and rejecting all these evidences so much tossed and divnlged already by Grammarians and namely the funerall obsequies and honours done to Patroclus in Homer where they read not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say launcers of darts but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say makers of orations and eloquent oratours as if Achilles had proposed rewards and prizes for orations leaving I say these matters I affirmed That when Acastus celebrated the funerals for his father Pelias he exhibited a combat of poets for the best game wherein Sibylla went away with the victory Hereat many stood up and opposed themselves against me demanding a reall caution at my hands for to make good that which I had averred for that it seemed unto them a very strange narration and incredible but as good hap was I called to remembrance that I had read so much in the Chronicle of Lybia cōpiled by Acesander where the story is put downe And this booke quoth I is not in every mans hand to reade howbeit I thinke verily that the most of you have beene carefull to peruse those records which Polemon the Athenian a diligent writer and a learned antiquarie who hath not beene idle and sleepie in seeking out the antiquities and singularities of Greece hath set downe in writing as concerning the treasures of the city Delphos for there you shal find written that in the treasurie of the Sicyonians there was a golden booke given and dedicated by Aristomache the poetresse of Erythraea after she had obteined the victorie gotten the garland at the solemnitie of the Isthmicke games Neither have you any reason quoth I to esteeme Olympia and the games thereof with such admiration above the rest as if it were another fatall desteny immutable and which can not be changed nor admit alteration in the plaies there exhibited as for the Pythian solemnitie three or foure extraordinarie games it had respective unto good letters and the Muses adjoined and admitted to the rest the Gymnicke exercises and combats performed by men naked as they were at first ordeined so they continued for the most part still and hold on at this day but at the Olympian games all save onely running in the race were taken up afterwards and counted as accessories likewise there have bene many of them which at first were instituted since put downe and abolished namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say an exercise and feat of activitie when the concurrent mounted on horsebacke in the mids of his course leapeth downe to the ground taketh his horse by the bridle and runneth on foot with him a full gallop as also another called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was a course with a chariot drawen by two mules moreover there is taken away now the coronet ordeined for children that atchieved the victorie in Pentathlus that is to say five severall feats to be short much innovation change and altering there hath beene in this festivall solemnitie from the first institution but I feare me that you will call upon me againe for new pledges and cautions to proove and justifie my words if I should say that in olde time at Pisae there were combats of sword-fencers fighting at the sharpe to the uttrance man to man where they that were vanquished or yeelded themselves died for it and if my memorie failed mee that I could not bring out mine author and name him unto you I doubt you would laugh and make a game of mee as if I had overdrunke my selfe and taken one cup to many THE THIRD QUESTION What is the cause that the pitch-tree is held consecrated unto Neptune and Bacchus And that in the beginning the victours at the Isthmian games were crowned with a garland of pine-tree branches but afterwards with a chaplet of smallage or parsley and now of late with the foresaid pitch-tree THere was a question propounded upon a time Why the manner was to crowne those with pine or pitch-tree branches who gained the prize at the Isthmick games For so it was that during the said festivall solemnity Lucanius the high priest made a supper at Corinth at his owne house and feasted us where Praxiteles the geometrician a great discourser told us a poeticall tale and namely that the body of Melicerta was found cast up driven upon the body of a pine-tree by the sea at a full tide for that there was a place not farre from Megara named Cales Dromos that is to say the race of the faire lady whereas the Megarians doe report that dame Ino carrying her yoong babe within her armes ranne and cast her-selfe headlong into the sea But it is a common received opinion quoth he that the pine is apropriat for the making of coronets in the honour of Neptune whereupon when as Lucanius the high-priest added moreover and said That the said tree being consecrated unto Bacchus it was no marvell nor absurditie if it were dedicared also to the honour of Melicerta Occasion was taken to search into the cause wherefore the auncients in old time held the said tree sacred unto Bacchus and Neptune both For mine owne part I saw no incongruitie therein for that these two gods be the lords and rulers over one genetall principle or element to wit humidity or moisture considering also that they generally in manner all sacrifice unto Neptune under the surname 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say protectour of plants and unto Bacchus likewise by the name or addition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the president over trees and yet it may be said that the pine more particularly apperteineth not to Neptune not as Apollodorus is of opinion because it is a tree that loveth to grow by the sea-side or for that it delighteth in the windes as the sea doth for some there be of this minde but especially in this regard that it affoordeth good timber and other stuffe for building of ships for both it and also other trees which for their affinitie may goe for her sisters to wit pitch-trees larike-trees and cone-trees furnish us with their wood most proper to flote upon the sea and with their rosin also and pitch to calke and calfret without which composition be the joints never so good and close they are to no purpose in the sea as for Bacchus they consecrated the pitch-tree unto him for that pitch doth give a pleasant seasoning unto wine for looke where these trees doe naturally grow the vine there by report yeeldeth pleasant wine which Theophrastus imputeth to the heat of the soile for commonly the pitch tree groweth in places of marle or white clay which by nature
is hot and so by consequence helpeth the concoction of wine like as such kinde of clay yeeldeth water of all others most light and sweet besides if the same be blended with wheat it maketh the greater heape for that the heat thereof doth cause it to swell and become more full and tender moreover the vine receiveth many commodities and pleasures more from the pitch tree for that it with those things which be is good necessarie both to commend and also to preserve wines for it is an ordinary thing with all men to pitch those vessels into which they put up their wines yea and some there be who put rosin even into the wine as for example those of Eubaea in Greece and Italy the inhabitants by the Po side and that which more is from out of Gaule by Vienna there is brought a certeine pitch-wine called Pissites which the Romanes set much store by because it giveth it not onely a delectable sent but also a better strength taking from it in a small time the newnesse and the watery substance thereof by the meanes of a milde and kinde heat This being saied there was an oratour there a man of great reading a singular scholar and an excellent humanitian who cried out in this manner And is it so indeed as who would say it were not very lately and but the other day that the pine tree yeelded garlands and chaplets at the 〈◊〉 games for heeretofore the victors there were crowned with wreathes and coronets made of smalach leaves and this appeereth by that which we may heare out of a certeine comedie a covetous miser speake in this wise These I shmique games I gladly would part fro For price that smallach wreaths in market go And 〈◊〉 the historiographer writeth that when the Corinthians marched in battell ray under the conduct of Timoleon against the Carthaginians for the defence of Sicily they encountred in the way certeine folk who carried bunches of smallach now when many of the souldiors tooke this occurrence for an ill presage because smallach is taken to be an unluckie herbe insomuch as when we see one lie extreame sicke in danger of death we say That he hath need of nothing else but smallach Timoleon willed them to be of good cheere and put them in minde of the victorious chaplets of smallach at the Isthmian games wherewith the Corinthians crowned the winners Moreover the admirall galley of king Antigonus was called Isthura for that without any sowing or setting there grew smallach of it selfe about the poupe thereof and this obscure aenigmaticall epigram under darke and covert words signifieth plainly earthen vessels stuffed and stopped with smallach and in this manner it goeth This Argive earth which ere while was full soft Now baked hard with fire the bloud deepe-red Of Bacchus hides within but loe aloft It Istmick branches beares in mouth and head Certes they have not read thus much who vaunt so greatly of the Pitch-tree chaplet as if it were not a moderne stranger and new commer but the ancient proper and naturall garland belonging to the Isthmian games Which words of his mooved the yoonger sort not a little as being delivered by a man who had seene and read much and Lucanius the high-priest himselfe casting his eie upon me and smiling withall Now by Neptune quoth he I sweare what a deale of learning is heere howbeit others there were who bearing themselves as it should seeme upon mine ignorance and want of reading were perswaded of the contrary and avouched that the Pitch-tree branches were the ancient garlands in the Isthmicke solemnitie as naturall unto that countrey and on the other side the coronet of Smallach was a meere stranger brought from Nemea thither upon an emulation in regard of Hercules whereby it had indeed the name for a time insomuch as it supplanted the other and woon the credit from it as being counted a sacred herbe and ordeined for this purpose but afterwards the Pine-garland flourished againe and recovered the ancient reputation so at this day it is in as great honour as ever it was Heereupon I suffered my selfe to be perswaded and gave so good care that many testimonies for confirmation of this opinion I learned yea and some of them I bare away and remembred and namely that out of them Euphorion the poet who spake of Melicerta much after this maner The yoong man dead they did bewaìle and then his corps they laid Upone greene branches of Pine-tree whereof the crownes were said To have beene made those to adorne with honour glorious Who at the sacred Isthmicke games were deem'd Victorious For why as yet the murdering hand sir Charon hadnot slaine The sonne of Neme wofull dame where as with streame amaine Asopus runnes since when began the wreathe of Smalach greene To binde the head of champions all bravely to be seene Also out of Callimachus who hath expressed this matter more plainly where he bringeth Hercules in speaking after this maner And it though much inferiour and more terrestriall Employ they shall in Isthmicke games when in memoriall Of god Aegaeon they with crownes the victours brave do decke According to Nemeâ—â—n rites and thereby give the checke To chaplets made of Pine-tree faire wherewith the champion For victorie sometime was dight at games Corinthian Over and besides if I be not deceived I have light upon a certeine commentarie of Procles writing of the Isthmian solemnitie namely that at the very first institution thereof ordeined it was That the victorious coronet should be made of Pitch-tree branches but afterwards when these games were accounted sacred they translated thither from the Namaeam solemnities the chaplet of Smallach now this Procles was one of the scholars in the Academie what time as Xenocrates taught and flourished THE FOURTH QUESTION What is the meaning of these words in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SOme of the companie where I supped upon a time thought Achilles ridiculous in that he willed his friend Patroclus to fill out purer wine and lesse delaied giving a reason withall saying For now are come to visit me for love My deerest friends and whom I best approve But Niceratus the Macedonian a familiar friend of ours opposed himselfe directly and said That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place of Homer signifieth not meere wine of it selfe without water but hot wine as if the primitive word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say vitall heat and ebullition And therefore meet it was quoth he that seeing his good friends were in place there should be filled out for them a cup of fresh wine new drawen and full of life and sparkling spirits like as we our selves use to do when as we powre out and offer unto the gods our sacred libations but Sosicles the poet calling to minde and alledging a sentence of Empedocles whose words be these speaking of the generall mutation of the universall world What
division of the earth 15 The zones or climates of the earth how many and how great they be 16 Of earth quakes 17 Of the sea how it is concret and how it comes to be bitter 18 How come the tides that is to say the ebbing and flowing of the seas 19 Of the circle called Halo Chapters of the fourth Booke 1 Of the rising of Nilus 2 Of the soule 3 Whether the soule be corporall and what is her substance 4 The parts of the soule 5 Which is the mistresse or principall part of the soule and wherein it doth consist 6 Of the soules motion 7 Of the soules immortalitie 8 Of the senses and sensible things 9 Whether the senses and imaginations be true 10 How many senses there be 11 How sense and notion is performed as also how reason is ingendred according to disposition 12 What difference there is betweene imagination imaginable and imagined 13 Of sight and how we doe see 14 Of the reflexions or resemblances in mirrors 15 Whether darknesse be visible 16 Of hearing 17 Of smelling 18 Of tasting 19 Of the voice 20 Whether the voice be incorporall and how commeth the resonance called eccho 21 How it is that the soule hath sense and what is the principal predomināt part therof 22 Of respiration 23 Of the passions of the body and whether the soule have a fellow-feeling with it of paine Chapters of the fift Booke 1 Of divination or 〈◊〉 of future things 2 How dreames 〈◊〉 3 What is the substance of naturall seed 4 Whether naturall seed be a body 5 Whether femals as well as males doe yeeld naturall seed 6 After what maner conceptions are 7 How males and females are engendred 8 How monsters are ingendred 9 What is the reason that a woman accompanying often times carnally with a man doth not 〈◊〉 10 How twinnes both two and three at once be occasioned 11 How commeth the resemblance of parents 12 What is the cause that infants be like to some other and not to the parents 13 How women proove barren and men unable to ingender 14 What is the reason that mules be barren 15 Whether the fruit within the wombe is to be accounted a living creature or no. 16 How such fruits be nourished within the wombe 17 What part is first accomplished in the wombe 18 How it commeth to passe that infants borne at seven moneths end doe live and are livelike 19 Of the generation of living creatures how they be ingendred and whether they be corruptible 20 How many kindes there be of living creatures whether they all have sense and use of reason 21 In what time living creatures receive forme within the mothers wombe 22 Of what elements is every generall part in us composed 23 How commeth sleepe and death whether it is of soule or bodie 24 When and how a man beginneth to come unto his perfection 25 Whether it is soule or bodie that either sleepeth or dieth 26 How plants come to grow and whether they be living creatures 27 Of nourishment and growth 28 From whence proceed appetites lusts and pleasures in living creatures 29 How the feaver is ingendred and whether it be an accessarie or symptome to another disease 30 Of health sicknesse and olde age THE FIRST BOOKE OF Philosophers opinions The Prooeme BEing minded to write of naturall philosophie we thinke it necessary in the first place and before all things els to set downe the whole disputation of Philosophie by way of division to the end that we may know which is naturall and what part it is of the whole Now the Stoicks say that sapience or wisdom is the science of all things aswell divine as humane and that Philosophie is the profession and exercise of the art expedient thereto which is the onely supreame and sovereigne vertue and the same divided into three most generall vertues to wit Naturall Morall and Verball by reason whereof Philosophie also admitteth a three-folde distribution to wit into Naturall Morall Rationall or Verball the Naturall part is that when as we enquire and dispute of the world and the things conteined therein Morall is occupied in intreating of the good and ill that concerneth mans life Rationall or Verball handleth that which perteineth unto the discourse of reason and to speech which also is named Logique or Dialelectique that is to say Disputative But Aristotle and Theophrastus with the Peripateticks in maner all divide Philosophie in this maner namely into Contemplative and Active For necessarie it is say they that a man to atteine unto perfection should be a spectatour of all things that are and an actour of such things as be seemely and decent and may the better be understood by these examples The question is demanded whether the Sunne be a living creature according as it seemeth to the sight to be or no He that searcheth and enquireth into the trueth of this question is altogether therein speculative for he seeketh no farther than the contemplation of that which is semblably if the demand be made whether the world is infinit or if there be any thing without the pourprise of the world for all these questions be meere contemplative But on the other side mooved it may be How a man ought to live how he should governe his children how he is to beare rule and office of State and lastly in what maner lawes are to be ordeined and made for all these are sought into in regard of action and a man conversant therein is altogether active and practique CHAP. I. What is Nature SInce then our intent and purpose is to consider and treat of Naturall philosophie I thinke it needfull to shew first what is Nature for absurd it were to enterprise a discourse of Naturall things and meane-while to be ignorant of Nature and the power thereof Nature then according to the opinion of Aristotle is the beginning of motion and rest in that thing wherein it is properly and principally not by accident for all things to be seene which are done neither by fortune nor by necessitie and are not divine nor have any such efficient cause be called Naturall as having a proper and peculiar nature of their owne as the earth fire water aire plants and living creatures Moreover those other things which we do see ordinarily engendered as raine haile lightning presteres winds and such like for all these have a certeine beginning and every one of them was not so for ever and from all eternitie but did proceed from some originall likewise living creatures and plants have a beginning of their motion and this first principle is Nature the beginning not of motion onely but also of rest and quiet for whatsoever hath had a beginning of motion the same also may have an end and for this cause Nature is the beginning aswell of rest as of moving CHAP. II. What difference there is betweene a principle and an element ARistotle and Plato are of opinion that there is a
difference betweene a Principle and an Element but Thales Milesius thinketh they be both one howbeit there is a great difference betweene the one and the other for elements be compounded whereas we holde that the first Principles neither be compounded nor are any complet substance and verily earth water aire and fire we tearme Elements but Principles we call other Natures in this respect that there is nothing precedent or before them wherof they are ingendred for otherwise if they were not the first they should in no wise be Principles but that rather were to be so called wherof they be ingendred Now certeine things there are precedent whereof earth and water c. be composed to wit the first matter without all forme and shape as also the first forme it selfe which we call Entelechia and thirdly Privation Thales therefore is in an error when he saith that water was both the Element and Principle or first beginning of all things CHAP. III. Of principles or first beginnings what they be THALES the Milesian affirmed that Water was the first principle of the whole world and this man seemeth to have beene the first author of philosophie and of him tooke the Ionique fect of Philosophers their name for many families there were successively of Philosophers who having studied Philosophie in Aegypt went to Miletum when hee was farre stept in yeeres where he mainteined this position That all things were made of Water so all things were to be resolved againe into Water The reasons of this conjecture of his were these first because naturall seed is the principle and beginning of all living creatures and that is of a moist substance therefore probable it is that all other things likewise have humiditie for their principle secondly for that all sorts of plants be nourished by moisture which if they want they wither and fade away thirdly considering that the fire or the sunne it selfe and the starres is nourished and mainteined by vapours proceeding from the waters the whole world also by consequence consisteth of the same which is the reason that Homer supposing all things to be engendred of water saith thus The ocean sea from whence 〈◊〉 thing 〈◊〉 is and hath beginning But ANAXIMANDER the Milesian holdeth that Infinitie is the principle of al for every thing proceedeth from it resolveth into it againe therefore there be engendred infinit worlds and those vanish againe into that whereof they bee engendred and why is there this Infinitie Because quoth he there should never faile any generation but still have 〈◊〉 howbeit even he also erreth heerein for that he declareth not what is this Infinitie whereof he speaketh whether it be aire water or any other body he faileth likewise in this that he putteth downe a subject matter but overthroweth the efficient cause for this Infinity whereof he talketh is nothing else but matter and matter cannot atteine to perfection nor come into act unlesse there be some mooving and efficient cause ANAXIMENES the Milesian mainteineth that aire is the principle of the world for that all things come of it and returne unto it Like as quoth he our soule which is aire keepeth us alive even so spirit and aire mainteine the Being of the whole world for spirit and aire be two words signifying both one thing But this Philosopher is out of the way as well as the rest in that hee thinketh that living creatures be composed of a simple spirit or uniforme aire and impossible it is that there should be but one principle of all things to wit matter but there ought withall to be supposed an efficient cause for it is not enough to be provided of silver or gold for to make a vessell or piece of plate if there come not unto it the efficient cause to wit the gold-smith semblably we are to say of brasse wood and all other sorts of matter ANAXAGORAS the Clazomenian is perswaded and so teacheth That the principles of the world and all that therein is are small like parcels which hee tearmeth Homaeomeries for hee thought it altogether absurd and impossible that any thing should bee made of that which is not or bee dissolved into that which hath no being for howsoever we take our nourishment simple and uniforme as for example eat bread of corne and drinke water yet with this nutriment are nourished haires veines arteries sinewes bones and other parts of the bodie which being so Confesse wee must quoth hee likewise that in this food which wee receive are all things which have their Being and that all things doe grow and encrease of that which hath Being so that in this nourishment be those parcels which breed bloud sinewes bones and other parts of our body which may bee comprehended by discourse of reason for we are not to reduce all unto the outward sense to shew and proove that bread and water effect these things but it may suffice that in them these parts are conceived by reason Inasmuch therefore as in nourishment there be parcels semblable unto that which they breed in that regard he called them Homaeomeries affirming them to be the principles of all things and even so he would have these semblable parcels to be the matter of all things and for efficient cause he setteth downe a Minde or understanding that ordereth and disposeth al. And thus beginneth he to goe to worke and reasoneth in this wise All things at first were consumed and hudled together pell mell but that Minde or understanding doth sever dispose and set them in order in this one thing yet he hath done wel and is to be commended that unto the matter he hath adjoined a workman ARCHELAUS an Athenian the sonne of Apollodorus affirmeth that the principle of all things was the infinit aire together with the condensation and rarefaction thereof of which the one is fire and the other water and these Philosophers following by continuall succession one upon another after Thales made that sect which is called 〈◊〉 But from another head PYTHAGORAS the sonne of Mnesarchus a Samian borne the first author of the name of Philosophie held that the principle of all things were Numbers and their symmetries that is to say the proportions that they have in their correspondency one unto another which hee calleth otherwise Harmonies those elements that be composed of them both are tearmed by him 〈◊〉 furthermore hee reckoneth among Principles Unitie and Twaine indefioit of which the one tendeth and hasteneth to an efficient and specificall cause to wit a Minde and the same is God the other unto a passive and materiall cause namely the visible world Moreover he thought that the Denarie or Ten was the absolute nature and perfection of numbers for that all men as well Greeks as Barbarians count untill ten and when they be thither come they returne backe againe unto unitie over and besides hee said That all the power of ten consisted within fower and in a quaternarie the reason is this